Super Party!

So I tell myself every year I am going to scale down the joint Birthday Party I do for the kids. And to some extent every year I do scale down. But there's just no scaling down the amount of people to invite. And that's okay, my kids love having all their friends around. So this year I knew there would be no getting away with choosing a joint theme for the party. The kids are old enough to choose their own them. Mike likes to remind me of that as well. So I flat our asked them what they want. And I was surprised. Well, not surprised that Ty wanted a Superman Party...but surprised that Emery wanted a Supergirl party. Sweet, could you get any more perfect? I was so afraid I would have to find some clever way to mix cars with princesses.
So, scale down I did. First off, STORE BOUGHT INVITATIONS! Yes you heard that right folks. The invited snob actual bought invitations, filled them out with a ball point pen and hand delivered them! Ahhh, very freeing! My cake lady was out of commission due to surgery, so I did have to bang out 50 cupcakes my self, Thank you very much Betty Crocker. (my own frosting mind you). Mike rented the bouncy castle, and there you have it, a party fit for 26 little super heros! Everyone had a blast. Even miss Pip, who got a turn in the bouncy before all the big kids arrived, then crawled around the rest of the night stealing all the smarties out of everyone's goodie bags.
One thing we are trying to teach the kids is to not "expect" presents at a party. Right, hard for a 5 and 4 year old to understand. But each year I tell people they don't need presents. And I tell the kids that our party is our gift to our friends. Every year the kids still end up getting presents. (Im not complaining, they love them.) I just don't want people to think they Have to bring gifts for each kid. This year was special. I usually end up feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of toys the kids get. But not this year, they got wonderful things: home made cards, coloring books, great books to read, fruit snacks (great idea linds), chap stick and some clothes.
But most of all whether people got them gifts or not, our kids felt loved by their friends, and got to experience sharing our home and joy with others. Thanks all who came and blessed us with your company.

Piper's B-day Gift to her Daddy...

Her first steps. Right into the arms of a very proud, very hysterically crying mommy!
We love you pippy so much! We knew you could do it!


(i'll try to get pictures of it soon, if she decides to try it again)

5 and 35!

Happy Birthday to two of the loves of my life!

Kindergarten!

Today this little peanut of mine started her first day of Kindergarten! All decked out in one of her favorite new outfits, with a backpack that about 3 other girls in her class have! She loved the picture taking process...such a poser.


She did so good, found her seat right away and started work! I think it helped that her friend Mylah from our care group at church was in the class. I did fine, until it was time for me to leave, I quickly gave her a kiss and turned around so she didnt see my tears. Melissa, Mylahs mommy, was out in the hall with tears in her eyes as well.

Her Teacher, Mrs. Culligan is so sweet. I have been told by several people in education in town that she is the best teacher to have. I know my baby is in good hands! Here's to an awesome year of learning and making new friends.

Lost in the Music....

That is until he saw the camera.

oh, and it was Bob Marley he was giggin to.

Catch & Release

This is my version of Catch and Release. To me, actually killing the spider or in this case the monster that crawled across the floor, would be much scarier than just slipping a glass over it, shimmy a piece of cardboard under it and release the beast outside where it belongs. On the positive side, to see spiders this size is a sign of fall coming! My favorite season and no allergies!

An 18 Month Vocabulary

Piper turned 18 months today. I can't believe it. Like I said yesterday; Way Too Fast. I still see her as my little newborn baby...and pretty much treat her as one too. Spoiled.
All my children have been talkers at an early age. Hmm, wonder who they get that from. Anyway, at 18 months Mike and I have compiled a list of all the words each child has learned to say. We did this last night with Piper and I thought it would be fun to share them all with you. This might end up being a long blog, but here we go.

Piper Corean's Words:

• Daddy (her first word at 7 months)
• Mommy
• Eme (sometimes sounds like me-me
• Ty-Ty
• Piper (Pippo)
• Maga (grandma)
• Papa
• Uh Oh
• Okay
• Bye-Bye
• Hi
• Amen (that one is so sweet)
• Kitty-Kitty
• Doba
• Tickle (this was one of her first ones too)
• Elmo
• Please
• Ta-Tu (thank you)
• All Done (as she does her sign)
• Milky
• Juice (said more like a zzz sounds)
• Shoes (sounds alot like juice)
• Cracker
• Cookie
• Pretty Pretty
• Cheese
• Monkey
• Puppy
• Ball
• "B" (means Blanky, baby or tooth brush, take a guess)
• Down
• Up-a
• No
• Yeah
• Icky and Stinky (sound exactly alike and used at appropriate times)
• What'sat
• Nose
• Eye
• Yummy
• nigh-nigh (bed time)
• Oweee
• Meow
• Wee (means she wants a ride in the stroller or wagon)
• Hello
• Outside
• Hot
• Brr
• Dippy
• Quack Quack
• Wa-Wa (water, we here this alot at bed time)
• Bite
• and the sound of her blowing air in and out of her nose when she wants the rubber ducky from in the bath. (it makes the same sound.)

Michael Ty's Words

• Daddy
• Mommy
• Yes
• No
• Me-Me (Eme)
• Sister
• Puppy
• Juice
• Milk
• Kitty
• Hot
• Please
• Thank You (sounds like Q)
• Quack Quack
• Elmo (once again)
• Animal (amal)
• Jonah
• Judah
• Truck
• Stairs
• Outside
• Walk
• Water
• Ride
• French Fri (everytime we passed the golden arches)
• More
• Candy (still his favorite word)
• Cracker
• Cookie
• Poo-Poo (lovely)
• Wow (his first word taught to him by his sister on a long car ride)
• Go
• Pee-Pee (such a boy)
• Hi
• Bye-Bye
• Up and Down
• Uh-Oh
• Shoe
• Book
• Cow
• Meow
• Moo
• Ball
• Choo-Choo
• Car
• Touch down
• Cougar (serious brain washing here)
• Icky
• Yeah
• Coke (embarrassed to admit it)
• B (tooth brush)
• Bath
• Binky (loved this word)
• Ice
• Night
• Mike
• Cold
• Owwee
• Apple
• Na-Na (banana)
• Papa
• Fishy
• Run
• Mine
• Cheese
• Out
• Amen
• Away
• Baby
• Toys
• Pretty
• Wo-Wo (phone)
• Sticker
• Get-it (Emery hear that alot)
• There
• Wassat (what's that)
• Boon (balloon)
• Jesa (Jesus)
• Work
• D-gain (do again, said to daddy alot)
• Do-Do (Donut, still calls it that)
• Dude
• Barney

Emery Jean's Words

• Kitty (her first word at 9 months)
• Dog-Dog (means both hot dog and dog)
• Oe' (water)
• HI
• Bye Bye
• Mine
• Down
• Pu (up)
• Ty-Ty
• Eme
• Mama
• Dadda
• Papa
• Ba-Ba (bottle I think)
• Sippy or Pippy
• "NO"
• Shoe
• Sock
• Belly
• Tickle
• Owwee
• 1-2-3 (genius)
• Please
• Thank-You
• More
• All Done
• Walk
• Cracker
• Cookie
• Cheese (are you seeing a theme here?)
• Pee-Pee
• Poo-Poo
• Keys
• Banana
• Grapes
• Ball
• Pretty
• Te-Pe
• Book
• Ear
• Nose
• Mouth
• Eye
• Car
• Choo-Choo (tractor)
• Outside
• Nigh-Nigh
• Bear-Bear
• Bath
• Hot
• Cold
• Brr
• "I love You" (like only a 18 month can say)
• Baby
• Judah (can you tell who their favorite person was)
• Hannah
• MaMo (grandma)
• Geggie (vegi for Veggie tales not the food)
• Peak-Boo
• Wai-Wai (raining)
• Meow
• Woof
• Moo
• Neigh
• Cute
• Wow
• Potty
• Blue
• Bite
• Dogi (fruit loops, we have no clue)
• Bless you
• Icky

Miss Em

This summer has been a huge growing time for Emery. She seemed to change overnight. No longer is she my little pre-school girl. Now she seems like she's ALL Girl, nothing little about it. Except for the whine factor that she has down to a science. Even the way she talks seems to have grown so much in the last month. A week from today she turns 5 and heads off to her first day of Kindergarten, tonight she sleeps in a regular size twin bed with fresh new sheets she picked out herself. Okay, yes I realize its a little pathetic that the girl is almost 5 and she is just now getting out of the toddler bed. Earlier, she also announced at bath time that she was too big to take a bath with her sister and brother and would be taking showers from now on. That was all great until the shampoo got in her eyes and mommy had to practically get in the shower with her to teach her how to tip her head back to rinse. I am excited for all these changes in her little life and very nervous as well. So excited for her to start learning to read and write more, for her to learn to interact with her teacher, but scared to death of what she will learn and experience at the hands of the other children in her class. Man sometime I wish I could shelter her more, that's when I get on my knees and start praying.
This picture is of her trying on one of her new outfits we got her for school. She'll try them on for anyone who might be the slightest bit interested. She's my clothes/shoes girl! Back to school shopping was so much fun for me. We went on our visit to my parents. Grandma came along to help. Emery was so proud of the fact that all her clothes came from the older girl section. Grandma took her into the dressing room and she would come out and model every outfit with her face beaming. I just had to buy it all for her cause she was so darn cute. She did get a little wired by the whole experience and both Mom and I had to get after a few times for being annoying ;).
Anyway...just being a bit reflective tonight as I see her turn into a little miss right before my eyes. Dang it goes too fast. Off to go find some Kleenex now...

Mini-van Mamma!

That's me...and heres the new addition. Mike got it on Ebay. Great price, great condition, great upgrade from our last one. And even more perfect, it's Crimson!

And That's a Wrap!

I have just delivered my last wedding on the books for this year. (aside from a friends wedding favors and programs). Ahh...the sound of relaxation. I know as soon as I post this I will get a call for another job...that seems to be the way it is. Anyway, it has been a great year for Defining Details, I think I more than tripled my work load. The wedding fair I stressed about late last year paid off. I have been busy straight since January. It has been a year of pink, rhinestones, tropical weddings and the all-too-time consuming Wedding Fan. Which I like by the way, but after hand punching about 7,400 rounded corners um...it will be nice to have a break from them. And thank you Cassandra, Kristie and Whitney for all your help! I am buying a bulk corner punch on Ebay as we speak, or type for that matter. I am very excited for my little business and for next year. There will definitly be some changes to help smooth things out with the business as well as with our home life. This includes having someone else do my books (um...that means mike I hope ;), some time management, some fee changes and adding in some of my photography to my designs. Im looking forward to organizing the piles of paper and my computer files during the down time. And enjoying preparing my children for their first weeks of school.
Im rambling now. Off to clean a very neglected house. Oh' joy.

August Layouts

Just sharing my work this month for the DB kit. You've seen most of the pictures and read some of the stories. I love that I can just pull topics for my layout off the blog.

A New Little Blessing

We got a chance to visit briefly with Angela and Darrin and their sweet new baby boy Trey. Dylan is a proud big brother. Adoption is an amazing thing.

Our Mini-Vacation Recap

I have so many pictures I had to do three post. We had a nice little vacation. The kids had so much fun playing on the beach, seeing their "big" cousins and enjoying some quality time with the grandparents. I enjoyed seeing them too. I just cant believe how much they have grown (the cousins that is). And it is always fun to see my Sister and Brother and their families. So enjoy the picture recap on these 3 posts.