Summer has begun!

Woo-hoo! Summer vacation officially started at 1pm on Friday June 3rd for the McPherson family!! It couldn't have come any sooner;) Friday was my last day at work...and when I say last, I don't mean just for 2 months...as most of you all know, I resigned from my position to stay at home with the girls. It was a very hard decision to make since I enjoy what I  do, but my family comes first and this is what Andy and I felt was best for our girls. So, to kick summer off right, our beach trip was moved to the day I officially finished work...and man, what a way to kick off summer vacation!! We had a blast! I have so many pictures to go through so it'll take me some time before I can get a good beach post up, but I thought I'd leave you with a few from our first day.

Here's the whole crew going down to the water

my big girl enjoying the waves

cheesy thing...but oh how this girl LOVED the ocean!

Stay tuned as I will be posting more pictures of the beach over the next few days!:) Happy summer to all!!

Watermelon

"Watermelon, Watermelon...

how it drips...

how it drips...

up and down the elbow, up and down the elbow...

spit out the pits, spit out the pits."

Oh summer is almost here! We just had our first watermelon of the season and we all loved every minute of it! Summer will officially begin next Friday for the McPherson family!!! 

Mother's Day

I couldn't have had a better Mother's Day this year. The weather was beautiful, we got to spend a lot of time outside enjoying each others company, we got to worship and spend a morning with close friends at church and then we got to celebrate the day with a wonderful dinner with my role models. Who could have asked for a better day?! It seems like each year just keeps getting better and better...I guess it could have something to do with the fact I seem to keep having babies;)

My first "baby" - little Andy

MY baby - little Catherine:)

Momma and her girls...all three of them

looks like we have another one with those beautiful curls...yippy!

sweet big sis playing hard in the yard

having a sisters meeting at the magnolia tree....hmmm, I wonder what transpired between those two...or, maybe I don't want to know!

 4 generations...I wont tell you how many pictures we had to take before we got a decent one with all of us looking...;)

Happy Mother's Day to all the women out there...but especially to my mom and grandmother who have inspired me and taught me so much. I love you two and feel so incredibly blessed to be called your daughter and granddaughter!!!

Road Trip

Road trips...I always seem to need a vacation after returning from a road trip. Especially our annual Spring Break trip to Arkansas where we drive 12-13 hours straight through the night on the way and way back...whew, poor Andy;) We always start off the trip with adrenaline but by the time we leave, adrenaline can't be found anywhere...he must have jumped ship with all the tornadoes and storms we had in Arkansas this week...Since adrenaline couldn't keep up with us, we decided that we could break up the return trip into two days. That way we all get rest and return home in better moods...HA! Those were famous last words! We should have NEVER stopped...nobody got sleep and we were even more cranky  upon arrival in Farmville. Whew, what a trip! But I must say, we did enjoy our trip while we were there:)

Kendall, our self entertaining child. We all heard this noise and went into the bedroom to find Kendall playing with the door stop. It was hilarious!! She was soooo intense about it:)

 We took a trip out to visit Andy's dad in the cemetery and change out his flowers. Here Alley is helping out.

Kendall...I wont say whether she helped or hindered...I'll let you decide;)

Afterwards we went to feed the ducks at a nearby pond...apparently none of the ducks were hungry...what's up  with that?!

my determined duck-feeder....they WILL eat....

We all gave up and went to the playground to lick our wounds...I think it worked

oh I loooove swinging...

Kendall working on her baby-care skills

um, yeah, that's definitely not helpful Kendall...no licking or biting the baby

We had a fun and early Easter morning. The girls were excited about diving into their Easter baskets...okay, Alley had a small clue but Kendall was clueless and looked at us like, what in the world is this?! Still, they caught on fast and enjoyed seeing what the Easter bunny left.

Alley wearing her new ears:) Maybe she will hear better with these...in my dreams, right?! ;)

Kendall and her new set of ears

cheesy girl

"buuuuup-pppy" did I ever tell you that this girl loves her some puppies?? EVERYTHING, and I mean everything, she likes she names a puppy. She's hilarious:) Imagine walking in her room first thing in the morning and her pop her head up over the bedrail and yell "buuuupppp-pppy" right in your face.

Daddy and Alley reading/listening to the book Mimi and Papa sent - I think we heard this book a gazillion times while in Arkansas...she loved it!

sharing...did I just catch those two sharing and actually get it on camera...say it aint so! Let me have a moment to soak this up....

Alley showing off her new Easter dress

Daddy and his girls

classic picture, Alley trying to keep Kendall down and Kendall fighting to escape

the family...can I tell you how hard it is to get a decent picture of the whole family??!!! Oh and I am sure it wont get easier...

big momma and her babies...

Alley hunting for eggs after church

Kendall watching Alley and carefully calculating the moment when she can steal the eggs from her

gotcha...now Kendall, who's bucket is that? 

going for a ride in the fabulous wagon...yes, everyone needs a wagon, it subdues all problems

look, we even picked up another baby...Alley helping out with her younger cousin...she kept saying, I'm gonna help mommy with Mary Cate like this....

sharing again...oh man, Jesus definitely did return from the dead;)

Alley helping again

We had a wonderful trip and thoroughly enjoyed spending the time with extended family. Now if only we could have brought family back, not the horrible weather!

Projects

...and I have a lot of them going on at once. It's become an obsession, a healthy one, but it's still consuming. I can't get enough of it:) I just finished two different dress projects for the girls. The first project, which has taken the longest, is the smocked dresses I was making for Easter. They are done, with 5 days to spare...whew! This was the first time I smocked it all on my own and actually made the dresses from scratch. Um yeah, sewing a bishop dress (let alone 2!!) is not an easy first smocked dress to do.  My grandmother, a home economics pro, was a wealth of knowledge and I definitely couldn't have done it without her guidance!! Here is the finally product:)

Both their dresses...

it's on super small blue checked fabric and the butterflies are two-toned pink. 

closer look

even closer:) Dress #1

Dress #2

I mentioned before that I had several projects going on at once...Not only did I just finish 2 smocked dresses, but I also finished two more reversible dresses. I tweaked this pattern as well and made it a button closure at the top instead of ties. I have yet to follow the pattern completely...maybe one of these days I'll follow it;) But for now, it's fun to experiment and make it your own. Here is the final product.

This is the reversible dress, only one is pictured, but I made two:) I just loooove this fabric!!! I have enough left to make a little bubble outfit for baby #3...can't wait!!

The other projects I'm working on are knit sundresses for Alley and Kendall, plus a matching bubble for baby #3....and a knit, long dress for me that I can wear pregnant and afterwards. I will post pictures as soon as I complete them:) My next smocking project is for the fall (yes, I'm totally giving myself ample time to complete this 3 dress project!!). It's an adorable EI-EI-O pattern with farm animals...its just too cute. Anyway, I'm going to be trying out another style of smocked dress on this go-around. Keep your fingers crossed;)

Tubes

Today Kendall got tubes put in her ear...let's all breathe a sigh of relief! Oh I can see a happier, ear infection free future:) Our sweet little mess has been quite sick lately, as I am sure you read in my last post, and we were unsure she would be able to go for this scheduled operation. Low and behold, despite being seriously sick last week, she was completely, and I mean completely, healthy! Can I get an AMEN! Wow, so off to Richmond we went for the glorious tubes.

Alley had gotten tubes when she turned one, so we knew how wonderful those teeny, tiny colored tubes were and we couldn't wait. We woke up bright and early and headed off to see the surgeon. Kendall, in her sweet little way, charmed the socks off of every nurse and doctor there. She flirted with the anesthesiologist (who seriously couldn't have been older than 26!!!), and when Dr. Hickman came in, she walked right up to him and grabbed his leg in a big bear hug and laid her head on his leg and sucked her thumb. Can we say precious!! I really wish I had gotten a picture of that, but I'm not one to bring a camera into surgery;) Maybe next time I should...no, no, no, I take that back, there better not be a next time!!! Kendall was all smiles and snuggles with the anesthesiologist when he came to take her away as well. Let's just say she knows how to pick them;)

We proceeded out to the waiting room and had just finished texting our family to say she had gone back, when Dr. Hickman came out to say they were all done...wow, I had forgotten how fast it really was! We went back to see her and by the time we got out of the waiting room, she was back to her normal self. She had a super quick recovery and was back to her charming self in no time. Of course it helped to have Mimi, Papa and Uncle John around to get attention from;) And boy did she soak it up!

Okay, side tracking a bit...remember I said I didn't have pictures from Kendall's hospital stay...well dad reminded me I could text them to his Blackberry and he could e-mail them to me...so, viola, I've got pictures;)

Check out her paddle! She finally found her thumb with that big contraption weighing her hand down

sleeping with her glorious thumb

her hand/paddle was too heavy to stay in her mouth once she drifted off...hilarious;)