NINE!

I have so much I need to catch up on with my blogging!! But first things first.....last month September turned 9!!! That makes me feel so old....even though I'm not!

Already getting a little attitude!

Something you should know about September.....she hates change probably more than even I do. She is just like me where she plans certain events in her head for weeks, even months sometimes, and if they don't go exactly like she had been planning on, it is very hard for her to adjust. But boy did she ever have to make some adjustments in dealing with her birthday this year.......again and again and again.

First of all, a month or so before her birthday we had discussed what she wanted to do and she wanted to either go swimming somewhere or go rollerskating. I looked for places I could get the best deal and it turned out that I could get an amazing deal at Hollywood Connection to take everyone skating. But a couple weeks before her birthday I realized that the place wasn't as local as I thought and I didn't want to have to drive as far as it was so we changed plans to go swimming at the Scera. And then it decided to rain....and rain, and rain! So we had to change plans yet again. In the end we decided to go skating at Classic. Well, her birthday came and Matthew woke up sick with the flu. I wasn't excited about the prospects of taking all of our kids, plus Ember's best friend and her little sister, to Classic by myself, but I wasn't about to disappoint Ember, plus Lisa and Kyle would be there to help me. And then at the last minute Lisa and Kyle started feeling kind of sick and weren't going to be able to go. All of her kids still wanted to go though, but I had no idea how I was going to get them all there. We had invited Kalun and Kristi and their kids, but Kristi wasn't going to be able to go, so I called Kalun and asked if he could help me transport some of the kids. So he came over and between our cars we were able to fit everyone. We got away about 45 minutes later than planned, so by the time we go there we were only able to stay for about an hour, but the kids all ended up having a great time. It was a little nuts trying to keep track of all the kids, but Bonnie met us up there as well and between her, me and Kalun we managed to not lose one child! We almost lost a couple scooters, but no children.

She was so excited about all of her gifts. One of the main things she wanted was a new Webkinz and she ended up with two. We got her one, and then the cute little neighbor boy that has a crush on her brought over a gift and part of it was a Webkinz. Apparently he had involved her best friend to find out what she wanted. He is too cute! She also got some new jewelry. She was very excited about the pool, but we weren't able to put it up until about 2 weeks after her birthday because it wouldn't stop raining!

Jessika and Kaiden were the only kids that knew how to skate very well, so Kalun helped me take some of the kids around and give them an opportunity to do it without falling.

There were still quite a few falls though!

Tristan didn't have to worry about falling though because he brought his BIG WHEEL! What a stud!

September and her best friend, Ariel.

So then we had planned to celebrate Ember's birthday with the Cluff side that following Saturday. She really wanted to put the new pool up that she had gotten for her birthday, along with the slip n' slide and do other fun water games. The weather looked like it was going to work out and then the day before it got really yucky and stormy again. She was so disappointed, but we decided to go forward with the party but just to keep it to cake and ice-cream and gifts inside and let the kids play for a bit. Then the day of the party Matthew woke up sick with the flu AGAIN!!! I had gotten sick the day after her birthday and we'd gone to the dr. to make sure it wasn't swine flu and it wasn't, but since we didn't want to take our chances that it could be this time, we decided it wasn't going to work out to have everyone come over. Poor Ember! It finally ended up working out to have everyone come the following week though. We sure like to draw birthdays out in our house, but not typically for a week and a half. The couple weeks before and week or so after were full of many talks with Ember about how things don't always work out the way you want and you have to learn to be flexible. Yeah, it was hard for ME to have to sit there and tell her that....but I managed to learn a lesson or two as well through the whole thing. As they say, there's nothing as constant as change, so I guess we'd better sort out our issues and learn to accept it.

This is 1 of 3 cakes we ended up eating on behalf of Ember's birthday. We are all caked out!
We also had a chance to celebrate with my parents, which was the only celebration that did end up going as planned....but almost didn't work out....again because of sickness! But it did work out and September was very excited about the gift that they gave her. My Mom gave her a sheet that had a bunch of pictures of different tutu's and she got to pick which one she wanted my Mom to make. She spent a long time figuring out which one to pick. Surely she didn't want to pick the "wrong" one.

That issue though might be one of September's only character flaws. Generally speaking, she is about the most amazing daughter anyone could ask for. She is smart, funny, kind, beautiful, friendly, helpful, organized (well, in certain things), and I could go on and on. She was the perfect child to be first because she is so great with her younger siblings. Or maybe this is because she WAS first. But somehow I can't see Kya having all the traits that Ember has and vice-versa if they had been born in opposite order. I tell ya, God knows what he's doing when he sends them down in the order he does. Each one of my children are perfect where they are. I didn't always used to think that about Logan and Peyton, but I've come around.....and learned to accept the fact that things don't always go as planned. ;)

Out of all of my children, I think September is the one that is the most like me. This makes for a very close relationship, but also a lot of days where we butt heads with each other. On her birthday we had the opportunity to go, just the two of us, to JCW's for their huge twist cones. We sat and chatted and giggled while we ate them. Later that day we had a disagreement over something that neither one of us was going to budge on our position. But in the end, I wouldn't change a thing about her.....and not just because I hate change! ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SEPTEMBER!!!