Preschool

For preschool for Brittney this year, I joined a Mom's group. We rotate teaching each week at our own houses. With six kids in the class, I end up teaching every six weeks. It's fun for Brittney and works out great for me.

Brittney couldn't wait to get on her backpack and go to school just like Braedyn. She talked about it all the way there. When we got out of the car at Keresa Walker's house she said "Mom, this isn't school." I convinced her it was and in she went. However, when I picked her up she said "Mom, now can we go to school?" There was no foolin' this kid. She new what school looked liked. She has accepted these domestic dwellings as her preschool location each week and now cheerfully goes in. She loves all her little friends and is always excited for school.

My little ham.

Kindergarten

Pink backpack. Check. Matching attachable lunchbox. Check. New Silver ballet flats. Check. Pink butterfly dress. Check. Bright smile. Check. Teary-eyed mom. Ok, Check.

Braedyn was so excited for her first day of Kindergarten. She marched right in with Mommy, Daddy, and Brittney right behind her. She sat down at her new desk, started coloring her worksheet and said "Bye Mom" with an enormous grin. I held it together just fine until we walked out and Troy said, "your going to cry, aren't you?" I got a little teary-eyed when I said "No" but I did pretty well.

Braedyn and our neighbor, Brenna. They ride the bus together every day.

This is the excited smile I was telling you about.

My beautiful Kindergartener.

Summer Fun

Running through the sprinklers, splashing in the pool, squirting water toys, popsicles for snack. Isn't that what summer is about? I have loved summertime with my girls.

We have had Daniel hanging out with us a lot of the time. These three cousins have so much fun together.

Preschool Graduation

I can't believe my Braedyn graduated from preschool. She had a great year at Imagine and Explore Preschool. We were so proud of her at her graduation. She sang every song, smiling so big in her blue cap. She is so ready for kindergarten...too bad I'm not.

Her she, is standing next to her friend Malorie. They had a lot of fun together.

She even got a little diploma.

Miss Heather is a wonderful teacher. She made it a special year for the kids.

Three-year old Princess

Here she is...my little 3-year old. Brittney's birthday was on Easter Sunday. (Yeah I am just finally doing a post about it). Our sweet Brittney is such a joy to us. Jumping, bouncing, climbing, giggling, teasing, dancing, singing, hugging, kissing... she teaches us how to live life like a happy little princess.

I made my first themed cake. An Easter Bunny cake for the special day. While it wasn't the most skill-required cake, it was sure cute when I was done. My mom came over and decorated the cake with the girls and me. We had a hard time keeping them from eating all the candies.

We celebrated her birthday with mine and Troy's family at Grandma Jill's house after Easter dinner. Here are the three little cousins waiting to dive into the cake.

Brittney was so excited about her new Princess nightgown, she had to put it on immediately.

Daddy's little girls on Easter morning. You can't see them very well, but their outfits matched. So cute!!

Great Wolf Lodge

We took a quick family trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. It was so much fun.

The girls donned their swimsuits the moment we got to the hotel.

We had a blast going down the big slides, floating in the lazy river and playing in the little pool where the girls could go down the slide by themselves.

The sprinklers were fun but we always had to go get in the hot (warm) tub right after.

The T-Rex Cafe was such a cool restaurant. As you can see, they had life-size dinosaurs all throughout the restaurant. The girls are not smiling in this picture because they were a little nervous about this dinosaur's big ROAR.

It was a great, stress-free trip for our little family. We will definitely be back next year.

Our friends, Chris and Mandi, met us at the Cafe for dinner. It was so good to see them and their cute little family. Mandi and I have been friends since grade school.

So I finally have a good family picture for my blog heading. I love it!!! I am grateful to my sweet friend, Jen, who did the photo shoot. She has a great talent.
www.sugarblossomphotography.blogspot.com
Check it out!!

My little girl turned Five-years old!

It was no surpise when Braedyn requested a Princess Party for her birthday. It was so fun to plan with princess tiaras, glittler, plastic goblets, pink sandwiches, and even a Kiss the Frog game. We did Princess make-up and even read The Princess and the Pea. I got really into all the pink fun...

Braedyn wanted to dress like Giselle from "Enchanted."

Here is my sweet five-year old. Her birthday cake came in this cute princess box behind her.

I had plans to make a Barbie cake for the party, but since we thought we were going out of town until the day before it, Grandma Becca offered to order it from HyVee instead. It was so beautiful...and yummy too!!! You can see Brittney wanted to be Cinderella...of course.

Here are our princesses and pinces sitting down for lunch. Everyone wore their royal attire.

Yep, I even found pink swirl bread to make sandwiches for the royal lunch. We made fruit kabobs and had colorful Goldfish crackers to go with them. Pink gatorade filled their plastic goblets.

Can she stay my Little princess forever?!!

Ready or not, here I come...

Tonight, I was reminded that when we do simple things together as a family, we have the most fun. Finally, at 8 o'clock we got around to doing family night. We didn't have anything planned so it was a short story about Jonah in the Bible and then Hide and Seek. Hearing the girls giggle from their hiding places and waiting like a child in my own hiding spot, it was the most fun I had all day. It is a comfort to be reminded that I don't have to be the most creative mother, I just have to find time for simple moments with my little family.

Breadyn hiding in the tub.

Troy helped Britt get under the blankets in the back of her closet. Too bad the music box she turned on in there was a quick clue for her spot.

We love our little girls!!

Merry Christmas!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas! Ours was a busy one, but so fun. We did Christmas Eve dinner with Troy's family. Chistmas day we went to his parents' to open gifts. My family came over to our house later in the afternoon to open gifts with us and then we all went to my aunt's for dinner. Whew, it was a day full of wrapping paper. It was a great two days.

The girls were so excited to wear their Christmas dresses out to dinner on Christmas Eve. That is a tradition of Troy's family. The four of us came home afterwards and opened Christmas jammies and "attempted" to do a little story about Christ's birth. As you can see, they (my 3 kids) were all a little giddy with excitement. I don't know that they heard any of it. Isn't that the way it always goes?
A Christmas hug for Daddy.

Cute jammies huh?

Santa brought them both Barbie Maraposa. She was a big hit.

Isn't she a beautiful barbie?

Britt was so excited to get Cinderella chapstick in her stocking. She put in on for a good minute.

Yep, there's a lot of shine on those lips. What a sparkling smile!

We Love Snow!

With just days before Christmas, we were excited to have a good day to play in the snow. After twenty minutes of finding out gear, going potty, and getting bundlged up, we stomped out int the snow. The girls threw snow in the air, pretended to be snow spies and of course, made snow angels. I think I made a good angel myself. It was fun being out their with them. When we were cold enough, we came in for hot chocolate and marshmallows...a must in out house. It was a great day!