Paige celebrated her eighth birthday by having her first 'sleep over' party. We had six girls (and Ben) arrive about 4pm on Saturday afternoon. After a few crafts and games, we had pizza and soda (sleepover must haves). after cake (shown below which Paige picked out of a magazine and I adapted to fit her penguin theme) and presents, the girls settled in to watch movies and do 'makeovers'.....all of this involved much giggling and laughter of course. By 1 am I was exhausted and lay on the couch in the living room with them hoping my presence would induce them to settle down and finally go to sleep, and my plan worked. They fell asleep within minutes!

We were surprised to see them all up and wide eyed by 8am the next morning. All the moms came to pick them up in time for us to head to church. I think everyone had a wonderful time and Paige received some LOVELY presents from all her friends who know that CRAFTS are her favorite thing of all. Thanks everyone...

Our next 'family birthday' is Shelby. Her birthday is a special Birthday this year- she officially becomes a Teenager. Yikes. While her actual birthdate is the Second of March, we will celebrate together as a family when she is out with us for spring break (end of March).

With each birthday that we have, we marvel at how quickly our children are growing. Katie will be 20 this summer. She is doing awesome living in Hawaii and going to school to be a vet. She is already doing surgeries and I am so proud of this girl I can't even put it into words. Sam will be driving soon, Shelby is teetering on teendom.....Paige and Ben are both in school (even though they were just born yesterday)....It won't be long and Mark and I will have a houseful of adults and young adults instead of 'kids'. As we watch these kids grow, we see the best and worst of ourselves in them.....and we hope and pray that they find their way in the world and that they find the true meaning of inner happiness. At the end of the day, that is all that any parent wants for their children.

Hugs,
Mark,Jaye and Gang