Happy 9th Birthday my sweet little Amy Rose!

Today is my sweet little Amy Rose's 9th Birthday! Nine years ago today, on December 6th, 1999, my life changed forever & (besides marrying the love of my life!) my sweetest dream came true when I became a MOMMY! Our precious little firstborn baby girl, Amy Rose Palmer, was born nine years ago today at 1:06 in the afternoon, she was a tiny little bundle weighing only 6 pounds even! She had beautiful blue eyes from the moment she opened them, soft light brown hair which soon after turned blond, the most adorable little button nose (a Palmer trait she got from her Daddy & a cute one, I might add!), little dimples when she yawned, smiled or laughed, a perfect tiny little baby body & a sweet, happy & content personality! I was absolutely overwhelmed with love & affection for my baby girl from the first moment I saw her......I was instantly in love! My new Mommy-heart was flooded with love for Amy & gratitude to God! I couldn't take my eyes off of my precious little Amy & I couldn't stop thanking God for His precious gift to us! We became a "family" that day, not just a "couple", something we had desired for so long! I just couldn't believe that God would bless me so richly with my new baby girl! I cried for joy for the little baby I had hoped & prayed for so long to have......& here she was, in her new Mommy's arms! Daddy cried too as he held his tiny little peanut in his big strong arms, which made me cry even more! As a new Daddy he felt an instant desire to protect his little girl which is now x 4 ! Amy is my sweet big girl, my big 9 year old! It is hard to believe how quickly she is growing & becoming a little lady right before my eyes! I am grateful to God for my sweet Amy & the joy that she brings to my heart & our family! Amy is very responsible, very tender to God & to the needs of others. She is sensitive, compassionate, caring, gentle & the most wonderful biggest big sissy to her 3 little sissies! Amy is very artistic, creative & imaginative. She can entertain herself AND her sisters for hours (an amazing blessing to Mommy!). Amy loves animals, all sports, climbing trees, art of any kind, games, imaginative play, being with her 3 little sissies & dates with Daddy & Mommy. She is very girly but also loves to run & play. I had a wonderful day blessing my Amy with all kinds of birthday treats & traditions! We had a chocolate chip pancake breakfast with candles & "Happy Birthday". She also got the rare treat of having some of Mommy's morning coffee, a peppermint mocha ~ YUM! She felt like such a BIG girl! : ) We had her favorite lunch of creamy mac & cheese, green apples & a cupcake, then we sang to her again! Amy got to play on the laptop at the Build-A-Bear website & watch a special movie this afternoon. For dinner Daddy & Mommy made Amy's favorite dinner of steak, noodles with butter & parmesan cheese, steamed broccoli, steamed corn, cream mac & cheese, rolls & again, a rare treat of Dr. Pepper to drink! Then we ate Daddy's famous peppermint mocha cupcakes and....sang to her again! (We make birthdays last in our home!) Mommy decorated in turqouise & lime green at Amy's request. She didn't want any pink this year & Mommy was actually okay with that! (I can hear your gasp of surprise : ) !) She is always so grateful & genuinely happy for anything we do for her, she is a precious little girl! We are grateful to God for our sweet 9 year old Birthday Girl! Thank you for being such a treasure to Daddy, Mommy & your 3 baby sissies! I am unendingly & forever grateful to God for that wonderful day in December nine years ago when I had my sweet little Amy Rose & my life changed forever!

HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY AMY! WE LOVE YOU BABY GIRL! : )

New Laptop : ) Yippee!

My awesomely sweet Hubby waited outside of BestBuy for Black Friday ON Thanksgiving Day, IN the COLD, ALL NIGHT LONG so that we could get a new family laptop. If you have read our blog in the past you might remember that I dropped my laptop & cracked the entire screen a few months ago! OOOOPS, very sad day! Our new laptop was such a great deal & there is no way we could have gotten a new one otherwise! So, while our 4 little sweeties, my sister, our neice & I were having a wonderful Thanksgiving Day (although we were sad without our Daddy!) in NC with my Grandparents, my man was hanging out at BestBuy for us! Just another way he gives of himself to bless, serve & provide for our family! On top of that, as soon as he got home on Friday morning after staying up all night, he had to get right on his school work! Wow, he's my hero! So, I am HAPPY to say that I now have a laptop that works & I can get back to faithfully blogging! Our new laptop has a really cool feature, I can just put my digital picture card right into the side of the laptop instead of the little picture downloader thingy I used to have to fiddle with! Maybe that's not new but it's really cool to me & as we all know, I'm NOT very technicologically (is that a word ~ I never know!) savvy! So, get ready for LOTS of pictures & blogging to come! I've missed blogging about my favorite things ~ God, my Hubby & my 4 little girlies! I can't wait to share all the great pictures we've taken over the past few weeks & when my sister was here. I gotta run make lunch for my babes but I'll be back later to work on my pictures......SMILE! : )

My Big Sister & my little Niecie : )

My sister, Emily & my sweet little niecie Maya are here visiting us from Germany for two weeks. We are having SO much fun together! Our girls are loving it too ~ I think they anticipated Auntie & Maya coming as much as I did! : ) We have had lots of time just to hang out, play & shop. We have a double stroller so we have been using it for Ava & Maya & they look like little twins! They are only 7 weeks apart, ~ Maya is 17 months & Ava is 15 months. They are both petitie & they look very much alike with blue eyes & blond hair. They are both doing & saying the same things so it's really fun to watch them together. They play very well together aside from the occasional & very to-be-expected moments of grabbing toys from each other & then squealing back at each other! Even though we know it is sinful (& of course we are helping them), it's really cute watching them interact & "work through" their little baby issues ~ so sweet! I love to see them hug & love on each other! Since our big girls love their little Ava & are so good at taking care of her, they have done great with loving Maya too & have brought her right into their little girl club! I tell you, there are a buncha little girlies over here ~ I LOVE IT! I just really love having my sister around! So fun to sit & talk while drinking our morning coffee & watching our little ones play, walking (even aimlessly) around Target or Walmart & just BEING together! We are going tomorrow to have a pedicure together for my birthday & then on Sunday we are going to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra Christmas concert together then Randal & our girls will meet us for dinner. My kind & very awesome Hubby is going to watch all 5 of our precious little girlies for our pedicure & the orchestra ~ what an awesome man I have! : ) Emily is my only sister & we are very close. I am already fighting back tears as I think of her leaving for Germany for another 3 years next week! Hopefully God will allow us to be together again before too long! We still have plans for lots more shopping this weekend & next week. Since Emily & her family have been in Germany for a year, she hasn't been able to go to Target, Walmart, Old Navy & the Mall in what seems like forever to her! : ) She is very happy about being able to do all of her Christmas shopping while in the States! My little girls are AWESOME shoppers & they love being Mommy's & Auntie's little helpers so they are having so much fun too! They help us shop but they spend most of their time playing with, entertaining & "taking care of" the babies ~ which, of course, they absolutely LOVE! My Hubby has the next few days off so we can all do some fun things together, we are all very excited about Daddy being around with us too! My sister is a wonderful wife & mommy ~ it has been fun watching her "mommy" her little girl up close since we've been apart for the past 15 years! She is the kind of person you just want to be with, I look up to, love & respect my big sister! We have already taken LOTS of pictures so I will be posting some very soon ~ hopefully tomorrow! I just can't keep my camera off of my little cutie pies + 1 !

Abby's Big Girl Date with Daddy!

Daddy & Abby went on a special "big girl" date on Saturday! They both wanted to wear light blue & denim to match ~ so cute! She was so happy & felt so special going on a date with Daddy all by herself! Abby got to ride in Daddy's car (which is a very special treat!), get a snack while they were out, go look at toys at Target & go pick out a movie to rent! Very exciting to a precious little 4 year old! Abby was also very excited that "Mommy let me NOT wear bows in my hair!" : ) (also, VERY exciting!) She loved holding hands with Daddy as they walked through Target. : ) (How sweet is that!) Abby's little face was just glowing & she had a sweet sparkle in her eyes when they got home! What is cuter than a Daddy out with his little girlie ~ so precious! We love our sweet little Abby Kate! : )

Our Girlies at the Pumpkin Patch!

Our girls had so much fun at the pumpkin patch & Mommy loved watching them! They were so cute & worked really hard to find our "family" pumpkins! God has been so good to us ~ we love our 4 little pumpkins so much! : )

Our little dancing Ava!

One day my girls & I were watching a little show & Ava LOVED the song they were singing about dancing! She was getting all excited, dancing & stomping her little feet ~ it was so stinkin cute! Ava had just turned 1 year old in this video. You go Girl! : ) (Notice that Ava is still in her cute little jammies ~ it was kinda early in the morning! Also notice all the Cheerios on the floor?!)

Abby & Mommy's MIDNIGHT, candlelight, coloring & ice cream sundae party!

I thought it would be sweet & a lot of fun for just Abby & Mommy to spend some special time together. With Daddy's busy work & school schedule it is nearly impossible to have individual "dates" with my girlies during the week. So, one night last week I got the ice cream sundae stuff & the coloring books & crayons out & lit some candles. I woke up my little sleepy head & carried Abby down the stairs into the kitchen. (My girls have a fascination with midnight! They "know" that only BIG girls stay up til midnight!) So, I told Abby we were having a special time for just us & that it was MIDNIGHT! She was so cute & super happy! We made our yummy ice cream sundaes (Abby made Mommy's too!) & then we colored together. (I LOVE coloring (so do my girls!)! There is something "therapeutic" about sitting down with a box of sharp crayons & a coloring book ~ so relaxing! ) It was absolutely precious to talk to Abby, hear what's going on in her sweet little heart, tell her how much I love her, giggle together & just hear her talk in all her 4 year old CUTENESS! : ) When I saw how happy Abby was it made me realize how special it is to our girls when they are able to spend a little special individual time with us. They LOVE their sissies & they are all best little girlfriends, but they do love being with just Daddy & Mommy too! I can't believe my Abby Kate "Cakes" will be 5 in January ~ she is becoming such a big girl! I thank God for my sweet little Abby! : )