Which brings us to today...

We started the day off with a friend's birthday party at the park, which was super fun and went great...until the end...when my oldest acted very much not like herself and through a fit of epic proportions. It was rather embarassing and though I'm so lucky to have super sweet friends who are understanding and forgiving, I sort of feel like I should drop an "I'm sorry!" gift by my friend's house. Anyone else ever have moments like that?

Bryan with one of his biggest fans, Fisher.  It appears that Fisher has a big fan in this picture, too...is that a loving look I see, Caroliney?!?!  :)

What heat does to babies. 

Caroline and Fisher playing! 

So much alike...yet so different.

 L & C have very different personalities, but Caroliney likes to do pretty much whatever Lily does...sometimes without even realizing it.  I recently took this picture of C...

and it very much reminded me of this picture I took of a littler Lily back in 2010!

Cool Kids Wear Matching Clothes...

obviously.

Colton and Colby in matching clothes and Caroliney and Lily in matching clothes!!!  :)

Lily's Graduation!!!

The night of her last day of school also happened to be her graduation night. The kids came in dressed in a profession that they might want to be and sang lots of songs for us...while I cried. Then they left and we watched a slide show of pictures of them set to music...and I cried some more. Then the kids came back in cap and gown and got their "diplomas"...and maybe I cried a bit more. Then we had a little reception afterwards and THEN our little family went to Brewster's!! I didn't cry there! :)

Heading to graduation.

Dressed up and singing!  She's a nurse like G-ma!

Caroliney sat on her teacher's lap the whole time!

My graduate!

Lily, Alena (her BFF) and Peyton.

Lily and her teacher.

Last day of Preschool EVER!! :(

Last week, Lily had her very last day of preschool ever. I truly thought I would not be emotional over the whole thing. I went to drop her off and her teacher from when she was 2 and her current teacher both helped her out of the car and I said, "Look Lily! Your teacher from your very first day of preschool and your very last day of preschool both right here together!"and promptly burst into tears. I was a bit of a mess that day, which also happened to be her graduation day and if I really think about it, I can still cry now!! I just can't believe my baby is starting Kindergarten next year. It seems like she just arrived into our lives and now she's becoming such a big girl!

Heading to her last day of preschool.



We went a bought graduation presents for Lily during her last day.  I picked out "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" and Caroliney picked out this gorgeous nail set!!  :)

Get Your Groove On!

Click here for the awesome hip-hop Material Girl routine!
BTW, all of the "Woo!!!"ing that you hear, is Aunt Heather!!!!  Just one of the reasons why we love her so much!

Click here for the amazing ballet Cinderella routine.
We all cried at this one!!!  :)

Dance Recital Pictures!

I will certainly be posting her dance video next!!! Here are some pictures....

Before the recital.  She was super psyched to have a tiny bit of make-up on.

Hip-hop outfit.

About to go on!!

Ballet outfit.

She was so happy to get a trophy!

Zoo Visit!

We love going to the zoo!! And while we are there, we always ride the carousel!

Random Pictures

I don't really remember this way, but I can tell by the sticker on C's shirt and her pink cheeks that she's sick and had been to the ped. Great time to torture her by taking pictures...clearly.

I also am not sure what is happening here, but I can tell you that poor Anna is wrapped up in the "dog blanket" that we put on the couch to keep Sammy from getting it filthy.  I also can tell that Lily and Anna are watching one DVD on the portable player and Kai is watching a different one.  :)

And here, Lily is outside in sock-feet.  Great parenting abounds on this post!

Lily's 5th Birthday!!!

So...lesson learned...if you go super fabulous for one birthday party, it's only fair to make her sister's party fabulous, too!  So...more matching shirts!!!! 

Baptism Day!!!

We were very happy to find a church that we wanted to join. I really wanted to join a Lutheran church and we happen to have one close to us. We only had to go a couple of times to know that this was the church for us. First of all, every time I went, it was as if the sermon was written precisely for whatever was going on in our lives at that moment. We just clicked. We were pleased that they have several pastors, one of whom is young and funny. We both, but particularly Bryan, really enjoy his sermons. Second, and I know this is going to sound silly, but we like that they have a more casual service, to which we can wear jeans or shorts. We are not a family who enjoys getting fancified and though it's embarassing to admit, I feel that we are more likely to go to church if we can be comfy and casual while we are there. I know it's awful. So we joined the church and then wanted to have the girls baptized. We thought long and hard about who their Godparents should be--we wanted people who had strong religious or spiritual beliefs, even if they weren't exactly like ours and people who were special to each girl. We picked my sister and my BFF for Lily--both are woman who have treated her so wonderfully always, even in her more difficult phases. In fact, they both now pretend that Lily never had a difficult phase. And we picked Chris and Johanna for Caroliney--Chris and Caroliney have had a special connection since C was born. She has always loved him!! And we know Johanna thinks she's pretty special, too. So it just worked!!! The baptism went great. Lils was not her usual self during it, and we found out on Monday that she had a double ear infection. But no one cried or threw fits during the event and anything that doesn't have tears or yelling is a success in my opinion.

The girls, their parents, Godparents and the Pastor who baptized them.

The whole crew who came to be with us that day.

The girls and their 2 Annas!!!



"Here, Anna...hold Harrison!"  :)

Heather and Lils

A sullen Caroliney and her Godparents.

The Smith/Dietz clan, including Heather's Dad who was visiting from out of town and so came to the little party after the baptism.

The American Girl Store AKA Evil Geniuses!

On the Saturday before the baptism, we went to the American Girl store. I called about 4 months in advance to get a reservation in the bistro and they were full except for a 7pm reservation!!!! Seriously! We love going to the American Girl store. The food is actually quite yummy, the whole store is pink and the kids just love it. Honestly, I had an American Girl doll when I was little, too, so I sort of enjoy it more than I should as well.

Anna, Lily and Sarah.  Sarah is the daughter of one of my good friends from college.  Sarah is holding her own doll, but Anna's and Lily's dolls were currently in the hair salon so the restuarant has "rentals" for the girls to use during their meal.



Beth and Sarah, Lily and I.  Beth and I became great friends my freshman year in college...all of the way back in 1995!!

Me and Lils with Amy and Jackie--2 of my MOMS Club friends who happen to each have 2 boys at this point.  Jackie is embarassingly younger than me and she also played with AG when she was little.  I wanted to invite them b/c Lily loves them so much, but also so that they could get a little girly-fix!

Family trip to Ikea!

Also, all of the way back in February, the ladies in my family were planning on coming into town for a trip to the American Girl store to celebrate Lily and Anna's birthdays.  We were meeting friends there as well.  Bryan and I also just joined a church around the end of last year that we love.  We had never had the girls baptized as infants because we had not ever joined a church until now.  So, since my family was coming into town for the American Girl store, and my sister was one of Lily's Godmothers, it seemed like a good plan to do the baptism this same weekend.  So then we invited everyone else to come as well and were so happy that everyone was able to come!!!  Of course, no trip to Atlanta is complete without a trip to Ikea.  So here we are the Saturday before the baptism, starting the day at Ikea for a 99 cent breakfast. 

Almost 6 months?!??!

Since I last blogged?!?!?  That's embarassingly terrible!!!  So much has happened since then, obviously.  I'll try to catch us all up.  First of all, Caroliney turned 2 in February.  I can hardly believe it.  She is such a big girl!  We had her birthday party with another family who has a little girl that was also turning 2.  Such fun!  

Taking pictures for the CD covers--we gave out rockin CDs as favors! 

Still attempting to get 2 two year olds to look at the camera and smile at the same time! 

Molly and Drew-Bug and me and Caroliney at the party!!  Matching shirts...yes, the Dads wore them, too.  Real men aren't afraid to wear pink zebra print!