Mariah, The Dancing Queen Part. 1 of 3

Here's my crazy and entertaining Mariah, dancing the night away...

Part 1 of 3. This is what happens when I let her stay up late!

Pay It Forward

This is such a fun idea! I saw it on both Libby and then Taraleigh's blogs, and just tonight Libby made some adorable necklaces for us, Mariah included. Thanks again Libby - leave me a comment so I can return the favor =) Okay, here's the deal:

The first five people to comment on this post will get something made by me!!! My choice, especially for you. This offer does have a few restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year. You may have to be patient.
4. You will have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or maybe even some creation I haven't invented yet. I may draw or paint something. {now that might be interesting.} I may bake you something and mail it to you. I may even sew something for you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. Oh, in case you didn't catch the whole 'pay it forward' idea: the goal is that you do something similar, and pass on the goodness. You could re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who comment, or just do 5 random good deeds... whatever it is- Pay it forward:)

My Dancing Queen

We were at a friends' wedding this past weekend. Mariah is friends with some of the girls and she had so much fun playing and playing. I hardly even saw her for three days. During the music at the reception, I looked up to check on Mariah who was playing in the play house and this is what I saw... Luckily our friend was videotaping everything and was able to catch it on tape. Where did she learn to dance like that? I blame it on Kaniesha.

It's Official...

We're moving to...

beautiful Tennessee!

If you haven't been there before, it's absolutely gorgeous. It's green year round and green is an understatement... the landscape is bright, full and colorful and the sky is incredibly blue. We're moving to Johnson City, home of East Tennessee State University where Josh will be attending. They have a great physical therapy program at their medical school that he will be participating in the next few years.

We are very excited about the new changes ahead of us, but so sad to be leaving my family and our friends. We've created so many great memories here... I don't even like to think about it. But it's starting to seem more real each day that goes by. Especially as we're packing up our house.

We're having a going away party this Saturday at Taraleigh's house - and we're finally going to celebrate Robbie's birthday too, poor kid. At least he doesn't know that we missed his birthday right? Everyone that can come is welcome - just email me or call me for details... mrsdavidson17@yahoo.com.

Lucky for us though, technology enables us to keep in great contact with email, blogs and facebook =) So keep in touch!

It's been a while...

since I've put anything on here hasn't it? Things have just been kinda crazy...
We have been staying up at my parents ever since we got back from Tennesee - so that means that I've been living out of a suitcase and haven't been 'home' for over a month.
On the up side, I've been really busy with my photography business. In the past two weeks I've shot an engagement session, a quinceanera, I'm doing a family session this week and I have a wedding the week after next! Just that is keeping me very busy - on top of every day life of course...

Here's a couple pictures to remind everyone what we look like... I got the kids a pool to swim in and they LOVE it! I think my kids were fish in another life. I've been working on my tan so that's been nice too - but being in a bathing suit is not. Talk about a reality check.

We miss everyone back in Turlock town. I feel like everyone probably thinks I died. Well I didn't... but the sad news is that we are moving! We will be back down sometime soon and in fact Robbie will be down for a few days while I'm in Tennessee, so at least you'll be able to see him. We miss everyone and can't wait to see you sometime soon! Maybe we'll have a big bash for Robbie's second birthday which is THIS Sunday! I can't believe it...

Crazy Driver

Here's a hilarious video of Mariah driving her Jeep and Robbie 'mowing the lawn' - or should I say pavement -with his bubble-making lawnmower. This was taken after a several incidences involving the lawnmower and Jeep, hence Robbie acting terrified of Mariah's driving. They have so much fun together - and they loved playing with Daddy and Nina and their Aunties & Uncles in Tennessee. Nancy has a gorgeous peice of property that the kids ran all over destroying things and collecting tons of bugs. Sorry for the messes Nancy =) We miss everyone already...

Gattlinburg

Gatlinburg was awesome, as I said before. We stayed in a great cabin with Josh's mom, two sister's and their significant others... We had a blast. They were having a fine arts fair and they had a huge area just for kids with face painting and different art projects. Here's some pictures from our face painting frenzy. It was so much fun!!

We're (kinda) Home

Well, we made it safely back to California and all I have to say is I am SOOOOO happy to not be on an airplane right now. The first stint of our flight - the longest one - was COMPLETELY full, meaning I had to have Mr. Robbie on my lap for over FOUR HOURS while sitting in between some lady and Mariah. Mariah was amazing, as usual, having only a couple 'difficult moments' and Robbie was really as good as I could ask for, but even that was rough.

But the ending of the story is happy because we all made it and we were so excited to see Nona pull up and jump out to see us. The kids were so excited to see their Bob-o, Aunts and Uncle, but they sure miss their Daddy, Nina and Aunts and Uncles in Tennessee too. So even though we're not all the way home yet... it feels good to be kinda home and even better to be on the ground. =)

Bummer

Our trip is still going great - I can't believe that we're flying back to California tomorrow - it's gone by sooo fast! We had a great weekend in Gatlinburg, TN which is a really cute tourist town up by the Smoky Mountains National Park. It was gorgeous and we had a great time. I'm working at getting those pictures ready...

On Thursday I got a call from poor Taraleigh who has been so sweet to water my plants and check my mail for me while we've been gone. She told me that our house had been broken into and that it was completely trashed. It definitely came as a huge surprise and also a big time bummer... I don't think I've ever been robbed before. I still don't know everything that they took, but it sounds like they took quite a bit.

I've been thinking about it a lot lately and two things about this situation have come to my mind that I thought I'd share: 1. I am so grateful that prayers are answered. The kids and I weren't there - and how grateful I am for that! Soooo completely grateful. Every day I pray for safety and I feel that those prayers have been answered. Sometimes we don't know how our prayers will be answered, but I do know that they are. And 2. stuff is really just that - stuff. Yes, things are important, but when it really comes down to it - it's the simplist of things that are the most important and nothing else really matters. So what if all my jewlrey is gone, I never wore it anyway!

Luckily Josh's Dad was able to come down and help out with everything and Trent and Taraleigh helped out a ton too. Thanks you guys - so much... I feel terrible that I'm not even there to deal with all this, but in a way, grateful too. Everything will work out just fine, as it always does - but don't you hate when life throws you a curve ball?

I should be back around the 26th. We're staying up at my parents house for Memorial Day weekend and my Dad's birthday, which will be fun. We've missed everyone while we've been away and are looking forward to seeing you soon!!

Family Pic

It's been a while since we've gotten a picture with all four of us in it. This one isn't near perfect, but it's what I've got. =)

We Made It!

We finally made it!! I've taken so many pictures since we got here it's overwhelming, so here are some of my favorites for now. We're having a great time and can't believe we've already been here a week! We miss everyone back in Cali! Enjoy the pictures - there will be more to come...

Practice Makes Perfect

We're leaving on Tuesday morning to fly out to Tennessee to visit Josh and his family for about two weeks - the kids are so excited! I know that the ONLY way for us to make it through the 7 hour flight is... MOVIES! So we went to Target and picked up some headphones for the kids. I learned so many lessons the first time around flying with them and I intend to not make ANY of them again. One of them was that they weren't able to hear the movie from just the speakers. So before church this morning I let the kids "practice" for the airplane. As you can see, things went pretty well and don't they look so cute with their headphones on? (The pink ones are Mariah's by the way). Now I just need to pack...

Sunshine and Flowers

I love watching my yard transform as the weather gets warmer. Who would have known that I'd be such a gardener one day? Go figure. I love it though! If I had it my way, I'd be out there for hours every day... even pulling weeds. That's how much I love it.

Cute new Pictures of the Kids...

Check them out: http://bmdstudiolittleones.blogspot.com/

Visit with Papa

Josh's dad moved back to California (yay!) so he came down for a visit on Friday. The kids were so excited to see him and the goodies he brought with him - we had a great day together. Robbie absolutely adores him, and he doesn't adore too many people. We're looking forward to being able to see him much more often now.

Mariah's Collections

This is a perfect example of the types of little 'displays' shall we say, that Mariah loves to make every day. And each day it's something new... All the dinosaurs & pennies, the horses and cows, the princesses, the barbies... the list goes on. But she loves to just get them all arranged just so and then play with them. Where she got the OCD from I'll never know. She also loves to collect little 'things' of any sort and then stash them in the strangest places... she's so funny. Such a mini grown-up.
But one things for sure - she's absolutely gorgeous.

Mr. Robbie

He's the only one that will look at the camera for me... Isn't he handsome?
I was taking pictures of him after he woke up in his crib and he kept making this crazy face!! He would just smile really, really big with his mouth wide open and squint his eyes... maybe because of the flash? I don't know but it was so funny and cute!

This one depicts the face I was referring to much better... makes me laugh...

Bathing Beauties

Yes, she's spitting water into his face and yes, he loves it. So weird...
My crazy Robbie

My sweet and silly Mariah (with a mouthful of BATHwater in her mouth! eww)

My kiddies... Love them to the moon!

Taven's 1st Birthday Party!

To see pictures go to:

http://bmdstudioevents.blogspot.com/

We had a blast!

The Real Easter

Me, Mariah & Taven

Looking for eggs...

Leshelle & Rashauna searching for eggs
We celebrated Mom & Trent's birthday's too!

We love to drink.

happy easter! we had such a great time with everyone!