A weekend full of birthdays

This weekend was full of fun birthdays. Yesterday was Emmalynn's friend Avery's 5th birthday which was at the Wondertorium, our local children's science museum. The girls absolutely love that place, so much so that Emmalynn decided to have her birthday party there (yes, in a couple of weeks my first born will be 6 YEARS OLD!). We (Ellie and I) have been sick this week so we were glad to get out of the house, socialize, and have a little fun.

 "Trust me, I'm a doctor" 

 With their sweet friends Emily, Delainey, Ella, Carley, and Gracie.

 I have no idea why Emmalynn is making this face?!

 cake AND ice cream!

 and I just had to post this because it is just too adorable, my mom said it looked like a postcard ha!

 Today we went to a friend's house for her sweet little Marek's 1st birthday! Cendy's husband is in Afghanistan with Aaron and her and I have taken comfort in knowing that we can vent to the other with complete understanding on both sides!. Her daughter Cameron is Emmalynn's age so the girls always have a great time playing with her and drawing up "menus."

And here is the birthday boy himself enjoying his yummy cupcake!

And here are a couple of videos of the girls just for giggles

We LOVE Hillsong kids around here!

 Ellie telling the creation story

My favorite part is when she says the snake is "a whole lotta mean and trouble!"

A Month Today

Aaron has been in Afghanistan for one month today, it seems longer and I think he'd agree. We've been keeping busy with visitors, projects, and our somewhat busy weekly schedule. Right now our week looks like this:
Monday-the girls both have school from 9-1, I usually try to do something "productive" during that time; after I pick the girls up we come home and do "homeschool."
Tuesday- I have Bible study from 9:15-11:15, the girls go with me and play with their friends from church in the nursery. Once that is over we usually come home, do school and then Em has dance from 5-6
Wednesday-the girls have school again from 9-1, then at 6:00 we go to church where I'm a Konnect leader (a small groups program from kids ages 6-4th grade). We usually don't get home until 9:00 which makes for a long day for all of us!
Thursday-is our day of absolutely NOTHING and we definitely need it by then!
Friday-Em has school from 9-11:30, then we usually finish up any "homeschooling" from the week.
Saturday- varies by week, lately we've had lots of birthday parties or we go spend the weekend with my mom and Ken
Sunday-every other Sunday I'm on the host team at church which means we have to get there about 30 minutes early

I'm glad we have such a repetitive schedule. The routine makes the week go by faster (most of the time) and gives us a sense of "normalcy" while such a huge part of our lives is missing.

A little recap, for memory's sake.
For my birthday Aaron arranged a surprise party (with help from a few friends) with many of my friends at a local restaurant. I had absolutely NO idea any of it was planned and was completely surprised and in shock at how he managed to do all of that from 1000's of miles away. He is amazing.

 my beautiful birthday flowers

 My BFF's husband who babysat the girls and graciously let them give him a makeover, fix his hair, make him play wii, hide and seek, and all kinds of other eventful things lol

 All my amazing Tulsa gals!

Love each and every one of these girls!

Not only did he spoil me for my birthday from 1000's of miles away but also for Valentine's Day. I have been obsessed with Wuthering Heights lately and this bracelet was the most perfect gift it says "whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

My Valentine's Day wreath I made (thanks Pinterest)

 My other Valentine's Day present (oh my word it was all so delish!)

 Valentine's Day loves

 Ellie before her Valentine's party (which had to be made up due to snow!)

We sure do miss daddy. The girls are constantly saying things they miss about Aaron or how they wish he was home and didn't have to be gone. I love hearing all the sweet little things they say about him and how it reminds me of the little things that may go unnoticed. 

Emmalynn's Surprise

This was COMPLETELY and ENTIRELY Emmalynn's idea; all of it. She wanted to do something special for her daddy while he is away.

Our first week

Aaron left Sunday morning (VERY early) for Indiana. All week long he has done training to prepare him to go to Afghanistan for his job. He will be there (most likely) for 2 months training soldiers on cameras made by the company he works for. Friday he left for Dubai and tomorrow he leaves for Afghanistan. The girls and I already miss him a TON and are staying busy trying to keep our minds off of him being gone.
Monday the girls were out of school for MLK day so we decided to stay at my mom and Ken's for the day because it was beautiful outside.

The girls enjoyed going for a walk in the woods, feeding the chickens, gathering rocks to throw in the creek, and sliding down the slide made of a huge pile of leaves! It was a perfect day.

We stumbled upon this tree that was growing thorns all over it, creepy huh?

Emmalynn gathering rocks in her shirt....pretty big rocks I might add!

 Tuesday I had Bible study and I am absolutely LOVING Beth Moore's new study on the book and life of James. It is so amazing to learn about Jesus' half brother and gives us a glimpse into what Jesus' family life may have been like as well.

Poor Ellie's hair has been SO staticy all week, it is driving her crazy! It sticks to her face and straight out!

 Wednesday night I had Konnect and promised the girls they could sleep with me because we had no where to be Thursday morning. They fell asleep while I was making my grocery list and left me barely any room. That's ok they are quite snuggly!

 Thursday morning we went and bought groceries and did a lot of cleaning. I saw on Pinterest where someone had bought a shoe organizer and hung it in their pantry. We are giving it a try and really like it for those little things that take up unnecessary space. 

 Emmalynn being silly wearing my Konnect shirt and name tag, she cracks me up!

 Friday we did a lot of school work because we kinda skipped out on Thursday. This is a drawing Emmalynn did of her favorite bear "Beary" and the sentence she wanted to write about him. We are always impressed with her artistic skills.

 Friday my sweet friend came to spend the night with us and we went out to eat at the Thai Cafe. I asked one of my other friends what her favorite thing was there and she said this coconut crusted chicken. It was UH-MAY-ZING! I think this place may be my new favorite restaurant in Stillwater.

 Saturday morning we went to Zumba and just hung out at the house and Walgreens.

 Saturday evening I took the girls to see Beauty & the Beast (my FAVORITE Disney movie) in 3D. It was an interesting and comical experience to say the least and I think I'll hold off on doing that again until Aaron gets back to help!

Wondertorium

Today we went with some friends to the kids museum called the Wondertorium. The girls had been here twice before but still enjoyed it just the same. I think a membership is in our future!

Ellie's favorite thing there is a chute you can drop eggs down and then gather them from the chickens in a basket. She probably could have done this all day!

 She also loves the general store they have set up (big surprise because that's pretty much ALL she plays at home!)

 Of course my little artist loves the art section

Fun day with friends and daddy got to come too, what could be better than that?!

Christmas & Changes

Christmas is always my favorite time of the year as well as the busiest for us. We usually have 4-5 different Christmas' and this year I was also in charge of all of the Christmas decorating at our church (Lifechurch.tv).  We had 2 different Christmas parties we attended (one at Aaron's work and one with our life group). The lifegroup Christmas party was fun and we did a white elephant gift exchange from items we had at our house which was also pretty comical. Aaron thought it would be funny if we wore "ugly Christmas attire" at our lifegroup Christmas party. Even though no one else was cool enough to join in we still got a laugh out of it. I also got to wear the sweater again for "wacky tacky" Christmas party at church.     

Aaron in his special outfit

Aaron's work Christmas party was extremely lame but I guess that's the "norm" as far as work Christmas parties go.

Emmalynn also had a parent night at dance where they showcase what they have been working on as well as their costumes for recital.

Emmalynn with her tree

 Living Room tree

 Ellie's tree

 Ellie in her Christmas dress before church

 Emmalynn in her Christmas dress

 Lucy sneaking some coffee

 Emmalynn with her book for her book exchange in her class

 Aaron's cousin Christen got married the night of our first Christmas (with my dad's family). We still attended and went straight from there to my aunt and uncle's.

Ellie dressed up for the wedding

 Emmalynn 

 Aaron and I at the wedding

Ellie with cousin Destiny

 Emmalynn with cousin Christyn 

 Santa & Mrs. Claus AKA Nana & Papa

 The girls had a "caroling" party at school where parents got to come sing carols, have snacks, and listen to Christmas stories. Here is Emmalynn with her friend Parker and his little brother Gavin.

 The girls with their friend Delainey

 I made sure the girls wore these dresses every chance they got!

 Emmalynn's "surprise" ornament she made at school

 and Ellie (which if you know Ellie its almost comical that she's dressed as an angel lol!)

 The girls at my mom & Ken's in their ginormous stockings

 Finally home for Christmas with our little family. Ellie got Timon & Pumbaa in her stocking to go with her Simba & Nala

 Emmalynn with some of her stocking loot

 Emmalynn's new cowgirl boots she got from Nanny D

 For New Years we stayed at home and kept it very low key. We knew Aaron will be traveling a lot soon for work so we wanted to spend as much family time together as possible. Emmalynn requested we have a pizza making contest and Ellie requested we play Wii bowling. We did both and the girls got to do some sparklers to celebrate New Years (around 9:00) before bed.

 The night was finished with what else?! Ice cream sundaes!

We have really enjoyed having Aaron home with us and got used to it! We were sad to see him go back to work on Tuesday but thankful for all the memories we got to make as a family. Our routine hustle  and bustle starts back this coming week jam packed full of well, everything! Aaron will be leaving soon to go work overseas for a while but we have many fun things planned for when he returns to give us a goal in sight!