Happy Birthday Emma Catherine

I can't believe that Emma Catherine turned 5 today.  More than any birthday she's had so far, I have been so sentimental.  I think that in my mind, 5 years old was always far away, but now I realize that kindergarten is just around the corner.  It doesn't feel like it's time.  She's changing right before my eyes, and I love her to death.

Today she had school and after lunch, I brought cupcakes for her to share with her class.  She picked out the cupcakes she wanted...orange and blue.  Pink is her favorite color so I asked if she wanted pink but she would hear nothing of it.  She had her mind set on orange and blue cupcakes for Auburn.  (We were so proud.) 

For dinner she wanted to go to CiCi's pizza and then we can home for a Belle cake and a few presents.  I thought it was funny that she wanted to know why she doesn't start kindergarten tomorrow.  We've always talked about that you go to kindergarten when you turn 5, so she's ready to start now.  I just think she's too cute.  Of course, I'm her mom. 

It was a good day for all of us, although the real fun begins tomorrow when we leave for Disney World.  We are going to celebrate both girls' birthdays, which is their main present this year.

Easy Bake Oven

For Christmas my aunt got Emma Catherine an Easy Bake Oven and today we finally used it for the first time.  Emma Catherine was excited about it and has been asking to use it for a week. 

When we took it out of the oven the first time, it didn't really seem to be cooked all the way.  I think it was my fault because I put in 2 packets of cake mix because one packet didn't look like much at all.  I put it back in the oven, but I thought it was hard because I couldn't see the cake so I wasn't really sure when it was done.  I finally just took it out and went with it.  It looked like this (pre-icing).

Not quite perfect but I think we'll get better at it next time.  She didn't seem to mind anyway, especially once she iced it and then ate it.

She even decided on her own to save a little for her sister. 

Down to One

Yes, hooray, we are now the owners of only 1 house.  Praise the Lord, and I mean that sincerely.  We have finally sold our home in Chattanooga.  When we decided to move to Birmingham in August even though we hadn't sold our house is Chattanooga, we knew it might be hard, but we felt that it was the best decision for our family.   We still feel that way but are definitely glad the house sold.

This weekend we went to Chattanooga to close on our house.  We met the sweet family who bought our house and also spent time with some friends and old neighbors.  We loved our house there so much so we were glad that this couple was excited to be moving in.  They have a 14 month old and a month old, bless them. 

I absolutely never go anywhere without my camera and about 30 minutes down the road on Friday I realized that I had forgotten it....man.  I hate missing memories, especially because it was such a fun weekend.  After the closing, we took the girls bowling with our best friends and their 2 boys.  It was a brand new bowling alley, so not smokey at all.  It was a little crazy but fun.  On Saturday we went to visit our neighbors and also saw the couple moving into our old house.  We then hung out with our best friends again and then we to dinner with Emma Catherine's best friend's family (friends of Ryan and mine as well).  I was worried about the girls having a hard time going back to Chattanooga and then coming home, but they haven't missed a beat.

Since I don't have any pictures of the weekend, I'll post a picture I never got around to posting.  This is the girls posing when they go their new boots. 

We Won!

I am in such disbelief.  We are the National Champs.  Auburn won the game.  I will admit that I shed tears as Wes Byrum's field goal went through the uprights.  As I said earlier I love Auburn and am so proud to be an Auburn Tiger. 

National Championship

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about the National Championship game tonight.  I love Auburn with all my heart and I'm so glad to see something so special happen to our school.  If you didn't go to Auburn then it's hard to describe the feeling of family that we have.  It is a special and unique place that I will forever be grateful for.  I met my husband there, my best friends there, and I grew in my relationship with the Lord by leaps and bounds. 
I have no family history with Auburn and I originally looked at Auburn because they had a gymnastics program and it wouldn't be too far from home.  My parents took me to look at Auburn my junior year in high school and when we stepped on campus I knew it was a special place.  At one point as we were walking through campus, I looked at my mom and said, "Even if gymnastics doesn't work out, I think this is where I want to go."  My mom knew Auburn was the place because I had never even entertained the idea of not doing gymnastics in college.  Needless to say, I broke my foot in my junior year and could never really get over it and ended up stopping gymnastics in the summer before my senior year.  On the first day of my senior year, I applied to the one and only college I wanted to go to...Auburn.  After that I never looked back.  Not to say that everything was perfect while I was there but it was wonderful.  I was so excited when my sister decided to go to Auburn because now we could share that special bond. 
Ryan and I both love college football and never miss watching an Auburn game on TV and we try to make at least one game a season.  I was a freshmen at Auburn the same year Tommy Tubberville came.  We definitely went through so rebuilding years while I was there but Tommy put our program back on the map and he also put spiritual emphasis in the program.  He hired Chette Williams to be one of the first full time football chaplains in the nation, and that is a legacy that continues today.  They started Friday night prayer meetings for the team on nights before games and that has continued with one being held last night.  Louie Giglio was even there with them.  What a special team and a special place Auburn is.  I admit that I was skeptical when Gene Chizik was hired but I am skeptical no more.  When I watched the first episode of Auburn Tigers Everyday last year, I knew he was the right man for the job.    Auburn I love you and good luck!  You deserve the win, take it! 
p.s. We are ALL IN!

Sewing

One thing that I have wanted to do for awhile is to learn to sew.  In fact last Christmas (2009) I asked Ryan to get me a starter sewing machine as a present, which he did.  Unfortunately the machine sat in the box until November of this year almost a year later.  In my defense, we did have a quite an unusual year with Ryan starting a new job, living apart for 6 months, and then moving, but none-the-less I never took any time to look for lessons.  When we moved to Birmingham, I knew I wanted to make that a priority and I did.  After searching numerous sewing stores, I found a lady who teaches private lesson for a reasonable price.  In November I took my first set of 3 lessons.  Since I knew nothing about sewing, we had to start from the beginning and then I sewed my first pair of ruffled pants for Bailey.  The feeling of making something for my girls to wear that was reasonably priced and cute was so exciting for me.  I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would.  My teacher helped me cut out the pattern for Emma Catherine's pants and then I sewed hers all by myself at home.  I definitely had a few frustrating moments of not remembering a few of the steps, but after a couple of calls to my  mom, I completed her pants.  They are not perfect by any means, and I still have a ton to learn but they are wearable and I made them.  The pants look like this:

My mom is going to applique a shirt for them to wear with the pants and they will be ready to go.  I hope to continue sewing and I am definitely going to take more lessons and I hope to post new projects along the way.

As a side note, I am going to try to post more this year about our day to day life.  I have tended to get behind and then just post on the bigger events that we have had going on, but honestly, I want this blog to reflect our day to day life also.  We'll see how it goes, but I am going to try.

Fun Florida Activities

When we are in Florida we always stay very busy and this Christmas was no exception.  One day we went to the Sailor Circus.  It is a local circus made up of 4th -12th graders.  They did all kids of acrobatic acts including the tight rope and trapeze. The girls were in awe.  During the intermission, Bailey wanted to be apart of the show.

Another day we went to Busch Gardens.  When we went back in the summer, they were giving year passes for the same price as a one day pass so we all got them.  Since they were about to expire, we wanted to use them one more time, and we were so excited that my grandpa decided to come along.  It was a fun day but VERY crowded. 

Christmas

We always spend Christmas with my family in Florida and we did this again this year.  Our family has some unusual traditions that we do every year but we think they are fun and unique.  We start by eating Olive Garden for lunch every Christmas Eve, then we go to Southgate Shopping Center, then we go to church, then we come home and take pictures, and then we make Mexican food for dinner. 

The last 2 years we have taken Emma Catherine shopping to pick out presents for everyone in the family.  We let her give the presents on Christmas Eve so they wouldn't get lost in the shuffle on Christmas day.  I took her to the dollar store and let her pick out whatever she wanted for each person.  She ended up picking out 2 presents for each person and she was very sure about each present that she picked.  We really had to keep straight faces for some of the presents such as the fake flowers she picked out for my mom and the surfer figurine she picked out for my grandpa.  Ryan and I thought the funniest thing about the surfer figurine was that on the tag it was called Tender Times, a spin off of the Precious Moments figurines.  I'm not sure that anyone else thought it was as funny as we did, but we have laughed and laughed about it.  

We then sent the girls to bed.  They were so excited and also not used to sleeping in the same room so we ended having to separate them to get them to sleep and then put them back together once they were fully asleep.  On Christmas morning we heard them talking and walked in the room to see this:

(Emma Catherine was hiding under the covers.) They ran to see what Santa brought them.  Bailey got a new big girl bike and Emma Catherine got a plasma car.

We had a great Christmas day and ended the day at the annual Christmas party we go to with some of my grandpa's life long friends.

Cookie Party

Right before we left for Florida for Christmas, we went to a cookie decorating party with some friends that we have met at church.  The girls enjoyed the decorating, although Bailey ate most of her candy before she could put it on her cookies. 

Christmas at the Causey's

We always celebrate Christmas with Ryan's family the weekend before Christmas.  It is fun because all the cousins are around the same age and they all play well together.