Wednesday, May 19, 2010

She’s all done!

Mikayla is all done with preschool.  Today was her last day.  Tomorrow we will have her graduation.  I can hardly believe that she will start Kindergarten next year.  She is growing up so fast – it practically takes my breath away.  100_1848 This is a picture of my little Mikayla, at two years old, on her first day of preschool.  I love how purely excited she looks.  I remember how confident she was.  She got out of the car, gave me one little look of brief apprehension, then turned around and walked into school.  She has always been so sure of herself.  IMG_0008

This is a picture of Mikayla, my big five year old, on her very last day of preschool.  She is still the same confident and sweet little girl that she was on that very first day.IMG_0009 The hard her end of year party today.  They started out the party with some yummy food. IMG_0014And then they set up some water games outside and just let the kids run wild.  If you notice, Gavin is there in the background.  They were kind enough to let him in on the fun, too.IMG_0016

Mikayla had a lot of fun playing with her friends.  Here she is with one of her friends, Ruth.  They are soaking some water balls to throw at people.IMG_0017 This is Mikayla with Kylie, another one of her little friends.IMG_0018  The girls had fun warming up by making some chalk drawings on the driveway.IMG_0001

I also thought I would share a pic of our teachers’ gifts for the year.  I saw this on the TipJunkie website and thought it was a great idea.  I was really pleased with how they turned out.

Tomorrow evening, is Mikayla’s preschool graduation.  I’ll be sure to pack lots of Kleenex and take lots of pictures to share! :)

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Mother’s Day Tea

Today, Mikayla’s preschool class hosted a Mother’s Day Tea Party.  I had such a great time with her!

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Despite the look in this picture, she was actually happy to see me.  This was at the end of the event and, as you can see, she was less than thrilled that I was leaving so that she could finish out her school day. (She ended up being glad in the end, though – mommy knows best!)  IMG_5045

When we arrived, her teacher took a picture of us (see, she is happy!) and then we went and decorated a picture frame together.  They printed out the pictures during the event and we were able to take them home with us afterwards.   I think it turned out pretty cute! IMG_5046  She also made me this beautiful jewelry box.  On the side of the box, are flowers made with their finger prints.  I just love it!

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They also took the time to write these little blurbs about us.  Some of them were so funny!  I thought Mikayla’s was so sweet.  I am a little bothered, though, that she thinks I have brown hair! ;)  IMG_5038

After I picked Mikayla up from school, we went to lunch at Steak and Shake.  After that we went to WalMart and picked out some flowers for us to plant together.  That is on the agenda for tomorrow, so I will have to share that with you at a later time. 

I love these special events and times that I get to share with my children.  They are so precious to me and I love them so much!

Monday, May 03, 2010

Trip to Utah

Mikayla and I just returned from a fun-filled week in Utah.  We went out to see my youngest sister, Laura and her husband, Chris, graduate from Brigham Young University. IMG_4836

We left around 11:30 on Tuesday.  We rode Marta down to the airport, which Mikayla just loved.  As you can see she was very excited to try out all of her travel gear early!IMG_4838 This is a picture of us starting out!   I was just as excited as her to be spending a week together.  I really enjoyed getting to have a little one on one time with my sweet girl.IMG_4839

This is a picture of Mikayla on the airplane with the snow capped mountains behind her.  She was amazed at how big they were. IMG_4841 When we arrived in Salt Lake, Mikayla was pretty insistent about carrying her own suitcase.   As you can imagine, that didn’t last very long, though.  ;)

On Wednesday, Mikayla and I went to have a play date with some friends of mine.  Sadly, I have no pictures of that event.  We all had so much fun talking with each other, that we didn’t even think to pull out a camera.  I had a great time spending time with them, though.  After that,  I drove down to Provo and had dinner with parents, sister and brother in law. IMG_4845 My dad took us all out to dinner at the famous BYU Creamery on 9th.   Their dairy products are literally about as fresh as you can get (seeing as how their cows are local).  They have the BEST ice cream.   Another bonus,  their meals are super cheap.  We were able to a get a cheeseburger kids meal that came with a very ample sized cheeseburger, a serving of fries, a soft drink and a cup of ice cream for $3.29.  My dad fed all of us for $21!  We were all very full afterwards, too!

IMG_4848On Thursday, we went to the University Commencement Exercises for these two fine graduates.     IMG_4863  I was even able to catch a sweet picture of Mikayla.  We were so grateful that the weather was nice.  They had forecasted rain all day, but we had bright, sunny weather.  It was a little cool and breezy, but we really didn’t mind. IMG_4873 This is Mikayla and I during the graduation.  Thanks to my Ipod, headphones and a downloaded movie, Mikayla did really great.  The commencement exercises  lasted around 3  hours, when you factor in all of the time that we spent in our seats prior to the actual exercises starting.

On Friday, we had the complete antithesis of our great weather the previous day.  We woke up to a snow/rain mix.  It was rainy, windy and COLD.  On Friday, Laura and Chris had their specific college graduations.  Thankfully, since BYU has so many married couples that graduate together, they let spouses go to the same graduation ceremony even if they didn’t graduate from that specific program.  I don’t think the kids would have survived through two ceremonies!  They did great for the one we attended, but I guarantee that wouldn’t have lasted long.IMG_4885

My sister and my nephew also made the trip for the graduation so I got to spend some time with this cute little boy, too.  When my camera takes a picture it puts out a red light just before the picture snaps.  Andrew LOVES that light.  Every time I take a picture of him, he gets this precious, goofy smile on his face.  I just love it!Grad PartyLater that evening, we had a graduation celebratory dinner for Laura and Chris.  My brother and his girlfriend, Kim recently moved to Utah, so this was the first time since last Thanksgiving that we were all together.  It was so nice to all be together. 

Another wonderful thing about our visit to Utah, was the opportunity Mikayla and I had to spend with my cousin, Michelle and her family.  Michelle and her husband Jeff, were kind enough to let us stay at their home.  She has two sweet little girls, Maddy and Libby.  Mikayla had a great time playing with them.

On Saturday, we headed to Thanksgiving Point.  They were having a Tulip Festival that we intended to go to, but when we saw the crazy crowds, we decided to change our plans a little.  They have a Farm Days exhibit there that I just knew Mikayla would have a great time at.  IMG_4897

They got to pet lots of different animals, which Mikayla loved.  She is so natural with animals. IMG_4900 I thought this picture was too cute not to post.  On Mikayla’s right is Libby.  She is two and a very good talker.  When Mikayla first met her, she ran to me and said, “Mom, Libby is two and she speaks our language!” (As opposed to Gavin, who apparently doesn’t…refer to my previous post labeled “Gavinese").  Maddy is on Mikayla’s left.  She is four and her and Mikayla had a great time together.IMG_4901 At this place, Mikayla got to ride on a cow train that was pulled by a tractor.IMG_4909

She also got to ride a pony and thankfully (after I stood in line for about 30 minutes), she had a great time.

Later that night, Mikayla and I headed back down to Provo to see Lollie and Chris.  Laura and Chris took us up to the “Y” ( A big Y, for BYU, that is on the side of a mountain).  Mikayla thought it was really neat to be up on the side of a mountain and see the whole city in front of her.  I was a little freaked out about being up so high with no fence to keep us from going down the hill.   I don’t mind height, generally, but when I am with my five year old that doesn’t always listen very well, it was a little nerve-wracking.  Despite all of that, it was a great site to see and I am glad we went. Y

On Sunday, Mikayla and I met Laura and Chris after church, and we headed up to Salt Lake to visit Temple Square.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day.IMG_4914 A picture of the Salt Lake temple.

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I love how this picture of Mikayla turned out.  It is so hard to get her to sit still and give a sweet smile for a picture.  She is my busy little one!IMG_4921 I had a great time with my little girl!IMG_4929

The tulip gardens at Temple Square are just gorgeous!  IMG_4938

We also went in to The Tabernacle.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs here every Sunday morning for The Music and the Spoken Word.  Mikayla was pretty impressed with the big pipes of the organ.

After visiting Temple Square, Mikayla and I went Dan and Kim’s apartment to stay the night before we left on Monday morning.  Dan and Kim treated us to some VERY good homemade pizza for dinner (Dan used to work at Mellow Mushroom) and some movies.

Dan and Kim live right across the street from a great park, so Monday morning we walked over there.IMG_4951 IMG_4959 Mikayla got to feed the ducks and geese.  The were lots of baby ducklings and goslings which Mikayla really enjoyed seeing.IMG_4962

 IMG_4983  Mikayla had a great time playing with Kim and Daniel at the playground. 

We left straight from Dan and Kim’s to go to the airport.  We had a long day of flying which included four hours in an airplane and a three hour layover in the Dallas airport.  We got back to Atlanta at 11:30 pm, and when we landed Mikayla was passed out! (I plead the fifth as to whether Benadryl helped with this at all)  She would not wake up and I had to carry her and our bags through the airport to where Jeremy was picking us up.  I thankfully had a kind stranger that helped get our bags off of the baggage carousel.

IMG_4993 At one point though, I had to get lay her down so that I could hook our suitcases together so that I could manage my way through the airport.  She didn’t even budge.   Finally after struggling to get through (with several airport workers looking at me not offering any help!), I finally had to make her walk.  I was basically leading a sleep walker.   She only woke up once she saw her daddy.

Well, sorry for the ultra long post, but as you can see we were very busy and had a great time in Utah.