My Girls

Last Friday evening my two best friends rolled into my driveway. My driveway!!!!!!!! In Woodward!!!!!!!! For the whole weekend!!!!!!! Lil Red and I were patiently waiting by the window before they arrived. We anxiously ran outside for hugs and hi's!!! This was Kyser's first time to visit us so we showed her around and they dropped their bags in their room for the weekend. Hal didn't know what to think about "her room" being turned into a guest room. But the little toot adjusted quickly and became quite attached to the girls almost instantly......

She shared her "booberries" with Kyser and helped her put on makeup before dinner that night....

We sat around and caught up on eachother's lives for a bit while waiting for Riley to get home from the gym. Hallie showed off her new big girl room and then just showed off in general after that. One of the sweetest things I've experienced so far as a mom is seeing my best friends love my daughter...and vice versa! Hallie thought she was just one of the girls as Riley took our picture before we left for dinner that night.....

The three of us had dinner at an Italian restaurant down the street. I struggled with choosing where to go that night because I'm not a huge fan of any place in town....well, except for Cafe Eden, but that wasn't an option that evening. Dinner turned out great and we topped it off with some ice cream just to make sure we were good and stuffed! Hallie Grace was so fresh and so clean after her bath....and feisty as ever!!!

She latched onto Heather and Kyser like they were long lost friends....best buds.....amigas.....

She was none too happy when I told her it was time for bed. Well, I take that back....after we got in her bed she thought it was pretty funny to pick my nose.....

She had other plans besides falling asleep.....

"You don't really think I'm going to bed right now, do you?"

With the soundtrack of a very loud and defiant two-year-old in the background, us girls talked and talked and talked and talked....and talked a lil bit more. We talked until we were all on the verge of sleep. I found Hallie wide awake at 11:30 playing her Leap Pad. She was not having the sleep thing. Uh uh. She had me burning up the wood between our rooms that night with requests for crackers, cheese sticks and juice. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! Only my crazy daughter! We had been working so hard the previous five days on getting rid of her cup at night but I had finally caved that night because I wanted the crying to stop so that the whole house wasn't awake. This weak mommy moment resulted in a soaking wet bed Saturday morning. Heather had to leave early for a bank meeting in Alva so I found Kyser, Heather and a guilty looking Hallie standing in the bathroom when I tiredly staggered toward her room. She latched onto Kyser's leg when she spotted me....you would've thought I was the meanest mom in the world the way she was clinging to her. Kinda made me giggle. We were sad that Heather was going to miss out on a yummy breakfast with us but she was going to hurry back as fast as she could. Kyser and I had planned to go to spin class at 10:00 that morning but the pansy in me came out and my sore calf muscles were not ready for another class yet. I decided to forego the exercise thing and instead chose the eating thing. So did the dogs. They conned Hallie into passing out the last of the dog treats.....

"Guys, I'm sorry but I think that's it!"

Riley met us girls at Polly Anna some a delicious breakfast. Hal continued her love affair with Kyser and spent most of our meal sitting next to her picking at her food. Lucky Kyser!!! ;)

Riley went home to do manly things (welding scrap metal together to form something somewhat useful) while our trio marched across the street to show Kyser my favorite children's boutique. This is right after we spent a total of fifteen minutes in the bathroom watching Hallie mess around and say "I not done yet!" at least twenty times. I should've known from that moment that she was in no mood to cooperate without protest or making a scene. We made it through one store and then I picked her up and carried her out the door as she hollered "noooooooooooo!" It was either that or pay for all of the necklaces she was about to break. Do you know how hard it is to reason with a two-year-old who just wants to put on a pretty necklace that's sitting at eye level??? Needless to say we headed home with an overly tired and very whiny girl. Bless her heart, all the refusing to sleep the night before had caught up to her. She went right down for a nearly four hour nap that afternoon. Riley welded. We shopped. Til we dropped were starving. We met up with Heather and hit up several of my favorite stores. I introduced them to my latest obession: the antique mall. We finished off our afternoon with some Taco Factory. Hallie had just crawled out of bed right before we got back home. The weather was not cooperating for a trip to the park so instead we hung out inside and just relaxed. We threw around the idea of making dinner together but in the end decided to head out for dinner. Hal wanted to join us but she had a second night at home with her dear ol' dad. Of course we couldn't let the evening pass by without a photo shoot! Riley happily sarcastically obliged and snapped a few pictures of us and several more of the ground/wall/door/etc.

After dinner we piled into the playroom with the computer and did some pinterest-ing/etsy-ing/google-ing to help Kyser plan sweet Adalyn's first birthday party. Heather passed out in the midst of our planning party and we followed behind shortly thereafter. I was pooped! And so was Hal. But she didn't show it much. More protesting sleep. My only theory is that she was thrown out of whack knowing that her friends were in the room down the hallway. She was up from 12:00-1:00 screaming her crazy head off about what, I'm still not sure. All I know is that it gave me too many scary flashbacks of life with a newborn. Luckily her sleeping funk only lasted those two nights. Praise Jesus!!!

Hallie was praising Jesus for the rain Sunday morning. What little rain that fell was certainly noticed by this munchkin.....

"It waining momma!" (with her imbelda)

Sunday morning was nice and lazy. Riley headed off to church. The girls got ready for the day while I roamed around in the kitchen doing one of my very favorite things.....making breakfast! Pancakes, eggs and bacon! YUMMMMMMM! 

Lil Red stood at my feet begging for a morsel of food and didn't seem to be willing to wait until I was done. She ended up in her high chair (which I was instructed to place in the living room) eating apple sauce and calling for "more pancakes!" We tag teamed Hallie and got her ready for church in a jiff! Riley swung back by the house to pick up our Bible-toting princess who was excited for Sunday school. It was nice to just sit and have one last chat over breakfast with the BFFs before they had to head home. Goodbyes stink. A consolation is that we've been doing a very good job of getting together every three months. I know it won't be long until we're back together under the same roof. I'm just thankful for friends who love me enough to come all the way out west to visit. Kyser had a long drive back to Arkansas so they headed out around 10:30. We hugged and I waved goodbye.....then retreated inside to savor the fifteen minutes of silence before Hallie and Riley would return home. It gave me a little bit of time to reflect on the awesomeness that is our everlasting friendship.....

Love you girls!!!