Just too A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E

Isn’t he just so cute!

Those glasses make him look cool.

Cassie, I mean Kassi

Well, in case you haven’t heard or seen it on FaceBook, Cassie, I mean Kassi has decided she would like to express her individuality.

By birth, she is named Cassaundra but immediately became known as Cassie.  As you might notice there is a ‘u’ in her name because we didn’t want her to be known as Cassandra (‘sand’ pronounced like sand) we wanted her to be called Cassaundra – the same ‘au’ sound in faucet.  Well, even some of our friends and neighbors still call her ‘Cassandra.’  Anyway, in short and in hopes to prevent the mispronunciation we have called her Cassie.

As many of you know, Jay & I encourage our children to be individuals.  Don’t be a follower.  Be a leader.  Be yourself!!  We named her, but she can decide how to express herself within reason. 

The other day she asked me if she could change the spelling of her name.  I clarified, she is not allowed to change the spelling of her legal name but she can change the spelling of her nickname – the name she goes by.  Which is what she was seeking permission to do.  I was okay with it, but she also needed to talk to her dad.  He agreed it was fine, too.

So, to sum it up . . . Cassie is no longer C-A-S-S-I-E.  Cassie is K-A-S-S-I.  I don’t think the new spelling is going to help her two-year old cousin.  He’ll still call her “Assi,” – LOL - and she will always be known to family and those close to her as BUBBA. 

Scouts Plan & Decorate

Mackenzie is having an awesome time with her Girl Scout troop.  She is very  excited to be a Junior Girl Scout and is looking forward to learning new things, earning badges, and selling cookies. 

The girls have done several things already this year in the steps to earn their Junior Aide badge.  Matter of fact, at their last meeting they planned the Cookie Rally for their service unit.  They have some awesome things planned and can’t wait to share them with the younger Daisies and Brownies. 

Mrs. Miller broke the girls into their patrols – there are 19 girls in the troop so to make it more manageable, the leader divided them into four small patrols for the year where they have officers and are learning leadership skills, responsibility,  and accountability – anyway, they divided up into their patrols, picked what area of interest they wanted to focus on, brainstormed, and planned their station for the rally.

These two – Cynthia & Kassi – have been a valuable asset and love to help with the girls.

Decorating Fun

After the girls figured out what they wanted to do for the Cookie Rally, they got a tour of the location and then came back for some decorating fun. 

As I mentioned, as a Junior the girls can earn various badges - 117 badges -various awards, and different participation patches and pins. 

So the second part of this meeting was an opportunity for the girls to learn how to work with butter cream icing and decorating bags & tips.  I had the privilege of sharing with the girls some of the fun and basic decorating skills.  They had a great time decorating the sugar cookies Mrs. Miller made. 

Each girl worked and made their own piece of eatable art.  Some of the girls enjoyed sampling the icing.

Kassi & Cynthia decorated their own cookies, too.

Kassi isn’t a fan of butter cream icing, but she took a bite of her masterpiece just the same. 

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Doesn’t she look GREAT . . .

Jay’s baby-baby sister is expecting her first.  Her little bundle of joy – a bouncing baby boy – is due around Christmas time.  Unfortunately, she lives all the way in California so we haven’t gotten to see her and her growing belly.  Well, today she posted some pics on Facebook and I just had to share . . .

Doing all the right things, including drinking her milk!!! LOL

Are you sure that’s not just a basketball? 

She looks GREAT!  She is definitely glowing and pregnancy is very good to her.  Heather we miss you & we are so excited for your little one’s arrival!!

Odie’s party

Well, Saturday was a busy day, but we found time to hang out with Odie as he celebrated his upcoming birthday. 

Odie was very cooperative when it came time to open his gifts. 

But once he opened his FIRST one it was all over for him.  He was more interested in the very first one he got which was this .  He kept going back to it and wanted it opened.

He is a very special little boy – not only is he our nephew, but he is also our Godson.  So, we like to get him a separate gift from Aunt Angie & Uncle Jay.  Well, he loves monkeys – matter of fact he was a lil’ monkey on beggar’s night – anyway, I found these adorable pj’s with monkeys on them.

What boy couldn’t use a big Tonka truck?  So, the kids’ gift was this .  I hope he has a lot of fun playing with it!!

Once Odie got the okay, he was at Grandma and Grandpa asking for his tool box to be opened so he could play. 

A Bubba sandwich. 

Odie really liked his gift from Grandpa Doug, and he knew exactly what to do with the tools.  Hmm, do you think Odie’s seen Grandpa Doug in action enough times?

Odie even tried to fix his cake – apparently, I didn’t make something right. LOL.

After everyone sang Happy Birthday to Odie, he and his daddy blew out the candle.

Yummy.

Look at that face.

Trick-or-Treating fun

Trick-or-treating is so much fun and I am glad the kids still like to go.  We had originally planned on going out with the kids’ aunt, uncle and cousin, but do to time and other variables I decided we wouldn’t make the trip.  Unfortunately there aren’t many kids in my in-laws neighborhood so we figured if they wanted to go out we’d have to find a place to go.  So, I phoned some friends and asked if we could join them in their neighborhood. 

I am so glad I did and I am so glad that our friends said ‘yes’ with open arms.  The kids had such a great time!! But before we could go, we had to throw together some quick costumes.  Thank goodness for thrift stores . . .

Zack found a $5 leather jacket and a white t-shirt and went as a tough guy – inspired by the T-Birds of Grease.

Mackenzie had originally found a Upward cheerleading uniform for $1.50 and was going to go as a cheerleader, but she changed her mind when she found this dress for $2. So, she went as Cleopatra.  The bracelets that she used as arm bands cost way more, but she looked cute.

Cassie had gone from wanting to be a corpse bride to the Mad Hatter to ‘I don’t know what I want to be.’ back to a corpse bride.  We got lucky and found what we needed to put her costume together, which she needed more for her night working at Boo at the Zoo. 

The kids, and I, had a great time hanging out with friends.  The boys – being older – got to go their way and do their thing.  While a few of us parents walked with our group of girls.

One of the little girls was Cleopatra, too.

This kids was cool to watch.  He was standing next to this . . .

There were plain houses, decorated houses, and spooky houses.  This house had these two in trash bags with masks and finally they moved toward us – I screamed!

After an hour and a half of door to door collections, Mackenzie had collected a full pumpkin of goodies.  She counted them when she got home – over 145 pieces. 

Look at all that sugar!!  Oh well, it only comes one time a year.