A good time was had by all

The kids had a great time celebrating their birthday (I'm still not over the fact that they're fourteen already!!)

I bought Krispy Kreme doughnuts for them for breakfast (mostly because Addison is obsessed with them) and put a candle in the middle and sang happy birthday to each as they got out of bed.

 The girls were the only ones that had doughnuts.

We gave them each a cell phone for their birthday and did that the night before so they could have plenty of time to get over it before we went shopping on their birthday. But before we left the house, they opened gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. They got lots of good stuff, but I think Wyatt's favorite was this Texas Longhorns watch.

Their class at school went to visit the UT campus (the PTO does it to start getting the kids thinking about college) and all four of them are smitten with the school now.

Then we headed up to Austin for a long day of shopping and dinner out.

It was a good day and I know they enjoyed it.....they keep texting me to let me know.

Fourteen Already!

I can't believe how quickly time passes.

It seems like just yesterday that I was even finding out that I was pregnant. Now these children of ours are fourteen years old. ALREADY!! Who told them it was okay to grow up?!

This is how I still tend to think of them:

But look at them now:

(they're not in the same order as the photo above)

I mean, they're wanting to start learning to drive!!!

But, even so, I can't imagine how boring our life would be without them. They bring us lots of joy and laughter (and exhaustion) and I hope they have a wonderful birthday. We couldn't have asked for four better children.

Happy Birthday!! to Addison, Kirsten, Abigail, and Wyatt

Saying Goodbye

We had to say goodbye to Oatis, Abigail's hamster.

He passed away on Friday. Not really sure why. He had been sick but we had nursed him back to health. I think maybe he was just too old.


It's always sad and hurts to see our children hurt.

Cell phone fun

I never know what I'm going to find when Addison gets her hands on my cell phone.

Here's the latest:

 See what I mean?

Beauty Princess

I would say beauty queen, but she didn't win that title.

Addison did another pageant over the weekend. This one had a masquerade theme.

 She got 2nd place in her division which is a Princess title. She also got Prettiest Eyes and Prettiest Hair. She was really mad that she didn't win at first and swore she was never doing another pageant with this venue again. But, by the time we got home she was already making plans for the next one. HA!

It was really hard to get good pictures. She moves too fast, so this is what most of my pictures look like.

Maybe I should contract with the pageant to do the contestant photographs?

Wordless Wednesday

Day Tripping

We took this bunch to the Renaissance Festival on Saturday.

The festival is about 3 1/2 hours away from where we leave and with a group this size we had to take two cars.

It was worth it though because they each had a friend to hang out with and Dax and I didn't have any pouty kids to contend with.

The worst part was that they ran out of money at around 5:00 and were ready to leave.

That's the earliest Dax and I have ever left!!

Help with Homework

Kirsten had some help with her homework.

It's obviously exhausting to study so hard.

Spiders, feet, and dogs, oh my!

Friday night was the homecoming dance. Kirsten and Abigail went to a friends and spent the night at her house. Since they got dressed for the dance over there I didn't get any pictures. The game is not until this Thursday so I'm trying to get mums made by then. Everyday this week there is a theme at school. Tomorrow's theme is 'twins' but my kids are automatically disqualified. Hmph!!

Saturday while they were still at the friend's house, Kirsten got bitten by what I assume was a spider. The redness had gone away by Saturday evening, but now it looks like this:

It still looks like that now. It's all red and swollen. Everything I've read says that there isn't really anything to do at this point. So I guess we wait and see. In the meantime I'm pumping her full of benadryl.

The dog is in her cast for another week.

Otherwise, not much going on here. Just our usual kind of crazy.

The week in pictures

Just the highlights....

Full braces:

Kirsten

Wyatt

Sprained 'ankle'

There you have it!