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!

Presley's Party at the Park

Presley had another party with some of her cousins and friends the Saturday after her birthday. As soon as we arrived at the park, she took off for the slide before we could check it, and of course, it was wet from the rain and her pants were soaked. I was so glad that I'd brought her an extra pair of shorts!

She loved the slide and had so much fun playing with her friends and cousins that she didn't want to stop playing long enough to open any presents!
Blowing out her candles...her favorite part!


She LOVES cupcakes...can you tell?

FINALLY...we get her to open presents, and her reactions are priceless. She is so expressive! She was too funny to watch and got sooo excited over everything.

Thanks, everyone, for making her party so much fun!!!

Presley's 2nd Birthday!!!

The family got together after church Wednesday night to enjoy cake and icecream for Presley's 2nd birthday. I attempted to make her cake myself from scratch which I later realized was crazy of me with everything else I had to do that day and caused a good bit of stress and a disastrous mess, but turned out ok thankfully. For my first attempt at cake decorating I guess the cake turned out ok, but I don't know if I really want to attemp it again..lol!

Presley, however, made my day when she saw her cake and exclaimed, "Oh how cute!" She really liked it and that was what was most important to me. She and my Dad were checking out the cake in the picture below.

Presley got so excited over her gifts. She didn't want to open gifts at first and actually got mad because we sat her down to do it! She wanted to play with all her friends instead! After opening a couple, she got into it and was so excited over each new thing.

She is so animated, and I loved all the sweet, funny facial expressions she would make as she opened each gift. You could see the delight written all over her face.

Aunt Hanna gave her a birthday card with a princess crown that detached from it, and Presley just had to wear it right then and there!

Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us! My baby is growing up so quickly, and it's hard to believe she's a two year old and no longer a baby. She is quick to tell me each day that she is a "big girl", and I am just as quick to reply back that she is still and will always be my baby girl!

Jenna's Wedding

Just a few pictures from Jenna's wedding....

Belated Easter Pictures...sorry!

Things have been so busy lately with everything due for me at the end of the semester that I haven't had a chance to post pictures of Easter. So sorry it took me forever, but hopefully you all can still enjoy them!

Even as a bridesmaid in Jenna's wedding the day before Easter, Mommy still found time to dye Easter eggs with her precious girls! They had a great time seeing what colors came out and then decorating thier eggs with princess stickers.

After church on Easter Sunday, we took some pictures of our pretty girls in their Easter dresses. They looked so precious...I just wish they would have cooperated a little longer!

Even the bunny Mimi brought didn't hold their interest like we hoped it would! They just weren't that interested in taking pictures. Of course, Daddy had to hold the bunny!

Mimi and Makenzie pet the bunny. Makenzie loves the bunnies and chicks Mimi has at her house!


Free at last! The girls run off after the last picture. They just didn't have it in them to sit still for very long!

Even though Easter was extremely busy this year with everything going on in the couple of weeks leading up to it, we were still careful to just take the day and be together as a family. We didn't feel the need to mention an Easter bunny, and when the girls woke up to their Easter baskets, Makenzie automatically turned to Wayne and said, "Oh thank you Daddy!" In that moment I was glad that we hadn't bought into the hype of the Easter bunny. We were able to share the true meaning of Easter with our girls, and thank Jesus for the sacrifice he made so that we are able to spend eternity with him.

I do have to share this with you though...we had an Easter contata at church on Easter Sunday morning, and while I sang and Wayne acted in the contata, our girls sat with their Aunt Dawny. Wayne played the part of a Roman guard in the play and was in costume. On the way home, Makenzie told me, "Mommy you sang pretty and Daddy was a great superhero!" I nearly wrecked the car I got so tickled! I immediately realized why she thought Wayne was a superhero...He was wearing the typical Roman guard costume with a cape flowing down the back of the shirt. Near the end of the play, when Wayne came out to take one of the theives off the cross (actually my brother), Wayne threw Tyler over his shoulder and carried him out! Of course, our baby girl would think her Daddy was saving the day! lol.