Brinley's Birthday!

I have been a blogging slacker lately!! Since the holiday season is well over I won't be blogging about that I guess!! Instead I will move onto January and the birthday's this month! This year was a non birthday party year. Brinley did have a great birthday though!! She specifically asked for Swedish Pancakes, Bacon, and an Orange Julius for her birthday breakfast!! Jon put a few special touches on her plate also!

It was weird only having the three girls home for this breakfast since the big kids had already left the house by 6:15 AM. She loved the breakfast but couldn't eat it all. She then opened a few presents and headed off to school. Since we knew that on her actually bday we would all be going in different directions we decided to out the day before to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. My kids' seem to really enjoy it here and love the ice cream at the end of the meal!

After school on her birthday I came and picked up Brinley and her friend Kennedy. Brinley wanted to go to Build-A-Bear and bring Kennedy with her. The girls loved the store and each picked out their favorite stuffed animal, which neither of them were bears... Kennedy chose a kitty cake and named her Daisy, while Brinley chose a monkey and named him George. They both thought it was the best present EVER!!! And that was pretty much all we did for her birthday. It was kind of boring but she seemed to have a great day! That evening we ate her favorite meal, Chicken and Broccoli but we didn't even all eat together since we were all going in different directions that night. My birthday was on the 21 of January. That day I took the kids out of school and we went to the Great Wolf Lodge. We had a free day pass there from last year when we visited and the power went out. It was so much fun for the kids. I actually kind of enjoyed myself also even though it was my bday. It wasn't crowded AT All and they were able to ride all the slides several times. Morgan, Mandy(morg's friend), and Mason rode the Tornado 26 times!! We stayed all the way up until closing and then drove home. By the time we all headed to bed it was after midnight. We finally had our birthday cake on Sunday two days after my birthday and almost a week after Brinley's.LAME I know! So for lunch before we went to church we had my peanut butter and chocolate birthday cake that Jon just whipped up! It was Yummo!!

Facts about Brinley at age Eight:

She is still our "little" Brinley. She can wear all of Maddie's clothes but some are too short. She is in a six pants and tops. We all just are amazed by her strong little body that has become even more defined since starting gymnastics. Morgan and I marvel at her six pack stomach!! Right now she is obsessed with stuffed animals. She received a pillow pet for Christmas and just got her new George. So her and Maddie both have several animals/dolls all lined up on their beds each day. Her and Maddie are becoming the best/worst of friends. They love to sleep in the same bed together (even though they share a room they want to be closer). Although at times they begin to punch each other and we have to separate them. Brinley has lost four teeth this past year and pulled everyone of them out herself. She will probably be right up there with Morgan with having the worst teeth (as far as ortho is concerned). She is a very hard worker at school. She has received three awards this year from her teacher praising her for her perseverance, effort, and responsibility. Her love for gymnastics has grown tremendously this past year. In June of last year she moved up to the team level of gymnastics. She began at that time practicing nine hours a week. Once school started she practices three days a week for three and a half hours each day! That's 10 1/2 a week! I was a little concerned at the beginning of the school year how she would be able to manage everything. But she is doing fabulous! She finds the time to still do all her homework, reading, and now just recently started Activity Days! There is never a time of the day that she is not either doing a cartwheel, back handspring, handstand, or her routines. She is quite talented and both Jon and I wonder where this will take her. She has her first meet in two weeks. Brinley is a sweet girl but also one of my feistiest children. Just like she came into this world with fire and passion, that's exactly how she is now! We are so excited that she will be baptised soon and are so proud of all her accomplishments! We just love our Brinley!!