Continue to Pray for Avery

My friend Carissa had her baby girl today! I blogged about her story a few weeks ago and you can follow her story here:

http://keepingupwiththekeirseys.blogspot.com

Keep praying for them as they go through these first few days.

Dear Parker Michael Thomas,

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!!!! I love you so much and am so proud to be your Aunt Coco. You can't understand yet how much joy and happiness you bring to our family. As you grow up you will also find out what an awesome mommy and daddy you have.

No matter what Mommy says, I think it's kinda funny how determined you are to get your way. It shows great promise when you hit the terrible twos at 6 months old. By the time you start Kindergarten you should be doing fractions.

Also, Mommy gets a little worried about letting you have candy. If she ever refuses you candy please call me so I can explain the fact that she lived off gummy peaches and sour patch kids for a few years.

Your big cousins Regan and Riley are very excited for your birthday. We have picked out no less than 30 different present ideas for you. You will be very happy with our final choice and so will Mommy. But, tell her it's yours and she needs to let YOU play with it. You could share if she's nice.

It's going to be so fun watching you continue to grow. You are such a big boy now and have a new trick every time I see you. I think my favorite new trick is how you tell yourself "No" when you know you shouldn't be doing whatever it is you're doing.

Like this picture above, Coco will be less scared than Mommy to let you do the "scary" things in life. For example, play in the Mall playground or swim at the Jones Center. When you are ready for the big jump give me a call, but don't tell Mommy because she would KILL us! I think I had to just grab you and put you in the swimming pool.You LOVED it! Mommy only had 4 panic attacks.

I think these next few months Mommy is going to be kind of tired from your lack of sleeping and chasing you around. You might just pick one day a week to take it easy. You know, only eat something off the floor maybe a couple of times or if you pull off the entire roll of toilet paper, just put it in the toilet. Not the bathtub.

I have decided that I really don't care if I am called a Baby Hog because I love you to pieces and can't get enough. I can't wait to watch you grow even more over this next year. Hope you have a Happy 1st Birthday!

Belated Birthdays

May is birthday month in our family! I decided instead of several posts I would just do one to cover them all. We start with Kari Beth, my sister in law whose birthday is the 3rd. Kari and Aaron are a perfect match and always hilarious! I am totally jealous of her ability to make the same clothes I would want to wear look WAY better.

Holly and Kari today at Mother's Day Celebration

Here are the girls with Kari at their wedding. The wedding was so fun and personal. And she had really cute flower girls. :)

Next comes my little brother Aaron whose birthday is the 5th. Aaron is so smart and talented. He is the only guy I know who can out shop all three of his sisters. Happy 28th little brother!

Next is Holly "the middle child". Ha! Her birthday is actually today. Holly is my style and decorating consultant. I am the non-artsy one in the family and I turn to her for help. By the picture below you can tell she has always had a love for accessories. She is always fun and positive to offset me. :)Holly is a great mom, sister, and constant source of entertainment.

This Tuesday (the 12th) is a VERY SPECIAL family birthday that will require its own post with many, many pictures. You will not want to miss the newest May birthday of the family. Please note: Kari, Holly and Whitney try not not have any future babies in May :)

Away from the birthday theme, I must congratulate the "baby" of the family for graduating from the U of A on Saturday! This fall she will start the MAT program 8 years after me! Yeah, Whitney!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, but especially to mine! Despite the fact that I have pictures to develop all the way back to last August (gasp), I could not find one of mom by herself. So here's the best one I could find of the parents! Happy Mother's Day MOM! Thanks for letting me call you with my daily "quick questions" and for usually having the answer.

Here's all the girls last Thanksgiving. (Whitney, Mom, Holly, Me)

Also, Happy Mother's Day to my little sis Holly! Last year she had Parker 2 days after Mother's Day! She is such a great mom and definitely keeps me laughing with all her stories. Parker is proof that boys are different than girls. I can't help, but laugh sometimes! However, I am the one who will have TWO 13 yr old girls at the same time! Please start praying for me now.

Speaking of the cuties.....I am so blessed to be the mom of two perfectly healthy, happy and sweet girls. I feel grateful to be their mom every day. I love you Regan and Riley. Being your mom makes me the happiest I have ever been.

Are you ready for....

Hannah Montana!!!!!

Well, I finally took the girls and it was so worth it! It was actually a very cute movie. I was pleasantly surprised. The show is a little much for me to handle so I thought the movie would be the same. I was wrong! When Regan had to go to the bathroom I talked her into waiting so I could find out if Hannah was really going to tell everyone she was Miley. Such drama! You may have to go see the movie to find out!

We sang all the songs out loud because only 5 other people there. Since we've had the soundtrack for a few weeks it made them so excited and they would say, "That's number 5!" or "It's Taylor Swift and it's called Crazier". So funny! Then we came home to the soundtrack blasted on the karaoke machine until 9PM. Breaks only for dinner and bath. Our empty room upstairs has been named the karaoke room since it's the only thing in the room right now. :)

The girls are continuing to chose their outfits quite well. I must say they look pretty darn cute in their Hannah shirts. The best thing is to see how COMPLETELY different their choices are when they are all ready to go. Riley insisted on the boots and braids. I will admit that at first she chose jeans and I suggested the skirt to show the boots off better. Regan also added the boogie board to her shoot just for a dramatic statement.

I took these pictures as we left for our girls day!

Singin' and Dancin'

Whew! Last week was crazy! I am a BIG homebody so not being home much just makes me tired! Sad, I know. Last Sunday night the girls sang with the FBC Springdale Children's Choir. They were so excited to be on stage and wanted everyone to watch them. This is the first year they participated in choir and they really enjoyed it.

I went and took pictures before they sang, but I don't have any of them actually singing. I had the video camera and just assumed the camera Jason had was OURS, but it was not so I have no singing pics. Oh well!


Daddy's girl.

Then last Friday was their dance recital! They were SO excited to wear makeup. They asked me all day if it was time for make up! It was so cute and a little scary at the same time. I have never put make up on them like this and they look so big!





The girls with their friend Macy. They have choir, dance and gymnastics with Macy and they just giggle the whole time they are together. It's very cute.

Flowers from Daddy for such a great job!

More of the same...

Just needed to finish Easter photos and add a little more to catch up!

Here are the girls ready to dye eggs! So excited!

Working hard...serious business.

Both of them were so proud! I didn't take pictures of the glitter eggs because they had run off as soon as they were done and I was cleaning up the glitter.



Easter morning in our Spongebob pajamas! The girls got 5 Easter baskets and lots and lots of goodies in each. Their favorite thing was hunting for eggs the Easter bunny had hidden throughout the house. They were running around screaming every time one of them found one. They were very cute! The night before we put an empty basket out for the Easter bunny to fill complete with the exact same eggs so that we could know that they each had the exact same things. Riley was concerned that she would find a pink one and Regan might not have a pink one..... and on and on.

Easter morning photo with Daddy. Okay, the pictures of me with the girls were so unflattering that I could not post them. I will keep them on the computer, but they are not for anyone else to see, ever.

Today at the mall the girls were just being silly and posing for the camera. They are both wearing their new headbands they picked out yesterday.


Parker was too busy eating his apple to pose, but he is still the cutest baby ever! And he loves his Aunt Coco!