Pneumonia vs. April

...and that darn pneumonia won...well...actually the pneumonia is gone and the antibiotics killed (almost) the germs. I'm left with bronchitis but it should soon all be gone. I've battled valiantly and have the dark circles and pasty skin to prove it! After a week of my mom visiting and being able to REST, I'm finally feeling better and should be in tip top ready to blog shape soon!

UGH...I'm 30...UGH!!!!

I can't believe that my 20's are finally behind me! In fact, I can't believe that I am a stay at home mother to two young children and I live in Alabama! If I had heard this about someone in my younger years I would have pitied them!!!!! HA! I would have even felt sorry for them! HOWEVER...it states nothing of the reality. The reality is that my husband proudly serves his country and is gone A LOT! This means that someone needs to be home consistently for our two beautiful blessings. This leaves me.I couldn't be any more content with my life. In fact, I LOVE my life. I have a wonderful husband (most of the time), two amazing kids (all of the time), and great friends and family to support me along the way! I occasionally have my "woe is me" moments but there is always someone to remind me. I got a little "reminer" from my sweet friend Jodi this weekend "April, you are OLD...you will never wear junior size jeans again because you have had TWO babies and it shouldn't matter." HA, HA, HA...if only my hips would be like they were when I was 20!!!!!

Pete was gone for my birthday...I know...surprise, surprise...so I spent the day with my amazing friends here in lower Alabama! Amy, Jodi, and I met at Mickey D's for a lunch with all of the kiddos. Between the three of us we had 8 kids! It was a wonderful time and a nice distraction for the afternoon! In the evening, Jodi, made me a home made Thai dinner complete with a wonderful dessert and candles! It was so surprising and sweet! I hardly missed Pete at all (well...I missed him a little bit!).

Once Pete returned home, the girls and I made plans to have a "girls night out"! We went into the big city Dothan(ha, ha, ha...I just said "big city" about Dothan). We had pedicures, a great Thai dinner (can you tell I like Thai food?!), and ended the night at the book store. To my GREAT delight they are all book nerds like myself!!!!!!!

In all, I met my 30th year in a great way. Thank you to everyone for making it such a wonderful celebration!


For those of you wondering what Pete did for me for my birthday...here ya go...

not his best...

sigh...

yep...that's an index card...

three days late...

but I did get wonderful flowers for V-day!



See the little arrow after the message?! There was more on the back, but it only went downhill from there! At least there's only room for improvement for next year!!!!


P.S. Here's what 30 looks like!

Valentine's Day

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day this year! Preston is really starting to understand that a holiday is coming and he gets all excited about what we do to celebrate the different holidays! We had fun using our red colors and paints all day. (Well-Pres had a great time...I could have had more fun if he didn't insist on smearing paint up and down his arms!)

Pres, Pete, and I made a heart cake!!!!!




Pete bought me a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers!




After all of the snow, the weather began to get warm! We all played outside and enjoyed the fleeting warmth. It was a nice change to get out because we had been cooped up for a couple of days with a very sick Ashlyn. She had a nasty cold (her first) and she kept us both up all night crying and just being uncomfortable (my poor baby!). So if we look tired...WE WERE!!!!







According to Pete, no post for the next year would be complete if I did not put in a picture of his car! Here ya go...it's a view of the garage...can you guess who took this picture?!

The new "member" of our family!

Two years ago when Preston was born, Pete traded in his dream truck for our awesome family SUV. He took my smaller SUV and gave me the nice, leather dream car. He's been driving around in my old car for the past two years and has taken a lot of ridicule from the guys-especially over the past year in flight school! Apparently it is just not cool to drive around in a mommy SUV!!!! I share all of this so that you understand his excitement over his beautiful brand new Mustang or as Pres calls it: "Daddy's new race car"!!!!!

Introducing the car that will make the other men green with jealousy instead of burst into laughter when he pulls up for PT in the morning! (Pete told me I had to post pictures of the front, back, side, and inside.)

The snow fun on Griffith Lane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We woke up to real live snow! Not just the little flurries but crunchy, snowball making SNOW!!!!!

Preston enjoying the snowflakes...he couldn't believe them at first!


Ashlyn hanging out in the back of the car! We would take her out for a little bit at a time so she didn't get too cold, but she could still see Pres running around having fun.

Pres and I having fun making snowballs in the driveway!

Daddy taking Ashlyn out in the snow!

Playing in the backyard to make a little snowman before nap time.

Coming in for lunch and nap and eating some snow!


Our big snowman in the front! We were waiting for Pres to wake up to put the carrot nose in.

Our next door neighbor, Stacy's snowman. His son Corey and he made it and were out having fun! They are our neighbors that REALLY keep to themselves...a little strange...but always fun when they do decide to play!


The Fox family's snowman (our neighbors on the fun side...well until a certain Mr. Fox nailed me with a snowball)!!!!

The Gonzalez family's snowman (across the street and over one...Amy is becoming my super fun play date friend)! Crazy Gary made one for each person in the family! He did an awesome job!


It has been a really good day. I love being able to run around the neighborhood with all of the wonderful people and their awesome kiddos!!!!!!

Cookie Decorating Party (better late than never!)

This year we had our second annual cookie decorating party! Last year it was just me, Pres, Meggo, and Layla! This year it grew by about 20 more people...that's a LOT of cookies!!!!!! It was tons of fun and something we will continue to do each year. Let's start off with the prep pictures!

First we made all of the cookies! Pete and I were ready bake until we never wanted to see another cookie again and we let Pres stay up late to help us. We gave him is own batch of dough to do whatever he wanted with and he had a great time!








Next the wonderful party itself! As usual my girlie's Meggo and Melissa were there to help get everything set out and make sure all was ready! Then everyone began to arrive! We had so many kids that my house felt like a zoo for a bit! I loved every minute of it and can't believe how well all of the little ones play together! The kids did really well with the cookies and all of them ate enough icing to be on a sugar high until next Christmas!

Here are some pictures of the Santa Chef hats (all of the adults were awesome to wear them) and the festivities!