Say Cheese....

....or I will help you say cheese. Just a little sister love, and there's plenty more where that came from!

Our friend, who is a superb photographer, took us out to take Spring pictures.

She took us to a great location that gave the girls so much to do while trying get pictures of them. They weren't too interested in sitting still. What could you expect from little girls feeling free to roam, and climb and jump, etc.? Since Michelle is just good at what she does, and very patient, we ended up with a ton of cute pictures that let the girls' personalities shine through! It was too hard to pick a favorite, so I posted plenty. Enjoy! You can check a few more on here and here.

First Haircut!!

Little miss Aleah was needing a hair cut because the ends were nasty. She's never had her hair cut and I was always worried to do it because I didn't want her to think of scissors and hair together. I know almost every kid probably cuts their own hair or a sibling's, but I did not want Aleah to do it. Anyways, last week I cut her hair and she was very cooperative and very talkative. To me, it's noticeably shorter, but I don't think others can really tell.

There you have it. It was sort of hard for me, you know being a mom and cutting your little girl's hair.......sigh, it still makes me a little sad, but I stayed strong and didn't cry. Sooner or later, it was going to have to happen.

(I know Krystal, when you see this, you're going to die and say, "Why did you cut her hair?!!!")

Boards............

are over!!!!!!!!

This past Friday and Saturday Matthew took the clinical boards exam(s) to get licensed, and boy was it a stressful. Dental school is stressful, so what could we expect?! Life just seems to be that way, if it's not one stress, it's another right?! Anyway, it's been enjoyable good stress and we're past this one. We don't technically know if he passed, we still have to wait about 3 weeks, but things are looking good. Now all he has left are requirements and dropping/transferring patients.... oh, and then a big move, new job, paying off student loans, new town... you see one stress or another, and it's good fun and we love life!!! We're proud of Matthew and all his hard work every single day!!

Yay for progression!!!

Our Happy Easter

Easter Morning, the girls finding their Easter goods.

A quick family Easter picture, since Nani was so in the mood.

The Arthurs with the little girls that adore them.

Nani being as "chees-y" as it gets, holding a little cupcake basket.The beautiful Easter setting by Los Chavezes which was followed by a absolutely "D"-li- SHUS
meal!!

Egg Hunting. This year, instead of Easter baskets, I made the girls purses that matched their dresses. So that's what they used on the little egg hunt.

Thanks for a great Easter Arthurs and Los Chavezes!!

Big Weekend

We had a great, but busy weekend. It was action filled and we got to spend time with some of our good friends.

First, Friday the girls and I were invited to a picnic with Los Chavezes. After the picnic, we went down to the Smith Memorial and had us a great time. It's an old mansion they turned into a big play house/pre-school. There's 3 levels and a big outside playground. It's tons of fun for the munchkins. Here are some pictures of that adventure:




Saturday Morning, though it was raining all morning, when went out to Lancaster county to a Mud Auction, with the Arthurs and Flinders. It was sweet!! It's a big fund raiser for the fire houses in Lancaster county. People bring all sorts of things to be auctioned off. (Furniture, horses, buggies, tools, lawn equipment, plants, food, crafts, quilts, ...) The best part is, it's amongst the Amish. (not just the Amish, there are plenty of "English" there too and "English" goods.) Oh, and there are great deals!

Aleah and her friend Sir O, standing in the mud in the furniture tent.

Aleah and I watching the auction. It's not really proper etiquette to take pictures of the Amish, so we don't have any pictures of the cute little kids that were running all over the place.

We bought some delicious donuts there and this is Aleah enjoying one.

Then Saturday night we went to a friends Quinceanera. That too was lots of fun. I had never been to one before. It's a big production.

Aleah was loving (playing with) the table decorations all night.

There we are, the Perry family living up our first Quinceanera.

Good fun, good friends and good times!

We'll have to post Easter tomorrow.

Conference Sunday

Every Year, Philadelphia has a Cherry blossom festival at Fairmount park. Guess what, this year we actually went. Yay! Matthew isn't a big fan of wanting to do these things with kids. So here's my little insert for MHR. My husbands rocks because he didn't put up any stink about going and he enjoyed himself while we were there!!

We left just as the festivities began so that we could make it back in time for Conference, but even though we missed them, it was still fun!

When I started doing this post I realized that I didn't even take pictures of the Cherry Blossoms. Oops! You can sort of see them in the back ground of the pictures. The first picture is of the Japanese House. It's very serene.

The rest are of the good time we had.

Of all the memories of our time out here in Philly, I think surely this is what our girls will remember most...and miss the most...Dave and Emily, or as Nani says, "Deh"and "Mimy".

Between the Conference Sessions on Sunday, the Branch has a lunch. Since I had my camera with me, I snapped a few pictures. Of course, Nani didn't want to be a sport.