I'm still here

If I ever get caught up with work...I've got alot to blog about.

Today's Funny - When You're Ready I'm Here

Emma thinks she is so grown up. Especially since she will be 6 on Saturday. I have been REAL busy today trying to get stuff done, so I haven't talked with her alot. She just came in to me and we had the following brief conversation:

Emma: Mommy, I'm so excited about my party on my birthday.

Me: Me too Em. I can't wait for you guys to have a great birthday.

Emma: Mommy, let's talk about the party.

Me: We will later, Emma. Mommy has got to finish getting stuff ready for Cubbies.

Emma: That's OK. Mommy....just know that when you're ready to talk, I'm here. Just come to me when you are ready.

What a hoot! Where did she learn that?

Crockpot Recipes and such

Just thought I'd mention a site that I just found thanks to someone else. It has alot of helpful hints and crock pot recipes, etc....etc...check it out:

Hillbilly Housewife

Flashback Friday...on Saturday :)

I'm getting ready to do some Stefan posts...so here is one pic that I found from a long time ago.

I promise it won't hurt

Yeah right! Emma's two front teeth have been loose for a few weeks now. One of them has been literally hanging on for the past few days.

Before I go any farther, let me go back a few days. Last week, as will happen, the girls got into a ...how shall we say this...let's say "disagreement". It resulted in Sarah headbutting Emma in the mouth. Needless to say, Emma's mouth bled for a short time.

OK...fast forward to this week. For the past few days, Em has had a temperature and her gums have been swollen and purple. I became concerned that Sarah might have done some damage to her sister's mouth, so I made an appointment for the dentist. Most of you know that Emma is all about drama when it comes to any kind of doctors office visit. I had to convince her that all they would do was take a "picture" of her teeth and look at them . And...kudos...she might get a new toothbrush. She was cool with this, so off we trekked to the dentist.

Upon arrival, Emma developed an overwhelming need to say everything that she could possibly think of, over and over. Yep...nervous talker. After x-raying and checking all out, he motioned to me that he was going to pull one of the offending loose teeth out. Let's call it the dangler. The dentist pulled a trick on Emma (oh so sneaky) and managed to numb her mouth without her realizing it. Then he had her close eyes and snuck in the extra numbing shot. That one made her cry. She didn't know that she had received a shot, she thought that it hurt because he pulled the dangling tooth out.

Once said tooth was pulled, the dentist hugged her and put her tooth in a bag to give to Mom (me) to bring home for that mysterious night wanderer called the tooth fairy. The he did the most unheard of thing and gave her a dollar for her tooth. I want to know where he was when I was little and being forced to go to the dentist! Anyway, after reassuring us that my little headbutter had probably not done any damage to Emma's permanent teeth, we left with a wad of gauze in Emma's mouth.

I thought that this would be it, but no. On the way home, Emma leans as far forward as the seat belt would allow and bellows at me through spit and gauze: "I didn't even get a toothbrush!" My response was "you got a dollar....do you want a toothbrush instead?"

Emma says to me: "No a dollar is cooler. A toothbrush is just brush, brush, brush all day long. That's no fun!"

So there you have it. And by the way, we do know that the dollar bill is upside down in the first photo.

The Corn Maize

Last week I took the girls to the Corn Maize. It's about 20 minutes north of Shreveport. This was the first time that we met up with one of the local home school groups. Fortunately, Cindy and the kids came so there were some familiar faces.

(Just part of the group)

The girls loved it! In fact, they got a little upset when I said it was time to go. That might have to do with them being overly tired though:)

They had pig races, pumpkin blasters, three different mazes, a hayride, and several other things. It definitely kept the kids busy. If you are interested, check out their website: Country Fun Farms .

Here are a few:

It finally happened

I have no pictures to illustrate this story, however, I am sure that you wouldn't want to see one if I had one.

I have always heard stories about children that get items stuck up their nose, but have been fortunate not to have any of my own do this. Well that has changed.

The other day I heard Sarah crying in her room. Emma was telling her that she was going to get "Mommy". Sarah said "No, wait for Daddy to get home." Of course, I had to see why. When I got in the room, I saw all of their Mardi Gras beads on the floor. Sarah was in front of their full length mirror holding her nose and whining. Emma promptly supplied the following information: "Sarah has a bead stuck in her nose!"

Sure enough, there was a pearl Mardi Gras bead stuck in her nose. After a brief surgery consisting of a bright light and tweezers, said pearl was deposited in the trash and Sarah was given a stern lecture on what would have transpired if the pearl had not come out.

When I asked her why she didn't want to tell me she said: "I thought you would be mad and not take it out". So, at least I know that I still have Sarah snowed.....LOL

Just another Friday night at the football stadium. I love football season. Last Friday was the game against Benton. Unfortunately we lost, but the band did pretty well. Of course, I am biased towards our drumline. You can click on the picture below to see more from the other night at the game.

HHS 2008

And here are a few of Caleb. I lucked out and got a seat by Misty and Daryl.

Miscellaneous driving shots :)

Wednesday Nite Live

Wednesday Nite Live has kicked back into gear this fall at church. The praise and worship band from last year was made up of mostly seniors, so Stefan and several of his friends decided to take over. This picture only shows Stefan singing, but he is also playing guitar in the band. Pretty proud of him we are. He just learned how to play the guitar a little over a month ago. They are doing pretty good so far.

A Night Under the Stars

The Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet did an evening under the stars free performance at the Festival Plaza. Greg and I decided to take the girls...thinking that they would enjoy it....which they did. When intermission came, the ballet offered a mini-ballet lesson on stage for the children. We thought that Sarah would go and Emma would be too shy and stay with us. WRONG! Sarah cried and cried...she did NOT want to go on stage. Emma, however, did go up there and drop a few dance moves.

We were fortunate enough to meet up with our good friend Cindy, and her kids.

Here are a few:

Happy Birthday to Greg

Greg's 39th borthday was August 30th. It kind of stunk because we were all sick. However, I rallied around and made him a cake for his birthday. The picture below is what you use when you forget to buy candles. (Can we say yep...toothpicks?)

It must have been REALLY HARD to blow those massive candles out!!!!

Stefan giving the thumbs up as he barely made it in for the cake and ice cream. I forgot to post a pic of the girls in their bandannas...I will have to do that later.

A quick Emma pose

Very rarely does she want to pose...so I threw this in.

I still have Greg's birthday and Stefan's first day of school....ARGHH!!! Will I ever catch up?

Ick! Another cold...

Last Wednesday we were so excited about getting together with our friends at the park. However, it was not to be....let's take a rain check Alli, Shell, and Chrissy. Emma woke up with a temperature and a runny nose. We had just visited a friend in the hospital, so we thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and see the doctor.

As always, Emma had plenty to say about her visit. She really does not like to go to the doctor. She actually did really well this time....if you don't count the fact that she announced to everyone within earshot that she "HATED the doctor" and would not be coming back again. Umm...fortunately they are used to her drama.

We managed to escape with just a small shot and a pat on the back telling us that it was just a sinus infection...not bad. Fast forward to a week later and we are all still trying to get over it. From Emma, it spread to Sarah, then me, then Greg...where it has stalled. Stefan narrowly escaped and I think that is just because he is never at home. Ah well...we are now in recovery mode. Thank goodness.

The above is of Emma on the way to the doctor's office. We had to take a box of tissues with us. The two images below are of Emma showing off her incredibly bad war wound...that would be from the teensy tiny finger prick they did. But to hear her tell the story, it was a HUGE finger prick and they sucked all her blood out of her. Did I say that she is my drama queen? (Can you tell that she is re-telling the story? LOL)

And this last shot below is the obligatory shot of Sarah...just to prove that she was there with us. And by the way, the little conniver managed to get out of the doctor's office with more stickers than her sister. I guess it pays to be cute.

Chillin' in the Country

I know these aren't the best pics, but it's pics of my little girls just being little girls and relaxing in the country. I love these little girls....with their funny smiles and laughs and their endless hugs.