Emily is 4!

It seems like we just brought Emily home from the hospital for our 11 day stay in Mesquite. But, here we are 4 years later with a bubbly, bouncy, happy girl.

This girl loves giraffes and, in February, announced to me that she wanted a giraffe cake for her birthday. (She brought it up!) So I started thinking and looking and my mom found a cake book she'd had for years that had a giraffe in it. Perfect! (Thankfully, I had access to large pieces of cardboard!)

 

Emily and Reagan are inseparable so Reagan helped Emily open her presents! She got lots of fun things. The best? A train set (another love of hers!) and a bean bag chair. Both have been used daily and I expect that won't change much.

(I told you they were inseparable!)

One Year Old!

I can't believe Anna is one year old. It seems like she just joined us, but it also seems like she's been with us forever. Unfortunately, she was not able to enjoy her birthday much. From last Thursday to Tuesday, she had fevers ranging from 100 to 103.7. Yikes! No known cause, just made her more cuddly and less likely to eat. I'm trying to get her started on solid foods again today. We'll see.

At her appointment on Tuesday (check up, but also to see about her fevers), she weighed 16 pounds and was 28.5". A little peanut to be sure, but happy as all get out! (Well, unless she has a fever!)

To celebrate her birthday, we had family over and I made the traditional lamb cake. (Everyone as far back as at least my mom and aunt (and maybe their cousins) have had a lamb cake for their first birthday. Sure makes picking a theme easy!) Anna wouldn't even touch the cake, much less eat any. But, she did enjoy  unwrapping the presents.

50 weeks and other stuff

Anna continues to take more and more steps. I think she'll be walking by her birthday. She's had a few stomach issues lately leading me to think she has an issue with large quantities of grapes. No big surprise...Emily did too.

Friday night, Highland had a Mother & Daughter Mad Hatter Tea Party. Emily and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had tea party food (she loved the cupcake that said "Eat Me"), made hats, painted tea cups and Emily painted our fingernails (mine & hers!). Then we got to watch a little of Alice in Wonderland, but I think she wasn't quite ready for that yet. Maybe next year.

Saturday morning, we went to Breakfast with Santa at Westgate Church of Christ where Robert & Lauren go. As you can see, I got a picture of the girls with Santa. :-) Typical! But, I also got 2 great pictures of the girls and Emily made frames for them to go in on the tree.

Mom and I spent a couple hours yesterday getting food and the house ready for our annual Christmas party. It's nice to be able to share that responsibility!

Tonight we're off to a Christmas program at the Paramount. I can't wait to see what Brandon has put together!

Last day

Today is my last day at work. Happy in some ways, but sad in so many others. The office dynamics have changed dramatically since I started here so it's probably best that I'm leaving, but I have friends here that I will miss dearly. We're having an ice cream party this afternoon before I leave so that should "sweeten" the leaving, at least somewhat!

And it's done!

The party was a success. We had 15 people, which is more than last year, but it was too late last night to think about counting how many we had last year. We have leftovers of all the good stuff...oh wait, that's everything! Anyway, on to the rest of the busy week, where someone else gets to do all the work and I can just enjoy it!

Busy, busy, busy

This past weekend was busy. Not terribly busy, but busy enough. Friday night, Phillip cooked hamburger & sausage for me so I could make stuff when I got home. We made the sausage balls together (that was fun!), then I spent another hour or so in the kitchen making sausage dip, hamburger dip, and crab dip. Fortunately, all together, it only took about 2 hours to get all that done.

Saturday morning, we went and picked up Jenni to meet my parents for brunch at Waffle House before the Abilene High/Hebron football game. What a game!!! It was a 20-yard line to 20-yard line game. So, Abilene High will play Pflugerville at Texas Stadium on Saturday...I don't think we'll make this one, but I'm sure it will be a great game! Then after we got home, I made zucchini bread.

Yesterday, I worked for about four and a half hours without a break. (Yes, I know I should have taken a break and put my feet up, but I didn't even realize that much time had passed!) But, I got the banana bread, almond tea and strawberry bread made, after a few phone calls to Mom & Jenni! (No party planning is complete without them!) I also got the table set and ready for Tuesday night.

Tonight we have a school board meeting at which Phillip will receive his Apple Corps award. Then we're on to Jenni's Christmas party for what usually amounts to a preview of our own party! While not all the food is the same, much of it is! After all, we grew up in the same family and have the same holiday favorites!

Wednesday is church, Thursday is Life Group (with a white elephant gift exchange). Then, Friday my office is having a Christmas party at the Gaylord Texan! I am really excited about this because I've never been there and I hear we're having a great meal.

Saturday, Phillip and Jenni are going car shopping because her car is literally wearing out. It's time! So, I'll be at home wrapping presents (maybe buying a few on the way home!), ironing, cleaning up from the week. Hmmm....I might even put my feet up and rest!