Happy Mom's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there...especially my two fav. ones...."The Ninas"! :) They are tops in our life.....
We had tons of fun with Nina G. here the last 2 weeks...and we are in a funk now that she's gone :(
...she shared in so many great times...like recitals...and outdoor fun....
...and we love and appreciate our Nina S. as well.....she never misses an activity and gives and gives unconditionally...
We truly are so blessed by such wonderful mothers/grandmothers in our lives...they make our life as great as it is! :)
We tried to pamper Nina Gritz with an early Mom's Day breakfast yesterday....we just appreciated all the wonderful love she's given us the last 2 weeks as I've been sick and we've been so crazy busy....she was a lifesaver and a great grandchild entertainer....
And we wish we could see Nina Stegs today and pamper her, but we didn't really want to share our germs with the family so we are laying low and enjoying a lazy day at home...
I am incredibly blessed by the wonderful moms in my life and just as blessed by the sweethearts the good Lord has sent down for me to mother. My life would be void w/o the constant craziness and love they bring. I am so grateful to the core every day for these 4 little blessings. Hope you all are grateful for the moms in your life too....they have helped mold us all into the people we are!

Small B-day Recap!

A quick lil' recap of Shelby's real b-day festivities....her b-day (May 6) was a CRAZY day...crazier this year than every before....which I guess just goes along with our lives lately! Anyway...here's a few pics of the day...of course she was in school all day....and actually even before that we went to Hailey's school for a presentation at 8am....and then after school we quick had cake (a starfish cake, of course!)....and then....
...off to her recital (jazz at One Step Above)...she was a mermaid this year and did fabulously! I love her cute costume. She is beautiful, isn't she?! Wow, 7 years old!
So glad Nina G was here from FL for all festivities...and here's some of Shelb's fav b-day gifts...earrings and a GEODE! YAY!
And, yes, she got pierced for the big #7. We did this on Hailey's 7th too so it's sort of a Steg girl tradition now. She was so surprised though when we showed up at Claires this evening. She was brave for the piercing and chose really cool blue flowers earrings. Thanks for this awesome gift, Nina and Pops G.!
Here's our fam. after the piercing...all smiles! Shelb actually got this done the day before her b-day since we knew her b-day was going to be nutso!
And her pretty Sam's double cookie cake for her school celebration. These cakes are our fam's fav. I could eat them every day. Yummers! It was a fun, but very busy b-day for our girl!

Happy 7th, Sweet Shelby Girl!

I'm a little emotional today looking back on all these pics and realizing how time has just flown by...the miracle baby we hoped and prayed for almost 2 years is now 7 years old! It's hard to wrap my mind around that, yet every day God reminds me with her spunky zest for life, how real and vibrant our Shelby girl is....so here's a little memory picture recap through the last 7 years....from her beautiful birth....
...where Hailey finally became a big sister...she was in all her glory with her 1st sister in her arms...
...to the 1st birthday....
...to becoming a big sister to a little brother just 20 months into her life...
...to her 2nd birthday....
...and her 3rd birthday and introduction to American Girl (bitty baby twins!)
...and her 4th b-day...
...to becoming a big sis again with the birth of her 2nd sister...
...her 5th b-day
....and 6th b-day....
....and the fun never ceases when you're around our witty Shelb!
She is full of life always and feel so deeply about everything....I love this beautiful 7 year old of mine! Happy B-day, Shelby Grace!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our family to yours....here's a few spring pics to brighten this rainy Easter day (at least rainy for us). Special thanks to Nina (and "super shopper" Pops!) in FL who found all the coordinating Easter clothes this year for the gang. I LOVE the nice, simple black and pink. Above are a few pics from last weekend when we went to see Mr. E.B. Ash might look like she was ok with the whole experience, but she is still deathly afraid of any human-size dressed-up character. Thankfully Hailey protected her from E.B. :) The family pic of us was taken last night after church since it had temporarily stopped raining and we knew it'd be raining today (which it is!)...and below is our wet Easter egg hunt downtown yesterday...poor Hays has a big project due this week so she stayed home to work on it :(

Blessed!

Just feeling very blessed today and wanting to share my sentiments along with some pics of my greatest blessings :) My beautiful ballerina in her latest ballet pic....she is in the midst of spring recital rehearsals and lovin' it. 3 more weeks til her performance date...
Our middle girl in all her glory this weekend on her long-awaited geode find...this girl LOVES geodes and was so excited our city offered a class on it. Here she is after she "unearthed" one and cracked it with a hammer :) So fun! And notice her teeth....she is FINALLY about to lose her first one...any day now! I think she is officially the last 1st grader to lose one! :)
Our basketball boy with his beloved medal. He sure loved his season of b-ball!
And our littlest beauty in her newest "Ashley" creation from wonderful friend, Sharon. Ash's eyes just lit up when she got this in the mail. She had to wear it right away and dance around our kitchen. She is a girly girl at heart! :)
And I've been very careful not to breathe a word about our journey to "potty-land" lest to jinx myself, but I do think our "baby" is almost officially potty-trained. And I have to say she did it pretty much all on her own (behind closed locked doors b/c she didn't like us watching/helping...can we say "Little Miss Independence"?) I am so proud of her! She will be the earliest potty-user of all the Steg kids. Go Ash!

And the above pic has really nothing to do with the kids or being blessed (though whoever invented the cake pop is a blessing!) :) But, check out my first cake pop "job". I was semi-hired by my awesome friend, Jill, to make almost 200 cake pops for our super fab. mom-daughter event at church this past Sat. I had a "ball" making these delicious pink creations. Thanks for "hiring" me, Jill! :)

Have a blessed day!

The B-day still continues....

Yet, ANOTHER b-day party for the 11-year-old of the house. Yes, I know...we are crazy party animals around here...though I will say...I think this is that last time any of our kids gets two friends party. Just too much work/hassle! But, for sure the fun outweighed the stress.....
The theme this time around was "the beach" (an indoor beach party to be exact)....Hailey made really cute flip flop invites all with scraps from around our house :) And here was our party table....complete with beach-themed cake pops, flip flop cookies and a flip flop tropical cake....and so sweet of Shelb to loan us her precious starfish collection (courtesy of Pops in FL)...it made our table complete....as did the shell creation from Nina G (with shells from my grandma which I treasure)...we used them to play a game (guess the number of shells :))
Hailey with the fondant cake creation we made. It turned out to be more work than the sleepover cake from last week...but I really liked it...but then again I love bright colors and tropical-anything! :) I think the consensus was that last week's cake was still our fav though :)
A close-up....Hailey made the beachball (she did a good job!) and actually all the girls helped me. Shelb made some of the fondant shells and starfish...aren't they cute?! And thank goodness for crushed graham crackers that look like sand!
8 1/2 years apart, but still best buds! :)
If you haven't tried to make cake pops, I definitely recommend them! So easy and so yummy! These were especially fun with the bears in bikinis and one boy in swim trunks for Dylan :)
Ash even proved herself a fondant queen...look at her flower and other creations! :) Future cake maker??
Playing in the swim rings with static hair!
We don't usually serve dinner at our parties (too much work!), but we thought an indoor cook-out would be fun....complete with fruit-kabobs and those cute fruity flowers from Family Fun Mag. Yumm!
Since we moved our table and chairs we had the girls camp out on the floor and eat on beach towels!
Then they played games....this was the end of the relay that Hailey planned....where you have to have your team stand on a towel and flip it over using teamwork...not as easy as it looks :)
We did indoor sand castles in our garage....Shelby won for tallest and Julia (front left) won for best artistry! Very fun, but very messy...esp. those two rascals in the back!
The cake is starting to look very bright these days with 11 candles on it!
The whole "old friends" gang (as apposed to the new friends who slept over the weekend before)....we missed old friend, Emily, though who was on vacation :(
Then it was time to decorate flip flops with ribbons....fun, but not as easy as it looks :)
We intended for the party to go from 6-8pm, but last minute Hailey asked for a sleepover and since we knew this was such a good group of girls we agreed. They had a blast that night watching the new Scooby Doo movie and eating popcorn and smoothies and talking into the wee hours. Then we had a yummy pancake breakfast and off to church early the next morning. It was lots of fun! Now to celebrate with the Steg family and then we can say adios to Hailey's b-day and on to Shelby's in just 4 weeks! The partying never seems to end! Hurrah!