Earrings!

It all started last year about this time when I asked Zoe if she ever wanted to get her ears pierced, she cringed and said, "Um....how about August of 2009!" I said, "Okay, August it is!" and we wrote it on the calender. Well, August was approaching and by now she was no longer cringing but begging me to take her get it done. So last Friday, (technically it was July 31...we were already busy on the 1st, she didn't mind) I was more nervous than she was, I was actually sick to my stomach going there, of course, not letting her see my nerves. She did AMAZING!! I told one of my friends before we went that I was fully prepared to get there and her change her mind. I also had visions of pinning her down after they pierced the first one and her screaming! To my absolute amazement, she didn't even flinch when they did they first or the second! I learned two very valuable lessons about Zoe that day, 1. When she really wants something, she'll do anything to get it and 2. Never underestimate any of my children. Here's the big girl with her new bling!

Getting ready...

Me, signing the "if her ears fall off, it's not our fault" consent forms :)

All done! Looking a little unsure about the holes that were just poked into her ears, but no tears!!

Calling daddy to tell him all about it! See the earrings!?

Our GREAT Wolf Lodge trip!

This summer we spent a few days in Concord, N.C. at the new Great Wolf Lodge there. It was a blast!!! It is a HUGE indoor water park that opened a few months ago. There are many around the country. I highly recommend it...especially to those of you who don't mind being wet the whole time you are there! If you aren't comfortable in a bathing suit or need to have yourself primped at all times, then it probably isn't for you! :) Honestly, as you spend your days going from 11 water slides, to the wave pool, the dump bucket, to the MANY sprayers and water shooters you are truly wet the whole time. Besides the water park, they have an arcade, kids craft time, miniture golf course, lobby shows complete with singing animals and anything "lodge" like that you can imagine. Even the trash cans looked likes logs! We decided to leave Addie behind with my mom and David, so John and I could spend some quality time with Zoe and Jackson. It was the right decision, although the next time we go we will definately bring her along. There would be a lot for her to do too. Here are some fun pictures from our vacation:

Enjoying a little Edy's ice cream (on site as well) in the lobby one night.

John and the kids (Zoe's barely above water in the first picture) on the floating snake in one of the pools. It was a blast throwing each other off and everyone trying to stay on!

This was Jackson's favorite thing to do, he called it the "Wipeout thing" (from the show on tv)

Here he is in action and yes, he does "Wipeout!"

Zoe and John on a squirting see saw - water would come out of the center and drench whoever was on the bottom.

No caption needed - just a sweet wet boy!

Zoe hanging onto a floating acorn in another pool. Could she be any prettier!?

Zoe - before she got wet one day, notice the water shooting up from the ground, I'm not lying when I say, there is water EVERYWHERE! :)

Yes, the pictures could go on and on, but you'd get bored, and I think you get the idea! Did I mention - you get really wet!! ;)

Big sister, little sister

I've posted before how much I love to watch Zoe and Addie and their sweet sister relationship. Well, lately it is apparent that Addie wants to be just like her big sister - whether Zoe likes it or not! :) Check out this picture below, I promise it was not staged!

Diva Addie

The other day a sweet friend of mine and her 2 yr old daughter come over for a playdate for the girls and coffee talk for us moms. Hadley, the 2 yr old, started putting on dress up clothes out of Zoe's dress up box. Well, I had no idea that my 18 month old would be remotely interested in dress up clothes yet - was I wrong! Every day since that playdate, Addie wants to dress up in sunglasses, pearls, feather boas, and even high heels ! I still can't believe she can walk around in those shoes! Here are some sweet pictures and a video to show off our little Diva Addie! I know this is only the start of many years of dressing up to come!

Happy Resurrection Day!

I'm about 5 days late, but Happy Resurrection Day! He is Risen! We had a wonderful Easter celebrating the glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I pray you did as well! Here are the kids in their Easter best - unfortunately this is the only picture I got of all three smiling. They did look darling though!

Zoe's 7th birthday

Wow! Our big girl turned 7 on April 2! I truly can't believe that she is already 7, seriously...where did 7 years go??? Zoe wish for her birthday party was Build A Bear party and then a sleep over so that's what we did. It was a blast! It honestly was the easiest party we have done, believe it or not! The girls arrived at 5:00 and giggled, ran around and tortured Jackson until it was pizza time. We ate pizza then headed off to the mall for Build A Bear. All the girls were so excited - I highly recommend a Build A Bear party, they all seemed to love it! After taking a quick picture with the mall Easter Bunny (John's spontaneous idea) we headed out and came back to our house for cake and presents. They ate the "Sleepover" cake, which I will have to admit was the funnest cake I have ever made (see the pictures below) and the girls loved being able to pick out which face they were on the cake. One of Zoe's presents was the new Barbie Thumbelina movie from Jackson which she opened that night. So after a little painting craft, the girls got all snuggled into their jammies and sleeping bags and watched the movie. The movie lasted until 11:00, which I thought they would all be asleep or at least about to fall asleep, but when the movie was done and we turned out the lights, the giggles began. It was so cute! It brought back so many fun memories of me when I had sleepovers. They finally fell asleep about 11:30 and slept until 7:30. Pancakes and sweet rolls were on the breakfast menu, then the parents started arriving at 9:30. It was loads of fun! Happy Birthday our sweet Zoe, I hope your birthday party was one where you felt extra loved and extra special! We love you so much darling daughter! Here are a few pictures to share!

The big haircut!

For a while now, Zoe has wanted to get her haircut short. I was not opposed to it, we just couldn't find the time to go get it done. I really wanted my hairdresser to do it and make it a special day for her. Usually we just go to the local Great Clips to get a trim. I made an appointment for her during Spring Break last week. It was great timing because John's parents were here from Ohio and my mother-in-law was able to come with us for the big haircut! When Chelsea made the first cut, I literally thought I was going to throw up which surprised me because I loved the idea of a cute summer cut (with no tangles!). In the end, we all absolutely LOVE it! I didn't know it was possible for my beautiful daughter to look more beautiful but she does!

Before... Her first real shampoo and head massage

(my favorite part...her's too!)...

Before the cut...

Getting it cut...

The final touches...

Ta da!...

The dancer in the family

Jackson had a QU wedding in his Kindergarten class at school. It was very cute! To explain -- the class had an actual ceremony of a "Q" marrying a "U", so they will forever be united! All the girls were dressed as queens and the boys quarterbacks - very sweet! Well, after the ceremony and cake, they had the dancing part of the reception. Jackson LOVES to dance - we are constantly having dance parties here at the house after dinner. Below is a video of Jackson dancing the Cha Cha slide - and that is his loud "take it back now y'all!" singing in the video. No, he is not a shy boy! :)

April Fool's!

Yes, it has been forever since I wrote on the blog, but things have been busy around here I guess! Our computer also had a virus on it that slowed us down for about 3 weeks! Yuck! I have lots of things to write about starting with April Fool's Day. I wanted to somehow play a little joke on the kids and came up with this idea. At meal times, they usually always have milk, but this day I made a big deal that "we are having fruit punch tonight!". The kids were so excited -- it's the little things in life! When they started sipping through the straws they couldn't get anything up!...because it was Jello! Jackson was getting so frustrated that he couldn't get any drink - it was hilarious! Zoe figured it out by picking up the straw and the whole "drink" came with it. Here are some funny pictures:

This is a picture frame that I have of Zoe and Jackson on our end table in the family room...

Just about every day, while they are at school, Addie carries it around with her (notice all the finger prints and the pictures look a little crooked). I find her "talking" to the pictures, giving them drinks from her sippy cup and kissing them a lot. It's so sweet how much she loves her big sister and brother and in her own little 16 month way, misses them when they are not here. Yesterday I found her sitting on the kitchen floor just looking at them - I had to grab the camera. Here's the picture I got:

Giving them kisses!

"When are they coming home, Mommy?

"Soon, honey!"

Pastor Johnny, My Bible and Me

A couple Sunday evenings ago, our church honored the first graders (all 176 of them!) with their very own Bible and a highlighter. Zoe was so excited! It was a special service for them as they all got to go up on stage and receive their Bible from our wonderful pastor, Johnny Hunt. We are so blessed by our church, we absolutely wouldn't want to be anywhere else on Sunday mornings! After the service there was a pizza party complete with a magician, face painting, balloon art, etc. First Baptist Woodstock truly knows how to show their love to their members, including the children. Each child got their picture taken with our pastor and their Bible. Here is Zoe and Pastor Johnny:

Along with a copy of the picture was a sweet letter that truly shows the heart of our pastor. Here are a few lines from the letter:

Dear friend,

Let me begin by saying I love you! What an incredible blessing it is that Jesus has allowed me to serve as your pastor.... I pray that you will cherish and love your Bible...Do know that one of the greatest honors of my life is knowing you. Let's love Jesus together. Remember, we are going to be together for a long, long time because I plan to go to Heaven with you!

Your pastor and friend,

Pastor Johnny

Addie dancing

Our little Addie's favorite new hobby is dancing. We constantly have to have music on at our house for her. She wakes up in the morning signing "Please!" and then dancing. Hilarious! When we took this video, we were trying to find some upbeat music on the music cable channels and this is what we ended up with...Spanish music! No, we do not speak fluent Spanish so if you do and we happen to be listening to something obscene I apologize...we had no idea! :) Addie seemed to like it! Ugh - is she not the cutest little thing ever!!!?? (Don't mind the "soiled" sticker on her back, we had just gotten home from church and apparently she gave the nursery workers a little present in her diaper - nice, huh?)

Redneck Sledding

When you live in Georgia you learn to make due with the gorgeous 50 degree weather in January! I know you are playing your violin for us, aren't you? Well, John and I feel that we have finally arrived as Georgians and we have performed our first, "You know you are a redneck if..." Check out the video and you'll know what I mean. If you are in the blizzards of the north make a snowman for us too, okay?

Making and decorating cookies...

Yes, we definitely had our fill of baking and decorating cookies during the holidays, and plenty of eating them too! We started just before Thanksgiving with "Thankful" cookies. Zoe and Jackson are at a great age to really teach them and have them understand being thankful for all the blessings God us provides especially our close friends and family. I had each child think of five people they are thankful for and didn't coerce them as to whom to choose. Then we baked and decorated sugar cookies in fall shapes (turkey, leaves, pumpkin, etc.) and wrapped them up real pretty and handed them out to their choice of people. Along with the cookies, was a note reading, "Zoe/Jackson was asked to choose people they are thankful for and guess what? They chose YOU!" Then they wrote (in their own words) why they were thankful for that person. It was so cute to see who they came up with and why they were thankful for them. I think this is definitely a new family tradition we will continue to do. I'm not sure which they enjoyed more, making the cookies or delivering them.

Each year my mom comes over and we make Christmas cookies, what a special time for us to have her with us to do this! The kids LOVE their mom-mom (and pop too, of course!). What a blessing to live so close to them! Below are a couple fun pictures of them together. We all wish we lived closer to John's parents (or Grammy and PaPa to the kids) and my dad (Pop Purdy), but we cherish the time we get to spend with them when we get to visit. The kids are blessed with amazing grandparents no matter where they live!

making the "thankful" cookies

Jackson and mom-mom (my mom)
Zoe and mom-mom

it's impossible to get a "normal" picture of him - what a goof!

time to sample some cookies!

Each year for Christmas we make something for our neighbors and friends to give out at Christmas. Usually, it's just something little. This year I saw these adorable Peppermint Pinwheel cookies on Paula Dean's Christmas Cookie Swap on Food Network and I thought, "I am going to make them!" They are so cute and really yummy too! They are swirled red and white cookies and then you put them on a lollipop stick so they look like a lollipop. I put a plastic bag over them and tied them with cute Christmas ribbon. So cute! I wish I had taken a picture of them. All the kids we gave them too LOVED them! Here's a link to them if you are interested: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/peppermint-pinwheels-recipe/index.html