We have a precious little girl in our house who will turn nine years old tomorrow.  Noelle and I have spent the majority of the day trying to prepare for Hope's big day.  She has so much excitement about this birthday.  I have said that it is about like she is three instead of nine.  Hope embraced her first birthday with us, even though she really didn't know what was going on.  Then last year, she loved it because she knew the day would be about her.....but this year, she has looked forward to her birthday with great anticipation.
Noelle and I made this precious little treats for her class, I hope they love them.  I can't wait until tomorrow so I can share in all this fun with her!

We have a precious friend Tricia, who had bought season tickets to Auburn Gymnastics.  We normally make it a point to go, but my friend has the good seats.  She has been gracious enough to send us the tickets when she can't go, and boy has LeeLee enjoyed it.  LeeLee loves watching the girls and being that close to all the action is tons of fun with her.  She is overly animated when watching a meet.  She ended up getting this t-shirt from one of the t-shirt tosses, and by the end of the night she had all the Auburn gymnasts sign it.  She kept telling the people around us that she would be out there one day.  She was also hilarious when she saw each of the girls, when she finally saw Bri Guy, she started screaming, "Oh my God, she is my favorite."  Bri was funny and screamed back, "Oh my God, I love her!"  LeeLee was overjoyed.  I think this group of young ladies are all amazing role models and I would much rather LeeLee drool over them then anyone in the entertainment industry.

Thanks again Tricia for the good seats!  We had so much fun, I only wish we were all there together!

I'll be honest, I wish the murderer wasn't so cute....it would much easier to be mad at an opossum or a raccoon.  But this is a beautiful cat.  It has been living at the foreclosed house next door for some time now.  We have watched it hunt in their back yard where small wild life is generally plentiful.  I guess now that it is bigger, it has moved onto bigger prey.  As soon as Hunter came up announcing that the cat had been caught, LeeLee started chanting, "Kill the cat."  I can assure you we won't kill the cat, but she is really hurt about losing her chicken.
Right now the cat is in my kitchen in a large crate.  It appears to be a complete feral.  I will give it a few days to see if it can calm down, but with the high incidence of rabies around here right now, we won't be putting any hands on it unless it calms down.  If you happen to recognize this cat let me know.  I would love it if someone has been missing this cat and we could reunite them.  I know, it's a dream, but it would be the perfect ending.

As you can see I had one happy camper when the car race ended.  Hunter's Coke car did not perform well in the race, but when voted on by the kids, he took first place for most unique car.  He was so excited to at least take home a first in something.  Noelle's car ran against all the dads in the open class. She ran in 5th place.  I was extremely proud of her since she was running against a tough group.  Maybe next year!

The car race has become a big deal in our family, not only for Hunter who is supposed to participate in the race, but also for Noelle.  She had big plans for her car this year.  It was supposed to be a banana.  However Paul made a few many cutting errors, and her car ended up looking like a canoe/skateboard.  She was not happy!  We all paid the price as she whined about her imperfect car.  We salvaged what we could though (after Rags further chewed it up) and she worked to put something together so she could enter.  As you can see she stole the show!  Hunter took second place, but barely.  He was also up for the best looking award, but Paul and I had to abstain from voting because he was our son.  He was a little disappointed to not receive the award, but he handled it well.  They will both move on to the associational race on Saturday.  Noelle has high hopes for her car, but she will be racing against dads from all of our district churches in the open class.  I'm praying for a miracle, I would love to see her mistake car take out the dads!

Ten years ago, at the tender age of two, I remember getting Noelle ready for her first Daddy Daughter Dance.  She has always been a serious little girl, and she took getting ready ten years ago very seriously.  She hasn't changed a bit.  This year was a little different though.  This is the last year that she is eligible to go to the dance.
At the precious age of twelve, I was privileged to get her ready for this special night one last time.  I didn't cry, but I almost did.  I'm not ready for her to be to old to attend the dance.  However as we did hair, painted nails, and applied make-up, I looked at my girl and really for the first time realized that she is truly growing up.  Next year she will have no business being at a dance that is intended for little girls.....
because whether I like it or not, she is now becoming a big girl.  I am so amazingly blessed by the young lady she is.
I reminded Paul as they walked out the door that the next time he would dance with her like this would probably be at her wedding.  Now the thought of that really does make me cry!