Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial weekend was a whirlwind!!  I love weekends like that!  It started out with my parents and brother Ross flying into town Thursday evening.  They stayed with the kids Friday morning while Nick and I worked and when we got home, this is what I found in our bed.  Love!!!  Twinsies!!!

Friday evening, our good friends the Bell's drove in from Houston and we were so excited to see them and their kiddos.  We just love being with the Bell's and always have the best time with them.  Having them around and in our home is no work at all, they make themselves at home, help out...pretty much like family.

Baby Charlie is THE cutest and sweetest baby!  He was so happy and smiley the entire weekend and has the most kissable cheeks :)

Cole and Reagan quickly jumped into playing with all the toys and dress-up clothes.  Finley actually got this pretty Cinderella dress from Mimi and Papa for her birthday but Reagan was also so excited to play with it.

Optimus Prime and Cinderella....yes, this will definitely be on their wedding slide show

The three older kids had so much fun playing together...think they were playing with Finley's princess sleeping bag and trying to hide from the adults.

Saturday:

We had a crawfish boil at our house Saturday afternoon.  We co-hosted with Emily and Blake and we all put a lot of time and effort into getting the party put together.  Sadly, I didn't take any pictures...boo!!  But let me paint a picture for you......the very second the first batch of crawfish was done and thrown onto the table (which Blake and Nick MADE the coolest crawfish table, by the way) a giant thunderstorm came through and it down poured!!!!  Perfect timing...and unfortunately, our yard paid the price.  The soaking wet grass, plus people walking through it all night long, made our yard a muddy swamp.  It is pretty sad and will probably take awhile for it to get back to normal.

Even though the weather did not cooperate, we all still had a great time and made great memories!  And....the crawfish was goooood!!!

Monday morning, we took the kids to Legoland.  I'd have to say it was way better when we took Cole for his birthday because nobody was there and we didn't have to wait in lines.  It was pretty packed this last time, guess it wasn't too smart going on a holiday weekend.

This is Uncle Ross and Finley before we left.  She's having an important conversation apparently.

Legoland......

We didn't get to lunch till a little later than expected so by the time we actually got to lunch, Finley passed out on dad.  She has never done that in her life, so she must have been pretty tired.  Of course she woke up in a fantastic mood (insert sarcasm).

Papa and Cole

As usual, we were sad to see everyone go home, especially Mimi, Papa and Uncle Ross.  We had so much fun with everyone and can't wait to spend a couple weeks in Colorado this summer.

Now.....4 more days of school and then we get to play all summer!!!  Yay!

Finley is 2!!!

 On Saturday, May 11, Finley turned 2 years old!!  I cannot believe that my youngest child is already 2!!  We started her birthday weekend with what better way than to go to the dentist...she was thrilled, I can tell :)  I was nervous taking her in because she isn't quite as well-behaved as my first born.  However, she pleasantly surprised me and she did great! 

 Birthday Morning!!!

We decided not to do an actual party for her this year because she's only 2 and won't remember and I just didn't feel like putting a big party together....I know, mother of the year!

We blew up a bunch of balloons so when she woke up that morning, she saw all her balloons.  Cole was so excited to show her all the balloons.

 We made cinnamon rolls and sang happy birthday to her

 And she even blew out her candle!!!

 We let her open up a couple of her presents so that she could play with it that day...this was from me and Nick

A water table!!!

Later on in the day, we took the kids to Build-a-Bear and they got to pick out their bear.  They have all these super cute clothes for the bears, but of course, Finley refused clothes for her bear....still not sure why all her baby dolls and stuffed animals have to be naked all the time. :)

This is the kids giving their bears a bath

Of course, Cole picked out an Iron Man bear....that plays a Star Wars theme song, ha!

I tried to put these cute jammies on her bear but she refused and quickly tore them off the bear.

Once we got home, Gigi and Nick's cousin Diane and Alex came over to help us celebrate.  We had a nice dinner, Finley was a bit of a pill that evening but overall we had a great day.  

I cannot believe my small child is 2 years old already, kinda makes me sad.  We have enjoyed watching her grow and see her little (feisty) personality come out.  She makes us laugh every day and we are so blessed to have her in our lives.

We love you Finley Marie!!!

While dad's away....

 Nick was in Atlanta alllll week.  I am definitely not a fan of him traveling that long but I'm just thankful that we don't have to do it all the time.  Takes a special wife to have a traveling husband.....I, however, am not that wife! :)

It's nice to have a little reinforcement, but luckily, I have some of the best friends that break up the week for me.

Nick left Sunday afternoon and he was sad because he didn't get to say bye to Finley because she was still sleeping.  So, I sent him this picture when she got up, of course it was about 2 seconds after he drove away.

 Monday, Finley was having a snack after she woke up from her nap and I thought we'd send dad a picture of us.  She kept putting her cashew up to the screen to "show" dad what she was eating. :)

 Tuesday, Cole had his end of the year music program at school.  It was tricky because his program was at 10:00am and that is right in the middle of my work-day.  Normally, Nick and Gigi would go to his programs and take lots of pictures for me but both Nick and Gigi were out of town this week AND I am out of my personal days so I was in a bit of a pickle.  Luckily, our good friend Ellery offered to watch my 2nd period class for me so I could go.  Cole would have been devastated if nobody was there to watch him so I was even willing to just get docked pay in order to go.  Ellery is such a great friend!!

Cole did so good at his program, he always does every single hand motion and sings the entire song...Broadway, he we come!! :)

 Cole with his whole class....

 Later that afternoon, I picked up the boys from school and we headed to Market Street to pick up a few things for dinner that night. 

 Like I said earlier, I am blessed with the best of friends.  Some of us Life Group girls all had traveling husbands this week so Megan offered up her home Tuesday evening.  She made a big pot of spaghetti and the kids just played their hearts out.  It was so nice to have some girl time and chat, while the kids played.

Then, Wednesday evening, Katie and James came over and had dinner with us.  It was a little chaotic because we had just found out that Cole had his first Tball practice that night so I was a little nuts trying to get everything situated for that.  But, it was nice to have an adult conversation again over dinner.  I'd been having 2 and 4 year old conversations all week so it was nice for some normal convos again.

Tball......oh, it was hilarious.  God bless our coach!  ha!

Cole is actually pretty good at the hitting but the catching and being in the outfield, that's going to take some work.  They were all so adorable though and I can't wait to see how the season goes.

 And yesterday, I was super excited because I got this new cookbook that I ordered from Amazon.  It's a pretty good read and has some good recipes in there so I'm excited to try some out. 

 I am still "clean eating" during the week and as much as I can, but I have also given myself (mostly during weekends) the ok to eat other things.  It was impossible to eat out the first 1.5 months of my clean eating and after adding things to my diet and realizing I still felt great I decided it's probably ok for me to eat other things once in awhile.  The second I start feeling bad again, I will get back on the diet 100%.  I really think my body just needed a good cleanse so I feel like a good 80-20 ratio is good.  It's soooo hard to follow that kind of eating 100% of the time, so if I can do it 80%, I will be good with that.

Oh, and what yesterday even better.....Nick came home last night, yay!!!!  And yay for him not having to travel for a long time now...yay!!!!