One Big Birthday!

Riley Bug is Now FOUR!!

Her Birthday turned out awesome and she had a really fun day!!

She kept saying though that she was three and wouldn't be 4 until her party!!

I think she is smart.

Her party went off, but I cant say without a hitch!

I didn't start baking, what was supposed to be a 2 layer cake, until 2 hours before the party.

I was decorating it until almost 430 and everyone got there at 4!

Side note to family: When did you start showing up on time to things?

Haha

My Best friend Jessica Was sooo awesome though and since I didn't have time to make any cupcakes she spent the whole day before baking and decorating 40 cupcakes!!

Ya she is pretty awesome!!

Check out her Blog!

ANYWAY!

Here is the happy birthday girl!

Of course after all the work I did on the decorations I didn't think to get a "Real" picture of it all! But at least I got a somewhat decent picture of the cake with some of the finished stuff in the background!
The cake I made from
SCRATCH!!!
If any of you know me you know this doesn't happen!
I wasn't blessed with many domestic skills and certainly not ones in the baking arena but everyone that tasted it loved it! I guess it was OK! ;)
It had Oreo halves as polka dots. The insides didn't go to waste.. I put blue food coloring in the leftovers and made a few more polka dots on it!

She LOVED all of her presents!
It really was like Christmas for her!
Big Family=Lots of presents!
(Even if I tried to tell people they didn't have to!!)



After the party buzz wore off she was able to really enjoy ALL her presents!
A couple times she told us she wasn't 4 yet and so we said "All right if you aren't 4 we will have to take all your presents away!"
That ended her issues!!

Her biggest present out of all of them was an African Spurred Tortoise.
The thing will grow to over 100lbs.
Her Uncle Damon and Stephen had fun surprising her with that!
I will post about that later!

Happy Birthday Bug! We love you so much! You add so much spice to our lives everyday! No day is ever boring or routine with you! You keep us guessing and you are the most personable little human I have ever met! No one can resist your charms, your eyes or your smile! You are the best big sister and Mak just adores you!!
I cant wait to watch you grow up!

P.S We went to the doctor for her 4yr appointment! Poor girls got 4 shots! She handled it like a champ! She is just over three feet tall and she has FINALLY broken the 30lb barrier!! (34lbs) I asked about her height... She is average height and proportionate so STOP TEASING THE POOR GIRL!! Haha

And the winner is!

MAKENNA!!!

For the wackiest face in a picture!

So I know this is a funny picture...

All sorts of things going on!

Squinting because my dumb flash,

Trying to smile,

Really wanting Mommy to just pick me up DANG IT!

But this picture perfectly shows off Maks 3 adorable teeth!

Mak cut tooth number 3! (her top right) I have the exact date written down somewhere but I cant find it anywhere.... Hmmmm

Anyway, SHES CUTE!

That's all!

Edit:

June 11th.... Thats when her third tooth came in!

Wow

I have a handful of things to blog about nowadays but I cant seem to get the motivation to do it!

Maybe Soon!

I hope!

Its BIRTHDAY Time!

What do these.....+ These.....
+ This

Equal?????

A very colorful birthday party for a

VERY

Colorful Four Year Old!!!

I still have a couple more things to do... I plan on tying a ribbon around the drinking cups just to make them more "Fancy" like Riley wants and then I am going to take those flowers and put them in these.....

These were from the dollar section at Target but they were originally popcorn cups!

They were bright yellow with popcorn written across it with pictures of pop corn all over them! They were the perfect height for me to stick the flowers in so I decided I would spray paint them since I had the perfect colors at home already! I think they turned out perfect. Maybe I will add a ribbon around those too just to give them a little something extra!

This is going to be a fun birthday for Riley Bug!

She is so excited about everything she has seen! She keeps begging for it to be her birthday!!

Why do birthdays take so long to get here!! I cant imagine being a four year old and having to wait for anything let alone your "Fancy" Birthday!!

What About Bob

This is Bob.

He is lovingly named by his previous owner. We thought it fit, so we stuck with it!

This is the story of Bob.

Bob was bought one day by a very handsome man that needed Bob to take him to and from work everyday. Its a long drive so the buyers made sure Bob would serve them well for a while. He passed the test and became a member of the family.

Bob worked hard for 2 years before he couldn't take it anymore.

Bob started crying a lot. So to make him happy the handsome man had to replace a couple

parts. Bob was happy and kept on going for a little while longer until there was nothing he could do any more!

Bobs life had ended......

Or so the handsome man thought!

The handsome man after seeing a sad Bob parked in the same sad spot and no funds to get him fixed decided he would sell Bob to someone who could take proper care of him.

The handsome man ALMOST sold Bob but when the handsome man decided to move Bob to clean him he had a thought.....

"What if I tried to start Bob up just to see what could happen?"

Well The handsome man did just that and guess what happened?

BOB SPRANG TO LIFE!

It was short lived but this filled the handsome man with hope!

So the handsome mans wife called to find someone who was a doctor for Bobs kind and found someone who her father knew who would take a look at Bob.

The handsome mans wife was very very anxious to have a car again.... She didn't much care for being stuck at home all day everyday because the handsome man had no other way to work and has the worst schedule known to man....

Anyway,

After a day of waiting we get a call form the friend who is doctoring Bob and find out he only needed a battery charge and a MAJOR tune-up to run like he did when the handsome man first bought him! It was music to the handsome mans (and his wife's) ears!

Another day later and the handsome man has his own way to work and the handsome mans wife has her freedom back!!

Bob still needs a little work but not all hope is lost!

And they all lived happily ever after.

The end!

Long story short: WE HAVE TWO CARS AGAIN AND I AM SOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!

Friday Movie Fun!

Today was the first day of Summer Movie Fun!

It is Riley's favorite time of year!

Well, MAYBE a few things top it! ha

She LOVES movies and she LOVES the hanging out at the splash pad afterwards!!

We did this for the first time last year with a bunch of my siblings and their kids and Riley had so much fun we will never stop!

Today's movie was Charlotte's Web!

Such a cute movie! Even Dale and I loved it!

Riley has been asking for these movies since the last ones ended! I am so happy we can finally do it again!

Here is the fun after the movie....

She LOVES her Little Miss cousin with all her heart! They found each other the second they got out of the cars and were un-separable through the entire thing!
Even after we headed to the splash pad!

NOTICE:THIGHS

We were worried about how Mak would handle the movie....

She did AWESOME!

She even fell asleep through the 1st 15 minutes of the movie!

She is a champ!

And she loves getting cold water splashed all over her!

Even by some obnoxious kids there that thought it would be fun to smack the water in her face repeatedly!

I wanted to body check the kids but I had to keep reminding myself that it was a public place and no other babies were there and we were sort of monopolizing one of the fountains...

BUT STILL! WATCH YOUR KIDS PEOPLE!!

K I am done with that.

But besides that ALL of us had a really fun time!

Its so nice to get out of the house sometimes!!

Date With The Bug

Yesterday morning Dale and I took Riley on a date.

We figured that she hasn't had any time with just Mommy and Daddy since Makenna was born and she has been having a hard time with it!

The movies are Riley's favorite place to go so we decided to take her to a movie! It was perfect timing since Shrek 4 came out on Friday and Dale and I have also been wanting to see it!

Here she is (with her piggy OF COURSE!) staring at all the movie posters that are on the wall as we walked by!

I tried to get a picture with her looking but there is so much in a movie theater lobby that its really easy for a 4 yr old to get distracted!

Again.. No way on earth she was gonna look at the camera but she was SUPER excited!

We get into the theater no kidding 5 minutes before the movie was supposed to start and there was NOT ONE PERSON in the theater!

Here's a hint... Go to the movies on a Monday morning at 10:50. No lines, no people, REALLY cheap tickets and you WILL get the best seat in the house!

Anyway, she was really excited to be at the movies and had a hard time with the volume of the previews but when they movie started she was as happy as could be and totally into the movie!

Dale and I thought it was so cute and funny and Riley couldn't stop talking about it all day so I am SURE she agreed!

We will be doing more Riley Dates from now on.

Mission accomplished

So remember that nasty closet I was telling you about?

Here is the before...... Disgusting huh? Its really hard for me to show this picture.....

This is the during.....

This isn't even all of it. We hadn't touched the top shelf yet!

I felt soooo overwhelmed by all this junk!

The after!!!

I have a space for just my bags and Dales lunch bag that he takes to work with him everyday!
That THING is always in the worst spot and it gets in my way everyday.

But lets just say that diaper bags aren't to much fun to trip over....

There is still a couple things i want to do with it.
I want to get one of those cloth shoe holders that people can hang in their closet to utilize all the space to the right of the shelf. and find something else I can hang from the rack to utilize all the space above the shelf as well!
(The shelf was only 16 bucks at Target... I was happy when I saw that!!)


So about a month ago I ordered a panoramic picture from my sister Jamie. It took me a few weeks to find a frame for it that wasn't 50 bucks and when I finally found it I brought it home and put the picture in it IMMEDIATELY.
It sat in that dang closet for a couple weeks before I actually had the motivation behind me to put it up.
I was NOT gonna put the picture back in the closet after I cleaned it all.
So I had Dale help me center it and
VOILA!!
You Like?

I feel very accomplished!

And at this very second Dale is outside in the garage organizing that nasty mess! I will post pictures of that too! The before picture is REALLY scary!

Holy Cabooses!

Riley has a new obsession!

It is this movie .... Hello Dolly!

At first she was drawn to it because "THEY SING THE WALL-E SONG MOM!"

After that she was sold by seeing all the pretty dresses and hats and watching everyone dance.

I showed it to her for the first time a week ago and she is already singing along!

She LOVES the singing!

She asks for this movie at least once a day!!

I will only put it in once despite her asking! Have you seen it? Its long....

I hope to be able to get more classics like this and make them part of Riley's collection.

I think she will love them all just as much!

Bitter Sweet

I just realized... Although Makenna is MY baby, she really isn't a baby anymore!

When your "Baby" is just about in size 5 diapers and she is starting to stand on her own... She really isn't a baby any more....

This makes me sad and happy all at once!

Potty Song

At this very moment I am listening to a very cute potty song by a very cute Bug.

Here's how it goes..

Potty, potty, potty!
Toe-let paper, toe-let paper, toe-let paper!
Wipe, wipe, wipe!
Panties, panties, panties!
Belly, belly, belly! (not sure what that has to do with it..)
Close, close, close!
Flush, flush, flush!
Run, run, run!
Hop, hop, hop!

Glad she knows the order!
Cute song Bug!

The word of the day..

CLEAN
This week has been horrible and also horribly productive!

Monday- As always this day is super fun! Dale has Mondays off. Its the only day out of the whole week where there isn't something we have to be to like work or church. I have my girls and Dale with me ALL DAY!! We went to the mall and looked around. I bought a shirt and some CHEAP clothes on sale for the girls! I LOVE SALES! The we had dinner put the girls to bed and had some time alone!

Tuesday- I think HONESTLY this was the worst day I have ever had in my entire life. There is nothing worse than feeling like you are the worst mother and wife on the planet. Feeling like you don't deserve a thing you were given to really screw up a day! Lots of crying and tears ended that day!

Wednesday- A SERIOUS turn around! The girls were awesome! We played on the floor all day and read book after book after book!! The girls were happy, I was happy! I got SOOO Much laundry done and was able to put IT ALL AWAY! This is a HUGE accomplishment for me! I can do the washing, no big deal. When it comes to putting away, unless Dale does it, it doesn't happen!

Today- I got up, got Riley dressed and off to play group then I came home played with Makenna a bit then TRIED to get her to nap while I CLEANED!!! I finished the laundry I started yesterday and put everything away! (every piece of laundry in my house is clean right now!) Then I came downstairs and decided to clean up my own personal oil spill from the horrific Tuesday night. SPLATTERED OIL EVERYWHERE!!!!! You could have ice skated on our floors...... I filled our sink with bleach water and went to town on my kitchen!! It has never been more clean! Every dish in our house is clean and everything is sanitized! You could probably eat off our floors right now, although I wouldn't ask you to!

Mak wont nap so that's the only down side to today but I will live!

I LOVE having a clean house! My next project is my coat closet! aka My "Stuff whatever you can in there" closet! Its like a cartoon I am always afraid to open it because I don't know what will fall down on me!

Secret Agent

My Mothers Day was the best!

Who else had a Mothers Day that had a secret agent deliver flowers to you at your very own house?!

I sure did! She was small adorable and had the prettiest eyes. She is also almost 4 and was so excited to be sneaky and surprise me with beautiful flowers. She was only allowing people to call her secret agent though!

Its times like those that remind me why being a Mother is so awesome!

(I don't have pictures because remember when I had a camera I hate taking pictures with?)

Like Mother,

Like daughter.



That's how the saying goes and it could not be more true where Riley and I are concerned. Two peas in a pod, we are.

More cliches? Naw, I'll stop!

Anyway, Riley shares my affinity for sleeping in. We get along great in this area in life. When she was a baby this made my life so much less stressful. I was already having a serious case of "Baby Blues" and sleep was one thing I needed to have a somewhat decent day! It sounds bad but there it is.

I still have sleeping issues and I really don't know (or want to know) what 6am looks like from anywhere than the comfort of my own bed.

Riley Bug is the same.

Makenna is NOT! She is my early riser......

For now Dale works from 12:15 to 9pm so he is home in the morning and will get up with Mak in the morning so I can fall back asleep. (He is pretty amazing!)

Riley shares a room with Mak (poor girl) and she is not a happy camper when Mak wakes up in the morning.

This morning Mak woke up right on schedule at 6 o clock. I wake up to it, Dale sleeps right through it until I wake him up to tell him Mak is awake and ask if he can get her.

But Mak woke up and she does this screaming thing where she isn't really mad, she is actually pretty happy, but she wants to be hard so she "screams."

Riley is not a fan of this. So this morning when Mak started up Riley says to her..

"Mak, Stop it..... Stop it! STOP IT!" The she grunts rolls over and says "FINE" and sits up and starts talking to her!

I thought it was the funniest thing!

It has already started. The sisters sharing a room getting at each other for doing something they don't want done. I can already hear it!

"Turn your music off I am TRYING to do homework."
"Can you be quiet I am TRYING to sleep!"
"Why is YOUR side so messy"
"STOP BOTHERING ME!!!"

Can't wait......

Anyone?

Does anyone know how to organize really well. To make use of all the spaces I have?

Especially my kitchen? Its a skill I never learned......

I need help!