Alecia's Sweet 16 At Home

My how time flies!! Sixteen years ago today I was at Rapides Regional getting ready to have a precious little boy. (Opps that would be girl but we thought she was a boy) I can't believe that my sweet little girl is now 16. It doesn't seem possible. It seems like only yesterday that she was toddling around. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful daughter. She makes my world light up. For her birthday I decided to find a new recipe since she really likes to try new things. This is a picture of what we had. They are called gordita's. It seems kind of like a tortilla only thicker. Then I made a super yummy chicken concoction to put on top and added toppings. Yummy. Alecia liked it!!

Alecia with Krystal, Bethany, Jessica and Jared. Jessica decided she needed to wear a princess crown and went and found one of hers. Isn't that just the cutest!
Alecia likes to mix things up and her favorite dessert is peach cobbler so instead of cake we had cobbler for dessert. I still put in candles and here is the sequence I managed to get of her blowing out the candles. Hmm I impress myself sometimes LOL

Getting ready!

Now Blow!!!!

KIdnapping!!!

For a fun Sweet 16 activity, Donna and I decided to kidnap our two daughters. Their birthdays are only 4 days apart so we thought it would be fun to have a combined mother/daughter fun night. It was so much fun!!! We managed to keep it a complete secret until we loaded them in the van to take them on a little road trip. I think that it was an awesome success. Of course since there was no warning we had to give the girls time to primp a little at the hotel before taking them to dinner.

Alecia getting ready. Isn't she just beautiful?My smiling 16 year old. She thinks she might get to drive LOL.
We had dinner at the Olive Garden. I really enjoyed the salad and dinner.
Here's a pic of all of us together.

Alecia had Chicken Marsala the potatoes were yummy.

I had the chicken fonduta, I'd been seeing commercials for it and it really looked good.

Alecia and Carly after dinner before going to the Mall. Every girls favorite place.

Alecia thought these shoes looked like goddess shoes.

Alecia's favorite thing to shop for...... Shoes!!!!!

And of course Jewelry!!!!

All in all we had a wonderful time and I think the girls will remember it for the rest of their lives. We were also supposed to take some professional pictures but the girls wanted to have a little more warning before going to take them so we will do that later. We also had talked about pedicures but didn't fit that in. Boy can those girls shop!

The end of something!!!

David is driving! David is driving! David is DRIVING!!!! Ooooo I'm sooooo excited. If you can't guess that already. Whew it's has been a long time of me doing all the driving in this family (not a small feet even if my darling husband doesn't understand that LOL) I am ecstatic YIPPEEE. Hmmmm maybe I better end this post because I can't think of anything else to say.LOL

Appointments, Appointments Everywhere

Uggg!!! I am sooo tired of appointments. Thank goodness I had last week off because I think if I didn't I would be completely insane by now. Between David's Doctor Appointments for his leg, his cardiology appointments, Brandon's podiatrist appointment, Katie's doctor appointments and everyone's dentist appointments, I haven't really had a chance to breathe. I have had appointments 2 to 3 times every week for the past 2 months. Somebody Save me. Well I'd write more but you guessed it, Brandon and Jared have a dentist appointment today. Help!!!!!!

Jessica's Dreams

We were driving home from Shannan's wedding and this is one of our conversations.

Jessica: Mommy I want a headless car when I grow up
Me: A Headless car?
Jessica: ya, I want a limosine and a roofless car?
Me: Jessica that's a convertable
Jessica: Ya
Me.: You need to marry a doctor or someone who makes a lot of money:
Jessica: uhuh
Me: well how are you going to get a convertable and a limosine>
Jessica: I'm going to be wich>
Me: your going to be a witch.
Jessica: No I'm going to be WICH
Me. Oh you mean Rich
Jessica: ya I'm going to be Wich.
Me: How are you going to do that?
Jessica: I'm going to be an actress!

Lol. I thought this was hilarious. I just love my baby girl

Sabbath Day!

Today is Sunday and I woke up with a stomach ache and having to go to the bathroom, not the best way to start my Sabbath Day. So I told David and was still planning on going to church until he told me it wasn't such a good idea. We all stayed home because I am the only one who could drive. It turned out to be a very relaxing and spiritual day. To start with we decided that we would have a testimony meeting with our family because it's testimony meeting at church. We sang "Keep the Commandments" and then had a prayer. I read a little about how we need to be Valiant in the cause of Christ. It was in the May 2009 New Era. After that all the children bore their testimony. It is so amazing to see the growth in my children. I love to hear them testify of Christ. We closed with singing "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and saying a closing prayer.

After our little impromptu meeting, I had the kids work on their church programs (Personal Progress, Duty to God, and Faith in God). The children, all except for Jared and Jessica, had fasted for my sister and we closed with a prayer and let them eat. It is so fun to see that they can learn the concepts of the gospel from such an early age.

We had a really fun afternoon playing games together as a family (Thank you Michelle). Banana Grams and Guesstures are very fun. Some of the kids like Banana Grams but all of them like to play Guesstures. It was funny watching them try to act out words. We laughed and had a really great time.

I am planning on making Chicken Enchilada's for Dinner. I am just basking in the glow of peace and comfort that came with this wonderful Sabbath Day.

My Friend, Michelle

My friend Michelle is a very wonderful person. She has been my friend for 7 years. Heavenly Father sent her into my life at a time that I needed someone to help me through the most devastating event. I had lost my Daddy to a fight with cancer in August and Michelle moved into our town in October. She came with her husband and 5 beautiful children. Michelle is my yin or yang, Hmm I'm not sure which. Umm you get the picture. She is the opposite of me in many ways but the same in more ways that matter. When she came it took us a couple of months to really get acquainted but once we did we were inseparable. I would visit at her house and we would do lots of things. Michelle is the project queen and always had something going on at her house. We had the same number of children and it was fun to get together with someone who understood a large family. I knew that when she invited me over that she knew what she was getting into and vice versa. Not long after we met I found out that I was pregnant with twins. Wow. She had already had twins and was there to mentor me through the experience. Man was she a lot of help!!! It was even crazier when I had boy/girl twins because her twins are boy/girl. The similarities didn't end there because not long after I got pregnant Michelle found out that she was expecting again, not twins but she did have a wonderful healthy little boy and then she got pregnant one more time and it evened us up to 7 children each. Not that she tried to match me but well lets just say Heavenly Father knows us so much more than we know ourselves. My dear friend and I made it through a difficult experience and wound up closer because of the problem. I just recently thought of the scripture in 2 Nephi that says, "there must be opposition in all things". In order to appreciate what we had we needed to go through a period of not having it. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father sent me such a great friend. I love her so much and know that she loves me. Michelle, thank you for all the laughs, hugs, tears, guidance, counsel, and well just everything that you have done for me. You are truly an eternal friend.