JCrew Halloween 2008

We had a great time Halloween night! All the girls were witches and Julian was "The Executioner". The JCrew went Trick or Treating with our friends Kyra and Kiersten and we heard over and over again "WOW sooooo many witches" (if they only knew the half of it LOL!) The kids were loaded down with candy and were so exhausted by the end of the night! Here are the pictures...

Jen & Kyra

Julian, Jula & Jen

All the witches (minus Jula)

Party Princess Style

Jada wanted a Princess themed party with her favorite princess Sleeping Beauty. Here's a slideshow of the festivities:

Jada's 5 today!

I can't believe my little bundle of joy is 5 today!

It's always a very emotional day for me because I remember what we went through to get Jada here safe and sound. Every year it does get a little easier, especially when I see that she is a healthy, happy little girl that loves Sleepy Beauty!!

Happy 5th Birthday Jada Bean! We love you!!!

Princess Jada

From curly to straight!

I caved to daughter pressure and straightened her hair. I was amazed at how long it has gotten...you can never tell with all her curls!
It's a royal PAIN to keep up with but it makes her VERY happy! How can I resist?
Tonight I had to do Jada's...I'll get a picture of her tomorrow to share. Her hair texture is different from Janea's and I was surprised at how great it turned out...now, the million dollar question is "how long will it last?"

NC is soooo humid which is not good for curly hair! Humidity=frizz!

Family Pictures - the Slideshow!

I finally organized the pics and here's the slideshow of the best shots!

Today was family picture day!

Well, we've been planning this day for months! Every year we do a family picture, usually in the fall so that we can send out with our holiday cards. I start planning WAY in advance because I have to coordinate everyones outfit to make sure they match perfectly. Last year I drove my co-worker crazy by asking her opinion on the different sweaters I found LOL! This year I got started super early because I found these adorable dresses in the Easter collection...well turns out they didn't have in everyones size so I bought one for Jada and decided to work around it. I went back and forth with the colors but we finally decided on Black and White. One weekend we were at a local mall and I found a black dress for Janea and a white one for Jula. The next store I found a black and white one for me! PERFECTION! I was so excited!!

So, I scheduled the appointment for today at 2:30pm to work around Jula's nap. We figured she'd be in a semi-nice mood in the afternoon and hopes for a semi-nice picture!

We spent the morning prepping for pics which means washing hair and ironing clothes. In the midst of it all Jula falls and hits the side of her face leaving a bruise...we tried SO hard to keep that from happening all week! Then Jula goes down for her nap around 10am. About 10:45am we hear her still playing and I start to wonder if she'll ever go to sleep. A few minutes later she knocked on the door...WHAT?! She knocked? As in, she climbed out of her bed?! YES! She got out of her bed. We put her back in and she immediately threw her foot up, pushed off the other and turned over the side like a little pro!

After that, getting her to take a nap was a HUGE fight! I was so aggravated because I knew if she didn't sleep she would be a complete monster later. I think she finally settled down around 12! Julian was ironing her dress and found a big huge spot on it! I was ready to lose it...nothing was going as planned and at this rate I didn't expect a picture at all!

Miraculously we got everyone out the door at 2pm and arrived on time at 2:30. When we got there it was crowded but we only waited for a few minutes and then they took us. Sure enough Jula was a monster. Since I couldn't drink I just sat there and laughed! We also bribed with tons of cookies and it worked as much as it could. The thing about Jula is that if she doesn't want to do it she won't, no matter what. The girls who were working busted their asses to get a few good shots and I have to admit they succeeded which is why I'm a returning customer!

Thankfully we only do this once a year!!!! In my opinion all the pain was worth it! We look great in pictures! LOL!

Here are some of the outtakes LOL!!! Enjoy!

Ready for Fall!

Saturday the JCrew took the annual pilgrimage to the local Farmers Market to pick out pumpkins. Tradition is that everyone wears black or a Halloween shirt, then the girls pose in the middle of the pumpkins and we beg for a nice picture. It's always a challenge and we did have a few meltdowns but below are the pictures we took.

Amber - thanks for the AWESOME BOW! I love it!!!

I went a little overboard with everything but I was happy with the end result (check out the little pumpkins and our baby birch tree!). We are definitely ready for the season! Now if the weather would get cooler we'll be set! Below are pics of the outside of the house...I am so happy with my fall mums!

Breakfast for Dinner!

Imagine the kids surprise when they learned we were having Breakfast for Dinner! Waffles and Bacon - yum, yum! I even took it a step further and treated them to strawberry syrup, chocolate syrup and whip cream! Of course the cooking took forever since I only have a 2 slot waffle maker LOL but it was completely worth it.

When I finally sat down to eat I had the bartender whip me up an OJ special...ah, it was lovely!!

I knew this would happen!

This is my exact fear come true. My fear was that life would get too hectic, too crazy for me to blog! I tried so hard to stay on top of it but I swear there are not enough hours in the day!

So here's a recap of the latest JCrew events:

• Janea started Cheerleading class and I forgot the camera at home. Hopefully we'll take pics this weekend.
• Last weekend we got in way over our heads when I was determined to find a tree and plant it. That project took ALL of Sunday to complete!
• We are getting ready for FALL, Jada's 5th Birthday, Halloween, Jen's weekend away and the holidays!! SO MUCH FUN!
• This is for Pam: I wore a SKIRT to work yesterday!!!! I thought about you and laughed to myself. I meant to take a picture but I didn't get home until 6pm and it slipped my mind.
• Work has been super crazy for me and I have no time to do anything other than work LOL! So not fair! I am "working from home" the next 2 days and I have so many projects lined up but I don't know if I'll get to them since I really have to work! I won't complain too much...it's exciting stuff!

Hopefully I'll be back in a few days to share some more JCrew excitement!