A birthday surprise, kind of for Lily!

 You cant keep anything from Lily. Like.nothing.at.all.

She will bug the mess out of you asking questions and doing her theories until literally it isnt really 'fun' to keep anything from her!

So, all day, yesterday, she kept asking me if anyone else is coming...and why am I doing this or doing that. Why am I making this much food, and on..........................and on................and on.................

So once Reese's Mom pulled up, Lily was in FULL  mode! Why is Reese here, what is Reese doing here...her car is in the driveway, who else is coming...........MOMMA, I knew other people would be coming.............

but, she had her best of friends and family for her 'surprise' party and we had a great time! ha! :)

The birthday girl!

Family picture!

Then she did a fashion wardrobe change.........for her friends picture! OH gracious!

Enjoying allllll the football food you could think of!

HAPPY birthday!

May she have the best year yet!

Her wish...times three, everyone couldnt get a good picture of her because she hates taking pictures and would NOT cooperate! 

The grands

With Nan, Pawpaw and Brandi

They hung out in the basement, took a walk around the neighborhood (yeah, didnt understand that one especially with it very rainy/wet outside) and watched her open gifts before 'hanging' out more!

Lily said she had the best night! (My work here is done!) :)

13 whole years!

 Our girl is 13!

A teenager!

Always a must to hold up how old you are! :)

She looked so cute!

My favorite!

Happy birthday!

Friday night lights!

 Another Friday night lights..even though it was raining and we came away without a win.

Moving to 5A and competing against these bigger schools, has hit pretty hard and been a big adjustment this season so far. Makes me sad since it is Alexis' Junior year, but...that is the way the ball dropped.

It was jersey day so Lex wore a JHS jersey and Lily wore an Auburn one!

Spotted this 7th grader at the pep rally!

Go Eagles!

This one was 'Pie a Cheerleader' Yeah, pretty sure Alexis was one of the first ones to lose her necklace so Xaye pied her!

It was ALL over her!

Yeah, it took a minute to get it all off at the end!

And then, it was time to gear up for all the pre-game feeding the cheerleaders etc and celebrating the birthday girl's actual day!

 

Full celebration mode for the bday girl!

 Though her birthday is today (13, on Friday the 13th!) we have been celebrating for awhile!

Between the friend birthday party last weekend and dinner with LaLa, Mal, Reese and Maggie, yesterday I cooked her favorite meal to celebrate since today is all things school, work, and football!

This morning she woke up to the traditional balloons and streamers on her door. I love this and she loves it too!

Family birthday dinner for the win! Alexa played the 'Happy Birthday' song over and over...we had candles, streamers, her birthday gift and homemade cookies. Her favorite meal (that she could and wants to eat every.single.day.) meatloaf meatballs, mac n cheese and mashed potatoes. 

I hope she felt the love!

She hadnt woke up yet when I got this picture!

13 years of Lily!

 She is officially a teenager!

13!

I mean, I blinked, literally!

She is all the things....ready to be a full blown teenager, so I presume it is time! :)

Happy birthday Lily! We love you!

Wordless Wednesday!

 

My girl's friends!

 Friends are rare.

Friends are something to treasure.

I am thankful both my girls have core friends that they love and love them back.

It made my heart smile to see both girls and their friends living their best life and celebrating to big birthdays of 16 and 13!

I hope that these friendships continue to grow and they both make all the best memories with them!

I have to say, Alexis' friends are a little more bougie than Lily's. They tend to be way more loud and goofy ....and they all know how to spend more money! :)

Lex, Aailyah, Sydney and Nyla

Lily's friends are more reserved and for sure not as bougie. They are still in the trying to act 'older' but are a little more awkward stage. :) ha! 

Lily, Lauren, Reese and Katelyn

The birthday GIRL is 13!

 I just cant believe she is 13!

My goodness, I thought with Alexis that time flew, but to see my 'baby' is now a teenager....just WOW!

So, after the Cross Country meet, we came home and cleaned up and then took off to B'ham to celebrate!

Lily loved her 10th birthday party SO much...that she wanted to do it again! So, that is what we did! We loaded up her best friends and they jumped (at a new/different/more fun place than her 10th) and then shopped and dinner (same at PF Changs because Lily is obsessed!) :)

Our 13 year old!

They had so much fun! They did a TON of fun things at Urban Air!

This cracked me up! Reese hadnt driven before and poor thing, she was terrible! 

Cupcakes and a happy birthday song in the car on the way to shop!

They were so grown! :)

I had to drag them out!

Dinner time! PF Changs is Lily's alllllll time favorite!

SOOO happy they got to join us!

Fun night celebrating with this crew!

And, because it would not post to the top...but love their friendship and love that they have each other!

Another early morning for Cross Country!

 We are getting the hang of this Cross Country thing and BOY are we learning that early Saturday mornings and trekking to all these new schools and places are becoming something we look forward to!

Lily loves that each course is different so seeing what all she has to run and do, is exciting! Seeing her finish the line, is just awesome!

The girls team is on FIRE!

They placed 1st again and this time was out of 18 teams!

It has been fun to watch!

Their tent is so nice! They were set and ready!

Our runner! She placed 43rd out of 124 girls! I  MEAN...................this 7th grader is killing it! She cracked us up because she said there were 'Four pages of names...........and her name was on the 1st page!' (when she was finding what place she was!) :)

Look at alllll  of them! 

We found her coming around the curve!

Her Daddy and I cheering her on as she went! This was on mile 2!

And....HERE she is............coming through the finish line!

Such a fun and awesome team!

Last time they got a trophy, this time, they got a plaque! 

Friday night lights!

 It was a yucky afternoon and led to a yucky night and a not so great score that had Moody on top of JHS.

We ended up not going to the game since it was an away game and the weather was so bad but Alexis cheered loud for the Eagles and had a fun night despite the weather and the final score!

Our Church

 We love our Church!

Our Church is growing and full of life and the girls are loving both being in the Youth!

It is always great to see them doing fun things such as this past week, they went to DNOW event and enjoyed seeing another Church and all of the local youth!

Wordless Wednesday!

 

Last day for our working girl!

 Alexis has loved being a lifeguard!

She has really thrived with learning the 'adult world' and making money, and all the things.

She has learned how to manage time (still needing to work on that, but getting there) how to deal with the public, how to handle having co-workers and managers. 

I am so happy that she has had a great Summer and has enjoyed her first job!

She sent me this Saturday saying that she was sad it was her last day to work. The pool closes on Labor Day weekend so she did her last shift.

She wants to do it again next Summer, so we shall see!