My Girls

As soon as we got out of the car from church yesterday I made the girls let me take their picture before going inside.  They are the cutest ages right now.  All 3 of them are still just little girls.  I love that they're mine.  I still can't believe I got 3 girls.  That's always what I really wanted.  I always tell them that the 3 of them are my wish that came true.

A Sister

The other day Lily looked right into my eyes and with a big smile on her face she said,

"Mom, I'm not a baby anymore, now I'm a SISTER".

I couldn't have explained the change in dynamics in our family better myself.  

Friends come and go but Sisters are Forever.  

Summertime

After a long day on the beach I caught my Gwenners hosing herself off at our friends beach house.  Gwen is 6 1/2 and is the most care free and hilarious person I know.
She's got this whole LIFE thing figured out.  

Happy 4th Birthday, Lily!

My Lily-pie turned 4 on July 31st.  My BABY is 4?!?!  I can't stand it.  She woke up to balloons and a few little gifts.  Her favorite gift was a princess coloring book.  For her birthday she wanted to go swimming and she wanted a pink cake with an orange heart on it -- so that's exactly what she got.  Lily is my angel and my little companion.  She gives me unsolicited kisses and hugs all day long and loves to snuggle.  I love this sweet girl.

Happy 9th Birthday, Elle!

This sweet girl turned 9 on July 21st.  She woke up to balloons in her room in her favorite color (a tradition) and a few birthday gifts.  Her main wish was for jewelry.  She's a girly girl through and through.  We opened gifts and then actually had to get on the road.  I drove with my girls to Utah to meet my sisters and their kids at a home my sister rented in Park City.  We did the big birthday dinner and cake with cousins a few days later in UT.  Elle was a great co-pilot on our drive.  I adore this girl.  She is kind and sweet and thoughtful to her core.  

4th of July

❤ I sure love these three ❤

Mountain Bike Race

Jon signed our girls up for their first mountain bike race.  They were so excited.  The race was the only thing they talked about the week leading up to it.  It's so sweet to see Jon with the girls doing something he loves.  Even our little lily-pie got to do a little race with her training wheels.  I hope to see the girls in lots more races.  I'm better at just being the family photographer.

Lily's Last Day

This past Tuesday was Lily's last day at St. Andrew's one day a week preschool program.  All 3 of my girls have gone here and I feel a little sad that it's over.  She'll go to preschool next year but she'll be too old for this little program.  Since Lily has a Summer birthday and doesn't get to celebrate during the school year, she was given her paper birthday crown on the last day.  She wore that crown with pride!  I adore her so much.  I was actually facing the other direction and taking a picture of Elle when I turned around and saw Lily getting a drink out of the fountain.  This was not staged and I almost died over the cute factor.  I love my lily-pie.  

Bunnies

Natural light and peonies make everything pretty.  I was sitting at my desk and Lily was kissing the bunnies - it was too cute not to capture. Gwen, you're pretty cute too.  

Original Artwork

                             

Every room in our  home has been pieced together over time with things I have found here and there.  We've had a few large purchases but those have been spaced out over the past 9 years we've lived in this home.  The other pieces I have found in antique and consignment stores.  I usually see something I absolutely love and then will figure out later how I can make it work in our home.  Most everything has a story and I can remember where I purchased it, who I was with and have made some really good friends with the owners of the local shops in town.  My two very favorite stores were Arbor and Erba Home, both of which are no longer in business.  So sad!

At the top of our stairs I have these two paintings of trees.  I love them so much.  When I spotted them I knew I LOVED them but had no clue where I could put them.  After I got them home, I still didn't know where they could go until I was lying in bed one night looking down the upstairs hallway.  I ran downstairs and grabbed the paintings and they were hung that night.   When I'm in bed I can see down the hallway and when the lights are on in the hall and the house is dark they look so pretty.   They are original pieces of artwork that I found in a consignment shop.  They are not by the same artist nor do they have matching frames but I thought they looked so pretty together.  The scale looks really off in these pictures for some reason.  They're quite large.  I've had them for over a year but they hang in a difficult spot to photograph.
On the bottom of one of the paintings, it reads, 

"To Wini, ATree is a Tree, always! 1954"
 I think that little personal note on the bottom is my very favorite part.  I wish so much that I knew the story behind it.  Cute Elle and Lily saw me taking the pictures and asked if they could jump in.  Pretty cute.  

Sunday Morning

I walked downstairs on Sunday morning to the most beautiful light in our kitchen.  The peonies on our table were in full bloom and I had to capture it.  Maybe the fact that I had just returned home from girl scout camp with Elle made it look all the more beautiful as well?!  Elle and I had a blast but I was so happy to be home.  

Love

Love just isn't a strong enough word for the way I feel about these girls.  I am so blessed to have these 3 calling me mommy.  They're growing up faster than I would like.  I literally sometimes feel a panic come over me that it's all just going by too quickly.  Things have changed a lot in the past year.  They're getting older and are at school longer and have activities.  Gone are the days of me just hanging out at our home with my babies.  I miss that A LOT.  Nighttimes are filled with swim team, dance and homework assignments.  I used to be able to just play with them all day and then I could write about it here on this blog.  I've been terrible at baby books and so this blog is where I can log my memories of my girls at all of the different stages they have been in.  I still get to play with them but finding the time to write about it is getting more and more scarce.  I think of all of the things I love about them daily and don't want to forget.  Today I decided to write my top 3 favorite things about the girls right now.  I could just bottle them up right now just as they are.  They make me happy and I love them more than they'll ever know.
 Elle, Gwen and Lily - my hope is that one day when you're older you'll read my words and know that your mom loved and adored you - from the beginning.

Lily

Top 3 things I'm loving about you right now:

• I LOVE your voice.  It's incredibly cute right now.  When you mean to say "because" you always say "tocause" and I never correct you - it's just too cute.  When you ask to snuggle in my bed I'll say, "why? are you having a bad dream?" and you'll reply, "no, it's just tocause I love you."  How can I resist that?  I pull you up next to me every time.
• I love how before bed every night you say, "what do I have in the morning?"  No matter how I answer that question you always get so happy and excited about the next day and say, "Yay!"
• I love that after we go to swimming lessons on Fridays you always get excited to go to "rocco's".  It's our routine to go to LaRocco's pizza together every Friday.  Just the 2 of us and it's my highlight too.  

Gwen

Top 3 things I'm loving about you right now:

• I love how every morning I find you in bed with your little sister, Lily.  You told me that when Lily wakes up she says, "Gigi, will you snuggle me?"  It's so cute to see you being a big sister.
• I love how you quote lines from TV shows and movies during the day. It's always hilarious and your timing is incredible.  You crack me up every single day.
• I love how you get so excited about how you're growing up.  You often yell to me to watch you grab a glass out of the cupboard and make sure that I am noticing that you are NOT on your tippy toes.  

Elle

Top 3 things I'm loving about you right now:

•  I love your sweet notes you leave me all over the house including on my bed at night with directions as to what time you would like me to wake you and the "agenda" for our next morning.  It's pretty cute.
• I love how much you love reading Biographies.  Every single week during school library that's what type of book you choose to bring home and then you are enthralled until it's time to choose a new one.  Right now you're reading a biography about Neal Armstrong.  You read the biography on Elvis Presley in one night and then asked for me to let you listen to his music - you loved it!
• I love driving in the car when it's just the two of us.  You love to turn the music up and have taught me little routines that we do while driving to your favorite songs. 

Easter Bedroom

Lily is now out of her crib and shares a room with Gwen.  When she realized she was a big girl now and got to have an Easter Tree in her bedroom she was soo excited.  As soon as the box of Easter decorations came out of the garage the two of them grabbed the tree and ornaments and ran up to their bedroom to decorate it.  It's something so small and simple but to little girls it's a BIG deal.  I think the little wooden egg ornaments on their tree were moved about 1,000 times over the past few weeks.  There's even a big crack in the pot because of it tipping over so many times but I don't care a bit.  That was the whole purpose of this little tree.  It's theirs and they can play with it as much as they like.  

Easter Tree and Bunnies

I absolutely love Easter decorations.  I never tire of them and hate when it's time to put them away.  I spotted these little cement bunnies at an antique shop and fell in love.  They weren't very much and I really wanted both but purchased just one of them.  My friend Christy was with me and later in the week she went back to the store and surprised me by buying the 2nd bunny and dropping it off at my house.  Aren't they so cute?  I love them and now they'll always remind me of my friend as well.  

  The girls helped me decorate our Easter Tree in the front room this year.  We've collected little ornaments for it over the years and their favorites are the little cards with their initials on them.  They each get to place their initial card wherever they want and put a lot of thought and effort into it.  

Egg Hunt

The egg hunt in the backyard was cute.  They were each trying to find "their own eggs", the ones each of them had dyed.  Elle was sweet and helped Lily find eggs and Gwen's face shows exactly how excited she was.  

Easter Morning

Before the girls went to bed on "Easter Eve", they put out carrots for the Easter Bunny.  Gwen was contemplating what beverage to leave for the bunny.  She couldn't decide between milk, water or juice. After thoughtful contemplation she decided water would be the best.  In keeping with tradition, the girls also got to put on the Easter Pajamas.  Very exciting :)  

Early in the morning all three of them rushed into our bedroom to wake us up so they could go downstairs.  It really is the most adorable thing to watch them be so excited about finding out what the bunny has left for them.  Lily was screaming with excitement when she saw that the carrots had been nibbled at and the water was gone.  The girls each found their baskets.  The Easter Bunny left them lots of foil wrapped chocolate eggs, jelly beans, a milk chocolate bunny for each of them, pez (of course!) sunglasses and a few other little prizes. They were thrilled.  

Happy Easter

We had a very happy Easter.  Poor Jon didn't feel well.  I did make him get out of bed long enough to take our picture before I headed to church with the girls.  Little Lily's dress looked cuter without her little cardigan but she INSISTED on wearing one since her big sisters had cream cardigans on.  She wants to be 'big' just like her sisters.  

I have more pictures from our morning.  We had an early morning egg hunt and ate lots and lots of chocolate for breakfast.  It was perfect.  

Baby Wren

I am an Aunt again. Jon's brother, Syd and his wife Shea had their first baby - and in keeping with McGee tradition, it is another girl!  I was lucky enough to stop by the hospital and take a few pictures of this sweet family.  I won't lie, it did make me a bit baby hungry.  Baby Wren is just so sweet, tiny,  and fresh from Heaven.  I love her already.  

Blessed

My kitchen table and chairs have been bothering me for a while.  I had a few ideas I was thinking of doing.  What I really wanted was a farmhouse table and white chairs.  That would have been a pricey endeavor so I thought to switch it and have natural chairs and a white table.  I have decided lots and lots of things for our home even though I know they won't happen for a while.  It's just my creative outlet to decorate my home, even if it is, at times, just in my head.  When chatting with friends I'll always talk about what I'm hoping to do...someday. 

Well, this year for my birthday, my friends surprised me. They got together and they bought me the  chairs they knew I had been saving for! We all went to dinner and when I came home, the chairs were in my kitchen waiting for me.  Seriously.  What?!  Who does that?  I was so excited that I started to cry.  For real, I did.  Thank you to Christy, Stacey, Sara, Marlene, Elizabeth, Becki, Lizzy and Nicole.
(lizzy and becki we missed you at dinner!)  This picture below was the night of my birthday.  I am so blessed to have such amazing, kind and generous friends.  I don't look at my table and chairs without thinking of these amazing friends. 

I had the chairs and then my table was still black.  It looked fine but then my friend Stacey called me and said that she was getting her kitchen cabinets sprayed white and they were also going to spray her kitchen table as well.  She ended up deciding to do something else with her table so she called me and said, "drop your kitchen table off at my house.  it's getting sprayed."
Again, I cried.  And I'm not even "a crier"!!  It was such an unexpected surprise...the whole situation.
So now, every time I look at my cute little kitchen nook I just think of my beautiful, generous friends.  They are an amazing group of women and I am so thankful they are in my life.
I am blessed.

As for how everything turned out, I LOVE it.  It's so much more, "me".  The way the chairs and table were before was nice and I think, tasteful,  but it really didn't reflect the 'look' that I love.  I feel like the whole downstairs flows a bit more smoothly now.  I'm happy.