Catch Up Part 2 in Pictures

McKinley's school had a parent's lunch for Thanksgiving. Notice the lunchbox, McKinley didn't want the school Thanksgiving feast! Imagine that.

My friend Chea sent the girls matching turkey shirts!

Baylee in her turkey shirt with Mommy's attempt to make ruffle pants. These pants were my 3rd attempt and well, just don't look too close!!

Eric, Emily, and McKinley rode in the parade with Grammie and the Eastern Star float. It's a wonder they made it down the road without my child jumping overboard. She's squealing in this picture, doesn't take much to amuse her!

McKinley and Emily watching the parade and catching lots of candy!

Baylee.... not too sure what all the parade fuss is about.

Decorating our car for Christmas... McKinley LOVES the Rudolph on our car. Daddy, not so much!

McKinley had her first soccer game

Baylee with yet another ginormous bruise, it's the norm for her

Having a Christmas playdate at Nicholas' house

Our crazy cat Smokie making a bed in a box that's supposed to be for Christmas lights. We had to put down him down with kidney failure earlier this month :(

Two sisters playing in their kitchen

Baylee's crazy "after bath" hair, wearing Sissy's old jammies :)

McKinley wearing those same jammies at Christmas 2007

Well, that should get us caught up to CHRISTMAS!!!!

A Whole Lotta Catch Up - Part 1

Hmmm... There's been a lot of comings and goings since I blogged last! In a feverish attempt to get caught up before Christmas and the New Year, here's part one of the last two months!

Chad and McKinley both celebrated birthdays, they are 2 days apart. There was Halloween, McKinley's birthday party, a trip to Gatlinburg, Thanksgiving, and don't forget the ins and outs of every day life! Life with two kids and two working parents is hectic and nothing short of pure crazy. But.... I like to keep reminding myself that one day, sooner rather than later, these sweet babies will be all grown up and I'll be wishing for a taste of this season of life again!!

Speaking of sooner rather than later.... how is this girl 5?!?!?!?! A) the past 5 years seem to have flown by and b) if I have a five year old then wow, I'm getting OLD myself!!!

Originally, McKinley wanted to be Ariel. But, she found this SUPERGIRL in a magazine and then there was no more dreams of Ariel! I made the headband for the outfit and I got her pumpkin basket as a shower gift when I was pregnant.

My niece was Wonderwoman, these two super heroes are pretty darn cute if I do say so myself :)

Sweet Baylee taking a turn to get some candy. Not that we let her eat any of it but she sure had a blast carrying the bucket and collecting goodies! As a side note, this adorable butterfly hat is now MIA. We had it at one point in the night and then POOF, it was gone. Not surprising she'd throw it out or maybe she left it as a present at someone's house. Who knows. We had her in the stroller for a bit in which the paci also went MIA. Chad finally found it in the road after some back tracking.

The best pic I got of the two of them. I hate the ordeal to get a picture of both girls, why is it so hard to look at the camera and say cheese?!?!? Notice Baylee's blue forehead bruise? Those have become pretty common for this wild child. She is single handily the clumsiest kid ever. Maybe it's because she tries to run everywhere or maybe too, because she pays ZERO attention to where she's going. Either way, the forehead bruises and bumps don't make good pictures.

This cute butterfly is McKinley, 4 years ago!!

And this....would be McKinley now, sorting her candy out by type. OCD much. She also counted each type and knew specifically how much she had of what. Chad asked for an Airhead a few nights later and she replied, "I have three...purple and 2 reds, which do you want?" Psycho memory she has and THAT she definitely didn't get from me!

This picture just cracks me up. She had been playing around the house and next thing I knew she had her new sparkly purse, a silky dress up outfit, sunglasses, old polka dot house shoes, our Justin Bieber Christmas CD, and a big ole hairbow. Oh yeah, and she'd fixed her hair in a side ponytail/bun.

Mommy, McKinley, and Daddy at McKinley's birthday party. Baylee was anything but up for a picture so she got the boot.

And this... the little climber. I don't know what to do with a climber. McKinley never climbed on things. Baylee? She's constantly looking for something she can even attempt to climb on. This sense of adventure contributes to the blue bruises and knots her poor head accumulates.

Daddy and B at the aquarium in Gatlinburg. It was super crowded so we kept Baylee in the stroller.
And that, in pictures, is part 1 of a whole lotta catching up!!! I finally finished Christmas shopping today. Well, almost. We have one more thing to get tomorrow but that should be an easy find. Now there is an enormous amount of wrapping to be done over the next couple days!!! McKinley helped me some tonight. She was THRILLED and I accepted that my packages may have some blemishes in their wrappings this year!

Sunday Afternoon at the Park

It was a gorgeous day on Sunday so Chad and I took the girls to Coolidge Park. We didn't bring any picnic supplies or McKinley's bike, but the girls still had a blast running around. McKinley loves to "walk" Baylee around. Sometimes Baylee is up for it and others, not so much. I love these two rotten babies :)

McKinley took off running (you can barely see her in this picture) and poor Baylee wanted so badly to keep up!

"Hmmm, maybe it's this bow that's slowing my down...."

Two sweet sisters taking a stroll together

Mommy and McKinley, this turned out to be such a cute picture of us :)

We rode on the carousel, which at almost 5, McKinley now enjoys. Poor thing was terrified of them for YEARS. Note to self, denim skirts are not conducive to carousel riding.

Before we got off, we got one of the girls together.

I took this of Baylee as we were riding. She was SO unsure of things for a bit. She had big tears in her eyes but after a few minutes she composed herself. I wouldn't say she LOVED the carousel but she sure did better than McKinley on her first ride! Notice her white finger tips on the pole.

McKinley played a little hopscotch....

Baylee ran around like a banshee. She loved her freedom to run, so much she had a slight meltdown when we headed back to the car and carried her.

Rotten baby #2 at dinner. We love the weather when we can eat outside. As an added plus, the people watching is GREAT for keeping the girls entertained. But who am I kidding, the people watching is pretty fabulous for Chad and I as well!!

Saturday Fun

I made my first Pinterest project this weekend! I still need to get a dry erase marker, but I hung this in our kitchen. I've always been one to plan my grocery list around the week's meals. The problem is, I end up forgetting what I have in the freezer to cook. When I don't plan ahead the day before, we get home from work with no dinner and end up going out. So, my hope is I'll start writing the week's meals out and that will help me stick to it. Only time will tell if my project is useful but I'm pretty proud of how cute it turned out!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of my chubby girl during nap. I love a sleeping baby, especially one with those adorable ham hocks!

Saturday we went to a birthday party for Tate, at our local zoo. McKinley was front and center for each exhibit. They had a guide take the party guests around. The zoo guide had food for the animals, which meant the animals came out for the party guests to see. The guide also explained a bit on each animal, which was quite intriging for the little ones.

Baylee spent most of the party in her stroller. I was by myself and not about to chase this wild child around! She only got fussy towards the very end, she was a trooper!

Baylee and Nicholas, strapped in their cool rides, checking out the cheetas or were they leopards? I don't remember, ha!

I couldn't resist this last picture of my big girl! It's so hard to believe she'll be 5 in less than two weeks!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Side note to the above picture...McKinley was noterious as a toddler for putting things in the trash. We lost many toy pieces and often dug through the trash for such things as the remote. Baylee on the other hand, she doesn't put stuff into the trash... worse, she takes everything out! Eeeewwwwww!

Hmmm, that was an *almost* Wordless Wednesday and now I have an *almost* out of control laundry situation to go deal with :)

Baylee's Birthday Party

Prepare for picture overload!! We had Baylee's birthday party at a local park that has a covered pavilion. We also rented a bouncy slide. It was ridiculously windy so the table clothes and table decor was a fail, it wouldn't stay on the tables. I also made a super cute birthday banner, with the help of some friends, that I sadly didn't get a picture of :(

Michael and sweet Nicholas

Mommy and the birthday girl

Attempting a shot with B and her cake

Sweet Miley and her blower

Me and my fabulous friend Allison, AKA Aunt Alli

Fabulous big sister McKinley (after she'd been playing like a banshee)

The bounce slide and Maddox going head first

McKinley running down the slide, as a side note she crashed into the end of the slide immediately following this picture

Baylee getting ready for her cake

The best family picture we got of the day

My niece Emily who has *almost* mastered the cartwheel

Emily and Baylee

McKinley with 2 of her 3 girl cousins, Kennedy and Melody

Sweet Baylee and her smash cake which as wild as she is, she really didn't dive into it like we all thought she would

All cleaned up from her cake

The famous "ugly face". Baylee makes this same nasty face all the time.... we all hate it!

Sweet Tate, him and Baylee are about a month apart

Baylee's cake, that is her smash cake on top.

Baylee and the dang ugly face with Sweet Emma

Aunt Alli with her "nieces"

Baylee's BFF Amelia. Amelia is Baylee's sitter's daughter. These two are incredibly cute together!