April

April was a busy month!

It's hard to believe it's over.  So here are some of our fun moments of the month...

 My pretty girls - getting all dolled up for Church.  Megan's blue dress was super special to her - it was a birthday present from her friend Colton.

With Megan at school - Nicole gets a bit lonely without her playmate.  So we try to have lots of fun outings!  Like a date afternoon at Krispy Kreme!

 And the zoo with friends...

 And it's a super fun day when we get to go have lunch with Megan at school (which is almost every week)...

When the whole family gets to go, it's a really, really awesome outing!

 And the joy when her big sister gets home from school.....

 And when it's Megan's homework time - Nicole wants to join in on the big girl responsibilities too!

 And with all that hard work - you have to celebrate with field day!!!!!

 I love our school and all the opportunities I have to be there - to support the school and to support my sweet girl!

 And then there is the little tyke....  Wow how she is growing!

 We had a few firsts in April....
Megan ate her first hamburger!

 And Nicole realized she loves toast!

 We had our first great day to run and play with all the cousins!

 Then to end off April of 2013, we topped it off with Curriculum Celebration at Megan's school.  What a fun outing - Megan was so excited to show off her first bound book - yep, she's an author!  I LOVE this project the school oversees.... Every child publishes a book (hardbound) every year - so you have a beautiful remembrance from each year - and you can literally watch them grow as authors.  In Kindergarten, the stories are dictated and typed in, then the kids illustrate them.  I helped bind them for our class - but worked hard to NOT see Megan's - I really wanted it to be a surprise for me!  So special!!!!!

 We also got to check out their class Science Fair Project. FYI - Bounty paper towels are the most absorbent/strongest (of Bounty, Kroger, Walmart, and the schools).

 We also got to purchase a piece of her artwork (oops - no picture of that one).

Then to bring the month to a rousing close... we girls headed off to dinner tonight.  Tom's out of town until tomorrow so we had to celebrate all of the girls accomplishments and just wish he were with us.

 

So as I get ready to head off to bed...
Happy Early May Day!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

 

Megan and Nicole proclaimed this the best Easter ever!  I'm betting they'll say the same thing next year.  We had a great time celebrating at church this morning, having an egg hunt with our church family following the service, then home to finish filling our "family eggs" for the big hunt with the cousins!

 The kids were superior egg hunters and I think we've found all 240ish eggs... yeah - we just kept filling eggs.  Who knew we had so many eggs from previous years of egg hunts.  So there were lots of eggs to be found!

 Megan even had to go get a 2nd Easter basket when her's was filled to overflowing.

 And the littlest Miss - we'll, she didn't need a lot of help from her cousins - she was a fierce egg hunter!

This was a super cute Easter with Nicole - she's almost 3 1/2 and is starting to grasp the Easter story.  Last week she was moved "upstairs" at church - so she's in big kid church.  This week her teachers told me they were shocked that she could help retell all the parts of the Resurection story.  That little one is a sponge!  And tomorrow - no school for these girls - it's Spring Break!  So I'm sure we'll find lots of trouble to get into - and I'll try to keep it all posted. :^)

Megan's Heart is a flutter!

Oh yes... something happened as Megan was getting ready to turn 6... she started to figure out boys.  I know, I know - 6 and boys - what's up with that????  Although in reality, I was happy she wasn't one of the girls talking about her "boyfriend" in pre-K.

Well, how did this begin?  Around Valentine's Day, her school had a sweetheart dance - her Daddy escorted her!  But while she was there, he was cut in on by a younger man....

Needless to say, her Daddy's heart about fell out of his body.  But I did assure him that Kaleb is very sweet boy from a great family.  His mom is my co-room mom.  Tom was a bit floored by his awesome manners when he asked to dance with Megan.

But shortly after that she made it clear - that her heart belonged to another.... Colton.
Colton is her best bus buddy - at least that was my definition.  But alas, a mom's understanding of these things is so limited.  Colton, Megan explained, is her very best friend.  According to her, he's so much fun and makes her laugh, and he laughs at her jokes (this is very important) - they have so much fun together that evidently they have begun planning their wedding.

I was pleased to hear that since Colton's mom and her mom live in the same neighborhood, that they were planning on living in a house in the middle so that we could each see them and come babysit whenever we wanted.  Then I got the picture....  no literally - THE picture...

This is Megan, Colton, and in the middle is their daughter....
aaauuuuggghhhh.... talk about your life passing before your eyes!

Oh then it was the fessing up - that Colton kissed her on the bus.  After I inwardly stopped freaking out about that one - it was to find out that it was on the hand - "like a gentleman, mom!"

 But most fairytales have some dilemma, right?  Colton just moved.  Prior to them moving, we had some super fun playdates.  They are the funniest pair - Colton will let Megan drag her around - that picture is of Megan and Colton putting on a dance show for the moms (guess who's idea that was).  But, Colton will also pull Megan around and get her to climb trees and be a little tomboy (which she secretly loves).  I laugh my head off when I watch them play because they get along so well.

In the car a few days ago, Megan told me that Colton was her best friend and then asked, "It is ok to marry your best friend, right?"  I explained to her that she had a LONG time to wait before she could really get married -but that yes, that was the way to do it!  She's determined to wait!  So for the next 20 years we'll be finding fun things to do to meet in the middle.  Thankfully colton and his mom are only an hour north of us.  We already have a playdate scheduled for spring break!

I knew that the day we started school life would seem like it was moving at warp speed... and it is!

Soccer!

Yes... we are still here!
I'm SO far behind on updates and will try desperately to fill in the gaps later.  But since I'm already overwhelmed with how much has happened since the last post... I'll at least start with the present so that I don't miss the current fun times!  And at some point, I'll fill you all in on Christmas, our trip to MN, Trip to SeaWorld and Disney, Megan's birthday... and I'm sure there are lots of other tidbits along the way.

But what are we up to now?  Both the girls started Soccer.  we are playing in an Upwards league at our church.  I love that it is non-competitive, because my girls like to have fun - but let's just say that currently it's a great outlet for friendship and exercise not a future college scholarship training ground.  :^)

Due to rain, tornado warnings, and snow...  We've had 2 practices and no games so far.  And let me just tell you, I'm a bit glad that we haven't had a game yet....  we need a bit more practice.

 

Nicole is also playing this year... that wasn't planned.  Upwards starts when you are 3. I had not planned on her doing it - but several other moms of 3 year olds encouraged me to sign her up.  Well wouldn't you know it... my little baby is the baby of her team.  She happens to be on a team with all 4 year olds.  Evidently several of our 3 year old friends decided not to do it last minute - bummer.  But she seems to be having fun.  I think she'll have fun running around the field and it's great exercise - and she's a cute little mascot.

 

Oh yeah... and she's super excited that she finally got her uniform!  now she's just like her big sister!

Getting in the Christmas Spirit!

I don't know about you....
but over here - we are WAY into the spirit of Christmas!

Today at our church, we had the annual Nativity pictures.  Megan has been waiting all year to be Mary.  And try as I might to convince Nicole to be an angel, she'd have none of it... she wanted to be Joseph!  How cute is that Holy Family....

 

Last weekend, we joined up with some of our life group and the youth from our church and went Christmas Caroling in our historic downtown area.  The girls had sooo much fun!

Last week, Nicole had breakfast with Santa at her preschool.  She was so excited to see Santa...and she liked him - right up until it as her turn to get close.  She didn't cry and didn't run away - she was just not wanting Daddy to leave her side.  She kept a hand on him at all times!

 Tom and I got a little nostalgic, this was our first Breakfast with Santa without Megan.  It was just odd to not have our whole family there.  BUT, Nicole felt like she came into her own - her own breakfast with her little friends!

And of course, the girls started off the holiday season by helping to decorate the house.
Each year we give the girls a special ornament, and we have the best time putting their ornaments on and talking about why they are special. 

 

 

 

And it can't be Christmas without COOOOOKIES!

But.... one of the most fun outings we've had so far this Christmas was the Walk Through Bethleham last night.  Oh my goodness, I've been to several - but this on was by far the best I've seen.  It was a town and the people were amazing.  The girls were a little overwhelmed at first, and honestly they were terrified by the Roman soldiers, but all the shopkeepers helped to get them involved. 

 

 We learned about different grains and making bread, got a lesson in weaving.....

Got to work with some leather....

And tried out some perfumes and camel oil....

Of course, the living nativity was the highlight!

 It was amazing.  The girls really wanted to stay longer and can't wait to go back next year!



A few Blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My sweet kids.... all 3 of them.
We've had such great fall weather this week that we've spent lots of time outside. Rocky is loving the leaves and he's discovered the squirrels.  I think the squirrels find him amusing - they run up a tree and then turn and look at him.  But he just watches them jump from tree to tree and waits for them to hit the ground again.  He's getting lots of exercise!

On an update note.... I have a new camera so hopefully I'll be back to updating the blog soon.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our little princess and fairy princess...

We had a great night of trick-or-treating!  Nicole caught on really quickly - she realized people were giving her candy and didn't want to stop.  But after a fall off a doorstep (Nicole) and a trip and skinned knee (Megan), we wrapped it up in time to still have the girls in bed at a decent time.  Hopefully Megan won't be too hard to wake up tomorrow morning.

We hope your families had a spooooktacular Halloween too!

blog update:  So.... I have somehow lost my camera battery recharger.  So all my pictures are stuck on my camera.  My phone is my only camera currently and for some reason I can't seem to get those pictures to my computer (except through Facebook).....  but I promise, I will get my act together and get caught up as soon as I figure it all out.