mck's birthday

well, it seems to be tradition these days that the girls have several birthday celebrations! :) mck had a fun birthday celebration at grammy's house the day before easter, complete with a cookout, a tinkerbell birthday cake, and lots of family presents! :) she is in love with her tinkerbell jewelry box and her tinkerbell book! she had a great time! :)

on monday, the 13th we celebrated her real birthday . . . we did presents early in the morning (new tinkerbell p.j.'s, princess barbies, and the horton game were the big hit!) and had a breakfast of pink sprinkle donuts and kolaches (per mck's request!). we spent part of the day at the park and hangining out with our friends and then headed to "the new mcdonald's" (one in leander) that has a cool playscape for a gourmet dinner of yogurt parfaits, chicken nuggets, and french fries! when we got home we had chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and butterfly rings! :) what a treat!

she celebrated a third time at school on tuesday with a butterfly cupcake cake for her friends! :) and then again at the park with her friend beckett who brought her a special chocolate chip muffin!

we are about "birthdayed out" over here . . . and just think, another one is right around the corner! :)

easter 2009

we spent easter this year at grammy and grampy's house . . . and had a wonderful time. the girls decorated eggs on saturday night and had fun talking about the goodies they thought they'd get from the bunny! :)

i had to wake them up on sunday morning . . . hello! when does that ever happen? they found the special eggs in their crocs (we forgot their slippers!) and headed downstairs (after waiting for everyone to assemble adn for grampy to make coffee and daddy to get the camera) to open their goodies! the bunny left TONS of candy in their baskets along with some cute stuffed chicks! their easter buckets were from us were filled with spring fun . . . towel, suit, flip-flops, pool tools, and sunglasses! grammy and grampy gave them lots of fun treasures too! everything was a hit!

we got ready to head to church . . . the girls were great through the hour and a half long mass! then we headed home for the easter egg hunt! ken and mck were great about letting kam have a chance to gather some eggs! :) they were great about dumping all of their candy in a big bowl to share!

we had a wonderful easter lunch . . . grammy did all the work - what a treat! thanks, mom! we had a wonderful holiday!

poor kam had a terrible case of hives that progressively got worse through the weekend. poor baby was just an itchy, puffy mess! she was such a trooper and really got better after we got her a steroid and some strong antihistimine

butterfly playdate in the park

mck and i had so much fun hosting our playgroup's science playdate! we met at the local park for some fun butterfly activities! the kids used their fingerprints to show the life cycle of a butterfly, drank "nectar" from "flowers" with their "proboscises", and talked about the body parts of the butterfly and made their own. . . complete with tortilla wings, marshmallow body parts, licorice legs, and corn syrup colored wings!

mck's first recital outfit

mck got her first recital outfit today and couldn't be more in love with it! it is pure girl! pink fluff, sparkles, and lace, topped off with a rhinestone buckle and pink hairbow! seriously, who care if she dances at the recital . . . she'll look so darn cute! :)

mck is tapping to a flamingo song . . . she is so funny in class . . . checking out what everyone else is doing . . . kind of staring at them . . . instead of doing the dance herself. when she does it at home she does great! too funny! if she can stand on the stage without crying and even do a few moves, i think we'll call it a success!

catching up . . . on the house stuff

okay, so i am slacking . . . still! we have been so crazy busy lately that i haven't even had a chance to update our blog! so here goes . . .

we sold our house!
we took a week to fix things and clean really well, put the house on the market on friday, march, 27, then left to go out of town that sunday. we got a call at the hotel on monday night that we had not one, but TWO offers on the house. talk about crazy! one offer was way too low, but the other was what we were hoping for! So, we will be closing on the house next wednesday, april 15, and leasing our house back from the new owners through may.

we've been house hunting!
we spent all of last weekend looking for a house. grammy and grampy came to watch ken, mck, and kam so that we could "hit it hard" and find something fast! we saw 17 houses in a day and then went back to check out 2 of them on sunday. it's tough to find what we're looking for in a house that doesn't need a ton of work, but we found lots of houses with "potential"! is potential what we should be looking for when we need to move out in like a month and a baby is coming in about 3 months? :)

we made an offer . . . or two or three!
we found a house with almost 2 acres that is perfect for 4 little bailey kids to grown up in! it's more country than where we are now . . . with horses right next door! the house needs a lot of work, but a lot of it we can do over time! we're just waiting for them to accept our "final" offer and we're hoping to close in a couple weeks . . . keep your fingers crossed for us! looks like baby bailey #4 won't be coming home to friends camp street. :(

playgroup easter celebration

the girls and i had a wonderful time at ms. j's house for our playgroup's easter party! ms. j has the best backyard . . . like a private park! :) the kids got to paint on a paper mural, eat lots of yummy snacks, decorate their own cupcakes, and participate in an easter egg hunt!

kam was so fun to watch . . . what a difference from last year! she was so excited about the eggs! she wanted to keep going and didn't understand that there was a limit to how many she could pick up! :) she loved checking out the treasures in her basket. i tried to take her bunny basket away on the ride home, but she refused, so i gave in. when i stopped at a light and turned around i found her with a mouthful of tin foil and a bite taken from each of her chocolate eggs! too cute!

mck was sooooo fast. hello, the girl doesn't do anything quickly . . . unless, of course, she wants to! she was all over that backyard i could hardly snap a picture of her! when i finally caught up with her, we had to take half the eggs out of her basket and hide them for other kids! :)

ken was great . . . she was careful to make sure she got only her 12, but tried to pick the ones she thought were filled with "good stuff"! she was so happy to get to participate in the activity, as most of our playgroup stuff happens when the big kids are at school!

perfect weather. perfect location. perfect hostess. perfect start to spring.

annual bluebonnet pictures

well, we made the attempt to get some pictures of the girls in the bluebonnets this year . . . but we stopped on the side of the highway on the way home from their birthday trip. it was chilly, the wind was blowing, and we were all exhausted . . . so out of about 100 pictures, none of them are great, but at least we can say we did it! :)

ken and mck's birthday trip

because last year was soooo much fun, we decided to skip the birthday parties again this year and take ken and mck on a birthday trip! this year we went to great wolf lodge in grapevine! it was SO MUCH FUN! we arrived on a sunday and stayed through tuesday! the girls couldn't get enough of the water. the played so hard! it was the perfect place for our family . . . ken was able to go on the big, big water slides, both mck and ken could travel by themselves on the intermediate slide, and all 3 girls LOVED playing in the shallow water! seriously, they had something for everyone! :)

we went to eat at the rainforest cafe the first evening . . . a huge hit with all 3 kids! we had a fun birthday dinner complete with a "volcano" that we shared for dessert!

we ate ice cream, snacked, hung out, played cards in the room, listened to storytime, and had our fill of water for almost 3 days! the girls were all worn out when we headed home . . . they fell asleep by 8 on tuesday night!

we'll certainly be heading back there within the year! :)

for sale

so, what have we been up to lately? with our expanding family, we had planned to expand our house, but slowly realized that the task would be more costly than we had imagined (with bailey doing a lot of the work!)and we'd just break even on any addition . . . so, we decided to talk to a realtor . . . and today we have a "for sale" sign in our front yard.

we've spent the past week cleaning, fixing, purging, and sending stuff to storage. our house looks good . . . almost too good, as i am having second thoughts about selling. we are going to stick it out for a few months and see how things go. we'll do the addition as a back-up plan after bailey baby #4 is born. so, i feel like we have a plan (those who know me well know i have to have a plan!) and things will work out regardless. it sure is sad seeing that "for sale" sign in the front yard of our first home . . . the place we brought all of our babies home to!

ken's rodeo field trip

ken's class took a trip to the rodeo on monday! and the best part was . . . bailey stayed home to watch kam and mck so i could go with her. it was so nice walking around the rodeo holding her hand and only having to worry about her. she loved and and commented several times how nice it was that it was "just us!" the kids watched a cool milking demo, saw lots of livestock, visited the petting zoo, watched pig races, and listened to a cowboy talk about "cowboy things". kennedy was sad that her teacher didn't get to come, but we were joined by the principal instead!

24 hour "quick trip" to grammy and grampy's

grammy and grampy were off over spring break so we took a girls' trip to see them. tim and sophia came over for the day day and the girls all had a little "swimming in your skivvies" party! the pool water was FREEZING and all 4 girls were wading and splashing in the water! it was cute! :) we met missy for dinner and had a great day!

on thursday we took the girls to the children's museum at the woodlands mall. it was really cool . . . and even cooler that it was free with our austin membership! :) the girls had fun playing in the grocery store, digging for fossils, playing dress-up, and doing some cool arts and crafts. we stopped for a ride on the carousel and then got cookies and headed home. it was a short, but sweet visit! :)

the bailey bunch visits the zoo

we had a wonderful time with our bffs at the waco zoo over spring break. we just love the "park-like" feel it has. it was SUPER crowded, but we still managed to have a great time! the girls loved checking out all the animals! kam would make a funny face for any animal she wasn't sure about . . . scrunching up her nose and making her lip go up . . . very funny! ken and mck loved running ahead of us with their friends and of course the playscape is always a huge hit! what a beautiful day!

ken loses her front tooth

well, after WEEKS of wiggling, kennedy finally let me pull out her front tooth! a little tug and it came right out! the tooth fairy left her $1 and a pack of gum (generous tooth fairy . . . aren't we in a recession?) :) she sure looks grown up without that tooth . . .

look ma . . . NO TRAINING WHEELS!

i am LOVING SIX! :) we tried to get ken to ride without training wheels several months ago, but she got frustrated when she couldn't do it right away . . . things seem to come so easily to her, so when something is tough, she tends to give up. for the last couple weeks i was telling her how cool it would be if she could say she rode without training wheels before she turned 6, so she practiced a few times, but gave up.

well, yesterday she walked outside, asked for help with her helmet and said today she would really try . . . "because now i should be able to do it because i am six!". she hopped on, i steadied her bike, gave her a little push, and she took off! it was soooo cool to watch her riding down the driveway and around the circle! :) now she's thinking about saving her money for "a big kid bike"! :)

six has brought a whole new independence in ken. she now wants to take her own showers . . . start to finish with NO help! :) (gotta love that!) and she wants to tie her own shoes - or at least try! she now has the confidence that she can do things on her own and is really enjoying that . . . SO AM I! :)

ken turns SIX!

i can't believe my baby girl is 6! ken had a 3 day long birthday celebration beginning with a special day at school beginning with her morning gift . . .books and a birthday shirt and topped off with a number "6" cupcake cake . . . chocolate cupcakes with bright pink frosting! friday night she opened her presents and had fun playing with her new things!

saturday morning she had her favorite breakfast . . . donuts and kolaches (she is her father's daughter!) and then we hit the road to head to grammy and grampy's. the girls had fun at sophia's first b-day party, but ken was anxious for her celebration lunch . . .

the family gathered at chuck e. cheese for lunch, cake, and games! the girls had a blast. ken enjoyed checking everything out on her own! :) she loved her high school musical cake and the wonderful gifts she received! :)

now ken and mck are looking forward to their birthday trip at the end of the month! :)

just can't believe she's 6!

IT'S A . . . BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we were so excited to find out at our sono on monday, that not only are we having a healthy baby, but a boy! :) i think bailey and i were quite shocked, but really, really happy! it'll be so fun to introduce some blue into our very pink lives! :)
the girls are thrilled too! one of ken's first comments was that daddy would now have a hunting partner and that we would get to do lots of shopping for the boy! :) this little boy will be spoiled rotten . . . between having three doting sisters and being the baby of the family! :)
the baby was very wiggly and yawned about 5 times as we watched him on screen! he has all 10 fingers and all 10 toes and VERY noticeable "boy parts"!
now the wait until july seems even longer . . . we can't wait to meet our little boy! i know life with the girls will keep us sooooo busy that it'll fly by! :)