Birthday season is officially over

Miah turned 7 today. I feel like I've had Birthdays on the brain since early August, maybe because I have 4 kids all with birthdays between August 26th and November 1st. I don't know why I couldn't have had a few Spring babies. Luckily we don't do big parties for every kid each year, but this was Miah's year to go big. We had 12 little friends in our house on Friday night for a MAKE-OVER PARTY!! I know you're bummed you missed it. We did hair, nails and make-up all night long (Thanks Kristy for helping! You saved me:). The girls had a blast and I did too. Ethan was so glad that a friend inited him over to do some non-girly stuff--carving pumpkins with Micah was much cooler for him-thanks Alisa!

The best thing about this slide show is that Miah took 50% of these pictures. I handed her the camera and said, "go take some pictures of your friends". I think she did a pretty good job.




Time flies a little too fast lately. It just seems like yesterday that she was this small. Happy Birthday my little sweet Miah!

Fall fun

We finally made it out to the Elgin Pumpkin Patch this year. It was a beautiful Texas day and no one was sick so we had to go:). The kids had fun going on hay rides, painting pumpkins and getting faces painted. We also had a fun ward Fall Festival this last weekend but none of my pictures turned out so stay tuned for pictures of the kids in their costumes. Happy Fall y'all!

Crazy Hair Day

This was the first Crazy Hair day that Ethan was confident enough to be Crazy. 5th graders definately rule the school today.

Ellie's playgroup party

We had so much fun with Ellie's playgroup friends today. We went on a treasure hunt for cupcakes and then decorated them. The girls and Ezra wanted to dress up so we made it a dance party too.



p.s. Ellie's doing great with potty training! Horray for chocolate bribes! I tried to put a Pull-up on her yesterday for a babysitter and she wouldn't let me! She said, "I said no more diapers mom." Yea Ellie!

Happy Birthday Ellie!

My baby is 3! How can that be? She's been so excited for this Birthday and has been telling everyone she sees that "it's my birthday!" When you ask her what she got she'll tell you "cupcakes." This is actually true because as you can see in the pictures below she got a set of plastic cupcakes that you can decorate with markers. I knew this present would be a hit because of how long she had played with it in the toy store the other day (Kaleidoscope toys- love that store). And I was right, they've provided hours of fun already. And it came with the cutest little oven mitt that she puts on to stick the pan in the oven. Love it!!

Turning 3 is a big deal at our house because of 2 things. First, we say good bye to binkie. She's used her binkie for sleeping only ever since she was 2, (and for everything before that) but 3 year olds don't use binkies so we had to send them off to heaven this morning. Here she is with the binkies tied to the Snow White balloon.............
Getting ready to let go outside...............

She did it!! This was the cutest moment ever. She just stood there and waved and shouted "bye bye binkies!!" We watched until we couldn't see them any more and she wasn't even sad!

I loved it when she said, "my binkies flied over the roof mom!"

The second big thing that happens when you turn 3 at our house is that you also say good bye to diapers. Wish me luck, tomorrow is potty training day!

Casting out the swines

Quarantined.

Literally

We don't want anyone else to get the nastiness.

For the last week we've been battling the H1N1 flu and I think we're finally almost through it.

Ellie is the last to get it and her little body doesn't like the fever:(

Sleep baby girl and get better soon!

Still got it?

For the past year I've been fooling myself. Fooling myself to believe that I can still play like I was 17.....not! That said, I have not enjoyed a hobby this much since I was that young and now I can't stop!! This is our very beginner Indoor soccer team that I put together this Fall and we aren't that good, but man I love playing with these girls. Last fall I started playing 3v3 which is on a smaller field and that was fun, but here we are graduated to the full 6v6 field and ooo--eee, sometimes it really kicks my butt. I look forward to Tuesday nights so much and then I always hurt so bad on Wednesday mornings....ouch my hip hurts, but I don't care! I am getting old, I know that, but I can't help but think that playing is somehow keeping me young (ha ha). All I know is that I still get so much satisfaction from drilling the ball so hard right into the net right past the goalie, it relieves a ton of stress, you should try it some time.

Go team! Thanks for bringing it all season long!

One more tip

My sister Julie has the cutest etsy shop that you can view here:

http://www.girlybirdboutique.etsy.com/

but you can enter today to win something free from her here:

http://giveawaytoday.blogspot.com/

Her stuff is soooo cute and affordable, you'll love it!

Miss Macmurdy

Check out this great craft blog, they're having a free giveaway!

http://missmacmurdy.blogspot.com/

And the crafter just happens to be one of my favorite people in the whole world!

Huge-cumbers and Cum-brellas

Ellie and I have been spending a lot of time together lately now that the kids are back in school. The first week back was tough for both of us to adjust because she wanted to be entertained by me all day, yikes. But now we have playgroups, library time, lunch with big kids at school Thursdays and of course Play-do! We love to play Play-do and as you can see we make some pretty cool things out of it. (Secretly I have as much fun as she does:)

Ellie is so funny to be around and I find myself getting so much fulfillment and joy from her smiles and funny comments. I especially like the way she says huge-cumber (cucumber) and cum-brella (unbrella), ha ha!

You're the best Ellie, stay little for a while Pa-leeez!

Abbey's new room!

Today was Abbey's birthday and guess what she got??...............

A NEW ROOM!

Ellie used to sleep in here in the crib and Abbey used to share with Miah, but Ellie has been kicked out and Abbey is moving in! (No I didn't iron the bed skirt so stop thinking that I should have:)

Here she is this morning seeing it for the first time. I had so much fun putting it all together in the middle of the night. I think she was pretty surprised!

She loves it.

She's 9 today in the ninth month of 2009. I think it'd be so cool to have a birthday in the millennium year like she does. She'll be 10 in 2010, and 11 in 2011 etc. She'll never forget how old she is! I love you Abbey and I'm so glad your little 3lb body made it to our world 9 years ago!

More of Ethan's B-day

For the second year in a row Ethan asked for and got a new lego ship for his Birhtday. Those things are so stinking expensive that it ended up being one of only 2 gifts that he go this year but he was satisfied. He also loves the new Wii Resort that he got and has been playing it every day since (almost everyday). We woke him up early before school so he could open presents and most of the opening was done with one eye shut because he was still adjusting to the bright light, ha ha, love that sleepy face!

So you can see that the lego ship is already built and the cake is already eaten , but my boy just keeps on growing!! Seriously.... I have a ten year old! A pretty amazing ten year old though, I just love him so much and feel humbled to be his mom.

Happy is what happens.....

Ethan knows every word of the songs.....

Ellie asks to listen to it every day......

and I finally got to see it.....

Wicked

was so amazing!!

"Defying Gravity" was definitely my favorite scene and Elphaba was incredible. So incredible in fact that Dallas thought it was over at Intermission. He was briskly walking toward the exit when I broke the news to him that there was still another act to go! To his credit the end of act I was very finale-like, but that was pretty funny!!

We did it!

1st grade here I come!

Ready to go!

Ethan and Mrs. Salazar (5th grade)

Abbey going to 4th grade!

Happy first day of school everyone!

Miracles in Africa

These are my parents Dan and Edith, but right now they are called Elder and Sister Baker. They have been serving a mission for the Church in Cameroon, Africa for the past year. We often feel blessed by their example and faith but this week in particular we have felt the of the power of the work they are doing in Africa.


Elder Jeffery R. Holland, an Apostle of the Lord visited Cameroon, the first time and Apostle has ever been to the country of Cameroon and my parents were there to welcome him!

Among other things, Elder Holland dedicated the country of Cameroon to the spreading of the gospel. He blessed the land, the government, the people of the country in general, the missionaries, and those whom they teach. He told them that temples will someday dot Africa as they now dot the world. How cool is that!!

This is President Bala, one of the Branch Presidents in the area that my parents are serving, with Elder Holland. I just think it's so awesome to feel and know that we have Apostles on the earth who have God's power here on earth to prophesy and to bless members all over the world. Thanks Mom and Dad for sharing your awesome experience with us here. The church is true!

Perfect Day

This was the perfect way to end the summer. We spent the day at Stillhouse Hollow and the water was UNBELIEVABLE! I have never seen water that nice since we've lived here and had the boat. We invited the Brandon's to celebrate Ethan's B-day this way since we aren't doing a party for him this year and Matt is Ethan's best bud. Ethan's B-day is next Wednesday (the 2nd day of school) and he'll be 10.

This summer has been the best. I'll miss the sleeping in, going to the pool every other day, just hangin' with my kids, and late summer nights. I'm not quite ready for the 6:30 a.m. alarm clock, making 3 home lunches every morning, and trying to entertain Ellie all by myself since her best play mates will all be in school. I know it'll be good, the kids are excited and playing barbies isn't all that bad :), but here's to a great summer and a sweet day on the boat. Happy Birthday Ethan, you rocked on the wake board today!

One happy girl

Sorry Abbey and Miah for cutting you out of this one, Ellie's smile was just to great not to zoom in on!

So glad they're old enough

When your kids grow up it's kind of sad. You miss holding them in your arms, you miss their innocence, you miss their baby giggles etc. etc., but sometimes you have moments when you're glad that they are old enough to do big kid things. I've been having a lot of those moments lately.

I'm so glad that......

Ethan's old enough to ride this with me....

This is the Superman ride at 6 Flags Fiesta Texas and probably my favorite ride of all time. He loves thrill rides and that made our day at 6 Flags yesterday so much fun for me. Dallas and I switched off being able to go on these cool rides with him.

I'm also so glad that..........

Abbey's old enough to do this:

That's right, Abbey's changing Ellie's diapers for me now!! And she loves to do it, she even changed a poopy one the other day and did a very good job! Too bad she didn't learn earlier because Ellie's close to being potty trained, but oh well, I can enjoy the help for a few more months!

I'm so glad that....

All my kids are old enough to laugh at this:

Nacho Libre - Encarnacion

I let the kids watch "Nacho Libre" the other day and we've all been singing this song ever since. We'll be sitting at the dinner table and Ethan will just bust out singing "Encarnacion!!" What a funny movie. Ellie has also mastered the "Get that corn outta my face!" scene. What a great talent for her right? It's so fun to laugh with my kids.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still miss these:

But life gets even funnier when your kids walk around saying things like, "I caught you a delicious bass"!! Good times.

Bye-bye baby curls!

For the last 2 years Ellie has had the cutest little locks of curly hair that were just so scrumptious to look at. Well the longer her hair got the more scraggly they became and the time came for her 1st Hair Cut!

While we were in Utah we enlisted the help of her talented aunt Laura and just like that, the curls are gone!

I was so sad at first and I thought, oh no, what have I done??

But then I realized, that she's still cuter than ever....


Do you agree?

The dizzy bat

Here it is, the footage you've all been waiting for(except those of you who haven't read the post below yet in which case you might want to do that first). Why is it just so funny when someone falls? (That someone being me this time). The first 2 fools are Dallas and I, the second 2 are Laura and Lynn, and the 3rd couple is Sarah and Blaine. This was just too funny!