Bubbles, Bubbles, and more Bubbles

Today was just a random Saturday at home. Abby wanted to get her bubble machine out. This provided entertainment for quite some time (thanks Austins) They actually wanted to get it out because they wanted to see Charlie go wild and try to catch them. But he went and played with some other dogs in the neighborhood, so he missed all the fun. Yes, Taylor is wearing her long sleeve leotard in 85 degree weather. She wears her leotards all the time!!

Our Empty Nest... Sort of

Yes, the day has finally come. All three of our girls are in school, most importantly, the same school with the same schedule... you see where I'm going here.
Regan is now in the third grade. She has become quite the little scholar.




Abby started kindergarten. She walks in the school with a purpose! She be-bops through the school with her curls just a bouncing behind her. She loves school and she also favors lunchtime as well :) After her first day, she had to have asked me and Bryan 50 times what was on the school lunch menu the next day, and the day after that. Then she would continue to tell us what she wanted to do for lunch.




It did break my heart just a tad, the first day of school she didn't want me to walk in with her. She only wanted to walk in with Regan like a big girl. So I dropped them off, but I quickly rolled down my window and stuck out my camera and started taking pictures.




Then there is Taylor, her first day of Pre-K was today which was a few days after Regan and Abby. She did sooo good. I was worried because she had been in the same class with Abby last year, so she was used to having her around. But when we got to her class, she put away her backpack and her lunch into her cubby. Then I gave her a big hug and wished her a great day. As I was leaving, I looked back and she was going over to the other kiddos to play. My girls really do amaze me sometimes.

Meet Charlie...

We welcomed a new addition to our family of five. The girls have been asking for a dog for a couple of years now, especially Regan. It's wasn't that Bryan and I didn't want a dog too, but we just didn't feel like we had the time to take care of one.
Bryan took the girls to run some errands and to the grocery store Saturday morning, while I went to work for a few hours. PAWS was set up in the parking lot at the grocery store and the girls saw them... From what Bryan said, the girls asked 100 times in the store if they could look at the dogs, so he gave in. Luckily for the girls, there was a very adorable lab that needed a home. It was also a male dog, which was the only requirement of Bryan's... he needs another male presence in our house of women, even if it is a dog.
I met Bryan and the girls for lunch and they ran to me screaming "we found a dog",,, "daddy said we could get a dog". And Bryan stated, "I'm a pushover".
So here he is... our new dog. The girls have been attentive, making sure he eats and giving him fresh water, and they talk to him all the time. However, when it gets to frisky for them and starts jumping on them to play, well... let's just say they run for their life. :) Oh well, they will get used to playing with him.

Dave!!

Yah!!! They finally arrived. A few months ago, we saw that the Dave Matthews Band summer tour schedule had been announced. Now, Bryan absolutely loves this band. And I must say so myself, I love them as well. They are pretty awesome. I know Bryan has always wanted to go see them in person, so I immediately scanned through the dates and cities for somewhere close to our area. And there it was... Charlotte, NC, July 21. So then I spent a good part of day going to different ticket sites to see what they had available. I was starting to get frustrated because all there seemed to be was nose bleeds of somesort or really really good seats for $2,000.00. But then I came across another site, and low and behold, I found awesome seats for uhm not $2000.00. They are VIP section!!
I snatched them up immediately!
The site doesn't send the tickets as soon as you buy them, they wait closer to the date of the concert and then release them. So we have been waiting patiently and they finally came Monday. Of course, this was my picture of the day. I know Bryan is super excited, and really, that is such an understatement. You could not possibly imagine how much my husband loves this band.
So hubby, I can't wait to rock out with you in July!!

Ode to Abby!!

Abby is officially a Pre-K graduate. :) I can't believe how much she has grown up. She has become a beautiful, smart, and loving little lady. The kids sang a few songs together, and Abby told us a few months ago that she had a special part where she sings solo. It's been very hush hush, she wouldn't tell us anything about it. So we were very excited to see and hear this special performance.



Few things to know about Abby:

She is a very caring and emotional little thing. She makes every effort to comfort her sisters when needed. And I say emotional because when she gets her feelings hurt, oh my goodness!!, get out of the way. She will start to cry and stomp to her room and slam the door. (However, we are working on the slamming the door part, it's ok to show emotions, but slamming the door is not acceptable). :)

Abby has a very carefree spirit about her. She really has so much fun at whatever she is doing. And her laugh is contagious. When we hear her laugh, and I mean her from the gut kinda laugh, well it just makes us laugh as well. We were actually in the car the other day, and we heard Abby just a chuckling away about something, Bryan and I had to just laugh with her, it was so funny to hear her.

Abby loves to be on stage and perform. She loves her dance class. I really believe this is something she will continue to do as she gets older.

As you can see from the video, Abby also LOVES dessert time. This little girl thinks about desserts day and night. When she is eating dinner, she is constantly thinking about how much longer until it's time for dessert. Cracks us up.

Lastly, Abby is somewhat on the clumsy side. Bless her heart, she is so carefree that she doesn't pay a lot of attention to what she's doing. It's so funny because she can be walking down the hall and being in her own little world, she will walk right into the wall. This reminds me of a time when we were at Red Lobster. Abby was sitting on the edge of the booth and just out of nowhere she was talking and then poof, she falls right down into the floor. Hilarious.

But even being on the clumsy side, she will dance just as graceful and not miss a beat. :)



So, our hats are tipped to Abby today. We are very proud of her and love her very much!! Kindergarten, here she comes!!

Everyday Life Quote

I read this quote today on a scrapbooking blog that I follow. She is talking about her thoughts when she was doing a project called A Week in the Life. It's a project where your take pictures of your "everyday life" for a week. I plan on doing this in the next couple of days. I am already doing a project called "Project Life" where I take a picture a day. LOVE IT!! I love capturing the everyday moments, not just a special holiday or birthday all the time. So many stories to remember and tell.

from Anna Quindlen

......but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

Yah! 2 spaces done!

I feel better now. I am nowhere near done, but I did get two spaces organized, Abby and Tot's closet and the playroom. The after picture doesn't even do the space justice, because it looks way better in person. The girls even helped out in the playroom and organized all their play food.
YAH ME!!

Time to Get Organized!

I am so into organization right now! Well I always have been, but whether I actually GET and STAY organized is another story. I cannot read enough in magazines, books, and blogs about organization ideas. When I see an idea I like, I will usually tear it out of the magazine and keep it for future use. However, since I've not been very organized lately, I usually end up losing it. LOL
I love the very clean and neat look when everything is in it's place. I love canisters, storage boxes, shelving.... very Martha Stewart huh.
I do have these storage cubes for the girls playroom, but it never quite looks neat and tidy as I intended. What usually happens during cleaning, is that I will get totally overwhelmed and start shoving anything and everything in these storage bins. Yes it is out of the floor, but then the girls can never find anything that they are looking for. One of the blogs I have been reading is from Becky Higgins. I followed her for scrapbooking purposes to begin with, but she is also pretty organized and has alot of good ideas. She also has 3 children, so I know if she can do it, I can too. She has totally motivated me to really get organized. By the way, she has a great scrapbooking kit, Project Life, which I am doing as well, but I will blog about that another day.
I am uploading some pictures of some pretty bad sites, which I hope will motivate me even more to get the mess cleaned up! The closets, my heavens, the closets!!

Christmas Dance 2009

Each year, all the well-paying mommies and daddies are treated to a quick look at the little ones' progress toward lucrative dance careers. Although Abby already has one year of dance under her belt, we were fortunate that Taylor was allowed to enroll in the same class for her first year....and even more fortunate that they were paired together during the routines. This was much more convenient than being forced to watch two different sections of the dance floor at the same time.

Regan's First Piano Recital

Regan has been taking piano lessons for the past few months. She participated in her first recital tonight. She made a tiny mistake the second time through her song, but I loved the cute little look of disappointment and then smile on her face as she leaves the piano.