Happy Birthday!!

March is a birthday month in our house! Nathan was born on the 7th. Lainee on the 9th and I will celebrate my 21st birthday (give or take a couple years;0) on the 20th. (My dad and grandmother both had birthdays in March too!) So this week we celebrated a couple birthdays! Nathan turned seven. He is not a big crowd kind of boy, so he just had a few friends come swim and spend the night in a hotel with him. It was a blast! Very low key~his kind of night! It was a particularly good night for him because he got to have mom and dad all to himself. My friend Kate volunteered to take the rest of my kiddos to her house for the night(after they had a chance to swim too, of course) so that Nathan could have his desired "small" party. Thanks Kate! 

The little fish. Nathan swam from about 5:00 to 10:00 that night!

A Webkinz from his friend Nick!

They were wiped out! It didn't take them long to doze off.

Lainee's celebration was a little less simple and a lot more enchanted..... We had a princess party complete with a castle custom made by her daddy! She and about 10 of her little girlfriends started the party off choosing which princess dress they were going to wear for the "ball'. Once changed the girls went to the "spa" where they had many jewels and colors to choose from. We had a hair saloon, a manicure station, and best of all we had vanities set up where the girls got to put on their very own makeup! I think they liked that the best! At one point I was in the kitchen and there wasn't even a sound in the room because they were so engrossed in the process. Such a girly girl day! Of course we had pink cake and ice cream and even some princess punch in crystal glasses. The best part to me was the ball. The girls were a little bashful at first, not quite sure they wanted to dance in front of their friends. So I started out with the wand and tapped each princess on the head when it was their turn to twirl. Now these girls were some twirlin' princess'! That loosened them up and off they went waltzing and twirling together. One little girl even dipped her partner at the end of the song. It was adorable! Oh to be 5 and so care free!

Michelle and her friend Jessica did the girls hair.

Getting ready for the ball

Choosing which jewels to wear!

Lainee has been asking for a couple years now to get her ears pierced. I had it my head that this was something that you do when you are 7, why, well because that's how old I was and I will never forget my mom taking me. I couldn't wait to take her, but I thought it would be later. I finally decided several months ago that 5 was a fine age to get your ears pierced. So that is what she has been waiting for~ her 5th birthday to officially get to wear earrings. So we did just that today! She was such a big girl and didn't cry much at all! She LOVES them and keeps pointing them out to her daddy so that he will know she is not a baby anymore!! Man, time flies!!

Before with her friend Kati

During, when she realized this wasn't quite what she had expected.....

After, this was as close as she let me get for a little while. In about 10 minutes, she said it didn't hurt at all! Brave girl!

Another "birth" day that we celebrated recently was the new birth of our son Jake! He was baptized a couple weeks ago by his daddy! What a precious time it was to see our son make such a statement for Christ! He has been asking for a while and we couldn't decide if he was ready. When he asked again recently we inquired as to why he hadn't brought it up in a while. He replied, "I already asked Jesus in my heart and told Him I wanted to be baptized, He knows I am ready so I am just waiting for you to let me!" Out of the mouth of babes! Man I love that kid!

Be BLESSED!