Happy Birthday Jesus!

One of our family traditions is celebrating Jesus' birthday.  We bake cupcakes, sing "Happy Birthday," and open one birthday present (new pajamas).  We normally do this on Christmas Eve, but we were running a little behind, so we did it yesterday.  Raleigh was such a great helper.  We have a video of her singing and telling baby Jesus, "Happy day, Jesus!!"  As soon as we can get that uploaded we will.

Raleigh helping bake the cupcakes.

Miss Independent icing the cupcakes!

Choosing the right color sprinkles is a must!!!

Blowing out the candle.

Yum!!

Enjoying cupcakes with Daddy!!

Our tower of birthday cupcakes.

We scream for...Butterflies!!

One of Raleigh's presents was a game called "Elefun."  Honestly, we bought it because it would be one of the few toys that she would own that didn't make tons of noise! Ha!  The elephant blows butterflies out of its' trunk and you are supposed to catch them in your butterfly net.  Raleigh didn't get quite that far...at all.  Every time we would turn the elephant on she would say, "Here they come!!" referring to the butterflies.  She would scream, run around the room, drop her butterfly net and start fluttering her "wings" like a butterfly.  It was so funny.  After more than 30 minutes, she fell down on the floor with several butterfly nets on top of her (it is so exhausting chasing animals) and called it quits.  I have a feeling we will play another round of  elefun tomorrow!!  Here is a video of the famous butterfly catcher.

A turkey for Thanksgiving...or maybe a Halloween peacock?

 
This Halloween we needed Raleigh to be an animal from Noah's Ark (for school).  We went looking for costumes, and found several that would work.  There was the sweetest little giraffe costume that was sooo cute on her.  Our hopes of having a sweet giraffe for Halloween was quickly overturned when Raleigh girl set her eyes on the shiny, colorful peacock costume.  She was smitten!!  Until Halloween came, all she could do was talk about her peacock.  She even wanted to sleep with her costume. Ha!  We went and took some quick pictures of our precious peacock.

The precious peacock!!

Checking out that cool pumpkin.

Someone called her a chicken while we were there.  If that is the case, then she is a super cute turquoise sparkly chicken!!

If I can lift it, can we take it home??

Is there a difference between a jump and a hop?

In our world, you bet there is!!!  Allow me to explain...  if you are hopping, your feet do not come off of the ground.  Not at all....but, if you are jumping, you better believe that those feet are coming off of the ground.  If it is some good jumping, you might even scream and shout a little bit.  So funny to watch our little bunny jump!

Pink Flamingo Party

Recently the girls ministry had an event for 7th grade girls and their moms.  It was a chance for us to get to know the youngest and newest girls to the ministry and their mothers.  Plus, it is so fun!!  Everything is pink and decorated with pink flamingo's (great job Steph).  Raleigh and Clint came for a little bit.  Clint wore blue in protest, and of course RaRa looked cute.  I say the word cute, because that has become a very special word in our home lately.  Raleigh will refuse to wear anything if it is not "cute." Ha! Can you see the mess of a pretty princess that we have on our hands!!  Here are some precious pictures of RaRa:

RaRa played outside while all the girls and their moms arrived.

Check out that tutu!!! Precious!!

Flamingo's lined the sidewalk going to the front door.  Raleigh being the good host that she is, greeted every flamingo.

"Hey, how ya doing famingo?" is what she said to greet each one.

Pink Flamingo Fun!!

MUD WARS!!!

A couple of months ago, we had a big fight within the high school 380 students!!!  Not a real fight, but mud wars!!  If I had to sum it up in one word...GROSS!!!  With help from the fire department, everyone got muddy and clean (sort of).  It was so much fun!!  They do a different event like this every so often to give all high school a chance to be together (instead of their separate bible study groups) and have a lot of fun!!!

Some students got dirty...even if they didn't want to!!

Steph and some high school girls...pretty!!

Clint somehow managed to stay pretty clean!!

Some of the group after the mud

Thank you to the fire department for hosing off the kids!!

Cooking Part 2

Here is another video of Raleigh cooking.  Check out how she puts on her "surprised/scared" face!!  She makes this face all the time.  So funny to watch the many faces of chef Raleigh.

Picasso and a Parade

Lately we have had two passions around here.  Passion #1 Coloring and Passion #2 Being the center of attention.   Both of those passions have been met recently.  The 380 students was in the Prosper homecoming parade.  Raleigh, of course, wanted to ride on the float with daddy.  She had a blast!!!  She thought everyone was there for her! ha!  She waved at everyone and had so much fun with all of the kids.  Her other passion was met when we bought a new coloring book.  The girl loves her some Hello Kitty!!

Raleigh girl enjoying a little bit of Sonic!!!

She waved to all of her "fans" and played so hard that she fell asleep!!!  Sweet girl, I have no idea how she fell asleep with all that noise!

Check out that coloring book!!!  That Raleigh is so talented that she colors with both hands! Ha!!

Saying Goodbye

Less than a month ago, we sold our house!!!!  I have to admit, I was pretty sad to see this house go...it was my absolute favorite!!!  The custom deck built by my husband, the side attic to store all of our decorations, my beautiful kitchen, are just a few of the things that make my heart sad.  Compiled with the sadness is extreme happiness!!  I know that may sound odd, but selling our house was the last thing that needed to happen before we felt like we could fully feel like Dallas was our new home.  We are thrilled to feel that we no longer have to feel like we are emotionally in two places at once (and it is definitely easier on the bank account).  Soon, we are moving to a home closer to the church, which makes us very excited!!  We will be there (hopefully) for a few years while we let Dave Ramsey figure out our finances and we look for  the perfect home for our family.  During the move, Raleigh girl was with us, so keeping her entertained and out of the way was a little tricky.  At one point, we were playing with gatorade bottles ( I think that was a low point for us. ha!)

Cooking with Raleigh

Raleigh has decided that she can be a chef without any help!!!  As you can see by watching, my focus is to keep the food in the bowl, while her focus is to keep me away from the spoon!! Ha!!  It is so fun getting to cook with Raleigh!!

Mimi and Pop's visit

A while back, Mimi and Pop came to visit.  We had gotten so used to seeing my parents from when we were training for a half marathon and just being less than an hour away, that we were all going through withdrawals.  We were so thankful when they came up for the weekend.  We had a great chance to relax and also take in a football game.

Raleigh laughing with her Mimi and Pop!!

We went to Cowboys stadium to watch the Oregon State vs. TCU game.  We were definitely pulling for the beavers to win (especially the Rogers brothers)!!!

Pappy Boy!!

Lately we have seen more of Clint's dad (also known as Pappy).  We have been excited to see him, but the circumstances in which we have gotten to see him could have been better (Clint's uncle was fighting cancer).  On a side note, please pray for the Ivy family.  The loss of Roger has been very hard.
Raleigh loved seeing her Pappy!!!  She even let him watch a Mickey Mouse and Handy Manny with her (you have to be pretty special to get chosen to watch one of her special shows with her ).

Some of the many reasons Raleigh loves her Pappy Boy are:

Pappy will let her use his cell phone.  This is not allowed in our house, due to the fact that Raleigh has what we would like to call "fast, fast hands" and she is very tech savvy!!

Pappy will "hold you" (as Raleigh likes to say) anytime you want!

If you can't tell, she thinks she has him wrapped around her finger!!! Ha!!

Daddy Daughter Day

Several months ago, Clint saw that I needed some time to get things done without "special help" from Raleigh.  They left for a couple of hours and saw more and experienced more than Raleigh and I do in a week!! A day with Daddy is never dull!!

First, they went to the playground...

As you can tell, swinging is one of her favorite things!!

Next, they went on a field trip to Celina..

Raleigh showing her famous face..."Are you talking to me???"

Of course Olivia her sidekick came along!!

Finally, they visited a PINK Firetruck!!  Where in the world they found this, who knows??  Only with her dad!!Ha!

Catch Up!!

I have been informed that people are checking this blog and I need to keep this thing updated.  I'm sorry to all of you who have checked our blog and have been disappointed.  Our life has been pretty crazy lately.  I know that I always say that, but it is always true.  The blog tends to get pushed to the bottom of the list when the urgent things of life tend to creep in.  So, I will try to be more faithful, but no promises!!!!  For now, here are some updates from our lives that happened several months ago...

COOKIES!!!

One of Raleigh's new favorite words has become...cookies!!  She wakes up in the morning and requests them for breakfast.  When she is not successful in this request, she continues to ask several times every hour.  Her favorite cookie is the classic Oreo (she takes after Clint on this one), but she will eat anything resembling a cookie.  She will choose a cookie over ice cream any day of the week.  Watch out cookie monster, you may have a competitor on your hands! Ha!

Check out those lovely black teeth!!

Hello Houston!!

This summer Clint was gone about 5 weeks!!  There were some trips that we were able to go on, but for those that we couldn't, we went to Houston to spend time with Mimi and Pop.  We were able to see grandparents, check on the house, and not have to be in an apartment alone!!  We miss seeing everyone so often, but we will see everyone soon!!  Here are some of my favorite pics from our trips to Houston.

Raleigh had a great time hanging out with grandparents...can you tell she looks up to her grandpa??

Playing dress up!!

Nothing better than a zebra, pig, and cowboy hat!!!

Raleigh is a cowgirl at heart

Hanging out with Mimi

Being silly with Pop!!

Doing Aunt Na Na's makeup....so pretty!

Dancing in the rain after playing in Mimi's pool.

Pretty girl!!

And of course, hanging out with my daddy outside is my favorite!!!