The Living Room Renovation Continues....

We decided it was time to put that old wood-burning heater to rest (thank God), and give our living room a more updated look. This is the before picture after the heater was removed.

AND....this is the after! Wayne and his Dad built the tv cabinet and mantle, and Wayne and Brad did the tile work. I couldn't be happier with it! They did an amazing job. Wayne also painted the living room, and we got new furniture. Now, all we have left is putting up the crown mold and base, finding new curtains, getting new outside doors and a flat-screen tv. Phew! That's still a lot of work, but it's coming together. I can't wait to see the finished product!

We decided the easiest ( and most cost-effective) way to remodel our house is to take one room at a time. Therefore, our house may remain a mess for the next few years...lol.

4th of July Fun With Our Cousins

After lunch on the 4th, Makenzie and Presley got to show off their new puppies. The girls love spending time with their cousins!

All four girls in a picture, and nobody's crying! This is a MAJOR accomplishment!

Fun with Puppies

Apparently, Makenzie asked Wayne if she could have a puppy so Wayne took matters into his own hands (without talking to Mommy), and bred Lexie so the girls would have puppies to play with. Needless to say, we now have nine puppies to find homes for. However, the girls have really enjoyed playing with them!

I love the pictures below. Presley's puppy had fallen asleep on her lap, and she was afraid someone would wake it up. Everytime one of us would say something, she'd put her finger up to her lips and say, "Shhhh!!! He's sweeping!" It was sooo cute!

You can tell by the look on her face in this one that we were in trouble for being too loud!

Makenzie and Presley are both afraid of dogs for some reason so I was surprised to hear that they had asked for puppies. Anyway, it was a huge step for Makenzie to even hold a puppy. She was terrified until she realized it was just going to lay on her lap and sleep. She's been all smiles since!

Swimming at Memaw and Pappy's House

Hillary, Makenzie, and Presley in the hammock at Memaw and Pappy's house...

They were just a singing while they were swinging.
Playing in the swimming pool... Presley decided to take her swimsuit off for some reason.

Laying out after swimming...they were so cute. This lasted all of two minutes..lol.

There's nothing like enjoying your summer, and that's exactly what we've been doing! Good times and good friends are the best!

Mini Vacation in Memphis

We loaded up and headed to Memphis for the weekend with Angie, Bryan, and Addison! First stop, the zoo! The girls had a blast even though it was hot and miserable. Angie and I both forgot our cameras in the car so we didn't get any pictures...I know...terrible, right? I don't know that we would have gotten a lot of pictures anyway because they were so excited and wanted to see EVERYTHING. By the time we left that afternoon, they were exhausted. Presley fell asleep before we even had her buckled into her carseat all the way, and Makenzie fell asleep on the way to the hotel. The Memphis Zoo is great! If you haven't been, you should definitely make a trip!

We stayed downtown at the Doubletree Inn. The girls loved watching the elevators go up and down in the lobby...lol. After eating at Rendezvous for dinner, the girls got to swim at the hotel until ten that night. Yep, they were REALLY tired! The next morning we went over to the Peabody to see the ducks before leaving.

Addison and Makenzie at Rendezvous for dinner

Before we left Memphis, Wayne and I took the girls to the Children's Museum. They had sooo much fun and didn't want to leave! They had a miniature grocery store where they could shop, scan their groceries, and get a real Kroger receipt for their purchases. They loved it!

They also got to dress up in costumes and get on-stage. Of course, Makenzie had to be a ballerina!

They had a fire truck, police car, and police motorcycle the kids could explore as well. They could dress up like the policeman or fireman and "drive" the vehicles.

This was outside a giant treehouse. Inside the treehouse, you could make paper airplanes to put into this machine in order to launch them toward several circles in a wall. Wayne was the only parent in the treehouse skilled enough to produce an airplane that made it into one of the circles in the wall...lol! The museum had so much for the kids to do, and they actually did everything about three times before they left. Makenzie had so much fun she actually began to throw a fit when we said it was time to leave (exhaustion was setting in!).

I'm so glad we decided to make this trip. The excitement and looks of pure joy on the girls' faces made this trip for Wayne and me. We went for them, and they loved every minute of it!

Thanks Bryan, Angie, and Addie for a great time!

Dora Live

We headed to Birmingham at the beginning of June to see Dora Live. The kids were so excited about gettin to stay overnight at a hotel with their cousins, swim in a pool, and of course, see Dora!

The girls (Ramsey, Nashlynn, Makenzie, and Presley) playing with Barbies at the hotel.
Swimsuits on and ready to head to the pool. They had a blast!

Makenzie loves the pool this year. She surprised us by jumping right in, and laughed when she went under. I turned around, and before I knew it, she'd taken her floaties off and was jumping in the pool and swimming without them. Dawny was in the pool with her thankfully, but the child acted like she knew how to swim and kept jumping in and swimming back to the stairs on her own. It scared me to death because I didn't want her just jumping in any pool without floaties on so as soon as we got home I enrolled her in swimming lessons! Do you know, after three days of lessons, she is swimming under water with no floaties? She's like a fish! Presley on the other hand, was terrified of the water. She's coming around though, and now that she sees Makenzie swimming without floaties, she doesn't want to wear hers either! Maybe I should have enrolled them both in lessons!

Taking a bath after swimming...

The hotel had free popcorn and coke for the kids so instead of taking a bath with the other girls, Miss Presley got her popcorn, got in bed, and watched cartoons! Go figure...I had to make her take a bath after she finished her popcorn!

I wish they would have allowed me to take pictures at Dora Live. The show was great, the kids sang and danced along with Dora, Boots, Diego, and all the other characters. The kids were given stars when they arrived that they had to wave at certain points during the show. It was very interactive. At the end, confetti fell from the ceiling. They loved every minute of it. If you haven't seen this show and your child loves Dora, we highly recommend it!

Time To Play Catch-up!

Ok...so the last couple of months have been very hectic for me, and I haven't had any spare time to post pictures. I'm going to try to catch everyone up on what we've been doing the last few months so here goes:

First, I enrolled in my last two classes to complete my Master's degree (yea!!!) this summer so I've had two intense 4 week classes on top of working everyday. As luck would have it, my last day of work was also my last day of school (aah...time for vacation!).

Wayne (and Ricky, thankfully) has been working his tale off to complete our living room renovation. Between the gas company installing the gas logs and the guys staining the mantle and tv cabinet, my house has looked like a war zone, but the end result will be great, right? We should hopefully have everything completed very soon since all we lack is putting up the tile around the gas logs and getting everything nailed into place. I'll post before and after pictures when everything's finished.

The girls and I decided we needed some time outdoors so we've been having picnic lunches and swimming...

AND, of course, you can't have a picnic on a hot, sunny day without some icecream!