How Sweet is the Day

Another milestone met for another kid. Rozlyn anticipated this day for awhile. She always knew the date and has been telling people for months that she was getting baptized on May 7th. We were lucky enough to have Cheryl, my mom and dad, Chris's sister Allison and brother Stu also make the special trip. It was a house full and a fun memory that we get to keep.
When Rozlyn was oriented by the Primary and also interviewed by the Bishop she was sooooo serious. It was all business, yes/no answers. It was almost true confessions with the bishop. She told him every little detail of the tiniest mistakes she's made in her life. At first the bishop was on the verge of chuckling until he realized how serious this was for Roz. I think she was very nervous about jeopardizing her chances of being baptized. I guess true confessions are better then no confessions if you've got them. It doesn't reduce the awkwardness and the fact that Chris and I wanted to disappear or fall through a hole. We couldn't believe the things she was telling him. I think Rozlyn must have slept very well that night.
Here is a photo of the family who made it. I wish it wasn't so blurry:( Sad camera.
We had our friends and fam come to the house after for a sweet celebration, literally. Charlotte had a luau with a real pig so the bar was set high for after baptism celebrations. The candy buffet was the perfect solution.
A table full of sugar! There was real food as well but that table got very little attention. This is what most of the plates looked like. Without a veggie or salad in sight. I'm lucky for this girl in my life. She understands the covenants she made and the importance of the step she took. I'm grateful for her example. To see her in her beautiful white baptism dress when we arrived at the church to her clean smiling face fresh out of the water are moments I'll always remember. She was angelic. These are the kind of days that always make you feel grateful. Here is a link to more of Rozlyn's pictures, we were so happy with how they turned out. B.E.photography

Easter Texas Style

Another Easter here in the great state of Texas. Anyone can have Easter Egg Hunts, new Sunday duds to wear to church and loads of sugar delivered from the Easter Bunny but only in Texas can you add fire ant bites (22 of them), a trip to the ER, a bacon egg, bluebonnets and some close family time taking shelter in the closet while the tornado sirens sound.
Easter Party/Egg Hunt
Our ward had a fun Easter party Saturday morning.
Breakfast!! Face Painting
Egg Hunt and Fire Ant Bites
On the way to the car Charlotte got distracted by a field to go and run through. Her reward was 19 fire ant bites. She took her shoes off and they were covered. The poor kid:( Her only good luck was that she got to chill on the couch with her legs up and watch the rest of us finish the Saturday work. The last 3 bites were Mallory's. They were all right on the top of her finger. While Charlotte had the numbers (her feet are covered), Mallory had the allergic reaction. Her poor finger just swelled up and her hand followed after. We gave her benedryl and watched and waited over night but then we had to go to the Dr. She's on medicine now, hopefully the reaction will subside and she'll have her sweet little hand back to normal. You can see the little bites on her middle finger. The white spots are from flexing it open and the black ink is monitoring the redness to see if it spreads more.
Here's the comparision. The picture doesn't do it justice. Her hand was huge on the top and the bottom.
The rest of the afternoon was nothing but fun. We love getting together with these same friends every year for lots of food, fun and eggs. All the kids ready to go
who knows why Mason is mad - he's the small little head in the very middle. It looks like he recovered quickly:)Every year there is a "bacon egg" the bacon egg is an egg with a piece of bacon in it. It honestly is the most coveted prize. All the kids want it, there's only to be found and yes there are tears from those who don't get it. Some kids just find eggs, open them to search for bacon and then drop it when it's candy and move on. It started as a joke. One morning one of the dads put a piece in for fun. It's since become a tradition. Who needs a golden egg when there's a bacon egg.The sand was more exciting for some then the eggs
There was lots of swinging going on.

Chris quickly became the dad of the year. Check out his line. Who knows where all the other adults were. It was just Chris and a whole lot of kids.
Bluebonnets
I've been wanting to get pictures of the bluebonnets since they popped up and today we finally did. It's definately not Brenham but it's as good as we've got here in Allen. Chris and KidsMom and Kids

Oh my goodness, I just love these guys so much!!!Some nice soul came and snapped one of all of us. I like us all together!Mallory wouldn't take her eyes off the camera. It was the first time all day. Who knew we needed a stranger she was leary of. She wouldn't take her eyes off of her.
After pictures we came home played some card games in the closet while we waited for the tornado sirens to go off. Now that is some close family time but my kids love it. I have to put my brave face on and act like storms are awesome. Poor Chris gets to see the real side of me and hear the truth as soon as the kids are off to bed. They scare me, I don't like it. This forever long post was a great distraction. There's no way I'm falling asleep anyway when my trees are pounding my house.
Happy Easter!

It's Great to Be Eight!

Today we had Rozlyn's 8th Birthday Party. We had the twelve sweetest girls over to get crafty and celebrate with us. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such sweet friends for Rozlyn. Rozlyn came up with the theme and was so involved in all the planning. It made the party so much more fun to do to have her involved. I tried to step up my picture taking and kept reminding myself to stop and snap a pic. Even with all the ones we got I'm sad that I missed a few of my favorites like the food table, and the cake:( I spent so much effort on that thing, it was my nightmare for the week and I didn't even take a picture of it. Here it is. This is the picture from the Internet I saw and knew that I had to do it. Roz agreed. Doesn't it look so simple to make? I've made cake balls before so I thought it would be a breeze. Well, in case you wondering buying the economy size bag of white melting chips and adding the food color doesn't work. Your smooth melty chocolate will quickly turn rock hard. So my idea of saving some bucks and coloring them myself quickly went down the drain. Back to Hobby Lobby to trade in my un opened food color for the pre colored melty chips. In case you thought that buying red, blue, and yellow would work, well it doesn't. I was sure at some point in my life mixing red and yellow made orange, mixing blue and yellow made green and mixing red and blue made purple. Wrong. Impossible. No matter how hard I tried, what proportions I used, orange was not going to be made, green and purple were not going to be made. You can imagine my thrill at going to back to Hobby Lobby to buy the green, orange and purple bags of melting chips. The good news is that should I ever in my life need a million melting chips in a rainbow of colors in the future I will have it handy. The cute entry way table on the eve. We added some pictures of Rozlyn from her life to the display before the guests arrived. Here is the canvas, just waiting to be painted! Some of the cute and creative finished products. Craft #2. Craft # 2 after 12 girls got their paws on it. Some sculpting going on. Window markers to fill in some dead time. We also had the tables covered in paper with markers and the kids had so fun working on their graffiti skills. A fun souvenir for Rozzie to keep.
-and with that I've broke a personal record for pictures posted, and with that I'll also sleep so good tonight. So much work, so much fun.

Mowgli in the Jungle

We are raising a child star. It's Mason, who would have guessed? Months back there were brief mentions of "Mowgli" around the house. One day he asked if I knew he was Mowgli. I still really didn't get what he was talking about. That was until Miss Sue, his music teacher, pulled me aside to talk to me about Mason being Mowgli and his costume. So their upcoming school play was going to star Mason as Mowgli. Yikes, this was so not Mason - he doesn't perform, until now. The first obstacle was finding him a costume that was suitable. Tight red undies weren't going to work. We worked some magic with some red soccer shorts, still showing a bit of leg:), and made him a neutral shirt that looked like he'd been in a few tiger fights. I honestly thought when he saw what he was wearing, or realized their would be a huge audience, he would get nervous. It was just the opposite. The morning of the show, he rushed to put on his costume, he wanted to wear it all day. He couldn't wait until that night (I persuaded him otherwise). I did let him wear his new shoes but on the way to school his best friend we carpool with told him he hated his new shoes (no - you can't say that, those are his new Mowgli shoes, he won't wear them if you tell him that). Mason's response was, I hate them to, but they look like jungle shoes so I'm wearing them for open house. Then when it was time and he showed up in costume to his class all the kids started laughing, as I suspected, but he loved it!!! He thought it was awesome. Coming into the chapel he was still all smiles, the crowd did not scare him. He ate it up, he's a performer, who knew.

Double Digits

We've reached the double digits in parenthood. :( That is how I honestly feel. I've been overwhelmed thinking back to our humble beginings with Charlotte and wish that somehow I could re-live all those precious times that flew by. Way to fast. The apartments, the different friends, my new mom friends, the playdates, story times, good and naughty phases. I wish I had it all on video, with music of course, that would give me a good excuse to cry.
So to celebrate. It was her year for a friend party. I'm thinking big, she's 10. Invite everyone you know. She was thinking small, 1 friend. We talked her into 4 but she wouldn't budge after that. Charlotte and her sweet friends and sister
Sugar always makes a party more fun and still more sugar
The milestone of ear piercing at the awaited age of 10. Both ears are pierced even though things got touchy after number 1. She wasn't sure if she could do it again, but we weren't leaving with one ear pierced I tell you.

Charlotte is such a fun girl, she can't be serious, she's spontaneous, and curious. She is an amazing reader and loved spending her her birthday in her room, alone, just reading. I'm pretty sure that was never on my birthday wish list as a kid, except it would be now. She's always the life of the party, up for a good time, and can stay up to all hours of the night. At times I've struggled trying to figure that kid out. I've made the mistake of trying to mold her into who I thought she should be which worked as well as fitting a square through a circle. I've since come to realize that she's the best just how she is, I love the things about her that make her unique. I'm going crazy thinking about her being 10 and that doubling that will be 20. The years go by to quick. That's sad.