Busy, Busy, Busy

This is a crazy week! E's dance recital is this weekend on the same day as her 13th birthday! We'll be cooking out and have ordered a DELICIOUS strawberry cake, family is coming to visit, then we'll get to watch E dance! It'll be a fun weekend, but there is so much to do before then, on top of an already busy week. We'll hopefully do yard work tonight, house work tomorrow night, then dress rehearsal and grocery shopping on Friday night.

AC woke up with blood all over her face this morning, apparently had a nose bleed in the middle of the night but looked like she'd been in a car accident! Her hair was just matted to her little forehead. :( I gave her a bath and it started bleeding again, so she's home with me while I work from home today. She really is good when she stays home with me. She's playing with her American Girl right now, I love to listen to her pretend. So sweet. I do have a ton of work that I really need to get completed, so I'm sure I'll be making up some time this evening while K watches the girls. Times like this I really wish I were a stay-at-home mom.

Here's a picture of little AC fixing her meemaw's laptop.

Gotta love them...

Girl Time!

N and I had some fun girl time last weekend! She had a gift certificate for a pedicure, so she and I decided we needed to redeem it! She was adorable in her new little outfit from Target. :) We got pedicures, had a yummy lunch at Slim Chickens, then got a caramel sundae from McDonald's.

A few weeks ago, N also got a date night with her daddy! They went to the mall to look for a backpack for school, then out to Olive Garden! Fun times! :)

It's actually 3 days today! E and I purchased a new swimsuit for her (along with some shoes, jewelry, t-shirts and books) last night for the trip. N's supposed to be lining up the swimsuits she wants to take, and I'm about to remind them to gather movies for the trip as well. We still need to find N's iPod then sync up all the iPod's for the trip as well as clean the car, finish the laundry, purchase more sunscreen. I'm trying not to stress about my to-do list. In just a few days I'll be on the beach relaxing and it won't matter!

So much work to do before we go... Happy Thursday!

Vacation...

We are ready for vacation! Only a few more days left! We are so ready for a relaxing week with our little ladies. The girls are counting down the days till we leave... daddy and I are frantically trying to get everything ready so that we can leave work for a few days as well as tie up a few things around the house. There's nothing better than a week on the beach with nothing to do but eat and rest. Our little family so needs this right now.

Yummmm!!!! Got one of these for lunch. Delicious! It probably could have been my lunch, but of course, I had to get something else to go with it. Banana Chocolate Vivanno Smoothie. Check it out here: http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_beverage_detail.asp?selProducts={3948B20D-20CB-4CB9-804B-E17A8FF8287E}

Summer Fun & Silly Faces!

I love this silly little face N makes! It cracks me up! I've managed to create 3 silly little girls. I guess when you act like a goof ball around the house, it's bound to rub off on them.

We had a great weekend! I was sick Friday, so we didn't do much. Saturday we spent the entire day with my family & I loved it! The girls swam, we met my neice's boyfriend, made some nice cocktails, ate some great food, it was very nice. Sunday we worked our tails off! Weeded the flowerbed in the back yard, it was TOTALLY overgrown with grass. My fingernails ached the entire day from all the weeding! I planted some flowers (purple & pink per A's request) & some herbs (rosemary & basil), Kevin cleaned the back patio which really needed it! K & I also painted A's room, then I took a 1 1/2 mile walk with our neighbor! I'm a little sore today, but totally worth it!

We leave for vacation in less than a week now! So excited!!!!

Happy Monday!! :)

it's been awhile.

we haven't posted anything in a long time. life just gets so busy with 3. here's a small list of what we've been up to since our last post.

. e turned 12, completed one year of cotillian classes, went to her first dance, & tried out for competitive dance (made tap & jazz, we're so excited for her. :) )

. celebrated quite a few holidays. thanksgiving. christmas. new years. easter. etc.

. welcomed 2 new little cousins into our family. m & s. we love them so much. k is m's godfather. she is absolutely precious.

. n completed another year on the jump rope team & did a fabulous job. made straight a's in school & just keeps growing up on us.

. a finished another year of preschool. we can't believe how big she's getting. she's a little sassier than her sisters were at this age, but we totally blame her big sisters for that.

. i changed job roles. got out of programming & moved to a client facing, hopefully more secure in the long-run position at acxiom.

in a nutshell, i think that about wraps it up. hopefully we'll blog a little more often from now on. :)

love,

a

HAPPY WEEKEND!!!

I am so glad the weekend is almost here!  What a long week!  Homework, PTO meetings, AR goals to meet, work, planning the birthday party...  Why do I think everything has to be perfect before a party?  We have managed to sew a shower curtain and redecorate the girl's bathroom this week on top of everything else.  But now we're ready for the party and some downtime! Here's a picture of Lani helping me sew.

A is so excited about her party!  Loren and Melisa with sweet little C will be staying the weekend with us.  We love having family to visit!  C seems to have grown so much each time we see her - the girls are very excited!  We'll be baking and decorating beginning tonight until tomorrow afternoon.  Should have lots of pictures to post next week!

Have a good weekend!!

A New Beginning

A started her new preschool today!  Everytime we talk about it, she breaks down on me, so I've been seriously second guessing my decision.  Her teachers at her previous school cried when she left, which really didn't help matters at all.

I've been thinking of her constantly today, drove by her school at lunch hoping she might be playing outside, but no luck.  I pick her up in just a few hours and I can't wait to hear how her day went!  I miss my little bear!

"Happiness is a place between too little and too much." 
- Finnish proverb

Random Recent Pictures

Just thought I'd post some pictures.  Sort of random, but some that I've been meaning to post.  Hope you enjoy!  Happy Tuesday!!!

Papa with all the girls at K's birthday party earlier this month.

N & A after a UCA game - all decked out in their purple!  E was at yet another sleepover.

N with Lani sleeping in her bed, they love this little kitten!!

E & N during the downpour from Hurricane Ike... meditating in the driveway.  Crazy girls!

I am so excited about this door! On my way to the dentist yesterday, I drove by a little shop that had antique doors for $15! It sounded like a good deal to me, especially since it's solid wood! I'm planning on making a rustic, turquoise headboard for E's bed to go along with her beach theme. K is not so excited about this idea. :)

First Video

Can't have a cat without pointing the video camera at it once in a while. Just a short little clip, kindof boring, but much more fun to watch than just a photo.

A New Addition!!

The girls will be the first to tell you that I am not the animal lover in the family.  It's not that I don't like animals, but I can do without them.  Growing up we always had pets and I liked them just fine, so I'm not sure why now as an adult I'm not so crazy about them.  I think I'm just too busy for them.  The rest of the family, on the other hand, are animal lovers!  So when E's best friend's cat, Bella, had 3 little kittens, E and N were determined we would have to claim one.

Six weeks later, we have a new little addition to our family - Lani.  I'll have to admit, I'm not a cat person but she is so sweet! 

Pray

Click here to listen to a beautiful song - love the lyrics!

Jump Rope Team - UCA

Nat's First Jump Rope Team Performance

Enjoy! If you listen closely in the first 15 or so seconds, you can hear a proud little sister.

Wiggles!

K and I took A to the Wiggles concert!! She was not necessarily a fan before the show, but we watch it daily now!

This was the first time we've taken any of the kiddos to a show like this, and I'll have to say that it was not bad! K's work gave us the tickets, our seats were great, very energetic show, it was fun watching little bit. :)

We'll definately go again! A's ready for sure!

Here we go again!

A new school year has begun! N has been excited, but I think she got a little nervous once we got there. I'll be thinking of her all day... E was excited as well, daddy took her to school. I can't wait to hear all about their first day this afternoon!

Space Camp

We decided to take one last little vacation before school starts!

We left on a Friday morning, drove to Memphis for lunch at Rendezvous - GREAT BBQ! We walked around Memphis a little, but it was pretty hot so we decided to move on and plan to visit Memphis again when it gets a little cooler.

We then drove on to Huntsville, Alabama. Our hotel was awesome! I think this was the highlight of the trip for the girls! It was a two room suite with two flat screen TVs, inside pool, glass elevators, and lots of fountains indoors. I definitely recommend Embassy Suites for family vacations! Our first night we ordered pizza to be delivered to our hotel room and swam. The beds were awesome! We all slept so well!

Saturday we visited the Space Museum in Huntsville. We ended up spending most of the day there and learned so much! After this we drove by some Antebellum homes in Huntsville, then went out to eat at Landry's, then back to the hotel to swim some more!

On our way home Sunday, we stopped by the birthplace of Helen Keller in Tuscumbia. We found this very interesting as well. E's been learning about Helen Keller so it was fun for her to see where she lived as a child.

We love family vacations! They can be exhausting at times, and we did have to pull over a few times to calm some little ones down, but overall we had a great time together!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!!

At the age of 35, Daddy finally flew his first airplane! We surprised him with his first flight lesson on Tuesday. We all amazingly kept this a secret from him for almost a week, then we told him we wanted to drive over by the airport to watch planes but instead dropped him off at the lobby of the airport.

He got to fly the plane when they took off; then the flight instructor landed the plane. They were in the air for about an hour. The instructor said they covered more on the first lesson than he normally does and said in his 6 years of flight training, Daddy was one of the best he's taught. I'm pretty sure he's hooked now...

We love you, Daddy! :)