Molly's New Wheels

Well, we are the proud new owners of America's best selling car--the Cozy Coupe. Ever since Molly learned to walk (if not before) she has loved the Cozy Coupe. After playing in the Cozy Coupe for a solid hour while we got our oil changed Saturday and then again at a birthday party Saturday night, Brian mentioned getting one for her. I had checked on Craigslist, but they seemed so expensive for a used toy. Well, I saw in the paper on Sunday that Toys R Us had them on sale AND I had a coupon, so we decided to get one for her. She was ecstatic! And they had it in pink. She said she either wanted pink or green (which they don't make, but there was no telling her that)--not red. Sounds like her Auntie Tara, doesn't she? :-)

She had to help Daddy put it together last night.

And can you guess where she spent ALL day today?

And there's another little reason we bought a Cozy Coupe.....

Super Saturday!

Really! It was! It was a pretty typical Saturday. We ran errands, grabbed lunch at Qdoba, went to the park, and went to a birthday for Scarlet, a little girl from church. But I just had such a nice day with my family. :-)

I gave Molly a little bob this morning. She's going to start to run when she sees me with the scissors because the last two times I've gone to "trim" her hair, I've gotten a little scissor-happy. I'm really pleased with it though--I think she looks adorable!
Molly has always been really nervous about going down the slide. (Even our own slide at home.) But very recently, she's been getting brave and going down the slide. She's so proud of herself every time she goes down. So cute!

Rayna went on the baby swing at the park for the first time today. She LOVED it! :-)

Is it time for the party YET?!

Enjoying her "loot" after the party.

Today was so fun! Do I really have to get ready for bed?!

Molly Moment

I thought that for this month's Molly update, I would share a few conversations that I have had with Molly lately. This girl is just SO funny! Everyday she cracks me up with something that she says!

Molly: (as we are leaving a store) Where we going now?
Me: To our van.
Molly: I know THAT!

Molly: I going to Nana's house, Mommy. You can come, too, when Brian gets home.
Me: Who is Brian?
Molly: MY Brian!

Me: (Playing with Rayna) Give me some of that paci, Rayna! Mommy's going to get it!
Molly: You can't have a paci! You is not a baby--(stops, realizes that she still has a paci, but she is not a baby) You is not a big girl! You is a Mommy!

Molly: (Spotting the golden arches) You see that, Mommy?
Me: Yes, I do.
Molly: That's called Old McDonalds. Nana takes me there.

Molly: Mommy, you is my best Mommy!
Me: Molly, you are my best Molly! :-)

Rayna's Baptism

Our sweet Rayna was baptized today. She was baptized with her buddy Zoe which was very special. Our friends the Browns and the Hendricks (and Nana of course!) joined us at church to help us celebrate Rayna's special day. The dress she wore was actually a gift from a friend that I met when I was expecting Rayna. Her daughter was baptized in the same dress 14 years ago. It was a lovely ceremony and Brian gave a wonderful fatherly blessing:

"Psalm 127 says,
'Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.
Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior's hands.
How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!'
Rayna Faith, we feel so blessed to have you. Your life is evidenace of God's grace towards us and we have seen His grace during each phase of your life so far. Your name means 'Song of the Lord' and it is our prayer that you glorify Him with your life."

This Week

It's been a beautiful Spring week and we've had lots of fun times! Both of the girls are at such fun stages right now. Molly seriously cracks me up with just about everything that comes out of her mouth. She's such a beautiful girl with such a beautiful heart. Now don't get me wrong, she is definitely TWO right now (I've heard more than one time today, "No! I don't want to!" Where did she get that?!) But even when she's acting "two," she's still such a little love with such a precious heart. Rayna is also SO fun right now! She's so alert and just loving life. (And she's even taking a good nap every once in awhile!) Both of the girls have just loved being outside this week, so we've been playing on the swing set, going for walk, and even finger painting in our PJs. (Molly is currently very attached to her yellow pajamas.) It's been a fun week! :-)

Outtakes

So here's our cute little family picture. When my good friend Annie Beth saw it, she asked how pictures we had to take before we got this one. Well, it was several and my mom (probably because it was my birthday) very patiently continued to take pictures until she got one with both girls looking at the camera.

Now Brian and I were totally oblivious to what was going on, but apparently there was a reason the girls weren't looking at the camera. Check out our outtakes:

Poor Molly! She didn't even complain--she's such a good big sister!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I seriously can't believe it's my birthday again. I'm getting closer and closer to the big 30! I had an amazing birthday this year! First of all, I felt 100 times better than I did last year on my birthday. Last year I was in the first trimester of my pregnancy and sick everyday. This year I'm not pregnant and I have another special little person to share in my birthday fun! Yesterday, Brian took half the day off of work so that we could go out--just the two of us! We had such a nice day! Then today we went out to dinner with my mom and then to SAS Cupcakes for dessert. Molly had talked about getting a cupcake for Mommy's birthday all day so she was quite excited! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect today--the weather was beautiful and I got to spend the day with my family!

Swimming in April!

That's right! We went swimming during the first week of April! It was in the low 90's today, so I thought I'd make the best of it and take the girls swimming in our baby pool. Molly was beyond excited so we started getting ready for our little swim. It kind of took awhile to get ready....

Putting on bathing suits: 15 minutes
Filling baby pool with water: 15 minutes
Bringing water to a boil (to add to the freezing hose water): 12 minutes
Locating the sunscreen that I hadn't seen since last summer: 10 minutes
Lathering two babies up with sunscreen: 10 minutes
Gathering up toys and towels: 3 minutes
Having the girls pose for some pictures in their matching suits: 3 minutes

Total prep time for our swim: 1 hour and 8 minutes

Molly sitting in the water: 2 minutes
Molly splashing in water: 2 minutes
Molly putting all of the toys in the water: 2 minutes
Molly throwing all of the toys out of the water: 2 minutes
Rayna deciding that any water cooler than bath water is too cold: 2 seconds

Total time in pool: 8 minutes and 2 seconds

Oh, well....I guess that's the way it goes with little ones! We dried off, ate dinner, and went on a walk. It was still a great evening!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. Our church service was awesome and both Brian and I got to sit through almost all of it for the first time in several months. Molly stayed in her class the whole time and Rayna only needed me once for just a few minutes. It was awesome to get to sit in the service with Brian on Easter Sunday.

We started Easter off with Easter baskets. Molly was very excited about all of her goodies, and Rayna was very excited about eating her basket! :-)
How adorable are the girls in their Easter dresses? Both dresses were baby gifts for Rayna. Yes BOTH of them. One of the sweet ladies from our church, Francy, gives baby gifts to the older sibling rather than the baby because the sibling ends up passing it down so you get more use out of it. How great is that?! The other one came from one of my previous students. I thought they both looked precious!
This afternoon, we went to Nana's for Easter dinner. Aunt Marie brought Molly several Easter crafts, so Molly did some of those today. She LOVES art and had a really good time with them. It was a beautiful day, so we also spent a lot of time playing outside. What a lovely day!

Easter with the Hineses

Brian's family came for a visit today. They brought Easter baskets for the girls and Molly went on her first Easter egg hunt. Aunt Marie hid the eggs, and Molly was very excited about getting to look for them. She was SO funny--she would find an egg, open it, put the candy in her basket, and leave the "shell" on the ground. Anytime we would try to get her to put her eggs in her basket, she would say, "Dat don't go in there! Candy go in there!" Grandma finally convinced her to put eggs in one basket and candy in another. Then we went out to lunch and Brian took his family on a tour of North Carolina Farms. It was such a fun visit!