Melissa's Ear Piercing

Melissa is a TROOPER!! My mom, sisters, daughters and I went out for a Girl's Night (with Evan too) and took Melissa to get her ears pierced at Claires at the mall. She was SO brave! This is how it went down... Last week she told Ray that she was ready to get her ears pierced. We have been telling her for years that she could get her ears pierced as soon as she understood that it was really going to hurt and she was okay with that. So, she FINALLY told us she was ready and could handle the pain so we jumped on it. We attempted to take her at home, but all of the places didn't offer the ear piercing service at a time that we could go, so we decided to take her during Girl's Night with my family. She was SO excited. She changed her mind 3 times about the earrings she wanted to get and finally decided on a pretty blue birthstone pair to "remind her of her wonderful birthday," as she put it. This is how it happened...

She climbed up in the chair to wait for the technician... She looks like she forgot about the pain that was about to take place!

This is her trying really hard to sit still while the technician "drew" on her ears. Still unaware of the pain she was about to feel. She was SO good and sat still during the first piercing... still unaware of the pain she was about to feel... and then it happened...

She completely froze. She put on a fake smile and held perfectly still. Her eyes welled up with tears and she wouldn't move. I saw her tears and patted her leg and she quickly wrapped both arms around my arm and would not let go. The technician asked her to turn her head to the LEFT and she quickly turned her head as far as she could to the RIGHT... and left it there. She would not turn her head back around! Eventually I picked her up and literally had to hold her arms and head so that we could pierce the other ear. She started crying SO loud! I felt like the entire mall stood still. The WONDERFUL technician pierced that second ear like the pro that she is...

When she was finally done and off of my lap she told either Chris or Laura that she thought she had earned some ice cream after all of that. I agreed.

This is the happy her with her new earrings. You can still see the purple under the earrings in this picture from the marker. She is a real trooper!!

Kayla's Earrings

When we took Melissa to get her ears pierced Kayla had every intention of getting her ears pierced too... she quickly changed her mind when she saw how traumatizing it was and settled for these really cute ladybug clip on earrings. Isn't she cute??

Camping in the Back Yard

We finally did it! Ray camped outside in the tent ALL night with the girls! They LOVED it! July 4th we decided to celebrate with a Daddy-Daughter camping trip to the back yard. We spent the evening with some friends from church and came home to light some sparklers. This was quite a change for our family as we usually have a party at our house and shoot heaps and heaps of fireworks... this year was pretty low-key for us, it was nice. When we got home Ray pulled the air mattress outside and he and the girls spent the evening telling stories and being goofy until they finally drifted to sleep. Around midnight Kayla started crying REALLY loud and Ray brought her inside to me because she was waking the neighbors. They had SO much fun and can hardly wait to do it again! Life is good!

Mommy's Birthday

I cannot believe I am 33 years old. Seriously, when did I get so old? Now that I have children it seems like the time is going by faster and faster! Ray helped the girls make me this beautiful carousel cake. The horses are magnets and I am completely in love with them. Over the past 4 years the girls have broken all of my magnets so they decided to make me some more. I have very thoughtful children. By 10AM they had sung Happy Birthday to me at least 9 times and spent the rest of the day reminded one another to be good since it was "Mommy's Birthday." They are too cute! Thanks for the wonderful day, Family!