Easter Egg Hunt at Elcona

The girls had their first Easter egg hunt at Elcona this year. They were very excited about wearing their new dresses! The hunt was held outside near the golf course and the little ones were let up front to get a head start on finding eggs. Tay was one of the oldest doing the hunt. The Easter Bunny was there and Tay had her pic taken with him...Jaycie refused! We must have asked her 5 times but she wouldn't change her mind. Tay and Jayce had a good time and were excited to get home to open up the eggs to see what was inside.

The Place That Gives Me Chills

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to go to IU. I remember sitting in the basement of my childhood home watching the 1987 National Championship with an Indiana University flag wrapped around me...the excitement and anticipation of this game is still very clear in my mind.

Well, I went on to attend and graduate from IU where I made many friends and experienced things I will never forget. One of those is the experience of a home basketball game in Assembly Hall. There is an energy in that place that can't be described. And it all started with Bobby Knight. Bobby was such a controversial coach, but no one could make a game more interesting. Indiana Basketball is rich in tradition and will always be a part of me...no matter how much they have struggled in recent years.

Just this month, we went to see Indiana play Northwestern. My parents have season tickets and we were lucky enough to spend time with them at the game! Taylin and Jaycie went with us and were very excited. Jaycie kept saying that she was going to be an "IU girl" - which translated to "cheerleader." She wore an IU cheerleading outfit and for some reason had it in her head that she was actually going to be on the court cheering! Too cute.

The best part of the trip was being in a place I love with the ones I love...let's just say if my daughters go to Purdue it will be a tough pill to swallow.

It was a great family weekend...and IU played awesome! Go Hoosiers!

Bye Bye Baby

I can't believe that Jaycie, our youngest, is going to be 4 in just a few days! She is all that reminds me of anything baby. Sometimes I hold her and think "She's only going to get bigger...and momma is done having babies!" Her being my last baby is sad to think about sometimes, but I feel that my friends and family might find me in the loony bin if I suddenly found out number 3 was on the way. No kidding...I would be slightly more than panicked.
When I take Jayce to school now she runs off ahead of me to her classroom...so independent - not relying on mommy to hold her hand anymore. Her teacher at school always does creative things with her class and this week they are celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday. Yesterday she took Dr. Seuss books to class, today she dressed liked a cat (seen above) and tomorrow is wacky day. Tonight we picked out her outfit for that as it is much easier this way. Jaycie likes to be difficult when I have little to no time to deal with it, so if I saved it for the morning, she would argue with me about every last thing. She is our stubborn child.

Although she is getting older, there are still things she says and does that are so stinkin' cute. Tonight in the car on our way back from the grocery store the girls started to pick at one another, so I decided it was time for a distraction. We played guessing games about colors and movies, etc.

Then Jaycie says, "Let's play I spy a little eye!"
This instantly puts a smile on my face as we all know that it is "I spy with my little eye..."
As we are driving down the road and Tay and I have explained several times that she needs to choose something that we can actually see, Jaycie says "I spy a little eye... something purple."
And of course there is absolutely nothing purple in sight. :)

The Big Decision

Quite honestly, I would have never imagined that I would be a "blogger". Most nights I go to bed with my head swirling with things I still have to complete the next day - and blogging just seemed like another thing I didn't have time for.

Very few of my friends blog, but my friend Amanda gave me one very good reason to do this...actually two very good reasons. My children. You see I'm not a scrapbooker. Tay is 6 and I believe I have scrapbooked 6 pages in total to document her life...not good. Jaycie is 3, almost 4 and I have nothing to document hers. Sure we have LOADS of pictures sitting on our computer, but we never seem to print them off or do much with them. So in addition to doing photo books for each year of their lives, I've decided to blog so that they can get to know me more as they grow older.

Being a mom is the most amazing thing in the whole wide world. When I was younger, my mom used to say "When you have your own kids you will understand." Well she was right. Until you are holding that little baby in your arms, you don't understand that you could actually love someone that much.

Someday when I am gone I want my girls to be able to remember me clearly, to know what kind of person I was and to be able to look back on all of the things we experienced together.

Not only am I blessed with two beautiful little pumpkins, but a wonderful husband too. I would say this blog is for him too because in a way it is, but he already knows what kind of person I am -he married me, right? He also got a pretty big head start on that...we have now been together for almost 18 years!

I love you Tay and Jayce...your dad and I both do. "When you have your own kids you will understand just how very much."