Jacque is 5!

Jacque asked me the night before her birthday if we were going to wake her up singing Happy Birthday. I'm glad she asked because I had forgotten. We had done it to both Samuel and Calista, but that was months ago. So Aaron and I woke Samuel up and then we all walked into her room, singing. She pretended she was asleep during the first two rounds, but she finally sat up during the 3rd round.

After we dropped Samuel off at school, I took the girls to the store and we went birthday shopping for Jacque. I couldn't find a babysitter, so I got to take Jacque too. She told me all that she wanted was a baby doll and an umbrella, so she stayed in the cart on the next aisle over, so she didn't really see what we got. After we bought them, I told her that she wouldn't be have them until Grandma and Grandpa came around 5pm. She was disappointed, but when we got home, we saw a bunch of balloons and a sack wit tied to the doorknob. There wasn't a note, but I think it was from her Primary teacher.

Presents found on the doorknob

baby dollI love this face. I think she was excited!

Jacque getting her birthday spankings from Grandpa Baxter.
Everyone thought it looked like so much fun, that they all wanted a turn, even Ellen. I tried to get a picture of Samuel but it took my camera too long to adjust.

Thanks for coming Grandma and Grandpa. We love to see you.

I think she had a great day though. It's always fun to feel special at least one day out of the year.

Calista's Future

I got a glimpse of Calista's future today. She was having such a fun time playing in the dirt, I had to take her picture. She reminds me of a little pioneer girl, an Okie from the dust bowl era, or one of the children off of those commercials that say if you will only pay $o.05 a day then you could feed a child like her.

Sleep Over

Every now and then, we will let the kids stay up on a Friday night and watch a movie in the living room. This is actually a picture from a few months ago. We grabbed Samuel's double sized mattress and put it on the floor in the living room, made a bed out of it, and then turned out the lights and watched a movie. They happened to choose "Music Man" that night. It was a lot of fun. Ellen really enjoyed climbing all over everyone. I think we had to finally put her to bed in the bedroom so everyone else could settle down. And by the end of the movie, everyone was asleep. Jacque was the very last to fall asleep and it was within the last few minutes. The kids enjoyed sleeping in the living room, and it was nice not having to fight them to go to sleep. I must admit that Aaron and I went to sleep in our own bed that night.