Happy Birthday, Kathryn Lynn!!!!

Our sweet girl, Katie, turned 10 years old. At 5:31 p.m. Katie is our sweet, kind, caring, considerate, pretty daughter. She is such a good big sister (usually) to her little sisters.
Katie is smart - brightly impressing her teachers, as well as us, her parents.
Katie made us parents. She has a big role, being the leader of the girls in our house. She sets a strong example, that her younger sisters are watching all of the time.

Katie, we love you with all of our hearts. Thank you for coming into our lives. Our lives are so much brighter because of your smile.

The old man still has it!!!

I got to go to the Scottrade Center to see Billy Joel (Thanks, Jean!!!). I have never seen him live before - despite my slight obsession with him in high school. He sounded great! We were not disappointed (maybe just a little - he didn't play Uptown Girl).

My nosebleed has finally stopped (the seats were WAAAAAY back).

The accoustics were awesome.

I thought that it was funny that he was wearing those black, orthopedic tennis shoes that guys his age often wear.

He was an entertainer!

Katie Lynn

13 days til my first born is a decade old (how she put it).

Where does the time go?

Beware of big sisters....

When big sisters are cleaning their room...and find things that don't fit them anymore...beware of what they will do with them.

Little sisters LOVE it!

cloned...

Just a funny....

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter, this year.

The Easter Bunny came, of course. He hid eggs and left some great Easter Baskets that have been emptied by now.

Eric and Katie went to church on Saturday night. I took Katie and Emily on Sunday morning. It is just so hard to take Allison, right now. I am glad that we did not take her this Sunday. It was standing room only. Seriously.

We have been having alot of discussions, recently, about the meaning of Easter and our salvation. Katie and Emily are fully aware of the meaning of Easter. And Katie is saved. Emily is still working on it. She has so many questions. My favorite for the week - "Mom? What are angels made of?" That is a hard one to answer. Eric and I told her that they are made up of good thoughts and Jesus' and God's love. Another good question from Emily... "What do I do if I see a guardian angel?". Katie and I told her to wave to them and tell them thank you for watching over us.

God bless you!

Emily's party was so much fun! We had a great time. The girls made very cute bears/dogs/cats/dolls. We had cupcakes and drinks in the food court. Emily wanted green cupcakes with pink icing and sprinkles. Of course, I got the cupcakes all the way to the mall and then DROPPED them! But they still tasted good!!

Katie was the dutiful big sister and participated, against her will...haha. She got some good loot out of the deal, though.

Allison stayed home with Daddy. Allison is not too cooperative, these days. We like to say that she is advanced - she is acting like a 2yr old already. lol.

After the party, we went and got hair cuts from Aunt Mandy. Emily got a shorter bob for summer. Katie, who has enough hair for 2 people, got long layers and got her bangs blended and got a little thinning done. The result is a prettier ponytail (her hairstyle of choice for school). (Top photo)

We had a small family party for Emily's actual birthday. She got to choose what she wanted for dinner. She picked her absolute favorite meal - BURRITOS!!!!

We had cake the night before, so I wanted to get her something sweet to put a candle on.

I got an Easter cookie at the grocery store. Perfect fit for 6 candles.

What a sweet girl! I love this picture.

Scrabook pages

A few of my favorite layouts. I am just getting the hang of this posting thing. Enjoy!

Volleyball, anyone?

Katie just finished her first volleyball season. She had so much fun! She learned alot. Her coach was Todd Gober, the head coach from SIUE volleyball. Next sport??? Softball. Katie and Emily will be trying it this summer.

The Easter Bunny had better get busy....

This is just a crazy week. That is all.

A little crafting, too...

I wanted to share some pictures of a little tag book that I did recently. I wish that I could say that it was my own creation, but...it certainly isn't.

I won the kit from a new website - Heart in Hand Scraps. http://www.heartinhandscraps.com/index.html

The owner, Tammy, is an awesome talent. She had some prizes for her Grand Opening. And I thankfully won this kit.

I will add that it has certainly sparked some need, in me, to stick paper to things and age them with ink. We'll see how far I get and how much I will get done.

I would like to add a link - to the rest - from Two Peas in a Bucket ( another favorite website of mine). http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1122030

Happy Birthday, Emily!!!!

My sweet Emily is 6 years old, today!

She is such a great kid. Thoughtful, kind, creative, loving...so many things.

Emily - little sister, big sister, cool kid.