CATCH UP!

Dumping my iPhone pictures on the blog...

Brynn has been learning to ride her bike lately...I say learning because she has a ways to go.  Anytime the "incline" of a street is like .005 percent she says "HELP ME!  Hold my hand I'm going to go too fast!" 

While she's riding, Emory and I usually look like this...

We've been soaking up the weather and playing outside a lot!

And Emory LOVES to swing...actually, what doesn't she love to do?  HA!  She usually has this HUGE smile plastered on her face the ENTIRE time she's swinging!

A couple of weeks ago on the last day of school we had a BBQ for all the kids and families over lunch.  Here is Brynn and one of her best buddies from school.

Brynn always wants Emory to sleep with her, so sometimes in the morning I'll let Emory lay in there for a second while Brynn is getting up.

I forgot to show these Ninja Turtle cookies...I don't want to LOOK at another Ninja Turtle for a long time!  HA!  Those were a little time-consuming!

We are in the midst of a billion decisions regarding the house.  I have looked at light fixtures more times than I care to count...and I STILL DON'T KNOW!

If the weather is nice, we spend almost every evening walking or taking a wagon ride to the school playground or park near our house.  These two LOVE the wagon rides!

We are THIS CLOSE to getting our house "under roof."  I'll show pictures soon.

We ate at Saffron last Friday night to help celebrate Uncle Jason's birthday.  Brynn didn't really like my sushi, but she loved everything else.  She loved her Saffron toast and was eating her chicken satay like it was going out of style, and she was even using the cucumber relish as "soup!"  I am so glad she likes so many different foods...I was joking my mom because as we all know, she grew up eating "meat and potatoes" and she doesn't like any Asian-type food...no Chinese, Thai, etc.  But my dad and my sister and I all love it, so I sent her these pictures and said "sure am glad she didn't inherit her eating habits from Grandma!"  HA!

And what is sweeter than a baby after bath time?? NOTHING!

And seeing her little "strawberry" on her arm...I just don't want to forget this funny little moment so I'm writing it down.  People are noticing it a lot lately and I couldn't figure out why people were just now noticing it so much in the last couple of months...well, DUH, I realized it was because she was born in September and so she wore long-sleeves for the whole winter and just since around April has the weather been nice enough to wear short sleeves.  Well anyway, little kids have been asking about it a lot.  Most of the time they will say "what's that on her arm?"  I just try to explain that it's a birth mark.  Well the other day we were eating at Chick Fil A with Kelly and Camden and Paxton, and Camden looked at it and said "Miss Whitney, does she have a fruit snack stuck on her arm?"  HAHAHAHAHA!  I could NOT stop laughing!  It is just hilarious how kids perceive the world.  It was TOO CUTE!

COOKIES, COOKIES, COOKIES

Over the last couple of weeks I've been busy busy making lots of cookies for people...here are some of them...

HAPPY NURSES WEEK...

BASKETBALL THEMED BIRTHDAY

I made these thank-you cookies for Brynn's teachers and the girls I work with...

Sweet little sleeping babies and onesies for a baby girls shower...

A 2 and 4 year old had a Dr. Seuss/Thing 1 and Thing 2 birthday party...

My friend Ashley's little girl turned ONE...I LOVED the colors in these sweet birthday cookies!

Some LEGO cookies for a boy's birthday...

Some cookies for a girl's Memorial Day Party.

A friend's little girl had a farm-themed petting zoo party with ducks, bunnies, sheep, goats, etc.

I'm SO glad that since the cookies have taken off, school is OVER.  I was feeling a little overwhelmed those last couple of weeks of school trying to do these at night.  Bring on SUMMER and having NAPTIME to get some work done!  And my friend Jennilee has introduced me to this lady on YouTube who does cookie tutorials...they are oddly REALLY ADDICTIVE to watch (even Ryan was kind of mesmerized).  And I'm excited to try out a few new techniques!  Who knew this fun little hobby would turn into a fun side job?  I'm really thankful to lots of my friends for teaching me and helping me get started!

Circus with Grandma and Grandpa

I didn't even know there was a circus in town, but somehow my mom heard about it and asked if they could take Brynn as a special treat.  She was SO EXCITED!  (My mom took these pictures on her phone).

They had FRONT row seats and my Dad said that at the beginning she asked him about 25 times "let's go up higher.  Can we go up higher Grandpa?"  But then she was okay with it.  My dad said she also held her nose almost the whole time because the animals pooped!  HA!  She was telling us all about "Danny the Clown" and the ringmaster lady "Miss Jessica."  She LOVED it and had a great time.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for taking her to the circus!

Mother's Day Weekend

So this post is so late...but we had a great Mother's Day weekend!  I don't really have a lot of pictures of what we did, but one of the coolest things was that we got to see all of our grandma's!  Brynn and Emory have 3 great-grandma's and it was really neat that they were all able to see the girls and visit.

Saturday for lunch we went to Ryan's grandma's clubhouse and had lunch with her (I didn't take any pictures!  Whoops!)  Then after naps we headed to Perryville to visit my grandma in her assisted living facility.  She wanted to eat Subway (I know, I know...she was getting a little crazy! HA!)  so my mom picked it up and we took it and all ate together in their activity room.  Brynn ran around and we had a good time visiting!  Brynn even got to push Grandma Sally around...she thought she was big stuff!

On the way home we stopped at the mall to return some stuff and I made Ryan try on some "beach" clothes...he did get the teal shorts, and he was a good sport to try stuff on but he wasn't a fan of playing "dress-up" at Old Navy!  HA!

There was a little carnival thing outside the mall...very classy I know. Brynn was so excited about all the lights and wanted to ride some rides...until we actually got IN the ride.  She was ready for it to be over before it started! HA!

She didn't want to ride anything by herself, so we decided to have a little family ride on the Merry Go Round...Emory was ALL SMILES the whole time and Brynn was clinging to the horse for dear life!  

Sunday morning I woke up and Ryan had some VERY cute stuff sitting out.  After the skillet debacle last year (yes, if you don't remember I got a SKILLET for Mother's Day last year...) I was VERY pleased with some simple handprints from the girls and some simple and sweet gifts and reasons why they are thankful for me.  (I caught my hubby on Pinterest a couple of days earlier...hilarious!  But if you are reading Ryan, you can give me Pinterest inspired gifts anytime...WAY better than a skillet!)

After church we met my parents and grandparents at a Mexican restaurant, and then Ryan took the girls home for naps while my mom and grandma and I did a little shopping and then headed back to their house to play cards.  Actually, they all played cards and I took a BIG LONG NAP and read my book and relaxed.  Then Ryan brought the girls over and we all hung out before heading over to his parents, who had just gotten back in town from a trip.  We had dinner with them and hung out before calling it a night.  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to my AMAZING mom, mother-in-law, and grandma's.  I can only PRAY that I will leave the impression on my girls that you all have made on me.