New roommates

Maggie has wanted to share a bedroom with Allie since before she was born. She tried so hard to convince me to let Allie sleep in her room as a baby even offering to change her diaper in the middle of the night when I explained babies wake up a lot. Such my sweet girl that Maggie. Fast forward 2.5 years and we're finally making it happen.

I needed to find the right bed because a traditional bunk bed wouldn't work. And I wanted Allie to be potty trained as well. I started searching for beds once we were on the right track in the potty department but both have proved more difficult than originally thought. BUT here we are, moving Allie into Maggie's room and they couldn't be more excited! Maggie is ready for a roommate and Allie is ready for a big girl bed!

UPDATE 7/29: Finished moving some decor and added some pics from Allie's old room. Also swapped out the fans (8/6).  Loving this little girl room!

Cookie Baking

Each year my Aunt Rose gets together with my cousins and bakes cookies. She's done this for years, but I'm in TN, they're in St. Louis so it's not really a viable option for me to join them. I've done cookie swaps before, but always thought this sounded fun-- the joy of baking and having someone to do the baking with! So this year I finally made it a point to try and schedule this with my sister, sister-in-law and nieces/nephews.

They both loved the idea as well! It took some planning, but found a day that worked for all of us and everyone came over today. My aunt recommended we pre-make the dough, then bake everything when we get together. So we decided to each make 3 different kinds of cookie doughs, then we'd bake at my house and everyone would get to take home some of each kind!

I also wanted to make some cut out sugar cookies and royal icing for the kids to decorate cookies while we were busy baking. After going to the cookie decorating day last week, however, I decided to glean from my friend, Jessi's, wisdom of buying sugar cookies, icing and decorations. Much simpler than my original idea and the kids had just as much fun. :) Then they ran along to play!

I loved Olivia's creativity of putting making a snowman with the cookies. So cute!! I helped the kids and took pics while Tracy was mixing and in between batches of cookies in the oven. Tracy brought m&m's, red velvet & Grinch, Becca brought butterfinger & maple (which were my personal fav) and I made chocolate chip, chocolate peanut butter chip & oatmeal raisin. We each got to keep probably a dozen or so of each. This was really fun and we already talked about next year, so hopefully this will be a new tradition!!

The Big 4-0!

My sister just turned 40!! I didn't get her permission to write the blog so hopefully she's ok with it. :) I went back in forth for several months about how I wanted to put Tracy's party together. For a long time I wanted to have a surprise party the weekend of my cousin's wedding, but there were some logistical issues and some uncertainties so I had to find another way.

My aunt, Patti, offered her house for the celebration so we had a little party for her on Friday, October 9th. My mom, aunt Patti and I got together and came up with a menu- they did the meal, I handled dessert and decorations. Several years ago we all decided to forego sibling gifts on our birthdays, but my brothers still wanted to do something so they pitched in on snacks and drinks. We all put the party together for Tracy, that was our gift. :)

We had chicken-n-dumplings, green beans, homemade applesauce, chips & dips, gooey butter cake, pumpkin cake and ice cream. Jeremy brought a carrot cake and two homemade corn bread skillets- one with jalepenos, one without. My cousin Rachel was visiting as well and planned to make corn bread, so we had plenty of that. All the food was delicious.

My pretty sis

Allie eating half of Grandma's food

There is still construction in my aunt & uncle's neighborhood, so the kids had fun getting dirty in the mud and rocks. I even came up with an obstacle course that all the kids and my brother, Rob, ran through or over as the case may be. They ran up, over and down the several piles of rocks, it was a lot of fun. I mean, I didn't try, but it was fun watching them. :) Everyone did good, but Caleb had the best time. Sadly I couldn't get pics of them running the course since I was keeping time.

 My cutie good-lookin' boys

Everyone seemed to have a great night, I hated to leave. I certainly hope Tracy enjoyed it! Happy 40th birthday sis!!

Sisters

I love these two sweet girls and am glad they have each other. I hope as they grow up, they develop a very close relationship and each treasure the other. I can already see a budding little relationship; Maggie just adores her baby sister and Allie already looks up to Maggie in little ways. A lot of times when Maggie laughs and Allie's nearby, she looks up and starts laughing too. It's so precious. Here's some pics of my gorgeous girls!

I'm so blessed to be your mommy! I love you sweet girls!! :)