Our New BFF's

I'm so thankful for Young Life.  When we moved to Manhattan, we immediately had built in best friends.  Our Young Life leaders are at our house several nights a week (which makes me clean the house more often).  They love on my children, they bring me Sonic, they help me cook, they make me laugh, the loan me Gilmore Girls DVD's, they watch Oprah with me, they keep me up to date on pop culture, and they make me feel OLD!  I FEEL like college was yesterday, but the reality of things is that we are OLD!  Here are some photos of our new BFF's.

The whole gang at our fall leader retreat

Yes, that is Cash with Sydney and Cameron.  No, they don't always dress like that.

Young Life Banquet

Some of our wonderful committee members after the banquet

The Leadership Team (minus a few).  This crew comes to our house every Wednesday night.

Sydney's surprise birthday party (1 of 2 that night)

Tacky Ice Cream Social 2009

We LOVE you guys!  Thanks for welcoming us into the YL fam!

SBG

Room Time

Every day the girls have 1 hour of "room time" where they must play in their room together.  This is usually time for me to do laundry, drink coffee, pay bills, drink coffee, do dishes, and drink coffee.  They usually drag out every single toy and book, but it's OK because they are in their room and playing nicely.  When room time ended today, I went in their room to find them.

I looked by the window,

I looked under the bed,

and then the closet door slowly opened . . .

to reveal two little girls and LOTS of toys.

They were happy, so I was happy.

Harper wasn't so happy when it was time to clean up!

I love my creative girlies!

Purple Party

Although it was back in September, I thought some of you (Liz) might want to see some pics from Harper's 3rd Birthday.  It was really a celebration all week long!  When I asked Harper what type of party she wanted, she was adamant about having a PURPLE party.  She also requested that everyone coming to her party wore purple as well.  Seeing that KSU's colors are purple and silver, that wasn't a problem!  We partied at one of the many parks here in Manhattan.  All of her grandparents came, as well as Uncle Blake and her FAVORITE cousin Sarah Ann.  Lots of our new Young Life friends came to make the party so perfect.  It was SUCH a fun weekend and I literally can't believe my little girl is 3.  She is SO curious, social, talkative, and goofy.  She loves to make you laugh and she definitely enjoys bossing Reese and Cash around.  She is our little purple princess!

On Harper's actual birthday, we started the day with donuts

We also had a surprise party that day

Several of our awesome Young Life leaders were waiting at our house for the big surprise.  Harper's reaction was PRICELESS!

Chad bringing in the funfetti cake.  What's a birthday without funfetti?

Our little party set-up.  The picture in the frame is from Harper's first birthday

As soon as Harper's grandparents arrived on Saturday, it was PRESENT TIME

Some of her favorite gifts were Barbies, a My Little Pony, and a little polly pocket Snow White

Sarah Ann came with Nan and Pops to enjoy the weekend

Purple Party Day!

My girls ready to party in purple!

They are only about 1 year apart, but Sarah Ann towers over Harper!

Jumping for joy

Harper's cake

(Pops- what would I do without you?)

Purple Cupcakes

The spread

The goodie bags

The Cash

Ready to blow out the candle

She did this completely unprompted by anyone!

LOVING the cake!

Papa helping Reese with her cupcake

Some of our party-goers

Reese spent about 2 hours in this swing and still wasn't ready to leave!

Gram helping Harper

Sweet cousins

The Birthday Girl!

I LOVE this photo of Will with his balloon

After the party, Chad and I took Harper and Sarah Ann to the splash park.  They couldn't BELIEVE that they were able to play in the water in their clothes!  They were hilarious.

They LOVED the COLD water

Posing

Don't you love their faces?

Sarah Ann was drinking the water

After the splash pad, they played on the playground.  This thing spins around and it is MY favorite thing to play on at the park.  After the park, we took these two to the candy store.  They were in complete awe of all the candy.

They closed out their BUSY day with a movie.

The adults closed out THEIR day with Guitar Hero.  Nan, you were a trooper!

Nan loves Guitar Hero.

It was an AMAZING Birth-week for Harper and we LOVED having family and friends here to celebrate.  We are so thankful to have people who love our kids so extravagantly.

SBG

Halloween Pictorial

The girls loved Halloween. I knew Harper would, but didn't know what Reese would think. She was strutting down the street with the best of them! Harper was Snow White (her latest obsession) and Reese was Tinkerbell. We went with our friends Cory and Derek, their little cowboy Will, and bear Wes. We just did the good ole fashioned door-to-door thing and it was great. The weather was perfect and the girls came away with some great loot. Here are the photos- I know that's why you all come here anyway!

Don't they look so sweet?

In reality, Reese is trying to escape from Harper here!

Ready for CANDY!

One of my favorite photos of the night.

Posing, once again

She was holding up her dress like Snow White does in the movie

Scaredy Cash

He just went as his smiley self

The girls with Cowboy Will

They LOVED their glow wands- thanks Nan!

I LOVE this picture

Reese's wings

Loading up on candy

"Hustle up, Mom!"

Raving

Thanks to a wonderful Young Life leader (Laura Wetzel), I carved my first EVER pumpkin.  Why did I live such a deprived childhood?!  I did the one with the stars.  Pretty good for my first attempt!

It was such a fun night and the girls were totally exhausted from all of the festivities.  Hopefully the photos made you feel like you were there too!