Gracie's 5th Birthday Party

 

When we moved here to Abilene we noticed that they had a Chuck E. Cheese in the mall.  So when Gracie's birthday came around, and we started talking about her party, we decided that we would let her decide where she wanted to have her birthday party-at our house or at Chuck E. Cheese.  We already knew what the answer would be, and sure enough she wanted it at Chuck E. Cheese.  So we invited some new primary friends who live just two streets away from us, and some primary friends who had lived in Vermont when I was in college and had moved into the ward a week after us, and we got ready for some fun.

 

We got there the day of the party and the girls were so excited.  They have this little dance area up by the stage where the robotic Chuckie does his show, and you can dance or sing or anything in front of this screen and you will show up on one of the tv screens above the dance area.  Georgia absolutely loves to dance.  She breaks into dance everywhere and anywhere we go.  She does it in grocery stores, department stores...anywhere with music playing.  The best part is she just doesn't care who's watching her.  She will do all sorts of moves in front of tons of people and just doesn't care-she loves to dance, and I love that about her.  Anyways, she was in heaven there on that little dance stage.

 

 

The kids got to run around and play games while we waited for the pizza, and they got to dance with Chuckie to earn some extra tickets, and just play on the slide and ladders in the little play area they had.  They all had a blast!!  After eating some yummy pizza, we sang happy birthday to Gracie...

 

...who got this really cool crown that she was so proud of.

 



Chuckie even made an appearance to wish Gracie a happy birthday, and she was so excited to take a picture with him.

 



 

One of the things that came in the party package we got was the chance for Grace to go into the ticket blaster and collect as many tickets as possible. There were even giant tickets that were worth 500 and 300 tickets.  It was so funny and cute to watch her in there...she had so much fun.  She didn't actually grab any tickets, but the manager (who was in charge of hosting and helping with our party, and ran the ticket blaster for us) let Grace grab one of the 500 and one of the 300 after the blaster ended (we think it's because he had a crush on my sister and was trying to make a good impression).

 

After all the fun, and before turning in our tickets for prizes, Gracie opened her gifts.

 





 

All the kids seemed to have a wonderful time (even though Gwen looks bummed...it's because she wanted a present too).  Gracie certainly had a wonderful time and was so happy, and I am so glad that she had such a great time with some wonderful friends!

Grace's 5th Birthday

 

Gracie really seemed to have a wonderful birthday this year.  She was happy at least.  We didn't really do much that day because it was just so hot outside but we did a few fun things inside, and I made sure to hug and snuggle my Gracie girl as much as possible. 

 

Each year on their birthdays we let the girls choose their favorite home made meal and I cook it for them.  I wish I could remember what she chose, but I just can't.  I can remember that she wanted a Belle cake, and that instead of putting a toy on top of her cake like I have come to do with others, I decided that I was going to use my cake decorating skills from taking all the Wilton cake decorating classes and do something else. 

 

I was tired (8 months pregnant at the time) and decided to try and take the easy way out and use the tubes of icing that grocery stores sell instead of making the icing.  Everything was going good until I got to the face.  I will never try to cut corners again, because the face came out terrible.  I was really upset with it, but Grace didn't seem to care, thank goodness.  She was just really happy that there was an icing Belle on her cake that she could eat.

 

The cake with Belle and roses around the edges.

Getting ready to make a wish!!



 

She was so excited to open her presents (though it doesn't look that way in most of her pictures)...of course, what kid isn't?  Every year we get them a new outfit, a toy or book from us, and then their sisters get them something.  Everything else they get comes from relatives.  She got some nice things, some fun things, and some really good books.

 

Her toy from Rob and I...she wanted this doll so badly.

 

 A fun Hello Kitty card...Gracie loves Hello Kitty.

We took the girls to see Brave when it came out, and they loved it, and she was so excited to get the game for her leapster.



 

Gracie went to bed one happy girl that night, and I am so glad that she had a great birthday!

A Letter To Grace

 

My sweet Gracie.  I wrote this letter to you a while ago, and I'm glad I finally get to post it for you.  I cannot believe you are 5 already!!  It's so crazy!!  You're growing up so fast, and I am so proud of the loving and sweet little girl you are.

 

July 2011

 

Right after you turned 4 we came home from a nice summer vacation in Vermont, and prepared for preschool!!  You were so so so excited to finally get to go to school, and though you were scared and sad to leave me the first few days, you got used to it quickly and loved it so much!  You had wonderful teachers who helped you learn and grow so much.  Even better was having your friend Xoe from Primary in your class with you.

 

September 2011

 

You started bringing home homework and felt like such a big girl for having homework like Gwen did.  You loved to practice writing your letters and numbers, your name, and learning all the sounds letters can make.  You also had a blast when your friend Xoe started coming home with us every Friday after school for a couple of hours.  You were also very excited when Halloween came around and you got to wear your Belle costume to school.

 

November 2011

 

We saw such a change in you in those first few months of school.  You loved to learn, and you loved to go to school.  You were so proud of the artwork you brought home, and proudly sang all the songs that you learned to us.  You got to fly on a plane for the 3rd time ever when we went to Vermont for Christmas.  You had so much fun playing in the snow-sledding, snowball fights, and snow angels.  That was something you had really missed while living in Oklahoma.

 

January 2012

 

The next few months were lots of fun but busy.  You did lots of fun activities at school, made lots of cute art projects, and enjoyed doing stuff with us at home.  We had lots of sleepovers, movie parties, and other little things to keep busy during the cold months.  It really helped having friends live right down the street from us.  You loved to play with them.  You did lots of funny things that made us laugh and continued to be our little snuggle buddy.

 

March 2012

In the next few months we experienced what it was like for one of our kids to cut their own hair.  You did this several times over the next few months, and we are still not sure why, but it was pretty funny.  We spent Easter together as a family that year and we had so much fun.  It was really exciting when Grandma Congdon came to visit in April and we got to do lots of fun things with her.  We also started to prepare to move.  Through it all you continued to shine at school and at home.

 

May 2012



 In May you finished preschool and participated in a wonderful preschool graduation.  You sang so beautifully and remembered the words so well.  We were so proud of you and all that you had accomplished, and I even cried when you walked up to receive your preschool graduation certificate.  I couldn't help crying-you were so grown up and completing another step in life, and you were so proud and happy that I couldn't help but feel the same.  A few days later Aunt Mimi came to stay with us for a while, and a week later we moved to Texas.  You were sad to move away from all the friends you had made the past year, but you were so excited to move to a new house and meet new people and make new friends.

 

 July 2012

 

A few weeks after we moved we went on a huge vacation.  We went to the Carlsbad Caverns, the Grand Canyon, visited with Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Sessions in St. George Utah, went to Zion National Park, then to Wyoming to see Uncle Quinn, Aunt Diana and your cousins (and even Uncle Matt and Aunt Jamie), and finally to Idaho to spend time with our friends the Butikofers and Uncle Matt and Aunt Jamie.  It was a long trip but you enjoyed all the things we did so much, and you loved seeing all your Aunts and Uncles and cousins again.  It was a great experience for you.

 

This past year was chaotic and hectic, and while you had a hard time adjusting to things sometimes, your bravery, love and friendliness to others continued to grow and shine.

 

Your love for learning and joy for school has grown so much this past year, and the depth of compassion and understanding you have towards others continues to amaze us.  Your sweet spirit and your testimony touch our hearts and fill us with joy each and every day.

 

You are so willing to help out everyone, and go along with any game and activity so happily.  You are such a smart girl, and catch onto things very quickly.  Your smile cheers up everyone, and your hugs brighten up our days.  You are a wonderful girl Gracie-we are so very blessed to have you as a daughter and we thank Heavenly Father for you every day.  We love you so very very much sweetie-thanks for being a special, important, and fabulous part of our eternal family!!

 

Love Beyond End,

Mommy

4th Of July

 

We spent the 4th of July at my Grandparents in St. George.  The girls love the 4th of July and were super excited.  We got together with my aunt and uncle and my cousin Lindsay for dinner and hung out with them while waiting to go to the fireworks.  Lindsay painted the girls nails red, white and blue, and we all just sat around and talked and hung out and enjoyed each others company. 

 

Aunt Missy and Georgia

 

Aunt Missy and Gwen

 



 

Aunt Missy and Gracie (and Lindsay in the back)

 

We went and sat on the side of one of the main roads to watch the fireworks.  The girls played with the glow sticks that we had bought for them, and had a lot of fun.  They shot off the fireworks from 4 different places in the city, and even had a firework waterfall coming down from some of the cliffs there.  It was really cool, and the girls loved it.  They would go from sitting on someone's shoulders to watch the fireworks to running around to see all the places the fireworks were coming from.  It was a great 4th of July, and I am so glad we got to spend it with my wonderful relatives!!

 



Summer Vacation Part 5-Idaho

 

Our last part of vacation was spending some time in Idaho with our friends the Butikofers.  We have known them since Robbie and I were newly weds, living in Montana while Robbie went to school (and I was 2-3 months along with Gwen).  They live in Rigby Idaho now, not far from BYU-I, and we hadn't seen them in about 4 years, so it was really great to see them again and spend some time with them.

 

One of the days we went out to do something we saw this really cool rainbow in the clouds.

 

 Another neat thing we did while visiting them was to go to the Idaho Falls Museum and see the King Tut exhibit.  Ever since I was little I have had a fascination with Greek mythology and history and Egyptian mythology and history.  When I saw the billboard for this exhibit I was so excited, and even more so when everyone agreed that it would be a fun thing to go see.  Even the girls were excited.  I can't remember the descriptions of all the things that I have posted here but it was really cool to see.

I do remember that this was one of King Tut's thrones, and that the following picture was one of his chariots.

 



 

 

The absolute best part of the exhibit was getting to see King Tut's actual mummy.

 

The younger two girls were kind of torn between being grossed out and being scared, but Gwen loved it.  She has really developed an interest in some of the same things I had (or still have) an interest in.  She really enjoyed the whole exhibit.

 



 One of the things that the museum has is a children's little discovery area.  The girls loved this area, and played there for quite some time.  They loved getting up on the "horse" outside the room too.

 

 

 

Georgia pretending to pump water outside of the cabin.

 

 

My little Indian Gracie.

 

Gwen the explorer.



 

We had a lot of fun with our friends doing other things too, and even just hanging out with them at their house.  It was great to see my brother and his fiancé a bit more too.  Before we knew it though it was time to head back to Texas.  We were bummed cause it had been an awesome vacation full of so much fun and we loved getting to see family and friends again, but it was nice to get home and sleep in our own beds and not have to be in a car all the time (my feet and ankles swelled up sooo much while we were in the car).  What a wonderful vacation we had...one that hopefully we will be able to repeat in the future.

Summer Vacation Part 4-Wyoming

 

After we left St. George we went to Wyoming to spend some time with my sister Diana and her family.  My brother Matt and his fiancé Jamie (who is now my sister in law-yay!) came from Rexburg to spend a bit of time with us too.

 

We went camping at my brother in law's family campground.  The girls had fun spending time with everyone, especially their cousins.  Blowing bubbles around the campfire was a lot of fun for them.

 

My brother in law, his dad, Robbie and my brother Matt set up a zip line off of some construction equipment my brother in laws family owns over the pond on the campground.  Even Jamie and my sister Missy took turns on it.

 



Robbie has one of those Go Pro cameras, so he attached it to a harness he had, and filmed what happened when he went across the zip line and fell into the deep part of the water.  It was a lot of fun to watch them do it.

 



The pond was a bit far from where we were camping...too far for the girls to walk (and not complain about it).  So quite a few times we piled them up in the back of one of our cars and took the short drive back and forth.

 



 

We also went fishing a couple of times.  The girls love fishing and were so glad we had a chance to do it (my big stomach is kind of blocking the view of Gracie fishing with my sister Diana-sorry).  The best part of fishing was Missy catching the biggest fish out of all of us, and gutting it herself.

 

All the cousins except Grace (who you can see playing in the background).  My girls sure had fun playing with my sisters two girls!!

 



It was really great to see them again.  We hadn't seen them in almost two years, so to see them again was wonderful, and we had such a fantastic time.  Wyoming was wonderful!!

Summer Vacation Part 3-Utah and Zions

 

After the Grand Canyon we drove to St. George Utah to spend time with my grandparents, my aunt and uncle and my cousin Lindsay.  It was so nice to see them again, and for the girls to get to see them again.  Gracie followed my grandma around everywhere, talking to her and helping her in any way she could.  Gwen loved spending time with my Grandpa, especially when they would go out on their back patio at night and watch the bats fly around.  Georgia loved playing with all the toys my aunt and cousin brought over, and would spend time with anyone who was willing to pay attention to her.  They all loved spending time with my aunt and uncle, and loved that my cousin Lindsay played with them.

 

 

 

 

While visiting them we took a trip to Zion National Park.  I had lived with my grandparents during my senior year of high school, and gone back during a spring break while in college at Utah State, so I had gone to Zion's quite a few times and had so much fun there (I even hiked all the way up to Angel's Landing-sheer cliffs and 5,785 feet in the air-don't know how I did it but I will never do it again...http://www.zionnational-park.com/zion-angels-landing-trail.htm ).  We didn't get to see much, cause we started out too late in the day, but what we did get to see was beautiful.

 

 

We even got to see a little wildlife not far off from the side of the trail.

 



 The girls had a ton of fun playing in one of the rivers there, and they were able to fill out another handbook and receive junior ranger badges once again.  They loved putting those on their backpacks next to the ones from the Grand Canyon.

 

 

On the way home Gracie started getting really silly in the car...she took the label off of a bottle of water and kept sticking it all over her face.  This time she decided she was an elephant.

 

The day after Zion's we took the girls to the Splash Park that St. George has.  The girls had sooo much fun there.  They loved that Mommy, Daddy, Aunt Mimi, my cousin Lindsay and even her boyfriend joined in on the fun.

 



 

We had so much fun in Utah, and it was hard to leave.  It'll be great to go back some day...hopefully some day soon.