Happy Birthday Gavin!!!!! 3 YEARS OLD!

I can't believe my little baby is now 3 years old...boy how time flies. I think having your birthday right on New Year's Day could potentially be a cool and fun thing, or it could be a flop :) It's a good thing Gavin is only 3 and doesn't mind that his birthday was VERY low key. We were going to go to Disney but it ended up being rainy and windy and kind of cold and so we scratched that. I hung around on the computer ALL DAY and didn't do much. Finally I made his cake (from the adorable HUGE cupcake pan my mom gave me for Christmas), and eventually we went out to eat. It's so sad, we didn't even have gifts, I like to blame it on the excuse that we were out of town and just getting back, etc. So we took him to the store and Matt, Emma, Luke, and I followed him around the toy section to see what he liked. He is hard to buy for because when you ask him what he wants he says "Toys". I swear we played with every toy in Wal-Mart and finally picked out the ones he played with the longest!


Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet, boy! He is such a fun little guy to be with. He is constantly walking up to me and out of the blue he will tell me he loves me. One time he told me and I said thank you and he said "No I REALLY love you!" He melts my heart!!!!!!!

Dinner at Maria Bonitas!

Ok so I have yet to perfect the Huge cupcake pan and make it look cute :) It looks REALLY HUGE sitting in front of little Gavin and at the angle I took the picture, too funny :)

Happy Birthday Emma!!!! I can't believe you're 6!!!!

Emma, Emma, Emma....what can I say....she is the most precious little girl full of sugar and spice! This girl is such a determined, independent (when she wants to be), amazing little girl. I love her to pieces. Of course we have our moments of butting heads, but I think it's because we are both stubborn :) I can't believe she is now 6 years old. She is really 6 going on 16. She can be so helpful and I can give her jobs that would usually require someone older to do. There were times when Luke was younger that he couldn't get his water bottle open and as he is asking me for assistance, Emma leans over, grabs it and opens it for him. :) She learned to ride her bike without training wheels the same day Luke did. I don't think she liked that he was getting all the glory. So while we were at the park cheering Luke on, I guess she thought we were paying too much attention to Luke, so she took our wrench and took her training wheels off herself and started to learn right along side of him to ride and she mastered it in a day! She amazes me. I love to watch her at gymnastics, she is so coordinated and flexible. Such a fun little girl that gives me a run for my money. I wouldn't have it any other way, she makes my life so exciting and fun! I love you Emma. Happy Birthday!

She had a fun party at Broadway Gymnastics. She had about 15 people there and they were able to do all kinds of fun obstacle courses, a bounce house and jump into the "pit". What a great day!

Grandma & Grandpa Rose gave her these adorable dress up dolls. I will post the picture of the adorable dress that Grandma & Grandpa Gillespie gave her when I can get them off my computer!

Emma is very proud of the DSi she got...now she and Luke both can be couch potatoes together :)


Emma's party....

Back row: Sydney, Minette, Luke, Nicholas, Brenna, Marin

On the floor: Kalie, Emma Evans, Grant, Bella, Brianne, Julia, Emma Rose, Natalie

Surprise!!!!!

My sister Kim turned the big "30" on Friday, November 13th. Her husband Morgan, was doing his ER rotation in Michigan and was supposed to be gone the whole month of November. I think Kim was very bummed and so my mom, my sister Heidi, my neice Brynlie and I decided that we just couldn't let her celebrate it alone. When we talked to my brother-in-law we found out that he was planning a surprise of his own. So, we combined our surprises and made it one HUGE surprise :) On Thursday, November 12th our journey began. I flew out and had a layover in Cincinnati and met up with my sister Heidi and her daughter Brynlie and my mom. Then we all made the journey in a "puddle jumper" to Colombus, Ohio. It was pretty exciting being able to board a plane on the tarmack like in the movies.

Kim was TOTALLY surprised and it was so exciting to see her reaction. It was the trip of a lifetime and I am so thankful to have been able to go! (THANKS MATT and friends for helping out with my kids while I was away!)

Brynlie and I sat in the massage chairs...ahhhh!

I am still amazed that we were able to fit everything into Morgan's little car!

This picture speaks for itself. About one hour away from the house we get a phone call from Kim. The four of us were dead silent. When Morgan hung up we couldn't figure out if she knew, or if she was just checking in. When we arrived at the house she was at the school carnival with Savannah, and Morgan's sister Elizabeth was babysitting Maggie and Max. We snuck up the stairs and waited. When Kim walked into the house she didn't suspect a thing. That is until she walked around the corner and saw the shadow of a strange man who couldn't be her husband because he was supposed to be in Michigan on rotations. He yelled now and we all jumped out. She freaked out and couldn't believe her eyes. She was so surprised! The entire weekend she was still trying to make sense of it all and wanted to know how we could've all pulled it off.

Cute little love birds!

Santa came to one of the little shops that we saw while we were walking around. We had him all to ourselves :)

My cute mom!

Max is such a little cutie!!!!! I couldn't get enough of his little cheeks!

It's funny because I have a picture of Kim holding Luke when he was a baby and he was sucking on her nose :) Kim just looks tasty :)

CUTIE!!!!! He was always sticking his little tongue out and cracking me up!

This is the Ohio River. It was so beautiful!

KIM'S BIRTHDAY DINNER AT OLIVE GARDEN!!!!

I hate goodbyes....but what a great trip!

Happy Birthday to Me! 9 Miles of fun!

I had a great birthday.....just before my birthday Matt slyly said "You'll never guess what I am getting you for your birthday!" Let me give you a little history so you know what a miracle the next part of my story is (it may seem boring to the rest of you, but I am very excited about this little tale) Ever since Matt and I have been married Matt is AMAZING at GUESSING what I got him for his birthday, Christmas, anniversary present, etc. Like when we were first married I thought I would be way original and get him a canoe. CANOE, I mean who guesses that???? Well when I said the famous "You'll never guess what I am getting you for your birthday" line he GUESSED IT!!!! I was so ticked off that I never really got him the canoe. It took the fun out of it that he guessed. Another time he guessed the tool box that I was about to buy. He guessed the sunglasses I bought, and the list goes on and on. He is amazing! So when Matt said the line I took a chance and guessed what I have been wanting most lately. I said a Garmin and Matt just about fell on the floor! He could not believe I GUESSED IT! He didn't think I even knew what a Garmin was! For those of you who don't, it is a watch for running that tells your speed, time, and distance. And it is GPS so it is very accurate. Needless to say, even though Matt was ticked I guessed, I was ELATED! So the morning of my birthday I wanted to test it out and I wanted to accomplish something I have not done, and so I set the goal of running 9 miles. I have thus far only run up to 8 miles and so 9 was my new goal. I am having to work up to longer distances because my friends and I are running in the Ragnar relay in November where I will have to run 3 legs over 2 days. My first leg of the race is 8.8 miles, the second is 3.6 and the third is 5.6. Anyway, I kind of slept in and woke to Emma saying she wanted to come lay in our bed for a little while. I looked at the clock and realized that I had slept in and in order to accomplish my goal I had to leave right then and there or I wouldn't get back in time to get the kids off to school in time. So I finally convinced Emma to go back to her bed and then I had to QUIETLY sneak (in the dark so Emma wouldn't see my light and want to come with me) and get dressed for my run. I tiptoed down stairs and had to sneak out of the house, quietly shutting the door behind me because Emma has radar ears. :) If she catches me then she has to ride her bike along side me while I run and I knew there was no way with 9 miles. So I was off! I felt like a teenager sneaking out of the house, not that I would know what that feels like, right mom??? :) It was a great run and I DID IT!!!! I did it in 1 hr. and 28 min. So my day started off great and continued on to be a wonderful birthday. My great friends Amy Lopez and Beckie Lowe took me to lunch AND Amy's husband John watched Gavin for me so we could go. Not only did he watch Gavin and Cooper, but also our friend Suzanne's little girl Maria! What an amazingly nice man to do all of that so I could have a great birthday, kid free! Thanks John!

I had Young Women's that night and the kids all sang to me and we had cupcakes. And then I had tons of calls from friends and family and tons of Facebook messages from old friends! Fun day!

Happy 5th Birthday Emma!!!

Emma had quite the birthday...it started out early and went all day till LATE!!! Our neighbors Nicholas and Brooke had to come over before school because their mom had a meeting and so we opened all Emma's gifts in the morning after singing to her with her birthday waffle :)

Nicholas and Brooke gave her another Webkinz

Grandma and Grandpa Gillespie gave her a BEAUTIFUL dress!

Grandma & Grandpa Rose gave her girly Legos!

And we gave her a doll!

After taking Gavin to the babysitter (THANKS AMY LOPEZ!) then we went and picked up her friend Marin and her mom Beckie and we were off to Disney for the day!

Marin gave her an art kit and twinner shirts! :) Perfect for their Disney day!

First we had an appointment at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique....this is where the girls feel like princesses....it is a "magical boutique, owned by the Fairy Godmother and operated by Fairy Godmothers-in-training." They got their hair done, nails, and make-up. It was so fun!

Then they ditched the dresses because they were too "itchy" and we were off to Magic Kingdom!

Minnie's house.....

Emma's birthday cupCAKE!

The girls got great seats to the show until both of them got scared by the wicked witch and then they both came running into our arms :)

The castle was SO beautiful all lit up at night!

The Jungle Cruise has always been one of my favorites but you can see it made Emma a little nervous....notice the look of distress in her eyes.

We were all EXHAUSTED in the end...what a great day....what a great BIRTHDAY! Happy 5th Emma!