1 year old

Peyton turned 1 yesterday.  It was a bittersweet day for me.  I am excited to watch her continue to grow, however I also know this will be our last 1st birthday we celebrate in our family. 

Peyton you complete our family.  Your smile lights up a room.  You are such a Mommy's girl although you have started to like Kim even more than mom sometimes.  You don't like stuff in your hair and constantly pull it out so you haven't gotten to wear all your sister's bows like I had planned!  You are such a laid back baby although I guess being the youngest of 4 you have to be.  You are finally starting to eat some table food, crackers are your favorite!  Although you like strawberries, grapes and grape tomatoes too.  You are never without attention, especially when Kate is anywhere around.  Kate refers to you as "my baby" and likes to tell everyone that you are hers.  Peyton bug we love you so much!  

Rockin

This has to be one of the best $7 we have spent on a gift.  Kate always played the boys' paper jams so when we saw the girl paper jams we knew we had to get her one.  She is quite the little rocker.  Good thing she doesn't know what the songs on the paper jams are about because they aren't really kid friendly!  She doesn't care what they say- she just loves the music!



Father Daughter Dance

Last month our church had their annual Father Daughter dance.  This was the first year for Kate to attend and she was so excited.  She talked about it for weeks.  She wanted to "dance with daddy"  Her corsage was definately a hit.  She showed everyone her "flower" 

She was super excited about getting her face painted.

I volunteered to help so I was able to be there and watch.  It made my heart melt to watch Jerry dance with Kate.  I even teared up while they danced to Cinderella. I can't wait to watch Kate as she continues through the years to dance with her Daddy.



Memories

I love looking through old pictures.  It makes me both smile and cry.  I love all the pics we have my kids with their cousins. 

Six

Jackson I can't believe you are six years old today.  I love watching your creative mind at work.  You love drawing and coloring and anything art.  You have a huge imagination and are constantly putting it to work with your action figures.  You love all super heros but I think your current favorite is Captain America.  You have such a sweet heart, although you have a stubborn side just as big. I love to watch you as you continue to excel in sports and gain confidence each game.  You are one of the tallest boys in your class.  You are 49 inches tall and weigh 59 lbs which puts you in the 97% for your age.  The dr said if you continue to grow at this rate you will be 6'3" tall. You thought that sounded great because you would be taller than mom and dad!   I love you so much big boy and can't wait to watch you continue to grow and mature.  God has great things planned for you.

Only you could make a mohawk look this good:)

Birthday party

One huge benefit to having 3 kids born within 4 weeks of each is combined parties!  I forsee lots of these in our future, especially for the girls. We celebrated Kate and Peyton's birthday on Sunday with family and friends.  We invited 6 special girls that are Kate's friends.  They are all friends of the family and are older than her, but she loves these girls and their families.  Kate has talked about this party for weeks, she was so excited.  She kept asking if Rylee was coming and I kept trying to explain Rylee wasn't coming.  My sisters and I had decided this year that its really hard to make all the kids parties since there are 10 nieces and nephews.  We decided just to try and celebrate together as a family when we make it back to Abilene.  So Sunday morning I was so surprised to see Sarah and Dusty and the kids at the door.  They had planned to come for a long time and had kept it a secret (which if you know anything about us Sims girls this is a huge undertaking!) Of course after Rylee arrived she was then concerned where Lola was- so hard to understand 3 hr drive at 3 yrs old:)

Luckily Sarah arrived because I had forgotten about the time change so at 8:30 when I run to the store for more frosting which I had run out of at midnight the night before I look at my phone to realize it was actually 9:30.  Panic set in- I had way too much to do and not enough time.  She jumped in and helped me get it all done and it was perfect.   There weren't many pictures of Peyton enjoying her party.  She clung to me most of the time.  She is cutting her molars and was not feeling the best. Kate loved all the attention and all the presents. I think her favorite were her flip flops from Aunt Annie!

Peyton's first cake experience was less than exciting.  She took one swipe of the frosting and covered her hand in it.  She immediately put that hand into her hair.  She refused to take a bite.  Jerry finally got her to take 2 bites but that was all.  She was done.

Obviously the party was too much excitement for her

Since we didn't get good pics of Peyton, I made them put there matching birthday shirts back on to take more pics today when Peyton was in a better mood.  Kate was happy to model her new tutu and hairbow from Aunt Sarah





Crafting

As if planning a birthday party for the girls wasn't enough work for me, we decided to get new furniture (delivered the day before the party) which prompted me to redecorate!  I have been thinking for some time now that my house lacked color.  I was ready to make a bold and trendy statement!  Thanks to pinterest I had plenty of ideas.  I chose the colors turquoise, red, orange and green.  As I started brainstorming, my list of projects kept growing and growing.  I went through several cans of spray paint but was able to repurpose numerous items including our sofa table and end table. 

Styrofoam balls covered in fabric- super easy!

Spray painted beans- much cheaper than marbles and they match my colors.  The boys came home from school on the day I was out there doing this and I heard them ask Jerry "why is mom painting beans?" To which he replied "don't even ask- you won't understand either!"

This is my favorite pinterest project- this started the whole color scheme

I then used the same background papers to make this to hang on the nearby wall

I thought I was done and then I found this on clearance at Target.  I have loved this for over a year and never purchased it but how could I resist clearance??  And it matches! 

So then I decided standing in the Target clearance aisle that I would take my color scheme from the entryway which is where it all began with the picture display through the living room and into the kitchen.  Our house is all open so it flows very nicely.  I then found these for the kitchen wall

I spray painted all my pottery on top of cabinets to match the new colors and bought two cute plates at Target on clearance to match to display on top of the cabinets as well.  I really want a globe to complete my display on top of the cabinets but I haven't found one that works yet.  It can only be 13" tall so I will have to keep looking.  I had one last wall space to fill in the kitchen.  I have been wanting a family rules subway art.  I hadn't decided if I wanted to make one or buy one.  Unfortunately many that I liked cost over $100 and that was not in the budget.  Then I found this..............I was in love.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  It says everything I wanted our family rules to say. And it came in red.  And it was a perfect fit for the wall space I needed to fill.  So I bought the print off etsy and found a great deal on this frame at Michaels for $15.  Jerry says its loud and obnoxious but I love it!  It was the perfect finishing touch.

And the best part is- I was able to get it all done before I had a houseful of guests for the girls' birthday party.  I may have been making felt flowers for the wreath at 1am on Sunday morning (and got a giant burn on my finger- stupid hot glue!) but it was done!  And I LOVE how it all came together.  I was able to make a huge difference without spending a fortune.  All this color makes me happy!

Random

*Lots of adjusting at our house- I am working back in the office again for what I hope to be short term.  It has been very stressful at our house. 
*Jerry hasn't been working due to our very mild winter.  This has been very frustrating considering if he doesn't work, he doesn't get paid- we pay daycare either way!  It can be tough when you make the choice you felt God was leading you in and then it doesn't appear as it should. 
*I am planning the girls' birthday party for this weekend and have too many lists to count of what needs to be done before then.  Thanks to my great friend Jessi for offering to come help out.
*In addition to the birthday party, we are getting new furniture this weekend and so I also have an equally long list of house projects I am trying to finish.
*I am missing my kids like crazy.  I no longer get to see them in the mornings (unless they are up early) and our evenings are shorter.  I am also missing my hubby.  We had been enjoying lunch together regularly over the past few months.
*Last night we had spagehetti and Jack managed to have sauce all over his face all the way up to his ear!  How does that happen?!
*Kate has started insisting on saying her own prayers at bedtime. The first person she always prays for is Kim (our sitter) and then Daddy and baby and "my boys" and most of the time Mommy is included as well.  Sometimes there will be someone else, most recently her cousin Rylee.  Last night when she finished her prayer she said "Good-bye"  I said, "Don't you mean Amen" and she looked at me with a huge smile and said "No Good bye!" 
*These pictures remind me how fast time passes.  These were all saved on my work computer and made me smile. 

Kate's birthday