Caroline's Kitchen!

Last Saturday was Miss Caroline's third birthday! Not sure how she is already three years old! Katie did another fabulous job on her birthday party. The theme was Caroline's Kitchen! Katie had two of the cutest aprons made for the girls. She also had two small cakes made for the girls to decorate! I don't think they will be winning Food Network Challenge anytime soon, but everyone had fun watching them decorate their cakes. Leave it to my child to take a bite out of the wax number 2!

When we first arrived Gracyn had to give her bestie a great big birthday hug!!!

Eating a little dinner before the FUN begins!

Caroline's masterpiece!

Gracyn working hard at smoothing those sides!

After the cake decorating we all sang Happy Birthday to Carolione (twice) then she opened presents. Gracyn got her a charm bracelet and a Friends charm. Katie and I are already thinking of which charm we can get them when we go to the beach. Of course, we will have to get ourselves a Pandora charm when we go as well! Caroline's big present from Katie and Eric was a kitchen set! It's super cute and the girls loved playing with it!

The girls played so hard that evening. We put their pj's on, which just so happened they had a matching pair, then set them on the couch to watch a little TV and relax. Caroline crashed on the couch and Gracyn decided to go to the play room and do a little reading. After I put her to bed, us grown ups just enjoyed sitting around the kitchen table and telling funny stories.
 
The next morning the girls up bright and early. They played with ballons and then decided they wanted to go outside and blow bubbles. There seemed to be less blowing and more stepping in them. So we took them in to wash their feet, then they decided they would just rather have a bath.
 

Playing with Caroline's musical card!

Time to wash our feet!

We've Come a Long Way!

It has been one year since Gracyn started gymnastics! Her first day was terrible to say the least!!! She didn't understand she needed to stand in line and do whatever the rotation was. All she wanted to do is play on the slide! I'd set her down and she'd run to the slide. I'd grab and take her back in line and she would just fight and struggle. It was miserable. I just remember one of the moms telling me that it would get better in about 4-6 weeks. I jut remember thinking I wasn't going to make it that long! On the 4th week, it was like something in her clicked and she knew exactly what to do! Sure, she still has her moments when she might throw a fit, especially if she isn't first in line or if another kid takes her turn. I simply take her out of the room and calm her down. Overall, she is a shining star in gymnastics! She absolutely loves it! She is always wanting to practice at home. I picked her up from daycare one day while they were on the playground. I went out to see her walking on a railroad tie with her arms out as if she was practicing her balance beam routine! HAHA! I love it! She has come so far in a years time. I can't wait to see where she is at come this time next year!

Modeling her very first leotard before he first gymastics class!

1st Class - The Infamous Slide!

Look at her working that bridge!

Crab Crawl on the beams. Miss Nicole was very impressed!

The bars are her favorite!!!

My Little Twinkle Tot!!!

Gracyn started dance class on June 5! It's just a summer class that last 5 weeks. I thought we would give it a try and see if it was something we wanted to do long term. I have to say...Gracyn loves it! I think she loves that fact that she is a ballerina like Aunt KK more than anything. She is the youngest in her class, but one of the most well behaved. I chalk this up to her already being use to these types of activities due to gymnastics. She comes in and stands on her green dot waiting for class to start. I have to go in the other room and watch her thru the glass. I don't like not being able to be in there, but I better get used to it. Once Gracyn moves up to the three year old class in gymnastics, I will have to watch from upstairs. Anyway, she stands on her dot while some of the other girls run  squirm around. Then class starts and they do their little dances! I was little upset after the first week that they didn't work on technique. Then I had to tell myself that it was a class of 2 and 3 year olds! I can't expect too much! Tomorrow is the day we can sign up for the fall classes. I have to say, I don't enjoy dance as much as gymnastics but she LOVES it so she will be an official Twinkle Tot in the fall!!! ** sorry got the quality of the pictures. I had to take them thru the glass in the other room!

Look at the tondu! If you notice, she is a lille behind since the teachers are already on to the plie! But at least it's a good tondu!!!

What a teacher's pet! She made sure she was the first over to sit by Miss Miranda! Isn't she the cutest little dancer?!

Cousin Myla's 2nd Birthday!

So I'm almost a month behind on blogging. I figured I better get some of June's activities in before the month was over! June 3 was Myla's 2nd birthday! We headed down to Fort Smith for cake and ice cream! Gracyn insisted on getting Myla a yello duck, so she got her a princess rubber ducky and some bubbles. Clint and I got her a broom set. I know how much Gracyn loves sweeping when I am so I figured it would be a good gift! The girls had a lot of fun playing. They don't get to see each other as often as we would like!

Myla opening gifts with help from Aunt KK!

          

                                                                      

Silly girls!!!

Birthday Girl! Hard to believe she was less than 2 lbs when she was born!

Grandpa Peevy and his little princesses!!!

Ferris Wheel, Sausage Balls, and Swimming!

Clint had to work all weekend : (  So we decided to go to Fort Smith Friday night and at least have one day of activity. We met Katie and Eric and took the girls to Varsity for dinner. This was interesting. Let's just say the girls love them some cheese dip! After dinner we took them across the street to West End Park to ride the Ferris Wheel. I can do roller coasters, but HATE the Ferris Wheel. Eric felt the same. So we sat out while Katie took Caroline and Clint took Gracyn. Gracyn would go around with her arms up in the air! She got off and told me all about how she went around in a circle and up and down.

They love each other!

This is the only picture that even half way turned out. Can you see her little head poking over?!

After the ferris wheel we did our usual....went to Goodies for yogurt! The girls were exhausted so we had to cut our visit short. Clint, Gracyn, and I headed over to my mom's to get Kaeleigh. She stayed the long weekend with us.

I love "The Great Food Truck Race" on Food Network. I've watched the first two seasons and when I heard they were coming to Fayetteville I was ecstatic!

Fayetteville Flyer posted that they would be in town on Saturday. We decided we would go to the square around noon for lunch. We got there a little before 1:00 and nothing! We went to Dickson...nothing! So we went to lunch at Chili's. Fayetteville Flyer posted that they would be back on Dickson at 1:00am. Clint got off work about 11:00 that night so when he got home we headed to Dickson! ** Gracyn stayed home with Janaca. We got to Dickson with a lot of time to kill so we went to Common Grounds for a drink. We then waited on the WAC steps for quiet sometime, along with a lot of other people. The trucks showed up about 1:15 blaring their horns and cameras were everywhere! So not to bore anyone with all the details, I will make this short. We stood in line about 3 hours and spend $40 on "sample" food. We each got a sausage ball from Seoul Sausage, an Italian quesidlla and sweet rolls from Nonna's kitchen, and a fish basket (1 piece of fish) from Coastal Atlanta (something like that.) In the end, I'm glad we went. It was fun standing in line with a bunch of sober people making fun of all the drunk people (one of who we know, but will not be named!)

Clint waiting in line to get sausage balls from Seoul Sausage!

Sunday was pretty boring. Us girls cleaned the house while Clint slept. Once he woke up we decided to go swimming! It was already 4:00 and Clint didn't have to work til 8:00 so we decided to just go for a couple of hours. Gracyn hadn't been swimming since her first year of life, not really sure why we didn't go last year. She loved it! We started off in the big pool with her floaty. After a bit, she wanted out of it then was jumping off the sides! I was trying to teach her to put her face in the water. She did that a couple of times, then we decided to check out the kiddie pool. She was doing great on her own til her feet came out from under her and she went under. When Clint puller her up she was sputtering water and said, "My hair!" We laughed so hard! Even the lifeguard was cracking up. What a little priss!

Overall it was a great weekend! Kaeleigh even got to stay with us for the week since Girls Inc. was closed. I'm thinking we will definitely be going swimming more often this summer!



Big Girl Bed and Paci Free!

We finally did it! We turned Gracyn's crib into a toddler bed! We haven't had any issues with her trying to crawl out of her crib. Instead, lately she had been asking to sleep in Mommy's bed, or the big bed. We decided it was about time we move her into a big bed of her very own. We went to a couple of furniture stores, but I wasn't crazy about any of the beds. I really wished we had bought the twin bed that matched her furniture suit back when we bought the furniture! I found a headboard at a place in Little Rock that I LOVE!!!! However, it's about $1,000 too much! I'm wondering if I can convince Clint and Jake to make it. Jake is pretty handy at building things!

So far, Gracyn has done really well sleeping in her bed. We've had two nights in the week that she had a hard time going to sleep and wanted me to sing to her over and over. However, we've had two nights that she slept all the way thru the night! This is a big deal! This morning she woke up as I was putting on my makeup. I went in there to check on her and she say got up and told me she needed to potty. That made me so proud! Oh, and we took the paci away!!! She has been using at bedtime only for the last year. We decided after Vegas we would work on taking it away. I wanted her to be able to use the paci on the airplane so her ears wouldn't pop and also to have at night since she wasn't staying with us. Little girl needs some security and normalcy! I was a little worried about how this would go. I got her memory box down and told her to put her pacis in the baby box. She threw them all in. I don't think she really realized what she was doing, because when she got in her big girl bed for the first time she reached up to the closet and asked for her paci. However, she hasn't asked for it since that first night!

Sweet, Sleeping Baby! She loves to sleep with her Cat Cat! She woke up one night crying out, "My Cat Cat, My Cat Cat!" I go in and find Cat Cat on the floor! Poor kid!



Every morning before we leave for school, Gracyn sits on her beanbag and watches Gasperd and Lisa while eating a yogurt. If she doesn't finish it she gets to eat it in the car. For the most part, she does just fine with it. There have been a couple of times she has gotten it all over her and her carseat!

She looks so grown up here! I just love that little smile!

I finally got the app, Instagram, on my phone. I haven't really played around with it too much. I have just seen a lot of people post pictures taken with it on facebook. I took some of my current pictures on my phone and played around with them. I just love the way this one turned out! I used the 1977 app and think this picture really looks like it was taken in the 70's!

This looks like a picture straight out of one of my mom's photo albums!!!





Wedding Day!!!

Clint and I woke up and went to his parent's room to see Gracyn. Then I left to meet the girls at Starbucks for breakfast, then we were going to get our makeup done. However, they didn't have any makeup artist there at 10:00 and told us to come back at 12:00. Not sure why they told up to be there at 10:00 the day before! So, we decided to take our Starbucks up to the room and start on our hair. Sarah asked if she could fix my hair...I was very impressed!!! She did a great job! Once noon rolled around we went down to Sephora for makeup. They had three Smashbox consultants there to do our makeup.

Becki did a great job on my makeup!

After makeup, we headed back up to the room to get dressed. At this point my nerves are starting to kick in. Not about getting married, I was just scared we weren't going to be ready in time and the party bus and limo were going to leave us! However, we were able to all get ready in time and made it down and in the limo without Clint seeing me!

This picture just cracks me up! They literally had everything you can imagine packed and ready to go!

The Grove was about a 30 minute drive from the Strip. When we first pulled in I was very nervous. It was just a building with a fence in the middle of brown, rocky desert. However, once we walked in the fence it was a lush, green garden area! I loved it!!!! It's exactly what I imagined it to be!

We had a few minutes to freshen up then it was time for the show to begin! 

The photographer took a few pictures of me as I was "getting ready" then it was time to begin! The ceremony was wonderful! We were so lucky to have our friends and family come all the way out to Vegas to see us get married! I can't wait to see the actual pictures once they come in!

 Waiting for me to come out!!!

 Saying his vows!

I love Katie's expression here! And my own!

After the wedding, the party bus and limo took us to Pampas Brazilian Steakhouse for our reception. It was delicious and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We had great food, cheesecake, and of course wedding cake! I think I got a little carried away with how much cake I ordered because we had a lot left over. It was delicious, nonetheless!

Instead of a guest book, we had a guest book quilt. We played it off of what Clint's grandma does for their family reunion every year. We had cut fabric squares and had them sitting on the guest book table along with markers. Our guest were able to take a fabric square and write or draw a blessing or memory of us. I think everyone had a great time with it and I can't wait to get it quilted! It's something we will always have and use!

Guest book quilt!

After the reception, we all went back to our rooms to get ready to go out. We started off with The Piano Bar at Harrah's. We were called up on stage to lead everyone in the Chicken Dance. I felt like an idiot, but it was fun. The best part of this was when someone from Tennessee paid them $20 to play Rocky Top. We took up a collection of over $30 to have them stop playing Rocky Top. They knew the UofA Fight Song so started to play it as we stood up singing. It was great!

Once we were done at the Piano Bar we headed to Cleopatra's Barge at Caesar's Palace. We were able to get in and guarantee a table by buying a $100 bottle of Vodka. We all felt like high rollers! I had the BEST time here! The music was great, the mood was awesome, and we were just having a wonderful time!

 Katie and I taking a moment out from getting our groove on!

Too cool for words!

Once we were all danced out we decided we needed dessert. Where else would we go, but SUGAR of course! I had been eyeing the Lollipop drink all week, but since it was $36 I passed. However, this was my wedding day so I just HAD to have it! It was huge! I ended up sharing it with everyone and I think there was still a third of it left! Katie and I had order the macaroni cheese balls then decided we also needed milkshakes. Clint was very surprised when it came time to pay the bill. It was all worth it though!



Overall, we had the best time! I couldn't imagine doing our wedding any other way! We wanted to celebrate our wedding over several days and just have a good time! I didn't want to be stressed out and worried about this or that. I wasn't at all. It was perfect!!!!