Silly Girls

Our girls make us laugh for a lot of reasons...

Mia LOVES bubbles! We bought these wands that make huge bubbles at Wal-Mart the other day. She had so much fun spinning around trying to get the bubbles as big as possible. Of course, she also had a lot of fun pouring the bubble soap out and stomping in it to see how many bubbles her feet could stir up!

Lily loves bubbles too. She has the most fun trying to catch the bubbles after she blows them.
Mia is the messiest eater I have ever seen!

This is some of the funniest laundry I need to do.

Mia couldn't get enough of Lily's swim goggles.

I love this little one's laugh!

The Wedding

Today was the wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton. I love weddings in general, but throw in the British royal family (you know I love just about anything British), and I couldn't wait. Where did I get this love? From my mom; I think she was even more excited than me! So, I spent the night at mom and dad's house last night, so we could watch the festivities together this morning. We couldn't bring ourselves to get up at 4:30 when everything started, but we did get up at 5:30 to watch. Mom made breakfast pizzas and fruit slush for us to enjoy (two of my favorites by the way); we started out laying in bed to watch but then moved down to the den to eat and watch the ceremony. It was absolutely beautiful! I was only 2 when Charles and Diana wed, so I don't remember that wedding, but I will certainly remember this event, and I know I will always remember watching it with my mom. What a fun morning!

Easter Eggs

I love dying Easter eggs. I was probably more excited than the girls when we decided to do this last week. I have such fond memories of doing this with Meme each year, and I hope my girls will have those same great memories from this. Since Easter fell after the tax deadline this year (woo-who!), I was actually able to enjoy these type of activities even more! Our office was closed on Thursday and Friday to allow all of us a time to rest and recharge after a hectic tax season. On Thursday morning, we decided to color eggs. I made 18 hard boiled eggs for each girl. Liz was smart to think to put down a tarp on the deck, and the girls sat at their picnic table for the fun part.

Each girl wanted to help with the set up. They put their little dyes in each of the cups and then helped me measure out the vinegar and the water. They thought it was pretty cool how the water bubbled up as the dye melted into the water.

Lily knew to gently put the eggs into the colors so they wouldn't splash everywhere.

We had to remind Mia multiple times to be gentle with dropping the eggs in! She got the hang of it though and did pretty well. Actually, we thought she wouldn't sit there for more than an egg or two, but she loved it. She liked dropping the eggs in and then watching over them. She tried hard to pull the eggs out, but it's a little tricky so I helped her with that part; Lily was able to get hers out by herself. Each time I pulled one out for Mia she would go "Ohhhhhh."
She liked the blue ones a lot. After preparing all 18 eggs, Mia decided she wasn't ready to quit yet, so she started double-dipping the eggs. Why not?

Having a great time!

So much fun!

After all the eggs were colored (and re-colored in many cases), it was time to dry them off and decorate them. The kit we bought came with lots of stickers which Mia really enjoyed. Lily though loved the kit my mom gave them. It had lots of jewel-looking stickers in there that made some really pretty designs. Lily really loved them. Here she is showing off one of her Bedazzled Eggs.

Helping Mia out with the stickers.

Lily was concentrating really hard on her eggs. She was very content to sit there at the table for about an hour decorating. She wanted each egg to be done "just so." I wonder where she gets that from...

After coloring her eggs, Mia did a few stickers, but then she was ready to get up and have some other kind of fun.

She showed off her eggs to Bama. Isn't this a sweet picture?

This picture captures our girls' personalities pretty well. Lily is in the foreground being very meticulous to get her stickers on the eggs in just the right way while behind her Mia spins in circles to make bubbles. They are as different as can be from each other, but we can't imagine them being any other way. These are the two most amazing girls, and we are so proud to be their mommy and daddy!

Mia had a good time with the Mickey Mouse shaped bubble makers.

Seriously, Lily was having a great time decorating these eggs. I am going to have look for these type of kits again in the future. She is such a artsy-crafty little girl!

Once all the girls were decorated properly, we attempted to get a picture of them both with their basket full of eggs. Trying to get a picture of both of them looking at and smiling towards the camera is like trying to herd wild cats!

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.