Happy Birthday Charlie!

How did my baby get to be 4 years old?

charlie's party

Beware LOTS of pictures.

This is my nephew, Colten, he had a great day but I am sure that you could never get him to admit this. Charlie is modeling her party favors: Girls recived a princess hat, vest, sword, and a sheild. The boys recieved a crown, vest, sword, and shield.
Before leaving school this year, I ask several parents what they typically spend for party favors at a party. The consensis was about $50. I hate those stupid little toys that you usually get. I end up throwing them

away within the first week of getting them b/c she doesn't really play with them. Instead, we step on them. So we made our favors. We made knight and princess costumes for the kids to wear. They had a great time. I made 24 costumes and only spent $35. I think that is very cost effective.

Picture 1. Charlie and Colten

2. Laurie (baby Jack) Will, and Jeanna

3. Brad and Audrey

4. My dad and step mom

5. Charlie painting her sheild (her friend Meredith)

6. Grandma Linda, Cale, Aunt Mistie

7. Brantley eating ice cream for the first time.

8. Thomas and Brantley fighting the dragon.

9. I love this picture. It shows that what I had in mind by painting a dragon on a sheet really did happen. I love the way it shows Thomas fighting the dragon. 10. Audrey

11. Charlie giving Grandma Linda hug for that great princess dress. Grandma Linda is the best seamstress.

12. Charlie attempting to hula hoop in her new princess wear.

13. My little birthday girl. She is standing in front of the castle. I spent $10 on 2 flat sheets. I now have a dragon and a castle for my little girl to pretend.

14. Here is her cake. My husband is the best when it comes to making her cakes. You can also see my nephew Gant in the back ground.

I slacked off when it comes to pictures this year. I only have the really good ones thanks to my friend Mitzi. She is the best. Go check out her website if you need any pictures made. http://aylorphotography.blogspot.com/

Thanks to all our friends and family for helping us celebrate her 4th birthday. We sure had a blast.

1st hair cut

We went to get Brantley's first haircut. he was such a wiggle worm. I had to hold him while Janet cut his hair. When we got Charlie's first haircut there wasn't even enough hair to save any. That was not the case with this little guy.
Janet said that he had a lot of hair for his first haircut. I won't let it get that long next time. Can you see the struggle we went through before I go the brilliant idea to give him his first dum dum.

Yes, there he is in all his glory eating his dum dum. At least he finally stayed reasonably still.

Stillwater

We have this family tradition of going to Stillwater for cheese fries and a nice walk around Theta Pond. Charlie kept calling it Whitewater. Here are some great pictures of the kids walking. I love this one of Brantley. It just makes me laugh.

And LOOK! There is even one of me. How crazy is that? I can tell that I have lost that 25 lbs of baby...too bad it isn't more. Oh well, that will give me something to work on this fall and winter.

We try to go to Eskimo Joe's twice a year. With the summer coming to an end, we visited OSU on Tuesday. Here were just a few shots from our trip.

My space

So here is my room. How beautiful is it!?!
I am all moved in. It only took me about three days. All my trade books for school are organized. All my teacher books are organized. All my scrapbooking magazines are organized. I went through all my files and got rid of three boxes of recycling. Charlie had a blast dumping it in the recycle bin. I even organized all my ribbon. I still have a few things on the desk top that need to find a home but for the most part I am in!

We are still waiting on more trim. It is on back order. The blue thing is one of the kids toy boxes. The couch is a pull out for when family comes in town. The trunk in the corner was my great great grandmothers. She used it to carry her things when she traveled Europe. She was 20 in the early 1920's and traveled Europe by herself. Man was she a neat lady. I wish I had had the chance to meet her. Instead I have a few stories, an old trunk, a few hair pieces, and a shoe hook.
This self is for our games. I still need to prime and paint it before I fill it up. I am so excited. It is a great space. Thanks Dusty! (and his wonderful parents)

One Man Demolition Team

I figured out why my house is never clean.

It would be this adorably cute little guy. See this nice pile of destruction? I clean this up several times a day. He loves to pull the shoes, the puzzles, the crayons, paper, markers and kids movies all off their shelves and hear them crash on the floor. How am I suppose to keep anything clean when five minutes after I have picked everything up it looks like this? At least he giggles while he is doing it so I get to enjoy that sound.

the room

Our weekend was very busy. Thursday Dusty primed the whole room. Friday morning he painted the ceiling. Friday night I painted the dark purple.
Here was my idea. Dark purple and white. The more I got to thinking the more I thought that white walls with young kids was just a bad idea. Especially in a room that is dubbed the "craft" room. We will be painting and playing play dough. I then thought that instead of white we would use a light purple.

It turned out really well until we had to go get an extra quart. It took the guy three tries to get the right color and guess what it wasn't right. Can you tell? Is it worth another $15 and another gallon of paint? Can the light cover the one that is just a shade darker? Who knows. I decided that I do not want to spend the money. I do not want to take the chance that when we cover it with the light it will not cover. I do not want to paint the whole room that darker shade. I know stupid but I just don't want to deal with it. So I will walk in and hate it but bless the guy that was so incredibly sweet and tried really hard to match the paint.

Dusty put in the floor, the trim and the door frame today. Isn't it beautiful! He is such a great guy. And he got the floor on an even better sale then what we originally thought. I love these floors. We put some in the house a little over 2 years ago and I just LOVE them!

Here is the finished product minus furniture. I will spend the week moving in furniture and scrapbook stuff. We are a little short on the cording that we are using for ceiling trim. They only had 19 yards and I needed 32. I had to order some more. It will be in sometime next week. I love how it turned out. This has been a very busy weekend. (And yes, I know it is Monday but we finished today.)

Charlie's future

"You know mom that God is making my Husband."

"Yes, God has someone special just for you. He is growing him just like he is growing you."

"Let's pray for him mom. I will pray my special prayer for him first and then you pray okay. Dear Jesus, Thank you for making my husband and keeping him safe. Help him to make good choices and help him not be hungry. Thank you. Amen."

Some time later...

"Hey mom, did you know that I am going to be a farmer."

"A farmer? What are you going to farm?"

"Oh, maybe some apples and potatoes and green peppers. My husband that God is making will pick apples and I will make dinner and you can come over and have some apples."

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans for you, plans to prosper and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.

Her future looks bright! My wonderful three-year old (soon to be four) has a great future. I am so lucky that at three she is praying for her husband. God will give her the desires of her heart. I have faith that God will provide.

First Steps

Here is my sweet boy (he is all boy) trying to get his ball. He loves that ball.

Off to school

I just finished a great book. Off to school: a Parent's-Eye View of the kindergarten year by Irene Hannigan. I am there this year. I know how my parents feel now. It is completely different then in years past. I understand the nerves. Who will my child's teacher be? Will my child's teacher see what I see in Charlie or will she just see a bossy, easily excited, high energy kid? Will she make friends? Will she be able to share? Will she be able to focus? How do I know that sending her to school is a good idea this year? Should I have kept her out one more year? Can I have a pre-parent conference? Can it be longer than 15 minutes? Should I write the teacher a note? Will the teacher ask me to tell me about Charlie? What will I say? Is there not something I can take for this? Each day that passes the crazier I get. I am not ready for her to be in school. Before I know it she is going to be in college. Dusty reminds me daily that she will be driving before she is in college. And that she will be 40....someday. I know that I am over reacting. I have an amazing friend that keeps giving me the pep talk..."Just wait until October. You will see a different child." I just pray that she doesn't get tired of repeating this. I think I may need to hear it a few hundred more times. How am I going to handle this school thing?