Horse Party

We just finished up the older girl's horse birthday party last weekend. I think it turned out a success. Horses everywhere, friends and family, cake and ice cream, and presents! Woohoo!

Here are some pics:
First of all, my mixer died the night before the party before I was finished making the icing. One of the beaters stopped working, so I kept going with just one, but that didn't last long. Thankfully, TJ was willing to drive to his mom's late in the fog to borrow hers. :-)

Here are the horses before:

white cake

strawberry cake

Cake table

Horse after:

Jaylyn picked the white cake with her favorite cream cheese icing.
Adley's was the strawberry cake also with their favorite cream cheese icing.

And you have to have some chocolate cupcakes (filled with cream cheese icing of course!)

"Happy Birthday to you!" Adley suddenly turned into Jaylyn while everyone was singing.

I think Jaylyn has now grown out of her "I am too embarrassed to look at anyone while they are singing to me" phase.

Presents!

And to top it off, you have to have a Tritzi in your treat bags!! :-)

Seven Months Old

One more month down. Growing, growing, growing.

Still adding more foods to her dining repertoire. Still giving that big adorable scrunchy-eyed grin. This morning she was in an exceptionally good mood. Full of giggles and smiles! I am still waiting on that bottom tooth. It is almost through! I am also still waiting on her to be crawling any time. She still just scoots backward.

She has lots of fun with her sisters as you can see!

Here is a video of Leighton playing with her new mirror/music toy. It is kind of long, but cute.

More Prayer Needed

I previously posted about our pastor's family recently adopting a sweet little girl named Eden. They just found out that her heart condition is much more serious than they thought. They have heard some very bad news, but really there is a lot of unknowns still. Please keep them in your prayers.

I had to go out in the cold

Well, the first day we got that snow, the girls were ready to go out and play. I "am not a fan" of going out in the cold snow. Once again, I was wishing TJ could stay home from work to take the girls out, but that was just not going to happen. So, in the warmest part of the day, while Leighton was snoozing warmly in her bed, we spent an hour (maybe I'm exaggerating a BIT) bundling up and headed outside. (Monitor near me of course - for those concerned. Hee hee) This was also while Jaylyn was telling me that "Daddy is more fun to play with outside." I certainly do not doubt that!

Snow angel

Cold!

I'm so glad we are finally out here!

Throwing snow

This is where Jaylyn hit me with a snow ball (or snow blob)

And on to the snow man. I helped this move along as quickly as possible. She started out talking about the different size snowmen we were going to make.. . ummmm. . . no. I was able to convince her that we would only have time for one before we were all frozen solid.

Here she is! I think we did a fine job. (After Jaylyn kept informing me of how Daddy says to do it.) Jaylyn helped me gather the snow and put it together. Adley was the water squirter to help the snow stick. Although she mostly walked around the yard spraying everything else. All in all, I don't think I turned out to be a snow stick-in-the mud, I got to wear my new snow boots, and I actually enjoyed myself - even in the cold snow.

Couldn’t Resist

I couldn’t resist posting these cute pics.  :-)

Happy New Year

As with everyone else, I just can't believe that it is the new year already. 2010!! Aren't we supposed to be flying around like the Jetson's by now? :-)

Here are some of the things we have been up to since Christmas. Besides Jaylyn's birthday. . .

This is Adley getting ready to go out and play when we got a little bit of snow right after Jaylyn's birthday.

Jaylyn's ready too!

Not much to play with out there. But, Daddy and Jaylyn enjoyed a short snowball table hockey game.

Leighton continues to try new foods and learn about using a cup.

Licking and biting the cup is the most fun.

Hmmmmm, what do I do with this?

Mavery and Adley enjoying their late night on New Year's Eve. They have a lot of fun together.

We are also back to school!

Jaylyn wanted to wear her Kindergarten Rocks shirt from Malaine to start back. She really is doing great! I enjoy hearing her read. And, I think she will be loosing her third tooth soon. She now has a top tooth that is pretty loose. I'm sure she will continue to work on that tooth until it is ready to come out. Also, today, she reached a fun gymnastics milestone - a back bend kick over all by herself!

Adley likes to do "school" too. She is really anxious to do preschool next year. She loves puzzles. Here she is doing some fun pattern boards. After watching her "letter factory" video she has been talking more about letter sounds. The funniest is when she talks about the sounds the letters make and always adds, "And Hay is for horses!". Another funny comment from her the other day was after she continued to eat all of the broccoli I had fixed for supper and went to apologize to Jaylyn (who doesn't care for broccoli), "Sorry I ate all of the broccoli, Jaylyn. Sorry!"

I also got a fun new vinyl wall quote from Shannon for Christmas. We got it up in the kitchen over the windows above the sink. Cute!

Leighton is also sitting up. Not quite stable yet, but enjoying this view of her toys.

Fun, fun!

I am also in a very crafty mood right now. Here is one item I put together from items in my basement. :-) I will have to put a post together another day with all of my projects I have started. Although, my family might wish I was working a little more on that never-ending laundry. Ugh!

Prayer Request

Please pray for friends of ours at church. Their baby has died in the womb and are going in today to deliver the baby. They have been through several miscarriages and just found out recently that there were many things wrong with this baby. I'm not sure how far along she was, but I know she was at least half way because they were able to tell that it was a boy a couple weeks ago. They named him Josiah. Praise God they were able to have an adorable little girl named Olivia in the midst of their pregnancy struggles. But, I know they would love more. Please lift up Jonathan and Elaine, please! I just can't imagine. . . We pray God's comfort would surround them.

Christmas Part Two

Christmas morning was a fun time. Thankfully the girls slept in a bit after a late Christmas Eve. Actually, Leighton was so exhausted from all of the Christmas Eve fun that she really didn't want to wake up Christmas morning. But, the older girls ran in to wake her up so she could join in on the fun.

     Leighton enjoyed the morning also.  Paper is very exciting.   And, it apparently looks tasty.  She also loved her mirror.

Christmas Lunch -  Christmas Lunch was spent at TJ’s grandparents house for the “Geist Christmas” party.  We had some delicious ham and goodies.  Jaylyn had a great time playing with Dalayna, our cousin who has moved away.  They had a blast playing in a back bedroom the whole time.  We look forward to visiting them in March!  Leighton received a lot of attention as usual and Aunt Jan got her to sleep.  And in the picture below, TJ cutting Clancey’s birthday cake.  His birthday is on Christmas so he always gets a Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake. 

Christmas Dinner – Dinner is the “Evans Christmas” party.  That is TJ’s mom’s side.  It is a nice small gathering to end up at the end of Christmas day.  Everyone had a great time and we greatly enjoyed Diana’s Roast!  (It was the roast that apparently caused some momentary memory loss in Diana.  Hee hee!)  Below – Cousin Shannon with Leighton and also Uncle Brett with Leighton.  We don’t get to see Uncle Brett as much now.  He has also moved and is helping out with a church plant.  The picture of the guys is their gift card exchange.  The girls made them play the passing game to get their gift card.  We thoroughly enjoyed watching them.  :-) 

The kids all together and with Great Grandpa Evans

The day after Christmas, we finally got to exchange gifts with TJ’s parents.  Once again, more yummy food and fun presents.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!