Easter Sunday

My most favorite people in the world!...  How can you not have a great Easter with these faces smiling back at you!

Spring Break (first week of April 2012)

We went up to North Carolina to my parents house for spring break.  We also celebrated Shelbie's 7th birthday.  She was so excited to help make her cake and decorate the top with strawberries and it was definitely delicious!

 Fisher had the best time at mama and big daddy's.  he loved watching movies and falling asleep in mama's chair.  We also went to
Dollywood over spring break and had a great time.  Miles was the only tall enough kid to ride every ride and boy did he!  He loves all roller coasters no matter how scary.  In the below picture Miles, myself, Coral, and Shelbie are all on the ride.

Above Coral, Shelie, and Fisher are on the train.  Below is Fisher on the tram back to the car.  This picture melts my heart cause he is snuggling with his new stuffed kitty that we had just gotten at dollywood.  It melts my heart so much cause he has never liked stuffed animals but as soon as he saw this kitty he just had to have it and has never let it go since.  I am a big stuffed animal fan and so it was so sweet to me that he has someone to snuggle :)

My sweet Fisher still snugglingly his "kitty cat".

Fisher and CoCo

We are glad every day that we got our sweet kitty CoCo!  She has got to be the best kitty around!  She has especially bonded with Fisher and can be found morning, noon, and night snuggled up with him.  I wanted to post just some of the pictures I have caught of the two of them so I can remember these sweet moments (and I cant wait to show them to Fisher when his is older).  Just recently Fisher has started talking a lot more and every time CoCo comes up to him he says, with such excitement in his vioce, "she likes me!"  Fisher will even share his special blanket with CoCo and when she is sleeping he will cover her up with it.  Such precious moments!!!

Shelbie's friend Bday Party

I saw this idea on Pinterest for a girls birthday party and I thought it was so fun so I decided to give it a try for Shelbies friend party.  The idea was a lot more elaborate then I did but the general idea was there and the girls had a lot of fun.  I made 8 thin flat sheet cakes and thinly iced them in vanilla icing.  I gave each girl there own cake and let them decorate it how ever they wanted.  I had some candy, different colored icings I had made, and some fondant that I made and let them cut different shapes out.  Two of the moms stayed to help out and I was so grateful for there help. 
When each girl was done decorating there cake they got to put on a special apron that Shelbies Grandma Cooper made her and get there picture taken with there cake.  We then made frames for there pictures and craft tiaras for fun.  Shelbie also organized musical chairs and limbo to play.  Shelbie has a great group of friends and it was a great afternoon with 7 cute 7 year olds :)

Here's my sweet Shelbie with her apron and her cake.  She cracks me up cause she doesn't like to smile showing her teeth so pretty much every picture is her cute little grin.  I have to say that I am so proud of this girl and the young women that she is to soon becoming!  She is a great big sister (especially with Fisher), she is a great friend, she is smart, obedient, caring, thoughtful, helpful, creative, artistic, fun and just down right sweet!  I love my Shelbie so much and she definitely helps balance out some of the craziness in our home.

Shelbie and Lauren.

Eliana, Lauren, Sophia, Sophie, Shelbie, Ami, and Jocelyn (in front)

Time Out For Women

(in the picture from top to bottom is:  Lori Potter my sister in law "s.i.l.", Lana Dahle my "s.i.l.", Alison Cooper my "s.i.l.", myself, Angie and friend of Lori's, and Heidi Michael.  Heidi is a sweet friend of mine and her and I got to ride together from Gainesville.)

I was so grateful to get to go to a women's conference, called Time Out for Women, in Orlando on the weekend of March 9th.  I went with some great friends and family and had such an amazing and spiritually experience.  Some of the main lessons and reminders that I took away from the conference were to:
*Focus on the positive rather then the negative - your circumstances won't necessarily change but your attitude will and you will feel so much better.
*Be forgiving and just "let it go"
*A reminder that my actions will affect my children tremendously, therefore I need to try my best to keep my cool and discipline with love.
*Charity isn't something you do for others its the pure love OF Christ for us.  We have to have a relationship with Christ and truly feel his love for us and then how we treat others will be an effect of feeling Christs love for us!

There were many more lessons and beautiful music during the weekend.  It was also a great weekend with some dear friends and some of my sister in laws.  We went out to dinner, stayed one night in an awesome hotel, and some of us did a little shopping after the conference was over before heading home.  This weekend was exactly what I needed to recharge!  A big thanks to my sweet husband for taking care of the kids so I could go!

Celebrating the New Year with a new kitty :)

For Christmas we gave the kids a kitty, or a promise for a kitty.  Grant and I had wanted to surprise them with a new kitty on Christmas morning, however, we searched and searched for the right kitty before Christmas and were unable to find one.  So on Christmas morning the kids were still surprised to learn, from a card, that they would be getting to go with us and pick out a kitty.  About two weeks after Christmas we went to a big shelter event at the local Pet Smart store and there we found our sweet kitty Coconut.  We probably held a dozen or more kittens that morning and none of them felt right until Miles picked "CoCo" out of a cage and she just snuggled up and chilled in his arms.  Then Shelbie held her and she did the same thing and that's how we knew that she was perfect for our family!  I am so glad that we waited and found the right kitty cause she is absolutely so perfect for our crazy kids.  She just goes with the flow and lets the kids carry her around,  then she has had enough she will just run away for some alone time.  I am so glad we got a kitty and it is so fun to watch the kids with her! 

Almost every night when I go and check on the kids I find CoCo snuggled up with Fisher in his crib.  I have actually had to start closing Fishers door cause CoCo has started to wake him up during the night.  She will get so close to him, sometimes on top of him close to his face, that it wakes him up and scares him.  I think its so sweet but not when it wakes him up sad.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve the kids got to open the annual new Christmas pjs present.  I probably get more excited about the cute pjs then they do but they still seemed to love them :)

 Coral, Fisher, Miles, and Shelbie

The magic of Christmas morning, especially with young children, is so much FUN!  Our tradition is to look at what Santa brought first and then the stockings.  This year since we had to go to church at 9am on Christmas morning we did only Santa stuff and waited for the family gifts until after we got home.It worked out really well and we had a really fun and relaxing afternoon playing with all the new toys.

Fisher with his gift from his best buddy, cousin Ruby!

Coral with her gift from MaMa and Big Daddy.

Shelbie with her "Doodle Bear" from Leland and Miles with his stomp rocket from Evelyn.

Gifts from Santa.

I had to take a picture of what Santa left the kids just so I could remember.

 Here's Corals pile - A matching night gown for her and her doll, play cash register, barbie, smurf shirt, and play doctor kit.

 Shelbie got - matching night gown for her and her doll (which she ended up putting on her favorite bear YaYa), two new shirts. cheerleading outfit for her doll, and a barbie set with a signing stage.

 Miles got - a new shirt and a game (he has been asking for this game for a while and since it's an expensive game Santa kept Miles' gifts to a minimum)

Fisher got a new piece to his many train sets, most of which he inherited from Miles :)

Our favorite Santa!

Coral and Fisher just love this Santa that is outside a shop close to my gym.  Every time we pass by they have to go up to him and give him a hug.  I would have to agree that he is pretty cool looking.  One morning we passed by the shop just as they were opening and Coral went up to the lady who was opening the doors and asked her where the Santa was.  The lady was so nice and let Coral move him outside.  One thing that my children are not is shy :)

You might have noticed that Fisher doesn't have any shoes on - well every time we get in the car he takes them off and I guess I just don't make him put them on unless it's really necessary.  We walk on a sidewalk all the way to the gym door so sidewalk walking to me doesn't require shoes :)