2014 Spring Cousins Pics

Every year since Aylin and Payton were born we have done cousins' pictures in the springtime, this year we used Southern Style Photography in Olive Branch.  Hilton loved the ducks as you can see in this shot:

and here are the rest of his pics:

And Aylin's individual pics turned out great:

And the sibling shots:

we struggle getting a good cousins' picture every year:

 and just think there will be 2 more next yr - lol

And finally here are my favorite shots of my nieces:

Spring Break 2014

I know my kids are not big enough to "really" appreciate Spring Break,

 but we decided to make it a week of everyday extra fun anyway!

SUNDAY

We spent the majority of the day at the church building, it was daddy's day to preach :) followed by our little friend John Stephen's birthday lunch at a Mexican restaurant where he got pie slammed in his face, a baby shower for another friend, and a fellowship meal after the evening worship services.  Now, the pie in the face at lunch is the 2nd Aylin has witnessed (the first being our little friend Landrey) and Aylin has been traumatized by these 2 events.  She randomly talks about "NOT EVER having a birthday lunch at Mexican like L and JS, but Hilton can!"-lol

MONDAY

After my 2 woke up EARLY and woke up everyone else, we spent the entire day outside.  IT WAS GREAT!  Aylin only came inside to eat and take a quick shower before we headed out to the weekly youth devotional.  Hilton did come inside to take a nap :)

TUESDAY

We went with some of our church family and friends to the zoo.  I think we have done this every year since we have been at Southaven :) 

 Hilton started feeding Annie during lunch and it took me back to the top picture when Aylin fed Reed, so before going to bed I had to search through my files and find the old pic :)  Both pics were taken during lunch at the Memphis Zoo and the kids are all about the same age.

Hilton passed out in the stroller right at the end of our trip, so Aylin had to also pretend to be asleep.  

WEDNESDAY

A cold front came through putting us under a wind advisory, so we stayed inside all day.  We decided to have a paint morning and after the kids slept in (THANKFULLY) we ate and then spread out the paint supplies.  Hilton enjoyed it for a few minutes, but after eating the paint he decided he was done :)

 (Bottom left painting by Aylin: Remember the Story about lunch Sunday? - LOL - and the tornado picture is because we just read the Wizard of Oz book)

I can't wait to finish this last pic!

THURSDAY
We almost went to the Children's Museum today, but we backed out.  I just didn't want to fight Hilton and the Spring Break crowd and Bobby didn't want to take the chance of the kids getting sick (Aylin has been to the CMoM 3 or 4 times and has come down with strep throat twice after leaving there).  So, instead we spent the morning cleaning!  I know, that does not sound like fun but it was greatly needed, you couldn't even see the floor in Aylin's room and that is not an exaggeration!  Here it is now, minus a walmart bag of misc stuff I snuck to the garbage can.

Hilton's room and the playroom were not that bad and don't normally get too bad, but Aylin said I had to take pics of those rooms to since we spent "ALL DAY" cleaning.  In reality, we were finished by 11:30, ate lunch, and went outside for an hour before putting Hilton down for nap.

And then went back out for a couple of hours when Hilton woke up from nap and broke out some of daddy's old construction trucks!

FRIDAY

Aylin had been begging for a picnic at the park so she could play and feed the ducks, so today was the day.  We had a few friends meet us there too :)

SATURDAY

Unfortunately, I woke up with some version of the stomach virus that has been going around some of our friends at church :(  I stayed in the bed most of the day, only getting up when Bobby had to leave to go out of town.  He is holding a gospel meeting in AR this week.  We also had our annual spring cousins pictures scheduled for today.  I dragged myself out there, b/c they are mini sessions that you can't make up.  I hope we got some good shots of the kids but I was really too out of it to know for sure - lol - I did manage to get this shot of the baby lamb on my cell phone, there were also baby ducks and baby bunnies :) All super cute and some super cute sets!  I think we will use this photographer for our newborn shoot when little MR gets here.

March Snow Day!

Weather in the south is crazy, but we love it!  Literally, we were outside playing in flip-flops and 2 days later we were outside playing in this:

Our day began with chocolate gravy, biscuits, sausage, and eggs! YUM!  AJ sure is getting good at making this and I know that would make her Great Granny McCall so very happy; as for Hilton, well, he is really good at eating this!

Then we played outside for a little while.  The temps were in the teens and it snowed on us while we were out there, but I just had to let the kids go play in it (even Louie had a great time) :) We probably only stayed out for about 30 mins until the 2 human kids started to whine. 

 
 
 
 
 
 SO then we came in for hot chocolate, marshmallows, a movie, and a nap :)

 
 

Hilton's 20 Month Check-Up

Isn't he just the handsomest little 20 month old ever!

*He weighed in at 32lbs and 4 oz

*He is 34in in height

*He loves his Momma!

(and his Dadda, Sissy, and ""woof woof" Louie)

He is doing more and more new things every day, 

but his favorite things include:

~eating

~playing outside

~his PupPup and Paci

~eating

~Jake and the Neverland Pirates

~singing

~eating

~being naked and patting his belly (and everyone else's)

~reading books
~coloring

~eating

~being in his sister's room

~bath time

~throwing a ball

~eating

His least favorite things would include:

~riding in the carseat

~being put in a high chair at a restaurant

~any and all persons in a DR's coat 

~the hair dryer

~getting his hair cut (has to be done about every 3 weeks, needs it every 2)

~not letting him into the refrigerator

~not letting him go outside

I ~Heart~ February

February turned out to be a super busy month :) 

We have officially started saving for our first trip to Disney!  At the beginning of the year I posted a weekly savings plan to Facebook, where you basically put back the same $ amount as the week (Week 1: $1, Week 33:$33, etc.)  It is early on, but so far we have been successfully putting it back each week.  Actually we do it by a 2 week period b/c of the way we are paid.  So, for example, out of Bobby's 1st check for March we put back $20 to cover week #'s 9 and 10 of the year.  We hope to keep this going as long as we can, obviously weeks 20+ will be very difficult, but we can at least put back something :) Also, all of our loose change goes into this bucket.  It will take us 2-3 yrs to save up the $ needed for the family to go Disney, but it is a start and we are really excited about it - especially Aylin!

I have also spent the last couple of weeks getting all of Aylin's old clothes ready for a consignment sale coming up in March.  I had saved everything she has ever had just in case we had another girl, but since Bobby says we are done after this 3rd baby I am clearing out space - lol!  I have sold quite a bit online and have entered around 350 items to the sale.  The picture above shows Aylin's preemie clothes - awe!-we actually donated these to the NICU unit along with a few of her blankets.  The $ from her clothes' sales will either go to the Disney fund, vehicle repairs, or towards her new bedroom in a few years when the boys will room together.

So, YES, you heard that right, baby #3 is going to be a boy!  We found out on Valentine's Day while in Gatlinburg for a marriage retreat.  We are still finalizing his name.  Aylin was very mad at first, but has come around to the idea.  Especially, when she found out she would eventually be getting a new room and she could paint it purple and pink!  LOL!  That is still a couple of years away, but she has already decided she wants a loft be, pink and purple walls, and all of her GIRL toys!

 

While we are talking about Aylin, I thought I would show these works of art she has came home from preK with :)  Recently she has started writing her name backwards sometimes, she says it is "soooo funny" when she does that!?

We celebrated Valentine's Day with the kids early because we would be out of town for the marriage retreat on actual Valentine's day.  It was the first time we would both be away from them for longer than a night and I was very nervous about it, but BIG THANKS to my momma who took vacation from work and stayed here at our house with them while we were gone, took them to all of their little appointments and such, and so much more.  It would have been much more difficult on everybody if they had to have been in a different place all that time.  They both had some nervous tummy trouble for the entirety of our trip and it stopped immediately after Bobby and I got back home with them.  We did have an amazing time on the marriage retreat!  Heard some wonderful lessons, saw beautiful snow, shopped some great deals, and spent some great quality time just the 2 of us (well and some other friends here and there).

Louie really missed us while we were gone too!

 Just a couple of play shots from the month, including Hilton's 1st fall on our playground :)

Aylin gave me a big scare and decided to cut her own hair!  You can really only tell when her hair is pulled up in a ponytail.

and that is a recap of the love month :)