Baby Shower Day!

Well after almost two months of preparation the Big Day finally arrived. Yesterday was Baby Shower Day at my house for my sweet friend Whitney. There is nothing like the word "shower" to us girls that triggers a "To Do List" a mile long. Over the past two months I have painted the den, study, three hallways, trim, and planted flowers all over the yard. My sweet husband worked like a dog on Friday afternoon and Saturday in the yard trimming trees, shrubs, grass, and making sure everything out there was as green as possible. Then there were the inside chores for him like installing a new bathroom faucet and fixtures, hanging a few pictures, and helping me clean the house. On my list inside the house were the usual cleaning of the blinds, windows, and baseboards along with all the weekly cleaning. I have to say that there is nothing like getting all of the Spring cleaning out of the way to let you relax and enjoy life. I just love tackling a "to do" list.

What could be better than an afternoon of laughing with your favorite girlfriends and celebrating a new arrival...not much:) All of my precious friends, who were hostesses, did a wonderful job with everything. The success of the shower was definitely a team effort. It was so nice to be able to meet Whitney's family who made the trip for the shower. The baby gifts for Kennedy were so sweet...they always take you back to when your children were about to arrive and what an exciting and blessed time in your life. I just love looking at all of the tiny little baby things, it seems like so long ago when I was there now. Such fun!

Thank you Whitney for letting me have the honor of hosting your shower at my home...it was a real honor:)

Racing Party!

On Saturday the girls and I went to a fun Birthday Party for their friends Jonathan and Jared while Daddy went to work some taxes. The party was at our church gym and they had everyone bring their favorite ride-on toy. Kaylee took her scooter so she would not run over the little ones with her big bike and Campbell took her battery operated ATV. Both the girls were very excited about all of the activities. My friend, Shana (the Mom), had so many fun things planned and she is so wonderful with children. I have a blast just watching her interract with the children and get so excited herself. She had a tubing system rigged for the children to race hot wheels in, races on their ride-on toys, a pinata, hot dogs, and a yummy cake she made herself.

Campbell was the perfect example of the race between the tortoise and the hare at the party because her ATV just could not keep up with all
the faster self operated ride-on toys. (I think it needed charging.) Here they all are at the start of the first race. I would have a picture of Campbell at the back of the pack but I was too busy laughing. She seemed oblivious to the fact that she was suppose to be at the front of the pack. Of course, she was thrilled when everyone clapped as she crossed the finish line. That is all that matters, right?

Kaylee is the more competive one so far so she was always at the front. I was very proud of how considerate she was of the younger children and she was thrilled that her friend "M" was there to play with.


The party was a huge success!! When it was time to leave Campbell left screaming because she was having too much fun! After we got home and she realized they could still play outside the crying stopped and the smiles returned. I just love sunny days with mild temperatures. We have to soak them all in before the heat of summer is upon us.

A Little Catching Up to Do...

Last Friday Kaylee had the day off from school so we decided to have some fun planting flowers in the yard. I had promised that the girls could help me pick out some flowers, so the day before we all went to Lowe's to pick out our favorite colors. I think that we ended up with every color imaginable. This picture is when we first went outside to begin the adventure. After about 10-15 minutes both girls had pretty much lost interest. Kaylee was frustrated because it took too long to dig the holes deep enough for the flowers and Campbell just wanted to pull the flowers out of the containers, forget about the roots being in tact.

So Campbell decided to go and get her shopping cart with her baby in it and a grocery sack to help pick up sticks that she found in the yard. At least she was being halpful and staying out of the street:) I just thought that she was too funny loaded up with all her loot. I think everyone who drove by thought she was pretty funny too because they all had smile and were laughing. After Kaylee and I finished the first flower bed I realized that we did not have enough flowers so we all loaded up and went back to Lowe's for some more flowers. At least it was a beautiful day to be outside because my 2 hour project was turning into a four hour project. By the end of the day I was digging the holes and Kaylee was putting the flowers in the hole while Campbell played.

Here are my two favorite helpers at the end of the planting day. If I had been in the picture you would have seen one dirty Mom from the digging and getting dirt thrown on her from my two girls trying to dig deep holes. We did make some memories and in the end we got everything accomplished. I would definitely say the day was a success! (I will have to take a picture of the flowers later, so far even the ones with minimal roots have survived.)

A Few Milestones

Well I am finally going to get around to posting about a few happenings in our house over the past few weeks.

First I will get you up to speed with Kaylee's happenings. She came home from school with another treasure chest with a little baby tooth in it last week. That makes tooth number 5 that she has lost since school started. I cannot believe that she has grown and changed so much since the first day of school. She is very proud of the fact that she has lost the most teeth in her class so far and she has 5 gold dollars from the Tooth Fairy:) The things that children get excited about are too funny.

Kaylee is doing great on her reading. Her favorite school day if she had to pick would be Library Day. She usually returns home with some kind of animal book which reminds me of myself at her age. When I say animal book I mean one about taking care of a specific animal or information about the different breeds of that animal. We all end up learning a few facts before the next Library Day:)

This week they had some standardized testing Monday -Wednesday. Kaylee got in the car Monday telling me she had to go to bed early and I needed to cancel her dentist appointment. There was an important note in her backpack I had to read and follow the directions. (The teacher had sent the standard note about getting to bed early, eating a good breakfast, and if you have any doctor's appointments then you need to change them because there will be no make-up testing.) My girl is such a rule follower:)

I also had a substitute tell me that Kaylee was a huge help and a real sweetheart. I asked if she was too helpful because usually that is teacher code for she told me everything I was doing wrong. But she said no Kaylee was just very helpful and let her know all of the daily routine. I hope she is always so sweet to subs:)

The next big event is that Campbell is potty trained!!! Her sweet teachers kept telling me that she was going when the other children went to the bathroom and I noticed that she was staying in the same diaper all day so I decided before Spring Break to try the Pull-Ups. Well she did great, even when we went to my parents' house and she did not have one accident...not even at night. So when we returned home we made a big deal about being a Big Girl now, she was so proud! We still have a whole package of Pull-Ups that we have never used. I am so glad that she turned out to be as easy to potty train as Kaylee. Now if we could just get rid of the paci:)

Also Campbell has recently changed her name to "Rachel" because we have been taking care of my friend Rachel's son, Mason, occasionally since she went back to work. Campbell loves Mason, some times a little too much. She has even named her pink baby doll Mason and carries he/she everywhere. Here is a picture of Mason the doll in the baby swing I pulled out for the real Mason. She is such the "little Mommy" these days. We cannot leave the house without baby Mason, her purse (with keys, make-up compact, 2 cell phones, 2 baby bottles for Mason, baby's lovie, and her juice), and now we have added a note pad to the mix.

One final Campbell story is from when Cary was putting her to bed last night. They were talking about Jesus being born. Campbell chimed in with, "There was no room so he had to sleep on a table!" After a little smile Cary told her he slept in a stable. I can definitely see where she would get the two confused:)

On a different note our portable DVD player that we only use in the car on out-of-town trips and the rest of the time it resides in the playroom bit the dust. It has been fairly traumatic for Kaylee because she likes to watch a movie every now and then and draw the characters from the screen. She is a really good artist! Then there is Campbell who only wants to watch Blue's Clues lately which is not on Kaylee's top 10 things to watch all day so that has caused some meltdowns by Campbell. I finally broke down and got this today...



Needless to say the girls are very excited that they have a pink Princess TV, the screen is bigger than 8 inches, and there is a wand remote. (At least they will be pleased until they realize this one does not fit in the car.)


Hope you are all having a blessed week!

A Facelift!

Check me out now! I had Jennisa hook me up with a "new do" and I love it!! There are a few more things that have changed around our house in the past week but I will have to post on those tomorrow...right now I am too tired. Thank you a million times over to Jennisa and Theresa for making blogging more fun. (Theresa did the awesome header.) Both of these women are very sweet and patient. A real pleasure to work with. I cannot stop smiling everytime I see my new look:)

Easter Weekend! (Part 2)

Here are my girls straight out of bed and digging through their Easter Bunny loot along with other gifts from Papa, Nana, and Great-Papaw. They were so excited to find some movies and books for their enjoyment as well as some candy. (You can see how crazy my curly headed girl's hair is in the morning.)

Next was the token family picture. Amazingly we were all ready, ate breakfast, and had time for one family picture before church. (and one of the girls together too)













Here are some pictures of Papa and Nana with the girls as well as Great Papaw which were taken after church. Notice we are all a little bundles up because it was in the forties this morning:)
At church we got to have a little interactive time with our children because the preacher put a slide presentation up of the death and resurrection of Christ. He wanted the parents, grandparents, or children to tell the story as the slides changed. It was such a meaningful time I felt to get the children of all ages involved in the service in this way. What an amazing teaching moment for them! It was awesome to see all the children's faces as they were listening or speaking so intently.

After church we came home and enjoyed a delicious Easter lunch in the dining room which was a real treat for the girls since we never have all eaten in there together. I even managed to use their dyed Easter eggs from Papa and Nana's house to make the centerpiece for the table. They thought that was really neat! We also had a delicious Bunny cake that Kaylee and Campbell got to pick out at the store with Nana on Saturday. I was very pleased with how quickly the meal came together and that we all were able to enjoy a good meal with even more good memories. Thanks again for all the spoiling, food, and goodies Papa, Nana, and Great Papaw. The girls are already looking forward to the next holiday so we can eat another special meal in the dining room:)


Happy Easter to all our friends near and far!!

Happy Easter Weekend! (Part 1)

Well, we had a wonderful weekend of Easter fun! It all started on Saturday when we went to Eggstravaganza at our church which is a Big Easter Egg Hunt with a bounce house, train ride, and blow-up slide for the kids. Both girls had so much fun this year. Of course, we did not get to go last year because it was snowing on Easter weekend so the event was cancelled.

Campbell's hunt was first and she was very excited to be able to hunt eggs with her church friends. I just loved this picture of her which showed the pure joy that she felt. She definitely had fun running all over the place but as soon as all the eggs were gone she was ready to move on to bigger and better things which for her was the train. Unfortunately, we had to practice some patience and wait until we could watch Kaylee do a little hunting herself.

Here is my big girl in action. Was it really that long ago that I was watching her wander around a field wondering why the eggs all over the ground were such a big deal? When I look at her it is so hard to believe that this was her 6th Easter to celebrate. I love the determined look on her face in this picture and the way that she is taking off to find her next treasure. During her egg hunt she found some friends to play with which left her sister without a train riding partner.

Luckily Campbell's favorite boy "J" was not far away and he does not mind being drug by the hand quite yet to ride the train. I always tease that I am taking "future wedding video" pictures because Campbell has remained pretty sweet on this cutie since we moved here two years ago. His parents are some of our friends so I am not complaining at all:)

Here is Kaylee with one of her good friends "M" riding the train. They both seemed to have a lot of fun and all Campbell kept saying the rest of the afternoon was that she liked that "bump, bump". I have to say that the train was a bit bumpy but no one seemed to be worried and everyone was laughing so I would say fun was had by all.

The next activity was the inflatable slide. As you can see both girls had a lot of fun with their friends and Daddy. I lost count of how many times Kaylee went down the slide and was surprised to see Campbell come flying down once all by herself.

After a little more sliding and some train riding with another one of Campbell's sweet friends, Morgan, we were on to some more fun. (Don't you love Campbell's new smile?) Too funny!

I was a little shocked to see that Campbell followed Kaylee into the Jump House and actually stayed in there. We have been to several parties where there were bounce houses and Campbell was much happier to watch from the outside but this time was different. As you can see from the pictures both girls had a great time jumping and playing together. Campbell did not even seem to mind that most of her time was spent on the floor of the Jump House. Once we were done jumping it was time to go home and take a well earned nap.

I am so thankful for days like these when we can just enjoy the two precious daughters the the Lord blessed us with and some time with family.

Spring has Sprung!

We decided to hit the ground running today since it was the first day of Spring and enjoy the weather. My Papaw came back from Waco with us so we all went to the zoo. Since we have not been to the zoo since they opened the new entrance and changed a few exhibits it was a real treat. It started off a little bit cool due to the wind but within about 30 minutes the weather was gorgeous. The girls were so excited to be at the zoo and have their Great Papaw enjoying it with them. I lost count of how many times I heard the words "Papaw come here, stand by me, hold my hand", it truly was priceless for me. I remember so many times at their ages going on vacations and doing fun things with my Papaw and Nannie, it is nice to see them getting to experience what a wonderful Grandfather I have too.

Since it was such a nice day all the animals were well fed so by the time we got around to all of them they were full. However, the girls did not seem to mind at all because they were having too much fun just running around. We even ran into a few good friends while we were there. Campbell really loved seeing her friend "J" who is a precious little boy that she adores and so do I.

After the zoo we were treated to Chick-fil-A by Papaw and the girls got to play in the play area for a little while. Then we went home and enjoyed playing in the backyard before naptime. I would say that we definitely made the most out of the first day of Spring.

I just love days like today when the weather is nice and the memories are too. I will cherish today for all of my days. In closing I am going to post two more of my favorite pictures from today. Thank you Papaw for spending the day with us.

Spring Break Part One

On Friday evening we headed to Waco to kick off Spring Break with Papa and Nana! Since my sweet husband is in his busy time of year at work it is nice to get away and have some adult conversation before 10:00pm. The girls were both so excited to be heading to Waco. I think Campbell asked at least 10 times when we were getting to Papa's house, that is much better than the 100 times she asked the last time we made the trip. We got there in time for the girls to play a little bit before bed. It is always so much fun to watch them together.

We filled the next few days with trips to Target, Kohl's, The Children's Place, Gymboree, I'm Yours, Rack Room Shoes, Marshalls, Compass, and Coldwater Creek (they were having an amazing sale). Some of the shopping was done with the girls in tow and some was done with just me and Mom. It is always good to have some quality shopping time epecially when my parents spoil each of us. Thank you again for everything Papa and Nana!

Besides all of the shopping we also managed to go see Horton Hears a Who, eat some yummy food, make cupcakes, and dye Easter eggs. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the girls decorating cupcakes on St. Patrick's Day. The first ones are of them concentrating very hard on their decorating.

In these two you can see how excited they are about thier cupcakes. I just love these two precious girls. I am so blessed!

Thanks again for letting us have a few days of spoiling and fun with you Papa and Nana!

Easter Egg Hunt #2

I left the first hunt just in time to make it for Campbell's School Easter Egg Hunt. Here is her class kinda lined up at least for a bunch of 2 to 3 year olds. This picture was taken moments before they all heard an airplane and were turned around pointing to the sky not caring at all about the many eggs spread all over the ground for them to hunt. Once the teachers told them they could start hunting it did not take long for all the eggs to be in the baskets.

Most of the children did not care which eggs they got but there were a few who wanted the eggs that they brought or who were searching for a specific color. Campbell started out being a little picky but when she noticed some of the others picking up any egg they wanted she decided to join in the fun by filling her basket. This is the token action shot, of course it would be better if I could have seen her face but good luck with that. She was definitely having too much fun running from one side of the walkway to the other picking up eggs. I just loved seeing all of her sweet friends in action.

This is by far my favorite picture from her hunt. The teachers and parents were trying to get a decent picture of all of the class together without one crying or moving around. After about the tenth picture taken this was Campbell's take on things. I thought it was too funny that she finally just put her face in her hands as if to say "Come on already". I am so glad that I got to document her Easter Egg Hunt too.

I love you too, sweet girl!

Our First Ever Kindergarten Easter Egg Hunt!

Well, Thursday was Kaylee's first time to go on a school field trip and ride on a real school bus. At her school they have a big Easter Egg Hunt at a local park for one of their field trips and then they stay there all day eating picnic lunches and enjoying the play area. I thought that the teachers were a little crazy to do this since it was the Thursday before Spring Break and there are 12 kindergarten class with 22-24 children in each class. It was so much fun to watch the buses pull up and see all the excited faces on the kids when they saw all of the Easter eggs they were going to get to hunt. There were eggs everywhere! As all of the children were lining up I could see there eyes scanning the ground for the best eggs. Of course they all looked the same to me.

Kaylee had the best time running all over the place hunting for eggs. I did get her to sit still for one shot though so I could document the front of her body because up until this picture all I was getting in the frame was her back side running all over the place picking up eggs.

After all the eggs were gone the children counted out a certain number to keep and then got to enjoy one before lunch. It was too funny to watch them decide which to keep and which to pass on to other children who did not have as many. They all have such different personalities and you could see some of that through this process. I just love Kaylee's teacher this year and all of the sweet children in her class...it has been such an amazing year!

Once they were all lined up I had time to get one picture of Kaylee and I together before heading to my second Easter Egg Hunt of the morning.

I am so glad that I got to be at Kaylee's First Kindergarten Easter Egg Hunt! I love you sweet girl!