The Epleys

Monday, January 27, 2014

Favorites at 4, 6, and 8!

While I have the girls here, I thought I'd get their favorites at their new ages!

Song

Hannah: Sophia the First theme song

Allie: Same as Hannah's

Ava: Let it Go (from Frozen)

Food

Hannah: cake and ice cream:)

Allie: Ramen noodles (Still!)

Ava: Pizza

Color

Hannah: pink and purple and gold

Allie: pink and purple

Ava: purple and turquoise

Movie

Hannah: Epic and Frozen

Allie: Frozen, The Croods, and Epic

Ava: Frozen and The Croods

Hobby

Hannah: play with her Sophia dolls and castle

Allie: do a craft

Ava: playing "house" with her sisters or making bracelets on her loom

TV show

Hannah: Sophia the First

Allie: Sophia the First

Ava: Good Luck Charlie

What are you most excited about this year?

Hannah: Going to Tennessee

Allie: Going to Tennessee for vacation this summer

Ava: That she's getting older and that she'll be in third grade soon, and going on vacation this summer!

Favorite friend (toy/stuffed animal they sleep with)

Hannah: Sophia doll

Allie: Ducky and unicorn

Ava: Webkins

My baby is 4! Hannah will always seem little to me. Have I said this before? I think I have. But seriously, I think at 4, the other two were doing so much more for themselves than Hannah does, but it's my fault. I see her as so much smaller because she's my baby! We've been working on that lately. I'm not sure she likes it but she's adjusting. She's doing great too! She's starting to do more and more on her own and she's so big!

Hannah is the best encourager! Out of our whole family, she is the first to compliment or encourage. It's awesome! She LOVES her sisters. I hear "I miss my sisters" almost every day, while they're at school. Her favorite things right now are Polly Pockets and My Little Ponies. She also likes playing with Lego's!

Hannah's birthday fell on a Sunday this year. After church, where a crowd of people sang "happy birthday" to her when she walked into the foyer, and where her Sunday school class also sang to her, Hannah got to pick what was for lunch. She decided she wanted to go to the Applebee's where the guy talks like Elmo, which happens to be the one in Commerce. Of course that guy wasn't working but we still had a nice lunch! The kids played together for the rest of the day, mostly with Hannah's new Sophia castle. In the evening we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, per Hannah's request, and ate cake and ice cream.... again! Birthday months are tough for eating healthy!

Oh well! Happy birthday Hannah!! We love you!

Ava's 8th birthday

Eight Years Old!!! That's crazy. Seriously. My oldest is 8. She seems so old to me. But she's still so little! Having kids is weird isn't it? It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital, then all of sudden they're old, and rolling their eyes at you when you do silly things, and getting attitudes when they don't want to do something, and at the same time, having a blast playing games with their family! I feel like I'm not a grown-up yet, then I remember, I have an eight-year-old. Ava feels like a grown-up to me sometimes! She is such a great kid. She's loving school right now, doing amazing in math, and is taking a class during her recess once a week, that teaches the fifty states and all the capitals. I love how much she loves to learn. And she's a great reader!

We were able to spend the whole day with Ava since her birthday fell on Martin Luther King Jr. day! Mary Kay, our children's ministry pastor at church, happens to have the same birthday as Ava so they started a tradition of going out together for their birthdays. Mary Kay took Ava to Village Grill for breakfast where they asked each other twenty questions! Ava had a blast!! And was super stoked to get the Frozen soundtrack! She loves it and is constantly singing the songs. Thank you Mary Kay!!!

The rest of the day, Ava pretty much played with her sisters, until daddy came home. Ava picked dinner, she wanted Jet's pizza! We enjoyed dinner together, had cake and ice cream, and play with a couple cousins, who stopped by for dinner! It was a fantastic day!

Ava has been wanting a remote controlled car for a long time!

I wish I remembered to do this for every birthday cause Ava loved seeing this note on the mirror when she woke up in the morning!

Happy birthday sweet AVA!!!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Combined birthday party

All but one of Mike's siblings, and all of my siblings are in the area, so we typically get together with all the cousins and grandparents and do a combined birthday party for the girls. It makes it a little more manageable with schedules in the busy month of January!

The girls had a great time! We had everyone over for lunch after church, ate together, had a piñata, ate cake and ice cream and opened gifts. Our families are so generous and we're so grateful for such amazing people to love our kids alongside Mike and me!

After all the cousins had a turn, we let Uncle Chris bust it open.

Ava, Allie and Hannah each got to decorate their own wing of the butterfly!

Aunt Miranda dragged these kids along the floor. She is one tough lady!

We also got to spend some time with our friends Katie and Dave and their beautiful daughter Karisa. They were in town for the holidays, coming all the way from Guam! At the end of their trip, they went out to Colorado to check out a job opportunity out there!!