Guess what Grandpa made....

You may or may not know much about my Father-in-law, but one thing you HAVE to know about him is that he is amazingly creative and an awesome carpenter!  He has made so many things/furniture for our house and for us.  He has made baby furniture, helped Jim build a playset in the backyard, our entertainment center, kitchen table, gliding bench, cooler, chess table, chinese checkers game, and I know there is more, but my mind is blank.  Well, he has outdone himself lateley...check this beauty:

That is my NEW custom made jewelry box!!!  It is beautiful....I mean BEAUTIFUL!!!  Check out all the details he added (beading, K, border and knobs!!!)  I am IN LOVE with it....It holds all the jewelry I have!!!  I am the luckiest Daughter-in-law EVER!  Not only is he creative and thoughtful, but an amazing FIL and Grandpa!!  I had to brag on him a little:)

Not only did he make me my jewelry box, but he customized 2 smaller ones for the girls so they could have their very own!!  He even bought them little rings to put inside theirs!!!  They LOVE theirs too:)

Thanks Grandpa for making us the BEST Jewelry boxes EVER!!!  We love you:)

Banana Splits are THE BEST!

Kyndall, Avery and I went out on the town the other day in search of white chenille fabric.  You would have thought it would have been easy to find with all the fabric stores around here but we drove from one to another all afternoon with no luck!  So I decided I was craving a banana split when I saw Braums across the street from our last fabric shop.  The girls were hot, tired and hungry...so it was perfect!  There is a history with Braums, Grammie and used to go eat there together as a special treat.  We would get their burgers, fries and then every time we would split a yummy banana split!!

And who can resist one of these babies:

And you know, they are EXACLTY the same as always.  That is the best thing about Braums.  Now, I will tell you to avoid the Braums in Plano off of Parker...it was pretty dirty:(  Even the girls thought it was (tables, restroom)  the food, drinks and trays seemed pretty good though.  I would go to the one on McDermott and Alma if you are in this area.  Kyndall was not so sure about a banana split though, she said, "I want a banilla (vanilla) scoop in a cone"  so I told her that she had to try the b-split and if she still wanted the vanilla cone I would get her one.

After she tried it, she was hooked!!  And Avery's favorite thing in the whole world is ice cream so she was in Heaven!!  They had a little mini grocery store there too...so Kyndall just HAD to go get fixin's for our very own banana splits from home....check out the flavors the girls picked out!

This beat-down hot Texas weather definitely calls for some banana splits in our near future again:)  You know bananas have potassium, and ice cream has calcium....in my mind this is a SUPER healthy snack!!  ha!!

When the kids are away...Mommy will play!

We went to visit my parents and Grandparents over the 4th of July to celebrate Grammie (more about that to come on Saturday) and spend time together.  The girls wanted to stay with my parents for a few more days while Jim and I came home...

We kissed them goodbye and headed back to McKinney!  First, we had dinner with Jim's Dad that night, which was super fun...love Olive Garden's new Chicken with Parmesian ravioli...yum!

Then, I got a day of eating lunch at Cafe Max...double yum, and fabric shopping all morning.  After that, I met up with my sweet Preggo friend, Janette,  and we took our big ole selves to the nail salon and got pedicures...ahhh

Then, I got to go on a hot date with my hunk of a husband that night!!  We ate at the Grand Luxe in the Galleria Mall!!  What a fun time we had just enjoying each other...and of course talking about our sweet babies who were in Lubbock!!

Whew!  That was a pretty great day, right...well then today, Wednesday, I slept in til 8:30, read my book for an hour, then got up and around.  At 4:00, I picked up my friend Jenny (and her little one Harper) and we headed our to eat at Breadwinners with our sweet friend, Lisa!!  Now, I had to manipulate a pic of all 3 of us because I forgot to bring my camera in for the restaurant!!

Then, Jenny and I headed to the cutest little shop in Dallas called The Shabby Sheep and took the most FUN beginner crochet class!!

Oh yeah, check my hard work out!!

Harper couldn't keep her cute lil' eyes off my handi-work

Next up??  I think I'll make this!!

Well....maybe I need more practice for that!!  Click on the pic to see this girl's etsy shop...she rocks!!

Anyway, I have had an AMAZING 2 days full of relaxation, dinners, friend time, husband time, and NOW I get to go pick up my sweet girls!!  I thought I would want more time, but I sure do miss their sweet voices, loving cuddles, and cute little faces!  I will definitely let them go visit their Bits and Gram anytime they want, but it sure is nice knowing they'll be back in my arms tomorrow!! 

Baby Update!

What is more fun than being pregnant with your 3rd baby??  How about being pregnant with one of your best friends in the whole world!!!  Due the same month!!  I have actually been blessed with a few friends who are all pregnant and due near me....so we can all be big and eat like crazy together:)  I think our husbands might have to form a support group with all the emotions going around!!!

Janette and Me showing off our Halfway there baby bumps!!

How far along: 22 weeks

Cravings:  baked potatoes, turkey and cheese sandwiches, popsicles, and PRINGLES and M&Ms

Weight gain: about 15lbs so far

Gender: So we had a little fun with this one:)

First, we went to a 13 week screening and they told us they were 95% sure we were having a _____.  We had them write it in a card and I took it straight to one of my besties Jenny Garland.  She then baked us a cake (pink in the middle for girl and blue for boy):

She brought the cake over and luckily family was in town...so I made everyone dress in either pink or blue to guess what we were having...Jim wore red because he doesn't have a pink shirt...

Then we cut the cake (after Avery insisted we sing Happy Birthday first! HA!!)  And we got:

Girl!!  Then I was a little worried it might not be that accurate so I am just now telling this story after having my 20 week sono and they confirmed FOR SURE we are having another girl!!!

Name:  We are 95% sure we are going with Emery, or Emory.  Won't that be cute, Kyndall, Avery and Emery?

We are all super excited for October to come around so we can meet her!!  Looks like we are going to officially schedule the c-section for October 25th!!  I better get sewing if I am going to make a bunch of frilly cute stuff for her huh!!!

Guess who is 5!!!

I can hardly believe it, it doesn't seem possible.  But 5 years ago on June 18th 2006, which was; Father's Day (Jim's first official one to be exact), The last day of the US Open (we watch golf), and the 6th playoff game between Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks (Heat won that year, Mavs ruled this year!!  Woo Hoo...I digress), and my sweet, precious, little baby Kyndall Ann Kelly was born!! 

1

 2

 3

 4

and........5!!!

 She is my precious angel.  Loving, Caring, Creative, Honest, Silly, Tenderhearted, and Beautiful!!!  She astonishes me everyday with the way she looks at the world around her.  Kyndall is the BEST big sister in the world.  This year, she wanted a "Build-a-Bear" party with her friends, so we had 10  of her sweet little friends come and build some bears to celebrate her birthday:

 This was the crazy dance they all had fun doing:)

Then we had the family and a few friends, The Johansons, come over to celebrate low-key at home.  Janette Johanson and I have been BFF's since College and they have recently moved to McKinney just down from us!!!  Their daughter Reese has the same birthday as Kyndall, so we went to their party in the morning and had them over to Kyndall's in the afternoon!!

Grandpa, Daddy and Kyndall listening to her new Ipod!!

Bits and Gram gave her a big girl Barbie bicycle!!

Grammie, Gram, Kyndall and I went to the American Girl Doll Store and Grammie got her an American girl doll, then we ate at the Bistro!!

Finally, a pic of me with my sweet 5 year old and her brand new American Girl Doll.  What a wonderful birthday to celebrate a wonderful princess!!  We love you, Kyndall, with all our hearts and are enjoying every second of watching you grow up to be a beautiful young lady inside and out!!! 

Ballet, Tap and Tumbling with our Besties!

Kyndall has done ballet classes on and off since she turned 3.  This summer we decided that Avery was old enough to join her big sis.  My friend, Jenny, found the cutest dance studio that had a combined ballet,tap and tumbling class for ages 3-5.  So we decided to put all our girls in the class together...and boy did they have fun!  Check out the cute pics I captured:

Getting ready to tumble:

Avery was doing her own thing here: 

The big girls: 

Kyndall was stretching: 

A shot of Avery and Sara Paige trying out the moves: 

Here are 2 videos that Jenny took of the girls dancing...the first is ballet.  You can see how the little girls are just having fun...dancing and enjoying themselves.  They bigger girls are having fun too, but they are really trying hard to do the moves.  It was so much fun to see them all enjoy in their own ways.  As you can tell, the music was sweet and the teachers were so sweet and patient.  What a fun thing to watch!!!

Sister Dance Class from Brad Garland on Vimeo.

Here is a little snip-it of their tap dancing portion.  You can see Kate in the white, Kyndall in pink next to her, Avery and then Sara Paige:)

Dancing Divas from Brad Garland on Vimeo.

Well, Hello Summer!

Well, Hello there summer!!  Right after Kyndall's graduation we decided to head into summer in full force!  We took a road trip to Amarillo (to visit Grammie and go to a Bridal Shower)  I didn't get many pictures there...only one it seems...and I stole that from my friend Stephanie!!  Stephanie and I were BFF's in Middle School and have gotten back in touch via Facebook (yay!).  We got our kiddos together for a super fun playdate:

We also got together with my good friend Sidney and her son Colton...but I didn't get any pics and neither did she...guess we were too busy catching up and chasing kiddos:)

We also spent that time visiting Grammie and Popo...what a wonderful time we had there...wish we had actually taken more pics:)

Then it was off to Lubbock for some fun!!  Kyndall had fun pulling Avery in the little wagon:

Avery had fun helping Gram water plants (maybe she'll be better at gardening than me:)

Then it was back to McKinney to celebrate some birthdays!  This was Ellie's 5th birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese.  There is a great pic of the whole group with Chuck-E...but Kyndall refused to go near him!  It's okay, I understand....He IS a little creepy looking if you ask me.  And Kyndall says, "A mouse is supposed to be small, not like him"  Ha!

Kate is friends with Ellie too...so she was at the party!!

We have also made several trips to the pool!!

And...Kyndall's friend Kiley had her 5th birthday Luau at the Beach Pool in McKinney...so fun!!!

We also seem to be spending a lot of time loving on little baby Harper:

She is so precious and makes me want to have my baby NOW!

Finally, we went to the splash pad with our Garland girls too!

Whew!  We are trying to enjoy the summer and get out of the house a little....how is your summer going???