Congratulations Devin!

Its official, my nephew Devin has now graduated from high school!  Just like seeing how fast my kids are growing, I can't believe Devin has now finished school.  He was born on my very first day of high school and I still remember that day very clearly!  Devin has always been like a younger brother to me and I'm very proud of him.  We had a family cookout last night to celebrate and even made him put his cap & gown on for a few photos.   Congrats Devin, we love you and we are proud of you...

Precious baby...had to get one of her :)

Back in comfy clothes

While we were all together we decided to take a picture of Cohen, Taylor, Kate, & Gavin.  Cohen & Taylor are 2 months apart and Kate & Gavin are about 9 1/2 months apart.  You can imagine how much of a task this was.  Kate isn't still for anything and she was very interested in Gavin.  Cohen is more than willing to try to hold her though which turns into a forced squeeze making Kate cry.  Needless to say we snapped fast and took what we got!  Precious babies for sure...

Starting our Summer!

Last Wednesday was the last day of school for us this year!  I am pretty excited about summer being here and hopefully doing some fun things with the girls.  It was bittersweet since I won't be going back to teach at the preschool next year.  I love summer though and I am ready to make the most of it!  We ended school with an "end of the year picnic".  We had made t-shirts earlier in the week so all the kids got to eat with their family and show off their shirts.  Cohen decided that Bebe & I weren't near as much fun as sitting with Josie :)

I also wanted to include some pictures that I had taken a few days earlier from school.  It was "Bring your Bike to School Day".  This was a huge hit with all the kids.  It is pretty amazing at how riding their bike in a big circle over and over is so entertaining!  I'm pretty sure Cohen would not have lasted nearly as long here at home on her tricycle, but she loved every minute of it at school.  

End of the Year

Cohen and Rylie sporting their strawberry sunglasses

End of the year picnic

My Sweet Class!

Getting a ride from Keaton

Today was our official start day of summer break.  We got to sleep in just a tad bit longer.  It was such a nice day outside today so we filled up the little kiddie pool and the girls splashed and played.  Brock even joined in for a bit which thrilled Kate to death.  She loves him!  Brock decided to pour water over his head and Kate loved it!  She would just laugh and laugh over and over at him.  I can tell we are going to have many afternoons enjoying the little pool.  

Laughing at Brock

Over the weekend I spent time with my friends (waifs) in Charlotte, which is always a fun time!  We met up Friday night to go to the Billy Currington concert downtown then headed back to the track where we stayed in Tara's new 5th wheel trailer.  We had prime parking too in the driver/owner lot.    We had a blast to say the least!  This past weekend was the All-Star race in Charlotte and it was very nice to be able to see some friends that I haven't seen in a while.  It had been a while since I was at the track.  We had a fun time though, as always!  Thanks girls!!

Concert fun

Tina & I decided to sell a few lug nuts on pit row...this was just one of our many laughs out there ;)

Fun times with Fun girls!

Happy Mother's Day

We had a very fun weekend and I did what I love doing-being a mom to my girls!  Friday was Muffins with Mom at preschool.  Cohen had been looking forward to this for the last week and a half.  We have been making our Mother's Day crafts at school and even though it wouldn't be a total "surprise" for me, she didn't care.  She has been asking every day if it was time to eat muffins together and telling me how she couldn't wait.  At school, I had each child paint a picture of their mom, tell me some special things about her so she would have some "hints" on which picture was her, and we also made flower pots.  I actually took my camera to school but had taken the memory card out so there you go...back up method..iPhone.  I do love having my phone for backup reasons but the pictures are not quite the same.  But I would rather have a blurry picture than nothing at all. This day meant so much to Cohen and to me and I wouldn't have traded anything for it.  Cohen also gave me a pretty purse card that she had made at Sug's house.  She does such a good job writing words.  She just needs help on the spelling.  This is the first year she has been able to write things for me so I just love her cards!  You will notice that I had a good bit of my hair cut off.  Cohen's reaction to this was that she wanted her hair cut, then she told me she liked me better with long hair like her, and now every day since Thursday when I had it cut she has told me how much she likes my hair.  I'm guessing she is getting used to it now.  And I can't bring myself to let her cut hers other than a trim because I just love it long.

Me with all my goodies from Cohen

On Saturday, we ran the 5k for our neighbor and friend Meg.  Meg is fighting colon cancer and we were so excited to be apart of this event.  The morning was perfect weather for running!  After the race we got a picture with our neighbors that were there.  I can't even begin to say how much we love our neighbors and couldn't ask for better people to live close to!   WE LOVE YOU MEG!

Sunday we got to dedicate Kate at church.  Mother's Day is always baby dedication at church and I feel extra blessed this year to have 2 precious girls to celebrate with.  Kate is quite the wiggle worm and in her normal fashion she was ready to get down and explore throughout the entire dedication.  She was fascinated by the instruments on the stage.  Since her Pop gets to do the dedicating she got to be held by him too!  She just loves her Pop!  You will see in the pictures that Kelly & I took turns trying to wrestly our little "alligator".

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The one picture with Kate looking still

 

I finally let her down to stand at the stage and stare at the instruments

My First Mother's Day with Kate

 We spent Sunday afternoon with Kelly's family and Sunday night with my Mama and family.  I have the best Mama ever and I am very lucky to have her!  I know this Mother's Day was tough for my Mama, not only because her mom isn't here anymore but yesterday was also my Daddy's birthday.  He would have been 62.  We miss him so much but also celebrate him and the time we had with him.   Love you Mama!!

Paula, Mama, and Me

Storytime with Clifford

This week instead of our morning storytime at the library, there was afternoon storytime because Clifford the Big Red Dog was there!  I took Cohen and Kate to see Clifford.  Cohen has always liked watching Clifford and I thought she would love to see him.  She did very well but there was a moment there when I didn't think she would go near him.  Any character costume, especially big animals, is not Cohen's favorite.  She actually looked at me when Clifford came into the room and said "lets go".  I told her if she didn't want to see Clifford that maybe Kate would and when it was her turn she went right up to have a picture.  As she was walking she did tell me that maybe I should hold her, but she did great!  Kate liked Clifford too, in fact, I thought Clifford was going to take a beating from her if we didn't move on quickly. She started with a light pat and then went full force for the eyes.  I absolutely love watching these funny moments through both girls' eyes.  Little things mean the most :)

Feeling of Clifford... 

Going in for Clifford's eye!  The real person in there almost looks scared!

Kate-11 months

This post is so bittersweet to me.  Its the last time I can post with my sweet baby girl being under 1 year!  I can't believe how fast this year is going by.  Kate is so much fun and her little personality is coming out more and more each day.  She is curious about everything and loves to get into any/everything that she shouldn't.  I have a very hard time taking pictures of her because she has no time to be still for me, much less smile.  You have to be quick!  We love every minute with her though and she is one of the most happy, laid back babies.  I hope she is always this way:)

At 11 months, here is a little bit about Kate:

• Loves to explore and wants to be down most of the time which leaves very little time for cuddling unless she is taking her bottle.  Its funny how in her car seat she will sit in there if we are somewhere like at a gym class, but the minute she is out and free she is into everything!
• Can stand alone now and has even taken a step!  Walking is coming faster than I would like!
• Has only 2 teeth still but wants to eat everything we eat.  She is losing interest in baby food very fast which is the total opposite of how her big sister was.  Cohen wanted baby food until she was 2!
• Loves riding in her red wagon or in her pink push car
• Her favorite toy by far is any type of ball
• Sleeps through most nights and if she wakes up its usually just once for a bottle.  She has about 2 bottles a day.
• Is wearing 6-12 mos. clothes or just 12 mos. Shoes are size 2
• Has started this "grunt" when she wants something, which is most of the day :)
• Has a good nap in the morning and a short afternoon nap
• Kate is going to be tough because she takes a lot from her big sister.  Cohen is my "Kate police" and likes to tell me when Kate makes a move towards anything!  I was telling Kate "no" yesterday and Cohen asked me if she could pop her.  I couldn't help but laugh.  Cohen loves her though and I hope they will grow up to be close.
• Kate loves to climb under things.  Her favorite spots are under our bar stools and under the end table in the living room.  

Taking a step to Brock, who she loves!

sitting under the end table

So proud of her ball

Under the bar stool

Sweet baby!  I snapped this in between her trying to eat our mulch...

On a side note, Kelly and I just completed our first 5k this past Saturday.  We did the Hartwell Dam run.  This was a first for both of us so I have to post the picture we took before the race.  I've always wanted to run one and never have so my goal was to run the entire race and I did! 

Butterflies and Birthday Fun

This week has been eventful for us so far!  The fun started on Monday when we got to school and saw that our caterpillars had changed over the weekend into butterflies!  We had been watching them go from small caterpillars, to big fat caterpillars, to cocoons, to Butterflies!  This is very amazing and the kids have loved checking on them each day.  We let our butterflies go and the kids really loved getting to hold a butterfly before it flew off.  Here are some pictures of Cohen and a class shot :)

On Tuesday it was Cohen's good friend, Brooke's birthday party!  Cohen was so excited and since the party was a swim party it was extra exciting for her.   We had nice warm weather for it too!  The kids had a fun time swimming and us moms enjoyed sitting out by the pool too.  I'm looking forward to summer even more now!  Happy Birthday Brooke!

Cohen & Josie

Sunbathing!

Happy Birthday Brooke!!