Guinea Pig Surprise!

 Sam and I hid this adorable little guinea pig in our closet for 4 days before Emily's birthday! It was so difficult to keep it a secret and we were so worried that the kids would snoop through and find her!

 Introducing our first pet for Emily

 Emily was SOOOOOOOOO surprised and happy!!!

Everyone wanted to hold and pet Emily's new pet! 

 But watching sweet Emily cuddle her baby guinea pig was absolutely precious!

 Bex gets a turn

 And back to Emily of course!

 Matthew got a turn

This cage is fabulous and we couldn't be happier with our new pet! Emily decided to name her Lilly and we all instantly fell in love with her! 

This was such a huge landmark birthday for Emily while turning 12 means moving out of Primary and into Beehives at church! We will miss her smiling face and eager answers in primary, but she is so ready to be with the older girls and all the new adventures ahead for her! Loved that the Beehive presidency decorated our front porch for her and she felt so welcomed into YW today!

Happy Birthday Emily! We love you so much!!!

Cruz for Prez!

It's election year and the competition is pretty tough!

Sam and I got tickets to attend a rally in The Woodlands to hear Heidi Cruz, Ted Cruz's wife, speak. She was so charismatic and down to earth! Such and amazing woman and support for her husband's campaign! So fierce!

 After standing in line forever...

Did not plan this, but we are totally red, white and blue together!  

It was fun to see a few of my friends there also! Rachel and Cindy have the right candidate in mind! Go Cruz!!!

The Bull's Final Basketball Game

Matthew's final basketball game for the 2016 season 

Matthew's team only lost 1 game this season and did awesome! Matthew played great defense tonight and got 3 fouls called on him! It was fun to see him improve so much and get more aggressive!

This adorable girl fell asleep waiting for the game to start! We got there early and were a bit sad that Matthew was missing the Pinewood Derby set for the same time (that's where Sam the Cubmaster had to be instead of cheering for Matthew with me) 

 Our team fought hard and lost by 6 points

2nd place champs is pretty awesome!!! Great job Bulls! See you next season!

Slumber Birthday Party

 To celebrate Emily's 12th birthday, she was thrilled to have her first slumber party! She invited 3 good friends from school (Lanie, Kaylee, and Izzy) and it was the perfect night! Started off right with pizza!

Then devoured cake and ice cream! Love this picture with all the girls! 

 Time to make a wish and blow out the candles!

 Opening gifts was fun of course, but the time spent in the play room upstairs was probably the best part of all! And I loved hearing all the giggles and laughter upstairs all hours of the night!!!

 She scored on presents this year!

We are so happy that Emily has made such great friends here and especially appreciate those that put up with her younger siblings! That was a great way to celebrate her birthday and the best sleepover to start with! Happy Early Birthday Emily!!!

Movie Night with Braedy!

 I took Braedy to the movies tonight and we just happened to find this super hot hunk there!

The kids always make fun of me for crushing on Thor - I reminded them that this was not a picture of Thor, but some other character from a completely different movie! "NOPE!" they shouted! "Mom's got a crush on Thor!"

Good times!

Katie's Play

Katie's #1 fan watching her play performance! 

This cast practiced tirelessly all through January and February to pull this play together! 

3-5 times each week, after school rehearsals until 4:45  

This play was called "Clara on the Curtain" 

Katie played Sonia 

The play was about this group of women putting on a play. There were several setbacks along the way like the main performer losing her voice, the seamstress quitting her job before all the costumes were finished and the chef quitting too. 

 It was cute to see the panic that everyone played, but Katie's panicked role was the best! She was so dramatic! 

It was a great performance at the Bear Branch Junior High!

Happy V-Day!!!

We celebrated Valentine's Day with tons of yummy treats! 

After dinner was finished, out came all the goodies! Sam and I bought the kids several Valentine's Day candies, cupcakes, cards and cookies!

The girls and I had fun baking a super huge Valentine sugar cookie for Daddy with tons of sprinkles! 

The kids made me wear this goofy headband!  

 I even snuck in a sweet smooch from my Valentine while all the kids cried, "Eeeeeewww!!!" It was adorable! Happy Valentine's Day to all my loves!

Creative Beauty

 This girl cracks me up when she invades my closet! She started strutting her stuff in my heels today! Just such a cutie!

This is one side of our refrigerator and each area magnet has about 3 pictures layered beneath it! Rebecca loves to draw and color! Whenever I see her during her downtime, she has a pen or crayon in her hand! It is time for me to take down all her pictures and give her a clean slate to start over! I'm sure it won't take her long to fill up again!

Talent Show

Emily tried out for the 6th grade talent show and made it! 

 She sang "Tomorrow" from Annie

And she did such an amazing job! This girl has no fear and impressed us all with her singing voice! 

It was a fun night watching all these kids perform - from singing and dancing to karate and instruments - they are all extremely talented!