Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Just Like That...She's Eleven

When people say it goes fast, they are not kidding.  I cannot believe I have an 11 year old!  I know I'll blink again and she'll be 20 before I know it.  It is insane how fast my kids are growing up.  And it seems that 11 suddenly seems so much older than 10.  She's still my girl, but she's definitely getting more independent all the time.  Which I totally understand is the whole point of growing up, but it's still hard to let go even if it is little by little.  Even as I type this she's off walking the neighbor's dog.  She has her own dog walking business now.  She made flyers and she got a call a few weeks ago about someone interested in her services and she called the woman back and got all of the info all by herself.  Considering her mother barely can stand to talk on the phone unless it's absolutely necessary, I find her confidence inspiring.  She's one of a kind, for sure.  She lives life passionately and she loves with her whole being.  I'm so grateful to be the one God chose to entrust with her care. 

To celebrate (remember that whole living passionately thing?  My girl loves a party.) we had a spa themed party with her friends.  It was just a small group of girls, mostly from church.  We did hair and nails and face masks.  We did presents (of course) and ended the fun with donuts.  My girl wanted a tower of donuts this year instead of a cake, which worked out perfectly since it was so much easier for me.  

To celebrate some more on her actual birthday we went to her Grandmama's house where she surprised her with a little cake and she got her present from us.  She also got to play with one of her BFF's who happens to be my mom's neighbor.  I finally did her birthday survey a couple weeks after her birthday, but I'm glad I got around to it.  I love looking back at the old ones.  Here's this years!

~~Age 11~~
~How old are you? 11
~How does being 11 make you feel? It makes me feel ah-mazing.
~What do you want to learn this year? Um...I don't know. I don't really want to learn anything right now.
~What was the best thing about being 10? That it was my first year being double digits.
~What did you do on your birthday? I had a spa party the day before my birthday and on my birthday I went to my Grandma's house and played with my friend, Livie.
~What is your favorite color? Hot pink
~What is your favorite food? Pepperoni pizza (really? I thought you'd say donuts) Well, it depends on if it's dessert or a meal. If it's something for fun, then donuts.
~Who is your favorite person? I guess you. (I like that answer)
~What grade are you in? 5th
~What is your favorite thing to do for school? Spelling or Handwriting because they are fast.
~What is your favorite game to play? I really like tag, yeah, tag. (anything else?) I like hide and seek too.
~What do you like to do with Daddy? I like to go to stores with him because he listens a lot so I can talk a lot.
~What do you like to do with Mommy? Well, I think it's fun to lay in your bed with you and watch Fixer Upper because then I get Mommy time. And I like to hug you.
~What do you like to do with your brother? Play Pigg-ay, where he is my pet pig and I lead him around the house and he whacks me with a purse. (Uh..they actually do play this and it's ridiculous..my least favorite...go figure)

~What’s your favorite thing to do with the whole family? I like movie night because we are all cozy together and it's fun.
~What’s your favorite store? I like Toys R Us and Target, I don't know. Oh, erase all that, I like PetSmart!
~What’s your favorite place to eat? Let me think real quick. Culver's, Steak and Shake, and Wendy's.
~What’s your favorite book? Ten (Really, not Harry Potter?) Oh wait, go back and put Harry Potter and Ten. I like them both.
~What’s your favorite song? I don't know what it's called but I've got two. We Never Go Out of Style by Taylor Swift, and that one on the Joy FM that says "When there's nothing left to hold on to, I'm holding on to you".
~What’s your favorite thing about God? I guess that He loves me and He's awesome and stuff.

~What do you want to do this year? I want to get a pet dwarf bunny (She asked me to add this question to the list) or a hedgehog but I'm sure a bunny is way more doable.
~What do you want to be when you grow up? Well, I can't really decide but I think it would be fun to be a teacher so people can call me Miss Peto, and I want to work at Petsmart or something that involves my dog.

She just told me she approves this message. :) Now for some photos of her birthday fun!

These are from her spa party. I love the cucumber eyes. :) Somehow I didn't get any photos of the decorations this year...oh well. That seems to be the story of my life these days!

Her party was turquoise and hot pink colors and her Daddy had just so happened to buy her a dress for her birthday and it matched her party colors. My husband does not normally buy our kids clothes, so I thought it was so sweet that he bought her a dress. All the girls at the party thought it was very cool of him too.

Oh, this picture just reminded me that our neighbors (the one's whose dog she walks) also bought my girl some birthday gifts! How sweet was that? They got her an outfit (the shirt in this pic) and a bracelet kit and a boogie board. This was right before we gave her the present from us (her aunt and grandmas chipped in too).

She's flying to Ohio in a couple weeks with her Grandmama. She wasn't quite as excited as I thought she'd be. I think because she has to wait to actually experience her gift and she's all about instant gratification at this stage of life. She's getting excited now that it's getting closer though and she's already got multiple sleepovers with friends planned.

Love her many expressions. In the bottom right photo she was getting ready to blow out her imaginary candles since Grandmama didn't have any. :) And that cake was yummy.

My mom's neighbor is one of her besties and she made her that birthday headband and my girl added the bow for more bling. I love her so much. Did I mention that we celebrated her birthday poolside? In January? Yeah, I love living in Florida. :)

I guess I'll have to get my camera out this week because now I'm all caught up on my photos to blog! I do have a ton of Instagram pics, but blogging them seems somewhat redundant. My mother in law is coming for a visit soon so that will give me some motivation to get out and do some fun things and take photos of them for a change!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Christmas 2014

Christmas seems like ages ago now, but I want to blog about it because I can barely remember it now and I want to be able to remember it years from now.  This Christmas was so crazy.  We had just been to Ohio about a week and a half before Christmas for my Father-in-law's funeral and we had left our children there with their Grandmama for the week between that and Christmas.  I had thought it would be great for them to spend time with their cousins but then they ended up being sick and we had to keep them apart which was really sad.  So my husband and I flew home between the funeral and Christmas because he had to work and I had chemo.  On our flight back here it ended up being delayed 6 hours!  So that was a challenge.  I'm so glad our kids weren't with us for that.  Then when we packed up all the presents and headed back to Ohio a week later we got about 30 minutes from our house and our van broke down!  Once again, glad the kids weren't with us, but it was really stressful and we had to have it towed and wait at the car repair place for them to open (we left at 5am) and then wait for it to get fixed so it put us super behind when we finally got on the road.  We tried to drive straight through, but I hit a wall about 9pm and started crying (I'm so not a crier) and made my husband take me to a hotel.  I was feeling pretty horrible at that point from chemo so I'm surprised I lasted that long!  That hotel bed was the most fabulous thing I'd felt in a while!  We got to Ohio a day later than expected but we made it.  Last year we had stayed with my mom for Christmas but she sold her house this past summer and so we stayed with her and my grandpa.  It didn't have the same nostalgic feel that last Christmas did since it didn't bring up any childhood memories.  The kids were troopers though and didn't complain too much about sleeping on air mattresses on the floor for 2 whole weeks.  My very selfless mom gave up her bed for us and she took the couch for which I am very grateful.  My husband took our kids and drove a couple hours north to see his family for the holiday while I stayed home for fear of another allergy attack like I'd had the last time I'd seen them.  It was hard missing out but I had to take care of my health.  Unfortunately that means no pictures of their celebration because I wasn't there to take them.  We were able to see my family and cousins that week which was really nice, but even though I was there, I somehow didn't take any pics.  I was extremely tired that week, and picture taking sometimes feels exhausting to me, so I guess that's why. I also got to get together with a few sweet girlfriends who I'd been missing dearly.  I didn't really have the energy to see more people than a few close friends and family.  When I think back now to how I felt then, I can't believe how much better I feel.  If I were to go for a visit now I'd have way more energy and be in much better spirits.  Overall, we had a lovely Christmas, but after driving home we swore we'd never leave town for Christmas again.  We are thinking about doing Thanksgiving instead.  I just really want a Christmas at home next year.  No dragging presents with us and not sleeping in our own beds.  No one judging how we do our traditions.  No massive pile of excess to bring home.  Just a few presents and some friends and family sounds perfect.  Of course, I could totally change my mind by next Christmas, but being sick really puts things in perspective sometimes and a really simple, meaningful holiday sounds just about perfect.  More focusing on Jesus and family.  With that said, I do have some photos to share so enjoy!

 Now that my girl is older it is so hard to find a cute Christmas dress.  I feel like I went to every store in Clearwater and shopped online before I finally found one.  And it ended up being the Annie dress from Target.  I didn't like it when I first saw it but my girl loved it and it looked much cuter on.

She was super excited about the high heel shoes. :)  I got to see my cutie pie nieces who I hadn't seen in months and they are so cute!!  I wish I had some video of this one dancing, but trust me, she's adorable and she's got some major hip action.

My mom loving on her grandbaby.  She had stolen my phone...little stinker. :)

A Christmas portrait of my sweet boy.

And one of my girl.

Christmas Eve with my brother and sisters and families.  There's my other cutie pie niece who was not my biggest fan.  Teething and separation anxiety are both not fun stages!  Hopefully next time I see her I'll be able to win her over.  I love that my other little niece wore one of my girl's old Christmas dresses.  It's so fun to get to see them again!

Modeling some of her new clothes.  I think this was the first year that she was excited to get clothes.

Christmas morning.  Santa did not disappoint.  He got the MIP robot he asked for.  I think the most played with toy is that ball maze though.  He actually solved it a few weeks later.  He's awesome at stuff like that.  It has 100 little twists and turns and I can only make it to number 5.  He also got a disco ball, something he's wanted forever. :)

Love that photo in the middle where she was so excited to get her Ugg style boots.  She'd been wanting them forever and I kept telling her how impractical they are for someone who lives in Florida.  She's actually worn them a lot though!  She was also super excited for her Meowchi cat which was her #1 thing on her list to Santa.

I remembered when going through pics that I had an old collage of all their Christmases and I decided to add to it.  Here it is.  They are growing up so fast!

Next up, my girl's birthday!  Hopefully I'll have energy to get to it next week.

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