Happy Birthday Whitney!!!!

I can't believe that Whitney is 8! I am going to do a photo montage, but NOT tonight!!!! You can enjoy her birth announcement and wait with anticipation the slideshow of her 8 years!!! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

What a day!!!

I am pooped, but I wanted to get this blogged tonight, so here I go. Today was a very busy day for me. As usual, I had Blaire come to keep the kids so that I could volunteer at Whitney's school. Today was a field trip to Casa Manana and I was selected to go with Whitney's class. It was also the day that Whitney got to bring treats for her birthday, which is tomorrow!!!! She chose donuts as he treat, so after taking her and Mason to school this morning, I headed off to pick up the donuts that I had ordered from our favorite shop. I then went and picked up Blaire, dropped her off with Blayne and Reagan and headed back to school. I loaded up all of the sack lunches and drinks from Whitney's class and headed to Ft. Worth with my friend Shannon who was also chosen to go on this field trip. We enjoyed the show "Miss Nelson is Missing" which is based on one of my favorite childhood books. We then went to a park, ate lunch and watched our kids run to the park equipment and scare the bee-gee-bees out of some kindergarteners that were playing oh, and there was a homeless man sleeping on a bench right in the middle of all of this! Then, back to school we went. The children headed to an assembly, and I headed to the classroom to set out drinks and donuts for each child. I was horrified to find my yummy fresh donuts COVERED in ants...the box, the counter, the donuts...alive with the motion of ants! I kicked into action and ran to Albertson's and purchased some pre-packaged Krispy Kreme donuts. I came back, the assembly ran long and I ended up having to pack the donuts into ziplock bags for the kids to take home . Whitney's teacher sang "Happy Birthday" with the kids and they quickly left out to go home. I raced home, began preparations for Whitney birthday supper (chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and rolls...yum!) My parents had arrived for a short visit. We ate dinner and then prepared for our small group to meet at our home for tonight's scheduled meeting, John took Savannah to her game (he is her coach) and I held down the fort...only ONE of our group members showed up tonight. So much for making and island full of snacks! I had some good one-on-one time with this sweet lady and after my parents returned from the game with Savannah, we enjoyed a yummy cookie and celebrated both Whitney and my mom's birthdays....whew...it has been a day!!!!

Whitney's New Do

Whitney decided a few weeks ago that she wanted to get her hair cut off. She did this once before in when she was in Kindergarten and did Locks of Love. She is so sure of herself and when she decides something she is not wishy-washy about it. I did talk her in to waiting until after class pictures on Wednesday. We went to a local place called "Girly Girl". She had a blast. This was the first time for her to have a shampoo, cut and style....to say the least, she LOVED it!!!!

Reagan & Whitney Training the Dogs

Box Tops

My girls are really into collecting Box Tops as part of the fundraising efforts at school. Last week, Whitney's name was drawn for her grade level for bringing in a large amount of Box Tops. She received a "smencil" (a smelly pencil that she has been sniffy for a week!) Savannah turned in her Box Top efforts this week. At her school you enter these pages, for a chance to win a Webkinz stuffed animal. So, for all of you that help collect the Box Tops, keep cuttin'!

Colorful Self Portrait

Savannah did this pastel drawing at school. It is very colorful.

Funeral for a Bird

I snapped some pictures of the kids earlier in the backyard. It seems that Luke found himself a little birdie out there. The kids worked hard to get Luke to drop it and they scooped it up and threw it over the fence. Whitney is now leading the services for the bird's funeral...I just love these kiddos!

Prayer Needed: Please Pray for Clay!

Hello to my blog family and my Blog lurkers. I would like to ask that you pray for this little guy. My Aunt Judy shared this story with me yesterday. My Aunt and Uncle moved to Olney and have grown to love this tight-knit community. It is one of those "everybody knows everbody" towns. This is a sad, sad, story and I could tell that it hit close to home with my Aunt as she has three boys who were quite the adventurous ones growing up! There are lots of things that need prayer in this situation. And, if you are willing and able, go donate blood to his account! This is heart breaking! Please lift this family up and the entire town as that minister to them. May God be glorified even in this!

Cleaning Out My Memaw's House

It is strange to think that my Memaw has been gone for almost 4 months! It has been a real process to get everything taken care of. My Aunt Judy (My mom's sister) has done an amazing job in organizing and cleaning everything out of the house. I went over to the house to help her today. We got so much done! AND....while we were there a sweet little family came to visit for the SECOND time. They are VERY excited about the house and property and are going to try to work it all out. They are exactly what I was wanting for a buyer. Sweet young family, excited about the location and the land! Aunt Judy and I had a great visit and lots of laughs as we went through MORE of Memaw's Stuff! It makes me realize that I am much like her...why do I keep stuff???? I guess it is genetic or something. We had fun. I did find a couple more "treasures" for my kids. The house looks good. The girl that came to see it today said that when she came this weekend, she felt such a "peace" when she entered and that she was happy to see all of the books that my Memaw liked to read! I guess the piles didn't scare her away! Well, pray for a quick sell and that maybe this will work out for this family. Of course I took pictures to document our day. We worked all day...didn't stop for lunch until 3:00! God is so amazing in HIS timing, the neighbor is going to have a garage sale and offered for us to put EVERYTHING we wanted to in the sell...we boxed it up and ran it down there real fast before she could change her mind! He also allowed us to be in the driveway leaving for our "lunch" when this little family came, so we were able to answer ALL of their questions and more....AND we walked the entire property with them. It brought back lots of childhood memories!

Valentine's Day...

We got to sleep in a bit this morning and then we enjoyed yummy pancakes made by John. We then went to Savannah's basketball game which was very fun and competitive! The kids enjoyed reading cards that Nana and Pappaw dropped off last week and were especially thrilled to find that they had REAL mail in the mailbox from Bee and Grandpa. They each got $5 in their valentines and were quick to go put them in their new bank systems, well, except for Reagan who QUICKLY put hers into her pocket! We have no commitments the rest of the day, so we are playing the Wii, doing some laundry and hanging out together. John and I are going to enjoy and in-house date tonight, complete with take-out from Pei-Wei and a movie on our home theater system!

Valentine Treats...

The kids have their Valentine treats at "their places" at the table for tomorrow morning!

Whitney's Valentine Party

Potty Training 101...Not My Favorite

Reagan is insisting on Potty Training...woe is me...this is a part of parenting that I don't enjoy. I must say, that she is quite the entertainer in it all, though. Michelle loaned me a potty and I bought a potty so that we could have one on both ends of the house. Wouldn't you know, Miss Reagan decided that that the ONLY place for a kid to potty is on the BIG potty, not the cute potty chairs!!!! Another issue is that she thinks that to go potty one must strip down completely naked to be successful! So I have to totally re-dress her each time. Yesterday, I was talking to my old neighbor, Lisa, who has moved back home to Boston, and I had to pause for a moment so that I could take a picture. Seems that my princess had gone potty and then put her own Pull-Up on. The problem was: She put it on through ONE leg and pulled it all the way up like a halter top!!!! What a mess!!!!

CHD Awareness

This week marks Congenital Heart Defect Awareness week. I was not aware of CHD or not conscientious of it until we learned about Libby before she was born. She was on a prayer list at our church and I started praying for her and reading her carepage website. Spending time first hand with a child that has CHD brings lots of things into perspective. Libby has to deal with a lot of challenges each day. She came and visited us today while her family went to a musical. She is such a joy! I was reminded of all that is entailed with her care. She gags a lot and had to work up the gag to find relief, she has a feeding schedule that runs every 30 minutes and her pump broke, so this has to be done manually until it is replaced, she wears special inserts in her shoes that have to be put on with her shoes. It makes me admire her mom and dad even more. I am thankful for Libby and for what she teaches me each time I am with her. I also love to see my children interact with Libby. They have been around her so much these past two-and-a-half years, that her challenges are no surprise to them. When she gags, one of my kids will run for a towel or rag so that I can "catch" the gag, when it is time for a feeding, Reagan will often come running and lie down next to Libby. They will swing with her, jump on the trampoline with her and entertain her with their silly antics, and they do it all in a bit of a sensitive cautious way as to not hurt or scare Libby! Please take time this week to pray for these kiddos and their families and if you ever have the opportunity to support CHD I encouage you to do so!

My Favorite Valentines

Today we were all dressed in red so I took pictures of the kids before church. They looked so cute.

School Day Surprise

We have been planning a fun over night trip for the kids for a month or so. They had no idea about it....



We picked Savannah up from school after her Fitness Club. She was very surprised to find Daddy, Whitney and Blayne in the car....when she got in we all held the suspense and then Whit and Blayne began to HOOOOWWWWLLLLLL....Savannah got VERY excited! So we headed on our way to....



We had a wonderful time. As you will see in the pictures, we are missing ONE of our little ones. Yep, we elected to leave Reagan behind. She was supposed to spend the night with the Packwoods', but because of fever earlier in the week, we couldn't risk exposing Libby to illness. So, Araenae (babysitter) graciously offered to stay with her. She had a great time! They went to the park TWICE!!! We missed her, but we know that we made the best choice. It was confirmed as I saw twin two-year-olds melting down at story time in the lobby...yep, Reagan was better off at home!
Here is a picture of Libby with Araenae:


Here is a glimpse into our stay.

This was sooooo funny. John and Blayne were playing hide-n-seek. Blayne could not figure out where John was hiding each time. John finally told him that he was going to the top and climbing in the bucket that would dump out. Blayne believed him!!! He did tell it in a believable manner!!!! Here are pictures of them playing.

We had a GREAT time, but it was painful getting up for school today. The girls missed a 1/2 day yesterday as it was inservice in our district. It was a fun surprise. I love to do things like this and get away without them even knowing it is going to happen. We had some great quality time together!