I heart Barbie....

...movies!

My sister in law teased me when we got our first Barbie movie. My Mom gave us the 12 Dancing Princesses. We were hooked! She's cute, she's wholesome, she's sweet, and if you can handle the annoying animal/fantasy animal sidekicks that sometimes frequent them, they usually have pretty songs, give you a break from Disneymania and the world of Sleeping Beauty!

This was our first movie.  M loves to dance to this movie, loves to be "Geh-vee", and I love the music.

This was our most recent acquisition. I got this for M for a road trip and we were somewhat disappointed.  It's cute but I love the Barbie musicals the most and this is a story, not a musical.

Mom has this one for the grandkids and I still haven't seen it all the way through but it has the original Swan Lake ballet music which is beautiful.

I LOVE the music in this one but you have to throw out any and all ideas that Rapunzel is a story about "letting down your golden hair".  The only similarities are that she has long hair and lives in a tower and her name is Rapunzel.  That's it!

But this is my favorite one!  I love the music and it's just a fun, cute movie.

This one is one of the first so it's not as polished as the others but M still loves the "sugar crown princess" movie.

We borrowed this one from the library and it's cute but I am not a fan of the fuzzball sidekick!

We borrowed this one from friends recently and we are fans! I love the songs in this one.

Someday... we want to see the rest.  But I am embarrassed to admit all of the ones we own so we need to rent more from the library I think!

Happy Birthday Grandma Jan!

We love when you come to visit.  We love the cute cards you send us. We love having fun stickers to play with! We love seeing you on the Skype chat! We miss you and hope to see you again soon!

Love, your two favorite girls

...and their mom and dad too!

Last year I was much more organized and created a virtual card here. 

So I hope you'll enjoy it again and know how much we love and miss you!

Can't you please go back?

M is on a weird kick right now.  If she has to ask me twice for ANYthing, she's frantic and screaming and upset.  Can I tell you how fun that is?

Luckily sometimes it's funny too...

This morning... I'm looking at the computer and click away from a screen.

M starts tugging on my arm and frantically yells, "Mama, can't you please go back to Jesus?????"

oh, can't we all? :)

My Olivia

This is my daughter.

Seriously, it could have been written about her and not an imaginary pig.  She could also be Fancy Nancy but she doesn't have that book yet, so we'll save that for another post.  

In fact, we were watching the cartoon the other morning and she turned to me and said, "that's how when I was a pig".  Yeah, it doesn't make sense, but it's so true and so cute!

So, read it and imagine my daughter.  It's a true likeness!

genes

I marvel that I marvel that my kids are like my husband and I.  I mean, really, where do we THINK they came from???? I love my older girl's big wide brown Tobler eyes and I love my little girl's crinkly blue Holman ones.  I love the things that make them who they are, even when the traits we give them are not our favorite!

When M started biting her nails, I cringed, knowing she'd picked that up from me.  The other day I mentioned that to my Mom and she mentioned that she'd felt the same way when I started biting mine, but that it was from my Dad.  I had no idea he bit his nails!

Yesterday, on a long, windy road, we unfortunately discovered that M gets carsick like her daddy! Poor girl!  Luckily, she was wearing two shirts and so we survived, but it was so not fun! :(  And poor LG was demoted to the back back all by herself so M could sit farther up front and not get sick again! 

Happily, after no more sick episodes, we had a fun day trip!

Happy Easter from the girls!

ps-I Looooooove the dress, Mae!

And yes, the boy is here!

Tour de Little Rock!

They are here! Grandma and Grandpa are here from Minnesota for Easter weekend! We had a fun day downtown showing them the sights of our new town. M and LG were so excited to see their grandparents, waited all day and are still thrilled to have so much attention!

We went to the Peabody to watch the ducks.  They live in a fountain in the lobby and every morning ride the elevator down and march in on a red carpet.  M loved it!

Grandma Jan and her girls!

We toured the Old State House where the original capital of the state was.  They had a display of first ladies' dresses.  M of course loved that!

We went to the Clinton Library. M is the Secretary of Agriculture in this picture, I believe.

We took them to Pinnacle Mountain State Park to see the Arkansas River.

We hope they enjoyed the sights...we wore them out! :)

Today we had our family's annual easter egg hunt...stay tuned!

yay!

After much pleading and prodding and me sticking my foot in my mouth big time and subsequent groveling, we think we can say with some certainty that Grandma Jan and Aunt Becca are coming! For real! As in, they will actually be here in five days!!

I mean, really, who could resist!

You know they want to kiss these cheeks!  

And hear this giggle! Who wouldn't??

And a live performance of one of M's beautiful serenades will make it all worth it!

we've even already figured out where the nearest Starbucks is! :)

Blooming Madness!

My Mom grows double-bloom daffodils. Aren't they pretty? I am enjoying my first spring here in years! I have forgotten how pretty wisteria is and the amazing dogwoods! I'll get more pics soon.  

We're also looking forward to...

my Mom's birthday on Saturday!

General Conference this weekend!

my brother's birthday on Monday!

Gracie comes home in 8 days!!!!! woo hoo!!

Grandma Jan and Sarah, I mean Becca, are coming in a week! ...hopefully!

Easter weekend!

Grace's boyfriend is coming to visit on Easter Sunday!

Craziness!