Baking grandmom Waltz recipe: sugar cookies
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!?!
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!
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!
So, I ask...can you guess who made the cake?
SISTERS all dressed up for a great celebration!
lighting...
blowing! Happy Birthday Emily and Katie!
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?
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!
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.
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!
Happy 9th Birthday Emily Hope!!!
Happy Birthday, Katie Love...WE MISS YOU!!!!
Avalee wearing Dad's sneakers. She was having fun until we made her stay in position to go get the camera for a photo...then it wasn't so much fun.
Tobias sitting by his birthday castle, showing off the race car that he and Dad made for his birthday. (mom put the finishing touches on)
A great worker, just like his Dad!
Mom and Sari having FUN!
Avalee having catnap : )