Happy Mother's Day

Nana and the girls on Easter

Kaylie giving "T" all the candy in the eggs

Kaylie's first real camera

Charlotte at Jimmy Buffett

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers! My day was pretty perfect. We went to the beach and then lunch. Kaylie is scared of the ocean but she really wants to get close to it so she had me hold her and stand with my feet in the water for a long time. She watched the waves (and said "another one!" every time they came in) and gathered seashells. Taylor is scared and doesn't want to go near the water. She played in the sand. I snuck away for a little bit to go shopping and then came back and spent some time with the girls before I started editing photos. Kaylie climbed up behind me in my computer chair and scratched my back. Then Taylor wanted to do it too. I would say that made for a pretty perfect day. I absolutely adore my babies. They are honestly the sweetest, most loving little girls on the planet.

Our life is back to pure insanity as you can tell by the gap in my posting. Busy season has hit and so I am back to working until 2 in the morning most nights so I haven't taken many photos of the girls lately. Plus Kaylie is in major need of a haircut but my weekends are so packed that I haven't been able to take her.

Easter was great. Neale and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary (we have been together over 12 years total). We went to the Jimmy Buffett concert in Charlotte and then spent the rest of the weekend in Greenville with my parents. I think the Easter Bunny hid about 100 eggs for the girls to find. They also got stuffed animals, clothes, sidewalk chalk, coloring books, and toys. He may have gone a little overboard but the girls loved it. Kaylie was really into getting the eggs and Taylor was really into eating everything out of every one she found. Even our dog Roxy managed to snag an egg too. The Easter Bunny put jellybeans, animal cookies, applejacks, etc. in them. The girls really don't eat candy any other time. Kaylie opened her eggs and said "No like it" and gave "T" all her jellybeans and "T" happily ate them all. I was sick so I didn't get photos like I normally would. Tina, Kendall, Brayden, and their 6 week old twins came over for dinner that night. The girls loved to look at the babies. They would go up to them and stare at them and rub their feet. For days they said"See babies?"

When I was growing up and I heard my mom yell "Kara Suzanne Stovall!" that meant I was in trouble. The other day I was getting ready for work and Kaylie hopped in our big bathtub. Taylor shook her pointed finger at Kaylie and said in her baby shouting voice "KAYLIE CHINN GET OUT!" Oh, the things they pick up.

The girls are very into their clothes, shoes, and hairbows. Taylor told me the other day "Me have cool shoes." She also said "Daddy has a cool ride" but I think she may have been coached to say that one.

Neale had a friend ("Buckles") from the army in town so we went out to dinner with him and his family last week. The girls love to go "Out to eat!". They ask me often if we can go shopping or out to eat. They say "Me go shopping?" or Taylor will say "Taylor go shopping?". They also came over and we grilled out Friday night. Their daughter is almost 2 so the girls played with her. Taylor pushed her around in her babydoll's stroller and Kaylie kept giving her hugs.

The girls have slept through the night since they were 3 months old with no problems. We have never put them in our bed because there are two of them and if you put one in the bed then you have to put the other one in too and if you put them both in bed then it becomes a jumping on the bed party. We tried it once and then realized with two that just doesn't work. It has actually turned out to be a good thing. On the weekend I will wake up at 6:30 and hear the girls up talking and saying "Momma!" I will yell down the hall "Go back to bed. It isn't time to get up yet." They actually GO BACK TO SLEEP! WooHoo! I didn't think that would work. Neale and I have been able to sleep in until about 9 several times. They have started trying different tactics to get us to go back into their room at night when we put them to bed. They will tell me the need juice or "Momma cubit" which means "cover me up". I will go up there 1 time to re-cover them if needed but that is it. I tell them "This is the last time" when I am up there and that usually works. They know I am not coming back so they go to sleep or talk. Taylor loves to sleep. Kaylie talks and sings for about an hour after we put her to bed. Taylor will talk to her for about 20 minutes and then she is out. I can hear Kaylie say "T", "T", "T" trying to get Taylor to wake up. It reminds me of when I was little. I was an early riser and my friends wouldn't wake up for several hours after I was awake. I would get so bored I would turn the pages of books really loud or open and close the velcro on my shoes trying to make noise to wake them up.

The Easter Bunny got the girls their first real digital cameras for Easter. I had fun teaching them how to use them. Shooting at 2! YAY! Way to make momma proud. Kaylie will pose for photos now as long as she gets to see the photo after you take it. Now if only I had the time to take her photos!