Brotherly Love

I was so excited when my brother called me a month ago to invite us on vacation with his family. My brother and I are beyond close, he is my dad made over!

Once we decided on a date it was time to pick a place. It's safe to say we threw out ideas that took us from Sarasota all the way to the mountains, then we settled somewhat in between on Destin.However,  two weeks ago we decided against the beach,didn't know really why at the time but I truely believe it was all God, as Debby was beating away up there at the time.

My brother found this really great resort out side of Orlando. It was great, on site were three pools, water park, splash park, game room, bicycle riding, putt-putt golf, shuffle board, paddle boats and spa room. No, I am not getting paid for bragging on them but I am saying it was really nice and a great place for kids, not to mention the price is very reasonable!

We had such a great time and made many precious memories.

these were so much fun, not sure sure Jay thought so considering Bailey and I were not much help peddling!

the rooms..so nice, well ours was :)

water park where bailey lived!

splash zone

great idea from Pinterst, packing out fit in ziplock with matching accessories!

5 days worth of clothes for bailey and i, felt very organized

headed out

jay and bailey had a blast, think jay may have had more fun than bailey

jay, richard and the girls!

love this man! And yes I sported a bikini but not going to post those pics ha!

little cuties

this is what happens when you allow your kids to eat chicken nuggets and fries everyday

thorne of passion and bailey jumps into pic, typical :)

love my girls

time for the rodeo

he's so strong

lego land at downtown dsiney

a couple of princesses and a prince

Between Ripleys, Downtown Disney, hanging out with her cousins and all the great shopping I am sure this is a vacation Bailey will remember for a lifetime.

Oh yes, I am enjoying Summer 2012!

instasunday

 I am loving my friend Crystal's idea of posting her instagram photo's weekly and if she is ok with it, I am going to borrow her idea and begin an instasunday post. Hopefully this will force me to slow down and take at least one photo that sums up each day I spend with my family.

 My first instasunday will be short but hopfully I will have a pic from each day for my next Sunday post.
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer, I have enjoyed so much each and every minute I have been able to spend with my precious family!
God Bless You All!

Hat- Check, Bigger than my face glasses-Check,
Red nail polish-Check..
yep mom I am ready for the beach!

I'm loving it!

Rotten-Totten

Beginning to wonder if there are twins in there?

Re-Post but I just can't get enough of her and she is not even here yet!
Looking forward to October!

What's in a name?

What's in a name?

 According to Romeo and Juliet a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet but when I hear that saying "What's in a name", I just want to scream from the top of my lungs, it means EVERYTHING!

Maybe that is why picking a name for Baby R has been umm shall we say a bit hard.

With Bailey we did not find out the sex, so it was somewhat easy, crazy as that sounds , we had our boy and girl names picked and we told noone. Which I think that was the diffrence, we really didn't give anyone a chance to agree or disagree with our choices, those were the two picked and that was that.

Although this is our 2nd child it feels so new, maybe it's because we decided to find out the sex of the baby and now the name we choose will be her name, the decor we pick will be her decor, the clothes we buy will be her outfits. For someone like me who at times can be a bit  lot indicisive I think not finding out and knowing I had the option of changing that neutral room (as poor bailey had) to somehing at a later date gave me some sort of peace.

However I do find an even greater peace when I  step back and I think of all the students I have encountered in my 7 years of teaching, not once have I said or thought "Wow that name really does not suit them", its been quite the opposite, no matter how "different" the name seems it always fits that child and I couldn't imagine their name as anything else.

In my heart I am pretty sure of the name for our little girl because no matter how beutiful the names I hear as suggestions sound, I always think back to that one specific name. However this is today and lord knows what I will think tomorrow ha!

Quick Baby R update: As of yesterday 6/18/2012
Pregnancy: 5 months 2 weeks and 4 days
Expected delivery date: October 11
Weight Gained: 15 pounds
Cravings: Everything salty and sour
Her heart rate:143
Moving: Yes all the time 24/7
Room Decor: PBK Elepephant Decor

Good-bye Pre-K....

...hello Kindergarten!

It's offcial, my little girl has graduated Pre-k and is headed to kindergarten. Time has no doubt been in high gear since Bailey started school in March of 2010, we have been blessed to have wonderful teachers and a wonderful group of friends to share in this experiance. Bailey has grown so much these past couple of years and looking back at her beginning and end of the year pictures bring tears to my eyes. I am so proud of her and feel extremly blessed to be her mother.

1st and last day in Pre-K

Presley & Bailey

Bailey & Mrs. Heather

Bailey & Mrs. Amanda

Caroline & Bailey

Bailey & Fisher

At Bailey's graduation program with her three sweet teachers

Kindergarten Orientation: the bus ride

Best Friends

Filling out paperwork for Kindergarten

Our little queens...

Last weekend we attending our  1st "big" pageant. I mean big as in,  three outfit changes/walks all within a 35 minute window. I enjoyed the insane changes in the make shift dressing room a.k.a "lobby".  Bailey was loving all the attention and pampering during changes and I enjoyed the look on her face each time she hit the stage. Her personality blows me away and I love at the age of 5 how level headed she seems. Before she went on that day I was getting a bit strssed trying to curl her insane amount of hair, as the tears began to roll down my face she says mom " it doesn't matter what my hair looks like , my makeup or my outfit, its all about my personality". She is my calm in the middle of the storm I guess! She was able to win her first crown that night and she was beaming from ear to ear, after the competition we went to Chili's where she had to tell everyone about her first "crowning" experiance. I know people think poorly of pageants as so did I and the good Lord knows I have received some flack to say the least but for Bailey these 3 pageants have been nothing but a great experiance for her.

I love that Bailey has been able to share her new adventure with some of  her veteran pageant friends from school. These three little girls are not only cute as a button but sweet as can be. I am happy for each of them as they all shine in their own way. A big congrat to Sophia who was crowned the 6 year old Queen, Ainslee who was crowned Supreme Queen for theme wear, Bailey who was crowned Supreme Queen for outfit of choice and Presley who was crowned Ultimate Supreme Queen!

Pictures are few, as they would let no cameras inside the room, UGH! However, we were able to sneak a few!

Sophia, Ainslee, Bailey, Presley

Getting ready for the formal competition

Casual Wear-Supreme Winner!!

Poodle skirt and a Rock Star!

Bailey and Sophia

Theme Wear-Red White and Blue
God Bless America!

More Pink!

It looks as though there is lots more pink in our future. Jay, Bailey and I found out yesterday that we are expecting another little Russel girl. I am so excited, I kept LOTS of Bailey's clothes and I am itching to drag them down and indulge myslef in "pink frill"!

We had went back and forth as to find out the boy/girl, but the closer it got to my ultrasound, I needed to know. We did not find out with Bailey and although it was an awesome surprise, I did not want to go down the whole "neutral" world, I wanted lots of pink or lots of blue!

I asked not to be told while back in the ultrasound room due mainly to fact thay Bailey was unable to come back and therefore Jay had to sit out in lobby with her. The tech was so sweet and sealed the results in an envelope for us to open later. Bailey later opened the envelope and read us the results. Her exact words "Well..long pause... I think it says it's a girl??? I quickly grabbed the pic and yep, its a girl.

We had told noone of our appointment so it was a huge surprise to everyone we called. I had my sweet brother bring my mom lots of pink balloons with one that said its a girl-he stood outside her work while I called her and had her walk out and see the surprise. It took her second to realize what they meant, ha!  She quickly dropped the phone hugging my brother as I am on the line screaming, "It's me, I am having a girl!

Everyone is so excited and I cannot wait till October to hold my sweet baby girl.

*On a side note- I gave Bailey a big talk about how she will always be my #1 girl and how special she is and everything else that goes with preparing your 5 year old for another child. I like to have fell down when she looked at me and said with a bit of sas I may add,  "Great, are you calling Baby R chopped liver?" She is a mess!

She's a beauty!

Bailey has been begging and I mean begging for a couple years now to be in a pageant. For those of you who know her daddy, you know his answer has been a big fat N-O. However, after years of her batting her eyes, he finally gave in. Now the mom side of me kicked in high gear explaining that even if you don't win you are the most beautiful girl and how much her daddy and I love her, with the heart to heart talk going on she looks at me like I am insane and says "Mom I don't care if I don't win cause we can just buy me a crown later"! With that being said I knew she was in it for fun and we were all good!

Bailey blew us all away at how confident she was when she came out, she took to that stage as if she had done it all her life. We couldn't quit laughing as she made sure even when the announcer was trying to get her attention that she got all her "poses" in that Mrs. April had taught her!

I am so thankful to my sweet freind April Akins who got Bailey all ready while I was in Jacksonville on a field trip!

She is her daddy made over

Bailey and her sweet friend Sophia

So very sweet to have Jay's parents drive up from Land O'Lakes

Bailey was thrilled, she won 2nd runner-up