A Birthday Spent At American Girl

Today my middle child Ansley turned 5. It seems like such a big girl age and she was quick to remind me today that she is a big girl. My mother in law flew in yesterday from Florida to help us celebrate Ansley's birthday. This is the first birthday we have ever celebrated away from all our family. We planned the day to be spent at the Galleria Mall and American Girl. We had a great girl day and Ansley loved every minute.


I let Ansley open her card this morning from us before we left because it had a Princess pin she could wear today and she's all about Princesses now.


With her pin on.


I asked Ansley where she wanted to eat lunch for her special day. Nothing would do but MacDonalds. Not hard to please I guess.


Ireland enjoyed it as well.


There it is. The place we had been waiting to get to the last few days to purchase our first American Girl Doll.


They have so many dolls to choose from and all the accessories. It's every girls dream (even moms)


My mother in law and Ansley looking at some of the dolls.


Ansley heading out with her present. She decided on a twin doll that looks like her and she named her Kit. If you're familiar with American Girl dolls you know there's already a doll named Kit. Ansley liked the name so much she decided to name her doll Kit too. I asked her what she'd name the other Kit when we purchased her later (as I LOVE the Kit doll) and she said Kit 2. My mother in law purchased Ansley and Kit a matching outfit set.


When we got home tonight we let Ansley open presents and we had cake and ice cream. My parents and sister wanted to skype with us while Ansley opened gifts and so they could sing to her. I think it made my parents feel good to see Ansley and felt alittle apart of her birthday as I know this has been so hard on them.


Ireland loved the skyping and kept wanting to kiss the screen.


Getting ready to sing.


Ansley's tiara and wand that came off her cake.


Happy 5th Birthday my Princess. We're so glad you were born and that you're ours.

We love you.

A Great Giveaway

Today is LisaLeonardOnline Birthday. Stop by her blog and wish her a Happy Birthday and to enter a great giveaway for her special day. You'll be so glad you did.

Little Princesses

Ireland has gotten lately where she really plays well with Ansley and wants to do all the big girl things and Ansley has gotten to where she looks forward to their play time together. I love seeing them play together and play the same things. I hope they grow up to be the best of friends.

They came from the playroom today to show me how dressed up they were. They were playing princess. The little jacket that Ireland has on is actually my beach cover up when I was a baby.



Here they are showing off their "princess clothing"

Sweet sisters


Ansley's gotten to where she loves to have her photo taken. Can you tell?


Trying to get that crown on


Ahh I finally got it

A Sweet Baby Shower

This past weekend my good friend Emily who I met online years ago and recently moved near had her baby shower. This will be Emily's first girl. She has 2 precious boys also. I had the pleasured of getting to go and meet all of Emily's friends. It was at a cute tea room and it was a shoe shower. I'm all about shoes so it was fun to see all the cute shoes she got for baby girl.


Here's the mama-to-be

Opening gifts

These cupcakes were wonderful. Her friend Jen made them with homemade lemonade icing and fresh raspberries. Yum.

The group

My sweet Ansley put in(or begged) that she wanted to go to the big girl party too. So I ended up taking her for a girls day and she LOVED it. She sat there so perfect and I had no problems out of her.

My Ansley has gotten to be quite the "little mama." She loves to try to tote Ireland around,watch her,change her clothes. You name it. So before we left for the shower she insisted she had to make a list for daddy. Well here's her list. She said it says to change Ireland when she's wet or dirty, lay her down for her nap in abit, watch her by the pool and the gate,and be careful of the patio area because it gets very hot on your feet for baby Ireland. lol. Too cute. I love it. I think she's going to be the best little mama one day. She's already informed me she wants 4.

Emily we enjoyed the shower and meeting everyone. We're so excited for you and your family. We can't wait to meet baby girl next month.

Keep Calm and Carry On

Look at what I won at a giveaway that Ashley over at LittleMissMomma was having. Isn't it great? BarnOwlPrimitives is the maker of this wonderful sign and it can be purchased in their etsy shop. Check out their amazing signs.

Oink The Pig And The End Of Summer Library Party

Since moving to Colleyville one thing that has kept the kids and I busy is the Public Library. The library here has so many wonderful activities and sits in a beautiful new town square with nice shops and resturants. We've been coming to several activities a week for the last 4 weeks or so. They have a mascot at this library called "Oink the Pig." He comes out several days a week for some of the activities. This summer they gave out piggy banks to kids who wanted one to take home to fill with change and bring back when they liked to put in the big Oink piggy bank and by big I mean BIG. It's a huge piggy bank and the money collected this summer will go to the improvement of the kids area by the winter time.

Last night was the end of summer party for the library. They had bounce houses and activity climbers, pony rides, a petting zoo, tons of games,door prizes, a dj, a big firetruck that you could sit in, people making balloon animals, and tons of fair like food to eat and it was all free except some of the food. We decided to take the kids for abit and they had a blast.



Here's one of the big firetrucks of Colleyville


Ansley climbing. She loved this activity climber.



Dawson getting to the top of the climber.


Patiently waiting their turn for the bounce house. Isn't it sweet they're holding hands?


Some of the library area


Ireland watching everything around her.


She's pointing to what Dawson and Ansley are doing and wanting to do it too. She thinks she's as big as they are.

Watching the ponies. I had to watch Ireland very closely. Several times she tried climbing through the fence to the ponies. She kept waving at them.

A prop area they had set up for pics.

Dawson and Ansley making something with sand art. Look closely and you'll see Ireland down there trying to join in.

A view in front of the library. They had hulu hoop contests going on where that white tent is.

Ireland and daddy sitting while waiting for Dawson and Ansley to finish an activity.

She kept trying to tell David something here. Not sure what. Oh the language of a 21 month old.

I love this picture. Sweet Ireland and daddy time.

Ansley finishing up making her neat paint paper.

Here's "Oink" and Ireland. Ireland wanted to talk to Oink and touch but wasn't quite sure either. She'd wave and blow kisses but wouldn't get any closer then when we got ready to leave she would just stand there waving saying "bye,bye."

Here's that firetruck with it's bucket way in the air.

Wordless Wednesday-Deep In Thought

On our recent Disney trip this picture was captured of Ireland. I catch her alot deep in thought and finally caught it on camera to.




Today's Wordless Wednesday over at WordlessWednesday. Check it out and all the other beautiful photos.

Backyard Oasis

So we're renting for the first year of our new move and we wanted to do this to make sure we loved this area and the schools and not be locked into a home we bought then decide we wish we'd have moved 10 miles further one way or the other. So far we are LOVING Colleyville and have nothing but wonderful things to say of the area and people. We're centrally located from downtown Dallas by about maybe 15-20 miles max and to downtown Fort Worth by about 12 miles or so.

When we were looking for a home on our trips out here or when my husband was here working and I was on the phone with him as he did his drive bys or visits himself we kept noticing you don't get much yard here in Texas unless you're in further out towns such as McKinney or Frisco. If you live in Texas you know what I'm talking about you either get a ok yard or a yard with a pool and no grass. So we had 2 challenges. One was finding a home in Colleyville because it's such a desired area and second was finding one with a yard the kids could play in. Alot of homes we looked at the fence was about 6 feet from the patio door. Not our ideal yard considering we're coming from a home that had 1/2 acre and before that our home had 20 acres. When we came across this home in Colleyville the yard totally sold us. Not only does this yard have a 1/2 acre that is fenced in but it also has a pool that is fenced in. You can sit out on the patio in the evenings and just listen to the waterfall. We do this alot while we eat supper outside. The previous people also were nice enough to leave their swingset for us which is perfect because we didn't want to have to purchase one when we knew we'd be moving again in 1-2 years. We also have a nice park about 3 houses down from us too that we use.

Overall the yard is a backyard oasis and so relaxing. It's perfect for entertaining. I still have a few things I want to add out here but for now it works.


Walking out from the patio door


View from the sidewalk area


The shaded area of the patio. I'd like a nice sitting area here.



The wonderful pool for those hot Texas summers. We're enjoying this.



View of the house from the pool area.



View of backyard from sidewalk area.


Play area

Looking from the backyard along the fence area.

Walking back up to the house by the sidewalk. My husband has decided that we need white lights above the patio area. I think he's right.