Cousin Fun for the Weekend

Whew! The last weekend in May was a busy one around our house. Cary's Grandmother, Mother, sister Landrea, sister Chiara, nephew Catch, nephew Colt, and niece Chenna all came to visit and I was in-charge of the food for our church's 75th Anniversary dinner on the grounds. I thought that the house would be crazy but I was wrong. All of the kids played amazingly well together, I do not remember a single argument, and everyone had a bed of some sort to sleep on:) The two pools I bought ahead of time turned out to be one of my best investments because the children played outside most of the day Saturday and all day Sunday after church. Since Chiara and her family and Cary's grandmother had never been to our home it was especially nice to have a chance to visit with them. Thank you again Chiara for making the long journey with your three precious children...we are so glad that you did:) We also got to celebrate a few birthdays while everyone was together. I would say that we crammed as much as we possible could into our three days. The food for the dinner even went off without a hitch. Whew! It was so much fun to watch all of the cousins playing together. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

Campbell playing in the pool.

Kaylee just enjoying the water and sun.

Catch laughing at Kaylee and Colt.

Colt just laid back enjoying the pool.

Chenna having fun on the swing.

All the nieces and nephews helping Aunt Landrea (aka Rae-Rae, La-La, Lan, and Silly Willy) make a Birthday wish.

All of the children on their last day together...aren't they cute?

Campbell's Last Day in the 2's Class

Last Thursday was Campbell's last day of school for the year so I had to post a few comparison pictures from the first day and the last day of school. These first two pictures are from the first day of school back in September. Notice I am holding Campbell and not her teachers since she refused to sit with them at the time. Then in the bottom two picture you can see that she is sitting with Mrs. Tammy and Mrs. Lauren on the last day of school with a smile on her face.

I did not realize until I just posted these pictures just how much she has changed over the past year. She is looking more like a big girl and less like my baby girl. That really makes me sad and happy at the same time because it is so much fun to watch her little mind working each day with the things she says or does.

I am going to list a few things she has learned over the past year...

1. She can identify most of the letters in the alphabet. She loves to find them on signs, labels, and magazines. Of course, her favorite letters to find are "K" for Kaylee and "C" for Campbell. She get really excited when she sees those.

2. She can count to twenty by herself and most always has all the numbers right the first time. I was amazed the other day when we were watching one of her morning cartoons and she identified the number "24" when it was flashed on the screen.

3. She knows all of her colors and even what a few colors are when they are mixed together. We are constantly playing "I Spy something red, yellow, blue..." you get the idea:)

4. She does a great job of trying to write her name. Most of the letters can be identified but there are a few which we need to make a little progress on.

5. She loves to read like Kaylee. Of course she cannot read but she tells a really great story based on the pictures she is looking at. Most of the time her stories have to do with God so thay are very precious to hear.

We are so proud of you Campbell and look forward to watching you discover more things around you and growing in the Lord each day. May you always be blessed as you bless us each day. We love you!!

Our Musical Theatre Star

The past few weeks have been very busy around our house with endless end of the year activities. One of the most fun was watching Kaylee perform in her first ever dance recital. (I loved the smirk on her face in this picture.) I decided at the beginning of the year that we would try dance this year and a local performing arts company offers a Musical Theatre class so I figured since Kaylee loves High School Musical it would be a perfect fit. What could be better than singing and dancing? I have to say that the recital made the weekly classes all worth it. (It is not easy entertaining a two year old weekly while her sister is in dance class for 45 minutes and she wants to watch all the action.)

Anyway, Kaylee's class was assigned the "You've got a Friend in Me" song from Toy Story. Kaylee was given the costume of a baby doll which we thought was adorable.The night of the performance I decided to try curling her hair with my curlers which are red in color. Kaylee had a very concerned look on her face while I was rolling her hair. Finally she asked if her hair was going to turn red. I asked her if it turns my hair red when I use them and she responded with, "No, it turns your hair yellow". I had to laugh because I have started getting my hair highlighted in the past year but I assured her the curlers had nothing to do with it. After finishing up with her hair and making sure we had all her costume we were off to save some good seats and get ready at the performance hall for the show.

Here is a picture of Kaylee with her sweet friend Chloe (a precious toy soldier) before they went on stage to perform. (Gotta love the circa 1980's blue eyeshadow:) All of Kaylee's class seemed to remember what they were suppose to be doing the night of the performance. I am sure that no one was more excited about the performance than the hard working teachers who had worked on this dance and song with them most of the year. The week before the Big Show Kaylee was complaining that her stomach hurt on several different days so I was hoping it was just her usual nervous stomach and I was right. She is my child who gets nervous about the unexpected...a trait that she got from her Mom I am afraid. You never would have know a thing was wrong once she hit the stage and performed her heart out. Before the show she had decided she wanted to join gymnastics again for next year but after the show she was talking about taking Musical Theatre and Tap class for next year. (We will see when August rolls around what activity she chooses.) I am just glad that she had such wonderful teachers, sweet friends, and really enjoyed the class.

We are so proud of you Kaylee for performing your best and having a blast too. We sure enjoyed watching you and beaming with pride the whole time.

Congratulations Sweet Girl on your First Dance Recital!!

Zoo Field Trip

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of meeting Kaylee's class at the Zoo for their last field trip of the year. It was a wonderful day to be at the zoo! The weather was perfect and all of the children seemed to listen very well. When I arrived Kaylee immediately jumped up and came running to give me a hug. I loved that because I know there will be a day when she does not want me around on such outings. She was sure to make sure all her friends knew who I was and she held my hand very tightly while walking around. Here is a picture of Kaylee and her favorite teacher Mrs. "O". She has really been a very nurturing teacher to Kaylee this year...always full of praise and a kind word. We really could not have asked for a better year!
Here is half of Kaylee's class. It seemed like each time they stopped for a group picture I was at the wrong angle. At least I got some of them though, right? As you can see I did not have any better luck getting a picture of the girls in the class:)

Thank you Kaylee for letting me come along and enjoy the morning with you...I love being your Mom and am so proud of you!

Campbell's First Pre-School Program

Well tonight was Campbell's first ever Pre-School Program and we are so proud of her! She did great performing in front of all of the people.

This is her class walking up onto the stage. As you can see Campbell has her "bubble" in her mouth just like she has us all practice at home all of the time. At some point she saw us and smiled but did not try to come to us or even frown. She just stood there smiling. Campbell is the more shy one in our house when Mom is around so I did not know what to expect.

I was hoping she would perform since she has been singing the songs for weeks. She and all of her classmates did great! Then the fun really started as they were all singing the "Open Close Them Song" which is what they sing to get them ready for prayer time. As you can see from the picture Campbell and her friend Morgan are doing their best even though one little boy on the opposite end of the line is enjoying hearing his own voice in the microphone. It did not take long for Campbell's favorite boy standing beside her ("J") to catch on to the fun that the other boy was having. Once "J" stepped up to the microphone to make some noise Campbell lost it. She thought that he was the funniest thing ever. Of course, the whole audience was laughing with the children at this point too. How could you not laugh at such precious faces?

After a few minutes of the whole auditorium laughing the teachers managed to get the class to sit back down to perpare for a prayer Mrs. Denise was going to lead. As you can see from the picture of Campbell and "J" sitting down she is still grinning at him and at one point whispered, "Talk again",luckily "J" did not listen to her. ( I only know this because we were on the second row and I could read her lips.) I have to say that this was definitely a priceless performance by the Young 2's Class. Thank you to Mrs. Lauren and Mrs. Tammy for giving us such a priceless performance.

Here are my two sweet girls! They are both growing up so quickly. Kaylee was the first one to tell Campbell how proud she was of her after the performance. My oldest has such a loving heart towards her sister most of the time:) I feel like the most blessed Mom in the world each time I look at these two faces. I love you both to the moon and back!

Then there is this picture that our friend Trey offered to take so that we could capture all of us on this special night. Thanks Trey! ( I guess Campbell was all smiled out.)

I am looking forward to many more performances by both girls in our future!

Has it been two weeks?

Well I do not know what we have been doing the past few weeks but it seems like we have been too busy to sit for even a moment. I am going to try to blog the things that I remember:)

First of all, Campbell got to wear her first pony tail which she just refers to as a "pony". She was so excited and kept touching it all day. I was just surprised she never tried to rip it out. The best day was when she had me put a "pony" in for her to wear to school to show Mrs. Lauren and Mra. Tammy. That day she walked into class grinning ear to ear and telling them all about her "pony". Yet another sign that my baby is growing up:(

Kaylee had "Cowgirl/boy Day" at school two weeks ago and was so excited that she could wear her bandana, hat, and red boots. (The red boots were definitely a great purchase because I think she has worn them for 3 years now because the only ones I could find a few years ago were too big but she wanted them so we got them. I think this was the last time she will get to wear them though because they will be too small to wear again. ) Since they had finished working on writing all of their letters a lot the teacher decided to take a break and have two weeks of learning all about Texas. One Friday they brought their favorite Texas book and another week it was just a Texas related something for Show and Tell. On this day they had a chuchwagon feast. I sent biscuits which Kaylee informed me were a big hit because I am the best biscuit maker according to her. (Well me and Grands.) They also had cornbread, pinto beans, and some other food items I cannot remember. It was so fun to watch her get so excited when telling me all about her special day.

Then there was last weekend which was one crazy weekend...

We kicked the weekend off with a fun Birthday Party for the girls sweet friend McKinely at the church gym. The theme was "Under the Sea" so there was a sand table, bubbles, the blow up slide/bounce house combo, fisking in the plastic pool, and many other fun activities. Kaylee and Campbell had so much fun as you can see from the picture. McKinley's Mom even fixed this delicioius pudding with crumbled vanilla sandwich cookies crumbled on top of it to look like sand and served it to the kids in sand pails. It was such a cute idea. All the kids loved it and the parents too:)

Then came Sunday which was the craziest day of the weekend because we had church, Beauty & the Beast performance at a theatre here in town, and Shepherding Group at our friends home with about 40 of our other friends and their children from church.

I have to say that the theatre tickets were one of the best presents that my parents have given us as a family gift because it has been such a wonderful activity to look forward to. We have made so many wonderful memories at each of the performances. I do think that this last one of Beauty and the Beast was our favorite so far. We got there pretty early so that we would have plenty of time to get the girls crowns, popcorn , and a drink before the show and to avoid some of the long lines. I thought the crowns were so cute especially since they were only $2.00. Gotta love that! Of course, in true form lately Campbell wanted the same color crown as Kaylee. She looks up to her big sister so much and it just melts my heart to see their love for each other. Not to say that they do not argue but at the end of the day they are each other's best friend.) Thanks again Mom and Dad for the tickets and always thinking of clever things to surprise us with.

Cary told the girls to make a funny face in this picture so I thought it was funny that Campbell was looking at Kaylee to see just what she was suppose to be doing. My funny girls!

Once the show was over the all of the girls went home and took a nap before the cookout that night. It was so much fun going and sharing in food and fellowship with our friends even though it had been a very busy day. The girls had a great time just playing in the backyard with all of their friends. Thank you to Jason, Whitney, and Morgan for having us over, we had a wonderful time:) Busy weekends are exhausting but they sure are full of a lot of good times.

There you have it if you made it through my long post:) Hopefully I will have more time to blog after this coming week is over.

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:)