Thanksgiving Feast!

Ali had her Thanksgiving Feast at school last week and Ryan and I (well, especially me!) were so excited to get to go to her school and celebrate Thanksgiving with Ali and her friends! (and their parents) Ali's class made little Indian hats and they were all soo cute!!

Lining up to come in...

Ali and her sweet class...





Ali's cute little friend, Caroline, sat with us at our table!
Ali showing off her artwork..

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dancing sisters....

We love to have dance parties around here...daily! Both the girls love to dance - Ali loves to dance around like a princess and Rhodes likes to shake her bottom up and down and then twirl around in circles! Hilarious! Sometimes Baxter likes to get his dancing moves in too... This is a short video I took the other day (I wish I could erase my voice off of it!)!

More birthday fun!

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Pinkalicious birthday!

We had so much fun celebrating Ali's 3rd birthday party! Ali's favorite book right now is Pinkalicious and I thought it would be fitting to have her birthday party at Cupcake Charm, decorating cupcakes. It is a precious little cupcake store on the Marietta Square. The favors were little aprons and I decorated them with each of her friends' name beforehand. When they got there, we had stamps for them to decorate their aprons. Then, we had pizza and the kids drank juice out of fancy cups! Finally, they got to decorate their cupcakes. Miss Mamie came around and they got to pick out a color and die their icing, then they could choose from all of the different toppings like candy corn, skittles, marshmallows, gummy bears, etc. We had a great time and the birthday girls loved being able to celebrate with all of her bestest friends!

Look how old I am!

Posing in front of the sign that greeted us at Cupcake Charm!

Luckily, Grandmommy & Granddaddy came in at the same in and helped us get in the door!The Princess was so excited about her birthday party and was a great helper getting all of the aprons on to decorate!
Mommy & Daddy with the birthday girl!
Family shot!
Ali, hard at work, decorating her apron
Ali and Libby
Ali, Libby, Bennett & Will


Drinking juice out of fancy glasses!
Rhodes was passed out throughout most of the party - thanks to Grandmommy & Granddaddy for taking care of the tired girl before her nap!
Decorating cupcakes...
Ali got so sweet & shy when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her!

Blowing out her candle!
More cupcake decorating...

Delicious cupcake covered with gummy bears, candy corn, marshmallows, m&ms - mmm??
Maggie B!
Will, Tate and Evan - some of the boys at the boys table
Little Mimi and Mary Mac
Mae, Charlotte and Bennett


I tried to get a few pictures of Ali's sweet friends hugging her goodbye! Ali & Bennett..
Ali and Evan
Cooper going in for a kiss!

Ali and her sweet best bud from school, Mary Mac!
and Caroline!

Three years ago today....

Alison Brooks Patrick was born and made me a mommy! I have tried not to think about it too much today b/c I know I will get an emotional - oh, how I love that sweet girl! She brings so much joy to our lives and she has my whole heart! We have had a fun and busy weekend celebrating our new three year old and making sure she feels extra special all weekend long!

My Ali B:

I don't even know where to start talking about where you are right now in life! It is hard for me to put to words how much I love you, sweet girl! You have such a sweet, gentle spirit with a little bit of a stinker thrown in there too! I get to be the one you want to put you to bed every night and I cherish that time with you. We have gotten to a point lately where you no longer want naps - which is fine by me! You still have some quiet time, but you usually pass out as I read you stories, usually around 7 pm at night! You will fight it and talk to me up until the last second and then, next thing I know, I will look over and see my little angel sound asleep, looking so sweet and innocent!

We like to say that you are "3 going on 30" b/c you are just such a little person with so much to say and you understand so much. You talk in full sentences and there's not much you don't "get!". We have to spell a lot of things these days b/c otherwise you don't miss much!

You have such sweet little friends and you love your friends so much! On Friday, we had dinner with your friend Mary Mac and as soon as we walked away you looked me so sad and said, "Mommy, I miss Mary Mac already!" You light up when your little friends are around and I love to watch it!

You are the best big sister to Rhodesy! You love her so much and, yes, sometimes she gets into things/plays with things you don't want her too and you can be rough and tumble with each other - but that's part of sisterhood and I truly believe yall will be best friends in life! You have so many little differences between the two of you that make you unique - but you get along so well. (I wanted to make sure I said this now b/c I know this may not always be the case! :)) She adores you so much and wants to do everything you do - and most of the time, you oblige and let her play with you! Today, you got a new car for your birthday and you wanted Rhodes to ride with you the whole time and got sad when she wanted to get out.

We potty trained you this year and you did great with it! It was so much faster than I anticipated and we are so proud of you! We went to St. Simons (to Mimi & Papa's swim house, as you call it!) for a week and it rained the whole week so we just pretty much let you run around without pants on for the week and that pretty much sealed the deal. Yes, there was still accidents, learning once we got home, but not much! You are a quick learner!

You started a new school this year and I was nervous to take you away from your friends from Weekday (I prayed and prayed about it!) - but you have adjusted fantastically and made so many new sweet friends that you love to tell me about when you get in the car after school. You especially love Thursdays when you get to go to lunch bunch! It is the highlight of my day to pull into carpool lane and wait for them to bring you out - I literally get so excited to see you and hear you talk about your day and all of your friends. Makes my soul feel good!

You love to read, play dress up, play with your bears (or your "friends" as you call them lately!), take care of your little sister, watch Disney princess movies and Mickey Mouse, play with your friends, play outside & swing, talk, smile & laugh.

I'll end with comments written on your first progress report you got from school that described you so well to me and made me tear up to read. "An obedient spirit, gigles and listener are the words that describe sweet Ali to me! She is a delight to teach. She answers all of my questions during circle time - she is extremely bright! She is already very mature and dependable. She brings so much joy to our class!"

Thank you, Ali, for being you! We are so proud of you and love you so very much! God's plan was much bigger than I could have ever imagined when he blessed our lives forever 3 years ago and gave us you! I thank Him every day for you! Happy, happy 3rd birthday, sweet girl!!

Election Day 2009!

November 4, 2009 was a big day for our family - my dad (Papa) won his campaign and will be Mayor of Marietta come January! Hooray! It was a fantastic win too and we are all so very proud of him. Here are a few pictures from our day!

Red dressed sisters!

Ali loves her bear "friends"
Little Mimi came to Papa's results watching party which was a real treat for the girls! We love our friend, Little Mimi! The girls love to run around together...
Rhodes and her Mama - I think I made this lovely face after smiling for an entire minute and of course it is the one that gets caught on camera! I never have enough pictures of me and my baby Rhodesy!
Ali and her pal, Mimi!
Three little friends...sitting on the blocked off stairs!
Sweet friends hugging bye
When these results came in, there were big cheers throughout the crowd!! Later...a few more votes came in to give dad a firm 80% of the votes - which was such a relieving and exciting feeling!
So proud of my dad!
Campaign manager, Mayor- elect, Campaign treasurer :)

Pumpkin patch 2009

On the day before Halloween, we finally headed to the Pumpkin Patch! We had had plans for awhile to go with a big group but had been postponed due to all of the rain around here - and it was the final day of of pumpkin season at Berry Patch Farms! It was originally supposed to be a group of about 75 moms and their babies - but, on the day we went, only 6 of us were there with our little ones (15 total) and as soon as we pulled into the pumpkin patch the rain greeted us there!! It was quite the experience, but a fun little group - I hope to add more pictures later! We ended up just taking the hayride around 2 times (it is covered) and not getting out to see the pumpkins. There were only a few left anyway and some that were left were broken, etc. :) Afterwards, we stayed and picnicked under cover and got VIP treatment since we were the only ones there and the owners/workers were excited it was the last day! Despite the rain, we had a lot of fun - hopefully weather will cooperate better next year! One thing that made me laugh about the experience was that Ali refused to sit down if there was a speck of dirt so borrowed our sweet friend, Webb's baby blanket to sit on (thanks Webb!). Rhodes, on the other hand, was literally covered from head to dirt in mud from running off from me and getting into trouble! Her sweet little monogrammed bloomers turned from white to brown in the span of 10 minutes! :) The little differences between these two crack me up and keep me entertained - in lieu of all of the chaos!

Rhodes and her friends Lottie and Webb - who are about 3 months younger than her! Can you see the dirt/mud/water on Rhodes' sweet candy corn dress?

Sweet Als - on Webb's blanket!
Girlfriend/boyfriend - Rhodes & Webb!
Happy Fall!!

Everything happens for a reason...

The title of this post is something I firmly believe in. It would make life a lot harder if we don't believe things like this, wouldn't it? Yes, God has a plan for our lives and it may not always be something we clearly understand at the time and there may be times we ask "Why?", but, in the end, it all becomes clear. Today, I am happy to be at the end at one of these moments - I wish I could go back and tell the girl from this post, http://jrapatrick.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-thank-lord-for-our-blessings.html, that the feeling today is much better than the feeling from that day and it was all worth it.

And now, two happy articles from today!

http://mdjonline.com/pages/full_story/push?article-A+Thunder-ous+victory+for+new+Mayor+Tumlin%20&id=4304131-A+Thunder-ous+victory+for+new+Mayor+Tumlin&instance=home_news_left

http://mdjonline.com/pages/full_story/push?article-A+Who-s+Who+showing+at+Tumlin-s+victory+fete%20&id=4304081-A+Who-s+Who+showing+at+Tumlin-s+victory+fete&instance=home_news_special_coverage

Thank you, Lord, for your bigger plan and for all of these little moments!!

2nd Annual Maple Avenue Halloween Parade

On Halloween, we took the girls to the 2nd Annual Maple Avenue Halloween parade down the street from our house... Of course, I did not get very good pictures so here are a few I borrowed from Jill! :) The first one is my favorite! More Halloween pictures to come!

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