Sweet 16

Well, it happened. My sweet little Marquie is 16 years old today. I can't believe it. We had her family birthday party on Sunday. Here's grandpa Dennis giving her her cake.

This is Marquie opening her present from mom & dad. I knew she wasn't expecting anything, so I wondered what her reaction would be. She just looked at the key and smiled and said "Nuh-uh, really?" kind of jokingly. Then when we all sat there, she started running to the front door.


I think she thought it was a joke at first. She didn't say anything, just kept smiling & laughing.


I felt kinda bad for Wade. Bless his heart, he had put a big white bow on it, and as soon as he did it started raining. So by the time Marquie came out, it just looked like a toilet-papered car. Maybe that's why she was acting so unsure.



Okay, maybe this is real.

She was being so.... I don't know, just not freakin out. I mean she was smiling and stuff, but she was pretty calm.

Then finally it sunk in, and then I got the "freak out" I was expecting.

And of course the whole family was there, just they way we like it.

Shayla led them all in "For she's a jolly good fellow". I still don't know why. What happened to the Happy Birthday song? I was so distracted by Marquie's calmness that I forgot to ask.

Happy Birthday Marquie!

Sweet Success!

When Jace was born he was a husky little thing. He weighed in at 9 lbs 5 oz and to this day we tease him that 9 lbs of him was his cheeks.

Well, he's pretty much kept those adorable chubby cheeks for most of his childhood.... until about 6 months ago. In the last 6 months Jace has had a major growth spurt. He's grown about 6 inches and his cute little chubby cheeks (and body) started to disappear. I've been watching my little boy grow into a young man in front of my very eyes.
Jace has played football for the past several years. In football, there is a weight limit. If you weigh more than the limit, you can only play the line because they don't want bigger kids crushing tiny kids. So Jace has played the line for the past few years. This year, Jace decided that he really wanted to play a different position- one that he has to be under the weight limit for.
So he came to us before football started and told us that he wanted to make weight and felt like he could. It would mean he would have to lose about 12 lbs in about 5 weeks. I didn't like the idea too much, but he was soooooo determined. So we told him we would help him but only if he did it healthy. No crazy crash diets. So we came up with a plan

THE KID IS A MACHINE!!!!

I am so totally amazed by his motivation and will power. He ran at least 2 miles a day, and ate 6 times a day. No sugar, no pop, and very low fat. He has eaten more fish in the last month than most people eat in a lifetime.

Well weigh ins were on Monday, and I'm proud to announce that he made it! While he and Wade were at the weigh in, I ran to Sams Club and bought him one of those yummy chocolate bundt cakes. It was # 1 on his list of things he wanted to eat after he made weight. We were planning on taking him to dinner and then coming home to the cake. But when he got home and saw it, he asked if he could have a little piece of it before we went to dinner.

I couldn't resist- it was a priceless moment!

SWEET SUCCES!!