Happy Birthday Aunt Sissy!

We love it that Aunt Sissy and Uncle Russ live pretty close to us.  For her birthday Russ brought her down so that she could spend it with family.  They were in the midst of a move so they didn't get to us until Saturday afternoon.  The guys headed out to play golf and me and the girls drove Sissy out to show her where our new house will be.  When the guys got home we went out for a birthday dinner celebration at 7 Leguas-awesome as always!  We love you Aunt Sissy!

When we got home from dinner, Daddy turned on some music and the girls had a little dance party with Aunt Sissy and Uncle Russ!

Papa's Pics

I am very behind in posting these but they are too cute not to.  Papa sent me the pics that he took on his phone when they were here in June.  Obviously the girls loved every second of fun with Grandma and Papa!  Thanks for the precious pics Papa!

 

To Gransan's House We Go!

The girls have come to like the fact that Mommy has work trips because it usually equals time with grandparents!  This time as I was about to head to Nashville, the girls were packing up for a fun week with Gransan and the gang.  We met in Lufkin for a little Mexican food and the handoff.  They got lots of play time in with all the kids on the farm-Nate, Bailey, Jordan, Jenna, and Jamie and plenty of spoiling from everybody else.  It was good for everybody, Shawn and I got a date night in the night before I left and on Friday night when I got back in town.  We hit the road to Lufkin again on Saturday to go pick up our little princesses.  It was SO good to get those hugs and kisses and see those sweet smiles when we got there!  As always, thank you so much Gransan, Patsy, Jerry and Janet for all the help!  We love you guys!

Her headphones gave her fits while she was trying to eat her doughnut holes!  She was determined to keep them on to watch Elmo though!

They were both so excited to see Gransan that they BOTH had to sit in her lap at the restaurant in Lufkin!

Patsy and her little sidekick!

Em got a special day with Gransan and got to go see Turbo.  This is her being silly waiting for the movie to start!

While Gransan and Em were at the movies, Patsy and Braelyn started a marching band!

 

Getting spoiled from sun up to sun down!

Push-ups are hard to beat!

Braelyn agrees!

She was so excited about the pockets in her shorts that she pulled her shorts off trying to get her hands down in them!

Eating at Wendy's with Janet, Dondi, and Bailey

Dondi, Bailey, and Janet joined Gransan and the girls on a trip to an indoor playground at one of the local churches.

The girls loved having Bailey there to play with them!

Relaxing reading books with Janet

I am not really sure how this happened...if Janet did it to herself or if it was done to her!

Yea!  Jerry's here!

It didn't take B long at all to warm up to Jerry!

Janet had a housefull one day-Jordan, Jenna, Jamie, Em, and Braelyn and then Bailey and Nate joined the fun too!

Braelyn and Jenna

Jordan and Emerson

Too cute!

Time to go home!

Life Lessons

A while back we wanted to start teaching Emerson the value of saving money as well as teach her about responsiblity.  I found this great Melissa and Doug Responsiblity chart that lets you choose the responsiblities you want to work on and when they are done, Em is rewarded with a magnet.  The key with ours is Emerson only gets a magnet when she performs the task without being asked to do it...she is expected to do all of the tasks all the time but is rewarded when she does them on her own.  When she gets to 10 magnets, she gets $5.  Back in May she saw a "swimming" Ariel doll at Target that she wanted so badly.  I decided that was the prime time to implement the responsibility chart!  I explained to her how she would be able to make money and that when she had saved up $20, she could buy Ariel herself.  Given that it is now July, I was so worried that Ariel was no longer going to be there now that Em finally had her $20...not a lesson I was looking forward to tackling!  After Em got her final magnet for her $20 she packed her money in her princess purse and we headed out to shop.  Thankfully there was ONE Ariel left!!!  She was so proud!  She told every person who would listen in line about her Ariel and that she was getting it with HER money! 
I was beyond proud of the conversation we had on the way to the store.  Emerson told me that when we got home, she was going to pick some of her other Ariel dolls out to give to kids who don't have an Ariel.  Sometimes we wonder if we are getting through to our little ones on the important things...I could not be more proud of our sweet little princess!

She tends to get the most magnets for clearing her plate after dinner...don't be fooled by no magnets for "Showing Respect", we stopped giving magnets for that because 1) that is something we expect with or without rewards and 2) she got VERY carried away with the "Yes Ma'ams" when every one got a magnet!

All ready with her money in her princess purse.  Sister had to carry a purse too, complete with her sunglasses and music player!

One proud little girl!

She wanted another picture with her once we got her out of the box!

First Haircut!

I have been putting off this day for awhile for a couple of reasons.  First of all, I have been so scared that if we cut Braelyn's hair, the curls wouldn't come back.  Second, I did not have a good feeling about how Braelyn was going to feel about having her haircut...there are strangers involved afterall!  I waited until after her two year pictures which were on Wednesday and decided to brave it on Friday.  When we got there she climbed right up to play with the toys in the waiting area, waved and said told all the other customers "Hi"!  Another little boy who was waiting DID NOT want his haircut.  I was so worried that she was going to get scared off by his reaction.  When they called her name, she hopped down from her chair and walked back just as happy as could be.  She started looking a little nervous when I put her in the chair but she never once cried and never moved a muscle!  The look on her face was hilarious but I was SO proud of her!  I was also thrilled when the stylist said that she thought she would keep her curls!  When she was done, they took a picture of her and then she got to go put her card in the slot on the "Prize Machine".  Getting a bottle of bubbles was icing on the cake for a successful first haircut! 

I don't know if you can see it, but our curls are WAY out of control!

At this point I was still really unsure about how this was going to go!  She had a death grip on her card to claim her prize!

Still no tears...is this really happening?!

Getting ready to make the first cut!

Mom, are you sure about this?!

She was so still and just watched in the mirror.

Oh wow...they have cartoons too!

I don't know if brave is the word but I was so proud either way!

The finished look...we still have curls!  They are just much more under control!