Picture of the Day

Where did Ethan GO???

Spreading the Word

Back in October, I had the opportunity to be in a video for Lifeline that was made for high schools. There were people from all over the state representing various organ and tissue transplants. I was honored to be able to represent tissue recipients.
The best part of the day was meeting so many people who have such a passion for spreading the word about organ and tissue donation. There were a couple ladies who I talked to and we just clicked. We chatted all afternoon and had a great time. They both live in the Cincinnati area so we won't see each other very often but that's the beauty of Facebook.
So today, little packages of notecards were mailed off. I know they will absolutley love them! They are both such positive people whose lives were saved  by someone saying yes to organ donation. I know they will enjoy using these to help spread the word.

Cookie Pie

We spent part of the afternoon making our dinner and tripling it for some friends who could use a night where they didn't have to worry about cooking. One of the meals was for a friend of Erin's from dance and as soon as she found out I was taking a dinner she had to make her special cookie pie. It's so simple, just a pie crust, soak chocolate chunk cookies in milk, and layer soaked cookies with cool whip and top with crumbled cookies. It's her favorite to eat and one she can totally make on her own. We had a great time in the kitchen. I made lasagnas and she made a couple of pies. So cute!

Twins

My grandma always told me how lucky I was to have sisters. She was an only child and wanted a sister more than anything. I have said this over and over again, but Lindy and Paige have been having tons of twin moments lately. I just catch glimpses of them and see little faces and it hits me all over again that there are two of them. Its been happening even more so than when they were a couple of years younger.

I think part of it is they are growing up so much. Even though they are definitely their own person they are still connected to each other in many ways. They spend so much time together..by choice. Even though they have their own BFF's, they will always be each other's number one person.

Dancers at Heart

Friday night was girl night around here! Lindy has been wanting to have Helen, her good friend from dance, sleep over for awhile. She and Paige have both been wanting to have Helen and another friend, Grace, over together. They are all on the competition dance team together and love seeing each other.

Everything is about dance! They didn't watch any movies, really didn't do anything except dance, all night. There were dance contests between them, dance shows, and dance talk. All night long! They obviously have a huge passion for dance and I love that. Dance has done so much for all my girls. It has given them such a big boost of self confidence and self esteem. They have a close group of girls that they dance with and they are so supportive of each other, it has been such an awesome thing.

Lindy wanted to make a shirt for Helen and decided to make a matching one for herself. She was so cute picking everything out, putting lots of thought into how she wanted it to look. They turned out so cute. They are all going to have the best memories from being together on this team. I'm so excited for them!

15 1/2

Kyle is a really easy going, laid back kid. So when he told me he really wanted to get his temps today I knew he must be really excited about getting his drivers license. He turned 15 1/2 today and he didn't want to wait around a day longer.
My lesson of the day is, when you tell your child to gather the information they need, trust they are telling you the right thing! Kyle has researched everything he needs to do from classes, testing, to where to go to take his temp test. He kept telling me we had to go one place and I said no, it was somewhere else. He was right! Should have just listened to him, he knew what he was doing!
He passed easily and will be out driving this weekend! I'm so excited for him (and also for me, it will be awesome to have another driver in the house!)

California

I spent last weekend and the beginning of the week in California. My dear friend, Aimee, made the trip with me. Aimee to visit her daughter and I went to visit my cousins, aunt, and uncles. We had such a great time! Aimee and I travel well together and we always have a great time. It didn't take us long to get started. Who arrives at an airport over 90 minutes before their flight leaves and almost misses their plane? We do! We can get to talking, (this time in Max and Erma's) and next thing you know we are running to security and they are paging us to hurry up or the plane is leaving! We barely made it!
Once we were on our way we relaxed, chatted some more, read books, and fed our chocolate addictions. No matter how short your lay overs are it takes forever to get to California, 12 hours start to finish.
While Aimee was visiting with her daughter, Kayla, who is beginning her journey of faith in a convent, I hung out with my aunt and uncle. When you only see each other in person every few years there is a lot to catch up on! My cousins little one's are getting so big and are absolutely darling. They took me to their favorite Mexican restaurant and called me to say good bye when I was leaving California and boarding the plane, so sweet!
We had great food and conversation the entire weekend. Aimee cooked for everyone Saturday night and we had a girl night on Sunday. Kayla is in the choir at the convent and they have a huge performance that we attended. It was so beautiful. The auditorium was amazing and we sat in the balcony under a beautiful wood beam ceiling. The music, setting, and company made for a wonderful evening.
It was relaxing and restful and a memory filled weekend. So glad I was able to share it with such a special friend!

Family Valentine's

We always have a special family night to celebrate Valentine's Day. It was a little more challenging to work around dance schedules and Bill's evening Boy Scout meeting but we did it! The boys are hilarious, they could really care less about Valentines but as Ethan says, " I know, I know, someday I will have a wife and she will love Valentine's Day". It's never too early to raise them to pamper the ladies in their life!

Our dinner table was festive with flowers for the girls from their Daddy. Every year he sends them something, this year he brought arrangements home from a florist at work. Totally surprised us all!

After dinner we exchanged Valentine's. The girls spend so much time making mulitple cards for everyone. It is very sweet to see everyone take the time to open everything. Kyle's cards were so funny. He always has a theme and this years theme was the "top 5 quotes" of each family member. Guess what the first one was for me? "We are going to be late!" #2 "What did you say?" (I am really hard of hearing!) #3 This is the last time _____ #4 From now on we are keeping the house Clean!
#5 Kyle, I need your height! (he has to get sick of me calling him to get things down!



Ethan's Valentine's were special drinks for dinner with cute notes. Erin had 7Up "Everything looks up when you're around". They were all so Ethan and perfect for him to give out since he loves certain sodas.

Ethan's top 5 quotes from Kyle with Oliver.

Erin loved all her treats so much! Her favorite card was from Lindy and was shaped like a dress. So cute!

Love this one, Lindy made this for Paige. I love when they draw or in this case stamp pictures of themselves being twins!

Erin's trip to Pet People Barkin' Bakery where she selected "truffles", "Peanut butter cups" and "chocolate bones". Its amazing how they can make these look like the real stuff but made out of dog safe ingredients. The puppies loved them!

Valentine Daisies

With a couple of our girls sick today we had a small Daisy group but we still had fun! With Lindy and Paige helping and Eva's sister, Skylar, we had almost as much help as girls. Not that the little ones have a problem with that, they love having older kids around.
The highlight was the valentine exchange. Love the creativity of these girls! Then it was on to a crafty snack, Bingo, and freeze dance. A very fun Valentine's celebration!

Filled with Love

Besides my new wreaths I made for Valentine's Day this year, I finally got my act together and got some other decorations put up. Thanks to Pinterest for some inspiration and motivation!

Girl Scout Valentine's Day

The Juniors had an awesome Valentine's Day celebration. Everyone exchanged cards and we played Valentine bingo. It was so busy at Christmas time that we postponed our annual cookie exchange and did a Valentine sweet treat exchange which was really a hit.
As the girls get older their baking skills get more involved and they really had beautiful treats.
Below are some of the highlights.

Lily and Erin reading Valentine's together.

Thank goodness for my stamp club! Our project last week was a cute little lip gloss holder which I thought the girls would love.

Tons of fun patches! 

Paige had little containers of treats and valentines. 

Lindy made iced cut out hearts.

Paige had iced Brownie hearts.

Lots of pretty cupcakes and lots and lots of chocolate!