Weekend with Friends Cont....

After I left Joy's house on Saturday afternoon, I drove down to Chattanooga, TN to see my other good friend Cara. On the drive down to Chattanooga the girls slept the whole way, they were so worn out from swimming that they just crashed, which was good for me because I got a nice peacefully drive. Cara and I have been friends since we lived in SC together. She has two girls Becca and Anna and both of them are the same ages as Katie and Bree. All four of them had a blast hanging out and playing together. Sunday morning we decided since it was going to rain about all day to take the girls to the Children's Museum in downtown area. This museum is so awesome. I just couldn't get over it how nice and clean it was and all of the things for kids to do. There was just so much stuff for them to play with and learn. We hung out there for a few hours to let them play, grab some lunch and then it was time for me to finish the last leg of my trip to my parents house. Even though my visit was super short with Cara and James everytime I see them it is like we just pick up were we last left off. It is always so much fun to had around them and what our silly girls play together.

Katie and Becca jamming out to Hannah Montana

Little Miss Anna....she has so much personality that she just keeps you laughing.

Bree was supposed to be in the pic but she took off running when I took the pic.

Bree getting her turn on the Hannah guitar

Katie and Bree trying out the puppet stage and the CM

Weekend with Friends

On Thursday I packed up girls and I and we headed out for a long drive to my mom and dads, but along the way I stopped to see some of my good friends. First stop was to see my best friend Joy, she lives in Franklin TN which was a 10 hours drive for us, but we made it in one piece and I still had my sanity. :) Joy has a litte girl named Chandler and she is few months younger than Bree so the girls had a great time playing together and I enjoyed catching up with my friend. We don't get to see each other very often so it is nice when we get to visit. While we were there we took the girls out to do a few things. Friday we went over to a place called Jump Zone, they have tons of indoor inflatables, and then after good afternoon naps we all headed out to Chuck E Cheese to play some games and eat some pizza. Saturday before we left we headed to their neighborhood pool, or should I same mini water park to let the girls play. This pools is so amazing and has lots of great things for kids. It was just thing thing to wear out Katie and Bree so they would sleep in the car when we left Satruday afternoon. As we were getting ready to leave Joy and Chandler gave the girls a little traveling gift. It had lots great things to keep them occupied in the car as we continued our trip to Kingsport. Thanks Joy and Chandler! Below are a few pics of the our time with Joy and ChaCha.

The girls on our way to Jump Zone....they were jamming to Veggie Tales songs.

Katie and Bree at the Cheese on Friday night.

Joy and Chandler enjoying a ride together.

All the girls playing so nicely together

Time to play in so water...at the pool on Saturday

Rooster Days

Every year in our town the main street area has a festival called Rooster Days. They have rides, petting zoo, parade, fun, games, etc. We took the girls last year and they loved it so we thought we would go again this year. This year Katie was actually tall enough to ride her rides by herself, so she thought she was such a big girl being able to go the rides without mommy or daddy. Well, one ride is a slide and you have to climb about 12 flights of stairs to get to the top of the slide and then you go down. Last year she loved this ride and between Chris and I we rode it with her many times. This year she wanted to go up on her own. I was terrified to let her do it, but daddy said she would be okay and Katie was so determined to do it on her own. I let her go and up she sent went to the top without any hesitation. She also came down without any problems. I was afraid she would get to the top and see how far down it was and wouldn't slide down but she proved me wrong. When she came down she had the biggest smile on her face and was so proud that she just did that. We were proud of her also. This year she was finally big enough to ride the kids roller coaster, so on she went and at first she had a smile on her face but by the second time around on the ride she was covering her eyes. She didn't like the one part of the ride were it tilted you a little , she said she felt like she was going to fall out. Bree was still our conservative rider but sticking with her few rides the carousel and the cho cho train. She was content with those two rides and wanted nothing else to do with the others. She thought she would ride some cars with Katie but changed her mind once we put her on them. The girls had fun and so did we. Here are a few pics from the day.

Katie and Bree enjoying good ole carnival food....yummy corndog.

This is the big slide Katie climb to the top and came down all by herself

Down she goes....weeeeee.....I almost missed her in the picture she was coming down so fast

The girls on a ride together....this was as far as Bree went. Before the ride started she wanted off.

Birdies In The Grill

On Friday, we finally got a little break from our two week stint of rain, so I thought I would grill out some steaks. I asked Chris to go out and check the grill becaues it had taken a few beating from the Oklahoma wind, plus I had see some birds flying in and out of the back of our grill so I figured they had made a little home in there. Well, when he opened the grill the birdies didn't just make a home they made a dang mansion in our grill. As you can see below the entire inside of our grill is their nest. We were going to move it out then we noticed four little eggs in the nest, so the animal lovers Chris and I are we didn't touch the nest because we didn't want the mommy and daddy not to come back. So as for now, the birds have rented our grill for their living space. Hopefully, soon the baby birdies will be here and we can have our grill back, but until then I guess it is inside grilling for us. Kaite is so excited about see the baby birds hatch so hopefully we can sneek a peek at them when the arrive.

Easter Weekend Festivities

Saturday we took the girls to a community Easter Egg Hunt that is at the elementary school up the road from us. Last year Chris took Katie to this same hunt and it was totally disorganized and all the big kids pretty much took all of the eggs so she only came home with 3 or 4 eggs. This year it was much better. They had the hunt organized by age group so that each kid had more of a chance to find eggs. They had lots of eggs and asked that each kid only take 30 eggs. I thought good grief that is a lot of eggs. The girls were excited because they go to fill up their baskets with so many eggs. Saturday was the nicest day of the weekend. It was sunny, windy and in the 60's. So it was a beautiful day to be outside and enjoy some sunshine.

Saturday evening we had our friends Jeremy and Stefanie over for dinner they have a boy, Breaden, Katie's age and a little girl, Lydia, that is a little younger then Bree. The kids played, while the adults got to chat and catch up. After dinner my friend Stefanie and I left the kids with the dads and her and I went to see a play at Broken Arrow High School. One of the girls in the play, Jennifer, is a senior and is in my SS class at church so we what to go and support her on the final night of the play. The play was called "How to Succeed at Business...Without Really Trying". It was so amazing.. I felt like I was watching a Broadway play. I had to keep reminding myself the kids were juniors and seniors. It was a fun night out and was so proud of Jennifer for her performance.

Sunday morning, the girls woke up with excitement to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them. They had Tinker Bell baskets with some dress up clothes and candy. Chris and to run off to church early on Sunday because he was Jesus in our church's Easter cantata "He's Alive" so he had to be there early to get ready. He was so nervous about this play, he has never done anything like this before but he did such an awesome job. I was so proud him. The girls saw him in his dress up after the play and needless to say they did not like it at all. I think it was the long hair that they weren't sure of. We had a great day even though it was very cold and pouring rain all day. The girls still wore their Easter dresses, but they weren't being very cooperative when it came to picture time, plus since I was on my own getting the ready for church we were running a little behind because I wanted to get to church to get a good seat for the play. So here are a few pics from the weekend. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter Weekend!

Katie at the Easter egg hunt....with a full basket
Bree getting her eggs...she wasn't quick as everyone else so Katie helped her.

Checking out the eggs to see if they won a big prize....60 eggs to open and no big prize but lots of candy.

Easter Bunny hopped by our house Saturday night and left some goodies.

Katie happy about what the Easter Bunny left her and Bree.

Bree checking it out what she got....with her crazy morning hair.

The girls all dressed up in their Easter outfits....best shot I could get with a 4yr old and 2 yr old.

Bree looking too cute in her green dress and piggy tails... I love that she lets me fix her hair.

My big girl Katie, she picked out her Easter outfit this year. Evidently, momma doesn't know what looks good. :)

Tribute To Our First Babies

A little over a year ago Chris and I lost one of our very first family members. Lexie, who was our first dog we had. Lexie had to be put down because she suddenly got sick and was not able to eat or drink. Today it was time to make the decision for Alex. Alex, was the second dog we got shortly after we got Lexie. They were buddies and grew up together. He had started to show the signs of his age, but it became clear that he was just to sick to stay with us. We had both Lexie and Alex for almost 14 years. They were so much apart of our family. For the past couple of years my parents have let our dogs stay with them on their land since we were in the middle of moves and partly because the dogs weren't acquainted with our girls. They seemed happy with the land and the room to run around so we thought it was best to let them stay. It has been hard on me because I loved our dogs so much and missed having them around. I am sad that they have left us, but know that the best decision was made for both of them because I did not want them to suffer and they have lived a long good life. But I thought I would take a few minutes to write down a few of my favorite memories of them.

They were both rescue dogs that we got from the animal shelter. We got Lexie first, but after a few months we felt she needed a buddy so we went back and got Alex.

When we first had Lexie, I would come home from work to find her curled up sleeping in my dirty clothes or either she would be chewing on a nice pair of shoes.

Alex was about a year old when we got him and he had a rough beginning in life so he was little scared of anyone but me. He stuck by my side all the time. It he was such a reserved dog at first but it didn't take him long to come out of his shell.

Lexie and Alex both were my buddies when I was pregnant with Katie and was so sick. They sensed something being wrong and would just lay beside me and keep me company. Some days they would stay inside with me all day and would not even want to go outside.

Alex would always sleep at our feet and Lexie always slept by our head, as if they had to keep both ends protected.

There are so many more memories like this. They were both great dogs and I will miss them dearly. They have been with us for so long that is seems weird to think that I will no longer see them when I go and visit TN. Alex and Lexie you were the best, loyal and loving. Glad you were a part of our lives for so long.

Time to Sing

Sunday at church the preschoolers and kindergarten age kids sang a few songs for Easter. It is so funny that I used think about when Katie was a baby about having her in church and how I couldn't wait for the day she was big enough to participate in these types of things. It's kind of crazy to think she is already this big. Below is a link to the video footage from their little mini program.

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