Happy Valentine's Day

 On Saturday night Kyle and I were blessed by some sweet friends who babysat Abigail while she was sleeping so we could go out on a date for Valentine's. It was so much fun and much needed! As parents, it's easy to lose sight of how important it is so spend time as just the two of us. It's also so helpful that Abigail goes to bed at 6:30pm so that we can easily put her down and then go out while someone watches her!

Our beautiful little Valentine!

Craftiness and Friends

This past weekend a sweet friend had several of us girls over from church for a girly craft afternoon. It was so much fun and a great break from kids and our normal daily routines. We laughed, chatted, nibbled on yummy snacks, and inspired each other as we all worked on our own crafts.

Here are a few photos. So thankful for these sweet friends!

Elizabeth and Anna

 Myself and Aubrey

Our host, Jenny, and I.

 

Here are pictures of us and our crafts:

 Elizabeth was painting the LOVE letters and making a beautiful rosette wreath for her front door.

 Jenny made this super cute heart chain for her little girl's bedroom. She also made another fun craft for a Valentine's gift.

 Anna was making pretty envelopes, fabric and felt roses, and a heart chain.

 Aubrey was working on a special Valentine's craft as well.

I made an "R" to hang on our front door and worked on a craft for my hubby for Valentine's Day. :-)

Can't wait for our next crafting day! Thank you Jenny for having us all over!

Generations of Friendship...

One of my absolute dearest childhood friends, Jessica, and I have known each other from birth. We grew up playing together, graduated together, were in each others weddings, etc... The Lord has graciously allowed us to walk through life together. However, after I moved to Kentucky, soon she and her husband joined the military and they have been stationed in New Mexico. So, because we live in different states now, our trips home to Texas to see our families do not usually coincide. Because of this, we have not seen each other since I was 20 weeks pregnant and she had just found out that she was pregnant with twins. We gave birth in separate states and have been raising our children for the past year, apart from each other. While this is the Lord's will for this season of life, we so look forward to the hopeful day when we will once again live near each other and our kids can enjoy frequently playing together, like we did!

One of the most exciting parts of our trip to Texas last week was that Jessica and her little family were also in town visiting their families, so we actually got to meet up for a short visit and allow our children to meet (and here I was, 16 weeks pregnant again!!! haha...). It was such a sweet, sweet time! We chatted and laughed while we watched our kids play together. SO CUTE! It's crazy to realize that there will be four children between us the next time we see each other!

 Our two families!
(Kyle, Michelle, Abigail, and Baby Roland. Mark, Jessica, Aksil and Avery.)

 Aksil showing Abigail how to ride his super cool toy!

 Abigail loved their ball toy! It shoots the balls up in the air...

 Avery... so cute!

 Our girls!

 Avery and Abigail playing together.

 I love Avery's enthusiasm for life!

 Trying our best to take a group photo! (Notice they each have toys! haha)

 *Cheese*

 Abigail thought she'd surprise Aksil with a kiss... Avery thinks it's pretty funny! (Aunt Jessica, we've got our work cut our for us with these kiddos!)

 Abigail is acting like the big sister... haha...

 This is a more "natural" shot of our kids! haha...

Abigail being Abigail... haha... she loves to touch other kids! Avery's like... "Uhh... Mom!!! What's she doing?"

I am so incredibly thankful for the short time that we had to visit with these dear friends! I look forward to many more playdates in the future, Lord-willing!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So I know this is late and that while in Texas I dropped the ball on my "thankfulness" posts. I'm so sorry! I would like to extend a late "Happy Thanksgiving" to everyone from our family and share a few photo highlights from our trip to Texas to see my side of the family. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed making many wonderful memories.

 Our wonderful extended family... Four Generations... So thankful for this heritage!

The Oliver/Roland side of the family.

Our little Roland Family

 Us with my Grandparents... We are so blessed with every opportunity we have to spend with these two godly, dear people!

Abigail sitting on the little couch her Grammie recovered for her. So cute!

 I love seeing all the little great-grandchildren playing with my grandparents! Such a sweet time!

Mother's Day

Celebrating my first Mother's Day this year was so much fun. My wonderful hubby totally pampered me all weekend long! On Saturday night, Kyle took me out to Red Lobster which is one of our absolute favorite restaurants so it was a special treat. Then he took me to the mall to shop around and bought me some beautiful jewelry. Yay! A mommy can always use new jewelry to "spice up" that shirt that has spit-up on it, right? :-D

 Kyle and I

Sorry the lighting was pretty bad... haha...

 Sweet Abigail smiling up at her Daddy

 Yum! Daddy's fingers are the best!

My a-maz-ing meal of shrimp and salmon... oh yes!!! You may drool!

Our graceful daughter reclining at the table with her foot up while we eat. haha! She got so much attention from the waiters and manager while we were there. People kept asking how old she was and commenting on her.

 Abigail LOVES cups! So I figured I'd let her try sucking on mine.

 Showing her the straw... (notice her fingers holding tightly to the cup!)

 Letting her try some water from a straw.

Oooo...

Kyle and Abigail

Once again, bad lighting, but such a cute picture so I had to post it!

Then, Sunday after church, he took me to Chuy's for lunch. Another absolute favorite restaurant of mine! We then went home and enjoyed relaxing together and watched a fun movie. Ahh... so nice to enjoy some great "down time" together.

Kyle, thank you so much for making me feel SO special on Mother's Day! It is a joy to serve you and Abigail as wife and Mommy! I love all that you do for our family and I'm so grateful for your hard work and the sacrifices you make for us. God could not have blessed me with a more wonderful husband than you! I love you so much, Babe!

Abigail, I know you will probably never read this, but I love you so much and I absolutely LOVE being your Mommy! Thank you for all the coos and smiles that you give me everyday and for loving me back so enthusiastically. I am blessed to have you as my daughter and I look forward to many more days and years ahead of growing in Christ-likeness together. I pray that God will draw your heart to Himself while you are young and that your days will be filled with serving Him.

Derby Day Fun

Here in Kentucky, Derby is a HUGE event! There are weeks of celebration that happen before Derby. As residents here, it's fun to be apart of some of the celebrations. There is a festival, parade, hot hair balloons, concerts, etc... Well, today is Derby. While watching a little of the pre-Derby stuff on TV this morning, we enjoyed seeing all the fun big hats that everyone wears. It's such a big deal to buy and wear your "Derby Hat"... it made me wish we were attending... just to wear a hat and see all the festivities and traditions. haha...

In honor of Derby Day... Abigail is wearing her "most fun outfit" to celebrate. I think her bow should qualify for a Derby hat... since it's so big! haha... Here are a few snapshots:

 Our happy baby girl!

The end. ;-)

Easter!

This year we spent Easter Sunday with our community group and other friends from church. We had so much fun and were so excited to spend time fellowshipping with them.Our friends, Lucas and Sam Henderson, opened their home to us and were an excellent host/hostesses.

All of us girls made tons of food which gave us a fun spread to choose from.

The dessert table was beautiful with all the fun cakes and cupcakes, plus various drinks.

Our little bunny spending time with Mommy.

We brought eggs for the kids to have an Easter egg hunt. I was so excited to take Abigail on her very first egg hunt! The guys all had fun hiding the eggs, then almost everyone came outside to watch the kids search all over for the brightly colored eggs.

Abigail loved her little Easter basket! She liked holding the purple handle.

I think I'm a little more excited about the hunt than she is though! Ha!

 

 Abigail was intrigued by her pretty eggs.

 Our whole group, minus sweet Mrs. Warren, who is taking the picture.

Our whole community group! We sure love these people!

 Sweet preggo Jenny and I. They find out this week what their baby is. We're all so excited for them!

 My sweet hubby, Kyle, Mike (holding Abigail, whom he put to sleep, yay!!!) and his wife, Becky, and Lucas with his dog, Maggie.

 Mike and Becky with Lucas and Sam.

Mike had the magical touch with Abigail and put her right to sleep. She definitely doesn't do that with everyone so it was so sweet to see!

This is the sweetest picture ever of Jason and Jenny as they excitedly feel their baby kicking! :-D