Dreams Do Come True!

Back in June we took a family vacation to Disney World. We had so much fun! This was everyone's first time except for Michael. He has been a couple of times as a kid. I cannot say enough about Disney...it was magical! Everything was beautiful and so well kept up. I have been to several amusement parks, and it sometimes just looks like things are not well kept up with. NOT Disney! They are the real deal. The park is beautiful...no trash...anywhere! They are totally on top of the game. The workers are all wonderful. You really felt like they truely loved what they do and that they loved being around children. I also felt totally safe in the park with the girls. Kate was in the stroller and we would have to leave our stroller at the "stroller parking" area at times, with countless other strollers. At first I was not comfortable with leaving our stuff out there while we rode a ride, but by the end of it I didn't even think twice about it.
We cannot wait to go back! We didn't want to leave! I took so many pictures, but I'm only going to post about 30! So please indulge me! :)
Disney truley is a place where Dreams Come True!

This is how Kate looked most of the time! SWEATY!!!!

This was the "FINDING NEMO" show. It was wonderful!

This was the "LION KING" show. It literally gave me goose bumps because it was sooooo good!

This was in front of our hotel

This picture cracks me up! Recognize it...May the force be with you!

Yes...we did get our family picture in front of the castle and all of the other recognizable places, but the Disney photographer took those pictures so I am going to have to order those :)

Enjoy!

Guess Who?

Hello! It's been forever since I've been on here. It has been a very busy month! Things are FINALLY starting to slow down. We went to Disney World and then to church camp. It took me about a week to recover from that and then before I knew it, another week has passed me by. I have so many pictures from the last month to post. So...instead of overloading you all at once I'm going to really try and post something everyday. The memory card on my camera is full, and it has NEVER been full!

Does your family play games? If not, you really should! It is such a bonding experience and really fun. Our family LOVES to play games. We try to have a family game night at least once a week. We play everything from Candy Land to Dominoes. Michael and I are both very competitive and we try to keep that in check when playing with Abby. (We love to play cards with our friends and I am known for throwing my cards at him because he makes me SOOO mad!) The other day when we were at Walmart I bought Abby "Guess Who?". Do you rememer that game? I loved it when I was a kid!

We got it home and put it together (boy, did that take a long time) and I taught Abby how to play it. We played several times througout the day and Abby couldn't wait to show Michael when he got home from work. When Michael did get home, Abby was so excited so show him her new game. She loves to talk and explain things. She started to tell him in detail how the game goes and how to play it. I figured Michael would say that he already knew how to play so I whispered in his ear to just let her explain the rules because she was so excited to tell him. After Michael and Abby played a couple of times I said "Isn't that game fun? Didn't you just love to play it when you were a kid?" And guess what? Michael said that he had never played "Guess Who?" I couldn't believe it. Well, Michael is now hooked on this game. You would think that he was 6 years old. In the directions it tells about how you can play while trying to guess 2 people. Each person gets 2 cards instead of one. We didn't think that would work very good, but when Michael and I tried it we had a lot of fun.

Last night after we put the girls to bed and finished the finale of Harper's Island ( I knew it was Henry, but I thought his motive was very weak! I was kinda disappointed) we were going to go to bed and Michael said "How about a game of Guess Who?" We played for 2 hours! I know...we are pitiful! But we had a lot of fun!

If you don't play games together as a family, you should try. It's a lot of fun! That's what a lof of kids are missing these days...special family time together. Besides playing games with just Abby...we (Michael and I) like to play cards, dominoes and other games like that, but I guess we can add "Guess Who?" to our list as well! :)

Talk to you tomorrow!

SCROLL DOWN!!! There are 3 new blog posts! The first one is "Last Week of School". I still need to post Kate's 1st birthday pictures, but it's 1 am and I'm tired!!!! I'll try posting tomorrow! Also, I will not be posting again for 2 weeks because we go to Disney World next week (YAY!) and then church camp. This is my first time to Disney World...any pointers???

Summer Fun

We have only been on summer vacation for a week and a half, but it has been so much fun already! I love being off with the girls. I WISH I were a stay at home mom! I love my job, but I love my kids MORE! Here are some of the things that the girls have been up too...

Posing by the couch. Kate loves to walk around from room to room. She loves to pick up things, throw them down, and move on to the next room. I spend a lot of my day going around and just making sure the doors are closed because she will get into ANYTHING!

Playing outside! We love it outside. We have 2 cute dogs who Abby loves to play with too!

Watching a little TV. Kate doesn't watch TV, except in the morning she will watch a little Mickey Mouse. Abby had been watching the Sprout channel and had left the TV on. I saw Kate watching Chicka, this little chicken, and I had to get a picture! So, NO my baby does not watch TV except for a little Micky Mouse in the morning.

Abby has successfully learned how to ride her bike withOUT training wheels. We tried this a few months back but we were unsuccessful. I was cooking dinner and Michael was outside with the girls. They called me out to show me what she could do! She hasn't put her bike down since! She learned in less than 5 minutes! I was impressed :)

Here's a video of her trying to master her bike riding skills!

I was cooking and got something out of the fridge and it didn't close all the way. Look who opened it up! She gets into EVERYthing I tell you! She wanted water as you can see!

Abby wanted to watch stars the other night. We were outside watching the stars and moon. She wants a telescope to see them with now!

Abby's 2nd Ballet Recital

Abby had her 2nd ballet recital. They performed "Beauty and the Beast." Abby takes ballet and tap. Her class were the "Flowers in the Palace Garden." She had 2 dances, tap and ballet. They were SO cute! I just love watching all of the little girls get up and dance! They are too cute and too funny!

She LOVES being on stage!

Here are some of the girls that were in the recital.

She had to sit on stage at the end of one of the dances.

Loves to pose!

The fun part about a ballet recital is the flowers. It is so much fun getting all the flowers afterwards. Most girls love this part...Abby is no exception! ha

You can't see the pretty flowes in the vase that Michael, Kate, and I got for her. You can barely see the top of them.

I also got her a necklace with ballet slippers on it. You can kinda see it here in this picture.

At this point it was 9:30 and Kate was out! So that is why she is not in this picture.

We can't wait for next year's recital!!!

Last Week of School!

Here is Abby on her last week of school! She had a wonderful year at her preschool and I am so sad to leave. We will be back when Kate's ready though! Here are a few shots of her on her last day. They painted these shirts to wear on the last day of school because they were having a "Under the Sea" day. Too cute!

Mother's Day

As I said in my last post, I've been so busy lately with the end of the school year, ballet, and soccer, that I seem to be posting things a week after they happen. So here is my Mother's Day post! I had a wonderful Mother's Day. I am so blessed to have happy, healthy children. My two beautiful girls are the center of my world and I love them so much. Every Mother's Day is special, but this one was extra special since it was my first one with Kate. She is quite the talker and walker these days. She spends most of her days just walking from room to room looking for something to get into. As she walks she also talks. It's something you would just have to hear. I'll try to get a video of it and put on here. We went to a Kindergarten preview day at Abby's school she will be attending next year. I LOVE the teacher that she will have next year. We actually went through the teaching program through college together. Going to this made it seem so real. We only have 3 days of preschool left. So sad!

Last night I had so much fun. Rarely do I get to go have dinner with just my GIRLfriends. I had dinner with 2 of my good friends, Jessica and Janie. It is always so much fun to get together with them. We laughed so hard that we cried. I always have a great time with them. We need to do it more often! Anyway...here are some pictures of Mother's Day, breakfast, and a birthday suit shot of Kate!

What a smile!

This is "Take 1". Of course Abby is NOT looking at the camera since Kate IS smiling AND looking at the camera. It looks like she is just looking at Michael in awe :)

"Take 2" Not that great a shot of Kate, but it'll do.

Kate LOVES to eat blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

This cracks me up. I had her clothes off because she was about to take a bath and she ran off. I found her looking out the back door at Dixie. You have to understand, Kate probally spends 40% of her day looking out the back door at Dixie, she LOVES that dog. I had to get a shot of this. She'll probally kill me one day! ha

Abby Celebrates Mother's Day and Kate Walks!

May and August are my 2 busiest times of the year...school ending (yeaaaaaa!!!!) and school starting. I am pulled in a million different directions. Since my last post, Kate has become quite an accomplished walker. I put up some pictures of her walking, but if you keep scrolling down you can see her in action. I call her "little Bambi". For about a week she would take a couple of steps, start stumbling to the side, and then fall. Michael was constantly asking her what she's been drinking. You would have thought her formula was spiked! ha Yesterday, Abby's class had their "Mother's Day Tea." This is a cute little tradition that her preschool does. Last year I was 37 weeks pregnant, about to pop, and I cried through the whole thing. My emotions were at an all time high, and I was so scared about how this new little baby was about to come into our lives...Would I have enough time for Abby? Would I have enough time for the baby? Would Abby still realize that I love her? All these questions...and the answer to all of them....YES!!!! So, this time I was faced with a whole new set of questions and fears...This is it for preschool...how will starting BIG school be? Will she stay this sweet forever? I am happy to report though that I only shed a few tears...not blubbering like last year. At this year's lovely tea they had a cute little plate that they had drawn on and decorated, a cute little hat pin for me to wear, cupcakes and fruit that they had prepared, and a picture that they decorated with answers to questions about their moms.

Let me read you Abby's answers to questions about me:

My mother's name is Shanna.

My mother is I think 15 years old.

My mother weighs 9 lbs. (I WISH!!!!)

My mother is 5 feet tall.

Her favorite food is pasta. ( I do like pasta, but I LOVE mexican food!)

I like it when my mother cooks macaroni.

My mother's favorite place to go is Wal-Mart (I laughed so hard at that one!!!)

When I am at school my mother is at school-teaches kids.

She was pretty close on a lot of them. :)

I also put a video of Abby's class singing their ABC song.

Here is Abby singing her songs!

The 3 girls...Best Friends...Abby, Kate, and Aryn

They're so cute...I wish they could go to school together next year!

Singing pretty :)



Here is the whole class. I'm going to miss her preschool so much. I just love it!

I thought this was so cute of Kate. CrAzY hair!!!

This picture is kinda blurry, but it was such a cute shot of her walking.

This cracks me up!!! She is running, laughing, and trying to catch me all at the same time.

No clothes....It's HOT here in Arkansas...and sticky!!!!

Look at those legs! Precious!!!

Wouldn't you love to know what they think?!?!?

Here's Kate WALKING!!!!!!

Michael was outside working on something so Kate was standing at the door watching him. You will also notice her bow hanging down off the side of her head. The child can't ever seem to keep her bows in!