Mackenzie and the Dora Cookie

Last night Mackenzie picked out a Dora cookie at Wal-Mart. During the opening process after checking out, the cookie broke into two pieces. This completely devastated Mackenzie. Yes, I realize it is just a cookie; she did not! In the world of this 3 year old, the importance that the cookie be intact before eating it is huge! A long story short: we apologized and explained it was an accident. A still upset Mackenzie did manage to move on with her evening and even fall asleep at bedtime. Upon awaking this morning, we got a phone call. It was David calling us from work. He instructed Mackenzie and me to go check our mailbox. Yes, you guessed it: A new intact Dora cookie for our little princess. :) Kudos to David for pulling that one off in the wee morning hours while the rest of the world slept! He is one amazing man. I am proud that he is my husband. I am proud that he is the daddy of our kids. I love you, David!!!

I just loved these last two pics of Mackenzie. I snapped them this afternoon and thought I'd share them.

Puzzles and Pride

What a proud smile!
"I made it, Momma!" Josiah exclaimed as he held up this 12 piece puzzle that he completed all by himself! I did not help him or guide him in any way. He is 22 months old. Wow.

He spent 2 whole hours working, dumping, and reworking this puzzle yesterday. He loves it! He is quite proud of his new accomplishment, and he enjoys the repetition. He is getting much faster at it and he knows it. :) I just love the look of determination on his precious little face. Way to go, Josiah!

Dying Easter Eggs!

To complete our day, Mackenzie dyed Easter Eggs. Josiah mostly just watched. He skipped his nap today and does not feel well, so he was not too interested in participating. He was happy just to observe from David's lap. Mackenzie, on the other hand, loved the activity! She helped with the whole project, from putting the eggs in the pan to boil, to putting them back in the egg carton as our finished product! She is quite the little helper these days, and she loves art projects. Notice the color of the egg she is holding up...Yes, pink is her favorite color!

Easter Egg Hunt!

The Easter Bunny came to our house last night. He hid the eggs all around our yard. The kids loved the Easter Egg Hunt! Below is Josiah, (who has a runny nose and does not feel well) with as much of a smile as he could muster, proudly displaying the two eggs he just found! Below is Mackenzie with her loot with a smug look on her face. Right after this picture was taken, she sat down, dumped her eggs out, and carefully counted each egg as she placed it back in her basket. She was pleased to announce that she found 24! She then counted Josiah's and announced that he found 9. (She was kind and "overlooked" several in order for him to find that grand total of 9!) I got a pic of her sitting and counting them, but the file is too big to upload and I have not figured out how to reduce the file size yet. Any suggestions as to how that is done??
All in all, we had a great Easter. We missed seeing everyone at church this morning as both kids have runny noses and coughs. We enjoyed our egg hunt, though! :)

Kayla's Visit!

My cousin, Kayla, came to visit us today! We were delighted with her visit. Below are two pics of Kayla, with Mackenzie and Josiah, playing Hungry Hippos!
The kids were very entertaining as they loved having a captive audience. It was great to have Kayla and her friend, Meagan, with us today!

Easter's Emphasis

As I scroll back through previous posts, I am struck by how much emphasis I have placed on the Easter Bunny and gifts portions of Easter. While I am a big believer in the fun traditions we have about Easter, I certainly do not want to overlook the true emphasis of Easter. I want all the world to know that we believe our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ came to this world as a man, yet being God, and lived a perfect life here on this Earth. We believe He was crucified for our sins, and on the third day He rose again. He defied even death. He is a living and active God. He is our Saviour and Lord of our lives. The Bible, His inspired Word, tells the complete Easter Story in Matthew 27-28, Mark 15-16, Luke 23-24, and John 19-20. Whether you are already a follower of Christ or whether you are currently seeking Him, I invite you to read these passages. I pray that we will choose to live for Him and honor Him in all that we do. May He bless each one of you who is reading this post. May you also come to know Him. I welcome your stories!

Yes, Another Easter Package!

Josiah attempting to open an Easter package from Papa and Lili, my dad and Lisa. Yes, those are real scissors he is using! I was supervising. :) Mackenzie was successful in her attempt to open the package!
Josiah is very proud of his Bob the Builder DVD from Papa and Lili! (Notice he is still eating Easter candy.)
Mackenzie was delighted with all 3 new DVD's they sent!
A great big thank you to Papa and Lili for the package! Yes, it is true. My kids are very spoiled by all their grandparents and great grandparents and uncles, too! We are truly blessed. What an Easter, and the Easter Bunny has not even come yet!!! I'll try to post some Easter pictures tomorrow, too. Thanks, everyone!!

Another Easter Package!

Mackenzie was very proud of her Easter basket full of candy from Uncle Zac!
Josiah was also very proud of his Easter candy from Uncle Zac. He promptly opened every single piece that he was able to open by himself and ate them!!! Too funny. Thanks, Uncle Zac, for a very fun Easter package!

Easter Dresses!

Laura Miller and Mackenzie Watson together at church last Sunday.

(Photo courtesy of DonDon, Laura's Grandfather.)
Mackenzie was so intent on the puzzle that I could not get her to look up for the picture. She loves puzzles these days. The dress she is wearing in the picture is one of several that Mommom, Mark's mother, sent in a package with 3+ sets of clothes for each child. We are enjoying the new clothes. Thanks, Mommom! Mackenzie wore the blue smocked dress for portraits this week; she will also wear it for Easter tomorrow.

Easter Package!

The following pictures are of Mackenzie and Josiah opening an Easter package from Nona and Mzee (my mom and Mark). Josiah loved the candy, and Mackenzie was most interested in the felt puppets, which you have to construct. She is just a little to young to sew them herself, so I got to do the work. Thanks, Mom! Really, you can just buy ready-made puppets next time!

Seriously, we really do appreciate the package. The kids had a blast and are still enjoying the construction paper and crayola paint pens. Thanks for thinking of us!

Daddy's MP3 Player!

Josiah found David's MP3 Player this morning. I'm not even sure where David usually keeps it, but Josiah knows! This is how I found the kids. They were pretty cute sitting together on the stairs just listening to the music. (My apologies that Josiah does not have his pants on in the pictures! He really did not want to wear them, but he does have them on now! Also, Mackenzie's hair had not yet been brushed.) I just could not miss the photo op.

Thanks for letting them enjoy your MP3 Player, David! :) He, he.

Chutes and Ladders

Mzee, Nona, Mackenzie, and David all played Chutes and Ladders in the living room last night. We have thoroughly enjoyed their visit these past few days. They headed back to Arkansas this morning. We are thankful to have had their extra help, and we look forward to their next visit, whenever that may be!
This is what Josiah was doing while everyone else played Chutes and Ladders. He was sitting at the computer watching a Cars video on You Tube while balancing our check book for us. :)

That's our update for today. Enjoy the weekend!

Mexico!!!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we are very excited about our upcoming vacation to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. We will fly Knoxville, Houston, Puerto Vallarta on May 3rd. Our vacation will be a full week and the kids will be going with us. I think they will have a blast in the sand and pools and ocean areas. We have been talking about a beach vacation for over a year now, and it is finally happening! All the reservations are made, airline tickets are booked, and Josiah's passport is ordered. A dream vacation is becoming a reality!!!

The resort we will be staying at is called The Grand Mayan. (That is courtesy of my mom and Mark's RCI week!) We are very thankful to have two rooms with a partial kitchen area, which will make life with the kids easier and cheaper, too. :) I don't know much else about the area yet, other than the resort is in Banderas Bay and framed with the Sierra Madre mountain range. If any of you have been to the Nuevo Vallarta or Puerto Vallarta areas, we would love ideas and suggestions of places to eat, shop, or sight see.

That's all my update for now. Enjoy the weekend!

Easter Train!

We went to the mall tonight in order to get Josiah's passport ordered...yes, you read correctly...his passport! We are very excited about getting to take a vacation this year. We just finalized all the plans today. We are going to Mexico! Anyway, I digress.

So, we went to the mall. We had no idea that the Easter Train was set up already; it was a wonderful discovery! The kids love this train, which is set up at Christmas and Easter. Believe it or not, it only costs $1.00 per child to ride. I think that's a pretty good deal. They thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I love the way they like to be together; even though the rest of the train was empty, they chose to sit side-by-side. Precious kids.

As they got off the train, Mackenzie said, "Momma, Josiah saved me from the Easter Bunny." Pretty funny. A 21 month old saving a 3 year old from the Easter Bunny! The train ride went pretty close to where the Easter Bunny sits...apparently a little too close!

Mackenzie also told us, "Momma, the Easter Bunny wanted to give me five, but I did not want to get fuzzy on my hand, so I told him no." What an excuse. She likes to see the Easter Bunny, but not up close!

We had fun at the mall. My mom and Mark just arrived for a visit during UAMS's Spring Break this week. We are excited to have them here for a few days. I'd best sign off and head on to bed. Good night everyone.

Easter Egg Hunt

Hooray! The pictures do upload if you do them one at a time...Thanks for the tip, Sara! So, here are my two favorites from the Easter Egg Hunt at church yesterday. Mackenzie had opened this egg to find a little ball, which delighted her! I think she was expecting candy, so this particular egg was extra special to her though she loved all the candy she got, too. She found 10 eggs! (Not too long ago she found a grand total of 1 during the church egg hunt, so 10 was great this year!) She could not have cared less about the total number collected; she just enjoyed the process and the candy!
I just love this picture of Mackenzie and Laura! The two of them have so much fun together. Friendship is a blessing, at all ages of the lifespan!

A side note: Poor Josiah had to miss out on the egg hunt as we did not want to risk exposing anyone. He has not vomited since 5:30pm on Friday, which is a huge blessing. I do think he is just fine now....we just were not sure enough on Sunday morning to be able to bring him. That would be why there are no pics of Josiah hunting eggs; poor little guy. No worries! He really is fine now (after 17 days of vomiting with no explanation as to why), and he will get to participate in our Easter festivities at home on Easter Sunday. We will be sure to get plenty of pictures of both kids then, too! :)

Random Thoughts

I don't like posts without pictures, but since I cannot seem to get past this "google server error" every time I try to upload, I will just type this post. Is anyone else out there having trouble uploading pictures? Or is it just me? I'd love to know!

Today Josiah found his shadow. We were standing in the driveway. It is a beautiful, sunny day. He looked down and got excited. He tried to chase it, only to find that it always stays right with him! I stood beside him and showed him how to "make his shadow wave." I'm sure the neighbors think we are crazy, standing in the driveway and waving at the ground...oh, well. We had a fun time, just me and Josiah, waving at our shadows. :) I love the little discoveries along the way.

Mackenzie is at Mother's Day Out today, and LOVING it. I am thankful she is enjoying it. School pictures are Wednesday. Very exciting!

Praise the Lord for being just Who He Is. And, Have a GREAT day everyone!!!

Oh, and sorry it has been so long since my last post. I worked 3 days last week while my in-laws were here to keep the kids. I know the kids were in wonderful hands, and I am thankful for the extra work. I do love being home with the kids the majority of the time. We had a fun visit with David's parents, in spite of Josiah's vomiting! Good news: He has not vomited since Friday at 5:30pm. That is serious progress. And a definate answer to prayers.

I will still try to post those 3 Easter Egg Hunt pictures from yesterday sometime...whenever the google server decides to allow me to post them! He, he. Enjoy the day. Make it a good one.

Easter Egg Hunt at Church!

Well, it is not letting me upload the pics I want to upload. I will try again later!

Package from Grannie and Papa New!

Mackenzie and Josiah received a big Easter package from Grannie and Papa New today. They love getting packages and seeing what is inside! The two of them wasted no time opening it and inspecting each item mailed to them.
Mackenzie loved the Easter Eggs filled with jelly beans and cheese crackers. She also loved her two new stuffed animals; they are sleeping in bed with her tonight in place of the usual ones! She is looking forward to learning to play two new card games tomorrow after she comes home from school. She has already colored in her new Strawberry Shortcake coloring book. She will enjoy her new clothes and other toys, too!
Josiah gave his stuffed animal a hug, and then set it aside in order to find the "candy." He dug in his Easter bucket until he found what he was looking for: a bag of cookies! He sat and ate a few, then followed Mackenzie's lead and opened Easter Eggs to find the goodies inside! He ate a ton of jelly beans and cheese crackers, too. :)
As you can see, a package at our house does not make it very far inside the front door! It was obviously a large package and it "exploded" fast in our house! Josiah really enjoyed the stackable nesting boxes from my Great Aunt Treva. A great big "THANK YOU" to my Grannie and Papa New for the wonderfully fun surprise Easter package!!! We love you.

Happy Half Birthday!

Josiah and his new guitar. He is proud!
Learning from Z-pa (David's Dad). Yes, my boy is wearing pink shoes...he put Mackenzie's shoes on all by himself and was quite happy wearing them. Oh, well.
Mackenzie exuding excitement about her new princess stick-on earrings! "I just wanted these!" she exclaimed. "They are just like Laura's!"
Proudly displaying her new earrings.

So, David's parents (Granna & Z-pa) are here to visit during their Spring Break. We are delighted to have them and the kids are enjoying lots of extra attention. Today, after church, Granna and Z-pa brought several packages in for Mackenzie and Josiah. This was a celebration of Mackenzie's Half Birthday, which was within the last two weeks. She is 3 1/2 years old. Josiah is 21 months. Both kids were very excited about this party with lots of presents! They now have several new books, a new guitar, stick-on earrings, a princess dress up set, DVD, candy, and other things, too. Thanks, Granna & Z-pa!