Fancy Nancy

It is really hard to follow up a birthday celebration in Disney, but alas, we had to try; after all, what is a birthday without having a party with your friends???? Last weekend we finally had Shelby's birthday party. As a lot of you know, Shelby isn't one of those girls who gets obsessed with much so it can be difficult to try to find a theme for her so after much thinking we decided on Fancy Nancy. For those of you who aren't familiar, Fancy Nancy is a book series about a girl named Nancy who likes to use "fancy" words and has a very peculiar taste in fashion (kind of reminds me of a little girl in my life). Anyway, thankfully I have friends who are great at the kind of stuff...Connie Sewell of Teeny Bops and Lollipops basically was in charge of the party and Jenny Montgomery of A Slice of Heaven made the cake. And everything turned out fabulous!!!!

My not so little little girl standing by the tables. Connie had all the supplies for a truly Fancy Nancy Party. I mean, look at that table.....



And that was just part of it. She had little books for all the girls to decorate with Fancy Nancy stickers and other pretty little things; she set up a little make-up studio and put a little make-up on all the girls for the fashion show; and she had all the dress up clothes you could imagine. It was truly amazing!!!

This is the cake. Jenny made it and it was soooooo good!!!! I had decided to go to the store to buy decorations for the cake. This is the final product:



Shelby and some of her best buds from school: All the girls looked so cute in their fashion creations.



Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!!!



Here is the closest thing to a group shot we could get. We are truly blessed that our children have such wonderful friends and that their friends have such wonderful parents that we get to hang out with:)



Shelby, Happy Birthday my love!!! We are so proud of all that you have accomplished this year and look forward to watching you grow in the Lord. You are our very special gift from God and love you more than you could ever know!!!

March Comes in Like a Lion

You know the saying, "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb"? Well, March came in like a lion in a big way in our house, both literally and physically. I am not lying....at exactly 12:00am on March 1st I was awakened by the sound of thunder and the flast of lightning and at 12:05 my sweet Shelby woke up; so as any good mom would do, I climbed into bed with her and no sooner did my head hit the pillow that I got another call from across the hall. In the end there were three of us cuddled up in Shelby's bed riding out the storm. Thankfully, it didn't last long and we were all back in our own beds after about 30 min or so. And there you go...March came roaring in like a lion.

This first week of March also marked a new and exciting time in our house. This is the first season that both Shelby and JP are old enough to participate in sports and we didn't waste anytime jumping in.

Tuesday started tennis for Shelby and swim lessons for Shelby and JP. The tennis lessons came first and Shelby was so excited. She has been asking to play tennis since the fall and finally it came around. I wish that I could have watched her a little more, but since I knew she was being taken care of by her coach and being watched over, I kept a diligent eye on JP at the playground. She was beaming with excitement and despite the very frigid wind blowing, she truly enjoyed every bit of the lesson. She has been "practicing" nearly everyday in the driveway by balancing the ball on her racket.




Tennis lessons were from 4:00 to 4:45. As soon as they were over we jumped in the car and raced home to grab a good dinner before swim lessons. While I was heating up food for them to eat; Shelby and JP got on their swim suits. I basically shoved food down them and then we jumped back in the car and raced back up to the clubhouse where Stefan was waiting for us.

Shelby and JP were very excited to be back in the pool and I was amazed to see how much they remembered. Stefan didn't waste anytime starting them off right where we ended last year. Shelby pretty much mastered a form of swimming last summer so I anticipate that she will mostly be working on "proper technique" and JP will still be learning confidence in the water and how to put your face in without holding your nose or choking.




Wednesday was a nice day to relax at home in the evening and then Thursday was the start of t-ball for JP. I can't even begin to tell you how excited he was. Think about it, the poor boy is surrounded by girls most of the time and usually is tagging along with Shelby and I to different activities. Now, he has an activity that is just for him and it is all boys. This little guy was in heaven; and, if you are ever looking for a good laugh, go to any sporting event with 4/5 year olds. It is so funny and so cute!!!

JP did a great job at his first practice. They practiced running the bases, fielding ground balls, throwing, and hitting. Then they closed the practice with a little scrimmage. It was so cute!!! JP was such a good listener and you could tell that he really wanted to do well. I can't wait for their first game.

JP running the bases...yes, it was that cold out!! The wind went right to the bone.


JP getting batting instruction from Coach Paige....


One of the truly neat things about this whole t-ball thing is that his coaches, Coach Johnny and Coach Paige, coached my brother Matt and Pratt when they were younger. Also, Johnny has been in a battle for his life this past year as he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about 9 months ago, underwent whipple surgery, went through months and months of chemotherapy and 2 months of radiation. It was just so amazing and heart warming to see his normal, cheerful, encouraging self out there coaching these children and encouraging them. I am very grateful to have such wonderful male influences in my son's life (of course, this also includes his daddy, grandpas, and uncles).

It will be interesting to see if March passes quietly on "like a lamb".

Busy, Busy, Busy Part III-Disney Trip

Two weeks ago we took our first ever family of four family trip. Oh, don't get me wrong, we have traveled quite a bit with the children, but this is the first time that it was ever just the four of us; no extended family and no family friends, just us. Of course, if you are going to do something as a family for the first time you might as well jump in head first so we decided to take a 6 day/5 night trip to Disney World, the place where all your dreams come true and if you make it home still married and all children still alive the odds that you will stay married and not kill your children along the way increase dramatically:) All joking aside, we had the most marvelous trip ever!!! Even when we had a bump in the road it seemed to be perfect.

Wednesday morning we headed out as fast as we could get out of the house. Everyone was so excited, but Shelby was by far the most excited out of all of us. Before we even hit I-95 she had already asked a million questions that came one right after another. She didn't even give us 5 secs to answer the first question before she was on to the next and then the next and then the next....continue on for 5 hours!!! As endearing as it was and at times very hilarious, it was a little much. I mean, nothing could stop the questions, not even a movie.

JP on the other hand just enjoyed the ride and was content to listen to his sister's rapid fire questions. In fact, he was so relaxed that he passed out on the way down.



He loves his monkey and blanky and pillow.

Because we left so early, we were able to check-in, go grocery shopping and still have plenty of time to spare to hit Downtown Disney. Now really, this first tast of Disney World was either going to make or break the trip. Think about it, we traveled all day and jumped right into action with two children who were a little tired, but running on so much adrenaline that it kept them going. Turns out, we had a very nice first night. We walked around Downtown Disney a bit, rode the carousel, ate at Rainforest Cafe, had ice cream, and went back to the place we were staying.

This picture is pretty significant to me because I have a picture of Shelby and I in front of that same fountain when she was 8 weeks old. That was back before digital cameras so I don't have it on my computer, but it is just so crazy that she turned 6 years old while we were on our trip!!!



No one slept much that first night. We were in a new place, the children were sleeping in bunkbeds for the first time and we were all excited about going to Magic Kingdom the next day. I think that I was up every hour with the children.

Magic Kingdom was definitely magical. It was amazing to see how much Shelby had changed from when we went to Disneyland a few years ago. When we went to Disneyland we literally had to drag her into the park kicking and screaming because she was so terrified of seeing the characters and the princesses, but this time she was so excited to get to see the princesses. She still avoided all the characters, but completely got into getting as many autographs from as many princesses as possible. It was too cute.

JP wasn't all that much into the princesses (whew!!!), but he did have his mind set on seeing Mickey Mouse and getting his autograph. When we finally found him, we had to wait in line for a little bit and at one point Mickey went inside for a little break and JP completely lost it. I mean he cried and cried and cried until Mickey came back out. I just prayed after that that we would make it up there before another break becuase I don't think he or I could have handled that again.



We had such a wonderful time at Magic Kingdom. We rode Dumbo, Peter Pan, the Tea Cups, Small World, the People Mover, Buzz Lightyear, the Jungle Boat, Aladin's Magic Carpet Ride, and Thunder Mountain. JP was just tall enough to get on Thunder Mountain and I really think that if it weren't for his thick hair that would not have allowed him on. It was so funny to watch him on that ride. He sat behind Shelby and I with Pratt and put his little hands in the air and shouted "woooo, woooo!" the whole time. When we got off he wanted to ride again, but Shelby said that it gave her a stomach ache and headache (could have been the yummy park food we had just eaten for dinner that got her all in a mess). I addition to all the fun rides, Shelby got to see Fairy Godmother, Princess Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, and Ariel and Prince Eric. I got such a kick out of watching her go up to each princess, talking with them, and getting her picture with them. She has come such a long way!!!!

Originally we had planned to not spend the whole day at Magic Kingdom, but as the day went on and the children did so well we decided to stay. At 7:00 they had an electrical parade, at 8:00 they had a slide show of different people's pictures from that day projected up on Cinderella's castle with music and then at 9:00 they had the most amazing fireworks show. We fell into bed exhausted that night and the children didn't make a peep until 7:15 the next morning.

Friday morning was a very exciting morning as this was the day that we celebrated Shelby's 6th birthday...yes, you read that right, I said 6!!!!! We had three main objectives that day...

1.-Donuts for breakfast. There was a Dunkin Donuts shop within walking distance so we laced up, hit the pavement and came out with six donuts.
2.-Get Tinker Bell's autograph. Of all the princesses we saw, the one Shelby kept saying she wanted to see the most was Tinker Bell and since it was her birthday what better day to see her.
3.-Pizza for dinner. Thankfully there was an Uno's Pizza place down the street from where we were staying so we enjoyed a very yummy Chicago style pizza for dinner.

The birthday girl ready for action.....



Objective #2-check:) Shelby, Tink, and Terrence



The crash was inevitable. We knew it would come, but we didn't expect it to be relatively quiet without any tantrums...JP finally gave in to his exhaustion on the bus back to our car after our day at Epcot. None of his usual "try to stay awake at all cost" antics; he just quietly gave into sleep.



Later that afternoon we played putt-putt. Of course, we had to make a competition out of it and I am pleased to announce that the girls stomped the boys and were victorious!!!

I am going to bring this to an abrupt end. Saturday we did Disney's Animal Kingdom which was crazy crowded!!! We only visited Africa and went on two rides. The children were pretty exhausted and the mommy and daddy were pretty exhausted. But, if you ever find yourself in Animal Kingdom and you can only do one thing; you have to go on the Safari Ride in Africa. It Was Amazing!

We finished up our trip to Disney World with a visit to Hollywood Studios. Again, it was crazy crowded. It must have been because it was the weekend. There is one thing for certain, Disney does not disappoint. The shows that we saw were so fun and amazing.

This last picture is Shelby at Hollywood Studios. It is one of my favorite from the trip....oh, I can't believe how much she has grown!!!!



Our trip was fun and we loved every minute of it. Hopefully we will get to go again one day, but this time we will leave on a Sunday, visit the parks during the week, and come home Friday or Saturday....

Busy, Busy, Busy Part II

If you ever have an opportunity, you have to participate in a marathon relay!!! It was so much fun and if you find that you want to run in a marathon relay, then you have to run in The National Marathon to Finish Breast Caner.

Last year our neighbor ran in the marathon and Leslie, his wife, noticed that there were teams of people running the race and thought that it would be so much fun to do and boy was she right!! This was a year in planning and I am so excited for next year.

We had ten girls running so there was enough to field two teams which meant that we would all have someone to run our 5 mile leg with. We also had a wonderful group of girls who came with us to support us, watch our babies (no, not mine) and take us to our handoff spots. The Saturday before the race we carpooled down to Jacksonville, picked up our race packets, did a little shopping (what girls trip is complete without that?), then we went to Leslie's parents for a pre race dinner of spaghetti and my favorite; wait for it.......COOKIE CAKE!!!!



Leslie and I ran the third leg together and we had a blast....we laughed and cried and survived. I am so proud of her and how far she came over the last month of training and can't wait to see what kind of speed she pulls next year.



All along the race route there were people cheering you on. Some held posters that expressed deep gratitude for running as they had lost loved ones to the cancer and those were the points that we cried.

Here is Austin, Allison and I just chillin at the end...


I don't know of anyone who doesn't know someone whose life has been touched by breast cancer and it was really neat to see all the different names on the racers of bids of who they were running for. I ran for a very dear lady in my life named Barb Turner. She is a remarkable woman with a great love for the Lord and a huge desire to impart wisdom to children and young adults. Her teaching has meant the world to me and Pratt and I really can't say enough how thankful and grateful I am to have her as a mentor, friend and teacher.



We all had such a great time and I think that most everyone is in for another round next year. Can't wait to see how we do next year!



Oh, and if you are wondering, we finished 93rd out of 213 relay teams....not that bad for a bunch of weekend road warriors.

Busy, Busy, Busy Part 1

I can't believe that we are at the end of February!!! We had such an amazingly fun month filled with so many activities so I am going to break down the month in at least two, probably three different blogs to give you a taste of what we have been up to.

We started off the month celebrating birthdays with friends. I love birthday party days because they give us something to look forward to over the weekend and it helps Saturdays go by a little more quickly. It is even better, although a bit exhausting, to have two in one day and we had just that scenario at the beginning of February. The first birthday was for sweet Sebastian. It is hard to believe that he is already 2!! Shelby and JP still refer to him as baby Sebastian and we are working on that....I don't think he will like that too much when he is 15. The second party was a ballet party at a local dance studio for Campbell. I really was shocked at how much Shelby got into it and this may be the only glimpse I will ever have into what a life of ballet would be like. Shelby was so excited to wear her friends leotard and tights, but she was very certain that she didn't want her hair in a ponytail or bun or anything. When the party was over she was supper excited and told me that she wanted to do ballet. I didn't want to discourage her by any means, but before we shell out hundreds of dollars I wanted to make sure that she understood that she would most definitely have to either wear her hair up or get it cut and when that point was understood she went back to her original plan of wanting to take up tennis.

This is a picture of the girls at the bar. My camera battery was on its last leg so most of my pictures turned out blurry...but Shelby's face was priceless the whole time.


JP is really enjoying his new train track. He got it for Christmas and has gotten some add on pieces to go with it. He will go in his room and play on it for hours which is soooooo nice! I have several pictures of the track, but I just really like this one up close so you don't get the full effect of how much this train track has taken over his room, but you get to see his sweet face.



Since that picture I have convinced him to take down the track for about 20 minutes so that I could vacuum his room. Normally I go in there, vacuum what I can and then move the track around to vacuum some more and it just takes so long.

Shelby and Pratt had a wonderful daddy/daughter date night this month. The school had a sweetheart daddy/daughter dance for Valentines Day and it was fabulous!!! All the little girls got dressed up and the daddies put on their suits for a fun night of dancing.

Another school in the area also had a family dance that night so we all got together at our neighbors house to fix up the girls. It was so cute!!! They all got their fingernails and toenails painted and then Leslie and Emily did the girls' hair. I can't believe that Shelby played along, but she ended up really enjoying getting her hair curled and asked me if we could curl her hair everyday (yikes!!! I don't have the skill set for that; better start learning).

This is Shelby and Pratt before they left....


Here is Pratt putting on her corsage....


And since I totally forgot to give Pratt the camera on his way out the door this is the only picture I have from the actual dance. These are the three amigos...Shelby, Kendall and Lauren.



Shelby had so much fun at this dance and I loved laying in bed with her after they got home hearing her tell stories of what they did and seeing her eyes light up. I hope that this is the first of many memorable nights with her daddy.

More on Being Four

On Friday we had the dreaded 4 year old well visit-dun, dun, dun.....For those of you who have had the priviledge of experiencing, you know what I mean. It is a tough one; and for those of you who haven't been through it yet, brace yourself!!!

I am so thankful that Pratt got to go with me on this one. When Shelby had her four year well visit it was just me and the girl. It proved to be tough, but in the end we both survived. JP is growing like a crazy and I might not have believe how much he has grown if it weren't in the numbers....here are my little; well, I guess big boy's numbers:

height: 41 1/2 in (75%)-up 3 inches from last year
weight: 40 lbs (75%)-up 6 pounds from last year

This is JP and Pratt hanging together before the nurse came in and started poking him and everything.....


He was all smiles, then came the finger prick, followed by blood pressure, temperature, and peeing in a cup. JP was resistant to the peeing in a cup thing at first, but once Pratt finally got him started he really thought it was cool. We rounded out the appointment with four shots (yes, you read that right, four) and a clean bill of health. Yay for my sweet boy for being such a trooper and surviving all that and I mean that for Pratt too.

On Saturday we had JP's birthday party and I have to say I think that it is one of the most fun parties we have ever had. After I realized how little JP gets boy time I immediately decided that this party was going to be all about boys and boy things. Pratt and I put our heads together and came up with the idea to have to party at the Outpost. We had a fire, a boat ride, roasted marshmellows and hot dogs, the boys tromped through the woods, and some of them ended up in the lake, but just up to their knees or so.

This is before we had anyone in the lake. The boys were all looking at the water and throwing sticks, rocks and anything else they could find into the water...





JP enjoying the fruits of his labor. I think this is the first smore that he has ever had. We have had smores before, but he never tried it...always got too excited and would eat the marshmellow before he could get any further.



JP and Colin enjoying their smores while debating whether it tastes better to put the chocolate on the bottom or the top....

Happy Birthday JP!!!



Another January birthday to celebrate....yes, January birthdays are the best! Grammie's birthday was last night and so we had a little celebration at their new house. It was so much fun and the children really had a blast.

Happy Birthday Grammie!!!

What JP's Been Fakin'

What a week!!! I love birthdays in our house as we usually end up taking a whole week to celebrate the person who is having a birthday and it just so happens that last week was my turn:) It was a super fabulous week that started with an overnight date with my husband last Saturday night and ended with a super fun girls night out having a Wii dance off at Hampton Lake. I mean really, what more could a girl ask for!!!!

Aren't my children the cutest!?!?!?!? Even though they can drive me crazy and they certainly know how to test my patience and any other virtue that a good parent should have, I can't help but love them more and more everyday!!!



Now on to address the title....There is something definitely different between Shelby and JP and I am not sure if it is a boy vs girl thing or a first child vs second child thing. When ever Shelby learns how to do something she is so proud and will show me over and over. For example; at school they teach the children the "flip trick" which is a way that they can put on their jackets by themselves. When Shelby learned the flip trick one would have thought that was the coolest thing ever. She did it over and over again and was so excited to show people her new trick. JP on the other hand....well, lets just say until a week and a half ago I had no idea that he knew how to put on his jacket. I have to admit that I was wondering why he hadn't learned it yet and figured since he has a different teacher than Shelby had that maybe he would learn it later. So along comes a week and a half ago; I went to his school for his little birthday celebration and at the end they children all got ready to go outside. Every single one of them put on their coats and JP walks up to me and asks me to help him. I froze and really didn't know what to do. Montessori is huge on having the children do things themselves, but I really still had a little bit of doubt that maybe, just maybe he couldn't put on his shirt. Then, in the blink of an eye, one of his teachers came over laid his jacket out for him and said, "JP, you know how to put on your jacker." And just like that...the flip trick!!!

Now, fast forward to last Friday....we have a beautiful swing set in our yard and JP is always asking myself and anyone else to push him and I have been trying and trying to teach him how to pump; and now, his secret is out....it is hard to tell in this photo, but he is swinging on his own. I had to sneak the picture because I was afraid if he saw me how would immediately play dumb and act like he didn't know how to swing. That little stinker!!!! Now as far as I know, all of his secrets are out...maybe....hummmm, I wonder what else he can do that he is hiding for me????



As I said earlier in my post, we celebrate birthdays the whole week in this family and it is sooo much fun. Friday night was a great time and I really hope that we get the chance to do it again soon. A couple of girls took me out to Backwater Bills for dinner and then we played Wii dance for a few hours. Angelique said that she thinks that there is a High School Musical Wii dance game and if there is....oh boy, you better watch out!!!! Anyway, I have to post atleast two pictures from the evening...this is myself, Erin, Leslie, and Katie gettin down to Thriller.



Sorry girls, I just had to include this picture...I can still hear Angelique, Dana, and Amy giggling after they snapped it.



And I finish the post with JP in jail....he had went to a friends birthday party at a putt putt place and they had so much fun!! Definitley have to put that idea in the idea box for future parties.