My other favorite kiddos...

So this post is going to take us all the way back to the middle of October. The girls and I loaded up and headed over to Georgia to visit the Johnson family. I have mentioned them before, but in case you forgot, I worked for them for 2 years, helping Kelly (the mom) with McKane, Riese and Cooper. They became like our family and still are to this day. Those kiddos will forever hold a special place in my heart! I started working for them when Mckane was 3, Riese was 2 and Cooper was 2 months old. They are now 7, 6, and 4! Marissa was super excited about this trip because she looooves Riese! On Friday, we all loaded up and went to a pumpkin farm:)

Marissa is pretty much in heaven in this picture, in the back seat with the big kids with Riese by her side:) She was loving life at this moment!
Me and the girls on the hay ride.
Our attempt for a kid picture on the pumpkins...a little back story here, the owner of this farm used to be in our small group at church-so I saw him as soon as we got there and he was kind enough to load the kids up with lots of free popcorn! Marissa and McKane were more interested in the popcorn than smiling for us:)

Marissa and Riese feeding the goats!

Allie getting a ride in the wagon

The next day, we had a little craft time! The paint they were using was not the toddler-friendly washable kind which is why my girls are shirtless. But they had a blast, as you can see! And I have to thank Riese b/c she taught the girls how to smile for the camera:) They are pros at it now becuase of her!!

Allie the artist!

See...perfect smile for the camera!

Riese is an expert at posing!

Posing while eating dinner:) I love Allie's face in this picture!

They loved watching movies with Riese up in her room...it was baby doll central so the girls had a blast up there!

On Sunday, we went to Church and then to visit Mrs. Becky. She was our landlord when we lived in Georgia and she is such a wonderful person! It was great to see her and for her to see Marissa and get to meet Allie!

That's all for now!

Breakfast with Allie

I wanted to show you what eating breakfast with Allie is like...it's quite the adventure. Allie's breakfast, for the past month or so, has been a "smoothie" that I make for the both of us. She loves it and it's very, very healthy, so I don't mind her having seconds:)

I have tried several different ways to let her eat this in order to make the least amount of mess...and I discovered that it's really not possible for her to eat this and still be clean, so I just let her go at it and hose her down when she's all done :)
Taking a BIG bite!!

See, she likes it...a lot!


She looks like her daddy in this picture.

Going back for more!

" 'elp me, mommy!" When it's almost all gone, she wants me to scoop up every last bite and feed it to her.

:)

Open WIDE!

One final attempt to get.every.last.drop.

All smiles and a full belly:)

"MOOOORE!"

Here's a little video I did while she was enjoying her breakfast smoothie! (by the way, I was trying to get her to show you that Dora was sitting in the chair next to her...)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

*if the video isn't working, try "refreshing" the page...that usually works.

Also...if you would like to make these smoothies yourself...this is what you need...milk, frozen blueberries, bananas or strawberries, ground flax seed, fresh baby spinach and water. Don't be scared by the spinach, you can't taste it and it's a great way to get some extra leafy greens into your diet! Blend all ingredients in a blender and Enjoy!!

A birthday with friends:)

Yesterday, we celebrated Russell's 32nd birthday!! We planned a little get together with some friends, had a wonderful time and I think Russell had a great time celebrating his day! I made some of my mom's super yummy stuffed peppers along with a strawberry-spinach salad, add a cookie cake, a little wine to drink, lots of laughter and a good time was had by all! Here are a few pictures from our night!

The crew....minus Layne and me. I was taking the picture and Layne was taking care of one of her kiddos:)
My two decided that a movie sounded like more fun than dinner with the grown-ups. (This was after Marissa, Bryce and Allie ran circles around the house for about a solid hour...they were worn out!)

So...this was after we sang "Happy Birthday" and I told Russell to smile so I could take his picture and poor John got stuck sitting beside him, so...he got in the picture too, he wasn't so sure about it though:)

The birthday boy with his girls!

Daddy and daughter:)

Daddy and daughter again.

Bryce is helping me clean...I will take all the help I can get!

As I was sitting there eating dinner last night, I realized that there are very few things that are better than having a home full of wonderful friends, babies, and laughter. It made my heart smile to think about just how incredibly blessed we are to have such a wonderful group of friends to celebrate life with.

John was even sweet enough to sit with the girls and watch Shrek. (Allie's favorite right now...)

I'm sure they are talking about how funny Shrek is:)

Avery finally had the playroom all to herself, she and Pooh had a great time!

After we said our goodbyes to our sweet friends, it was time to give Daddy his cards. Marissa picked the card out all by herself. (She liked the tree that was on the front of the card.)

Giving Daddy some BIG Marissa hugs...those are some great hugs:)

Allie got in on the hugging. These girls love their daddy!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful husband, father, son and friend. We all love you so much. We hope you're day was wonderful!

Sisterly Love Part 7....Pretty Princesses.

A few days ago, I got out the "dress-up" box for the girls and, as you can see, they had a blast!! Marissa and Allie are pretty inseparable these days...most of the time they play really great together and on this day, they had sooooo much fun being princess sisters:) Marissa even shared some of her red "chapstick" with her little sister!


My silly girls!
Tonight, while we were riding in the car, I heard Allie say, "wuv ew, teetoo" To translate...."I love you, sister" It was so sweet:)

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween from our little bumblebee and ladybug:)
Thursday night, the club had their Halloween party for the kids! It was so fun to see everyone all dressed up and they had a lot of fun playing and coloring their pumpkins:) This is Marissa and Allie with another very cute little bumblebee, Lexi.

The girls were able to hunt down a sucker as soon as they got there!

So this picture is a little blurry, but it cracks me up...there wasn't any music playing, but apparently Bryce and Marissa felt the urge to dance:) Ha!Ha!

My sweet little insects:)

Russell getting in some practice for baby #3 with the sweet piggy, Avery.

Look at that sweet little face:) She is such a happy baby! And she makes a super cute little piggy, don't you think? :)

Bryce and all the girls!
After we ate dinner, it was time to decorate our pumpkins!

Marissa loved making her pumpkin pretty:)

Bryce posing for Ms.JJ...I love this picture!

The little ladybug and her pretty curls.

Mommy and her ladybug.

Best buddies, Old Mcdonald and the bumblebee.

Allie had enough of the coloring, so she decided to take everyone's pumpkin and line them up in a line...

and then put them back in the box, and repeat that about 3 times. It definitely kept her busy:)

Smiling because mommy asked her to or because she is eating her 20th piece of candy ? I'll let you decide:)

We held them still just long enough to get a family picture:)

On Saturday night, we went trick-or-treating! The girls LOVED it and they especially loved all the people-watching! It was a little overwhelming for mommy because there were soooooo many people, but we had a great time and the girls looked so cute!

Daddy and his girls!

Riding in style.

Trick-or-treating time!!!!

Thanks to Layne for getting this great picture of the 4 of us!!


Once we were all done getting candy, we headed over to our friends house, The Hansic's, for a little more Halloween fun! The girls, especially Marissa, were beginning to get a little out of control at this point. She had eaten waaaay too much candy, not too mention, they had some melted white chocolate for dipping and I saw Marissa walking around with a bowl in her hand....her daddy had filled the bowl with white chocalte and she was eating it like soup. Yea....to put it mildly....she was crazy by the end of the night.

Poor Allie was doing all she could to get away from the wild bumbebee:)

One final attempt at a family pic....Marissa wouldn't sit still for anything at this point:)

We hope you and your family had a Happy Halloween! (oh and be sure to go back to my blog post from Nov of '08 so you can compare Marissa the ladybug to Allie the ladybug:) )