Holy Wow, This Was A Lot of Work

Oh my.  Are you guys ready for a big catch-all post?  Because that's what you are going to get.  And, hopefully I can do the last few days justice --- because my sleep-deprived brain is fried.  I mean, seriously, where did I even leave off?

+  My brother was in town last weekend covering a story for CNN {yay for us} and so we decided to hit up the Chandler BBQ festival.  You know I love getting my girls dressed up in (1) coordinating and (2)  themed outfits, so what goes better with barbecue than red, white and blue?  Well, apparently, tattoos.  Let's just say we didn't last long before we headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings.

+  We have been pretty busy this week with classes, play dates and visitors!  Our very dear friends, Ken and Katie, were in town for a couple of days and we got to go on a double date with them Tuesday night.  {Thanks Nana & Poppy for watching the girls for us.}  It was so great seeing them again - oh how we have missed Katie's laugh.  And, by the looks of it, Ken has missed my yummy desserts.

We met up downtown Phoenix at a place called The Duce - it's a huge warehouse-type building that serves food out of an old school Air Stream, has a retro gym inside {with an actual boxing ring inside} and an art deco bar with a 70 year old bartender.  It wasn't exactly what we were expecting, but it ended up being the perfect place for us to spend the evening with two of our favorite people.

+  David and I have taken the girls to a couple different playgrounds over the last couple of evenings.  The weather has just been absolutely GORGEOUS here, especially in the evenings.  This is one of the things I really missed when we lived in California - so it is so nice taking advantage of the beautiful weather.  I tried Sydney out in the swing the other day and she got so tickled by it.  I love being able to play with both girls.

+  Our friends Marsha, Michael and Jessica invited us to go get our pictures taken with the Easter Bunny at the mall today.  I had a feeling that the girls would not want to get their pictures taken, but thanks to Marsha's genius Let Them Eat Chocolate plan, at least one of my girls was cooperative.  Don't worry, they burned off that sugar at the mall playground.

{Dancing and ring shopping}

+  Poor Sydney was terrified of the Easter Bunny {and, I honestly can't say that I blame her}.  Within 0.5 seconds, she was screaming.  The lady took this picture and I immediately picked her up.  I snapped this shot with my iPhone when they showed me the proof on the computer screen because I wasn't about to pay $16 for it.  Yeah, I'm sneaky like that.  

Alright, I'm off to bed.  

Say a prayer that my teething little baby gives me a few more hours of sleep than she's been giving me the last few nights.

Happy Friday

Love Her

Happy Seven Month Birthday, Sweet Sydney!

You bring us so much joy and happiness.  You are just the sweetest little baby.  Your laugh is infectious and your flirty smile makes everyone fall head over heels for you.

We love you so SO much.

I've done a few photo shoots with Sydney over the last week and here are a trillion of my favorite pictures.

 {I dressed Olivia in this same outfit when she was about this age...

couldn't resist doing it with Sydney too.}

Girl has got cheeks for days.

To say that I'm obsessed with this precious baby would be a huge understatement.

Happy 7 Months.

Sixty-Five Years of Memories

Ahhhhh...it's only taken me three weeks to blog about my dad turning the big ol' SIXTY-FIVE.

Happy Belated Birthday, Dad.

Last fall, I stumbled across a pin on Pinterest entitled Sixty-Five Years of Memories and knew immediately that it was something I wanted to replicate for my dad's birthday.  

At the beginning of the year, I raided my dad's email contacts and sent out a message to his friends, family and former golfers asking them to send in a memory that they had of my dad.  Our hope was to have 65 different messages for my dad to open on his birthday.  After two months of giddily checking our mailbox and getting goosebumps reading the memories that were sent in, the time came to stuff them into envelopes and get them ready for my dad's birthday.

The morning of his 65th birthday, we had a brunch at our house and presented him with a video montage of pictures of him from birth to now. {You can see that video by clicking here.} By the time the first few pictures were up, he was already tearing up.  And, we hadn't even gotten to the memories yet.

After the slideshow, we brought out the envelopes with a little note explaining what he was about to open.  Before opening the first one, he was already blown away with the stack of envelopes - 70 in total.

There were notes from former players who commended him for putting up with their teenage antics and memories from high school friends telling him that all the girls thought he was cute.  Former colleagues shared funny stories & pranks and Air Force buddies reminisced of odd jobs and weekend trips.  It's pretty safe to say that even the funny memories got Dad a little choked up.  There were so many sweet notes that came in for my dad and he honestly deserves all the praise and kind words that were said about him.  It is clear that my dad has had a huge influence on so many people.  He truly is one of the best men ever put on this Earth and we all just love him so much.

That afternoon, we threw a little surprise party for him.  Trying to keep track of Olivia during her nap time {not taking a nap} and carrying around a snoozing baby made it a little difficult to snap pictures, but here are the few that I took.

And David snapped one of me and Sydney.  What would I do without my Ergo?!

We love you Dad!

Because I'm Crazy

After posting the pictures of the girls earlier, I got a wild hair up my butt and decided to try some more.  And, this time, USE COSTUMES.  Because, duh, let's just make it even more difficult!  I got some cute ones though and couldn't wait to put them up.

Yeah, she's a little tall for the costume...

So, pretty sure Sydney didn't realize that Olivia was her sister and every time she came around, Sydney would start crying.  That didn't stop me from taking pictures.

She really tried to fix it too...reassuring Sydney that she wasn't really a tiger...

...and offering a banana to her.

After awhile, Sydney calmed down and I got a few solo shots.

And then I had Olivia sneak behind Sydney so I could get a picture of the two of them.

And it only cost me a handful of M&Ms to get Olivia to smile.

Woot Woot!