God's Little Girls Pinning Ceremony

Annie had the best time in her God's Little Girls group this school year!  We met twice a month and had show and tell, devotions, crafts and lots of fun!  Since we are surrounded by boys it was super important to me to find a special place for her to get some girly attention and this was perfect for us.  The boys stayed home and watched Owen (Josh was here too!)  so it was truly girl time!  They work on projects all year and then have a ceremony at the end to receive the pins they earned.  She was super nervous (which is a new thing for this girl!) but so, so happy!  Check out her outfit she picked!

Don't you love the one red glove with the ring?  I feel bad cause I might have made her feel too self conscious about it because after we got into the chapel; I noticed she took it off in front of her friends.  Note to self:  No longer make even slightly joking comments about her choices in clothing and accessories!  I want her to always have the confidence she has now and I want to make sure I'm not one of her stumbling blocks.  Anyways, like I said, she was nervous!

You can see it in her face here.  I even heard her tell the leader she didn't want to go up on stage!  It is so surprising to me because even just a few months ago she wouldn't have thought twice about it.  We  always love to remind her that she is "Brave Annie."

But she did it!  Love her little impish smile!  She cannot wait for next year and neither can I.  We had quite a crazy year and weren't able to focus as much attention as I would have liked on earning pins but we shall remedy that next year.  So much fun and such a blessing for us  both!

First big boy haircut!

So I have been cutting this kids hair since he was just a few months old but after the last fiasco I decided it was time to get it professionally cut!  I don't know why but his hair is just to hard for me!  It is so very straight anything you do looks crazy intense.  Every little cut shows up!  So now our one year old gets $20 haircuts and I just have to accept that.  Eeek!

Well, he did great.  He screamed and cried for about 1 minute and then just watched the TV the entire time.  He really, really loved that he could turn the wheel on the car to pretend he was driving.  I think the whole situation of being in the hospital just a couple of weeks before really prepared him for having strangers touch him.  Before that he would freak out if a strange woman touched his head.  But he just accepted it.  As a matter of fact he didn't want to leave!

Here he is just standing and staring back into the store.  And in typical Owen fashion he didn't want to get a good pic for me.  Here is he is later in the day.

Oh, and I musn't forget Annie also got a tiny trim.  She was thrilled beyond words that the lady let her pick out her own butterfly clips to put in her hair!

It is hard to imagine that I used to cut all of their hair myself!  Now the big boys want fancy cuts a I can't do and the two little ones are just too hard for me.  I might have to find a part time job to afford these kids fancy dos!

Ms. Pathetic!

Oh my goodness, isn't this just the most pathetic face ever?!  This little girl.  She just cannot seem to keep herself upright!  She was cruising along on her scooter and hit a rock or something.  I don't know what it was but I know the scooter stopped and she didn't.  She just skidded forward flat on her face.  One of the worst things I've ever had to witness!  She was pretty upset.

And then when she saw this tiny scratch on her finger it was the end of the world!  Then she started screaming and wailing!    She had lots of time laying with bunny and watching tv.

She actually healed up rather quickly!  By the next day she was looking so much better!  And you can see she was happy to be eating a chocolate bunny.  :)

Curly girly!

There is not much I love more than this girl with her rag curls in!  She is so patient and sleeps really well with them.  Maybe the only thing I love more is those curls bouncing around the next morning!  It makes me happy she loves to have fancy hair for special holidays just like I do.

No green eggs!

She looks excited, right?  Well, excited and kind of a mess.  That hair!  This girl.  So I thought I would make her day and do something really fun with the classic Green Eggs and Ham.  I still remember my mom making me green eggs and ham when I was a little girl.  I loved it! I knew I would never get this girl to eat ham but she LOVES eggs so I thought she would be super tickled with it.  Well I thought wrong.

She was mortified!  Screaming and tears.  True tears!  And she wouldn't take a bite. So ridiculous!

Christmas ballet performance!

Isn't my little ballerina adorable?  The girls had a couple of ballet performances before Christmas at some retirement  homes in the area.  It was quite a different atmosphere than her recital so I wasn't sure how she would do but she was a rockstar!  I'm so impressed with this girl and her lack of fear.

After their performance the kids all walked around and talked to the residents and she was so precious, giving them all hugs even though I could tell she was more than a bit nervous over the whole ordeal.  They all loved seeing and touching the baby and talking to Annie about what she wanted Santa to bring her (a Doc mobile!).  Snapped a few pics of the kids on the porch before we left.  They loved all the rows of rockers out there.

The boys insisted on taking one of those "old timey photos where people didn't smile."

She makes my heart oh so happy this girl!

A Tea Party!

We began celebrating Annie's birthday today with a tea party at the American Girl Bistro!  With Owen coming so soon she has really gotten into playing with her babies again lately.  And her love of tea parties has never waned so a visit to the American Girl store for tea time seemed like the perfect fit.  She planned what she and her baby were going to wear for a week! :)  Even down to the matching hair flowers!

She was tickled with the baby high chair and was even more tickled with the teensy little tea cup and saucer they brought for her.   Trying to keep the affair small we allowed her to bring one of her favorite people in the world, her cousin Rebecca, and also pick one friend to bring.  She was so thrilled that Landrie and Tatem came to join her in the fun!

The girls were all so cute with their little dolls!  They each got to pick their own drink for their teapot and then they brought out trays full of delectable delights just right for a tea party.

Annie of course chose hot chocolate for her teapot!  And she was an expert at pouring it from all the practice parties at Grandma's house!  Some of the girls ate actual food - cucumber sandwiches, teensy hamburgers, pigs in blanket, fruit kabobs, etc.  But my dear girl ate sweets, sweets, and more sweets!

How could you say no to all this cuteness?   And to top it all off they brought out some little iced heart-shaped brownies with candles to help her celebrate.  We all sang and they got to enjoy a final dose of sugar before exploring the store.

Not surprisingly she says this was her favorite part - looking at all the doll stuff!  I think she made a list a mile long!

We had so much fun starting the birthday celebration today!  Hard to imagine this little muffin is going to be 4 this weekend!  She had a hayday running through the store with her friends saying "come look at this!"  Can't wait to finish up the celebration with gifts and dinner with the family this weekend!