Happy birthday, Ireland!

It's official... Ireland is 7. I can't believe it! Looking back to this day seven years ago I never would have been able to imagine what an outstanding, wonderful, thoughtful, kind, and beautiful little girl Ireland would turn out to be! I am more proud of her every sing day!
This past weekend we got to have Ireland's birthday party. As I am sure most of you know, Ireland loves a good themed party. This years theme was cooking. She wanted to have a cooking party where each kid made their own lunch and then made their own ice cream sundae. We also decorated our own aprons.
It was a lot of fun... so without further ado... here is the party in pictures!

Our gourmet chef's... Chloe, Ashley, Lexi, Ireland, Maddie, EmJ, and Grace.
(Gunner, Maren, Nana, and Mommy were there too).

Gunner had a lot of fun watching the girls and hanging out... he is such a party animal!

Here are the girls making their aprons...

Ireland got so many great gifts! She was moving so fast so I didn't get many pictures! But she loved every single gift she got!

And finally, our ice cream sundaes! We had vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate ice cream. With sprinkles, chocolate and strawberry syrup, whipped cream, and even cherries on top. Needless to say, they were a BIG hit!

It was a great birthday party! Thank you to everyone that was able to come! The only thing that would have made it perfect would have been Daddy... but we know he was thinking about us the whole time just like we were thinking about him!

Baaaaack in the saddle again!!!!

Things have been pretty crazy around these parts... and by these parts I mean our lives! I am sure most of you know Chris deployed about 2 weeks ago. He is over seas and that is about all I can say over the Internet... but he is safe and communicating in some form everyday so we know he is happy and healthy!
The kids and I are back in Colorado for the time being... the girls are going to Papaw's school and that is obviously the most awesome thing that has ever happened in the lives... EVER... just ask them!
So here are some pictures to catch you up and satisfy your insatiable hunger and need for pictures of my children... I will try to be a better provider from here on out!

These next few pictures are all from the night Chris left. There are only a few because it was dark and I ran out of time to take pictures... and really I was too worried about hugging and kissing my husband as much as I could before he left to worry about pictures. But I did get a few...

(Did anyone else notice that Chris is wearing a wedding ring?!?!?!?! Duh!!!!)

The next pictures are from Halloween. Both the girls were Bat girl... they looked pretty awesome. Gunner was the cutest baby in the world, so his costume was free! ;)

Papaw was Waldo from the "Where's Waldo" books (I unfortunately don't have a picture of that awesomeness) and we thought Gunner would look cute in the glasses... Guess what? We were right!
Please remember to keep Chris and all other service members in your prayers... there can never be too many prayers said for our service members!
Love you guys!

First day of school! :)

It's official... Ireland and Chloe are back in school... and I have TWO kids in school! What?! TWO? How is that possible. I swear I am not that old.
But alas, it's true. Chloe started kindergarten on Wednesday.
I was a little worried about how she would do. She seems to like to be with me, Chris, or Ireland at all times. But she did great! She has Ireland's old teacher... I think that helped a lot.

We had "Back to School night" the day before school. The girls got to bring all their school supplies in their backpacks (and have ice cream) so it was pretty exciting.

Nana got to be with us for the first day of school... she was here in time to go to the back to school night as well. The girls were really excited to have her here... but Ireland was convinced that Papaw was going to show up and surprise her on the first day of school (he never showed up... but she wasn't too disappointed, she was a little distracted by the excitement of 1st grade).
Anyways, Gunner also loved having Nana here... she gave him lots of attention at back to school night.
School here starts at 7:50am. Well, actually 8:00am but they have to be in line by 7:50am (I guess the teachers think it's important to stand in line for 10 minutes before school or something).
We got to walk on the first day. The weather has been wonderfully nice here! Last year on Ireland's first day it was raining and cold. So it was really nice to have sunshine and warm weather!

This year all the kids meet in the gym to line up. Which is really great because we don't have to wait outside (usually raining) for the teachers to open the doors.
The first day was a little overwhelming because all the parents were in the gym as well. Chloe wasn't too sure what to think of it all. But she did pretty good.

Chloe is in morning kindergarten... so she is done with school at 10:42am. Daddy, Nana, and Mommy got to pick her up (Uncle Danny stayed home with Gunner, who was napping). Chloe was really happy to see us and told us she had a great day. She even said she would go back the next day... so I guess that is a good sign!

Daddy even drove the Jeep to pick her up (on of her favorite things) with the top off! After we got home and changed into cooler clothes and picked up Gunner and Uncle D, we went to China Panda (Panda Express) for lunch.
Ireland gets out of school at 2:30pm. Mommy and Nana went to go pick her up... again, Uncle D stayed home with Gunner since Gunner was still sleeping.
Ireland has specials (gym, music, art) during the last part of the day so she is always coming from something fun at the end of the day.
She LOVED 1st grade. She is really excited about eating lunch at school. And she has a lot of friends from her kindergarten class... even her 2 "best friends", Jordan and Destiny.
So needless to say, 1st grade is a big hit! It seems a little too easy (way too easy) right now, but we are just going with the flow right now because things will be changing soon enough.

Daddy didn't get to come pick up Ireland but he was at the house when we got home... she was really excited to tell him all about her day!
All in all it was a great way to start the school year!
I am so glad both the girls love school so much and I can't wait to see what they are going to learn this year!