The time has come!

We pick Daddy up from the airport tomorrow!! We are very excited. It seems like forever again since I have posted anything.





I have a few pictures of the girls before we left to take Abi to school. Livi and KayKay just go in their pj's on days that KayKay gets to stay home. They were all looking cute. And tonight Olivia has been playing with tape. I don't know if you can see it in all of the pictures but she had a great time with it.


Olivia has been sick for about two weeks now. She is feeling better but still not 100 percent. She has been talking to her Daddy a lot lately(he hasn't been here so it has been sweet) She will wake up from naps and I will hear her in her bedroom saying "Daaaaddddaaaa". I know she will be so excited to see him tomorrow.
We made Monkey Munch tonight. That's always fun. And I attempted to build a fire in the fire pit that I got Alex for Christmas last year (which has never been used by the way) but I quickly learned that I am useless at building fires. We were gonna roast hot dogs and marshmallows, but we only made it through the hot dogs because I couldn't keep it going. Thanks to "Real Simple" magazine for being such a great fire starter.
Abi had Santa Shop at school today where she got to bring money and buy for whoever she wanted. She bought for me and Alex. Then she went to her room and she wrapped the gifts with Makayla. It is adorable.
We are having a Christmas get together with our college friends tomorrow night. We try to have Christmas dinner every year to keep in touch. It's almost the only time we see eachother every year.

Abi and Makayla constantly practice their tumbles and flips for gymnastics and Olivia witnesses this every day. The last couple of months she has been getting in her turns as well and it is priceless!!

Proud Momma

Abi and Makayla used the money that they had saved up in their piggy banks ( which are actually a monkey bank for KayKay and a rainbow bank for Abi) to buy hats and gloves for people that need them. Abi's school has a tree that they are taking up donations for to decorate with hats, scarves, and gloves to donate to those that need them. One of the best parts of the whole experience is the fact that I had to explain to Makayla several times the the hats, scarves, and gloves were to keep the people warm, not the tree. Ha! She kept saying,"yeah Momma, the gloves and hats will help keep the tree from being cold." It was great.
I let them put their money in their purses and check out individually. We held up the line tremendously, but it was so worth it for the girls to realize that they can help others. Abi began to tell the check out lady why she was buying these items and the lady said "that is precious. Just about makes ya want to cry."
We have been hanging out at home all day pretty much except for running to buy the hats and gloves. We have been tuned in to the Disney channel where it has been Christmas everything all day. I just love it. We had home made chicken noodle soup from the crock pot for supper and it was great too. :o)
I can not wait until all the family get-together coming up soon. We miss everyone and it is the best time of the year.
Tim and Pam, if you get to read this, you are in every prayer that I send up and you are in my thoughts constantly. It thrilled my soul to hear that you got hungry, Tim, and that you chose a good ol' ham and cheese! Can't wait to see you again. We love you!

Here we go again on our own

We are having a girls weekend. We made one of those paper links to put on the christmas tree and each girl had a color. Livi participated and she did so good. She sat patiently and waited for her turn and (with assistance) glued the ends together.
We then busted out some cake mix and made cupcakes. It was nice. We mainly just laid around and watched christmas shows. Livi and I haven't been feeling all that great so we opted to stay in tonight.




Olivia's new favorite toy is a shopping cart that we got Abi and KayKay last Christmas. She puts her baby in , puts in some toys, and takes off. She is also making her new camera face. Everytime she sees that she is having her picture taken, she squints up her face.


And KayKay is just beautiful. And she also missing her daddy a lot.

Hey kids, remember when you.....

I just wanted to take a quick minute and jot down a few of the funny things that the girls have said lately.
Olivia was sitting on the counter yesterday eating a grilled cheese while I cooked lunch. I began to look for her sippy cup that she had earlier and Makayla and I couldn't find it. We scoured the house. Finally, I said, "Olivia, do you know where your cup is?" and she shook her head yes. I put her down on the floor and she went straight to the trash can and opened the lid and pointed down in there. And sure enough, there was her pink sippy beside a banana peel that I had her throw away earlier in the morning. I just thought it was cute that she knew exactly what had happened to her cup and she watched me and KayKay search the house for it.
Next is Abigail. Last night we were discussing what she wanted to be when she grew up and she named several jobs that she wanted to have and then began to talk about the things that she would cook and do around her house when she was grown. I asked her how she was going to have time to do all of that with all of her jobs. And she proceeded to explain to me how she would have her "daddy" (which is what she calls a husband) pay all of the bills and do the dishes so that she would have time to do the things that she wanted. And I told her that I wanted her to teach me how she gets him to do that when she grows up, and she keeps telling me over and over that she is gonna teach me how to get "daddy" to do those things around the house. It was cute. I love how she calls her husband "daddy".
And last, but certainly not least is Makayla. This morning as we were leaving the driveway to go to school, I saw our neighbor's mother driving her son, Andrew, to school. and I said, "Look girls, there goes Andrew's momma in that black car." So, we pull out behind them and head to school. We see his mom turn around and go back towards their house and KayKay says, "Look, there goes Andrew and his black momma.", our neighbors are white. I busted a gut.
The kids definitely keep us entertained.

And on a side note, all 5 of Abi's and all 5 of KayKay's butterflies have now hatched and are fluttering around the butterfly houses.
Abi named hers:Mistletoe, Scott, Flitter ( I explained what flitter means in Memaw and Ova's vocabulary, lol), Flap, and Dotty.
And KayKay's are: Swanlake, Lydia, Lily, Christmas, and Woodstock.

Welcome Month of Christmas!

We didn't do anything special today. The girls were just hanging around the house tonight. They were actually running around like wild indians. I was at the kitchen table taking care of some work that needed to be done on the computer, and Livi is like a puppy, she follows me all around the house while I am doing house work and plays right where I am. She was crawling around under her high chair, which seems to be her new favorite place to play.


I have been working on getting Olivia's nap and bedtime schedules adjusted so that we can do more things in the evenings. And so that hopefully she can tolerate evening worship services easier. So I have moved her bed time to 8:00 instead of 7:00. And tonight she was particularly upset in this picture when her sisters tackled her and took a toy away from her. But it was too funny to pass up a photo op.


We put up our Christmas tree Saturday evening. I think Nana beat us though. She got hers up earlier in the day on Saturday, due to the text pic she sent us. The girls loved it by the way. I had so much fun putting up the new decorations that I got last year after Christmas on clearance. It was great fun.
I seem to have misplaced all of the ball ornaments though. Which isn't really a big deal, we have all of the sentimental ones. I thought I might just not replace the ones I lost and let the ones that mean the most to us just pile up year after year until the whole tree is covered in them. With three (hopefully to be four someday) kids, it shouldn't take long.
Alex is back in Virginia. He left yesterday. We took him to the airport. He enjoys it when we take him and pick him up. He likes for us to greet him as soon as he touches down in Little Rock. Gives him even more to look forward to.



I hope all of you out there in blogspot world are doing good. Enjoy this holiday season! Don't stress over buying the perfect gift, and don't worry yourself by spending too much money, just enjoy the atmosphere and special feeling that goes around this time of year. I crave it when it is gone.

Be safe and most importantly:Don't be a Scrooge!

Happy Turkey Day

Alex got to come home! He came home Tuesday night and Wednesday we took Abi and KayKay to meet Grammie in Hot Springs. They went to spend a couple of night with their grandparents. They were able to go to Big Granny's and Memaw's for Thanksgiving and are coming home tomorrow. We are going to have Thanksgiving at our house with Nana and Poppa and Uncle Seth.



Livi, Alex, and I went to our good friend Dedee's family Thanksgiving. It was at her mother-in-law's house and we had a great time. They have a way of making us feel right at home. I hope that will be a new tradition of ours for the holidays. Livi had a ball playing with all of the kiddos and eating until she was miserable. Thank you to Dedee, Sharon, Bob, Mike, Patti, and all of the kids for making our Thanksgiving wonderful!
I have also failed to mention that I took Abi to get her ears pierced on Monday. She wanted me to sit in the "piercing chair" and let her sit in my lap. So I did. She teared up and looked at me after the first earing went in. She didn't make a peep though. And she didn't even flinch for the second ear. She did great!



Makayla spotted the back hoe at Poppa's house and hounded him until he toook her out on it. He let the girls dig a small hole in the yard and they had a blast.



Olivia has also learned to give us the "evil eye" when she is angry with us. It is hilarious and, yet again, all my fault.
We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

That's Amore'

Alex is STILL out of town. We are not sure now when he is coming home. He may miss Thanksgiving with us. We are praying that the situation in Virginia changes and he will be with us for the holiday.

In the mean time, we have been staying busy back at home. One of Olivia's favorite things to do is climb into chairs. She loves this little fold up chair that belongs to her sisters. But I guess anything in this house is community property because they all play with everything. So, here is a picture of her enjoying some cartoons one morning in the chair that she climbed in and out of 50 times.


Abi had her Thanksgiving performance on Thursday night. She did really well. It was hard to see her because there were a ton of kids on the stage. The only picture I got of her was when she came up front to bow when it was over. I was trying to film it and keep an eye on Livi and KayKay.


There are lots of things that the girls like to do to help out in the kitchen when I'm cooking. They have always loved to help or just watch the process. One thing that I typically let them do is make their own pizzas. I get the little crusts that come in a package of 3 and usually let Abi and KayKay make one and I make Livi's. They get to paint the crust with olive oil and then spread the sauce around. Then they sprinkle cheese and onions and put on the pepperoni(half of it doesn't make it on to the pizza). Well, tonight when I was getting all of the ingredients out, it dawns on me that Livi is probably tall enough to see over the island when she stands on the step stool. So, I let her and sure enough, she was a big enough girl. So I let her ,for the first time, sob, make her own pizza for pizza night. It....was...precious....




She is cramming all of the ingredients into her mouth in about half of the pictures that I have. So I tried to just get a picture of the finished product. There is some incriminating evidence on her chin though....




All of the girls had a great time making their own supper.




We really miss you Alex. Try to stay warm and safe.
We are all together in spirit no matter where your travels may take you.

Butterflies Coming Soon

The girls both used to attend therapy at the preschool that they went to due to their previous home life and everything that they have gone through. Their therapist, Holly, got a butterfly house and sent off for caterpillars that you can grow at home. You watch the caterpillars grow big and then they climb on top of the lid of their jar and hand upside down until they make their cocoon. Then you put the lid in the butterfly house until they hatch and are butterflies. Holly used this to signify the girls going from their old life to their new life with us. Then, they released the butterflies. It was a beautiful idea. So Holly got each of the girls one of these kits to do at home for their birthdays. We have been on a caterpillar watch for a couple of weeks now. All of the caterpillars have now made their cocoons and we are about to put them in their butterfly house. The girls are SO excited. They check on them constantly to see if there has been any progress. It has been really neat to watch. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but the cocoons are in the cups hanging from the top. We had to put them on a high shelf to keep Livi out of them. And the other picture is of the butterfly houses.



Abi also has a Thanksgiving performance tonight at her school. The Pre-K and Kindergarteners are going to sing and dance for the PTA meeting. I am very excited about this because she loves to sing and dance. She has been practicing for two week. She comes home singing, "You put your drumstick in, you take your drumstick out." She has been "Turkey-trotting" as well, and shaking her "tail feathers". Which she thought was hilarious when her teacher told her to sing that because I always tell her to sit on her tail feathers. So, it should be very entertaining. I will be filming it if I can get Olivia to cooperate with me and be still.

With this hat on, she looks like she has Jamaican braids.


Everyone is doing well around here. We are all ready for Thanksgiving and a long school break. Oh, and for Daddy to come home.

Just the girls again

Alex had to leave town again yesterday. He is in Virginia this week. I would now like to share a tid bit of history that I have learned from watching "The Other Boleyn Girl", "Elizabeth", and "Elizabeth:The Golden Age". Virginia was named after Elizabeth, The Virgin Queen because she never married. There is also a town in Virginia named Elizabethtown. I know that Alex will be laughing his head off at me when he reads this, but I am impressed with any bit of history that I retain. So, I thought I would share the knowledge.
So, anywho, he will be back this weekend sometime hopefully. The girls had gymnastics tonight. They had a great time as usual and then after supper, we began our nightly bedtime ritual. I let Livi play in the tub longer than usual tonight. Usually we are in a hurry so I get her in and get her out.But tonight I let her play and she had so much fun! This is the first time I remember seeing her fingers and toes so shriveled up from the water. So I had to take pictures. And then it just got crazier from there. So the photos tonight are random.:o)




Me and KayKay were being goofy while Abi was in the tub and when she heard about it, she wanted to be goofy too. So she decided that a fishy face would be the most appropriate thing to do. So here we are, in all our glory.

We love all of you who are keeping up with us and have a great night!

Long Time, No See

It has been a while. Livi and I have been kind of draggy this last week. She has been running a high fever and had a sore throat and I ended up with a sore throat too. I took KayKay and Livi walking on the trail in Bauxite on Monday morning of last week. So I think the sickness was probably my fault.
Everyone is doing better this week. I still have some coughing. But overall, we are doing well. Alex came home on Friday and we were all very glad to see him. We had a movie night with the girls and they had chips-n-dip instead of popcorn for once.

On Saturday, Brent and I went to the Reba and Kelly Clarkson concert. It was so nice to get to have a "grown up" evening. Lol. Alex watched the girls. I guess they had another movie night because he sent me pictures on my phone of the girls lined up on the couch eating popcorn while I was at the concert.





We had a great time!! The music was incredible and Barbara Jean from the Reba show opened up the act with some stand up. I was so glad that I got to go.

Last night was another "my babies are growing up" moment. I typically sit with Livi in her room at night before she goes to bed and we have one on one time. We usually sing and talk. We always sing Twinkle Twinkle. She usually just smiles and dances along while I sing and occassionally I hear her say the "up above" part. So, last night, she begins to sway her head back and forth and hum along. And before I knew it, she was singing half of the words in her baby jibberish kind of way. I heard her say "up, above, and star" for sure. I was bawling like a baby. And when she was done she clapped for herself and said "Yay". Heartbreaking and exciting moment for me. I have been worried about her not talking much for her age. Ohhhh, it's time to get back to fertility treatments. lol

Today, I have Livi and KayKay at home. KayKay only goes to school two days a week now. So we have a lot of projects at home that we do to try to keep her on schedule for when she starts Kindergarten next fall. We are learning the letter "Y" this week. We went out onto the back deck and painted the yellow sun and some green grass(our letter last week was "G"). She is doing really well with the balance of school work at home and school two days a week. I am so proud of how far she has come.



Livi has been constantly brushing her hair this week also. I sure hope none of it falls out. :o)

Madagascar and Mayhem

Alex is still out of town. I went to my cake class on Friday night and left the girls with the sitter. Olivia got the vibe that I was leaving her and was kind of clingy, but when some of the kids mentioned going outside to see the puppies, she quickly got over it and took off. On Saturday, I took Abi and KayKay to see Madagascar on the Imax screen. So Olivia had to go back to the babysitter. She knew immediatley what was taking place. She became fussy and I tried to give her the babydoll that she had brought to play with and she slapped it out of my hand. Lol. It was difficult to leave her(she made it a little easier by acting bratty) but we left for the movie. The girls were excited and enjoyed the music and dancing animals. Abi keeps singing, " I like 'em chunkay, I like 'em Plumpay". That's what the boy hippo, Moto Moto, sings to the girl hippo, Gloria. And yes, the girls thought it was funny that the girl hippo had their Grandma Gloria's name.



After the movie, we went to get Olivia and then headed to Newhope to see the family. We didn't tell anyone that we were coming in. I had decided that it would be nice to have help for church and just to get to see everyone back home. The girls are growing so fast and every visit that we can fit in is precious.













Grammie and Papa came over to my parents Saturday night and Abi and KayKay were showing them how they do their handstands. I had asked the girls to not do anymore after about 10 minutes because they kept getting closer and closer to kicking Olivia in the head. I left the room to heat up Olivia's supper and heard the thud. Then crying. I returned to find Abi crying and holding Grammie. I automatically assumed she was just milking the attention because it wasn't one of those "in pain" kind of cries. It sounded forced. So I told her to let me look at where she hit. And sure enough, she had split her eyelid and it was bleeding and swelling. I felt like the biggest butt ever. Lol. I put ice on it and tried to console her. So, after all of that, this is what remains of her boo boo.






I took some pictures of Livi in the tub tonight. I haven't done that in a long time. Here is a flashback from about a year ago:










And these were taken tonight:




My babies are disappearing right before my eyes.



The girls in their pj's. They wanted to tell Daddy goodnight. We love you and can't wait to hug you again!