A's Friend Birthday Party

A had 3 friends spend the night for her 9th birthday!

They had a good time.

I took them to get their nails done. They thought they were so big!

A getting her toenails done!

RU getting her toes painted.

K and S waiting patiently for their turn.

A getting her fingernails done!

The girls getting ready to enjoy birthday cupcakes,

just the way A wanted....chocolate with chocolate.

They had a good time and even managed to get some sleep!

Flat Tara

My cousin's little girl had to do a project for her first grade class.

They read the book "Flat Stanley" and then had to do the same thing themselves.

Mail their own Flat person to someone who would take the flat person with them on

their day to day adventures.

Here is Tara with her own Flat Tara at the girls' birthday party at Great~Granddaddy's house.

R has Flat Tara on top of the climbing rock at the park.

A is cheering with Flat Tara.

M and Flat Tara watching cousin M play basketball and A and R cheer.

What a fun assignment for us to help Tara with....we will be sending pictures and a written account of all our fun back to her class.

Cheerleading 2010

A and R are enjoying cheerleading this winter for basketball at a nearby church.

They are with 7 other girls and they have learned lots of cheers.

Here they are on the sidelines doing one of those cheers.

Below A is leading the group.

I think they are "introducing" themselves.

R is cheering.

They are having a good time, and you can usually find M right in front of them trying to do the cheers right along with them.

When Mary Cake came to play

My little cousin came to play with us for a couple of hours on Wednesday.

M had so much fun playing with "Mary Cake".

She made her smile and giggle and even tried to get MK to tickle her foot.

Note: MK is not quite 5 months old yet.

That did not stop M.

Here she is smiling a M.

M telling MK something very interesting.

At dinner, M said her favorite part of the day was when MK came to play.

Her worst part of the day was when MK's daddy came to take her home.

So sweet!

On another note:

This week is Spirit week at the girls' school.

It is tying in with their Academic Night/ Art Show on Thursday.

Monday the children were to wear primary colors

Tuesday ~ secondary colors

Wednesday ~ mix and match different prints, etc.

Here is A today ready for mix and match day.

Stripes, camo and plaid shoes with a polka dot bow in her hair.

R would not let me take her pic....she was wearing argyle tights, seashell covered skort, butterfly covered shirt and striped barrett.

Thursday is Dress for Success...I hope I remember to take their picture.

My Family

This is a picture of my dad's side of the family. All 38 of us!

My Granddaddy is 88 years old and the patriarch of this bunch!

He is in the middle of the pic with the red sweater vest on.

We are missing a few special people though....

My sweet Grandmother passed away on New Year's Eve of my Senior year

in high school. Then my Aunt Andrea passed away 7 weeks after my first baby was born.

Then my Uncle John passed away in early January 2008.

My dad is the only son with 3 sisters.

There are 8 grandchildren (now all married),

and 15 Great-Grandchildren.

This was taken at Christmas, and believe me it gets LOUD and CRAZY!

However, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

To say we are close is really an understatement.

We literally grew up together...going to church together every week and then to eat lunch at Grandmother and Granddaddy's afterwards. It takes a lot of getting used to if you are new to the bunch. The tradition still carries on today. My girls love going to Great-Granddaddy's house after church to play with their cousins. I think my Granddaddy likes that his hearing is going at times when the house is so full.

I love my family and am so blessed to know that I have them to call on anytime.

I love you all!

Christmas 2009

I know it is way past Christmas, but I wanted to get some pics on here for my own sake.

Here are the girls with Santa on the night that we went to see some Christmas lights.

This has become a favorite family tradition for us and the girls.

Notice that M would only get so close and had to have A holding onto her.

My favorite picture in trying to capture our Christmas card photo.

This is the one that I used.

The girls with Santa again after our children's Christmas program at church!

Christmas Eve at my parents' house.

The grandkids ready to open presents.

Christmas morning at our house....everyone checking out their gifts.

Sadly, that is all the pics that I got from Christmas. I did not take any at my Granddaddy's house on Christmas Eve where there are 38 of us...15 great-grandkids. Nor did I take any at Mimi and Poppa's house (B's parents) on Christmas Day. My goal for next year will be to take more pictures of everything.

Happy 9th Birthday, A!

9 years ago, God blessed us with one amazing little girl, and

He just keeps heaping the blessings on day after day.

I can hardly believe that A is 9. Even harder to believe that

we are halfway through "raising" her. (That just makes me want to cry)

I tell A often that I am sorry because I know as a first born she is the one who gets the brunt of all of our parenting tests. She takes it with ease most of the time too. I try to remember this when I am with her so that she does not always get the raw end of the deal. However, the hard parts have not even gotten to us yet.

A is a smart girl. She loves school, really wants to do well, and that makes me so happy.

She is in the gifted program at her school and for the last two years has held her own

as the only girl with up to 7 boys. A few weeks ago they finally got some new girls in the

class which I know makes her very happy.

She loves to play softball, read books, and play on the computer.

She is saving her money for an IPod touch. She has already told M that she will definitely share it with her when she purchases it. I love that she wants to make her baby sister happy too!

She loves her friends. So much so that she has taken on the role of girl protector in her class and all the boys complain about how hard A hits. They don't complain about each other's hitting, only A's. (Note: She is not going around hitting, the boys have made up this really fun - to them- hitting/kicking game, however they don't like it when A takes up for herself and her friends. As 3rd graders they think that the girls are just going to run away)

You can find her jamming out to Miley Cyrus in her room (with R and M of course), and dancing around like she is a rock star. Or you can find her cuddled up under her covers reading a book. I really love this about her, because I love to read too!

These are just some of the many reasons why I think A is special.

I am just happy that God chose me to be her mommy!

A ~ Daddy and I are so proud of you and love you so much.

Happy 9th Birthday!

Many blessings to you today and always!

SNOW 2010

We got SNOW last Friday night! It was beautiful!

The girls got out that night and wanted to play on the back deck since it was piling up

quickly out there.

They made a few snowballs and threw snow at each other, but mostly

just enjoyed being out in the snow.

Here is a glimpse at our woods behind us at the darkness was beginning to take over.

The front of our house as it was snowing.

A shot down our street. Beautiful!

Saturday morning found us playing outside in the white stuff.

All M wanted to do was make snow angel. Here is her making her first one.

R making her snow angel.

A's completed snow angel.

The front again. I love the way everything looks covered in snow.

Our snowman!

We like the snow, and were glad to get to play in it. However, now we are ready for spring!

Happy 90th Birthday Aunt V

My Great Aunt celebrated her 90th birthday on Valentine's Day!

90 years...I can hardly imagine. Below is a picture of her (in the middle) with my Granddaddy (her younger brother - he is 88 and her daughter). Our family had a surprise celebration for her about a month ago during our yearly family reunion.

Aunt V was a school teacher just like her mother and passed the love of teaching on to many of us in the next two generations. There are many things that I love about this lady. I remember sitting on her lap as a little girl and her teaching me songs and singing "Jesus Loves Me" to me. I remember trips out to their farm on Old Norcross Road (back before it contained subdivisions) and going fishing, riding horses, checking out the garden and being scared of her dog Speck. She had a knack for owning dogs who were FIERCELY protective of her. Very scary as a child. She makes a mean chocolate cake (well pretty much any dessert she makes). I hope I am half the lady that my Aunt V is...I love you Aunt V! Happy 90th Birthday!

Donuts with Dad

Back in January the school had Donuts with Dad early one Friday morning.

A and R were so excited that they slept in sponge rollers the night before so that

they would look so pretty to eat donuts with their daddy!

Here they are as they were getting ready to head to the school that morning.

With daddy ready to go!

They love doing things with Daddy!

Father/Daughter Dance

Last week the elementary school had its first

Father/Daughter Dance. The girls and B got dressed

up and had a great time dancing and hanging out

with their friends. They picked out what they wanted

to wear and Daddy got them both a wrist corsage to wear.

They loved it!

I think they are all looking forward to the next one!