Happy Seventh Birthday, Jaylyn!

Jaylyn is seven!  Okay, now she is actually 7 years and 29 days.  But, way back a month ago, she had a great birthday.  :-)

Jaylyn is an awesome big sister!  She and the other girls are always playing together and going along with Jaylyn’s crazy imaginative play.  In fact this morning, Jaylyn had Adley rehearsing for a ballet recital Jaylyn put together.  Leighton often wants Jaylyn to hold her and will follow her around.  She is competitive and is growing soooooo tall!  She is really enjoying developing friendships this year and is really growing out of her fearfulness of many things.  I am enjoying teaching her and seeing her heart grow as she desires to follow God in all her ways. 

She was counting down to her birthday a loooooong time before it was here.  She was excited to find presents when they woke up.  She and Adley’s present is actually their bedroom.  We have redecorated from Jaylyn’s baby nursery decor.  There will be final pictures posted about that eventually.  :-)  So, on Adley and Jaylyn’s birthdays, we let them both open some items for their room. 

A new comforter

A bed tent (I think this was the favorite) and some other room decor items

Jaylyn gets to enjoy a full family outing day since TJ is always off of work after Christmas.  And where would you guess that she chose for lunch?  Incredible Pizza, of course!

 

Almost got your eyes!  How is this possible???

After four “closed-eye” shots, we finally got one with “big eyes”

Leighton wasn’t in the party mood at first

I’m maaaaaadddddd!!

Are you still trying to take my picture?

Ok, peek-a-boo!  Take my picture!

Mommy and the birthday Girl

Jipped on the wheel!  I forget what it landed on, but it said it only landed on a smaller amount.  Oh well!

Always have to play some air hockey with Daddy!

They wanted to decorate the cupcakes

Made a wish!

Yum!

Mine is yummy too!

Mine is messy!

A little time playing on the Wii!

And ready for a night under the tent as a SEVEN YEAR OLD!

(I guess that is a small preview to the room – tape up to paint the stripe)

A few Nativity Moments

  The family put on another nativity performance at Christmas Eve with children acting out parts and adults joining in with some fun “audience participation” parts.  It was super cute.

Leighton and Luke playing Joseph and Mary

Leighton seemed to take her roll seriously by taking good care of Baby Jesus

Here is the whole nativity gang

Christmas Party

We decided to have a Christmas party with the kid cousins.  We had a super time!

I missed most of the picture opportunities.   Here is a couple  or you can see a couple more at Shannon’s post about our party here.

Crafts, pizza, treats, presents, games. . . . and just plain cousin fun.  

Craft time

Group pose 

Silly pose!

These two are the coolest.  :-)

More Christmas Snapshots

We got to do lots of the usual cookie baking.  And of course, the gingerbread house.  I accidentally bought the “pre-made” house that just needed decorating.  Then, I thought, well, that might be nice.  Then we opened the box and some of the pieces were broken into lots of little pieces.  Hmmmm. . . maybe not a good thing.  But, to the rescue came. . . Daddy. . . who managed to get it put back together for the girls to decorate.  He is so talented.  :-)

See the girls’ faces – amazed.  Hee hee!

Leighton Poses

It turned into a whole week of “Oh well. . . “.  Leighton can’t get rid of this icky bug she has.  Poor girl.  She has been very pitiful.  So, here are some pictures from December when she was obviously feeling very well!

EARS!

You liked that, huh?

How about. . . .NOSE!

How about. . . IN MY NOSE!

IN MY NOSE A LITTLE FARTHER!

Don’t forget. . .  EYE!

Ok, ALL DONE!

Oh well

Some days just don't go as planned.  Actually for me, I'm not sure any day goes as planned.  We did actually accomplish school today despite two of three messy diapers being bright green (apparently blue slushies can cause that - hee hee) and Leighton swallowing a glass bead and now awake from nap early.  She is crazy with putting things in her mouth and this time it went down.  All is well so far.  So, my plans of updating the blog with something more exciting like Christmas pictures or something, now have been replaced by a post about green poop and a soon-to-come diaper with a blue bead  in the poop.  Nice, huh?  You are welcome. 

Actually, these kinds of things are totally normal (and pretty minor compared to those with even more "enthusiastic" children - ha!) and I am daily reminded of how blessed we have been.  There are a lot of horrible things going on in lives around us.  Please pray for one of my friends that I grew up with.  She lost her husband last week and I know she has faced many difficult life experiences before that.  She has two daughters, middle school and high school.  I am desperately praying for her to experience the comfort only the Lord can give. 

So, as for wiping up numerous spills in a day, and being on the phone with the doctor to talk about swallowed beads, and being interrupted a hundred times a day to answer absurd questions I don't really understand, I say "Oh, well".  Praise the Lord for the very breath we breathe and the moments that we have with our loved ones to clean up after and interrupt our plans. 

Some more tree trimming

We enjoy heading over to Grandpa and Grandma Geist’s house to help decorate the tree.  The girls got to help decorate lots of trees this year!  :-)

Checking out the ornaments

Blurry, but happy :-)

Aiming for the high branches

Great Grandma and Leighton (Somehow I missed Grandpa!)

The girls – this was the best I could get.  :-)

Geist Christmas

We celebrated with TJ’s parents and grandparents early this year.  We had a delicious dinner, presents and special memories.  Here are a few shots of the fun!

I am a true Geist!  I love Grandma Geist’s Christmas Tree Cookies!

Christmas Cutie

Me too!

Presents!

TJ, me and the girls with the Grandpa and Grandma Geist and Grandpa Evans

Preschool Christmas Program

Here are a couple shots of Adley’s program.  She is a bit more reserved on stage.  :-)

They sang and shared the Christmas story and told what they love about Christmas.  (most of them enjoy presents, in case you wondered.)  And then there is a visit from Santa.

Away in a Manger

Christmas smiles 

Hi!

We thought she was going to pull all her hair out.  She had rapid nervous hair striking the whole time.

Proud to show off her baby sister