A visit from Mimi and Papa

Mimi and Papa have come into town! It's been a few months since we've seen them and, let me tell you, the excitement level in our house they day they were to arrive was through.the.roof!!

Alley being silly with some of her belated Easter filler (whatever you call that stuff!)

They got to meet Bailey for the first time…she definitely thinks she's a lap dog;)

The first night they were here, we had story time. Papa and Mimi spent most of the evening read books to the girls:) These girls sure do love books AND their Mimi and Papa.

Boy do I love a good project and luckily, my parents do too! The plan was to have them help us mulch the back portion of the yard so that we can add a fun play area for the girls. Of course, the weather didn't want to cooperate on the first day they were here….so, we decided to paint the kitchen! Yeah!

We are getting our cabinets painted soon and I had planned to paint the walls after the cabinets were finished. I love that my parents actually came up with the idea that we should go ahead and paint the walls, since the weather wasn't cooperation gout side for us to mulch! Yeah!

The girls took a break from watching the paint dry, to take Bailey for a walk around the neighborhood. Aw, sisterly love…any bets on how long this hand-holding, merrily skipping along, vision of love lasted??!:)

 The next morning the weather was beautiful. Our plans were restored and we began a loooong day of working outside. Mimi and Papa are such troopers!

Even the girls got involved in transporting mulch. Alley's mulching wagon…MC catching a ride back to the big mulch pile

apparently Mimi needed some help driving her "train" back to the mulching station…choo-chooo

oh look, they picked up a passenger...

 Mimi cleaned off our slide…it was in desperate need of some TLC…thanks Mimi!

Papa hard at work!

Of course, everyone staring at the tree that needs to be taken down. When Mimi and I heard Papa and Andy were going to take a tree down, we decided we needed to go shopping (grocery and plant shopping…not clothes…whomp-whomp). We did NOT need to be around for that one!

Aaaaaand, we came back to this…success!

snack time games. Who can throw their apple cores the farthest...

MC with the under hand toss

Alley with the blind, don't look where you are throwing, toss

Kendall looks uncomfortable…maybe a softball pitch? or a touchdown dance?!

 Let me tell you, MC is a little worker bee! The other two girls got tired and went inside to play, but little MC kept on working hard!!

Papa's little shadow…I have a feeling that this was me when I was little…following Papa around and watching him in the shop, asking to help or asking questions about everything. 

 All of Papa's little helpers (side note, we got 4 truck loads of mulch…that was crazy….)

 Sunday we celebrated our accomplishments with a little Krispy Kreme! Nothing says good job better than KK donuts!! We say good-bye to Mimi and Papa for a few days as they travel south to Florida…the best thing is that in a few days they will be back!

TWhen they return, we have a little family pyramid going on…a little rough, but we managed it.

Good bye Mimi and Papa! Come back soon!

I will leave you with a little bit of silliness…until next time!! Rest up Mimi and Papa, I've already started a list of things we can tackle next visit!! ;)

Easter 2015

Easter weekend at the McPherson household was busy! We started off with a little slave labor;) Our girls eat a.ton.of.fruits.and.veggies. I will confess, I do not enjoy cutting up veggies or fruit. I seem to buy a lot and then they sit in the fridge because I just don't feel like peeling and cutting them. I had a brilliant thought this week…God gave me three girls, obviously they are for slave labor…if they want to eat it, they've got to learn to peel and cut it. Perfect! So, veggie prep lesson 1 began…

I must say it was a huge success! I monitored it all but the girls did fantastic! Oh to never have to peel and cut veggies again…oh happy day!;)

On Saturday, Andy and I went to work on our veggie/fruit gardens. Andy made me a neat little window box stand for my strawberries, herbs and some of my spinach. It turned out great! I hope I have a green thumb;/ Andy also made some raised beds in our yard for our bell peppers, cucumbers and more spinach. I need to pat him on the back, he also made an awesome irrigation system…because let's face it, I always forget to water!;)

here's my window box planters:)

After a long day of gardening, we set out to watch the Tigers take on UNC in baseball. Here's alley with the Tiger. Yeah for beautiful weather!!

After a busy weekend, we enjoyed a relaxing Easter Sunday. 

Daddy and his girls

The McPherson girls

My three girls all ready for Church.

this is how we felt at the beginning of the day...

 Then after our sugar high, this is how we felt! ;)

 We ended the day with some great friends, great food and roasting marshmallows by the fire.

He is Risen!! What a glorious day!! Happy Easter!

Snow

So one day we are out playing at the play ground without jackets...

 Then the next day we've got this white stuff on the ground…:/

While the girls were super excited, I was inside wishing it all away. By this time of year, I believe we should be done with snow and cold. I am all for it in November and December, but come January…I'm ready for spring. Yeah, I know, ba-humbug...

At least the girls enjoyed it AND it gave me an excuse to have ridiculous amounts of hot chocolate;) See, I can find one positive thing about snow…chocolate;) Now bu-bye snow!!

Basketball

The end of basketball season is in sight…I don't know whether to be excited or sad…Some times it feels like it.drags.on. Other times I feel like it is flying right by us and I can't keep all the games and scores straight. We absolutely love watching Clemson play, whether it's on TV or in person. The girls have enjoyed going to more games and have really gotten to know some of the players, which makes games more exciting. On one of Andy's away trips, Alley drew a picture of the team singing the "Clemson song" at the end of the game.

Not too bad:) She even got the tiger in there…though he looks likes he's begin stepped on by the players;)

this is how we watch away games…everyone has their own chairs and some color pictures of the games.

We even made it out to a few girls games this year. The girls have recently gotten over their fear of mascots…whew!! Here they are getting some love from the "small girl tiger".

Here's to many more Clemson basketball seasons and getting to enjoy more games! Go tigers Go!!!

New addition...

We have added a new member to the McPherson circus! This one is a girl (surprise, surprise!), furry, lovable, playful, black and slightly smelly;). We are now a dog family…though I am still coming to terms with that. The younger two girls have had an extreme fear of dogs over the past 2 years, so what better way to solve that? Invite your fear to come live with you…duh!;) 

she looks very ferocious to y'all, right?!

 I told Andy that if we were going to get a dog, it had to be over 3 years of age. I am not doing any puppy training! We found sweet Bailey at a shelter up in Greenville and immediately new she was the one. She is such a sweet, laid-back dog. We definitely lucked out! The first two weeks the girls wanted to take Bailey out on walks CONSTANTLY. Poor Bailey probably went on at least 4 walks a day…at least we all got some good exercise:) She is fantastic on walks and will just walk right next to you. Even MC can walk her without any trouble. Whew!

Here they all are on Bailey's first night home.

MC has a new friend and dogs are her new loves

Alley taking Bailey on one of our multiple walk days…we haven't even left the driveway and Bailey already looks like she's ready to go to sleep!

Kendall, who previously would scream bloody murder every single time she saw a dog, has loved having Bailey around. Here she is just staring at Bailey…poor Bailey;)

Best buds

Best buds

Bailey definitely loves Alley…I took this sweet shot while we were on our way to take Kendall to preschool. 

Even Bailey is getting in on our family devotional time at night;)

Who, you ask, is Bailey's absolute favorite human? This picture says it all...

Andy came home from work and laid down on the ground and Bailey just climbed up on him and started licking him…she thinks she's a lap dog;)

All in all, I think we made the right decision. Granted I have to clean A LOT more now (if you know me, then you know I absolutely hate cleaning), but it's worth it when I see how the girls respond to Bailey. She has definitely become a wonderful addition to our family!