Sock Hop & Other Random Activities

Friday was our school's annual Sock Hop.

My Mom made Madi the cutest poodle skirt. It was adorable, but she wouldn't let me take any pictures (except this one). Ryann disappeared with her friends, so no pictures of her either. Skye & Bayli were more cooperative. I thought Skye looked adorable and I even rolled up Bayli's jeans so she wouldn't feel left out.

Bayli loved all the craziness. She loves to dance and did her squat & booty-shake dance. She kept running out on the dance floor trying to get herself knocked over (she did), with me chasing after her. Good times.

We've also spent a lot of time lately playing my new awesome game Agricola. It is way fun, except for having to listen to Corey & Mike complain about it...

We tried a new middle eastern restaurant. (It was so delicious!!)

My cute nephew turned 7 and reluctantly posed for a picture...

My girls were afraid of all the 7-year-old boys at the Star Wars party and took refuge in the kitchen with their awesome Aunt Corey.

and my lucky Bayli got loved on...

Round Two

We really are lucky to have such awesome family close by! Last weekend, Jeff came up again and he & Mike finished building our shed! Hooray! It took the whole weekend and the boys did such a great job! The only thing left to do is paint it. My sweet hubby loaded it up already and emptied out the storage room - now I can start working on my new scrapbooking room!

Since the boys clearly had the shed under control, and the cousins were playing happily, Corey & I got a few more games played and ate some amazing Thai food from a new restaurant I discovered. Bayli got some love from her most favorite person - Uncle Jeff. It was another super fun weekend!!

Thanks Criswells! We love you guys!

Shed-Building, Cousins & Games

I've spent the past week on a big, highly-anticipated & long-awaited project - Madi's room. I've been crazy busy - painting (a dresser, bookshelf & walls), stenciling, shopping and lots of cleaning & rearranging. Madi is beyond thrilled to have her own space and it's turning out so cute! I'm still doing the finishing touches, but I'll definitely post some pictures soon.

I've always felt like we really didn't have space in this house for Madi to have her own room, until Mike had the brilliant idea to build a storage shed - now everything in our basement storage room will move to the shed, everything in my scrapbook room moves to the storage room, and my scrapbook room becomes Madi's room.

So we got started last weekend. We're so lucky to have an awesome brother-in-law who spent all day helping my hubby build the shed. The girls were excited to play with their cute cousins and Corey & I were happy to catch up on some board games. We had the best Game Day. In 9 hours, between keeping track of 6 kids, we played a record 11 games - 1 Pecking Order, 4 St. Petersburg (our favorite), 3 Princes of Florence, 1 Parthanon, 1 Pueblo and 1 Thurn and Taxis. That's our most productive day ever! (We play so similarly that we often tie, but for those who want to keep track - that's 6 wins for me and 5 for my Squeester...)

So fun! Thanks Jeffy & Squeester!! The shed's not finished yet, so I can't wait for Round Two this weekend! :)

This is all for you Mad - are you feeling the love?

My Lucky Girl & Random Stuff

With my hubby & three big girls camping last weekend, I headed over to my Squeester's for some board games and indian food - with my littlest one in tow. I can't help but mention the way she absolutely adores her Uncle Jeff. She pretty much spent the whole night with him and didn't want anyone else, including me!! I think that's a first. I love hanging out with our family here and feel so lucky that my little girl has an aunt & uncle that love her so much!

Who are you and why would you take me from my Uncle??

Skye is always making the cutest drawings and pictures - I wish I could save them all. Here's one she made the other day at AmericanGirl.com. I thought it was adorable.

Just a cute picture of Madi & Skye with Bayli. She really is a lucky girl.

And finally, why I don't post more pictures of Ryann:

Just imagine her saying "No pictures! No pictures! No pictures!"

At my house, there is a huge correlation between age and level of cooperation. Bayli is the most cooperative when my camera appears, and therefore, the most represented on my blog. As you can see, this gradually decreases as they get older...

Sleepover

Mike and Jeff took the motorcycles and went camping last Saturday, so the girls & I headed over to Corey's for some Cousin-Time & Game-Playing. The girls had so much fun - hanging out with their cousins, making crafts, eating pizza, playing games, breaking in the hot tub, going to the park, playing Guitar Hero and watching movies. Their cute new puppy immediately discovered the high chair & it's constant flow of easily attainable snacks. I got a major game fix with my Squeester (Sorry to disappoint Kareena, but there's really no story behind the crazy nickname!) and we had some awesome Greek & Indian food and, of course, some game-playing chocolate...

24 hours of happy, happy kids, board games & excellent food (plus a hilarious episode of The Office) - that's pretty much a perfect weekend for me...



Bayli absolutely loves her Uncle Jeff and spent an hour playing with him when he got back home...

My Dog-Nephew

Today my Squeester saved me the trouble of having to get a puppy by picking up this super-cute & super-sweet 10-month-old Beagle! Isn't he adorable?? Now my kids can play with this one... :)

Welcome to the family Chief!