Fun Fridays!

I guess the title of this post should really be “Furlough Fridays” but something that seemed like it was going to be so horrible actually ended up being pretty awesome!  In fact, I almost cried when they cancelled the furlough.  Lets just say that yes while the pay cut was NOT fun, I thoroughly enjoyed having every Friday off for 6 weeks.

And here’s the proof:

One Friday Alan took off with me so we could have a date day!  This was totally his idea and he even planned (gasp!) on where he would take me.

 

 

We got on the motorcycle and had a lunch date at Vera’s in Solomon’s Island.  It was the perfect little outing, got some sun on my arms, and got back in time to pick our kids up!

Another Friday Yaya got us tickets to go see the Disney Junior Live show!  It was the Jake & the Neverland Pirates and Sofia the First Pirate & Princess Summer Show, and we had 2 VERY excited kids!  Me & Yaya loaded them up and had a blast spending that Friday doing something so special to them!

  

   

The kids got to have their fun outing and next it was Mommy’s turn!  On my very last ever furlough Friday I left for the Women of Faith conference with some of my best girl friends and had an awesome inspirational weekend! 

It’s so nice being with friends doing something so positive and experiencing that together.

Some highlights of the conference were hearing Cece Winans sing!

Watching Third Day play!!

And of course, our best moment was meeting Angie Smith!  We have read her blog for  years now, her books too, so hearing her speak at the conference and then meeting her in person was SO COOL!

So now it’s back to work on Friday’s for me and here I am on my first one back sitting at my desk blogging, reminiscing, oh how I miss you furlough friday’s!  My next paycheck will surely be thankful that it is over though!  Shew.

Happy All the Time!

Yes, we are happy ALL the time…EXCEPT when my brother/sister looks at me, touches me, or tries to steal the show! Other than that, we are happy ALL the time! ;-)

Big Girl Bed

I love this milestone!  I don’t know what it is about moving the baby out of their crib and into a big bed that makes me so excited!  We moved Ryder when he turned 2 so we followed suit with Maisy.  It’s always a little nerve wracking because you just don’t know if they’re ready until you actually do it, but we went for it and all went well!

We had to take the crib apart to get that out of her room before we could put the bed together!  I say WE as if I had anything to do with it, have I mentioned how much I love my husband?!  Oh wait, he did have one little helper! 

 

Okay so maybe it would have gone a little faster if the “helper” did a little less “helping” but…after hours of taking things apart and putting things together, he couldn’t wait to be the first to lay on the bed!

It wasn’t long before the crazies came in ready to test out the bed…and by that I mean jump on it!

And then it was officially time to spend her first night ever in her first big girl bed.  She wasn’t scared, until brother said “Don’t be scared Maisy!”.  Then she realized that yeah, this is a little scary.  She wanted me to stay and lay with her, and got upset when I left.  So I sent Daddy, aka the Maisy Whisperer, in to talk to his girl and after a few minutes I heard “okay daddy, night night, I love you so much” over the monitor, her bedroom door shut, and that was that!

     

Night 1 was a success.  Night 2 brother wanted to sleep with her, so I found them like this when I went in to wake them up!

Little cuties!  So glad our big girl loves her big girl bed :)

Camp Out!

So I don’t know if you remember our camping trip from LAST YEAR but a huge storm came that prevented us from actually camping after our float trip down the river.  This year, another big storm came!  This one flooded the river, so we couldn’t do our float trip, but the rain stopped and we were able to spend the weekend camping as planned.  One of these years we’re going to be able to do both!

We had a great time hanging out at the campsite.  It was a good reminder that we don’t always have to have something planned.  We can actually have fun doing nothing!  The kids played and played and played!

 

 

                

There was hair brading!

Watermelon Eating!

Homemade Swinging!

Slipping & Sliding!

Sparklers!

Campfire & S’mores!

Stories about bigfoot!

And lots of hanging out with family and good friends!  We had a great camping trip and can’t wait to go again.  I love that Ryder is able to enjoy this with us, soon we’ll be bringing Maisy along too!  (Don’t feel sad for her that she didn’t get to join in on the fun, she went to Kings Dominion with Aunt Jess & Sydney, so girlfriend had a weekend full of action as well!)

Maisy’s 2nd Birthday Celebrations

Maisy’s Birthday weekend started on Saturday with a get together at Me-mew’s house to celebrate her & her cousin Samuel’s birthdays!

 

There were water guns and bubbles, Daddy’s taking care of babies,

my favorite Matteson expressions!

Friends!

We sang Happy Birthday…

And then there was a meltdown!  Apparently someone does NOT like being the center of attention

She bounced back quickly though in just enough time to blow out her candle, make a wish, and stuff her face!

Everyone joined in on that yumminess!

 

Then it was present time and she loved all her fun stuff!  Especially all her Bubble Guppies and Princess goodies!

A party that ends with a pool full of people in their underwear HAD to have been a good time, right?!

(look at these little love taps going on!)

 

The Birthday girl had a great day and we all had fun celebrating her!!

Sunday we had another birthday celebration for her, a lunch at Yaya’s house!  Yaya wanted to treat her girl to a princess party!

She loved being treated like a princess, but unfortunately I think it went to her head a little!

 

She had another “moment” when we sang to her, this really opened my eyes to the fact that she is just like her Daddy in this aspect!

Mommy & Brother came to her rescue to take some of the attention off of her and get her through the rest of the song!  (or maybe we all just sing really bad?!)

Okay, I know this is crazy, but Maisy got her own ipad mini from Yaya & Paw-Paw.  Brother has one and she absolutely loves playing on it.  She’s great with the puzzles and there are so many learning apps out there, that we figured we could stop all the wars going on in our house and just get her one.  She was one happy little birthday princess, that’s for sure!

And waiting outside for her was her very own Princess Cruiser!  What a little Diva, Ryder was driving her around because she would not let go of the ipad, in fear that it wouldn’t really be her own anymore!

Ryder pinning the tail on the donkey, no he’s not cheating at all!

      

Aunt Jess knew that Maisy needed some quiet time, so the princess got a nice long wagon ride to unwind!

 

Monday was her actual birthday, so she had cupcakes at Nana’s during the day and got to pick her birthday dinner that evening.  She wanted Macaroni & Cheese and fruit snacks!

 

And Daddy gave her one last present!

I love celebrating this little girl!  As hard as I know the 2nd year of her life will be, I wouldn’t trade a single moment.