Happy Easter!

Just a few pictures of our little Easter bunny eating lunch after church at the club. Happy Easter to all of our family and friends!

I wear my sunglasses at night!

I had a rough day yesterday and was not feeling well all day. Ryan went to a party solo to represent the family - and I was home with Ali. I was a little nervous that she may be a handful since I had no energy- but she was such a good girl! She kept making her mama laugh by doing things like this..... She cracked me up walking around with her sunglasses on! Too bad I didn't have the camera handy when she had them on upside down half the time!

Our Church Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday, we went to our Easter Egg Hunt at our church. It started off with a pancake breakfast and then a crazy Easter Egg Hunt. I think it was a little overwhelming for Ali with ALL of the kids (I think there were more kids than eggs!) and we ended up with zero eggs - but, luckily Ali's close friend, Libby, donated two of her eggs to the poor. We still had a great time though! We will just have to do some practicing before next year! :)

Checking everything out... Libby and her basket full of eggs...


Ali had so much fun swinging with her granddaddy and grandmama! I think she could have stayed in the swing for hours!

Ali's first Easter Egg Hunt!

Ali went on her first Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday, given by her friend, Caroline Lowery. I especially love things like this b/c when I was little, my mom said that I went to Easter Egg Hunts with Caroline's mom, Brittany! That is so neat to me - watching the friendships/fun events go throughout generations! Caroline is so precious and we had so much fun at the Easter Egg Hunt. As it was Ali's first hunt, I, of course, decided to do a practice run in our backyard before the party, to make sure Ali knew what to do with the basket & eggs! (and to give her an edge on her competition, jk!) And, sure enough, she did! I was amazed to watch Ali run around the backyard picking up all the eggs and throwing them in her basket! We have a future Easter Egg Hunt champion on our hands! Here are a few pictures (a little out of order) from the Easter Egg hunt....

Some of Ali's egg in her basket....

Ali taking a break with her friend, Lauren Poston. (another generational friendship that I of course love!)


Hmmmm...which egg should I go for next?

Caroline, the guest of honor, and her grandmother, DoeDoe.

Ali in the yard of eggs......

Going for a ride in the swing, of course....

Spring fever!

Last Sunday was beautiful, so after church we took Ali back up to our church to play on the playground and she loved it! Next year, she will go to "school" there, so I was excited to get her to play on the same playground she will be spending a lot of time on for years to come! (just like her mama did - although it wasn't this nice back then!) Here are a few pictures of Ali taking over the playground! :) This was her favorite part - she loved looking out at us from the window!

Ali also LOVES to swing on the swing! (And getting her out is always REALLY fun too for us! :))

I don't know if all kids are like this (since we only have one so far!) but Ali LOVES being outside. It's crazy to me how much she loves it - I mean, she would be out there 24 hours a day if she had a choice. (Maybe she gets it from her brother, Baxter who pretty much spends 24 hours outside a day!) Every time we walk past the door she tries as hard as she can go get out the door - and, if I ever go out and come back in without letting her go out - she is not a happy camper! Very unlike her Mama, who would prefer to be inside most of the time - except for this beautiful tease of Spring weather that makes everyone want to be outside! Sometimes, when I am cooking dinner - she tries to sneak out and I watch her from my kitchen window! It is hilarious! I have to keep my eye on this little one! It sure will be fun when she can run outside and play by herself as I cook (although I don't really want to say that b/c I don't want her to grow up any more! She's still my little baby!) - but until then, Ali and I are trying to find a happy medium to give her plenty of time outside but also to give her mama some time to lay down on the couch. I am looking forward to my second trimester so hopefully I will have a lot more energy to spend time outside in the beautiful sun to play with my energetic princess!

Little reasons I love my life as a mom

There are so many little moments in my day that I wish I could press pause - or maybe just rewind and repeat - over and over. Pretty much the funniest person in my world is my (almost) 16 month old daughter. And she knows she's funny too! There are so many little things I wish could put on here - but they just can't be captured in a pictures. It's the little things like when I turn up a song on Q100 on the radio, only to turn around in my car and see Ali with her arms in the air, moving up and down dancing. She's a regular dance machine - whenever she hears music! And, that huge smile she gets on her face when she catches me watching her just melts my heart. It's also the sound of her voice when I see her pick up a phone - any phone - and start saying "heh - Whoa". There was one day I went to the doctor and had to wait forever and was in the worst mood until I saw I had a voicemail and checked it only to hear Ali's voice on the other end just saying "heh-whoa? heh-whoa?" about 20 times. I am not sure I will ever delete that message!

There are so many things I treasure about being Ali's mom. From the kisses she blows us to her real kisses or the moments we roll on the floor as I tickle her and she laughs so hard I never want to stop to the times she just wants me to hold her and sit together and read. Too many to mention for fear of boring anyone who may read this (if anyone even does???). It's hard not to start off each day in a great mood - every morning, I am greeted by a little girl who makes me feel so special when she gets so excited to see me at 7:30 in the morning. Who else would start jumping up and down and get an ear to ear grin at the frightening sight of me that early in the morning? :) There is nothing better in the world (in my opinion) that this - and I feel so blessed that we have so much to look forward to in this coming year (and year after that and after that, etc etc). The Lord has blessed our little family immensely!

And then there were four....

Ali has some news to share......