Brylee's 1st Birthday Party

We had the best time this weekend at Brylee's big first birthday party. Aside from the weather being really windy and cold in the morning, it warmed up and was fun! The kids played, played, played. Brylee went all morning without a nap, running on sugar, and crashed right as we were packing up to leave. Here she is digging in her giant cupcake. This is the pan made by Wilton's that I had so much trouble with (the outside would burn before the middle was done) so I have finally mastered it! Yay! Bake it at 250 degrees for a little over an hour (low heat for extended time). It was perfect! Figured it out the night before the party.. thank God! Kristie did the wonderful icing on it.. I am NOT good at that! :)

Here is Miss Happy enjoying all her party fun! It was too cold for the tutu so we just slid it on over her jeans for some great pictures!

Here is all the cupcake goodies. Cupcake pops were a hit.. took me 3 hours to make them all! Kristie made 85 regular cupcakes (she woke up at 6 am the day of the party.. isn't she the great?!)

Everybody had fun and we had fun just spending time with our closest friends and family together!

My friend, Brooke, was there, who did the girls wonderful pictures back in January. What can I say? She is seriously the best! I love all the pics I have seen of hers so far. Click here to go to her site and see the sneak peek. I will post some more as soon I get the disc from her (no rush, Brooke! I know you have plenty to get done right now!)

Enjoy all these pictures and share in our fun! ((Don't forget to click on the collages so you can see all the pictures up closer))

Next party: Dylan's hot wheels party on April 11th... :)

Prayer Request

This is a blog I follow of a woman I have never met whose precious, baby son is in desperate need of your prayers..

Brylee's Little Party

We had family over last night to have a little party for Brylee on her actual birthday. I made her a pink cake (of course) and we sang Happy Birthday to her. She was cute.. she didn't care about the singing because she was too busy scraping the icing of the cake! Braelyn and Dylan loved it all because they got to eat lots of junk food :) We had a fun day and the weather was nice so they got to play outside till dark.

In case you missed this face in the last post.. :)

Digging in the cake while we were singing to her..
Eating a whole chunk.. :)
Braelyn enjoying her sister's birthday cake.. She always just eats the icing off (Mommy's girl).. Oh ya, I made cupcake pops and they didn't turn out a disaster this time.. !!!
I was a little emotional going to sleep last night knowing that they will never be babies again. Jeff and I talked about how big they are getting and how it is so bittersweet to watch them grow. We love that they get older and more fun because they can do more things but they will never be this small again. These are the days we will always remember.. with two little babies. I feel so blessed.

Brylee's big party is this Sunday and I think I am almost ready. Just a few things to get done.. and lots of cupcakes to make! :) Have a good weekend.. pics from the party soon!

Happy 1st Birthday, Happy!

We made it! Happy is officially one year old! I can't believe it!

Here we were one year ago today.. (click on the collage)

Brylee Faith

March 26, 2008

7:51 am

7lb 13 oz

20 1/4 inches long

This is Brylee today in her birthday shirt I made. It says "Happy Birthday to ME!" My silly, sweet baby. Brylee and Braelyn keep us laughing all day long..

Here is the blog I wrote on my MySpace just a couple days after she was born..

Well Brylee Faith finally made it here! We went to the hospital at 5:00 AM on Wednesday and they got me all prepped and started an IV and I got to answer lots of questions. About 7:00 the anetheseologist came in and talked to me all about my spinal and how she does them. She was honestly one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She sat next to me during the surgery and talked me thru the whole thing and let me ask her a million questions. She was such a blessing. My doctor came in at 7:15 and said baby was looking great on the monitor and let's do this! :) Most of our family and friends were there at this point and I got to hug everyone as they wheeled me back. Jeff and I were both nervous wrecks now and shaking when we got back to the operating room! Jeff got all scrubbed up. They sat me on the table, I leaned forward on Jeff and they gave me a spinal.. which was the most painless thing ever! They laid me down, hooked me up to the monitors and I began to feel very numb. It's weird cause the spinal takes so much pain away that it feels like you arent breathing but the anestheseologist kept reassuring me that I was breathing perfect and she had an ear piece in her ear listening to my chest which was cool. They did some pinch tests to make sure I wasn't feeling pain (which I could still feel at first but we waited a couple more minutes) and then they began the surgery. I felt no pain at all but lots of pressure and pulling. Since Brylee was fairly large they almost had to lay on me to push her down while the doctor was pulling her out.. that defintley felt a little awkward but still no pain. Brylee came out screaming (which is always a good thing) and they lifted her over the sheet so I could see her... my second sweet princess! Jeff's first comment was she looks just like Braelyn.. and she does! I was so relieved she was there and healthy. I wanted to know how much she weighed and all that because I had been so worried about her being too small but they had to take her to the nursery first to find out. Jeff and Brylee went off to the nursery while I was sewn up for the next 45 minutes.. it seemed like forever cause I was ready to go hold her! It was very cool, I was so alert this time and remember everything. They called back to the OR to tell me she was 7lb 13 oz and 20 1/4 inches long.. I was sooo relieved! She was big and healthy.. very good for two weeks early! I was then taken down to the recovery room for a couple of hours and everyone came to see her. We spent the next two nights at the hospital and I was ready to walk the very next morning. This c-section was seriously almost painless.. I got up took a shower, walked down the hall with no problem at all. I feel so blessed after my cesarean with Braelyn was really hard and a really hard recovery! I also had no staples this time which helps.. only dissolving stiches. Even since I have been home I am feeling VERY little pain and almost none at all now which is cool cause I can actually get around and take care of the girls. Everyone says your second one is easier and believe me IT IS!
Of course, everyones question is how is Braelyn liking her.. and she is doing awesome! The first time she came into to see her she kinda panicked and wanted nothing to do with her but she warmed up by the end of the day. Now she is obsessed with her.. always wanting to hold her, give her bottles and shove the pacifier in her mouth lol! She hasn't seemed to be jealous yet but we are really going out of our way to spend time with her when the baby is sleeping so she doesnt think her whole life just changed. She's a very good big sister.
I am feeling VERY blessed to have two happy, healthy and beautiful little girls and I cannot wait to watch them grow! I really appreciate everyone who came to see us and meet Brylee and your messages and prayers made everything more special. Love you guys!

Makes me smile to read it all over again. What a fun day that was! I am spending today playing with the kids and baking Brylee a cake to eat tonight. Of course, she will have a big party this weekend but I wanted to do something special for her today too. You only get ONE first birthday! :)

One year ago today..

One year ago today, I was a nervous, anxious, excited disaster. I was 30 (almost 40) pounds heavier and much more tired. I knew that coming the next day I would be delivering my second precious princess. I was at the finish line with a really hard pregnancy full of really high blood pressure, too many appointments and ultrasounds and a few hospital stays. I was emotionally drained and ready to hold my precious baby. I was worried about her being too small, since she was being taken early, and even more worried about her being healthy and not affected by all the problems I had while she was in me. I wrote on a blog on my MySpace on this day, last year, and here is what it said:

TOMORROW IS THE BIG DAY!! :)
Well here we are.. tomorrow we will have TWO princesses! It seems so unreal.. I am soo nervous but ready to be there and have my sweet Brylee to hold! This pregnancy has been so much tougher than when I had Braelyn.. I feel like I worked so hard for Brylee but I know she will be worth it! It's hard for me to comprehend that tomorrow I will be the mommy of 2!! Jeff and I have been so blessed with Braelyn and it's hard to explain how your heart grows when you have a baby (unless you are a mom and then you know) and I can't wait to see how much more joy we have when Brylee is here to love too!
I know I have so much that I need to do today to get ready for tomorrow but I keep finding myself on the floor playing with Braelyn... I feel like this is the last time it's just me and her.. it's bittersweet! I just have to think of it as next week we will have a new play buddy and I know as Braelyn and Brylee grow up together they will love that they always had each other to make their life more fun! I can't wait to watch them grow up together and hear all the little giggles our house is gonna be filled with!! There is just something special about having girls... you feel the need to protect them so much and shelter them from everything bad in the world! They are so innocent and sweet.. even when they are bad! LOL I can remember the first time I held Braelyn and the first time I heard her cry and I can't wait to have all those memories with Brylee too.
Well I'm off to get some things accomplished before the big day and we appreciate all the prayers for tomorrow. I know Brylee will be here happy and healthy before I know it! Love you guys!

Can you tell I was freaking out? Haha! Little did we know what was in store for us the following day. I will wait till tomorrow to share all the details of Brylee's birth and that expierence. Here I am today, one year later, still filled with excitement and still thinking this is all bittersweet. I cannot wrap my mind around my baby being ONE tomorrow. She has filled our lives with more joy than we could have ever imagined. Brylee Faith, our Happy, your mommy and daddy love you more than you will ever know.. and Braelyn Grace too! Sweet, sweet little girls.. the world is a better place because of you!

And just for your entertainment and giggles.. this is what I looked like 37 weeks pregnant with Brylee (and turning my face so they would quit taking pictures of me!).

What are you thankful for?

Today on the way back from a present shopping trip to Walmart, I was asking the kids what they were thankful for. I described to a 2 year old and 4 year old what it means to be thankful and told them how we are blessed. I asked Braelyn what she was thankful for and she said "I am fankful (thankful) for my toys!" Not exactly what I was getting at but I am sure a 2 year old is thankful for toys. Dylan said he was thankful for "my daddy and daddy's truck". All boy, but good answer :)
So Dylan decided to ask me what I was thankful for and I went on and on listing everyone and everything I was thankful for so they would see how much we have to be thankful for. At the end I added "OH! And I am thankful that it's sunny today and beautiful and warm!" Dylan quickly repiled "I am NOT thankful for the sun cause it's always shining in my eyes!" I could not help but laugh. It's true, the sun IS always in our eyes. So we are going to be thankful we can go buy sunglasses ;) Oh, I love kids! I think I should write a book of things Dylan and Braelyn say.. Haha!
Count your blessings.. but don't count the sun! ;)

Parties, parties, parties..

Our weekend was surprisingly uneventful. Friday we did nothing :) Saturday, Jeff and I went to a movie with Ashley and Chris and got just a mini "kid break"! We saw "I love you, Man". It was pretty funny! Sunday, James and I took the kids to Buffalo Gap to the flea market and out to the State Park. I absolutely love Buffalo Gap. It is so little and cute. They have giant trees that grow over the curvy road that goes through the tiny town. If we could move there today, I would! The trip to the State Park was basically just to check out locations for Braelyn's party (yes, in July.. I am almost done planning it lol). But really... If you haven't been to the Abilene State Park it is so much fun. They have a pool open in the summer and tons of camp sites, picnic areas, trails to hike.. so fun! We will definitely be making some trips there this summer!

We have officically reserved a location for Dylan's 5th birthday party coming up in April. He turns 5 on April 12th, which happens to be Easter this year.. so we are planning his party for April 11th at The Jump Around. He is so excited and asks me everyday if today is his party.. ha! He picked the theme Hot Wheels.. I am not going to lie.. attempting to plan his party has has made me appreciate my GIRLS so much! Boys stuff is just not as cute! How do mom's of boys do this?! I can't be all cute with sweet party ideas with a five year old who is always covered in dirt and talking about his poop! Haha, but I sure do love that stinky little boy! I decided to make his invitations myself this time. My VERY first attempt so don't judge me too hard. I think I can do this though and I am going to make Braelyn's this summer, as well. You don't even know how bad I wanted to throw a "princess" or some pink in there! ;)Thursday is Princess Happy's FIRST BIRTHDAY so look forward to some posts I have been working on for Wednesday and Thursday. ;) If you haven't seen her invitations yet.. I ordered them from autumns-creek.com. This was the proof she had sent me for approcal so ignore the watermark (I never scanned one for my computer before I sent them all out.. whoops!)
I am crazy obsessed with this party planning and knew that Brylee's would be cupcake theme when she was 3 months old (that's a little embarassing). So, Braelyn turns 3 in July and I am 100% on a theme and now searching, searching, searching for what all I need to order to make it happen. More on that after I get through Brylee and Dylan's parties..

What a beautiful week the weather man is predicting. We have so much to be thankful for! Count your blessings today..

This and that..

So if you have been trying to keep up, my week looked something like this..
Monday- trip to the ER to attempt BB removal from Dylan's ear.. attempt failed. Jeff got a new car that we actually love!
Tuesday- Dylan to the ear doctor.. painful BB removal successful.
Wednesday- playdate/picnic at the park. Brylee to doctor for allergic reaction to sulfa. Ear are clear (a praise).
Thurday- major spring cleaning of the house.. room by room I am trashing everything.
Which bring us to today. We aren't doing anything and it's glorious!



Here is a little video of me and Chris (one of Jeff's best friends) making Brylee walk. This video was taken last week so she's doing better now. She only wants to walk TO MOMMY! This princess is the definition of a mommy's girl.. I love her ;)

How many times do I have to mention.. this girl loooves to swing! I'm not sure if the picture above is cute or evil?! :)

Can you tell who rules the house these days? Little Miss Happy, herself!

Braelyn trying to share with her baby sister..

That about sums it up. No big plans for the weekend so no promise of a good weekend update! lol Have a blessed week.. and CLICK HERE!! (Did you think you were going to get away without that one?)

20 months apart..

Click on this collage to see it bigger..

Braelyn (12 months old) and Brylee (11 months old) in the same dress 20 months apart. So many resemblances except Braelyn has lighter eyes and way more hair!! LOL Same big eyes, nose and fat cheeks! ;)

She's allergic to..

Sulfa... it's in antibiotics. Now we know! Don't worry, she is feeling fine and is happy as she looks. One week till her first birthday!! (Ears are clear and infection free!)

And her sister is allergic to penicillin. Braelyn on New Years Eve 2007. She was about 17 months old..

Can you hear me now?

The title is appropriate because we had a bad ear weekend/beginning to the week. Friday night, Happy went to sleep with a low fever. I gave her some Motrin, figured it was part of teething, and out she went. She woke up at 4 am with 103 degree fever! I took her to the doctor early Saturday morning and you guessed it.. double ear infection again! :( They started an antibiotic and she held on to her fever until late Sunday.. three full days of HIGH fever, coming and going between doses of Motrin. Needless to say, it was pretty miserable and sleep less. Sunday, she seemed to be improving so we agreed on a little outing to the zoo since it was really warm outside. We had a lot of fun! See Jeff's adorable pregnant cousin below? I can not wait until Baby Addison gets here! Anyways, all was clear (but probably still infected, we will see at the recheck) by Monday morning.

Which brings us to our next "ear related" problem. Monday, at lunch, I noticed the outside of Dylan's ear was red and he had scratched it. I told him to come here so I could look at it. The results were shocking! He had shoved a plastic, orange BB way down in his ear. After some scrambling, James and I took him to the ER (thanks, Ashley, for watching the girls!). The ER doctor could not get it out because it was really stuck. Dylan told us "I found it under my daddy's bed and it was shiny and orange so I shoved it in my ear.." Simple as that! LOL! I am not going to lie.. we tried a million things at home to try to get that little sucker out! Haha! It was not budging so they made him an appointment with the ear, nose and throat doctor for today. We just got back. The BB has been successfully removed but it was pretty brutal. It took me and two nurses pinning him down so the doctor could pry it out of his ear. It was very sad and pretty painful for him. In the end, I promised him ice cream and he sure did enjoy it! I am 99% sure his lesson was learned and probably Braelyn and Brylee will never put anything in their ears because they got to watch the torture at the doctor's office. So glad that is over. There's a moral here.. Here are the pictures of him in the big chair in the emergency room..

Hopefully we have a smoother rest of the week than our beginning! Whew..
Of course, I am not going to stop nagging you until you donate to my March of Dimes walk that I will be doing here in Abilene on April 25th. So here is what you can do.. go HERE and read all about my team and why we have chosen to participate in this event and then.. go donate to my team! We are trying to raise $1000 for March of Dimes and even your ONE DOLLAR will help!!
Have a blessed week! I'll let you know when more drama unfolds.. never a boring day in my life! ;)

A week of firsts..

or at least first tries! Our babies are officially growing like weeds. Let me fill you in...

• Brylee is learning to walk. There are so many attempts everyday and so far, only one, maybe two, steps but she is getting close. She thinks it is hilarious to try to walk and giggles the whole time. It is so entertaining to watch her. Brylee is also being weaned off the bottle (cue scary music here). She loves bottles and really doesn't want to take a sippy cup but mommy is determined and this week she has had apple juice and regular milk from the cuppy (since she will be one in two weeks). Hopefully in the next couple weeks we can be formula/bottle free!

Who could resist these cheeks? We love her so much!

This is a walking attempt..

• Braelyn is a pacifier baby/toddler/big girl. She has loved her "sucker" since the day she was born. I have always defended her and let her have it since I used mine till I was probably 3 years or older (Aunt Bev, how old was I? Too old I know!). So at age 2, I only semi laid down the law. I said sucker only when she was sleeping, naps or at night. That has worked for the past seven months. Now, Braelyn is pushing 3 and I decided it's gotta go. Since I know there would be no weaning process for her, we just went cold turkey. So far, so good. We are only on week 3 of no pacifier at all. I will say this.. when Braelyn and Brylee are sleeping with us (which is almost every night) occasionally I will wake up and Braelyn will have stole the sucker from her little sister. Haha, I allow it for a second and then give it back to the baby. Braelyn is still a baby too, right? :) Anyways, I am proud of her for knowing it was time for the sucker to go and hopefully, we don't have a regression!



Big girl, Braelyn, before gymnastics last week! She is so cute!

• And finally, Dylan. My rotten little nephew (haha) will be 5 in April and his Daddy decided it was time for the training wheels to go off the bike. This is long overdue and he has gone way too long dependent on the training wheels. So the weather has been nice (well the first of the week and last weekend, it's 35 and raining now!) so it was time. James took them off and tried, tried, tried to teach Dylan. Dylan was trying too but he was really not into it and not quite getting the balance and that you have to put your feet down when you stop. So, ultimately, the training wheels went back on BUT they will be off for good in the near future (think: next week). Dylan made good effort though with only one little fit of "I want them back on NOW!" Haha! We are still proud! Here he is being taught by daddy:
  

Moment of truth: Daddy was taking the training wheels off...

If you haven't already donated to my March of Dimes walk, now is the time! :) Visit my site at http://www.marchforbabies.org/cel02a This is a great organization and an awesome opportunity to give back!

March of Dimes in Abilene, Texas

In case you missed it on my myspace, facebook and email.. I am putting together a team to walk in the March for Babies here in Abilene on April 25th. Our team, Thomas Lane, is named after my brother who was born 3 months premature back in July 1980. The picture above is Thomas, my family's teeny tiny angel :)

The money we raise for March for Babies will help:

• support all-important research offering preventions and solutions for babies born too soon or with birth defects


• educate women on things they can do to increase their chances of having a healthy baby


• provide comfort and information to families with a newborn in intensive care


• push for newborn screening and health insurance for all pregnant women and children.

This is a great opportunity for a great cause. There are two ways you can help me and my team:

a) donate money through our team at http://www.marchforbabies.org/teams/thomaslane

or b) join us for this awesome day of walking with friends for a great cause! Join my team here..

Just this morning, $100 has been raised by two generous donations! Help us out! Join my team or donate to March of Dimes.. or do BOTH! :) I am passionate about this cause because so many families lose their babies to birth defects, prematurity, etc or spend long trips in the NICU. You can help ;)

Weekend Update

We had a fun weekend, as always. Friday night, Chris and Kristie got here and we didn't do much... watched a movie and went to sleep. Saturday, Kristie and I got up early and went and got things to begin our "baking day". We made cute cupcakes, cupcake pops and the giant cupcake. We had bad luck, to say the least. The pops are SO hard! Help, Bakerella, lol! I am going to try them again but we ended up scratching the mini-cupcake idea and just made cake pops (balls). I am determined though so I will let you know how it turns out. The giant cupcake was better than previous tries but still not perfect. For some reason, it burns on the outside and is still batter in the middle. It's too deep of a pan. All the blogs I have been reading on the pan say it's really hard to get right so I am doing a little more searching cause I know we can do better than we did! STRESS, I want it all to be perfect for the party. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the baking.. I forgot cause I was so annoyed with it all, I guess.
Saturday night, Jeff's parents had volunteered to watch the kids so we could go out. Yay! I always miss them but it's fun to spend time with friends sans kids :) We took Chris and Kristie to eat at one of our favorites, Fuji's Japanese Steak House. It was delicious and we had fun. Nick and Maher met us there and Virginia and Ashley came a long too. We had fun! Here are some pictures from dinner..

Sunday morning, we got up and had breakfast at Ihop and then picked up the kids around lunch. They had fun at Jamom and Jampa's. We took them to the park to play since we had missed them. I got so many cute pictures of them at the park.. so I had to share. Sweet Happy was being a big girl swinging, sliding and crawling thru tunnels. Oh, how we love her! What a good addition she was ;)

And of course, my baby Braelyn had fun too! She is such a kid, not baby now! Makes me sad! :( I miss my BABY Braelyn but she is having so much fun being independent and bossing us around :) I couldn't live without her..

Here is all of us playing together... I love these guys!

Well, that about sums it up! Good fun with good friends and family.. seems to be my life's theme :)

My blessing of the week.. :)

If this turns in to the world's longest blog.. I am sorry. It is close to my heart and too cool not too share. This weekend I was looking on a friends blog, Liz Tarrant (she just had twins, go look.. haha!) and I saw this lady who had left her a comment. I was just playing around on the internet so I clicked on her blog. I was browsing around her site I saw that her daughter had ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.. look it up if you don't know.. it's also called Lou Gehrig's disease). It immediately intrigued me because, as most of you know, I lost my mother to ALS in May 1999, almost ten years ago. As I kept looking, I was thinking this sounds all too familiar. Her name is Linda and her daughter, who has been battling ALS for over 15 years now, Marcie. So, I sent her an email and told her how I knew she would probably think I was crazy but I was wondering if she knew my mom and if she was part of the same research my mom had been a part of (it was a trial drug for the cure for ALS, it has seen been proven faulty and obviously did not work). She wrote back quickly and said no, her daughter was not part of the study but yes, she knew my mom and had met with my mom and grandmother back in 1994 or 1995 for lunch to talk and discuss about ALS and basically just get some support from someone going through the same thing. I immediately began crying. I knew that I knew them somehow. The names were familiar. ALS is a strange and brutal disease, to say the least, and most people are diagnosed in their 40's or 50's and often only live 3 to 5 years. Her daughter, Marcie, was diagnosed at 23 and has been battling for 15 years now. She is a miracle and has broken the mold, praise God! On Linda's blog she had the picture above "Never give up" and I commented to her that I remember we had this hanging in our house, in fact on my mom's mirror on her vanity, when I was a kid and she was battling ALS. She emailed me a copy and said maybe she had given it to my mom and indeed, she did. When I looked closer, I recognized the tiny numbers at the top. I have no idea what ever happened to my mom's copy but I now have one and plan on keeping it forever.

I love the internet in that it reconnects people in so strange ways. Linda and Marcie may never know how much they touched our lives in little ways. I find joy in knowing they were able to spend time with my amazing mother and my mother was able to spend time with them. Please spend time praying for Marcie, every day if you could, and for Linda and her family who work 24/7 taking care of Marcie. I watched my grandmother, in exhaustion, every single day taking care of my mother and believe me, it is an emotionally and physically draining job! This is Linda's blog.. go let her know you are praying for her and for Marcie. God is good and doesn't He really work in mysterious ways? I needed that and I am glad Linda and Marcie just "popped up" up on my computer screen. Thanks, Liz, for knowing them.. haha! You didn't even know you were helping me out! :) Hope this story encouraged yall a little, like it did me.

Be blessed this weekend!

This is the MDA website with the ALS division. Go read about ALS and this site has many ways you can help ALS research through MDA, even if you aren't rich and have tons of money to give away, there are ways to help. And, if you see an MDA Shamrock for sale anywhere (I know for sure they are at Lowe’s, Albertsons, Lawrence Brothers or Wes-T-Go Convenience Stores) be sure to give $1, that's all it takes. I emailed the lady in charge of MDA programs in the West Texas area and she sent me back some dates of ways to help or donate...

1) Firefighters Fill the Boot in Abilene/Dyess area is May 7-9 (you know they come by your car and want you to give a dollar in their stinky, old boot) Be on the lookout for them that weekend.

2) MDA Lock-Ups where community members are “locked-up” to serve time for all of Jerry’s “kids” in Abilene is June 10th.

3 ) And of course the Labor Day Telethon is Labor Day Weekend-September 6-7.. call and make any donation!

Friday :)

Can it really be Friday already?! We had a busy week, like always, but we loved it! Here are some collages that will give a run down of some of our activities..

Matching outfits in different colors.. how long have you been reading my blog? What else did you expect? ;)

Braelyn at gymnastics.. she loves it and I love it too cause I get to spend time alone with her. Isn't she adorable? The sweet little chunky monkey in purple is her friend, Nevaeh. Her mommy, Rikki, is my friend and they get to be in this class together. We have fun!

And of course, playing outside.. Happy is always telling us how old she is going to be in just 3 weeks.. can you spot it? We love her!

And just a couple favorites..

Today as I was mopping all the floors, I thought man I love this smell. Let me share..

Fabuloso: I use it to mop my floors and it makes my house smell awesome alll daaay loong! I love it and I also use the spray to clean the counters, stove, bathroom, etc. Invest in some for your house :)

Chris and Kristie are coming this weekend to hang out and Kristie and I have some serious baking practice to get done before Happy's party. I want to make sure we can make it all perfect before the big day.. so look forward to story of baking chaos :)

Have a Happy Weekend!!!

Happy 3rd Anniversary to US!

Well.. two kids, two dogs, bought a house and three years later.. here we are! :)

And here we were on March 5, 2006..

I love you, Jeff, more everyday! You are the best husband and daddy in the world! Braelyn, Brylee and I are three spoiled girls! Thanks for who you are and all you do..

And the winner is..

In case you checked out the tutu's yesterday.. I picked this one! Ultimately, I just couldn't resist these colors and the cupcake.. too cute for such a good price! So look forward to seeing Princess Happy in this attire at the best first birthday bash of the year!! The lady I ordered this from has the cutest little Etsy store.. Sweetie Pie Tutu's

Braelyn was more than thrilled that her Uncle Stinky made a very short trip to Abilene last night.. just to pick something up real quick. This morning she told me "Uncle Stinky kissed me!". Ha ha, please don't let this be a sign of future boy craziness! Jeff immediately said, "Braelyn, boys are stinky!" ;) Daddy just had to throw that out there...

Busy day...

Have a blessed week! Gotta run!

Which birthday tutu?! HELP!

I am in debate about which tutu and onesie to order for Brylee's birthday party.. They are all so cute! Of course, the theme is cupcake so there are two of them with cupcakes but I also love the "1" onesies... HELP! Leave me a comment THANKS!!

TUTU# 1 (hot pink tutu with number 1 with polka dots on onesie)

TUTU #2 (light pink tutu with cupcake on onesie)

TUTU#3 (hot pink, green and blue tutu with cupcake on onesie)

TUTU #4 (hot pink, light pink and white tutu with "1" on light pink onesie)

All cute.. HELP! :)

Leave me a comment of which is your favorite!!