Happy 8th Birthday Gracie!

Our first born, our baby girl is 8 years old today! Wow it's amazing how fast time flies! Scary to think that she is half way to 16! Yikes!! She is growing up to be such a beautiful girl inside and out! You make us so proud Gracie! We love you! Gracie is sure lucky to have such special Grandmas! Thank you Mimi and Grandma for making her bedroom such a special place to "hang out"! It's so girly and pretty and pink! She absolutely loves it!
Mimi took Gracie out for her birthday for some special Mimi Gracie time! They went shopping for the cute bedding for her new bedroom, got a manicure and pedicure, and an "up-do" and also out to dinner at Red Robin! What a princess!

I wish I had older picture on my computer, this is the oldest one I have of Gracie. She is 21 months old! What a cutie! Look how much she has grown.... :)

Mike and Katy plus 7!

Avery and Joe spent a lot of their mornings cruising the back yard in the Jeep! I wish I would have gotten some video of it! Poor Avery spent a lot of time running after Joe as he drove off smiling! What a stinker he can be! For some reason Avery did not want me to take her picture!

Layla is a fighter! She was an absolute angel all week, but you try to take a toy from her or she wants something you have and you better watch out! LOL

Okay this picture makes me laugh so hard! All the kids are playing around and I say "Say Cheese!" and Avery.... points the gun at me and smiles! LOLOL

Gracie and Sage!

What a pretty girl!

I love Mal's cheesy grin! :)
Well, I may not get my own reality show because I sent three kids home on Friday, but I sure felt like I was in a crazy one all week last week! Em and Chad went to Las Vegas for the week (okay it wasn't a week just Mon. night through Friday night) and we kept the girls! The hardest times of the day were bedtime and dinner time, which is no different when it's just my kids. They are great little girls and I love them to death! It was really fun getting to spend that much time with them! I grabbed my camera a few times over the week and here are some of the pictures that I got! I had to take advantage of having little girls in my house that couldn't fight me when I did their hair! I miss that so much! Gracie wants to do her own hair and really just gets mad at me when I do it! So poor Layla and Mal had to be my little projects every morning! But they were such troopers and sooooo stinking cute! :) My cousin Mia came over on Thursday afternoon and spent a few nights! It was fun to see her and Sage! Sage got her taste of being in a big family! Hope we didn't scare her to much Mia!

First Wrestling Match!

The middle picture is after his three matches! What a fighter! :) Bottom left is weighing in and bottom right is waiting to get started!

Cole's first wrestling tournament! Actually it was a practice tournament, but to him it was the real deal! We got up early and headed to Walla Walla where he weighed in at a whopping 52 pounds! He wrestled a group of 5/6 year old boys who weighed from 50-75 pounds. I think they tried to keep the smaller one's in the group together because they all looked like they weighed about the same. It was nice because they set it up so the kids wrestled three other kids in three one minute rounds. Even if they got pinned they got to get up and try again! The first match Cole got pinned three times, went straight to his back. It was pretty funny to watch. The next match he did a little better but still got pinned. This video is from the last match where, although he got pinned, he fought hard! I know the video is a little long, but totally worth watching! There is one part in the video where he waves to me and it just cracks me up! The look on his face is priceless! He is loving every minute of it! I thought after he got pinned every time he may not like it so much, but he says he loves it and is having fun and right now that is all that matters! Mike was so intense, it makes me laugh! It was like Cole was wrestling for the state championship! He was one proud Dad after that last match though! :)

Father Daughter Ball

Gracie looks forward to this night all year long! She was so excited today she could hardly contain herself! The Father Daughter Ball! Mike has taken her every year since she was a year old. I think they have only missed one year. They make a special night of it, going out to dinner and then dancing! She hasn't gotten home yet, I'm sure she will keep her Daddy dancing as long as she can! She is so blessed to have such a wonderful father who does these special things with her! These memories will last a life time!

Uncle Steve and cousin Faith went with them!

Special corsage from Dad! I hope she feels like a princess! :)

Catching up!

One of the boys favorite things to do is race to get Dad's boots off when he gets home. Eli has started getting in on the action and is getting pretty good! It's fierce competition at the Isley house!
Cole has his first wrestling tournament on Saturday. He got his singlet last night at practice and was SO excited to show me! He is very excited for Saturday and so are we!

Morning cuddle!

For Gracie's birthday Connie and Bruce (Grandma and Papa) helped us re-do her bedroom! It is soooo cute now! Thanks guys! Here are a few before pictures of the blah room.

And here it is after! Pink walls, new chair rail and new base boards! Adorable! A few new pieces of furniture too! Now I just need to find her a white dresser to replace the old one!

Happy 6th Birthday Cole!

Cole Michael Isley born February 17th, 2004!

We took a few of Cole's friends and went to Chuck-E-Cheese for his birthday! To be honest I was dreading it because that place can be soooooo crazy, but Wednesday night was a great night to go! We played and played, had pizza, ate cupcakes and opened presents! I can't believe Cole is 6 years old! He is growing up so fast! What an amazing little boy he is! I wish I had taken some better pictures, but oh well, here they are! I was a little busy chasing Eli the monster around! He was happy as long as he was going or had cake in his hand! :)
He made quick work of opening presents!

Joey and Cole with Chuck!

Blowing out the candles!

Dancing on the stage!

Umm.... well.... Mike did share some of the tokens! LOL

This is his goofy fake smile!

"Look at all my tickets Mom!"

Cole and his buddy Jaxin!

Party Time!

Joseph William Isley 2/1/07 9:07pm

My JoJo as he is so lovingly called around here turned 3 years old on Monday. We had a party for him on Saturday along with Avery! It was a lot of craziness and chaos, but so much fun! We had cake and ice cream, opened presents (with lots of help) and had a pinata! I think the kids were as worn out as I was! Can't believe he is 3! He is such an amazing kid! So full of laughter and smiles and spunk! He definitely keeps me on my toes! I love you JoJo! :)
Lots of helpers to help him open his presents!

Avery got tons and tons of dress up stuff. One thing she got was a wedding dress and a ring. Joey took the ring in and said Avery you are marrying me, or something like that! Anyway, I couldn't find my camera at the time to video tape it but Em got some pictures of his first proposal! LOL

Blowing out the candles!

My big 3 year old!