Thankful

Thanksgiving this year was pretty uneventful. We went to Texas to visit my parents for a few days. We had normal "thanksgiving stuff" and played games. My grandmother was there, and my brother and Holly. We sat around and just enjoyed being together. My brother, at one point, being flippant said "we need to go around the table and say what we are thankful for...mom, you start". It was pretty funny, although my mom did her best to act offended...so I decided to think about what I am thankful for this year.

1. I am thankful that I live in a free country. That there are men and women who have fought and given their lives for my freedom. I am thankful that because of that freedom I am able to worship Jesus openly and not be afraid of consequences.
2. I am thankful for a caring husband who loves me and my girls and works hard to provide for our family.
3. I am thankful for three beautiful girls that God blessed me with. I love watching them every day. I love to see their eyes when they learn something new or discover something for the very first time. I love that they laugh at everything, and that they don't yet know the meaning of the word "stress". I love how their faces light up at Christmas trees and lights.
4. I am thankful for great friends and family both here, in Texas, and in other countries. I am thankful that God blessed my life with wonderful people to spend it with.
5. I am thankful for a healthy family.
   
6. I am thankful for transportation that allows my family to drive to see their grandparents and their aunt and uncle.
7. I am thankful for "family" in Oklahoma that loves my girls like aunts and uncles and grandparents.

So...even though it started out funny..I guess I have a lot to be thankful for this year!

Happy 8th Birthday!

My baby turned 8 yesterday! It is hard to believe that she is growing up so fast. This year she decided she wanted to have a swimming party, so we reserved the YMCA and everyone grabbed their suits and had a great time. We opened presents, had cake and ice cream, and swam and swam! :)



Make a wish....





Annalise and Marlee


Kacey, Piper, Chanee, and Annalise


Bestest Buddies, Kylie, Aidan and Annalise


Annalise and Samantha

Happy Birthday, baby! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of the sweet girl you are growing up to be. You have such a big heart and you are friends with everyone. We hope that year #8 is great!

Walkie Miss Walkerson

SO...with much encouragement from her big sister...

SHE'S OFF!

The Monkey in the Tree

Today was Mia's first day of school! She was so excited. She came in my room all morning and said "MOM! Are you ready yet?? I am going to be late for school!" To understand why this made me and Ryan so happy...you would have to know that last year was NOT a good year for her. She hated school. It was a fight every Wednesday and Friday. I felt guilty making her go, and eventually pulled her out to only one day a week.

I think, in part, her year last year got off to a rough start. I was still in the hospital recovering from my delivery with Ella when she started school, so I didn't get to take her. I didn't get to take or pick her up for at least the first month she was there. Then there was the adjustment to her new sister. There was also, I think, a problem with her relating to her teachers.

We started talking about school about a month ago...I told her, "you get to be in a big girl class with new teachers..." We have been praying for several weeks that this year would be different for her. We went last week to Meet the Teacher day and, boy, were we ever surprised. Her teacher was wonderful from the minute we walked into the door. She got down on her level, talked to her until she was comfortable, showed her around the room and Mia immediately bonded with her. So much so, that she was mad when it was time to go!

Mia was so excited about her "big backpack" that she picked out herself...it was bigger than her!

Such a big girl walking into school all by herself!

Smiling after she put her stuff up in her basket with her name on it!

She was very excited about the train table! She loved putting together the tracks and attaching the trains together!

Just before I left...one of the little boys said, "why is your mom going bye bye?" Mia looked at him and said..."because, this is MY big girl class...not hers. She has to go take care of my sister."

When I picked her up, she was all smiles. "My monkey stayed on the tree all day long!" was the first thing she told me. This is for behavior...if they make good decisions, their monkey stays in the tree. If they don't, he falls out of the tree! Overall a great day for her! She can't wait until Friday!

2nd Grader

It is so hard for me to believe that this little girl is in 2nd grade! Doesn't it seem like just yesterday when we were bringing her home from the hospital...or trying to get her to say "mama" when she was 22 months old and said EVERYTHING else, but refused to say that.

Annalise was so excited about today. We went to the mall because she really "needed" to wear a dress on the first day of school. She picked it out all by herself and it is really cute.



We walked into her class and she was so big sitting at her desk, getting everything out of her bag and ready to go without any help.


We were so blessed to get Mrs. McCoullock this year. Annalise talked about her all summer and was convinced that she would be her teacher. She was super excited when I swam out into the middle of the ocean where she was to tell her that she, in fact, did get Mrs. McCoullock!


Buddy Aidan was starting all day Kindergarten today!


Best buddies...Annalise 2nd Grade....AIdan Kindergarten...Kylie-loo 1st Grade


I can't wait until 3:00 so I can hear all about her day. It has been crazy around here without her today to help me!

Red, White, and Blue

All the kids...Kelsi, Ella, Kami, Harrison, Annalise, Aidan, Mia, and Kylie


Sweet sisters


"Uncle" Ella



I love 4th of July! It is one of my very favorite holidays. I love to get the girls all dressed up in their red, white and blue and go to see the parade, swim, cookout, go to the carnival and watch the fireworks. This year Annalise and Ryan were in the parade, so Mia, Ella and I went to watch the parade from the sides. Mia loved it. She sat in her chair with her flag waving and caught as much candy as she could. Ella was busy watching the whole time and did really well until the police and fire departments were in front of us with their sirens...then she was very screamy!

We came back to our house and all the kiddos swam and we had a cookout. They all had fun eating snacks and swimming the day away. Around 6 we headed back over to the carnival when the bottom fell out of the sky. It poured...rained and rained...the sky was black and everyone was wet and VERY hyper. (We might have rethought the snacks if we had known we wouldn't be letting them run it off at the carnival!) The fireworks were canceled, so everyone actually got in bed at a decent hour. We were sad about the fireworks, but everyone was tired after a long day of parades and swimming!



Sweet Annalise


Mia-Kate watching the parade


Sweet baby Ella


The girls...Kylie, Mia, Aidan, and Annalise

Beautiful Baby!

My big girls have been in Texas with my mom for the past week, so I decided to take Ella downtown for 10 month pictures. We didn't take 6 month pics because it was February and very cold outside, and at 9 months it was the end of school and craziness...so we decided to do 10 month pictures instead! I took her to the Myriad Gardens, which are beautiful by the way! It was 1000 degrees yesterday, so I took the pink tutu and just left her naked. I think they turned out very cute! I took a couple of other outfits too, but these are my favorite! :) Gotta love a chunky naked baby in a pink tutu!


Ella showing off her standing skills


such a cute girl!


Sweet face


My favorite, even though she is not smiling...her eyes are amazing!

The Flower Fairy

This weekend was Annalise's very first ballet recital. She started taking ballet last summer as a trial to see if she would like it or not. She had begged for a couple of years to take ballet, and so Ryan and I decided a trial summer would be a good idea to see if she really liked it before we committed to pay for an entire year of ballet. She loved the summer session and did awesome for never taking dance before then, and her teacher bumped her up a class for the 2008-2009 year. She was the youngest in her class by at least 6-8 months, but it didn't bother her to be the youngest, or to not know anyone, she quickly made friends and loved her class.

She worked really hard for her ballet recital that was June 7th. The dance school did a production of Peter Pan and Tink. It was really great and nice that it was a show instead of 100 random classes getting up and doing random dances. She had a lot of fans...Mommy, Daddy, Memaw, Mamaw, Uncle Ryan, Holly, Grandaddy and Grandmommy all came to watch her big night.


She was a flower fairy in Pixie Hollow (where Tinkerbell lives). She was so cute! She thought she was big stuff because she got to wear makeup...


Here she is with her best buddy Aidan (the squirrel!) Soooo cute!



Annalise and her buddy Julia. Julia goes to school with Annalise but she is a grade above her. She really loved getting to know Julia this year.


Annalise and Uncle Ryan.


She had such a great year. She was also nominated by her teacher as the Victory School of the Arts Student of the Year. She made it to the semi-finals. We couldn't have been more proud of her! Here is a little bit of her dance...She is on the very end

Summer 2009 - Day 1

I LOVE summer! Yesterday was the last day of school, so last night, Annalise and her bestest buds, Kylie and Aidan had a slumber party. They had a pizza picnic outside, played and played outside until dark, and then came in to take a bath and watch The Tale of Despereaux with a huge bucket of movie popcorn. As Annalise said, they got to stay up soooo LATE! (All the way until 9:30).

The best thing about the start of summer is that Ryan and Uncle Mike work in the yard and get the pool ready. The girls get so excited. So, while they played outside last night, the pool assembly started. The guys got it put up, filled up, and shocked it so it would be all ready for this morning.

The girls slept in (all the way until 7:30), got up and ate donuts and milk, watched Hotel For Dogs while I braided their hair and were chomping at the bit to go outside and welcome the pool into the summer of 2009. So, here they are...the first pictures of summer...now off to get some Popsicles for the beach babes outside!

cute girls in the sun


The girls "getting some sun"


Annalise with the pool noodles


Mia's first year in the big pool!



Mia and Aidan


The whole gang, Kylie, Annalise, Aidan, and Mia

Appreciating Teachers...

I agonize over Teacher Appreciation Week every year (or at least the last three years that I have had a child in school). I have issues with buying ready-made gifts...not that there is anything wrong with them, just because I want to make my own. I am one of two homeroom mom's in Annalise's class this year. The good thing about her school is that every year, there have always been more than one homeroom mom, which helps since we organize lots of parties, and it helps cut down the expense.

So, this year for Teacher Appreciation Week, I pretty much took it over. The other mom had done lots of other stuff throughout the year, especially during the first semester since I was so sick after having Ella. So, I made teacher appreciation week my project...what was I thinking? Seriously, it is not hard for me to find one or two creative things to do...but five days worth?? Mind you, we didn't have to do 5 days worth, but how do you not do every day when it is called Teacher Appreciation WEEK!? So, here is what we did...just in case you need any ideas...

I made all the tags for each day similar...I kindof did "The Five Days of Teacher Appreciation Week" (kindof like the 12 Days of Christmas)-which was an idea I found online...

Day 1:
Have you seen those edible arrangements? I think they are so cool...but SO expensive! Seriously, it is like $80 for a bouquet of fruit!, so I made my own. Granted, it doesn't look like theirs, but it was about 20% of their cost....It was really easy. I just got a cute flowerpot and styrofoam from Hobby Lobby (on sale-of course) and some bamboo skewers and fruit from Walmart. I cut the pineapple into slices and then used a cookie cutter, used a melon baller for the cantelope and then cut the ball in half and stuck it to the pineapple with a skewer. As for the strawberries, I just pulled (NOT CUT!) the green stem off and skewered them upside down. How easy is that?! And sooo cute!





Day 2:
I sent out a note home and collected money for her teacher throughout the weeks before Teacher appreciation week. Then Holly (the other mom) and I got different giftcards that we knew she liked. (I got this idea from someone at church) I got a pizza box and some pizza scrapbook paper that was laminated and put in the box to look like a pizza. Then, I attached the giftcards to the top of the pizza...cute way to give giftcards!





Day 3:
Who doesn't love a movie night? I went to Blockbuster and got a popcorn tub and $5 gift card. Then I went and got her favorite candy and a coke. Everything you need for a movie night at home!





Day 4:
This was my favorite day. I did this for Annalise's teacher when she was in Pre-K and she really liked it. I generally don't like doing things more than once, but I loved this idea, so I reused it! I took pictures of the kiddos and printed them on shrink plastic. I cut out the pictures and punched a hole in the top of them before baking them in the oven. Then I attached jump rings and made a charm bracelet of her 1st grade class. She loved it!






Day 5:
We made a "Why We Love Mrs. Zeaman" book. I took cardstock up to the school a couple of weeks in advance and took the kids a couple at a time out in the hallway. On one page it had a picture of them with their name. They wrote (in their little first grade handwriting and spelling!) the reason the loved Mrs. Zeaman. They also drew pictures and decorated it. It turned out so cute...then I took it up to Kinko's and had it bound. (it only costs about $5). I loved it and so did she...something she can keep forever of this years class!





So, that was it...Teacher Appreciation Week 2008-2009 is done! Now I better get crackin' on next year! Did I mention I don't like to do the same things twice?!