Mia's Party

We had Mia's 3rd birthday party on Saturday at Oak Mountain State Park. Her birthday isn't until this Friday but we had the party early since we have soccer tournaments the next 3 weekends in a row. It turned out to be a beautiful day (they were predicting thunderstorms) and we found a perfect spot at Oak Mtn. in the shade with a nice breeze. It was close enough to the water but not too close etc...It had a road that wrapped around so the kids could ride on the bike cart and in the wagon. It could not have been more perfect!

We had a great time with family and friends. Mia was so thrilled to have everyone there. As a matter of fact she was having so much fun just riding in the bike cart and hanging out with her friends that we had to pull her away to come open her presents. I'm glad that she wasn't obsessed with just wanting to open her presents the whole time. She was content to just enjoy the party without focusing on that. She was so sweet because she must have said 10 times on the way home to me "Mommy, thank you for my party". And I didn't even tell her to say that! I was in disbelief that a child so young already has a heart of thanks. We must be doing something right:) I've been to a lot of parties with kids who acted selfish and unthankful and have vowed that I would never allow my children to act that way. That they would learn to always be appreciative! It's always good to see the fruit of our labor. Anyways, here are some pictures of the party...

Destin Pictures

Home from the Beach...

We're back from Destin. We got in late Tuesday night and we had a really good time. The soccer tournament went great. Our U-17 team lost in the semifinals and our U-12 team lost 2-1 in the Finals. It was a heartbreaking loss, but the girls played great and they have come a LONG way this season. I'm so glad we decided to stay a couple extra days so that we could really enjoy the beach and have a little family time. During the tournament we were going, going, going and barely even had time to eat over those 2 days let alone go to the beach so it was good to recover and hang out after it was all over. My mom went down to help with the girls during the tournament which was such a blessing. We would not have been able to do it without her.

Our girls weren't super excited about the sand:) They both liked being out there and watching the people and the water as long as they were on the towel. Averi kept picking her feet up and holding them. The first day we were out there Mia spread her toys out on the sand and would step on them so that she didn't have to touch the sand...unreal! They sort of warmed up to it by the last day. And they were both scared of the ocean too which was absolutely freezing anyways. My mom said I was the same way even up until I was 5 or 6. I know they'll enjoy it a lot more as they get older. We did get a lot of cute pictures which I will post later on. Our condo was right on the beach which was wonderful. The sound of the ocean is so peaceful and refreshing to me. Now back to the busyness of life...A birthday party to plan for Mia on Saturday and 3 soccer tournaments coming up in May...WOW!

Curious George and Almost Walking?

So we FINALLY have a theme for Mia's birthday party. Ever since we started planning Averi's party Mia has started telling people every day "today is my birthday". Her birthday is May 2nd so I reminded her over and over that Av's birthday was first and once it was over we could start planning for hers. So anyways, she has been trying to decide for a long time what kind of party she wanted to have. She LOVES the show Dora but is very unsettled by the character on Dora called Swiper the Fox. Swiper tries to take toys and "swipe" other things from Dora, and Mia being the sensitive child that she is gets very upset by that so I have to fast forward through a lot of the parts Swiper is on. Anyways...she was convinced she wanted a Dora party until we went to buy the plates a couple weeks ago and when I showed them to her the first thing she said was "Uh-oh, Swiper's on there, I can't like Swiper, I don't want Dora". So she quickly changed her mind from Dora to other things like Princess, Curious George etc. So today we went to buy the party stuff and again she was convinced she wanted Dora until again she saw Swiper on the plates:) So I finally talked her in to Curious George which she is very excited and "settled" about:) When we got in the car she said "I like Curious George, Swiper's not on there".


In Averi's little world I am doing my best to try and get her to walk. We practice a lot each and every day. She's at the lovely stage where she takes 2 or 3 steps to me or drops down to crawl because that is much faster for her and she likes to move quickly. I have a feeling that she will go from crawling straight to running. But anyways, we are heading to the beach next weekend and I was really hoping she might be walking by then because it would be so much easier if she were. Probably just wishful thinking on my part. We'll see...She has a couple of toys that she loves to walk with and push. She also had her very last bottle 2 days ago. It was a little sad for me since that was my 2 minutes of cuddle time I got from her each day. Oh well...

The Little Things

It's the little things about each day that I love...

Averi just learned how to give kisses and she gives them ALL THE TIME now. I love going in to her room each morning (even though it's earlier than I would like to be up) to be greeted by her sweet little "hi" followed by a ton of kisses:) Jon and I laugh so hard at her because she looks like an old woman with no teeth when she gives them (as you can see in the picture below). The most precious thing is when Mia walks out of her room in the morning and Averi just starts blowing kisses like crazy and Mia loves it too. It's SO sweet!


I love it when Mia says to me "Mommy wanna come sit with me?!" or "Mommy want to read a book to me?" How could I resist that? So no matter what I'm in the middle of, I am able to drop it and say "of course I will" because I know that one day she'll be out the door and way to busy for me:)


I love the sound of the girls laughing at each other and happily playing with one another.


I love my Jon time. We don't get many evenings together at home because we're at soccer 3 or 4 days a week, so I love the nights where we have no other commitments and just get to sit and talk or watch our favorite shows or a movie alone together after the girls are in bed...


All of these "little" things in each day make the "hard" things in life all worth it.