Maybe the most random post I've ever done.

Giddy up.
Reese decked out in the blue horse jumpsuit she borrowed from Isla. I think red might just be her color.
Ladies who lunch.
Way to go to the people who ran the 5K on Saturday. (not pictured, the people who stayed home and ate Entenmann's coffee cake.)
Reese has met a lot of people lately...including Megan. (who looks like a movie star in this picture i think!)
Ok, not the best picture, but do you see the smile??!!
Reese cuddling with Christina for the first time.
We went to Detroit for Isla's first birthday party last weekend...and I had to take a picture of the margarita cupcakes. Maybe the cutest thing ever. It was a luau like no other.
Aunt Ann came to visit last week and I was HORRIBLE at picture taking!! We loved having her here and I'm sad I did so poorly at documenting it.
She bought the girls these ridiculously cute tutus and matching shirts. Kaiya even kept a bow in for a world record 29 seconds.
Meeting Uncle Greg for the first time!
And Uncle Dave.
And in conclusion to this completely uncohesive compilation: Ava's new favorite thing is anytime Aunt Lindy comes over asking to go home to her house. She wins sometimes...and I thought they looked so cute walking back down the street to Melinda's. :)

one, two, THREE!

It seems like this is what I was doing on April 23 just yesterday. But it turns out it was 3 years ago.

Happy Birthday AVA!!!!! We are so excited, still, that God picked us to be your parents.

Her birthday started out like any good day should, with donuts.
This picture cracks me up. Not too many of the 3 of them yet, so I'll take it!
Of course a pink donut is the only donut that will do these days.
Kaiya was happy to be along for the ride.
I feel the same about refined carbs, my love.
Then on to the zoo. Thankfully she was born before the summer rates start so it was a real bargain. (if you don't mind hearing bulldozers over the monkeys.)



Getting cleaned up for her big birthday dinner. *

*note sarcasm. chicken nuggets and applesauce.

And a pink cake. (I have never, ever, mentioned pink to her. Amazing how innate the love for that color is.) For some reason, Ava was terribly frightened of the birthday song. We're still not sure why and hoping she recovers.
Calming down a little!
One of her parents felt like she should be able to eat right off the cake. I won't say which one.
What 3 year old doesn't need their own pizza stone?! What a great gift from Uncle Dave and Auntie Nin.
My Mom and Dad got her this sweet set up.
Hmmm. Not exactly what it was intended for, but we didn't make her get out until after we had taken a picture.

A wonderful day. A wonderful three years! Thank you God for our precious girl!

Silver shoes, garbage bags, and the ice cream truck

I have some silver shoes that I wear all the time, so I couldn't resist grabbing some for Ava on a recent browse through Target. Then one day I realized we were inadvertently twins from head to toe. Except that she looks way better without makeup.

Mark let me sleep til 11 last Sunday, and when your husband does really nice stuff like that you don't tell him how scary it is to see pictures like this that were taken while you were sleeping. :)

It's amazing how kids are often in love with things besides toys. Our friend Andrew took the time to share with the girls some of the finer things in life. Expensive things, like garbage bags. We'll call it summer sledding.

While I have been trying to keep our kids in the dark about the ice cream man, Mark is clearly the nicer parent. Two bucks and one SpongeBob bar later. (They don't even know who that is...but who really cares when you're talking about sugar and gum ball eyes)


Nicer Parent relaxing with Reese
I love how Sheriff is in this picture too. :)
And in conclusion.....the reason we will have to spend 4 bucks on the ice cream man next summer. :)

The Hired Help

So Melinda, my local sister, got this crazy idea that she should go on Spring Break with her family since her oldest is a senior this year. Clearly she did not think about the fact that I would have a 3 week old baby and two other kids who can't button their pants while she was sunning herself in the lap of luxury.

Thankfully, the Lord richly blessed me with TWO amazing sisters, and Laurel was quick to jump on the calendar for those days, even though it meant not getting to see Melinda, and a fair amount of slave labor. I'm so thankful my girls have sisters to hopefully do the same for them one day!

(Totally kidding of course..we were DYING for Laurel to come, and couldn't be happier that Melinda got a sunny vacation with her family!!)

She was kind enough to take pictures of Mark and I looking like this was our first baby. And like we don't shower much. (one of those statements is true)

But we let her hold this little peanut a lot, too.
Ava and Kaiya love, LOVE Aunt Lolly. They had more candy, donuts, and book reading than any child should have in one 5 day period.

We figured we would take one shot of the two of us at midnight on her last night here!
After she took this she said, you may never know which baby that was, so we took a second version with a little hint to ourselves.
We miss you Laur!!! Come back soon!

I haven't slept more than 2 hours straight and Acute Mullet Blindness (Alternately titled: Happy 1 month Birthday Reese! and Easter.)

She has been with us for 4 weeks already! I have never been happier. Such a joy to have three cute little girls in my house every day. :)

We spent Easter with Mark's family...and Ava and Kaiya got to play with their beautiful some kind of cousins. (2nd? Once removed?) Who cares, they were precious together and they are related somehow!
I really stink at Easter pictures. I have never taken a family Easter picture..and this year we didn't take the girls to church with us (we went!). These are our special Easter photos. In the car.

Ava and Adalia.
Uncle Dave and Aunt Barb..some of my local parent/grandparent/aunt and uncle. We looked like a nice little bundle of Easter color. :)
The beautiful photo of all the great grandkids present with Grandma and Grandpa.
And just the girls. Ava was so excited.

And now we come to the opinion portion. Why is it that parents, especially of girls, are just blind to the mullet. I'm trying to be very self aware here. I feel like because it's curly, it's a little different story. But I see the writing on the wall. It's still a mullet.

Business in the front.
Party in the back.
Tell me to cut it off. It will be easier coming from you. And then if it backfires, I won't have just myself to blame. Thanks.