Happy 8th Birthday Thula!

The 'cafeteria lady' telling the kids to get ready to sing "Happy Birthday" to Miss Thula 

I brought glazed dougnuts for Thula's class and she helped pass them out

Eating their dougnuts. Lela felt like such a big girl to be with sissy.

Thula says she doesn't like cake so she asked to decorate gingerbread cookies instead.

Here is her gingerbread cookie just for her.

opening her gift from mommy

yes! just what she wanted-roller skates!

Lela was a tad envious

Afterward we went roller skating

Lela was happy to pal around with Thula and Sara she kept telling me to "Go sit down Mommy."

11:30 PM lights out!

After roller skating in the garage for a couple of hours on Saturday morning Thula opened her gift from Grandp on her 'real' birthday. Another great homemade card as usual.

A little purse

and a watch! Thanks Grandpa

Aunt Emily gave her $8 too! Wow

Thula will be getting baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
on Thursday, December 29th when all her family can attend. We love you so much Thula and no matter how big you grow you will always be my baby.

Happy Thanksgiving

I forgot to take a picture before we cut into it. It was my first time cooking a turkey and I cooked it upside down by accident. It made the breast meat juicy even if it didn't look pretty. Oh Elaine.

The feast! We borrowed two tables from the church-one for the adults and one for the kids.

After giggling for a couple of hours they finally fell asleep in exhaustion.

My friend Amanda's parents rented out a skating rink the day after Thanksgiving. Lela strapped on some skates and scooted along. She felt like such a big girl. She did a great job.

My girls!

me and my good ol' friend Amanda

Thula loves skating

Missy and Kaia, Elaine and Lela, Stuart and Thula, Helena, and Elijah, Emily and Josh
We had such a fun time with our cousins. Thank you for coming down!

pictures

Grandma Beatrice cooked a big african meal for my friend Denise and her family. Peanut butter chicken, curry meat stew, nshima, cassava, collard greens.

Pretty in white

daddy's girls

my pretty girl

Lela loves oranges!

Lela couldn't resist jumping in the tub with dad when she saw all those bubbles!

My sleeping angels. Thula has her own room, but she likes sharing a bed with Lela.

Hair time

new pajamas

Lela took our picture. I love my girls.

wathcing dad at his indoor soccer game

Hair, zoo, and hats

Lela likes Grandma to do her hair.

Lela likes reading books.

The kitty likes to listen to a good story too. Thanks Thula for being a nice big sister and reading the book.

My friend Denise and her five kids at the zoo.

Lela likes Sara, because she is Thula's friend and so she is feeling like a big girl in this picture.

At the end of the day at the zoo Lela was very sleepy. Her little hand under the chin his her sleeping pose. She always does this.

Thula always loves her friends.

I love this hat!