Happy Birthday Carly

Last Saturday, we celebrated Carly's 6th birthday.  Carly is in Emily's kindergarten class and they are also in Sunday School together.  Carly had a very interesting birthday week.  She spent the night at the airport trying to get to the Auburn game in Arizona and later in the week when she got home, she got her ears pierced.  That's a big week in the life of a 6 year old!!!  We were so glad she made it back and that she invited us to her party.  And what a great party it was!!!  It was at a local salon and all the girls got pedicures and their finger nails painted.  They also applied a little "fun" makeup and sparkle to their hair.  It was a lot of fun to see the girls laugh and squeal and hang out with the other moms!

Lilly, Em and Carly.  Lilly is the sweetest little girl.  She's in my Mission Friends class on Wednesday night and she is a joy to be around.  And Carly is a little girl with a BIG personality.  I love to hear her talk and she's funny without even trying to be.  I'm so glad Emily is able to play with them.

Claire Bear.  She was loving getting her nails polished.

We will be heading to another party this weekend!!  Can't wait!

Winter Wonderland

When we got home Sunday we waited on the snow.  We got busy and forgot about it and then we looked outside and everything was covered!!! Tuesday morning we were jumping to get out in it. 

Although, you can't tell it by this picture, they were very excited. 

I asked for a little excitement and this is what I got....

Emily couldn't wait to get back to sledding. It was perfect sledding snow.  It was mostly ice so you could go really fast.

Our neighbor Landon and Gracie

I love these happy little faces.

Unfortunatley, this happened soon after they started.

Emmy and Chris

Chris isn't too big to miss out on all the fun.

I didn't have time to put on make up....as you can tell. 

Our neighbor Bailey flying by on the intertube. 

Laura and Little Penny

Emily played and played.  Chris finally had to make her go in because she was soaking wet, but she didn't seem to care.  This girl loves the snow! 

Gatlinburg Part 2

Our second day in Gatlinburg we woke up to snow.  Emily was beyond excited!!!!! Chris headed to the fishing lure show for a couple of hours and the rest of us got up to get some breakfast.  As you can see, Emily was very pleased.

Gracie was happy too, but snow doesn't tickle her fancy like it does Em.

We grabbed a little breakfast, met up with Chris, and just piddled around for the rest of the day.  We shopped at the outlets and I got Emily a new coat.  She wanted some earmuffs and this is the best we could find.  We also got her a pair of snow gloves which came in major handy when we got home!!! 

Looks like the same picture but it's not.  I just loved them both and I couldn't decided, so I put them  both. 

While Gracie napped Chris and I went to grab a bite to eat and on our way back we bought the girls a sled. The best part of the whole trip was seeing them on that sled.  They laughed the whole time!!!

The smiles say it all!!!!  They were going so fast it was hard to get a good picture.  My camera ability ends with "hey, there's a running man, so that must mean you can take pictures fast"!  The running man didn't help, but you can still see how much fun they had.

Pop was our "stopper" at the bottom of the hill.

Later that night we walked down in the village and to say it was cold was an understatement.  We purchased a few goodies and headed back to the room.

We left early the next morning.  We had to get home because we had winter weather headed toward where we live.  And we didn't have any milk or bread or  ANYTHING!! We made it in plenty of time and have enjoyed more snow!!!!

Gatlinburg

This past weekend, Chris and I took the girls on a trip to Gatlinburg.  Chris collects fishing lures and they were having a show up there, so we thought it would be a good time for a family trip.  We left on Thursday after Emily got out of school.  Chris' parents came up on Friday to join the fun. 

Friday morning I was by myself until his parents got there, so I decided to take the girls to the Gatlinburg

Aquarium.  It was right down the street from our hotel and I was so glad because as soon as we go out the door it started snowing. 

Emily has been to an Aquarium before, but it was all new to Gracie.  I think her favorite part was that she could run free as a bird.  It was not very crowded and she was everywhere!  It was so fun to see her excitement. 

Here are some of the weird  little creatures we saw at the aquarium.  I know God has a plan for everything,  but some of these little jokers are strange!!

They had this moving sidewalk that went under a tank, so that all the fish were swimming on top and all around you.  Gracie loved the sidewalk.  She wanted to stand by herself and take it all in.

Not Emily!  She stayed right by me and the stroller.  All she kept saying was, "This is creeping me out"!

Everyone's favorite part were the penguins.  They were so cute and fun to watch!

They had this long tube that went under the aquarium where the penguins were at and you could crawl up and stand in this area that is in the middle of the penguins.  Gracie and Emily loved it.

As usual, it didn't take Emily long before she met a friend.

This is our sweet Fluffy.  You can't leave the aquarium without a gift from the Gift Shop.  But that seemed to be Emily's motto at every store we went in!  ha ha

We had a great time at the aquarium.  I have more to come about our trip....stay tuned.

Comfort Zone

Man, I love "HOME".  You know what I mean.  At home you can be yourself.  Not worry about anything and feel safe.  I guess you could call it your comfort zone.  As soon as we walk in the door, we get right down to being comfortable!  Sunday was no different.  After church, we ran to get a bite to eat and brought it back home.  Gracie was soon asking for her passy and blanket because she was ready for a nap.  We didn't have church on Sunday night, so Chris went riding 4-wheelers with his friends.  My friend Ashley called and wanted us to go see the movie Tangled with her and her girls, but I wasn't real sure Gracie would make it through the whole movie, so we took a rain check.  We opted for a quiet Sunday at home.

Before Christmass, the girls and I tried to make sugar cookies to decorate.  The didn't turn out well at all.  The batter never formed a dough and we just had a plain mess.  I wanted Emily to decorate something, so we made brownies and cut Christmas shapes out of them. 

Emily always likes the batter better than the actual brownies.

Once Gracie got up, we got down to decorating.  See what I mean about "comfort zone" it's the middle of the day and we're in our PJ's.

Finished product.  Doesn't it look great...haha!  It may not be the prettiest, but they sure were fun to make.

I love spending time with my girls.  Emily has to go back to school tomorrow and I do believe that Gracie is going to have a hard time with it.  Although they fight like cats and dogs, Gracie loves Emily and Emily loves Gracie.  The first thing Gracie asks me every morning is, "Where's Emmy?".  And if you ever give Emily something, she'll say, "What about Gracie?" 

On the days that all they do is fight, I remind myself of these sweet little moments. 

Have a good night y'all!