Easter Saturday 2014

We had a wonderful "Easter Saturday" with the traditional egg hunt and pinatas in my grandparents' beautiful yard. I'll let the pictures help tell the story of the day~

Getting ready and lining up:

(The picture with Mylie's pinata hat is a little out of order. The kids usually try to find pieces of the broken pinatas for awesome hats that they always beg to keep... I have the prettiest nieces! I can't believe how grown up they all are getting! Hunting eggs: More pretty nieces. And my pretty mom with Nora. Gathering around for the pinata.  I just love Mylie holding hands with Coy. Here's a closer shot of it :) Darling! Turn around and smile! Fun to watch how the kiddos grow through the years. Coy was too busy chewing candy to smile.
I love these pictures! Here are all of my parents' grandkids! Not a single one is missing! More sugar to end the event. Isn't my grandparents' yard just beautiful? Family picture! Are those really all my kids? I guess I have the receding hair line to prove it! (Side note: I always lose a lot of hair after I have a baby. This is when I was at my "baldest." I truly get a receding hairline! I look like Russ :) Now it is growing back in and I just have patches of short hair bordering my hair line. It is lovely! Good thing the babies are worth it! More sugar. Love the fly-aways in Mylie's hair. And I know I've said it before, but I LOVE those freckles!

April Piano Recital

These two both did so well at their piano recital last April. They earned a certificate for memorizing their song and Bennett got a medal for accompanying in a group setting. He played Away in a Manger for the primary to sing to and he did it flawlessly! I am so glad these two are developing their talents in piano. Mylie is still catching on and maybe doesn't love it as much as Bennett, but Bennett has really taken to the piano and is really excelling! ...Although this week Mylie did exclaim-since her piano teacher gave her an easy version of Zippity Doo Dah- "Maybe I DO like piano!!!" I think she likes it for the most part, I just don't think she likes having to be tied down to practicing sometimes!

Bennett started up with new teacher this year and she is really pulling it out of him! I am so excited to see where he goes with the piano. In some ways he is already better than me. He grasps the theory of it all so well and has learned things I never did. It's been fun to learn along with him.

I must admit, it gets hard sometimes. I try to sit down with each of them after a lesson and go through everything they learned or were assigned and make sure they are grasping it and doing it correctly. This takes a lot of time sometimes (especially when they are new at piano) but hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

Looking Back~Miss Nora

This little lady has captured all of our hearts. It is so fun (and sad) looking back. She has grown so fast. Where has the time gone?!! These pics were when she was a little bit over 4 months. I'm slowly catching up! (These days she is getting near 10 months old...and is already saying little words. Crazy right? She already says uh-oh like a pro, and is starting to mimic little words...Like today it was "click" because that was what I was saying as I'd clip each of her fingernails. I think we might have an early talker on our hands like Mylie was, but I guess time will tell!) So anyway, back to when she was 4 months old....

Photography

I still take pictures for people every once in a while. There is a new preview up on my photo blog. CLICK HERE to see more!

Mylie & Nora~April 2014

Sister love. I love these two. Here are some cute pics I took back in April. Nora was 4 months old.

My Magnolia Tree

Saying good-bye to my Magnolia tree was probably one of the hardest parts of moving. Even though the house is not "mine" anymore, I think I will always still consider the tree to be mine. Moving is so hard when you have put so much of yourself into the home and yard. My mom has a beautiful Magnolia tree so when I had a house of my own, it was one of the first things we added to our yard.


Look at the growth! We planted it summer of 2006. We moved in July 2014. It is amazing to see how it grew!
Here's Mylie with it at two separate times. The first when it was in bloom in 2010 (kind of like the half-way point) then when it bloomed for the last time before we moved in April of 2014.
Here are some more pictures I took back in April of my beautiful tree (and daughter). We are planning on planting another one at our new house. It will be so hard to wait for it to grow again...

My Birthday!

Aaaagh! If I am writing about my birthday, that means I am almost 6 months behind on here! Bennett was actually reminding me this morning about my half birthday.

My birthday was great this year! We celebrated by taking the family to Chuck-a-Rama! It was actually REALLY good, and it was so much fun for the kiddos! Nora was a little angel and actually slept almost the whole time while we ate...which is saying something because she was still getting over her surgery at the time. All I wanted for my birthday was a happy baby, and I actually got it that day! My parents came too, and it was nice to visit and eat with them as well. Plus my mom had all the info on what was good to get, since they had been there recently. (I probably haven't been there in over 10 years!) I am getting hungry just thinking about it.

I also bought myself the movie Frozen for my birthday and we all watched it that night. I hadn't seen it and it was nice to finally see how the songs fit into the movie since my kids had been playing the soundtrack like crazy in the weeks previous.

There are probably some other wonderful things about my birthday that I could write, but seeing as it was almost half a year ago and that it is late and I have been up since 4:50 AM, I cannot think and just need to go to bed! So here are the pictures:


  Here's Nora, just because she's cute: Oh, these are way cute Frozen "figurines" that Mylie made for the occasion. She is always so creative and is constantly creating art :) Speaking of creating things, Mylie also made a crown for Nora one day. Isn't it so darling? My girls truly are my little princesses!