Mommy and Abbie Date

Thursday Abbie and I had the treat of having a Mommy and Abbie date afternoon! We had so much fun. Brie went with Nonnie and Abbie and I had an entire afternoon with each other. We started out at Gadwall's and then headed out to get a Manicure at WonderNails in NLR. I highly recommend them, they were so generous and sweet with she and I. We had a gift certificate from one of my "secret sisters" so thanks to whomever is part of that for a wonderful treat for my sweet baby and I. Abbie got polish and the lady was so sweet, she added flowers on four of her nails. Abbie was so excited she could hardly breathe! She had her top lip curled over her top teeth and her smile as big as you can imagine. She was so excited...she later told me it was her favorite part of the day. From there we caught a movie, Ice Age 3 (which was funny) and then we hurried home and had an hour and a half at the pool. We rushed home and grabbed a quick shower. At this point, my little princess was starting to s...l...o...w...d...o...w...n... I was drying my hair when I realized she was sitting in her towel on my bedroom chair, sitting up and sound asleep. It was so cute! That girl was worn out! We had a wonderful day and were both happy to go get Brie and have a delicious dinner at Pap and Nonnie's house but we were all too happy to get home and crash! What blessing to have a day to just hang out and have fun...mother-daughter style!

Underwater Mermaid

This is some quick footage of Abbie underwater. She held her nose for this shot but for most of the afternoon she let go of her nose and just blew bubbles to keep out the water. She did great!!

Brie Baby Gets Dunked!

Brie watched big sister go under so many times today that she just couldn't stand being left out. She requested that I put her face in the water and so I did. She is so funny. She seemed to go in eyes open and mouth open in excitement but when she came up she was all closed up. She never swallowed water so I count it as a success!! Guess that's what you do when you turn two!!

Today Abbie took a HUGE leap forward with her swimming. We took Daddy's underwater challenge and she nailed it!! Her friend Elaina was swimming without her life jacket but Abbie had hers on. She really wanted to swim without it so she could be just like Elaina. Mrs. Becky encouraged her to just try swimming without her jacket right by the steps and once she realized that she could touch the bottom, she was fearless! There's no stopping her now!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

4th of July Pictures

Tracie and Abbie

Brie Baby with her "haci"

Mommy and Abbie at Air Force Plaque

Brie trying to make it to the show...

Aubrie basking in the sun...

Paw Paw, Ni Ni, Nonnie, Pap, Uncle Mike and Shana

Stylin' for the the 4th

Cute Kids, AJ, Brie and Abbie after swimming time

Daddy's Big Girl

We had a wonderful 4th of July this year. It was weird since Phillip is deployed but it also gave some new meaning to what the holiday is really about. We had a great day over at Nonnie and Pap's house with the girls. They let me stay home and work on Aubrie's birthday cake while they took the kids over to a friends pool to swim and cause general mayhem for a while. We had a great dinner thanks to Pig and Chick from Sherwood. My parents came out and joined us at the new house for dinner and they stayed for the fireworks. We had one small accident at the fireworks show... Abbie was crossing the monkey bars and I had helped her across and when we made it to the last two bars she said she could finish herself and not thinking "danger, danger" I let go of her as she was swinging for the next bar and slipped narrowly missing crashing her face into the platform at the end of the bars and spinning in mid air to land on her back and knock the wind out of her. It was traumatic for both of us. We went back and sat on the blanket and cried...yes, both of us. We managed to regain our composure before the show started which was great. The first firework went off and it exploded from our line of sight, directly in front of the moon. Abbie exclaimed "Look Mommy it hit the MOON!!!!!" everyone around us giggled and laughed. It was precious.

Brie didn't make the fireworks show. When we left Jo and Bill's house to walk to the lake for the show, the neighbors were shooting off some small fireworks but they did make a considerable boom. She hated it but was really trying valiently to make a good show for the rest of us. She tried but was unable to muster the courage to do the big show. She fell asleep on Paw Paw and he and Nini took her back to the house to sleep off the final hours of the 4th of July. Maybe next year...

Aubrie's Birthday Party

Mickey Mouse Cake by Mommy

Aubrie Faith, 2 years old

Birthday Song & Candles...

Brie and Paw Paw

Kaden, Brie, Paw Paw, Abbie, AJ, Eric and Elaina

Aubrie Faith is now two years old!! I can't believe it's been two years. She had a wonderful birthday party this past Sunday with everyone who loves her celebrating her special day. We were not planning on having a "friend" party until she was three but with her Daddy deployed, it seemed appropriate to surround her with people who could help substitute for him. No one could replace Daddy but it was fun to have everyone there singing with Brie. The Simon's, Watkin's, Durham's, Peerson's, Alfonso's and Hannah Garner were in attendance. We served Subway sandwiches and tons of fun finger foods. We did a Mickey Mouse theme and everyone brought books for Brie's presents. We got some wonderful new reads. We did have one minor incident at the party. We sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candles and the whole shabang before we realized that Abbie wasn't in the room....so we did it all again and enjoyed singing to Brie the second time just as much as the first. What a great party for such a wonderful little girl! Happy Birthday Aubrie!!!

Swimming Lessons