Big day!

Today was a big day for us - Kendall got her library card! She loves to go to the library after school on Tuesdays. Cooper and her enjoy picking out books, doing puppet shows, working puzzles, and picking movies. She was pretty pumped today when I asked her if she wanted to get her own card!

 She is already taking very good care of it. :)

We're still counting down to her birthday...4 days left until she is 4 on the 4th!

Only one more week!

Is it really true

 that in just one week

 this precious girl

 will no longer

 be three???!!!

We are less than a week away from Kendall's 4th birthday...4 on the 4th! We can't believe how big she is getting and how much she has been changing, even just over the past few weeks. She's very excited about her "rainbow unicorn" party, and even more excited that her Daddy told her that when she turns four she can take dance classes! We are excited about her being four, too, but are ready to soak up one more week of her being three!

Gergie in Brazil!

I've written before about our friend (brother-in-law-in-law?) Greg Johnson who is serving as a Journeyman in Brazil in a community on the Amazon. He was back in the big city of Manaus, and Jan, Kevin, Alden, and Scott were able to fly down and spend the week with him! They have been having a great time and we have enjoyed seeing all their pictures.

While they were out of town, we told Jeff we wanted to have him over for dinner. He wasn't able to go on the trip because he coaches basketball at the high school. When he came over he told us that Greg was planning to get on Skype so that we would all be able to talk to him! Kendall was super excited about this. She loves Greg (Gergie) so much and still talks about him all the time. He has been in Brazil for months. In fact, just yesterday morning, we were driving to school and she said, "Mom, every day after we have center time we have prayer time and today I'm going to say that we should pray for Gergie." I love her sweet heart and I love that she remembers things like that!

So she was very excited to get to talk to him and see him! He was so sweet to listen to all her stories and watch her bring lots of stuff to the computer to show him. He even told her some stories about animals he has seen and about telling people about Jesus!

Cooper was able to see him, too. And Kendall brought her princess puppet out to show him. Before Jan left, she had Kendall record a video on Randy's phone and then we texted it to her so that she could show Greg. She did a puppet show for him. :)

We love that Jeff shared his Skype time with us and that we were able to talk to Greg and hear some of his amazing stories!

Puppet Show!

We have lots of puppet shows going on these days! I'm loving watching her stories get better and better. She is so funny. This one is where the princess asks her mom for candy after lunch and then the "knight in charming armor" does the same thing. Love how she changes her voice for him! Enjoy!

Time for a haircut

We took Kendall today to get her hair cut! She was very excited to go back to Snip-Its, where she gets a sucker, animal crackers, and a surprise when it's all finished. She loves getting haircuts!

 All finished! We had some layers put in it, hoping to bring out her curls even more. She was most excited to get gold spray glitter in her hair! And now I'm still wearing it all over my clothes...that stuff goes everywhere!

 Beautiful!

Getting Outside!

The weather was so great yesterday that the girls and I were able to spend some time outside playing after their naps! They were both very excited to get outside to play - I think they are ready for spring!

Kendall was so sweet, pushing Cooper in the car and playing with her. She's such a sweet big sister!

Cooper's new thing she is doing this week is running to give hugs! She loves to hug and it is so cute - she runs to us with her arms out...best thing ever!

After we played on the driveway for awhile, we moved to the backyard to play in the house and on the swingset.

Happy girls! Thankful for nice weather!

January so far

We've been back home for a week now and we haven't really been doing a whole lot! Christmas decorations got put away, the house has been cleaned, and we have found a home for all the wonderful Christmas presents we were given! Kendall had school last week on Tuesday and Thursday, but she has had a cough with a low fever the past two days so she didn't go to school today. We've played with all our new Christmas toys, cleaned house, watched movies, and today I went through the girls' closets. It's been a nice, relaxing January so far!

Cooper and Kendall got these Hello Kitty bags in their stockings at Kiki and Pops'. Cooper's favorite thing to do these days is fill up one of the bags with important toys and carry it around on her shoulder. It's so cute and makes her look so big!

 I went away Friday to Saturday with the rest of the staff wives from our church! We got to go to Houston, stay in a nice hotel, shop, and eat and we had a blast. Randy and the girls had fun at home. Saturday was a nice day, so he got the new princess table and chairs out that Gigi and Peeps got the girls for their playhouse. This was the picture I got on my phone (they're inside the playhouse).

 Yesterday Cooper was playing in her room while Randy and I were in the kitchen. I peeked in and noticed her sitting on her bear rug reading. She went through each page and then got up, went to her shelf, got another book, came back to the rug and sat down again. So cute!

 Organizing our bathroom cabinet the other night while the girls were taking a bath, I found this duck robe for Cooper! It's so precious - when I took her in to Randy to show him and have him take her picture, we told her to say cheese but before she could do that, she had to drag her chair over so she could sit in it. She cracks us up!

 Holly, Aaron, Ethan, and Ella moved into their new house in Galveston while we were in New Mexico. We were sad to not be there when they were moving, but we got out to see them as soon as we could last week. Thursday night we drove there for dinner and then walked down to the sea wall so Ethan and Kendall could do a little fishing. I know the picture isn't great, but we are standing on the sea wall, looking at the ocean. We miss them being right around the corner, but so far we've been able to see them a lot!

Sorry these were all pictures from Randy's phone. I haven't used my camera once since we've been home! I finally feel all caught up on blogging, though. Now it's time to get ready for Kendall's 4th birthday! It's coming up so soon!! I hope you're having as great a 2012 so far as we are!

Cousin Pictures!

When we were in Ft. Worth for Thanksgiving, Val and Jeff brought Gracie and Evy over to my Dad and Lisa's house for a little cousins photo session. We wanted to give Mike and Anita  nice canvas picture of all four girls together, but we wanted to surprise them. My dad is great at taking pictures and has a nice camera, so he gladly said he would do it!

We got a lot of great pictures, but ended up using this first one. The canvas turned out great and Randy's parents loved it!

I wanted to put some of the pictures we didn't use on the blog, because there were so many cute ones!

This is the picture we used on our Christmas card.

I love this "W" tree in their yard! We took lots of pictures on it, but there was always someone not looking. :)

Val brought suckers to use as bribery motivation while we were taking pictures. It worked! The girls were all so patient and did a great job!

I love these four cousins!

Graduation Party!

So, Sunday night when we got in from New Mexico, I thought we were going to my Dad and Lisa's to eat dinner with them. We got there and I was totally surprised to find all of my family there, too!! Randy had planned a surprise graduation party for me and I had no idea at all. So much fun!

My mom and David, Dad and Lisa, Mike and Anita, Granny, Grandma and Grandpa, aunt Christie, aunt Donna, Alden and Scott, Maegan, and Val and Jeff and the girls were all there. It was so wonderful to have everyone together and I was very surprised. I finished my Masters in Educational Administration in December and Randy wanted to find a way to celebrate. It was perfect!

We had lots of great food, watched the football game, and I even had cards and presents to open! I am very thankful for all our family, but one thing I am so thankful for is that we can do things like this where we are all together and are able to have fun! I don't take that for granted for sure!!

Kendall, Gracie, Evy, and Cooper had fun getting to play together some more. Gracie loves to give Cooper sweet hugs!

Alden, Mom and me. I love these two!

I am so thankful for my supportive family and especially my supportive husband! The past 18 months have been crazy with schoolwork non-stop and I couldn't have finished without his encouragement. I love my family!