We're halfway through birthday season...

Another birthday, another trip down memory lane. I think that there were so many nerves surrounding Katie's birth, that I was perhaps a little more excited for Sydney's arrival. I also longed for Katie to have a sibling, so this was especially precious, having another sweet little girl.
And if there was any doubt that Lance wouldn't be as excited as he was the first time around, I couldn't have been more wrong. (Despite adding another girl to our family meant he would be outnumbered 5 to 1, including our two female dogs!)
Sydney's first birthday.
Her 2nd birthday.
Although she looks very similar now to this picture from her 3rd birthday, she has lost all of her precious baby fat rolls and has grown several inches.

Speech Meet

I always thought that participating in a speech meet was optional. I, for one, would probably never have participated. Katie's school, which is K-8, requires first graders to participate in their annual Fall speech meet. I love this! One of our goals for Katie this year was to develop her self-confidence, particularly in front of her class. So this will hopefully be a positive experience for her. We just filmed this earlier this morning and there is still some fine tuning to do, but otherwise her selection is coming along great and we couldn't be more proud of her!

So we won't be getting that t.v...

LB took this pic of me and the kiddos tonight. It was a long day with Will, we have officially hit the terrible two's. He appears to be following the footsteps of Sydney, as he did not nap today--he just played happily in his crib for 2 freakin' hours, but never slept mind you! I am so NOT ready for him to stop napping! However, I just look at his sweet face and my heart melts. Tomorrow is a new day.
The wife of one of Lance's coworkers just had twin girls a couple of weeks ago. They are still in the NICU but doing well, which is awesome considering they were 7 or 8 weeks early! I love babies. I just can't stop finding little things for them, and buying two of everything is twice the fun. Especially when its pink. I used to hate pink but now pink and I have reconciled. Perhaps having two girls weakened my resolve. Plus my mother-in-law says I look good in pink. In this little gift basket are the final purchases I will be making for the bundles of joy--at least until Christmas rolls around! Have I mentioned that I love babies?

Finally, we have been saving and searching for the perfect new, bigger and better t.v. That was until last Sunday when our dishwasher broke. We still ate on real dishes Sunday night. Then I reluctantly dug into my stash of paper products with the full intent of having the kids use those while the adults still used the real deal. That worked for one full day. I did dishes 4 times on Monday. Keep in mind that we only eat 3 meals, I just had no idea how many dishes we actually use! It was overwhelming, therefore I had to spread it out a little. We had a very nice and honest repair man come look at it and he gave a very costly repair option. He also wisely suggested that it might be time to replace it, as it was nearing 10 years old and is run on a daily basis. With that happy news, we bought a new one. I was not happy to hear on Monday night that our new dishwasher could not be delivered and installed until the following Monday. My resolve to be as "green" as possible disappeared come Tuesday morning. I even made a special trip to the store to by paper bowls. I waited as patiently as I could but finally called on Wednesday afternoon to see if they could pretty please have it to us by the weekend. So I was thrilled when it arrived on Friday. Whew.
So there she is. Yes, its a she. Only a good girlfriend would so faithfully serve you without an ounce of complaint, day after day, meal after meal. Thanks to my wonderful husband for putting our t.v. purchase on the back burner for the time being. I think we are all in agreement that our new kitchen help was a necessity in keeping this a happy home. Maybe we'll get that new t.v. in time for the Superbowl?

It was organized chaos

What do you get when you have twelve 6 & 7 year olds, an almost 4-year-old, lots of sugar and some rock and roll? A party, that's what!
We celebrated Katie's 6th birthday, Hannah Montana style. We had hair glitter + We had H.M. temporary tattoos + We had crafts + We had games + We had pizza + We had cake + We had music = We had FUN!
Did I mention there was a lot of shrill screeching? (Good thing they're so cute!)
Our 2 games and 2 rather intense crafts (jewelry and painting,) did not take up as much time as we had planned on...
...so we turned on the music and I swear to you it was like a vision from the future, these girls LOVE to dance. No kidding, our family room resembled a mosh pit.
In the end, I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all. However, today I promptly took myself to McDonald's to pay for a deposit on Sydney's birthday party. As the last girl walked out the door yesterday, Lance said, "We won't be doing that again anytime soon."

Bon Voyage, Bek!

Bekah, one of our favorite nannies, babysitters, waterskiing friends, and just plain friend is headed to Germany for a whole year. It's bound to be a difficult period of time for all of us that love her so much! We will really miss you Bek!!!Will's just not that into hugs...

I mean, why hug a pretty girl when you could give her a big kiss?

Be our guest!

I just returned from taking our special friend, "Aunt Kate," to the airport. We had such a great time with her, we always enjoy having her and although she swears that she doesn't like kids, my kids adore her and I can't help but believe that the feeling is mutual. (She keeps coming back to visit, so that is somewhat of a confirmation!)

We love to have company. We have had a lot of company these last 4 months. Here is the run down:

June 18-23 Aunt Noni here from Baltimore,
June 28-July 5 My parents in town visiting,
July 16-August 6 Cockerhams here from NC, (they only stayed w/ us part of the time, but we had a lot of fun together every day!)
August 16-27 Co-workers here from London and KY, (they only stayed w/ us part of the time, but we did quite a bit of entertaining!)
September 12-17 Kate here from IN.

During this span of time, we also started: 1st grade, preschool, Bible Study, swimming, soccer and ballet, (all of which are still going great!). We also celebrated an important birthday, and Lance managed to travel to London 3 times and Montana twice. (I believe he went on one other trip during this time but without pulling out my calendar to check, I simply cannot remember when or where at this moment.)

So, as I type this I can hear the washer and dryer humming as I get caught up and re-ready the guest room for who? I don't have any guests scheduled at this time, but let us know if you are going to be in the area and we would be happy to have you!

Oh, Happy Day!

Opening some gifts after school...Aunt Noni sent you a precious miniature glass jewelry box with horses, complete with a teeny baby horse inside. What a treasure, you are sleeping with the baby as I type this!
Well, I said to you, "Strike and pose," and thus I captured this image. When you opened your new High School Musical "varsity" jacket you shrieked with glee and insisted on wearing it, even though it's 80 + degrees outside. (I'm sweating just thinking about it!)
After gifts, our special friends, Sam and Marcia, took us to Pasquini's for dinner!
One of the many highlights of going to Pasquini's is making your own pizza, you had double cheese and extra pepperoni since Syd kindly shared her toppings with you.
And of course, cheesecake for dessert--smothered in chocolate no less--definitely a girl after my own heart! I love you, Birthday girl!!!