Then Cort Got Hurt

Cort got hit by a car while riding a scooter. It was really scary. I had Ash's kids for a couple of days, and I took one funny picture of Henry in some of Fi's clothes. Notice, I look a little frazzled. I just kept looking at Ash's kids and had to stop myself from crying. It was such a relief that Cort wasn't hurt worse than he was. He is still in pain, but he is alive.....
The following is an excerpt from an email I sent my mother-in-law:

"Well, I had my grandma visit this last week, ran the young women 2 day fundraiser garage sale, my uncle and other grandma came for a cousin's wedding, lots of baseball, planning for girls camp, and oh yah,....the whole Cort getting hit by a car thing. Having 8 kids makes me realize how easy 5 is, ha ha. Did I sign up for this? But it is so strange, I have been feeling an overwhelming sense of joy and well-being. Maybe Cort's accident put it all in perspective...he could have died, instead he will be okay. I am so grateful for family and friends who love me...and an AMAZING husband, who I love more today than when I got married. Life is good."

So even though Ash was out of my life for awhile, I had a birthday party to throw, because Carolina Jones turned FIVE!! Carolina is an amazing little person. She has strong ideas and opinions about almost everything. She is so smart, like crazy smart ( I know all parents think this about their kids....) But alot of the time, I look back on my day and see how she worked me. She will be an amazing woman, strong and independent and well, bossy. These kind of people are not the easiest kids to raise. But I just remind myself that the same things that make her challenging as a child are actually really good qualities when found in adults.

She is really creative. Grace and her play, and pretend alot. They create whole fantasy realities. They are always talking in different voices of whatever character they are pretending to be. Right now they love to play "the Chipettes" from Alvin and the Chipmunks the squeakquel. CC is Britney, and Grace loves to be Elinore.

For Carolina's birthday we went to the park with cousins to play, have cupcakes and open presents. Here are lots of pictures:

The girls...

The boys, sans Dougie...he was there, I promise, but was running around during the pictures and somehow didn't end up in the shots. Sorry Angelique!

I was glad to have Brooklyn there....could I rent her sometime KK?

I had to put some pictures of her opening presents. She is so fun to buy for because she loves EVERYTHING!!! Look at her face in this shot, she love horses right now.

All this last year, Carolina would pick up things in stores and ask for them. I would always say no, and then she would come back with, can I have it for my birthday? (Robbie does this too) I would always say yes. So I started getting nervous as her birthday approached. So I told her she could pick 3 things she really wanted. Alot of thought and consideration went into this. By the time her birthday rolled around she had all her presents planned out for her 5th, 6th and 7th birthdays.

So I got her the squeakquel from Grandma Connie, which she wasn't expecting. I love her look of pure disbelief.

I couldn't resist this picture of GiGi with a cupcake. Notice she ate all the frosting off.

Happy Birthday Carolina Jones!!!