happy birthday ben: cupcakes and firepit

Hannah's favorite thing to do at our house is make cupcakes and it's always the first thing she asks about when she gets here!  We went to the store and picked out cake mix and frosting and came home and the little girls set to work.  I'm sure they'll be making them on their own in no time!

Cupcake decorating and tasting!

Jacob and the kids built a new firepit in the backyard so we were excited to try it out while Auntie Janne and Hannah were here!

We roasted hotdogs for dinner...

... and s'mores for dessert!

And spent the evening celebrating sweet Ben's ELEVENTH birthday!!

lexie's 10th birthday!

We celebrated Lexie's 10th birthday with tacos and cupcakes (her faves!!) this year, as well as celebrating Grandma's birthday, too!

When the kids turn 10 they get to go to Arizona for two weeks for some one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa and this year, it's Lexie's turn!  It's also the year that they get a new iPod (instead of whatever random handmedown they'd been using)!

Happy birthday, Grandma!!  Ellie loves to "help" open everyone's presents.

Make a wish, sweet girl!!  The cupcakes were a big hit-- especially the pink and purple swirled frosting!

nick's 13th birthday

We celebrated Nick's 13th birthday with a quiet party at home, complete with a Texas doughnut cake!

Happy birthday, Nick, make a wish!!

fun with hannah

One of my favorite things about my sister and her fam living in NC is that we get to see them WAY more often!  Auntie Janne and Miss Hannah came out to our house for a weekend of fun-- which clearly includes lunch at Chick-fil-A!

We always go wander around Target when they're in town-- the girls have so much fun looking at clothes and accessories.

We celebrated Auntie Janne's birthday while they were here and the girls helped me make her birthday cupcakes.

They had fun pouring and mixing but their favorite part was definitely licking the beaters!! 

Happy birthday, Auntie Janne!!

Such a sweet and silly girl!

These two play hard and fight hard and I'm so glad that they're growing up close to each other.  Cousins really are your first best friends!

Hannah (3) and Ellie (4)-- these two always make me smile!

november fun

When Hannah comes to our house, one of the first things she wants to do is play the piano, and she has cousins that love playing with her.

Sweet girls playing the piano.

Sweet and silly faces with Auntie!

When it's nice outside, Ellie loves going into the backyard to swing.

Her last night as a three year old and first day as a FOUR year old.  Time goes by too quickly!

The birthday girls and Grandma.

On Ellie's actual birthday we went to Viva Chicken for lunch and then shopped until we dropped at Target.

Having fun with the Christmas decor.

Being his usual sweet self, Christopher made a giant cookie cake for Ellie's birthday!

Nick joined the wrestling team at school this year and we had fun going to his matches.  I never knew that wrestling could be so entertaining!!

We always have fun when Grandma is in town-- lots of trips to Target, out to lunch and relaxing at home!

ellie and hannah's birthday party

We're fortunate to have family living close by (they're about 3.5 hours away) and we're able to get together for birthdays.  We got together to celebrate Miss Ellie's FOURTH birthday and Miss Hannah's THIRD birthday!

Such a silly girl, waiting her turn to open presents.

The girls did a great job taking turns opening presents and they were both so excited about what the other one got!

Presents, presents, and more presents!

- the birthday girls -

Two excited girls!!

Ellie picked out a "beautiful Belle cake" this year-- luckily, Hannah likes Belle, too!

Make a wish!

We used relighting candles and the girls were so shocked and then giggled and giggled until all of the candles were out.

Hannah was excited to dig into the cake...

... and Ellie skipped eating cake to play with her toys!

september randomness

Ellie loves playing at the park in our neighborhood.

Ellie likes bringing her babies to Target with us and I like the new fall cups at Starbucks!  I love going through the pictures I've taken and finding gems like this!!

Happy birthday, Jacob!!  We had his favorite pasta for dinner and lots of fun presents to open!

We found a new ice cream place in Mooresville and took Ellie after school one day-- she loved the Cookie Monster flavor!

We went to a Carolina Hurricanes game with WWP-- and realized that it was our first time at an NHL game since we moved to North Carolina EIGHT years ago!

Nick finally built the space pod and he and Ellie had a "blast" playing inside it.

Firepit fun with the neighbors.

Chick-fil-A night is always a favorite in our house!