BIRTHDAY #9

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!
HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY MERRILL GRACIE!!

Happy Birthday Madi--a day late!

Monday,December 30th 1996, Madison Noel Gourley was born at 5:15 A.M.(which means I was in labor all night!). She weighed 7lbs, 8oz. and was BALD! Since then she has grown some hair and is now in the 5th grade.
Yesterday for her birthday she had her good friends over, Sydney, Audrey, and Erica to play in the afternoon and then her Uncle Ray and grandparents came over for dinner. After dinner Shannon, a.k.a. Sha Sha, came over for a sleepover. We had celebrated her birthday earlier in the month with cake and presents, so today was just a day to enjoy with family and friends and celebrate being 11. As her younger sisters say, Madi is now a pre-teen! Oh No! We are definitely not ready for what's in store, but we are excited to see what God has planned!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADI
WE LOVE YOU!

Happy 6th Birtrhday BIG MO!

I can't believe it! Mollie is 6 years old today. Our family had fun at dinner time looking and reading through Mollie's baby book. She was born at 1:08p.m. on a Thursday. Big sisters and grandma and grandpa were the first one's to greet us in our room at the hospital. The first gift I recorded that she received was a soft, pink blanket from our sweet friends Kristin and Shane and MaKenna, which also happens to be the same stinky, ugly blanket that she still sleeps with today! It is unrecognizable!! But that is for another post:) It's fun to think back on all of that (now that I get a full 8 hrs. asleep each night, and if I don't it's my own fault) and think about our young family of girls.
Today we decided to celebrate Mollie's birthday after Kindergarten with her V.B.F.F.L. Jordan Randolph. We ate lunch at Mollie's favorite restaurant, McDonald's, and headed to "Build-A-Bear", which was more like "Build-A-Bunny". After much indecision Mollie chose the same Bunny as Jordan and then they picked out coordinated outfits in pink and black for their "bunny twins." They are fun girls to hang out with, they enjoy each other so much, God has definitely given them a special friendship which started from the very beginning of their lives.
Happy Birthday BIG MO!
We love you smooch!

A night at the Symphony!

It was magical, beautiful, wonderful. We headed downtown Indianapolis to go (for our first time) to Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Yuletide Celebration. As we drove downtown we admired all the decorations and Monument Circle's Tree of Lights. We parked and walked to the Hilbert Circle Theatre where we were greeted by Reindeer! The City was beautiful with people taking carriage rides and walking downtown enjoying the Christmas attractions. We entered the Beautiful Theatre and we found our seats. As we waited for the lights to dim and the curtain to go up, I watched the girls, they looked beautiful in their new dresses with their hair done, so "grown-up" as they browsed through their program given to them by the usher who greeted us. We were so excited to see what was about to happen on the stage below us. Sandi Patty was the host and let me tell you, she looked beautiful, and her voice was amazing. She did an incredible job and what we were so amazed with was the 10 or so gowns that she transformed in. Every time she left the stage she appeared in a new amazingly gorgeous dress, with diamonds, glitter, trains, beautiful! And she was so fast!! However, that was only the beginning, because the African Children's Choir was the special guest this year for the show. They were WONDERFUL. The children were very involved in the show and show much FUN to watch, it was beautiful to hear them sing praises of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. The other special treat was one that will not be there for every performance so they did not promote it. Ben Utecht from the Indianapolis Colts showed up in his "Colts Blue" Tuxedo for a duet with Ms. Sandi Patty, she of course, was wearing a beautiful "Colts Blue" gown at this time with lots of diamonds, and it was fabulous. She walked off the stage with a white fur given to her by Mr. Utecht that proudly had his name and number on the back in lots of glitter!! Very Fun! And that was all before intermission. The show ended with the telling of the story of Jesus' birth, it was beautifully done. After the show we headed home and made a dessert stop at Steak and Shake, don't you love that Steak and Shake is open so late! (We even saw Tom and Terry Camp there, Jeremy's parents)
So this is where I would show you all the beautiful pictures that I took of the girls and the lights and the theatre. Where you would see pictures of me and Dean looking, might I say, the best we may have ever looked (wink, wink) But, unfortunately, when my parents stopped by before we were leaving to take all these beautiful shots I realized my battery to my camera was going DEAD and this is the ONLY picture that we have of the night. I am so sad about this, hopefully I have learned my lesson. Today we go get our tree and my battery is FULL.

Merrill's new SMILE!

MERRILL CAN NEVER SAY THAT MADI ALWAYS GETS TO DO THINGS FIRST...because as of October 23, 2007 Merrill has experienced something before her older sister! Merrill got BRACES! Unfortunately she was a lot more excited before she got them than after:) Due to Merrill not having enough room in her mouth for her teeth, she got an extra device called a "Hamilton" which helps spread her mouth to allow more room. It is however very hard to eat with and talk with, so please pray that she gets used to it quickly and easily. Dinner last night was not very enjoyable for her to say the least :( However, today she was the star of the class since her teacher informed me that her whole 2nd grade class could not wait for her to get to school with her braces in place, she said it has been quite the topic and they were all very excited to see her new smile!