Lake Trip 2012

Once again this year, we enjoyed a few days at the Cuenin's lake house with Chad's family.  They are so generous to share their lake house with us!  Fun was had by all as you can see in the pictures below. 

New blog post below

Flower Girl Debut

Abigail was honored to be a part of cousin Trevor and Jessica's wedding in June.  We had talked about it for a long time, but Mommy and Daddy were still a little worried about how she would behave.  Abigail was thrilled when the time came for her to "practice" on Friday night and to "throw the flowers" on Saturday.  She was pretty hesitant come game time on Saturday, but am happy to report she made it down the aisle having thrown maybe 2 petals along the way.  I am so excited to see the professional pictures Jessica's photographer took, but here are a few of my amateur ones from the celebration:

Friday night rehearsal. Being sweet with co-flower girl Savannah.

Pictures with the bride and groom. Abigail thought Jessica looked like Barbie!

Pictures with Gumby were a hoot and got these flower girls giggling.  

Goofing off at the reception with Aunt B and Joshua.

The moment she had been waiting for ALL weekend!

Abigail and Savannah helped pass out the wedding favor cow bells to all the guests.

 Thank you Trevor and Jessica.  We had a ball!

Dancing Queen

Abigail participated in her first ever dance recital in May.  Her dance year went really well and she loved heading to dance class every Tuesday afternoon.  Leading up to the recital, she seemed unsure of the whole dancing in front of a big crowd thing.  Fortunately, her sweet cousin Olivia surprised her by coming for the weekend and making it all more fun.  

All smiles before heading out for the recital.

Backstage, her nerves are starting to show while her buddies enjoy goofing off for the camera. 

When it came time for the show, she did at least go on stage with her class.  I'm not sure I would classify what she did on stage as "dancing."  Her silly three year old side came out for sure.  The video below is actually from the dress rehearsal earlier in the day, but trust me, the recital itself was not much better.  (We used a friend's video camera for the actual show and haven't figured out how to retrieve it off their camera, ha!)

Here's hoping next year's recital includes a little more dancing!

The Last Day of School

Okay, so the last day of school was a whole month ago, but that is neither here nor there. (My last blog included Luke's first haircut, and it is already time for a second!  Clue #1 that it has been too long since you blogged.)  Instead of the traditional "Last Day of School" party in the classroom, Abigail's teachers opted for a day out at the park.  It was a GREAT idea and all of the kiddos seemed to love it.  Abigail loved playing with her school buds all morning and getting to picnic with them too.  Here are some pictures of our little monkey!

Abigail and her BFF Sarah Bray! She will miss SB so much next year!

Ms. Tammy and Ms. Patti are the BEST teachers and Abigail loves them so much.  She could not wait for school each week and they made every day enjoyable for her.

Abigail heads to "big girl school" at PPCA next year and is counting down the days already! On our way home from the playground that day I told Abigail it would be time for nap when we got home.  She said, "And after nap I'm going to big girl school!"  She didn't quite understand we had to wait the whole summer before that day came.  Now there are only about 60 more naps until she gets to go to big girl school!

Growing Like Weeds!

The kids are growing SOOOO fast!  Here is a picture update on them and what we have been up to lately.

The kids this time last year.

See how much they've grown in a year!

Our family at Easter (Luke was so tired from church)

Luke had his first haircut recently. It was getting a bit long in the back and around his ears.  He sat in the chair all by himself like such a big boy!

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Our friend Terri was so patient with Luke and did such a great job.  I was proud of how well Luke did too!  I never dreamed he would have his first haircut before Abigail ever had hers.  I am trying to talk her into letting Mrs. Terri just even her hair up in the back.  She is not sure about the whole thing just yet.  She LOVES her long hair and is worried it will be too short after cutting it

Look how cute Luke looks with a "Big Boy" haircut! 

 We made our first trip of the season to the pool last week.  The water was pretty cold, but the kids still enjoyed themselves.  We plan to spend a lot of time there this summer to survive the Mississippi summer.

Luke was content to mostly watch everyone else and splash around a bit in the shallow water.

Abigail, on the other hand, wanted to repeatedly jump in the deep end.  I am thinking the pool will be a great way to wear her out this summer. 

 We have been spending a good bit of time outside over the past few weeks.  The weather has been really nice, so we are taking advantage of it.  We spent a fun morning at the zoo recently and have just been enjoying the backyard and neighborhood most afternoons.  Temperatures reached 90 a couple times this week and I started dreading the days coming when it will be a good 10 to 15 degrees warmer than that.

Coming soon - Abigail's first dance recital!  Here is a preview of the pretty girl in her costume.  She is SO excited!  More pictures and details to come after the recital next weekend.