Family Vacations...

Sisters...

Cousins My Beautiful Girls...

Kayla Brooke

Melissa Nicole

My Family

Family Vacations are the BEST!! We enjoyed our family vacation to the beach SO much this year. My family has been going to Sunset Beach in North Carolina for 23 or 24 years and we intend to keep up the tradition as long as we can. I think I have talked Ray into letting us go there every year instead of just every other year with my whole family. I LOVE it there!! I would recommend Sunset Beach to everyone.

This year our little family rented our own home there instead of staying with ALL of my immediate family. Over the years we have grown and grown in number (15) and now, there are just too many of us to stay in one house. My girls really enjoyed our little house up on the sticks. It was a small 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with a 5 minute walk to the beach. PERFECT! We had so much fun. We spent most of the time on the beach and at the 2 houses... we did go to Broadway at the Beach one night and our girls made baby dolls at "Friends To Be Made." Evan made a Dinosaur. Those two shops are located in the "Build A Bear Workshop." It was fun watching the girls pick out their dolls and clothes, curl their hair, etc. Ray and I went on a date while there too! CiCi babysat for us and we went out to dinner and then shopping to my VERY FAVORITE store.. Callahan's. I love the atmosphere there AND it has a Christmas shop so we bought our Christmas tree ornaments for this year. Shopping AND Christmas music... I LOVE it there! Each night we took turns cooking dinner and I really appreciate all of the effort that everyone put into feeding all of us. The food was SO yummy! One day Ray took care of the girls for the ENTIRE day so that I could fish on the pier with my Dad and Brother Jeremy. We didn't catch as many fish as we would like to have caught, but we DID catch some pretty horrible sunburns. My girls caught a lot of fish from the dock behind my parent's house... they were SO cute reeling those things in. They are quite good at it. :)

All in all, we LOVED our vacation! We were able to relax while enjoying family time. PERFECT. I am looking forward to next year.

Sunset Beach

We are having fun at the beach!! Will post about it later. This is my favorite picture so far. :)

Never growing up

I had an interesting conversation with Melissa today during lunch. She said, "Mom, wouldn't it be funny if when we prayed we said please bless us that we won't grow, that we will stay the same and not get any older?" I laughed and said yes and asked her why she would say that. She said, "I don't want to get any older because then I can't play with my toys or ride Kayla's bike." I told her that was true but that she also wouldn't be able to get married and have babies of her own if she stayed a little girl. (She talks about having her own children all of the time!) She said, "Yes I will. I can go to the "put the baby in" doctor and then after the baby grows I can go to the "take the baby out" doctor to get the baby out." WHAT?? Oh dear... I didn't know how to answer that one... Technically, that is how we have babies at our house. I saw a fertility doctor to get pregnant with her and have had cesareans with both of the girls. After MUCH conversation, I finally told her that Heavenly Father doesn't let children have babies and that she needed to be an adult and married before she had one. She said, "Well, okay, but I'm not going to grow up for a few more years." She is ALWAYS thinking!!

Sisters

This is a picture of Me with my Sisters... aren't we cute?

Last Ballet Class

Melissa just before leaving for her last ballet class of the year. My friend Linda made these super cute bows. Melissa and Kayla LOVE them!

Melissa and Glenn's Wedding Weekend

We really enjoyed celebrating Glenn and Melissa's reception weekend with everyone. Here are some of the highlights!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mother's Day Sweetness...

I HAD to post a picture of these cinnamon rolls! They were SOOOOO good! These are some of the sweet things the girls and Ray gave me for Mother's Day. I am so blessed.

Mommy Weekend

This has been the BEST weekend! This morning I was instructed to "Go Back To Bed!" by Melissa. When I asked her why she said, "I can't tell you that you are getting breakfast in bed, so go back to bed!" I quickly obeyed. A few minutes later the girls and Daddy-O brought me the BIGGEST, FLUFFIEST, HOMEMADE cinnamon rolls, eggs, bacon and milk. YUMMY! The rolls were literally the best ones I have ever had. Sorry Mom, even yours! I am blessed to have a husband who loves to bake. :) Kayla decorated a wooden puppy dog wall plaque and gave me a beautiful picture, a vase that I have been wanting (it is small and perfect for all of the yard flowers I receive) and some Reeses peanut butter cups... yum! Melissa gave me a picture, balloon and a birdhouse that she painted. They are beautiful. Ray gave me my favorite Gerber Daisies and a FUNNY card that no one will ever see... the card, not the flowers! I have been showered with kisses and hugs and all of this before 11 AM. I am so blessed.

Friday I took Melissa on a Girl's Day Out and we were out for about 7 hours! We started our day with haircuts, shopped, and had a chocolate chip pretzel for late breakfast. We shopped and shopped and had lunch then we shopped and shopped some more. On the way down the driveway when we were leaving I asked Melissa if there was anything she wanted to talk about, she said, "Dinosaurs." We talked about dinosaurs and then counted to 100. After that she LITERALLY talked the rest of the time we were gone. The only time she paused was to chew her food. I LOVED it! We talked about Heaven, family, doctors, gardening, shopping, money, shoes, vacation, Glenn and Melissa's reception, and so many other things. We had so much fun!

On Saturday I took Kayla for her Girl's Day Out. We went shopping at Kohl's and she was so pleased that I let her walk instead of putting her in the stroller. She touched just about everything we walked past, made everyone giggle in the restroom talking about her pee pee and poop and then sang REALLY loud in the dressing rooms. She said, "I can hear myself!" We then went out to lunch and then the Dollar Store. She was so pleased to purchase a pair of Cinderella socks all by herself. She smiled the whole time! I have decided to try to have some sort of a Girl's Day Out every month.

I love being their Mom. When I was little the only thing I really wanted to "be" when I grew up was a Mommy. It is definitely harder than I could have ever imagined, but it is also more rewarding and amazing than I could have EVER imagined. I have been blessed with the best, most loving little girls and I cannot picture my life without either of them. Happy Mother's Day for all of the Mommies out there!

Kayla's Testimony

My little Kayla amazes me. She is 2 years old and went up in front of the entire congregation to bear her testimony yesterday. We were listening to the other people share their testimonies and Kayla whispered to me that she wanted to "go up there" too. She asked her Daddy if he would take her up there. She changed her mind while the next person was talking, and then changed it again saying she wanted to go up by HERSELF instead of with Daddy. When Daddy tried to take her she was quite unhappy and didn't go with him. As he was speaking she realized that if she went up right then she WOULD be by herself. So, she headed up to the pulpit and stood beside her Daddy. When he was finished he held her up to the microphone and she smiled her biggest, best smile! That was it. She decided she didn't want to say anything out loud. I am SO proud of her for wanting to share her love for her family and the Gospel with everyone. We will work on it this next month and maybe she can try again next month.

Practicing for a Pandemic

With the Swine Flu recently reaching our county we decided it was time to bring out the face masks and have the girls play with them so that they will not be scared when the time comes for us to use them. They LOVED wearing them. They LOVED seeing Mommy wear one. Kayla likes that it tickles her nose and Melissa liked explaining to Kayla that this is the ONLY thing we are allowed to put over our mouth and nose. I think they will be just fine.