Easter 2011

Our morning started with surprises from the Easter Bunny. However, this year he was being a little silly. He moved the girls baskets from in front of their doors to a table downstairs. I think he likes to keep them guessing where their surprises will be. Here is a peek at what they got and how excited they were!

After an exciting morning, we headed off to church. We go to Perimeter Church and so did alot of other people this morning! We had to ask for help finding 3 seats. We decided to let Ansley try the "grownups" church today to see how she did.We finally got seated on the 5th row! Perimeter is a huge church so this felt like we had front row seats. Wow. . . what a service with such great music and meaningful message. Ansley did amazing at the service and never talked once.
Here are some sweet pictures of the girls in the Easter dresses. Unfortunately, with the busyness of the morning, we couldn't get a family picture and then Chris changed out of his clothes right away once we got home. :-( Maybe next year. 
    By the way. . .my first attempt at cooking a ham wasn't that great. I overcooked it by 2 hours. I wasn't sure how long to cook it. At least, it wasn't too hard and still tasted okay. Our sides of loaded mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, and creamed corn tasted delicious.

Then off to hunt a few eggs and watch a movie that the Easter Bunny brought and relax outside on this absolutely BEAUTIFUL Easter Day.

Big Girl Bed At Last

Well, I finally did it. . . I took down Kylie's crib and converted it to a full bed! The urge has been creeping on for several months now. She can scale down the sides of her crib in two seconds flat. So its really pointless to even keep her in a crib anymore. I started with taking off the bumper a few weeks ago. But after several interrupted nights of sleep in a row, I was tired and needed it to stop. I am always too tired to stop the meltdowns at 3am when I try to carry her back to her room, so I end up putting her in our bed. She is an active little sleeper and pillow hog! That stinker also snores. So needless to say, I have been waking up more tired than usual here lately and its no fun.


I decided that maybe I can keep her in her bed by making her excited about a new bed. Well, I hope it works! She hasn't officially slept through the night yet, but I am hoping by letting her and her sissy have a "sleepover", she might decide she likes her bed after all.

Off to Target I went this afternoon to pick up a quilt we have had our eyes on for a few months. It matches Ansley except hers is "puwpul". We still need a dust ruffle, new sheets, and some new decorations but we will get those things eventually. Here is a picture I took this afternoon. Can you tell they had been jumping on the bed??

We love Dying Easter Eggs

The girls waited patiently ALL day to dye our real eggs. The love hunting the plastic eggs with candy but always enjoy making thier own. After an attempt to use a fancy dye packet from the store, we all quickly decided it wasn't a good idea and threw it all away. Out came the food colors, vinegar, water, and coffee cups and the dipping began. Here are some pictures of our annual fun tradition. . .

Willow Brook's Easter Egg Hunt!

Today, I was just a mommy. I took off my teacher hat and spent the day with my girls.My family comes first and when my girls do something exciting or important, I take personal days. So that is what I did today. I was going to their Easter Egg Hunt at their school. Kylie's hunt was at 10:15 and Ansley's was at 12:15. However, I got behind the slowest driver on the road Friday AND a group a bike riders on Shiloh Road(which is a curvy, two lane road) and I wheeled into the parking lot at 10:17. . . ran full speed inside without locking my car, only to get to watch them have a class picture made holding their baskets of eggs. I totally MISSED the egg hunt. They were ahead of schedule and the kids hunted very fast. To say I was upset is an understatement. I felt like the worst mom in the world. I know the owners felt bad too. They were outside with the class taking pictures. They started suggesting that they let the kids hunt again, but decided to let Kylie hunt again with Ansley's class a little bit later. They were sweet about it and very apologetic. Still a little bummed, I managed to get some sweet pictures of Kyky and her friends and teachers.

 Senior Two's Class

 Miss Ashley

 Mrs. Amber

 Kyky and her friend RyRy--Poor thing was upset they took her basket away :( to hold up front.

More of Kylie's friends. . so sweet!

On to Ansley's Egg Hunt. . . ( and yes, Kyky got to go too!) They were also very quick but had lots of fun! I don't think I managed to get any pictures of Ansley actually hunting. She was very focused and darted around the playground pretty quick.  We just all wish the weather was a little more cooperative. It was a little bit dreary and cool outside. Needless to say, the eggs were all found and there were lots of happy kids!!

 Excited for the Egg Hunt!

Almost a pro at this now!

 Having fun at her 2nd hunt of the day!

 I am doing good, Mommy!

Proud of her find!

My projects are DONE!

I am a project person. There is no doubt about it. Projects to me are like golf for my husband. Its just what I love to do when I have some spare time.

To give you a litte background on my projects, my husband has had a really OLD dresser in storage for a long time that he was getting ready to dump. But my project eyes, looked at it and found potential. I convinced him to bring it home rather than dump it. Once Spring Break started, I was off to Lowes to by spray paint and primer. Yes, you read that right spray paint. It is actually very easy to do if you have the technique right and looks so good when its finished.  So I started by removing all the old 1970-80's hardwear, sanding everything down with my hand sander and then applying  a couple of coats of spray primer. Once the primer dried, I carefully painted everything. I also bought new hardware for the drawers. I am still looking for 3 more little knobs for the top of the dresser. I couldn't find any that I liked when I went to the store. The mirrors above the dresser where $10.00 each from Home Depot. I thought that was quite a deal! Now with a new and much SMALLER 19 inch flat screen tv, my girls have a new room to relax and watch movies in. (That is a story in itself. My husband has a strange connection to the old projection tv we had in that room. It was HUGE and was literally an elephant in the room. When he went to work on Thursday, I rolled it right out the front door and into the garage. Sorry honey! It was falling apart and just too big for that room. )
We have managed to condense the toys to one box and shelf in the family room. All the rest went to thier rooms. Tada!! The finished product. . .

Project #2!
We have 2 bookcases on either side of our TV that were light oak. They looked fine for a while, but once we got a new TV and stand, they didn't seem to match as well. Here they are. . . primed and painted black. Huge difference! We love the new look!  (On a side note, I have managed to lose a hinge, therefore one door on the cabinet is actually sitting on the floor. With a few decoration changes on the shelf, it will look better. But that will have to come with time.

More Soccer Pics

Okay, finally bought into more storage for the blog. Check out Ansley's 1st Soccer Game for more pictures of her being goalie. She LOVES playing goalie!

Spring Break!

So how did we start our Spring Break. . . well we started the week by taking a mini trip to Alabama for a few days to visit Juju, PopPop, and Grandma. But while we were there I wanted to take the girls to do something fun other than shop. So we went to Nocalula Falls in Gadsden. This was a favorite spot of mine when I was little. I am so glad we went. It was beautiful and so much fun.  But this time. . it was a lot more fun than what I remembered.  We got to ride the train, visit a petting zoo, and see the falls! The girls loved it all!  Their favorite part was the petting zoo.We saw all kinds of animals ( llamas, deer, goats. rams, snakes, rabbits, birds, peacocks, etc.)  They We were all amazed at how a deer ran right up to us to be petted.  it ran from across the field straight to us. Kylie wasn't real sure about it at first, but finally reached out and petted it. The llama loved to stare us right in the face.My girls know all about llamas thanks to Dora the Explorer-ha!

Here are some pictures of our trip. Enjoy.

 Ansley and Kylie's 1st Train Ride!

 Look at our train conductor! This is what my dad should do when he retires. He can even wear the outfit :-).

 Ans was not too sure about touching the bunnies.

 Kylie holding a baby bunny.

 Ah, Ah!~@

 Mama kissing a llama---I had to put that in here. It was too funny. That was as close as I was getting!

 Yikes! That is too close!

 Juju and Kylie

 Just as beautiful as I remember as a little girl!

 Ansley

 Kylie

 Mama and her baby girl!

 Look at the goofballs in the background. . . Grandma is about DONE!

 Choo, Choo!!!

 The girls were fascinated with the rainbow.

Looking ahead to future posts. . .  .For those of you that know me, know that I inherited a "piddlin" gene from my dad and Daddy Jim. I am always painting something and fixing other things. Its what I love to do. I have taught myself how to install light fixtures, sink faucets, and paint all kinds of things using spray paint.  Now that I have a few extra minutes on my hands, I am working on a new project. I am almost finished with it.  I can tell you it is coming along better than I expected!  Pictures to be posted soon!