april 17th

I love birthday's. I love celebrating and making my girls feel special. Keeping with the tradition, I decorated Addison's doorway and the hallway the night before her birthday. She would have to bust through those streamers first thing in the morning.

Which meant that I had to get up early to see her do it. That part kind of sucked, but anything for my girls. She was a little confused on how to get out.

In the living room we had presents setup for her. Her big gift from us was her Easy Bake oven. Man these things have changed since I was a kid.

She wanted to wear a dress for her birthday and her special Barbie pin. This was prior to me brushing her hair.

I made this personalized book for her online. It's the story of how she woke up one day and had become a princess. It has her favorite colors, picture, town and other small details. She loves it! And I love that she can read me the entire book.

Per her request, we had pizza for dinner. And apples with peanut butter. Healthy food before cake.

Then it was time for us to sing Happy Birthday to her. I love that she still gets a little shy. Even when it's just us.

Make a wish.

Now let's have cake. I was just happy that some of the cookie cake from school made it home. It's like it was my birthday as well.

I think she had about 6 doses of sugar that day. All of that is okay when it's your birthday.

One official birthday picture with my girl. I was already in my lounge clothes for the evening and she has icing all over her face. None of that matters. I love this sweet girl more than you could imagine.

I have a 6 year old. How did that happen? Time flies when you're having fun.

addison's party

I asked Addison what she wanted to do for her birthday party this year. I threw out several options with my favorite being the candy store where you make your own candy. But since she had so much fun last year, she wanted to have it at the pottery place again. That was fine by me. It was super simple and very convenient. My mom and Jim came to the house before the party. Addison was super excited to open her gifts. This was definitely the year of the Barbie.

And since we have no idea what we're doing for Morgan's birthday she got to open her gifts from my mom as well.

Addison picked out a Barbie cake and all the coordinating decorations.

Since she was the birthday girl she got to pick whatever piece of pottery she wanted to paint. Her choice was this ice cream cone trinket holder. Just what we need. The hoarder in her is having a field day at this moment. 

Another eclectic original done by Morgan.

Daddy had to step in and do a little work on Morgan's bunny.

Just like years past, my sweet girls was shy when it came time to sing happy birthday.

Me, my girl and some cake. 

We only did cake and ice cream this year so Addison had a few extra minutes to open gifts. This pink scrapbook was one of her favorites.

Everything turned out great and she had the perfect party. My sweet baby girl is growing up so fast. Make it stop.

I just love her so much.

project life 365

About midway through January I started seeing these pictures floating around Instagram tagged to #projectlife365. After looking through some of the photos and seeing some super talented stuff, I decided I want to play too. The premise is this. Project Life gives a word a day. You take that word and interpret it any way you want through your photo. I love taking pictures and figured this would be a good way to get my creative juices flowing. Some of them have already showed up on the blog. Here are a few of my favorites.

At the craft store. #repetition #projectlife365

Looks like we're getting #more books, but I don't mind. Books over toys any day. #projectlife365 #bookfair

I have a #real fear of overpasses. I always get nervous when I'm stopped under one. #projectlife365.

#message #projectlife365

Me and #my_peeps. #projectlife365

I had the perfect day. #dreamy #projectlife365

#transparent shower curtain. #projectlife365

It's both fun and inspiring to look through the pictures. Like I said above. There are some super talented photogs and some seriously inspirational pictures posted. So I consider myself honored when the people at Project Life 365 choose one of my photos to be in their feature. There was this one that was part of #you_today. 

(http://www.projectlife365.com/the-faces-of-pl365-you_today/)

And then there was the one I took on Friday. PL365 usually posts the inspiration on Saturday which means no one knew that the horror that took place in Boston was going to happen. Friday's word was #dedicated. This was my tribute to those in Boston. 

(http://www.projectlife365.com/best-of-041513-042113-boston/)

Anyone can join in. Visit Project Life 365 to see what it's all about. 

happy birthday addison

Today is Addison's birthday. She's 6 and to me, so grown up. This morning we had breakfast together. Of course she chose Chick-fil-a.

I wasn't able to celebrate with her at school today because of the FCAT, but I did drop off a cookie cake the size of a football field so she could celebrate with her classmates.

My heart has been full of love since we met 6 years ago today. She changed our world forever. 

Happy 6th Birthday Addison! I can't wait to celebrate some more tonight. We love you.

chloe

I knew my mom had new kittens at her house so I was worried when we visited for Easter. Michael already mentioned that a friend for Izzie might be good. It would keep her off his head in the middle of the night. So, this happen. The kitten allergy test.

She passed the test. We were still going back and forth on whether or not to take her home, but as we were literally getting into the car to head home Michael told me to grab the kitten. She slept the whole way home.

I sent the above picture to our family and my sister-in-law Krista suggested the name Chloe. She looks like a Chloe so we went with it. It took a couple of days for Izzie to get used to her, but now they are the best of friends. Things get a little rough when they play, but Izzie is about two times bigger than her so it's to be expected. She's a little fluff ball and loves to cuddle. Sometimes I call her Fluffernut. I've given her a bath twice now and there is nothing to her. Friday night she hung out with me while I caught up on some tv. 

She's taken to the litter box pretty well, but there have been a few accidents. Luckily those have been on the hardwood and not the rugs. She likes to sleep on the rug right under the kitchen sink. This was last night as we're making dinner, putting away lunchboxes and eating. It's really not a good place to sleep since we almost stepped on her several times.

Izzie is doing really well. When we went to my mom's for Easter she was home alone for about 30 hours. This was the first time we left her for that long. Ever since we gotten home she's been a different cat. She's been friendlier and more accepting of the girls torture. It's like she really missed us. I make sure to give her special attention every day.

Sometimes she's just funny. This is when she got in the laundry basket and just hung out for 15 minutes or so.

This pink chair is her spot. Chloe better not try and take it from her.

We love these kitties and are glad they've joined our family. So far it's been a lot of fun. Except for the vet bills. And that time Izzie knocked the litter box over while I was cleaning the hallway. Not so fun cleaning up that mess.