The kids got a special treat in the mail today. Several Disney characters were kind enough to send us postcards. VERY special. It made the girls smile ear to ear. Tanner even got one from Eeyore, and though he wasn’t as excited as the girls, it was nice for him to be remembered *I* even got one addressed to “Princess Jessica”. SWEET! Loved it… and just adds to the anticipation of our trip. :)

If you are considering a trip to any of the Disney parks, I highly recommend looking into a “Fairy Godmother” for your family. I found mine at www.mouseplanet.com, more specifically this forum thread.

Bailey went roller skating on Saturday with her BFF Alexus. We then took them to the movies to see “The Tooth Fairy”. Cute movie and Bailey had been begging to see it. She asked me a few days ago if I could do something for her birthday that would surprise her. Her examples were concert tickets for Taylor Swift or a vacation. LOL. I said we already have a big vacation planned and can’t do any big surprises. She understood and then said maybe we could go to a movie and see The Tooth Fairy. I decided that was a surprise I could pull off So they didn’t know about it until we pulled into the parking lot. She was very excited. It was a great day and she had her first sleepover with her BF also… hopefully it was a very memorable way to celebrate her 7th birthday!

Pics…

Bailey’s gorgeous birthday cake that Grandma Lisa made. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

The kids each got something fun for Valentine’s Day gifts. Mostly just candy (ya know… just to make our dentist proud of us) and a few other little goodies. My mom got all of us (even David and I — spoiled brats that we are!!) little boxes of chocolate with $10 Regal gift cards. Woohoo! Now we can all go see a movie for free - that will be so nice to use one of these days! Thank you, Mom!

More pictures to come from Bailey’s birthday!

Anyway, without rambling on too much more… this is what two silly girls do while their big brother is getting an eye exam. They look pretty cute and all, but I am SO thankful for their beautifully perfect eyeballs!

This is the last of the Valentines that came home in one piece. The other two she had the candy gone before she even walked in the door LOL.

We managed to make up 62 cards this evening. These aren’t the Valentines I grew up with! We had little cards you wrote on and then put in an envelope, sealed with a cute heart sticker. Usually we’d fill the envelope with a few conversation hearts just for a fun kick. But no… nowadays, you punch out the heart very carefully to avoid ripping the darn thing and then punch out the arrow. Attach pixy stix (62×2 because each arrow uses 2).. write in the names and alas we are done.

Bailey multi-tasking, talking to her BFF and writing on her cards at the same time

McKenzie drew this picture for me tonight…

It says: “Mommy you opened my heart and filled it with love, joy, and laughter. Thank you for being there when I needed you. I love you.” So sweet… I love you too McKenzie!!!

And Ashlyn wrote this for school, the little pink slips are compliments other students have attached. Cute idea for editing papers on the teacher’s part!

This recipe is one of our favorite sugar cookie recipes. It’s great for rolled cookies/cutouts and for simple drop cookies also. Great for frosted cookies because the cookie itself isn’t TOO sweet. Just sweet enough.

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in
   the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the
   creamed mixture until dough comes together. Roll dough into walnut sized balls
   and roll the balls in sugar. Place them on an unprepared cookie sheet about 2
   inches apart.
3. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light
   brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.