Katelyn's 1st birthday!

We are having a big family party to celebrate Katelyn Grace's 1st birthday this weekend but in the mean time, we had to do something special on her actual birthday, which happened to be today. So, the girls and I sang "Happy Birthday" to her this morning (she just laughed and smiled while we sang to her!) and then spent most of the day playing with her toys and just having fun together. Allie had another 2 hour delay for school due to our recent snow so all four of us girls got to enjoy some extra special time together this morning. Then tonight, we headed to one of our favorite places to eat....Texas Roadhouse (I'm sure she will love their steaks in just a few years!) with my mom and dad to have a good dinner in her honor! : ) She got to open up one of her presents there and enjoyed her favorite to eat....vanilla pudding! Here are just a few recent pictures of her. She has been teething for what seems like an eternity so in most of the photos she has a runny nose and looks like a little "rugrat" but she's our sweet "rugrat"!!! We can't believe how quickly the time has gone this first year with her. She is so much fun and from the looks of this past year with her, she is going to be quite a character! The girls still absolutely adore her and can't wait to teach her more things this coming new year. She loves to wave but can't figure out that you wave your hand facing out instead of in so she usually ends up waving to herself! She also loves to have Daddy "fly" her in the air and she cracks up laughing at just about everything the girls do to entertain her. One of her favorite things to do while Mommy is in the kitchen is to get into the cabinets that she has access to (some are locked now because of her little fingers wanting to grab at everything!) and she loves to pull out all of the plastic cups and bowls to play with. We feel so blessed to have her join our family and thank God for her each and every day!

Snow, Snow, Snow!!!!

Lauren and Allie ready to go!

Allie and her friend Mariah

WOW...that's alot of snow! Photos of our backyard and woods

We got almost 11 inches of snow overnight and are having a blast enjoying a snow day together!!! The girls had some friends over from our neighborhood so that they could all sled down our big hill. This is the first year that Lauren has really loved this and is now an official "big girl" riding down by herself! : ) Of course, when she gets off of the sled, the snow is almost up to her knees and it takes all of her strength to climb back up but she seems to be loving every minute of it. Allie didn't want to come inside to take a break but was finally convinced to once she figured out that she could have one of her friends come over to play in her playroom! She is really enjoying having the day off from school. : ) Sounds like we might get more snow later this week, we love that idea but don't want too much as we are planning a big birthday bash here at our house with all of our family for baby Katelyn's 1st birthday! Hopefully the roads will be ok for everyone to get here, we can't wait!!!

January's here and baby it's COLD OUTSIDE!

Just updating our blog...not too much to report lately. After the hustle and bustle of the holidays, of course it's always hard getting everyone back into the swing of our schedules but I think now that we're half way thru January, we're finally getting there! : ) Mommy has had plenty of extra one-on-one time w/ little Katleyn (although not always fun times!) as she has been up thru out the nights, miserable with getting some new teeth in. Poor thing! ; ( But, she seems to be doing better now. I don't know what it is with the Massey kiddos but all three of our girls have been late bloomers on getting their teeth in and then when they decide to come in, they seem to arrive all at once....AGH! Makes for some cranky babies. But, it's worth it when they start to feel better and give you that sweet smile. Seeing that it has been extra cold around here lately, Allie has been enjoying having some play dates with friends inside. And, a great thing with that is that one of Allie's friends (and our close neighbor) has a little sister that is exactly (they are one day apart in birthdays!) her age too so they both get to play together....works out very nice. Jason and I have been trying to get our list together of some little house projects that we would like to get accomplished this year. We started the year with redoing our mirrors in our two full bathrooms and got one done last weekend. Very minor, but looks great! Funny how girls tend to notice things like that....both Allie & Lauren commented on how pretty it looked in their bathroom. Jason had to laugh at that! We are now busy planning Katelyn's 1st birthday party coming up very soon. I cannot believe that my baby will be one soon...where does the time go? I'll end this post with a recent picture of her in the bathtub....she is such a cutie and LOVES to play in the water! Take care everyone and stay warm!

The Massey Girls "Annual" Gingerbread house....

The girls in the family (well, not all of us...we figured Katelyn was still a bit young to join in on the fun yet!) took a few hours before Christmas to put together our annual gingerbread house. Once again, Allie and Lauren did a great job and had so much fun decorating it. Allie is very particular about how things should go (wonder where she gets that???!!) so it is always somewhat of a battle of wills when the two of them do this activity together but each year seems to be getting a bit better! It looks like in all of our pics over the last month, Lauren has the same outfit on (oh so pretty pink and black princess dress!)...as you can tell, she loves that thing and wears it 24 hours a day...no joke, she sleeps in it! As for the gingerbread house making, Lauren just loves to lick as much of the icing as possible while putting it together and then stands and teases for atleast the first thirty minutes after it is completed for a piece of the candy off of it! What a fun tradition....

Allison's starring role in her school play....

I'm a bit behind on my blogging but still wanted to include a few pictures and words about Allison's big acting debut! She got one of the lead roles in her class play recently and did a great job when the play took place before the holidays. She was "Auntie Clause", who happens to be based off a character (Santa's sister!) in a children's book. She memorized all of her lines and never missed a beat during the production...we were so very proud! Of course, Lauren couldn't wait to go and see the play....had to get dressed up and have her nails painted for the big event! And she was thrilled to cheer her big sister on! Here a few pics of her big day!

Family bowling fun over Christmas Break!

Recently before school let out for Christmas Break, Allie was able to go bowling as a reward trip given by her principal of her elementary school for perfect attendance this semester. She came home raving about how much fun she had and we haven't been bowling in FOREVER, so we decided to have a family fun night over the Christmas break and go bowling. The kids were very excited! Of course, Lauren has never gone so she had no idea what it was but was still very excited to go! : ) They all did great and even little Katelyn enjoyed cheering us on from her seat. Allie is very competitive so she of course got a bit mad when Daddy helped Lauren get a strike and she didn't get one but she quickly got over it after she realized that she still beat her little sister....haha! Lauren is probably the only girl that insists on carrying her purse, even when she bowls. Too funny! We had a great time and vowed to go back again really soon for some more family fun together!

Merry Christmas!

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve morning doing our annual outing at The Childrens Museum w/ some friends and their kiddos. We always have fun running around there, going down the slide and seeing Santa one last time before he heads our way that night! Then, that afternoon, we headed down to the Pizza King w/ the "choo choo" (as Lauren likes to call it!) to eat pizza w/ Grandma & Papa. We spent Christmas Eve night making cookies for Santa and watching the Polar Express before heading to bed to dream about goodies and toys! Christmas morning we spent opening up presents (and reading a note that Santa left for us after he ate his cookies and drank his milk!), reading the Christmas scriptures in our Bible, eating yummy cinnamon rolls and getting ready to head to Louisville to spend more time w/ family. We spent that day and the next w/ Nana and Papa and loved every minute of it. Then, we headed back here for one more Christmas celebration w/ the rest of the family and Gma and Papa. Whew....lots of running around but so much fun! Wouldn't trade a minute for anything! The girls enjoyed everything they received and Allie really loved giving the presents this year which just made our hearts swell with pride! : ) Merry Christmas to everyone and God bless 2009!