Mothers Day Weekend in Atlanta

We had a wonderful weekend aside from the traveling time on the road. Billy has a close friend he met here at Fort Bragg while working with him. They share the same interests and he and Billy have remained close even after a move. Drew and his wife, Mila, invited us for a celebratory get together to not only spend time with one another but to also celebrate their little girl who a lot of us had yet to meet and anticipate the next new addition to their family in the near future. Drew left Fayetteville and moved to Atlanta a couple years ago and during that time he got married to a very sweet woman whom was living in Russia at the time. She moved here along with her mother and then shortly after that entered into the equation a very beautiful and precious little girl named Olivia. Over the weekend, we were able to meet a lot of people whom we have heard about for such a long time and it was great. Also, they had not yet seen Kassidy so we shared showing off our children to one another with pride. Both of these little girls already have their daddies wrapped around their little fingers. On the downside, we did not think very strategically about the time we would spend in the car within a two-day period. It was a hard drive up one day and back the next but well worth it. Another negative is that I forgot my camera and therefore have no pictures of our get together and the girls together. Even though there is only a year's difference between Olivia and Kassidy, you would have thought Kassidy was 15 years old because all she did was kiss Olivia's head and put out her arms and say "Come here." She wanted to hold Olivia all the time. It was a great time that I wish I had pictures of but it will have to wait until next time. Thank you Drew and Mila for all your hospitality and the trouble you went to in order to make us feel welcome and definitely for the wonderful Russian food that we enjoyed. Here is a belated happy Mother's Day. I hope all of you mothers were pampered and taken care of well on your special day.

New Season New Clothes

MiMi and PopPop are really good about making sure that her wardrobe is loaded with season-appropriate clothes. I think the only other thing she likes better than clothes is opening the packages that she gets them in. Here she is modeling her latest clothes that she got from them. She immediately, like always, started stripping to begin changing from one outfit to the other. Thank You!

Presents for MiMi and PopPop

It never fails that MiMi and PopPop always send a package Kassidy's way every week or two. We think it has to do a littl with Mimi having such a great excuse to shop and PopPop not being able to say no but whatever it is Kassidy thinks it works out just fine. It is the start of swimsuit season and Mimi takes that very serious. Here are a few pics of Kassidy thoroughly enjoying opening up the swimsuits and outfits that Mimi and PopPop have picked out and sent her. She gets gifts so often in the mail that when she sees us bringing one in from the mailbox she automatically holds out her hands and yells PREZZZZZZ? (Her version of present). She is definitely a ham and LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to get her picture taken. What kind of monster have I created? Some of these pictures crack me up! I don't know what is going through that mind of hers sometimes but maybe that is best.

Easter

Here are a few Easter pics the morning before leaving for church. This is a dress that her Aunt Jodi got her so we thought it would serve as an Easter dress quite well. Also, she is opening a cheap Walmart Easter basket with cheap princess jewelry and a few packages of sweets. We had actually went to the Disney store and other places and acquired together a nice easter basket supply with a Disney Princess bag in place of the more traditional basket. However, I put it in my closet to hide it for about a week. Not a good place to hide things from her since she thinks that she needs to help me decide what to wear everyday and pick out my shoes for me. So....needless to say...easter ended up coming a little early for her so we did not want to go out and get another extravagant Easter contraption so this is what we did for the official Easter morning! AHHHHHHH. Lessons learned.

Box From Iraq

Wow! Guess what we got? Our friend, Beth, has been stationed in Iraq for some time now. Thankfully, she is very, very close to coming home and being back together with Mark and Merrilee. We cannot wait. We know how much they miss being apart. We are so happy for them. We couldn't believe that she thought enough of us to take time out of her busy life in the middle of Iraq to send us something. She sent Billy and I both a mug and a travel bag. She also included several gifts in there for Kassidy but the one Kassidy liked the best was definitely the stuffed animal. At first, she looked at it as if to say "Hmmm....never seen a stuffed animal quite like this....then slowly began to explore and finally fell madly in love with it. For the next few days, everywhere she went the camel was sure to go. It went on car trips to Walmart, to the breakfast table, to bed, and it even got a piggyback ride from Billy which I thought was funny since they are usually the ones giving rides. Boy does this camel have it made! I thought that was the most halarious thing ever! Thanks Beth for thinking of us and we cannot wait to see the first blog you guys post when you get home and get to hold your little girl and your husband for the first time in a long time. Take Care!

Beach Fun and Getting to Know The Traveling Gypsies

Here are some pics of when Jodi, Bobbi, Reece and two of my cousins (McKenzie and Taylor) came down to visit us. I will refer to McKenzie and Taylor as the traveling gypsies. hehe Kassidy only briefly got to meet them awhile back. My Aunt Connie and I were very close growing up but after getting married they decided to explore the world! :) During their marriage and over the years of adding a total of four children and now one son-in-law, they managed to live in several different places. That is not so bad if you are adventurous but along with that comes time apart from your family. Unfortunately, that occurred and we have not been able to get to know or spend much time with our cousins. We always heard about them and they always heard about us but as far as having a personal relationship with them....well....that was not able to happen. Thankfully, on their transition back from Alaska to moving to CO, they were able to come and spend several months in WV. The younger ones were able to even go to school with Bobbi and Reece. In that time period, they all became super close friends/family. Now....it doesn't matter where they go or what they do they will always have family in WV who they will always remember no matter where their path will lead them. In that time also, Billy, Kassidy and I were able to get to know them a little too. We did not get to spend as much time with them as everyone in WV did but we did get to spend a lot of time with the two gypsy girls when they traveled our way right before heading out for Colorado a few days later. We will miss you but we hope you will always remember your time with us fondly. We love you. Here are some pics of us checking out the beach life at Myrtle Beach. It was Bobbi's birthday also so we celebrated at the Melting Pot Restaurant. There are a hodge podge of pics that I will not explain individually but just know all fun was had.

Daddy's New Car

Billy has wanted a mustang since before we were even married. We talked about it before he left for Afghanistan and came to a mutual agreement that he could get one when he got back. Last week we went to Raleigh and picked it up. Kassidy has set us straight that it is "MY CAR." Here are some pics of them pulling out of the driveway for her first spin in it.