Ally's Birthday

Ally is one whole year old. Actually, she turned one year old two Sundays ago, but we've been too busy with vacationing and coming home to hardwood floors being laid in our dinning room, kitchen, and laundry room that we haven't had time to celebrate. So tonight we got together for a small birthday party for our little cutie pie. Thankfully Aunt Kristen was there with her camera since ours didn't seem to make it back home from Camp Singletary. I can't imagine how that happened. Anyway, we had a blast and it was even more special since Ally's cousins from Louisiana were there. They are leaving tomorrow and we will miss them a ton. Now we just have to get up tomorrow and do the same thing over again since tomorrow is Emmy's seventh birthday. My how the time flies.

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Our busy weekend continued Sunday, but at a much slower pace. After going to church and teaching my little sunbeams, I came home to cook lunch and birthday cake for my nephew Alex. I can't believe he is 16! I just don't know where the time has gone. My parents came up to visit and my niece Amber, and nephew Alex, came with them. We had a great time visiting while Neal and Alex played basketball and the kids played in the kiddie pool. They finally went home around 8 and we cooked cinnamon rolls for supper. Isn't that healthy:+) I'm glad for the weekend to be over, but I can't wait until it rolls around again.

I could only find one candle, and it was Emmy's that she got in primary that morning after sharing time. Isn't that sad.

WHAT A WEEKEND!

This weekend so reminded me of the saying, "When it rains it pours!" Well this weekend it poured all weekend log. We had a ton of stuff to do and it seemed like a million places to be. It started early Saturday morning with Neal having to get up around 7 am to buy supplies for a job and me getting the kids ready to go to a b-day party at 2:30. He promised that he would be home in time for me to get to my hair appointment around 11 am. He got home in time to make me about 10 minutes late for my 11:30 appointment, but it didn't matter because my stylists Amanda, was running 30 minutes behind. Not today of all days. This was the first time she kept me waiting, and she made up for it by not charging me for my style. That totally made up for it and I was out of there by 12:40. Then I had to go to Target to get my best friend's little boy John-Oliver, a b-day present. I had tried to do this Friday night after Emmy and Charles-Allen had gotten their hair cut, but CA was not being good and I had to drag him out of the store kicking and screaming without the gift. As I was picking out a gift I called Neal, who had just gotten home from the job-site, and told him to pack our clothes for the wedding that we were going to that night. I made it back home and we got everything ready (or so we thought) and set out to make John-Oliver's party in Holly Springs by 2:30. We were only about 15 minutes late and I was so happy to be there. Joelle and I have been best friends since the first grade. We went thru grade school, jr. high, high school, and we even roomed together thru 5 years of college. We have done it all together and luckily we ended up living near each other after we got married. We even unintentionally got pregnant together with the exact same due dates. I love her dearly and when we're together I feel young and carefree again.

This is me and Joelle and her little

girl Ava, at the Jumping Zone in

Holly Springs.

Just me and my girls taking a break from all the fun!

All the kids at the party. John-Oliver is the tall boy in the olive green shirt. He is very tall for his age.

We made the birthday party successfully and had to head back home to pick up some things we forgot then it was off to Neal's parents (they're always so good about baby sitting) to drop the kids off and change and then head to my cousins wedding in Kenansville. The drive time would be about 2 hours and we barely made it to the wedding in time. On the way to the wedding I was so excited (I love weddings and baby showers), I was talking a mile a minute and I was telling Neal how I loved garden weddings and that's when he said he had never been to a wedding unless it was a temple wedding or a wedding at an LDS church. I couldn't believe it. It amazes me sometimes when I think about how different our life experiences have been, but how we seem to be perfect for each other in so many ways. We have pretty much the same goals and desires for what we want our lives and our children't lives to be like. Funny how things just seem to work out. Anyway- the wedding was beautiful and I was shocked when I say my other best friend, Heidi, that I grew up with in the crowd. I almost screamed. I hadn't seen her in about 4 years. She joined the miltary right before I got married and it's been hard keeping in touch. We were born less than 2 months apart, but were in different grades growing up. We lived less than 1 mile apart, but our mothers didn't like each other. However, we were always together and spent countless hours in each other's company and we got into mischief early on when we started sneaking out of the house in the sixth grade during the summer after our parents went to sleep. We didn't do anything super bad, but I'm sure our parents would have been livid had they ever found out. Heidi seemed so different to me and it was not as easy talking with her as I remembered. But it was so good to see her and I hope it won't be another 4 years before I get to see her again.

Me and Heidi

My cousin Bradley, the Groom

This is my other cousin Dwayne, he is a mess. He just told me a secret, he and his wife Polly are expecting their 2nd child. I'm soo excited for them! It's great having a large extended family (I have 22 first cousins) and I was so blessed to be able to grow up with all of my cousins. I feel even more blessed that my kids will have the same advantages that come with having a close extended family.

We left the wedding and went back to the grandparent's house to collect our sweet babies and go home. We got back home around 2 am, went to bed and got some sleep so we could tackle another busy day. Wheew! I can't believe we got it all done. I'm getting tired just remembering it all, but it sure was fun.

Yummy!

Ally had her first taste of watermelon last night. I'm not sure, but I think mabye she liked it. She is the cutest thing, even with that messy little face.

She's even willing to share with her brother and sister.

Laundry Day

Mondays at our house are, among other things, laundry day. We only do laundry once a week and it works really well for us. I tend to cheat because I'll do the washing and drying during the day and then pile it on the bed so that when Neal gets home he can help fold and the kids can take all the piles to the correct spots. It's total team work and we all have clean clothes for the rest of the week. The kids seem to love it too, maybe it's because they get to ride in the basket when we're all done. Neal likes to swing them up in the air and it scares me to death.

Washing the Car

Neal and the kids spent the day washing the car. If you'll notice they're all in their swim trunks. I wonder why? Maybe he knew that the chances of everyone getting soaked were good. I had sense enough to stay in the house. Unfortunately Ally wasn't so lucky.

Snaggle Tooth

Emmy finally lost her first tooth. She is only a few days away from turning 7 and she lost her very first tooth. Ironically, it was the first tooth that she got in as a baby. I can't hardly stand it. She is growing up way too fast. She lost it when we were in Williamsburg on vacation. We were getting ready to go to Water Country and I told her it was way loose and I hoped it didn't come out while we were at the water park because we might loose it. The next thing I know she has pulled it out. We were so excited. It doesn't take much to entertain us. Unfortunately, the tooth fairy didn't know we were in Virgina so she couldn't come until we got home. And since Emmy didn't sleep in her bed that night she couldn't come then either. Finally, everything lined up last night and she arrived bringing her 3 whole dollars. It was a lot because it was her first tooth. However, I was unaware that the tooth fairy was suppose to write a note (thanks a lot kristen). So I told her that there must have been a lot of kids that the tooth fairy had to visit that night and she didn't have time, but i'm sure next time she would be sure to leave her a note. That was a close one:)