{this was the email i recieved today!}

dear mother,

As the holidays quickly descend upon us, I thought I would take the courtesy of making your life a little easier. Here are some items I have found to be most delightful that I would love to aquire.

Wish List:

Roxy Drizzle rain boots. Size 7.5 in the Grey/Multi Animal Print Color (see Kern for details.)Season 8 of 24 (if you can stumble acrossed seasons 3,4,5,or 6 that would be radical as well)

cute jewelery

brown ugg boots. (chocolate brown)

a grown up persons vacuum (not my $15 Walmart special)

This is all I can ponder at the current moment. thank you and have a great day.

Sincerely,

your most favoritest daughter in the whole wide world.

{i got a big kick out of this today! chelsie always has a way of making me laugh. i needed a laugh today. i'll get right on that grown up persons vacuum!

{twenty one} amazing years!!!

"she grew up,
on the side of the road, where church bells ring
and STRONG love grows...



she grew up good, she grew up slow
like american honey...



steady as a preacher, free as a weed



couldn't wait to get goin',
but wasn't quite ready to leave



so innocent, pure and sweet
american honey....." (by lady antebellum)

(i'm so bummed, i can't download the song for you to hear...*ugh*)

To my Puterbug,
I can not believe it has been 21 years. SERIOUSLY!
I am overwhelmed with emotions when I look back on all that we have gone through and accomplished together. We overcame many obstacles and beat all odds. Who would have thought that a 17 year old girl, that didn't have a clue could raise a girl as beautiful as you? Thank God for your dad, your family and the "village" that helped raise you!!! You were then and will continue to be my angel sent from heaven. You have grown up to be such a strong, hard working, courageous, beautiful, and out going woman and your dad and I are very, very proud of you. I wish I could be with you on this very special day to give you a huge hug and a kiss and tell you how very much you mean to me. I look forward to watching you grow and learn and make a difference in this world. Never settle, always challenge yourself, be positive, smile, make a difference in the lives of others, don't forget what your knees are for and never forget who you are!

with love and adoration, always!
HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY!!!
mom

Chelsie's 21st Birthday - The Details...

we celebrated chelsie's 21st birthday this weekend.
i can't believe she's going to be {twenty-one}...wow!

nana & pa let us host the party at their home (our soon-to-be home) and i'm so thankful they did! the kids had a GREAT time and i'll share the fun times in another post.

i wanted to keep with her favorite colors. aqua, black and white. i used fabric scraps from last years birthday quilt to make the pennants. i thought it would be fun for her to keep them and use them in her bedroom.



i LOVE these cake stands that i borrowed from a friend. she got them a while ago at costco.
love them!



i made two versions of the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake.
if you haven't made them, you must! they are a HUGE hit!
i found the {happy birthday} printable here and the cupcake liners at michaels.

in keeping with the pennant idea, i made a mini version to top the pineapple bundt cake.
to make the pennants, i cut triangles from 1 1/2" squares of scrap papers, threaded string or bakers twine using a running stitch and tied each end to a bamboo skewer. super easy and oh so cute.

for the centerpiece i gathered tulle by threading a thin ribbon through it and tied it around the base of hurricane lamp. i would've like to have embellished it more but ran out of time.

i always enjoy the decorating part of parties, but this time i REALLY enjoyed the party. i'll share why a little later.

The Party

we held the party at our {soon-2-B} home...
i was so happy that inka offered, i looked forward to having a pool, fireplace, and a game room to entertain the many children. it's always one of the worst part of any party for me. chelsie wanted a party with family and our closest friends and that's what she got.



we had many human and canine guests! i'm pretty sure that the humans had just as much fun as the canines! although the pooches were a bit concerned about their humans wading in such a large amount of water. there was a lot of whining going on...

did you know that my children {the younger ones} had never swam at night. it's the little things! and speaking of night, once the sun went down, shawn broke out the smores. dave and inka had a fireplace area put in several years ago and it has never been used, until now. it was great, and we look forward to many evenings by the fire.



at one point in the evening, i was feeding the baby and listening to all the laughter that was going on outside and was overwhelmed with emotion. it's not that i'm not excited to move or grateful for the opportunity to live in a much bigger home, it's just that i'm a creature of habit, not much for change and moving stresses me out. but as i listened to the kids, it was clear that this is where we need to be. it was wonderful to listen to the kids, oldest to youngest, enjoying themselves, wanting to be there and not excited when it came time to leave. i am looking forward to making many memories with family and friends and having a place that the kids want to be. i am grateful and i am looking forward moving and tucking my babies in to bed when they have clearly had enough...



my darling daughter's actual birthday is coming up this week...i can't believe she's going to be 21.
thanks everyone for celebrating this wonderful occasion with us and making her feel special! we love you ALL!!!

All My Children

with all my kids under the same roof and dressed in their sunday best {except nolan} i MADE them {sinking heels, infectious eyeballs and all} gather for a group photo...

funny conversation that morning...
masyn, "sissy, you look pretty"
sissy, "thanks masyn."

masyn, "you look like a grown up"
sissy & me *chuckle*

yes. sissy, you do look like a grown up. when did THAT happen and how come no one asked if it was ok with me?!

College Roomies...

i stole pictures off chelsie's facebook page to share with you because she is clearly neglecting her blog...a'hem!!!
so to update you all, she's still in utah. working now and taking online classes. she got a job at huge scrapbooking company and is climbing the corporate ladder, so to speak...

here are some pictures of her and her roomies doing who knows what...

although here, i know they were hiking and having a great time!
love you puter, so proud of you and your hard work!

The Girls of Room One

came to visit us for halloween.
it was the first time sissy has brought her friends home from college and it was a treat!

i LOVED having all the girls here and enjoyed each of them, bob enjoyed having people to make breakfast for, the younger kids couldn't get enough of their attention and bub...well, let's just say that for a teenage boy it was probably fun having 5 girls (very cute girls) in his home!

dear katie, aubrey, heidi and chelsea,
you are all GREAT girls and we loved having you,
please know that you are welcome any time.
we'll leave a light on...

Summer '09

because i'm so behind on my posts,
i'm takin' the easy route...

here's our summer in a nutshell...

1. much time was spent getting sissy ready to move. bob taught her 'car essentials' and let's just say changing the tires took longer than it should. right puter!

2. i spent a lot of time making lists and more lists, losing lists, and finally getting a notebook to contain my lists of all the things she would need in her new place. so far i haven't heard that we forgot anything so that's a good sign.

3. bob became a gardner, who knew! in addition to the fabulous square foot gardens he planted in the backyard (which was suppose to be bub's duty to god project...ahem!!!) he also planted pumpkin, watermelon, and several sunflowers in the front yard which have now turned into a forest! he's so proud!!! (rightfully so, honey!!! the pumpkins are huge, yes i looked at them today.)

4. speaking of bob and his garden, he is harvesting his first radishes! yum!

5. my step mom took my sister and i and our girls to go see wicked. if you haven't seen it, you must! if you can't, read the book. but let me warn you...the book is 'r' rated. the play is not, but there were a few parts in the book where i just skipped some paragraphs. but don't let that deter you, it is a FABULOUS story!!! you'll LOVE it!

and last but CERTAINLY not least!

6. the little princess learned to swim! finally. i've tried for the last couple summers to take swim lessons and have met with so much resistance that i gave in. this year she had no choice. we had a few moments before we got there, but once we did she was great and was swimming in two days! way to go bug!

hope your summer was a good one!

A Spray Tan Update...

as you can see, it all worked out. the spray tan ended up just swell!
although, the hands and the underarms...
not so good. just sayin'
the photo shoot went really well. i was happy with my "make shift" back drop
and i got some really good photos of the two queenies.

i even was able to get some good pictures of my kids.
it's a VERY rare occurence to grab a photo of bub.

the little princess stood so patiently next to me as i took the photos.
she was so cute watching the girls, all dressed up, getting their picture taken.
she must have told them a hundred times how pretty they were.

i love this picture. she just couldn't take it anymore, she had to give her sissy a hug.

perfect photo opp.
lots of fun...

"WHAT THE HECK

DID YOU DO?!?!"
i exclaimed as my oldest walked through the door last night!

the little princess was HORRIFIED as she said, "sissy, you don't look so pretty anymore!" i laughed!!!

she looked like a chimney sweep, from mary poppins...

but come to find out, she went to the tanning salon for a spray tan.
her "reign" as queen is coming to an end shortly and she has pictures and events and what nots that she must look "good" for.
oh i hope when she showers it looks better.
apparently, (i've never done this...nor has she...) you have to wait 12 hours before you can shower and in the mean time, you look hysterical!!!
these pictures were taken this morning (you should've seen her last night, YIKES!!!) and as i write this post, she is showering and hopefully (fingers crossed) it looks good. i'm worried.

and i was wondering what to post that was personal today.
thank goodness for teenagers!
i love it!

2 Hams and a Little Sister

spent a sunday afternoon baking sugar cookies for game night.

i am pretty sure they had more fun posing for pictures than making the cookies.

doesn't matter...they are super cute (and available) and the cookies were a hit.

i love you guys! nicole...glad your part of the family!