Every day is a happy day!

Well, today is the last day of July....

the Summer has officially flown by!...

This is also the last week of Summer break before the girls head off to 4th grade and Kindergarten!

OH MY!

Today I actually felt 'Fall' in the air this morning when I left to take the girls to Summer Camp and to head to work.

I love Fall....so I am excited about it coming...but not excited that Summer is ending!

Which brings me to this picture! Alexis asked me if she could write something on the chalkboard picture that is in our kitchen that Tyler made me one Christmas. I havent had anything written on it for a couple of weeks now so I didnt mind her writing on it.

She loves to write 'fancy' and do her cursive letters and swirls and fun things when she writes so she was super excited!

She did the cutest board! She wrote...'Every day is a happy day!' :)
So, when I read this, it gave me a minute to have a little talk with her. So, I started off by saying...'So Alexis...is every day really a happy day? Dont you have some days where you might feel sad or something may not be going the way you want it to?'
She thought for a minute...and said 'Yes, not every day is a happy day, youre right.' So I asked her, when days arent so happy...and days dont go exactly the way you want it to and for those days that are hard....what should you do?'
And she said 'For those days, give it to God!'

WOW!

Yes, not every day is a 'happy' day but you should always find the best in each day and always be thankful, but for those that's not.........give it to God!

God will see you through! God will help you with your hard days...and sad days...and days that you worry! Give it to God! Instead of having the weight of the problem..or 'not happy' day, how wonderful it is to know that you can trust God to lead you in the best direction and help you overcome! That God will comfort you and all you have to do is trust in him!

So, we added a little side note and the chalkboard is now perfect! :) :)

Lily had her very 1st spend the night adventure away from home! The girls headed over to play with the Fritt's girls Saturday afternoon and when Tyler went over to pick them up, they had convinced Mr. Ryan to let them all stay the night! Mr. Ryan had all of these girls by himself because Mrs. Carrie was out of town! Mr. Ryan is awesome...and brave...and these girls had a blast! There was no question that Lily would be fine and not have a problem staying the night because she has stayed several...several times with family and has always been fine.
Well, they had so much fun...and Mr. Ryan survived and we can mark it down in History as Lily's first friend, spend the night away party!

And...is it looking like school is about to start at our house or what?!?! We have Wal-Mart bags and school supplies in multiple locations these days!

Goodness, every where I turn....a reminder that Summer is almost over! :(

BOO!!

The best time with the best of old and dear friends!

When you look out and see this view....you know you are going to have an awesome day!
Tyler did sooo awesome making this trailer to haul all of our kayaks/canoes!

 We took a quick shuttle to a different floating spot to start at than the land that we normally go on in Piedmont. We wanted to float longer and ensure that we high enough water! It did not disappoint! We had a blast! These four were soooo excited!

And....WOW...flashback of this same little crew...back in 2012!! WOW! Boy, time flies!! :)

Love this crew! We had sooo much fun today with them! I LOVED seeing Kelly and my kiddos having fun together and interacting! It was such a neat experience and we had big plans to keep doing fun other things with them in the future!!

We have been dear friends for as long as we are old! :)

 This picture CRACKS me up! Matt is hilarious and him and Tyler together equaled the kiddos had a blast! :)

 Soooo  nice...and soooo much fun!!!

Floating away! It was such a beautiful day today!

Alexis was sweet and let all the other littles try out her kayak. Camp decided he wanted to try and do it on his own and then he got stuck in a tree....and wanted to be attached again! :)

It was a running joke with Kelly and I about our picture taking skills. We both kept trying to get the 'best' picture...yet we would end up in tree branches or turned around,etc! Well, she got this one....and it is such an awesome picture! She also ran into the side of the bank as she was snapping it! ha!

After we were finished with the fun...we continued with taking the Herndon's to Solid Rock to enjoy a late lunch....and then, of course, ice cream! :)

Kelly is a MUCH better selfie/picture taker than me! She got the whole crew in! We cant wait to see what next adventure waits for us with them! Fun memories were made and now...we all came home to crash! Lily took about an hour nap before Mr. Ryan called and now both girls are playing at the Fritts house with Sara Kate for a little while. Tyler and I have some 'peace and quiet' for a little bit before we go and get them back. I know two girls that are going to sleep hard tonight!

Not slowing down!

We are not slowing down at the Law home...that is for sure!

We do not care that Summer is coming to an end...we are trying our best to make it stay!

This post is a little bit of complete randomness...but it is all what we have been up to lately!

We had Pawpaw's Mother's side family reunion....and it was at the Piedmont pool! Two girls were sooo excited that it was there! This was our first time to go to a reunion with that side of the family. It was fun to see them and there was a ton of good food! I love her braids! :) :) She looks so cute in this picture to me! :)

Look at the air she got! I didnt snap a picture of Lily going down the slide {about a billion times} like I thought I did...but if you want to know what she was doing while Alexis was jumping off the diving board...it was the slide! :)

Can we ALL say WHOO HOO!!!! The hole in her ear drum is FINALLY closed up! After a year and a check up each 3 to 6 months, the hole {that was should have been closed up months ago} is finally closed! YAY!! We have loved Dr. Woolley at Childrens....but we are NOT sad to not have to see him again! :) :)

What a great night I had! Our Church had their annual 'Mom's back to school prayer and dinner!' It was so nice and so fun to sit and chat and eat with fellow Moms and to help us all share advice and stories to help us with the upcoming school year! I had a great evening with a great big group of great Mom's! And...to top it off, I know these Moms will be praying and loving my girls as much as I love and pray for theirs!

We had a ton of yummy food!

Some sweet sweet friends!

AND...TODAY!!!..GUESS what FINALLY came in the mail?!?! Two girls that live in our house have been waiting for this day for awhile now! The day has come that we know what times the girls have their ballet {and jazz} classes to kick off the fall with dance classes and their teacher announcements came too! Alexis has Mrs. Smith for homeroom. She is excited because it is Mrs. Smith's first year at Kittystone..but we are friends already/outside of school so Alexis already knows her and is excited to have her. Alexis will be switching classes and have all of the 4th grade teachers this year so it is going to be a new and fun adjustment for her! Lily got Mrs. Leslie Bean for Kindergarten. Lily already knows her also so she is super super super excited! I was hoping she would get Mrs. Pollard, like Alexis had, because she was soooo wonderful, but I am excited and know Mrs. Bean is great too!
So, yes, Summer is slowing down....but we are excited about Fall too! And..good thing because Fall is my next very favorite season too!! :)

Ahh..Wordless Wednesday!

12 and going!

12 years! 💍👰🔔👰 We have seen and been through so much in 12 years and every day I'm still thankful for him! Boy, we were babies...and growing and maturing together looks good on us! Happy anniversary Tyler! Here's to many more!

This is one of my most favorite! 

 I was so young! :)

 So handsome!

 Mr. and Mrs.

 We were married! :)

So proud!

Whew, we have been on the move lately and soaking up Summertime!

This week has been full of swimming, sun, errands, bouncy houses, friends and spend the night parties!

I am SOOO proud of myself! I am not going to deny that I patted myself on my own back the other night! What do us girls do while Daddy is in Lowe's forever! I {out of nowhere} french braid the girl's hair! I have tried and tried, in the past, to braid their hair and it has always turned out horrible. But, for whatever reason....the light bulb just went off with me and I did it!....and I have been doing it every day since too! I dont know how in the world that it 'came to me' to figure it out..but it did and I love that I can do it now! Both girls look so cute with their hair braided! I have done half braids....side braids too! :)
The Fritts family rode their bikes over to our house the next night after this so we spent the late afternoon hanging out with them for a little bit before they rode back home!

Then last night, Alexis spent the night with Sara Kate so Tyler and I kicked off our 12th wedding anniversary weekend with Mata's Pizza and then we hit some shops before heading to the '3rd Friday' fun on the Jville square with this little one helping to celebrate with us! Mata's never disappoints! YUM!

 This was the sweetest thing ever! Lily and Jackson spotted each other at like the same time and took off running and hugged each other! It was the cutest thing on the planet! We hung out with him and the Green's while we were there listening to the live music as well as letting them play and jump in the bouncy house!

Lily wanted a picture with the pirate! Bahaha...oh me, I had to explain to her that he wasnt a pirate! In fact, he is 'Peter, the Patriot!' :) They both wanted a picture with him!

It was sooo muggy outside, but that didnt stop these sweaty two! They bounced and slid and bounced and slid! :)

And...today, always, heavy on my heart but knowing that he is in such a better place than us makes the day go by a little easier. 7 years ago today rocked my world and I miss him everyday! Love you Pops!
We have Alexis back as I type this and she is currently passed out in the playroom since she came home from Sara Kate's saying they stayed up until 3:15am! WHAT!?!?! So, needless to say, she is napping well! She'll have to get up soon because we have Pawpaw's mother's side family reunion tonight at the Piedmont pool. The girls are pumped because the love going to that pool!

Wordless Wednesday!

Circa 2013! Alexis' 5th birthday party!! Same place...4 years ago...some of the same friends! :)
Look how little they all were! :)

My 5 year old!

Fast forward VERY quickly.....and LOOK how much they are allll sooo big now! WOW! :) Some of Alexis' friends are already taller..and bigger than me! Crazy!

My 9 year old! WOW! :) She wanted the same party that she had when she was 5! Now look at her! :)

Lily's turn for friend fun!

So, Alexis has had friends spend the night with her for years now.

Lily has always been too young to have friends over.............and what I should point out, her friends were always too young to spend the night away.

Lily always tried her best to be like the 'big girls' and play with them....and the 'big girls' would allow her in on the fun with them sometimes...and then sometimes not.

So, yesterday, it was Lily's turn to finally have friends over to spend the night!

She is getting older, and so are her friends, so I told Lily she could invite Abby Grace and Callie over to spend the night with her!

She was THRILLED!

Super excited and just could not wait for them to get to our house!

I had to explain to Alexis that it was Lily's turn to have people over and that she has friends over all the time. Well, Mrs. Carrie said that she could come over to spend the night with Carli since I was going to have Callie. So that was the plan.

Well....

At cheer practice Thursday..............Alexis and Carli were talking about them spending the night with each other....in front of Savannah. Well, that made Savannah sad because she wasnt invited. So, Mrs. Carrie heard all of this because it was toward the end of practice and they were all over by the cars...so Mrs. Carrie said no, that no one was spending the night. Well, Mrs. Carrie texted me and let me know the situation since I was doing cheer stuff and I had a little talk to Alexis about how she feels when she isnt invited to things and how we have talked about how she should not do what her and Carli did, especially in front of Savannah. So, the spend the night part was cut. Hopefully it has taught her...and Carli....a lesson!

It worked out that Carli came with us to eat dinner and then her and Carli went back to Carli's house and played for a couple of hours before Lex came back home. {Mrs. Carrie and I thought that doing that was 'fair' since both girls were talking about it before Savannah came up....they just didnt hush about it once she did...long story....}

So, we all had dinner at their favorite {Baja} before heading home for the spend the night fun!

Flashback to Thursday before the spend the night fun.....we took a quick trip to Birmingham and of course, the girls begged to eat at Newks! Daddy was jealous that we went without him {even though he was invited to come!} It was soooo good!

They were being so good doing some hand claps together...quietly.... being sweet to eat other....

until they got to the part of.........'I won fair and square so now I get to pull your hair!' YEAH.......oh my goodness!!!....they both started pulling each other's hair!!!...and being loud that it 'hurt' but the other one wouldnt stop doing the other one! Yeah, so in 2 minutes...FLAT....it turned to chaos! :)

Let the fun begin! Baja fun for the win with this group of girls! They had so much fun together!

The 'big girls' headed to Carli's house and I sent over the idea that they make 'slime' while they are there and even sent over glitter glue for them to use! Mrs. Carrie was thrilled that I did that! :) They had fun for a couple of hours!

...so this group of girls had the house to themselves! GET THIS!
So, right before Mrs. Carrie came and picked up Carli and Lex....Alexis specifically tells these three pictured.....to 'NOT go in her room...and Lily, leave my stuff alone while I am gone!' I know that....because I heard her as she was telling these 3 stooges this!
So, what do they do?!?! And...what does little 'pesky' sister do to the 'big' 'bossy' sister since she is gone and has no idea what is happening to her room?!?!?!
They grab a WHOLE bunch of stuff...........just anything they could grab.....and stashed it all under Lily's bed to hid it from Alexis.
Now, here is where things took a wrong turn for these three....
I had already been in Alexis' room {and I know where things are in her room} so when I went back in her room a little bit later to put her clean sheets on her bed...I noticed a couple of things missing that should not have been missing {such as her new pink speaker that she got for her birthday that is supposed to be on her nightstand...and her 2 monkey pillows that go on her beanbag, you know...things like that}
So, I know something is up....
and I know.....it probably has something to do with these three...........
so, I call all 3 of them into her room...and with a stern voice....
I look at them and say 'There is something different about Alexis' room that shouldnt be different...do you 3 have anything to do with it being different???'
Callie cracks 1st!!
She says....'Mrs. Amber, I only got 1 thing!' {Bahaha...I am dying inside, by the way!!}
So, I look at Abby Grace next...........and she doesnt say anything so I look over at Lily and she gets this 'OH...Im in trouble look' and says, 'Okay, Mommy...hhmmm....yes, we got some stuff out of Alexis' room and hid it because she told us we could not go in her room!' {Yeah, back fired on her...she thought she would get away with it!}
So I tell them to show me right now where Alexis' stuff is....
and they all 3 run to under Lily's bed!!!
And...OH MY....they took about 15 things!...and it was all thrown under Lily's bed!!
I made them get it all out....
and I tried my best to put it all back EXACTLY where Alexis had it so she would not flip out when she got home!
I put all 3 of them in time-out and banned them to the play-room only for a movie after {in hopes that they would 'chill' out and go to bed!} :) :)

BUT..remember THIS! This is from our beach trip with Gran! Yeah....this was one of the items that was stashed under the bed! And.....so, Alexis got home. Went directly back to her room. I told the girls {since I had already got on to them..to not mention it to Alexis so hopefully there wouldnt be any drama} Well, Alexis comes running to me...with this...crying and saying 'Mommy, look what they did to my shells!' Which, yes, I put it back in it's spot...but knew she was probably going to see the shells messed up.
The 3 stooges.....were guilty...and it was written all over their faces! They apologized to Lex, she accepted, and I told Alexis that I would help her re-do her shells. So, needless to say...these 3....are a handful! :)
What's funny is, it brings back a pretty funny memory of my own from when I spent the night with a friend. I spent the night with Shelby Elliot one night. I dont remember how old I was...but I remember it so it has to be one of those 'memories' where I was 'old enough' to {which is like 7 or 8  years old} Well, Shelby had a older brother {who in this scenario is Alexis} who was 'mean' and 'bossy' to us and wouldnt let us in his room and bossed us around. So, we got the very dumb  bright idea to tear up a TON of notebook paper {and I mean like 20 pieces of paper or more} into little {and I mean little} pieces of paper. Put the tore up paper in a basket...along with some ice cubes {what were we thinking?!?!?!} and THROW it in the 'bossy' big brother's room! Yeah...not a bright idea on our part! Well, I distinctly remember Shelby's Mom being really mad at us....and made us clean up ALLLLL the TINY pieces of paper....and ice cubes up from the 'bossy' 'mean' brother's room! Yeah...that was not fun! :) :) :)

They wanted a 'Fort' to sleep under so that is what they got and they thought it was awesome! Abby didnt want to take her eyes off the movie, Tinkerbell, to take a picture! My goal at this very moment was to have them pass out and go to bed! Do you know how much energy {that keeps going and going and going and going and going} is in this picture!?!? WHEW!!! :)

They had a blast together. They played and played and sang 'karaoke' and danced and colored and played 'kitchen' and cooked! They did it all! It was about 9:30 when this picture was taken and then it was 11:30pm when little Miss Callie came into my room {because at around 10:45pm they all looked like they were asleep, so I went to bed} When she came in...poor thing, the first thing out of her mouth was 'I dont want to go home.' Just a crying. :( Then she says...'But, I want my Mommy.' She was so sad at herself that she wanted to go home because she so bad wanted to stay. She just isnt at that place yet to spend the night away. So, I took her home and literally Lily and Abby were up and down the rest of the night. I went in there to tell them it was bed time and that they had to go to sleep {at some time of the night} but then I heard them laughing at around 4:00am..and it was full force from that point on! So, I feel like I had NO sleep...and as I type this {at  1:30pm} Lily is nice and passed out taking a nap that she has been doing for about 2 hours already! :) :)
So, for it to be Lily's first time having friends spend the night....it was eventful to say the least! When Abby was getting ready for her Mom to come, she wanted to change out of her pajamas. I told her that she might want to stay in her pj's so she could rest and possibly get some sleep when she got home. Her response was...'I dont ever rest anywhere...especially at home!' Bahaha..well alrighty then!....she is a mess! :)
I would say Lily's first 'spend the night' experience was a success overall...but I think Daddy....and Alexis vote that Lily never has anyone spend the night ever again if you ask them!! :) :)