Mailee Turns 11!

Mailee's birthday was awesome this year.

I love her.

Here are the birthday details.

Mailee went on a scavenger hunt to find her big gift....

Here she is getting a first look at her new bed and bedding!!

SHe was completely surprised!

Mikayla made a few pillows for Mailee out of some of Mailee's favourite old shirts.

She studied each pillow for quite a while.

Barbie pillow complete with tulle skirt!

Name pillow!

She was really happy with her hand made bedding and her new day bed (which Grandpa Don spray painted pink) has a trundle underneath that pops up to make a queen sized bed. Mikayla has slept over a few times already:)

Mailee got to invite a friend and her sisters and cousin for a night out on the town to celebrate.

She chose to make it a dress up affair. 

My dressed up girlies.

Some dressed up chaperones.

The ladies.

Mailee looked so pretty in her sparkly dress and curled hair.

The cake!

Sparkly candles to match the birthday girl.

What to eat, what to eat...

We were seated at a separate table.

{the cool table, right?}

I'm tellin you, they grow to fast!

A handmade pillow from Aunty Terri.

Mailee has great gift-opening expressions!

When did she grow up?!?!?

Mailee and Liberty.

Special friends.

Jenaya is such a sweet and wonderful cousin.

Lil sister/ roommate.

Big sister.

Cutie!

It was a JOY to celebrate my Mailee Joy!

Family Pictures 2012

Our kids are growing too fast.

way.

too.

fast.

I just want to remember them at each age, each stage, 

each height, each haircut, 

baby teeth, no teeth, big teeth...

I love photographs for this reason.

Love Love Love!!!

This year we got family photos with the talented Clayton Arnall.

 I can't show you all of them because that would make getting a Christmas card from us quite boring!

I may have strategically placed a few pics around the blog tho...

Have you gotten your "Christmas card photos" yet?

Do you bother?

I think it's worth the "hastle"

{believe me, it takes a lot of work to make sure everyone is in clean clothes that kind of "go" and not everyone is always a willing participant...if you know what I mean...let's just say there are always a few "the quicker you smile the sooner it'll be done"'s heard}

Even so, it's something I get excited about every year!!

Looking at the pics tonight, I'm thrilled to have my family frozen in time.

In the fall of 2012.

Annual Davison Orchard Trip 2012

Today we enjoyed the Davison Orchard (Pumpkin Patch)

We go every year.

See 2011

and 2010

even 2009

It was a great afternoon with the family.

Here are the details...

Riding the Tractor train out to the pumpkin patch.

{ANY event is more fun with cousins!!}

Grandpa Don is pretty fun too!

Caity was really into it this year.  She kept finding pumpkins and saying

"this one is perfect for me"

so cute.

Sister pic:)

Cousin pic.

It was IMPOSSIBLE to get them all to look at the same time.

This was the best of the bunch.

Still cute:)

Look at these lil cousin babies!

They are so adorable!!

My sweet six.

Terri made us these adorable coffee cozies for our hot drinks.

{it's part of the tradition...to have a hot drink:)}

Breezy loved this old tractor.

Baby did the HUGE slide all by herself!

{okay, the mommy *might* have been a little too preoccupied with taking a picture to catch the baby...so glad she landed it well all by herself!}

Cambria and Jamin loved digging in the "corn box".

{dried corn instead of sand}

Bree even filled her little pockets up to take some corn to the chickens without being prompted.

Bree sharing some corn with the chickens and with her cousin so he could feed them too.

Caity hid under this sign and then covered her face and reported 

"you can't see me!"

{cute girl}

It was an awesome family day.

I love these fall days and all the traditions that come with them!!

Do you have fall traditions?

Carrie Underwood Concert

Last Thursday the big girls and I, along with Tammy and Jenaya, went to the Carrie Underwood concert.  It was awesome!

Grandpa Russ treated my fall birthday girls to the tickets.  Mike treated us to a fabulous stay at the River Rock and Terri, Linda and Mike provided childcare for the three C's.

The girls were well prepared with cute fan shirts and a memorized playlist of all the songs she was going to be singing.

Getting ready at the River Rock.

Notice the coordination...They all have gold shoes:)

Front and back of the fan shirts.

Tam and Jenaya.

{Great company}

I'm not looking so much bigger than them these days..

Heading out to the concert!!!

Of course we took the sky train (it's attached to the River Rock)

{What better way to get some great people watching in?!?}

Fact: People in the "big city" are more interesting.

Kinda excited...

 More golden coordination.

We had dinner at Whole Foods.

It was Tam and Jenaya's first time in a Whole Foods.

Whole Foods is our favourite so we made sure to show them around.

Nothing compares to Whole Foods.

It's awesome.

(are you convinced yet?)

I think they were convinced.

Cheers!

Full and on our way...

LAST TIME we were at this place, (for Taylor Swift) our tickets were rejected at the door.

 (unknowingly purchased from a scammer)

Lame.

Horrible.

We were able to buy tickets at the box office and still get in but it was traumatic.

So much so that we all felt a little nervous when we got back to the arena this time around.

With good tickets.

Here they are!

Their shirts glow in the dark.  Wish I could have captured that but my "real camera" wasn't allowed in and iPhone, while wonderful, is NOT a Nikon D90.

Chaperones.

{we enjoyed ourselves just as much as the kids}

They stood most of the night.

At one point, part of her stage (with her on it) floated over the crowd.

Very cool.

These pictures do not do her outfits justice.

This dress was full of frills in ocean colors and adorned with lots of sequins.

This dress was rows of all white gathered tulle ruffles on the outside and black on the inside.

It had one strap of black jewels.

Black lace heeled booties.

Seriously.

So fun.

Carrie is on the right.

In the blue lame pants.

A traditional pic on the stairs on the way home.

Another awesome concert.

Another fabulous memory.

The girls had a great time and so did the Mommies:)

We are so very blessed to have these kinds of opportunities.

I love seeing life through my kids' eyes.

I still remember my first concert (Tiffany).

And my second one (Amy Grant; Heart In Motion)

I was so excited.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I can not believe that I have kids old enough to be having all these same experiences!