"This Little Light of Mine"

I love hearing children sing in church at a young age. I love it even more when it's my child! I was so suprised (and so proud) when Maggie sang in church last Sunday. She wasn't a bit nervous and just sang her heart out. Here's the video, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

Time Flies When Your Having Fun!

Oh how true that saying is! Wow! I can't believe how fast things have been going lately. We took two trips in June-camping at Fall Creek Falls, TN and then to Panama City Beach, FL with my family. The girls had sooo much fun on both trips and I am so thankful that we were able to go! The summer continues with Vacation Bible School, Lucy's first birthday party, and Maggie's swim lessons in July. Lucy is growing so much and learning new things everyday-this is such a fun time with her. Maggie is wanting to sing and play guitar, watch TV, color, & play pretend. I have to say that both of the girls are at such fun ages right now. I am so thankful that I am able to work from home (mostly) and really enjoy them.

Here's a couple of pictures from June:

First Time with a Sippy Cup

First Time Swinging

Lucy Trying to get Maggie's Cup

Our Family at Fall Creek Falls

Maggie Performing for Her "Audience"

First Time on the Sand

Taking a Break From Swimming for a Snack

She had so much fun on the inflatable slide.

Me and a Very Tired Lucy

Having Fun with Daddy

Me and My Sweet Girls!

Fun in the Sand!

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! I was able to get a manicure and pedicure on Saturday while Todd watched the girls, then after church we had a relaxing day of laying by the pool-plus the girls gave me a spa gift certificate! I love my girls more than anything in the world and just can't imagine may life without them!

Easter!

Our Easter was different...while mourning a tragic loss in our church family, we were also celebrating the Lord's resurrection with our church & family. The girls were fortunate to hunt eggs twice (at church a week before and at my mom and dad's on Easter). Maggie was really into it this year-she was so cute running around trying to find them first! She did not like the hard boiled eggs...she would pick one up, say "ugh!" and quickly throw it down. Lucy, on the other hand just wanted to crawl around and eat grass. Here are a couple of pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the girls in their Easter dresses (they were so cute) on my own camera, so those will come later.



I had to add this picture-Maggie was trying to get Andrew to be her Prince Charming!



Maggie turned 3!!

Well, Maggie is now 3 years old! It really seems like the years have gone by sooo fast. Maggie is really such a good girl (other than the occasional tantrum). She loves playing dress-up, having tea parties, doing "school work", painting...the list goes on and on. She also loves to help out. She wants to help me cook, clean and feed Lucy. I know that everyone says boys are so much easier than girls, but Maggie has not been "hard" at all-and she is so much fun!!

Since her actual birthday was on Friday (the 8th) we decided to let her decide where to go for dinner. She chose Shane's Rib Shack because it has a swing set outside. We were completely okay with this because the restaurant is withink 5 minutes of our house. We decided to give her our present to open that night too.




Maggie and her present from us (My 1st Dollhouse)


For her 3rd birthday we finally decided on the Tinkerbell theme. We decided to have it at my Mom and Dad's house since their yard is bigger and more level-this worked out great! We borrowed a "jumpy-thing" from a good friend and also had a swing set, plus my nephew Titus did face painting.

This year I was determined to make the cake all by myself (my Mom is a wonderful baker and she usually helps). I made a basic doll-cake and set it on top of a 9in round cake. It really turned out alot better than I expected-especially for my 1st time!




The finished product!



I found some great sand buckets at Michael's for only $1 and filled them with necklaces, bracelets, bubbles & pixie dust for the girls and a pirate hat, knife, eye patch and candy for the boys.

All and all Maggie was very happy with her party and couldn't wait to play with all her toys!

Maggie feeding Lucy

I was almost done feeding Lucy and Maggie asked if she could feed her. Of course, I had to tape it! Lucy absolutely adores Maggie and is constantly smiling and laughing at her!

Catching up some more...

Okay, so let's see...January was a blur but I do remember that I started finally feeding Lucy rice cereal (she did not like it) and started saying "Da-Da." We had a little bit of snow, but it was really more like ice, so we didn't really go out. Since we live on a hill, we were pretty much "iced-in" for a week! Luckily everyone survived!

In February, Lucy started eating some baby food, which she liked much better. Maggie is still helping out and even wants to feed Lucy sometimes!

In March, Todd, Amanda, Dale, & Bryan (plus others from the church) went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. So, I was supposed to have Lucy, Maggie, Andres, Titus, & Seth Saturday-Wednesday (Shanda had them for the rest of the week). To keep this short, I had major issues with my eyes and couldn't really see so babysitting plans were really screwed up! We still had a great time (I ended up staying with Shanda too!) and it all worked out in the end. In regards to Lucy, she started crawling like crazy and is now into everything! Maggie is completely into Tinkerbell & Tangled (she can even quote the movie).