A Dozen Years With You, Babe!!!!

On the eve of St. Patrick's Day twelve years ago, we welcomed our second baby girl into the world!  I never would have guessed how amazing she would become.  It's such a blessing to have daughters that are sweet and kind and so aware and helpful and just so in tune with what is going on all around you.  I'm just in awe at how blessed I am to have such great kids!!  We had a blast celebrating Ariel's birthday - started off with a fun breakfast of monkey bread, eggs and strawberries (she's known as our "Spunky Monkey"!).  Then I took Rose on up to our local homeschooling ice skating day, totally planned last minute and all by God!!!  It was rescheduled from a snowy February day when they had to cancel it.  So how perfect was that to land on our sweet girl's birthday?!!  ++thank you, God!!++  Then in the evening, I took my middle bunch to A Wrinkle In Time, since that's the read aloud we are currently reading.  Here's a peek at our wonderful day together...

**ICE SKATING FUN**

Melody gave the sweetest gift to Ariel for her birthday.... and that was by being such a good big sister to Rose (only 5 years old) and sticking close to her and helping her skate.  Melody knew that since it was Rose's first time ice skating, she would need a big sissy to help her out.  Wasn't that so sweet?!!  I love my big kids SO much!  They are the BEST helpers!!

**MOVIE NIGHT**

And I have to send out a huge shout out and thank you to my wonderful hubby, who stayed home with the littles the whole day since I was out running the town with the birthday girl to celebrate her special day.  Such a great daddy and husband!!  

++Thank you, God, for the last 12 years with our beautiful Ariel!  Please bless her abundantly over this next year and bring her even closer to You!++

Playing Betty Crocker

When you have a wonderful big sister who gifts you with cherries from her cherry tree, you need to be creative on how to use them.  

First you must....

Wash 'em

De-stem 'em

Pit 'em

(and it's really nice to pawn those 3 jobs off on your 14 year old son, if you have one)

Cut 'em in half 

And then...

Make a PIE!!!  

So my baby sister and I got together last Saturday morning and made CHERRY pies!  My very first homemade fruit pie with a homemade crust.  Yeah, can you believe it?  And, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that difficult.  What do you think?  

It sure tasted great!!  Next up will be a homemade apple pie.  With a homemade crust again!! I can get used to this Betty Crocker thing!  ;)

What are some of your favorite ways to play Betty Crocker?  

What do you like to bake?

~ Dance ~ Dance ~ Dance ~

Rather than having a party to celebrate Melody's Confirmation, her Daddy took her, Ariel, and Rose out to dinner and then to a Daddy Daughter Dance.  Here are pictures of their fun night...

**DINNER**

**DANCE**

What a blessed day it was!!  Melody's Confirmation in the afternoon and the Daddy Daughter Dance in the evening!!

Oh yeah...  Neil didn't forget his littlest girl.  When he got home, he played her song "My Girl" and danced her all around the kitchen with plenty of smooching and an occasional dip!  Such a good daddy!  And she giggled almost the whole time - she loves her daddy so very much!

++Thank you, God, for these fun father/daughter memories made!++

Puppies!! Puppies!! Puppies!!

My youngest sister rocks!!  She's a momma to four kids eight and under and is so calm and collected.  I just love her to pieces!  I tell her all the time that she's totally in the "thick of it" when it comes to mothering.  Having four that close was harder than my eight right now, mostly because I have so many helpers.  She gets to wear her super momma cape daily to just get by and pray for a TON of grace and love and forgiveness, which comes so naturally in a loving faith-filled family!  Anyways, her and her hubs are HUGE animal lovers too - they have chickens, geese, ducks, bunnies, cats, dogs, and just recently had their second litter of puppies.  Momma dog is a standard poodle and Daddy dog is a labrador.  So the babies are beautiful labradoodles!!  I took 5 of my crew last weekend to go visit the puppies.  I think they are 3 weeks here....

Aren't they precious??!!!  I didn't get any pics of Max and Pookey holding the pups because they snuck off as fast as they could to go play with their cousins!  They love their cousins and are such good buddies with them.  Did you know cousins make the BEST of friends?!!

Wordless Wednesday: Daddy/Daughter Dance 2016

Wordless Wednesday - Father's Day fun

Two cats better than one??

A few weeks ago, we brought home the cutest little kitty.  Our first cat!  How about that?!  Our girls named her Elsa.  Any guesses on where they got that name from?  Hee hee!  

My sister and I both wanted to get cats to be mousers (I am WAY too practical!) and we found a sweet family who were giving away their cats.  So, my sister got one of the boys and we got one of the girls.  So, us two sisters got a brother/sister pair of kitties for our families.  

Melody and Ariel have been especially helpful with our new pet.  They are the ones who feed and water her every day and clean up her house and litter box when needed.  I haven't had to once!!  (NOTE: having bigger kids, although I have 8 kids, is so much easier than when I had 3 or 4 littles who were dependent on me - seriously!)  We have multiple allergies, so we had to create a little house for her in our garage for the nighttime.

We have been working on training her to be outdoors all day (because she was an indoor cat when we got her and never even stepped outdoors until we brought her here) and then she goes back in the garage at night or when we are gone during the day.  She's really doing well outside and starting to get used to our dogs (one BIG labradoodle and one miniature poodle).  And, she loves when the kids bring her in the basement to love on and play with her too. This has been such a fun experience for us all.  And, I'm hoping it'll pay off with no more mice in the fall and winters.

We were told by multiple people that you "have to have two cats" and "two are better than one", so my sister and I have been keeping a look out for more cats being given away. We found some this week, so they took home a boy and we took home a girl kitty.  And, I bet you can't guess what we named this new girl cat???....

.....Anna, of course!!!
Now our Frozen kitty pair is complete!!  Yippeeeee!!!

 But, Elsa is not warming up to Anna and is being a little icy!!  She hisses and growls and pounces and bites and did this from the first instant we put them together.  So, we got another small cage (from another one of my sisters) for Anna to be in because we need a safe place for them to be overnight in our garage.  (Again, this is just a temporary home since we are training them to be outdoors 100%).  But, goodness, we were not expecting the territorial Elsa personality to come out.  So, the big question is, "did we mess up?"

Are "two cats better than one?"

Help!!!!