Recital, Graduation & Mothers Day Weekend

As soon as we got home from Disney, we hit the ground running with a FULL weekend of dance recital, Aunt Whitney's graduation from ECU, a funeral for a family member and Mother's Day.  Shew!

Mallory's ballet dance to Beauty and the Beast

Acro routine to Hey Mickey

After rehearsal..Granny and Daddy surprised her with flowers.

Granny & Grandma came to rehearsal

Mallory and her best friend, Brinkley.

Tap routine to Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend

The afternoon before recital we went to ECU to see Aunt Whitney graduate.  She graduated with honors in Communications.  That's more than I can say when I was in college...my goal was to just get out, haha!  We are all so very proud of her!

The next day, on Saturday, we went to the funeral of my cousin and one of my very best friends mom.  My cousin and I grew up like sisters to each other and we vacationed together every year.  Seeing your mother go from being a completely healthy and normal woman in her 50's to becoming so incredibly sick so fast has got to be one of the worst things in life to face.  It has been a very sad and trying time for our family and my heart breaks for my cousin and her loss.  If only there was something that I could say or do to make everything all better...

The next day was Mother's Day.  These are my gifts that my girls and Patrick picked out for me.  I thought they were so sweet and I loved them :)

With my girls on Mother's Day.

Four generations on Mother's Day

I am very blessed to have these amazing women in my life.  Losing someone special just makes you want to cherish every second you have with the ones you love.  Life is short, enjoy it while you can.

Disney Trip

Somehow my husband decided it would be a good idea for us to take a family vacation to Disney World.  If you know my husband, this is very unlike him!  He is a homebody who works all the time and does not like traveling or big crowds so I was shocked when the Disney trip was HIS idea!  Of course, I am sure it helped that our neighbors and friends were going as well so we joined them there for part of our trip.  All of these pictures in this post are from the photo pass that we purchased:

This was taken at 1900 Park Fare restaurant.

Hadley meeting Mickey for the first time.  Mallory wasn't really interested in meeting the characters our first few days there.  Her shyness was getting the best of her.  Thankfully, she warmed up to them by the end of our trip.

Then towards the end of the trip Hadley seemed to not care about the characters!  She did not want to be in the pictures so she was in the stroller.

Minnie was Hadley's favorite.

 It was a very wet day for us at Hollywood Studios but we tried to make the best of it.  On the up side, it was not crowded or hot!

This was a good restaurant in Animal Kingdom..

This has scarred my child - you can see her in the front with Patrick's hands over her face.  She was scared to death and would not ride any other rides after this dinosaur ride.  We felt so bad!  We had no idea it was scary..or would be scary to her :(

At Epcot - Patrick's favorite.

Magic Kingdom was my favorite - minus the ridiculous crowds.

A fun ride that Patrick and I got to go on thanks to our friends for watching the girls.

Overall, it was a great trip!  I hope to be able to go again when Hadley is Mallory's age and then that will probably wrap up our Disney experiences for a lifetime!

A Running Family.

While I was pregnant with Hadley, my mom and I walked a 5K race.  I had several friends that were running in it and I had told my mom that I wished I could do it too.  She told me that if I wanted to walk it then she would walk with me.  I was not exercising at all at the time and even though I had no trouble at all walking the 3.1 miles...I knew I was capable and wanted to do more.  I wanted to be one of the runners.  I had not given it my all.  My friends that had run it had inspired me more than they could ever know.  I set it as my goal to run the whole race the next year.

The next spring, Hadley was born and a few weeks later I started my running journey.  It was ugly.  I gain a lot of weight while pregnant so I had a lot of weight to lose.  I did not do any special programs like C25K, I would just go outside and run down the road I live on every day that I could and as far as I could.  After a couple of months I could run the 3 miles that I needed to for the 5K.

My parents and my sister-in-law, Ashley, also participated in the 5K.  Ashley had no trouble running as she has always worked out regularly and she had ran it the year before when I walked.  She is a fast runner.  I should label myself as more of a jogger :)  My dad ran a little but mostly walked.  However, his little bit of running made him beat my mom.  She can be competitive so she wasn't having that.  She wanted to start running too.  So then their running journey began.  You feel so accomplished after running and pushing yourself.  No matter how many times or how often I run...it is ALWAYS a challenge to me.

So now the four of us have kind of made running races a hobby.  They win a lot of medals.  My parents and Ashley usually place in their age division in the local races.  I am so proud of my parents and love the fact that they have always set such great examples of how to live a healthy and active lifestyle.  Yet they were never pushy about it or have made me feel like I NEED to.  They have a way of making me feel like I WANT to.  I hope I can set that same example for my daughters as they get older.

Ashley, me, Dad and Mom last Saturday at Kinston's Run for the River

Cooking a Little Hadley

Mallory is pretty good about making up catchy little songs.  The girls were playing in the kitchen last week while I was cooking dinner.  Mallory grabs the whisk and starts "stirring" Hadley's hair and singing this little tune.  I don't know where she came up with it at but it has been stuck in my head ever since, haha!

Birthdays and Allergies

Almost every single close friend I have has their birthday in March.  I am blessed to have quite a few close friends that I love and cherish deeply so I am certainly not complaining about this!  

We went to The Chelsea in New Bern on Saturday for Nikki's birthday lunch.  They are known for their Shrimp & Grits which is what I ordered.  YUM.  I cleaned my plate and shared a chocolate ganache cheesecake with Megan for dessert.  I felt so guilty for eating all that but man was it good.  It doesn't help that I went in starving.  Always a bad idea.

Nikki's boys were there too and they behaved so well.  My kids hate restaurants.

We also celebrated my Granddaddy's 94th birthday with a party for him on Saturday night.  The party was his request.  My family cooked a pig which was also his request.  Other things he asked for were homemade apple jacks made by my Grandma, a pineapple cake and bacon wrapped gizzards.  Yep, when you turn 94, you get whatever you want.  He did not want his picture made...so no pictures.  Everything turned out great though and I am so thankful that he was able to enjoy his birthday.

Then last night we celebrated Ashley's birthday.  My parents cooked a steak dinner.  It was delicious as always.  Mallory loves to help blow out the candles.

Ashley's mom, Ms. Leslie, made this amazing homemade cake from Southern Living.  We were all so impressed and yes, it tasted just as good as it looks.

The beautiful weather was nice this past weekend, but it also made for a very sick Hadley.  My kids have the WORST allergies.  They already take Claritin everyday and we run a Rainbow vacuum cleaner 24/7 which is supposed to help with allergies and they still have big flare ups.  Hadley especially.  Her little nose runs and runs and runs.  It is bad but I do not know what else to do.  She was getting a breathing treatment below (which is always fun) and decided to give it to the baby on the box instead.  I hope and pray that these allergies are something that she will grow out of.

And one last picture of the girls before church on Sunday!  We enjoyed the warmness while it lasted but it is back to cold and rainy again today.

Spring is here.

North Carolina has had about the roughest winter that I can ever remember.  Usually our winters are nothing to really complain about but we have had a record number of snow days this year it seems.  The girls and I are so ready for warm weather!  We are busy planning our summer vacations and dreaming about beach and pool days to come.

Lots of time is spent inside pretending to be puppies.  I don't know what it is with my kids being infatuated with puppies.

We have been lucky that the weekends are usually nice and warmer than the weekdays!

Right before a trip to Tractor Supply Store to see all of their baby chicks and ducks.

The girls playhouse they got for Christmas.  Really looking forward to lots of backyard time now!

In six months.

The girls grow and change so quick but with seeing them every day, it is not always easy to see just how much they change.  Here is a picture that I just took Tuesday, May 14 -

That little girl...you see how Mallory is having to hold her to be still.  She is busy and is never still unless she is sleeping (which she does great, praise the Lord).  But she makes up for it when she is awake.  Mallory has never been that active!  And she is eating on a hushpuppy that I had given her to try to get her to be still. 

Here are the girls less than six months ago.  The picture on the left was taken on Dec 1.  It blows my mind! 

Not that I am rushing things, but I can't wait to see what they look like in another six months.