My Southern Gal came to Town

Ashley and I have been friends since kindergarten. She moved to Tennessee when we were 14 and we have remained closest friends ever since. I think we have visited each other every year. My mom was sweet enough to buy her a ticket to visit this weekend. We had a great week of shopping, swimming with the kids, running (like soccer moms), and doing my dad's party.

We have so many good memories together of swimming at the Lake at Mimi's house, obsessing over Bobby Kross (our middle school crush), driving to Florida with her crazy friends, the list goes on and on. I am lucky have always had her as a friend. Every girl should be able to have a friend for a lifetime.

Dressed to go out to dinner and a Movie.

Ashley made the girls these blankets. We let the girls pick out their material. Whew, that was an event. Brittney tried to carry the whole role of fleece all over the store. Aren't the blankets cute? The girls love them.

My dad has a cool sister - my Auntie Annie (Lizanne). She wanted to throw him a surprise 50th birthday party. She did a lot of work to make it happen and it was a lot of fun. I am glad that we were able to do it for my dad. He is such a great father and friend to so many people. He deserved his own big day. I am so lucky to have such a sweet and loving dad.

Auntie Annie threw a great party for Dad. She is the Hostess with the Mostest. The cake was so good!!! Gotta love HyVee cake.

Here is the birthday boy. Auntie Annie picked out an awesome party hat.

Isn't our daddy so cute? We just had to give him a birthday kiss.

Braedyn and Brittney loved playing in the sand. You should have seen their bathwater that night. Yuck!

What a great night at the Lake. Happy Birthday Dad!

My Disney Princess

You Are Aurora! (A.K.A. Sleeping Beauty.)

Thoughtful and loving. Authority figures probably have been sheltering you all of your life. Thankfully you're a very tranquil person who is content with what life has given you, but secretly you want to know how the outside world works.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Splish Splash

As the end of summer nears, I thought I should share what we did with our hot, hot, humid days. Yep, we spent all of them in the water. Braedyn has become quite the little fish, swimming all over the pool and diving "like a mermaid." I have spent many afternoons pretending to be Melody, the Mermaid. Goggles, watering cans, and Ariel dolls have kept little Brittney busy in the water. Of course, Daddy makes the pool more fun with all of his throwing and chasing of our little girls. Thanks to Grandma Jill and Grandpa Rick, we can enjoy the heat rather than just survive it.

Here is my little mermaid, so Hollywood in my glasses.

How can we swim without all the proper attire?

Brittney loves to "swim" across the pool.

Braedyn and Kimball have been good swimming buddies.

Brittney and her Babies

My Baby with her Babies...




I find that Brittney is such an easy child right now because whenever we are home she gets herself lost in her babies. Feeding them, putting them down for a nap and changing their diapers..."Ewww, she's poopy Mommy. She's poopy." The first picture is recent of Brittney playing with three babies at once. The second one is of her, again, with three babies. I walked down the hall and found her sitting like that, with a proud grin on her face. She is a bit younger in this one. Since she was just over a year, Brittney has been a good mommy to her babies. While she has a handful of them, Baby Susie is most dear to her heart. There are many days when I hand her a baby only to hear "No Mommy. Where is my Baby Susie?" It is really cute with a 2-year old pronunciation. I love to watch my little baby with her baby.

Going to See Gracie!!

Braedyn and I went to visit the Soelbergs in Arizona. We became the best of friends with them when they lived across the street from us here in Omaha. Braedyn and Grace have been buddies since they were five months old. They looked so much alike people would ask if they were twins. They would also ask if Erica and I were sisters. We were all so sad when they moved last year. Braedyn and Grace still talk about how much they miss eachother.

It was wonderful to finally see them again. Braedyn and Grace were as if they had never been apart. Oh, and Mae was so fun. She is a little songbirg - singing everything. It was just like we were family coming to visit. Unfortunately, we brought the rainy weather with us from Omaha, so we didn't swim and boat as much as we planned but we did do makeovers at the mall, go to dance class, and get pedicures (just us moms did that). We went up to their family's cabin and hung out with Alan's family. It was beautiful up there. Both of their families are so nice. I feel like I fit right in. We spent the last day by the pool and the girls swam with their barbie dolls. We love being moms together.

Erica and I were just so happy to be together and so were our girls. I could have stayed two more weeks. It was a great trip.

Braedyn was sooo excited to fly on the plane. She hadn't been on one since she was 18m old. She talked and talked and talked about everything on it. I am sure the other passengers loved us.

Such a cute picture of Grace and Braedyn. We went to Alan's family's cabin up in Pine (in the mountains). It was beautiful up there, but a little chilly. Braedyn was pushing Grace in the cool tire swing they had. Swinging is what they did most of the day up there.

Braedyn got to go to Grace and Mae's dance class. Erica is their teacher. Grace wanted her glasses so she could be like Braedyn.

Grace, Mae, and Braedyn after their glitter and lip gloss makeovers at Mac.

The one picture we took of us. This is after two days at the cabin. We were pretty grungy by then.

Here's some pictures of our little girls together. They have been buddies since before they could crawl. They were so cute together.

We just happened to have these matching outfits. We love to dress them cute and take them to the park. We had such fun with our little babies.


I love this picture. The image isn't the best but it showed how much fun they always had together. They were like little sisters.

They spent every halloween, every birthday, everything..together.

They played every day up until Gracie moved.

Our Cruise

We went on a cruise about a month ago. We had so much fun. The Royal Caribbean ship Enchantment of the Seas was our voyage vessel and it was beautiful. We went with Jenny and Jadie Giorgis and they were awesome cruisin' buddies. I would go on another cruise tomorrow if I could. It is definitely a fun, exciting, and relaxing way to vacation. We may not have had days and days to chill on the beach but we did have rock climbing, comedy shows, hula hoop and belly flop contests by the pool (no we didn't compete in either), awesome excursions, fantastic dinners, and the friendliest staff on ship helping us have a fun, stress-free time. I am still missing Troy's and my runs on the top of the ship - in the middle of the ocean, and well...I just miss our undivided time together. My husband is my favorite cruisin' buddy. Key West, Belize, and Cozumel were our ports. What beautiful places. Here are the pics... A dorky picture of me, but a a good shot of our ship ported in Cozumel, Mexico

Our boat departing from Ft. Lauderdale. It was so cool up to be at the top of the ship when it shipped out.

The southernmost point of the continental U.S. in Key west. We took a little trolley tour of the town. It was fun to see all the different historical sites of Key West...Earnest Hemmingway's House, Jimmy Buffet's house and so much more. We went snorkeling in Cozumel and in Belize we took an ATV ride through the jungle and saw Mayan Caves. For pictures of that, check out the Giorgis' blog. She was good and brought her camera all the time ...unlike us.

Our room was small, but it didn't feel like it. It is bigger than it looks in the picture. It was cute with all these little nooks and cranny's for our stuff. Or room attendant was great at keepin it so clean. The Giorgis' room had a connecting door. It was fun to be neighbors.

Our room attendant would make the cutest towel animals when he turned down our bed for the night. I am not sure if this is a doggie or an elephant.

What do you think this one is? A Penguin..with arms?

We jumped on a Bungee trampoline on the top deck of the ship. It was pretty exhilarating to jump up above the ship in the middle of the ocean. I think I just really liked being in the middle of the ocean :)

The rock climbing was on the top deck as well. We felt cool - although we didn't look it.

The formal dinner night was a lot of fun. We had two other great couples to at our table. We sat together every night. By the end of the trip we were sadly hugging goodbye. The food was soooo good. I discovered that I don't love duck, but I sure do love lobster. Of course, the desserts were my favorite.

The "My Fair Lady" dining room was beautiful. It had two levels. We loved to watch the ocean and the sunset while we ate dinner.

This is just one of the displays at the midnight buffet. It was amazing the art they could make with food.

Me and my buddy Jenny. Yeah...it's windy up there.

Goodbye ship. We still miss you.

Happy Birthday to me and Brittney

With mine on the 7th and Britt's on the 12th, April is full of cake for us... white cake with white buttercream frosting to be specific. Nothing short of that will do. Since we both love cake, it is a good deal.

We went to Charlestons with our family for my birthday. I told Troy not to give me a present because we bought plane tickets for Braedyn and I to Mesa, AZ in May. He suprised me with a pedicure/manicure gift card at dinner. It thought that was so sweet.

We kept Brittney's birthday pretty simple. It rained on her birthday...bummer. We went to Burger King for lunch with Grandma and Grandpa so she and Braedyn could play around in the play area. We had family come over for cake and presents in the afternoon. Brittney had fun opening all her toys. She really liked her new swimsuit. It was a fun day for her.

Brittney loved her new swimsuit! She didn't' want to take it off.

She kept trying to bite the balloon. She loves to do anything I tell her not to do.

See "Baby Susie" in Brittney's arms? She is her constant companion.

Charleston's on my Birthday.