Happy Easter-2011

What a great Easter we had! Brenna really started to understand the meaning of Easter, and Macie was old enough to actually enjoy her first Easter.

The Easter season kicked off with our Giggle Snaps Easter picture session. I first did this with Brenna for her second Easter. It was so much fun, and the pictures were so cute!

Besides the one incident with her holding a poor innocent chick by it's neck, the session went well. She smiled, laughed, and looked AT the camera. Man..I had no clue how easy it was with only one child. Photo sessions are no longer that easy, nor are they fun. I love having the pictures for keep-sakes, but it stresses me out and makes me want to hang both of my children by their toes! Getting two kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time is pretty close to impossible. However, I have to admit that Tiffany does a great job, and despite the unwillingness of my children to cooperate, she manages to get some good pictures!

Giggle Snaps Easter session 2011:

Macie wanted NOTHING to do with the animals. It is a miracle we got her to sit next to this one for so long.

That plastic yellow egg sure did help!

And just to ensure that I was completely insane, we decided to add a third kiddo to the mix. Emily and I decided that it would be SO cute to have a picture of all three kiddos. And I still hold to the thought that it would be SO cute! It was also SO stressful. We could have won a prize on America's Funniest Home Videos if someone had videoed me, Emily, MeMawMom, and Memaw all making goofy faces, singing, yelling,jumping up and down and making very strange noises just to try and get three uninterested children to look at the camera and smile. But yet again, Tiffany did her magic, and we managed to get a decent picture of the three kiddos together! I know that they are all capable of bigger and much cuter smiles, but we did what we could with what we had to work with. And I think it turned out pretty cute! The basket that the babies are in is the same basket Brenna sat in during her first Easter photo shoot. :)

I love these three with all my heart! My prayer is that they grow up to be the best of friends and remain very close.

Quail Springs Ranch Egg Hunt

Quail Springs Ranch is where our new land is and where our new house will be (hopefully in the near future). They have a super neat HOA, and set up a egg hunt for all of the kiddos in QSR on Saturday. Josh and I got an email about it and decided that it would be a great way to meet people, so we took the girls.

It was wonderful. We had a great time, and met some super nice people. They had it at one of the home of one of our future neighbors, and they had three age group areas set up and had a "prize" egg for each kid. Brenna had fun running around and playing on the swings, and really enjoyed the hunt. Macie was very content with one egg-that was all she needed!

Helping her sister! Sweet moments do happen...rarely, but they DO happen!

Go Brenna Go!

She found one egg, then sat down and opened it and proceeded to try to eat the chocolate candy inside...wrapper and all!

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Brenna and Daddy checking out the goodies!

After the hunt, they told each kid that if they had found a "prize egg" they could go and pick a toy from the prize table. And since they ensured that each kid got a prize egg, they all got to pick a prize! It was such a neat set up! Brenna is currently obsessed with the movie Tangled, so she picked a little plastic blow dryer/hair accessory set. Macie got a white bunny.

This was the best we could do for a picture of the two of them. They were tired and just wanted to go run around and play. Sitting for a picture was not high on the priority list. :)

Saturday Night Family Dinner

We had originally planned to get together with the Jackson clan to celebrate Easter on Saturday night, but the week was filled with many wild fires at PK, so Jeff was still there helping out. We decided to postpone until we could all be together.

Since that was canceled, Josh and I decided to have our parents and Joey and Emily over to let the kids hunt eggs and enjoy some family time and dinner. Luckily, we talked Nana and Papa into joining us too! We had to rush the egg hunt because of some pretty big storms that appeared to be heading our way. They never hit at our house, but they sure looked bad on the radar. :( We enjoyed the hunt anyway, and enjoyed seeing Brenna, Macie, and Wyatt all together with their Easter baskets! Brenna was super excited to hunt eggs again. Macie was excited to chew on her basket handle. And Wyatt....well...he was just trying to figure the whole thing out!

Macie needed both of her hands free to help with her balance, so she decided her best approach was to hold the basket in her mouth! Such a resourceful little thing!

She just wanted to hold the egg. She must have heard that it is never a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket. Smart girl.

Brenna didn't have much competition at this hunt, but she had fun anyway!

Wyatt: So Macie, have you heard about this bunny that is supposed to come to our houses tonight while we sleep and leave presents? I have to admit, it kind of freaks me out. Think I might just stay up all night to make sure he doesn't try to sneak into my room or anything tricky.
Macie: Maybe he will bring me some SNACKS!! I LOVE snacks!

Teething much?

Once again, getting 3 kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time...not happening. Not sure why we even try. We were just happy we had 3 kids IN one picture, and none of them were crying! :)

Easter Sunday
I can't believe we made it to church on Easter Sunday with absolutely no pictures of all 4 of us. We didn't even manage to get one of just the girls. :( But we know how cute they looked in their Easter dresses because of the adorable Giggle Snaps pictures, so I am not too upset that we didnt' manage to get one on Easter.
Brenna was so excited about the Easter Bunny, that she was up at 6:30 am. I managed to hold her off until 7, but after that, the anticipation was about to kill her. So we let her go check out her goodies, even though Macie was still sound asleep.



Getting her first look at her loot!

Both girls got matching PJ's and Gerber snacks! Yep, Gerber snacks. Brenna LOVES them, and I have to work overtime to keep her out of Macie's Gerber puffs! So the Easter Bunny brought her her own!
Macie got a refrigerator magnet set with the alphabet letters.
Brenna got a Rapunzel Barbie, and she was sooo happy!

Showing off her Rapunzel Barbie.

Silly girl!

As well as not getting any family pictures of us on Easter morning, I also failed to get a picture of Macie checking out her Easter basket. Bad Bad Mom! But she did LOVE it! She loves refrigerator magnets, and the set she got sings songs for each letter. She can clear all 26 letters of the alphabet off of the refrigerator in seconds, and she giggles the whole time!

After church, we went to MeMawMom and Graddy's for burgers. And what would a trip to a grandparent's house on Easter be without another egg hunt?? Macie decided to sit this one out. She was getting tired and hungry, and when you are 11 months old, that is not a good combination.

There is really no need to rush around or get in any kind of hurry when you are the only one hunting eggs.

She colored them herself, but still had to admire the beautiful artwork on each one as she picked it up!

CHEEEEEEESE!

After lunch, we took Brenna over to the Farmer's to do one last egg hunt. Macie was napping, so we let her stay with MeMawMom. Hunting at the Farmer's was way more fun because there were lots of other kiddos there, and lots of room to hunt. Brenna actually had to exert a little energy for this hunt, because she had competition! :)

Run Brenna!

Aunt Kristi shows Brenna where more eggs are.

This was the only shot I got all afternoon with all 3 kids in it...yep- that's Blain's shoulder in the bottom left!

Overall, it was a great Easter! The girls had a blast, and we enjoyed seeing them have fun. Next year will be even better when Macie is out there running around too!

Brenna's New "Do"

It is safe to say that I am extremely jealous of my daughter's hair. Who wouldn't be? It is long, straight, has natural highlights, and is just plain beautiful! Don't you think?

Even though I do love her hair, it is a pain! Washing it every night and spending 20-30 minutes drying it and listening to her cry while I try to brush it, is just not do-able. I did it for months (because we have cut it before), but it just got to be too much trouble. So we decided it was time for a good summer cut! MeMawMom was not nearly as excited as Mommy and Daddy were, but she agreed to do it anyway. :)

We left Macie at home so that she didn't have to experience what I predicted to be a fight. Brenna was NOT interested in getting her hair cut. I did everything I could think of to talk her into it and get her excited about it, but she was very resistant. I geared myself up for a fight. But much to my surprise, it was just the opposite! She did great, and sat up like a big girl while she got it WASHED and CUT!

The BEFORE.....

So...stinking...pretty. But sanity in the nightly routine counts for something, and this long hair was providing zero sanity!

She even let MeMawMom wash it like a Big Girl! She wasn't too sure of it at first, but eventually enjoyed it.

Happy girl wearing her towel after her wash. :)

In the past, it has been VERY hard to get her to sit still while in the chair and cooperate so that we can get an even cut. But on this day, she once again surprised me! She is growing up so fast.

All brushed and ready to cut.

That's a LOT of hair.

I have to admit- I got a little nervous when she made the first cut. I knew it would look great, but I also knew I would miss her long hair.

Silly Brenna, as always!

I LOVE it!!! So easy and so pretty!

 I love her new "DO"! It is so easy to fix, and looks so much cooler for our lovely 108 deg. Texas days. The only down side is that every time I cut her hair, it gets darker. Not that dark hair is bad, but she is such a cute blonde. Being a hairdresser's daughter, I already find myself thinking how cute she will look with some highlights in her hair. It is the perfect shade for that. And if I didn't know that my husband would TOTALLY freak on me, I would so do it now! Yep, I sure would! Not to make her "more pretty" or to be vain about her looks, but just because I think she has the perfect hair for it. I haven't been my natural hair color since I was about 11 or 12. In fact, I am not even sure what my natural hair color is. Why would I need to know that??? My Mom can make me any color I want to be! And believe me, I have been MANY different colors over the years. I have two philosophies when it comes to hair: "It's just hair...it'll grow" and :) "If it is a color you don't like.....change it tomorrow"!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! (and her too!)
Thanks MeMawMom!!

I even asked if we could transplant some of the hair we cut off of Brenna onto her sister.... Mom said no. :(
Do they make baby wigs? I am getting worried for this poor bald angel.

Toy Story 3 On Ice

Sometime in February, Brenna started telling me we were going to go see Toy Story LIVE, just like we did Barney LIVE a few months earlier. I knew that Toy Story wasn't going to do a concert at NOKIA like Barney did, so I tried to kind of brush off the comments she would make with my famous phrase "We'll see".
Well, later in the month, much to my surprise, I got an email from Ticketmaster telling me they were running a special on tickets for Toy Story 3 On Ice (aka..LIVE!) at the end of March. I was almost giggling at my computer while I ordered tickets! Josh said he would stay home with Macie so that Brenna and I could have a "date night". (what an awesome Daddy he truly is!) I decided not to tell Brenna right away because a month is an eternity in the mind of a 4 year old.
I finally told her the week of the show, and she was just as excited as I had hoped she would be! And when I also told her that we were going to get to ride the train to get there...WOW- her excitement went off the charts! She talked about it non stop. I was a little concerned because she and I had both been VERY sick the week before, but it all seemed to work out just fine.
The day of the show, we got dressed and ready and kissed Daddy and Macie goodbye and we were off! She talked non-stop all the way to the train station in North Richland Hills (hard to believe- I know). We even stopped and picked up some McDonalds for dinner so that we could eat it on the train.

Brenna kept telling me that we were going to ride the Polar Express Train. She was convinced that it was the same train. (man I love the way her sweet mind works).

Proudly displaying her Polar Express Train ticket!

When our train got there, we boarded, and Brenna decided we needed to sit on the top level. Since it was our special night, she pretty much got to pick whatever she wanted. ;) So we climbed up and found some seats with a table so that we could eat our dinner. Brenna was in heaven. She sat and looked out the window almost the whole ride. I was so proud of her.

She smiled for the picture, but was WAY too excited to look away from the window.

Isn't that the sweetest grin, EVER??!!

My date for the evening!

When we got to American Airlines Center, we were pretty much at the front door when we climbed off of the train. (the train is the ONLY way to go to AA). I did just fine..until we walked inside the door. Holy...MOLY...the people. I have never seen that many people running in different directions in my life. It was total madness. I was SOO thankful that I wasn't trying to accomplish this night with Brenna and Macie. I would never have made it. I had to remind myself several times that we were there to have fun and that I was doing this to enjoy some time with Brenna! And, well, that's exactly what I did! I enjoyed every minute. Our first stop was Cotton Candy. She had told me we were going to eat cotton candy and popcorn since the day I told her about the tickets! I knew I wasn't going to spend a fortune on silly toys that we could buy at Wal Mart for a third of the price, so food was our treat!

And when you buy the $11 bag of cotton candy...they throw in this FREE hat!

I will admit however, that I ate as much of the cotton candy as she did. :)

The show was really good. I enjoyed it as much as she did! And I really enjoyed watching her face through the entire show. There is nothing I enjoy more in life than watching my kids enjoy something. It fills my heart to overflowing.

The aliens and the green army men were MY favorite. Brenna loved Buzz and Woody of course.

The show ran until almost 10, so Brenna was super tired by the time it was over. I thought she was going to go to sleep about 30 minutes before it was over, but with a little help from some popcorn and Dr. Pepper, she was good to go till the end.

Headed home on the train.

The train ride home was pretty quiet. Brenna watched out the window for a few minutes, and then came to sit by me. She snuggled for a few minutes, then eventually made her way into my lap and put her head on my shoulder. I knew at that point that it was all over for her. She slept until we were almost back to NRH. I had to wake her up because I knew there was no way I could go down the stairs of the train and carry a 4 year old along with her blankey and our stuff. :( She wasn't happy about waking up, but managed to walk down the stairs (with her eyes only partly open). By the time we got to the car, she was awake. She managed to fight sleep again until we were about 5 minutes from home. When we pulled into the drive way, this was the view in my back seat...

Poor baby.

We had a BLAST though! I absolutely LOVE to spend time with my girls. I treasure every memory we are able to make together, and look forward to making many many more!!!