Day with friends

I took the girls out to spend a day with one of my best friends, Katherine, and her two boys, James and Luke. We had a great time and the girls were whipped by the time we came home. I love when we get together...Reese and James are just a few months apart, Hadley is about 9 months older than Luke and Brynlee is about 9 months younger. One of my favorite things is to watch my girls playing with some of my friends little ones...just one of those moments!

Hadley, Luke, James and Reese enjoying a mid morning snack after playing hard with toys, water balloons, water and chalk!

Speaking of our snack...check this out...a yellow watermelon! Katherine had a huge one and the kids ate tons of it. It was sooo good...it was my first time to have a yellow watermelon!

After playing hard, we took a break inside, and these two watch the movie Oceans for a bit...they sat this close...too cute!

Then we loaded up to head over to the lake for some fun. Reese wanted James to ride with us...he was not too excited about being in a car seat with butterflies on it...but they had a great time back there! The whole way home Reese kept saying how sad she was that James was not riding with us anymore.We kept these two contained at the lake...and I put Hadley in her vest just in case she decided to check out the water.

Katherine brought a fishing pole and we really tried to catch something...but for some reason the fish were just not around us! But Reese and James still had fun "catching" some sea grass and other things in the lake!Reese really wanting to catch a fish!

A little moment between friends...hopefully these friendships will continue to grow! Thank you Alexanders for a great day of fun!

One on One

One of the many things that I have found challenging being a mom of my three girls is finding a balance of having some "one on one" time with them! Honestly, it took until Brynlee was about 3 months old that I actually felt like I was coming up for air...and feeling a little more normal!

I have had days where I feel like a horrible mother because it is just an "ALL HANDS ON DECK" mentality trying to take care of everyone and play what everyone wants to play. I often feel pulled in a million directions and I have just been trying to find some balance. So...in an effort to give some attention to my girls I have changed up our "smooth" schedule somewhat! I have been reading the book The Five Love Languages of Children and it has been a motivating factor in this!
Brynlee playing with mommy! So, now I space out when I put Reese and Hadley down for naps (yes, Reese still takes a nap...and seriously I hope she naps until she is 14...that girl needs her sleep). I put Hadley down first, and then Reese and I spend about an hour together...playing, working on writing our letters and just hanging out! Then, once I put her down, Brynlee normally wakes up a little later and she gets a little one on one from Mommy...she is just so easy that sometimes she gets left out!

Smiley little girl Hadley gets up before Reese, and she and I get to spend some quality time together...which normally consists of playing with her babies and cooking in her kitchen...oh, and snack time! This adjustment has left less time for me to have "quiet time" and to be able to get things done....but honestly, it has made a big difference for me and really for Reese! She needs her "quality time"!

This is the position Bryn is in all day trying to see what is going on as her wild sisters run around!

I am sure this may sound crazy to some of you...but, I really had just been struggling with having time with my girls. I think I would just remember what it was like when we only had Reese...and thinking about all of the one on one time she got. While I understand that as our family grows the individual time gets less...but I also know that chidren need a little one on one. So, there you have it...I am sure it will continue to be a juggling act to fit it all in...and so it goes!

Birthdays, Fairy Birthdays, Boyfriend Birthdays and slip and slides!

So catching up just a little...we have been party hopping! We celebrated this Guy's birthday last week...I won't say his age...I will just give you a hint...the two numbers add up to be 9...and he is not 27 or 45!

We headed over to Tuscaloosa earlier in the month to celebrate Addie Gail's (our goddaughter) 5 year old birthday party...it was a fairy party!
Addie Gail excited about the cake
Aunt Memi (Hadley's godmother) was at the party and helped out with the girls like always! Hadley was wearing her "tulip fairy" costume.

Here is Reese dressed up like a ballerina Fairy...she was really cute...I just could not get her to look at me...she would not take her eyes off of the dessert!
That same day we headed back to Birmingham to celebrate Walt's birthday(that is Reese's boyfriend...at least in her mind...she told me today that she was in love with him...ahhh)!
They had a blast and I had a really hard time getting Reese to leave!

Aunt Ashley surprised the girls with a slip 'n slide, and we finally tried it out the other weekend! The girls were laughing and running around crazy...it was a huge hit!Someone else thought it was fun too...

really fun

oh...he is such a fun daddy...and ok, I will tell you his age...he is 54!

You have to make this...

Pepper and Chicken Nachos
Seriously...they are good! I wish I had thought to take a picture of mine when I made them...alas, I did not so I am using the one from Southern Living...where I got the recipe! Southern Living is one magazine that I love! It always has great recipes!

They are a variation of the old nacho...which to be honest...I would really never make! I am not a nacho fan...but I am a fan of nachos like these! Like I have mentioned before...I AM NOT A COOK...I mean, I can copy a recipe and I like to try new things...but I am not one of those who can come up with something just by tasting it!

Anyway...so the other night we had our friends, The Morrows, over for dinner and I decided to go out on a limb and try something I had never made before! I am pretty sure it was a big hit!

Here is the recipe...I thought about typing it here...but, they have it all on the my recipes site...sooo much easier! I will say that I made a few changes...I used less olive oil, salt and cheese. I mixed the cilantro into the bean mix instead of adding it at the end (honestly I did not mean to do that) and I did not grill the peppers before hand...I just broiled them before and once I added the mixture!

I made this for a meal...so to "beef" it up I used the mixture and did some on peppers and then I did two variations on blue corn tortillas...one with the chicken and one with shrimp! (Jason was a little nervous that the peppers would not be enough...but once we ate...he said he was wrong...hehe)

We had a great time with the Morrows and the kids had a great time playing...

Ellie, Hadley, Graham and Reese...I think Bryn was in her swing

Graham pulling Reese around the room by her feet...so fun

Reese pulling Graham...it was fun to watch!

5 months

Who me?

Yes...Brynlee is five months old...and she is really excited about it!Brynlee continues to be such a sweet baby and really easy! I think easy is relative when you have 3 children 4 and under but she really does seem like such a go with the flow baby! She adores her sisters and they really entertain her.

I finally dropped Brynlee's late feeding (9:30 pm) and she now goes to sleep at 7:30 and she wakes up at 7:30! I am so mad that I held on to that for so long...she had been going to sleep at 7:30 and then I would wake her up, feed her and put her right back down. I think I was just afraid that I would rock the "quiet nights" we have right now...our girls really do sleep great at night! But, all of that said I dropped it and she did not miss a beat...I think she was like "finally that woman has stopped waking me up while I am sleeping"!

She has gotten so big and so strong! She rolls on her side and just hangs out there and "talks"! Her cheeks are so cute...I think she might be hiding something in them!

She has found 10 new toys....

Five little piggies on one foot and five little piggies on the other. She loves them...she grabs them and puts them in her mouth...she talks to them and gets so excited when she holds them!

In case you have not noticed in some other pictures...Brynlee has what I like to call her little "cockatoo" on her head. Her hair just stands up in this one little place on the top and even if I put lotion on it...it still stands up...I love it!

We love our little Brynlee and she makes our family complete.

Water, sun, water, sun, family, fun, friends and food!

We headed over to Atlanta to spend part of our long weekend with family and friends...a lot like last year! We spent a lot of time swimming (Thanks to Big Daddy and Nina) and the girls were worn out each day! Bebe and Ashley were worn out as well....keeping up with these two wild ones in the pool is a lot of work!

Reese continued to be magnetically drawn to the water...and finally decided to use her goggles...and began to swim under water! She had never liked goggles because they "hurt" her eyes but I think that she finally thinks the trade off of being able to see in the water is worth it!
Brynlee napped most of the time we were at the pool, but she did take a few relaxing dips. I am pretty sure she was trying to get someones attention to bring her a drink!

Bebe and her little shadow, Hadley, relaxing! Funny story...the McBrayers have a little machine that swims around the pool to clean it and "his" name has been "Mr. T" for years. Anyway, Hadley was a little scared of him but the best part was that she kept calling him "Mr. Teeth" - which sounds like "Mr. Teef"...so funny! No matter how many times I would say it is Mr. T...she would smile at me and say, "yes, Mr. Teef"!

We met up with Aunt B and Uncle Steve to eat a little Mexican and the girls had a blast! I always laugh whenever we go to Mexican restaurants because I always feel like the waiters love Reese and Hadley. This visit was no exception...before the night was over the girls had been given two balloons each, 4 bags of Teddy Grahams and each a vanilla ice cream cone! Note...we did not ask for any of it...but the girls felt like they had won the jackpot! And, in typical Beckner style the evening was full of a little drama...ending with Hadley taking a spill on the sidewalk and letting the tears loose! Hopefully Aunt B and Uncle Steve will want to eat with us again! The girls got to spend some time with Pop and Hadley had him reading the same book over and over...hard to turn that sweet little face and those good manners down!

We came home to enjoy today's celebration of Independence! We took a walk, did a little work and took some long naps! Brynlee took one of her naps on our walk!

These two on Reese's "hidden nature trail" trying to find some worms or bugs to put in their buckets! You can't see it too clearly but they are wearing outfits that my sister and I wore when we were little! I love it!

We had to end our day with some good food! Jason grilled for us (despite the rain) and even though Hadley will never eat corn off the cobb she sure did love the corn on the cobb!We had a great weekend and always love being with our family and our friends! Even better to try and explain to our girls the meaning of celebrating our Country's freedoms! We are so grateful for the big and little things we take for granted every day! Here's to praying that the leaders of our Country will keep our freedoms in mind when they make decisions...and not take them away!