Happy Birthday to you!

As the shirt says...she is 4!!!!! We can hardly believe it. We had a wonderful day...I hope she enjoyed every second too! We had a lollipop themed birthday party. Her request was lollipop cakes that are pink with purple and purple with pink....here is my creation! They are Fabulous!!!!! So yummy!

Singing to the Birthday Girl! Alison, I hope all your wishes and dreams always come true!

I fun new beanbag for our new big girl room...fits perfectly in the reading corner.

And the big gift of the day, Molly...an American Girl. Molly was a gift to Mommy when Mommy was about 10 years old, she was very well loved and now passed down to Alison from Meme and Papa. What an awesome gift!

Birthday Eve fun!

We always let Alison pick a special activity to do for her birthday, just Mommy, Daddy, and Alison. This year we had her pick out something to do on Friday night since Sat. night we'd have friends and family over for the P-A-R-T-Y!!!
She chose Monkey Joe's.....she ran/jumped/slipped/and slid for a full hour. She loves that place and is finally at an age where she can do everything by herself, we were only allowed to watch :(
She topped off her evening with dinner at her favorite restaurant, Panera Bread. Alison claims they have the best mac n cheese EVER!
We had a great night celebrating our special girl!




Disclaimer: yes, she is in her pajamas....we had jammy day at Strollerfit that day and she asked very politely to stay in them all day, how could I not oblige?!

Annual Cookie Day

Every year my mom hosts an annual Cookie Day. We all get together, baked Christmas sugar cutouts and then decorate. This year, we shortened the process and only did decorating. The kids get un-interested pretty quickly :) The gang---Sheryl, Becki, Kitty, Great Meme, Courtney, Izi, Gabi, and Alison

The ladies....enjoying a warm and fuzzy hot chocolate!

Meme and Alison in the midst of decorating!!!

My mom also purchased a gingerbread house kit this year....as you can tell from the pic...did not go well. Yes, we are holding it together with large cans, the icing is running, and the candy isn't sticking. Next year we are forgoing the icing and using epoxy glue...it just might stay together that way! Izi and Ali were real troopers though and were big helpers!!!

I always LOVE this day and look forward to it every year. Thank you Mom for hosting!

I ate a fly....oh wait, Shutterfly (did that catch your attention)?!

So, I have always used Snapfish for my online photo needs...storing photos, prints, gifts, and Christmas cards. Well I was very excited to hear this year about Shutterfly's Christmas card collection. For one, I am LOVING the new cardstock Christmas cards and both Snapfish and Shutterfly have them. BUT...Shutterfly (in my opinion) has much cuter designs and the price is better...who doesn't love that??? Here are a few that I love....wrapped up, retro, snowflakes. I think I'll have a hard time deciding b/c they are SO stinkin' cute!
Shutterfly has so many other options also...birth announcements, you can even combine a birth announcement and a Christmas card...how neat is that!!!! We have gotten one of our grandma's a calendar before...I mean what grandma does not LOVE looking at their adorable little grandchildren's faces everyday, every month?! The flat photo cards are also another great option that they have...you can use them for thank you cards, Christmas cards, birthday invites..I mean the possibilities are endless!!! I love that you can sort the cards by color!
I am excited to start using Shutterfly for my online photo needs. I hope that I have convinced you that they are a great product. But just in case my post hasn't....maybe if you knew that they were giving away 50 free Christmas cards...yes, I said 50...you just might be interested!!!! All you have to do is a blog posting of why you like/use/are going to use Shutterfly and the 50 cards are yours! I'm thankful for a friend that showed me this promo...now I'm showing you! You are welcome!!! So go ahead and follow the link, submit the form, blog, and enjoy your free cards!!!

I thought I had nothing to post about but.....

then I found these adorable pics on my camera....hello cuteness!!!! She got all "dolled" up for Strollerfit one morning and I couldn't help but capture a picture. From the gigantic hair flower, to the cute dress, and the killer boots....what an outfit!! and then I found these special little photos....clearly another sign that Mom was either working or sleeping....they have WAY to much fun together!!!

I'm pretty sure these were post-swimming moments! Captured...forever!!!