Winnifred at Eight

I honestly cannot put Winnie into a word. There are too many words that describe this girl. That is why I took all these pictures of her on her birthday. They all describe Winnie perfectly.  I look at each one and say to myself, yep that's Winnie. I feel really lucky because a lot of people say that they have a "spirited child" and that is code for "extremely challenging". Winnie is a spirited child, but I absolutely would not say she is a challenge. She is an absolute delight. In fact she is my least challenging child at the moment.

Winnie is a sweet, caring, kind, smart, dramatic, friendly, opinionated, confidant, good and loving daughter.

Winnie Turns 8!

Winnie got to have "friend" party this year (we alternate every other year). She really wanted to have a swimming party like Hannah had for her eighth birthday and so we did. It was a blast. I don't have any picture of the actual party. I didn't take any. Pool pictures always turn out ugly anyways. I did take plenty of pictures that day though. Her birthday fell on a Saturday, so we got everything done on the actual birthday.

Grandma and Grandpa surprised Winnie by coming over on her birthday morning. I am so grateful to have wonderful parents who are very loving and thoughtful grandparents. They make each of their grandchildren children feel special and unique. I honestly think that they love my children as much as I do!

One tradition that I have carried on from my childhood is to make special, fun birthday cakes. I let them pick them out. Then if possible we make them together. Winnie wanted a swimming pool cake, but for the sake of a very large group of children we made 50 individual swimming pool cup cakes. We had a fun time making each of them different and fun.

Here Winnie is holding her two favorite ones. Two friends doing the back stroke and a bear in a life preserver. 

 Some of the cupcakes. They are all slightly different. They turned out so adorable. We let the kids each pick out their own.

This is what Winnie got for her birthday. An American Girl horse that she has wanted for two years. She looooves it!

On the way home from the pool we surprise Winnie by stopping at Red Robin for her birthday dinner. She was so excited and announced that this was the best birthday she ever had. The staff sang to her and she hid behind Robert. On the way home I asked her is she was glad they sang to her or if she wished they hadn't.

She replied, "I have mixed feelings about that."

I love Winnie. She is so awesome and adds so much character to our home.

As to her turning 8 and growing up, I have mixed feelings about that.

Hauntings

Some items on our Halloween "To Do" list:

Attend the Ravenwood's Harvest Festival

Music Maker's Halloween Party for Bobby

Carve pumpkins for FHE

Ward Halloween Carnival

Trunk-or-treating at the church

Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood

I Will Choose The Right

Yesterday was Hannah's last primary program. I can't believe she will be moving on to young women's in just 6 months!

The primary program's theme was about choosing the right. Hannah told a story about Ruth and how she chose the right by serving Naomi. I am so glad that I have a daughter that makes so many good choices. She is a good girl.

Lucky Number 13

This week on October 9th, Robert and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. Thirteen is definitely a good number this year. I honestly cannot believe that we have been married for so long, but at the same time it feels like we have always been together.

Loving this wonderful man and having him love me too makes me so very lucky.

On our anniversary Robert took off my braces. Best gift ever!

While I was at the office for my appointment Robert had these flowers delivered to me. 

My happy, smiling face!

A Ghostly Apperance

Some friendly ghosts have made their way into the DeKay house!

Missing Fall

 Fall has been very short, wet and cold this year. We had bad windstorms the beginning of September that blew the leaves off the trees before they had even turned. Then we had record amount of rain and practically no sunshine. I have missed the brief, but beautiful fall that I have come to love about Alaska.

Here are a few of the things we have done this fall despite the weather. I am really missing Kentucky this year.

We invited our friends, The Napoleans, to go on one of our favorite family hikes for FHE. The hike was to a waterfall up Highland road. The waterfall was so much bigger that I had ever seen it because of all the rain. We had a fun time showing our friends one of our favorite Eagle River spots.

One day the sun kind of came out for a few minutes. Bobby and I had been running errands and noticed the sun so we rushed down Eagle River Road to the North Fork of the Eagle River to throw rocks for a while. Bobby could throw rocks for a long time.

Bobby and I walked the girls to school one day for "Walk to School Day." Normally it is too far to walk to school, but we did it for this special day. We cheated and drove to a friends house who lives closer to the school to start.

The addition is steadily progressing. Robert and crew have been getting so wet! I really hope it is done soon.

Robert went to Valdez at the end of September and got stuck there for a few hours! The water was so high that they had to close the only bridge in and out of Valdez!

Robert took the kids camping two weekends ago and woke up to snow!!!!

Winnie's class went on a field trip to the Alaska Zoo. It was cold and wet and rainy, but it was quite fun. Winnie says her favorite parts were seeing the red foxes and getting hot chocolate!

Jack at 9 Months

Jack Facts:

Weighs 18 pounds 2 ounces
Stands up holding onto the couch for a long time
Doesn't crawl at all
Rolls all over the house
Loves to sing
Says mama mama and da da
Feeds himself finger foods
Loves to eat dinner
Is very very tall
Always very good natured
Takes a three hour nap
Loves to be in the middle of things
Is very loved by his family

September Snow

We had our first snowfall of the season on Saturday, September 29th! A little early this year that is for sure. It was actually over an inch, but by the time I took the picture most of it had melted away. I really hope we don't get any more for a couple of weeks so we can get more done on our house!