Friends

I know I have said it before, but I feel like the Lord has really blessed this season of my life with some really good friends. Not only for Lyla, but for me. As Katherine, the person. 

And you know what? This is a season of life where I need friends. I cannot imagine being on the journey of being a mommy without good friends. Friends who care. Friends I can talk to. Friends who pray for me.

Two weekends before Easter, we celebrated one of those friend's little girl. Hannah Vaccaro turned THREE! And I am only using her last name because there are two Hannahs in Lyla's life. And they are both in the same circle of friends. And they both turned three within a week of each other. It was so fun getting to celebrate them. I have pictures from Hannah Vaccaro's pinkalicious party, but for some reason my camera never made it out of my bag at Hannah McKelvey's princess party. For that I am very sad because all of our princesses were dressed up like princesses (and the boys like princes) and it was great fun. Hannah McKelvey's party was the weekend before Easter.

Lots of cute PINK food!

Enjoying her treats!

The two Hannahs and Heather.

Sweet Hannah McKelvey checking things out.

Will and Lyla still enjoying their food.

Cupcake time! And yes, she only ate the icing.

Hannah did not want us singing Happy Birthday to her, so we didn't. And you know what? Those cupcakes still tasted great!

The Birthday girl!

Enjoying her day!!

And her cake!!

The two Hannahs, such sweet friends!

Matt wants in on the action.

Sweet Katherine in her pink!

We had such a great time at both birthday parties and are so thankful for these sweet little friendships! I love how much they love each other and how well they all get along! And I just have to remember how much of a little performer Lyla is. Heather had a little karaoke machine for Hannah's princess birthday and of course it was playing all the great Disney songs. Heather had even made this little dance floor for the kids out in the garage to dance on. It was so cute....kicking myself that I did not take pictures. Anyway, the music came on and guess who was the first to grab the microphone, start singing and dance on the dance floor?? Yup, my child. She loves that kind of stuff. Definitely as far from my personality as you can get, but not her!! She LOVES it! Guess where she gets that from?? And yes, Hannah McKelvey does not mind the spotlight every once in awhile, so she did let us sing happy birthday to her and she got to blow out the candles on her amazing princess cake. Literally shaped like a princess. 

Another friend we don't get to brag on quite as often (and I think that's because I never have my camera out) is sweet Eva. Lyla and Eva have known each other since birth, since Eva's birth. I am not even sure how to describe their relationship.

The funniest is Bryan (Eva's dad) coming up from the basement during one of our play dates. He walked into the room where Eva and Lyla were both in tears, screaming and asked "This is a play date??". 

They have a hard relationship.   

They fight. They hit. They yell. They take each other's toys. They cry.

But they love each other. They are real. They are learning to work it out.

They hug. They kiss. They are excited to see one another.

They are like us. Sinful people in need of forgiveness constantly. And you know what? Each one willingly offers that forgiveness. every.single.time. Such an awesome visual for me. Cause probably if I had a friend, who every time we got together, it was that hard, we would not be friends.

But these girls are always excited to see the other. Courtney and I do not force this relationship on them just cause we want to hang out. No, our relationship has been hard too. Probably the hardest I have even dealt with head on. I always tend to head the other way when a relationship like this gets hard, but for some reason Courtney and I have battled through it as well. For the first time in my life. And man it's hard. But is has been SO good. It has been so beautiful. I have grown so much through it and my heart is being worked on in ways that need to be worked on. I am so thankful for our relationship. It is such an awesome visual for my two year old daughter.

I am so thankful that my daughter is learning to battle through tough situations at SUCH an early age. That way hopefully, prayerfully she will have much better relationships skills than I have by my age. 

I was able to help Courtney out the last Friday in April so that she could go do something fun. I had Eva and baby Levi at my house for the morning. The girls were angels. Seriously. They did not fight once. They must have known I was nervous to have two two year olds (that fight) and an infant. They were such a delight. And Levi took a nap. It was great. So I remembered my camera and how I never take these girls pictures together, probably because I am too busy refereeing during the play date to even think about snapping a picture of two little girls in tears. Hahaha. 

Sweet Eva and her baby stroller. She loves play play-doh when she comes to Lyla's house.

She's got it all!

Playing nicely, going for "walks" with their babies.

Sweet girls....

...who really do love each other.

Easter 2013

This year for Easter we were so excited that we got to host in our new house! It is so fun to finally be able to have the space to have everyone over and not be on top of each other. 

We really want to get to know the people in our neighborhood and have special community with them. I did not grow up on a street with kids and while I did not suffer, I am SO excited that Lyla will have that growing up. We have neighbors across the street that have three kids and Lyla LOVES them (as do we!). They are he sweetest family and have welcomed us so well. I know that they do not have family in Georgia, so I thought it would be so fun to celebrate Easter with them. I was so exited for Lyla to have other kids to Easter Egg Hunt with.

Sarah was able to come home as well, which is ALWAYS super exciting. My parents, grandmother and my Unlce Fred also joined us. Allison and Dan were supposed to join as well, but they got caught up on their side of town. We missed them! 

We decided to do an early lunch and egg hunt before nap time hit and also the weather was really yucky. We were hoping to even get an egg hunt in with all the rain. 

Since we were doing lunch so early, we decided to go to Saturday night service. I love being lead back to the cross and really thinking about what the Lord did for us. I cannot imagine giving my only daughter for a world that constantly sins against me but He loved us that much!! I am guilty of the fact that I love the Christmas season so much more, but really Easter is the reason that I have the hope that I will go to Heaven. In my walk this Spring/Summer (which I am sure I will blog more about) I am really learning to continually be at the foot of the Cross. I desire the gospel to be present in my life, even though I fail miserably all. the. time. I am so thankful for Grace and the fact that Christ died for me anyway. I am thankful that He is the one standing in my place. My prayer is that Lyla would continually see the gospel and that her heart would love the one who created her more than anything!

The rain held off Easter morning and we were able to get our egg hunt in. It was so fun being able to do it with Reed, Rosie and Vi. Lyla loves being around them so much and I hope over the years they will form a really tight bond.

The Thursby Family. Our across the street neighbors. So thankful for them!

Getting ready for the hunt.

Rosie and Lyla. All smiles!

Time to find the eggs!!

Lyla was much better prepared this time since we had already had our  Dunwoody Easter Egg Hunt.

Of course Rosie knew what she was doing!

Checking out her basket.

What's in there?

Are there any more??

Yes there are!

Reed, the master egg hunter. And he is so great to put up with all these girls!

Found another one!

Vi did not do much hunting, she was more of the supervisor.

Sweet Rosie.

My mom, Sarah and my dad.

Three older kids.

All of the kids.

My sweet Easter bunny.

So cute.

Enough pictures!!

My sweet little family.

The family.

With Uncle Fred.

Time to eat!! Always have to have a "kid" table.

After all the excitement from the day, we found Reed fast asleep on the floor, in Lyla's tent.  He wore himself out. 

We also found out that the Thursby's monitor reaches to our house, so they were able to put Vi down for her nap at their house and the fun was able to continue! And don't worry, we are keeping that in mind for future get togethers as well :)

I know a lot of people do the Easter basket filled with lots of things on Easter morning. We were out of town last year visiting Sarah in Fort Worth, so Lyla did not get one then and I did not do one this year either. I am still not sure how I feel about them. She did get one for her first Easter, so its not like I have never done one. I just am not sure I want that to be the focus on Easter. Yes the egg hunt is fun and that gives her something to put in her Easter basket, but I do not know. I want her to have fun, enjoy the holidays and look forward to them. I just for some reason feel like Easter is such a sacred holiday. I want her to be excited about it because it is the reason she has eternal life. But don't get me wrong, I also want her to enjoy these parts of childhood too.  I will have to see how I feel about it next year. The girl is definitely not going without for sure. I mean both grandmothers gave her special Easter treats. So for now that is good with me. 

It was such a great Easter weekend spent with family and friends and thinking about what the Lord has done for us.