I can't believe another year has gone by and my Jacob is 11. Wow! time sure flies. Next thing I know he'll be graduating form High School and off to college. Anyway, we love you Jake and are so proud to have you has our son. It is so fun to watch you take care of your little sisters. It melts my heart when I hear Abby call you "Jakey" and it doesn't even bother you, even in front of your friends. Jake, I sure hope you have a wonderful day and may all your wishes come true.
We had Danny's birthday party back on June 13th. We had to quickly squeeze it in since our month seemed to be getting crazier every day. With Scout Camp a couple days later and Cub Scout Day camp right after that and then our vacation to follow we knew that we needed to have the party sooner than later.
All I have to say is that having ten boys between 12-13 year olds is CRAZY!! I think most of them had a good time, but Matt and I were glad when it was over. We had told Danny that he would need to plan all the games since our life was pretty busy. He set up some yard games to play and had the boys come ready to get wet for some water games. He decided on pizza, soda and ice cream sandwiches for food.
Okay, the boys he invited over are great boys, but when you put them all together, they spell O-V-E-R-A-C-T-I-V-E!! HELP!
I love the surprise water picture at the end. Matt decided to pull one over on the boys and as you can tell some of them loved it! They all laughed about it anyway.
I can't believe that Danny is already 12 years old. Boy, where does the time go?
If you remember, we celebrated Danny's birthday earlier in May when Tom and Michele were here. With the craziness of the month, Danny will have his party at a later date...to be determined. But here are some fun pictures of him on the day we celebrated.
I am so blessed to have kids that are flexible!!
Today was a wonderful day. With it being Mother's Day, I also get to share it with Aaron every few years. Matt and the kids made a really delicious dinner and I didn't have to help one bit, It was really enjoyable! They also got me a couple of gifts. I love anything by Hilary Weeks so they got me ner newest CD and then the newest book by Brandon Mull, author of the Fablehaven series, Fablehaven: The Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary. I had to laugh at the kids reaction to the book. They have been waiting to check it out at the library and now they have to wait for me to read it. Can they wait that long? Oh ya, I also had some chocolate covered strawberries at church. Yummy!
Aaron has been a great sport. Even though his birthday is today, he decided to celebrate this coming weekend when Tom & Michele are in town. He is a great kid. Thanks Aaron for letting me have my day.
Today we celebrated Caleb's birthday as a family. For many birthdays now we have decided to celebrate the kids birthdays on Sunday after church and dinner. This way their birthday tends to stretch out a little longer. Especially when we have the friend party on Saturday. Caleb is always to excited about anything he gets. His eyes say a thousdand words. Happy Birthday,Tiger!
Today we celebrated Caleb's birthday with 6 of his friends. Caleb had his heart set on having a music themed party. He had remembered when I was planning the girls party in February that the cake shop I rent my cake pans from had a guitar shaped cake pan. He wanted to play musical chairs, make a musical instrument and have a musical type pinata. I was able to succeed in 3 of the 4 wishes. I found a star pinata instead. The kids had so much fun making tamborines, breaking open the pinata and playing musical chairs. The think their favorite thing was the pinata and of course ice cream and cake. Caleb had a lot of fun with all his friends!
I can hardly believe Caleb is six years old. Boy do they grow up fast! Caleb has been such a joy to have in our family. He is the son that has many nicknames. The most common one we use is "Tiger". He has been called "Mr. Googlee eyes" from Tom & Michele because he would make a funny look with his eyes and wiggle is eyebrows. Matt somtimes calls him "Mr. Personality" because his emotions show on his face and they are usually pretty energetic. Caleb is a great little brother and big brother. He loves to play with the big boys, but he is willing to play "girl" games as well. Caleb's favorite color is green so it is fitting that he was born around St. Patrick's Day. His favorite movie is still "Cars" and he absolutely loves Lightining McQueen. He loves any type of candy as long as it has no nuts. His favorite foods are Pizza, Hamburgers & Hot Dogs and his least favorite is homemade Macaroni & Cheese because it has crunchy things on top. We love you Caleb and hope you have a wonderful birthday today and a great party on Saturday. Love Mom & Dad
For Abby's 2nd Birthday we took her to Build-a-Bear to pick out her very own bear. This is a tradition we started with Caleb for his birthday a few years ago and since then we have taken the kids there for a birthday. I can't believe this completes the birthday bears.
Abby had so much fun decided what bear to get and which outfit to pick out. I think her favorite part was the stuffing machine and the fluffing area. For those of you who have not been to a Build-a-Bear store, you can go in a pick out a unstuffed animal, choose a sound for it (if you want too), and the worker at the store helps to stuff it. When they are finished putting in the stuffing, they have you choose a heart to put into your animal and they also put in the ID tag for it. They then sew it up for you. You then take it to the fluffing area where you can comb the animals hair. Next it is time to pick out an outfit and dress it. Finally it is time to name your animal. This is a really fun activity for the little kids to do, even teh big kids enjoy this!!
I meant to post this yesterday, February 11th, on her actual birthday.
Wow, I can't believe it has been two years since Abby was born. To look back to see where she started from and to see her today is AMAZING!!
Two years ago was a very scary time. Abigail Faith Rogers was born 13 weeks early at 27.1 weeks gestation and only weighed 2 lbs. 11 ounces and was 13 inches long. Little did we know what a roller coaster we would go on for the next 86 days with her living in the NICU.
Today, Abby is a beautiful, active, determined, normal toddler. Looking at her now, one would never suspect she started life different than any other baby.
She now weighs 20 lbs 7 ounces., is 32 inches tall, walks, no runs everywhere and jabbers about everything. She loves to play dress-up with her big sister and snuggle with anything that is soft. She loves to be involved in what her big siblings are doing and her most favorite thing to do is eat.
We find so much entertainment in watching her at any meal time. She has recently learned that she can eat with a spoon and it really is just as fast as both hands! Every meal is an adventure. If not watched carefully, she will paint herself with her food. Here is the most recent picture of her after Daddy gave her a bowl of ice cream last Friday evening. When I walked into the dining room and saw her, my only repsonse was, "Grab the camera." The boys all laughed and Matt said this is not funny and hauled her up to the bathtub to be bathed. I am constantly telling her not to make a mess and so now she repeats, "Abby messy."
Abby truly is a joy to have in our lives. She always has a smile for everyone. She loves to flirt!!! Her big blue eyes are to die for. She is so lovable. Happy Birthday (a day late) Abby, we love you!!
We have had a very Princess-filled weekend. On Saturday, Clarissa had a Princess party with a few of her friends. She had so much fun. Her friends came dressed up as a princess, so our guests included Snow White, Cinderella, Belle and Tinkerbell along with our two precious little princesses. After I had invited her friends to the party, I decided that I might as well have a duel party since Abby's birthday is three days later. Abby loved being involved in all the princess activities. She was glowing through the whole party! When the guests arrived, we gave them each a homemade princess hat and wand so they could complete their attire. We played Princess hopscotch, Pin the star on the wand, painted fingernails and some toenails, colored castle frames, opened presents, ate princess snacks and of course the best thing, ate the castle cake and ice cream! The little princesses had so much fun that by the time it was time to go home they wanted to stay longer. Thank you to the friends that came and spoiled out little princess. It was a wonderful party!
Our Jake turned 10 years old on September 19th. Because of pack meeting, we decided to celebrate it on Sunday, September 21st.
All Jake wanted for his birthday was a skateboard. I found his present early on. A couple of days before, I happened to find a keychain size skateboard. I thought it would be fun to wrap it up and give to him. Jake is such a sweet kid that after he opened it, he didn't even fuss about it. We said that was all we had for him and started to clean up. While he was cleaning up, we got the real skateboard out and boy was he surprised.
Thanks Jake for being a good sport while we made you the center of our joke!!
Abby also loved the skateboard.
