Happy "13 Going on 30" Princess #1

On November 28th, 2018 I officially had a newborn and a teenager. Quite the winning combination. Sarah has been eagerly waiting her birthday forever. :) She wanted to have a spa day so we purchased a parafin bath and extra wax for the girls to use along with other spa-ish goodies. We set up a photo booth the girls took advantage of before they went downstairs to hang out. They also watched the movie "13 going on "30", which Sarah had been waiting to see. Sarah chose to have a Texas sheet cake for her dessert, because it wasn't fancy, but tasted good.

On her birthday she has cheesecake for breakfast and I let her go to school a little late. She wanted to skip, but we were mean parents and allowed her to get a full education. I brought her In n Out for lunch and she thankfully only wanted grilled cheese for dinner. Her sweet YW leaders dropped this sign off so she got a lot of love during the day.

Here is some photo booth fun

Here she is opening her presents

Eating her fabulously exciting cake. (My first attempt at flowers looked like round blobs, but I tried...)

Sarah is a delight to parent. I'm so glad she's her own person and not like her mom at 13. ;) She is smart and witty. It's fun watching movies with her because she understands the meaning and humor and laughs a lot. She is a great big sister. She has been working harder at making the boys feel more loved by her since they sometimes feel left out of her world. She obviously loved Audrey and has been a huge help to Mike and me. These past 13 years have been great and although I don't want the years to pass quickly, I'm sure her next 13 years will be full of fun and adventure.

Steven's DARE graduation

The DARE Program is alive and thriving in the 21st century. I don't remember a lot about the program when I was a kid, but remember the car and the idea. The kids school takes part in the program and I was impressed and happy at how into it Steven was. He would come home and tell us all about the DARE officer Jake Cutwright and the crazy stories he told them about bad guys. In order to graduate the students needed to write an essay about what they learned from the program and why it's important. Steven mentioned his uncle Kevin, although I don't know if by name, because he passed away from an accidental overdose from mixing two things that shouldn't have been mixed. He was looking forward to his graduation and Audrey and I attended to support him. He came and got her out of the stroller and showed her to all his friends.

Audrey is ONE MONTH OLD!

I will sheepishly admit that before Audrey came along I wasn't a huge fan of the newborn phase. I loved my newborns, but it was hard to be tired and have life revolve around a human that sleeps, eats and defecates. With Audrey, all of us are just enjoying our time with her, which is already going by way too fast. We all take a ton of pictures and "fight" about who gets to hold her. Since I get her during the day I usually share her when the kids get home and Mike gets her in the evening. She's pretty great.

Sarah and Aspen took Audrey downstairs while they played Xbox and made her a comfortable bed. 

I made Audrey a Jazz outfit and the season finally started so we could play dress up.

She wanted to have her binky in, but I wanted it out, so we'd put it in, wait for her to calm down, and then pull it out. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We trade off major holidays between my parents and Mike's, and this year the Starleys got us for Thanksgiving. Mike still loves cooking with his Traeger, so we decided to host so he could smoke the turkey. I made the famous "Debby Rolls" along with green bean casserole. Mike made his Paula Dean pumpkin pies and Lynette brought the stuffing, salad and mashed potatoes and gravy.

Our wonderful neighbor Kathleen bought Audrey outfits for every holiday, so we put her in her adorable Thanksgiving costume and tried to take some pictures. She's a cute little turkey. 

We definitely have a lot to be Thankful for this year. Life is good.