Grandma came to town

Okay, so it's been awhile since I've been on, but we have been very busy around here for the past week or so. Last week my mom came to visit, which is so fun and we LOVE having her here. Although, I'm not so sure this was her most fun visit. We put her to work and started putting the girls room together. Peyton will be moving in with Halli shortly after little Lexie arrives, so we had to get the room ready for both girls. We spent the first part of the week looking for fabric, I had my heart set on a pink and yellow room, and you have NO idea how hard it is to find those two colors together. Pink and green, Easy as pie, pink and yellow, not so much. But I think we finally found a decent solution and set to work painting. The girls were eager to help and they thought painting was really fun for the first two minutes, and that was it. I don't have any pictures of Halli painting cause she was being camera shy. But here are some pictures of ms. Peyton doing her thing, yes she is in her pajamas and looking kinda shabby, but don't we all when we're hard at work. :)

This is the semi-finished product. I found some really cute beds on Craigslist, that really weren't so cute when I bought them, but we cut out the middle of the headboard and then made some custom upholstery to go in the middle, and I have to say that I love them, and sitting at night with Halli reading bedtime stories is actually very comfy. The dresser was bought at a garage sale and actually came from Melanie Williams. It was a good find and I love the color, even if it seems a little bright. It'll go with the room when I'm done with accessories and what-not. Although, that could take many months to be done with that.
There is still a ways to go to get it all finished, but I love how bright and welcoming it is, and Halli really loves her bed. I think she's really excited to have a roommate soon too.

Thanks mom for coming and doing all that hard work with me! Hope you got to rest and relax when you got home. I know I've been very lazy these past couple days!

Spring Fling

So every year, the preschool that Halli attends has something called a "spring fling" its a kind of carnival for the kiddos. This is the second year we've been and the girls really enjoyed it! We met up with some of their cousins to start, but unfortunately, Halli is a little more adventurous than the babies are so we went our separate ways and they ended up spending time at the petting zoo and playing by the water, which we did alot of last year.

We ended up sticking with non-other-than, Blake, and his little brother Braden and their cousins and our friends, Sydney, Spencer and Seryn. It was alot of fun and it's always great to spend time with the kids doing something they enjoy that doesn't stress the wallet. One of the first things we did when we got there was a little mini carousel and Peyton loved it! she had the funniest smile on her face the whole time. Not a huge smile, but a kind of nervous smile. It was really cute. Halli could have spent all day on the inflatables of course. Those are always a favorite of the older kids.

My sweet girls enjoying their day

The gang relaxing with their feet in the water. The bridge is a cute picture and just shows how much Halli and Blake really do love each other. Best Buds!

These pictures just melt a mommy's heart. These two seem to fight a lot, you know, little sis following big sis around all the time. It can get a little old, but this day they were just so cute with each other. They wanted to be together and I'm so glad it was one of those times when I had my camera and could actually get proof that they love being together. When they're teenagers I just may need it.

How did Eric get here?

Well, Eric, my little brother is in town this week from Cali doing some job interviews and apartment hunting. Because he'll be moving down, he drove here from California instead of flew. Now that we know that, let me go back to yesterday when I was driving home with the girls. Halli asked me if our car could fly. I thought this was an odd question, but she's asked weirder, so I told her yes it could, but only if the kids weren't in it cause it would be too dangerous to fly with kids in the car. I obviously had no idea why she thought cars could fly, maybe she saw a cartoon about it, I don't know.

Fast forward to this morning, I was in the car again and here is our basic converstation:

Halli: Mom, how did Eric get here?

Me: He drove here.

Halli: I know, but how did he get his car here?

Me: Well, he got in his car and he drove it here from California.

Halli: I know he drove here, but how did he get his car here?

I am totally lost, then I realize that we have only flown to california, so maybe she thinks its on a different planet. ( I think this because of my cousin-in-law, Julie's post about her little boy thinking sweden is on a different planet.)

Me: Halli, when we go in a plane, we go up in the sky then back down to earth, we don't leave the earth when we fly somewhere. So California is connected to Texas, and you can drive from one place to the other. (I really have no idea how to explain this to her without a map or something.)

Halli: I know that, you have to be in a rocketship to leave the earth and go into outerspace.

So I tried to explain a couple more times about where California is and where Texas is and why you can drive from one to the other. She just isn't really getting it, so I ask her to tell me what she thinks so I know where she's coming from, and her is her explanation:

Halli: Well, California is in a cloud, so I don't know how Eric got his car out of the cloud and down here to Texas, maybe it flew or something.

I just bust up laughing, poor girl. The carebears live in a cloud and when we fly we go up in the sky, it really all does make perfect sense. So I just agree with her, yes honey, maybe the car flew! (We'll have geography lessons later.)

My Evil Plan

Okay, so it's not really an "evil" plan, although my sister-in-law may think so.:) Ever since I realized that we would in all likelyhood never leave Texas, I have been on a mission to get the rest of my family to move closer to me. Now, seeing as how they are in California, there really isn't too much of a draw to bring them to the lonestar state. However, the one good thing we have going is that homes are WAY cheaper, and luckily for me, my sister just happened to marry a guy whose parents live about 30 minutes away from me.

Anyway, my little brother just got into town today for an interview. He was already offered a job up in waco, but tomorrow has an interview in college station which would be great! He'd only be an hour or so away from me. One sibling down, two more to go, although I have to admit, I'm not holding out too much on Ryan and Kate, I think they're pretty happy where they are. Although at least if everyone else is here, they can come visit, and I won't have to be the one hauling kids onto a plane, not my favorite thing to do!:)

Assuming Eric gets the job, which we are all praying he does, the next step will be Brittany & Brett. His parent's are already here, so I think they're planning on moving down, its just hoping that jobs pan out right so they have a motive to move down here.

The last phase once that happens, is for myself, Brittany and Jill to all get pregnant about 9 months apart, first one, three months later another and three months later another. This way my mom will have to be down here so much with all the new kiddos that she and my dad will just decide that a move just HAS to be made!

Everything is already in motion, now if everyone would just do what they are supposed to do it'll all work out! How hard can it be to plan their lives according to my will? Seriously? :) I just really love my family and would love to have them all nearby, is that too much to ask?

TaDa!

That's right, after a long week of spending EVERY night working on this thing it is FINALLY finished! Thanks a bunch to Eric who helped get us started, and Alan (aka: Grandpa) who came in at the end to finish us off (which was greatly appreciated, I was SO ready to be done!). Peyton is very glad to see it finished as well, ya know, for a girl that just loves to be outside, she did NOT enjoy having me be out there but to busy to play with her. She was pretty whiny most of the time we were working on it, but as soon as we got the swings up at the end she was more than happy to test them out and was very upset when I took her inside for a nap. Halli was Ecstatic that it was finally finished and I know she'll be spending most of her days out there on the swing. She's already said she wants to have a sleepover in the clubhouse, and she gets to sleep in the tunnel part!

Kevin feels great, but I'm exhausted, and my feet are swollen. Even with all that, its well worth the sense of accomplishment to know that we actually finished this huge project. But don't get me wrong, I NEVER want to put another one of these together again, and we are NOT moving till all the kids are old enough to no longer want to use it, just so I can avoid doing it again! I'm so glad it's done and I hope the weather stays as wonderful as it has been so that we can truly use it as much as I hope we do!

Yes, the girls are still in their pajamas, and yes it was 1:00 in the afternoon, I didn't think it would take us that long to finish it today. Okay, so Peyton is only in her pajama top because at one point she decided the bottoms were unnecessary and that a diaper was the way to go. Once that got too dirty I decided to change her diaper and at least put shorts on. She could have cared less.

Who needs a swing set?

So we decided to bite the bullet last weekend and get the girls a swing set. What we weren't necessarily planning on is the amount of time it would take to put this thing together. Kevin and I aren't really the handiest of people, and when you have two little girls running around it can really hinder your progress. So every evening this week, its been family time in the back yard. Halli is basically the babysitter, as is the slide, which by the way is laying on the ground. Who knew they would have so much fun with that? Why get the whole swing set when they just wanna climb around on the slide and in the boxes it all came in? Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to post pictures of the finished product, but until then wish us luck!

Easter

Okay, so I know its a little bit late, but here are a few pictures from easter. It was a very hectic day so we didn't get pictures of the girls in their dresses, but hopefully we'll do that sometime this week. Halli was really excited when she woke up and saw that the easter bunny had come, and woke us up bright and early to tell us so. Both the girls loved their baskets and all the fun stuff inside them.

I spent the morning making breakfast, cooking food for easter dinner and getting ready for sharing time. I really didn't relax all day and I'm amazed at just how tired I was when we got home that night. For sharing time I did a sort of presentation on the last week of Jesus' life, and I was kinda dressed to fit the times, but our "new" yet older building is VERY warm, especially in the primary room, so I was cooking! I'm sure being preggers didn't help that situation too much. But we headed to Grandma & Grandpa Williams house right after church for a family dinner and an easter egg hunt. The girls all had fun and the boys (dads) had even more fun throwing filled eggs in the girls direction. Halli thought it was raining candy. :) But here are a couple good pictures from the day, it was a sugar filled sweet day, and I hope Halli learned a little bit about our Savior. We tried to do an easter week, where every night we talked about one thing that happened the week before our Savior was crucified. She caught on a little but hopefully it will become a family tradition that will help our kids understand the true meaning of the holiday.

Peyton looking for eggs, she didn't understand collecting them, she was just walking around and opening them one by one to eat what was inside.

Halli finding the better hidden eggs, it was pretty easy since most of them are so young but she had fun anyway!

All the cousins

A very cute picture of all the girls and their proud grandparents! They all look adorable here, including Brenda & Alan!