Happy Four Years Girls

The girls turned 4 this month. I can not believe how big they are getting. Its all going by so quickly! No fair! But Im so proud of these girls and their sweet hearts. Everyday is an adventure and a blessing.

So for this year the girls INSISTED on a Frozen birthday theme. I tried and tried to talk them out of it, but no go. Hopefully, we can get it all out of our system. HA! 

So I went all out. Thankfully I had the best helpers, Jared, grandma and grandpa. Lots of blue and white and lots of snowflakes! 

 I believe this garland had like 150 + balloons! We had a balloon pump luckily but still was quite a feat.

 Had to get the Anna and Elsa cut out for the big day.

I know that looks like a lot of presents, and it was, but honestly its a birthday party for 3 girls!

 The table was pretty too! We had pretzel sticks, carrots with ranch, frozen grapes, fruit tray, deli meat tray and a special punch (Gatorade and sprite) with jello squares to go in it. Yum!

 We started by coloring lots of Frozen pictures while the movie was playing in the background. Sweet little Clara joined us for our special day. 

 We then ATTEMPTED to salt color. I saw it on Pintrest but it didnt work out.... all well.

 We then had to move on to the presents. Charli insisted! HA! We got lots of goodies. Books, dress up clothes, Princess Barbie dolls, Magiclip dolls (they love them), and a Tball set.

 We were SUPER excited that Grandma and Grandpa flew out from Utah to be with us. 

 My Mia is four! Stop growing baby please!

 And my Abbi too! Stop just stop!

 My sweet Charli. I adore these girls!

 Loved our cake. Baskin-Robbins did a great job! We got an ice cream cake (half choc/half strawberry ice cream with choc cake) It was pretty yummy. Im not an ice cream cake fan really but I thought the ice cream went with the Frozen theme pretty good. HA! I know, im a freak! The girls loved it so thats all that matters!

 I printed off the pictures of each of the characters, took them to get laminated, and used game pieces to stand them up. Loved it! Turned out aweseome and was much cheaper than buying the the little toy pieces.

 We finished the day out with dragging the bounce house (last years big birthday present) and hooked it up to the water hose. It was awesome. We had never used the water part of the bounce house so it was extra special for the girls and they loved it. 

Love these girls. They are worth every ounce of my energy, patience, blood sweat and tears. Birthdays are bittersweet for me because Im so thankful they are healthy and alive and growing beautifully. But I know these years are fleeting and are going so quickly. They dont need me as much as last year this time. Next year will be the same story. Motherhood is such a wonderfully complicated. 

Happy Birthday Charli, Abbi and Mia!

Photos of the house

So our home is on the perfect street! I am 4 streets behind the grocery store. I am next door neighbors with an awesome family in our ward. Its not a subdivision, its just one street with completely different houses that are all very nice. My other neighbors are the sweetest little grandparents. Its the nicest, cleanest, safest little area. Im so in love with it! 

Now we are doing our remodeling in phases. Phase 1 is to get it to a point that we can move into. Phase 2 will be what we do while we are there. This house has a sad story really. The original owners actually built the house in the 90s and are now going through a divorce. Its been empty almost two years I think so it was very neglected and in need of updating. Since we got such a steal on the price we figured after all the reno was done, once we get ready to sell in 5-10 years we can make a great profit on it. 

More than that we just love our house and are so anxious to move in and make happy memories there. 

I have a huge beautiful Magnolia tree in the front yard, along with about a dozen more fully grown trees. Love it! The grass is completely dead in the front yard though (the result of being neglected for almost 2 years) so we have quite a bit of landscaping to do.

 I absolutely fell in love with my porch! It is HUGE! Big enough for a table and chairs, big swing, ect. Its completed shaded 90% of the day so it really is just perfection! We are planning on tearing down those pitiful columns and putting in square beefy ones, really up the southern quality of the whole look of the house. 

 Here is the entry way into the home. We are getting all new flooring, paint, ect. But I love the beautiful staircase and you cant tell from the picture but its a 2 story entry way so it will be awesome when Im finished with it!

 Here is the view from the living room into the kitchen. I love all the windows and lighting. The kitchen is being COMPLETELY overhauled though. Its completely demolished right now! The fireplace will get a rock front makeover as well. And of course new flooring and paint to boot!

 Here is the back of the house. As you can see its a 3 story home. I mean its a beast of a house! 4000+ square feet! Complete with basement, safe room (for tornadoes), 5 bedrooms, 5 baths, an office, and a sunroom! Insane right!?

And what I promised my girlies! The biggest backyard I could get! The house sits on a full acre and I am so stoked about it. We will do a firepit/outdoor kitchen eventually. Also a TOTALLY awesome "club house" is in the planning stages now for a Christmas 2015 present. The grass is dead back here as well as are a tree or two. SO much to do!

We really got a project on our hands but we totally fell in love with this house once we saw it and I have no regrets at all. If all goes to plan we should be able to move in the end of October so my fingers and toes are crossed! More pics to come soon!

Making a comeback!

It's been right at a year since my last post. My excuse is that Jared uses our main computer for his work. So when I would normally blog, the computer is now being used. Therefore, my blog has taken a serious hit. But so much is going on in our lives and I really don't want to forget my girls' everyday memories that I have made a goal to start this blog back up. So here I am at 930 at night (when I would love to be in bed) blogging! HA
Here's hoping I can stick to it!


First of all, we bought a house! I am just thrilled that we have FINALLY become homeowners. Almost eight years of marriage and it finally happened! However, it was a nightmare of a process. The house was a short sale so we knew it wouldn't be all smooth sailing. We put an offer in at the end of January, the offer was accepted the end of February but it didn't actually close until the end of May! So crazy. Then it took another month to get our Home Equity Line of Credit to fix up the place. It needs quite a bit of TLC and construction work. But its such a beautiful home. I love everything about it, except the location that its in. (We do not plan on retiring forever in this part of Alabama so its a temporary situation for us.) But i' m so grateful we can spend it in this home. I will be posting pictures of the house very soon!


The other big thing going on is that my girls turned 4 years old just a few weeks ago! I can not believe they are already 4. Every birthday is always bitter sweet for this momma. I'm so honored and grateful that I get to be there everyday with them, but its always a little heartbreaking when they don't need me to do things i've been doing for them since birth. I need to get better about letting go and letting them grow up without guilt that everything they accomplish hurts mommy. haha  Don't worry its not quite that dramatic. Im so proud of my little angels and all they can do. Pictures coming of their 4th birthday extravaganza!


That's it for now. Stay tuned!

Finishing up birthday #3

 So we turned our house into a Fourth of July show room for the girlies. They loved it!

 

 I printed off tons of pictures of them throughout their three years here on earth, and made a little garland our of it. They loved seeing pictures of themselves and we all loved reminiscing.

 

 My little Mia holding her three balloons to represent being three years old.

 

 My Abigail is three too!

 

 Don't forget silly Charlotte is three as well! (Three three year olds... Gesh!!)

 

 This was seriously the best picture I could get of all the cousins... My girls were in a mood!

 

 Our yummy strawberry cake Mimi made for us.

 

 Mia eating her cake.

 

 My beanie is so silly.

 

Abbi loves her some cake!!

3 year interviews

Prepare yourself for the adorable-ness I get to be around all day. You can see who my talker is in the bunch (Mia). I love these girls and cant believe they are 3 already. I think I will say that for every birthday!! It just goes by so fast....

My girls are 3?!?!

 This was back when Charlotte and mommy had our date. We went to Target and showed those folks how to wear hats like models!

 

 We went to the Castle Park too and Mommy got sugar!!

 

 Cant say how much I love this picture enough! I even ordered a 24x24 canvas print of it. Love it

 Boy did they have fun when poppy bought a huge pile of sand! HA!

 

 We took an impromptu trip to Georgia for some cousin attention last month. They loved it! We all did!

 

Love it when they play together. I think this is Mia and Bean... ha

 

 They love their sandbox.

 

 This is Mia RUNNING to ONE of her birthday presents this year (we went seriously overboard). But this was a last minute purchase. A good friend of ours moved to D.C. and couldn't take their swing set so we bought it for a steal! Had to get it and I think Mia is super excited about it!

 

 But Abbi NEVER disappoints when it comes to awesome reactions to things. This was her when she first saw the swing set. HA! Love that girl!
 

Grandma and Grandpa surprised the girls (and daddy) for their birthday this year! We loved having them here for our week of fun (and rain)!  

 Jared and I bought big fireworks and shot them off on their birthday this year. They loved it! No one was scared but they did cover their ears because it was so loud. They loved them!

 Fireworks in our raincoats because it RAINED the entire week of their birthday! Poo!

 

 My Red White and Blue girls on their birthday. We did a red, white, and blue theme this year. Embraced being born practically on the 4th. Thought I should probably get it over with, seemed inevitable. Turned out super cute though!

 

 Our big present this year was this bounce house (which may I say is still in our living room and being enjoyed daily!) It totally rocks and was worth every penny. They love it!

 Here is our attempt at a cousin photo. Natalie and Nick were able to be here for the girls' birthday and we were so excited. However, by this point the girls were completely overwhelmed with people and excitement and toys and were totally moody. That's Mia in the middle refusing to look at the camera. HA! Gotta laugh right?!

 

 Our sweet neighbor Aunt Jeanie gave the girls the most awesome costumes. Abbi loves loves loves this dress and wears it daily, multiple times. Shes so funny!

 

 Mia loves the Tinker Bell costume the most!

 

 And my only semi girlie girl Charlotte loves the doctor's coat! She also has a Tangled dress that she wears but she like to keep her options open! HA! Smart girl!

 

There's something I just love about this picture. Its Mia with a bucket catching water from the sprinkler in her rain boats and diaper. Its so country. And real. And happy moments. Its beautiful because it really feels like my life in a snap shot. My sweet girl just enjoying the beautiful weather outside. Perfection.

We are THREE! YIPPEE!!!

YEAH! We made it pass the terrible twos. I have to say though, the threes seem pretty rough so far. HA! But I say that laughing because I absolutely love this age! Its the best! They are so funny. They can remember and understand so much that it surprises me sometimes.. I love that they have each other. I love that they are the most wonderful part of my day. I just feel like I could explode with happiness some days. And of course I find myself wanting to run away from home other days. HA! I think (hope) most moms feel that way SOMETIMES. They are still in their cribs, which I am actually sort of proud of.. and we still have 2 hour naps 98 percent of the time. They love nursery at church and that has been a huge blessing moving to this ward.

 The three things that I am now fearing and facing and dreading since they were born are 1. potty training (AGH!) 2. transferring to toddler beds and 3. ditching naps. They honestly should be potty trained by now. They are all ready and use toilet at least once a day. I just am having a hard time wanting to commit fully. Knowing that there will be accidents and messes, ect... Diapers just seem easier right now, more expensive but easier. I know I know... LAME! Im gonna do it! I promise. And toddler beds, well don't even get me started on that. Cribs still work perfectly fine and Since they share a room, yeah cribs will be just fine for a little while. Some days I think naps are a life savor! Who lives without naps?! Other days I think naps ruined the entire day. Its tricky but I can see naps fading in my future and Im sick to my stomach about it. Those two hours are a high commodity to me. It will be a sad day when they are over...

A little bit of info on each of my three very different girlies.

Abigail- My "gooey center" girl. She is absolute gold in her heart which is a killer combo with her amazing good looks! She loves to wear her princess dress and have me call her Princess Abigail. She is a creature of habit or repetition. It makes her feel secure and safe much more than the other two. She LOVES to read. I mean LOVES it. She memorizes the stories I tell her over and over and I find her telling herself the story sometimes by herself in her room. She is still a 100 percent daddy's girl. He can get her to eat anything with his Jedi mind tricks. Its amazing. She is still really shy around people she isn't familiar with. She just needs more confidence in herself. Something Im working on a lot lately. She says "I can't do it, I'm too little" too much for my liking. Got to get her out of that.

Charlotte- She is my adventure  girl. She is curious about everything and loves being outside. She loves helping poppy pick vegetables in the garden or playing with bugs or getting into dirt, no matter how hot it is. Nothing scares her. I mean fearless! Except, of course, when I have to clean out her latest scratch with peroxide. Then you would think I was cutting her leg off. She can be a bit dramatic about it. She loves to jump into the pool, dive or splash and will literally try ANYTHING I ask her too. I love her curiosity and independence. I love her nature to be outside doing something rather than being entertained. She has a tender heart too. Just a bit more wild than my other girls. Right now she is in a screaming phase. Like just bloody murder screaming, more so during naptime since she isn't asleep as quickly as the other ones. Makes for a frustrated momma. We are working on it.

Mia- My fairy princess. My girlie girl. She freaks out if she has dirt or anything foreign on her hands. She loves to dress up like Tinker Bell or a princess and make us call her "princess Mia" or "tinker bell Mia" She is a wonderful mother to the other two. If someone is crying she will say "You okay sweetie?" She is mostly over her biting phase (thank goodness). She has the funniest sense of humor. We have like a million inside jokes and we can just laugh and laugh with each other about them. She's acts like she is 3 going on 14.  She is my most picky eater, especially meat. She loves to help me clean. I will give her a wet wipe and that girl will go to town wiping down toys, the floor, the windows, anything. HA! Gotta say I love my clean freak girl!

Right now we are having more temper tantrums lately. But honestly, its not that bad. We will go DAYS without anyone being in time out. And then one day it will be just Mia in timeout all day long. HA! We are working through it. I love my girls and cant believe its been three whole years with them in my life. I will post a photo post and I am working on our birthday interviews which we started this year. Just asking them questions on their birthday each year to see how different their answers are as they grow. Should be fun to keep up with! Happy Birthday my Angels!!!