Happy 6th Birthday Ellie!

Our Thanksgiving week was full of fun and busyness.  We have so much to be thankful for including being able to spend time with family.  It was a great week.  Celebrating Thanksgiving also means it is time to celebrate Ellie’s birthday, which happened later in the week.  The week didn’t start off the best because on Tuesday morning as I was getting the kids ready to head off to school, I went downstairs to get some more milk and discovered one of our freezer doors slightly ajar.  It was the freezer above our fridge which had around six ziplock bags of chicken, some pasta, and the 50 pancakes I made for Ellie’s birthday among other things.  I about cried, but I didn’t have time to mess with it right then as I still had to get some stuff done for the kids.  After the kids left for school and the twins got their bottles, I went down to clean it up.  I have no idea why it was open but I had been down there the afternoon before and didn’t notice it.  I was able to keep the pancakes and some veggies.  The chicken was thankfully still frozen, so I kept it.  But the rest of it I threw out including two pork loins in marinade I had just put in a few days before.  But I just had to clean up quickly and get the twins ready because we had some shopping to do.  We got to Aldi and I realized I didn't have my list.  So we headed back out to the car to see if it fell out somewhere in there and had no luck.  I was able to remember most of the items I needed but knew I wouldn't be able to remember everything I needed at Wal-Mart.  Lissy had called earlier in the morning wanting to know if she could come by and try our internet to see if it was faster at uploading her galleries than my parents.  So I called her up to see if she wanted to come over while the twins were napping to try it and I could get my list and run to WalMart.  She was nice enough to do it for me and I was able to get my shopping done.  But Lissy was convinced I needed a girls' night and had me go with her to La Fuente to meet up with Tab and Tiffany.  And Andrew was happy to take care of the kids. 

 

The kids didn't have school on Wednesday so while Andrew was home for lunch, I took Jackson and Ellie to Pizza Hut to use their Book-It coupons.  It was nice to have some time with just the two of them and they enjoyed it too.  My family started coming into town that afternoon.  We actually got a call from Briley around 4 wondering where Ellie was.  Ellie was actually outside doing all sorts of chalk art on our driveway.  At one point she came running in yelling that her friend, Tyne, was going on a walk in our neighborhood and could she go with her.  So I went out to meet Tyne's mom.  I was glad we were able to meet because now I think we will both be comfortable having them go to each others' houses.  Ellie was sooo excited to get to hang out with Tyne for a bit.  They gave each other hugs and walked around holding hands.  And Tyne was out walking around in a bunny dance outfit over her clothes-Ellie's kind of girl.  So after Tyne left and I finished up some stuff, we headed over to my parents for dinner.  Ellie and Briley were excited to get to play together and they all got in the hot tub too.  Then the next day we headed out to Andrew's parents for a delicious Thanksgiving lunch.  Miles and Bennett really liked exploring the house and checking out Mary's new robot vacuum.  Andrew was excited that I took him up on is offer to try some shooting with his pistol.  And we also drove around to see where Jackson shot his doe.  Then Lincoln was very excited that Andrew took him out for a little ride in the "digging tractor".  I forgot my camera though and didn't get any pictures of everyone.  Matthew said he had to put off the annual Thanksgiving race until Christmas when Lauren was back. 

 

My parents had their Thanksgiving meal on Friday.  I was up early to get my one Black Friday deal-a free year of online backup for Andrew's office.  Then I made a couple of desserts to take to my parents, did a little bit of decorating for Ellie's party the next day, and then headed over to my parents.  Lincoln stayed with Andrew and they mowed the yard one last time.  It was pretty cold, but I don't think it bothered Lincoln because he was on the mower and he loves that.  While Jackson and Ellie played and the twins napped at my parents, I headed over to the office to install the new backup and also put up a tree for Andrew.  I was going to surprise him with it but he showed up while I was doing it.  Later that evening we had the yummy Thanksgiving dinner.  Miles and Bennett loved the mashed potatoes and noodles and were kind of urgent with their requests.  And they were excited to find a snack cup of Cheez-Its under the table.

Baylor and Lincoln enjoying their chocolate cake.

 That night we played an intense game of Uno.  Ellie is an emotional wreck when she plays it.  She hates to have the "Draw 4" card played on her but is giddy when she gets to use it on someone else.  She did sometimes apologize to me.  :-).  On Saturday, we got to celebrate her though.  She stayed the night at my parents house the night before.  Jackson and Lincoln headed out to the ranch in the morning with Andrew. I got a call from Ellie that she wanted to go watch trains with Briley and her grandpa.  I hurried to finish up some stuff for the party and got her clothes over to her.  Then I ran to get her cupcakes and a few more things for the party.  We had a Cinderella party and served breakfast for dinner.  Ellie loves pancakes, so it was perfect.  I did a lot of prep work but still ran a little behind in getting everything out.  I used some steamers to try to keep all the pancakes warm and they worked well.  But I had a breakfast casserole that I had doubled and it was taking longer to cook.  I allowed for around 20 extra minutes, but that wasn't even enough.  But in the end, it all worked out fine.  Ellie loved her party.  She got a lot of craft/art supplies which is perfect for her.  One of her presents from us was that she got to get her ears pierced.  She was very excited but also nervous about it. 

After church and lunch at my parents on Sunday, my siblings headed back home and I started decorating our house for Christmas.  Andrew brought the boxes up for me and then had to go to the office.  While Ellie played with some of her new presents, Jackson helped me for a bit on starting the decorations.  I didn't have too long to work before Ellie and I left for a little grocery shopping and to get her ears pierced.  She did great, besides being really nervous.  My dad had given us a little lidocaine cream to put on ahead of time.

Then we ran home, put away the groceries quickly, and headed out to Ashlyn's 4th birthday party for another fun evening.  Our birthday celebrations didn't end there since Ellie's actual birthday wasn't until today.  And in between Ashlyn and Ellie's birthdays is the birthday of sweet, little Owen, Annie and Brad's little boy who passed away soon after birth two years ago.

While I did put up most of our decorations, I also left up Ellie's birthday decorations through her birthday.  We love that girl and she is definitely a shining light.  She has so much love for us, her brothers, her family, her friends, school, dance, art, and Jesus.  She is full of hugs and smiles and as I mentioned earlier she can be pretty emotional at times :-).  We love her excitement and compassion and are so blessed to call her our daughter.  She got to take some cupcakes to school and then she had a few presents to open when she got home.  Her favorite was a new little video camera.  It isn't anything too fancy, it was just a great deal I found and I knew she would love it.  We went to La Fuente for dinner.  Although she knew it was going to happen, she was a little shy when they came out to sing Happy Birthday to her. 

Creepers

Papa let him have sweet tea-he is ruined :-)  He also loved refried beans.

I have a couple Lincoln pictures.  First is his Thanksgiving hand print turkey.  I love his curved pinkie feather.  He will always have unique hand prints with his curved pinkies :-)

And Lincoln was playing with one of our nativity sets the other day and after he had gone to bed I noticed this...

And one last picture of our mantle that we now fill up with stockings.  My mom made all of them.  Some of them are made from special fabric scraps.  Ellie and Lincoln's are from family quilts and the twins are actually from a pair of my Christmas pjs that had the cutest print.  I love all of them and I am so thankful for our "full mantle" family.