Birthday girl!

Yesterday our Kylah Sue turned five years old! Unbelievable! I kept telling her in the days leading up to her birthday that she wasn't allowed to turn five, but she would just laugh at me. :)

While she was sleeping the night before her birthday, Joe and I decorated her room with streamers and balloons. She was so excited to wake up to this in the morning. I think Joe though I was a little crazy, but he should know how much I love birthdays! :)

I took the day off of work to spend some time with the birthday girl. Kylah loved it, and commented in the morning that we had never stayed home just me and her without Norah before. Success!

We picked up her little friend Kennedy and headed to get donuts and then to get our nails done.

Kylah loves soaking her feet in the tub with me while getting a pedicure.

After pedis and manis, we took her little friend home and headed to Joey's field day at his school. Kylah got to join in on all the activities which was fun for her. 

Joey was sweet and protective of her, and let her join in with him.

We had a great time, and the weather was awesome!

Back to the birthday girl...she was so excited about her frosted brownies (I decided not to make a cake since I will make a cake for her party this weekend.)

She got some fun swimming stuff from Norah and Joey.

And she got a baby cradle from mommy and daddy.

Everyone got in on rocking the baby. :)  (If you are curious, a patient of mine actually made this cradle. Isn't it amazing?!)

She takes her job as a mommy very seriously. 

I knew Norah would think the cradle was for her baby too. :) Kylah was sweet and let Norah put her baby Emma in the cradle (but only for a few minutes!)  :)

I snuck in and took this picture after Kylah was asleep last night. Too precious!

Waterpark

 On Saturday we got to go to a fun waterpark in Branson. Our friends have season passes, so they got us in as guests. We decided a few days before we left that it would probably be better (easier and more fun for everyone!) if Norah stayed home. We got her a babysitter, and she had no clue how much fun she missed out on. It was fun to be able to actually ride all the waterslides with the kids instead of one of us always having to stay back with Norah.

Our friends' little girl will turn 5 just a few days after Kylah, so we celebrated their birthdays.

Joey was so brave on all the slides. I could not believe when he wanted to go down this slide on the left. I don't think the picture actually does justice to how high it is. That's him at the bottom of the left slide if you zoom in. He loved it and went on it a few more times. I am really scared of heights and didn't want to go on the slide, but since Joey did, I figured I needed to conquer my fear. I did it, but I only did it once. :)  (Kylah actually went down the slide on the right, which I was impressed with too!)

What a fun day! I realized that we didn't get any pictures with our friends, Leigh and Brad. Bummer. We were too busy riding all the slides! :)

We were all tired and hungry by the end, but we stayed until the park closed and had so much fun!

Mother's Day and some baseball

 First of all, Happy Mother's Day to our two wonderful mothers! We love you both so much!

My Mother's Day started by Joe and Kylah bringing me Starbucks coffee and a scone in bed. Fabulous. But, then I had to work in the church nursery this morning, so I couldn't just sit in bed and enjoy my coffee...bummer.

The kids had a fun (musical) card and a gift for me after church. Gummi bears and a workout shirt. You know, so I can workout to counteract the yummy gummi bears I'm going to eat! :) 

After a quick nap, we decided to head out for a fun little family golfing outing. It's the first time we've all gone (read...WITH NORAH), so we weren't really sure how it was going to go. Overall it went great. We made it the whole nine holes, and we had fun. Win, win. :)

Joey has gotten so much better than the last time I've seen him golf. And Kylah was pretty cute to watch too! Joey summed up my golf pretty well..."Mommy, you have a bad habit of hitting the ball really to the right." Yep, I do. I lost a lot of balls...

Just to keep it real...we did have a little of this at times...

What a fun afternoon!

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Joey has been playing t-ball again. We've had an abnormally large amount of rain, so he's already had a few games rained out.  But Saturday was a great day for a game.

 The game was at noon, so we had to have a little pre-game lunch in the back of our car. :)

Good form, Joey! :)  (Joe is the coach of Joey's team...)

 I love this picture because this is so Joey right now: all skinny arms and skinny legs!

Joey played 2nd base and then played 1st at the end of the game. He made some really good plays, and it was fun to cheer him on!

Psalm 86:11-12

I love this verse that Kylah learned, and she says it so cutely!

Kylah verse from Michelle Manthe on Vimeo.

He's famous!

 Joey is on a banner in our downtown. We happen to know the person who was contracted by the city to make these banners, and he took this photo of Joey for it last summer.

 Joey loves to see himself every time we drive by it!

Gramma was here!

We had a fun weekend with my mom...despite the weather. It was rainy, snowy and in the upper 30's on Friday when she got here. Not normal at all for Northwest Arkansas in MAY! I think we actually set a record for the first ever snow in May in this area.

But, we always have fun with Gramma here no matter what.

 The kids love to play Charades with Gramma.

Saturday evening my mom and I took the kids to Jump Zone while Joe stayed home and made dinner. Win, win. :)

Norah loves Jump Zone. She crawled up the huge octopus slide with Joey behind her (it's crazy tall and fast!) Amazing. I do love how much Joey watches out for her.

Kylah was right behind them. And this was seconds before Norah started crying because Kylah kicked her in the head... :)

What a fun face!

 Clean and ready for bed.

We gave my mom her Mother's Day gift while she was here.

She was surprised!

It's a grandmother's necklace with all the names of her grandkids...and room for more...(but not from us...)  Just wanted to make that clear! :)

We were glad that this time when we said goodbye we knew she would be back in just a month, and with my dad next time too! Yay!

Fun day

 Yesterday was such a gorgeous day outside. I packed a lunch, got the girls dressed in summer clothes, picked up our friend Sofia, and headed to the trails to meet Meredith and her kids.

I love the start of new seasons. And I love seeing chubby little arms and legs that have been covered all winter. :)

 Connor and Audrey were off of school yesterday, so they got to join us (Joey was a little bummed when he heard that they were there and he had to be at school.)  :(

What a cute little group!

 Since it was so warm we let the kids play in the stream. They played in the water forever, and they had a blast. At this time last year Norah was still scooting on her bottom, so these types of adventures were not quite as fun as they are now. :)

Matty and Norah were just adorable. They splashed and laughed and just enjoyed each other. (Doesn't Norah look like a little cupcake in that outfit?!)

It's a good thing we enjoyed the nice weather while it was here, because Thursday is supposed to be super cold again! Go away winter!!

 It was still nice outside when Joey got home from school so he and Kylah got to jump on the trampoline with the hose on. So fun!

Later that night Joey decided that he wanted to make a scavenger hunt for Kylah. He was so creative. He planned ahead and wrote out all the clues himself. He had about 8 different clues hidden around the house and the yard.

He would help Kylah read each clue. (Kylah's teacher at preschool says she can sound out words, but she's likes to pretend with us that she doesn't know how to read. Plus it's easier and quicker to have big brother do it for you!)

So precious! By the way, no, Kylah did not get glasses. Her little friend left these play glasses at our house the other day, and Kylah was playing with them. Doesn't she look smart though?! :)

What a fun scavenger hunt!

I love watching those two play together. Don't get me wrong, they can fight like crazy when they want to, but they can also play so well together and be so kind to each other. I am excited for this summer for them because we are having a college girl come watch the two of them at our house while Norah will still go to her babysitter. I think it will be really fun for the two of them! 

Speaking of summer, Joey is almost done with Kindergarten! They had graduation photos the other day. Could he be any cuter?!