We'll be Sporting Red....

.........................Ok here it is.............Josh got accepted to the Periodontics Residency at the University of Nebraska!! We are going to be HUSKERS!!! We are really excited to finally know for sure where we will be going!! He was also given an offer at the University of Tennssee. They are both good schools but we chose Nebraska because it would be closer to home. Josh is really excited about the program at UNL. I have never been to Licoln, but he says it is really clean, lots of trails to exercise on and very family oriented! So here we come Nebraska! Even though I am from Canada, I have become a softy here in Virginia with it's mild weather. So I'm going to have to toughen up for those COLD winters! Josh graduates in May and then we will head west. It is a bitter sweet feeling, because we have loved it here in Virginia and have come meet some awesome people!!!

THe Stables

The Stable had some beautiful horses!! They were very friendly too! The girls even got to see a horse have it's bath, they thought that was really cool:) Being there actually made me want to have some land and a couple horses....someday:) Izzy can't wait for that day....the day she can have her very own horse....someday:)

This horse was VERY friendly, every time they got close he would nuzzle up close.

The girls must have smelt really good!

This was one of my favorites! He was BEAUTIFUL and so, so friendly!

Lilli got to go for a ride also and did a fantastic job!

Izzy Rides Chip

She was sooo excited for her horsey ride!!

Lookin Good!

Carol had Izzy practice some balancing while she was on the horse. She said that is what they work on first before they do any "real riding."

She was a natural and did so well....what a beauty....my little cowgirl!

Izzy Turns 4

Here is my beautiful Isabella Faith!! She turned 4 and I can hardly believe it! She is such a joy to have in our family!! She has the brightest eyes, they just sparkle! She is an awesome sister and best friend to Lilli and an awesome big sister to her little brother Talmage! She has the most amazing laugh I've ever heard! It just brings me to a smile everytime. I want to "bottle" it and keep in with me forever, so that whenever I need a little pick me up I can just open it up:) She loves horses and says she is going to race someday. She has an awesome imagination and her and her sister can play for hours making up stories as they go. She loves to sing. She also loves to jump wherever she goes. She is a great helper and loves organizing things. She can spell her name and is excited about learning new things. Isabella is quiet, but fiesty and can hold her own ground! And says the darnest things:) We love you so much Izzy Bizzy:) Thank you for being the wonderful girl you are and bringing us so much joy!!

She wanted to have chocolate cupcakes with Tinkerbell cupcake toppers.

She got a posable horse named Sugar and Spice and a riding girl named Taylor Angelique. She also got a cow girl hat and a real "live" horse ride!

What a beautiful GIRl!

YEE-HAW!!

Isabelism

As I mentioned before, Izzy says the CUTEST things!!! Today after her bath she was rubbing her heel and said..."Mommy look I am starting to get this stuff on my feet, when I am finally a Mommy I will have tons of it on my feet." I look at her feet and she has some peeling skin.....Ok, ok her Mommy has some really DRY heels. I didn't know she was analyzing my heels....mmmm what else is she analyzing???:)

T-REX Cafe

We did another girl's night, this time with the "little" girls! We went to Downtown Disney. It was a really neat place....what isn't really neat with the word Disney attatched to it? Anyways we took a water taxi over to the BIGGEST Disney store I have ever seen! The girls had been saving their money and wanted to buy something of their own. So we headed over and Wow can I say a tad bit overwhelming. We eventually found our way over to the stuffed animals...Izzy picked an Aristrocat baby cat, and then to the princess's. Lilli picked a Mulan polly pocket. They were very excited to use their own money, even though Mom and Grandma helped out a bit:) We were hungry so we found an AWESOME restaurant, the T-REX Cafe. WoW a very cool place. It was a very LOUD place with a meteor shower happening every 10 minutes or so. The girls loved it, they thought all of the dinos were really neat, some of them were so real they even scared them a bit.

The food was fabulous and we had an awesome time!

No worries.....

While we waited for our table they had a digging area for the kids and....the Moms...right?:)

Here the ice cave is behind us which changed color whenever there was a meteor shower. It looks like Izzy is a little worried with all of the dinos roaring and Lilli isn't so sure about all the noise either:)

PURSE

Of course we had to have a girls night out! Before the trip I had a little insiration....:) I was inspired by an enrichment we had a few months back. The theme was "PURSE." They had fun games of guessing who's purse was who's and 5 speakers who spoke on P-erspective, U-nderstanding, R-espect, S-ervice and E-mpathy. So I called up my Mom and sisters and asked them if they wanted to do a girls night out...of course a resounding YES! We each picked one of the five PURSE topics and bought a purse to exchange. We went to Celebration, Florida a town that is owned by Disney. It was perfect. We ate a nice restaraunt with live music and then went and got ice cream and then sat by a beautiful pond. It was perfect weather with a perfect setting with awesome company. It was really fun to "really" talk and see what each one of us came up with for their topics. Then I put all of the letters of Purse in a "hat" and we picked and exchanged purses. We also put the necessities in the purses. It was alot of fun and we are going to make it a tradition. Not necessarily purses......my Mom is in charge next year, it will be fun to see what she comes up with!

These are the cute purses! I recieved the beige one from my sister Shannan, and I made the black and white one! In the end we were all happy with our purses, good thing we all have good taste:) Thanks for the fun night!

A BIG Thank You!!

Thank You SOOO much Mom and Dad for making this trip possible!! It was so fun being together, nothing beats being together as a family! Thanks Dad for the lovely rendition of karaoke and for always being so "Goofy!" You always know how to make us laugh! Thanks for being such an amazing example of service and love! Also for being such an awesome Grandpa!

Thanks Mom for a fun vacation! The girls love your stories and how silly you are! Thanks for your example of love and service also! You are an amazing Grandma, we love you!

Magic Kingdom

We saved the best for last:) The girls were sooo excited to see the princesses! They got some mickey ears; Lilli picked a fancy one of course and Izzy picked tinkerbell. When we first got there they had a show with a whole bunch of characters, princesses, villians the whole works. they loved it and it was a perfect start to our day!

This is my Dad's hat that Uncle Brad bought him, fits him perfectly:) Talmage loved it too.

The girls got their pics with the fairies and the princesses. First we stood in the line for the princesses, we waited maybe 20 minutes. Then I was ready to go! But Izzy loves Tinkerbell and really wanted to get pics with her too. I told them it would be a long wait, but they insisted! We waited for over an hour. Aaaahhhh I was so done, but the girls did really good and didn't complain. We were almost there and Izzy says she has to go pee REALLY BAD!! I look at the lady in front of me in a pleading look and she thankfully understood and said she would hold our place. So we rush, and I mean RUSH to the bathroom that was next door. They didn't even have one inside the store. Are YOu Kidding Me! Anyways we made it back in time and got the beloved Fairy Pictures! They were in heaven!

Need I say more?

Typhoon Lagoon

After a long day at Animal Kingdom, we decided we needed a nice relaxing day at the water park. It was so nice, like an oasis!

Everything was so authentic, so real! Disney really is amazing at all they do! They had some fun slides and an awesome kids area! They also had a pool/tank that you could snorkel with sting rays, sharks ("nice ones" as Lilli would say) and an array of different fish. It was really neat. Lilli came to but got water in her goggles, so she got a little scared about that. Thankfully a nice lifeguard with a floatie came to her rescue!

My Sisters, I love em!

My two Studs!

Silly Lilli

Talmage loved the Dionsaurs!! There was an awesome ride for us older folk, but they also had carnival like smaller rides for the wee ones. He loved them and of course was roaring all the way.

This ride was probably everyone's favorite. It scared me the first time I went on it! Lilli decided to come with us the second time! She was so brave! There was even a little boy older than her that was a little nervous, Lilli helped calm his fears:)

They had a really fun parade and the girls were ready for pics whenever any character came by!

This is my favorite!!! My brother in law bought one of those turkey legs and the girls asked for a bite. They couldn't stop, they loved it! Forget about those measley sandwiches, they want the MEAT!!! My little carnivors. Thanks Uncle Brad your the best!

Animal Kingdom

We went to Animal Kingdom, and WOW it was awesome!! This Tree Lady was amazing! She was on stilts and really moved like a tree (if a tree could move:) She would just slowly move along her way and then slowly pose for people! Very cool!

Starting our trek!

The Safari was the first thing we ventured to . They took us in these huge jeeps and we saw some really fun animals! The girls were so amazed and Talmage just loved it too. He was roaring at all the animals:)

The giraffes were the most daring, they came right up to us.

The tree of life, it had pictures carved all around it!

Florida!

It was actually my birthday the day we drove to Florida, so my family got me a lovely cake a few days later! So sweet!

My parents have a time share so we stayed there! It was awesome with plenty of room for everyone, and of course a sweet pool which we all loved!

On Our Way....

For our Summer vacation we went to Florida to be with my family! We drove the lovely 13 hours...well more like 15, when you have a 1 year old that really did not enjoy it at all. The girls did really well and were soo excited! I tried to make it fun and brought along our "Mary Poppins Bag" aka, a really big bag with lots of fun things for the girls to do. I wrapped them up to add to the excitement, because who doesn't LOVE to open presents:) I had DVD's (borrowed from the library) Play Away books (also borrowed from the library) princess coloring pages, treats and a new cuddly toy for each of them. I actually found a free pattern online and decided to give it a try, so here are the girls and their cute little monkeys. They chose the fabric and they love them. Fun times:)

We can't forget to buckle "EVERY" passenger!:)

Priceless...Talmage with a princess sippie:)