Finally!!! Some Birthday Pictures

Last night we had a few girls over for a sleepover for Abbey's birthday so needless to say, we are all very tired!! Even Ella was up until 1am!! So, I am going to post a boat load of pictures but have no mental desire to write much of a post. Besides, I am sure that all you really want are the pictures anyway.....hope you enjoy them.

"Say Cheese"

Ella's special cupcake on the fancy plate :) We didn't have

a ton of success with the eating of the cupcake, but I

think she managed to get a little bit in her mouth.

Abbey's cupcake on the fancy plate....oops, I didn't have

any candles!

Enjoying frozen yogurt with friends

Every year, my mom gives the kids $1 for each year

they are turning...here is Ella with her $2

Ella's new kid size recliner that we got using money

she received from her grandparents...she loves it!!!

Opening her present from our friends the Bohannons

Giving the baby a kiss

and a hug....

Abbey and Melissa.....and the friendship bracelet Melissa made her

Abbey and Isabella......gotta love CASH!!!

Abbey and Jeremiah...gotta love the Target gift card

Do you think she is tall for her age?

Abbey and her friend Olivia with their matching shirts

Happy 11th Birthday Abbey!!!!

Two birthdays in two days......wow!!! We have been a little busy even though we didn't actually plan any parties. I will get all of the event pictures up later today of Ella "eating" her cupcake and the girls with their gifts etc. But for now I wanted Abbey to have her own special birthday post as well!! We love you, sweetie!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Ella!!!

No big plans for her birthday but I do plan to put a cupcake in front of her later today so wish us luck on getting a little of it in her mouth. I will definitely plan to post more pictures later but for now just wanted to let everyone know that ELLA IS TWO!!!

I Am SOOOO Proud of My Girls!!!

ABBEY - Made honor roll this trimester AND made the All Star Team in Basketball

EMMA - Had excellent grades as well but unfortunately don't do honor roll until 4th grade at

our school AND made the All Star team in basketball.

ELLA - Is doing an unbelievable amount of talking and signing right now!! Note: When I say "how old are you" and she puts up 2 fingers.....we are just practicing for Monday when she turns 2!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pigtails!!

This seems to be a popular post on the blogs lately. I guess it's due to the Spring weather or something. I know I have posted pictures of Ella with piggies before but they have gotten longer now and I just thought these were too cute to pass up.

Deputy of the Year!!!

Guess what???? Joe was selected as the Deputy of the year in the city that he works in. Last night, the girls and I got to join him as they gave him this award. We are so proud because even though we always knew he was the best deputy ever, it is awesome that his city feels the same way. Of course for me, it was finally a chance to get some long needed updated photos of the girls with daddy in uniform. The last photos I have are from when Ella was so small that you can hardly see her cradled in his arm in the picture. We live 70 miles away from where he works so it isn’t exactly easy to just “drop by” for a picture while he is working.
Most of you probably don’t know a whole lot about Joe. He was born in Jordan, MT where he lived until joining the Marine Corp in 1991. We met at the Cowboy Boogie (a country western dance place) in 1993 and were married in 1994.

Six months after we got married, he was sent to Japan for a year. Thankfully I hadn’t gotten too used to living with him so it made it a little easier for him to leave. But boy, did we have some seriously big phone bills!!! He was suppose to get out of the Marine Corp in January 1997 so had to start thinking about what he would do when he got out. He had known for some time that he wanted to be a police officer so started the grueling task of testing with every department within driving distance. He isn’t a college degree type of guy but thankfully the military experience worked in his favor. He was picked up by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department just in time to get out of the military. After working 8 years in the jail, he finally got to go out to patrol where he has been for the past 5 years. He is absolutely amazing at this job!!! It was meant for him. He can be tough when dealing with the idiots that he deals with but also gentle and caring when the job calls for that too. He has become a great training officer and is well respected. He works crazy and long hours and then has an incredibly long drive but he loves his job so I guess it is all worth it!!

WE ARE SOOOO PROUD OF YOU HONEY!!!!

Abbey's Basketball Championship Game

Abbey's basketball team went undefeated through their whole season. After the season, they go to playoffs and her team made it all the way to the finals. This past Saturday was the championship game. The girls played their hearts out but, sadly, they had their first loss of the season. The team we played had nothing to lose and played tough and we just ran out of time to come back in the end. It was a hard loss for the girls as they wanted to be undefeated so badly but....such is life.

Before the game as their names were announced...Abbey

is the one who is running opposite of everyone else.

Abbey getting ready to throw the ball inbounds.

Abbey is #14...guarding a player. It was hard for me to

get many action shots with my camera as they all came out

too dark.

The sadness is showing now :( It didn't seem to matter

at that moment that they were the best team in the league

and unfortunately had their first loss during the big game.

The team finally being forced to give us a few smiles.



Showing off their 2nd place trophies and their plaques for
winning 1st place in league

This was one of those teams that was full of great girls as

well as great families to support them and I truly feel that

this is what made this team so good. Here are the girls with

all their parents. (Even Ella made the photo if you closely in

the middle of the picture)

A little ice cream brought the smiles back for Abbey and

her teammate Emma

Oops...we forgot to get a picture of Abbey with mom

and dad earlier so we had to remember to take one

at home.