Coonville: March 2010

Makin' cookies

Baking grandmom Waltz recipe: sugar cookies
notice: that even Avalee has to wear her apron, just like the big girls!

I think they ate more dough than made cookies...but not too much, as momma is in charge and knows best!

Avalee loves doing whatever we are doing! What a smile!

too cute!

Why is it so much fun to take pictures of the baby!?!
I guess because she is always CUTE!

What a blessing our children are! Thank You JESUS!!!

A birthday is not complete with out going to our favorite Mexican resturant, Pueblo Real in Franklin, TN. To top off this years desert, the owner and our friend had to decorate Emily's face! I wasn't sure how she'd take that, but she loved every bit!

Happy Birthday Emily!

Uncle Steve's birthday visit!

We were so excited that Uncle Steve came to celebrate Emily and Katie's birthdays. It was a great time of FUN, as always! We so enjoyed our time together! We took Steve to the Revival that our church was having. The services were a time of refreshing. It's always great to see what our God is doing in the lives of His people! Steve got to see what fun we have with our treasure hunts and how much fun we have making the day special.

There was time to relax and for CRALEY and CRALEY to have some bonding time as they colored one of Tobias' puzzles together.

Avalee loved being right on her Uncle Steve's lap

As always, we played many games. Spoons was a bit crazy. We played 7UP and we also played boys vs. girls in pictionary. I forgot who won, but everyone played GREAT, and we had a BLAST!

The finished product!

Our last night together was so special. We sat with Steve and listened to him talk for hours about all his world traveling over the years. The girls listened in eagerly hearing these stories for the first time, and although Jason and I have heard them before, we could never tire of hearing Steve's great adventures! It's amazing how well Steve remembers all his trips like they were yesterday! He is a great story teller, as we felt like we were beside him! I still hope he wills us his journals someday...what priceless entries they are! Thanks Uncle Steve for making Emily and Katie's birthday celebration extra special by you being here in TN with us!

Birthday BUNNY cake...so cute!

So, I ask...can you guess who made the cake?

you guessed it.....WRONG! Dad stepped down and let momma make this years birthday bunny cake. Dad and mom both grew up with our moms making bunny cakes. So once we got the bunny rabbit we both knew what cake we should create! Emily requested choc. and stawberries...otherwise the icing would have been white, like her bunny. The cake was awesome! From the advise of a friend, (thanks Sara!) we bought a strawberry cake mix, and instead of water, we took real strawberries and mushed them up and used them instead! It was so moist and had an awesome strawberry taste!

SISTERS all dressed up for a great celebration!
(new dress from Grandpop and Grandmom Worrell)

lighting...

blowing! Happy Birthday Emily and Katie!

Birthday BUNNY sUrPriSe!!!!

Emily's last code to crack in her treasure hunt, gave her the clue "guest sleep"... it was in the guest room that her "BIG" gift was revealed! And she was more than pleased... By-the-way, this bunny was in our house for a week and a half! Was that a challenge to keep it a secret! We kept telling Emily that we had a lot of "painting" to do on her BIG gift. That was our excuse to visit and feed the bunny during that time. We tried not to tell Tobias and Sari, but they accidentally saw the bunny! They were great and kept the secret!

Meet the newest animal member of our family...Daisey

Daisey loves attention, and Sari loves to give it!

Everyone waiting their turn

Daisey absolutely loves her new home, can you tell?

Birthday Treasure Hunt

We tried a new type of treasure hunt clues for this years birthday.

To crack the code: Start at the BOLD letter, going clockwise, circle or write down every other letter. The code/word is another clue as to where to go. Can you crack this one? The answer is: LIGHTLY ROW, which is the name to one of Emily's piano songs. So, she had to figure out that she needed to go the the piano to find her next treasure and next clue.

SISTERS and BEST FRIENDS!

Emily's monkey loot/treasures from each clue solved!

Here is all the clues...the last clue reveals the "BIG" gift!
(notice Emily's favorite colors: orange and purple)

Birthday festivities

Happy Birthday, Emily, you are so beautiful! Is that a huge BIRTHDAY SMILE, or what?!?!\

Really cool new "atomic" alarm clock...the best clock in the house! Thank you Grandpop and Grandmom Coon!

Sister, Holly is giving pets as gifts this year! Holly gave Emily a "coupon" to buy her a bird for her birthday. So, Sunday after church we all visited Pet Smart, where Emily got to pick out the one that she wanted. Her name is "Rio". The photo is a bit dark, but she is yellow and green. Our new bird is a welcoming sound! She sings and mimics the squeek in the dryer, the sound of the vacuum and any music we play in the house.

Birthday Rock Climbing!

We spent the day in Nashville...at the Oprah Mills Mall. Emily wanted to use her birthday money sent to rock climb...for her 1st time! She was nervous, but did awesome!

She breezed her way right to the top and rang the bell! Great job Emily!

Then, to help her sister celebrate her birthday, Holly made a go of it also...barefoot! Although, Holly had done this before, it had been some time. She too was successful in climbing to the top! We need to get ourselves one of these in the back yard!