Happy 8th Birthday!

Today is Maclaine's 8th Birthday!!!! To celebrate her birthday we had a dog themed party over the weekend. It was a theme she had picked and I had so much fun coming up with "dog ideas!" Lunch consisted of "Weiner dogs" (hot dogs), "Alpo" (macaroni and cheese) and other goodies. We had the usual gang over, family, Shannah and Philip, and Delani (Maclaine's BFF, who lives down the street). The day turned out to be a beautiful day, a little warm actually, and it was just a really nice time.

Here's what the invitation looked like...



Here's some pictures of all the decorations...






I had planned on making a dog bone cake but after I realized I would have enough cake for an army, we settled on this...


Paw print cupcakes...


"Puppy chow," which is really chex mix with chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar....


"Dog treats......"


Party favors....


Here's some pictures of the festivities....

Pin the tail on Barnaby...


My dad even got in on the fun....


I'm pretty sure Maclaine won...


Pinata time...


Mallory actually broke it open and I didn't even get a picture of it, I think I was too worried that I wasn't going to get a whack at the pinata....


Present time...so many goodies....



Uncle Kenny was in charge of picking out Maclaine's card and it ended up being a boy card :) with a pink envelope though! I thought Maclaine's face was so funny as she was reading the card....


"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you....."


"Happy Birthday dear Maclaine...."


"Happy Birthday to you...."


Grandma and Grandpa bring balloons every year....


Here's my dad talking with Ellie, I love this picture....


Nephew Donovan, such a sweetie....


Maclaine with her BFF Delani...


Nieces Mallory and Ellie...


Family....


Ellie, Maclaine, Aubrey, and Barnaby of course...


Nieces Aubrey and Ellie...


My BFF Shannah and I....


Aubrey, Maclaine, Delani, and Philip...


"Two little love birds sitting under the tree...K-I-S-S-ING..."


Grandma and Grandpa (Ty's parents)....


Ty teasing Granny, thank goodness she gets his humor....


Much better....


My sister DeAyn and her husband Kenny...


All the kiddos...

Karate belt exam!

Maclaine joined karate almost two years ago and I wasn't sure if it was going to be a keeper or not. What I mean is, we've tried just about every activity! She did tap and ballet...didn't like it, she did hip-hop...didn't like it, she did gymnastics...liked it ok, she did baton...didn't want to join after the second round, I'm pretty sure she just wanted the baton :). She never wanted to do soccer or anything like that SO, we decided to try karate. Well, she's actually really enjoyed it and has never said she wanted to quit.

Last weekend she tested for her blue belt and did great!

Here's a few pictures to show you how it went...

Warm-up time...


Stretching...




Good ole horse stance...


World famous shoulder slaps....


Video of her doing her kata...


Just received her new belt and diploma, now she has to rub sweat on her new belt...


"We did it!"


Proud daddy...


Our little karate girl...

"Wrestle Hug"

Maclaine and her daddy have always loved to wrestle...me on the other hand...not so much! Every night Maclaine says, "daddy, can we have a wrestle hug tonight?" It doesn't happen every night but I would say 3 nights a week, there's some wrestlin' going on in our house.

I'm not sure where the name came from but these pictures will show you what us Morgan's call a "wrestle hug."

This is how it starts...






Clainey girl trying to fight back...


Atomic wedgie...OUCH!


Regaining her footing...
kinda....


"You're going down, daddy....!"




"Get him, girl..."


Almost down...


"1, 2, 3, I win...."

Spirit Week!

Maclaine had Spirit week at her school last week and although she didn't participate everyday she had fun with the days she chose to dress-up. They had decades day which they were allowed to pick whatever decade they wanted, then they had fancy day which ended up falling on a half-day, thank goodness, since the kiddos were dressed in their best. Then there was pirate day, school spirit day, and one more that for the life of me I can't remember.

Here are the ones Maclaine participated in...

Decades day, she chose 80's of course...




Fancy day...


Pirate day...

NOTE: She picked out all of her outfits herself :)

Ellie & Donovan day!

My niece Ellie and nephew Donovan got to come over a couple weeks ago while their parents went on a date. Maclaine always LOVES to be with her cousins and since Ellie and Donovan are younger than she is she ends up playing the role of helper, teacher, & event planner of their play time :). She does a fabulous job with them! They had tons of fun and were very well behaved. They played outside, watched TV in my bed, and played with every toy we own. We really enjoyed having them!

Here's some pictures of their time over...

Where oh where is Maclaine?!

In the tree reading, of course!

I couldn't find her one afternoon after I told her she needed to have some reading time and this is where I found her...

This is her homemade swing in her favorite tree...

Granny's B-Day party!

To celebrate Granny's birthday we went over to my sister DeAyn's house for a good old fashioned BBQ. We got a nice surprise when my cousin Russell and his beautiful wife Tess showed up with Olivia and their new baby Logan. It's kinda nice to have a baby around again, it's been awhile. My cousin Michael also came by for the fun.

Here's my brother-in-law Kenny BBQ-ing...

Notice the stuffed jalepeno's...YOWZA, they were HOT!!!

Niece Mallory holding sweet Logan...




Niece Aubrey with Olivia and Maclaine...


Russell's beautiful wife Tess, she's so sweet....


Granny, lovin' on Logan...


Granny with most of the great-grandkids, Jamie's family was home sick...


Everybody getting ready to leave...


Good Times!!!