“What you focus on increases!”

Fill your hearts with a positive spirit today, as we live, move and have our being in God.

The girls had a little dance recital to finish off their spring/summer mini session!  For the last month, we haven’t been able to sit in and watch, so I haven’t seen their progress recently.  I was surprised with how much each girl has learned this go around.  They both have really strong ballet fundamentals.  Yay!  If either of them want to be dancers someday, they’ve definitely got the moves!

Noelle had such beautiful posture, technique and style!  I was so impressed with the way she picked up everything so quickly!

We didn’t have a good angle on Anna Kate for taking pictures, but she was precious and did so great!  She got a little distracted from time to time, but she retains words and positions so well.  She doesn’t miss a beat… even if she gets distracted.  She was adorable!

Noelle was feeling the flow of the music.  She was the oldest one in the class, which is right up her alley being mother hen and all, and we’re encouraging her to enjoy anything that will keep building her confidence, because each positive experience is making her stronger!

Plie, sweet girl!

Working out of fifth position…

Take a bow, Cutie Kate!  Love her little side-ways tongue when she’s concentrating… I always tell her she’s my precious angel!

You go girl!  Noelle loves to be in the spot light, and she’s good at it too!  Here are the big girls with Miss Haley.  She was a wonderful teacher!  The girls learned so much; she was happy, patient, energetic and kept the girls on track.

Anna Kate was looking at us and smiling with delight that she did a great job!

Kay Kay, Grandpapa, Aunt Sharon, Rose, Mommy, and Daddy came to cheer for Noelle and Anna Kate!  The girls are so blessed to have such wonderful people in their lives!

And then things went a little something like this (that’s my new saying).  Noelle and Anna Kate found their friends Cory and Landry in another class (Tae Kwon Do), and right after I took a quick picture in the gym, I turned around, and Rose actually got the fire extinguisher door open!  I’m just laughing out loud at how full our hands are with her!!!  It’s like that old country song that says, “Can’t live with her, but can’t live without her!”  She is one of the three best things that have ever happened to Mike and me, curious all the time or never, we gotta have her!

This activity went down every day after dance class!  She always looked forward to showing off her bicycle bar skills.  Maybe gym next?

Noelle and Anna Kate had friends after over last week after art camp.  Their favorite play date activity is still dress-up and then dance party!  I did the girls’ hair and Noelle did make-up and outfits.  The girls had a blast!

Julia/Anna Kate and Noelle/Ava

Julia was a total crack-up!  She was saying all these girlie phrases like, “Diva style!” and “Girl’s rule!”  Hilarious!  She was dressed to play the part!  I wish we could do this every day… I was exhausted after doing hair all afternoon, but it was worth every minute of seeing them sass around like little divas!  It truly does give them a little spring to their steps!

And Noelle’s no exception to playing the diva roll, lol!  After dress-up, Ava’s tummy hurt, so Noelle and Anna Kate worked up a breakfast in bed for her before we watched movies!  The girls have such sweet friends, and we are so blessed to share our lives with each one of them!

Noelle and Ava had SO MUCH FUN doing art camp together last week!  It was hard waking up so early every morning to get there on time during the first week of summer, but we car pooled and made it work, and it was amazing!  So glad the girls got to do this!  We signed up way back in March, so we were looking forward to it for a while.  Art is absolutely Noelle’s favorite thing (because she knows it’s the foundation to fashion designing, which has always been her passion)!

This little frog is straightening her crown in the mirror.  This is the coolest kid sculpture I’ve ever seen!

Each kid got to draw a different animal, and Noelle chose a bird.  Her art has already surpassed my own; I’m impressed!

Superterrestrial day!

Butterfly coaster and lizard keychain she gave mike for Father’s Day!  Thanks Amy for the awesome art camp idea!  The girls had the best time creating art together!

The girls always have a blast at open gym and story time!  Cheers to some cooler activities to kick off this hot summer!

After Build-A-Bear, we went to the hospital to meet Avery’s brand new baby sister, Livi!  Anna Kate and Avery are sweet little friends!

Livi is my friend Megan and her husband Michael’s second baby girl!  There is nothing like the sweet sounds and smells of a newborn baby!  Nothing is more precious in the entire world; they are such little miracles!

Rose did great at the hospital (she had pulled all her stops at B-A-B and was ready for nap time), and Avery said she was posing like Anna Kate in this picture; too cute!  The Pond girls are meeting so many new girlfriends to play with; we are overjoyed and tickled pink!

…went a little something like this!  The next stuffed animal welcomed into the Pond family is named “Kola Kitty” picked out by Rose herself.  She wouldn’t let this pink kitty out of her arms, so she was the one for Rose!  Noelle named her for Rose, and Rose kept repeating with delight, “Kola Kitty, Kola Kitty!”  And that was the sweetest end to the craziest Build-A-Bear experience you can imagine! 

Last week, we went to Build-A-Bear with lots of friends for a promotion they were doing for free bears!  As you can imagine, it was wild and crazy, and I braved the crowd alone with my 3 girls, which would be fine and dandy, except that one of them is 2 years old!  As moms, we so quickly forget the challenges of that age, lol!  The Preston and Pond girls decided to stay in the store where the four walls contained our kiddos and wait until the end of the line to build our bears.  Turned out to be a great idea the store hostess suggested, because by the time it was our turn, we had the store to ourselves, and the girls played their little hearts out!  Here’s Anna Kate, Ave, Noelle, Eden and Rose racing their new bears!  Eden got a little head start this time, lol!

This was Rose the riot (just thought that up, haha) having fun right before her first melt-down and consequently, her first time-out (which wouldn’t be her last of the day).  Mia and Georgia were our first friends to build their bears, and we had fun seeing which ones they picked out!  It was so exciting when Ava and Noelle discovered they had picked the same bear as Georgia (I did plan ahead and let the girls pick out their bears the day before, so we wouldn’t have to shop in the store, but it was still so crowded, you can’t even imagine)!  I just kept counting heads, 1-2-3, the whole time we were in there!

Jaalisa grabbed my camera and took this adorable picture of her two big boys; she was smart and left her two year old at home, lol!  Although the girls didn’t get to play with Brayden and Braxton this time, it was fun saying hi to them in line!  And then, there was the birthday boy!!!  Emily’s little brother, Vaden (who is Anna Kate’s age), got to be the center of attention while the whole store sang “Happy Birthday” to him (it was beginning to clear out)!  I love how his siblings, Emily and Carter, in the right picture, are clapping and cheering for their brother… too sweet!

After wishing Vaden a happy birthday, it was the Pond girls turn to build our bears!  Rose picked the big pink kitty because it’s head was already fluffed, and she just couldn’t understand why their animals weren’t stuffed yet.  It really got a bee in her bonnet, and she just couldn’t understand why she had to wait to have an animal that was stuffed (which caused her second melt-down of the day).  This was her first Build-A-Bear experience, so she didn’t get it until she got to press the foot pedal to fill her bear with stuffing, and then the world was at peace again… for the moment!  Noelle named her bear “Harmony” to match Georgia’s bear’s name, and Anna Kate picked out “Rainbow” for her bear but then said her real name is “Vanessa” so we’ll see what sticks, lol!  Rose’s is “Kola Kitty!”

Rose and Anna Kate had a blast giving their animals a bath, fluffing them with air from the foot pump the kids get to use, and brushing them out before they got them dressed.  In the picture to the right, sisters Eden and Ava were as tickled as they could be about their new stuffed animals!

The Preston girls’ dad, Kyle, and I let our girls play their little hearts out since they had so patiently waited for their turn.  Since we had the store all to ourselves, it made the whole experience so much more fun and relaxed.  I hate feeling rushed, especially in crowds.  We made the most of it though, and did what was best for our kids, and they were so happy for the extra play time we got by waiting. 

After lots of racing and playing with the accessories, we cleaned up, and headed to get our animals dressed.  All five girls chose to dress their animals in what Georgia had picked out for her peace sign bear!  It was a rainbow tutu with sparkles and sequins!  We ended up having a lot of fun when all was said and done, but it will be many a weeks (months or years sounds more like it, lol) before I take all 3 girls to the mall by myself again! 

Yay!  Girl day with Caroline and Carlee!

The Pond girls were SO excited to meet up with the Boyd girls for the day to play and shop their little hearts out!!! 

This is usually what we see when we are hanging out with our girlies.  The big girls are just chillin’ and Rose is always on the move!

Keri and I have been busy planning a big trip together for the fall, and we were so excited to spend the day altogether with our families!

After lunch at Mi Cocina, all five girls got haircuts at Sweet & Sassy!  We have the most patient husbands in the world to make it over an hour in that store with giddy little girls.  It was so wild and crazy and FUN!

Noelle and Caroline are cut from the same cloth!  These two are little divas, full of sass and style!

The S&S stage is amazing when you have multiple little girls getting their hair cut at once… the girls never tire of walking the “runway!”

Love Anna Kate’s fresh bob hair cut; she’s such a Cutie Kate!  Caroline was helping me with baby Rose while Noelle finished getting her hair cut (this was the Boyds first time to meet our Texas Tornado, lol).  Rose was getting to be a hot mess at this point (can you tell?), so Mike happily took her to the car to get some rest.  They were nap-time buddies the rest of the day, while we went shopping after S&S!  

Noelle, Caroline, Carlee and Anna Kate showing off their pretty hair cuts and styles!  It was also Anna Kate’s nap time, but she was such a good sport, we let her keep playing.  She was in heaven hanging out with the Boyd girls and big sissy!

The pictures below are a blast from the past.  Although we don’t get to see our friends very often, we make the most of it when we are together!  We have made a lot of fun memories through the years when the Boyds come to Texas!  I can’t believe how much the girls have grown… time truly does fly by when you’re having fun!

Caroline and Noelle (age 4), Carlee (age 3) and Anna Kate (age 1) at Sweet & Sassy, 2010.

The Boyd girls and the Pond girls, December 2010.