Statton Life

2012-01-26T12:22:00.000-08:00

Our Louisiana Adventure

Last week I decided kinda at the last minute that we needed to go & visit my parents at their new house in Louisiana. I wanted to stay more than the weekend so Kaleigh and Nathan stayed home while I took the three littles.

We had a good time. My Mom & Dad took us to play at a couple of parks. We had a picnic at one. Everyone at their new church oohed & aahed over the kids, especially Emory.

Queens of the mountain!

We had a birthday celebration for Emory, since she will turn 2 soon but my parents won't be here for her actual birthday.

Emory liked her purse but looked inside and said "there's nothing in there" :)

Very good at blowing out candles!

And in the end we had fun and were worn out!

2012-01-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

Our Family New Years Resolutions

I know many of you applauded my general laziness & lack of ambition on facebook when I said my resolutions were to clean my house & exercise once, read a book & organize my silverware drawer. Sorry if this disappoints, but I actually do have some real ones. I took a little time to think about it.

Nathan had a really good one. His resolution this year is to spend one on one time with each of our girls. He decided this after having to take Alexis to the Dr the day after Christmas. She had hurt her arm & it turned out she had nursemaid elbow. Her elbow had popped out of socket. She was fine and he took her to Chick-fil-A after and said he realized that he rarely spent alone time with her like that and it was nice.

Kaleigh filled out a little survey I found online. In 2012 she wants to learn "to make snowballs". Wants to get better at "Swimming", and her Biggest Goal is to "make ice cream with snow". I hope it snows here this year!

So I decided my resolution is to learn how to use our good camera and get better at taking pictures. Nathan is basically the photographer. I've managed to get a few good ones, usually just on automatic setting and basically from luck, but it's time I really learned the camera. I have progressed, I now know that A does not mean Automatic, but aperture. :) For my first lesson I'm focusing on Aperture. I didn't do too well, found out after that I should have changed lenses, but that was a learning experience too! I'll keep working on this for a while. I think most of what I did during my first "practice shoot" was wrong, but I feel like I learned a little bit. I did get some cute shots though!

My 2nd resolution is to eat less sugar. I was reading on all the harmful effects of sugar and I know it will only help to cut back. That's kind of vague but I'm going to make a conscious effort to think through my choices. Not to say I won't celebrate with sweets on special occasions!

2011-12-29T13:15:00.000-08:00

Celebrating the Season!

We had fun doing more of our advent chain activities. And who knows, there may be more still to come. I'm sure it will be no surprise to you that we didn't get to do everything, but we did our best. No one's complaining, we had a busy & fun Christmas.

Give everyone crazy hair!


Decorating nativity pictures

You may not have know this, but something I found out while decorating the nativity pictures was that the wise men brought Jesus - "gold, Jupiter, and Mars" We are definitely going to have to go over the Christmas story in a little more detail from now on...

And the painting of the toenails was a popular activity. Daddy is NOT a fan of polish for his little girls but their feet did look so sweet and they loved it!


Paint everyone's toenails

We've been to Garvan Garden before to see the lights but the rest of the family has never been so we all went. It was great except we went two days before Christmas and it was soooo crowded. If we go again, we'll go a little earlier in December. We had a good time, though.

That's all for now! More of our actual Christmas celebrations soon!

2011-12-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

More favorite sites

To continue my earlier post, my second favorite web site right now is Pinterest. Now Pinterest is not for everybody. But it's great for moms or people who like to do crafts. People who decorate or like to cook or bake. Or if you have any hobbies, or just like looking at funny or interesting images. Or anyone who just wants to waste/kill time. So, pretty much everybody :)

It's too hard to explain what Pinterest is, just pretty much the ultimate time-waster, ha! But I have made 5 or 6 things that I found, and used it to get some picture ideas. I would do a lot more if I actually did have time to do some of the things but for now I just like to look. I'm gathering ideas for our basement and future crafts for the kids, that sort of thing. My favorite quote about Pinterest, found on pinterest is "Thank you pinterest for helping me feel creative even though I've just been sitting at my computer for three hours". So true :)

And now, a picture of the kids visiting Santa. We are doing HIPPY again. A Home based education program for 3 & 4 year olds. I am actually fortunate that Kaleigh & the twins get to do an extra year b/c their birthdays fell in October. So Kaleigh was able to do a 5 year program, as will the twins. Anyway, they had a little Christmas party and Santa was there. True to her word, Avery would NOT sit on his lap. He didn't seem up for a screaming kid so I didn't do that to him, but Alexis & Emory sat with him.

Making snowflake ornaments

scooping out reindeer food for Christmas Eve

Avery Enjoying her snacks

2011-12-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

My favorite web sites...
I thought I would list some of my favorite web sites over the next few days, just for fun.
It will probably not come as any surprise to those who know me at all, that my favorite web site is amazon.
Oh, my dear amazon, why do I love thee so? Let me count the ways...
(1) Obviously for shopping. During the holidays when many people are running around town from store to store buying things, I'm sitting on my computer clicking "add to cart". I have free prime through amazon mom and anything I get is free two day shipping. And gone are the days when amazon was just for books. Oh no, if you can think of it, amazon has it. I once purchased some unstretched canvases and guess where I was able to find very affordable wood stretcher frames? I've been buying diapers through them for over a year. I was able to get Pampers for cheaper than WalMart brand and sometimes way cheaper! Unfortunately, their prices have recently risen on diapers and thankfully two of my three in diapers are about 90% potty trained. Their prices can be really good, but I always check around to be sure. Prices on amazon fluctuate constantly.
(2) Amazon is a great place to check for reviews on items, especially toys. Have you ever spent $25 or more on something you were sure your kid would love, only to find it didn't work properly or was falsely advertised? Well, if you check amazon, you can almost always avoid this type of scenario. You still have to take it with a grain of salt, but if something gets 4.5 out of 5 stars, you can probably be confident in that purchase.
(3) I use amazon to find new books to read. I don't buy them from there, I just follow the trail of suggestions from a book I enjoyed to similar type books, read the reviews, then request them from my library. I've found many books this way that I never would have otherwise.

So, if you have time to kill, go on over & check out all the wonders that amazon has to offer!

2011-12-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

How has so much time gone by since I last blogged? It really does boggle my mind. Somehow we also haven't taken any pictures in the last month. I'm pretty sure there won't be a Christmas card this year :( But that's okay. Christmas will still go on...

Since I last blogged Nathan's been hunting twice. He got 3 deer (or something like 2-1/2). We had a little holiday, that's nestled in between Halloween & Christmas, called Thanksgiving. And I'm most excited about the fact that the twins are pretty much potty trained. Avery did just as I predicted. One day out of the blue she wanted to go and within a couple of days was staying dry. Nathan and I refinanced our house to a 15 year mortgage. We are so excited to know that we will have so much more paid off when the time comes to move again (which will hopefully be a while). His work Christmas party was Friday and we came back with $60 worth of gift cards. Not too shabby. And the kids sang at church last night, it was a really neat program. It really did get me in the Christmas spirit.

I really want to make this season special for the girls. We can't do a lot with two 3 year olds and a gettin crazier every day almost 2 year old! But I made a little advent paper chain and each link has an activity on it for each day. We're a little behind already but so far they got to have a bubble bath and make salt dough ornaments. Just something special to look forward to each evening.

My sister's wedding is now 12 days away, so we'll be busy with those preparations too! It's still strange to think of her being married but I'm excited for her & Brett.

So that sums up the last month, but much more excitement to come for this month...

2011-10-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

We love October - full of fun! Especially dressing up & getting candy.

But, we decided not to dress up this year.

Instead, the kids just went as themselves...

The Statton Circus!

Kaleigh the tightrope walker...

It truly is a circus!

2011-10-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

Birthday Madness!

Three of our kids have had birthdays since I last blogged so I'm just going to try & catch up as best I can. In all, in less than one month's time we have 7 birthdays of close family members! On top of that, October always seems so busy anyway, doesn't it?

So anyway, I'll start with most recent & work backwards, I guess. Kaleigh is six! How is that possible? She's still the skinniest little thing, with long legs. She is getting taller, she's almost grown out of size 5 jeans and into 6 now. Speaking of jeans that's all she wants to wear now! A year or two ago it was only dresses! I look forward to seeing her styles change over the years.

Our beautiful six-year old!

She's doing great in school. She loves to write and draw and lately likes to write little stories. I took a picture of a sample of her work. The spelling is all hers :). I'm so proud of her b/c before she started school she never would have done this type of thing without knowing that it was all completely accurate. I'm glad that she is doing things on her own now.

It starts off saying "hello my terrific 17. We did go to computer lab. In lunch I had hamburger and peaches and french fries then I had recess then I had naptime then I left. The End"

We had her party and the twins' together. Really most of the twins' guests were siblings of her friends. I didn't invite her school friends this year but next year I think we will have to. The party was at church & I did a magic theme. My dad is a pastor & has done little magic tricks for a kids' sermon in the past & I asked him to do a few tricks. The older kids were really into it! Some of the tricks even had a biblical message!

The picture station made for some cute photos!

I made the cupcakes - so much easier than cake and fun to decorate. I made the fondant toppers myself, copying some I found online. It took some time, but I just sat down one night and worked on them while watching TV and it really wasn't hard at all. It was like playing with Play-do! The fondant stores well so it was something I could do ahead of time.

We were excited to have my parents & Lance & Kristin here for most of the week. It was a really fun time, still busy even though I tried to do as much of the "work" ahead as I could. I think it was the longest we've gone (1 1/2 months) without seeing my parents, but the shortest we've ever gone seeing my brother & sis-in-law.

Also just a sneak peek at the basement. Nathan's finally had a little time to work down there and we are making some progress. This is a look at the bathroom & closet.

2011-09-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

Not feeling like writing much so here a few recent pictures. We've just been playing around with the camera a little bit. I'm glad to report that things are a little bit better with the kids' behavior too. I got sick last week and my MIL took Avery & Emory for the day. I had the nicest, easiest day with just Alexis. She was so sweet & mild. I think the feeling of competition was completely gone. It was a relief to know that circumstances do play such a large role in the negative behavior. So here's some pictures of my funny little girlies.

Playing dress-up with some yard sale finds!

Add caption

Eating is Exhausting!

Precious Sisters

2011-09-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

Family News

I mentioned in my last post that our family had a lot going on. My dad who is a pastor just got called to another church. They were here in AR, about 1 1/2 away and just last week moved to Louisiana, about 7 hours away :(. I'm happy for them b/c it seems to be a great place, but sad to have them so far. I didn't grow up near my grandparents and feel like I missed out on not getting to know them better. My parents reassure me that they will come back & visit often, probably every couple of months, but it won't be quite the same. We will adjust, though.

And my brother & sister in law just left their church in North Carolina b/c they feel called to start a new church in a suburb of New Orleans. What a huge undertaking but they feel like God is leading them to do this. I'm looking forward to seeing all that happens with it, my brother is amazingly informed about the role & function of churches and how to reach as many people as possible, so I think it will be a success.

I don't have any huge success stories to report with my kids, but I am reading lots of parenting books right now. Soon I will be the most knowledgeable parent around, or the most mixed-up, I'm not sure which ;). One of my goals right now is to stop the practice of threatening my kids. Either punish them or don't, but threatening is just pointless. Just this morning I caught myself telling Alexis "Come here right now or we're not going!" Okay, not only was that not helpful, it was obviously a lie. Bleh. Pay attention to yourself if you have kids, see if you do it to. :) I got that little tip from "Have a New Kid by Friday" by Kevin Leman.

I've been going through my pictures, organizing & ordering prints, and I found this blast from the past. Hard to believe...

2011-09-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Terrible Two's Times Three - AAAaaahhh!!

These have not been the best days at our house lately. It is still fun at times, and we do laugh a lot at times, but over all it has definitely been hard. It's sad b/c there has been a lot going on but I feel that mostly we are in survival mode here. Emory's been okay, she's just a handful and demanding at times but mostly pretty sweet. It's the twins who are having some, shall I say, behavioral issues. They've had me in tears more than once.

The problem is major tantrums. Screaming, crying, anger over little things. Crying for something, then tossing it away, then asking for it again. Mostly I think the problem is twofold. (1) They are tired. They've stopped taking naps even though I can tell they are sooo tired and majorly need to sleep. Their behavior is so much better in the morning than any other time of day. But how to make a kid sleep? They are still in a crib so they can't get out. I leave them for two hours so I'm definitely giving it time. Not sure what else I can do. I've tried different times, earlier & later. Any tips? and (2) They need more attention than I can give and aren't good at sharing me. If I could just sit & hold them for longer I think they might get a little more secure and stop acting out. But at times that's just not possible.

What to do? I'm willing to try most anything! We've tried all kinds of punishments for tantrums. I've done spanking, time-out, sending them to their room, taking things away... Most of that doesn't work when they are in a full blown fit. I've read a little on positive parenting techniques which are anti-spanking and more attention to direct the kids on a more positive path. I don't feel that it would work for all kids but I'm willing to try it with mine. I do believe in spanking but I hate to do it, especially if it's not working! I'm re-reading Creative Corrections to try & come up with some other ideas too. Nathan's says it's not as bad as it seems, just that there are 3 of them throwing fits at different times! I hate to sound like I'm complaining, obviously we are so thankful & blessed. They can be the sweetest things, cuddly and loving, smart and funny.

Other than that, it's been fun & busy around here. I'll post more on that soon. Lots of changes in my extended family.

2011-08-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

Emory 18 Months

Emory turned 18 months old on August 4th. I took her to get a checkup yesterday. Here are her stats:

Weighs 22.6 lbs., is 31 1/4 inches, head is 18 1/4
Walks & runs all over the place, falls a lot!
Climbs chairs, Kaleigh's bunk bed, the slide at the playground
feeds herself with a spoon, refuses to be fed - she does pretty good when she wants to
just recently started coloring, before now she just ate the crayons
can point to nose, ears, belly, mouth
can take off her shirt
talking, talking, talking - she stayed steady for a while, adding new words & just recently started saying more phrases & sentences. More on that below...

She seems to be extremely healthy & developing great. She's been really healthy since her last ear infection at the beginning of the year. Nothing since. I was a little concerned that she's covered with bruises, but not really since she's so very active!

When Dr.Rhodes was asking about her development, I kinda laughed when she asked if Emory could say at least 5-10 words. I said yeah, more like 50. But it's probably way more than that. She's constantly repeating the twins now and does a pretty good job. I can't always understand her but she does make her wants known! I'm not sure what her longest sentence is but she has said trampoline, swimming pool & puppet show. When I hang up my phone she says "who's at mommy?" (who was that, mommy) After I tell her she says "oh, okay".

Nathan recently taught her to do a fist bump. She puts her little hand out & goes "fis bump". It's so cute. This morning Nathan got up with her and she came to my bed, gave me a big kiss right on the lips. Said "fis bump?" & after I gave her one, said "dank oo". I laughed & said "thank you!" & she said "welcome". It was the funniest wake up I can remember!

On the flip side, she is definitely strong willed! Just last night the nursery worker at church was tellling us how Emory would not let her hold other kids & made her walk around the room holding hands. I think she thought it was funny, but some don't. What she wants to do it's just easiest to let her. She's so sweet that it's easy to forgive her those more difficult personality aspects though.

She's recently learned some new songs. Nathan's been teaching her "Jesus Loves Me" and she picked up from somewhere the alphabet song. Here's a video of her singing that. She does much better on the first half, you'll see!

2011-08-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

IT ALL BEGINS...

Kaleigh headed off to Kindergarten yesterday! I have to admit that before now I really didn't get all the hype about kids starting school. I do remember when K was 1 or 2 driving by the school that she would have gone to and tearing up thinking about it. But honestly, I will miss her but I do have three little ones at home to occupy me so this mom is not sitting around moping!

It is a big deal though. For the next 15 (or more) years, someone else is largely responsible for her intellectual, emotional & social development. I guess the reason I wasn't real sad is b/c I wasn't doing that great a job for her around here! Not that I didn't try, but she's had to entertain herself a lot since she turned 3. We've always done the HIPPY program so at least there was that, but I didn't even come close to being able to do some of the amazing creative activities that I know my friends do with their children.

I'm pretty sure she's going to do great. She is very ready academically. She's extremely social & well adjusted. She can be very stubborn and gets frustrated easily, which would be her main areas to improve on. Her personality is soo much like Nathan, good & bad!

The main adjustment for us all will be the schedule. I know that no one is going to sympathize with me when I say this, but I'm having to go from getting up at 9:00 (yeah, I know!) to before 7:00. Kaleigh's a fairly early riser but not quite that early. Still, she usually gets up with a smile and starts talking, don't know where she gets that from, ha! But yesterday afternoon she was pretty tired & cranky and we had a battle over her thumb-sucking (which is worst when she's tired). We are going to have to really work on having her in bed by 8:00 or 8:30.

Outside her room

Her teacher, Mrs. Payne in the background


Settling right in

So here's how the day went yesterday - I forgot to factor in rush hour traffic and we ended up being about 4 minutes late. So we parked and were running in, me snapping pictures along the way. I didn't get the shot outside the school that I wanted, we'll have to do that later. She went in the class and her sweet teacher greeted her and she sat down at her table & started playing with blocks. I went to hug her and she kinda pulled away from me. :( To make up for being late in the morning I left the house about 30 minutes early to pick her up. I waited nervously to find out how her day went. She told me it was a lot of fun. They read a book called The Kissing Hand and went on a treasure hunt. I asked the dumb question, "do you want to go back tomorrow" but thankfully she said yes. This morning when I woke her up she said "I'm so excited to go to school today! Yesterday was fun and today will be fun too!" Seriously, isn't that what I'm supposed to be saying to her? Love that girl!

2011-08-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

Back to School Busyness

For us it's not really "back" to school since K will be going for the first time, full time. She is very excited. She got a DVD when she registered, about 12 minutes long, showing what kind of things she will be doing and the teachers & faculty. She's watched the video probably 20 times. :) I'm very excited for her. I will miss her but knowing it's best for her makes it so much easier. She's extremely social and likes to stay busy and just gets restless at home since I can't spend the time focused on her that she would like.

I've had fun shopping for & gathering school supplies. I've made sort of a game out of seeing how cheaply I can get everything. My personal goal was $20 or less. It's not that we don't have the money, but I like to save & take advantage of some of the great deals. Each week I look through the ads and find which stores have the best price on things I need. I don't make special trips though, just attach it to another errand. I've done a little price matching at WalMart but they usually don't have the same quantity or whatever it is that I'm trying to get. Here's my list & what I've spent so far.

Disney Princess BackPack - 12.99
Lunch Box - free w/ Backpack
Labels - free w/ credit at website
plastic school box - 0.59
Elmers glue -.40
rest mat -$1 @ yard sale
tissues - .67 Kroger deal
pkg pencils -.19
4 boxes crayons - $1 (.25 ea)
Fiskars scissors - .79
6 glue sticks - 1.20
Crayola watercolors -
quart ziploc -
GermX -

So far I've spent 18.83 (not including tax) and I still have to get the last 3 things on the list. Probably won't make my goal unless I find some amazing deals, but we've still done well, I think. I couldn't resist picking up some other things that weren't on the list, for me or for the future. I found 5 cent folder & pencil cases, cheap highlighters, lead pencils, etc. What can I say, I just like school supplies.

I'm not going to go out & buy her a whole bunch of clothes, either. I really don't understand that concept. She already has clothes, and she's probably going to be doing some growing during the year. I'll buy as she needs things. Plus her tastes change a lot. A year ago all she wanted was dresses, this summer the crazy girl only wants to wear jeans, ha! My friend Nitzia supplied us with some jeans. Thanks, Nitzia! Once the weather is cooler I'll start hitting the yard sales again for more great deals, or shop at a local consignment sale. I may get her one new outfit for the first day, but the way I figure it, she's young and doesn't know the difference. Anything I do now will set a precedent for the future.

I think Kaleigh will do great academically & socially. My main prayer/concern for her is that she will not be overly susceptible to peer pressure and grow up too quickly. I hope that she will be kind and be treated kindly. It is a hard world out there but I think Kindergarten is too young to learn that.

I'll be posting pictures soon of her first day, but for now, here's a video of her at my parents' church VBS. She looks so little next to the other kids but she really know all the sign language. And couldn't help adding a little extra hip action in there too!

2011-07-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

Stranded in Pottyland...

A two-year old is kind of like having a blender, but you don't have a top for it.
Jerry Seinfeld

I was so excited that we reached a breakthrough in potty training last week with Alexis. Until then, she or Avery would only go after sitting for forever and me giving them tons of juice until they couldn't help themselves any longer. Well, you can imagine that technique just wasn't gonna work for us. But at some point last week I took everything off of Alexis and 10 minutes later she went in there all by herself and came out yelling "I went potty, I want a sucker!" Of course I had to give her one. And then she went about 20 more times that day and has been doing pretty good ever since. No pooping yet, but I'm just glad to have made the progress we have.

So of course since she's going, Emory and Avery want to go too. Emory does actually go sometimes, Avery rarely. But unlike Alexis, they will need to sit a while and I've learned that lots of damage can be done by three toddler/ preschoolers in the midst of potty training. In the past two days here are some of the things we've experienced;

twice I've walked in and two of them were in the bathroom pouring water all over the counter & on the floor...
while I was in the bathroom with Avery, Emory walked out without a diaper after sitting but not going. A few minutes later she apparently peed all over the wood floor, walked through it, and fell in it.
Someone got hold of some random stinky diapers that were folded up. They put them in their toy basket. I found them today while I was picking up toys and smelled a very unpleasant odor.
Avery dropped Kaleigh's walkie talkie in the toilet. I was standing right there but wasn't fast enough to stop her.

I'm sure there will be plenty more "fun" to come. But what can you do but laugh and be glad this stage doesn't last forever! And there are some real funny moments, like walking in Kaleigh's room and finding Avery sitting on her new IKEA potty like this -

Truly a queen on her "throne"

2011-07-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

Book Reviews

A lot of my friends are having Hunger Games withdrawal & looking for a new book to read. I've been suggesting b/c it is the same genre - this series

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
This is set in a futuristic sort of Utopian society. In an effort to keep peace, every citizen is given surgery at age 16 to become "pretty". Tally Youngblood is the central character & right up until her birthday is looking forward to following the future set before her. Then her best friend Shay inexplicably disappears. Tally is called upon by the law to become a spy of sorts & find Shay by following clues to where she may be. Along the way she finds out some terrible things that threaten to undo her whole way of thinking. And she meets David. There's always a David, isn't there?
This is the first book in a trilogy. The 2nd & 3rd are called Pretties & Specials. And even an extra book called, well, Extras.

I also read a stand alone book that I liked called

The Scent of Rain & Lightning by Nancy Pickard
We open meeting Jody Linder, age 25 and slowly come to find out her story and even parts of her story that she doesn't know. At age 3 her parents were murdered and over 20 years later the past & present collide when the killer is freed from prison and returning to her very town. Without giving too much away, this is a mystery; a story about love, family, loyalty, greed and all the things that make people do crazy things. There are twists and the ending is pretty shocking. I will be reading more by this author...

I don't ever buy books, just check them out from the library so I can't offer to loan these to you but they are pretty popular & easy to find. Hope you enjoy but if you don't it won't hurt my feelings :)

2011-07-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

My Review on SwagBucks

Swagbucks is super easy to use. All you have to do is register, sign in, and use their search function. I signed up for Swagbucks once before and didn't really understand what they were about so I didn't earn much & was discouraged quickly. This time around I'm loving it! Swagbucks is basically just a search engine, like Google, only they pay you to use it.

My method of earning is to use their downloadable toolbar. Any time I want to search, I just type it in their search box & it randomly award "bucks". I'd say one of five searches results in bucks. Searches are saved so now I rarely have to type anything, I just select "hotmail", "facebook" or whatever in the drop down menu. An added plus when I've forgotten what I was doing by the time I got to my computer :)

Although there are many other ways to earn, this is the only one I've used and it's working for me. In about 4 months time I've earned enough for 5 $5 amazon gift cards. And I haven't once spent any extra $, signed up for anything or wasted my time doing anything I wouldn't normally.

It's pretty effortless for something I will most definitely use. (And I would have spent that money at Amazon anyway.) I've found that on most days, I can earn anywhere from 20 to 60 Swagbucks. There are all kinds of prizes but I'll stick with the Amazon cards for now.

When you sign up, you'll get some Swag Bucks to get you started. If you'd kindly sign up through my link http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/shellstat I'll earn a Swag Buck every time you do. Yes, this is also a shameless plug but I wouldn't recommend it without knowing that it does work. Give it a try for a month or two, and I think you will be happy with it, but if not, you are not "out" anything.

2011-07-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

Endless Summer

Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world. ~Ada Louise Huxtable

These two are going to be trouble!

I don't know about you, but our summer is flying by. We had a fun 4th of July weekend even though Nathan and I were both mourning the fact that we should have been on our annual Guys & Wives Reunion fishing & catching up with old friends. He more than I was probably mourning! We still had fun though, had a couple of friends over and Nathan constructed this lovely slip & slide in our backyard. Because our yard does have a slight hill, it was great for that, but it also has an abrupt steep drop into a creek. So Nathan had to construct a barricade at the end using our old deck railing and some 2x4s. It was a true redneck water slide if you ask me, but it was fun anyway. Wish we could keep it but that wouldn't bode so well for the grass in our yard. What little is left of it anyway...


This photo was popular on facebook - Sara's face says it all!

Nathan's barricade at the end! Nice, huh?

Noah picked up some speed on the way down - trying to slow himself a little!

I got in the spirit of the 4th & made some festive goodies to go with our grilled chicken and sides. I made the Liberty berries by dipping the strawberry into white chocolate then into blue colored sugar. So easy and soooo good. Kaleigh helped me decorate the cookies. She used most of the sprinkles on one cookie, then we had to ration the rest!

We ended the evening with watching the Benton fireworks show then doing a few of our own. The twins didn't scream this time but they also didn't watch much. Just hid their heads in our necks. Avery was trembling from head to toe when they started, poor thing.

I never did post about our family reunion in June. We went to Missouri and had the reunion at a campground there. It was a beautiful place and lots of fun, just very hot. So the kids were able to cool down with some water activities. Kaleigh & Alexis got to camp with Nana & Poppa in the camper too. I didn't get many good pictures, I'll have to get those from Nathan's parents so I'll post more later.

There were lots of kids gathered around the tiny pool - Ha!

2011-06-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

New York - VBS Style!

I'm so tired but I want to go ahead & post while this is still fresh & not majorly old news. We just finished up VBS this week. I worked in 4th grade crafts (no diaper changing for me, thank you) and we had a great week. Super busy, never an idle moment, but fun too. The kids in our classes were wonderful and I hope they learned lots.

My kids seemed to have a great time. Emory charmed her teachers and Kaleigh always has fun so this week was no exception. And the twins walked into their room each day without hesitation so I can only assume they were glad to be there. Not sure how much they learned b/c all they could talk about was the "Balloon Man". This guy was in front of the church and they were terrified of him at first but slowly developed a fascination. Every day I tried to ask them what they did or learned and all they would talk about was the balloon man. We had to drive by slowly on the way out every day too.

They are scared of a lot right now. Besides "balloon man" they are scared of water (in swimming pools, not bath), the dark, tiny merry go rounds or any moving ride, and were terrified of fireworks as I mentioned before. Definitely the only way to deal with them is to let them ease into on their own and on their terms. Strangely though, they like bugs and dogs. Even big dogs don't scare them at all and we don't even have one.

2011-06-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Work-a-Holiday-Weekend

Nathan and I tossed around the idea of doing something fun for Memorial Day weekend but in the end we decided there was too much work that needed to be done around here. We did manage to fit in a little fun among the work.

The deck was pretty much finished last summer but needed to be stained. More to protect it, but it also looks much better, don't you think? The first picture is with the rails done & the second is with the whole thing stained.

Nathan started working on that Thursday night and worked Friday and Saturday also. Friday night I took the kids to a birthday party. Emory spend the night with her Nana & Poppa. Saturday us girls slept in while Nathan worked then we went to pick up Emory. We stayed & had lunch with Nana & Poppa.

Sunday was church, then Nathan and John Paul put in the posts for our fence. Sunday night we met our friends Andy & Liz downtown to watch the fireworks. That's a great show if you've never seen it. The twins might disagree with that though. We were pretty close and the noise terrified them! Avery spend most of the time with her head buried in my neck and clinging to me so hard I could barely breathe! I'd tell her to turn & look and I'd say "isn't it pretty?" "Yeah", then she'd turn and bury her head again - HA! I just hope we didn't traumatize them for life! Emory liked it, she'd point and say "Yay" & "ooh".

Monday my parents were at the house and Nathan & our dads worked on the fence for most of the day. I took Kaleigh to another birthday party. It was a swimming party.

Nathan was off Tuesday too b/c he had a day off earlier this month that he forgot to take. We got out the kiddie pool for the kids. It took a while for some of them to come around but eventually they all decided it was fun. Kaleigh told us it was the most fun time she ever had. I don't really know what to think about that but I hope it's not true!

2011-05-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

It's so sad that Emory turned a year old and I've all but forgotten about her on this blog :) She's changed sooo much since then too - I've got to document some of her milestones.

To be cliche, she is a bundle of energy. I told one friend I think God gave her an extra dose of "presence" in this world. Even next to a vivacious 5 year old and rowdy 2 & 1/2 year old twins, Emory never gets overlooked in this house! She gives all of them a run for their money!

Here's what she's doing now, almost 16 months :

Running all over - she started walking right about 13 months and as predicted never slowed down from there. She & the twins will line up at the door and say "Mark, set, go" and run races. It's hilarious, of the 3 of them, at least 1 of them never makes it to the finish without losing track and going off to do something else. :)
Talking - she started talking right around the time she was walking, and off the bat was saying all kinds of things. She continually says new words every day, and a couple of phrases like "over there". At one point I started to make a list of her words but I lost track at 40 over a month ago. It has amazed me to see her learn so quickly on her own. We taught the little ones to call Kaleigh "KK" and she says "KK" all the time when she sees her but just today I heard her saying "Kaleigh". (Kayee) She calls Alexis "sexy" HA! Actually she calls both the twins that. She's definitely learning tons from her sisters. Sometimes when she repeats the twins it sounds just like them.
Another thing she's learned early and is advanced at is temper tantrums. I'm just hoping this is a very early terrible twos thing that she's learned from watching the twins. :) She can hold her own with them too.
she follows instructions really well. I'll tell her to get something and she'll get it and bring it to me
Can point to her nose and belly. Loves her belly! I haven't said much about her belly button but she had a herniated belly button. It stuck out a ton but has gotten smaller & smaller and is almost normal now.
Likes to look at books, climbs, "talks" on the telephone. She can turn almost anything into a phone :)
I've actually sat her on the potty a few times. She tells me a lot when she's stinky so I figured I would give it a go. She wanted to sit on the potty after seeing the twins training. Which is not going well, by the way. Anyway, I thought, why not just do all three at once. None of them ever go, so it may still be a while.
We haven't been to the doctor in so long but I think she weighs like 24 pounds. We just moved her into a convertible car seat. We don't make it to regular check ups and she's only had one series of vaccines (that's a whole other post). But she's been pretty healthy.

So that's pretty much where we're at right now. I love her soo much. She's still so chubby and cuddly but losing her babyness :(

2011-05-11T13:35:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day, Zoo Day, it's all the same to me...

Not that I'm hoping to win some kind of award here, but I let Nathan go out of town on Mother's Day, gasp! That decision was multi-faceted, the first being that he had a chance to go with some good friends to a free Cardinals game, how do I tell him to pass that up? The guys really don't get together a lot, which brings up my 2nd reason - the girls do get together a LOT! :) And thirdly, I kinda remember getting really sulky last year when my kids (who were 4, 1, 1, and 3 months) didn't seem to get that they were supposed to be really nice and easy and cooperative, at least on that one day a year. So this year, I figured, whatever, no expectations, no disappointment. And that Nathan will make it up to me in a BIG way! HA! Not sure what that looks like yet.

It was okay, though. First, Kaleigh upon seeing me Sunday morning said "Happy Mother's Day!" then ran out of the room & came back with my card that Nathan had helped them do ahead of time. It had quotes from all the kids and was soooo sweet and funny. "I wuv you mommy", "i like favorite mommy", "uh uh uh uh meow, meow" and Kaleigh had written "I Love you mommy" in the prettiest handwriting. I tried to scan it but the thing just will not work. Then Avery saw me in my dress and told me I was pretty. So they were actually pretty nice to me. Getting them all ready for church went surprisingly well too.

After church our friends Andy & Liz offered to take us out for lunch. I asked them "are you sure" b/c my kids can be quite the handful. Emory especially. We did it and it was fun, and the kids did throw the expected number of fits. They got to eat lots of chips & salsa too! It was such a thoughtful thing for them to do. And Nathan got back that afternoon & we celebrated at his parents house. It was a pretty nice day overall.

Yesterday was our annual church outing to the zoo. It's basically our one time a year to go. Patti came with me to help. Our Mommy & Me outings are to try and get to know other Moms from our church a little better. I think it's a great idea but I really can't be that social since I'm having to chase all the kids around! The twins are at a great age to really enjoy the zoo, although Avery was having more fun petting our friend's baby. I told Sara, next time we'll skip the zoo and just come stare at Lily.

2011-04-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

Birthday Fun...

It's been such a nice birthday. Today we celebrated with mine & Nathan's parents, Laura, and the kids at our house. Since we couldn't be with my parents tomorrow for Easter, we also had a Easter Egg hunt for the kids here at the house. They have become quite skilled hunters - even Emory knows how to open eggs. She found a peep in one and was forever on the hunt for another one after that! My dad had put money in some of the eggs - only Kaleigh appreciated that. The others threw it on the ground, in pursuit of more jelly beans. They'll learn...

I got some nice gifts - mainly one big one that Nathan, my grandparents and parents are helping with. A groupon the other day was for laser hair removal here in Benton and it was such a great price I couldn't resist. I've looked into it before but would never pay the regular price. This was an amazing deal and I will love not having to worry about shaving my legs! I also got a Starbucks gift card, a pedicure gift card w babysitting from my mother in law, a purse and some useful items from my parents.

Last night, we went out to IHOP with my parents and my sister & her new boyfriend. April was kids eat free month and we wanted to take advantage - HA! They may change it after experiencing our family!

Kelly gave me this poem for my birthday. I had to share. I loved it. Don't read too much into it, parts were just for dramatic effect.

ODE TO THE SHELLSTER
There once was a girl named Shelly
Who loved deeply her beautiful sister named Kelly.
Growing up they would chase each other with knives (!?)
but eventually went on to do bigger things with their lives.

Shelly met her husband during her late days of college,
While they were both pretending to be in pursuit of more knowledge.
They have a history of going on peculiar dates together,
Which made it obvious they were in this for forever.

She was the 1st of the children to be wed,
Many tears her father did shed,
Realizing before the other two settled down he'd surely be dead. {HA!, love it!}

She has many interests you see,
besides being a baby factory, :)
Dumpster diving, garage sales, and finding good deals,
Reading, dirty dancing, and late night eating are some of her appeals.
I've seen her dress like a burn victim for Halloween,
And if anyone got in the way of her puzzle working she can be quite mean.

I am thankful to call her BIG sister of mine,
And that we were able to share the same bloodline.
I hope her 32nd birthday is filled with many good memories,
And she goes on to have many more Emorys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-04-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

What I'm reading...

When I saw that Kelly's Korner was linking up to your reading list, I had to participate! With 4 little ones, I have to sneak in reading wherever I can but I somehow manage to...

Right now I'm reading more nonfiction than usual. Beauty in words, this book is changing my life,
One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Also Choosing to SEE by Mary Beth Chapman. This one is also wonderful. She is the wife of Steven Curtis Chapman and just so real and honest.

I just finished Matched by Ally Condie. It is the first book in a trilogy and the other two aren't written yet, so I recommend just waiting to read these until Nov 2012. I hate waiting for a sequel to be written!

I'm about to start Francine Rivers new series, Her Mother's Hope. This one has at least 2 books written so I can deal with that. :) I think I've read everything that Francine Rivers has ever written and always like her books. If you haven't read the Mark of the Lion series, go read them right now!

One of my recent faves was The Hunger Games series. This one is better than Twilight, people! It's not about vampires but it is a young adult fantasy series so the comparisons are inevitable. I know most of my friends have read it and loved, loved it. And they are making a movie, yay!

And probably my other favorite recent read was The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It took a little time to get into it, but it is so worth sticking with, I promise. Hope you enjoy.

2011-04-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

Twins "Burp" Video

I also posted this on facebook, but wanted to share this video of the twins. They were supposed to be singing, which is also funny, but what we got was even better! This age is so challenging right now. They are either fighting or having fun and giggling together. Or up to no good... No matter what - they are always together. The good times make the bad soooo worth it. And it's so sweet and mysterious, this bond that twins have.

2011-04-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

Happy 60th Birthday, Mom!

My mom turned 60 on Wednesday and we celebrated on Friday night. It also happened that my grandparents were coming to visit from Alabama so that added to the celebration. It was a crazy week (more on that in a sec) so I didn't get to do as much as I had hoped, but I still thought it was a nice time. The kids really enjoyed visiting with their Great-Grandparents and I think the feeling was mutual. We also had a good time with them. I'm blessed to have such healthy, loving Grandparents.

For my mom's "party" we didn't do much cause she's not a person who likes a lot of fuss, but I did a 1951 theme from the year she was born and we had a little quiz and some decor. I made a poster with some old pictures and had the family write notes to her. I'll try to compile it into a book sometime before her 70th birthday :).

It's so easy to think of nice things to say about my mom. She has many wonderful qualities. One thing that kept coming up was how much a servant she is. God definitely gave her that gift. Even during her party she kept trying to work and I had to get her out of the kitchen. She does so much for us and restores my sanity every time she & my Dad come to visit. She's also a great listener and gives wise Christian counsel. I'm so blessed to have her for a mom!

As I said before, it was a crazy week. We were still trying to finish the bathroom, then we all ended up with the stomach bug. The kids had it so quick I was convinced we wouldn't get it or at one point I thought we already had gotten it. Boy was I wrong. We were feeling okay pretty quickly afterward, just not good and very worn out. So in all, it was a wild week with some ups and definitely some downs!

2011-03-26T20:06:00.000-07:00

Bathroom Redo...

Before you ask, yes, we are slightly crazy. Four precious energetic girls will do that to you. And two of them sick as well. So we decided that today needed to be the day that we redo our hall bathroom. Since we moved in all the rooms have been painted except the bathrooms. It was a mess! Lots of holes and just blah.

Well move over blah, cause mama got some seafoam green paint for this bathroom! When we woke up this morning and decided this needed to be the day, we had no paint and I'm just going off a picture of the world's greatest shower curtain that I found on ebay the night before. Besides my friend's ever so adorable Anthropologie shower curtain, but that costs more than this whole project so I'll settle for the world's second greatest shower curtain. Oh yes, it is bright, cheerful and so cute for four cute little girls and hopefully not too much for our visitors who will use that room.

So I got to the store and find the Oops paint and there it is - our beloved seafoam that we can't seem to get away from! It's really not my most favoritist color in the whole world even though it may seem that way since we've painted multiple rooms that color over the years, but it was the right kind of paint and I like the color and it matches the shower curtain (I think). So what're you gonna do?

Anyhow, between taking turns with the kids and their naps, and too much TV, we managed to get the bathroom painted. Oh sure, the toilet's in the tub but that's okay since most of the kids aren't potty trained anyway :) We should probably fix that before our company next weekend.

Sorry, no pics yet - I'm saving them for the end. Here are some totally unrelated pictures to tide you over...

2011-03-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

Devotions & Dinner Time

Our church had this awesome idea to give us a daily devotional pamphlet to do at home during the week that goes along with the sermons on Sunday. Me in my oh so idealistic mind pictured us doing this nice little devotion at supper time while we were all seated around the table. The kids would be quietly listening, Kaleigh may even ask a few questions, Nathan and I could discuss the topic - maybe brainstorming ways we could help people. . . You know where this is going, right?

I had good reason to be optimistic. After all, Avery had just [loudly] voiced the world's best prayer just a few days before. DEAR GOD! THANK YOU POOD (food)! MOMMY DADDY! THANK YOU HOUSE! WUV OO JESUS! AMEN! I mean this girl is ready to delve deeper, or so I thought.

So as everyone is settling into their food I get out the devotion guide and start reading. I open the bible to the scripture passage and about one verse in - Kaleigh is persistently asking the same question for the 176th time even though we told her to wait, Alexis and Avery begin singing "If you're Happy & you know it" at the top of their lungs, and Emory is whining for more food. Nathan's not even listening, he's just telling me how futile this effort is and he and I should just do it on our own.

But I persist, until maybe the third verse and now I'm just yelling scripture. "TAKING THE FIVE LOAVES AND TWO FISH...
EVERYBODY BE QUIET! I'M TRYING TO READ THE BIBLE!

Yes, this is sadly, true. It was at this point that I decided to give up on Dinnertime Devotions. For now anyway. Maybe I could incorporate it into the meal by telling them that Jesus could make their green beans feed the whole neighborhood. Or not...

2011-03-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

Photo Editing Fun

I posted some of these on facebook - I've been playing with some of my pics and editing some from over the years. Here are a few that I liked. Most of them I brightened and a few I added some "effects" to. The before picture is first and the after is second.

Emory's one year picture

Alexis outside recently

Kaleigh in the snow in January

Emory's 4 month picture

Emory's 6 month picture - yep, we just like her best, that's why we take so many of her!

Avery last May - doesn't she look good in spaghetti sauce?!

2011-02-26T20:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Nathan! - American Idol - and my non-kid blog (almost)

Nathan's birthday was Thursday. We celebrated last week with my family. The poor birthday boy had to grill his own steaks. Then, we celebrated the day of his birthday at home with his meal choice, chicken spaghetti. Friday night we went to his parents house and had food and played Wii so he should be feeling pretty special by now! 3 birthday celebrations - it makes me feel a little less guilty for not putting as much effort into as I did Emory's party. Please ignore the mess of my house in the pictures, I can only keep the house clean while kids are sleeping. The second they wake up BAM! it's a huge mess again...

I love you, Nathan, Happy Birthday! I don't know what we would do without you. You're such a hard worker and great husband and father. We're all so thankful to God for you, in case I haven't told you lately.

And for a special birthday treat, Emory took her most steps ever on his birthday! She's taken 2 or 3 here & there a few times, but she took 6 or 7 steps and is now doing it more consistently. I'm not sure I would call her a "walker" yet, but she's close.

We've been watching American Idol. I would have totally given up on it by now but we just don't have much that we watch together anymore and that's one show we both like. And I wanted to see how it was without Simon, Paula, and that other lady. To be honest, I haven't missed any of them. I really like J-Lo and Steven Tyler. They are funny and caring, and really know what they're talking about without being cocky. I'm excited to see the talent "up close" pretty soon.

And because a blog wouldn't be complete without at least one picture of one of our babies, I give you Alexis...

2011-02-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

Emory's Birthday and more snow...

I'm starting to lose track of all the snows, but the day of Emory's party it snowed so we postponed to the next day.
We had a "sweetheart" party for her. She seemed to enjoy being the center of attention and definitely liked her first experience of cake. It was a fun time with family.

Loved the "got Milk" picture. She's such a little diva already!

Then of course this week we found out there was a chance of more snow. I never count on anything until I see those flakes coming out of the sky but all the hype wasn't for nothing this time.

I think the first time it snowed my kids were glued to the windows watching it, this time I said something to the effect of "look at all the snow!" and Kaleigh was like "oh yeah" then turned back to the TV. We're hard to impress around here...

After being stuck inside for two days I wanted to accomplish something constructive so I figured it was as good a day as any to teach Kaleigh to read.
That went well, if you overlook the very large possibility that she will have to undergo counseling in the future and it will all center around reading the word "this".
We may need a few more snow days for that. To offset some of the guilt I was feeling for being such a terrible teacher, I read to her several chapters from a chapter book. To hopefully convince her again that reading really is fun.

And of course there was the snow. So we spent an hour bundling up everyone so we could go out & play then come inside 15 minutes later. But it's all worth it right? For the memories...

2011-02-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

“A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for”

Emory, You've done all this and so much more. You are one energetic, happy, emotional, firecracker of a baby. We've had so much fun getting to know you and seeing you grow. And you just seem so much easier coming after twins, we've really enjoyed you! Now that you're a year old, you will only eat foods that you feed yourself - no more baby food for this big girl *sigh*. You're not walking yet, just getting around too well on those hands & knees. I just get the feeling one day you will take off running across the room! You have a temper - you yell very loudly if something is taken away from you but recover quickly. You grin big at the sight of those sisters of yours, and you cry when mommy & daddy drop you off in the nursery. You started out as a surprise to us and you continue to surprise us every day.

Happy Birthday Little Sweetheart! We love you.

2011-01-21T20:23:00.000-08:00

Just Playin

It's been a rough week around our house with some sick girls, but we're making the best of it. They're actually doing pretty well, considering. Some are not getting quite enough sleep. In their beds, that is...

Dressing up is always a popular activity...

As is playing games on the iphone...

Or playing in boxes, if all else fails.

2011-01-15T19:11:00.000-08:00

SNOW DAYS!

Most of these are on facebook, but in case you missed them, here are some pics of us enjoying the 5-6 inches of snow we got this past week. It's just now almost gone, we've had fun with it. Not as much fun as we will in a few years, I'm sure.

As you may have noticed, our street is perfect for sledding (or boogeyboarding in our case). Since I had just given birth last year when it snowed I didn't get to participate in the fun so I jumped right in this time. I know you are all wondering about my adorable boots. Well, sorry to disappoint you but I got the last pair and you wouldn't be able to afford them anyway :) They are actually Nathan's and hideous on me but I couldn't find anything else to wear. Oh well.

The twins really got in on the action too. You can see the squeal on Alexis' face in this picture.

My sister got stranded with us and I know she was loving it! We were glad to have another person to help carry all our passengers who kept asking "again, again".

Kaleigh really wanted to make a snowman and I'd never made one before, but here's what we came up with. This is after many attempts and a few mishaps of collapsing and being put back together:
She's a beauty queen in the making - Miss Snow 2011. She has green eyes, a curvaceous figure and her platform is to end global warming. Her hobbies include being outdoors and birdwatching.

One funny story - we made snow cream and all enjoyed partaking of it, especially the twins. The next day Alexis looked out the window at all the snow and said "OOh, Avery, look at all the ice cream!" She said it again later in the week when we went to her Nana & Papa's house and saw the perfect smooth coating of snow on their roof. Sounds great to me - a world covered in ice cream!

2011-01-06T07:42:00.000-08:00

Journey through December

This is my "why I haven't blogged in so long blog"! I've been having so much fun and honestly just haven't wanted to stop & blog. But here is a little overview of what we've been doing, starting with first of December.

Our Sunday school Christmas party

Decorating for Christmas

Baking with friends

Kaleigh's preschool Christmas party

2011-01-05T08:02:00.000-08:00

More of Kaleigh's preschool Christmas party

Saturday before Christmas we went with some friends to eat & then to TransSiberian orchestra. That's a great show, even though I kinda fell asleep during part of it! :) I think the food had filled me up and made me so sleepy. . .

Sunday before Christmas we had a little party with some friends. They all went to Garvan Gardens but we decided not to go with all the little ones. After they were finished they came back here for food and some fun times. We had some little things to give away and Nathan planned a game thinking it would be more for the kids. Oh no - the grown ups went crazy playing this game. It was hilarious to watch some of the more laid back ones be extremely competitive. Then we turned on some dance music for the kids and laughed our heads off watching them dance. You could tell it wasn't the first time for most of them!

2011-01-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

Christmas Week

My family came to stay with us the week of Christmas, including Lance & Kristin, my brother & sis in law who came from North Carolina. They got here late Tuesday night and we wanted to pack in as much family time as possible. The kids love them and vice-versa, although L&K did get to see them at their not so finest a few times. Overall, the kids were in great moods the whole time and it was lots of fun.

Wednesday the weather was gorgeous so we got to play outside.

That night we went to the Capital to enjoy the decorations inside. It was really crowded but we tried to make the best of it.

Nathan was trying out our Christmas gift to each other - a new camera lens. On that same note, one of my New Years Resolutions involves learning to use our camera better.

2011-01-03T14:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve

We spend Christmas Eve at Nathan's parents house with them and Laura, Timothy & Kayla. The twins really got into opening gifts this time around. They got a little too eager at times and started opening anything they could get their hands on!

Notice what Emory is playing with here...

She had gotten a little bored with the gift opening process and crawled into the other room to get herself something.

2011-01-02T14:28:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day

We woke to a small mountain of gifts

No matter how many presents, these two still don't start the day without a sippy full of milk (it's their coffee)

Lance & Kristin got these sweatshirts from her parents. I love them! I think it's adorable.

One family picture before the gift opening fun!

2010-12-03T21:34:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving & more...

We've been busy as usual, no news there. We headed up to Missouri for Thanksgiving and had a fun time as usual. Traveling went okay, although not great. Kaleigh rode with Nathan's parents but we had the 3 little ones. Avery had a diaper blowout on the way there that was so bad we ended up just throwing her pants away!

The kids had soo much fun and Emory was very popular, even though she was a cranky pants.:) Or so we thought. Later we figured out that she was sick and obviously not feeling well. The twins got plenty of attention and loved it! We love seeing the family and catching up with everyone and of course ate tons of great food.

Kaleigh and the other kids were riding these bikes around in the basement. She has gotten where she loves riding her trike at home and gets that same look of intense concentration like she has in this picture. When she gets too serious I start singing the wicked witch song from the Wizard of Oz to make her giggle.

Since we've been back, Nathan's started working on insulating the basement, we went to the circus last night (so much fun) and had his work Christmas party and our Sunday School Christmas party today.

Oh, and I did get my free Christmas cards. They should be here soon. I did manage to make them, but whether they actually get distributed is a whole other story... At the very least I will post one on here!

2010-11-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

Shutterfly photo card blog

Okay, so they want some more specific things to get the 50 free cards. I guess you sign up first on their blog at http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/ then they send an email telling what to blog to get the credits.

I don't really have one specific way to do my Christmas cards. In the past I've done whatever was cheapest, or what I could get at the last minute. Since we had Kaleigh, I've always done photo cards. But I would get some in the mail and they were so pretty, I always said "next year I'm going to put more effort into it and start earlier!" Shutterfly does have some beautiful cards and I love that they have collages. It's so hard to narrow my pictures down to One choice!

You can see their Christmas photo cards here.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

This was another one of my favorites -

of course my final choice will come down to what pictures I have that I want to use. This year we were fortunate to have a couple of friends who are wonderful photographers take pictures for us, so I have a lot to choose from!

They also have holiday cards for other occasions here.

Another thing I always do for our families is make a calendar. They have some here. http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

2010-11-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

Shutterfly Photo cards

A friend had blogged about this promotion so I wanted to try it also.

If you blog about Shutterfly they will give 5o free photo cards! http://http//blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

I love doing photo cards for Christmas so this is a great deal. They have some adorable cards and I especially love the collage cards.

Like these -

I'll let you know how it works out.

2010-11-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

Costumes N' Candy

For some reason this year we just ended up with tons to do this week of Halloween. Kaleigh's getting older and more "into" things. And of course she's always loved dressing up! All of Kaleigh's costumes came from her dress up box & most of those came from yard sales.

Tuesday we went to the library where they had games, snacks & candy. I particularly liked the "cake walk" where you could win books. With Patti's help, we could have all the kids playing at once to fill four spots which helped us win several times! The twins really enjoyed playing with a small parachute and some beach balls. The girls were dressed as Goldilocks and the 3 bears.

Wednesday we went to a very fun & cute playdate. There were crafts, games, food & cookie decorating! The poor bears got hot though! I ended up bringing the twins home in their diapers.

Thursday night Benton had their "Spook City" which was just a bunch of vendors handing out candy. We walked around a few blocks and got lots of candy and even coupons for free stuff. Kaleigh was a cheerleader that night. They had these miniature horses and Alexis jumped up out of the stroller to pet it. She really seems to like animals. Then some people dressed up in an inflated sumo wrestler type outfit walked by & she started crying and jumped back in the stroller!

Friday night we worked our church's GSFESt which is a huge event of carnival rides & more. I took Kaleigh with me while I worked the preschool inflatables. She jumped, slid & ran around for two hours straight! Then she/we rode 4 rides before we had to leave so Nathan could work the 10 to midnight shift.

Saturday night I took Kaleigh & Emory around our neighborhood. This night she wanted to be a ballerina.

Sunday night we went to a friend's house and had a fish fry then took the kids out trick or treating around their neighborhood.

I'll post some more pictures on facebook soon if you are interested in seeing more.

2010-10-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

Busy Sunday

I couldn't think of anything more descriptive to title this post than "Busy Sunday". Sundays are crazy anyway, getting all 4 little ones ready to go & then getting home, fixing & eating lunch, putting kids down for naps then waking them in time to be back at 5:00 for children's choir & bible studies, home at 8:00, supper then bed (for the kids).

This Sunday Kaleigh also had a birthday party to go to for her friend Maddie and her choir was singing in church for the first time!

The party was at a riding school and she got to ride a horse. I was so proud of her. It only took a little coaxing :) They look so little on those huge horses.

We barely got home in time to change & go back to church. She did so great singing in the choir. I'm glad she's not shy & I hope it will stay that way. I was always so timid about doing things in front of people and I just hate for my kids to have to deal with that.

2010-10-18T19:44:00.001-07:00

Pumpkin Patch

Our church had a Mommy & Me playdate to a local pumpkin patch today. It's called Mary's Place or Mary's pumpkin patch. I highly recommend it. They have a little petting zoo, tractor trikes, a swingset, a bouncy castle, a hayride, a treehouse, and a maze. And lots of little photo spots! Nathan's mom came along and helped with the kids.

Alexis really like looking at the animals. She even scared the little baby sheep b/c she was so excited and squealing!

Kaleigh had the most fun in the bouncy castle and just playing with her friends.

Alexis makes a cute sheep, don't you think?

Emory saw this adorable little cow and wanted to give her a kiss! I don't blame her, do you? Avery loved it!

2010-10-06T14:06:00.001-07:00

Emory - 8 months!

I never did a 7 month post for Emory and she has changed a lot since 6 months! This girl is m.o.b.i.l.e. Much more so than any of our others. Here's a "time line" of recent developments:

6 1/2 months - started crawling, sitting pretty well & getting back into a sitting position'
7 months - pulling up, crawling really well, started saying "da-da"
7 1/2 months - perfecting pulling up skills
8 months - cutting two teeth on bottom & maybe more! She's fussy so I hope they come quick
also - shakes her head from side to side, seems like "no" when she's done eating; has started doing her hand like a wave, not on command or anything; babbles quite a few more other sounds like na-na, la-la, ga-ga, & still likes her vowels a lot.

Emory is so determined. I can see in her eyes when she spots something that she wants and starts to go after it, nothing is going to deter her! She's my little Roomba right now. That girl will find every little speck on the floor and pick it up & put it in her mouth. Then she gags on it and spits up. I'll be glad when she's walking, at least she'll be further from the floor! She's so cute right now though, just follows me & her sisters around the house. She'll crawl on us if we are on the floor. Avery & Alexis get a little annoyed with her sometimes but they are still so sweet to her. She takes about 4 bottles a day and usually eats 3 times a day but we can get by with 2. Her legs are still chubby & adorable! She can almost wear 12 month clothes but is really in 6-9 month right now.

2010-09-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

Happy 2nd Birthday, Avery & Alexis

First month
1 year

Seriously, another year has passed? Even though tons has changed, it has absolutely flown by. Our sweet little twins are two years old now. It is hard to tell that they were ever preemies. They say two years is the milestone when they catch up to other kids, and it seems to be true in their case. Here is some of what they are doing, and they are both pretty much the same:

point to & name eyes, nose, ear, mouth, head, hair, & knee

Use many words - love to name family members & the first friend they learned was Noah. They will repeat almost anything now but it usually comes out quite different from how we say it; can say about a three word sentence.

Recently started undressing; like to try & dress themselves, sometimes well, sometimes not; love to put on shoes
are starting to learn songs like twinkle twinkle and Elmo's song
have recently started feeding themselves with a fork - we just tried & they were pretty good at it; can somewhat eat with a spoon but usually make a huge mess.
can jump (& really like to)

One thing we really need to work on is drinking from a regular cup. Every time we've tried it's ended in disaster! I also don't have much time to work with them on things like I did Kaleigh, such as colors, shapes, etc. but I figure the'll learn it sooner or later - ha!

I also want to remember their likes & dislikes and personality traits at 2.

The number 1 thing both twins like to do is eat & drink their milk. Until 3 or 4 months ago they would eat anything, but more recently they've started to get a little pickier. They still eat large portions for their size, though. You cannot eat around them and not share. They'll stand in front of you and yell "BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTE!" First thing in the morning we greet them with a sippy cup of milk.
they both love to dance & listen to music
they love to play with each other. They fight a lot now, especially over the doll stroller, but they have so much fun together too. One day they just giggled & giggled while carrying a baby blanket around the house together.
They love their big sister. They will all go in Kaleigh's room and play with the Little People toys and whatever else. They light up when they see "K-K"
And of course they adore little "Emmy". Avery especially loves to "talk" to her in a little sing song voice and lay on the floor next to her (& sometimes on her) For the most part they are so sweet. They will get on the floor and crawl with her and bring her things.
They both like to play with dolls & stuffed animals and push them in the stroller pretend to feed them, that kind of thing
They both seem to be very compassionate. Recently I got a cold and every time that I coughed one of them would ask me "okay mommy?" Without fail, every time. And they would keep asking until I answered! If Kaleigh hurts herself or Emory fusses they get very concerned.

Personalities:

Avery is usually the more laid back one. If she's fussy, I know something's probably wrong with her. She's independent and definitely likes to do things herself. She's funny and loves to make people laugh. She's always doing it with us, making funny faces and will repeat things after she gets a laugh. She's social and likes to smile at people she doesn't know. When I tell her to "come here", Avery runs away giggling. She drives me crazy but we love her. When Kaleigh is playing with her and gets a little too physical she will usually just laugh. She does like to mess with people, especially her twins sister and she's a little bit mischevious. She adds so much fun to our family.

Alexis is the more emotional of the twins. She comes running to me many times during the day with her world crashing down b/c of a stolen toy or a stubbed toe. After a good cuddle things are usually okay until I have to put her down. She's very sweet and seems to like to take care of people. When we're walking and Avery starts to run off Alexis turns and says "come on sister". Too cute. She has this sweet little shy smile that she does when she's being bashful around people, and when she's happy about something she gives us this beautiful beaming smile that just brightens our day.

We love these two precious girls. Yes, it is hard and yes they are going through the terrible twos and can throw amazingly good kicking screaming down on the floor tantrums, but the good times more than make up for any amount of bad. To think that we almost lost them and now God has given us two wonderful years with them leaves me speechless.

2010-09-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Beach Day

This was a couple of weeks ago, but we got sick right after so I'm just getting around to posting these pictures. We went to the "beach" in Arkadelphia on a whim one Friday afternoon. Kaleigh is at the age where she is loving the water, sand, etc and we figured the twins would enjoy playing in the sand, which they did. Alexis liked the water but Avery wanted nothing to do with it. We got some fun pictures - it was a little bright out. It ended up being hotter than we thought but it was a fun memory!

Note: I tried to load more pictures but it just isn't working so here you go!

2010-09-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

A New Week, A New Start (hopefully)

This past week was one of the worst in our house, aside from anyone dying. It started over a week ago with Alexis getting sick with a stomach bug. It didn't last too long and after a couple of day went by and nobody else got it, we thought we were out of the woods. Then Tuesday morning Avery started. Nathan went to work and his mom came over to help me. Since the kids are always getting sick and we don't usually catch anything I wasn't too concerned. Poor Avery had a terrible day but was a little better by that night. Then about 9:00 that night, Kaleigh started. An hour later it was me. I won't go into details, but poor Kaleigh had it about right when she said "this is the worstest ever". The next day we were exhausted but okay, not great. That night my sister who lives with us got sick, and the next morning Nathan was sick. We called his mom who was also sick. So in our whole house the only one who had not gotten sick was Emory.

We had a rafting trip planned with the Powells and Tices and contemplated calling it off seeing how contagious this thing was, and we went ahead and called my parents to come and pick up Emory and Kaleigh. At this point, I was recovering but had only gotten 2 hours of sleep the night before and besides taking care of the kids was also waiting on my sister and Nathan. And believe me when I say kids make better patients! HA! Other than the fact that the kids were extremely messy. I was also cleaning and disinfecting like crazy and doing laundry in between taking care of sick people. By that night Nathan started to feel better so we decided to go ahead with the trip.

The next day, Friday, we were packing & excited to go when Ben (one of the friends going on the trip) called. He was sick. Nathan had had lunch with him on Tuesday. We decided that we had to cancel the trip, mainly for the good of those who hadn't gotten sick. I was so depressed that night that I literally got sick all over again. No joke.

But we decided to go to Branson with the Powells and make the best of it. A holiday weekend is just about the worst time to go to Branson. We didn't want to go to Silver Dollar City and not get to ride anything so we just picked some other things to do. We shopped and played put-put, ate out at some fun places and jumped off a tower.

Yes, you heard me right. We saw the brochure for this Extreme ZipRider and thought it looked fun so we did it. There was a moment of fear just as we were let loose off the tower, but once we got going it was just fun. And beautiful. I would recommend it.

2010-08-31T15:24:00.000-07:00

Please help us out & vote for Nathan in this photo contest at Parent's magazine. Help me show him some love! Just click on the link and click vote then enter the phrase they show you. Thanks! http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/476855

2010-08-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

6 month photo shoot & family pictures

We recently did another shoot with Elizabeth Crump for Emory's 6 month pictures and to get a family picture. With it being over 100 degrees outside we did most of them inside and just a few outside at the end. Of course I just love the ones outside the best. Liz does a great job and she is easy and fun to work with. She recently quit her full time job to focus on photography so if you want some pictures, keep her in mind. http://www.elcphotography.smugmug.com/

She sells the digitals which I prefer. What would be the point in getting great pictures and then not be able to blog them!? I love making albums online too. I'm always finding great deals for those.

Here are a few of my favorites and there are more on facebook. I wish I could put more, but it's just so hard to load them on blogger. The family pictures make me laugh. We are just not at a stage in our lives where everyone will sit and look at a camera and smile! And getting one of just the kids is even harder. Kaleigh just decided to stop holding Emory at one point and down she went! Isn't that what pictures are though? Just a memory captured and preserved. I will always love the memories of this time in our lives.

2010-08-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

SUMMER FUN

Kaleigh constantly asks if she can invite her best friend Maddie over to play. It's been forever (at least since before we moved here) so finally one Saturday I said okay, we're gonna do this. Maddie is so sweet and easygoing and she and Kaleigh play wonderfully together. They spent most of the time together playing in the swimming pool on the deck.

I also let Avery & Alexis get in on the fun.

I recently read a magazine article that convinced me I needed to do more artistic endeavors with the kids, so I bit the bullet and let them (yikes, gasp) finger paint! I waited until my mom was here to help. The fun lasted about 5 minutes. It was so much messier than I imagined and it ended with tears for all of us. HA! I hope those 5 minutes were enough to inspire their creativity and fine tune motor skills and all the other wonderful things it was supposed to do! Of course we were outside but I was trying not to get paint on our new deck. I had this giant piece of paper that was working great until they started running through the paint and all over the deck.

Of course many times mealtimes are artistic endeavors in themselves...

2010-08-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

Sweetest Emory,
It was just over a year ago that we found out you were on the way and today you are 6 months old!
I think of God's omniscience every time I see you. Because although we may have planned our family out a little differently, He knew you were exactly what we needed. Right away you were precious to us but every day you grow more & more so. You are at the sweetest little age right now, flashing that huge grin left and right. It's so wide I think it will just stretch right off your face sometimes! Your Daddy just gets a goofy look when he's holding you and you cuddle up on him. He's smitten. Your sisters love you too. They give you little kisses and go "awww" when they see you. You just smile right back at them.

You giggle and squeal when I bounce you on the bed or couch.

You're almost sitting, still needing to prop yourself a little bit.

You're very mobile - rolling, scooting, whatever it takes to get you where you need to go. I'm constantly pulling you out from under a piece of furniture that you've wedged yourself under. You are almost crawling - getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth.

You rarely cry now around people, but you do sometimes when I lay you down for bed. You will smile up until you can't see anyone then it turns to tears. Sometimes you switch straight from crying to laughing then back again! You know Mommy's a sucker and hates to hear you cry.

You drool tons and everything you get your hands on goes straight to your mouth. You're really amusing when you're hungry. One of the nursery workers told me one day "I thought she was going to eat me!"

Speaking of nursery workers, they are always commenting on what a happy smiling baby you are. Usually followed by "she spit up everywhere". Yes, you do have one flaw. That's okay, nobody's perfect.

We love you darling girl. Thanks for adding even more joy to our lives.

2010-07-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

Fun with the gals...

The weekend after the 4th was the annual outing with my gals from college. We get together in Hot Springs. This year we spend almost all day on Saturday in the swimming pool. It was just what I needed. I was so glad that everyone got to come. We set the weekend and everyone's been really good to make it a priority. I love how God threw us all together Freshman year in college and even though we are very different, we're alike in the ways that matter and by now we just know each other so well that we can be completely comfortable. Love you girls!

Last night Nitzia hosted 80's bunko. Even though I am totally embarassing myself, I really got into dressing up and had such fun seeing the other costumes. I think I took it to the extreme!

2010-07-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

4th of July & more!

We've been extra busy lately which is why I've been so behind on my blogging. But at the same time I have a lot to blog about! So that's what they call a catch 22, huh?

For July 4th weekend our tradition for the past 5 years, I think has been to go down to Felsenthal to the cabin for our Guys & Wives reunion. This year was no exception and even though there was a small group this year, we had a nice time. We brought Kaleigh & E to Nathan's parents and dropped the twins at my parents house. We did a lot of fishing, played some games, talked and visited and ate really well. Oh and also some swimming and a lot of laughing.

I think the kids had fun too. We don't get good cell phone service out there but I was able to talk to Kaleigh for a minute and I heard "fireworks" and "ice cream". So I'm pretty sure she was enjoying herself. My parents took the twins swimming and some friends of theirs got some cute pictures of them.

I will post soon about my weekend last weekend with my girls from college. And maybe some deck pictures soon. Stay tuned!

2010-06-21T15:25:00.001-07:00

Swim Party!

We went to a 30th birthday party for a friend the other night. It was a swim party and a lot of fun. We opted NOT to take the twins just b/c Nathan and I actually wanted to relax and enjoy ourselves a little bit. Emory enjoyed her first time in the pool, and Kaleigh seemed to have lost her fear and was jumping off the side, the diving board, and going down the slide. In weather this hot, the water is the only place to be! Nathan took a lot of pictures and got some really cute ones, especially of the kids.

2010-06-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

Emory - 4 months

Little Emory is already 4 months. 4 months and 1 week to be exact. Her babyhood is just flying by. She's still been the sweetest little thing. Lately she's had to cry herself to sleep for about 5-10 minutes for naps & at night, but we can deal with that. I try to rock her or other things, but she just won't go to sleep that way.
I took her to the doctor today for her checkup. She is 13 lbs, 7 oz (41%), 25 inches (73%!) and her head is 16 inches (29%). She's in 3-6 month clothes.
Developmentally she hadn't really done anything new for a while, then suddenly she made some strides.

The biggest is rolling onto her belly. She started that a few days ago. What really surprised me about that is that she doesn't get a whole lot of time on the floor. I knew she was close when she started doing this uncomfortable move. I think mainly she was always craning her head around to see what was going on with her big sisters. She still gets sat on on a regular basis. But now she can roll all over the place! Yikes!
Her neck is getting stronger and she can hold her head up really well now.
She's also discovered her hands and her feet and her voice.
She's starting to play with toys, grabbing them and bringing them to her mouth.
She loves to just squeal. She's still the smilingest little thing.
We're starting to get somewhat of a routine now - bottle, playtime for an hour or so, then a nap. Some days are better than others. We're not on any sort of schedule, time wise. She sleeps until 8:30 some days but gets up a lot earlier other days.
Avery & Alexis are now saying her name. At first it came out "Elmo" but now it's "Emmy" I think we prefer Emmy. :)

Activity- it's always hard to "entertain" a baby at this age, especially when you're like me and don't have a lot of time! Since she's staying awake longer and wanting to do more I sometimes have to get creative. She spends a lot of time in her swing & bouncer just watching the other kids. And they enjoy bringing her toys as well, such as pom poms, napkins, and other very inappropriate baby items! I try to read to all of the girls and sometimes I will put E in the bumbo while I read. Her sisters like to scoot her around the floor in the bumbo. She lays on her Baby Einstein mat and plays with the toys. All in all, an exciting existence.

2010-06-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

Kaleigh's "Graduation"

This was Kaleigh's second year to go through the HIPPY program. We really like it and they are serious about it. We had 30 weeks of lessons, 5 each week. It gave me the motivation to make sure I was spending quality educational time with her each day. Although some weeks we did all 5 five lessons in one day!

But with the year we've had, I was pretty proud to have finished all those lessons. For the end of the year party they had a luau. They were supposed to have an inflatable water slide but wouldn't you know it, a storm hit right before. When we got there, Kaleigh looked around and said "this does't look like anything". Uh, oh! Someone's not as easy to please as she used to be! But free ice cream from the ice cream truck made her day. She got a bag of books for finishing and we got some pictures of the girls in their matching clothes.

My plan for the summer is to still do a lesson with her every day. I want to sign her and the twins up for the summer reading program at the library.

2010-05-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

A note from Alexis...

Dear Mom & Dad,

Lately I feel like I've been misunderstood. You write all the blog posts about how I'm "into everything" but I need to tell MY side of the story. For instance the other day you got onto me for this:

Well, you had just given me the same old boring breakfast. I was just wanting to try something new. And those little pointy things you use to eat with seem much more fun than just my fingers!

And you know how the other girls have been sick. I just wanted to supply Avery with tissues in case she needed them. I left a few in the box. I think Avery was very grateful!

Besides - you guys aren't so perfect either. I mean just look at these pictures of daddy. If you want to know why I climb so much, apparently I'm part monkey! I know this probably won't change things, but at least my side of the story is out there.

Love,
Alexis

2010-05-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went down to OBU for my sister-in-law Kayla's graduation. We took all the kids so we were kind of "in & out" of the ceremony. It was outside so we were pretty free to come and go. During some of the slow parts we walked around the campus. It is so beautiful there and the day was so pretty that it brought back memories of sitting around campus on the grass in the sun and just being a carefree college student. After we graduated they carved our names into the sidewalk so we had to go and find our names.

After the graduation we went back to Kayla & Timothy's apartment and had lunch and visited together. All the kids played and had a good time.

We also took some 3 month pictures of Emory. Of course this little girl who is almost always all smiles would barely smile for us, but we still got a few cute ones! She is so big already. She's a little chunk and so loveable. I've been working on editing pictures lately. I downloaded Picasa and Gimp. Haven't really figured Gimp out yet for more advanced editing but Picasa is great for simple changes. It has the most fun facial recognition feature. I've been thinking lately that I need to upload my pictures and store them on the internet somewhere. Any ideas or suggestions on the best, most affordable place to do this?

2010-05-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

What's Happening...

Nathan- you said you didn't know what was going on in our house since I hadn't updated our blog in a while, so here goes Nathan (& anyone else who might be reading).

You've been working on the deck when you get a free minute. After trying to preserve part of it, you decided to start from scratch. It doesn't look like much has been done, but progress should speed up quickly from here on out.

I started a chore chart for Kaleigh. She has to clean her room at night, brush her teeth 2x a day, and help me put away dishes. When she does these things she gets a sticker. If she gets enough stickers at the end of the week, she gets to do something fun with one of us.

The twins are now climbing on everything. They get up on the couch, then climb onto the kitchen counter. I'm running out of safe surfaces to keep things from them, so I actually have to put things away! Alexis has started hitting a lot recently. I pinch her hand when she hits somebody so she resorts to hitting furniture and toys when she's mad. Kaleigh's sweet though, she tells me "It's okay if Alexis wants to hit me". Those girls are destructive. They have pretty much broken Emory's swing from getting in it themselves and bouncing up and down. They've also climbed into her bouncer on top of her. They keep me on my toes for sure!

I went garage saleing last week since my parents were here. There were two big neighborhood sales. I got a bunch of stuff for the kids, especially shoes, Yay. My best buy was an almost new, pink pack & play for $25. Love me some garage sales! But don't worry, even with the pack & Play I only spent around $60 total.

Since it was raining Saturday and you couldn't work on the deck, we actually hung a few pictures in the house.

I just ordered a photo flipbook from Snapfish. It was supposed to be $30 but I used the coupon code ALLYOUMOM and got it for 1.99! That includes shipping! It's just a little spiral book that has a picture on each page and holds 45 pictures.

That's about all for now. Hopefully you will get the deck finished soon and we can talk face to face again!

2010-04-22T08:26:00.001-07:00

DISNEY ON ICE

Several of my friends have gone to see Disney on Ice in the past and talked about how great it was, so I decided this would be a good year to take Kaleigh. It really was magical. I loved it and I just sat there watching with a big grin on my face the whole time. Kaleigh was pretty much entranced. Here favorite part, of course, was the princess' ball! That was probably my favorite, too because the couples skated to all the sweet love songs. I also liked this "around the world" segment where Mickey & Minnie celebrate in China, Japan, Hawaii, Brazil & New Orleans. Next year I want to take the whole family.

2010-04-19T12:34:00.000-07:00

Move Over, Bob the Builder - Here Comes Nathan!

Nathan started working on redoing our deck. It wasn't built properly and we also need it to be bigger. Our patio table and chairs don't even fit on it. And since it will be pretty much the only level spot in the yard we figure we'll go all out. I know we will use it and enjoy it. He's also going to gate the stairs for days when I want to take the kids out but the yard may be wet, or whatever.

He also got our swingset back and put it up last week. It was Avery and Alexis' first time in the swings. They loved it! Avery loved it so much, in fact, that she threw an "all out, legs kicking, arms flailing, screaming, throwing herself on the ground tantrum" when we took her out of the swing. While Nathan was working on the deck she stood with her nosed pressed against the back door going "wee, wee, wee".

Here's what the deck looked like before:

And here are some pictures in progress. Nathan is trying to keep the frame so at least he won't have to redo that part, just the add on. It is tiring for him and me to have him do a project like this, but I know it will be worth it in the long run. I just keep imagining myself in a lawn chair relaxing in the sun!

2010-04-15T08:26:00.001-07:00

All about Emory - 10 Weeks!

It's hard to believe Emory is 10 weeks already. Some people are surprised to know that the days just fly by for me, but right now they do.

Here is some of what she's doing:

She started smiling right around 7 weeks. She smiles now when someone talks to her, as long as she's not hungry.
She also will "talk" to us when we talk to her.
She is the best little baby and usually only cries when she is hungry.
At her two month doctor visit she was 10 lbs, 3 oz and 21 &1/2 inches. She was 5o% for everything.
Sleeps in her swing, her bouncer or swaddled in the bassinet.
Is staying awake longer now and will just sit in the bouncer or swing and look around.
Doesn't like tummy time but is good at lifting her head.
Has rolled from belly to back a few times but not consistently.
She's a once a day pooper! This is nice since the twins are about 5 a day each.
Her nicknames are Em, E, & EmmaRoo
Not really on a schedule - takes 4 oz (I think she needs more) every 2 -3 hours during the day and naps in between most bottles.
Night time! - Slept through the night Sunday night! Talk about wonderful. This is a record for our family. Kaleigh was 10 weeks and the twins were at least 6 months. She slept from 10 to almost 7 and has done it two more times since. Of course I still had to get up and pump but I shouldn't have to for much longer.

I think that's about all. We're enjoying her. Kaleigh loves to hold her and talk to her. She tells her "when you grow up you're going to be our sister". HA! Avery and Alexis give her kisses and love to run their fingers through her hair. Nathan loves cuddling her and giving her tons of kisses too.

2010-04-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

A Picture's Worth a thousand words (Which saves me a lot of time!)

This is the view of our backset now! Me and Nathan like to say that there's a lot of cuteness back there! It's fun to look in the rear view mirror and watch them. Kaleigh likes having here sisters next to her and I think they enjoy being able to see a lot more.

Me and Nathan went to a wedding not too long ago. It was a nice date night for us. They had dancing at the reception and we partied and stayed out till 10 o'clock!

Kaleigh spent the night with her friend Sara recently and I picked her up and took them to Chuck E Cheese for a little while the next day.

2010-04-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

Easter Celebration

We started celebrating Easter Friday night by going to "The Kingdom" at our church. It is a production of the Life of Christ they put on every other year and it is amazing. We brought Kaleigh to it this year and she really liked it but I think she's still a couple of years away from really understanding it all.
Saturday morning we had Easter brunch with Nana & Poppa (Nathan's parents). We had a wonderful meal then the kids did an Easter egg hunt and we took lots of pictures. Kaleigh is good at hunting eggs but the twins didn't quite get it! They would step over the eggs at first and just kept wandering off. Once they did get into it, they did pretty well. Avery would put it in the basket they say "good job!" After that the kids played on the trampoline - one of Kaleigh's favorite things to do with Poppa.

That afternoon we went to Bearden to stay with my parents. We hadn't been there in a while. My mom cooked some good food and we had great worship on Sunday and then another fun Easter egg hunt. Avery & Alexis were a little better at that one. We layed around outside for a while enjoying the beautiful weather and each other's company.

2010-03-26T19:20:00.000-07:00

We got robbed last night.

Seriously.

Someone stole my Kroger brand Moon Pie ice cream right out of the deep freeze in our garage. There were 3 cars in our driveway, 8 people in our house (counting kids), and between 9 and 10 last night someone (hopefully kids) came into our open garage, got in the deep freeze, stole my ice cream and I'm not sure what else, and put a quart of buttermilk surrounded by 6 chicken nuggets on top of Nathan's car.

I might think it was kinda funny except I was really looking forward to tasting that ice cream.

What is this world coming to?

2010-03-02T07:55:00.000-08:00

Catching Up...

We'll see how far I get on this blog before I have to tend to someone. Firstly, I need to say a Happy Belated 30th birthday to Nathan! He turned 30 on the 24th of February. I had already planned a little party and with the help of friends and family we were able to pull it off. John Paul invited him to hang out with the guys on the Saturday before his birthday. They went skeet shooting. I made Nathan think that was his celebration. While he was gone we had our family & the wives come over and surprised him when he got back. My mom and I made food and we had a good time visiting with everyone. He told me several times how much fun he had, so I was happy. I wish it could have been bigger, with more people, but that was all I could manage this year. I thought Kaleigh had ruined the surprise the night before when she told him "my friends are coming to your party" but he said he didn't even notice her saying that. I didn't even tell her about it, but she heard me talking on the phone to someone!

The next thing I want to blog about is the twins. They have been getting therapy for a year, and just had a reevaluation and no longer qualify. This is such a good thing even though we will miss Stacy coming and working with them. They have just been doing great though. They've really started talking a lot in the past month. They use quite a few words intentionally and repeat loads of words. Some that they say are Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Mimi, Papaw, Poppa, cheese, cracker, stinky, doggy, ball, more, baby, bear & bye-bye. It's so much fun to watch them interact. They really play together but one minute they will be fighting and hitting each other and the next they are kissing and hugging.

Emory is still eating and sleeping tons so while it has been a lot of work, I think it may get a little harder before it gets easier once she is awake more. I've been so blessed to have my mom come to help out a lot but she started working on the census this week so I'm going to be on my own more. Nathan's mom ended up getting sick after keeping our sick ones and is just now getting well. She's always good to lend a hand when I need it. I know that God has given us a wonderful support system to help with all our little blessings.

The pictures I'm posting were taken Saturday by our friend Elizabeth. She was mostly trying to get Emory but we also wanted some of the other girls. The twins are so hard to photograph right now but I think she captured their personalities pretty well! They are busy busy!

2010-02-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

Settling In...

We got sent home from the hospital Friday with our sweet little Emory. And it has been crazy a crazy start. Very fortunately, my mom was/is staying with us this whole week to help out. I had some problems right off the bat, probably from lack of sleep b/c of the hospital experience. Emory seems to be doing great. She also wants to eat ALL the time. It does seem to be getting better though. She also wanted to stay up during the night for a few hours which was not fun, but we are really enjoying holding her. I know we don't need to spoil her, but it's nice right now to be able to do that.

Then Monday we woke up to a world of white outside our windows. We hadn't been following the weather, but I don't think it was predicted to have sleet & then snow, snow, snow. We needed some things from Walmart, but made do b/c that just was not possible. We did get some good snow pictures and Kaleigh had a lot of fun playing in it. So did Nathan! Then Nathan got an extra day off work today! Unfortunately, we had an unpleasant surprise today finding out that Alexis and Kaleigh are sick. The pictures below might be why... Both were running fever, and Alexis' was pretty high. I felt terrible but we had to bring them to Nana's (Nathan's mom) to keep them away from Emory. Kaleigh was excited, but I felt bad about Alexis. She always scares me when she is sick b/c she acts so lethargic and unlike herself. We have a doctor's appointment for all the kids tomorrow except Avery. So that's where we're at so far. Crazy start to life with 4 kids!

2010-02-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

Welcome Emory!

As I said in my previous post, we were scheduled to have a c-section Friday, but things obviously didn't turn out that way! I was praying about whether a c-section was the right decision & really wanted a VBAC so that I could recover easier & care for my other girls with less complication. At the same time, we went ahead & set Friday as the "deadline". I know things would have worked out either way, but I don't think God could have answered my prayers any better. There was no point during this experience that we questioned whether doing the VBAC was the right decision.

We decided on her name, Emory Christine, at 11:30 last night, and the contractions started about 30 minutes later. I wasn't sure at first, but it got painful quick! We got to the hospital around 2:00. The contractions were probably 3 minutes apart at that point. The first time they checked me I was a "5" and right after I got my epidural (praise God for that!) my water broke. A couple of pushes & she was born at 4:45. It was the kind of labor I have envied friends having. Now I've gotten to experience all kinds of labor - inducement, a c-section, and now "natural". We were so glad to meet our little Emory. She's sleeping soundly right now. Looks nothing like her sisters. More like me, but with Nathan's dimples. We are tired but excited about embarking on this adventure once again!

2010-01-31T09:47:00.000-08:00

A Date, A Nursery, but still no name...

We got a date for our C-section - it's this Friday, the 5th at 1:30 unless little baby girl Statton decides to come sooner. Yes, it's sad that it's 5 days away and we still don't have a name picked out. We have a probable name but just haven't made that final decision.

Also, my sweet friends Nitzia and Sara came over a couple of weeks ago to help with the nursery. Sara also helped paint the room. And Nitzia's husband, John Paul helped Nathan hang some ceiling fans and put the baby bed together. Now her room is pretty much the only one in our house that's decorated! Does that make up a little bit for her not having a name? Here are some pictures. Nitzia worked her magic & put together some of these hangings with stuff she brought. I got the wall quote from Kohl's on clearance. I really like how it turned out.

Our SS class had a diaper shower for us last week which was sooo nice. We are well stocked with diapers now. It was a fun shower. They invited all the husbands and we had a lunch after church. It was also with another couple who is having their 3rd boy who was also an "unexpected gift from God!"

2010-01-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

New Year's Fun

My Christmas present to Nathan this year was a New Year's Eve & Day celebration with several of our best friends. Us girls all decided to do that for our husbands. We have such a hard time getting together now, especially without kids, and thought it would be a lot of fun to do a whole night out. We got suites at Embassy suites and babysitters for the kids. We stayed up until after 3:00 just playing games and laughing a lot! The next morning we had a great breakfast there and got in the indoor pool & hot tub until we had to leave. The joke was that it was more a present for us girls, but Nathan did tell me it was a great present and he enjoyed himself a lot. I promise I was having fun, regardless of what it may look like in this picture.

2010-01-05T08:42:00.000-08:00

"Kaleigh-abulary"

I might have shared some of these before, but I thought it would be funny to share some of the words that Kaleigh doesn't get quite right. She speaks so well, but let's face it, the English language is confusing at times. So here are some words & definitions out of Kaleigh's special dictionary, pronounced as I have written them.

Yogrit - a fruity, dairy snack, usually eaten at our house in the morning
Jalor - a place to store things, as in "I'm going to go put my clothes in the jalor" (Love this one!)
to raze - what you do with a razor - "Mommy, are you going to raze your legs now?"
mazazing - a piece of reading material; usually comes in the mail
toefood - a squishy, white soy substance that I mix with other things & feed to the twins
ore - a sweet snack made of marshmallows, graham crackers & chocolate; if you want some, you say "I want some ores"
N a Mem - candy coated chocolate, comes in different colors
Kick - the singular form of breakfast cereal Kix

Don't some of these just make so much sense? We've corrected her plenty, but she still insists on her way and I enjoy it too much to make a big deal out of getting it right. I know we'll miss it when she says everything correctly.

2010-01-03T15:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas Part 2

Here are a few more pictures from Christmas Day at the Stattons house. I think it was the most relaxing Christmas Day we've had since we got married. After spending the morning at our house with my family, we had a big lunch then Lance & Kristin left for Shreveport. My parents went to a movie and we even had time for a nap before going to Nathan's parents house. We had a ham dinner over there & then more gifts! It was a good time & once again the babies were in a surprisingly good mood. I'm sad that it's all over, but excited about the year to come.

2009-12-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

Christmas Recap

A quick overview of my week last week -
Sunday night continued our tradition of going to Garvan Gardens with some friends and afterwards they came back over here for soup, salad & dessert.

Tuesday my parents came into town & we went to meet my brother Lance & sister in law Kristin. We met up at Playtime Pizza for lunch. Lance & Kristin moved to North Carolina this past summer so we had not seen them in a while. We enjoyed catching up with them again. I had to go to a Doctor's appointment for me (everything was good) and then take Alexis to the doctor (ear infection). I ended up taking Avery to the doctor Wednesday and she turned out to have an ear infection too. I was pretty surprised b/c neither of them has acted especially fussy lately but Alexis had a fever that prompted me to take her.

We did a little shopping but mostly stayed at the house (out of the rain) and visited & played with the kids. Wednesday Nathan and I smoked a turkey and had all of his family over with my family to eat that night and play games. We had 5 couples so we played a game called Couplez. It's sort of a Christian version of the Newlywed game. (Thanks DeBusks!)

Thursday of course it was still raining but we made the best of it. I was so glad that my Christmas shopping was done on Monday so I didn't have to get out it that mess. Our church's Christmas Eve service got cancelled but we played games & watched The Nativity Story. After Kaleigh went to bed we stuffed stocking & put out all of the presents.

Christmas morning we had breakfast then opened stockings. Then it was time for presents. That was a lot of fun, of course. The twins just had the best time walking around through all the chaos & carrying things around the room. I was glad to see that Kaleigh had not gotten gift crazy. She still wanted to stop & play with things instead of just asking for "more presents". We had to prompt her to keep opening. We had our Christmas lunch then Lance & Kristin had to leave. My parents went to a movie and I ended up falling asleep. That evening we went to Nathan's parents for Christmas dinner and more presents.
I'll post more pictures later from the Statton's house.

2009-12-12T15:31:00.000-08:00

WALKING!

I have done an awful job of documenting the babies' milestones, but they are hitting a big one right now. I want to make sure we know when it happened. Alexis has been taking steps for a while now, but just this last week is walking all over the place. It is so cute to watch. She looks like a little old woman with her tiny shuffling steps! Then last night my parents were over and we were sitting around with the kids and Avery decided she wanted some attention. So she stood up and took a couple of steps. She just beamed when we cheered and kept doing it until she was taking 7 or 8 steps. I loved literally seeing our praise & belief turn into a success for her. What an important lifelong lesson in raising kids.

2009-12-09T13:10:00.000-08:00

The other night I went with some friends to see New Moon, and a couple of people were asking about what other books I read. I do love to read and thankfully I read fast, since I don't have tons of free time to do it. I'm pretty much a "lazy" reader, meaning if I have to keep rereading a page to grasp it's meaning, I probably won't finish that book. I also read mostly fiction, with a few parenting, marriage, or decorating books thrown in for well-roundedness. But this blog will pertain to fiction.

Lately I've been reading Jodi Picoult. I definitely like some of her books better than others. My two favorites are probably Salem Falls and Nineteen Minutes. I'm about to read Picture Perfect. For laughs, I like to read Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic books. If you've seen the movie, the books are way more hilarious. They are a little absurd, but that's part of the fun. Not as funny are some of Barbara Kingsolver's books, especially The Poisonwood Bible. I really liked that up until towards the end. It just lost momentum completely. But it was worth reading. I initially get most of my book ideas from book clubs, like Oprah or Target, or bestseller lists, then go from there.
Nicholas Sparks books are also usually pretty good and easy to read. It's amazing how many of the books I like end up getting made into movies. I guess that's just the thing to do these days. What sparked the discussion with my friends was "Lovely Bones". I liked the book but it was waay overhyped in my opinion.
In the Christian category, I like anything by Karen Kingsbury and most books by Francine Rivers.

So, if you're looking for something to read, maybe this will help you. This is kind of an "obvious" list. If you want more obscure books, I've got those too.

2009-12-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Nathan put up shelves in our laundry room. We just needed more storage space for food, cleaning supplies, appliances, etc. Although he didn't quite finish, he got a lot done. The part that is left shouldn't take too long. We had a very busy weekend, with doing that. Friday night was our SS Christmas party. We had a gift exchange of mostly gag gifts. I say mostly b/c it was supposed to be a gag gift but a few were really nice. We ended up with a $5 Sonic gift card which was great and a chocolate monopoly game. Very cool. I brought a 70's/80's book & cd set. Nathan's was pretty funny. Our class normally does an ornament exchange and his tradition is to buy a photo ornament & put a goofy picture of himself in it. This year we got a frame with 8 pictures and he put 8 4x6 pictures of himself in it! I'll have to get a copy of the picture of it.

Saturday Nathan was working on the laundry room and I took the kids to a Christmas party in Benton that we found out about through HIPPY. The kids got to sit on Santa's lap and I actually got a pretty good picture of all three of them. Kaleigh told him she wanted dress up clothes & blocks. She is getting some dress up clothes but I haven't gotten any blocks yet. They also served lunch, had several nice crafts & gave the kids books, hats, gloves & pillows.

After the party we came back here & Kaleigh and I helped Nathan paint the laundry room and he went to work on the shelves.

Sunday we had to clean - it was getting unsafe for the children. Then we put up our Christmas tree and put out a few decorations. It was a full day of work as well, but fun work.

I was thinking back to all we have done since we got the house. I say "we", mostly Nathan, but I have helped as much as possible considering the pregnancy and the 3 kids. We've painted our room, the living room, kitchen, the twins room, Kaleigh's room and the laundry room. We pulled up the carpet & prepped the floors, installed wood floors, put up a curtain rod, built a workbench in the garage, built shelves in the laundry room, and started organizing junk in the basement. We've also had a lot of help with all that. What we still have to do is paint both bathrooms and the new baby's room and install some kind of slide out shelves in my pantry. Oh, and the small matter of the basement. I won't talk about that right now. I just think it's amazing how much we've been able to do in such a short amount of time. It probably helps that we don't have tv yet and just got internet. I'm so glad to have such a handy, hardworking husband.

Here's my promised pregnancy picture and a picture of the girls playing. They climb up in this little toy then scream b/c it's not big enough for them both. Alexis has just been sitting in there all day like a little queen.

2009-12-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

? Week Checkup -

I finally went to the doctor today. As they say, every pregnancy is different, and this one is definitely way different from the other two. Especially the twins, of course. With Kaleigh, I was busy working, moving (twice!) and getting ready for my first child. I was starting from scratch with baby stuff and of course I always knew what week I was in my pregnancy and how long I had left. I was fairly paranoid about what I did, ate or drank, etc.

Then, the twins. That was just a whole other ball game...

Now this one. I'm so laid back this time around. Probably a little too laid back. Once I got past the sickness & started feeling good, I got caught up in all the changes in our life and taking care of the three kids I have already. Mostly it's a huge blessing & an answer to prayer that I'm feeling good enough to not know exactly how far along I am and how long I have left. With the twins that's all I could think about. God had his hand in that whole pregnancy also, but it was a trial for us - to say the least. He took us through the fire and back again. This time around He is blessing me with a much easier time overall and good health and energy.

But I am so laid back that I missed one doctor appt and waited 4 more weeks to make another. So today I went back after over 2 months. Everything looked good, but something kinda funny did happen. I was getting weighed by the nurse and she kept moving the scale up, up & up. She said my weight and I said "yes, I'm finally gaining weight". She looked back at my records and said "Well, it looks like you've gained 27 pounds so far. We usually like to see our patients gain between 20 and 25 the whole pregnancy." Then she mentioned something about maybe watching it. I just sort of smiled & nodded, knowing that I'm not going to change anything. Mainly b/c she wasn't taking into account that I started out at least 10 pounds underweight. Also, after what I went through with the twins I developed almost a food phobia. I'm so glad to have my appetite back that I don't really care if I gain 50 extra pounds. Still, my belly is pretty big. I'm about 30 weeks along. It makes me wonder what I will look like at the end of the pregnancy! I'll post a belly picture soon.

2009-11-23T08:56:00.000-08:00

What a difference a weekend makes!

Sorry I haven't been able to post for a while. We have internet off & on right now so I'm going to give it a try.

The title of this post is referring to our floor. Nathan took off Friday and his dad & Ben came over to help with it. This room is majorly transformed. I will take more pictures once we have furniture in place but I'm loving it. I also love that we did it ourselves. It's so satisfying.

The "before picture, with the lovely green carpet.

With the carpet pulled up. Even Kaleigh got in on the action!

Laying the floor - it has to be perfect of course!

The almost finished living room. I love it! The babies seemed to like it too. They just crawled around and around. I should add that as much "help" as the babies and Kaleigh were, it was a huge help when Nitzia watched Kaleigh for us and Patti took the twins most of the day on Saturday.

2009-10-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

Okay - I think the consensus is that we are still good people & had a right to be mad. Lisa, you're right about the heaping coals of kindness, but I'm still gonna have to pray about that one! Because the charity had done so much work loading stuff already, we let them take a lot. That's also why it makes me mad that she called Nathan greedy. It makes me want to demand everything back if she's going to call us greedy anyway!

But moving on, we've managed to get a lot of work done this week, with some help and some loong hours put in by Nathan. The entire LR and our bedroom have been painted and Kaleigh's room just needs another coat. We're still working on getting wallpaper down out of the twins' room.

Here's a couple more pictures. Kaleigh's room is the yellow. I think it's adorable, but doesn't match her bedding at all so we had to paint. The last one is the view of the kitchen from the front door. This is truly an OPEN floor plan. I think it will be a lot of fun.

2009-10-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

House Drama

Please read if you have the time!
I've got to write this post to vent, and I also want honest input.

We were able to close on our house Monday after a long wait (yay!) The situation was a short sale and a divorce situation. Everyone had already moved out but there was a lot of stuff still left in the house. After we got the house on Monday, we went over Monday night to start working. The first thing that had to be done was clearing the upstairs so John Paul kindly came over and helped Nathan cart stuff from the garage and almost every bedroom to the basement. They spend about 5 hours doing that and we cleaned up. We really didn't look through the stuff closely, but a lot of it was in good condition, there was some furniture that we could use, baby things, etc. Tons of clothes and other stuff that we just barely looked at and threw in trash bags and figured we could go through later and keep some, have a garage sale, and/or donate to a charity. In the meantime, it was all stacked neatly in the basement. I should mention that Claire (our real estate agent) had warned us to change the locks b/c of the situation. We were planning on doing this, but weren't able to on Monday.

So Tuesday we pull up to the house around 3:00 and see a Uhaul parked in front of it full of stuff. After looking closer, we discover that it is the stuff from the basement. We find out that the previous homeowner told this local charity that they could have the stuff and she came over and let them in the house. Now I was absolutely appalled. I am still mad when I think about it. Nathan was about ten times worse. They had almost loaded everything, including a lot of the furniture that we were going to use, and we told them we were sorry but that it was our stuff and it needed to go back in the house. We ended up letting them keep about 10 trash bags full of stuff. We donate to charities regularly but I like to get a tax deduction for it when we do. Also at this point we had no evidence that they were even from a charity. We also found out later that about $50 worth of our stuff had been taken as well. The whole time I am thinking to myself "what is the Christian thing to do here?" But still feeling very violated. We immediately pulled off all the doorknobs and took them to get the locks changed. In the meantime while I was gone, the previous homeowner showed up. Nathan talked to her and she claimed that she thought she had until Wednesday to get the stuff out, which I think was a lie. First of all - how do you not know when your house has gone from your possession? Secondly, everything had obviously been moved and cleaned. It was in nowhere near the condition it was left in.

Now we go to today. I had calmed down but I'm mad all over again. Nathan went to the charity which I won't mention at this point but may later and asked to get some things back that they had taken which actually belonged to his dad. They said that they didn't have them, the previous homeowner had those things. Then the lady who owns or runs the place starts into Nathan telling him how her guys spent all day working on this and it cost them money and he was greedy to take stuff back from a charity! Until that point we had been sympathetic to the charity knowing that it was an unfortunate situation, but not really our fault! Nathan listened to her rant then asked her how she would feel if she went home and saw two guys coming out of her house that she didn't allow in, loading stuff into a truck?! She didn't have much to say about that. She did say she was going to notify the papers about the whole thing. HA! I'm sure they'd get a twisted view of it too.

So I sincerely want to know what you think. What would you have done?

2009-10-24T14:33:00.001-07:00

Little Bo Peep and her Little Sheep

This year for Halloween I wanted a themed costume for the girls. I kind of borrowed this idea from my friend Candice. I pieced together Kaleigh's costume from borrowed items, thrift store, garage sale & stuff we already had. We have several events & birthday parties to go to and dress up for. The first one was a community event in Benton. They had little games and inflatables and even horseback rides!

Alexis's new trick. She just stands up!

2009-10-23T15:13:00.000-07:00

Kaleigh's Birthday & Misc

Kaleigh had a great 4th birthday party. We decided to do a musical theme this year. Unfortunately, our pictures were not so great. You know those expensive cameras - one little setting gets off and everything is blurry. She loved it though and that's all that really matters.

We had a little trailer ride rigged up for the kids. I think that was probably the highlight of the party. That and the Dora pinata getting completely decapitated! We also had a musical squares game and a little obstacle course set up for the kids.

2009-10-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

BIRTHDAY PARTY!

We had the babies' party on their actual birthday, October 1st. A big part of the party was taking pictures of them and watching them dig into the cakes. They liked the icing but didn't get very messy. If you are on facebook, I'm going to post a lot more pictures on there. Just so you know, Nitzia embroidered the onesies for me and I made the hairbows (Nitzia taught me how). Nathan said he thought that was the most crafty thing I've ever done!

Stay tuned for more posts coming up telling about our trip to Texas for the reunion at the Texas Children's Fetal Center and an impromptu 2 day trip to the beach at Galveston!

2009-10-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Avery & Alexis!

One year ago today God blessed us with two more precious little girls. Honestly, this year has gone by pretty fast.

Here is an update on what the girls are doing now:

They are both crawling really well.
They can pull up on anything & everything and do so often.Both are good at picking up cheerios - still working on more "slippery" types of solid foods.
Recently we discovered that they will actually sit still for 30 minutes and watch Baby Einstein.
They babble a lot, especially Avery. Favorite words are mama, dada, baby, & meme.

Avery loves to be around people and beams when getting attention. She is sweet & calm on the whole, but she can throw a fit when it's time to nap and she doesn't want to! She babbles a lot and likes to pick up every little speck off the floor and put it in her mouth. She is a little more passive than Alexis, but if they are fighting over a toy, she will almost always win b/c she doesn't give up easily!
Alexis is active and loud. She likes to explore and seems to be a leader, doing a lot of things first. She's also quite the drama queen. I can usually tell the girls apart from their cries. Alexis's is loud and angry, Avery's is usually pretty sad like. Alexis can be very cuddly too, especially at night right before bedtime.

We Love you Avery & Alexis.

2009-09-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

Fall Fest

Saturday was Bryant's annual Fall Fest. It started with a parade then would up at Mills Park where there were food booths, things for sale, businesses giving stuff away, singing & dance performances, small competitions, that sort of thing. I enjoy just walking around looking at everything & being outside.

The parade was probably the highlight for Kaleigh. Poor thing though - she takes after me way too much. Instead of just enjoying herself, I think she was just stressed the whole time about getting candy. And candy she did get!

We entered the babies in a baby crawl contest. There was only one other baby - and Avery & Alexis came in 2nd & 3rd! You do the math. They just decided not to move. Go figure! It was still cute anyway. Isn't that the point?

There was lots else to do & see.

2009-09-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

Oh Boy - Another Girl!

We got our ultrasound on Wednesday, and surprise surprise it's another girl for us! I would have been shocked had it been a boy. I would love to have a boy but I know God has His reasons for giving us another girl and I'm fine with that. We were very happy to see that everything looked great and she was measuring right on schedule. I've started to gain more weight recently. I will try to post a belly shot soon. We've got a lot coming up - all the girls' birthdays and our trip to Houston for the Texas Children's Hospital reunion.

We do have a house - sort of... The papers are signed, and our closing date is the 30th, but only time will tell when it will actually happen. Things are already delayed with trying to get the electricity turned on for the inspection. Still, it's a great house and I will wait as patiently as possible. I can't wait until it's actually ours and we can get it fixed up & move in. I will put up before & after pics & probably be asking for some decorating advice!

2009-09-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

A Day in the Life

Avery & Alexis have gotten very mobile & mischevious. Things are rarely dull around here these days.
Alexis likes to pull up on things and then cries when she can't get down.
Or when she lets go & falls on her bottom.

They are both crawling & exploring and many times end up stuck somewhere.

Avery has a funny face that she likes to make since we always laugh when she does it. Don't be offended if she makes this face at you sometime.

And of course big sister Kaleigh is never far away from the craziness!

2009-09-03T06:13:00.000-07:00

New Home Wish List

Nathan and I have a couple of "must haves" for a new house -

at least 4 bedrooms or 3 with a room that could be a bedroom
a garage
a good backyard for the kids to play in

However, Kaleigh has quite a different kind of list -

A house with stairs - not on my list
It needs to be pink or purple - hopefully her room will suffice
A trampoline - maybe
A deck she can eat outside on - this sounds nice
lots of trees and if it doesn't have them "we can bring them and she will carry a small one".
A new baby in mommy's belly - I'm hoping she means the one already in there
A new Daddy - What?!!? I asked for clarification on this one. Are we talking about replacing our daddy? "No, we just need another one because we keep getting lots of babies and we need somebody else to help take care of them." (I love how she phrased that, like we keep going to Wal-Mart and bringing babies home or they just appear. She then told me she was just kidding about the new daddy.)

2009-09-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

Officially Homeless with 3 kids & one on the way...

Okay, don't feel too sorry for us. We do have quite a comfortable place to stay, even if it's not ours. We were glad to officially sell the house today and get to really looking for a new one.

We wanted some family pictures in front of the house and waited until the last possible moment and took some this morning.

And lastly - this little bit of funniness. Kaleigh wanted to pray the other night for her friend Noah. So she started off her prayer "Dear God, thank you for Noah and for his best friend - Me!" It went on very appropriately, but I was smiling the whole time. She is an interesting little person.

2009-08-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

Home Update

We've officially moved out of our house and are now living with Nathan's parents. We don't actually have to be out until the 29th, but we set moving day for yesterday. We had a lot of great help from some friends & family. Thanks guys! Now we just have a bunch of odds & ends to get out. Thankfully the appraisal & inspections went fine, so things should continue smoothly.

We found a house we really like & made an offer, but of course it's not a simple situation. It's in a short-sale, which is kind of pre-foreclosure. We heard nothing on the offer. Not a yes or a no or a counter. Somewhat frustrating b/c until we have closure on this house we probably won't find anything we like better for the price. We took Kaleigh to see the house & asked her if she liked it. She said yes and we asked her how much we should pay for it. She said "Hmmm, I think maybe 3 dollars". Then she said she would give us the $3 out of her piggy bank. Isn't that sweet?

Then yesterday we had the funniest conversation where she informed me that she doesn't want to move, she likes our house. Then she said "Okay, we can move. But we have to get a house with stairs". And if it's ugly we can paint it pink and purple so it will be pretty. I'm thinking we probably won't let her decorate for us!

2009-08-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

BYE BYE SHAKER RIDGE...

We are so glad that God allowed our house to sell in such a short amount of time. That can be a stressful & trying ordeal & we were spared much of that. Thank you all for praying for us. Now we are looking for a new place to live & trying to make the best decision in that regard.

We have looked at a few houses. Some were absolutely awful but we did find some we really like. In typical Nathan/Shelly fashion, I'm ready to buy one today, and Nathan wants to think about it and look some more and keeps thinking of things wrong with them... This could indeed be fun.

We will miss our sweet little house. It was our first home together and the only house our children have ever been in. I did tell Nathan a while back that we needed to move b/c I had bad associations after my bedrest here, but now I will be leaving with good memories.

2009-08-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love it when the forces of nature conspire against you to make things difficult? I'm working on something I needed to get done today, and it looked easy to start with. A list of information. 6 things...

my due date
Copy of my last bank statement
Mileage & Payoff of each vehicle
copy of my ID
copy of my birth certificate
Nathan's income for June & July

I looked at the list & it looked easy. I thought "this won't take more than 15 minutes to get it all together". Well the first thing was a little trickier than I thought. I needed something from the Doctor showing my due date. Turns out I have nothing. So, I'll come back to that one. #2 should be easy. I'll just print that off the computer. Then I remember the printer is not hooked up so that has to be done first. I'm already past my 15 minutes. I go in and print it out, but the ink is almost out. This complicates things. There goes #2, #4, &#5 until I can get more ink. 4 hours later I still have not one thing on the list. Don't worry, I haven't been working on it the whole time.

2009-08-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

I have not been very good about blogging lately. We've definitely been busy trying to get our house on the market. Well, Nathan's been busy & I've just been tired. It was finally listed on Monday. I decided it would be easier to skip town with the kids than trying to keep the house clean with them there. Hopefully some good news on that soon, then it will be off on the search for a new house!

I'll try to keep up with things as much as possible, although it may get even crazier for a while. July was crammed full of activity. Me & Nathan's 7 year anniversary was last Monday! We went on a nice little date to the Flying Fish (I got crab legs, yummm) and the to see the Harry Potter movie.

Here are some random pictures. Kaleigh & Mimi made a pinata for her to break.
Alexis decided to rest on top of Avery one day.

2009-07-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
(Psalms 127:3-5 ESV)

A few weeks ago Nathan and I were shocked to find out that we are expecting baby #4! We weren't sure if there would be a number 4 and definitely did not plan on having 4 children age 4 & under, but God has His own plans. We were relieved to get an ultrasound and fine out that there is just one! We're now working on selling our house and looking for a bigger one.

Here's a picture of our little bean -

2009-07-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

9 months & sitting pretty

Avery & Alexis turned 9 months on July 1st. They are finally both sitting up well. I can't believe it took this long! It will be nice now and make it a little easier to dress them and bathe them, and also give them another view of the world. Avery is also cutting her first teeth! Two little teeth coming in on the bottom. She is just a little bit fussy and a LOT drooly! I think Alexis is getting some too, but I can't see them as well yet.

Nathan and I got a little break over the weekend. We left the kids with grandparents and went down to Felsenthal with some of Nathan's friends from way back & their wives. We do this annually on the 4th of July and call it the Guys & Wives reunion. Although we didn't get to go last year. I had just had my surgery and was in the hospital here. This year was definitely an improvement! It was all about the fishing this year. I didn't go as much as some of the others, but it was fun. We were able to stay in the shade for the most part or go in the morning before the bad heat set in. The highlight for me, besides just visiting with friends, was seeing an alligator! Liz spotted it first and we stayed a safe distance away, but it followed us for a little while. I kept my eyes on it. I wasn't scared as long as I knew where it was! Andy finally threw a fish at it, & the gator ate it then turned around & swam away. Fun.

2009-06-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

SUMMER FUN

2009-06-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

Lake Weekend, Sort of...

We had planned a lake weekend with our friends, but it turned into just a lake day for most of us. My family came to visit for a few days and we got to spend some time with Lance & Kristin before they move to North Carolina. I'm happy for them and will enjoy visiting them there, but we will miss seeing them. We wanted to spend as much time with them as we could, so we stayed home Friday night and got up early Saturday to go to the lake.

It was a gorgeous day. Perfect for swimming, riding around in the boats, laying around, talking, eating, and playing with the kids. It's rare these days that we can all get together. Nathan's still nursing a slightly hurt ankle, so he couldn't wakeboard. He spend most of the day taking pictures with our new camera. Here are a few of those. I need to get a photo editing program and zoom in on some of these.