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.

Lazy days at home...

For our family, the most fun we have is when we're at home together just lounging around doing nothing. Wayne and I love to just have the time to lay down with our girls and watch tv or play games with them. When we came home from our cruise, we spent the next day exactly this way...just being together.

Presley still sucks on her finger! Our dentist bills are going to be through the roof one of these days, but the child refuses to stop doing it. Anytime she's not active (which doesn't happen to be very often- only when she's tired), she gets her blanky and puts that finger right in her mouth. I can't seem to make myself tell her not to either...she's still my baby.
Makenzie actually took this picture all by herself. We were playing after we woke up that morning, and I wanted to take some pictures of them in their dress-up clothes, but Makenzie didn't feel like posing for pictures. She's become quite the opinionated one! She went on to explain that she would rather take pictures of us so I let her give it a shot thinking she'd cut our heads off or miss us completely. I was shocked to see how well she actually did (pardon the fact that I'm in pj's and have on NO makeup)! Maybe she'll be a photographer one day! She loves taking pictures..she even asked me for her own camera..lol.

While we're talking about the funny things she says, I just have to tell this. The other day she asked me if her Mimi was home, and I told her I wasn't sure, but that she could call her and see. She looked at me funny and said, well, I don't have a cell phone, but I guess I could use yours! Is she a mess or what?

Presley has outgrown the baby bed! We decided it was FINALLY time to move Presley into a big girl bed despite my trying to keep her a baby as long as possible. For her to have the toddler bed, Makenzie needed a twin so Wayne and I went to Woodland and picked out a beautiful bed that she adored. We spent the weekend rearranging rooms, and then had to order new bedding to go with the new beds. It was really hard to talk Makenzie out of princess bedding (Mommy's no fun), but I did let her have her choice of bedding, and to my surprise she picked the one I liked too.

Presley's new bed... She transitioned extremely well to her new bed. She'd been asking to sleep in a big girl bed for months so I shouldn't have been surprised that she did so well. Why is it so hard for Moms to let go sometimes...I am NOT ready for my baby to grow up yet, and I'm DEFINITELY not ready for another baby in the house for those of you who keep hinting that it's time..lol!

Makenzie's new bed and the cute bedding she picked out...both girls' bedding matched their rooms perfectly.

Makenzie and Daddy play catch

Everyone knows Makenzie often says random things or asks random questions out of the blue...well, last week she asked me when her Daddy was going to teach her how to play baseball..lol. We have no idea where this came from or why she'd even be thinking about baseball, but when I asked her why she wanted to learn to play baseball, she told me it was because her Uncle Brent loves it. He should feel so proud! Aparently, he piqued her interest. Needless to say, later when we were in Wal-mart, I bought her a glove, ball, and tee-ball bat!

Throwing the ball to Daddy...

Learning to catch...