The Happiest Place on Earth!

We are back from our family vacation extraordinaire in Disney World.....and it definitely lived up to it's expectations. For quite awhile David and I have been dreaming about bringing our kids to Disney World. The Lord is soooooo good and has blessed us so much and allowed it to come to pass. The timing of this trip was extremely significant. For one, we were able to go with all of David's family. Two, we were able to see David's grandfather who is on Dialysis and just found out he has another bout of cancer. And three, we found amazingly cheap deals on airfare, the resort, and got a huge military discount on the Disney tickets. Really there are so many amazing memories from this trip. We did so much....and I took so many pics that I am sure I will be bloggging about it forever. Here's a few for starters.....

Bow Mania!

I had the best day with my crazy talented crafty friend.  She came over and taught me how to make these amazingly beautiful bows.  I had told Grace that I was going to make some for her.  She came home and it was the first thing she asked me about.  She was so excited she literally said "This is the best day ever."  Talk about a reaction.  I knew which one would be her favorite too.....and I was right.  You can guess.   Totally fun.....and she will look super cute.  Never too old for a little glam. Can't wait to give the little purple matching one to Cousin Ahna.

Cheer Time!

For the past 3 years Grace has highly anticipated the local High School Cheer camp. It's another event that she enjoys with her BFF.  I have to say that I will be shocked if her friend isn't Captain of the squad in High School because she literally heads up "cheer practice" every recess.  This year Grace really stepped the enthusiasm up.  She looked like she was having so much fun and was able to follow the big girls pretty well.  And of course we are always so proud.

 

True Dat!

So sometimes I spend time surfing photography websites.  There's always something to learn and improve on.  So lately I've been admiring various photographers black and white images.  I ask myself how in the heck are they getting their images to look so great.  So I found this tutorial on how to get how to get true black and white images.  Here's my attempt.

Valentine's Do

We've been really busy lately with daddy's inspection.....so yesterday I thought we would all take a little nap.  Well at least mommy and Nathan got a nap.  Gracie, Elijah, and Micah woke up before me and decided to make Valentines for mommy.  It was a wonderful surprise except for the fact that Micah also decided to give himself a haircut.  It was bad enough I regretfully had to buzz his whole hair. It has taken us quite a while to grow out his beautiful locks....so as you can imagine I was not very happy.  I didn't even have it in me to take a picture of the do.  But here's the after pic.  I will say I was pretty impressed with their Valentines!  Gracie's was pretty creative I thought.  And Elijah is pretty good at drawing hearts and cutting them out.  A skill that will come in handy when he is wooing his wife I think.

She loves 'em

For the past couple of months Grace had complained of headaches and that her eyes were blurry sometimes.  So we thought we should take her in and get her eyes checked out.  Turns out that her eyes aren't super bad....but definitely could use a little help when her eyes get tired.  So we ended up ordering some glasses on zennioptical that were really really cheap.  In fact they were so cheap that we got her a couple pairs.  She has been waiting for 2 weeks for them to arrive and today was the day!  It's a little strange that my daughter thinks glasses are super cool.  Might be cause she wants to be like mommy and mommy has glasses.  I don't know just a shot in the dark. At any rate she should model for Lenscrafters cause she's rockin the smarty pants look. 

A little Indecisive

So my baby turned 3 yesterday.  In preparation for his big day we kept asking him what kind of birthday he wanted.  For months he told us he wanted a "firetruck" birthday.  So I was planning on making a firetruck cake.  After awhile the firetruck turned into batman....and then spiderman.  And then a couple of days ago we were at the store walking by the bakery and Nathan saw a dinosaur cake and decided that's what he wanted.  At first I was going to find little miniatures of all his requests and put them on his cake.  But I decided I would just go with the last request.  We wanted to make his birthday as special as it could be....while still being low key....so we told him he could have anything he wanted for dinner.  What happens when you ask a 3 year old what he wants for dinner....ummmm mozzerella cheese sticks and wings.  I know ridiculous huh.  When it came to the presents it didn't take much to make him happy a firetruck, a zhu zhu pet, a matchbox car that turns colors in the water, some refills for a nerf gun, and some gummies. Of course, Grace being her usual thoughtful self wanted bought him this light up thing that she saw him checking out in the store out of her allowance.  Of course his favorite toy was given to him by our good friends.  A little inexpensive squeezable gun with darts that fly.  Just goes to show it's not about going over the top.  It's about letting them know how loved they are!