Abbie's 6th Birthday

Our family-whew, it's hard to get a shot with everyone's eyes open!

Abbie is ready to go!  Let's do this!

Abbie had a blast at her gymnastics party!  Here she is after she did the bungee jump and her "stunts".  You should have heard her screaming (with joy)!

Abbie with her strawberry Olympic cake.

Abbie and her friend, Molly

Abbie had a mini-makeover at her friend, Kassy's party later that day.

Abbie's hair looked so pretty!  She added the headband later.

Here's Abbie after she opened a gift on the morning of her birthday.

It's hard to believe that Abbie turned 6!  She had an awesome birthday party on Saturday at Let it Shine gymnastics.  She had so much fun playing with some friends from church, school, and Girl Scouts.  We had a great turnout and all of the girls had a lot of fun!  The coach for Abbie's  party did a wonderful job.  He did a cool stunt where he ran on the trampoline and jumped over Abbie while she stood still.   They got to do the zip line, jump in the foam pit, do the big trampoline, swing into a different foam pit and do some other fun stuff.  Abbie got to do a bungee jump type thing that she loved!!

After the girls wore themselves out doing gymnastics, we went into the party room and had pizza, cake and ice cream.  Abbie also opened her gifts there.  It's nice that Abbie's birthday usually falls close to MLK day so we had a long weekend.  Earlier in the week, Matt's parents decided to drive over from Virginia for Abbie's party.  We were glad that they could come and visit!  It had been quite a while since they had come for a visit.

On the same day as Abbie's party, one of her friends was also having a party so it was a very busy day.  Kassy's party was at Divas and Dudes.  The girls dressed up as mermaids and had their hair styled, nails painted and some make-up applied.  At the party, Ariel also made an appearance.  I was glad that I had checked with Kassy's mom because originally, we were almost having the girls' parties at the same time.  Many of the same girls were invited so that would have been a mess!

For some reason, it was hard for me to think about Abbie turning 6.  I guess it's just because she's getting to be a big girl and I hate to see her growing up so fast!!  Also, I just think that "5" is such a sweet age.  They start to lose that innocence as they get older.   I had joked with Abbie that she was going to have to stay "5".  I told her that I had a special drink.  All she had to do was drink it and she would stay "5".  Of course, I was only joking.  She wasn't going for it for even a second.  =)

Happy 6th birthday Abbie!  We love you!  You are sweet, smart, silly, stubborn, spunky and you keep us on our toes.  I love it that Abbie is at the age where she gives me lots of hugs and kisses before she leaves in the morning, if I help in her class or just whenever!!

Christmas 2013

The girls with some of their gifts from Santa.

Sophie with some of the yummy sugar cookies that we decorated.

Our family on Christmas at Nana and Paw-paw's house.

Sophie, Nana, Abbie, and Phil.

Sophie loves her Rainbow loom organizer.

Abbie loves her new "big girl" scooter.

Sophie and Molly are modeling their new matching P.J.s from Mimi and Papa Tom.

We had a very nice Christmas!  The girls were up just before 7 A.M.  I had tried a new crockpot recipe for breakfast.  My parents and Uncle Phil came over right at 7 to see what Santa had brought the girls for Christmas.  Sophie had really wanted a Kindle Fire most of all and she got it, along with some clothes and lots of other goodies.  Abbie really wanted a camera and a Rainbow Loom and she got both of those things along with a teacher set and some other fun things.  They both had an awesome Christmas!  We had breakfast with Paula's family at our house.  Then, we let the girls open gifts from us and we opened our gifts from Matt's parents and his sister, Leia.  We were able to skype with them.

Then, we took our time getting ready and the girls played with their toys.  Later, we went over to Nana and Paw-paw's house for a mid-afternoon meal.  Uncle Jim, Aunt Linda and her daughter, Emily, came over and joined us.  We visited for a while and then went to the devo at Crieve Hall.  After church, we exchanged gifts with Uncle Phil, Nana and Paw-paw and opened gifts from Martha and Matt, although they couldn't be there.  We skyped with them since they couldn't be there.  It was a real bummer that Morgan was sick over Christmas.  We were very blessed!

Christmas Eve

Sierra, Abbie, Summer, and Sophie

our family at Nana and Paw-paw's house 

Keri, Carter, and Paula

Abbie's modeling her new hat!  =)

Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas!  We celebrated with Paw-paw's side of the family on Christmas Eve at Nana and Paw-paw's house.  We had some awesome food for dinner and we were able to visit with a lot of family members.  The main downside though was that Morgan was sick and so Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt were unable to come.  Morgan was sick all week so we weren't able to see them until several days after Christmas.  He had a stomach bug.  It would have been so fun to see Carter and Morgan together because they are close to the same age.  Uncle Phil came in on December 23 from central America to be home for Christmas.  I didn't take many pictures but Mike and Patti's families were there and Uncle Bobby.