Summer List: Life's A Beach

We took the girls to the beach today. Christopher had heard about this fun part of the bay where the water stays really shallow for a ways out. The girls LOVED it. They were in their own little world scooping up sand and splashing around in the water.

As for me, Chris, and Evyn? Not so much. The wind. Oh. The. WIND! It was crazy how badly the wind was blowing! We didn't bring beach chairs. Number 1 No No. And if we sat on our beach towels we were getting sandblasted! Sand was everywhere! In my shirt, in Evyn's ears, the diaper bag! I had to take Evyn back to the car so I could feed her. It was crazy. I'm not sure if the wind always blows that hard but it's safe to say that if that's normal, I won't be going back to the beach any time soon! Pool, yes. Splash pad, most definitely. The beach, a big fat NO!

We had to just laugh! What we thought would be this nice relaxing day on the beach ended up being anything but! We had Evyn completely covered in her carseat and Chris and I stood up the entire time! Not what we had planned at all!

Our beach fun ended when Elodie got stung by a jellyfish! She had good timing though because we hit Sonic Happy Hour and everyone went home happy! Even if occasionally I found sand in my mouth!

Summer Fun

We always have big plans for the summer. And while I keep to a weekly schedule pretty good during the summer (swimming on Mondays, Library on Tuesdays, etc) lots of times I forget some of things I "made plans" to do!

I found this cute chart over at The Crafting Chicks blog and decided it would be fun to sit down with Elodie and fill it up! And fill it up we did! They are in no particular order (just as they came to us) but poor Elodie thought the first thing we were going to do today was go to Sea World! I had the chart printed and will hang it in our kitchen where everyone can see it!

As we go along we will add a sticker to each activity we complete! And of course a lot of them will be completed more than once. As if we would only go to the Dollar Store or the library once during the summer! And I'm also sure that our list will get longer as the days go on.

The next chart to print will be the CHORE one..and it will hang right beside the fun chart! Because as we all know, you can't have fun until your chores are done! ;)

{Sidenote: The girls will not be seeing Harry Potter-it's on there so Chris and I can have a date night!}

Last Day of School.

Today was Elodie's last day of school. I have mixed feelings about the last day of school. I'm excited about having Elodie at home, planning vacations, and looser schedules. I'm not excited that this last year past so quickly and now I have a 2nd grader?!?! A what? A 2nd grader! Craziness!

Elodie learned so much this year. She is a reading machine, writes paragraphs and paragraphs in her journal (a post all it's own), and overall thrived in 1st grade! She was also voted "sweetest classmate" by her class. We are so proud of her!

Since today was a half day, I took her to lunch after school let out. She picked McDonalds and afterwards we stopped by Wal-Mart so she could pick out cupcakes for after dinner treat. It's the little things.

We have big plans and quiet days all scheduled out for the next few months.

Happy Summer!

Picture Tradition.

Like all families we have a ton of traditions. And I'm always looking for new ones to make each year in our family more special and fun.

One of my favorite, when it comes to my girls, is pictures. Pictures in matching outfits, in hand-me-down outfits, pictures in the same spot, pictures with mom, with dad. There is no limit.

My very favorite picture tradition is the 5 week picture with Chris. When we did this with Elodie I never intended to make it a tradition but once Addysen came along it was a must have! It's fun to see how much the girls look a like and different at the exact same age. I have each of the girls pictures framed too and I love having a reminder of my babies! There is nothing sweeter than a little baby in her daddy's hand! The only thing I do wish I would have done differently is that I had taken Elodie and Addysen's pictures instead of having a studio do them!

{To see E&A's 5 week pictures click HERE}

Friend Sick

I'm pretty sure the worst thing I can do for myself, when I'm already feeling pretty homesick, is go back and look through old pictures of me with my besties. Aw man, I miss these girls! In my defense, I spent a portion of my weekend organizing and deleting old files. So when I came across these gems and realized I hadn't blog'd about them, well, obviously it had to be done! I'm not sure why we were out- it was during the summer (mid July '10) so I'm assuming it was for one of the Twilight movies. We had gone to Red Robin for dinner and while we were there we asked the waitress to take a picture for us. What I didn't realize when I handed my little point-n-shoot over is that it was on video. So when she took the picture, she was actually video'ing us. Happy Little Accident. I laugh every time I watch this little video. It's short but sweet and so funny how we sat there forever all posed for a picture! A double edged sword I tell ya. I love that this picture and video makes me smile and laugh and feel so grateful for wonderful friends. But with it comes an ache in my heart because I miss them so much! And a phone call doesn't come even close to a good hug from one of these girls!

2 months

Evyn's Blessing Day

The weekend that Chris came to get us, after he had moved all of our stuff to Texas, we were able to bless Evyn. April 16th,2011. We didn't originally plan to bless her while we were there but it made the most sense. My Aunt Connie and Uncle Newell and all of there family were in town. My brother Doye and his family, who also live in Texas, were in town, which meant that all of my mom and dad's kids were together in the same state for the first time in like 7 years. My 2 other brothers (Caissy and Owen) have never left Louisiana.

Total, there were 41 family members who came to the blessing and 8 men (Chris, my dad, PawPaw, Uncle Newell, Kyle, Bret, Doye, and Uncle Mark) stood in the circle to bless Evyn. We were especially grateful to have my PawPaw Whitney (he will be 98 this October) in the circle. We did the blessing at his house which made it even more special. PawPaw said a few words before the blessing and you could feel the spirit in the room. A very neat experience.








My mom with her little brother, my Uncle Newell {Their 2 families made up 38 of the 41 people at the blessing}

My wonderful parents.







All the Grandgirls

All the Grandboys

All the Grandkids

My brother Owen and his family

My brother Doye and his family

Sadly, my brother Caissy was the only one not there. He got stuck at work and because doing the blessing was so last minute, he couldn't get out of it. SO BUMMED! Thankfully, his wife Regina and their 3 kids were at the blessing. I'm sad I didn't take a picture of them all together! Not sure why I didn't think to do that!

And last, a picture of our whole family! We will have to photoshop Caissy in later! ;)

Lately...

-She made the A Honor Roll at school. She got a certificate and a medal for having all A's the entire year. Since Elodie moved to this school 6 weeks before school ended, it was mostly based on her grades from Challenger. She was only 1 of 2 kids in her class to receive this award. We are really proud of her and she was over the moon about her medal! She couldn't wait for Chris to get home because in her words "Daddy is SO SMART, he will be SO proud of me!"

-She has her 2nd wiggly tooth. Slowly but surely.

-She has a list a mile long of things she wants to do this summer. Money is no object for our 6 year old!

-She totally scored when she moved to this school- In the last 6 weeks she has done a second field day (her old school had just done there's before we moved), a water day, a movie day, a pajama day, and a second book fair. She was in heaven!

-She has adjusted well to her new school. Has made new friends and is doing great. Without knowing it, she has taught me about what's important here. It's amazing how quickly she accepted this change. It's hard to mope about and be homesick with her around!

My folks

One evening while I was in La. my parents worked at the Temple. They do every week. I wasn't going to let them leave without taking a few pictures of them in their sunday clothes. I love my parents. I love the example they have set for me and Christopher. I love how great they are with my girls. They immediately stepped in when the whole trying to have a baby, Chris starting a new job, and moving to a new state blur happened to us. And never for a second did they hesitate to have me and the girls come stay with them while Chris moved. I really didn't even need to ask.

They are amazing people. They work hard. They serve others. They love their family. You can't really ask for more than that!




This is what Addysen looked like when my parents left.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Last year I made a goal to do something every day for Elodie's teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week. It was tricky but I was able to pull it off. This year, I wanted to do the same thing but I knew I had my work cut out for me since we moved. It was obvious that I was going to do something for Ms. Matthew, as well as Elodie's kindergarten teachers Mrs. Whall and Mrs. Oliver. Add in Elodie's new 1st grade teacher, Ms. Mahany, I had a busy week!

Here is what I did.
I took paint cans and turned them into treat buckets. I made those lovely chocolate peanut butter cookies and they were a hit. I love them because the buckets can sit on the teachers desk and serve as a pencil holder or what not.



I got $5 sonic gift cards for each teacher. Last year I made a trip to Sonic and got the teachers favorite drinks and brought them during lunch time. The gift cards were a little easier since I'm toting 2 smaller children around now.

I made these cute little "apples" out of oreos dipped in red chocolate.


Elodie had worn a headband that I made for her to school one day and Ms. Mahany loved it. I thought it would be fun to make her a few for the summer. She loved them!


For Elodie's teachers in Arizona I made headbands to match their Challenger t-shirts they wear on Friday's. {Post Edit: Ms. Matthew, Mrs. Oliver, and Mrs. Whall wore their headbands on the last day of school and they were a huge hit! I'm so glad they loved them!}


And then we finished off the week with a store bought necklaces I got at DownEast Basics. This was special for Ms. Matthew and Ms. Mahany. (No picture)

I feel so blessed that Elodie has had such great teachers. I have no doubt that we will continue to keep in touch with Ms. Matthew, Mrs. Oliver, and Mrs. Whall. Hopefully we will be back in Arizona and Addysen will have these teachers!

Ms. Mahany made a special effort to make Elodie feel at home here in Texas. Moving to a new school 7 weeks before school lets out is no fun but Ms. Mahany really helped Elodie feel special and included! It made the transition a little bit easier!

I'm so happy that I could take the time to make something special for Elodie's teachers and let them know how much we love and appreciation them!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

A blogger friend of mine made up this recipe and submitted it for a challenge that Paula Deen was hosting. Lucky her she made the finals and is being flown to Georgia to meet Paula herself! Amazing.

I tried out her recipe a few days ago and gave them as part of Teacher Appreciation Week. They were a huge hit at our house. Dangerous little devils but fun for every once in a while. My only tip that Amy didn't include is that I refrigerated mine after I made them. It allowed the cookie to harden and stick together better.

Don't hate me for passing these on. They are too good not to share!

4 ounce(s) of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Softened
4 tbsp. of Butter, Softened
1 tsp. of Pure Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
1 (18.25 oz) Chocolate Cake Mix
1/4 cup(s) of All Purpose Flour
4 ounce(s) of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Softened
3/4 cup(s) of Cream Peanut Butter
1 tsp. of Pure Vanilla Extract
2 1/2 cup(s) of Powdered Sugar
3 tbsp. of Milk
12 Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, Chopped

Steps
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Cream together 4 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese and 4 TBSP butter in a stand mixer or large bowl.
Mix in 1 tsp pure vanilla extract.
Combine in your eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated.
Add in your chocolate cake mix and combine well.
Add in flour and mix until well incorporated.
Place 1 inch balls onto a cookie sheet, keeping cookies about 2 inches apart.
You should end up with about 40 cookies total, making 20 sandwich cookies.
Bake for 6-8 minutes or until center of the cookie is set.
Remove cookies from the oven and cool completely.

FOR THE FROSTING
Cream together 4 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese and peanut butter in a stand mixer or large bowl.
Mix in 1 tsp pure vanilla extract.
Slowly incorporate all of the powdered sugar. Mix until well combined
Thin out frosting using some or all of the milk.
Frost the bottom of 20 cookies.
Sprinkle some chopped peanut butter cups on each of the frosted cookies.
Top each frosted cookie with a non-frosted cookie, making a sandwich.
Make sure that the tops of your cookies are facing out.
Store in an airtight container.

Tough Stuff.

I was on the phone with my friend Jaime the other day. She asked me how everyone was adjusting to the move and I told her that I didn't feel like I real parent until we moved. And it's hard!

Thankfully we have never had to deal with too many tough things with our kids. They came healthy. Have grown properly. Their smart and social. And other than a few temper tantrums and true 3 and 6 year old behavior parenthood hasn't been that hard. And what a blessing that is to say that.

And then we moved....and it feels like REAL parenthood has slapped me in the face! All of a sudden I've had to be strong when I didn't want to be. I've had to suck it up and be HER shoulder to cry on. I'm the one saying things like "This is going to be GREAT!" on the first day at a new school. And when her new teacher called because Elodie was having a moment and thought it would be a good idea for her to talk to her mom, I had to take a deep breath and find a way to cheer her up. When deep down I wanted to cry with her, pack everything up, and move back to Arizona!

I remember standing in our empty house with Christopher crying my eyes out and asking him "What in the heck are we doing?!?" And to be honest, 3 weeks after moving, I'm still not sure!

When we decided to make this move I had 1 major concern. Leaving Elodie's school. And besides leaving great friends and family, I cried most when I thought about having to switch schools.

To say I loved Elodie's school is an understatement. She has had amazing teachers. Great curriculum. I helped out in the classroom once a week and loved getting to know the students better. And overall in the last 2 years it has been an awesome experience. We loved it there!

The last week at her old school was HARD! Pretending everything was okay and normal while we were boxing up our house and counting down the days. I hated it. I hated when the monthly newsletter came home, when the kids were practicing their songs for the end of the year concert, and talking to the other moms about the end of the year party. It was so emotionally draining on me to be the mom in front of Elodie and pretend to be happy and excited about our move.

On the last day of school I wanted to pretend like it was any normal day. (I really wanted Chris to go pick Elodie up but he was busy packing.) But Ms. Matthew wouldn't let us. She bought lunch from Jason's Deli for Elodie and all the kids wore their field day shirts for Elodie. And while it was sad to say goodbye, I'm so grateful for these great teachers that Elodie has had! Elodie has loved them and they have adored her in return!

I know this all sounds a bit depressing but it's the hard parts I want to remember too-because this move has been anything but easy for all of us. And while Christopher has gotten this great opportunity with a great firm, we are still trying to find where we fit in as a family here. And I'm not sure how long that takes! And I must also say that Elodie's new teacher, Ms. Mahany, has been just as lovely as Ms. Matthew and has made Elodie feel so welcome in her classroom.

Mother's Day 2011

Just for you Melissa

This morning I busied around- I had a list a mile long, errands to run, teacher appreciation gifts to make, the post office...I'm sure this all sounds familiar. Squeezing in nursing, a nap for Addysen, and picking up Elodie leaves me little time during the day to sit around.

I was on a mission to be out of the house at 10:30am, run my errands, get lunch for Addysen, and have her napping by 12:30. I was on track until in the mist of getting everyone in the car and remembering to actually bring the package I was going to the post office to send, I somehow locked my keys in the house. Not somehow, the mistake was made when after getting out of the driveway I realized I didn't have the return slip I needed to mail my package. So I had to go back in the house...that's when I put the keys on the counter, grabbed the slip, and locked the door without my keys in my hand!

Ugh. It's just one of those things- when you try and plan your day, your week, your LIFE, something always happens that makes you come to a complete stop. And that's annoying- especially considering I was doing so good this morning!

Thankfully I didn't lock my phone in the house so I was able to call Chris to come home and unlock the house for me. (Thanks Hon!) It took him about 20 minutes to get home so we had some time to kill!

I was on the phone with my friend Melissa the other day and she was complaining to me that I hadn't put any new pictures of Evyn on my blog. It's not that I haven't been taking pictures of Evyn- it's more playing catching up and finding the time to blog it all!

Since I had 20 minutes, and my point and shoot in my diaper bag, Addysen and I had fun taking oodles of pictures of baby Evyn!

I hope you enjoy these Melissa! Locking my keys in the house wasn't a complete waste after all!