Happy Birthday Grandma

It's time to celebrate Grandma's birthday and it looks likes some folks are feeling a little silly.

Grandma with her baby and grand babies.

Ry, Madeline and Grandma enjoy licking off a candle.  Before this cake, Maddie and Ry would not have eaten coconut, but they quickly discovered how yummy coconut cake is.

Ryan and Madeline love their Grandma.  Happy 40th, Grandma!  We are so grateful for the time we get to spend with Grandma.  We love her so much and she loves us so much.  It is always a blessing to be with her.  As something special, Madeline gets to share a bed with Grandma when she visits.  The second morning that Grandma was with us, I asked Madeline if she had slept well when she came down to the kitchen for breakfast (I ask her this every morning, and every morning she tells me she did).  Well, that morning she told me that she did not sleep well because Grandma was making an ugly noise that woke her up and that she was not able to go back to sleep.  Of course, we all had a good laugh at this and told her that if it happened again, she could just climb into Ry's top bunk.  Grandma had NO idea that she snored.

Ry and Daddy share a candy cane.  Ryan thought this was so fun and kept laughing and laughing.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

We had a wonderful Christmas.  We stayed in PJ's until lunch enjoying each other's company while playing wii, playing with new gifts, and doing arts and crafts.  It was wonderful. 

And to top it off, Grandma arrived around noon for a visit.  For breakfast we had special sweet buns and ham, egg, cheese english muffins.  And for our special dinner, we had a spiral ham, cheese bread, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on top, baked beans, homemade cranberry sauce, and salad.  Dessert was homemade baklava, one of Daddy's favorites.  It was all delicious. We are so grateful to the Lord for His provision for us and His abundant blessings.  And more than that, we are so grateful for the birth of His son Jesus, for His life on this earth, and for His death and resurrection, through which we receive the forgiveness of sins and salvation.  Praise God that we get to celebrate His Son's birthday each year.  I pray that we will celebrate His birthday every day.

Sorry the pictures are out of order.  For whatever reason, my computer will not let me cut and paste right now.  

Ryan's two favorite presents--The Transformer, Bumblebee, and a hunter who shoots arrows.  In this picture they were "fighting", and Bumblebee won.

Of course, Madeline's favorite presents were arts and crafts projects.  Here she glues beads onto a clothespin doll.

And the box next to her is a star treasure chest.  It is her absolute favorite present.  She got to pain the box (inside and outside) and decorate it will beautiful sequins.  Her big present from Mommy and Daddy was a "Fur real" kitty cat.  The kitty meows, hisses, purrs, and moves around.  Though she does like the toy, she often gets annoyed with it's constant meowing.  Thus, the kitty has been spending most of its time in the "off" position.

Madeline's other big present was a digital camera.  Unfortunately, Mommy did not look closely at the software requirements. . .the software was not compatible with our mac.  Thank goodness for returns!

RyRy excitedly opens the Bumblebee Transformer.

Bumblebee and Hunter man in a duel (Hunter man never had a chance).

Ryan is saying "cooooooool" right here.  He was so excited when he saw the Hunter man and realized he would soon be shooting "arrows".

Unlike Madeline, Ryan did not need to be taught how to open presents.  In fact, as soon as he opened one, he was ready to open another.

Oh my goodness. . .Santa ate almost all the cookie we left for him, he drank all the milk, he opened the letter Madeline left for him, and the reindeer ate all of the carrots!!!  While Madeline was fascinated by this, Ryan was ready to tear through some wrapping paper.

What a joyous day!

Bible Study Christmas Party

As part of our holiday fun, we had a Christmas Party with our Bible study.  All the kids got to decorate Christmas castles while the adults assisted and visited with each other.  It was such a wonderful time.  I think my favorite part was watching the kids "sneak" the candies.  And the funniest part was watching them fill their mouths with frosting from the pastry bags.  

Here we see the back of Hannah's head, Jenna, Madeline and Alayna at the end.

Tim squirts some frosting on the cake for Ty while Anna looks on.

There's Kailyn and her mommy Debra.

Disney On Ice

All year, Jen, Christy, Courtney and I talked about doing a combo birthday party for our four girls and Jackson. Unfortunatley, that did not happen. Since Christy was planning to take Emmy to Disney on Ice for her birthday, Jen and I joined her as a fun birthday present for all four girls.

My sweet girl. I LOVE her in pigtails!!!

This is Madeline's birthday dress. After she wore it on her birthday she told me she did not want to wear it again. When I asked her why, she told me that she wanted to save it to wear for her next birthday. Sadly, I had to break the news that it was unlikely that the dress would fit her again next year. Since then she has been wearing her dress every opportunity she gets. This was a Sunday morning before church when I had curled her hair. She wanted me to take a picture of her all decked out. :)

Sweet Belle (Madeline) and Ariel (Emmy) at Disney on Ice. Madeline and Emmy love each other. In fact, Emmy is the only friend that Madeline cries over when we depart from a time together. So sweet. . .if only we lived closer!!!

The night before Disney on Ice, our neighbor and dear friend, gave birth to her sweet baby girl. As a result, that evening and the whole next day, Chase and Lance were part of our family. Though we loved it, I was exhausted by the end of the day. As something special, Daddy got to take Maddie to the show.

Madeline and her sweet friends Ava and Claire.

Thanksgiving Week at Nag's Head

Uncle Bobby and Daddy lead the pack up one of Jockey Ridge's Dunes. Madeline and Ryan follow behind. These dunes are awesome. This is our second time this year climbing them. It is great fun, even in the cold.

It's a race between Uncle Bobby, Madeline and Ry.

Madeline and Ryan get a hug from Raul. They loved how Raul grabbed them up to get some sugar.
Madeline's best memory from the beach is her time with Ali. Madeline was Ali's shadow, following her wherever she went and doing whatever she did. It was so cute. Ali even rode in our car with us when we went out. Ali was so sweet with Madeline. I loved watching them together.

Ali, Raul and Madeline.

Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl! On the morning of Madeline's birthday, we woke up and all sang her "Happy Birthday" in bed. She grinned from ear to ear. We then went upstairs where she had a special breakfast of Barbie cereal. She got to pick out her very own cereal for her birthday. We then got our aprons on and started making cupcakes.

Mommy's little bakers.

Ryan and Madeline decorating the cupcakes. There was a lot of finger licking going!!!

We asked Madeline what she wanted to do for her birthday. She told us that she wanted pizza for lunch and dinner. So. . .we went out for pizza at lunch and dinner.

After dinner we came home for cupcakes, ice cream and presents. In addition to the Tinkerbell movie, we bought Madeline a pink, 2 wheel, Razor scooter, as she has been asking for one. Uncle Bobby and Aunt Lanie gave her a cute princess towel and arts and crafts supplies which were from the dollar store. The only reason I add that they were from the Dollar Store is because when you ask Madeline what she got for her birthday, she will tell you that she got a box. This box and the supplies she used to decorate it were from Uncle Bobby and Aunt Lanie from the Dollar Store. The four of us laughed about it all weekend. Her favorite present was a $1 wooden box from the Dollar Store. So cute and funny.

Madeline's Birthday Party

At the very last minute, we decided to throw together a birthday party for Madeline with some friends from the neighborhood.

Here our sweet girl sits at the table, waiting for her friends to arrive. This year we let her pick out a special dress for her birthday. She of course picked out a beautiful, princess dress with an empire waist and full skirt. She now wants to wear it every day.

This year Madeline requested an Ariel cake.

Here are the sweet girls. . .Madeline, Jessica, Jenna, and Alyana. They are lined up ready to play, "Pin the Ponytail on the Birthday Girl". The girls loved being blindfolded and spun around. And they giggled each time a ponytail was placed in a silly spot.

Here's Madeline blindfolded.

The girls sit at the table waiting for their pizza. Of course we invited Chase and Lance to the birthday party, as Chase and Lance are some of Maddie's best friends in the neighborhood. It was so funny when Chase walked in. He did not want to have anything to do with the girls, nor did Lance, who was following his brother's lead. When he walked in the girls were lined up to play Pin the Ponytail on the Birthday girl. I asked him if he wanted to play and he said no. I asked him if he wanted to go down to the basement and play with Ry, and he said yes. When I called the boys up for pizza, Chase still did not want to have anything to do with the girls. As you can see in the below picture, the boys ate their dinner separately at the kitchen table. And I can understand why Chase was making the break. These sweet girls spur each other on in giggling and squealing. . .and it is LOUD and continuous.
Here are the boys sitting at the "boy" table. And I must give kudos to Matt. I was going to order Dominos for the kids. Matt insisted that I just buy some frozen pizzas. Boy am I glad that I did. My kids were the only ones that ate all of their pizza. Most everyone else just took a few bites. And the funny thing is that I gave them tiny slivers of pizza not knowing how much they would want and figuring that I could always give them more. Needless to say, the Wells' family ate frozen pizza leftovers for the rest of the weekend!!!

After eating pizza, we decided to play the Tinkerbell movie that we had given Madeline for her birthday. This is 10 minutes into the movie. For obvious reasons, we soon turned the movie off. Look how sweet Ryan and Lance are. They are sitting shoulder to shoulder, leaning their heads together. These boys love each other. . .in a masculine way. :)

The girls were somewhat more entertained by the movie. However, after they started blowing their party blowers, the movie was history. This is the point when Chase and Lance and Ryan began playing with the girls. Before we knew it everyone was blowing the blowers at each other. All the kids ran upstairs together and they all came down in costumes. Chase was Johnny Flame, Ryan was Spiderman, and Lance was Batman. All the girls were dressed in princess dresses, shoes and accessories. Of course, all the girls except Jenna, who was dressed as Optimus Prime, the Transformer. Madeline told Jenna that she could be Optimus Girl, but Jenna informed her that she was Optimus PRIME. So funny. By now the boys and girls were playing together as they all ran from and fought the bad guys.

As you can see by Madeline's face, she is SO excited to have "Happy Birthday" sung to her. Her joy and excitement is infectious.
By the time cake was served, the boys and girls were all sitting at the same table. They actually became really silly during "cake eating". The sugar must have immediately kicked in. Instead of using forks, they decided to eat their cake like doggies. . .placing their mouths over their plates and grabbing as much as they could with their teeth. Though it was messy and they were messy, we let them do this, as they were having so much fun and giggling like crazy. Thank goodness that I still have some baby wipes left!
Alayna with cake all over her mouth.
Jessica with cake all over her mouth.
Chase with cake all over his mouth. . .and shirt (Sorry Roxann).
Jenna with cake all over her face. This girl cracks me up, as she is usually the ring leader or the one who takes the activity to a whole other level. I love her liveliness!

Opening presents. The girls are so cute. They all crowd around and "oooo" and "ahhhh" as each gift is opened.

At the end of the party (7:30 p.m.), we were exhausted. Though we were leaving for the beach in the morning, we did not even have the energy to pack. We put the kids to bed and got into bed ourselves! :) It was a wonderful time.

November Crafts

November was craft month in the Wells' house. Since this is a close-up shot, you probably can't tell that Madeline is actually dressed up as a Queen ant. Once you see the below picture with the antennae, it will be glaringly obvious. I think she might be impersonating a killer ant here.

In a few of our school lessons, we learned all about ant hills and the jobs the ants perform in their colonies. As previously stated, Madeline is the queen ant and Ryan is the jester ant. :)

One morning, Mommy had a great idea after searching the web. . .make painted, hand turkeys. What a festive craft for the week before Thanksgiving. Well. . .see below.

My sweet, active Ry, quickly tired of painting on paper and decided it was much more fun to paint himself. I remember Madeline doing the same thing at 3. . .and I must admit that it did look kinda fun. I love your free spirit, my sweet boy.