A Sense Of Wonder

My goal was to get this post up before the end of April and here I am squeaking it in on the very last day. Yeah!  This Easter was a special one for all of us.  We loved seeing Daisy's excited face when she saw her goodies on the counter Easter morning.  We loved admiring her in her pretty dress and taking her to church to learn about Jesus and the resurrection in Sunday school.  We loved watching her hunt for eggs at Great Grandma and Grandpa's house after church.  She was so happy all day and had so much fun.  

There is something about having a child that brings the magic and the passion back into holidays for us grown ups.  They naturally bring a sense of wonder to everything that they do.  Every time that Daisy found an egg that was a "challenge" she would yell with such enthusiasm, "I got it. I got it. Yeah!" If you watch the video at the bottom you will see what I mean.  She didn't even seem to mind that half of her eggs were filled with gold fish crackers, though I did notice that she started to shake them as she found them.  I think she learned that the crackers sounded different than the candies.  LOL  Never have I enjoyed an Easter so much.  Till next year...

Snapshots of Life - April Instagram

I turned the big 29 this month. (lol) It's funny because I've never been one to wig out over my age but, for whatever reason this year was a weird one for me to process.  I think I had an early mid-life crisis...(I'm exaggerating of course...sort of).  How could I be almost 30? I remember being a little girl and my mom being in her late 20's like it was yesterday.  Honestly.  And turning 30 isn't even that big of a deal so much as it means that I'm only 10 years away from 40 and only 20 years away from 50....sigh.  (LOL).  I promise that I'm not a dramatic person.  I guess this year just caught me off guard. ;)  Have any of you ever had an unexpected age crisis?  Anyways, it was a great birthday.  Hubby surprised me with a present in the morning and baked me a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting just the way I like it.  He was so sweet!  Daisy was so excited to sing happy birthday to mommy and eat my cake.  She helped me blow out my candles and look at her wittle puff face.  Priceless.  This picture is one of my absolute favorites of me and my little girl.  LOVE. 

Later, I enjoyed a delicious sushi dinner with some of my girl friends on my birthday night. I'm sort of obsessed with this new place that I found that has a buy one roll get one free special!! Seriously, for a sushi lover that is like Heaven on Earth!! And their sushi is G-o-o-D lemme tell yah.

Daisy loved her first wheelbarrow ride with Daddy. 

This picture melts my heart.  My baby with her babies.  Daisy loves her baby dolls and she is such a good little momma. She hugs, kisses and feeds them. She loves counting to two right now and when I handed her two babies she got so excited and said, "awwww, mommy wook, two babies. One, Two awwwww so sweeeettt."

We go to Toys R Us a lot these days just to let Daisy explore and to pass some time on slow days or nights.  Am I the only parent that does this?  If so, please don't judge me.  It's free entertainment for weary mothers.  I'm so grateful because when she's happy I'm happy! lol Her favorite thing to do is play on the cars.  What can I say she's 2 going on 16:)  

My hubs grills for us a lot, which I love.  Sometimes we use gas and sometimes we use charcoal and this particular night he was slow cooking some chicken over coals.  I can't even emphasize how delicious my husband's slow cooked chicken is.  It's insanely yummy and flavorful  We are definitely an outdoor family.  If its warm enough you will find us eating dinner outside on our patio,  I'm so thankful for our quaint little backyard and that Daisy loves being outside all the time too.  Daddy asked Daisy for a high five here.  I'm glad I captured it:).  A sweet little life moment.

Our fence was due for a new stain after 3 years. The hubs knocked it out and it looks great and new again. The rose bushes beat him up pretty bad though so I'm glad it was his job and not mine! lol

One of the things that I am trying to do now that I'm old (wink), is take better care of my skin.  Technically, I should have been doing this years ago when it mattered but, now I wear this everyday.  I don't like that it smells like sunscreen but, the smell fades pretty fast and I've even noticed that my skin feels softer.  Now the sun isn't frying my face...as much.  Win Win.

Doesn't she look so elegant here.  My little princess.  She saw this crown in the aisle at Target and of course had to try it on.  She only wanted to wear it for all of 3 seconds but, that was just long enough to get this.  She is looking so big these days.  Slow down baby girl.

Our very first rose bloom! We have 6 rose bushes and this was our very first bloom! Oh how beautiful these knock out roses are and they bloom from spring to late fall.  I've become a bit sentimental about roses because they always make me think of my Grandma in California. She is a rose lover too and has the most beautiful variety of rose bushes around her garden!  I loved seeing her flowers bloom each year when I grew up.

My friend Elissa introduced me to this salad dressing and I am hooked!! I literally ate her entire family sized bowl of salad all by myself.  Just in case you should try it out a little goes a long way:).

 Me and Daisy drove up to Virginia Beach to visit with my good friend Elissa and her 3 adorable boys.  Her hubby was out of state for work so we kept each other company and the kiddos definitely kept us busy.  So thankful for my friendship with this gal:).

Look at all of our babies!  Far left is Everett who just turned one, my silly Daisy putting her arms around the boys, Austin who just turned 3 and Logan who just turned 5!  Love these kids!

Elissa treated us to a trip to the aquarium and we all had a blast...I think I had the most fun evidently.  Can you see that Daisy is eating the shark tooth?  Hilarious!  And the blue tongue...jolly rancher.

One of our many outdoor family dinners.  Daisy loves any kind of meat including fish but, she calls all meat steak.  Most dinner nights you will hear her shouting, "moh steak daddy!" She's quite the carnivore.

For whatever reason Daisy had a great time squishing her face into this magnifying glass.  She cracks me up.

She shares my love for gardening.  She filled this watering cup up over and over again to water the soil.

Brushing her teefers with her new princess tooth brush and toothpaste that she got for Easter:).

She was a little bit scared of the giant sharkies in the tank.  She kept mentioning Nemo and the sharks so I think she was imagining the cartoon in real life.  I could understand why that might be scary but, isn't this picture cute.

The pretty table that Joey's family set out for our Easter dinner.  Love all bright spring colors and what a yummy dinner it was!

Daisy and her Aunt Jessie hooked up with a lot of goodies this Easter.  Daisy's expression is priceless.  That is a face that is saying, "Mom, hurry up and take the picture because I gotta bust into these baskets!!" :) LOL

Daisy fished for the first time with her Daddy on Easter.  She LOVED it and I loved seeing both of their happy faces.  Boy, does this little girl adore her Daddy and want to do everything that he does. 

Hooked on Gungor

I just can't get enough of this band. They are so talented, passionate and creative. Their lyrics have so much depth and they are just plain entertaining to watch.  I've pushed replay uh-lot today;).  Have you ever heard of them?

Cowgirl Party Pictures - That's a Wrap!

I have to say that it was pretty fun to throw a theme birthday party that even the adults could participate in a little bit. After all, it's not every day that grown ups get to wear a mustache, a plastic sheriff's badge and a cheap, kid's cowboy hat while sitting atop a pile of fresh hay. LOL.  On that note, I think this post concludes Daisy's 2nd birthday party pictures. YEAH! 

I kid you not since my little girl turned two her vocabulary has taken off like a rocket. Really, it's incredible. Take our prayer two nights ago when she was laying in her crib for example: Me: "Daisy will you pray with mommy please?" Daisy: "mmmhmm" (pacifier in mouth) rolls on to her back and gives me her hands to pray. Me: "Let's thank Jesus for Daddy and Mommy." Daisy: "yep." Me: "Thank you Jesus for my Aunties and thank you Jesus for"...(Daisy interrupts me, let's go of my hands and proceeds to roll back over onto her stomach) Daisy: "Night Night Mommy. Bye Bye." Evidently she was done and wanted to go to sleep! I had to run out of the room because I could hardly contain my fits of laughter!!! Not so incredible when my 2 year old tells me tonight in reference to not wanting a spanking, "you can't do it mommy," while shaking her finger at me Wow!! 

Oh my children are a riot aren't they. I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! We are supposed to get our family pictures done tomorrow but, they are also calling for thunderstorms all day so we'll see how it turns out. Hoping for the best! 

(L to R: My hubby, his sister Jessica, his brother Jeremy y yo)  We all agree that Jeremy pulls of the stash best;).

 The bike that Uncle Jeremy surprised Daisy with at the very end of her present time was definitely the hit of the day. She sat on that thing mesmerized with her mouth gaping open in awe for about ten minutes!  It was pretty dang cute if I do say so.  She still doesn't quite know how to pedal but, we are working on it:). 

 

Just a few of the sweet little buddies that joined Daisy for her birthday celebration

This picture made me laugh. Mom and Dad are picture ready but, little cowboy isn't quite so sure...LOL

Oh my goodness I can't tell you how much I adore these two pictures. It's kinda a big deal for little ones to learn how to blow out a candle and I am so proud of Daisy for trying. The look of concentration and then the puff face is just priceless!!

and then we got back to more playing of course...bubbles were a big hit!