April 2013

April started with Madeline making her First Communion.  She had worked for so long to prepare for this Sacrament and was so excited!  She looked beautiful in her dress and veil.

 Mrs. Judy, one of her teachers:

 Mrs. Nancy, her other teacher:

 These 4 girls have been in PRE together since they were 3:)

 My brother, Robbie, is Madeline's godfather.  We were so grateful he could be there but sure missed her godmother, Kym's presence.  Virginia is a long way away though:(

 Madeline was also super excited her cousin, Emma could be there.

 Nana flew in for the occasion too!

 Sweet siblings!  Can you tell the sun was a bit bright, lol!

 Our family of 5:

 A beautiful cake:

 Later that month, Madeline's ballet class was asked to perform at the Health Fair in town.  She had a good time!

 Then, Nathan was able to go with her on her first out of town GT field trip to Memphis.  They rode the charter bus with her friend, Haylee.

 One of their stops was the Memphis Zoo where Madeline fell in love with the pandas.

 The start of Spring, meant the start of t-ball for Will!  This year he was on the Oakland A's.

Mallory seemed to enjoy hanging out at the ball field too:)

 This is her 10 month picture.  We completely gave up on the sign in the crib:)  She was not having it anymore.

 She also discovered a love for the i pad.

 And the swings at the park:)

 Will discovered that he loves Monopoly Jr.and we have had many Family Game Nights playing his new favorite game!

 Mallory became quite the cruising machine during this time.

We did get an offer on our house but it was a really low one so we decided to pass and just continue the waiting game.  To make matters more stressful, we had a bad storm with hail damage right around Easter and had to replace our roof, ugh!   We hoped that May would bring us a better offer and the chance to move while Nathan was on summer break.

March 2013

March was a busy month with house showings and us going to look at more houses.  In January, we took a close look at our finances and decided that I was going to need to go back to work.  Even if we did not move to a bigger house, it was no longer possible for me to keep staying at home.  It was such a hard and sad decision for me but it needed to be done, so I started the application process for teaching positions in the fall.

Here are some fun shots of the kids from this month:

Silly sock day

 A silly picture in a new outfit from Nana:

 Nathan and the rest of my family ran the Little Rock Half Marathon again.  Nathan ran a personal best and won our family trophy!

 Mallory started trying some solid foods.  Here is the first try of egg yolk.  It was a hit:)

 Our family did Marleigh's Diabetes March again.  They did moustache face painting:)

 Mallory having some fun wearing Daddy's sunglasses.

 Mallory having fun at her 9 month appointment showing off her waving skills to Dr. Calloway:)

 Her 9 month picture.  We had to give up on the sitting down pictures by this point!

 A fun new Matilda Jane outfit for Spring.

 A chilly before school picture.  I sure love these cuties!

 In an effort to prepare her for daycare in the fall, Mallory started a 2 day a week MDO program.  Here she is on her first day.

 Madeline's hip-hop dance picture for this year:

 Resurrection Rolls on the Saturday before Easter.

 Easter baskets waiting on Easter morning:

 Happy Easter from 3 smiling kids (an Easter miracle)

We also had a nice staycation for Spring Break.  No luck selling our house at this point, but we kept hoping an offer would come soon!

February 2013

We started this month by putting our house on the market.  We had found a house we really liked but knew we had to sell first.  Here are some pictures of our house so that we can always remember:)
Living Room

 Dining Room

 Kitchen

 Playroom

 Will's Room

 Girl's Room

 Master Bedroom

 Front of House

 We lived in this house for a little over 7 years, the longest I have ever lived anywhere by far!  When we bought it, it was stuck in the 1960s and with a lot of hard work and a tight budget, we managed to make it more like us.  We brought home 2 babies to this home and Madeline was not even 2 when we moved in.  We have been so blessed to live here and have so many wonderful memories!
 On to the rest of February!

Valentine's Day

 Annual Campfire Father Daughter Dance:

 Silly Girls

 Mallory turned 8 months:)

Sorry to be so short!  I have a lot of updating to do:)

I can't believe it's been almost a year!

I'm sad that I've let the blog go untouched this long:(  After January, life got super busy with many, many life changes.  Now that I'm on Christmas break, I can finally try to catch up.  I'm probably just going to post a few pictures of each month and the major updates.  Lots has changed for our family and I want to document it for myself even if everyone else has given up on reading my blog:)