Surprise!!!

i'm going to preface this post by saying, i have three best friends that i have known for fifteen plus years: jami, nicole and carrie. we all are married with three or more kids now and try to get together as much as possible. usually, our get-togethers are with the kids, so we never really get to sit and visit. however, every once in a blue moon, we have a girls night out with just us women folk. usually we use a birthday as an excuse for one of these shin digs, and the last one to happen was this summer for my birthday. with all that being said........


back in october, nicole suggested we get together in november for her birthday, since i would be having a baby during her birthday in december. i'm always good for one last hoorah before i have a baby, so i excitedly agreed! i didn't really hear much after that, so i tried to get ahold of everyone the only person to get back to me was jami and, through her, we planned on the upcoming thursday at joe t.'s at 8pm for nicole's birthday girls night out. grady is always so great and was going to stay with our girls, but this particular week, he went out of town. i asked my sister if she could come stay with the girls, but she could not do it. she had to go to institute because some guy named devin wanted her to be there that night, and who am i to get in the way of young love??


so, i called grady and told him i was just going to bow out of the night. he suggested i call his sister. his words were, "i really want you to go and have a good time"... i called anna, and you know what? she said yes and the night was back on!


that evening, we made our way up to fort worth and i took the girls to my in-laws. we hung out for a while. the girls had dinner and i put their pajamas on. i was getting ready to leave myself, and my mother in law came and hugged me goodbye, she had to run to the pharmacy and wasn't sure if she would be back before i left. twenty minutes later, i thanked anna for watching the girls and loved on my babies, then i was out the door.


i drove on over to joe t's and before i went inside, my mom sent me a text to see what i was doing. i told her i was going to dinner, and when i asked her what she was up to, she said she was sick in bed, poor momma! anyway, i didn't see anyone waiting out front, so i decided to go in and powder my nose really quick. as i headed toward the ladies room, i heard someone call my name. i turned to look and quickly saw jami, then nicole, then carrie....then my sister...and my mom...and theresa...then my SIL's danielle and adrianne!


thought process: what in the world???? what is everyone doing here...for nicole's birthday?...wait a minute....that is my family....what are all these pink balloons and bags for?....this is supposed to be nicole's birthday....everyone has been lying and avoiding me.....is this for me?


i don't know what my face looked like, but everyone else looked very entertained and pleased with themselves for shocking my socks off!!


so, if you are quicker than i am, you have figured out that nicole used her bday as an excuse to throw me a surprise baby shower. she emailed and facebooked everyone and got it all together.
i have never been so surprised and caught off guard in my whole life!


here i am with the three best friends that anyone could have!
jami, me, nicole and carrie

i brought nicole victoria secret smell-goods for her birthday, and since i already have two girls, nicole brought me the same! thank you again nikki, you are so thoughtful and sweet!

nicole and carrie
the carver sisters, they adopted me a long time ago :)

juli and mom

(come to find out, devin was not real, and mom was not sick after all!)

so glad you were there, love you both! thank you for my gifts! you always get me what i need :))

jamilee, aka: master of the baby bundt cake! aka: my best friend in the united states of the world!

jami brought desert and it was amazing! i'm not going to mention how many i ate, but i can guarantee they are magically delicious!

opening some goodies

carrie always gets me the cutest little outfits!

side note: i had a couple of pictures of theresa, danielle and adrianne, but for some reason, they didn't make it onto my computer?????

but i have to say

theresa, thank you for my gift card. you are generous mommy in law!

danielle, thank you for my ornament. once again, it could not have been more perfect! now i have one for each of my babies!

adrianne, thank you for the sweet sweet sweet baby blanket. i can not wait to cuddle my little girlie in it! and thank you for all you have shared and continue to share, it has made preparations for this third lil girl so much easier since she is going to be born in the winter like her cousin taeli (and unlike her sisters!)


the whole party

minus just a handful more people in my life, this is a pretty special group to me. i was so happy to spend an evening with them, i'm one lucky lady!

my baby shower loot

***a special shout out to ANNA CHRISTINE GAMMONS! she watched my girls so i could go to the shower. anna is, and always has been, one of the most selfless people i have ever known. no matter what the situation is, she ALWAYS helps without one grunt or groan, but infact does it with a happy smile! i love you anna!!! if i had any clue about the surprise, i would have gone out of my way to make sure you were there!

Halloween 2011

we had a great halloween this year! the girls wanted to be jessie and pocahontas, which turned out super adorable because coincidentally, they were a cowgirl and indian. bailey sure does love her sister, but thoroughly enjoyed talking about how cowgirls shoot indians!out of sympathy for shadi's bruised heart, i filled her in on bows and arrows and let her know the killin' goes both ways! all in good jest!

i wanted to make the girls costumes, and after some inspiration, this is what i came up with:

here are three out of eleven grand kids. we missed everybody who wasn't there this year, but we still managed to choke down some sugar anyway!

shadi as pocahontas, taeli as a peecock, and bailey as jessie

and i have to say, these are the cutest little trick or treaters there ever were or will be!

first house of the year

taeli's first house ever!

"trick or treat?!"

the grady gammons family

i am hiding my big round belly behind grady!

the whole family hanging out, eating and still passing out candy at the end of the night, following our yearly tradition. it was a very nice night!

tuckered out little indian

this is from the saturday on halloween weekend. my sister julianna came over so i could help her get ready for her singles ward halloween party. she made a BEAUTIFUL greek goddess!

earlier in the day on saturday, there was a small halloween carnival up at the elementary. it was a great trial run for our costumes. the girls nanna and pappa came and bought several tickets so the girls could play games and get candy!

i hope everyone had a great halloween! i have personally been looking so forward to it this year. it has kicked off our holiday season which is a time when grady gets to be home a lot more, we get to enjoy old and make new traditions with the girls, and this year it is a countdown for our third little girl to finally join our family! four more weeks from today!

Package from Grandad in Ohio

my dad wanted to send the girls a little something for halloween. he knows they love getting treats from him in the mail!

the girls love the beany baby pumpkins, and have been sleeping with them ever since. also, we had a fun time eating our jelly bellies and tasting all the different colors. just like me, the girls did not like the flavor licorice, yuck!

thanks dad!

can't wait to see you soon!!!!

Spirit Week

two weeks ago was spirit week. bailey missed a couple of days thanks to pink eye. but we dressed up for the others!

wednesday was wear red/rangers day.
when we were shopping for her rangers shirt, bailey came across a koozie that looked like a ranger jersey and thought it was doll clothes. she wanted it so she and her giraffe could match. since it was only a couple of dollars, i went ahead and bought it. i thought that was pretty funny.
so here are bailey an her giraffe matching with their ranger jerseys and even red ribbons in their hair...ears.

another day was twin day.
i made these matching bandanna pillowcase dresses for halloween and this was the week of halloween. one teacher told me the girls were the hit of the school! it was a nice trade off, since i sliced my finger OPEN with a rotary cutter while making them :)

the other days were peace day, which we missed; alien day, she just wore antennas; and then friday was spirit day, she wore her cheerleader uniform.

Black Out Pep Rally

a fun pep rally shadi and i couldn't miss out on. the school had a "black out" pep rally, so the night before, we went to the store and loaded up on glow sticks.

bailey and some friends getting the party started

this is almost the whole elementary, believe it or not

my little glowing shadi.

shadi will never dance or participate at the pep rallies. however!! when the lights were out at this one, this little momma was breaking it down to all the music and waiving those glow sticks around like she was hosting her own rave!!...true story.

cheerleaders and the back of shadi's head

Gymnastics and Driving

shadi started back up in gymnastics a few weeks ago and is very happy to be back!

her first day, they were doing some testing to see where each kid was with skill levels. all the kids did just fine, but they said shadi was a "mess". they would ask her to do something, anything, and after she did it, she would say things like, "oh, wait, let me do that again" even though she did it perfectly. what a nut!
with her new class

about to do some jumping

this one is random, but i love this picture of grady letting bailey drive down our street after her one of her soccer games

Mother Goose Breakfast and Presentation

for the first six weeks of school, the kindergarten classes worked on all thier nursery rhymes.
so at the end of the six weeks the classes held a breakfast to showcase all the work they had done and that evening they put on a production in the gym where they sang and performed several popular nursery rhymes. it was very cute and so much fun.

at the breakfast, the young'ns served their family orange juice and muffins, since we were guests in their classroom. then we watched a video of the kids interviewing eachother about their fave nursery rhymes. at the end they gave us a book they made. it was a collection of all the art and writings they had been doing in school over the nursery rhymes.
bailey and josie!

here are shadi and kacie in the gym

waiting for the show to start....

mrs. taylors class

bailey was one of little bo peep's sheep that got lost. they were in the field with little boy blue. he was asleep, of course, and didn't notice.

jocie with her momma, anne

(jocie was the mouse that ran up the clock. i made her ears, which were cheaper and cuter than the halloween ones that were available)

bailey and her momma

bailey and my momma, nanna! (thanks for coming, we love seeing you!)

bailey, jocie, shadi and kacie