Zoo

Alicia and I took the kids to the zoo on Madalyn's birthday. Our friend Brooke and her little boy Brian came for part of the day. We got there early and packed a lunch. All of the kids really enjoyed going around and seeing all of the animals. Madalyn was especially excited about the new little fella at the zoo. They have some porcupines now. Mackenzie gets very excited about the monkeys and Elephants. We try to get a picture of the kids on this bench every time we are all at the zoo together this is the first time we got a half way decent picture. It will be neat if we keep this up and have a picture of them on this bench as they grow up.

She is 5!

Madalyn turned 5 this month which is still hard for me to believe! We had princess party with all sort of royal characters. We had several Cinderellas, Sir William the Dragon Slayer, Spiderman, Belle, and more. Madalyn was Snow White and she looked beautiful. We had a lot of fun at the party.

Hilton Head 2008

We went to Hilton Head Island for our beach trip this year and we absolutely loved it. We went with our friends the Douglas' so of course Madalyn had a blast because her "boyfriend" Gavin was there. She kept looking at pictures of her and Gavin together after the trip and commenting "how romantic..." which she then would follow by swooning onto the couch. She is a mess when it comes to boys already. Most of probably already know that she has asked Gavin to marry her and he said yes- she will periodically check with him to make sure he has not changed his mind. I am glad that her and Gavin are such good friends it will be interesting if they do get married someday, but that is a long way away.
Back to the Hilton Head trip we really liked it there- it is very different from when we go to Inlet Beach in FL. The sand is much better for making sandcastles which Garrison and Madalyn took advantage of and made a large castle complete with little guards and sand Crabs surrounding it. They even put a flag in top when they were finished. We had mixed weather- the day we went to try and fly our kites was extremely windy in fact too windy even for Kite flying. There were sunny warm days and then one really cold day, but overall we had a alot of fun.

She's just being Miley

The girls love to listen to fast upbeat music when we are driving around in the car especially Miley Cyrus. I took this picture while Madalyn was showing us some of her moves and singing along to one of her favorite songs. I think the sunglasses are especially fitting. I think Madalyn thinks she is 5 going on 15- We better watch out!

Easter Egg Hunt @ Church

We went to an Easter egg hunt at our church which due to the rain we had to hang out inside, but we still had a lot of fun. Both the girls had a lot of fun and found lots of eggs. Mackenzie found about 50 I think (although she did not have too much competition) and she got very excited when she realized that there was chocolate inside the eggs. Madalyn also found a lot and enjoyed hanging out with the silly Easter bunny.

Easter Egg Dying

We spent the Saturday morning before easter dying our easter eggs which we then added sparkles to which the girls really enjoyed. We made and egg for each color of the rainbow and then several pink ones. Princesses do love pink!

Flower picking and Dandelion blowing

On this trip to the park Madalyn taught Kenzie to pick flowers and tried to show her that you can blow the Dandelion puffs- Kenzie just did not realize that not all flowers had puffs on them to blow off, but she tried to blow anyway. The girls and I had a lot of fun at the park this evening.

More Snow

We had more snow- in fact this was a pretty big snow for Nashville. The last time I remember this much snow was before Madalyn was born. This was the biggest snow that the girls had ever seen and they had a blast going out an playing in it. Sadly it was not a very wet snow so it did not make a very good snowman, but Garrison and Maddie made a small one, it was quite a bit bigger than her teeny tiny one she had made during the last snow. This one had a baby carrot nose and some craisin eyes. We also tried to do some sledding- Garrison did much better than I did, but we could not get the girls to try. I think if we had an actual sled it might have worked a little better, but how often do we have enough snow in Nashville to use a sled?

park trip

Just a few days after the snow we had some nice warm weather and we all headed over to the park near our house. The girls really like to go and play at the park. One of Mackenzie's favorite things to do at the park is to swing.

Snow Day

We got some snow in Nashville and the girls thought it was great. There was not very much on the ground but a lot kept falling which they just enjoyed going out and trying to catch snowflakes and running around in the little bit that there was. Madalyn did make a teeny tiny snowman- he was pretty cute.

Happy Birthday Mackenzie!

Mackenzie is Two! She had a fun valentine's birthday party with some friends and family. She loved all her cookies and cupcakes- she has quite a sweet tooth. Her favorite sweet though I think is chocolate. She got lots of Disney princess things which she thought was great- she likes to think she is as big as her sister.

Girls Vacation- Birmingham 2008

We went to visit Aunt Susan and cousins Whitney and Audrey while Daddy headed down to the beach with Grandaddy. We got to see some snow which the girls enjoyed going outside and running around in. We did lots or coloring and crafting while we were there Aunt Susan has the "project room" which is perfect for that sort of thing.

Christmas Morning

We took this after the girls had finished opening thier presents from santa. They seemed to get everything they had wanted. The favorite gift was the talking princess chair that madalyn got. She has been a great big sister and has been sharing it with her sister. Mackenzie really got into the opening of the gifts she was so cute.

Merry Christmas

This is a little out of order and a little late- I need to keep up with my blogging a little better. Sorry I thought I had already posted pictures from Christmas when I put put up the valentine picture. Anyway Merry Christmas to all- a little late. This was our Christmas card picture this year. We played the camera countdown game to get it and I think the girls did really well.

Happy Valentine's Day

We spent a great night at home as a family celebrating Valentine's Day and Mackenzie's Birthday. We had a lot of fun- we had one of Mackenzie's favorite foods for dinner -PIZZA and then the girls each got some Disney Princess Chocolate hearts which is way better than just any chocolate when you are 2 and 4. I love to watch Garrison with the girls they all have so much fun together.

Madison & Paige's wedding

we went to Kentucky for Madison and Paige's wedding. They had a Christmas theme in their decorations which we took advantage of after the ceremony and had a little photo shoot with the girls. We got several good pictures, but this one was my favorite. I even thought about using it on our Christmas card before I decided to take a picture of all of us to use. Madalyn and Mackenzie are very good sisters to each other and I feel like this picture really shows that.

Decorating our tree

This picture was taken in the process of us all decorating our Christmas tree and I love it. I got a glimpse of how exciting our Christmas was going to be this year with our two girls as we were decorating the tree and seeing all the excitement already starting to build. Our tree of course turned out beautiful this year as it always seems to. It had a lot of homemade ornaments on it this year. We are starting to have lots that Madalyn has made over the years we will have to get Mackenzie into the crafting now that she is almost 2.

Breakfast with Santa

We went to our church and had a breakfast and then we got to see Santa. The girls had lots of fun! Mackenzie was not very sure about sitting in his lap, but made it through she lost it however when we tried to hand her to Mrs Claus for a picture. The girls also had fun making ornament and coloring and even listen to a Christmas story while we were there.

Our Anniversary

I can not believe it has been 7 years. We celebrated this year by spending the day as a family. We went to lunch together then headed out on a drive down Natchez trace which is where we stumbled upon a little half mile trail that took us to a beautiful overlook. Mackenzie and Madalyn both hiked all the way up. I did carry Mackenzie most of the way back down. It was such a fun day I can not wait to do it again in the spring when it warms up a bit.

Fall Fest 2007

Here we all are dressed up for Halloween! We won second place in the family costume contest. We also made our car trunk the Disney castle for the trunk or treating part ( we won third place trunk). We had so much fun dressing up for Fall Fest that we all also went trick or treating at the Y in our costumes and then again on Halloween night when we went out with the Douglas trick or treating in their neighborhood. We are going to come up with even better costumes for our whole family next year- we are open to suggestions we are partial to Disney themed ideas