More Birthday Fun!!!

We finished celebrating Ella's 6th birthday with an extended family birthday party on Sunday night. Here are the excited kiddos before the party started.

Grandma and Grandpa O. were able to come down and spend some extra time with us before the party started.

James showed them how to play and win Hungry, Hungry Hippo.

Another birthday cake... Isabella still loves princesses, so we had another princess party!

The birthday girl!

We served sundaes at our Sunday birthday party, so ice-cream came before the cake at this celebration.

James and his Great-Grandma Ruth.

Isabella with Great-Grandma Ruth --there is a difference of almost nine decades between these two. My Grandma Ruth will be 96 in a couple of weeks and I feel so blessed that she

is able to celebrate with us and be part of the memories my kids will have!

James and Grandma Judy

Opening more presents....what a lucky girl!!!

Being sung to....again!

Blowing out the candles

Getting ready for some cake...

The kiddos with my parents...

Isabella's "Friend" Party

This is the first year that we have had a separate party for Ella's friends. Since our family includes so many little cousins, our family parties have always been full of kid energy. But, the time had come to include Ella's many school friends in our birthday celebration as well.

Since I knew I would either be really PG or have a new baby, we decided to have her party at our local Gymnastics Gym. Isabella attends gymnastics and loves it, so it was a natural fit. Plus, the staff at the gym takes care of everything from invitations to cake, so it was an easy party for us to plan! My pictures didn't turn out the best as it was a little dark in the gym, but hopefully you will get the idea of what the kids did. There were many kindergarten friends at the party, big and little cousins and church friends. All in all, we had a group of about twenty kids and they all had a blast. After an hour of jumping into the foam pit, doing an obstacle course, and playing with a parachute, the kids were wore out. They sang happy birthday and relaxed while watching a delighted Ella open her presents. The party ended with cake, ice-cream, balloons, treat bags, and lots of smiles. Best of all, Mark and I weren't too worn out afterwards!!!


Doing parachute games...



All the kids are inside this giant "birthday balloon"!

A happy girl ready to celebrate!

Being sung to by her friends...

Blowing out the candles!

Opening the gifts from her friends. We were all so amazed at how nicely all the friends sat and watched Ella....maybe they were just too tired! Isabella really enjoyed the gift opening and the gifts. She took her time and all her friends made the appropriate "oohs and aahs" over all the fun presents. It was really quite cute!!

A (kind of dark) glimpse of the birthday table and friends!

Thank you to all the friends and family who helped celebrate Ella's 6th birthday!!!

It's Twins!!!

We were introduced to a beautiful baby boy and a baby girl tonight!


Emaleigh Sue and Derek Thomas were born yesterday...





...to my cousin Sara and her husband Kory! Congratulations!!!!

The babies are adorable and we enjoyed meeting them. The kids loved seeing the tiny babies too! Although, James was quick to point out that there was "just one" in mommy's tummy. Here are the kids admiring Emaleigh Sue.



No baby for us yet...guess this baby was only kidding about wanting to come out last week... so we will wait a bit longer. It still was a big night at our house, though, as our big six year old got her ears pierced. I'll post more on her ear piercing adventure soon. For those wondering, she didn't cry and she is pretty happy tonight.

Our First Baby is Growing Up Too Fast!!!

Today we celebrated Isabella's 6th birthday. It seems so hard to believe that six years have passed so quickly. Isabella is growing up so fast and we are so proud of the sweet little girl she has become. Right now our darling girl is sound asleep in her bed and as we were cuddling with her tonight, she told us she had a wonderful birthday. Here is her big day in pictures:

The birthday girl sound asleep... It was easier than normal to get her out of bed this morning.

Mark, James and I joined Ella at school for her birthday celebration. Her friends sang to her and they all enjoyed eating cupcakes.

Here is Ella with a favorite classmate enjoying a pink (of course!) cupcake.

Mark took the afternoon off and we had a quick lunch at the McDonald's Playland before heading home for a relaxing afternoon.

For dinner we went to Applebee's, a birthday tradition for Ella. This is the face she made this year when she was being serenaded with their birthday song.

After dinner, we were off to the park to enjoy some more play time. James had a blast...

Isabella enjoyed herself as well. We had gorgeous weather today!

After the park it was time for presents and Ella could hardly wait!

Ella made a deal with James. He could open two of her presents if he lets her open two of his presents on his birthday. Here is Ella waiting for James to open up her new jewelry box.

James gave Ella a very soft pig with two piglets and she loved it.

More gift opening fun...

A self-timer family photo around the cake... Isabella is wearing her new Jasmine costume that she really, really wanted for her birthday.

Isabella smiles as she listens to "Happy Birthday" being sung to her.

Blowing out her candles...

Letting James help blow out the candles a second time.

One last present... Isabella opened up a necklace and earrings and we told her that we will take her to get her ears pierced when she feels ready. She was very excited about this and was all set to have them pierced tomorrow. At bedtime, though, she had already changed her mind and thinks we should wait until at least Monday so she won't have sore ears at her birthday party this weekend. We'll see if she changes her mind again...

Eating the birthday cake that Ella helped to bake and decorate.

Our beautiful SIX YEAR OLD!!! Happy Birthday Isabella Mae!!!

BABY UPDATE: We are still waiting and to be honest we are a little surprised that we made it through Ella's birthday without a new little bundle. I was told last Wednesday that my body was gearing up and that it could be any day... So, we have been anxiously waiting. While there have been many bouts of contractions over the past several days, things haven't progressed any further....yet!!! Stay tuned!

Fun Outside with Daddy!

Easter Eggs

We're getting ready for Easter at our house and the kids had a great time dying Easter Eggs tonight. James was so excited...check out his facial expressions!

Mark with the kids...

Ella hard at work!

We made an egg for each of us, including the new baby... James was a little over excited when he put the baby egg in the orange color and it came out cracked... Hopefully he'll be more careful with the real baby! : )

Our Eggs

James doesn't want a baby anymore...

James just might be getting tired of people asking him about the baby in mommy's tummy. Recently when he was asked if he wanted a boy or a girl he replied, "No baby!" Things could soon get interesting around here....