the newnam's

Long Week

2012-02-03T14:38:00.002-05:00

This week has been kind of a rough week. We got out of the house Wednesday afternoon to go to dance class and also this morning for a couple of errands, but other than that, we have been home. Ryleigh has been fussy everyday for the last week. She just stands around screaming and fussing. If I try to pick her up she falls to the ground and just lays there. I thought she might be getting sick but after talking to my mom, she thinks that she is teething. I can't get in her mouth enough to see without her chomping my fingers off though. For the last couple of days she has been waking up in the morning and from nap time with her bed covered in diarrhea. I know......TMI but that is just what my days have been like. The diarrhea is the only symptom she has had so I think teething is a safe bet. So this week we have done a lot of lounging around the house. I took all the pictures on my phone so they aren't great quality at all, but at least I took pictures. :)

Happy Friday!!

The girls watching The Little Mermaid. They love to sit together and cuddle under a blanket.

Emma loves to get in her sleeping bag. She thinks it's the most fun thing ever.

This picture is actually from last Sunday at my moms house. Ryleigh was in the playroom all by herself and so she plopped down to watch cartoons.

Thursday morning Ryleigh got up really not feeling well so cuddled for a little while.

Anytime Emma does something, Ryleigh does it too.

Riding around this morning.

One of our stops this morning was the grocery store. We had to get some baby wipes and a few other things. Emma has become a pro at pushing these little shopping carts around. The only problem is that anything she sees with a princess or Cars on it, she throws it in the cart.

These Days

2012-01-30T17:52:00.000-05:00

I thought I would write a little post about how our days go around here. It's been a while since I've done this and I like to look back and see what it was like when the girls were at certain ages. So feel free to skip over this post....I'm sure it will be long and boring to most of you.

Emma is about 3 1/2 years old and Ryleigh will be 2 in a month and a half.

Right now the girls get up anywhere between 7:15-7:45. When they get up I always go get Emma first. As soon as I walk into the room I say Good morning. Emma then says "Good morning mommy, I slept good." Then we go get Ry bear. Ryleigh has been sleeping in her toddler bed for a couple of months now and is doing awesome. In fact, she will not get out of her bed. When she wakes up from nap time or in the morning, she will not get down and play like Emma does. She stays in her bed. We taught her that when she goes to bed she has to stay in her bed and I guess she just doesn't realize she could get down and play when she gets up. As soon as we open her door though she climbs down and give me a big hug. Then they both run to the refrigerator. Neither of them will really do anything until they get their milk. They drink their milk while I make breakfast. They aren't really big breakfast eaters so it is usually a waffle or some french toast sticks. Then we all sit on the couch together under a blanket and watch cartoons while they eat breakfast. My girls are not messy eaters so they sit there very still and eat. We have done this ever since Emma was really little and it is one my favorite times of the day. It's the only time I really get to cuddle with both of them.

After breakfast I get the girls dressed (or sometimes let them stay in pj's depending on what we have going on that morning). If we are staying home we spend the morning playing, cleaning, doing laundry, reading, coloring,etc.

Almost every morning Emma asks to go to Target. We do usually end up there about twice a week because we love to just go and look around.

Around 11:20 we start picking up toys. I usually try to do this 2 or 3 times a day. I always have the girls help me in hopes of teaching them to pick up after themselves. They do a great job and really are a big help.

At 11:30 I fix lunch and they usually go down for naps around 12:00. Ryleigh naps every day of course, but Emma is starting to only nap certain days. I feel lucky that she has napped everyday for this long, but she is getting old enough that she doesn't really need to. I always put her in her bed though and she will lay there and play with barbies, cars, or books. At least then, she is getting some down time. If Emma doesn't nap I let her come out of her room around 1:00 or so and we go to my room and watch cartoons on the bed. Most days we play Candyland together at that time too.

Ryleigh wakes up around 2:00 everyday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays she has speech therapy at 2, so I have to wake her up a little early to get ready. The girls have a snack at 3:00 everyday too. On Wednesday's Emma has dance class. Around 4:30-5:00 we pick up the few toys that they have gotten out before daddy gets home. Then about 5:15 I start dinner. We eat dinner around 6:00. We usually give the girls a bath after dinner but sometimes I will give them one in the afternoon or morning. Now that it is winter time I can give them one whenever cause we aren't going outside too much, and if I do it before Josh gets home he gets to have more time to spend with them after dinner. We usually bath them every other day.

The girls go to bed at 7:30. We start getting them ready about 7:20. We pick up toys again, put them in their pj's, give them their Flintstone vitamin, brush their teeth, and then it's time for bed. Ryleigh still sleeps with her glow worm and she also has a sound machine that runs when she is sleeping. Emma sleeps with a combination of barbies, her Lightning McQueen and Mater car, baby dolls, her glow worm, and her flash light. This is also the time we let her use her TAG reader. She usually looks at her book for around 45 minutes before falling asleep. She never gets out of the bed though so she is really good about going to sleep at a decent time. Before I go to bed every night I go in each of their rooms and make sure they are covered up. I always have to find all of the things that Emma is laying on too and put them at the bottom of her bed. Normally she can be found with her hand squeezing her flashlight and her cars under her face.

It seems like our days are about the same around here. We really look forward to the weekends so we can spend time with daddy and also venture out to do different things together.

Princess Party

2012-01-28T23:39:00.000-05:00

This past Wednesday my sweet niece Cheyenne turned 4 years old. I can't believe how the time flies by.

This afternoon we went to her Princess birthday party. Every morning this past week Emma would ask me if it was time to go. Then she would tell me that she wanted to wear her "tangled dress" and give Cheyenne her present.She was so happy today when it was finally time to put on her dress and go. The girls really had a great time. I took several pictures but haven't gotten them off my card yet but Autumn sent me these and I almost died. I just had to share them. She took them just as we were leaving. I will try to get mine uploaded tomorrow. Hope you all are having a great weekend so far.

Little Biter

2012-01-24T08:42:00.002-05:00

Ryleigh has hit a stage that I hoped she never would. She has become a biter. :-( Emma never bit anyone so this is all very new to me. I had a feeling she was going to start biting though because when she gives kisses, she started using her teeth a little too. It never hurt, but I knew that she would bite someone one day. She first bit Emma last Friday on the arm. Then a few minutes later, she bit her again on the same arm. I wasn't in the room either time so I'm not sure why she did it. I don't know if she is unintentionally doing it or if she is getting angry.

On Sunday we were at my mom and dads house and Emma started crying. I knew immediately what had happened. She bit Emma on the face. This time I was 100% sure she was trying to give her a kiss. This pictures doesn't even show how bad it looked.

I just don't know how to correct this problem. I absolutely hate that she is hurting Emma too. Hopefully this is just a short phase she is going through and it will stop soon.

Fun Afternoon

2012-01-17T22:49:00.001-05:00

So I had a really great blog post planned for today but unfortunately that won't be happening. Normally we do the same old thing around here but today we got to do something new. I was so excited to show you all some cute new pictures buuuuut, I just uploaded my pictures and they are horrible. There is either something wrong with our camera or the camera operator. That has yet to be determined. So instead I am just going to tell you about our fun afternoon.

Josh was out of town again last night and came home late tonight so I decided to take the girls to a place called Safari Nation this afternoon to kill some time. This place opened up maybe about 5 or 6 months ago and I saw commercials for it on tv. It looked so awesome so I hopped online and saw all the pictures and read everything that they offered. Safari Nation has about 5 different inflatables as well as a ballocity center. It has a cool zip line and the Coconut Cabana. It is a really neat place for kids and it is so clean. I have been wanting to take Emma for a while now but I wanted to wait until Ryleigh could really enjoy it too. Autumn took Hailey for the first time last week and she said my girls would love it, so we gave it a shot.

Emma and Ryleigh had SO much fun. It's no secret that my girls are vertically challenged...like me, so climbing on things is a little difficult. Emma went from place to place and never looked back. However, the first time she went into the inflatable, she got lost and was hysterically crying. No other kids were in there and apparently its got a lot of tunnels and can be a bit confusing. One of the guys who work there had to go in and find her and help her out. They have a little section for 3 and under and Ryleigh was able to go bounce around. We were there for about 2 hours and then it was dinner time. Emma threw a FIT when I told her we had to leave. She whimpered the whole way home too. I am doing my best to get control on that behavior but at least it lets me know that she had a great time.

Half way through, the girls shared their first slushie at the "Coconut Cabana." It was a really great afternoon and I hope we can go back soon...maybe with daddy this time.

While Josh was out of town I got two redbox movies to watch. I always get my chick flicks when he is gone so I don't have to make him sit through them. :)

I got The Help

and I also got Crazy Stupid Love....but that wasn't even worth talking about. Autumn warned me about it.....I should've listened.

I know I am probably one of the last people to see the Help but I'm glad I finally got to watch it because it was such a great movie. I really enjoyed it. There is a movie called The Vow coming into theaters around Valentines Day and I am dying to see it.

Susan G Komen Basketball Game

2012-01-09T23:13:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday my sister, Autumn, held a fundraiser basketball game. She is planning to walk in the 3 day walk again this year in Chicago and this was a way for her to raise some money. She got several girls together that went to our high school and played with her before. She also had a few girls from different schools. There was a pretty good turnout and she raised over $500!!

She held a raffle too. Cheyenne got to pull the tickets.

These are all the girls that played.

It was a very fun event and she did a great job putting it all together.

Warm January Days

2012-01-07T22:55:00.000-05:00

I can't believe we are already a week into 2012. This past week I spent a little bit of time getting things ready for school. My classes start this Monday and I'm actually excited to be starting back. I am taking 4 classes this semester for a total of 13 credit hours. I think I can handle more but I want to see what this is going to be like before I try that. I am taking a math class, international business, logistics, and an english class. My english class is about argument based research so I don't know how much I'm looking forward to that. But I'm excited to learn. Each step is a step closer to where I need to be.

We have been having a really warm winter so far. One day this week it was only about 35 degrees and now we are back into the 60's. I LOVE winter so I'm really not happy about this. I want some snow! One good thing about this warm weather is that we can get out in the yard and play. Before Christmas I made a list of things the girls would like and gave it to Josh's mom and also his brother. One of the things on Emma's list was a tee-ball set. I wasn't quite sure how much she would like it but I am so glad Sam got it for her. We got it out today for the first time and she loved it. Ryleigh was more interested in taking the ball off before Emma could hit though. It made for a really great afternoon.

Aren't these girls just the cutest?!

They are both constantly doing so many new things so I've decided over the next week or so I'm going to take notes on all these things so I can document it here on the blog. I get so used to everything they are doing, but I want to be able to remember what they were like years from now. My little Ryleigh will be 2 in a couple of months and I just keep realizing how she is not a baby anymore. Speaking of Ryleigh turning two, I have finally found the perrrrfect theme for her birthday party. I just need to get started with everything.

I hope you all are having a great weekend.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T23:53:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season. I am really looking forward to 2012. I think it is going to be a great year for our family.

I started off New Years eve with my little family. Of course the girls went to bed at 7:30 as usual. Josh and I ordered some pizza and watched Dick Clark's Top 40. Josh never makes it until midnight anymore. I had to work on new years eve for several years and I've gotten to spend the last two at home, but Josh was asleep both times. I watched the ball drop at midnight and then went to bed shortly after. I can't believe how quickly time is passing by. It seems like 2011 just started and now it's over. This past year was a tough year for our family. We had a lot of struggles but I like to think that this year is going to be better. The things that make you struggle can only make you stronger right? I sure hope so. Along with the struggles, we still had some great times and made some great memories.

I don't make resolutions. I can't remember the last time I did. My main goal for every year is to spend as much time with my family as possible and soak up every minute.

I hope 2012 brings lots of great things to all of you! Happy New Year!

Play Time

2011-12-28T22:40:00.000-05:00

The girls were given so many new toys for Christmas this year. Most of the fun toys are in Ryleigh's room because she has more space in there so we go in there a lot and sit on the floor and play. The girls are really good about sitting together and playing with one thing at a time. Emma tries to show Ryleigh exactly what to do with each one. I love seeing them together because they are so sweet to each other.

Our Christmas

2011-12-27T01:13:00.000-05:00

This year we had a pretty good Christmas. It seemed to go by so fast, as it does every year though. We started our celebrating this past Friday. Usually we see Josh's family on Christmas night but this year Josh's brother was not going to be here on Sunday so we changed it to Friday but also had planned to see his parents Christmas night. We spent Friday night at Josh's parents house and we were able to spend time with Sam and Lyndsey and also Josh's grandparents. We had a nice dinner and then let the girls open up their gifts from Sam and Lyndsey and also GiGi and Papa. Ryleigh wasn't really into opening up gifts much this year. Once she had one thing, she didn't realize there was more stuff. Emma was a pro at opening her gifts and some of Ryleigh's too. Emma got a little T-Ball set and a TAG reader book from Sam and Lyndsey. GiGi and Papa also gave her 2 TAG reader books and a puzzle. Ryleigh got a Peek-A-Shoe Octopus and also a Little People Noahs Ark. These little girls were so spoiled and they were just getting started.

Sam helped both girls open up the gifts they had gotten them.

On Christmas Eve we went to my mom and dads house for dinner. The past couple of years it has just been us and my mom and dad, but Katie got to come this year. We were so excited to have her there because she has worked Christmas eve night the past several years. While we were there my mom and dad gave Emma one of her gifts so that the girls could play with it. Emma got a Princess Tea Cart. It is the cutest thing ever. My mom sat on the floor and put crackers and water(tea) in it so she and Emma could have a tea party. I didn't get any pictures but I have it all on video. Emma really loves it and has played with it a lot since then.

Once we got home from mom and dads house it was time to put out cookies and milk for Santa. We put Ryleigh to bed first because if not, Santa didn't stand a chance. Emma was so excited when she went to bed. She is finally at the age where she sort of understands Christmas but I don't think she quite knew what to expect in the morning. I'm sure next year will be even more fun.

Christmas morning the girls got up and Emma came to see what Santa had left. She got a princess sleeping bag and also a Cinderella dress. She was so excited and she has worn that Cinderella dress most of the time we have been at home now. When Ryleigh came out of her room I tried to direct her to the tree but she went straight to the refrigerator. She is a creature of habit and she HAD to have her milk before doing anything else. After her milk, I brought her over to the tree and she got a Whacky Ball from Santa. She LOVED it. She played it most the time we were opening presents.

This year Emma got dress up shoes, puzzles, an Innotab, and a princess game for her Innotab. Ryleigh got a Mrs. Potato Head Silly Suitcase, a shape sorter, and a Weeble tree house. We try really hard to stick to the 3 gifts rule every year. The girls did really well this year with opening gifts. Emma was very respectful and waited her turn. She also said thank you for everything she received. It is so important for them to learn to be appreciative and also to know that it really isn't about all the new toys.

Once we were done at home we headed to my mom and dads house again. We got there really early so we went ahead and started opening more gifts. Josh and I received our gift from my mom and dad a couple of weeks ago. We got an HD Flip video camera. They gave it to us early so that we could record Emma's parade and also Christmas. We love our new camera and it is going to capture so many memories with our girls. Mom and dad gave Ryleigh the cuuuuutest baby stroller and cabbage patch doll. Emma got a princess piano.

Ryleigh loves getting kisses from Papa. She has been in such a lovey mood lately. She is giving TONS of kisses to everyone and will come hug you all day long. When I say "I love you Ryleigh" she climbs up on me and gives me at least 10 kisses. She is in such a sweet stage right now.

Aunt Katie really spoiled the girls too. She helped Emma open up some dress up clothes that she got her.

Nana and Papa gave Cheyenne a guitar for Christmas and it was very popular with the girls. Emma LOVED playing it. I see her wanting one in the near future. :)

We left mom and dads around 11:30 and came home for lunch and to let the girls nap. We had plans to see Josh's parents that night but we found out at lunch that his mom's dog had been having seizure since Christmas eve night and they had to go to the emergency vet. We ended up spending the rest of the day at home and playing with all the new toys.

We got to see Josh's parents on Monday afternoon to exchange gifts. The girls got some really cool stuff from them also. Emma got an Innotab game, puzzles, some kitchen supplies, a sticker book, and another game. Ryleigh got a ball popper and a Laugh and Learn Picnic Basket.

I took the Christmas tree and all the decorations down first thing Monday morning. I do that every year because once Christmas is over I am ready to move forward to the coming year. I am so excited about starting 2010 and can't wait to see what is in store for our little family.

We really had a wonderful Christmas and we are so blessed to have amazing family to spend it with. I hope you all had a great Christmas also.

Just as a little side note....please don't take this as me listing out every single thing that the girls got for Christmas because that is not my intention. I use this blog to document everything and I like to look back and see what the girls were interested in and what they got for Christmas.

catching up.....again

2011-12-18T23:29:00.000-05:00

Once again I am playing catch up. I always say I'm going to blog more but time gets away from me. I am sad to say I haven't gotten my camera out all week. But that will change this week for sure. I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away now. I finally went shopping this past Friday and got the things that I wanted to get. Josh and I decided on Emma's 1st Christmas that our kids will get 3 gifts each from us and Santa will (hopefully if they are good) bring one also. I am really happy with that decision because in all honesty, it keeps me from going overboard and it helps me to really focus on things I really want to get them as opposed to things they probably won't really play with. I am so thankful that we are going to be able to give our girls a great Christmas. There are so many people out there that don't have that, and I have thought about them a lot lately. I hope that no matter what my girls will grow up knowing that too. Christmas is giving, not receiving. I still need to wrap a few gifts and get a few gifts, but I'm almost done.

I finished up my semester of school this week. I am excited to be done and have a few weeks off. I have already registered for my spring classes and I'm looking forward to starting those. I am really enjoying school and feel like I am doing a good job so far.

I am really enjoying spending this holiday season with my girls. Ryleigh is just still so young to really understand but Emma is starting to understand some things. She loves to look at the Christmas lights. She points out all of them and says "oh my goodness." It's the sweetest thing ever. I can't wait to see her face Christmas morning. I have put so much thought this year about what I want my girls to learn and understand about Christmas. Every family has to make decisions for themselves about things like Santa, gifts, and all the other "unnecessary" things that come with Christmas but I hope that they will always know the reason we celebrate.

I am so excited for this week. Josh is planning to be off a couple of days at the end of the week and I'm really looking forward to spending time as a family.

Here a few pictures taken last Sunday at my mom and dad's house on Josh's phone. Emma and I tried really hard to decorate a gingerbread house. It wasn't as easy as I thought. Emma had a blast though, ya know....in between eating all the candy.

Stokesdale Christmas Parade

2011-12-10T23:17:00.001-05:00

The Stokesdale Christmas parade was today and it was so much fun. Emma and Cheyenne got to be in it with their dance class. It was really hard to see the next thing coming so by the time the dancers got to us we could barely find Emma and snap a picture before she was gone. She was dancing her little heart out though. It was the sweetest thing ever. I am so proud of her Maghan gave them sweatshirts to wear for the parade and Emma did not want to take hers off tonight to put on her pj's. I had to promise to wash it and she could wear it tomorrow. Ryleigh wasn't too interested in the parade. She just really liked looking around at all the people.

Waiting for the parade to start!

Love seeing all the cool cars.

Bumblebee!!!

Here come out dancers!! Really wish I had some better pictures. :(

Just because she is so cute.

Ry bear loved spending time with Papa.

Cheyenne and Emma after the parade.

I have a really short clip on the video camera of them dancing and I will get that posted tomorrow (hopefully).

Rainy Day

2011-12-07T22:09:00.001-05:00

Today was a nasty rainy day. I know that I should be thankful for the rain but after today, I never want to see rain again. I had a couple of errands that I had to get done this morning and then Emma had dance class this afternoon. While the girls are in dance class Autumn and I take Ryleigh and Hailey to Nana's house. Right before we had to leave to go get Emma and Chey it started pouring. It was raining so hard and the wind was blowing so much that our shoes that were right at the back door were soaked. Ryleigh was terrified to be outside but we had to sprint to the car....and still ended up soaking. After dance class I had to get diapers, so out in the rain we go again. By the time I get both kids out of their carseats, I'm drenched anyway. I think I stayed wet all day long. So needless to day, I wasn't very thankful for the rain today.

This morning when Emma woke up I noticed that her left eye was tiny bit red. I thought that it was just a little irritated and I just kept any eye on it throughout the day. After I picked her up from dance class it was 10x worse and she also had some green gunky stuff developing. So I called the doctor and they said it sounded like the beginning stages of pink eye. They gave me some prescription eye drops and I picked them up on the way home. Emma did very well with them. She gets 2 drops 4 times a day. Right before bed I was putting her drops in when I noticed that the right eye is also doing the same thing now. I hope that we have caught this early enough that it will clear up fast. All night long Emma acted like she didn't feel good, so I'm hoping she wakes up feeling better. She is supposed to be in the Christmas parade on Saturday so I really want her to be able to do that. Josh is out of town again tonight.(hopefully for the last time this year), so after the girls ate dinner we sat down and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I LOVE this movie.

In other news, Monday we converted Ryleigh's crib to a toddler bed. We moved Emma into one when she was 18 months old because Ryleigh was born then and needed the crib. We waited a little longer with Ryleigh but she is doing great. From the very first night, she never tried to get out of the bed and fell asleep and slept all night. She loved being able to climb up in it.

Ryleigh and Emma got those cute little tie blankets last year for Christmas from the Hollifields and they love them.They have used them every night this winter. You can see in the picture Ryleigh's little glow worm. She LOVES that thing. When she goes to bed she will lay there and keep pushing the button every time it goes off until she falls asleep.

Lately....

2011-12-02T16:06:00.001-05:00

I have been having blogger's block really bad lately. There just hasn't been too much going on. Every time I sit down to write something, I can't think of what to say, so I'm just going to update a few things that have happened through the week.

We finally heard from the insurance company on Tuesday. Since I got hit before Thanksgiving, the holidays apparently slowed everything down. But...we finally got a rental car yesterday. We picked up Josh's moms car last Sunday night and I drove it from Sunday-Wednesday. We are very appreciated of her but I was glad to give it back so that she could have her car back. They wanted to give me a little tiny car to drive but I argued and we got this.

It's a fully loaded 2012 GMC Terrain. It's a little small, especially for the girls. Both of their feet touch the seat in front of them but we are just thankful not to be in a tiny car. The girls are so close together that they can touch each other and yesterday I looked back and saw this.

Aren't they so sweet?!

We also dropped our car off at the Ford dealership yesterday and they called today to let us know what they are going to fix. My husband is currently fighting with the insurance company because they don't want to fix everything the accident caused and because they want to use after market parts instead of Ford parts. I know you all don't care about all this, but for the past week it has consumed our lives. Trying to get all this handled has been difficult and we are just ready to have our car back.

Last night I took Emma to Disney on Ice. It was her Christmas present from The Hollifields. We are so grateful to them for such a wonderful gift. We wanted to take Emma this year but the funds just weren't there so we were going to wait till next year, but I'm glad that she got to experience this. Josh stayed home with Ryleigh so it was a mommy and Emma date. This year's theme was "Dare to Dream."

When we got there I got Emma one of those ridiculously overpriced twirly light up toys and some popcorn. First they did the Princess and the Frog but Emma has never seen that movie so she wasn't too interested, but once Cinderealla came out her face lit up. I will never forget her face. She told me "thank you mommy" at least 20 times. We had great seats where she could stand up and watch. It was definitely something I will treasure and never froget. These pictures are not great. There were taken with my phone and because of all the lights it is almost impossible to get a good picture.

Finally, we want to introduce you to Mrs. Elf. (we haven't come up with a good name for her yet)

I really wanted to get the girls (mainly Emma) an Elf on the Shelf this year but after seeing the $30 price tag I just couldn't do it. So we went to Target on the hunt for a stuffed Elf and found this one. It is an actual Elf on the Shelf plush pal. Less than half the price of the other. It is a little bigger and softer but it works. She visits different parts of the house and Emma finds her every morning. I can't say that it has made a big difference in her behavior or anything but it is still fun. Maybe once the girls are bigger and can really understand the concept we will get a real one.

I think I have finally finished my Christmas lists so I'm hoping to start shopping soon. Emma and I are also going to make some cookies soon to take to some local fire departments or something. I want to start teaching her to give during Christmas and I think that is a good way to start.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I promise to have something more interesting and also to get out my camera this weekend. :)

Christmas Time

2011-11-27T22:21:00.001-05:00

I am so happy that Christmas time is here. It is my FAVORITE time of the year. I just love everything about it and everything it stands for. I really try not to get caught up in all the unnecessary things involving Christmas, but I do look forward to continuing traditions that Josh and I grew up with. One of my favorite things to do is put the tree and decorate it. Growing up we would always decorate the tree at night time with most of the lights off so that the tree lights were all we had. We always had a huge tree so it took a while to decorate. My dad would always play Christmas music which usually included Elvis' CD. Some of my best memories are listening to me daddy (sorta) sing along to Elvis. It was so annoying at the time, but now I wish I could go back and do it again. We decorated our tree this morning and it was so much fun. Emma did a great job.This is the first year that she has really known what to do and she was very careful and particular about where the placed the ornaments. She loves the Christmas tree and she is the only one (according to her) who can turn the lights on and off. She turns it on as soon as she wakes up and turns it off right before bed time. Ryleigh wasn't really interested but that was to be expected. Maybe next year. I am so looking forward to spending the holidays with my family. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Catching Up

2011-11-27T00:14:00.001-05:00

It's been a little bit since I last posted. This past week was very long and there way a lot going on so I'm just going to do one big catch up post and then hopefully start blogging regularly again this coming week. We hosted Thanksgiving for my moms side of the family at our house this year so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning I spent cleaning, getting things I needed, grocery shopping, etc. Wednesday afternoon Emma had dance class. She had so much fun but I was ready to get back home and finish preparing for Thursday. But, on the way home the girls and I were in a car accident. It was my first and also the girls firsts too. We were rear ended at a complete stop by a car going probably 35-40 mph. Several EMS and fire trucks came and we were all checked out and we are fine. The girls were screaming so much but I think it just scared them more than anything. We finally got home around 6:00 that night. Since the accident wasn't my fault we have to go through the other driver's insurance. My car isn't drivable so I need them to provide me with a rental car until they fix mine. However, we haven't been able to get in touch with anyone and I am going on day 5 of not having a car. It's very frustrating, especially since it wasn't even my fault. But anyway, as a result of the car accident we had to purchase new carseats for the girls. (which the insurance company will be paying for) The girls love their new seats. This picture is after we moved our cars from the main road. You can still see a couple of the trucks there. The accident was in between the trucks.

(the rest of the pics were taken with Josh's phone)

Thanksgiving Day was long but so wonderful. After the accident I had some really bad back pain which made everything we had to do Thursday morning that much harder. We had around 20 people here and it was so great to be with the whole family. I am thankful for so many things this year. My two wonderful girls, my husband, my family, our health, the roof over our heads, food we eat. I could go on and on and on. Truth is, life is hard, but we all have so many things to be thankful for.

Josh fried two turkeys this year. The only way to do it, in my opinion.

Katie came over early and kept the girls busy for me. Emma and Katie are coloring, Ryleigh is throwing crayons in the floor. :)

Today we took the girls to the playground to get some energy out. They hadn't left the hosue since the accident on Wednesday so I think it did them some good to get out. They had so much and Ryleigh even started going down the big slide. I can't believe how fast these girls are growing.

We put our tree up on Friday night and we had plans to decorate last night but that didn't happen. We decided to wait until tomorrow morning. We always make Christmas cookies while decorating the tree and since I already told Emme about them, we went ahead and baked our cookies. Emma LOVES the little sugar cookies with the pictures on them. I am really looking forward to decorating the tree without our girls.

I think that's about it. We are all caught up and I'm looking forward to having one more day to spend with Josh and the girls before Monday comes once again. Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend.

still here....

2011-11-20T10:08:00.001-05:00

Yes, I am still here. I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted. This past week was just kind of slow and boring. Josh was out of town and then got home Thursday night. He took a half day off work on Friday and we went out and ran some errands together. It was so nice spending the afternoon with him. Other than the beach vacation in September, he hasn't taken any days off this year so it was great that he could be off, even if it was just for a half a day. Yesterday I attempted to do some pictures of the girls at Old Salem for our Christmas cards and it went horribly. It is nearly impossible to get a 1 and 3 year old to smile and look at the camea at the same time. They looked so cute in their matching dresses though. Maybe I'll show yall some outtakes. They are kind of funny. Ryleigh will not let Emma stand where she is touching her or else she pushes her away. Last night Josh's parents come over for dinner. He grilled a flank steak and I fixed some baked potatoes. I hear the flank steak was really good but I don't eat steak, so I'll just have to take their word for it. Also about 7:30 last night I went to my nannys house to clean it for her. I will be doing it once a month for her. I didn't get done until about 12:30 and then got home around 12:45. It was really nice to spend some time with her though. I love the wonderful stories she tells about life "back then." This week is going to be so busy getting ready for Thanksgiving. I am so excited to have all my family at my house for dinner. I still have to go grocery shopping and clean, which will take most of the week. I will try to come back soon with a few pictures of my girls.

Hope yall have a blessed Sunday!

1st Sleepover

2011-11-12T23:49:00.001-05:00

Let me start this post by saying that I am awful at editing photos. I took these indoor of course with a flash and they turned out ok but I really just don't know what I'm doing. Hopefully Autumn can do something with these. I wanted to get Josh's help but we've been busy and he is leaving tomorrow for 5 days so I wanted to go ahead and post these.

Autumn and I couldn't wait for the day that we would have kids old enough to have sleepovers. I'm still not quite sure ours are really old enough to understand it but they still had fun. Emma was so excited to have Cheyenne come sleep in her bed. After dance class on Wednesday I brought Cheyenne home with me to stay that night. Josh was out of town so it was just me and three girls. Cheyenne doesn't come to our house very often because we live about 40 minutes away from them so her and Emma were all over the place. That's where things started to get a little crazy. Isn't it funny how your kids don't want to play with the toys they have until another kid comes over and starts playing with it? Well, I had 3 girls fighting over the same toy that usually my girls could care less about. But I quickly explained to them that we all had to share or the toy was going to be put away.

There was lots of magna doodle drawing....

and doing flips.

There was also A LOT of dancing. They turned on Emma's music player as loud as it would go and danced around the whole house.

For dinner I had planned for the girls to put a pizza together. I wanted them to sit at the kitchen table so I could get some good pictures of their faces but they insisted on sitting at the kids table. Either way, they had a lot of fun making their dinner.

After dinner we played a little bit more and then settled down to watch a little bit of Madagascar before bed time.

I put them to bed around 7:30 and they giggled until about 8:40. I heard Cheyenne over the monitor say "Emma, I'm so tired, goodnight." and then Emma said "Goodnight Cheyenne." Then they both rolled over and went to sleep. It was the sweetest thing ever. About 5am I heard Emma moving around so I looked at the monitor and she was saying "wake up chey". Emma has been sleeping through the night since forever and I figure that she just woke up a little bit and saw Cheyenne in her bed and thought it was time to play. Cheyenne is a really sound sleeper so she stayed asleep. I went in their room and told Emma to roll over and go back to sleep. By the time I got back in my room I heard her telling Chey to wake up again. After doing this about 4 more times I decided to bring her in the bed with me so that she wouldn't wake up Cheyenne. Emma really didn't understand being in the bed with me but she finally fell back asleep around 6 or so and then got up at 7. I was dragging a little Thursday morning but it was worth it. They had a great time.

They played all morning long and then Autumn came to get her around 3 that afternoon. All things considered I think that it went very well and that enjoyed it. Hope we can do it again soon.

almost there.....

2011-11-10T23:30:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow is really Friday?!? Thank you Jesus. This week has been a loooooong week. I know I say that every week, but for some reason I never thought the weekend was going to get here. Josh got home tonight around 6pm or so and he leaves again Sunday. This week was pretty busy for us girls though. Emma had dance class on Monday and Wednesday and they both had a doctors appointment on Tuesday. After dance class yesterday I brought Cheyenne home with me and the girls had their first sleepover. I am preparing a whole other post for that but I gotta get some pictures edited. I attempted to do it tonight but I am so lost. I am horrible at taking indoor pictures and editing wasn't making them look too much better so I'll get Josh's help tomorrow. My sister would disown me if I posted them now. :-) But the girls had a great time and Emma was really upset this afternoon when Chey had to leave. This weekend is going to be pretty low key which is good. Hopefully we can get some family time in before Josh leaves. I have a big midterm exam so I gotta get studying for that. Hope you all have a happy Friday!

Tiny Prints

2011-11-08T12:06:00.002-05:00

I absolutely LOVE Tiny Prints. If you have never been to the site, drop everything you are doing and go now. http://www.tinyprints.com/ Tiny prints has everything from birth announcements, calendars, cards, photo books, etc. They have so many choices and they are great quality. I have used them for birth announcements before and I will be getting my Christmas cards there this year too. I have picked out a few different holiday cards that I like. I am having a really hard time deciding though. You can view all of their photo holiday cards by clicking here. Here are the few that I really like.

Click here

I love these ornament cards. I think they are so cute.

Click here

Click here.

I am so glad that it is that time of the year for picking out Christmas cards. I also really love getting cards in the mail. I look forward to it all year long. Since we are in a new house this year I have found the perfect place to display all of our cards. I hope they start rolling in soon.

Happy Shopping!!!

If you would like to feature Tiny Prints on your blog please click this link, fill out the information, and submit. If you are selected you will get 50 Free Holiday Cards from Tiny Prints. If you sign up, please leave me a comment and let me know. Thank you.

:playground fun:

2011-11-07T22:55:00.001-05:00

Today was a long day it seemed like. The girls adjusted well to the time change on Sunday but today Ryleigh got up at 6am which is over an hour earlier than usual as she seemed really tired and fussy most of the morning. After nap time she was fine though and fell asleep within 2 minutes of being put in the bed. Emma had a make up dance class today and she will have another one on Wednesday. I wish I could watch her so bad but it distracts them, so no parents allowed. They will participating in the parade in December and they will also have a recital in May so I'm pretty excited to see that. Anyway...on sunday we went to the playground with my mom, Autumn, Chey, and Hailey before going to my parents house for dinner. The girls had a great time playing together as usual. Here are a few pics.

Of course there was lots of sliding on the tummy.

Gracie is so happy she gets to come too. I love this little dog so much.

Josh left to go out of town again this morning. He will be gone till Thursday night and then he leaves again next Sunday-Thursday. November seems to be a busy month for him but I'm trying to make the best out of it and get a lot of things done so I can just spend time with him while he is home. I've got a long night of school work ahead of me, so I better get to it.

mommy & girls

2011-11-02T20:25:00.000-04:00

Josh went out of town yesterday morning and won't be back until tomorrow night. Me and the girls have just been hanging out at home while he has been gone. I've been cleaning....they've been making messes. It's a never ending cycle it seems. This afternoon we went to the grocery store to get a couple of things and I picked up some things to make tacos for dinner. We almost always have tacos when Josh is out of town. Emma requested them and she also help me make it.

After I got dinner cleaned up I got out the mega blocks and we built some castles. Excuse Emma's nakedness. She has decided lately that she doesn't really like wearing clothes.

As you can tell, it has been a very uneventful day. Sometimes it is just nice to spend the day at home with my girls and do whatever we want though.

It's time for Survivor now, then I have lots of school work to do. Only 2 days till the weekend!!!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T22:46:00.001-04:00

Get ready for some cuuuuuuuteness overload!

My little ladybug and fairy.

Aren't they just the sweetest little girls? I could just eat them up with a spoon. :-)

Once Josh got home from work we got the girls all dressed up and went to see Josh's parents. Emma was so excited to go trick or treating at Granddaddy and Gran-mare's(Emma's word for grandmother) house. After we left there we met the Hollifields and my mom and dad at our church. They do a trunk-or-treat every year and that's where we always take the girls. Emma was a little shy at first but once she figured out she would get candy she did great.....as long as she was holding Papa's hand. She didn't want anyone but Papa to walk with her.

This was the best picture of all 4 girls. It's absolutely impossible to get them all to smile at once.

(Ryleigh-19 months, Hailey-2 years, Emma-3 years, Cheyenne-3 1/2 years)

My little lady bug and daddy.

After they went around to all the cars they all sat down and ate a free hotdog for dinner. It was such a fun time and I'm glad that all the girls got to do it together.

::pumpkin patch::bonfire::

2011-10-30T22:47:00.002-04:00

This past Thursday we took the girls to the pumpkin patch. We went to the same one that we've been to since Emma was born. The girls loved going around and looking at all the pumpkins. Ryleigh mostly loved walking on the hay and picking it up. If we gave her a pumpkin to look at, she would put it back and then clap for herself. She thought that we wanted her to put it where it goes. Poor thing didn't realize she could have it. Emma had a really hard time picking out a pumpkin. It seemed as though she couldn't find the right one. So we finally just had to pick up one and say "Emma, let's take this one home." We ended up with 3 little pumpkins (that I'm going to let them paint tomorrow).

Today was a pretty fun day too. After nap time we headed up to Stokesdale to spend the day with my family. We went to Autumn's neighborhood where they were having a little Halloween get together. There were snacks, face painting, a pumpkin decorating contest, and a hay ride. We didn't stay there too long but afterwards we went back to my mom and dads house to start the bonfire. Every year for Halloween we have a bonfire and fix hotdogs and s'mores. Whenever Halloween is during the week we do it on the weekend so that we have more time. I love when we do the bonfire but it's a little difficult keeping small children away from the fire.

My mom brought out the ball hoppers (which the girls LOVE) and Ryleigh laughed everytime they bounced up and down. When Emma got off hers, Ryleigh tried so hard to climb on it and bounce. Autumn put her on it and helped her and Ryleigh was so excited. I am so glad I caught these pictures. Her face is priceless!

The girls were so funny with their sticky s'mores. It took me about 10 wipes to get them all cleaned up.

We had such a great day. I am so exited to dress them up tomorrow evening and go trick or treating.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

::saturday::

2011-10-29T20:00:00.002-04:00

Today was just a typical Saturday. Josh worked this morning and then after the girls got up from their nap I took them out to a few stores while Josh worked on his truck. I was on a mission to find Ryleigh a Halloween costume. I can't believe I waited till the last minute, but I did. Emma's costume from last year still fits her so Ryleigh is the only one who needed one. I finally found one at the 5th store we went to. She is going to be the cuuuuuutest little lady bug. :) After we got home I let the girls color a little bit. (sorry for the horrible phone pics)

Emma asked for pizza for dinner so I got the ingredients from homemade pizza at the store and let her help me. She loves to help me cook or bake.

Zoo!

2011-10-28T22:47:00.003-04:00

I am finally getting around to posting our pictures from the zoo. I have fallen a little behind. I had a ton of school work this week. I actually just got done with my first exam and I still have another exam due by Sunday. But anyway, I'm trying to get caught up.

This past Sunday we spent the morning at the NC Zoo. My whole family went last year and we did the same this year. I love that we can all go and enjoy a morning out together. It's not very often we get everyone together anymore. We got there as soon as the park opened at 9am. We walked through the whole zoo and then had a picnic lunch on the grass. The girls all did really well. Emma loved seeing all the animals that she had spent the whole week talking about. Ryleigh mostly rode in the stroller and I got her out to see some animals. She did so great and loved looking around. I thought we got more pictures than we did....but I guess keeping up with all the kids was first priority. :)

Emma go to ride on daddy's shoulders...which she obviously loved!

Emma LOVES her Aunt Katie

My favorite....the Zebra!

Ryleigh mostly enjoyed playing with her shoe strings.

She is a papa's girl.

We really had a great time there and I'm looking forward to taking them again next year.

I will hopefully post our trip to the pumpkin patch in the next day or two. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Girls Night

2011-10-25T23:35:00.003-04:00

Believe it or not, tonight was my first ever girls night. I went to the movies with both of my sisters to see Footloose. It has been atleast 4 or 5 years since I'd been to a movie. I used to really love going but now they want your first born to see a two hour movie. Anywayyyyy, I knew when Footloose came out that I had to go see it. I love the old movie and I knew that the new one could never be as good as the first, but it was sooooo good. I was surprised at how much I loved it. It was nice to go with both Autumn and Katie. I can't remember the last time the 3 of us went out somewhere together. We were 3 of only 5 people in the theater and we couldn't help but sing and dance. It was so fun and exactly what we all needed.

I will post our pics from the zoo soon. Right now school is occupying my time on the computer and I haven't had time to edit them, but will get to it soon.

a tiny bit overwheled....

2011-10-21T23:20:00.000-04:00

OK, let's talk about school for a minute. My classes started this week and I am already feeling a little overwhelmed. I have never taken all my classes online so it is taking me a little bit to get used to it. I have been up till 1am or so the last few nights trying to get all my stuff together. Every instructor is differernt. They all want you to do something a different way and I'm trying not to get them confused. Once I figure it all out I'm sure I will be fine, but just getting to that point is exhausting. They all have different deadlines every week and I'm so afraid I am going to get confused and miss something. This is definitely a lot different than anything I've ever done. I am going to do most of my school work during nap time and after the girls are in bed but yesterday I had a really short quiz that I was taking at the kitchen table while the girls were playing. Ryleigh ran by me and my goodness....she stunk!! So I had to stop my quiz...take care of that..and then get back to it. I was laughing so hard at myself because being in school has definitely changed for me. My season of life is different and I have other things that I am responsible for too. Back then my job was school. My job is "mom" first now. It's just different. However, I am so excited to be back in school. I feel like the first time in a long time I am actually using my brain. I have had to do discussion questions the past couple of days that have really made me think and I really enjoy it. I have mostly finished up everything that I have to do for now so I'm going to enjoy my weekend with my family.

Emma's 1st Dance Class

2011-10-19T20:35:00.001-04:00

Emma had her very first dance class today. I have been researching dance classes for a while trying to find something for Emma that wouldn't be too expensive but hadn't had much luck. I talked to Autumn last night and she recommended that we take Emma to the same place Cheyenne goes. She was able to work it out with the teacher and now Emma goes on Wednesdays with Chey. They are in the same class which is great for Emma because she knows someone there. Emma has never been left with anyone other than family so I was definitely really nervous about leaving her. She hasn't been in many social environments which is why we wanted to get her into something like this. Miss Maghan said she did pretty good. Part of the class she stood in the back and just watched and then halfway through she put on her tap shoes and danced with the other girls. She said that Emma would probably be just fine after she does another class or two. She was so excited when Josh got home tonight to show him her new dance outfits and her ballet and tap shoes. She wore her tap shoes all over the house and we had to fight her to get them off. I am so excited for Emma and I know she is really going to enjoy this. Special thanks to Autumn for everything you have done for us. We love you.

*It was raining today so this was the only picture I got but I will defintely get some better pictures next week.

What am I thinking?

2011-10-19T12:57:00.001-04:00

A few posts ago, I used bullet points and my husband informed me that it was hard to read and was all over the place. He said he felt like it was "5 mintues inside Jenny's head", which is about right. My brain is constantly running. So I decided that I would start doing a post every Wednesday titled "What am I thinking?" This will probably really annoy my husband but that's ok. ;-) So......here we go.

I got my first school assignments today. I am still excited but now a little nervous. Once I get started I will be fine, but just thinking of everything I need to do is overwhelming me.
Josh had to go out of town yesterday but he is coming home tonight!
I decided that today was "bathroom cleaning day." I despise cleaning bathrooms but nevertheless, it has to be done.
Yesterday afternoon Josh's mom watched the girls so that I could go to school and get my books and take a placement test. I ended up not getting the book I needed due to some issues the school was having but I got everything else done.
After I picked up the girls I took them to get tacos. Emma LOVES tacos and but she calls them "tatos". Josh doesn't eat Mexican so I usually just take them when he has to go out of town.
Glee didn't come on last night. That makes 2 weeks in a row that it hasn't come on. What is up with that?
I am so excited to go to the zoo on Sunday. Emma tells me every day the animals she is going to see.
I think we are going to the pumpkin patch on Saturday. I can't wait to see the girls pick out their pumpkins.
I got Ryleigh some snow bibs last night at Target. They had them on clearance for $6.00!! So now the girls are ready for it to snow this winter.
Emma has been wearing out her Cinderella DVD. She is starting to recite the movie and the songs.
Ryleigh has really been loving her little babydoll. She gives it kisses all the time.
I still haven't made my big pot of homemade soup I've been talking about. Soon!
I started trying to make a Christmas List for my girls but it's proving to be a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.
Since I am hosting Thanksgiving at my house this year I have already started putting my lists together. I am really excited to have all my family here.
I really love the song "Pumped Up Kicks" that is out right now. I made it my new ringtone.

sunday playtime

2011-10-17T23:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we finally got to go to my mom and dads house. It has been several weeks since we got to spend the afternoon with them. Emma was so excited to go to Nana and Papa's house too. She knows the roads that we turn on to get there and as soon as we start heading that direction, she talks non-stop about going to their house. When we got to Stokesdale we met my mom,dad, and Katie at the new Town Hall. They have built a new building and there is also a playground and track. The playground was completely empty so the girls had everything to themselves. Nowadays it is extremely difficult to find playgrounds around this area that are small enough for Ryleigh to climb on but this one was perfect. She was able to climb onto the little steps and come right to the top of the slide and come down all by herself. She did this over and over and over.

We also took Emma's bike for her to ride around the track but she only rode for a minute or two. Lately she hasn't been very interested in her bike at all.

Ryleigh discovered that it's also fun to slide on her belly.

Of course since Ryleigh did it, Emma had to try it too.

After we got done at the playground we headed back to mom and dads house and had dinner. Before we left, Emma wanted to play outside for a few minutes. She was able to persuade Papa to take her for a ride on the golf cart and also get the powerwheels out for her.

It was a really great day and the girls slept like a rock last night. Next Sunday my family is going on our annual zoo trip. I'm so excited. Emma has been telling me all the animals she is going to see all day long.

Old Salem Photos

2011-10-15T21:34:00.002-04:00

Thank you to Autumn for these beautiful photos.

Little Baker

2011-10-12T20:24:00.003-04:00

Beautiful Sunday

2011-10-10T23:05:00.002-04:00

This past weekend we did a whole lot of nothing. We almost always see my family on Sunday's but the past few weeks have been pretty busy for everyone so we haven't been able to do that. :( But we had most of the day Sunday to spend together. After the girls woke up from their naps we went to a couple of stores. Then we ate dinner a little early and afterwards we went outside to play. I feel like I just don't get my camera out enough. When I had my point and shoot camera I had it out all the time but getting the DSLR out all the time is kind of a pain, but nevertheless, I decided we would take a few Sunday night while they were playing. It was a perfect beautiful day and I think it was probably one of the last ones we will have before it turns cold.

My little Ryleigh bear LOVES to swing. I think it is probably her favorite thing to do. She doesn't like to run around and play on anything much, just swinging will do. She has really bad eczema and anytime she goes outside and messes in the grass she gets really bad red blotchy spots all over her. Maybe this is why she'd rather swing? I'm hoping once it gets cooler it won't happen as bad.

Yes, I'm biased.....but isn't she just the sweetest little girl?

There weren't as many pictures of Emma as there usually are but she just wouldn't stop moving. She loves to look through the "pair soap".

While we were playing at the playset we kept getting eaten up by mosquitos so we played in the driveway for a little bit. Emma rode her bike and Ryleigh rode around in her little car. I was going to get a few pictures of Emma riding her bike but thats when she fell and scrapped up both hands and knees pretty good. I ran her to the bathroom and got her fixed up. It was nothing a few Dora bandaids wouldn't fix. Afterwards she requested that she watch Cinderella with daddy!

Speaking of Cinderella....I love Disney movies very much, but if I didn't have to watch Cinderella again, I would be ok with that. Everyday....all.day.long. it's "mommy, watch Cinderella?!?"!! No, she doesn't get to watch it everytime she asks but still, enough is enough. Luckily we are rotating through Cars and Tangled right now too.

I love these girls so much but today was a very difficult day. They fussed with each other all day long. Mostly because Ryleigh kept trying to take off Emma's Dora bandaids and Emma was having a pity party because she had boo boo's. My goodness....I love them so much, but mama was ready for bed time.

This week is a pretty low key week for us. Nothing much going on at all. My advisor will be registering my for classes on Thursday and I'm pretty excited. I will start school a week from Thursday...the 20th. I will be doing a FALL II semester meaning it's only about 8 weeks long. Then next spring it will be a full semester. I can't wait to jump in and get it done. :)

I'm so glad Monday is over....now only 4 days till the weekend!! Bring it ON!!

Finally Thursday!

2011-10-06T12:05:00.001-04:00

Josh comes home tonight!!! I can't contain my excitement.
We went to the park this morning and met Autumn and her girls there. They haven't seen each other in a few weeks and they were so excited. I love how they play together so well.
I really really want to make a big pot of homemade soup this weekend but the temperature has come back up a little bit and it still feels a little too warm for soup.
The Dixie Classic Fair is in town and I want to go so bad.
Today is towel and sheets washing day! I love crawling into a bed with clean sheets.

Ryleigh has started climbing like a little monkey. She loves to crawl onto the their little table and stand up and turn the light switch on and off.
The terrible twos were not bad for Emma at all. She never really went through phases of acting up or not listening much but since she has turned 3 things have changed a bit. She is in a stage now where she won't do anything you ask her to. She gives an attitude about a lot of things and mostly throws a fit about everything. Hopefully it will pass soon.
I want to go back to the beach soon. I love going when its still a little warm outside so we can play on the beach and it wouldn't be too cold.
We are planning another big family trip to the zoo soon. I can't wait. Emma and Ryleigh are older now and I know they will really enjoy seeing all the animals.
I am taking the girls to a new church on Sunday. We haven't been to church in so long. When the girls were born it kind of conflicted with their naps. Now that we live in Winston, my church is too far to drive so I have been looking for a new church. I want somewhere that has a great childrens program. So we are trying a new one on Sunday and I'm really excited. Hopefully the girls do ok.

Weekend Randoms

2011-10-02T22:47:00.001-04:00

This is Emma before we went out Saturday morning. Josh went out to breakfast with "the boys", so we both went and shopped around a little bit. Doesn't she look so precious in her little hat?!
Ryleigh did great this past weekend with Nana and Papa. They brought her home this morning and I was so excited to see her. I don't plan on leaving her again anytime soon. It hurt my heart to leave her. I would just much rather be with my girls than anything.
The wedding went well and Emma was a beautiful flower girl. She walked down the aisle holding the ring bearer's hand. She even got out on the dance floor and danced with the little kids at the reception.
I sure would love to show you a cute picture of Emma in her dress, but this weekend was so hectic and crazy busy that we didn't even take our camera out.....plus, it wouldn't have mattered. I discovered today that I forgot to put the memory card back in it before we left anyway. Bummer...
It was sooooo cold in the mountains this weekend. Around 30 degrees at night and a little warmer during the day. We were all surprised to see snow Saturday morning. It snowed all day long too. It made me ready for winter and homemade soup.
Emma did awesome the whole weekend, despite no naps and getting to bed late both nights.
We drove home after the reception last night and finally made it back around 11:00. We were all really exhausted, but it felt good to sleep in a little this morning
We promised Emma that if she did well this past weekend and was a good flower girl that we would get her the Snow White movie that she has been begging us for. We went to Wal-Mart today and they didn't have it. But then she decided she wanted Tangled. Guess what we watched ALL AFTERNOON?! But it's a nice break from Cars and Cinderella.
I'm pretty bummed that Josh is leaving in the morning and will be gone until Thursday night. Not sure what we will do this week but I'm hoping to plan some fun things for the girls.
I am so glad it's October. I'm thinking of making a big pot of homemade soup next weekend. I can taste it already.
I will be hosting Thanksgiving for my moms side of the family at our house this year and I'm so excited. I have wanted to for so long and now that we have a big enough house we can have everyone over. I've already started planning everything. It is going to be so wonderful.
My mom's birthday was yesterday. I wasn't hear to celebrate it with her but I plan on making it up to her. I still want to wish her a Happy "day late" Birthday!!! I love you so much mom.

Mommy Anxiety

2011-09-29T23:26:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow we will be leaving for the mountains. It's about 11:30pm and I just got done with all the laundry and packing most of the bags, except for some last minute things that I'll pack in the morning. We will be dropping Ryleigh off at my mom and dads house around lunch time and Katie is going to watch her until my mom gets home from work, then she will spend the weekend with Nana and Papa. Ryleigh is 18 1/2 months old and I have never been away from her for more than a few hours. With Emma, I was working and there were a couple of days a week she would stay with both our moms and so she was used to being away for a little while. Ryleigh is my little sidekick. She is definitely a mama's girl. The other day I was gone with Emma for a few hours looking for shoes and when I came home and she ran to me with her arms up and once I picked her up, she laid her head on my shoulder.....and stayed like that for about 25 minutes. I am really stressing about being away from her. I know she will be in great hands. My mom and dad are wonderful with our girls. She will be loved and spoiled and probably not want anything to do with me when I get back....but I still worry. I really wish I could take her with me. But I guess it is probably good for her to spend some time away from me. Anyway, please say a quick prayer that I won't flip out and cry for 2 days.

I'll be back with some cute flower girl pictures!!

Our Weekend

2011-09-26T22:10:00.001-04:00

Our weekend was pretty low key. All of my family was in D.C. so we weren't able to visit with them like we usually do on Sundays. After Emma got up from her nap on Saturday I had to go to several stores to try and find her some flower girl shoes for this coming weekend. Josh's brother is getting married in the mountains and Emma is the flower girl. It is extremely difficult to find ivory colored shoes for toddlers in the fall, but I ended up at Davids Bridal and they had some they will work just fine. They have a little heel on them and Emma loved prancing around in them. I just hope she doesn't trip down the aisle. After the girls got up from their naps on Sunday we went to DSW in Friendly Center to find me a pair of shoes for the wedding also. I found me some really cute wedges. I have never been in that store before but it was a really cool. They had every shoe you could ever want and also some cute purses. After we left there we took the girls to Feeny's for a snack.Feeny's is a frozen yogurt bar that has every topping imaginable. I've been wanting to take them all summer but it would be hard to do it by myself since it is self serve. It was so much fun. Emma loved picking out all the toppings that went onto her yogurt. After Feeny's we ran by Target and also the grocery store. I got some sugar cookies at the store and I let Emma help me bake them. After dinner I let her and Ryleigh sit at their little table and decorate one and eat it. They loved doing that, but I ended up cleaning tons of sprinkles off the floor. Definitely worth it though. We didn't really do a whole lot, but it was nice to just spend the day with our little family. Here are some pictures I took with my phone over the weekend and also some of the girls and their cookies.

I had to wake Ryleigh up from her nap, and I just love how her little foot is sticking out.

Emma is in an "emma do it" phase. She wants to get dressed and undress a million times a day. Saturday she was trying to wear her normal clothes with her pj's.

Oak Island-Day 4

2011-09-25T22:19:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday was our last day in Oak Island. It was another chilly day so we planned a trip to the NC Aquarium. We took the ferry from Southport to Ft. Fisher. I can't remember riding on the ferry when I was little so this was all new to me. It was so cool to drive onto the boat. Once we were allowed to get out of the car, we walked up the stairs and sat at the back of the boat so we could look around. It was so much fun and for the whole day Emma talked non-stop about riding the big boat. I think she enjoyed that more than the aquarium. Katie's friend Pierce also came to spend the day with her that day.

my wonderful mom and dad on the ferry

our car is the white explorer in the middle. the cars are packed on the boat really tight

this is the fort fisher ferry we passed on our way back to southport

We took Emma to the aquarium the summer before last but I think now that she is older, she really enjoyed seeing all the animals. Ryleigh rode in the stroller some but my mom was also brave enough to let her walk around by herself. I don't let her do that very often because I usually have both girls by myself and Ryleigh does not like to hold your hand. She was all over the place, but she had a lot of fun. A lot of my pictures just didn't turn out that well because of the lighting and all the glass in there, but here are a few of the animals.

After we got back into Southport we went to get some dinner. We went to the Oak Island Restaurant where everyone ate seafood....except me. I stuck with my chicken fingers. :-)

Once we got back into the house we played a little cornhole out on the deck.....that is...until we got eaten alive by some bugs.

Ryleigh enjoyed running back and forth between the boards and also picking up everyone's bean bags.

This family vacation was so much fun. I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed being with everyone. I really hope to make it an annual thing because each year is just going to be more fun as the girls get older.

I still have some pictures to post of the vacation but I'll wait and do one big picture post. I hope to get a disc from Autumn and I also have some on my phone and little camera too.

I hope you all had a great weekend.

Oak Island Day 3

2011-09-24T23:18:00.000-04:00

Better late than never! I am completely photo illiterate, so I had to get Josh's help in editing a few pictures. He is much better than me, but I'm learning. I am trying something a little different with my blog. I love the way bigger pictures look, so I'm gonna try this for a while and see if I like it. Let me know what you think.

Last Friday was our third day in Oak Island.The weather turned really chilly and windy. We were not prepared for the cold weather so most of the girls had to borrow a jacket from Nana.

Since we couldn't go out on the beach, Friday morning we decided to go into Southport and walk along the waterfront. There is a small little pier that we took the girls out on and then we walked around the little shops.

Ryleigh loves riding around in the stroller and being cuddled up in Nana's jacket.

Hailey, Autumnn, & Cheyenne

There are no words to describe Katie. She is just a ball of fun. I LOVED getting to spend so much time with her last week.

The only shop we actually went into had a lot of candy and also little gifts. It was a really neat store and my mom and dad got the girls these big twirly suckers.

Emma absolutely adores her Nana and Papa. She was in heaven getting to hold both or their hands.

After we were done walking around, we ate lunch at Provisions before heading home to let the girls nap.

After nap time we headed into South Harbor and let the girls play on the playground. It was very close to the water so it was really windy and cold. We didn't stay too long but they really loved getting to play with everyone.

Poor little Ryleigh almost froze. She got extra cuddles with Papa though. :-)

Autumn and her girls had to leave Friday evening but we made a trip to Wal-Mart after the playground so I could get my girls a jacket for the next day. I wish you all could have seen all of us in Wal-Mart. It was so funny to be able to hear all the girls with Nana and Papa across the store.

Next Up: Our trip to the NC Aquarium!

3 days::60 miles

2011-09-21T22:14:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow both of my sisters, Katie and Autumn, will be on their way to Washinton D.C. They will be participating in the Susan G. Komen 3 Day 60 mile walk. They are walking Friday, Saturday, and Sunday....20 miles a day. Autumn posted on Facebook yesterday that they raised $6,271 together. WOW!!! I am so proud of them for doing this to support all the women who have been affected with breast cancer. When my mom was diagnosed last fall it was a very dark time for our family, but this is definitely something good that is coming from that. My mom and dad will be driving to Washington on Saturday and I really wish I were going with them. I would love to be on the sidelines supporting them. You girls are going to do great and I hope you know how I proud I am of you. You both have put in so much hard work to do this and I admire your strength and dedication. I hope that one day....soon...there is a cure for breast cancer.

Oak Island-Day 1 & 2

2011-09-21T17:00:00.000-04:00

We were scheduled to go to the beach last Wednesday, however Josh needed to work with his sales rep in Myrtle Beach on Wednesday morning so we drove down Tuesday around 2:00. Katie rode with me and the girls so that we could make a big grocery run the next morning before my mom, dad, and Autumn and her girls got there Wednesday afternoon. It worked out a lot better that way and when the girls woke up from their nap we all headed to the beach for the afternoon. We ended up only having two days of good weather.Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday was hot and sunny. We didn't take our camera out until Thursdaybecause we had a lot more time on the beach then. We have all decided to trade pictures so I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more than what I have. Autumn got some great pics I know so I can't wait to show you some of those. We all had a great time playing on the beach. Ryleigh, however, is not a fan of the sand. On Wednesday I tried to let her walk around and sit and play, but she wasn't having it. So for Thursday we got out our little tiny baby pool that Emma used her first summer and let Ryleigh sit in it and play. It worked out a lot better. I also was able to take her in the water a little and she didn't mind it. I am very terrified of the ocean because of the whole "shark attacking me" thing, but Katie and I ventured out and had so much fun trying not to let the big waves drown us. It reminded me of when we were younger and would go out really far and dive under the waves. Emma, Chey, and Hailey LOVED the beach. They played so well together. My dad brought the boogie boards and they rode on those around the beach and Emma even rode in a wave by herself. They were definitely some tired little girls at the end of the day.

I am working on the rest of our days at the beach too. I didn't realize how many pictures we took. Plus, today has been kind of busy. I finally got my hair cut and colored and I'm LOVING it. It's shorter now and easier to manage. This afternoon I've been trying to work out some things with school. All of my credits from UNCG are transferring so I only have to take one placement test and then I'll be good to go. I would start the middle of October. Super excited!!

::education::

2011-09-20T09:16:00.003-04:00

I'm still working on pictures from the beach. We have pictures on two different cameras and I'm trying to edit them and put together some posts, but I hope to be done soon.

Today I wanted to fill you all in on something really exciting. I will going back to school this October!!! I am really really excited. I absolutely LOVE school and I will be going back to get my degree in Business Administration. My goal is to one day start my own event planning business. I am going to spend the next couple of years getting my degree and also doing lots of research on event planning. I got my acceptance letter yesterday and also found out that I will be going for free! All my tuition, books, and supplies will be paid for. How awesome is that? I feel like I have been given a great gift by being a stay at home mom, and that gives me time to work on school also. I know it won't be easy, but I can do it!

I can't tell you all just how happy I am to have the opportunity to do this.

Little sidenote: Have you all seen the Erin Condren life planners?? I have had my eye on them for some time now. I LOVE planners but I don't have a big need for one since most of my days are pretty much the same. But now, since I will be starting school, this will be one of the first "supplies" I get. I love how you can personalize it and pick exactly what you want. They are a little pricey but I have a coupon for half off, so I can't wait to order one.

I think this is the one I would get. I love this pattern!

We're Back!

2011-09-19T09:34:00.002-04:00

and pretty sad about it.

I am really wishing we were back at the beach right now. It was so nice waking up every morning and deciding what we were going to do for the day. I loved every minute I got to spend with my whole family. We have decided we are going to make it a yearly vacation for all of us.

Today I am just trying to get back to our "normal". All the laundry is done, but I do still have some cleaning and picking up to do. I plan on spending nap time today going through our pictures from the beach. We took several hundred. I will probably break it down into different days that we were there so I don't overwhelm you with pictures. I hope to have one up tonight, so check back and see what all we got ourselves into. :-)

Happy Monday!

beach bound

2011-09-13T11:29:00.000-04:00

The time has finally come. We are gearing up for a wonderful vacation and I couldn't be more excited. I have spent the last two days packing...and cleaning of course. Who wants to come home to a dirty house? Emma has been talking about the beach for the last week and she is so excited to see all the family there. I know her and Ryleigh are going to have a great time. I will return with lots and lots of pictures.

Praying for great weather!!

lately...

2011-09-07T22:07:00.010-04:00

I can't believe a week has passed since I last posted. I guess the three day weekend kind of threw me off. We stayed home most of the weekend, except for Sunday. We went to my parents house as usual and went swimming for the last time this summer, Autumn sent me these cute pics of the last day at the pool.

All the girls love Icees. Emma usually asks for one as soon as we get to the pool. These were a childhood favorite of ours and I'm so glad that our girls get to enjoy them too.

Josh is out of town today so it has just been me and my girls. We spent the morning at home playing. After nap time I needed to run an important errand so I dropped the girls off with my mom to play for an hour. They have so much fun with their Nana. They really enjoyed playing outside and riding in the powerwheels together. After we left my moms house we ran by the grocery store and then came home to eat dinner. My girls LOVE grilled cheeses so that's what they had for dinner.

I snapped this picture a few minutes ago, just because I think she is cute. She has been a tummy sleeper since she was really little but recently has started sleeping on her back too. I am so thankful to have such great sleepers.

I am so HAPPY that Fall is finally here. It's been beautiful outside today and I am really looking forward to getting out doing lots of things with the girls.

New Wheels

2011-09-01T11:22:00.010-04:00

Check out Emma and her new wheels!

Yesterday I took Ryleigh for her 18th month checkup. It was a little early(she won't be 18 months until Oct 13th) but at her one year checkup I spoke to her doctor about speech therapy and she wanted to see her before she turned 18 months to monitor her progress. She got 3 shots today which included her flu shot. While we were there she agreed to go ahead and give Emma the flu mist. My little chunky butt weighs 25 lbs 4 oz. She is in the 70th percentile for her weight. Dr. Lowe went ahead and made a referal for speech therapy. Ryleigh has recently started saying "mamamama" over and over but thats all the sounds that she really makes. I had her look at Ryleigh's tounge too. I did the same thing with Emma at that age. She said that Ryleigh does have a short frenulum. It runs on Josh's side of the family and I thought that it could be a reason why Ryleigh isn't really talking. The doctor recommended that we talk to the speech therapist before we make a decision to get it cut. We aren't sure the risk is necessary so we want to make sure we do all our research before we decide to do it. We are very lucky that Emma's speech therapist is also going to be working with Ryleigh. We really like Jessica and it will be nice for Ryleigh to have a familiar face. She will be evaluated this afternoon to make sure that she qualifies.

On a more fun side note: We are leaving for the beach in less than two weeks!! We are going with my whole family and words can't even describe how excited I am. It's been a long time since we've all been together. I have already started making my lists!

Happy Thursday!

Sweet

2011-08-31T12:53:00.003-04:00

sweet=cake and my girls

Emma's Day

2011-08-30T19:45:00.013-04:00

Today was such a great day. As soon as Emma woke up this morning I sang Happy Birthday to her. She looked at me like "mom, I just woke up, leave me alone".But then once she woke up, she continued to say Happy Birthday ALL DAY LONG. It was the cutest thing ever. She requested waffles for breakfast and also to watch Mickey Mouse. After breakfast I snapped this picture.

Taken at 7:39 am....exactly 3 years old!

We spent the morning playing. I got out a few things that she got for her birthday to play with. We did a puzzle and also played with some stamps. Josh worked until about 1:30 today and once the girls got up from their naps, we went to Build-A-Bear Workshop. We took Emma last year on her birthday and we would like to keep it a tradition. Since her birthday falls during the week we wanted to do something special for her. She still loves the little frog she made last year, and I knew she would love it even more this year. We didn't take the big camera, so phone pics will have to do.

Once we got there it took her a while to pick out an animal. They had some that were not so cute, so I tried to help her pick one out. We ended up with a monkey. Emma wanted nothing to do with stuffing it. I think she was a little scared of the loud sound that the machine made. So Josh stuffed it and also put in a little heart.

After the monkey was stuffed, she gave it a bath.

After the monkey got a bath, Emma picked out some clothes. She ended up with a ballerina PJ set.

This is Millie the Monkey. Emma loves her so much and has literally not put her down since she got her. She also got some little ballerina slippers and some sunglasses to go with her outfit.

She wanted to carry her out all by herself.

Here are a few pics of Emma and Millie.

After we got home I fixed spaghetti for dinner and then we had birthday cake. We sang to Emma and then she blew out 4 candles all by herself. Up until tonight I haven't really cried. But as I was putting Emma to bed tonight I spent a few extra mintues with her telling her how much I loved her and that God gave me the most precious gift. This little girl means the world to me and I hope that we gave her a wonderful birthday.

Emma also received a few phones calls today. Nana, Papa, and Cheyenne called her to wish her a Happy Birthday. Emma was so excited to talk to them. I think it really made her day that much more wonderful.

I will post some birthday cake pictures tomorrow once I get them off the camera.

It has been such a great day and I am now looking forward to the next year with my little 3 year old!!

Three

2011-08-30T07:39:00.001-04:00

3 years ago today, at 7:39 a.m. my 1st little girl came into my life. What an exciting, scary, crazy day that was. I knew nothing about how to be a mother. I only knew that there was going to be this little tiny person that I was responsible for. I did lots of research, read lots of book, asked for lots of advice.....but nothing could ever prepare me for the stage of life I was about to enter.

It is absolutely amazing the love a person can feel for their child. There hasn't been one day that I haven't seen my Emma and told her I loved her. She is one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever laid my eyes on. I know I'm a bit biased, but I am so proud of the little girl that we are raising.

This little girl has changed my life.
Just one smile from her melts my heart and makes any bad day, so much better.

I have thought for a while now what I would want to say to Emma on this special day, but there are just no words that I could possibly come up with that would describe my feelings. She has a special place in my heart that will always be just for her.

Emma,
We are so blessed to have such a wonderful little girl. You are the light of our lives and we love you so much. Happy 3rd Birthday sweetheart.

A big thank you to my sister Autumn for these amazing pictures.

Emma's 3rd Birthday Party

2011-08-29T11:34:00.025-04:00

Sweet little Emma's birthday is tomorrow but this past Saturday we had her party. I planned for a long time and I was glad that the day was finally here. I was so glad that Josh could stay home from work and help me with everything. I'm sure most, if not all, think that I go way overboard for a 3 year olds party. After the party I asked Josh if it was too much and he said "As long as it makes you happy, that's all that matters". I'm glad that he "gets it". Anyway, we had around 15 people or so. Not all of our family could make it, but we still had a lot of people in our little house. The party was so much fun. I can't believe that my little girl will be 3 tomorrow.

For the food table, we had cupcakes, pigs in a blanket, goldfish, chips and dip, fruit and dip, sweet tea, pink lemonade, and water. Somehow I didn't get a picture of the completed table. :( But I thought it turned out great.

Emma showing you that she will be 3 years old!! (little tear)

For the party favors we made birthday cake push pops. I found this idea on Pinterest and I was able to get the containers so that Josh and I could make them. I thought they turned out really cute. For the kids, I put together little Hello Kitty tins. Inside there were stickers, necklaces, a bracelet, rings, and bubbles.

We sang Happy Birthday first thing so that everyone could go ahead and eat. As soon as we started singing Emma buried her head in her hands. I guess she didn't like it or was embarrassed or something. But once we were done, she blew out her candles with the help of Cheyenne.

Ryleigh was spoiled at the party too. She got passed around a lot and she ate so much her tummy stuck out all night. :)

Ryleigh got to share a cupcake with Nana

Emma got so many great gifts....a magna doodle, a music player with microphone, a TAG reader, a laptop, books, puzzles, etc. She is so spoiled with all this new stuff. But it's so great to have some new things for her to play with. I put up several things so that I can get them out periodically.

Emma and Aunt Katie

Her new helmet was the last present she opened and then when she turned around, Josh had brought in her new bike.

She LOVES her new bike.

Josh, Emma, & Chey drawing on the magna doodle

Thankyou so much for everyone who came to Emma's party. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family that love our little girl as much as we do.

Wednesday Randoms

2011-08-24T21:44:00.008-04:00

Yesterday afternoon Autumn invited us to meet her and her girls at Oak Ridge park this morning. We haven't been to that park in a while so it was nice to be somewhere different. We had a great time. Not too long after we got there Cheyenne had to use the potty and so Autumn took her, but ended up locking her keys in her car. It was kind of funny and not so funny all at the same time. Luckily my dad was home from work today and was able to go back to her house and bring her spare key to her. He was a lifesaver today. Thanks Daddy! The girls always have fun playing together. Ryleigh doesn't usually do a lot of playing though. She likes to observe her surroundings a little too much. This morning she decided to put as much mulch as she could at the bottom of one of the slides. Emma and Chey decided they would help too.

Ryleigh's nose has been kind of stopped up when she sleeps the past couple of days and that is causing her to not nap as long as she usually does. She only napped for an hour today so I brought her back to my room and let her have a snack. She thought she hit the jackpot by getting the whole box.

The girls and I got in the car to go out for a little bit this afternoon and this is what my car said when I got to the gas station. I really don't like pushing it that far,...I just get a little lazy sometimes. Don't know how accurate it is....but I don't want to find out either. I was getting a little nervous.

While I was out I decided to get everything I needed to make a chicken pie. I tried chicken pie a few months ago for the first time. (yes, I've been under a rock apparently) But I loved it. I just hadn't found one that quite tasted right. Well, I made this one and it was awesome. Josh was even impressed so I get gold stars for that! Even Emma (who always eats her fruit before any of her chicken) ate all of the chicken pie first and asked for more. Definitely a winner.

After dinner is when the girls, especially Ryleigh, start getting a little whiney. We sit on the floor a lot and try to play together as a family and spend time with the girls. Emma has recently gotten into rolling a ball across the living room back and forth. The simplest things make her happiest it seems. Occasionally daddy will let her play on the iPAD and she loves it. She has her own little folder with a couple of games and she threw a fit tonight when it was bed time. This little game has been great with helping her learn lots of shapes though.

1st earthquake

2011-08-23T15:12:00.003-04:00

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit in central Virginia at 1:51 this afternoon. I definitely felt it at my house and I know people from many other states did also. I know that Josh, my mom, and my sister Autumn did not feel it, but my younger sister Katie did. It was absolutely the weirdest and scariest thing I have ever felt. Emma was asleep and Ryleigh had just woken up a minute or two before it happened and was standing up in her crib. I was sitting on our bed working on some things for Emma's party. The whole house just started shaking. Our t.v. started shaking really bad so I went to try and support it so it didn't fall, and there were a few things on our bathroom counter that fell off. I was watching the girls in the monitor and Ryleigh fell over in her bed and it woke Emma up but they were fine. I was really confused at first when it started shaking. It didn't even cross my mind that it was an earthquake because this is not supposed to be happeneing in this part of the country. Really crazy......

I hope that everyone is safe.

On a different note, the coast is gearing up for Hurrican Irene that is supposed to hit this weekend. Please pray for their saftey and that it doesn't cause too much damage.

around the house

2011-08-22T22:50:00.007-04:00

Today was just a lazy day around the house. Well not so much lazy I guess, because I did do a lot of laundry and cleaning. We just stayed home all day except for a CVS run I made after dinner. My little Ryleigh hasn't been feeling too well today. I think she might just be teething though. She had her finger stuck in her mouth most of the day and she was running a tiny fever. I'm hoping she will wake up feeling a lot better in the morning. Here she is getting in a few cuddles with daddy. This is her favorite place to sit. Her and her daddy could sit there together all day long.

Emma makes me laugh ALL DAY LONG. She just has this sweet little personality that is absolutely irresistable. She has really started showing some motherly instincts lately. Every time I change Ryleigh's diaper, she wants to help. She sits next to me and helps put the diaper under her and then she helps put it on and also pull her pants back up. She is so proud of herself when she is done. She loves being helpful and I love that quality about her. I hope it never changes. Today she was taking very good care of her little frog named "Bubbles". She got several naps throughout the day and also all of her meals. I caught her feeding Bubbles dinner around 4:00 today and it was so cute. She put her in Ryleigh's seat at the table, fed her, gave her milk, and cleaned her up.

Emma has really started to like Winnie the Pooh. She asked to watch a movie this afternoon and she made herself a cozy little place to watch it.

As you all can see, I've been taking a lot of pictures with my phone lately. I don't like getting out the DSLR for just a few quick pictures around the house. It's too much of a hassle. I used to have a small digital camera but it was dropped into the ocean back on Memorial Day so it doesn't work anymore. I really really really need a new one, but it will have to wait. I found an app on my phone that I've been playing around with so even though the pictures aren't as great, I'm still glad I have tons of pics to look back on.

It's Monday....

2011-08-22T11:24:00.002-04:00

and I've got....

-a sink full of dirty sippy cups

-sheets that need washing

-clothes that need folding

-a floor that needs vaccumming

-toys that need to be picked up

-bathrooms that need cleaning

-dust everywhere!

-a house that needs to be spotless before Saturday!!

-a to-do list that is growing by the second

Oh Monday....how I loathe you!!

a whole lot of everything

2011-08-18T20:34:00.010-04:00

warning! This post will be all over the place and really long!

Funny story! Yesterday I went to the bank. I usually just make a deposit through the ATM (you can do that through Wachovia now) but I needed cash back so I went through the drive through. I was counting the money I had gotten back while on the phone with Josh and listening to Emma say "mama, mama, mama" over and over and look what I left in my seat as I drove away.....

That's right...the little container thingy-ma-jig that goes through the tube to the other side! I was so embarrassed. I was almost home at that point though but I called and told them that I had it. I returned it today all while feeling extremely embarrassed. Mommy brain for sure....

Emma had speech therapy today. She has it every Thursday for 30 minutes. She does a great job and always sits very still and does what she is told. She loves when Jessica comes and we are really excited about the progress she is making. Josh was even home to watch her session.

(which kind of distracts her a little since she isn't used to him being home during the day....but she still did fine) We got little flashcards a while back and I go through them with her everyday. She will go get them out the drawer and ask me over and over until we sit down and do it. She is very persistant, but atleast it's about learning!

I had to share with you all what our outings look like now. I know that all of you who have potty trained have been through this but I'm sorta finding it rather comical now. Emma has done a wonderful job with using the potty. She wears her panties at home with no accidents and she is wearing a pull up when we go out. She hasn't ever had an accident while we've been out so I will probably let her wear panties out soon. We have a potty in the back of the car because let's face it.....I can't always get her to a bathroom quick enough, and I'm not going to try and drag both girls in a store or gas station every time Emma says she has to potty.( those are really gross anyway) So when she says she has to go(which is usually in a store parking lot) I try to find the most discreet place to park and then let her go. The funny part is trying to find a place to dump it without everyone thinking I'm some crazy woman.

Today was the day that Josh had to be at the Wyndham. His company was sponsoring dinner for all the crew. Since he was up at 3am volunteering also, he came home around lunchtime and we got to spend a couple of hours together and he got to rest. He left about 2:30 and then me and the girls went out. We went to a few different stores. My main goal was to get the last few things I needed for Emma's party. First we went to Hobby Lobby or as Emma calls it "Hobby Hobby". It really is the cutest thing ever. While we were there I was rather sad to see that this stuff is already out!

It's only August people! Why does it get earlier and earlier every year? I LOVE Christmas don't get me wrong. It is my favorite holiday but when I see this stuff in August it makes me feel behind already.....and we haven't even gotten to Halloween yet. Give me a break! Emma has been wanting to watch her Mickey Mouse Christmas movie nonstop for the past few weeks so I've really gotten into the spirit. (i'm only 4 months early!)

After Hobby Lobby Emma said she wanted some drink. So I decided to run through McDonalds and I got her and Ryleigh a Frozen Strawberry Lemonade for them to split. I am not a strawberry fan but the girls really loved it. You would have thought I was the most awesome mom ever with the way Emma was telling me thank you over and over!

Our last two stops were Party City and Target. Those were pretty uneventful but atleast I got what I needed. I mostly feel ready for her party now. Only a couple more things I need to do but those are last minute things.

If you are still reading....you get a gold star!! :)

preperation....

2011-08-17T15:36:00.007-04:00

I am slightly overwhelmed. As I have mentioned before Emma's 3rd birthday party is in 10 days! 10 days I people!!!! I am not quite as prepared as I want to be, but I'm getting there. I know you are all probably thinking...."this is a 3 yearolds party, right?" And yes it is. But it's MY 3 year olds party!!! I have been told too many times to count that she will not remember this party and I know that. But I LOVE throwing parties and I trulybelieve that it's the little details that everyone remembers. I want Emma to look back on the pictures and be proud that her mama threw her a great party. Plus, I believe that my girls' birthdays are also a celebration for the people in their life. They have been with us and loved our little girl for the past 3 years+9months, so what better way to celebrate everyone than with a great party?! I decided a while back on a Hello Kitty inspired party for her. She really loves Hello Kitty so I knew it would be perfect. She has seen little things for her party as I've gotten them and she is so excited. As I started to plan I quickly realized that their wasn't a whole lot to choose from with Hello Kitty party stuff. So instead, I chose some colors to go with and I am throwing in some Hello Kitty here and there. I thought I would show a few sneak peeks of some little details so far.

I am currently in the middle of making some things. One of the things I am making is a personalized birthday banner. They sell for anywhere from $30-$50 or so on etsy, but I'm saving so much by doing it myself. Time consuming for sure.....but worth it. I spent an hour and 45 mintues cutting out those little flowers you see above this morning. I'm not even halfway done with it, but I like the way it's turning out so far. I have told Josh about 15 times in the last day or two that I need a Cricut!

I am so excited to pull it all together. I was looking back through some pictures of Emma over the past 3 years this morning and I got very teary eyed. I am so sad to see her get older, but I know that God has special things in store for her.

Hope you all are having a fabulous Wednesday!!

:cooler weather:

2011-08-15T17:05:00.011-04:00

We have finally gotten some cooler weather. This past weekend it started to cool off and this whole week we are supposed to be in the 80's. Still not where I want to be, but I'll take it. Our weekend was very uneventful. We didn't leave the house at all on Saturday and it was nice to just relax and hang out as a family. Yesterday we headed to Stokesdale as usual. We swam for a little bit and ate dinner. As we were getting ready to head home, some storms started rolling through. Forsyth county was under tornado warning.(we live in forsyth...my mom and dad are in guilford) So we decided to hang out until it was over. The radar didn't look good and it was better to be safe than sorry. I went ahead and gave the girls abath at moms. We ended up not leaving until about 7:40 (10 mintues past the girls bedtime) Emma was fine but I was really worried Ryleigh was going to break down at any minute. We finally got home and had them in bed by about 8:20 or so. Ryleigh didn't even move. Emma read for a little while and then went to sleep. So it's nice to know that I can push them both a little bit and still be ok.

This week is the week that Josh always looks forward to because of this.......

The Wyndham is held at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro. Josh does a lot of business with them and he always volunteers to help on the golf course for the week. His company also sponsors a dinner for all the workers, which he will be doing Thursday night. This whole week he is volunteering in the morning which means he is up at 3:30a.m. He works there and then starts his day with his own job. Last year they let him roll greens and thats what he did this morning also. It's a pretty big job and comes with A LOT of responsibility but Josh is awesome at it and he really loves it. I'm sure we will be watching plenty of the tournament this coming weekend. Here is a picture of the clubhouse at Sedgefield. It is absolutely beautiful. I hope one year Josh and I will be able to go and watch some of the tournament together.

This morning the girls and I went to Hobby Lobby. Emma's birthday party is in less than two weeks and I still have things that I need to make so I had to get a few supplies. While I was paying for everything, Emma told the cashier that she loved her and that she was beautiful. She is just the sweetest thing. After naps we headed to the grocery store and then came back home to play outside. I'm glad that we can spend more time outside since it's cooler. Come on Fall!!

Finally Friday

2011-08-12T14:31:00.002-04:00

Soooo happy it's Friday! This has seemed like a really long week for some reason. I'm glad that the weekend is here though. Today the girls and I met Katie for lunch at Longhorn. I usually try to do lunch with her every few weeks so that we have time to catch up. We see her sometimes on the weekends at moms house but it is very hectic and we don't have much time just to talk. Emma LOVES seeing Aunt Katie and she asked me the whole way to the restaurant if Katie was coming. Emma was looking really cute in her little skirt so I snapped a few pics before we left. Can you believe how cute this little girl is? I can't believe she is going to be 3 in a couple of weeks. (tears)

Here are a few pics at lunch. The last two I took with my phone so they are not great. The lighting in the restaurant was pretty much non-existant...but it works I guess.

Since the girls usually each lunch at 11 and then are in bed my 11:30 I had to push them a little bit with their naps. We got home and I had them in the bed by about 12:20 and Ryleigh finally fell asleep around 1:30. She usually will just lay down and go to sleep but I think she was a little over tired. Emma is still up and she is laying in the bed reading her Mickey Mouse book. She is getting to age where she thinks she doesn't need a nap....even though I know she still does. So this afternoon should be interesting.

Once we got home my mom came over to cut my hair. I was in desperate need of a trim and even though my mom doesn't cut hair often she did a great job. 100% of the time my hair is up anyway because its a thousand degrees outside. It was nice to have her over and chit chat for a little bit though. We talked a little bit about our beach trip in September. I can't wait to spend time down there with my whole family. I just know the girls are going to have a great time playing on the beach together and also with their nana and papa.

I can't believe Emma's party is in 2 weeks!! I have got to get on the ball. Everything is laid out and planned on paper, but I need to pull everything together. I think it's going to be a great party and I am just dying to give her her present that we have had for the past month!!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Our Weekend

2011-08-08T11:28:00.002-04:00

This past weekend was just like any other weekend. We didn't really have too much going on. Josh had to work Saturday morning (like usual) and after he got home and the girls got up from their naps, he went to the grocery store and then cam home to help me clean. Josh's parents came over that night with Sam to visit for a little bit. The girls' love when they come over.

Josh didn't have to go to work Sunday! I was so exicted because it's not too often that we get to spend the whole day with him. After the girls ate breakfast we decided to take them to the lake to feed some ducks. Emma loves going to feed them and I thought Josh would enjoy it since he hadn't ever got to go with us before. It was a lot cooler then than it had been but once we stepped outside we realized that the humidity was at 92% or so and it was sticky. Emma usually doesn't take too long to feed them so it wasn't that bad.

After the girls naps we headed to Stokesdale like usual. I love that we have a set day that we all go to my mom and dads house to visit. The Hollifields are usual there too and sometimes we get lucky and Katie is off work so she can visit with us too. We swam for most of the afternoon and then had some lasagna for dinner. I was so proud of Emma because she got out of the pool a few times and said she had to potty and she did. I am just glad that even though she was playing and in the pool she realized that she had to go. She hasn't had an accident in the past two days and we are so proud of her.

This morning has been kinda blah for me so far. I didn't sleep well last night and I've had a really hard time keeping my eyes open. But I'm really excited to get out of the house with my Ryleigh bear when Josh gets home. I'm going to get a couple of things for Emma's 3 year pictures tomorrow with Autumn. I'm so excited and I hope Emma cooperates and we get some great pictures!

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

potty break

2011-08-05T22:50:00.003-04:00

(warning: dont read if you don't want to hear all about Emma going potty) :)

We have been potty training for 4 days now and Emma is doing WONDERFUL. She has only had 4 accidents I think and they were pretty minor. She is in panties full time and she loves it. We stayed home everyday because I wanted to give her as much practice as I could. After 4 days of being couped in the house we finally got out tonight and went to dinner. I was extremely nervous about taking her out because she wasn't used to being anywhere else and I wasn't sure that she would really know what to do if she had to go. As I was getting her dressed I took off her Minnie Mouse panties and asked her to put on a pull up. You would have thought I was the meanest mommy ever. She threw a fit. She didn't understand why she couldn't wear her normal panties. But she finally agreed to wear them. (with a little bribe of jelly beans) Before we got in the car I showed her that we had a potty in the back of the car incase she needed to go. I just knew that there was no way that we were going to make it back home without an accident. We drove about 20 minutes to the restaurant and ate dinner. After dinner I told Emma that we needed to go potty before we left. As I opened the door to the bathroom, she freaked out! She started screaming and throwing a fit and didn't want to go in. I had to pick her up and carry her into a stall and pull her skirt and panties down and put her on the potty. As soon as she was up there, she calmed down and was fine. I guess she just didn't know where she was and it scared her. She has been using her small potty at home and now she was having to use a big potty. Once she sat there for a few seconds, she started peeing and was so proud. She didn't go a lot so I was worried that she wouldn't make it home......but she did. We got home and I ran with her straight to the bathroom. She didn't need to go then, but about 10 minutes later she did.

So there it is.....we made it through our first time away from home and she did great. She stayed completely dry!

I know I have talked about Emma a lot lately, but I want you all to know that Ryleigh is doing great too. She is the sweetest little thing. She found out a couple of weeks ago that she can get up on the couch by herself now and she enjoys running from one end to the other.

We don't really have anything planned this weekend. I think it is supposed to rain most of the time, but I'll try and get some pictures to post.

Hope you have a great weekend!!

Big Girl Panties

2011-08-03T14:44:00.002-04:00

The past couple of days have been BIG around our house. Over the past 9 months or so, we have tried several times to potty train Emma. She would usually throw a fit about sitting on the potty. I knew that she just wasn't ready at that time. We are slowly creeping up on her third birthday and for some reason I just really wanted her to be in panties by then. Plus, we are going to the beach in September with my family and I just knew it would be easier to have her out of diapers. Last but certainly not least, we all know how expensive diapers are and 3 years is a long time.

I am so proud to annouce that Emma is now in

BIG GIRL PANTIES!!

I think all mothers know how I feel right now. Most things come pretty easily for me as far as the girls go. I mean, I love when different changes come and they are ready for bigger things, but for some reason potty training was really really stressing me out. I guess it's because up until now she just wasn't ready and I was fighting her more than helping her.

She has done really well so far. We started yesterday morning and within a hour or two she wet two pair of panties but only a little bit. Once she started going she quickly realized that she needed to potty and so she went in the bathroom and finished. Since then she has went to the potty every time. I feel like it finally "clicked". She knows what she is supposed to be doing and she knows when she has to go. This is such a big step for her and I couldn't be more proud. In the past she had peed in the potty a few times but it was usually by accident and wasn't much. Yesterday when she starting going, the look on her face was absolutely priceless!! She loves going to the potty now and she loves picking out her own panties. She is still wearing diapers for naps and bedtime ofcourse. It will be a long time before she is out of those I think, but she woke up dry from her naps yesterday and today. I'm so glad that we don't have to buy diapers for her anymore, but I'm mostly just happy that she has entered into a new stage and is doing GREAT!!

:sisters:

2011-08-02T11:42:00.003-04:00

We have reached the ages where our girls are starting to fight. Well, I guess fight probably isn't the best word to use, but you get my drift. In the past Ryleigh has pretty much kept to herself and if Emma wanted what she was playing with, Ryleigh didn't really care and would just go do something else. Now, they are constantly fussing over everything. I have caught them both pulling on the same thing and holding on for dear life. Emma is not a bully or anything but she does give Ryleigh a little push if she doesn't give her what she wants. I really really don't like this stage. I know that they are sisters and they are going to fight....(I mean, my sisters and I are in our 20's and we still fight occassionally) but I just wish it didn't start this soon. They are still little and we are really trying to reinforce that is it polite to share and to take turns, but that's easier said than done.

I was so happy when we found out Ryleigh was a girl because I knew that meant that Emma would have a sister that would be close in age that they could do so many things together. My hope is that they will grow up being best friends and they will always have someone there for them. No matter how many friends they have growing up or how many arguments they get into, they will always be sisters and they will always have each other's back(i hope).

Hailey turns 2!

2011-08-01T11:57:00.005-04:00

Little Hailey bug turned 2 this past Friday. We were supposed to celebrate last weekend but since she was sick we pushed it back to yesterday. We swam for a little while and then had birthday cake.

Tinkerbell

Hailey blowing out her birthday candles.

Speech-Part 2

2011-07-25T20:21:00.002-04:00

I finally got back the results from Em's speech therapy evalution. She did qualify for speech therapy. I was a little shocked since the therapist originally said that she didn't think she would. But I do think it will be good for her, and it can only help. Her therapist said that she has a phonological/articulation delay due to difficulty understanding her words/sentences. In that particular area, she is about 40% behind. (you have to be atleast 30% behind to qualify) Emma does tend to say a lot of things that no one can really understand so I think the therapy will help alot with that. She used to have her sessions twice a week but now she will only have it once...on Thursdays.

Also, this has nothing to do with therapy, but I would love for all to say a little prayer for little Hailey bug. She has been sick for almost a week and spent several hours yesterday in the ER. I hope she is on the up side and will start feeling better soon. Love you little Hailey. :)

Favorites

2011-07-21T20:40:00.002-04:00

As a stay at home mom, my days are mostly the same. Same routine, same places, same everything. It gets old sometimes. Don't get me wrong.....theres nothing I'd rather be doing that spending everyday with my girls. But between the everyday things, there are times each day that I really look forward to and I wanted to take time to jot them down.

One of my favorite things during the day is when the girls get up and eat their breakfast. We aren't ones to sit at the table and eat. Mostly because I don't really eat breakfast often and the girls aren't big breakfast eaters either. They are generally happy with their milk and some dry cereal...or sometimes Emma requests a fruit pop tart. Emma usually wants corn pops and Ryleigh LOVES cheerios. Once we get the bowls of cereal I sit on the couch and Emma sits beside me and Ryleigh sits on my lap and we watch Mickey Mouse while they eat. It's one of my favorite times because believe it or not, I actually miss them when they go to bed and I'm so happy to spend some quality time with them as soon as they wake up.

My next favorite part is when Ryleigh wakes up from her nap. 99% of the time she wakes up before Emma and I go get her from her crib and bring her to my room. We will sit on the bed and read a book. We have a special first words book that I keep in my room and she is always so happy to see it. I love spending this quality time with her because since I am home all day with both of them, it's very rare that I get one on one time.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE bed time. No, not because they finally have to go to sleep. Josh and I take turns putting the girls to bed so that neither of them get use to just one person. Ryleigh usually isn't up for reading books or anything, she likes to just get in her bed, but Emma on the other hand LOVES to read books. So now that she has a big girl bed we lay down together and she snuggles up to me and we read a story. Once the story is over I say I love you and she says it back and then I say Goodnight and she says "Good night mama". MELT. MY. HEART. She is just the sweetest little girl.

So, these are just a few of my favorite times. With two special little girls, I have many of them though. I am truly a blessed mama.

Breast Cancer Fundraiser

2011-07-18T12:30:00.002-04:00

*scroll down to see our pics from our morning with the ducks :)

This past Saturday we had our big Susan G. Komen breast cancer fundraiser. The main goal was to raise money for Autumn and Katie to go walk in the 3 day walk in September. My mom and dad did a great job planning this event and it turned out great. We didn't have as many people as we expected but we raised a lot of money for the foundation. About two weeks ago my dad decided that he was going to build 4 cornhole sets and have a tournament at the fundraiser. He worked so hard to get them built and painted and it turned out to be the best thing we could have done. Everyone loved to watch and he had several teams play. That is where most of the people were hanging out. He did a pretty awesome job building them too. I forgot my big camera but I took some pictures on my phone but for some reason or another I'm having a hard time getting them off. We all really appreciate everyone who helped us and everyone who gave their support. We couldn't have asked for anything more.

Ducks!

2011-07-18T11:54:00.012-04:00

This morning I took the girls to lake that is near our house to feed some ducks. I think there were more geese than anything though. There is a big dock that we walked out on and the girls had the best time. Emma kept saying "more bread mama". She was so disappointed when we ran out. Since I was by myself I took Ryleigh in the stroller because I was afraid she might fall through the railing if I wasn't constantly watching her and I wanted to be able to help Emma and take pictures. At the end I got Ryleigh out and let her walk around. I gave her a piece of bread and helped her throw it in the water but then when I gave her the next piece she looked at me like "mom, why are we throwing perfectly good food in the water".....and then she shoved it in her mouth. I hope Josh can go back with us soon so we can spend a little more time there. Emma has been asking all day to go back and feed the ducks.

Speech Therapy

2011-07-15T11:32:00.003-04:00

As most of you know, Emma started speech therapy when she was pretty young. She was I think about 20 months old or so. She did really well working with her therapist but a couple of months before we moved we had to pull her out because of some scheduling issues.(theirs not ours) We decided to wait until we moved to get her into another program, especially since we would be moving into another county and wasn't sure what services were available. We finally found a private company that would come to our house. Katie, her therapist, came this morning to do Emma's evaluation to determine if she needed it. I won't get the exact numbers until Monday but she said that she doesn't think Emma needs it. She said according to the answers that Emma was giving her, she believes that Emma is back to where she should be for her age. Emma has certain words that she doesn't pronouce well and some that don't make sense....but what kid her age doesn't? I kind of had a feeling to begin with that she might not qualify but that is a good thing. It means that she is just an average (almost) 3 year old now. We will still have to wait and see what her exact numbers are though. Her vocabulary has really taken off the past couple of months and I can tell that she is really starting to learn so many things. I'm so excited to see her continue to thrive.

hot...hot....hot

2011-07-14T12:23:00.002-04:00

Today it has finally cooled off a little bit but the past few days have been awful. They've been around 100 and the girls and I have stayed inside in the AC. I can not wait until the fall. Summer can be fun but when it's so hot that you can't hardly stay outside long enough to do anything, it gets miserable.

This weekend is the big fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen walk that Autumn and Katie will be doing in September. My mom and dad have done a great job planning this and I hope that we will raise lots of money for the foundation. There will be a hotdog supper and also a cornhole tournament. My dad has handmade 4 cornhole sets and from what my mom says, he has really out done himself. I can't wait to see them.

I have been itching to go to the beach lately. We didn't get to go last weekend because the weather was going to be horrible. Every spring I always say that we are going to go to the beach more during the summer but things always seem to come up. I think we might be going next weekend though so I'm pretty excited about that. Then we have out big family beach trip in September that I can't wait for!!!! It's going to be the Joyners', Newnams', & Hollifields' playing out on the beach every day!! We all haven't been together in so long and I know that the girls are going to have a great time with everyone there.

I am still in the middle of planning Emma's birthday party. I just ordered her invitations the other day and I can't wait to see them. They are too cute. Josh and I have a great birthday present planned for her and I can't wait to see her face when she gets it.

For years now I have heard people talk about how awesome the show BIG BROTHER is. Well, I decided that since I didn't have a whole lot of shows to watch right now that I would see what it was all about. I have watched the first 3 episodes and so far, I don't really get it. But I'm gonna continue to watch and hope that it gets better.

This weekend is going to be busy and I hope that the fundraiser goes well.

Phone Pics

2011-07-11T19:58:00.011-04:00

I currently have 1,087 pictures on my phone!! Thats just crazy. But I take pictures with my phone all the time. I always have it with me and most of the time I am able to capture what goes on during the day and not so much what I "plan" to take pictures of. It doesn't take the greatest pictures but I love looking back through them and I'm glad that I have them. I wanted to post some that I've taken recently.

Waiting to eat dinner!

I love this picture of sweet Ryleigh.

We moved Emma out of her toddler bed into a full size bed this past weekend. She outgrew her toddler bed a long time ago and I'm glad she has more room now. Here she is showing off her big girl bed.

Emma coloring a picture in her Hello Kitty book.

We took this picture tonight to send to her daddy since he is out of town. He loves getting pictures when he is away.

Ryleigh does a great job of eating with her fork.

My sweet Ry bear sleeping.

This one is Ryleigh watching the Backyardigans with daddy. Usually she gets up from her nap first and I will bring her back to our room to watch a little cartoons until Emma gets up. She is a Backyardigan fanatic and does not like for you to get in her way. Her face is so serious when she watches it.

I just took this picture about 15 minutes ago. After I put the girls to bed I noticed that Emma had "set" the table. She does this often and I think its so sweet.

4th of July & birthday celebrations

2011-07-05T11:52:00.006-04:00

This past weekend was so much fun. I love having 3 day weekends to spend with family. Saturday we stayed at home all day except for Josh going to work at IronPlay and to the grocery store. Sunday morning I spent making two birthday cakes. We always celebrate my dad and Autumn's birthday along with our 4th of July cookout and they both like different cakes so they deserved to have what they wanted. After the girls nap we headed to my mom and dads and swam all afternoon. We had hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner and then of course, we had some cake!

Yesterday was my dads birthday. He turned 49 years old. We didn't really have any plans so we headed back up to Stokesdale to spend the day with him and swim some more. The Hollifields and Katie came so it was like a party all over again. Today is Autumn's birthday so I want to wish her a Happy Birthday too! I am so glad that this is a short week. We only have two days at home and then Thursday we are headed to Oak Island. I'm so excited to go back to the beach. I can't wait to stick my toes in the sand. (these next pictures were taken my Autumn so they are a little smaller since I don't have the big files)

Friday!!

2011-07-01T11:49:00.010-04:00

I am so glad it's Friday. This week has not been a great week and I'm thankful that it's almost over and then we get to enjoy a 3 day weekend. My little Ryleigh bear is currently cutting about 5 teeth and all this week she has been whiny and mostly just fussing every day. She didn't get any teeth for a while so I knew she was going to get a bunch at once. I have been giving her Tylenol and once that kicks in she is good for an hour or two, but then the screaming starts again. I'm hoping that they will all come through sooner rather than later and this weekend will be enjoyable.

This morning the girls and I headed out to Party City. I had to get out of the house and the girls are always so happy riding in the car and looking around stores. We went to check out what kind of Hello Kitty supplies that had. I'm still trying to plan Emma's party and I just wanted to see what they had so I knew what colors to work with. A week or so ago I got Emma a Hello Kitty nightgown at Target. They had it on the clearance rack and she was dying to have it. Ever since the first time I put it on her, she hasn't wanted to take it off. In the morning when I take it off, she hides it under her pillow and then wants to put it back on at nap time. It's the cutest thing ever. I know she's going to LOVE her Hello Kitty party. (this pic was taken with my phone....so not the greatest)

I have been so slack lately with blogging but truth is, most days are about the same. We play outside in the morning most of the time, eat lunch, naps, play inside, eat dinner, then sometimes we go back outside to play after dinner or do baths. Same old thing. Not much to really document but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things and start blogging a lot more.

Josh's grandmother has been in the hospital this week. She had knee surgery a couple of days ago and Josh's parents have been taking care of her and visiting alot so they haven't seen the girls in a couple of weeks. I know they are really missing them so I wanted to give them a few pictures of the girls. Of course there are more pics of Emma because Ryleigh has not been in a good mood and wasn't really wanting the camera in her face. My girls are just the cutest little girls ever!

Catch Up

2011-06-27T12:13:00.002-04:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged in a week, but nothing big has really been happening. Just the say old day to day stuff. I can't believe June is almost over. However, I'm glad summer is going by quickly. I hate the heat and I'm ready for some cool fall days. But we still have to get through July and August.

I have decided to start couponing. I have been thinking about doing it for a long time but just never got the motivation to do it and now I can't figure out why I didn't start sooner. I got my binder and I've been clipping tons of coupons on Sundays and so far I've only made a few shopping trips but I'm happy with the savings that I'm seeing. I still have a lot to learn but so far, it's really helping. I will by no means be an "extreme couponer". I will NOT stockpile tons of supplies and food just because it's on sale. But I love finding good deals now and getting enough that will last so that I won't have to pay full price.

I also completed a project that I have been wanting to do. I bought some chalkboard paint and painted a large picture frame that I wasn't using. We hung it in the kitchen to write Bible verses on. My hope is that it will be a reminder to all of us but also to teach Emma some verses as she gets older.

The girls are still as cute, stubborn, fun, strong willed as usual. Josh and I were just talking the other day about how Emma has just started talking so much and really having conversations with us. We are in the process of getting her into private speech therapy since we moved and I'm hoping that it will help her even more. I think the main are she is struggling in is forming sentences. Instead of saying "Mommy, can I have a snack?", she says "mama, snack time". She still gets her point across just not in true sentence form.

Ryleigh is growing up so fast. She is really starting to look like a little girl, and not my baby. She has her own little personality and mostly keeps to herself. She is still my little sidekick and I am probably her favorite person. She is still doing wonderful with putting herself to sleep. The girls both go to bed at 7:30 and get up around 7am. They also nap from 11:30-1:30. They will both go to sleep on their own and I can't even remember the last time I really had to get up in the middle of the night. As they get older I can't help but think that we don't have babies anymore.

This weekend is July 4th aka my dad's birthday. Autumns birthday is on the 5th so we will be celebrating x3 this weekend. We always have a big cookout and I'm looking forward to seeing all the family.

Emma turns 3 in two months and 3 days. The past several months I thought I was going to do a Minnie Mouse party. Emma loves Minnie Mouse so I knew it would be perfect. After I got the party planned out, Emma informed me that she wanted a Hello Kitty party. She is BIG into Hello Kitty now, so I have switched gears and am now starting to plan again. I am really looking forward to it.

I think that has us all caught up. Hope you all have a great Monday.

Father's Day

2011-06-20T11:35:00.008-04:00

Would you believe that this past weekend was Father's Day and I didn't take one picture of Josh?! Where is my head lately?? It was just a busy weekend and I wasn't thinking. Saturday after the girls got up from their naps we had to go grocery shopping because Josh's parents and his brother Sam came over for dinner. Josh grilled some brats and hamburgers. They were soooo good and it was great to visit with everyone. The girls love with they come over. They completely forget about mommy and daddy and enjoy playing with "new" people. Sunday morning me and the girls took Josh out for breakfast at Tex &Shirleys. Josh picked the place of course. It was really good and we haven't been able to do that in a long time. After the girls nap we headed up to Stokesdale to spend time with my family. When we got there we had planned on swimming but it was getting windy and the radar said there was a lot of rain coming. So we decided to play outside a little bit instead. But around 4:30 or so the sun came out and so the girls, Autumn, William, mom, and dad decided to swim for a little bit before dinner. Ryleigh stayed inside playing with Josh. I think he was perfectly happy because he got to watch the US Open. (his perfect Father's day) :) After dinner we headed home and barely got the girls in bed in time. For Father's Day the girls and I put together a picture frame to hang in his office. I forgot to take a picture of it though. I got a picture frame from Target that had a white frame and a white mat and held an 8x10 picture. I used washable paint and put the girls footprints on the mat and then I picked out pictures to put inside. I wanted to make a collage and I'm so glad that Autumn could do that for me. It would have taken me all day to get it right. So I picked out 3 pictures of Emma and 3 of Ryleigh. It turned out really good and I loved it. Josh did too. He is so excited to hang it. We had a great day and I was so glad to spend this weekend with the Father's that mean the most to us.

::burned fingers&a monkey on the bed::

2011-06-15T16:11:00.005-04:00

Sunday night while we were at my mom and dads house we were cooking dinner and Emma came up to my mom and said her fingers hurt. We looked at them (thinking that she had smashed one or something) but they seemed ok. Later on that night my mom was moving them around and Emma never complained that they hurt so I didn't think much of it. The next day she had blisters. She had burned herself on something but I wasn't even thinking that it was something at moms house. I assumed it was at home and I went around everywhere trying to figure out where she had burned them. Last night I noticed the blisters were getting bigger so I decided to call the doctor. I mainly wanted to know what I should do to treat them and also what happens when the blister pops. I had never dealt with this before on a 2 year old so I just wanted to get her checked out. I took her to the doctor this afternoon and Dr. Lowe said she had 2nd degree burns and that we should keep a close eye on them. Normally she would dress them in guaze but with Emma only being 2, she wouldn't leave them on anyway. We still don't know what she burned herself on. We were standing at the stove the whole time and Emma never screamed or cried or anything. Dr. Lowe said she could have very easily touched a piece of metal outside and since its been soooo hot, that could have done it. I guess we may never know. But they don't seem to really bother her. I just hope they heal quickly.

A couple of weeks ago Ryleigh started climbing up on Emma's bed to play. I found her sitting on it one day playing and was surprised that she could get up there with her short little legs. It has become her favorite spot and she will stay there a while and play by herself.

Climbing up....

Almost there.....

Finally!!

She will run from one end to the other and also check out all the scews. Most of the time she puts a ton of toys on the bed and just sits. It won't be long before she will be in a big girl bed!

silly girls

2011-06-13T11:38:00.010-04:00

TGIF!

2011-06-10T11:25:00.002-04:00

As a stay at home mom I really really look forward to the weekend. I absolutely LOVE staying at home with my girls but sometimes gets overwhelming to me especially since its summer now. By 9:00 its already 85 degrees outside and its hard to stay outside for any length of time. My little Ryleigh has some allergy issues and can't stay outside a long time anyway without getting all red and puffy. So I am constantly trying to find new things to do with them but finding fun cheap things to do inside are few and far between. So I feel like we do the same thing every single day and it seems like the days just creep by slowly. So by the time the weekend gets here, I start getting really excited. Even if we don't do anything that particular weekend, it means that Josh will be around and atleast I have someone over 2 years old to talk to. Makes the day go by a lot faster. I really enjoy being able to spend time as a family. It seems as though by the time Josh gets home from work during the week, its time to fix dinner, clean up, give baths, and then bed. But even if we do just stay home all day, I love being able to spend everyday with my girls. I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to Fall though.

Sweet Summertime

2011-06-06T12:05:00.005-04:00

We had a a great weekend. Saturday we went to my mom and dads house. We usually go on Sundays but Autumn and William were out of town this weekend and my mom and dad were keeping Chey and Hailey. So we just went Saturday so that the girls could play together and so we could help with the girls. We had a great time but it's difficult keeping up with all 4 girls and keeping them happy. Ryleigh is starting to like the pool and Emma LOVES it. She puts on her swimmies and swims around like a little fish. Josh worked on Sunday morning and after the girls naps we made a trip to Sams Club and Lowes. After dinner Josh mowed the yard while me and the girls played outside. After Josh got done with the yard I stripped the girls down to their diapers and let them enjoy their first snowcones of the summer.

emma::ryleigh

2011-06-02T11:44:00.011-04:00

Here are some pictures that Josh and I took on the beach this past weekend. We took them down at the Point.(where Josh and I were supposed to get married...but it rained) It was so close to bed time but I think we got some good ones. I hope we can get some good family pictures when my whole family goes to the beach in September. I am by no means a great photographer or editor, Josh will edit them better than me I'm sure, but I couldn't wait to show you. Enjoy!

oak.island

2011-05-31T11:39:00.022-04:00

This past weekend we went to Oak Island. We went with Josh's mom and dad, and his brother Sam, and Lyndsey. We left around lunch time Thursday and we got there around 4:30 or so. My plan was for the girls to nap on the way there. Well, Emma didn't nap at all, and Ryleigh napped 15 minutes. But they both were wonderful and happy the whole way. We loved being there with family and spending time with everyone, but my little Ryleigh bear fussed and whined the WHOLE weekend. She was never happy. She almost acted like she didn't feel well, but I don't think anything was wrong with her. I think just being in a different place, with not a lot for her to do, and a lot of people maybe overwhemed her. I really don't know what her problem was. We couldn't really do anything there because Ryleigh would usually fuss. She is not usually so fussy and now that we are home she is fine, so maybe next time will be better.We did have a few fun times, but lets just say, I was more than happy to come home.

Between getting unpacked, eating dinner, and setting up the crib, we didn't have time to really do too much Thursday night. Friday morning we made a quick trip to Wal-Mart to get a few things. Josh and I ended up getting Emma a little fishing pole. She played with it ALL.WEEKEND!!! I am so mad at myself because I just realized that I didn't even get a picture of her with it. She liked to go fishing off the back deck and even in the house. After I put the girls down for their nap Josh and I went on a little lunch date while Josh's parents stayed with the girls. We went to Provisions. They have the best cheeseburgers ever. I hadn't been in a year and a half so it was long overdue. It was so nice to go to lunch with just Josh and enjoy sitting by the water.

Friday afternoon we let the girls go swimming in the little pool that we keep down there. Emma loved playing in the water. Ryleigh wasn't a big fan of it.

Saturday we went back to Walmart because we needed a few things for Ryleigh. But we didn't really do too much else that day except play. Some family friends came over that night for dinner and we enjoyed visiting with them.

Sunday morning I took the girls to the pier and then we took the girls out on the beach to play.

Emma LOVED playing on the beach. Ryleigh liked it at first but then she got tired of it very quickly. While we were out on the beach, Josh took the DSLR but I also wanted to take my small digital camera because it does video. Well, when Josh was washing Emma off in the ocean the

camera fell out of his pocket and is now ruined. :( However, we were able to get all of our images and videos off the memory card so I was happy about that.

Sunday afternoon we took the girls to the waterway in Southport and then to Leaky Tiki for ice cream. Then Sunday night after dinner we went back out to the beach to take pictures of the girls. I will post those in the next couple of days when we can edit them. They turned out great and I can't wait to show you. Overall, we had fun, but we are really glad to be home.

A Survivor

2011-05-27T18:51:00.000-04:00

I want to take a few moments to talk about my mom. I haven't talked about this on my blog before because I didn't want to say anything that my mom didn't want anyone to know. But I think everyone knows now. The end of last year my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. I can't even begin to tell you what it's like to hear your mom tell you that. I cried for days and couldn't believe this was happening to her. She seemed so clam and so positive though. (Even though she may have been terrified inside, she never let it show) She started chemo in January and once that was done she started radiation. I'm so happy to say that TODAY was her last day of radiation. She is officially DONE!!!! Praise God. My mom has remained positive and she has soldiered through this with such strength and poise. I have never been more proud of my mom as I am right now. I have seen her in a whole new light and it makes me appreciate her so much more. I can never thank God enough for given her the strength to get through this. I know there were probably days that she was down and maybe felt a little defeated but she turned to the Lord and he never let her down.

Mom, I am so proud to be your daughter and in my eyes, you are strongest woman I know. I love you with all my heart and I'm so glad that you are now a SURVIVOR!!

naps:list:packing

2011-05-25T11:36:00.005-04:00

I've been busy this morning getting everyone packed up. We are leaving for the beach tomorrow and there is so much to do before we go. Two little girls require a lot for five days. We had to run to Target this morning to stock up on some diapers and wipes to take with us. My mom always makes fun of me because I'm a "list" person. I make a list for everything and I like having everything that I need put down on paper. I always start packing atleast a week or so before we leave because I like to add things to bags as I think of them,and that way I don't forget anything. I can't believe that I am just now packing the day before we are leaving. I made this list last minute(I know, I was a little late this time) but atleast I have everything written down that the girls need.(all these pics are with my phone....not great)

I have to have everything done tonight because Ryleigh has an appointment at 10 and then we are coming home to eat lunch and then leaving. We are hoping the girls will nap good on the way down there and that way when we get there, they will be ready to play.

We are ready for a much needed vacation. I'm looking forward to taking the girls out on the beach. Ryleigh has never been on the beach before so I can't wait to see what she thinks of it. The last time we went, she was about 2 months old and she stayed inside while we took Emma. I'm glad she's walking though. It makes things a lot easier.

And just for fun, here are a couple pics of the girls napping. Emma has to have so many things to sleep with now. It seems as though she adds something daily that she wants to nap with.

Our Weekend

2011-05-23T11:35:00.010-04:00

*Get ready...this is a long one!

This past weekend kicked my butt!!! I woke up this morning so sore and tired. Josh has been searching craigslist for a while now looking for a used playset that we could fix up for our girls. They are few and far between and you have to catch them as soon as they are posted or they get taken. Well over the course of three days, we found 3 different ones. They all stated they were in "great" condition and we thought they would work out great. Well after a trip to Raleigh, Charlotte, and north Fayetteville we quickly discovered that other people's definition of "great" was our definition of "needs a lot of work, and definitely not worth the price they were asking". I was getting very discouraged and figured that if we just kept looking surely one would pop up. Well, Friday night after we got back from Raleigh we were searching online and found one at Toys R Us on clearance that would be perfect. So Saturday morning we went and got it.We had Katie's birthday party on Sunday so Josh didn't have much time to put it up. He did it all by himself in 10 hours. He did awesome. He worked very hard and I am so proud of him because it was about 90 degrees while he was working on it. The finished product turned out wonderful and Emma is soooooo excited that she can now go out in the back yard and swing. (pictures further down) Emma spent the first 2 1/2 years of her life not being able to step out her back door and play so it is so wonderful that we can just go play whenever we want now.

So as Josh was busy putting up the playset Saturday, I spent the morning making things to take to Williams surprise party that afternoon. We headed to Autumn's house around 2:30 and William showed up around 4:00 and was surprised with all his friends and family. It was sooo hot outside and I had a tough time keeping the girls cool and hydrated but they had fun. Autumn got a band(well there was two guys...I guess that's still a band though?) to come play, and they were really good. After the party we came home, got the girls in the bed and continued working on the playset until after dark. I will wait until Autumn can post her pictures before I show you the party.

Sunday morning Josh finished up the playset in about 5 hours and I cleaned and got ready for Katie's birthday party that I had at my house. Today is Katie's 20th birthday!!! SO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!! Katie's party was zebra themed with a touch of pink. We played outside on the playset and played cornhole. We grilled brats and hotdogs for dinner and had chips and watermelon. I hope Katie had a good time at her party.

Here is our new playset!

After everyone left Josh and I got the girls a bath and put them to bed. Then we both crashed in the bed and watched the Billboard Awards. We are both exhausted. This morning I have been catching up on laundry and playing with my girls. After their naps, I think I'm going to take them to the Kernersville Library for the first time so we can get a card and they can pick out some books.

We are leaving for the beach Thursday around lunch time so this week is going to be busy making lists and getting everyone packed!

Hope you all have a great MONDAY!!

little funnies

2011-05-17T12:19:00.000-04:00

I have been meaning to blog about the little funny things that Ryleigh and Emma are doing and saying. I love having this blog to look back on and I just want to make sure to remember every little thing.

Emma:
-She is very into "boo boo" these days. Anytime she hurts herself she wants a band aid. She always says "look mama, boo boo". She has even started requesting band aids even though she's not hurt.

-If Ryleigh takes something that she had or that she wants, she says "come back here Ry bear".

-Lately when Emma gets popped because she has done something wrong, she says (in the most pitiful voice ever) "hurt me mama, mama hurt". She always has these big tears rolling down her cheeks and it breaks my hurt.

-She is in love with jelly beans, but she calls them "jet bean".

-We were outside the other day and a man and his son rode by on their bikes and Emma pointed and yelled as loudly as she could "Look mama, bicycle". She kept screaming it over and over. The man laughed and waved at her.

-She has a loud voice that she constantly speaks in. She doesn't know what it means it talk normal or quiet. So she is always yelling "mama,mama,mama", or "daddy, daddy, daddy" until you answer her.

-Emma gets a flintstone vitamin every night and she calls it a "min".

-She calls my mom "ana" instead of nana.

Ryleigh:

-When Ryleigh gets mad or upset she will stand up but put her head on the floor. Kind of like she is getting ready to flip over, but she will stay like that until she calms down.

-She loves to give kisses, except right now its still the open mouthed kiss. But still cute as can be.

-She wakes up some mornings and immediately puts her fingers in her ears. She will walk around like that for a while.

-Sometimes when she watched the Backyardigans(which is her favorite) she will lay on her side on the floor for the whole episode. It's almost like shes too lazy to sit there.

-She often walks around with her hands swaying in the air. Josh calls her a little gorilla.

There are so many more things, but I'm just going to have to add them as I think of them.

Catching Up

2011-05-17T11:45:00.002-04:00

I haven't blogged in almost a week, mostly because there hasn't been much going on. I (sadly) haven't even taken out my camera either. But things are about to get busy around here, so it's nice not to have much to do. We've been having several rain showers and thunderstorms lately. It poured here most of the morning. This past weekend we went to Lowe's and picked out some flowers to plant. We got some petunias. They were pretty and cheap. :) I'm hoping they will spread out and look really pretty in our flower bed and around our mailbox. Josh put out grass seed a little over a week ago, so it should start growing in too and make our yard pretty and green. I am hosting a birthday party for Katie on Sunday so I'm hoping the yard and my flowers will look beautiful for all our guests. We'll just have to wait and see.

Emma and Ryleigh are doing great. Growing like weeds of course. Emma got her first pair of real flip flops last week and insist on wearing them everywhere. The first time she wore them they came off her feet every 15 seconds but now she walks in them great. They are so cute too. She will come in the door and kick them off just like her mama.

Ryleigh has been sleeping through the night for a while now. She rarely gets up anymore, and if she does, I usually just lay her back down and cover her up and she goes back to sleep. But the other night we put them both to bed around 7:30 (like usual) and Ryleigh was back up at 9:00 running around her bed, banging on the wall, and she even managed to take her pants off. She stayed up until 1:00 playing in her crib. I finally got her to sleep, but she was up at 4 and then up for the day at 6:10. I don't know what got into her, but she has slept good ever since.

We have a really busy weekend ahead, so I have to get everything done for Katie's party this week. I still have several things to get, including the food, so I better get busy. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of the kiddos soon. (that's the only reason you come to the blog right?) :)

strawberry pickin'

2011-05-11T13:05:00.009-04:00

This morning me and the girls met my mom and my nanny at R & M Strawberry Farm in Kernersville. I am not a fan of strawberries but Josh and the girls love them so I know they won't last long around here. I haven't take the girls strawberry pickin' before because last year Ryleigh was just a baby and Emma was still a little too small. But Emma absolutely LOVED it. She wanted to carry the bucket and pick her own. Once she figured out she could eat some, she loved it even more. Ryleigh just kind of walked around trying to find ones that she could eat. We really loved spending time with my nanny...who Emma calls "gammy". After we left the strawberry farm we went to eat lunch at Cagney's. I hadn't been before but my mom and nanny had. I had a meatball sub and it was pretty good. The girls really enjoyed spending the morning with their nana and "gammy". I have a feeling we will be going back once we run out of these strawberries. My pictures didn't turn out great. :( I used my small digital camera so I wouldn't have to juggle the big DSLR and the girls. But I still think they are cute.

::little fishies::

2011-05-09T23:58:00.001-04:00

Our Weekend

2011-05-09T12:19:00.009-04:00

This past weekend wore me out. It was really busy but fun. I enjoyed being with all our family and celebrating. Saturday morning I had a yard sale at my mom and dads house. Autumn and I had one about a month ago but it got rained out so we decided to do another one. I got up around 5:30 Saturday morning and didn't go to bed until about 11 that night. I was exhausted. We had Josh's parents and his brother Sam over for dinner that night. Sam fixed some ribs and we also had grilled chicken and baked potatoes. I meant to take pictures but got too busy and I forgot. But here are a few of the girls that I took before they came over.

Sunday afternoon after the girls got up from their naps we headed to Stokesdale. I picked up moms mothers day gift that we all got her on Friday and Josh and I put it together Saturday night. We took it with us on Sunday and sat it out in the yard so we could all surprise her. She saw this in Lowes one day and daddy said she loved it, so we knew it would be perfect.

We left my parents around 5 or so and all headed up to my Grandma Lucie's house for a cookout. Of course I didn't get any pictures because we were all running around chasing the girls and trying to get them fed. We left there and came home to get the girls a bath. They both slept awesome last night. They must have been exhausted. After the girls went to bed Josh and I went outside to do a little work. It's nice that we can wait until after the girls go to bed when it's cooler. Josh put out some grass seed and fertilizer so I'm hoping it will make the yard look a little better.

We really had a great weekend but I'm glad to get back to our routine and rest a little. Josh went out of town this morning so it's just me and my girls tonight. I filled up the pool a little while ago so that the water can warm up a little. I'm gonna let them swim for a bit when they get up then we might get some dinner. I love spending time with just my babies

royal wedding & lunch date

2011-04-29T12:47:00.004-04:00

So who watched the Royal Wedding?? I did!! I planned on DVRing but since Ryleigh decided that she wasn't going to sleep very well, I was up at 4am watching it. I watched the whole 5 hours and I was so excited to see Will and Kate get married. I usually don't really get into that kind of thing too much but this is something that I will always remember seeing. I can't believe how big this wedding was, but it was beautiful.

Today me and the girls picked up my nanny and met Katie for lunch. It was so nice for us girls to get together and spend some quality time with my nanny. I don't see her as often as I like so it was nice to have lunch with her. We went to Ruby Tuesday and it was so good. Emma and Ryleigh did wonderful. They always do so great in restaurants which I'm very thankful for. My nanny also made me a blanket that is absolutely beautiful. I love being able to keep something that she has made and hope to pass it down to Emma or Ryleigh one day.
We got home a little late and I just put them down for their naps. I love naptime. It's so nice to have a little break everyday. Being a stay at home mom is tiring but it's also the best "job" ever.

our easter (just a little bit late)

2011-04-26T11:54:00.006-04:00

I have been waiting to post my Easter pictures because I had a little problem with my computer and pictures. I took pictures Easter morning and then took them off my memory card so that it would be empty for when we went to my mom and dads house.We had a big easter egg hunt and also let the girls play in the sprinkler. Josh took about 200 pictures (he had some really CUTE ones too) and yesterday when I went to put the pictures on my laptop, something happened and it said it was reformatting and I lost all of my pictures off my memory card. I was soooo angry. So I'm waiting to see if Autumn got any of my girls so I can show you.

After the girls woke up we let them see their Easter baskets. They both got a couple of little things. Ever since Emma saw Cheyenne's little camera and fell in love with it, I knew I had to get her one. I've had this hid for several months now and I was so excited for her to get it. She hasn't let it out of her sight ever since. She puts it up to her face and says "CHEEEEEEEESE!" It's a really cool little digital camera for toddlers and someday I will get the pictures off and show you what she has taken pictures of. Ryleigh got a Little People Beach Cruiser car with some blocks in it and also a little book, although, she would have been just as happy with the plastic eggs. She played with eggs most of the morning.

After the girls got up from their nap, we went to my mom and dads. We let the girls find Easter eggs and then Autumn brought a sprinkler and we let Emma, Chey, and Hailey play in it. They had so much fun and I just wish I had some pictures. My nanny also came and had dinner with us. It was so great to spend some time with her. My mom also got a really cute bunny cake from Baskin Robbins to have after dinner. It was a great day and I loved spending time with my family.

Easter Eggs

2011-04-22T21:57:00.007-04:00

This afternoon I dyed some Easter eggs with Emma. This was the first year that she has gotten to help and do some things herself. She loved putting the eggs into the color but her favorite part was when I let her put stickers on the eggs.

28

2011-04-20T20:11:00.009-04:00

Today is my sweet husband's 28th Birthday. He worked until about 2 today and then came home to do a few things before his parents come over for dinner. When we found out we were moving to a house Josh was so excited that we would finally be able to have a grill. What man doesn't like to grill? So Josh's parents got him one for his birthday and he put it together today and he grilled chicken for dinner. We also had potato casserole and salad. Instead of birthday cake, Josh requested that we have homemade ice cream pie with chocolate sauce. It is his grandmother's recipe and I have only made it a few times. It takes all day to make because you keep having to freeze different layers, but it was totally worth it. It turned out really good and I'm happy Josh liked it. Emma wanted an ice cream cone instead so I fixed one for her and Ryleigh and they got to play outside with Josh's parents.

To my wonderful husband- I love you so much. I am so blessed to have such an amazing man by my side. Happy Birthday. I look forward to the many more birthdays we share together.

-backyard fun-

2011-04-19T20:16:00.011-04:00