~Mother's Day 2011~

We started getting ready for Mother's Day early last week by painting some adorable crafts for Oma and Nana! We found some super cute stuff at Michaels and Jayda had so much fun painting everything however she wanted to. Sydney tried to help a little bit too! I thought everything turned out so pretty and Jayda couldn't wait to give her presents out on Mother's Day!

Jayda and Sydney all ready to paint their Mother's Day presents for Oma and Nana, and Jayda's teacher gifts for teacher appreciation week.


SO excited to PAINT!


Deep concentration.


The crafts all finished...some picture frames, garden spinners and picture holders. Jayda was very proud of what she made!


I took this picture the other day of Sydney. She had found a paci somewhere and put it in her mouth. She doesn't usually get her paci unless she is going to sleep, so she was very excited. The rest of what she is doing is pretty much what she looks like 90% of the time. She loves to put on all of the dress up jewelry, carry her little black purse with phone in it, and push the baby stroller. It is so funny!


Then, last thursday I was invited to a Mother's Day cookie party in Jayda's classroom. It was SO sweet and I felt SO special. Her teacher is amazing and I loved every minute of it! All of the mommy's got to sit in our kiddo's chairs for the party. When we first arrived there was a placecard at our seat and a flowerpot with a flower made by Jayda with her picture in the middle of the flower. It was so cute! The kiddos then presented us with a homemade Mother's Day cards and it was so precious. It said "I love you mom" on the inside and they had traced all the letters in it. Then, Jayda served me punch. She brought it to me and all at my seat and it was delish! After that the little ones passed around cookie and fruit trays to all the moms. Everything was so good and Jayda kept coming over to me and putting her hand on my arm and saying "Is there anything else I can get you mommy? Maybe some more grapes? Ok, you just stay here and I'll go get you some more!" Oh my goodness, melt my heart! This was seriously one of the sweetest, most precious and special moments I have EVER experienced as a mom! Then, Jayda gave me a present that she had made and was all wrapped up. She helped me open it and it was a recipe card holder with a magnet on the back to put up on the fridge. So cute! There were several different recipes in it already for things like homemade playdough, paint, and bubbles. After we got presents the entire class sang all of us mommies a Mother's Day song. I think it was called "Hugs and Kisses" and they even sang it in english and spanish! I was very impressed and kept asking Jayda to sing it to me again in spanish because it was just too cute. She had the spanish accent down and all! Then, all the kids got to help cut a yummy piece of chocolate cake for the moms and serve it to us. It was so good too! And, we all got to take home a beautiful pink rose. Plus, Jayda's teachers had pitched in and gotten all of us moms the book "The Power of a Praying Parent". I thought that was so super sweet of her teachers to do that. It was such an amazing day for me and I felt so special. I did not need anything else for Mother's Day after that, and I will never forget that special party! I love you SO much sweet Jayda Michelle!!

Me and Jayda at the Mother's Day party.


My little placecard and adorable flower Jayda had made me.


The pretty cake and roses from Jayda's teachers. So nice!


Jayda cutting me a piece of yummy chocolate cake.


Jayda helping me open up my present that she'd made for me.


All of my goodies from the party.


Last weekend we headed up to Huntsville to see our moms for Mothers Day. We had a relaxing day with Nana and Pawpaw on saturday. The girls had lots of fun riding the 4 wheeler that morning and then we ran errands and brought the girls home for nap/rest time. Nana and Pawpaw watched the girls for the afternoon while Jacob and I went out on a date for appetizers and to see the movie Water for Elephants. We had a great time getting out together and that movie was amazing! Highly recommend seeing it. I absolutely loved it and really wished I would of read the book first like Jacob and his mom did. Saturday night Pawpaw grilled steaks for us and we had a delicious Mothers Day dinner with Nana.

On sunday we went to my parents house to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom. We had a great time playing outside most of the day and just hanging out. Oma made a delicious lunch for Mother's Day that we all really enjoyed! That afternoon we took the girls to the pool so that they could try out their new swimsuits from Oma. We had a great day!

Me and the girls playing outside at Oma's house on Mother's Day.


Sydney loves to sit on her little bench at Oma and Oupa's house!


Sweet girls enjoying their push ups outside.


Sydney liked my new pots and pans! Yay, thank you Oma!!


So Jayda HAD to come and join in on the fun!


Having fun swimming at the pool.


Mother's Day was so special and sweet this year and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! Thank you to my 2 amazing, funny, loving, caring, silly, and beautiful little girls for letting me be your mommy! I love you Jayda and Sydney SO incredibly much! XOXOXO!

Sydney tried some cheesecake the other night for the first time and she really liked it. Yummy!


Sydney loves to play in the sprinklers!


Jayda was being silly and playing on the front porch.

Guest Bath Remodel & Easter 2011

The past 2 weeks have been a little crazy around here as we have been remodeling our guest bathroom. Mainly the bathtub, surronding tile, and some of the fixtures in the bathroom. We hired a contractor that Jacob knows pretty well through work and he then had either his people or sub-contractors do the job. This involved the demolition of the bathtub and tile, installing the new tub and fixtures, fixing the drain problem in the foundation, setting up all the plumbing, putting up new sheet rock and backer board, installing the tile, and lastly painting the bathroom. Everything went pretty smoothly for the most part. It was just a bit of a pain having people in our house for about 10 days and having to come and go at certain times. Plus the loud noises scared the girls so we couldn't be in the house when anything loud was going on, which was most of the time. But, we made it and now have a beautiful new bathroom. Yay! The reason we had to do this remodel was because the bathtub was not installed correctly when the house was built (apparently this happens a lot with newer construction), and there was a nasty slow leak underneath the tub that had leaked out into our hallway and the doorframe of the bathroom. Needless to say, we would of rather spent our money on something else much more glamorous (like a new living room set), or fun (like a couple of vacations), but we are finding out that sometimes you just have to bite the bullet being a homeowner and take care of business.

Old bathtub and surronding tile.


Old bathtub with rusted spot. This spot is not actually what was causing the leak, but it sure didn't look too good. It was actually leaking underneath the drain.


Old showerhead.


Old bathtub handle and faucet.


Old sink faucets.


No walls up. Kinda creepy looking!


Tile and sheetrock taken down.


Our new bathtub, yay!!!


Sydney being silly playing on the workers drop cloths.


The girls thought it was SO fun to run up and down the hallway on these cloths!


Tile in process. Looking good...On a sidenote, it took me a long time to pick this tile out. I literally went to the tile store 3 times for a couple of hours each time, with girls in tow, to figure this out. I never knew it would be so hard to pick out tiles, grout color, paint etc. Probably made it just a tad bit harder having a little 1 year old to run after (all over the store the entire time) while trying to make this decision! After finding out that the tile on the floor in the bathroom was discontinued (go figure), I had to pick another one. I could either try to pick something else out that was a close match to the floor tile, but not exactly, or go with something different that contrasted the tile floor. So, I ended up going with a contrast. But, I was able to find 6 of the same floor tiles, in a smaller version, leftover in the garage from when the previous owners tiled the kitchen backsplash. So, I had the tile guy put a few of those in to bring it all together (the tub and the floor). I think it turned out pretty nice.


New showerhead. I love it!


New bathtub handle and faucet. Much nicer!


Our new bathtub and surronding tile with fixtures all complete! So happy about the way it turned out!


New sink faucets. SO happy to get the old nasty ones out of there!!


New towel hook I had put in and new toilet paper holder. Minor things, but I'm still excited about it!


Trying to pick out a paint color for the bathroom, for the 2nd time! So, unfortunately I made a mistake in picking out the paint color for the bathroom. I was really wanting a light/medium brown. But, I picked some sort of pink/peachy brown and hated it! I wasn't home when they were painting so when I got home and saw the entire bathroom in this awful color I had no idea what to do! Should I just leave it and hate it? Or see if they could re-paint it? Luckily the contractor said he could easily re-paint the bathroom for a fraction of the cost. Thank goodness because I was not liking the new bathroom at all and I did not want to feel that way after putting so much time, money and effort into this whole project! Thankfully I did pick the right color for round 2 and now I love it! It's exactly what I had in my mind!


The girls new tub is ready to go with their body washes, shampoos and toys. Yay!


The girls taking a bath in their new bathtub for the first time, woo hoo! They had not bathed in here for 3 months!!


Sydney enjoying her new bathtub.


*EASTER 2011*

Jayda on her way into school for her Easter party on the Thursday before Easter.


We went to Huntsville for Easter weekend to spend time with the grandparents. The girls got to go on 2 Easter egg hunts, dye Easter eggs, ride on their 4 wheelers, eat lots of candy, play with the new baby ducks, and play with their cousins. They had lots of fun over the weekend!

Nana and Pawpaw got the girls 8 baby ducks for Easter to play with. Jayda LOVED them! Especially the "lellow" ones.


Jayda showing Sydney one of the baby ducks. Sydney was not too sure about them at first, but did come around to liking them and even picked one up by it's neck!


Jayda found a golden egg at Oma's house! Yay, she was so excited about this!


Sydney hunting for Easter eggs at Oma and Oupa's house.


Sydney eating some chocolate she found in one of her Easter eggs. She loves candy!


Dying Easter eggs, so fun!


Jayda shaking up one of her eggs.


The girls having a blast on the 4 wheeler at Oma and Oupa's house. This was Sydney's first time to take a ride. Guess she'd watched big sis enough and wanted to give it a try.


Jayda trying on her new shoes from the Easter bunny!


Sydney trying some Peeps that the Easter Bunny left her, yummy!


Daddy pushing Sydney on the swing after church on Easter.


Our little family. Easter 2011.


Me and my sweet girls on Easter sunday.


The girls enjoying some Easter candy outside on their bench.


The cousins, minus 1, all ready to hunt for some Easter eggs at Nana and Pawpaw's house!


During the egg hunt at Nana and Pawpaw's Sydney again found one egg with some candy and was done hunting. She was much more interested in petting Harley than looking for anymore eggs!


Sitting outside watching the ducks swim in their little pool after hunting for eggs.


Sydney loved pointing at the ducks and trying to grab them.


Jayda used her Easter money to get a new bike! She loved it for a few days, but after realzing that her feet can't touch the ground on the new bike and taking a few falls, she's gone back to her little bike for now. Think she just needs to grow about 1/2 an inch and she will be back on it in no time!



*A few extra pics!*

Sydney was having fun playing the drums at the zoo like the big kids.


This is all Jayda wanted to do at the zoo, "walk on the water." Apparently there was a big festival at the zoo the last time her and daddy went and lots of kids were walking out in this water, which isn't even in the zoo. It's just outside of the zoo by the Memorial Hermann park.


Sweet girls being silly in the bathtub.


Sydney thought something was funny!


And this is what I turned around to see at the dinner table the other night. Just lovely Sydney!