The REAL Bailey family

Annual pictures

Lesley Proctor of Proctor Photography is amazing....

Oh Happy Day!

Brenna turned 7 today. I could go on and on about the heartache of watching my baby grow up, but I won't. Even though I am amazed at how quickly it has gone by and I miss the idea of having Brenna little forever, the truth is, I really like who she is. I enjoy the times we talk about her day or she shares her ideas with me or I hear about different things she thinks she will like. I like to watch her figure things out, be a little more independent, develop her own sense of who she is. And if she stays on this path, I am very much going to enjoy spending time with my daughter.

I know the hardest part is yet to come, but that doesn't deter me from enjoying now and looking forward to what is coming. And I hope in 7 years or so, I can still say, "I loved those years, but I don't want to back or be stuck here." Because ultimately, the best is yet to come, as well.

So in the mean time, we threw a great party for our seven year old. But before we get there, here is a few pre-party shots.

The outfits du jour

Brenna loves Legos and finally got her own set.

I love this picture so much!
Josh hid the big present from Grandma and Grandpa around the corner while B opened a few others. He sent B to get it and B yelled "It's HUGE!!". Piper ran around the corner and responded the same way. Then all we heard were giggles as they came into the living room.

The huge box was a pony for their American Girl "cousins".

Now, on to the party. Brenna requested a book theme because she loves to read. We planned several activities, but really only had time for the best two. The kids did Mad Libs, which was first for many of them. Apparently, adjective is difficult to grasp when you are 4ish to 7ish. But I think they all had fun. We had the almost mandatory pizza, cake and ice cream. No, no cakepops for us this year, they didn't fit the theme. But Josh did make this delightful creation!

(click to enlarge)

Then we had a story for the kids to read. Since we knew how many were coming, we wrote a story with that amount of characters. After everyone drew their part, I read the narration and the kids read their lines (that were color coded to their character). This was a lot of fun. I think the kids enjoyed it even more than I thought they would. What I loved most about this was how the older kids/better readers would willingly and kindly help the younger ones with their lines. No one was embarrassed or left out. It did my heart good to see how helpful everyone was. Not that I should have been surprised.

The cast of "The Princess Play Day"

The end!

It was a great day. I'll be ready to do it again in a year or two! :)

When I am a mom

If you have ever eaten dinner at house, you know we insist our daughters take "no thank you bites" of new foods. This rule has been in place even before Piper came along. Brenna doesn't complain anymore, she dutifully tries the new food. Usually she gives no reaction at all. Sometime she says it is fine and will eat more. And rare times, she will show her disgust at the filth I dare place on the table before her.

Piper is a whole different story. We are still in the phase of threats and battles of wills for her to try new foods. Even if she likes it, she will not give us the satisfaction of a second bite. It takes her an insanely ridiculous amount of time to get the food on her fork and it often falls off once or twice. And she chews forrreeeevvveerrrr with a horrific look on her face; sometimes never closing her lips. I have a really hard time suppressing my laughter during these shows, as I know it will only egg her on.

I feel, tonight, that we have begun to make headway. Without being prompted by me or Josh, she took a small sampling of the spaghetti squash on her plate. As she was about to put it in her mouth she said "When I am a mom, I will not make my kids eat "no thank you bites". In went the spaghetti squash, but was immediately chased by a crouton. My girl loves her carbs.

By the way, I have heard a lot lately about what Piper will and will not do when she is a mom. Yes, I am writing them down and plan to remind her of them at the appropriate time.

Precious tradition

For the last several years (like almost 20), my dad has gone to Nicaragua for mission work. I love that he is so dedicated to that work and enjoys teaching Central America about their Savior. I feel blessed beyond words to have been able to share that experience with him in 2007.

Each year he goes, he thinks of the girls and buys them a new dress. I know that I look forward to the dresses more than that girls. And I might even treasure them more because I realize their Grandpa is not a typical grandpa. Someday they will recognize that as well and will understand why I tear up when I open the package every year and why I insist they wear them together at least once, and why I always take pictures.

Anyway...thank you, Grandpa. We all looked lovely today.

The one below is a favorite pose of Grandma and Grandpa. :)

On other news, we went to Bricktown yesterday to find a new candy store. (Scouting cake pop supplies). We ate lunch and then walked over to an arts and crafts festival in the middle of Bricktown. It was crazy hot, so we didn't take as much time as would have in cooler conditions, but we found a few photo ops. Didn't buy anything at the festival, but if I were a rich woman, I would have bought something from everyone simply to reward them for staying out there in the 104 degree heat.





We never made it to the candy store. :)

According to an old wives tale...

you should never thank someone for a plant. Sooo....

I would like to take this post to NOT thank my good Aunt Jaye for the tree she sent from North Carolina via Ohio to my backyard. And while I am at it, I'd like to also NOT thank my mom for bringing it with her. (We won't mention the ones that didn't survive the trip.) So far it seems to be thriving. I have watered it everyday as instructed, and God has watered it daily since it was put in the ground. I really think it has grown a couple inches already. I look forward to the day when it is a strong, happy tree in my backyard.

By the way, what kind of tree is it? heehee

Once again, thanks for nothing, Mom and Jaye.
(I love you both!)

in my time away...

We've been swimming....





Exploring....
Scuba diving...

and ripping out bushes.
It has been a good week or so. Grandma came for a wonderful visit and we were mostly too busy playing to take pictures. I'm sure I'll regret that someday.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a...

Museum that Josh loved!

We took the girls to the Toy and Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley on Friday. The girls thought it was great because there were toys everywhere. Really, we paid $6.00 each for them to play with Barbies. But Josh, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the collection of super heroes and toys of his childhood.

I spy with my little eye...

Who can find the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man?
Until just this moment, I thought it was "stay puffed".

Library Card

We got Bren a library card last week. Since she started reading at a 2nd grade level 1/2 way through her Kindergarten year, we decided we needed to reinforce her love of reading. She feels very grown up!

Hannah Montana vs. Miley Cyrus

I will confess that I have never seen an episode of Hannah Montana. We don't have cable so the Disney channel is not an option at our house. My girls have never seen an episode of Hannah Montana (to my knowledge), but they know who she is. They see her stuff in the stores and have heard her music from time to time.

At first I was glad to have avoided the whole scene because of the annoyance level, but now that Miley is growing up a little is getting older, I am SO thankful that Miley Cyrus is not on our radar. I am extremely grateful to not have to have a conversation with my 6 year old about the choices Miley is making. I don't want to answer those questions yet. In fact, I have a lot of questions I want to ask. ...like WHERE is her mama? I thought Billy Ray & Tish were doing a good job of keeping his daughter grounded in that crazy world they have chosen for her, but it looks like he has a new "Achy Breaky Heart". Or at least I hope his heart hurts some. I don't want to bash BR and Tish. I can't imagine what it would be like to raise a daughter in that world. But I wish for more for them...for her. More peace. More self confidence. More stability. More character. More self worth. Lots more self worth.

I am sad for the child who was once Hannah Montana and the child who is still Miley Cyrus. (She is only 17.) I am sad for all my friends who have to have that conversation with their daughters who have adored Hannah Montana.

If you aren't sure how to handle this conversation with your girls, I recommend this link.
I found the Secret Keeper Girl to be very encouraging as I am raising little girls in this very grown up world. Maybe you can find something helpful there, as well.

Brown Nose much?

I found this when cleaning the playroom today.

How we got from one to the other, I'll never know...

I just got this picture in an email from our school secretary. Too good not to share.