Little Buddy's Birthday Party

Tomorrow's the big day...Camden turns four!!  Last weekend, Cam celebrated his birthday with his buddy Cade at the park.  It was a great day and was fun for all the kiddos that got to come!

The birthday boys...Camden and Cade

The big sisters :) 

Cousin Gavin climbing on the structure 

The boys' best friend, Kenna 

Princess Clara 

Camden swinging {Notice Uncle Brandon in the background...he and Aunt Amy came for the weekend!} :) 

Mischevious Mason (another cousin) 

Eden wanted Camden to blow the "flower".  Papa encouraged this {bet it would have been a different story if it had been his yard...ha!} 

One of Camden and Cade's teachers, Miss Natalie, came to the party...so sweet! :)

The Batman (Cade)/Ironman (Camden) cake 

The boys during the birthday song 

Here is why I love this picture...it was too windy to light their candles, so they just "pretended" to blow them out!

Buddy Kyler 

Melia and Karissa found a "friend" on the playground 

Messy face! 

The Pinata 

We had so much fun we {almost} forgot to open the gifts! 

It was a super fun {and exhausting} party.  When it was over, we went to Camden's soccer game and then home for a nap.  Well, I took a nap while the kids played...seriously!

*Precious moment alert: Cam has been saying every day how he's "growin' up" and he requests that I respond with a growl and "STOP GROWIN' UP!"  This has been our game for the last couple of weeks.  So, on Saturday when I laid down for a nap, he crawled up and snuggled right next to me and said, "Oh!  We gotta pray!

Dear Jesus, thanks for my fun party and that I'm gettin' bigger.

And, please be with my mom and help her not to be sad that I'm growin' up!

Amen!"

Ahh...precious!



Lil Athlete Birthday t-shirt

Sad, but true, Lil Mister is turning 4 on Friday. *sniff, sniff* We started what will end up being a week-long celebration of his birthday last Saturday {a post is coming on that soon!} and, of course, I was concerned with what he should wear!!  I wanted something that he could wear more than just once, so "Birthday Boy" was OUT!  I was also looking for 2 little boy gifts...one for his buddy whose birthday is May 12th and one for my sister's lil man whose birthday was yesterday.  Man, there were a lot of little boys born in May of 2007!

So, the Lil' Athlete Birthday t-shirt was born...

He liked it!  I know you can't see his face, so just envision his ridiculously huge smile...{covered in cupcake!}

Like it?  Want one?  I'm thinking about offerring a custom one (or two or three) in my upcoming auction.  I really think it would even be cute on a little girls fitted t-shirt.:)

On Turning 31

This weekend, I had a birthday and turned 31!  Ouch!  Actually, I am excited about 31.  I think great things are going to happen at this age...just not sure exactly what yet!

For my birthday, we went to Kansas City and stayed the night in a hotel on the plaza.  We ate a *free* meal at BDs Mongolian Grill:

*Click the logo to sign up for a free meal on your birthday! :)

We went to World Market where I got this for *free*:

*Click here to sign up for WM Rewards...they sent me a $10 gift certificate for my birthday!

I received this from my hubby:

A gift certificate to Oasis Day Spa for a Mommy/Princess Pedicure that Melia and I will be partaking in tomorrow afternoon.  Trev really scored big on this gift from a comment I made in passing about how fun it would be for Melia and I to have a girls day and get pedicures together! :)

I bought this purse for myself for an AMAZING deal.  So amazing, in fact, that I bought two...one for me and one for one of you to be offerred in our next auction in June! :)

And, for the grand finale...

I bought myself a Canon Rebel!!  EEEE...so excited!  It is a couple of years used and I got an amazing deal on it.  I had the money for this courtesy of my parents (for my birthday), the ACT (from facilitating a test one Saturday), and Evangel College (for the intern that has been a total blessing to me this semester)!

I already love the pictures it takes!

Like this...

And this...

And there will be so many more to come! :)

Melia's 6th Birthday

Sweet Melia turned 6 on January 29th, 2011.  SIX YEARS OLD!!  What a big girl!!

There are so many things I could say about this amazing little girl's birthday, but I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. :)

Her school party on Friday (the day before her birthday):

Opening presents from Mommy, Daddy, and Camden on her birthday morning:

Breakfast of Champions on the way to watch cousin Isaac at his swim meet (he got 1st place in one of his events!!):

Melia's friend birthday party at the Flip Shop:

Then, we wrapped up the day with her family party at her favorite restaurant, Logan's Roadhouse:

We have been so blessed with this little girl in our family.  From the moment she was born, she transformed us from a couple to a family and our lives have never been the same.  As her mommy, I am so proud of the young woman that she is becoming.  She is sweet and sensitive and cares so much about others.  She loves Jesus, family, friends, reading, school, her teacher, being challenged, "girl time" with mommy, gymnastics, playing piano, music, watching movies (not scary ones, though!), playing with her brother, and writing.  She also told me "and I love to behave".  And that is true, she strives to be the best little girl that she can, even reciting the classroom rules if asked!  She is beginning to ask questions about Jesus living in her heart and understands things way beyond her years.  She also has an impeccable memory!

In some ways our sweet girl is still such a little girl and needs so much help and guidance and yet, in other ways, right before our very eyes, she has become a big girl: so independent and helpful.  She understands that in a family, everything we do affects others and that it's important to always be mindful of that.

She is such a healthy little girl, even with her picky eating habits!:)  It's hard to believe that we spent so much time at the beginning of her life driving back and forth to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City for her Developmental Dysplasia of the Hips.  She runs and plays like the other kids in her class and continues to have great check-ups every time we go.

Miss Melia is a bright light in our lives and we love her SO much!  Thank you, God, for our amazing little girl!