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As impersonal as this is, I'm combining both Emerson and Everly's birthday celebrations into one post.......that's what happens when you share a birthday month with a sibling.

Emerson's actual birthday we had a double-header baseball game night. Emerson asked that I bring the baseball doughnuts from Krispy Kreme for his team to celebrate. And celebration was DEFINITELY in order. Emerson got his first hit during that game....a bunt (he loves bunting).......that turned out being a TRIPLE due to the other team's over-throws. Emerson's smile was SO big.

We came home late and had the family presents......I can't believe I didin't take any pictures. In summary he got a Skylanders/Lego castle thing and a junk box which pretty much only consisted on orange-flavored things and rootbeer. He said I got EVERYTHING perfect. haha

For his party, the only day I could do it happened to be a Saturday Brooks was working. It ALSO happened to be the day Aleeya's soccer game got cancelled (rainout). She was NONE too pleased (understatement).....this is her face after I told her.

For Emerson's piñata, he wanted a "Zane 2015 Ninjago guy" that looks like this:

Thank goodness for my recycling bin full of boxes and applesauce containers to get the right shapes I needed. (the arm)

Here he is getting ready to cover........Kool-aid anyone?

I finished painting it literally 2 hours before the party started, but Emerson's face was SO priceless to me. He said, "Moooooom, that's like the BEST piñata you've ever done!"

I have the BEST friend that took my younger FIVE kids to her house so I could attempt to pull off this party. I really can do any age group of kids parties by myself.....except Emerson's friends. I LOVE them so much, but they are crazy and there's always some war, wrestling, weaponry stuff going on. It was SO insane (and when I say something is insane, you realize that's a WHOOOOOLE new level of insanity, right?) but Emerson was having a blast.

Emerson said for his birthday he really wanted to sit around the table with his friends and eat spaghetti with them. It's the little things I guess.....

Presents....... This happens to be the Smithsonian grow-prehistoric-fish kit that he was super excited about.

It grows things that look like this.....

which right when they started hatching, I accidentally dumped the blasted container and it landed on top of my head in my hair. Just thinking of those things in my hair makes me itch. Whatever. Soooo, I "get" to go buy him a new one.

Then ice cream sundaes while watching some Ninjago (the only 10 ten minutes there was calmness).

And there you have it..... Emerosn's 9th birthday.

The VERY next day was my sweet Everly's first birthday!!!!!!

DEFINITELY a reason to show off her clapping skills!

The night before her birthday I said to Brooks, "Tomorrow is a BIG day."

Brooks: "What do we have?"

Me: (giving him the DUH-look) "You know full well what is tomorrow. I can't believe it."

Brooks: *blank stare*

I finally realized he had ZERO clue she was turning one and he thought her birthday was in June. 

W-O-W.

It's funny how an experience (her birth) can be the MOST memorable experience/day ever for me, since I was the one going through it and Brooks was clueless. Thankfully he wasn't clueless her actual birth-day since he was the one who delivered her at home. But you would think THAT would at least be memorable for him because HE HAD TO CLEAN IT UP!!!!

Sunday, the 19th was her birthday and by the time we cleaned up from dinner and I made the cupcakes she was so sleepy that I just put her to bed......while the REST of the kids celebrated her birthday with cupcakes and icecream. #8thchildprobs

We DID give her her birthday cupcake the next day after the kids got home from school to watch. They made me wait. 

This is her face while they were all singing to her.

(this shows her feelings for her older brothers and sisters!)

After I gave her the cupcake....

Trying it out and deciding if she liked it....

Aaaaaaand, that would be a DEFINITE "YES"!!!!!

Everly is such a joy in our family. At a year she crawls, stands up, slides along things, does NOT walk, squeals REALLY loud, imitates any funny noise from your mouth and according to my kids is "the cutest baby ever".

She LOVES watching her siblings take baths.

She sticks her hand in and then eats the bubbles and laughs when everyone says, "YUUUUUCKY!!!!"

She's my thumb-sucking snuggler. Everly is SO playful, but for some reason when she is by Camden all she wants to do is snuggle him and she just leans into him. It's the sweetest thing.

Even while standing up!!!!!

(this might be one of my favorite pictures ever!!!!)

Brothers and sisters are the best.

I guess with my two E-named children having their birthdays within a week of each other I can say, 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

34

So apparently I turned 34 last week. I still feel 30 (probably will permanently feel that for a decade) and 34 sounds a TON older then 33 because I'm now in my "mid-30s"....... but that's okay with me. Because I'm married to a 37 year old....and he's getting gray hairs.......so I guess I have to age with him, right?

To explain about my actual birthday, I have to start on the evening before. We had a double header baseball game.....with some light sprinkling which made it nice for me since I didn't bring any water for my kids to drink.

By the time the 7:15 game starts Kellyn has her friend (that she basically glues her hiney to for the whole game).....any guesses why Kellyn loves her so much? haha

(Kellyn could definitely pass as her child)

Some lady on the team made signs to display for the first game (Camden and Emerson's team that Brooks coaches)......my girls loved holding them up but Kellyn REFUSED to point it towards the team, because SHE wanted it facing her. Aaaaaaand I don't need to point out the obvious, but here I go anyway......you do NOT want to mess with Kellyn when it's a meaningless battle like this.

Here's Aleeya, I just like this picture because of her outfit.....plaids, crazy striped pants. I'm sure her teachers smile every day she walks into their class.

The reason I brought up the baseball games is because we got home about 9:30......young kids in bed by 10. A HUGE lack of sleep for the youngest ones which made the 7:15 a.m. dentist appointment on my birthday morning brutal. And I mean BRU-TAL!

Royce's face says it all.....

I take it back, Everly was happy there......but while we waited for Bronson's teeth to get cleaned Royce and Kellyn were basically in a permanent puddle on the floor.

As we walked out to the car, all I could think about was getting them in, buckled and leaving!!!!!

The problem with THAT is I left the lights on and my car was dead.

We "only" had to wait 30 minutes but that was kinda 30 minutes longer then Royce and Kellyn could handle, so Bronson and I buckled them in their seats and sat outside the car waiting for jumper cables to arrive. Neither of us wanted to be with the younger kids any longer.

All this to say, my birthday didn't EXACTLY start how I wanted....... 

THANK GOODNESS for my close friend Laura who came and saved me when I got home.

Laura is one of those friends who loves my kids (sometimes more then me) and my kids love her. She comes from a family with 7 kids and can tolerate and even laughs at ANYTHING my kids throw at her. 

(Two of the prettiest faces)

She understands sleeping in swimsuits. dirty bathrooms, loud dinner tables, and a whole lot of action and love packed into small spaces. She also sends random texts saying, "Can I come hang with your kids so you can run errands?" or when I tell her all embarrassed-like that we had to deal with lice with the girls she said, "Wow, all SEVEN of us kids would get it every year. They are the absolute WORST!" She just gets it. 

And she comes to my boys baseball games. Look at her all cute-like, pregnant with her first.

All this to say, she came and picked me, Royce, Kellyn and Everly up and took us to Chick-Fil-A for lunch on my birthday. And Laura MENTIONED to the lady that it was my birthday so she gave me a free cookie (they have the best chocolate cookies EVER!!!). 

Can you see how excited we are over the cookie?!?!?! It made me forget Everly was just losing it a moment before!!!!

The outing turned around my whole day!

When I got home I checked my email to see my sister gives me a gift card for Domino's pizza!!!! Which means I didn't have to make DINNER THAT DAY!!!! To celebrate this amazing news, I took a "Birthday nap" while the younger kids slept.

For my birthday Everly gave me the gift of standing up by herself. She really is so proud of herself.

And not only THAT but for my birthday she gave me my body back too!!!!!

I know this doesn't sound like a big deal to anyone but it's been 13 years straight that I've been either nursing or pregnant. There was only one month in those 13 years that I haven't had someone dependent on my body! haha. I stopped nursing Everly a few days before my birthday and I feel like it was my birthday present to me!!!!!! YAY.

After pizza we had my favorite (non-chocolate) dessert of angel food cake, strawberries and whipped cream.

Every year I ask Brooks for two things and one of them is always a junk box. He knows me TOO well!!!

Brooks, Camden and Emerson had baseball practice and I ran Bronson to the church for scouts. While we were driving we were HAMMERED by this huge rainstorm. 

One of the HUGE advantages of being Aleeya and always dressed in a swimsuit, is you are constantly ready to go run and play in the rain. It's probably one of her favorite things to do.

Seeing her so happy and smiling like that could've very well been the highlight of my birthday.

The boys

Here is my SUPER weak attempt to keep things updated and documented about what my boys have been up to lately.

Brooks and I took the three older boys to see the Harlem Globetrotters last weekend. Word has it that it has been 17 years since they have come to South Carolina because the state capital has the Confederate/Rebel flag flown on its grounds and the team was apparently against that. Anyway, I guess they got over it? Who knows. But we were thrilled to get tickets with the money from Brooks' returned wedding ring.

I think it's safe to say the boys had a BLAST.

Camden REALLY thought it was real. Got REALLY into it. and yelled REALLY loud at the refs. It was pretty funny.

It was fun. I think I had more fun then Brooks though since he was more concerned about the guy showing crack in front of us.

Royce......Royce........Royce.

He is just an entertaining kid trying to be like his brothers and dad in EVERYTHING.

For example, after we get home from the church ALL the kids change out of their church clothes. Brooks and I stay in our's all day and I guess Royce has noticed. He will NOT change out of his clothes. When we ask him if he wants to, he says no, because he "wants to be like Daddy". So here are the two church-dressed boys making bacon for dinner.

He also can throw balls up the driveway and have them roll down to him (to practice grounders) for hours. It's so cute. (getting ready to do his crocodile "chomp" on the ball)

He also has been doing my workouts with me that I do from videos online. It's actually been fun (hard) because I'm doing it with my sisters. It's kinda a cross-country-sister-bonding thing..... +Royce and Kellyn.

This particular day Royce had me help him hit 3 buckets of balls off his tee. He's clearly loving it.

Royce is actually standing in our NEW batting cage that Brooks and the boys built.

Royce was SO helpful stepping on it as they were trying to build it.

It was so funny watching them put this up from my kitchen window because Emerson and Camden had to stand on Brooks shoulders for part of it.

The cage was bought for 3 reasons: 

1) my family LOVES baseball

2) this will prevent them from hitting balls over the fence and hitting our neighbor's client's convertible window and breaking it so we had to pay $1500. (hypothetically speaking of COURSE)

3) and a home for THIS BEAST of a pitching machine..... Brooks is SO excited a guy let him borrow it (maybe have?) for baseball season.

Literally every day since it was built there have been HOURS clocked in it.

Emerson doesn't like putting the balls in for Bronson because he hits pretty hard. (I should know, I have a bruise on my side to prove it.) So he came up with hiding behind the wading pool to stick the balls in.

(Aleeya just wears a football helmet while putting balls in it. haha)

Yesterday Bronson and Camden built a pitcher's mound on one side of it to practice their pitching and their catching since they both play those positions.

It's aaaaaaaall fun and games until "someone" forgets to wear a cup while he plays catcher.

That ended fast. Pretty sure he won't make THAT mistake again.