Birthdays and Christmas lights

So, probably most of you who are reading this blog know that my girls have the same birthday. Yes, Katie got a little sister (whether she wanted it or not) for her fourth birthday - totally unplanned. And even though I managed to give birth TWICE during baseball camp, Mark has yet to see fit to change when he holds his camp. So, what's my point....



The point is that we have a great deal of difficulty finding a good time to have the girl's family birthday party, so that Daddy can actually be there. The weekend of their birthday (as stated earlier) is Mark's camp, the weekend after, we are in New Orleans for the high school football finals (woo-hoo, our one and only annual weekend without kids - thank you Nannie Kim) and the weekend before, we are in North Louisiana visiting with Mark's family. So it ends up, we have to have the festivities almost 2 weeks before their actual birthday - which was this past weekend.


Basically what ends up happening, is that the celebration last for 2 weeks, and then, did I mention, Christmas is 22 days after their birthday! (My poor kids are so neglected this time of year)


Anyway, I digress... so that morning, we actually went ahead and gave them their "big" presents from Mom and Dad (so I could stop hearing Katie ask about it). I don't have a picture, but Katie got the iTouch she has been wanting - and now I can get my phone back.



And, Emma got her first bike. I don't know why she never had one before, but here is Mark putting it together Sunday morning ( It think this was only a 'one beer' job):

And Emma proudly rode all day Sunday and Monday - even when it was dark outside!

Now, here is our birthday cake. The girls helped to make it, and I thought it came out pretty cute! Sorry for the sideways pic, but I should have rotated it before I downloaded it:

We opened presents after the cake, and here are the girls playing their "Paper Jamz" guitar and drums. They are actually pretty cool. Mark and I enjoyed playing with them too:

Katie and Emma both got Little Mismatched socks:

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday with Juju, Paw paw, Nannie Kim and Mr. Richard:

Getting ready to blow out the candles with Paw paw, who's birthday was actually the next day:

And also since we are busy the next few weekends, I asked (aka 'made') Mark put up the Christmas lights this year b/c we have been slacking in that the past few years. (See above schedule for the next few weeks) We may be the first house in the neighborhood with Christmas lights already up, but by damn, we will have them this year:

... and this is what Jovi thought of the whole thing:

I'll try and get some decoration photos later!