Lulu is 9!

Dear Lulu,

My sweet girl is 9 years old! You were sick on your real birthday. You had been on antibiotics fora  few days so you still went to school, but since Baby and I were sick too we decided to cancel your friends birthday party. You were a good sport about it though. This way you got two celebrate twice!
You chose waffles with nutella for your birthday breakfast:

You were the star for the whole week at school! Unfortunately you missed a few days being sick, but you were there to give out pixie sticks on that Friday!
When you got home from school Grammie was at our house and you got to open presents:

and eat cupcakes:

The next day Grama and Grandpa took you out to lunch at Red Lobster and then to a movie with your brothers!
Finally, a week after your birthday it was time for your friend party. We had an Art Party. Check out the cake I made for the party:

You wanted a rice krispie cake:

The first thing we did with your friends was to sew decorations onto some aprons:

You girls all loved this activity and would have sewed the whole time if I let you! I made everyone stop and take a picture next to their names on the chalkboard. I edited the names for the blog, but here are each of your guests!:

Next we made cards and painted:

Lastly, you opened presents and we sang to you!:

It was a pretty fun party! Your best friend and your cousin didn't make it, but the other 4 girls did.

I have been meaning to take your birthday pictures for a few days so I can write this post! Finally tonight we just went out and did it as the sun was setting. What a beautiful night, with a little snow on the ground and the air finally cleared out!

I loved looking through the pictures tonight and choosing my favorites. Your blonde wavy hair has gotten really long, and I love it that way! You won't usually let me do hairdos on you. You like to leave it long, so I like that the pictures show how your hair usually looks!

It's kind of hard to get you to smile naturally in pictures. You tend to ham it up or over-exaggerate. We were able to get some genuine smiles though, and boy do I love your smile. You can light up anyone's day with the beauty. Here are my favorites:

I think anyone can tell from these that you are such a sweetheart. You are soft spoken and kind and thoughtful. You are still a momma's girl. You love to go shopping with me, especially when it's just the two of us. You love to sit by me and read and you love to help me cook. You look through magazines just like I do, finding recipes that sound good to you. You make shopping lists of ingredients that we need to make your new recipes. I love that about you.
You have a fun sense of humor, and you often think I am pretty funny. I love making you laugh with silly voices or stories or saying what Pluto must be thinking. Sometimes you get the giggles and then everything is funny!
You love to do art and crafts, hence the Art Birthday Party.
You are getting really good at the piano! You can memorize songs really easily and keep great rhythm. You are great at typing on the computer now too!
You still love to dance, although you are not loving your dance class. You like it, but you say that you do too many boring exercises. You have started working on your recital though, so I will be excited to see that in the Spring!
You love friends and get bummed out if a Friday comes around and you don't have a play date. You play really well with Hammer too though. You guys can play make believe for hours. You are sweet with Mr T too, and you think Baby is the cutest thing. You laugh at his expressions and play tag with him.
You are sensitive and get anxiety easily. When Pluto ran away you cried and cried because you thought he wouldn't come back. I didn't even know you liked Pluto that much, but you get really attached to things and hate change. I thought Pluto would come back and luckily he did! You sometimes have a hard time going to sleep because of your anxiety. Don't worry, you can blame my genes for that! We are working on coping techniques and I'm sure it won't escalate into a big problem. You are brave and strong.
Sometimes you tell me that you wish you had a sister. I kind of wish you had a sister too, but not enough to have more babies! There's no guarantee we would get a girl, plus our family feels complete how it is. I am so glad that I got one girl at least though! I love having bonding time, painting nails or shopping boutiques or making cards. You do agree that getting me all to yourself during "girl time" is pretty special too! And I'm glad that you were my first. You are still my responsible and helpful little-mommy. I love that about you.
Love you my girly,
Mom

January Edition

Life according to our phones:

One day the two little boys and I went to a party store to get gear for the upcoming birthday parties. We loved the hat aisle:

Hammer, Gramma and Grandpa took you out for your birthday lunch just before your party started. You chose to get the salad bar at Sizzler. You were one happy kid:

Aunt Jen and Ava and Baby Coen came over to visit while Hammer was out to eat. Mr T, you looked so cute holding your baby cousin:

Then it was time to say goodbye to them and hello to Hammer's party guests. Jen snapped this pic of Mr T with his Mario mustache just before she left:

Mr T, you were proud of yourself for doing all 4 of the Dr Seuss puzzles you got for Christmas:

Lulu and Mr T got to see the new Star Wars with Dad!:

Baby, you woke up with awesome bed-head hair one morning:

Hammer, you were sick one day and stayed home from school. You were happy to play games:

Then when you were feeling all better you got to get your free birthday cupcake from Barnes and Noble!:

Baby, you keep finding binkies and biting on them. It makes you look like a baby! The funny thing is that you never took one when you were smaller:

Mr T, you got to go out with me for a date! We got a strawberry milkshake to share:

Baby, you have been better about taking naps lately. If I take your socks off you usually lay down and want the blanket over you, but the socks have to be off!:

I found a happy face in our fruit bowl one morning:

Our amaryllis looked pretty for a long time!:

Baby, you keep sticking things on your face when we are unloading the dishwasher. It's funny, especially when you try to show it to Pluto who just doesn't care, but it gets them dirty so I discourage it usually:

One selfie of me using Dad's phone. I was showing Jen my mom-bun. I am not proficient at selfies yet, mostly since I have an old school phone and and bad camera on it!:

Ta-da! That was it!
We are well on our way through February now. It's been a little rough with lots of sickness, but that's how winters always are and we somehow manage to still have fun and pull through huh?
Love you all,
Mom