Our little sunshine

She's ONE! And has been for almost a month now...but we're going to need to be cut some slack on this one. Since June started we have sold our house, bought a new one, celebrated this little lady turning one, drove to and from Nebraska, moved...get the picture?? It's been crazy!! But back to the subject at hand. Our sweet girl isn't "zero" anymore as her brother says. As crazy as life was, we did want to make sure and celebrate her and the joy she has brought into our lives. She is such a little ray of sunshine -- hence the theme of the day. :) As guests arrived they were greeted by the lemonade stand, which was usually being manned by one of the big kids to provide a drink and a snack. It's easy to build a lemonade stand when you have so many boxes laying around...:)

The lemonade stand was quite the hit throughout the day -- with the kids of all ages. Bellamy pulled up in her new birthday car for a little snack...

Thanks for my new car Aunt Melissa and Uncle Chris! I love it!

A little sunshine at the snack table...

And of course lemonade and "ice cream" cupcakes to complete the day...

Checking out the cake...and not so sure what to think about it.

After investigating her cake for a few moments Bellamy was not interested in sitting in front of it anymore. As soon as she was out of her seat this is where she headed...

Apparently Will's tradition of never being in a shirt in a birthday picture is translating over to his sister's birthday's too...

Happy Birthday sunshine!

Sweet girl

Our lives have been pretty hectic the last few weeks for a variety of reasons, so I thought it was the perfect moment to showcase the little one that has brightened so many days lately. These are just a few pics from the month of May -- the last time that her age will be measured solely by months -- our sweet girl will be one in just a few short weeks!

Who, me? I didn't do anything, I swear...

Such a showcase of who she is -- she has pulled everything off every surface around her but sees a camera, so it's time to pose in the midst of the mess!

The perfect picture of a summer to come...belly up to some watermelon, enjoying a little backyard time with friends.

I'll take that, thanks...

Love you, sweet girl!

Block party

Will is 4!! And loving every minute of it, I might add. For his birthday party he wanted to feature his new obsession - Legos! Who knew when we introduced him to them at Christmas that it would turn into such a staple at our house?? So...the problem with him being 4 is that he had some very specific instructions on how this whole thing was going to go down. Since his birthday was on a Sunday, he insisted that we HAD to take cupcakes to his Sunday school class. So here was birthday celebration part one with the fabulous cupcakes. Lego decorated, of course. :)

Lego theme obviously had to have some great Lego food! In addition to the cake we made sure everything stayed in the lego shapes with cheese cubes, mini lego shaped crackers, lego fruit, and some rectangle cut veggies.

A closer look at the cake. So fun to design and attempt! :)

A closer look at my personal fav, the Lego fruit. So fun!

Another request from the birthday boy? Pizza! One of his favorite things to do right now is cook, and he loves to make his own pizza and thought his friends would want to as well. So it was pizza making for everyone -- Lego shaped crust, of course!

Party hats were also an absolute requirement, which is pretty hilarious considering that Will is the kid at every party that refuses to wear one himself. And he had specific rules as to when it was appropriate to wear them too -- which was clearly at the cake cutting, birthday song singing moment.

The birthday request that took me completely off guard? A close second to party hats, party games! What? Mr. Let's never make a big deal or commotion out of anything?? But hey, we aim to please on birthdays around here, so games it was! The crowd pleaser was definitely "I spy the Lego guy" and every party guest got to find a Lego guy and turn him in for a prize.

Someday we will get a birthday picture and Will will be dressed. Early May birthday = beginning of pool friendly weather = little guy rarely in a shirt on the weekends. Oh well...we'll keep him anyway. A quick shot with Mom and Dad in the middle of a great day...

Will and Elyse...they really love each other so much and are so fun to watch grow up together. Every year for Will's birthday we have hot dog dinner with the Simmons clan and even though we had celebrated all day we couldn't skip the tradition. I can't wait to see the adventures they share and pray they love each other even half this much for all their birthdays to come...

He's 4! Love you big guy. I can't wait to see who you become in the next year.

Strawberries!

I love to go strawberry picking! I remember going as a kid and have loved starting the tradition in our house. I was afraid we weren't going to make it this year because it seemed like it was either hectic or raining every weekend. But yay! We made it and Will had a blast. Of course he said, "Mommy, this is like farming!" which pretty much made it the best way to spend a Saturday morning ever. :) Thanks to Miss Carol:), Bellamy was appropriately dressed for the day in her adorable strawberry outfit. She even kept the hat on all morning -- which made for some great strawberry patch pics. Our sweet girl...

Hanging out at the strawberry farm...

Watching Grandma and Will pick berries

Having Grandma in town was an added bonus to our strawberry excursion - she and Will picked a ton of strawberries! Thanks to them we've had strawberry jam, strawberry muffins, and plenty of just plain old strawberries for the eating!

Will loving his chance at farming!

Never gonna miss a chance to ride a tractor -- even if it isn't green. :)

And of course we have to introduce the little lady to the world of tractors. She looks like a natural, doesn't she?

Can't wait until next year!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! We had a fabulous weekend here -- the weather was perfect, we had some great friend time, and there was egg hunting-springtime fun for all. :)

Here's a little of what we were up to...

Egg hunting! Will had a spring party and egg hunting at school, and then we all went to the egg hunt at the church on Saturday. Here's Will looking very festive and egg hunt ready...



It's hard to believe that next year we will also be chasing this one around the egg hunt! But for now she is quite content hanging with Daddy.



Here is one of many hilarious attempts at taking a picture of four little people all at the same time!



It wouldn't be Easter weekend without a little egg dyeing, of course. This year we tried using Kool-aid as our dye -- and it worked amazingly well! I saw it on Pinterest and thought we would give it a shot. And it totally worked! It smelled great and Todd said it was a little shout out to Nebraska, the birthplace of Kool-aid. :)



Not quite ready to participate in the egg decorating, but she'll certainly hang out at the table with a good snack and watch the entertainment. :)



Gotta say, I think these two little ones are pretty darn cute. And their incredible affection for each other is not so bad to watch either. It isn't super obvious from this picture, but Bellamy shakes with excitement every time Will gets anywhere near her. And she lets out a special little squeal reserved just for him when he leans in to hug and kiss her. I wish I could bottle it and get it out every time they scream at each other as teenagers. :)



I love this one of Will and Elyse -- they look so grown up. Sharing a moment just the two of them...



More Easter egg hunting! Will decided he had to use a different basket for each one...and clearly the Halloween spider had to be one of them. I was informed that spiders attend Easter in Central Mexico, so obviously we had to include one in our festivities.



One more of our little lady.



Yay! Spring is officially here!

Long overdue

Another month snuck right past me! Well anyway....

Of course the big news of March is always the rodeo -- which may be Will's favorite time of the year. I really think he is more excited for the arrival of the rodeo than he is Christmas...so there was a plethora of picture taking, but we will try and limit the craziness here. :)

One of the best parts of going to the rodeo with little ones is watching the mutton busting. Nothing like watching little kids attempt to ride sheep...and always falling off. Will is so excited to do it himself, but you have to be 5. Here he is trying to pick up some tips...



Just a little bonding time with a few of his friends...



Gotta check out the tractor! He looks like such a natural climbing up there. :)



Pony rides! He was SO happy -- we had a few people comment to us how natural he looked. Where the heck are we going to put a horse??:)



My guys. Enough said. :)



During spring break we had double excited -- it was the rodeo, but it was also AJ time! My sister came down to spend the week with us and Will was SO happy to have her here. I think she had to go home to get some rest from her vacation, but we did love our AJ time.

Hanging out at the park...



What is this stuff? And why did mom sit me in it??



I love this one because of Will's expression -- it showcases just how much he adores his baby sister. And how the world may want to look out for her. :)



Hey there bright eyes! Our big 9 month old sweet girl!



This past weekend I had to go to Dallas with a group of students from school, so we decided to make it a little mini-vacay for all of us. While we were there we took Will to the Lego Discovery Center since that is the new obsession around here. Uncle Eric met us there and we had a morning of crazy Lego fun!

Poor B and the curse of the 2nd child. She was sooooo tired, but was a trooper while Will had his Lego day. Here's an attempt at a pic of the two of them.



Yeah, this is great...



But I'm having a GREAT time!



Our other big adventure in Dallas was the Dallas World Aquarium. It was such a cool place! I'm really not sure which Will loved more...Legos? The rainforest? Jeez, tough call.

A huge bonus at the Aquarium was the bird feeding. They give you a blueberry to hold in your hand and the birds just come and snack right out of your hand. Of course we had to check that out a few times...



Matching a flamingo? Doesn't get much better.



So there it is, another month gone by!