When did she grow up?

With all the hustle and bustle of the past couple of weeks, we haven't been able to celebrate McKinzley's birthday completely. (I know, I am horrible!)

She wanted to take 2 friends with her to get their nails painted and have lunch.

So grown up!

We started out the day at the local Walmart to start the pampering.

Pretty colors!

Ahhhhh....so nice.....

Finished product

Lunch at McKinzley's favorite place, Francesco's

Proof that they thought it was delish! (Yes, 3 little girls ate an entire LARGE pizza!)

It was so fun to just sit back and listen as these cute girls giggled about everything from their nails, hair, friends at school, and just about anything else you can think of.

It amazes me how grown up my girls are getting. When did this happen??

My favorite part is knowing that McKinzley chose Taylin as one of her friends to take on her "Girls Day Out".

I am so happy that those two are friends and that they will always have each other.

FHE

At the first of the year, Chad and I decided that we really wanted to have FHE every week.

We think it is important to not only teach our girls about the gospel, and our values, but the time spent together as a family is so precious and important.

I want the girls to remember these times, and have it make our family stronger.

I'm so glad that we have been consistent in having it! We haven't missed one single week! Pretty amazing for us :)

This week it was such beautiful weather, that we broke out the bikes and took the girls down to the church parking lot where they could just ride their little hearts out.

We played, we laughed, and it felt GOOD!!

(oh, and Taylin finally got the hang of riding a two-wheeler without training wheels!!! She has been working so hard on that! So proud of her!!)

She's a fiesty little thing :)

I became a mom for the 1st time.......

9 years ago!

I didn't know how much my life would be changing once I had this beautiful girl, but I am so happy that it did! McKinzley is such a sweet, caring, genuine, spirited, beautiful girl, and she has taught me so much about myself, and being a mom. I can't believe that next year she will be in the double digits!

As a mom, sometimes I think that it would be nice if some of the girls were a little bit older so that they could be a little bit more independent....it would just make things so much more convienent. But, I honestly don't want it to happen.

I look at McKinzley, and she is growing into such a beautiful young lady inside and out, but I don't want her to grow up. I want her to stay mine forever. I am so proud of her!

I am so blessed to have this sweet girl in my life!

I love you McKinzley!!

Happy Birthday!!

My New Project

At the first of the year, my mom asked me if I wanted to do a quilting class with her at the Cotton Shop. Now, for those of you that don't know, I have tried sewing before. Chad bought me a sewing machine the first year that we were married, and I had every intention of becoming an amazing seamstress. Then, reality set in and I realized that I struggled to even sew straight lines. In short, I haven't sewn since that time (about 9 years). I was a little hesitant to do the class, but I thought it would be fun to spend the time with my mom and my sister.

The class is called the "Block of the Month" class. How it works is, you go to the class and the teachers explain how to do the block and then they give you the material to do it. If you bring back the finished block the next month to the class, you get the materials for the next block for free. Seems simple enough, right? Well, at the first class I realized that I was definitely out of my league. After sitting through a foreign language class, I headed home determined that I could figure it out on my own. HA! After a bunch of help from Chad, and 5 hours later. I was finally done with my first block. I was exhausted! People that sew definitely have a talent that unfortunately I don't possess. But, I do feel like I did pretty good for my first time. Not all of the edges matched up perfectly, but after unpicking it 3 times, I opted to just let it be instead of risking the chance of going insane. So, I give you the first block. One down, 11 to go!