Love my Rainy Days at Home

 

I love, love, LOVE  rainy days.  I always have, but I especially love them now that I am staying at home with my girls.  Today was so much fun!  For some reason when it rains, we rummage through the house finding different things to do and we do everything a little bit quieter.  Not to mention, we snuggle tons all day!  This morning we made cinnamon rolls, built a fort, played with the ice cream play dough factory, played games, watched a movie and made Madelyn's Valentines box for school all in our pjs :). We still have a few finishing touches, but it turned out pretty well.

   

Right now I am loving how the girls are getting so close.  Emily has always been enamoured with Madelyn, but now Madelyn wants baby Emily with her at all times!  This is quite the change from my jealous 3 year old I had 2 months ago.  She is very concerned with Emily's happiness, singing and entertaining her when she cries.  It truly melts my heart to watch them bond together.  I know they will be the best of friends and that makes me a very happy momma :).   

My sweet Emily will be 6 months in a few days and I had to snap a few pics at bath time tonight.  It's going too quick!!! It seems like yesterday when that was Madelyn in that tub :( and she will be 4 next week!!!!  I have to say Emily has more rolls than a bakery.  Nothing cuter than a chunky baby :)

    

That Dreaded Time Again

It's hard...... Scratch that it's devastating every time we say goodbye for so many reasons.  I guess the news we got while Robin was here this last time really hit home.  Knowing that I might kiss my husband goodbye and it could be the last time became a little more real.  One of Robin's friends he had worked with for many years was involved in a car accident coming home from a job and passed away.  The accident happened on the same roads in South Texas my husband drives to do his job.   It killed two men with wives and children here in this same town where I live. I don't think it gets any closer than living that nightmare myself.  

My husbands actual work is dangerous, compound that with driving from location to location on 2-3 hours sleep every few days makes even more dangerous.  So I have to say goodbye for 12 days and do this all by myself but knowing its just for a bit and praying he will come home to us.  Yet this is what he knows, this is our normal and this is how we support our family.

So I guess I am asking for prayers for these families that are suffering and for my husband who is once again working.  And yes every time, no matter where you are or what your significant other does when you say goodbye in the morning make it special and sweet.  

 

Even when they make this face!!!

Christmas Finale

Christmas Finale

Part 3

Quick run down of our Christmas Extravaganza:

Friday - Christmas at the McKinleys

Saturday - My Grandmothers

Sunday - Santa came

Tuesday - Christmas at my brothers

So we packed up the gang and headed to  for the day to celebrate with my brother and his wife for Christmas?  I havent missed a Christmas completely with my brother and dont want to start.  Christmas at Uncle Taylo and Megan's was so much fun. The girls cooked my mothers infamous tacos, which are so delicious!!! 

 

 We talked, played and relaxed.  

   

I got the most adorable stuff for the girls thanks to Aunt Megan and the Pink Llama Shop! 

  

It was a beautiful day and the kids loved hanging out in the back yard.

 

It was all and all a wonderful Christmas and 2011!!!

With much love from the McKinleys :)

Christmas Part 2

To me, Christmas is hectic, stressful and the most wonderful time of the year, why?   It's one of the few times a year we get to spend it with family.  Family means everything as I have come to know while making one of my own.  I would love to shut ourselves in and celebrate just the five of us, but I know in my heart one day it will only be the five of us. You can't get back that time that you miss when people are gone and there are no more memories to be made.  So we pack our little family up and try to spend Christmas with the ones we love and don't see everyday of the year.   

So here we go with Part 2

Christmas at the McKinleys

This year we had both great grandmothers which was nice.  The kids were overrun with presents and all too excited to start the Christmas holiday.  Everyone got more than they needed and we had a wonderful lasagna dinner except for Madelyn who ate the usual PB&J..

It was a wonderful night and  Robin was there to celebrate with us which made it even better!

    

   

Christmas Trilogy Part 1

This is the first post of my Christmas Trilogy which will be my last posts to catch up for 2011.  Somewhere I completely lost thanksgiving, note to self for next year take more pictures of everything especially the Holidays!!  You will notice in my posts that there are not enough pictures on here of our own Christmas morning. Shame on me we were busy living the moment and I did not capture many pics, regrets on my part for sure.  So here are the few pics I did get before I get to part 1.

  

Part 1:

Let's begin at my photoshoot for the kids for our Christmas cards.  I wish I was better at taking more natural shots of the kids just doing what they would normally do, but my kids are 11, 4 and 5 months so there is not much they do together lol.  So I would settle for some still poses in the backyard with my homemade festive set.  It just so happen to be a windy day on that Sunday, but I had procrastinated and it was do or die time while I had them all together.

 Getting 3 kids to smile at you, impossible...... Getting 3 kids to look at you at the same time, near impossible........ Throw in shadows, hair in the face and all out boredom for the kids, I soon had new respect for the photographers I love to stalk on Facebook.   So let me show you the decent ones I got first..... Keep in mind these are my raw photos they have not been altered in photoshop yet.

 

That's right, basically I got 2-4 workable photos out of 75.  Hilarious, I know.  Bottom line, yes I can pay hundreds for professional and beautiful photos of my children and probably will once a year, but this day was a great memory  and I had lots of fun doing it.  So here is what most of my photos actually looked like.

   

Taylobug and Megans Beautiful Day

My little angel..

..

It was a big day for our whole family.  My little brother was getting married and I was gaining a wonderful sister, who I am thankful my brother had enough sense to not let get away.  Ethan was excited to wear his tux and be an usher, Madelyn was going to be a flower girl and well Emi was just a little angel like always :)

 

So we packed half our home, lol. No really when you have a baby that's what it feels like.  The last thing you want is to be in a hotel room and not have the one thing you need.  Back to the story, packed and hit the road to Searcy Friday for the rehearsal dinner.  Kids did great in the car as long as we had iPods, movies and iPhones to keep their attention on the car ride.  We got to the church and had a wonderful run through, the girls had a blast practicing throwing flowers for the big day.  Afterwards, we went to the Searcy country club for a nice dinner and wine.  Then our first night with 5 of us in one little hotel room with 2 queen beds, hmmmmm.  Actually went better than we could of hoped for, I guess flower throwing wears you out :)

So I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story, since I have gone on and on this post lol.  It was a wonderful day, a beautiful wedding, we all had fun, the kids did great and now we have a wonderful new side to our family.  I love my sister-in-law and her family.  They are wonderful people and we couldn't be happier for Uncle Taylo and Aunt Megan.  

     

 

Halloween 2011

Halloween Night

Emily Kate's first halloween.  She is my little chunky monkey so she filled out her watermelon costume perfectly.  Robin was gone so we headed up to his parents neighborhood to trick or treat.  Emily cried most of the night, apparently not her favorite holiday.

  

Madelyn LOVES Halloween, in fact, she asked for it to be Halloween for several days after the actual day was over.  Her daddy came to walk her around and Renee helped me patrol with the baby.  I have great friends.  We had a good time, but my favorite part of Halloween is that when it's over it marks the real beginning to the holiday season.

Our Trip to the Beach

My husband works in south Texas for weeks at a time and we miss him very much!! So..... when Emily was about six weeks old, I loaded the girls and my mom in the Tahoe and headed down to see him.  I know a 10 hour trip (more like 16 hours for us) is crazy right?  Honestly the girls did amazing we just had to make lots of stops. Plus he is only 45 miles from the beach :).  

 This was Madelyn's first time to see the ocean and she got to do it with her new baby sister which made it even more special.  There is nothing about the beach the girls did not like. Emi loved the gulf breeze and Madelyn could not get enough of the ocean.  

 

The Texas State aquarium is located in Corpus Christi.  It was AMAZING and definitely worth seeing if your down that way.  They have a dolphin show and it looks out onto the bay.  Lots of great stuff of the girls to see.