Darren gets Christened!

On Easter Sunday we were so fortunate to have our awesome family, "The Gods", and the newest "Gods" (also known as Dodds), join us in Ardmore at my parents church to Christen Baby Dee. 

Father Steve with Dee. I love this photo.

The service was wonderful. Well, all except big sister dumping cheerios at the alter. 

Ballerina was very concerned that her brother was wearing a dress. That dress is special to our family. Most all the cousins, my grandfather, great grandfather and more have been christened in that gown. I love the tradition. Each person's name is embroidered on the inside. 

 

I forced everyone to wear white in an attempt at family photos! hahahaha.

Hey, what is everyone looking at?

Everyone look at Ballerina...

The Browns... first family photo.

 Our family so is blessed with amazing friends. Sammie has amazing God-parents and Baby Dee does as well. I am thrilled that my friends are so involved with my children!

Katie & Doyle... Baby Dee's God Parents!

Hugging on brother.

 Now if you know my family, you know that my God Parents are a HUGE part of my life. As kids, I thought their daughter, my awesome friend Erin, was my God-Sister. Soooo... we call each other... The Gods. To bring things full circle, Erin is Sammie's God Mother and I am her daughter, Halle, God Mother. We were so happy to have them share Easter with us this year!!

Halle and Dee.

Run Sammie Run. Get those eggs!

First real egg hunt!

 Sammie loved hunting eggs!! She wasn't super quick but Addi was so sweet to share eggs or help to point them out to Sammie and Hal.

Watching the girls open eggs was amazing for me. I have more memories that I can count of Easters as a kid with "the Gods" going through our eggs. I would love to carry on the tradition.

We can't let Ballerina steal all of Baby Dee's thunder on his big day! We were very lucky to get a pic of Baby Dee with Big Dee!! I will treasure these pictures for life! 

 It was a fabulous weekend. Thank you to all our friends and family that joined in the celebration. 

-Whitney

Christmas Part 2!

Well, this was our first year to really have a gift from Santa that required some assembly. 

OH MY!! Who knew that play kitchens were designed by evil people cackling themselves to sleep on Christmas Eve (lucky for us we assembled on Dec. 23) while others stay up all night trying to solve the puzzle. 

 It started out to seem somewhat simple... just a little box...

The project began about 8:45pm...

 Look at the number of screws!! Eeeek!!

 This is looking like major surgery.

This is Pappy telling my husband that he will "supervise" the project and continue to keep Brian's drink refilled. Pappy said he has done his time building these things and is passing the torch!

At about 10:30pm... we hit a hiccup. This cost Brian about 30 minutes. He was not a happy camper.

 Crisis averted!! Now back to work and perhaps... a scotch! 

 This was the last I saw of the kitchen until morning. I went to bed about 11:45pm. 

The boys stayed up until about 12:45am, moved the thing to the garage and were pooped!! 

It turned out super cute!! And don't worry... she loves it!!

The next day, we gave Daddy some "resting" time and headed off to see our friends!

 It is crazy difficult to get these kiddos to sit still! 

 Watching Elf movies, running around Lulu's house. 

Halle, Addi and Ballerina were full of the Christmas Eve excitement.

I cannot wait until these 2 are Srs in high school and I get to put these types of pics in their slideshow!! Such goofs!!

More Christmas Cheer to come tomorrow!!

-Whitney

Long Time... No Blog. Oops!!

Oopsy! I must have been very busy these days! (Or the last 6 months!)

So... 

I will play catch up the next week and get back on track. 

Then, hopefully, things will be in order for me to get back to blogging!!

Here is what we did on the Fourth of July!

Ballerina got all cute for her first 4th at Daycare...

 

Mommy decorated the stroller for Ballerina to walk in her first parade!

 

We spent the morning with Ballerina and our favorite God-Family at the Brookhaven Parade.

 We then went to a pool party and we all crashed well before any fireworks display! 

Hope you all had a great Fourth!!

-Whitney

Happy Birthday Halle!

Last weekend was one of our favorite girls birthdays. Halle!! 

We had a fantastic time celebrating Miss Halle! 

What a fabulous little 2 year old you are!!

The party was a splish splash bash and Ballerina had a ball!

Ballerina loves the water!

So much fun!

Water tables are so much fun!!

 The big kids had water balloons. While this Mommy thought Ballerina would be scared... she loved it! She loved it so much that she decided to sit in the water balloon tub when they were all gone! 

Who needs a pool when you can just sit in a bucket!

 Ballerina doesn't ever sit still, ever. So we have not really tried to put her at a table before. 

Halle's birthday was the first time we have seen her sit still for more than 2 seconds. I'm pretty sure it was the lemonade she was guzzling. 

Her 1st sip of lemonade at her first big girl table! 

I broke down and allowed her to have both lemonade and a cupcake! Let's just say that she loves sugar! I think my dear friend Erin may be washing her floors from icing for weeks. All thanks to Ballerina!

Halle... blow out your candles!! 

After the cupcakes and lemonade, we went back outside and played. Ballerina (notice the costume change... she had to be hosed down after her cupcake) loved the cozy coupe. Thanks to Scott for getting the floor board put in so she didn't ruin her fabulous shoes!

Ballerina loved playing in the cozy coupe!

Someday I will get to see these pictures again at weddings, when Halle and Ballerina are each others bridesmaids  Like Mothers, Like Daughters. 

-Whitney