Monday, February 20, 2012

2 More Birthdays in February!!

February is quite the month at our house!
First we celebrate Malia's birthday on the 11th....then we celebrate Tim's birthday on the 12th...and then on Valentines Day we celebrate my birthday!  Of course we focus on Malia--because that's what we do as parents!  And by now...it's okay to take the focus off of how old Tim & I are getting and just have fun celebrating each new thing with the kids!!  (I know...we are so ancient!!)

Tim's birthday landed on a Sunday this year and it happened to be a very busy Sunday for the Friese household!  We teach Jr Church at our church every 2nd Sunday of the month and well, the 12th of Feb was the 2nd Sunday of the month!!  It happens that our church just went to doing 2 services each Sunday morning and so that meant we stay for both services and teach at both services!   Sunday night we also happened to be scheduled to be in the Nursery during the evening activities at church and then we had also had friends over for lunch!

So, yes...a little nutso for the birthday boy!  So, I gave Tim the "day off" from all of those and taught the Jr Church's and then arranged to have my friend Sarah be in the nursery with me so that Tim and a bunch of his buddies from church could hang out and grab some wings at the local Green Mill!

Tim had a great time with the guys and our Pastor even ended up over there with them, which was fun, too.  Tim enjoyed his day, even though he said he indulged a little too much during the gathering at Green Mill!  I forget how many wings they ordered...but it was a lot!!

I'm so thankful for Tim!!  I wouldn't have my precious family without him.  I'm so thankful for how God brought us together 13 years ago.  Thankful how God has kept us together and blessed us with Malia, Morgan & Marshall.  Every day is definitely a new day--I didn't say an easy day--but God's promises are also new every morning and His blessings tremendous when we keep our hearts & minds stayed on Him!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥       ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

And now Valentine's Day!  My Birthday!  
It's tricky having a birthday on Valentine's Day!  (Just ask Tim...He's learned---the hard way!!  ha ha!!)
Beautiful 
Well, It was a busy workweek for me--busier than normal and I am not complaining...so thankful to have a great job with great coworkers and bosses!  I came home from work on Monday to 2dozen roses!!  It was sweet!  Tim had been home all day with the Marshall-Monster and had ordered those ahead of time--he was thinking!!

In a couple weeks we are headed up north for a much needed weekend--AWAY!!  I'm so happy to have all these discount websites at our disposal!!  Like Groupon, Living Social and Crowd-Cut.  I bought a Crowd-Cut deal for a halfprice stay up in Lutsen--SWEET!!!  (however, gas will probably skyrocket, so the savings from the discounted deal will be put towards the fuel to get up there!!)  

I just realized that Tim & I didn't get a picture of us on our birthdays...I guess we will have to do that!  Maybe when we finally can get out for a birthday dinner we will get someone to snap our photo!!

Praying that this year will be a great year for us, a year of blessings--not just those showered on us, but that we can be a blessing to those around--that our kids will always see Christ in us and that we can grow as a family in the ways of the Lord!

♥Sara

Malia Renae--9 years old!

February 11th!  The day my beautiful Malia turned 9!  9----already!  It's so incredible and so is she!!!
What a fun birth-"day" she had too!  On Friday the 10th it was "birthday lunch with Principal Good" day and so that was a great way to start the celebratory weekend for Miss Malia!  She enjoyed her lunch with him and was chatty--according to herself!  She also took in some birthday cookies for her class and then passed out the extras to the "office ladies" as she left school for the day!
Saturday started out like a usual birthday morning!  Breakfast of choice--cereal hand-picked by the birthday girl!  (Mommy can't say no when it comes to the birthday cereal--it's a tradition--a RULE!!)

Flowers for the birthday girl and balloons are also on the table greeting them as they wake up!  It's fun to have these traditions! After breakfast we geared up for the party!  We hadn't had a birthday party since Malia turned 4 and so this was really special!  We invited a few girls from school, a couple from church and then our babysitters daughter who has become a fun friend (And then one of the girls from school brought her sister with --who is Morgan's good friend!!)!  The stipulation was that they all had to have an American Girl doll because we were making crafts for their dolls and that was the theme of the day!  (If you need ideas for a birthday party with this theme--head to Michael's--they have partnered with AG and have a plethora of fun activities and party  favors to choose from!!)

They enjoyed pizza for lunch, decorating their own cupcakes and then making "cake pops"!  Cake pops are the latest craze and they enjoyed making them and decorating them!  The girls also enjoyed making the headbands and bracelets for their dolls.  We packed a lot of fun into 4 hours!!!

Marshall was home with us for all of this and kept coming upstairs telling me how "loud" they were!  That was funny coming from the little loud boy himself!  He enjoyed having the girls here, though, and enjoyed "bugging" them!

At the end of the day Malia said this was the best birthday ever and thanked me for letting her have such a fun day!  It was precious!  My heart swells thinking about how much I love her and how thankful I am for my sweet family!

The cereal--Honey Smacks (One of Papa Haugen's favorites!!)
The Flowers!
The presents!!  Let the fun times begin~~


A pedometer!!
And of course we log her steps on-line to try to win
prizes for being active!! 

Softball starts soon...this year we are prepared!  A bag for the bat and batting gloves for
our slugger!!

Wappy!!  The pup who goes along with the DS!!

Ready for the party!
Matching hair and shirts for Malia & Rebecca!

Aaaa....the goodies!
Let the sugar rush commence!

The crew!!  They were a great crew of girls!

The little sisters!!  Partying like the big girls!




CRAZY!

oooohh....cupcakes...frosting...


Happy Birthday to you!!!