My girl came in to town! Tori had a long weekend off of school and she came in for the weekend. UGH! I LOVE that girl… and when she’s here, I realize how much I miss her. She arrived late Thursday and had to leave today. I drove her to the airport with a heavy heart and I couldn’t stop myself from crying. Yikes. Add red eyes and runny, day-old mascara to my get-up (think velour yoga suit, fuzzy socks and black crocs. Yeah, no excuse for that fashion faux pas). Where are the What Not To We@r cameras hiding? Anyway, we did all sorts of fun stuff while she was here. Lots of Quiddl*r (we’re geeks, we admit it.) Lots of shopping. And lots of time just hangin’ with the fam. Her younger siblings adore her, Isabelle walked around all weekend holding her hand, and Sophie even turned down a trip to the park just to hang with Tori. She’s sorta like a rock star around here, you might say.On her last night, I asked her what she wanted to do and she wanted to decorate Halloween cookies with her brothers and sisters. Why does that make me want to cry like a baby? I guess it’s just because she’s so stinkin’ sweet and kind-hearted and just a really wonderful kid. Where did she come from, you ask? I have no idea. Dropped straight from heaven, I think.
Onto the cookie decorating fest…
Shepherd didn’t participate in the cookie decorating, but he did his part to help with the cookie eating…
And Sophie helped with the mixing of the colored icing…
Jude, who doesn’t actually eat cookies (don’t even ask) enjoyed having his cookies decorated for him (he doesn’t like to get frosting on his hands either) in his favorite motif: balloons
Dalton wasn’t so happy with his cookie decorating skills, so he decided to ‘wipe the slate clean’, if you will, and just licked his cookies to death
Shepherd, still eating that same cookie… no wonder we can’t get any weight on this kid
Asher with the finished product. Ready to dig in.
Tori, everyone else finished, and she’s just mid-design. But she’s got skillz, I tell ya!
Sophie, with the cookies she decorated all by herself. She didn’t want to decorate her third cookie because she broke it… preschooler drama… good stuff. A bit of an overdose on the candy corn, she decided, as she couldn’t quite bring herself to actually eat any of her cookies, but she sure had fun.
Isabelle, with her beloved cookies: a butterfly, a balloon and a pumpkin. You can’t really tell because after I helped her with the frosting, she proceeded to drown them in sprinkles. And, clearly, she’s happy about it 🙂
SErious Mad skillz….
Tell Shepherd I can help him with his job.. and Jude, I can’t relate buddy. And Miss Tori… first off. What a beatiful girl, inside and out. And did not make me tear up that she came in to town and wanted to hang with mom and her siblings the whole time. What a cool chick! How did you not happy cry the whole time she was home. Wait, you probably did.
Happy Time with your “little” girl Day!
Hugs~
Amie
btw- that chip-in total makes me want to get up and dance. Sadly, I can’t. My muscles have atrophied from all the computer time next week. But I’m dancing in my head.. footloose style
Look at Miss Tori rockin’ the dark hair! I like it! It looks so sophisticated and COLLEGIATE. Great pics of all the kiddos, Stef. And I like the sexy side sweeping bangs on you. Sorry you are missing your girl, but she’s a peach. Such a special girl. You did good, mama.
Love,
Me
What again Stefanie you have shown me were living parell lives. lol…… My oldest, Kaitlyn who is in college as well come home the last 2 weekends and I know what you mean about the rock star status, lol….. The girls and Kaitlyn made cookies on Sunday. They love their big sister and I miss her like crazy!
What a fun day! I love seeing Shepherd there (home)
in the midst of it all. Happy Family! Blessed Family!
Shauna
That Tori is one beautiful girl, inside & out, just like her momma! 🙂 How SWEET that she wanted to hang with her family…LOVE IT!! You did good, Stef!
LOVE those photos of each kid with their cookies…soooo cute!! Love that spider web cookie!
So glad you all had a great time!
Nothing beats precious family time!
Eli was SO excited to see the picture of Jude. He wants to ‘read’ the 2008 Ponseti calendar before bed about half of the nights and Jude is about the only person other than Eli that we ‘know’. Anyway, the picture you posted on this post show Jude wearing the same green/yellow baseball shirt that Eli has (and loves). 🙂
LOVE the pictures.
Love it when the older kids just adore the younger ones..
You have a Great girl on your hands..
Have a Great Week.
Hugs..
What a fun night with the Big Rock Star Sister!!!!
The kids all look so happy! Of course Tori is fabulous… God gave her to you to raise!!!! I still can’t believe you have a college student!!! You are way too young!!!! Dang, you look good too!
Blessings,
Diana
Stefanie,
I am so glad to see that Tori got to come home!! And I say that Asher and Tori have some serious skills in the cookie decorating dept. And a broken cookie… I can only imagine the drama.
Glad to see you had fun. And BTW, I really like Tori’s dark hair!
Such a sweet post! (Pun intended!) I must say, though all of your children are beyond adorable, that little Shepherd has such an amazing smile!!
How precious…absolutely precious!
Stefanie…how you do you let them go? I can’t stand the thought of the day I have to let them ‘go’. I’ll never forget holding our newborn son and sobbing. I asked my MIL, “How will I ever be able to let him ‘go’? And her precious reply was that it doesn’t happen over night…it happens little bit by little bit and that makes it bearable. I still am not sure if I buy it 🙂 Is it too unreasonable to forbid them to ever leave?!?!? LOL!!
Man, I tell ya…a mama’s heart will FOREVER be focused on her babies!
I’m so glad you got to spend the weekend with your oldest munchkin. What a sweet gift! ~stacy
How wonderful! You must feel so at peace with all your children under one roof:-). Tori sounds like she’s a beautiful person…inside and out!
Just for the record, it doesn’t get any easier having the grown ones gone. Our oldest is 25 and married to a great young man. Second oldest is in the US Army Special forces….When our 2nd oldest left for the military my tender hearted hubby said through tears, “That’s it! That’s it! From now on, everyone that leaves home, we adopt two more!” We’d already done that lots, but now we’re going full force to fill it up again! Love all the pictures! ~Linn
Oh what fun. I miss having little ones to decorate cookies and the fun kid stuff. I am 10 years older than one brother and 13 years older than the next bro…we had good times…
i cried too!!!!
my house feels so empty, and your feelings just spoke right into my heart!!!!!
i want ALL my kids around me, i’m having a low mommy day ; (
BUT…I LOVE the cookies : )
xxx
s
Your posts are always so fun to read! I am so happy for your Chip-In total! God is so good! I pray he continues to bless your family and your sister’s.
Traci Kendrick
http://www.ourlittleasiansensation.blogspot.com
All the kids did a fabulous job, but I’ve got to tell you that Sophie is a kid after my own heart – she put CANDY CORN on hers, and that’s my kind of cookie!!
I just loved reading about Tori. How neat and awesome that she came home to hang with the fam. What a tender blessing for her sweet mama!
And the crocs and fuzzy slippers…I swear we will be seeing it on the red carpet soon. SWEET!
Oh my word — your kids are just so beautiful!
I so want to make cookies with your family!!!!! Looks like so much fun!
Just found your blog from TM. I’m an adoptive mama (Korea) and Speech Pathologist 🙂