Easter Weekend

Last Saturday morning, we went to the annual egg hunt at Whittier Mill Village Park. My dad grew up in the Whittier Mill Village, and it's hosted by the church I grew up in where Mom and Dad still attend. It's always fun to attend this egg hunt; not only do the girls love it and have a great time, but I love running into long-time friends. It was a nice day outside, and the girls couldn't wait to go.

Every time we have mentioned the egg hunt to Lily over the last year, she talks about the game where you walk up and get a lollipop. She loves this game! You walk right up to a board and select a lollipop; if the bottom of the stick is colored, you get a big lollipop. Neither girl won the big lollipop, but they were both very happy to sit and enjoy the lollipops they picked.
Lily was much more willing to try the games this year. She tried the ring toss and here she is trying to toss the Velcro balls onto the bunny tail. It was a cute game, and she tried to help Mia too which was sweet.

Both girls adore having their faces painted. Mia chose an Easter egg while Lily went with a butterfly design.

Papa was at there too, so we snapped a picture with him. Granna was in Tennessee helping Granny, so she wasn't able to attend. We missed her, but I know Lily will fill her in on all the details.

In addition to lots of fun games, they had a little petting zoo with tiny baby goats, pigs, rabbits and ducks. Lily refused to to into the pin with them; Mia went in but freaked out after a minute, so we didn't stay there very long. Instead we headed over to the playground which the girls loved. Lily had a great time working on the monkey bars (see below) while Mia preferred the climbing wall. That girl makes me so nervous sometimes!

Mia could barely take her eyes off the Easter bunny the whole time. She couldn't wait to meet him! She went running up to him, gave him a big hug and then climbed into his lap for a picture. After this picture, she hopped down, took a few steps then turned around to say "bye-bye Easter bunny!" She then looked at Lily and said "Your turn Lily!" but Lily refused. She was uncertain about this over sized bunny!

They had a lady there making great balloon animals, so the girls were thrilled to get one of those. Lily wanted a pink elephant.

Here's Mia showing off her red bunny. Both girls had a lot of fun playing with these for a few days.

Finally it was time for the main event, the egg hunt! Ryan went with Mia and Liz to the area designated for the 2 and 3 year olds while Lily, Dad and I went to the area for the 4 and 5 year olds. Lily suddenly became very overwhelmed by everyone. She refused to let go of my hand (therefore, no pictures of her hunt), she didn't want to pick up eggs or run over to find some. With this big of a crowd, the eggs went quickly, she only picked up about 5 or 6 and then she was upset because "I didn't get the lotest."

Mia however couldn't wait to start her egg hunt. Here she is eyeing the eggs before the race began.

She quickly picked up on what to do, and she couldn't wait to run and pick up lots of eggs.

Another one for the basket that Bama is very nice to hold for her.

Thrilled to show off her basket full of eggs. I think it was almost too heavy for her!

Mia also picked up a special egg that a note to come to the table and claim a prize. She loves her new little lamb!

I love filling Easter baskets with goodies for the girls. This year both received a puppet (a penguin for Mia, and for Lily, an owl who she adores and named Whooer), movies (Tangled for Lily and Princess Sing A Long for Mia), Pez candy dispensers, lollipop bouquet, 2 Bible story books and a sticker book (Lily's was a Tinkerbell book while Mia's was Sesame Street). Mia also received a book about colors; Lily received a foam craft book.

Both girls loved their lollipop bouquets. Each had 8 little flower shaped lollipops in it, and they have asked for one a day. No, let me change that. They have asked for multiple ones every single day, but I let them have one each day as a treat. It's a fun process to decide which color flower to pick each time.

We have also watched the new movies multiple times already. Both girls enjoy the sing a long songs with Disney princess songs. On Saturday night coming home from the grocery store, Lily said "Mommy I want to go back to the movie theatre to see Tangled but I want you to come this time." I told her that Tangled was no longer in the theatre. She let out a huge gasp and said "Where did it go?!" I told her it came to people's houses now; she seemed relieved and wanted it to come to our house soon. Needless to say, she was very excited to get that movie in her basket! It's a pretty cute movie. She has also spent the last few days pretending to be Rapunzel with her long hair.

Here's a picture of the girls in their matching Easter Sunday dresses. It's rare that I dress them alike, but boy are they cute!

Sweet little Mia. She is standing a little funny because she had her arms up in the air, and I asked her to put them down in front of her. I thought this face was just too adorable to not put here though. This girl melts our hearts because she is so precious!

Lily practicing her princess curtsy in her dress. She was beyond excited to get so dressed up and match Mia!

I couldn't resist a picture with my sweet girls!

We went to church at Chattahoochee (my parents' church) instead of Johnson Ferry (our regular church). The girls love going here. It's a smaller church so all the young kids are in the same nursery class which they think is awesome. The associate pastor, Cameron, delivered the message, and he did a fantastic job. We have become friends with Cameron and his wife recently, and it's wonderful to see such a young family with a Godly heart come in to Chattahoochee. They have some really amazing things going on there now, and we love seeing all things God is doing through Cameron and Melanie.

After church, we came home, changed clothes and headed back out to Robert and Judy's house. They are always so gracious to host our big old family each year. We enjoy lots of good food and conversation together. It was a perfectly beautiful day too, so everyone hung outside on their huge front porch most of the time. Here's a picture of all the great-grandkids getting ready for the egg hunt. 

And their off! Mia was excited to hunt again, and Lily was determined this time "to get the lotest." They both had a blast!

Here's another one!

Mia did a good job too!

The bigger kids run out into the front yard while the younger ones stay a little closer to the porch.

Showing off her full basket afterwards.

Time to open up all the eggs and see what is inside. Of course the girls were most excited about the candy hidden away, but Lily loved hearing the eggs with coins in them too. We gathered up all the coins and had almost $5 worth when it was done; we have promised a trip to the dollar store soon. One funny side note from this: I let Mia carry one of the coins for a bit, and then took it back when she got tired of it. As we were climbing into the car later, Mia looked at me and said "Where my cash at Mommy?"

This was a wonderful Easter weekend celebrating the resurrection of Christ with our family!

Catching Up

Wow, it's been a crazy few weeks. We are all so relieved tax season is over! While I wrapped up tax season at the office, Ryan was able to go on a mission trip back to the Eskimo village we visited last year. It was an amazing trip, and I hope he will make a blog entry about it soon. He has grown to love the Eskimo people, and I am so proud of him as he does this work there. He came back into town on Deadline Day. On Monday the 18th, Lily came running into our bedroom at about 6:30 in the morning, and excitedly exclaimed "Mommy, it's the last day of tax season and Daddy's coming home!" It was definitely a day of celebration.

So, other than a mission trip and work, here are a few miscellaneous things going on around the house.

Lily arranged her little figurines one morning. She wouldn't let me see it while she put it together. When she walked me over a few minutes later, I said "Oh, it's a beautiful heart," and she replied "Yeah, I made it for you because I love you." Such a sweetheart.

The girls love bath time! Bama had fun with Mia's hair before we all had haircuts last week. This got a big laugh from the girls.
Liz found the cutest little bathrobes for the girls to wear after they dry off from bath time. They love them, and I have to say, they look mighty cute too!

Lily would wear hers all day if she could. She loves to wear dresses and would wear one every single day if I would let her!

Lily is fascinated by our new printer. It's really pretty funny to me because she loves to lie on the floor and is amazed when we have something to print. She doesn't quite get yet that I am pushing a button on our computer that is making it print!

Other fun things going on that I don't have pictures for:

1. Mia has learned to climb out of her crib. I honestly am a little surprised that it took this long. She's 2.5 now, and we simply haven't had time to figure out what to do about her next bed. We have been trying to figure this out but we're still not sure what to do. Right now, thankfully, she only climbs out when she wakes up from her nap or in the morning; knock on wood, no middle of the night visits yet.

2. While it's a long shot, we have considered getting bunk beds for Lily's room. To see how she would react, we went to a store to show her a bunk bed. She LOVED it. She and Mia couldn't get enough of it. Now when we play with her doll house, her Lily figure sleeps on top of the canopy bed while the Mia figure sleeps on the bed. Lily said it's her bunk bed, she sleeps on top and Mia sleeps on bottom. I am really going back and forth on this because I think they would love to share bunk beds.

3. Last Wednesday evening, Lily had a choir concert at church. She was so excited about it. We had a picnic dinner and watched as they sang three songs. I am so proud of Lily's progress over the last year. At her concert last Fall, she stood on the side and refused to sing even though she knew every word. This time though she was standing in the middle and singing her little heart out. At one point, they asked what sounds of spring have your heard, and Lily took the microphone to say "bees." I realize this may not sound like a big deal, but it's really amazing to me because I know Lily would not have done that a year ago.

In the Air

Lily and I decided to color for a little while after getting home from church today. She took a blank piece of paper, and said "I'm going to create a picture. It will be my creation." I asked what her picture would be of, and she replied "the land." I asked what she was going to put on her land; she said "a tree with apples, flowers, grass and a sky." She then proceeded to make just that. She studied her picture after coloring this and said "Please hand me the yellow. I need to add some pollen to the flowers." If you live anywhere near us, you know that everything is covered in yellow pollen now, so apparently Lily thought it would be appropriate to add it to her picture!

I Spy

Lily loves to play the "I Spy" game. We play it all the time...driving down the road, waiting at restaurants, playing in her room, etc. Normally we say "I spy with my little eyes something..." and then pick a color. Every so often her color is "lots of colors" (for a painting on the wall for example) if she doesn't want to pick one color out. However, she had me laughing the other day when she said "I spy with my big beautiful hazel eyes something...yellow." Mia doesn't quite get the game yet. While playing this at home one day she said "I spy my eyes somethin'...Glo!" as she held her Glow-Worm close to her. Last night she also threw out "I spy my eyes...you!" I like that she wants to play, but I think we need to work on teaching her the basics first!

Lily's Prayer

This was Lily's prayer last night: "Dear God, thank you for my family and friends, especially Mommy because she is my best friend and I love her. Amen." Oh this little girl could not be any sweeter!

A Hard Worker

So what do you think of the picture above? Any guesses? Well, here's what happened...

As I was putting Mia's clean clothes up this evening, she asked for her cup of milk which I told her was on the counter; she went to get it. A minute later I hear an odd noise and "Uh oh Mommy! I (couldn't understand) it!" I look out her bedroom door and see her standing in the kitchen and she repeats herself. I still don't understand, but I know something isn't quite right, so I walk in to the kitchen. I see Mia holding the barely used bag of slivered almonds which is now empty as they are EVERYWHERE on the floor. I didn't really know what to say other than "Oh Mia." This bag was sitting very close to her cup of milk, so I am guessing in trying to get her cup, she grabbed the bag and it spilled everywhere. It was clearly a total accident, so I didn't get upset. Instead, I thought quickly. I reached for our handheld broom and dustpan and said "Lily would you like to help me by sweeping up the almonds?" Lily immediately jumped at the chance to once again prove her big girl skills. She couldn't wait to start sweeping! Mia sat down near her and said "My turn Lily! I sweep now!" to which Lily replied "No Mia, I will do it because I am a big girl."

She did a really good job too; she is such a hard worker! How long do you think I have before cleaning isn't so much of a game as it is a chore for her? Right now, I am loving it!

A Needed Day

I really needed today. This tax season has been extra demanding thus far (70 new clients and counting means more work, but that's a good thing too!). I have worked late nights a lot over the last few weeks; in fact, I was there until 1:15 this morning. It's very draining - physically, mentally and emotionally. Typically our Sundays are very routine, but we decided today would be a little different. First, we decided we would let our natural alarm clocks (aka Lily and Mia) wake us up. Depending on what time that was, we would decide our church schedule. We usually leave about 7:50 to get there for the 8:30 service and we're there until about 11:30. Lily came in a few minutes after 8:00, and Mia woke up a few minutes later. We all cuddled up in bed to watch cartoons for a little bit, and then the girls started playing. Ryan and I had thought about this possibility last night, and we decided then to forgo church for the morning (even though the girls were really excited about it), so we could have a day of rest and family time.

We all got dressed and went to J. Christopher's for breakfast which was so delicious and filling. After that we went to a nearby playground for about 45 minutes. It was a little overcast outside, but a great day to be out in the fresh air. From there we went to Target because we realized Lily's tennis shoes were literally falling apart; we found her a great pair of shoes that she loves. After this we went back home. Ryan and the girls cleaned up the living room and playroom while I went to take a relaxing shower. Ryan then needed to leave to get to a meeting for his upcoming mission trip, so the girls and I had a small snack (we were still pretty full from breakfast) and played for awhile before nap time. Mia went to sleep at 1:30, and Lily went down at 1:45. They were asleep until about 3:15, so I had some time to rest and unwind. When they woke up, we went to Publix which was actually pretty fun. I tell you what, when we're all rested and well-fed, we always have a ton of fun together! After bringing the groceries in, I started cooking dinner. I am ashamed to admit it, but this is the first meal I have actually cooked in probably a month. It was good too; cheesy chicken, green beans with almonds and jello (okay, Liz actually made the jello but we cut the shapes out!). Nothing gourmet, but it was nice to sit around the dinner table together for a peaceful meal again.

We all played together for awhile and then Ryan headed up to the church. He is in the church's prayer room once a quarter from 8-9. Soon after he left, it was time to put Mia to bed; Lily and I then played for about 30 minutes before her bed time. After that I looked around the house and thought of all the things I could do...laundry namely...but I decided to just relax. It has been an absolutely wonderful day. I needed this.

Happy Birthday to Me

This past Monday was my 32nd birthday, so happy birthday to me! I have tried to take my birthday weekend off from work the last few years, but unfortunately, that couldn't happen this year. I was able to sleep in a bit, but then I had to head in to work for awhile. When I came home, Lily came running up and said "Guess what I bought for a surprise for you today? A surprise party!" She cracks me up! I had a feeling that she and Mia had gone shopping with Bama that morning to pick up a little birthday something for me, but I also knew no one would dare tell Lily a secret like a true surprise party! Secrets aren't exactly her strong point right now. Anyway, Ryan and I got ready for our dinner date out to celebrate. See our picture below:

I also wanted a picture with my sweet girls. I love them so much!

Ryan and I met our friends, Brian and Jill, at my very favorite restaurant, La Grotta in Buckhead. It is always amazing, and it didn't disappoint this time. Neither Ryan or I need to bother with a menu when we go; we will never stray from "our usual" here. For me, I start with their house mixed greens salad, followed by a filet with a mustard and gorgonzola sauce, mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables; a nice glass of wine accompanies the entree. Ryan has a prosciutto appetizer with the same filet entree. We then both order the tartufo dessert. Tartufo is basically ice cream dipped in chocolate which I know does not sound special at all, but oh my goodness, it is one of the best food items ever. I absolutely refuse to share this dish with anyone, so Ryan knows if he wants a bite, he better order his own. This is consistently the most fantastic meal which is why we like to go for special occasions. Three particular occasions stand out to me. In time dated order, first my dad took me there a few days before Ryan and I got married which was so special. Second, Ryan and I celebrated there when I passed the CPA exam; what an amazing feeling! Third, he and I went after we learned that I was expecting our sweet Lily. So, it's a special place to us, and to be there with great friends for my birthday made it even more wonderful.

Obviously I had to work on Monday since we're in the heart of tax season right now, but I intentionally blocked off some extra time to make it a little bit of an easier day. My mom came at lunch, and brought food from the Chinese restaurant that we love. I don't have much one-on-one time with her these days, so it was a great treat to hang out with her. I have an amazing mom!

I left work just after 5 (what a treat right now!), and when I got home, what should greet me but a "surprise party" that Ryan and the girls had set up for me. Lily and Mia were so excited, and it was so fun to see their excitement! Bama had taken them shopping on Saturday and they bought decorations, paper products and party horns, and Ryan had helped them decorate earlier in the day. My mom had babysat them that afternoon, so the three of them made a big cookie cake for me. They had put in candles that spelled Happy Birthday, and then written Mommie on the cake; typically you would write Mommy, but they wanted the letters to be even so they went with Mommie instead. Lily found this hilarious! They wanted to dig into the cake, but I told them we had to eat some dinner first (though I would have loved to dig in too!). Liz came in right about then, so we all went to Zucca's and enjoyed a delicious dinner. When we came home, everyone sang happy birthday and then we enjoyed the fabulous cookie cake. What a great way to celebrate!Just as we finished up the cake, we had a delivery man come by and bring me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers sent by David and Jan. I had to have a picture made with the flowers because they were so beautiful. Here we are a week later, and they are still looking great on our kitchen counter, so we get to enjoy them everyday.

This was such a great birthday celebration. Of course, it was so much fun to see all the birthday wishes that rolled in on Facebook too. Many thanks to everyone who made this birthday so special!

Playing Catch Up

Wow, it's been awhile since I have updated our blog! There has been so much going on the last couple of weeks that I haven't found the time to sit down and write about everything. More than anything, work is keeping us very, very busy. I was at the office past midnight three times in the last week alone. I feel like I am so far behind schedule right now, and I just can't keep up with everything. Regardless, here are a few pictures of things going on around the house the last couple of weeks:

We have had the most amazing weather recently, and we have all loved it. The girls always love to go outside to their playground, so here are a few pictures from those fun times. Mia is such a little adventure-seeker. She will try anything that Lily does, and she usually succeeds. We haven't found an ounce of fear in this little one yet!

They really have so much fun playing together!
Grandpops had some work in Atlanta earlier in the month. We were so glad he was able to come spend an evening with us! We all enjoyed a dinner at Figo, and then we just played at the house for a bit. I couldn't convince the girls to take a "formal" picture with Grandpops, but here they are having fun in a tickling game with him!

Lots of laughs!

Hopefully he will be able to come back soon and bring Grandma Jan with him. Jan sent down the sweetest little matching navy Polo dresses for the girls. They are going to look so adorable in them this summer! She also sent pretty hair bows which you know they loved, but most of all, they were THRILLED with the fun band aides she sent! Jan remembered how much the girls loved the cute Halloween band aides she sent in October, and she found adorable Princess and Sesame Street band aids to send this time. My girls have had more "boo boos" than I can count over the last two weeks; Mia has learned "band aide make it better." It's amazing what makes them happy! Once again, Grandma Jan found a hit for a present!

This picture was just too sweet for me not to include it.

On March 5th, Lily's Parent Morning Out class sang at the church's evening service. Here is a picture of Lily and her friend, Sierra, before the show. We hear about Sierra all the time. It is pretty cute to see the friendships Lily is developing with other kids her age.

This is a picture of the whole class onstage with Ms. Mollet directing. Lily is actually all the way over to the right, and you can just barely see her head above Ms. Mollet's shoulder. When we arrived, the kids were sitting in the middle of the auditorium, so Mom and I sat on the left (Ryan stayed home with Mia). When Ms. Mollet told the class to line up, Lily went darting to the front to be the "line leader" (a big to-do with the 4 year old set); she led them up to and across the stage which put her as far away from us as possible! Because of this, I didn't get many good pictures from the performance.

Lily showing off her light during "The Little Light of Mine." They also performed "Jesus Loves Me" and "The B-I-B-L-E" which is one of Lily's favorite songs. This was a cute performance.

This past Thursday was Lily's half-way point in gymnastics, so all the parents (and Bamas!) were invited to watch them to see what they have been working on. I cannot tell you how amazed I am at Lily. The Little Gym has been so good for her over the last year. Her coordination, skills and confidence have shot up as she has gone through these classes. She has so much fun with them too, and it's fun to watch her.

Here she is with the noodle as they pretended to ride their horses as cowboys and cowgirls.

Getting ready to roll down the mat. She can do really good forward somersaults now and is working on backwards somersaults, handstands and cartwheels.

Ms. Maria coaching her through a flip on the low bar. She loves the low bar!

You know Mia wasn't going to be left out even though this class is meant for kids two years older than her! The classes are small, and the teachers are always very gracious to let Mia play during events like this. During regular classes, Mia and Bama go for walks, go to the library or playground, etc; she doesn't go in on every class.

Lily showing off her pirouette skills on the beam. She has really good balance!

So there you have some of the pictures taken over the last couple of weeks. In addition to work, here are a few other things that have been going on:

-Lily and Mia had Pediatric ENT check-ups, and both came through their hearing tests with flying colors - woo-who!!! Dr. Baktha noted that both tubes are coming loose in their left ears, so they may come out soon; this is normal since tubes are meant to last about 12-18 months (it has been 14 months so far). The real test will come when they come out. Neither girl really ever had ear infections, but we noticed drastic differences in their hearing abilities. Hopefully their ear canals have grown now letting the fluid drain out, so their hearing won't be impacted. Only time will tell on this one.

-We have gone to interviews at two different schools. One of the schools has already accepted both girls into next year's program, and we know Mia will attend there next year. The other school starts at Pre-K (meaning Mia is too young to apply). However, we took Lily there last Friday, and went through a 1.5 hour interview. It went very well. They will call this week to schedule a time to come back though for her to take standardized tests. That's right, this is all for Pre-K! A little crazy to do all this for a 4 year old, but we really like this school, and we can see Lily thriving in it's environment. We should know by the end of the month if she has been accepted, and if she has, we have to decide which one of the schools we want her to attend.

-Ryan is taking a fascinating class at church on Wednesday evenings. However, it is considered a seminary graduate level class, so there is a lot of homework and projects involved. He is managing to get all this done along with working and being with our family. I think he is like Superman to get all this done!

-I participated in a consignment sale last week where I sold a lot of the girls 0-12 month clothes and toys. It was fun to go through everything and remember all the fun times we have had so far with them. It just took some time to get everything into inventory, tags safety pinned onto the clothes, clothes hung up and secured to hangers and delivered to the Cobb Fairgrounds for the sale. Their things sold well though, so yea! Oh yeah, I may have bought a few things for them to grow into now too!

-Lily went with my parents last Friday night to see Molly and McKayla in their schools' talent show. McKayla sang with her whole class, and then Molly performed a dance routine with two of her friends about the changing of the seasons. Mom said Lily absolutely loved it. When everything was over for the evening Lily exclaimed "That was great!" Mom said she sat forward the whole time watching everyone and everything. I know she loves to be around Molly and McKayla, so she was thrilled to be there.

-While Lily was with my parents, Ryan, Liz and I spent an evening with Mia. We took her to Steak and Shake for dinner. I tell you what, that little girl cracks me up! She says the funniest things, makes the cutest faces and is just all around adorable. It made me realize just how much of her thunder Lily steals from her. What a precious little angel!

-In saying her prayers tonight, Lily said "Dear Jesus, when I get older, will you make me a hat seller so I can sell the birthday party hats for Mommy's birthday tomorrow? Thank you. Amen." So thoughtful. Yes, my birthday is tomorrow. When I came home from work on Saturday, Lily said "Guess what I got you for a surprise Mommy? A surprise party!" When I said something about that on the way to church this morning, she became very upset and said "Mommy, you aren't supposed to know about the surprise party! Let's call it...dinner instead!" When I asked her later if she was going to give me a present for my birthday, she said she was going to make me a card and give me one of her toys, whichever one I wanted. Such a sweetie!

-Of course, last but not least, today was Daylight Savings Time, so in addition to feeling like I am way behind schedule and don't have enough time in the day, we actually did lose an hour!

She Knows

This time of year is always a little hard on Lily. She hates when I have to work so much. Here are a couple of her recent comments:

Me on Monday: Hey Lily, do you know what today is?
L: Monday!
M: That's right, but you know what else? It's the last day of February. What does that make tomorrow the first day of?
L: April?
M: No, try again. January, February....
L: March!
M: That's right!
L: And then April and that means you can stay home again!

The other day Lily was talking to Bama and Bama asked what season it was. Lily's response was "Tax." We added a 5th season to the year apparently!

About a week ago, I told Lily I needed to go to work that day. She sighed and said "Is it April 15th yet?" I know how she feels.

In case you are wondering, Mia doesn't seem to mind one bit. She just waves, hugs me and says "Bye Mommy!" each day. I guess that's a good thing. I can't win for losing here...I'm sad that it makes Lily upset, but I'm also sad that Mia doesn't seem to care. What's a mom to do?