Birthday time!

Our oldest girl just turned FOURTEEN, and we had her family celebration last night.  We'll go ice-skating with friends for the Birthday Celebration, Part Two. She always wants apple pie since she doesn't care for cake, and because she wanted a family movie night, she generously chose a movie the boys would enjoy as well (instead of the Masterpiece Theater Pride and Prejudice we've been watching lately :) ).  Abigail and Adah took over decorating duties while I took Shiloh to Target for some fun shopping.  As you can see, they did an excellent job. :)  Cora was in bed most of the day with a cold :(  but she rallied to celebrate.  We are so thankful for our beautiful young lady, a young lady who's just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.  It's a privilege to be her mom.  (Oh - we did cross a major milestone for this birthday.  Shiloh didn't want the traditional birthday signs/scavenger hunt clues this year.  She just wanted a big sign.  *sniff sniff*)

Here's to many more, Shiloh Elizabeth!  And what a way to kick-off birthday season in the New Year - Abigail Emma is next!

Beautiful Birthday Girl

We aren't "celebrating" Shiloh's birthday today because the evening is packed with activities, but we had an unexpected snowfall this morning, and Cora captured some beautiful birthday pictures of her big sister that I wanted to share.  I'll post some later of her birthday celebrations.  She is such a blessing to our family, and I'm so thankful the Lord saw fit to give her to us for fourteen years so far.  It's so bittersweet as they get older to realize that this precious time together with her under our roof is coming to an end sooner rather than later. :(  I try not to get too melancholy as I see the fantastic young woman she is becoming.  I'm excited to see how the Lord grows and changes her in the coming years.  Love our precious first-born!!  Happy 14th Birthday to our sweet, fierce, helpful, friendly, competitive, speedy, precious SHILOH!

Basketball!

Poor Cora got short-shrift last year when I took a "blogging break" that lasted about a year and I never posted anything about her basketball season from 2012.  I'm determined to do better by her this year. :) 

Here are some pictures from her first game this year.  Her team, called Liberty, won by a good margin and Cora scored two baskets!  I had some great videos, but Blogger is not cooperating with me.  Rats.  I'll try again in a bit.

A Masquerade

I said I wouldn't try to post anything from 2012 because it was too overwhelming, but I couldn't resist when it came to Cora and Adah's birthday party.  It was Cora's brainchild...she came up with the theme, the menu, the invitations, the decorations, and the agenda for the party.  Adah was the beneficiary of all her planning and her only job was to invite friends. :)  The plan was to have a "masquerade" - to dress up (Cora found her dress at Goodwill and added straps), make masks, have a photo shoot, eat some fun food, and do some dancing.  Cora just handed me a list for the grocery store.  I felt like I needed one of those "Easy" buttons from Staples because this party sure was easy for me!!  I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching the girls create their masks for the photo shoot, listening to them giggling downstairs as they posed, and then watching them dance.  Special thanks go to Shiloh, who helped me clean up the mountain of glitter left on the floor by giggling girls creating masks.  Glitter is evil.

Onward to basketball season pictures (I hope!).  Cora had her first game last Saturday - a win and two baskets for my girl!

Happy New Year!

Well, that blogging break was a bit longer than I intended. :)  After Daniel got me a laptop in February, I always intended to work on the blog with my laptop, but I never got around to downloading pictures onto the laptop from Carbonite.  (I really have no idea what I'm talking about - Daniel just gives me these explanations and I nod my head.) 

ANYWAY, I'm back.  Who knows for how long?  :) I'm not going to try to catch up on 2012; the thought is overwhelming to me. I'll try to keep current for 2013, though, so I can keep a journal of our family's life and times.

Right now we're still on a break from formal schooling, which is why I'm blogging in the "wee hours" of the morning (7:30) while the children are still sleeping.  Sometime next week we'll return to our lessons, but not until I get a whole day to sit and read a book (that's my definition of a break). 

Here are some (completely random and out of order) pictures from our break.  There are some Thanksgiving photos in there as well.

These are completely out of order, but I'm out of time and can't fix them right now.  I'm planning (hoping) to do a better job in the future.  We have birthday season continuing with Shiloh's 14th on the 24th!  Yikes. 
Happy New Year to everyone!  Much love from the Houseworths!