Weekend with the Fam

The work weeks seem to be flying by so far. There is never a dull moment at the office. And we are embracing the "weekend warrior" role.

When I got home from work Friday, I got to work on a birthday cake for a friend of mine. Her little boy was turning one and she wanted a monkey cake for him.

I took the cake to her and then went to see "My Sister's Keeper" with Dedee and her daughter Megan. It was a good movie and nice to get out with some friends. This was the only half way decent picture I got of the three of us.


Saturday we packed up a picnic lunch and went out to DeGray to swim. Karen, Leslie, and Khennedy met us there and we had hot dogs and watermelon for lunch. We all hit the lake after lunch. We were hoping to hop into the cool water after a hot afternoon, but no such luck. The water was warm and unsatisfying. We had a good time anyway though.




Last weekend Alex's parents brought us some vegetables from their garden and it seems that a very special set of squash had grown there....


Grammy Retta called it "The Three Sisters"


This was Olivia at breakfast telling me that "OSO" was on t.v.

Flocking as a Family

We headed to Paris, TX Friday afternoon for a Race For The Cure walk with the team "Friends of Harold and Tim" for my Uncle.My Memaw and Mom met us there. We all had a good time celebrating the survivors and the lives of those that are no longer with us. When the luminary ceremony began, I explained to Abi and KayKay about the candles and bags representing the people that have fought cancer. It was a late night. When we got back to the hotel, I bathed the girls and worked on getting them ready for bed. Abi was laying in bed and said, "Momma, I had a really good time tonight. During that one part, I was with Memaw, and I cried a little bit." I began to ask her what she was talking about and she told me that it made her sad when they showed pictures of people. I asked her what the pictures were and she began to cry and said "cancer". I tried to explain to her that we were there to help find a cure for cancer and that Uncle Tim would not want her to be sad. She eventually calmed down and went to sleep but she is such a deep thinker and a tender heart.









We all miss Uncle T and think of him and Aunt Pam, Linds, Zac, and Jackson daily. I am so very proud of the person that he was and comforted by knowing where he will be waiting for us.

........We took the girls swimming in the pool at the hotel Saturday morning and then went to visit the cemetary. We headed to Newhope after leaving Blossom for our monthly family potluck.




We had a really great potluck. My Aunt Susan, cousins Katelyn, Jessica, Trent, Uncle Gordon, Papaw McBay, Granny, Uncle Danny, Memaw, brother, parents, Alex's dad and mom, Alex, the kids, and I were all there. We had the BEST time grilling out and visiting. I am so proud of all of my family and the love we are able to show. Poppa grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and everyone brought the yummiest casseroles and sides. We laughed and visited all afternoon. The girls gave the grandpa's and daddy their father's day gifts, and there were lots of hugs.





On a side note:
Makayla has been having some issues with her stomach lately. She has been getting sick almost every morning at breakfast for a couple of weeks. She had no other symptoms except for the occassional belly ache at bed time. I got worried because she used to aspirate, so I got her a doctor appointment on Friday and Dr. Weed said that she has reflux. He prescribed her Prevacid and she seems to be doing better so far.
I hope you all are staying cool out there in the internet world. It has been a hot one so far!

I Still Love Technology....Always and Forever

Olivia woke up around 4:00am Friday throwing up. Alex got up with her and cleaned her and put her back to bed. We thought it might have been an isolated incident because she only threw up her carrots (which she did not chew very well at supper and they were raw) but it wasn't. She got sick again later that morning after sleeping in until 9:00 (very much not like her to sleep that late). I called and scheduled her a doctor appointment. She threw up on the way to the appointment and then once we got into the building. The doctor said she had a "bug" and gave her a shot. Poor baby. I haven't had to go through a shot with her in a long time. She was a big girl though and calmed down quickly. The Dr also prescribed her some nasuea medicine. She felt a lot better by Saturday afternoon.

Friday afternoon a horrible storm popped out of no where! I was at work and there is a weeping willow tree outside my window that was dancing around like crazy. The sky turned pitch black and then came the lightning and thunder. One of my co-workers opened the back door and dirt and debris flew all in the hallway. We were finding dirt in our mouths and eyes the rest of the afternoon. It was scary. We also saw a funnel cloud dipping out of the sky. A house near where our girls go to daycare was lightning struck and caught on fire. And, as some of you know, we live in the middle of no where, and our power went out around 3:00pm. It was hot at home and we went through out the night with no power. We left the house Saturday and went to Alex's office to take showers and get cleaned up. The power came back on around 1:30 on Saturday. And I learned that I just do not know what to do without electricity! I needed to wash clothes, vaccuum, clean the kitchen, check Facebook, read some blogs, cook supper....it was awful! I am pathetic. But, it is back now and lots of cleaning has been done today.

We took a trip to HobLob to get supplies to make Father's Day gifts and on the way Abi and KayKay were playing "I Spy". Abi says, " I spy something......church colored." And guess what, it was a church!

We had some fun with the "Bubba teeth" as well. And Alex was tuned in to the Razorback Baseball game as much as possible.




I am confident that none of the grandpa's look at the blog. So here are their Father's Day gifts. We try to do something home made. Last year Abi and KayKay painted bird houses and we put Livi's hand print on them because she was too small to paint. This year, they get pictures with feet and hand prints.

One Week Later

I don't have any new pictures for this post(boring, I know). But I wanted to update from my last dreadful entry.

Things are going pretty good. I am learning to let things go and understand that millions of American moms have to leave their kids with someone. And I am thankful that the woman keeping mine is so crazy about them. She genuinely has a desire to help them learn and grow. Olivia is having tantrums a LOT more than she did. She is mean to her daddy every day when he picks her up. She cries all of the time it seems like. I do feel like this is due to the fact that her daddy and I discipline a little bit more than Ms Lisa. But she could be worse. Makayla was pinching some of the kids at daycare, but after we talked about it she decided to be nice to others.

Abigail lost two teeth over the weekend! She is so competitive. She couldn't stand the fact that Makayla lost a tooth and got money. Lol. We went back home and visited our families also. We were happy to see Jessica's baby Ben and that he was out of the hospital. Nana and Poppa cooked some great food for us too.

Alex is still liking his job and is able to help out a lot more with the kiddos. He has been VERY helpful around the house with chores too. We try to savor our time in the evening with the girls, and I am definitely more appreciative of the weekends. The days were just a blur when I stayed at home. Alex has thanked me several times for going back to work so that he doesn't have to travel and be away from us anymore.

I really like all of the people that I work with and am feeling a little bit more comfortable with it. There are just a lot of policies and procedures to learn. But it will all make sense in time.

I found some pictures from this time last year...

Honesty is the Best Policy

I started my new job on Monday. I dropped the girls off at Mrs.Lisa's for the first time on Monday as well. My first work day went fine. I felt a little overwhelmed at times, but that's all part of it. And then I picked the girls up. .....
I had previosly explained to Mrs. Lisa that we try to give the girls organic dairy products, etc. I packed a bag with organic juice and snacks.
Exhibit #1. Mrs. Lisa gave the girls non-organic milk. Which in turn gave them belly aches.
Exhibit#2. Olivia had paint and markers all over her arms and mouth(which is a sign that she was eating them).
Exhibit #3. Olivia had play doh stuck on the bottom of her sandals(which I was not aware of) and picked it out in the car the whole way home. So there is still blue play doh in the floor board.
Exhibit#4. I spent part of my evening sobbing beside the tub as I tried to scrub off the paint and realizing that she was jabbering words that I didn't understand. Exhibit #5. Olivia would not nap for Mrs. Lisa and was cranky the rest of the evening.

I was a wreck Monday evening. BUT, I came to my senses and realized that no one is going to do things exactly how I think they should and I have to cut the cord!
They all love Mrs. Lisa and Olivia cried when she had to leave the first day. Things have been much better since Monday and my new job still overwhelms me, but I'm thankful that I have it.

Here is Olivia's face scrape from Mrs. Lisa's. :o)


So, honestly, the week started off emotional for me, but hopefully it will keep getting better from here!