Bike

Hayden loves her new bike, I think that she was always too big for her other bike and that is why she didn't enjoy it.  She can ride this one so good, you should see how fast she goes and turns...she has even had her first crash and hurt knee, but she got right up and went again, well that is after she got kisses from Mommy! We went to Mema and Pop's house the other day and it was perfect day for a ride.  They live in a quiet neighborhood, and it was good for Mommy to get a little excercise walking!!! 

Happy Valentine's Day

We went shopping on Saturday and got Colton some clothes and the next step is to order the bedding.  I have pretty much gotten his room cleaned out except for all those pretty little dresses hanging in the closet...by the way Katelyn, I will be sending a lot your way and you can pick the ones you like!   Of course I also bought Hayden and Gracie some Summer things and flip flops, which they are very excited about.  Mark surprised me by buying me some really expensive sunglasses for Valentine's Day.  I love them and he knew I would never spend the money on myself.   I tried to think of something really special for him but only came up with a card and some peanut butter candy!  The girls got a Hello Kitty, chocolate and some other candy.  They also got Valentine's in the mail from Aunt Linda, Mimi and Pop, and Kim and Artie....they love it when they get mail!   Then while I was getting the girls ready for bed, Mark surprised all of us....he had stopped on his way home and gotten all of us one rose, card and candy!  I was totally surprised, especially since the sunglasses were supposed to be my Valentine present.  It was so sweet, he had mine laying in my chair and the girls spread out on the couch!  His cards were perfect, he is pretty good at picking out good cards.  We are so lucky to have each other and we have the perfect family and marriage. 

Baby Colton's Room

This is the bedding that I have picked out for our baby boy!!!!  I am so excited but I need lots of containers to start packing up old stuff(toys that no one plays with anymore) to bring in his new stuff! 

http://www.babybeddingtown.com/

A Special Lunch Date

Today Mark and I had lunch with Hayden at school in the cafeteria.  She was so excited especially when her Daddy got to come too!  We cheated a little bit and took Zaxby's with us instead of eating the cafeteria food.  Although GWA does have a great selection of food that looks really yummy or at least a whole lot better than what I used to have to eat at school.  It is just the little things that makes a little girl very happy!   She tickles me because she is so proud of the fact that she is 5, it is a big number!  We took Gracie to Nana's house so that it would just be about Hayden, but as soon as we were done eating Hayden was ready to go to Nana's house and play too!   I have a feeling I will be eating lunch at school with Hayden a lot more!

Oh and some other big news is that Gracie went potty this morning all by herself.   Totally surprised all of us!   I am hoping that maybe this is a start of good thing, although I am still not going to push her because I truly believe that when she is ready she will do it!  I did buy her a surprise today though to try to encourage it!!!!

We also have a name for our baby boy and it is Colton Shepherd Stancil!  Shepherd is my Mama's maiden name....so basically he will be named after my Pop!  My Pop is a big part of my life and he has been diagnosed with a disease called Progressive Super Nuclear Palsy which means all sorts of things that I don't really understand.  In the last month he has lost total control of his legs..so he can't walk, he has lost most of his speech, which makes it really hard to understand him and his eye sight is getting very bad.  He was falling out of the bed at home and ended up getting an infection in his arm which resulted in a week stay at the hospital.  After the hospital visit his Doctor decided that he needed to go into a Nursing Home for Occupational Therapy to try to get his upper body stronger.  He is currently at the Nursing Home in Conyers for 100 days and he is doing good with all his therapy and then I guess they will go from there.  It is very sad to see the strong man in my life, the man that would do anything in the world for me, so helpless and sad but I know that the Nursing Home is taking very good care of him and they are all extremely nice.  My heart aches for my Mema, she is very sad too, they have been married for 59 years and never been apart, I keep reassuring her that everything is going to be okay!  I love them both so much and this is just a huge change in all of our lives. 

Hayden's Birthday at GWA

This morning Gracie and I took cupcakes to GWA for Hayden's birthday.  She was excited about Gracie coming to her school today!  It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen.  Mrs. Sherre and Mrs. Kim had Hayden stand in a chair and put a crown on her head and then all the boys and girls sang Happy Birthday to her!  Then the boys and girls thanked me for having Hayden, now tell me that isn't the sweetest thing ever!  Then Hayden got to lead the class in the blessing before they could eat their cupcakes.  Gracie did not wait for the blessing to eat her cupcakes but she doesn't know any better yet.   Hayden was so shy, I could barely hear anything she said.  Mrs. Sherre said that apparently I make the best cupcakes around because the kids ate every single one of them...I made the mini cupcakes because they usually only eat the icing and throw away the whole cupcake but not today they ate everything and each kid ate 2 cupcakes!  Gracie really enjoyed her two cupcakes!!!  Hayden is so excited that she is 5 years old now.  She can be a lunch friend at school, which means she can stay all day...but I am not going to let her stay everyday because starting next year she has to stay all day no matter what.  I want to enjoy her the rest of the year myself after all after this year she really is a big girl!   Funny thing is that today when Gracie and I came back to pick her up she decided she was going to stay for lunch with Mrs. Sherre, so I ended up having to go in and get her,...she was a little confused she thought that if you were 5 you had to stay with Mrs. Sherre...got to love the innocence of a 5 year old.   I told her that tomorrow I will take Gracie to play with Nana and I will come to eat lunch with her and her class at 12, she is very excited!

Cupcakes...Valentine Cupcakes are even better:

Hayden passing out the napkins to everyone:

Mrs. Sherre announcing that Hayden is 5 years old now:

Everyone is singing Happy Birthday:

My two little angels:

Happy 5th Birthday Hayden

Wow, I can't believe that my baby is 5 years old today!   It seems like just yesterday I was holding my sweet little 6lb 9oz tiny baby in my arms for the first time!  I know I say this all the time but my how time flies by.  She actually started opening presents Friday night, only because I couldn't wait any longer!  All she asked for was a Minnie Mouse nightgown, Cinderella nightgown and Minnie Mouse panties...so I bought all of the above.  She loves nightgowns and Gracie had gotten some Minnie Mouse panties so she thought she needed some too!  Then we went out for the big present....a NEW PRINCESS BICYCLE!!!!  She absolutely loved it, I will never forget the look on her face when Mark brought it in...can we say PRICELESS!   She rode it all over the house Friday night! 

Saturday was the official birthday party!  She decided she wanted to have it at Rockdale Gymnastics this year and invite all of classmates!  Hayden loved it, she was smiling the whole time!  There was pizza, cake, ice cream and presents.  She got lots of great gifts, she hasn't even played with all of them yet.  I have to say I was very pleased with her party!

Minnie Mouse Nightgown:

Princess Bike:

She is good at this new bike, she can go really, really fast:

Hayden and Kierstin:

Ready to Party with Hello Kitty:

Isn't this the most adorable cake ever?

Having Fun...Hayden was flying instead of sliding:

Mommy, Hayden and Kierstin...Mommy doesn't look so good...

Mark Brantley tried out the slide too:

Hayden giving Kierstin a push up:

Zip Line:

Going really fast on the zip line:

Waiting patiently:

Now those are the two prettiest little girls in the world:

Not a great picture, but you can she how happy she was...

Zip line again...

Gracie tried it too, but she wasn't too sure about it...

Nana sneaking some birthday kisses from the birthday girl...

Pizza...

Still doesn't like to be the center of attention...

Happy Birthday Hayden...

Presents:

And here they are the finished Pink Monkey Bars...

GO Hayden!

Great Job Hayden and Daddy...These pink monkey bars look amazing!!!

Dear Hayden,

Happy Birthday Angel, We love you more than you will ever know!   I know you like all the gifts we gave you, but you will never forget your pink monkey bars that you built with Daddy and I don't think he will either.  Hope you enjoy your 5th Birthday Baby Girl!!!

We Love You,

Mommy, Daddy and Gracie

Excited Girls!

Well Gracie is such a big girl...She got her ears pierced on Saturday!!!  The first time she wouldn't let them touch her but then about 30 minutes later she decided she really wanted to do it.  She sat there like such a big girl and thank goodness they did both ears at the same time, because she started screaming after it was done.  Everyone in Wal-Mart was starring at us but she was very proud of herself afterwards and of course she got a Minnie Mouse phone and doll for being such a good girl!  She has already informed me that she wants some pink earrings, so I guess when she can change them I will buy her some to match Hayden's pink ones.   She is also growing up so fast.   She is so sweet and always makes me laugh....She is at that really cute age and talking up a storm!  I love the way she copies everything Hayden says and does, although sometimes Hayden gets a  little aggravated. 

There she is holding her Minnie Mouse phone and showing off those pretty earrings:

On another note since all the rain this week Mark has been home and able to make his baby girl exactly what she really wanted for her birthday...is everyone ready?....Monkey Bars and she wanted pink ones....so we have painted the bars pink just for her.  She already knows about the monkey bars, she has been helping paint them, dig holes, cement, measure and everything else that she could help with.   She is so excited, I can't figure out if she is more excited about helping her Daddy put them together or actually having her own Monkey Bars!  She is also getting lots more surprises for her birthday from Mommy and Daddy, it kind of looks like Christmas but she is so worth it!!!   She is very excited about her birthday party this weekend, she is really excited that we invited everyone in her class!

Here they are the PINK Monkey Bars!!!  I would have loved these when I was little!

Measuring...

Concrete...

Making Monkey Bars with the best Daddy in the world...

Here is the Monkey in Nana's Tree.  She absolutely loves climbing trees at Nana's house.  She is either a Monkey in the trees or a Monkey on the Monkey Bars...

I love these pictures of her, she looks like she is posing but I promise she wasn't....she is just that photogenic and beautiful...