Memorial Day

Monday I went to a Memorial Day ceremony in Jeff. Last year I got the time wrong and missed it so I made sure I got there this year. It was simple but nice to take a moment to honor those who lost their lives to protect our country. My cousin spoke along with a few others. They played Taps and several Veterans stood and saluted. It was very touching. The committee that put together the ceremony placed a flag to represent each life lost in the war. It really puts things into perspective when you see the sea of flags.

These were just a few of the flags

Brandon(behind the flag), Steve, Vikki and Mahalie

Photo fun!

One of my missions this weekend was to get some patriotic pictures so I took the girls in their red, white and blue dresses to the Zachary Taylor military cemetary. They had all of the flags out and it was absolutely beautiful!!!! I tried to turn it into a history lesson for the girls. We talked about the military and serving our country. Baylee seemed to grasp it but Bethany had all kinds of questions. It was quite entertaining. See the picture of Zachary Taylor's tomb below.

I love this picture

When you look in the door you can see the vaults holding President Taylor and his wife. When I told Bethany the former president was in there she asked if Barack Obameee(this is how she says it) was in there too. Then as we walked along further and she saw piping in the ground, she leaned down and said..."hellooooo anyone down there?" Oh to be four!

Just breathtaking!

Later we brought Kirsten, Landen and Presley over with us. I had told her I was going on a picture mission and she said she might come along. Little did we know our girls all had the same dresses on. It was really cute!

little miss Presley

After the kiddos endured the cemetary, we went to dinner, to play and for ice cream. It was a fun spontaneous adventure! We look forward to the next one...minus the cemetary!!!!!

Good times gardening

This year the girls have their own piece of garden to plant flowers. They helped plant them and are responsible for taking care of them. It should be interesting! They had a lot of fun with the planting part. We'll keep you posted.

Nice wheels Scooter!!!!

Scooter got some wheels for his birthday and let Bethany ride with him. She had a ball!!!! They lookd too cute together!!!!

What a studly pose!!!

Scooter, have her back by 8!!!!!

Performance Day

Saturday afternoon the girls both participated in their gymnastics performance day. They both did a great job. We were very proud!!!

Baylee loves doing back hip circles on the bars

Yeah Baylee!!! She was so excited to get another trophy.

Miss Kelsey and the Specialty team

Baylee and Miss Kelsey

Megan and Baylee

Bethany on her way out on the floor

Ms. Candy and the three year old class (Notice Bethany is ALMOST doing what she is supposed to)

Zane and Bethany

Yeah Bethany!!!!

Pops came solo tonight. We miss you Nana and hope you feel better very soon! Thanks pops for coming to watch your girls.

Ms. Candy and Bethany

Not the news we were hoping for...

Our Saturday was a very crazy day, beginning with a follow up trip for Bethany to see the allergist. The last time we went was when she was one and her peanut allergy was discovered. This time they were re-checking to see if she had grown out of it. Unfortunately on a scale of 1-4, 4 being the worst....her peanut allergy came up a 4. So we keep doing what we have been for the last three years. It's just a part of our life. I wish it had turned out differently but Bethany is such a trooper and it doesn't seem to bother her at all. She takes life as it comes to her. She did not get tha trait from me. :)

Yeah Baylee!!!

For months we have been struggling to get Baylee to start riding her bike without training wheels. She always takes things very cautiously. Finally on Thursday Shadd talked her into taking off the trianing wheels. She worked on riding the bike without them FOREVER! I was beginning to wonder but then SHE GOT IT!!!! Once she got the hang of it, that is all she wanted to do! We had to drag her inside and when she got up the next morning she was already asking if she could ride when she got home! It was fun to watch her excitement. Go Baylee!!!

Not so sure at this point

foot on the sidewalk as much as possible

by George I think she's got it!!!

Yeah!!!!! Daddy was getting a workout chasing her!!!!

Bethany on the sidelines. She was talking to Nana on the phone. Signs of things to come.

Happy Birthday/ Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday was a very busy day at our house. This year Bethany's birthday fell on Mother's Day so we had a lot to celebrate!!! We decided to keep her birthday low key so we had a small party with Nana and Pops at our house for both occasions. Bethany was so excited all weekend. It was really cute...about the first 100 times. She kept saying, "I am soooooooo excited about my birthday. Mommy are you so excited too?" It was fun because this is really the first birthday she really understood what was going on. She was all smiles from Friday to Sunday night when she crashed in bed.

It was really nice spending time with mom and dad and celebrating Mother's Day too. We miss Shadd's mom Joyce, who lives quite a few hours away. These holidays make us wish family was a little closer. We love you Joyce and our thoughts are with you too!!

Bethany loves her Barbies!
My girls and me

Mom, me and the girls

our family

yummy!

So the only thing that went wrong was when I went to pick up Bethany's Tinkerbell cake(which I had gotten her all excited about) the bakery informed me that the ticket had been filed wrong and the decorator was already gone for the day. So NO CAKE!!! This was a couple of hours before our celebration. I asked them how I should explain that to a four year old on her birthday. They apologized(which did nothing to solve the problem) and gave me a tinkerbell decoration free of charge to take with me. So I had to pick an already decorated cake and stick the Tinkerbell on top. I was less than happy! I have to be really careful where I get her cake anyway because of the peanut allergy so I can't just get one anywhere. And now the cake I promised her was not going to happen. But the good sport that she is ...she just smiled and was excited that she got to put Tinkerbell on. She was over it in a minute!

She looks pretty pleased...thankfully!

Still lovin' the barbies!!

She was really excited about her nightgowns she got

I love that smile!

My big girl

mom and dad