Who needs a boy?

Callie is a pretty crazy, rough and tumble, little wound up little ball of energy, and anybody that sees her often knows that. I've jokingly told Brad: "Who needs a son when we've got Callie?" She loves sitting and watching Brad's hunting show with him and she loves waiting for her dad to come in and wrestle with her at night. This usually involves Brad just letting Callie get out some energy (since I try not to let her act so crazy all the time). They roll around on the floor and crawl around on their knees, and most nights Brad pretends like he is a deer while Callie gets him with her bow and arrow (a plastic hanger that she slings one end of). He taught her to box one night while I wasn't around, and after a few slings to the face during one of her tantrums, I insisted that he "unteach" her ;) But what was really hilarious was what happened last night when Brad went to put Callie back in bed. This is from his own words from an email he sent his brother:

"Last night Callie was being really bad and wouldn’t go to bed. Nina had told her to get back in bed a couple of times and she wasn’t listening. I finally went back and laid her down and told her that if she got up again she would get in trouble. I went in the kitchen for a minute and Nina said, “Brad she’s up again you’re gonna have to get her.” So I yelled, “Callie here I come”. She let out her little squeal and I heard her scurry back to her room. As I stomped and grumbled down the hall and into her dark room, I saw her silhouette by her princess vanity. I walked closer to pick her up and put her in bed, and before I could realize that she was armed, she nailed me with her princess bat. I couldn’t help but laugh. I realized that she had everything ready and was crouched down there like a tee-ball player, just waiting for me to come into her trap.
She is something else."

Ha ha ha.... he should have seen that one coming.

Hailey's new tricks

I love every minute of the stage that Hailey is in right now. Her cute little chubby cheeks, the way she lights up when she see's someone she loves, her natural curiosity and excitement, and of course her happy little sounds. I always feel like time just flies by the first year of my babies lives. One day your looking at a baby and the next day they are a toddler. Sometimes I wish God could have made their baby years last several years longer and maybe borrow some of that time from the terrible twos and teenage years :) As for now, I will just keep documenting everything new she is doing, because I know she will grow to fast and I will soon forget.

This week she has started officially crawling, saying "uh oh"and "hi", she cut through her fourth tooth, she has started waving bye bye, and can clap her hands when you tell her to. See what I mean? All that in just a week or two!

Aunt Karren's last visit

We were so lucky that Karren got to come down and spend this last weekend with us.  We are so sad that she will be moving back home in about a week and a half. We are going to miss her so much!  It has been so nice having her live only two hours away, we just don't no how were going to make it with her living clear across country again. 
So in preparation for Karren's last visit we made her favorite pototo soup and bought all the ingredients to make our own "Cold Stone" creations.  (Last time we were in Memphis, me, my mom and Karren drove about 40 minutes outside of our way just to go to coldstone!)  Ha ha... so after that we decided we should probably just try making them ourselves.  And they turned out so good!  We mixed vanilla ice cream, brownies, pecans, caramel and coconut.  Yumm.... and yes we finished off the whole carton before the weekend was over ;)  Karren also came with us to another project day at Lowes, and the girls got to make their own bird feeders.  I forgot to get a picture though.  Then we shopped around at the mall a little and headed back home.  Later that night we watched Avatar with Ross, while Brad was out visiting families with the stake president.  Great movie, by the way.

And last but not least I just wanted to write a little about Brad.  I've heard the saying before that when a person is looking for a spouse that they "marry their mother or father".  Well,  I can say that I definately married someone that reminds me so much of my dad.  As you all know, my dad is one of the most selfless people I know,  he is always working hard or busy doing something for someone else.  Brad is just like that too.  He is either busy all day at work, or gone on a business trip, and at night he is gone several nights a week because of his church calling and when he isn't doing one of those things, you can find him either working on our yard or garden or helping someone else out by fixing up there vehicle or just visiting a family.  He is such a great man and I love him so much. 

Oh, and we just found our first sprouts coming up in our garden!  We saw some sprouts for corn, squash, and okra.  And our tomato plants are still looking great too.

She's crawling!

She did it, she finally crawled!  Although it wasn't really the way I thought it would happen.  I thought that once she did it, a light would click on and she would just start crawling all over like my other girls.  But it was more like the slowest crawl in the world, ha ha...
She was sitting down and her toy was a little ways away from her and she started leaning towards it and got onto all fours (she had been doing that a lot today) and then just as slow as you can possibly imagine she crawled 3 or 4 times and then sat back down when she reached her toy.  I was so excited and started clapping and everything, and tried to get her to do it again, but she wouldn't.  Then when Brad came home I tried to show him, but again she just stood there on all fours, like... What are you guys lookin at?  Ha ha ...  she's so funny.  Oh well, I'm sure she'll put it to use again when she really wants to.
(She is about 8 1/2 months).

Our Weekend

My mom ended up having to go home early Wednesday morning and we were all so sad to see her go.  It has been so nice having her stay with us.  Unfortunately after she left we ended up getting sick, so we really didn't do to much during the week.  On Saturday, I was determined to get out of the house even though I still was not feeling well.  Kayla and Callie had been so patient all week while I layed around. 

So the first thing that we did is we headed to Lowes.  They were having an activity for kids for Earth Day.  The girls got to build their own planters and they even recieved aprons and goggles to use when they go to the next project.  After that we headed to Toys R Us which was having a story time and playtime for "Thomas the Train".  Callie loved it because they had a big train table set up with lots of little boys playing with all the trains.  And even though it wasn't really Kayla's thing, she enjoyed looking at some toys.  Afterwords, we grabbed a quick bite to eat then headed to the movies to watch "The Tooth Fairy".  The girls thought it was a good movie, especially Kayla.  I think they ended up having a pretty fun day.  After we got home we filled up the planter boxes with some dirt and flower seeds and Callie got a chance to water them with her new Princess watering can. 

(Oh, and in some of the pictures you can see our garden that we are going to "attempt" growing this year, It isn't all planted yet though).

Still not crawling

Well Hailey is still not crawling, I'm sure she is strong enough to do it, she just hasn't quite figure it out yet. But I bet if we stuck her in a swimming pool, she could flutter kick across the whole thing ;)

My mom's visit and TOFW in Memphis

This past week my mom was able to come down and to stay with us.  We have had so much fun spending a little time with her.  We've done a lot of relaxing, but we've also been able to go out and have a lot of fun on some of the days as well.  One night while she was here Brad and I took her to one of our favorite chinese restaurants, Chi's. Our food was yummy, and of course once my mom saw a duck hanging in the front entryway she just had to have that for her dinner ;)  I have to admit it did taste pretty good.

This was my mom's plate witht the duck.

The girls have just loved getting spoiled by Nanna.  She even braved taking them to church without me since Hailey was feeling sick.  And supposedly they were excellent.  She said she didn't even have to get anything out of the diaper bag to entertain Callie, that she just sat on her lap during the whole Sacrament meeting.  WHAT!?!  Surely she must have been talking about a different child ;)

Karren also came down and joined us on Thursday night.  There was a lot of females running around our house with just one man to appreciate it all ;)

This is what happens when Nanna goes shopping for Kayla.  Meet Kayla the biker chick:

On Friday morning Me, Hailey, my Mom and Karren all headed to Memphis for a convention called "Time out for Women".  We stayed at the Crowne Plaza and it was really nice and the staff was so friendly.  This is us after arriving in our room.

We decided to take a late lunch before the event started that evening and so we ate at "Blues City Cafe".  The ribs were delicious, you would pick up a bone and the meat would just slip right off.   

I loved the sign above this guy that said "Put some south in your mouth".

This is us on the famous "Beale Street".  We didn't venture very far since we still had fond memories from our last incident in down town Little Rock.  (For those of you that missed that story it basically consists of a druggy chasing all three of us down the street yelling obsene things and trying to grab us.  Ha ha ha .... yes, we RAN like you've never seen us run before, and the only thing that stopped him was us running into a art gallery and slamming the glass door shut in his face, where he proceeded to bang on the door.  Yeah, CRAZY!)   Needless to say after that incident, Brad didn't think it was a very good idea for us to go anywhere alone.  So we were good and used the hotel shuttle and made sure to always stay in safe areas.

After we got back to our hotel we relaxed out in the sun for a while, it was such a beautiful day.

This is a picture of the girls at the Time out for Women Event.  I saw lots of familiar faces.  Many women from our church here in Lonoke, some old friends from West Memphis (the branch I used to go to), and even a friend from Rexburg.  It's a small world!

Thanks mom and Karren for coming to see us, we had a blast!

Easter

 (I've found a new fun hobby of making hair things for the girls, these are some of the spring ones I made)

This year for Easter we went over to Brad's Uncle Kenneth and Aunt Mary's house for a birthday celebration for their granddaughter Kennedy and for an easter egg hunt.  The girls had lot's of fun getting to play with their cousins and friends.  Unfortunately Kayla wasn't able to make it since she was attending a birthday party in Hazen.  We sure missed her, but she had a lot of fun at that party too.  Grandma Debbie brought her big stroller from Germany (that all her boys used to ride in) and Charlotte and Hailey had fun riding around in it together as long as they didn't get to close to the horses.  Hailey wasn't to sure she liked them!

After all the guests arrived the kids got a special surprise.  A visit from "the real" easter bunny (that sister Trainor brought over).  They had fun playing with the bunny, running around aunt mary's yard, playing on the swings,  and petting the horses.

Aunt Jillian petting the horse with Charlotte.  Charlotte liked the horses a lot more than Hailey did.

After dinner was over it was time for the big easter egg hunt.

And last but not least the big birthday party.  We had princess everywhere!  And Aunt Mary made the party so cute. 

This last one is of the girls Easter morning after they already emptied their easter baskets.  We sure missed Kayla! But she got hers as soon as she got home that morning.

Uh oh, and Callie's new surprise

I sent Brad a text this morning saying that it might be time to put up the crib since someone figured out how to do this...

She actually pulled herself to standing position once and then she fell back down, I didn't catch it on camera though.  I can't believe she slept in a pack and play for 8 months!  Ha ha.... I just didn't have any reason to move her till now.


Callie also got a special surprise from Grandma Debbie for Easter (she got it a little early since she is going to a princess party on Saturday).  This is the new Princess Tiana dress from Princess and the frog (Callie's latest obsession ;)

And a cute picture of Kayla and Hailey, just because: