Monday mornings @ the ZOO

For the past several months, the girls and I have spent most of our Monday mornings at the Riverbanks Zoo.  As most of you know, my cleaning ladies (whom I adore!) come to our house at 8am Monday morning each week.  Lily has The Little Gym at 11:30, so this leaves us with 3 1/2 hours of time to kill!  We usually go out for breakfast (this morning was IHOP for the funny face pancakes) and then head to the Zoo.  I have come to love this 3 1/2 hours.  I no longer dread having to get both girls up, dressed and out the door so early after a long lazy weekend.  It has become our special time together and I look forward to it each week. 
Here are some pictures of our time together this morning: 

Stylin'

Check out our new rides:

Tayta and Gido (my parents) got the girls these awesome new car seats for their upcoming birthdays in July! Charlotte was quickly growing out of her infant seat and is much more comfortable in her new toddler seat. Lily is loving the extra leg room and the pink accents in her new big girl seat, too!

These girls are constantly spoiled by their grandparents. Momma J and Papa Charlie add to Lily's impressive animal collection every time they visit and always have a little surprise for Charlotte.  My dad never shows up without a HUGE bag full of chocolate and my mom is constantly finding the most adorable outfits for them. Not to mention the packages full of goodies that show up every holiday. Lucky little girls!

Charlotte - 10 Months

Mother's Day

Our family went on a day trip to Greenville for Mother's Day this year.  We went with our good friends, The Streets, and had a wonderful time. 
It's still hard for me to believe that I have two perfect little girls.  It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day stresses of life and fail to slow down and appreciate how blessed you really are.  I honestly do try to consciously think about this everyday.  I don't want to look back in a few years and feel like I took even a second of this time with them for granted.  I adore these girls and hope they both know with all their heart how much I love being their mommy. 

Sweet Perfection

Charlotte - 9 Months

We're BACK!

I've been horrible about blogging lately.   The last few weeks have been super busy for us.  We were in Florida for my Dad's surgery (he's doing great, btw!), Ashville to spend some time with my sister and her family, I had dental surgery, Josh and I went to an Usher/Akon concert (I know, so random) and we had lots of family stop by Columbia for short visits in between.  Things are finally starting to slow down around here and I'm ready to get back to my normal "blog-aholic" self.  So...fasten your seat belt, it's time to play "catch-up"!  Here is what we've been up to.  Sorry for the randomness...

Lily hard at work on one of her many
so called "art projects":

Lily's dream come true: 

Dinosaur week at preschool!

Spending some time with our Florida friends:

Ava, Preston, Cole, Eli & Ella.

A day at EDventure with Emma Jane and Vivi:

Josh and I before our big night out: