My girls

So as not to confuse anyone I won't title this post as Mother's Day, but these pictures were taken on Mothers Day. Instead, I've decide to use the title My girls, which is very original and I'm sure I've never used on a post before.

My husband is always so sweet about planning something for me on Mothers Day and really hype it up to the girls. I think I pretty much got cards/drawings or atleast a Happy Mother's Day from them every day the week leading up to Mother's Day. They really get into holidays, even if it doesn't consist of them getting a present. Although Isabella normally tries to "do something special for us" by saying "Since its Mother's Day, I'm going to sleep with you tonight" or "Since its YOUR day, I'm going to play the Wii with you." Sneaky little booger.

Hey little girl...... who's baby are you? Oh, mine, well aren't I just a lucky mama!

And what about you sweet thing? Mine again! Yes, I am blessed indeed. And I love you even with strawberry seeds in your teeth and your desire to eat that nasty pork just to frustrate me on Mother's Day. :)

I have to say, I feel very blessed to have a wonderful husband, who was always so sweet to me during those "difficult" Mother's Days and who now makes so much special for me, and for my 2 beautiful girls that God has allowed me to be mommy too. But as an extra little reminder of how blessed I am, I can't even tell you how many people came by and complimented us on our girls. That's always kind of fun.... no one made mention of me looking good, but I'll take all the compliments on how cute and sweet my girls are. Besides, if they don't notice me, they won't notice how many desserts I had that day either.

On our way home late that afternoon, we pulled over next to a field of poppies for some great pictures of my girls.

Prettier than the flowers they are in and I didn't have to bribe them to hold hands --- I will have to bribe them to give me better smiles. There's my girl with the dimples so big, you can't help but smile. And what mommy wouldn't love this picture? So sweet, so innocent, but we can't forget....So sassy! Oh I love these girls!!

More of my newest nephew

I wish I could tell you we have been at the beach since Sunday, building sandcastles, enjoying the sand between our toes, basking in the sun, ...... BUT we have pretty much had rain all week. Kind of odd weather for here or so I've been told, and we've never been here when it rained every day. At least my hubby is with me, rather than at work, but not quite the nice warm vacation we were expecting. :) We have still had a good time, just had to improvise and search out for other things to do rather than swimming/lounging by the pools or going to the beach -- granted, that is actually why you come to the beach, but we have been able to find a few new things to do that we haven't done before. And thankfully, we have had a few evenings where we could walk down to the shops, swam at the indoor pool, and did some biking yesterday when it wasn't raining, but too windy to sit on the beach. All that to say, I don't have beach pictures to share ...YET, I'm still praying maybe God will give us a few hours tomorrow. :) So I thought I would go ahead and post a few more pictures of my nephew Ian. He will be a week old tomorrow, but obviously these pictures were taken on Friday and Saturday in the hospital. Don't you want to just kiss those cheeks? I think I can smell that new baby smell right through my computer.

Today

I had totally planned today to be a busy day. We're leaving for the beach on Saturday, so I was planning on finishing up packing, giving the girls baths, cleaning the house (I hate coming home to a dirty house, plus our neighbors will be coming in to feed the animals :) and I then I figured I would be ahead of schedule so I had actually planned on uploading a couple pictures and telling you about my wonderful Mother's Day that I had on Sunday.








But instead, this is what I got to do.......

I guess that's a pretty good trade off. This is my newest nephew, Ian Michael. His due date was June 3rd. His biggest brother's birthday is today 5/15, his big brother's birthday is tomorrow 5/16 and he surely did not want to miss out on that fun. His 13 year old brother was most likely not hoping to share his birthday today, but we figure he'll have to take that up with God, because He thought it would be a great idea. :)

He was 7 pounds 5 ounces, 18 1/2 inches long, cute little nose, sweet tiny lips, precious baby smell.... oh wait, I don't think they actually wrote that down.

And he looks just like his Auntie.

Ok, maybe not, but he does have dark hair....... at least for now.

(I'm taking my laptop, so I will upload some more pics of him and the couple from Mothers Day, I try to do everything way behind and out of sequence around here)

A hiking we will go

We promised the girls that if the weather was nice we would go hiking on Saturday. We weren't able to head out until later in the afternoon, but it still looked like a pretty day so off we went. Kenny and I love hiking, we used to hike while we were dating, loved hiking before the girls were born, most of our vacations were centered around something outside... camping, hiking, etc. When Isabella was born, we would still throw her in a backpack and be able to go hiking some, then she was old enough to walk while hiking and Amelia was born. Our hiking changed from "Wow, what a great workout" to "How can we get rid of these sticks without her noticing?" I remember when Amelia was a baby and we took them out hiking, Isabella stopped every couple feet to pick up a rock, a stick, examine a leaf, hang from a limb, climb a rock.... then Amelia got hungry so we stopped to feed her, not a whole lot of hiking, but some fun in nature. When we were done, not making it anywhere near our destination, we turned around and headed out. A couple met up with us and said "How far was it in to the waterfall?" Kenny and I both just laughed and said "We don't know, we've been in there for over an hour and maybe made it 1/2 a mile." But we had a great leaf and rock collection.

So yesterday, although we knew we had to go somewhere local, I thought maybe we could have a nice little hike. We went to a state park not far from our house and if any of you live near us you know where I'm talking about, and you'll know that this rock we are sitting on is only about 15 feet into the hike. Somehow it is new everytime to Isabella and she just has to defeat it. We had just climbed off the rocks and were on our way when a huge crash of thunder and lightning happened -- Isabella screamed so loud you would have thought she had been struck by lightening. Honestly, I'm surprised no one came running into the woods to see what was wrong with this poor child. Obviously, we went back to the car. Kenny and I weren't ready to give up yet so we drove up the mountain a little and within a few minutes the rain had stopped and the clouds were gone. Oh good, the drama has passed, now we can have a nice hike. Not so much... The rain did stop, but as we were slowly collecting rocks, ..... ur, I mean hiking, Amelia decides to take off running. She trips, falls and of course is crying like crazy saying that she is bleeding. I took out my magnifying glass and saw a slight drop of blood. Finally, she's consoled and happy and we meet up with some guy and his 2 dogs. Our girls are animal freaks so anytime they see a dog they want to pet it, but thankfully have learned to ask first. This guy said, "He's friendly"...... he should have added "He's a crazy spazzed out dog who I just hyped up on drugs", the dog comes running at us and runs right passed us and back. We could tell it was just hyper and didn't want to hurt us. Well, at least 2 of us could tell that. We walk away from the man and the dog decides to have yet another turn at running at us, Isabella freaks out and starts running, the dog runs passed her, runs into her and totally knocks her legs out from under her. Airborne then landing hard on her hiney. This was literally about 2 minutes after Amelia fell. So now we have another one that is hurt and inconsolable, Amelia wants to get back in on some of the love action trying to convince me there really is blood........ and I realized then, this hike was not going to be at all what I had imagined. :) Oh well, its all good. We hiked to our typical, never make it any farther spot and sat down by the water, throwing rocks and eating snacks. It decided to start thundering again and we decided it was definitely time to go home. We opted for a family movie night...... inside..... no lightning.... no dogs..... ok so there were some dogs, but they were in the movie. This picture is for Auntie Becky. My girls didn't understand why we had to look up at the tree, but I told them not to worry, Auntie Becky would understand. :)

New Friends

Today we got together with some "new" friends. Julia used to work with my mom a few years ago, then over the last several months we've been talking through e-mail about adoption, a few months ago they adopted their second daughter Hannah... and today we were finally able to get our four curly girls together. Hopefully she doesn't mind but I am going to post a couple pictures up here -- she took them, I totally forgot my camera today, which is actually no surprise for how scatterbrained I have been. The girls had such a good time getting to play with a new friend and getting to hold another. This was Amelia's first time holding a baby -- although she really just wanted her to lay on her lap, so I don't know if that counts as holding. :)

When we first saw them, Amelia said "She got same color as me!" Amelia has been noticing her skin color more lately, or at least I think so. Last week, she picked up one of the brown baby dolls the girls have, brought it to me, pressed it against her cheek and said "she look like me" and I said "Yes, she has beautiful brown skin, just like you. " Then she said "She look like Daddy too"..... hmmm, maybe its the brown eyes. :)

For my cousin who asked....

.... Amelia's birthday pictures will still be coming. So, here's the problem. We had a really girly party, all pink and tulle, Amelia had a fru fru pettiskirt that mommy made her, real tea in real china cups, fancy little finger foods, the princess castle, you know - the frills...... so I told my hubby (and the other men like my dad and brother) "There's really no need for you to stay, we'll just make it all girls" (and Garrett, don't make fun of him, he's going to be a very secure manly man) I didn't think that one all the way through...... With no hubby there to help me, it was harder for me to serve tea, make sure Amelia wasn't burning herself on the candles, stop the kids from breaking the cups as Isabella screams out "Let's do Cheers!" --- yeah, we're having an Irish Pub party for her. So I didn't get alot of pictures, but thankfully my mom got some, so as soon as I get some from her, I will post them.

Amelia's cursing problem

Amelia isn't the clearest talker and has a few words that end up sounding like a particular cuss word. It first started when she was singing this little kids song..... "Before I split, split, split I chill....... I say Father have your will." But then last night we had fish for dinner and she asked me "Mommy is that ______?" a couple times and finally I could get around to answering "Yes honey, its FISH" Then Isabella would say "Yum, this is good chicken mommy" and Amelia would correct her and tell her that it wasn't chicken and what it was.

And what is it about parents like us that find this absolutely hysterical. I mean if she really said one, I'd be mortified. Do you remember 3 years ago when Isabella kept saying "Oh crap!" and I was to blame..... This is different, Amelia has no idea what she is saying. She has no idea why mommy and daddy can't stop laughing. She thinks its her silly faces.She has no idea why mommy makes her call daddy and leave a message screaming "I love fish" or why she has to call Auntie Becky and tell her. Oh no, I think she might have just figured it out. And now that she knows what she's saying she wasn't too pleased that we ate that for dinner.

I'm just glad she didn't scream it out at the acquarium a couple weeks ago.

(Sorry if I've offended anyone, I have a very strange sense of humor. :)

Easter

(Yes, Isabella was climbing the tree in her Easter dress)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. Ours was very nice. It seemed like our Easter worship actually started on Wednesday, Kenny and I were able to go to a concert with Christ Tomlin and Israel Houghton/New Breed. Wonderful, nothing like having a date night with your husband and then you go and get refreshed spiritually as well. :) Easter morning on the other hand was not so worshipful as we somehow, even though I had gotten things ready the night before, still ended up feeling a little frustrated and rushed. Is it just me, or do a lot of Sundays seem like you are getting attacked? Ok, maybe just me. Thankfully, we have a few minutes on our way to church to recover and pray. :)

And how great it is when you come truly wanting to worship God to know that God is wanting that too. This song was my favorite in the service and is a favorite of mine in general.

How Deep the Father's Love for Us

How deep the Father's love for us

How vast beyond all measure

That He should give His only Son

And make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss

The Father turns His face away

As wounds which mar the Chosen One

Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon the cross

My sin upon His shoulder

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no power, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward

I cannot give an answer

But this I know with all my heart

His wounds have paid my ransom

If you've never heard this song, go listen to it. I've heard a few different version of it, but they are all pretty close. If nothing else, go listen to Nicole Nordeman or Sarah Sadler sing it, those are 2 of my favorites. Beautiful! What a perfect reminder of just what Christ's death and resurrection means for us.

Quick overdue ending to Disney pics

Who cares that its been almost 2 months since Disney..... I still wanted you guys to see more of the pictures, but I didn't feel like uploading them all on here so I'm attaching a Flickr slide show so you can see them if you want, and ignore them if you just don't care. I won't care either way, I am still living in the post Disney days, still "riding" the rides every day and wishing we were still there. And by riding the rides, I mean the girls like to pretend we are riding the rides..... very cute at first..... two months later its a little depressing. And every day is not an exaggeration at all, literally, .....ask my husband, ......or my mom (Amelia would ask me to "pretend we're at Disney" in the car, or the lazy river at the beach) Just last night we were riding several rides as we were swinging on the swings. She misses it as much as I do. She also asked if we could go back, and then provided me with 2 pennies out of "Sissy's" purse to help with the cost.

Wednesday at Disney, my parents came and joined us for a couple days. The girls had no idea and we just told them we needed to go meet some friends at the front of the park. They were pretty excited when they saw it was Papa and Noni. Papa then had to carry both of them around and Amelia quickly cuddled in and took her first nap of the week. :) That afternoon we did Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for Isabella and she loved this. Really, what girl doesn't like getting pampered? Amelia was too young, but we brought her a princess dress, put her hair up and Isabella helped put some makeup on her and she was just thrilled that mommy let her wear a dress up dress in public. The next morning we went to breakfast with characters at the Animal Kingdom, and no, I don't normally let my girls eat cupcakes for breakfast. We were celebrating Isabella's Gotcha Day while we were there and the lady at the Animal Kingdom was the only one that noticed that and made a big deal about it. If you have your birthday, anniversary, etc there they bring you cupcakes or something, but no one really thought much of the Gotcha Day, but the lady at the Tusker House had adopted, so she knew what a special time it is to celebrate. In the pictures, Isabella was very concerned that Goofy blew out her candle .... she's still bitter. Oh and another funny thing at Animal Kingdom, my girls don't know ALL of the Disney characters, actually alot of them they didn't, but still got their picture with. Jimminy Cricket was one of these, when Isabella saw him she asked Kenny "Is that Cricket on the Hearth?" I am laughing as I type this, because I'm sure most of you have no idea who that is, but it was a horrible Christmas cartoon we watched this year that Isabella for some reason loved. (Actually a story by Charles Dickens, but hopefully better than the cartoon) I think she would have been happier if Daddy had told her yes. :) I am going to post one picture here that makes me laugh so hard. We went to Hollywood Studios, not our favorite park, but loved the Sci Fi Theatre. Outside the restaurant there was a "Scary" billboard --- trying to convince onlookers that the movies inside are scary. I told my girls to give me a scary face and this is what Amelia did:

Everyone around us was cracking up.

Isabella did get to march around with the High School Musical show, but for some reason I haven't uploaded those pictures, hmmm, I will have to look for them. She wasn't overly impressed because it wasn't the characters of HSM. When she saw them singing she said "Where's high school musical?" I said "This is it" She said "No its not......... Oh, I think its the Jonas Brothers." WHAT? How does she even know who the Jonas Brothers are? Do I already have to start searching her bedroom for music she's hiding from me? HA :) The very best part of Hollywood Studios was Fantasmic -- amazing! I'd go back to the park just for that. And for my girls, half the fun was doing the wave with the crowd waiting for the show to start. I guess we've really sheltered them, this was their first time doing the wave.... their excitement in the pictures speaks for themselves. Saturday was Valentine's Day and our last day at a park, sniff, sniff. We just enjoyed every last minute of it, went to dinner with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet -- but not Rabbit, which Isabella was slightly disappointed about; then ended the night and our time there with the Spectro Magic Parade. Just perfect!

Menu Plan.....

.... can't say Monday and I'm almost too late for Tuesday. Again this is mainly for my sake because if I make up my menu plan it really helps me for the entire week. So here it goes:

Monday: Breakfast was different for each of us, I didn't eat anything.

Lunch: Salmon Melts (HERE is the recipe) And can I just say YUUUUUMMMY. I ate mine stuffed in a half a red pepper and the girls I put on top of a piece of whole wheat/flax bread and we all loved it.

Dinner: Baked Chicken Taquitos, corn and homemade refried beans

Tuesday: Breakfast: Brown Rice Farina Lunch: Chicken salad sandwiches (Sorry if I am bragging, but I make some pretty darn good chicken salad) on fresh out of the oven bread and a salad.... we had company for lunch. :)

Dinner: Chickpea and Sweet Potato Curry soup - a vegetarian recipe (If its good, how could it not be with 3 of my favorite things in the title, I'll post the recipe)

Wednesday: Pancakes for the girls, probably just a green/fruit smoothie for me Lunch: leftovers

Dinner: DATE NIGHT AND CONCERT!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? Depending on the time we might go to a Vietnamese restaurant and I will get Vegetarian General's Tofu (had this with Alyssa while she was here and it was SOOO good) if not enough time, we'll grab a salad somewhere and then off to see Chris Tomlin in concert

Thursday: Gymnastic day, something quick for breakfast

Lunch: AB & J sandwiches

Dinner: Tilapia, small salad, carrots with coconut, ginger and chili -- we'll see how Isabella likes these, she doesn't like coconut :) Another new recipe that I might post.

Friday: Breakfast: Egg in a hole

Lunch & Dinner: Kenny has the day off, so I don't know if we will be packing a picnic or going somewhere, we have to look at the weather to see what we're doing.

Saturday: Breakfast: Whole Grain Pancakes or waffle
Lunch: Turkey sandwiches, salad for me

Dinner: Homemade pizza

Sunday: Easter...... I'm assuming lunch with my parents??? Guess I should call my mom and tell her we're expecting that. :)

Have a great day, I'm getting ready to upload some pics today.

Where have I been?

Wow, I know I'm not the best blogger, but a whole month?! I still hadn't even shown you more Disney pictures, now I'm so far behind I don't know how I will catch up. :) The weekend after we had our "blizzard" here it was actually warm and beautiful, so for probably the next week I spent most of my time outside with the girls. I commented to Kenny that week that I felt bad he was slaving away at work while I was forgoing my household duties to enjoy the beautiful weather. The girls and I would play outside, have our lunch as a picnic outside and then they would continue to play as I worked on my ankle and farmers tan sitting and reading a book.... awww, spring! Then the next week it hit me that Amelia's birthday was the 21st and I hadn't really started planning. I knew we were going to do a T party, Teddy Bears, Tiaras, and Tea.... or as we also called it a Teddy Bear Dress Up Tea Party, 3 things that my 3 year old loves! So I kicked it into high gear to sew her an outfit, make the invitations, plan out the decorations and menu, make little bags for tea sets to give away....... I now realize why so many people opt for a party away from home, Isabella's ice skating party was much easier on me. :) We had a blast though and I will DEFINITELY be posting pictures in the next couple days. Then right after the party, I had 2 days to somewhat clean up and prepare for my cousin Alyssa to come in. She came down a few days early and then on the weekend we went to a ladies conference, which was SO good. THEN she left on Sunday and Monday I spent the day doing laundry and packing to go to the beach with my girls and my mom.... and we just got back last night at 10:30. So I really have been pretty much gone from my computer for a month. I have been slacking on m blogging, on facebook and if I had any emails to return I would have been slacking on them. I would be uploading pictures right now, but once again we've spent some time outside working on the yard -- ok, so Kenny is doing the work and I'm mostly supervising. :) And in just a little bit we are going to go downtown and enjoy the rest of the day as a family. I will be back though, I promise, April won't be nearly as busy for me..... or so I think. :)

Snow Day

Hmmmm, what will she do with this snow ball....

Oh, this seems like a fun idea...

Now its on -- Snowball fight!!!

Well, some snow stuck! We got 3 inches last night and first thing this morning it was still here. Our girls were so excited, they skipped breakfast to get ready and go play for a little while. Daddy stayed home until lunch time to play with the girls. We aren't prepared for any kind of snow, the girls had 2 pair of socks on, but all we have is rain boots and they had tights and jeans on ... so needless to say they would play for a litle while and then come back in to warm up, go back out, back in..... They had lots of fun though. Last night was better snow for making snowballs or a snowman, today it was little bit icier -- great for sledding though. We have a small hill in our front yard and Kenny and my dad ended up making a small little jump for the sled. I don't know if my girls realize just how lucky they are to have a Daddy who will stay home and play out in the snow with them.

I love Isabella's face as she goes off a jump.

Amelia squealed with her mouth wide open pretty much every time they slid down the hill.

Daddy even got in on some of the action. :)

The girls had fun with the neighbor girls too.

You can see in the pictures how the snow quickly was melting away.

It doesn't last long, but it sure is fun for a little while.

I just broke out my sandals....

.... and it decided to snow tonight. Snow does crazy things around this house. Isabella was told last night that we might be getting snow today and she has been waiting and praying for it since then. At lunch she prayed "Thank you for the rain, I hope it turns to snow." :) It finally started snowing here about 10 minutes ago. It was kind of like waiting on the cable guy or phone guy -- you end up being the last house that it comes too. Everyone close to us was getting it, but not us. Isabella looked out the window and screamed "ITS SNOWING!" She took off out the back door ..... wearing only her shirt and panties. I guess southern girls don't realize you should at least wear pants and shoes in the snow. I said, "Honey, you need to run and get milk and bread before the blizzard comes." He reminded me that we got that yesterday so I sent him out for dessert. :) Isabella is already begging to make a snow angel and she is convinced that she is going skiing tomorrow. Who knows, maybe some of this will actually stick. I won't be putting my flip flops up though, I'm convinced spring weather will be here soon!