Friday, April 30, 2010

Things To Celebrate

PAISLEY TOOK HER FIRST STEP TODAY!!!!

It was only one, but still.....
She also learned to clap and does it now with a huge grin. If I clap back and say "Yay!" she'll start making chirping sounds like she's cheering, too.
Paisley can say: Mama, Dad-ee, Kiki (kitty), and Hi. She has the sweetest little voice. Melts my heart. Sweet baby.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Two More

These are my 2 latest black/white additions.
This one is fun cause it's 2 pictures I spliced together to make one. I realize it's not the best job in the world....but come on! Give me a break! It was my first attempt. I'll get better at it. =)

Monday, April 26, 2010

Flower Planting

I took the girls to Walmart this afternoon so they could pick out some flowers to plant in the planter boxes by our firepit. Amber chose pink carnations and pink daisies while Jade chose red geraniums....2 of them. She wanted them to match. We got home and I told the girls to take their flowers around to the back and put them either in or on top of the planter boxes cause the turtle was out grazing. Well....they didn't. I guess the smell of flowers was too tempting for Raphael. While we were inside eating dinner, he was outside eating flowers! We came out to plant and found Amber's daisies gone and one of Jade's geraniums completely out of the pot and eaten! Oh no! After many tears were shed, I promised both girls that if their flowers didn't grow back, we'd just go get new ones.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

A New Photoshop Trick

Probably not new to any of you used to using Photoshop...but certainly new to me! Thanks to the help of my lovely Facebook friends, I can now create black/white photos with a little color left. Yay! So, what do you think?

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

My Pretty Girls

I freely admit I'm 100% completely biased when it comes to my girls. That being said....my three girls are the prettiest little girls in my world. I just love their unique personalities and happy smiles. They make me proud to be their Mom. I especially adore being told one of them look just like me. Cause I know how stinkin beautiful they are! I truly have the best job in the world raising these three children.



Monday, April 19, 2010

Run, Turtle, Run!!

Haha! I soooo wish I had my camera handy this afternoon. K - so Saturday the girls split our hose. They were "watering" the grass but when they were done, they both conveniently forgot to turn the water off. The water pressure was enough to split our hose and now it just sprays everywhere. Well, this afternoon I turned it on just to soak the grass for awhile. Raphael was out eating at the time and the second the water started spraying the area, he stuck his neck out as far as it could go and BOOKED IT over to the hose! Seriously! I have never seen a turtle move so fast! He was going probably about as fast as Paisley can crawl (when she's chasing down a cat or sister she can really move!). Hahahaha! And that's not even the best part! He ran one direction through the water, made a U-turn, and hauled butt through the spray the other way. And then he did it again! The 4th pass ended with him sitting on the split so all the water just sprayed the underside of his shell. Soooo flippin funny! It was great. And the whole time, his neck was st-r-e-t-ched out as far as it could go.

Friday, April 16, 2010

In The Tub

Paisley is finally old enough, stable enough, and used to playing in the tub enough to take baths with her sisters. We tried this a few months back....but it lasted, oh, 10 seconds before Pie freaked out and had to be removed. Tonight it lasted a good 10 minutes before the oldest (yes, the oldest) freaked out and had to be removed. Haha! All because Jade dumped water on her. Wait a second - I thought they were in the tub....like with water..... Sometimes my oldest is quite dramatic. Anyways, at least I got a couple cute pictures of them smiling before the real water works were turned on! BTW - I'm thinking Amber's getting a bit too big to play in the tub. At least with her sisters.

I know this pic is random for the post but I had to include it. I had these sheers in my old master bedroom under chocolate drapes. But I'm using different colors in my new master bedroom and didn't have a spot for these. However, my family room has always been blue and yellow and since it connects to the dining room with yellow curtains, I thought I'd make these into door panels and tie the two rooms together. It just so happened I had gold tassels to match! Bonus! I need to pull the bottom tighter on the right side, but it works for now. Maybe I'll get sick of it being loose and fix it. But for now....I'm just happy they're up. =D

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Sunday, April 11, 2010

My Dad

My dad was such a great man. He was loved by many. He was kind, generous, and extremely good-natured. His grandkids meant the world to him and they all adored him in return. We will all miss you, Dad.

Cousin Fun!

Yesterday, my cousin Sharon and her family came over for a very fun afternoon!
Jade, Amber, Madison, Sharon, Megan, and Weston
Even Paisley enjoyed the pool!
Haha! Love it!

While we were swimming, I brought out a bowl of grapes to snack on. Paisley really really enjoyed them! It was so funny to watch her pop one in her mouth, push it into her cheek, and try to mash it with her gums. And if it was a sour one, she spit it out and made a funny face as she shivered! Too cute!
One just isn't enough sometimes!

Shelley, Greg and Celeste, Chris, Brandon, Matt and April joined the party later on. We all had so much fun catching up, eating food, and playing Mario Wii.

Sharon's family stayed the longest....past midnight! So much fun! Just kinda wish there was a better reason for the get-together.

Backyard Cleanup

Remember this?

Now look again!
Amber watering the dry areas.
The giant weed pile. Raphael has made a new home inside on the left.

While we were busy cleaning up, Raphael made himself at home in OUR home!
David "watering the turtle"

We did a massive backyard cleanup Friday and Saturday morning to get ready for a fun family get-together. It took a LOT of work, but the results make me smile. Eventually I'll get around to planting some pretty bushes along the back fence. Eventually. We do still need to finish cleaning up the pool area first though. Hmmm....maybe next weekend. I'm pretty beat.

Easter Weekend

This Easter weekend was a strange one. Just as I was finishing my last post on Saturday, David came in and broke the news of my father passing away. I can't even begin to explain how that felt. So I won't try.

Anyways, the next day was Easter and we had planned to go over to his house for a family Easter party and I was in charge of bringing pies and candy for the candy hunt. Since the party was obviously cancelled, I had a buttload (I wonder if this is an actual measurement......) of candy so I pretty much just dumped it all in the girl's baskets. Easter morning was a happy morning for half of the household members. I pretty much didn't care about anything that whole day and Amber and Jade enjoyed eating unlimited amounts of candy....until that evening when their tummy's felt it. David and I ended up dropping the girls off at my aunt's house and we took Paisley with us to my dad's to see what we could do to help out.

Monday we kept the girls home from school. Jami wanted us to bring them over so she could give them their Easter baskets and have their candy hunt. So we headed over around lunchtime. Amber and Jade loved their baskets full of fun toys and had a blast finding candy all over the backyard. They also really liked swimming in the pool my dad had bought for them and their cousin Van.

Oh... On Sunday when we picked Amber and Jade up from my aunt's, we also picked up my brother's tortoise and took him home with us. So Raphael is now happily living in our backyard. =)
He made his burrow under our pool fence!
Amber thought it'd be funny to color on his shell with Easter chalk. And it was!