Tessa is 7!!

Today is Tessa's b-day and she is now a very old lady at 7 years old!! Randy's half-sister came this weekend to visit and have Randy clean their teeth so we had a big party for Tessa on Friday. Beverly is quite the party expert so she planned an awesome party for Tessa and we had a lot of fun decorating and doing fun stuff. I owe a HUGE thank you to Beverly!! It was a crazy weekend but we had so much fun and it was probably Tessa's best birthday ever cuz unlike the parties I plan she actually had a fun cake and fun decorations and games.

This is Tessa and Lindsey making her cake. It was so cute. They made a little purse cake and they did an awesome job!

Lindsey also painted all the kids faces and you can't see Brylee's but she has a really cute lady bug on her cheek that she is very proud of.

This was the very festive birthday table after all the decorations were done. Tessa was so excited.

Here is Beverly being very creative and making flowers out of balloons. She is very crafty which was good because I am not at all.

Anthony (Beverly's husband) was getting a little light headed blowing up all the balloons for the flowers. He was so very helpful with party preparations.

Flower balloons being strategically placed. Anthony took directions very well!

This was the final product. It turned out so cute and Tessa loved it. She has never had such a fun cake before.

Lindsey was nice enough to give Tessa a birthday makeover. She looked so cute when they were done.

More face paint!

Most of the girls at the party. Tessa has never had so many presents before!

Make a wish!!

All in all it was a fun party and we enjoyed have Beverly and her family come and visit. We all had a lot of fun!

I HATE Potty Training

I hate potty training!!!!!! 2 weeks ago I almost ran out of diapers so I thought what a better time to start potty training Brylee. The first day was really, really horrible. I hid the diapers and told her we had to wear undies because the diapers were gone. I spent most of the day sitting in the bathroom and singing potty songs to get her to go. It was a long and horrbile day but it paid off. She went the next with only one accident and then the next 3 days after that with no accidents. I thought I had just experienced the easiest potty training ever. Well, not so much.

Randy decided that he and I needed a day away so we had the girs stay with my wonderful sister Cathy and her hubby over night. Well Brylee didn't like the idea of us going aparently cuz she didn't go in the toilet once. Poor Cathy ended up putting her in a diaper cuz she wouldn't go in the toilet. When I got home we put undies back on her and she did perfect for 2 days no accidents. The last 4 days in a row I have been pulling my hair out because she will not go in the toilet. I ask and ask and ask and she says no I don't need to go then she goes and pees in her pants. AAAAHHHHH!!!! I don't have the patience for this! It is a good thing she is so dang cute or I would have beat the child by now!

Isn't that the cutest little bum you have ever seen. She is doing a little flip so I couldn't resist the bum shot!

I get really upset when she pees her pants but then she smiles like this and I can't help but smile!!

Random

So Tessa had a fund raiser at school where she sold cookie dough. She worked really hard and sold a bunch of cookie dough because she wanted to win this big sterio system which was going to be impossible because you had to sell like $750 of dough to get it which wasn't going to happen but I didn't tell her that. Instead she was rewarded with a bunch of giant weird things from the dollar store probably. We had a lot of fun with the huge glasses. Everyone had to take turns having their picture taken.

They were a little big for Brylee's head so she had to hold them on her face. Good times, good times. We are so easily entertained at our house.

Macie turned 5!!!

I am a little behind because my computer wasn't working but Macie turned 5 on the 7th and I can't believe she is growing so fast. I wasn't back from my girls weekend until that night so we did all of her b-day stuff on Tuesday. She had the most awesome day ever. Aunt Cathy was so nice and gave her a "real" pedicure for her b-day not just a nail painting. She got the scrubs and massages and everything. She was so excited! Brylee was a little bummed though cause she didn't get one.

After the pedicure she took her to lunch. Thanks Aunt Cathy you are awesome.

That night we had a party with cake and ice cream and all the good stuff. Her new found cousins were able to come and hang out and she was very excited about that!

The birthday girls and her very ugly cake made by her not very creative mother. She liked it though so I guess that is all that matters. . .right!!

Here she is hanging out with her favorite Uncle Joe who is getting married by the way to a girl from Clay Springs. Her name is Heather Jackson and we already love her!

Anyway, I can't believe it was 5 years ago Macie became part of our family. She is such a sweet girl (when she isn't throwing a fit) and we love her so much!!!

Labor Day/Girls Weekend

My lovely mom decided it was about time to have all her daughters together with no kids and no husbands so she planned to have everyone meet in Mesa and have fun together and not worry about anything. Thanks to everyone's dear husbands for watching all the kiddos. We love you guys! My mom and Cathy and I left Thursday night and stayed at my Aunt's house and picked Christina up from the airport in Tucson on Friday morning.

Cathy and Mom waiting for Christina to get off the plane. You would've thought they hadn't seen each other for years!

Pick up #1

Christina

Let the fun begin!!! We didn't even die trying to find the airport!

Pick up #2
Sheree

Pickup #3

Crystal and Cherilyn

Alicia had strep throat so she didn't get to enjoy any of the fun until the last day when she was feeling better.

Saturday night we went to this place called Jesters. It is a comedy club where they do improv comedy and it was so funny. It is kind of like the show "Who's Line is it Anyway" only clean humor. One of our friends from high school is one of the comedians so he hooked us up and we had a blast. This is Preston and Crystal. He did a great job!

This is half of us before we went in to watch the show.

We decided to invite my dad for the night because he was so lonely at home and the three out of staters wanted to see him for some reason!:) He came with us to the show because we had an extra ticket because Alicia got strep throat and didn't come till the last day we were there.

I think this was at Red Robin where we ate the first night but I could be wrong. We love our country or something.

Cathy and Sheree hangin out

Lunch at Souper Salad. Yum!

We went to dinner at Lynette Smith's house on Sunday night and had lots of fun. Lynette and her family are old family friends of ours and so we thought we would go catch up on the good ol' times. We ended staying there till about 11 pm laughing and telling stories and playing games. My stomache hurt really bad when we left because I laughed so hard. It was good to see them.

Christina and Jennifer chillin on the couch

K so this picture was the funniest one of the night. We were playing a card game and we had this great idea to fake a picture where we were trying to slap the cards and this is how it turned out. Heather got a little too excited about it but I laughed so hard!

This was us on our last day of fun eating at the Cheesecake Factory. We had such a blast the whole weekend and I am so glad my mom had the idea to do it. You are so brilliant mom! We will be doing it every year now!!

A day in the life of a 2 year old

So if you have a 2 year old you understand that they are mischievous and out of control, at least mine is. Brylee has learned that if she pushes the kitchen chair up to the counter she can climb up there and get whatever she wants out of the cupboard. (Thanks to her sisters for showing her that) Well after about the 10th time of getting her down from the counter in the kitchen and the counter in the bathroom I decided I would start taking pictures of all the spot she finds to climb in and all the messes she makes. My pictures are actually backwards so the first one was the last picture I took. OOOPS!

While I was making dinner she decided she wanted to watch a movie so she climbed up into the t.v. center and picked her movie. It's a miracle she didn't push the t.v. off!

I was sitting on the computer paying bills when Macie runs in and tells me that Brylee has drawn all over herself. Why Macie didn't try to stop her I don't know, it must of been entertaining to watch. I thought it was just on her legs and shirt but when I went to put Macie in her bed I pulled the covers back and found a lovely picture all over the sheets of Macie's bed. Macie said it was Brylee but I wasn't quite convinced.

This mess happened while I was folding clothes in the living room. I knew Brylee was in the kitchen and I kept asking her what she was doing. She kept saying "nothin" then I heard a strange noise and went in to find her playing in the green sprinkles that you decorate cookies and stuff with. She had dumped the whole bottle on the floor and was eating them.

Don't you love the look of oh crap I got caught!

First day of school!!

Yesterday was Macie's first day of pre-school. She was so happy she could hardly control herself. I have never seen her get up and get dressed so fast. She is going to the same school as Tessa so she gets to ride the bus in the morning. I met them at the school to show Tessa where to take her and all she said about her ride was it was really hot. She goes to school on Mondays and Wednesdays and she already loves her teacher. Me and Brylee didn't know what to do with ourselves because it was so quite in the house without the other two girls.

I felt bad for Tessa because I forgot to remind her that Macie doesn't ride the bus home with her after school because she is only there for a few hours. Poor Tessa rode all the way home on the bus yesterday scared because she thought Macie was lost and she was going to get in trouble for loosing her sister. I felt REALLY bad.

Tessa decided she wanted to chop all of her hair off over the weekend so thanks to Aunt Cathy she has a very cute little hair cut!

Last Wednesday was Tessa's first day of 1st grade. She was very proud of her very pink back pack.

When she came home from school I asked her how her day went and she only had two complaints. She said it was too hot and she didn't like the playground because they have sand under the swings so she got a bunch of sand in her shoes. Other than that she had a blast and she loves her new teacher.

Cruise!

Randy and I decided we wanted to go on a cruise to celebrate making it through school and 8 years of marriage still liking each other. We went on a cruise with my sister and bro-in-law and had a ton of fun. Here are some of our pics.

The funniest part of the cruise is the picture above. Randy was doing kereoke one night and after he got done singing the person in charge of kereoke came and asked Randy if he would be Garth Brooks in the celebrity impersonation show (which is their biggest show on the last night of the cruise). Randy being the brave one that he is said yes and had only a day and a half to rehearse the song and go on stage in front of half the boat and sing. I wouldn't have done if you paid me but Randy is much braver than I am.

Anyway he had a ton of fun and got to take this picture with all the Carnival dancers and the other impersonators. Right in the middle of the page we have Randy dressed like Garth Brooks.

Our celebration CRUISE!!

Sea lions at the private island we went to in Roatan. This was a really fun place with lots of exotic animals.

I don't remember where this was but the people were really cool dancers.

Hanging out with all the drunks at Margaritaville in Cayman Islands

We swam with the sting rays in the Cayman Islands and it was really scary at first but after the guide made me hold one that was as big as me I was ok. I did have to push Crystal in front of me a few times to get away from the sucking action of the sting rays. What a nice sister.

We got to feed the sting ray squid and it was really weird cause it was like a vaccuum when they sucked the food up. It waok until my oh so kind bro in law put squid down Crystal's pants when she wasn't paying attention and then all the sting rays starting attacking her rear parts until we got them all off. That was awesome!

The whole first day we were at sea so we just chilled on the deck and it was kind of freaky to be so close to the ocean and look out and see nothing but water!! Scary!!

Craig and Crystal pulling a Titanic . . .sort of!

It was really windy to say the least so it wasn't a good situation for good pictures.

Pulling out of the Port of Miami looking very excited!!

Randy chilling while I am starting to get scared that we are moving further and further away from land!

One of the many ice cream cones we had during the week from the 24/7 ice cream bar! Needless to say we gained a few pounds on the cruise.

Leaving Miami