A Letter to Avery on Your 7th Birthday

My Sweetest Avery,

Happy Birthday my sweet, beautiful, girl.

You are my, girly-girl. You are always so feminine and proper. You love to have your hair done and will seriously sit for hours to get it done. Your only requests for today were that we have coconut cake and I do something fancy to your hair.

Mom and dad had so much fun shopping with you last night. It was so fun to see you trying on all of the dresses and watching you twirl in front of the mirror. You are getting so big! And yet you are so much the girl you have always been.

Even when I was pregnant with you, you didn't cause much trouble. You kicked just enough to let me know you were still alive in there. And then when you were born, you weren't even crying. I was afraid that maybe there was something wrong with you, but there you were just peacefully staring up at me.

And that is very much how you are today. You don't like to be in trouble, and you do your best to steer clear of it. You often look at Hayden with a shake of your head wondering why on earth she would try and cause so much trouble, because you would never dream of it.

You are truly just GOOD.

You have learned to read this year, and you love your teacher Mrs. Sugnet. It has been fun to see you become your own little person at school outside of your sister's shadow. You are not so shy this year and you are even getting quite brave and a bit pushy ;)

It is such a blessing to be your mom and to watch you learn and grow.

I love you,

Mom

A Letter to Hallie on Your 9th Birthday

(One of my New Year's resolutions was to start a new tradition of writing each of my children a letter on their birthdays)

My dearest Hallie,

Happy Birthday! It is hard to believe that another year is passed so soon, but it is not hard to believe that you are nine years old because really, you are nine going on at least twelve. You are such a beautiful, mature, sweet girl and I am so grateful for you.

You are such a good help to not only your dad and I but also to each of your siblings. Just yesterday, Avery was doing her homework and getting a little frustrated. Without being asked you sat down next to her and walked her through it. Last week when I was on the phone for a while after a really hard day, I came out of my room to find that you had washed all of the dishes and started to fold the laundry. These are just two of the thousands of acts of service you have performed over the last year.

You are so thoughtful. You are always thinking of others. You like to write little notes and cards for us. You also have done your best to steer clear of all of the drama at school with other little girls. You would never want to hurt others as you have seen others do.

You have really picked up a love of soccer and running around this year. You come home from school every day with sweaty hair. I flat iron your hair every day and then when I pick you up from school your hair is a curly mess!

You are very creative and have such a great imagination. You have become quite a good little artist and you make really beautiful drawings.

I love you so much and I am so glad that you are a part of our family. You are such a good example to not only your younger siblings but also to me.

Love,

Mom

Sewing

Lately if I have a spare moment there are two places you can find me. One is at the thrift store and the other is behind my sewing machine. I have always enjoyed sewing, but the cost has really held me back. But then I came across all of these fun websites that show you how to re-purpose old clothes into fabulous finds. I was inspired!

First I stared with adding a little trim to some plain Jane shirts Hayden had. By the time the third kid in a row is wearing the clothes, they have really lost their magic.

Then I moved onto pillowcase dresses.

And shirts I made from pillowcases.

(Hayden is really excited about it)

And then I did a bit of reverse appliquéing. So fun, but I have run out of plain shirts to fix up.

Then came the mother of all projects. A dress for Hayden made from an old men's shirt I picked up at Thrift Town for $1.00. I am in love with it. She has worn it 3 days in a row, and I have been just fine with that.

She was feeling like quite a ham today. We got 40 good shots in. She was making a different face in each.

And then one of mother boy for good measure. He is such a little copy cat. He has to do everything his sisters do.

Anybody want to hit up Thrift Town with me?

**Here are some of my favotite sites:

My Mama Made It

Ruffles and Stuff

Made

Blueprints

Jaxton Sings Twinkle Twinkle

I can not even believe how big Jaxton is getting. I really wish I could freeze time! He is still my sweet, snuggly little boy, but he also now also interested in all things related to trains, cars and balls. He is a very well behaved little two year old. He doesn't like sharing mom with his sisters, and he gets a bit whiny sometimes, but other than that he is a complete joy. He is a good little helper and a fantastic sleeper (until about 5:00 am when he wants to sleep with me).

I sometimes catch him singing and it is so adorable. His favorite song is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

He was very distracted by the camera. But finally on take 3 with mom singing along we got it!

Hayden

Hayden is sick and not sleeping well. She is quite restless and keeps waking up crying. A few minutes ago she yelled for me. I went rushing in to see what was the matter and she was crying and said, "nobody likes me because I am just plain old Hayden."

Most children's nightmares consist of monsters, scary things in the dark or boogie men. In typical Hayden fashion, her worst nightmare is about not being popular.

Halloween 2009

Hey lookie there, this blog is no longer private. Since I pretty much quit my other blog, I decided it was once again okay to publicly display pictures of

my kiddos. So today you are getting them in spades.

Here are the girls, all ready to go.

Our little geisha, Hallie. She kept bowing, and the poor dog was very perplexed.

This girl is just looking way too grown up!

I know you aren't supposed to play favorites, but this is my all time favorite costume. Avery was supposed to be a cat, but when we tried this hairstyle out one day she decided she wanted to be a lady from the 40's. She looked pretty darn adorable! Plus it was a totally free costume, love it!

Her grandma let her borrow her pearls and a vintage hat that she had. The hat didn't make it out of the house because it kept falling off, but it was sure cute while it lasted.

And then we have Miss Sassy Pants, A.K.A., Hayden. She was Belle. This costume is too big, several years old, and torn to shreds, but she didn't care, she loved it.

And then we have poor little Jaxton who spent Halloween like this. Poor little guy was sick. We did bundle him up and take him with us and he just sat in the stroller completely aloof of all of the magic happening around him. He just didn't know what he was missing. He has got a monstrous sweet tooth and loves all things candy related. There is always next year.

Avery's New Bangs

Avery decided she wanted bangs when I was cutting her hair last night. She had a bit of buyer's remorse at first, but then she couldn't stop staring at herself in the mirror and she loves them now.She kept getting out of bed last night because she said it was too hard not to look at herself in the mirror. She is 100% girl! I think they make her look much older.

For Kristine

My Little Trashy Babies

Kristine (my sister) has been insisting that I post something on this blog, so here are some pictures of my little white trash babies. Nick couldn't find any pajamas for Jaxton the other day and so he cut the sleaves off of some thermal underwear and made him a muscle man shirt. It cracks me up every time he wears them.

Oh and I am a red head now!