My Angels

One day last week, Aubrey decided she wanted to put her wings on.  These are the wings that she and Anna got when they were fairies for halloween last year.  So we put the wings on, but then she also wanted her "crown".  So we put the crown on.  Upon seeing all of this, of course, Anna wanted to put her wings and "crown" on, too. 

I tried to get a picture of the two of them together, but when I told Anna to put her arm around Aubrey, being the little Miss Independent that she is, she wrapped her arms around herself.  Yes, we have some things to work on!

The girls then picked up some of the tissue flowers that I made for Anna's brithday party.  They were smaller tissue flowers that were attached to a dowel for putting in a vase.  This was now their wand!  Every angel has to sing right?  Aubrey danced around the kitchen singing:

"Mary, you will have a son named Jesus.  Oh, Mary, his name will be Jesus."

 She was singing "like the choir" so she was singing in her opera like voice as well.  I couldn't help but cracking up at her. She makes me laugh EVERY day!

Alexandra couldn't miss out on the fun, so she got to wear Anna's crown once she no longer wanted it!

I guess I'm going to have to try and find these same wings, tutus and crown so that we have a set for all three girls to dress up!

It Won't Be Long

Alexandra is pushing the limits everyday and will be walking soon!  She seems to be right on target with both Aubrey and Anna's walking milestones and will be walking at 11 months!  I'm really not sure if I'm ready for this or not! 

For the time being, she's getting her practice by pushing around any toy that she can find. 

Look at that face!  She is so proud of herself!!!

My Little Helpers!

Normally when I tell Aubrey we need to clean up, I start getting comments like:
"I'm tired"
"My leg (or arm ...or whatever bodypart she can quickly think of) hurts"
"I don't feel like it"
"I don't want to"

These remarks get old very quickly and I'm trying try to teach Aubrey how to clean up after herself and sometimes she has to clean up after her sisters.  She's getting a little better about cleaning up, but it's still like pulling teeth and most times that not, the no-no spoon comes out due to her disobeying and not cleaning up like she was asked.

I decided to give her a different task today.  I asked her if she would like to help me clean.  At first she looked at me like she was trying to decide if this was going to be something fun or if it was really just cleaning.  I went ahead and told her to pull up a chair and she could help me wash the dishes.

This got me a huge grin!  She quickly pulled a chair up to the sink and became my little rinser.  There were times that water ended up all over the counter, but she was doing a good job, so I didn't say too much to her about it. 

Of course, Anna had to be right there in the action.  Luckly she is more interested in just watching (she was also finishing up her snack and not too many things are more important than her food) instead of helping, which was fine by me!

The Dreaded Spit Wipe

Yes.  I am guilty.  I swore that I would never lick my finger and wipe something off of my girl's faces because I couldn't stand it when my mom did this to me as a child. 

We were going to Mom to Mom at the church earlier this week and as we were getting out of the car, I noticed that Aubrey had some dried yogurt on the side of her mouth from breakfast.  Instinctively I licked my thumb and started to wipe the yogurt off her face.  All of a sudden she made this horrible face.  I asked her what was wrong and she looked at me and said, "I don't like it when you do that, Mommy!"

Ok.  I'm going to try my best to never do the spit wipe again!

I Can Sew!

I've wanted to sew for a long time now and my parents gave me my sewing machine several years back, but between working full time and having three babies so close together, I just never got around to learning.  We also had a little more money when I was working full time, so if I saw a cute little outfit, more times than not, I could swing it financially.  Well, since becoming a stay-at-home-mom, my taste in children's clothes hasn't changed, but my wallet sure has! 

So out of necessity, but also a great want of knowing how, I have learned to sew!  I started out taking a sewing class at JoAnn's.  This first class was so basic...and just what I needed.  They actually showed you how to thread your machine and told me what the other parts of the sewing machine did!  It was a great class and I knew how to thread my machine when I left, but I still didn't know how to sew.  I registered for a second class at JoAnn's.  This was supposed to be a step up from the last class I took, but because they were taught by different people, much of the same stuff was covered.  I spent two and a half hours there and only stiched two rows on a piece of fabric!

However, on my way into JoAnn's for that second class, I ran into Mrs. Barbara Champlin...my sewing angel!  She is one of the very special ladies that teaches Alexandra's sunday school class.  She also had both Aubrey and Anna (we cheated a little and made sure that all of our girls were in this same SS class because we fell in love with all these ladies when Aubrey was a baby)!  She saw me walking in with my sewing machine and when I told her I was there for a class, she said, "You don't have to come here to learn how to sew.  I can teach you!"

I was on cloud nine, but now I had to figure out what to do with the girls for hours at a time to go and learn how to sew.  God is so good!  Another special lady that teaches Alexandra's SS class offered to come and keep the girls! 

So, I have been to Mrs. Barbara's a few times now and feel like I'm really starting to get the hang of it.  I definitely still need a lot of direction and tips on how to best do things, but I'm coming along with my sewing.  I tried my first solo project this past weekend.  I made Aubrey a pair of shorts with a ruffle!  I made my own pattern from a pair of shorts that she already had and they actually fit her! 

I have already sewn an aline top for Aubrey and I have to finish the pants.  I've also cut out several more patterns and the fabric is ready to be sewn!  The girls are going to my parents for the weekend and I plan on sewing, sewing, sewing!  I'll post more pics!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Anna!

I absolutely can't believe that Anna is now two.  I have no idea where the time goes!  I still feel like she should be my little baby! 

We threw her a small birthday party with family and a few of her little two-year old friends.  It was so funny, because Anna knew that this day was all about her and she LOVED it!

She had a flower themed party and there were flower pots that the kids could paint on, then plant seeds in to take home with them.  We also had the paint board and the chalk boards for the kids to be creative with!  Being an event planner, I like to plan cute parties, but I really had to stay on budget this year.  I think this is the cutest birthday party I've done for the girls and it was the cheapest!

I bought some tissue paper at cost online and started making tissue paper pom-poms a couple of weeks before the party.  They were cheap, easy to make and they were really cute, so I hung them everywhere.  The playroom, the kitchen, the dining room and over the kitchen table!  The girls couldn't believe it when I started hanging them everywhere! 

Kitchen

Playroom

Kitchen table

When Sharon asked what she could do to help me with the party, I showed her a picture I found on the internet of a vegtable tray arranged as flowers.  I asked her if she wanted to try and of course she said, YES!  With a little help from Serena on the day of the party arranging the veggie pieces, I thought it came out great!

How cute is this?

The other food for the party was cheese straws, fuit,

peanut butter and jelly sandwiches shaped

like flowers (with a grape in the middle)

and of course, birthday cake!

I also made Anna a Happy Birthday Banner and she had a flower wall with pictures of her over the past year in the center of each flower.  There were all hung outside for the party, but I brought them inside and hung them in the playroom for us to continue celebrating Anna's birthday for the rest of the month!

As the party guest arrived, they were greeted by Anna's cute little face on the front door wreath (also made of tissue paper pom-poms)!

As I said earlier, Anna knew this day was her day and she was hamming it up!

The beautiful Birthday Girl!

Anna's guests included her cousins, Davis, Lydia and Matthew; Aunt Serena and Uncle Marvin; YaYa; MeMe and Poppy; her friends, Emaline Dupree with her daddy, Mr. Jud; Abigail Tanner with her brother, Jacob, her mommy, Ms. Michele and her daddy, Mr. Rob; Gabe Sell with his mommy, Ms. Joy and Mr. Bobby and Ms. Savannah.

Decorating Anna's flower pot!

Now we're planting her seeds!

Anna was so excited that everyone was singing

Happy Birthday to her! 

Look at that face!  Pure joy!

The birthday cake must be good!

Time for painting!

This is some serious concentration while working on her masterpiece!

Presents!  I had to change Anna's clothes because she got paint

(thank goodness, washable paint) all over her dress!

A new babydoll! 

Anna loves her babies so much!

Anna's giving her new baby a kiss!

The Wailes Family Comes to Visit!

Danny's sister and her family came to visit us for a few days while on their spring break!  We love having them and the girls adore their big cousins!  On the one free day we all had, we decided to head to the beach!  It was the first time we had been to the beach this year and the water was COLD!  I didn't even like getting my toes wet!

We also went to a new beach that Danny and I had been saying for the past few years that we needed to go to, but never had.  It's called Huegenot (not sure if that's spelled right) beach and it's actually located in a state park.  The great thing about this beach is that you can drive on it!  We were able to back the Explorer into a spot on the beach and then we didn't have to worry about trying to carry three children and the arsenal of beach stuff that accompanies a family of five!  The car was literally five feet from our lounge chairs!  It was GREAT!  We will definitely be going back!

The cousins at the beach!

My beach girl!  Anna is really going to enjoy the

beach this year now that she's 2! 

She didn't seem to have much fear of the water,

which always scares me and thrills her dad!

Lydia and Aubrey having fun in the sand!

Alexandra chilled in her carseat for a while.

Yes!  Danny brought a real shovel to the beach!

More fun in the sand with Lydia and Matthew!

Whose having more fun?  The dads or the kids?

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter this year...well, we always have a great Easter.  Easter is one of my very favorite holidays and it was so much fun talking to Aubrey about Easter and reading her all her Easter books about Jesus.  She's at the age where she is really starting to understand things and I didn't want to talk about Jesus' death too much because I don't want her to be afraid, but she really seemed to grasp the three year old version of Easter.  We were talking one day and I told her that yes, Jesus died on the cross, but he rose after three days and he now lived in Heaven with God.  She corrected me and told me that Jesus lived in her heart!  How can you argue with that?

The girls loved leaving their Easter baskets outside for the Easter bunny.  For once, Aubrey didn't argue about going to bed and she popped up the next morning to rush outside to find her Easter basket.  When I was a child, the Easter bunny always hid our baskets somewhere in the yard.  It's a fond memory of my childhood, so I thought I would do the same for my girls.  Obviously, I can't hide them too hard since they are so young (and I don't have a lot of hiding places), but the girls still got a kick out of the baskets being all over the yard!

The girls putting their Easter baskets out the night before Easter.

Anna found her basket sitting in the swing and

notice that she went straight for the chocolate. 

Danny said we could have filled their entire Easter

baskets with nothing but candy and they would have

thought it was the most wonderful thing ever.  He's right!

Aubrey found her basket in the tree and

she also went straight for the chocolate!

Alexandra found her basket on the picnic table! 

Since she didn't get any chocolate, she settled for her puffs!

As usual, Anna is not cooperating with a "sisters" picture. 

But the again, she doesn't cooperate with many pictures! 

Since it's just us here in Jacksonville for Easter and there is no way I can possibly pull off a huge lunch like my mom does every Easter (or really every Sunday), we started having an Easter picnic.  We started this tradition last year and the girls love it.  We go to a park straight after church, take pictures in our Easter outfits and then have a picnic and play. 

Of course, I have my camera in tow, so here are just a few of the many pictures I took:

Once again, trying to get a nice picture of all three girls is impossible. 

Here's the best I got!

Thank you, Alexandra, for looking at mommy with the camera! 

I seriously took about 50 pictures and this is one of the best I got!

Anna has now spotted the ducks headed our way and

refuses to take her eyes off of them!

Now they have all spotted the ducks!

Me and my girls...love them to pieces!

Photo time is officially over! 

This is where I also had a meltdown because this was

the only picture I got of Danny with all three girls!

On to the picnic:

Aubrey and Anna lounging on the blanket and eating apples!

Alexandra taking a picnic rest in her stroller. 

We put her in the stroller for the picnic because she would have

been all over the blanket and in everybody's

food if she had been free!

Alexandra and I sat on the bank of the pond and watched Aubrey and Anna feed the ducks our leftovers!

Anna...testing the waters!

Aubrey is getting to be such a big girl! 

She did this pose all by herself!

Running and having fun on our nature walk!