Visit with Uncle Johnny & Aunt Nember

This weekend Uncle Johnny and Aunt September came into town for a visit. We have been having such a great time hanging out. Here's Johnny reading Hayden a book on Friday night.

Layne has had a good time hanging out with Aunt September.

Early Saturday morning (8 am! that's sleeping in for us!!) wake up call for Johnny!!

On Saturday morning we decided to take the girls and dogs for a walk. Daddy was on an over night hunting trip.

When we got back from the walk Hayden showed them her "skills" on her smart cycle. September decided to show her how it's done!

Johnny went for a nice relaxing bike ride. He loves it in Georgia!

We went to the park in the afternoon when it warmed up. Sep challenged Johnny to do 20 pull ups on the "pull up bar". Do you think he was able to do 20 pull ups for a box of fruit roll ups?

Even though it was well past Layne's afternoon nap time she was very happy at the park. Just soaking in some of that sun-hopefully!

Hayden loved to show Johnny all around the playground.

The adults even had a good time at the park!

Monkey see....monkey do!

St. Patty's Day Birthday!

Remember Ezra, well he was born on St. Patrick's Day. his mom asked me to make him a cake for his first birthday this weekend. It's a white cake with two layers of lemon cream filling and then a middle layer of lemon curd filling. I hope it tastes as good as it sounds!!

Ladies Night

Tonight there was a ladies event at the church. There was a dinner, a speaker, singer, and a fashion show! It was a fun night with good girlfriends! Here I am with Rebecca.

Heather and I decorated our table for the event. That's why I made the fashion doll cupcakes. We also decorated it with paper dolls, bangle bracelets, necklaces, and high heel shoe pencil sharpeners.

After dinner the "models" had to leave and get ready for the fashion show. Here we are before the big moment. We went to Dillards last Saturday and picked out the outfits that we were going to wear in the show. We had to be careful not to mess the outfits up since we weren't buying them. Some ladies even put plastic grocery bags over their heads so they wouldn't get makeup on the outfits....forget about the chance of suffocation-save the outfits!! Wish we would have gotten a picture of that because it was hilarious!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade.....

Well, only sort of! You see, a friend of ours updated her status on Facebook to say that she was going to "The Fastest Growing Parade in the World" in Olde Town Conyers. I had totally forgotten about it. So, we gathered the girls and all that goes with them and off we went. The parade started at 4:30 and we arrived around 4:40, not a big deal. When we got there tons of people were filing up to the pavilion. That seemed really weird to me because I knew that the parade was ending at the pavilion. We watched people continue to go up there and then decided to follow the crowd. They served drinks and cookies, but where was the parade!? We hung out for about 30 minutes and still no parade. Turns out, according to our friend that actually witnessed the parade, that if you arrived anytime after 4:32 you missed the parade! It consisted of a firetruck and a few men in kilts! As I was telling Johnny about it he said, "Are you sure it wasn't The Fastest GOING Parade!? I think they just made a typo!"

Here are daddy and Hayden checking out all of the fish in the pond at Olde Town.

This is what Hayden does on the way home from preschool almost every day!

Fashion Doll Cupcakes

Tomorrow night we have a women's ministry event at the church. It's dinner and a fashion show! A friend and I agreed to decorate one of the tables for the event. We are decorating it with paper dolls, fake jewelry, and these little cupcake dolls! These cupcakes were in the new cupcake cookbook that mom and Bernie got me for Christmas. I have been dying to try them out. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Of course we had to take a picture with the girls in their green today. We were also practicing for Thursday morning. One of the teachers at Hayden's preschool is also a photographer and she is going to take live bunny pictures with the kids on Thursday morning. She emailed me and said that she would love to take bunny pictures of the girls together free of charge!! We were so excited because we just loved those bunny pictures that she took of Hayden last year at preschool. Thanks Michele!

Ready for Work?

Hayden loves to go into my closet and try stuff on....especially shoes! She likes to get ready for work.

I think she also likes the sound of the heels because she walks up and down the hallway in those things!

8 Months Today!!

Our sweet Layne is 8 months old today! This afternoon I took a moment to think back about where I was 8 months ago today and I realized that I would rather not revisit that WHOLE day. Instead I wanted to revisit that exact moment when I finally got to meet our sweet bundle. Hearing that little cry, seeing her precious tiny body, holding her for the first time, and touching her soft skin. Ahhhhh, what a blessing. It still amazes me every time I think about the fact that I had a life growing inside of me. A life that God created. A life that God has known about since time began. She is more precious, sweet, happy, and amazing than I could have ever imagined she would be-God sure do know what He's doing!!

I had a meeting at work today so I left work at noon, picked Hayden up, went back to work with Hayden, had the meeting, had to leave the meeting in the middle to take Hayden to the potty because she had pooped in her undies (that's another story for another time!), finished up the meeting, then came home. Well, when I finally made it home little Layner was already down for her afternoon nap. What a disappointment! As I sat in silence in the family room checking my email on the laptop I thought I heard the sound of the rattle that's in Layne's crib. I immediately got up, walked.....ok walked briskly......alright so it was more like a power walk....who am I kidding-I ran back to Layne's door and peeked in. She was up on her hands and knees just looking around. So, I looked at my watch and realized that she had only been down for a little less than an hour (she is down to only 2 naps a day so each of them lasts between 2 to 3 hours). Oh schedule shmedual, what the heck-she can sleep later I just want to hang out with my baby girl!! So that's what I did and we had a great time together.

Layne has been battling a cold on and off for a few weeks. When it hits her again she is usually fussy in the evenings. She just wants and needs to be put down for an extra evening nap, so that's what we do. I went in there to wake her up so I could feed her for the last time of the day. This is what I saw. She had moved her little Elmo mirror so she could watch herself sleep I guess. She loves that mirror. Hayden used to have it in the crib over and Grandma and Pop's house and now we have it in Layne's crib. When I walked into Layne's room last night and saw this I couldn't help by chuckle to myself because it reminded me of something I used to do....only I was in middle school or high school!

At my old house we had a dinning room. We ate in this room only during special occasions (birthdays and holidays). A huge framed mirror hung on the wall right across from my seat-so I could see myself. I used to sit at the dinning room table and watch myself eat. More specifically I would watch myself chew. It was just something I had to do. I could not look away. It was interesting at first, then I realized that I didn't like the involuntary face that I made right before I swallowed my food. What drove me crazy about the whole thing was that I couldn't really change it. I just had to sit there and watch myself do it! That was not the only odd run in that I had with mirrors. As a child and teenager I was known for making faces, having conversations, and singing in mirrors. I guess we all know where the girls get all of their strangely humorous behaviors from. Anyone who has seen the video that I made for my sister-"Trista's Funny Tape"-knows how strangely humorous I really am! I have to work on getting that time put on a DVD so I can share it with the blogging world!

Buckle Up Butter Cup

Last night while I was making dinner the girls and daddy came in for a visit....like this! Oh daddy is so much.....fun!?

Check out Hayden's eyes in this one. It's like she's hypnotized by the foot. Can't stop staring, must look away, just can't stop!

Here is Layne's newest trick. She does this on anything she can-her crib, high chair, toys.

Big sis is always there to encourage and support little Layner.

Walkin' the Neighborhood

Last night we went for a walk in the neighborhood. I was in charge of the girlies in the double jogging stroller that I had to have before Layne was born and Jerm was in charge of the dogs.

We all had a good time and the weather was great!

Our Sweet Layne

This is such a great picture of Layne because this is really what she's like most of the time. She does still have some trouble with going to other people when I am around, but when she's with mommy or daddy she is just the happiest little girl ever. It seems like Layne has the same sweet spirit that Hayden does but she's a little more independent at this age. She is so great at expressing her excitement when we walk in the room. She either squeals with delight or kicks her feel like crazy. You can't help but feel great when you walk into the room and get that kind of welcome!

Our Precious Hayden

Hayden truly is precious. I know that I am her mother but she is one of the sweetest most caring little two year olds that I have met. The way that she cares for and dotes on Layne makes me love her even more....if that's possible! She is not only "the mother" at home but she's that way at preschool too. She has such a compassionate heart.

For those of you that know Grady (our black lab) you probably know that he's had it rough in our home. I just got him at the wrong time I think. It was right before Layne was born and we were stressed with all the changes and I don't think we gave him enough attention. Then he started teething and doing the chewing thing and it just wasn't good! But, I am so glad that we kept him because both of the girls adore him. Hayden thinks of him like one of her little friends. The other day I had the back door open because it was so nice outside. I told Hayden that she couldn't go outside unless someone, like mommy or daddy, came out with her. About 30 minutes later she decided that she was going to go outside. I waited to see if she would remember that she wasn't supposed to be out there by herself or not. When she didn't come in after about 30 seconds I walked out and reminded her that she wasn't supposed to go outside by herself. She looked at me while she was pointing in Grady's direction and said, "Grady out here with me!". What could I say, my two and a half year old was right!

This is what Layner does when she is playing and gets tired out. She just lays there with her eyes open and sucks on her fingers.

Monster Truck Cupcakes with a Twist!

This was a pretty large order and I only had 17 monster trucks, so I got a little creative (with the customer's permission!). Some of the cupcakes are monster truck tires! The tire is just a mini chocolate covered donut with icing in the middle and an upside down chocolate chip in the middle of that. The treads are just piped on with chocolate icing. Fun fun!

Just Say No....

(to crack)

Hayden is just about out of diapers! As a matter of fact we are sending her to preschool this week in undies. Maybe we should have done this sooner since we have had her in undies at home for a while now. Not sure that the switching back and forth thing has been the best thing but oh well. When we got home from church tonight we just took her diaper off and pulled her pants up without putting undies on. Because her bum is so tiny there was nothing to hold her pants up. Here she is checking out my jewelry. Too funny!

Little Layner playing her piano on the floor. She loves this toy....so does big sis.

New Do!

I got my picture taken for my Rockdale County Public School ID and I decided that my forehead looked a little large. Not sure if it really looks that large in real life or if it appeared that way because the picture was cropped then printed on a plastic card. None the less, I decided to do something about it-no more large forehead pictures for me! I researched some celeb. hairstyles and then decided on one that I liked- Nicole Richie's side swipe bangs look. I watched many videos on how to do side swipe bangs, picked the technique that looked the most professional and most successful, and I started to snip away. These days we just don't have the money to spend on "extras" such as haircuts...plus it's more fun to have a little haircutting adventure every once in a while!! It's only hair and it'll grown back soon enough if you mess up! So, here's how it turned out.

Spring is Here!

We didn't make it to the park today but we did go outside to swing! This is my favorite shot of the day. It captures just how they feel about one another. They are really the best of friends already!

Little Layner

I was going through lots of Layne's stuff this morning because Matt and Jamie are coming over tomorrow to go baby "shopping". When I went through Layne's hat basket I found this hat that matches the pants that she's wearing today! It's going to work perfectly because I think we are going to go to a park this afternoon!

Layne just loved wearing her hat while she "crawled" around her whole room this morning.

Yesterday daddy got Layne's food ready and was feeding her while he was making his lunch. He thought that he had put her baby food out of her reach, but that wasn't the case! When he looked again she had her food all over her!

Here she is on Monday morning playing with all of her toys. See the band aid from her flu shot!?

Can You Dig It?!

The other night I heard Hayden reading her book to her dolls so I decided that I would try to catch it on video. Her sweet little voice making up the words to the story about sisters. Telling her dolls about how much she loves her little sister Layner and how beautifully they get along. Ahhh, this video would just fill everyone's heart with love and joy. It was going to be great! Well, this is what I got! No more reading that night...she was all about the business of digging!

I Call It Crawling

Ok, it's not the prettiest sight, but I think you would classify this as crawling! She tries out some fancy dance moves for the camera too. She may even be trying to reinvent the crawl all together. Not sure yet, but I will be sure to ask her once she can talk. I know one thing for sure though-Layne is one strong little girl!

Yeah for Snow!

Here is the video that I took of Hayden and I outside this afternoon. She wasn't too sure about this sticky slushy wet snow stuff. She never did go down the slide. They are now predicting between 2 to 4 inches! It's still coming down steadily!

SNOW!

Well, the weather forecasters were right about the snow coming to Georgia! Today while we were at church it started snowing and it hasn't stopped yet! When Hayden woke up from her nap I took her outside to play in the snow.

We built a snowman! I tried to get a picture of Hayden beside her snowman but she was terrified, so that idea didn't fly.

We had to walk through the garden to get stones and sticks for the snowman.

I went outside before Hayden woke up so that I could take some pictures on my own. As I was walking down the hill beside our house I wiped out! I mean huge spill. My feet slipped out from under me and the next thing I knew I was flat on my back with a soaking wet bum. I fell so quick that I didn't even have time to get my hands down to break my fall. My bum and head too care of that though. As soon as I got up I looked around to make sure that Jerm wasn't looking out the window, thankfully he was nowhere to be found!

This was taken BF (before the fall).

Here is what Layne and daddy were doing while Hayden and I were outside having a blast.

Jerm took this yesterday. Hayden loves to stand on her bike when she's not playing the game on it.