and they meet...

smoke has a new sister

it was touch and go with some growling and hissing (from smoke)

he followed her around just "looking" at her

a few bites here and there

but i think she's growing on him

this is how i found them the other day

and even though i gave her a soft blanket to sleep on she insists on making her bed on my running shoes

 

we love the newest member of our family--jazmine!

10

my 10 year old and her birthday kitty--jazmine!!!

since she is soo into kitty's right now she chose to have a kitty cake

she baked it and decorated it on her own.

i helped "build" the kitty 

can hardly believe it's been 10 years since i became a mom

we had no idea she was a girl.

her name would have been kye if she were a boy 

she invited ellie, kendall and ayden to spend the night and go swimming

they finally went to bed around 1:30

 

sam made pancakes for breakfast

 she was pretty tired the next day,

 but not too tired to pick up her new kitten

 happy birthday to my kitty lovin sofie

a week without sofie

we sent sofie off to church camp for a week
(i love sofie's face in this photo)

her good buddies kendall, ayden, and ellie also went and she

invited our neighbor girl kyndra

.

while she was gone i worked like a dog making some changes in her room.

i will post photos when it is complete

it was a hot week and the cabins are not air conditioned.

thankgoodness they had lots of pool time

sofie had a great week and can't wait for next year!

me either!!!!!

library fun

the kids entered the reading program's at 2 local libraries

lia is totally into the reading hour on monday mornings

our new london library had this awesome balloon 

story-telling guy come a few weeks ago

he made costumes out of balloons and had the kids act out stories

while wearing them

i wasn't surprised at all when the girls volunteered

but then, while asking for volunteers for the last story, kye raised his hand

it was maybe the cutest thing i have ever seen with my 2 eyes.

sofie kept looking back at me with a big smile while he said his lines

a proud moment for this mama

a new look

i surprised the girls a couple weeks ago with haircuts and
 let them choose a fun hairpiece

lia chose a bright blue one and kept it in her hair for about 4 hours.

it bugged her so much that sam ended up cutting it out

sof chose a green one.

she loves it

she also got several inches cut off

4th of july

we celebrated the 4th at our usual destination--my dad's cabin.
we spent a great deal of the day in the pool.
it was close to 100 that day.
my dad hosted a cook-out and fireworks that night.
was fun catching up with great aunts, uncles, my grandma and cousins.
here's some photos from the day

dates with sofie

8 great dates for mom's and daughters

sofie and i are reading through this book together

we just had date #1

special times with my oldest daughter

teaching her how special and perfect God made her

my prayer for her is that she will grow to be a confident woman 

who loves God and people

i look forward to watching her grow

it's gonna be so fun (when i'm not pulling my hair out)