A Different Kind of Friend

Most of you know this adorable little 3 year old and you know that when she opens her mouth chances are something pretty dang funny is going to come out of it. The following story is probably one of the funniest yet.
Some of you may know about Moriah's imaginary friend, Alaina. She has had this friend for about 6 months now and we have never heard too much about her except for, "My best friend Alaina said this" or "my best friend Alaina did that." And sometimes she'll ask me to get her best friend Alaina a drink or a snack or something. Well today we heard a lot more about this infamous Alaina. And this is how it happened.....
Riah:"Mom I want to go play outside"
Me: "Okay go ahead. Make sure you stay in the fence."
Riah: "Oh I will. Alaina never lets me go out of the fence, she hates rocks."
Me: "Well she sounds like a smart friend to want to stay in the fence."
Riah: "She is smart, and she doesn't like sweaters."
*(note-at this point I am trying so hard not to laugh. This kid cracks me up!)
Me: "Well why not? Sweaters are good for keeping us warm"
Riah: "I know but she doesn't need them because her fur keeps her warm"
*(note-I am barely containing myself at this point)
Me: "She has fur!?"
Riah: "Yep! It's yellow, purple, pink, and green."
Me: "Wow that's a very colorful friend."
Riah:"Yeah she is but her tail is just white like me" HAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Me: "She has a tail?"
Riah: "Yeah but only sometimes. Her tail is shy"
Then before I could even respond she took off down the porch steps into the fence. So the basics of Alaina are, She doesn't like rocks, she doesn't like sweaters, she is yellow, purple, green and pink, and she has a white tail, but only sometimes because it is shy. MMMM..... sounds like an interesting friend. What an imagination my adorable 3 year old has!:)

Our Baby is 2!!

Our Little Avah is 2 today and I just cannot believe it! She has grown and changed so much in the last 2 years. She is so much fun and I'm so glad she is ours. Avah was our little surprise baby but what a wonderful surprise she was. Here are some pictures of her growing up the last 2 years......enjoy!

Newborn Avah about an hour old
All the girls on the 4th of July. Avah was about 2 and a half months

Avah at about 6 months old

8 or 9 months

One year old! She was just getting over RSV. Poor baby.

18 months old in the mud! (Notice Riah in the background with the dreaded paci!)

And this is the little angel on Easter just 4 days shy of being 2. What a cutie!

We are having her party on Saturday so stayed tuned for those pictures. Happy Birthday Avah Brooke we love you!

Our Anniversary

4 years ago today Shane and I were married. But, our life together started way before then. All in all we have been a team for 8 and a half wonderful years. In honor of our marriage anniversary I just wanted to say a few things that I love and appreciate about my husband. Feel free to skip this post all together, it might bore you.:)
*When I told him I was pregnant with Mylee he didn't get scared like most kids who were still in high school would. Or maybe he did but you couldn't tell by the way he acted.
*He was ALWAYS there for me. He quit his part time job and got a full time job to support us. Even though I wanted him to finish school. He had been living on his own and basically supporting himself since he was 15. He was the most responsible teenage kid I have ever seen in my entire life!
*Not many people know this but he immediately asked me to marry him and I said no. It wasn't that I didn't love him, I did sooo much. It was that the thought of marriage absolutely terrified me to no end!!! My parents were divorced and I saw the tole it took on me and my siblings, especially my older siblings and I was completely terrified that my poor baby would have to go through that if we jumped into it too soon.
*Even though pretty much everyone in my entire family was horrible to him he never said anything negative about them. He was there for me and our baby and that's all that mattered to him. I will always respect him for the way he handled things.
*The second Mylee was born I saw this amazing love for her in his eyes. It was really wonderful to see. It was like something immediately changed him. He knew things would never be the same. He was ready for this responsibility. He was ready for this new little life who was ours. I will never ever forget the look in his eyes when he first held Mylee.
*He has always been so supportive of me no matter how crazy my ideas sound.
*He is such an amazing dad to our girls! He is so patient with them, I need to learn from him.
*He has never, not once disrespected me. No matter how mean or grouchy I can get at times he never ever says mean things to me. I will always love him for that.
*He is always asking me if I need any help with anything
*He is such a hard worker and has been since he was just a kid. And I have never once heard him complain about it.
*He is so determined and so motivated it's amazing. He is always looking for new things to do and try to better himself and our family.
*He can always make me laugh. No matter how mad I am at him or how grumpy I am he can ALWAYS put a smile on my face!
*He is the funniest person that I know(anyone who knows him can attest to that)
*He makes it a point to spend time alone with our girls together and individually.
*No matter how tired he is after a 12 hour shift of the hard work he does he ALWAYS plays with our girls for at least an hour after he gets home.
*He doesn't mind being made over by the girls, or wearing dress up jewelry or make up. He plays barbies and has tea parties like a champ!
*He loves me, completely and unconditionally.
*He loves his daughters, completely and unconditionally.
I could go on and on about this wonderful guy that I married but I think I have bored you all enough. Happy anniversary baby, I love you!

Easter

We had a really good Easter. On Saturday we colored eggs and the girls had so much fun! It was Avah's first time really doing it and she was a crack up as usual. This is them watching the eggs soak in the dye.
And this is Avah after she saw that the white eggs were magically colored beautiful colors! That face is a keeper!:)

Them painting their beautiful eggs. They didn't want any help. The eggs turned out pretty interesting!:)

Then Sunday Morning the girls got all dressed up in their Easter best and after church we did a big Easter hunt at Grandma Jeanette's and Papa Audie's. The girls had a blast. Avah thought it was pretty dang cool. She would only pick up the plastic eggs though. She learned pretty quick that they are the only ones with goodies in them!

Karter and Riah are pretty much in-separable when they get together. I have a feeling they are going to cause a lot of trouble together when they are older! Just like their Daddy's who were best friends all growing up!

Mylee always takes time to pose for the camera.

Papa showing the kids where to find more eggs. I think all together we hid 200 eggs. Grandma and papa spoiled those kids!

All the kids after the hunt. Mylee, Aiden, Karter, Riah.(Avah was too busy throwing a fit because we told her she had to eat her lunch before she ate her candy!) I know what mean parents we are huh? They had so much fun as you can tell by their faces.

We had a great day and the kids we completely worn out by the end of it. Thanks Audie, Jeanette, and fam for inviting us. We love you guys! I hope you all had a great Easter as well.

Pack Rat??

Over the past few days several items have gone missing. Some not really missed by me but dearly missed by the others in the house. The girls started coming up to me and telling me that they couldn't find this toy or they couldn't find their jacket or backpack. I just told them well clean up your room then maybe you can find it! haha. Anyway, last night Shane's friend was over and they wanted to play the playstation 3 but they couldn't find the other controller anywhere or the remote to the t.v. I just laughed them off. Me and Avah seemed to be the only ones who had nothing missing. Guess we know who's Avah's favorite(me)!!! haha. Anyway so today I was cleaning out the pantry and in the bottom shelf in the very corner I find this.....................
Avah's little stash! Among these missing items were; Mylee's stuffed dog she has had since birth, Riah's missing church shoe, Mylee's jacket, Riah's princess laptop, Riah's princess backpack, Shane's ps3 controller, Shane's remote, Riah's precious horse, and Riah's boots. I almost died laughing when I found this! So I went and got Avah and asked her if she would please bring her sisters and her daddy back their stuff. She just laughed at me and gathered the stuff and started returning them. Such a funny girl! Just looking at her makes me chuckle, see for yourself..............
That is her new smile by the way! Doesn't it look like she's in pain??? Oh and her lovely hair was styled by none other than her Daddy! Don't worry, I didn't let her go out in public! Anyway so I think I may have a little pack rat on my hands? Oh well atleast she's a cute pack rat!