Party Time!!

Kenzie turned 5 this past weekend and that's a big deal! So we decided to "Pump It Up"!!

Everyone had an awesome time!!

Caden was feeling better. He'd been sick all last week, but that didn't slow him down at the party!

We were so glad the Hesters could join us! We miss getting to see them on a regular basis!!

Saturday was Van's birthday, so he played just as much as the kids!

Karis had a blast, too!!

Love my sweet Karis!

My friend Melissa brought her two boys. We worked together at Northaven and I REALLY miss her!

My cupcakes turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself!

Kenzie LOVES Ms. Caryle! She runs in to church every Sunday just to say hi to her first!

This is Kenzie's friend Katie. They are in the same dance and tumbling classes at DAB.

Mrs. Heather has the magic touch. I know she's excited about getting Caden back this week!

After the party we went to lunch with Grandma, Grandpa, and Granny Mae. It was quieter there, but not by much!

This is one spoiled little girl! And we love her anyway! :)

We celebrated Van's birthday that night with dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse downtown. It was delicious!!

This might by on my Top 10 Most Favorite Pictures Ever list...

Aunt Kristin gave Kenzie these very sparkly shoes for her birthday (along with an outfit I can't WAIT for her to wear soon!). She and Kenzie share a love of all things sparkly, can't you tell?

Fabulous FIVE!!

These past five years have gone SOOO incredibly fast! You hear people say that, but it's so true!! I have more pictures but the others are on my or Brian's phone and I haven't quite figured out how to get them from there to here. Nana and Pop sent her a beautiful bouquet and balloons to our school and she was so surprised to see them when she came to my office at the end of the day! Brian, Barbara, and Caden met us for lunch and cupcakes. We had Dr. Seuss cupcakes in honor of her birthday AND Dr. Seuss's birthday! She shared with her class and the other preschool class (Ethan's class).

 Then Barbara aka Grandma took us to dinner at El Porton (Kenzie's favorite!). The waiters came and popped a sombrero on her head and sang to her, but she was too embarrased to look up and Caden was freaking out at the crazy looking people, so I'm just not going to post that terrifying picture. ;)

We opened presents from Nana when we got home! Among other fun stuff, she got this crazy-cool clock for her room! The feather and tinsel in her hair were her gift from our pastor's wife, Melissa and her daughter! I got a green feather too, at Kenzie's insistance!

Now we don't have to leave the room or fumble around for our phones to see what time it is! Isn't this CUTE?!! Very unique!

Looking forward to Kenzie's party tomorrow with several of her friends at Pump it Up!

Check back soon!

Warm February Days...

I took these pictures yesterday, February 23rd, when we got home from school. It's 79 degrees!! So we decided it was plenty warm enough to get out Kenzie's bike that she got for Christmas! She did great! Caden really liked riding the tricycle. He even liked wearing the helmet!

Such a big boy! He can climb up the gangplank all by himself!

 I took these pictures today. Our literacy luau will kick off the bookfair this afternoon

so we were dressed for the hawaiian fun!

"Who's that man, Mommy?" Sigh.....I'm going to have to give this girl some culture! She's been to Graceland, but guess she forgot where she'd seen that handsome face.

Come read with us!

February Fun!

We've had so much going on this month! And March is going to be CRAZY, so I thought I better go ahead and update while I can!

While Brian was fishing his Bassmaster tournament in TX with Caden and his parents and Granny Mae, Kenzie and I enjoyed a week with just us girls! We spent some time with Van, Kristin, and Karis on Monday, dinner at Cici's pizza with her friend Katie from dance on Tuesday, had some Mommy & me time on wednesday and thursday, then had a BIG night on Friday! Nana, Pop, Kenzie, and I went to a Memphis Grizzlies basketball game! It was "Oak night" so there were over 375 people there from our school! The chorus sang the National Anthem and Kenzie and I got to be a part of the fan tunnel that the players came out through! It was pretty cool! We all had an awesome time and I think Kenzie is a basketball fan for life!

Saturday, Pop surprised us with an early Valentine's breakfast!

How cool are these?!

Kenzie and Caden both had some fun things to open on Valentine's Day!

Kenzie gave her daddy a remote control helicopter. We all had fun playing with it!

More teeth brushing pictures! This is Caden's most favorite thing to do. When we get home in the afternoons, the first thing he wants to do is go to the bathroom and brush his teeth. Seriously, he'll stand there for an hour if we let him! And when it's time for Kenzie to brush her teeth in the mornings, he's right there with her!

I love watching them brush their teeth! Kenzie has an unhappy look on her face because Caden is getting on "her" stool. Sigh...  But secretly, she loves this time with him too. ;)

Ice Skating

These pictures are from Kenzie's FIRST experience ice skating! It was her reward back on January 7th, but I just had a chance to download these from Kristin's computer. Kenzie went in just KNOWING that she was going to be able to do all the moves that Barbie does on her movie. She quickly figured out it wasn't that easy, but still had a blast!

I feel like I did surprisingly well considering I haven't skated since the Mall of Memphis days almost 20 years ago!

Uncle Van even got on the ice and did REALLY well!! He's just so stinkin' good at everything! HA!

My body was KILLING me for days because everytime Kenzie would get her skates tangled with mine, I'd pull her on me to keep HER from hitting the ice. Needless to say she felt no pain, unlike me!

Karis just watched in awe. One day Kenzie will show HER how to skate!

That night at bedtime, Kenzie kept saying that we needed to "tell" the ice rink people where the ice skating school was. I figured out she meant "ask" and so I checked our Zoo newsletter and sure enough they offered lessons during January! So Kenzie's prize two weeks later was a lesson! She did REALLY well! If she could skate on a regular basis, she'd be a pro in no time! I'll try to post a video or pictures of that soon!