How many times....

How many times does it take to get a "good" picture....of everyone looking....and smiling??

apparently never! :)

But OH HOW I do try! :)

Take 1: .................nope!

Take 2:................um nope again!

Take 3:............for SURE nope! Lily was not having it by take 3! :)

I am sooooo excited about today! Today we joined First Baptist Church Williams! We have been visiting there for about a month or so and everytime we go we just became more and more happy and continued to get that "feeling" that this was the place for us! Everybody is just SO nice and loving! Today I think I got more hugs than I have gotten my whole 31 years! :)

We are so excited about our new Church family! We can not wait to have Alexis and Lily grow and learn there! After a long time of searching....{And trust me we have visited ALOT of churches, and none fit!}..........we have finally found the Church for us! SO thankful!! :)

Alexis' 5th birthday party!

We had the BEST time celebrating Alexis' birthday! She had a swim party at the Community Center!

We had SO much fun....and sooo many friends and family came to celebrate! It was a Little Mermaid, Ariel..."Under the Sea" themed birthday! {Per Alexis' choice! :) } It was sooo cute! :)

The kids....and parents did everything from play with beach balls, swim, jump off the sides, play under the "mushroom" water thing, go down the big water slide, shoot people with water guns, enjoy hot dogs, snacks, pasta salad and last but not least eating the BEST tasting cake and singing happy birthday followed by opening presents and MORE swimming! :) We are so thankful for all of the new friends we have made in Jacksonville! Everybody really made Alexis' big day special!

They had to kick us out! :)

Alexis had to get her fingers and toes done for her party!

Getting ready to leave! She could NOT wait!! :)

And this little sassy girl with pig tails for the first time! 

Nick, Nick's sister, Alexis, Carli, Alexis, Caylie, Anna, Ella, Nick, {bottom} Bo, Avi and Cooper! There are some friends missing from the picture....but all of these kids had so much fun at the party! :)

Blowing out her candle! {I know the front of the cake got a little messed up when we were taking the box off! :( But it is still an adorable cake and was SO good!}

Love my little girl! :)

This little missy had SO much fun swimming!

And this little missy did too!

Family picture! :)

Love this face!

Everybody went down this slide like 10,000 times!

  Blake Lily and La La!

Birthday girl!

 The girls hanging out! :)

Brandi and Lily!

Brittney and Mitchell got Alexis this Whale...it was a hit!

Lily just HAD to slide too!

This picture is PRICELESS to me! I just love how happy Lily looks!! :)

She is 5! FINALLY!! All day on Saturday she was telling us things that she can do now that she is 5 that she couldnt do when she was "younger!"...........such as tear out the sheet of paper from her coloring book....or open her own bag of chips!

**The funniest thing though...........was she looked in our hall mirror before we left to go to her party....and she says "Daddy, why do I still look 4?!"     She cracks me up!! :)

This girl had WAY tooooo much fun!!

 Above...Pawpaw and Alexis having a chat! :)


Aunt Pam and Lily playing with the water guns!

Opening gifts!!

What the animal says...

Throwback Thursday~ Where has the time gone?!

I just can NOT believe that my little girl is about to be 5! I just can NOT believe it! Time has just flown way too fast for me to even wrap my head around it! She is just turning into the most beautiful girl and I just love her more and more everyday! :)

So, in honor of her turning 5.......

For this week's "Look back in time" is.........

When Alexis turned 1!

The year was July of 2009!

We had a family party at our house in Birmingham! Of course I decorated and made food like it was some "big" "huge" show .........{which of course it was to us} but to Alexis....she had NO clue what was really going on for her! :)

It was an "Under the Sea" themed party! She was dressed so cute in a little sand bucket monogrammed romper! We had tons of "under the Sea" food....such as a whale watermelon with fruit in it!.......shrimp dip with chips and a dolphin jello mold! We had a great time celebrating her birthday!

I can't wait for her birthday party Saturday!! :)

This picture was taken right before her party! :)

She didnt know what to think about everybody singing to her......or blowing the candles out!

But she SURE did love her cake!

This picture was taken on her actual birthday day! :)

Wordless Wednesday!

CORN!!

The video is not Lily's first experience with corn! :) She was 8 months old and already loving corn on the cob! haha!! :)

Fun times with friends!

We have had a very busy past couple of weeks with being on vacations! We have been going and going...and for sure been off our normal schedules! We have made it through though without too many meltdowns {from both the girls and Tyler and I :) }

We have really enjoyed our trips...and we are sad that our "vacation" times are over for awhile! :(

Alexis asked me if we could go back to the beach next week!?................... sad to say...I had to tell her that the next beach time will probably be next Summer! :(

Today we got back into our normal groove! We enjoyed Church and naps {that we have been missing out on lately!}....and this afternoon we went to play with friends during Cooper's birthday party!

This was our first time being at Party Central! It had HUGE blow up bouncy things to jump and play in and both girls LOVED it! They had alot of fun!

The next birthday party will be Alexis'....next weekend!! {FINALLY!!} ha!


Alexis and one of her best friends...Ella! :)

 The bubbles were a hit!

Party people! :)

Lily just LOVES Cade! She chased him around....and around...and around!! Tried to give him 10,000 hugs! It was so cute!.........but poor Cade!! He couldnt get away!

Lily chasing Cade brought back sweet memories of how Alexis would chase Payton! Alexis just LOVED her Payton!!...................and Lily just LOVES her Cade!! :)

Beach pictures!

Some of my MOST favorite!! :)