Emma has been asking for quite some time if I would take her to get a perm. This last Saturday was the day. I took her to my friend Amber's house. It was nice to hang out with she and her family for a few hours instead of at a salon. It was also nice to be there because Emma's sensitive skin reacted to the chemicals in the perm. Amber had to rinse the perm out early because Emma had started to develop large welts. Her eye and eyebrow have been a little sore but she swears she loves it so much that one day when the perm is out she will be going back for another. Sometimes we sacrifice pain for beauty! She does look beautiful.

Better Than Christmas

Apparently the love of vacuums is hereditary. It has been passed from my mother to me and right to Jake. Before he was two he would place his toy vacuum next to him as he slept. When we go to stores, his reward for good behavior is often a few minutes in the vacuum aisle. Seriously.

Jake has moved on from the toy vacuum and much prefers the real deal. He has a talent for making beautiful tracks in the carpet. For quite sometime I have been looking for a new vacuum. Oh the joy Jake and I felt the day we came across a DYSON that was compatible with our carpet!

After much research I loaded up the kiddos to go to Walmart to purchase, only to find out it is an online order item. Jake was very understanding--until it took two weeks to get here. He passed the time by watching countless online videos all about the Dyson Animal DC28. Soon he was using the old vacuum to reenact what he was learning online. Hilarious. He really is quite the informed consumer.

His excitement has been contagious. The twins are also thrilled with our purchase.

I think he may be an engineer one day.

Celebrating a Decade!

Yesterday was Annie's favorite day of the year--her birthday! I thought it would be fun for Annie's tenth birthday to list ten fun facts about her:

1. Just before Annie was born her great Aunt Claris made her a blanket. She was just an infant when we realized she was in love with the blanket. Well before she was a year old she named the blankie Mynomy and to this day cannot sleep without it.

2. There may never have existed a sister in love with a baby brother as Annie is with Justin. She affectionately refers to him as Duhdin and can hardly keep her eyes in focus when she is around him. He really is that cute.

3. Annie has washboard abs. She is tough. She hates that she does so well in PE, but she just can't help it and would never consider not trying just to be mediocre. She finds great joy and success in gymnastics and will NOT do any other sport thank you very much.

4. Oh boy does Annie love music! Her ipod is among her most prized possessions and we refer to Annie as our family DJ as she keeps the car thumpin' as we make our way here there and everywhere.

5. As much as she would like to keep her room clean, she just can't. She is very sweet to thank me for finding her room under all the layers of chaos when I clean up after her.

6. Emma is Annie's best friend/worst enemy.

7. Annie loves clothes and putting together her outfits. Caution: this is VERY time consuming.

8. Another word of caution: NEVER let Annie get too hungry. It is disastrous.

9. This has been a year of great successes for Annie. She is doing so well in Math (hooray!) and in all of school, in gymnastics, in piano, and is in a very happy place.

10. Annie requires very little sleep. Fortunately she likes to read and will often spend well over an hour (sometimes two) enjoying a book before she finally goes to sleep.

Very unlike herself, Emma was feeling a little jealous of Annie. Annie got some cash from Grandma Amy and Emma's bottom lip hit the floor.

As Annie turns ten, I have been reflecting on the fact that 10 years ago we became parents. So much has happened in ten years. When we brought sweet little Annie Jo home, we never thought in so short a time this would be us:

Annie's Party

Annie is turning ten this week. On Friday the kids were out of school and we decided it would be a good day to have her party. She invited five friends and wanted a "peace sign" theme. Annie knew exactly what she wanted to do.

I'll start with with biggest hit of the day...

THE CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN

Annie wanted a cake in the shape of the number 10, with the zero a peace sign.

She stayed up well past midnight with me making sure it was perfect....and no one ate any! They were too busy dipping their fruit, pretzels, cookies, and faces in chocolate!

We also made pizzas and decorated t-shirts.

Annie has a very cute and fun group of friends. It was a blast spending the afternoon giggling with them.