On November 3rd, our Kaitlyn turned 12 years old!
It's was a pretty special birthday for her this year.
She has officially turned to the next chapter in her book of life. Not a little girl anymore....she is now a beautiful young woman. At church, she graduates from Primary and enters into Young Womens. No more activity days every other week and say hello mutual activities with the youth every wednesday night. She also is old enough to babysit for others, but I GET FIRST PICKS ;) hee hee! She is especially excited about being old enough start wearing make-up. Man oh man, where did the time go?
Leonard happened to be out of town on the day of her birthday, so thank heaven to our sweet Apple Mac's we were able to connect iChat and he got to be there with us as she opened her presents.
It was soooo cool! :)
All things girly! just what she wanted.... Headbands, nail polish, new brush & blowdryer
So excited.... her own make-up bag with some starter makeup! and a pomegranate...a fun little snack :)
What's this??? Hollister Perfume! it is yummy stuff... her official grown up perfume :)
We loved having our dad being a part of this special day! Happy Birthday Kaitlyn! We love having you in our family!
On Saturday Nov. 6th! We had Kaitlyn's 12th Birthday Party
She wanted a zebra theme with the colors black, white & pink! SWEET! That was fun shopping for and getting creative! Give me a theme and I will run with it!
Zebra Cake!
~ The Decor ~
oooh laa laa! it was so fun decorating for this party.
We were all busy getting ready. I was decorating and getting ready to frost the cake, when Leonard who was sweet enough to tackle is "Honey Do" list of replacing the leaky backyard hose faucet project. He has done this job of replacing a broken faucet before a few times, so no big deal. He had to turn the water off to the house and had use a blow torch to the faulty faucet head and melt the old welding to remove it and get a new one to replace it. Well as he was heating up the soldering, the pipe got too hot in between the walls of my house and caught fire. He wasn't sure there was fire in there, but he did rush in the house for the pitcher of water in the fridge and said " The pipe is getting too hot." not even a few seconds after that, I saw smoke pouring out of the kitchen light!
"FIRE!!!! FIRE!! SMOKE!!! SMOKE!!!!!!""" and some more hollering was the next business you heard. Leonard then proceeded to take the small hammer he had and started beating holes into the side of the house to try to extinguish the flames. It was so scary. He used the fires extinguisher that we had under the kitchen sink on it as well. We got the kids out of the house and sent them to the neighbors house. Blake was terrified and had just learned that week in preschool to call 911 if there is an emergency. He was screaming call 911 in a panic and i was a bit panicky myself whether it was big enough to call 911.
More smoke was pouring into the house. I called 911 and they were here in a jiffy to save the day.
Here is proof!
In total 3 fire engines, the fire marshal battalion truck & 3 police cars rushed to our aid. I have never seen so many neighbors out on the street. Had we not been having an emergency, I would have loved to visit with each one. it was quite the scene. Leonard felt humiliated! I felt so bad for him! It's ok Lenny!
They were geared up to air masks and everything. We were pretty sure Leonard got the fire out but wanted to make sure it didn't spread to where we couldn't see. A couple fire fighters went up and checked out the attic to see if it spread up there and a few more headed over to the damaged wall and brought their "house tearing tools" to make sure there was no more fire.
The time is 2 pm. I have a birthday to host in 2 hours at my house with 8 giggly girls. Please don't burn down house. I joked to the firemen about needing to get the cake frosted. They assured me they would do it for me on their way out. :) Now that is public service :)
So this is the damage!
The fire spread so fast! Up to the second story. Thankfully, the Fire Block beams did their job and thankfully the fire did not spread any further. We were seriously seconds away from TOTAL DISASTER!!! If the fire would have continued to burn past the fire block, it would have race up the walls to the attic and our home may have been a total loss. Let me tell you we did a lot of praying during this chaotic time! I told everyone to pray that we wouldn't lose our home! Heavenly Father heard those prayers and answered them. The damage is mainly cosmetic. No serious damage. Our nerves were rattled. This experience shook us to our core about being prepared in an emergency and taught us how quickly things can change in an instant. Thankfully, we were all ok! Leonard was pretty shook up. But it was an accident. The firefighters told us this plumbing accident is fairly common. Leonard learned what went wrong the hard way. I still love him! turns out them there was still water in the pipe that did not drain and so when he was torching the weld the water in the pipe would not allow the weld to melt there fore, heating up the pipe extra hot and ignited the lathing paper & foam inside the walls.
Lesson learned, hugs given, Prayers of thanks being offered and a PARTY to put on :)
My folks came over to help out with the last minute decorating and give words of comfort. They helped out tremendously by taking Blake for the rest of the day. It got so quiet at the house when he left :)
After our house was declared safe again, I went to town in decorating Kaitlyn's cake in a Zebra pattern.
The girls thought it was pretty cool! so I passed the test :)
Let's Get this Party Started!!!
My sister Celeste came over to give all the girls a fabulous makeover! I painted everyone's nails :)
The girls BEFORE shots :)
Celeste working her wonders :)
Gorgeous, Gorgeous, Gorgeous! They have all aged 10 years! :)
This beautiful crew is ready for our MALL PICTURE SCAVENGER HUNT!!
Let's Go to the MALL You Fabulous Gals!
For our Scavenger Hunt we divided into 2 teams of 4. I took one team and Celeste the other team. We had a list of 20-30 things you had to find/do with your entire team! There was only 25 minutes to get as much done on your list. The tricky part is not letting the mall security guards or store people know you are on a scavenger hunt, i heard word they will kick you out of the mall if they catch you doing one. I found this out ON THE WAY to Mall.... ooops! We will take our chances. We made up some rules to help us be stealth-like on this hunt....no running , screaming and avoid all security guards, code names & phrases like.... "mom,I want this for christmas".... with me responding, "put it on your christmas list " :) and sneaking a picture to remember it.
We had a blast and Thankfully did NOT get caught!
Here are some of our snapshots & some items on our scavenger hunt list.... Hug a tree, Cute baby clothes, Hollister Men's jeans, Calendar, Princess book, Mannequin wearing a sweater.
Shampoo, Buy 2 get 1 free sign, Good smelling perfume, Brightest color lipstick at makeup counter
On the Esclator, Crammed in a photo booth, Cute Puppy at the Pet Store
Wearing a Men's size 10 shoe, Strangest shoe, Playing on the Piano at Piano Store, Playing at the kids Play Place
Crying at the Carousel, Coughing at the Dr.s office, Cutest Tinkerbell Purse, A Bouquet of Flowers
Most Creative Team Pictures.... Kaitlyn's team got to try out the Hurricane simulator...wind wipping around at 100 miles an hour! What fun! :)
Carly's team Creative Picts.... Gum balls, Phone call, Chick-fila Cow & Steak Escape Sample guy & Cute Fluffy Slippers!
We all had a BLAST!!! I am so glad Kaitlyn chose to do a Mall Scavenger Hunt. It is a Party we will all remember!
Back home to Sing Happy Birthday and Make a wish!
~ Happy Birthday to You Kaitlyn ~
Pizza, Rootbeer, grapes, & HOT CHEETOS....as Kaitlyn requests :)
The Zebra Cake was a HUGE hit! I even manages to make it stripey inside too :) I love the internet and getting great ideas from other smart crafty people! THANKS :)
~ Presents ~
In the end, it was a day we would all remember! Kaitlyn had a very very happy birthday and I was glad to make it a special day for our lovely daughter :)
I loves these ladies so so much too! My sisters & Mama!
Celeste helped me out so much with the party, wouldn't have been them same party with out you girl! My mom helped with Blake, thank you! & Ann was in town to make me beautiful... Fresh hair do, LOVE IT... miss you girl :)
Now, what ever happened with the hole in my house??? You may be wondering?
On Monday Morning the BEST & Handsomest STUCCO GUY, my dad Jim Gordon from Quality Stucco, came to our rescue and helped Leonard fixed the hole in my house. First they made the hole more even and then lathed it and patched it. Phew! So nice to have a whole house again :)
That same Great Guy came back a few days later to texture it and once it is dried we will give it a fresh coat of paint...luckily we still have some in the garage from our recent house painting job. Thanks Dad for all your help! What would we do with out you! We Love You!
What an adventure wouldn't you say! Happy Birthday and much much much to be thankful for!
