Camp Occoneechee

We had a great weekend at Girl Scout camp!

I'm exhausted, in need of a LONG shower and some serious DVR time!

I'm glad that I went to help chaperon and now remember why I haven't gone camping since middle school!

I hope to post a few pictures soon.

Three Ladies and a Gentleman

Rob had the pleasure of taking these 3 lovely ladies to the Daddy-Daughter Dance

Friday, April 24, 2009

This year I co-chaired the planning of the dance. It was a ton of work, but turned out great thanks to many volunteers, including my wonderful sister! Thanks Kitty, I could not have pulled it off without you!!! She gets an extra pat on the back considering she doesn't even have a child at the school.

The theme was The stars come out......

We had a blast constructing balloon arches. They were very to easy to use and very addicting. My girls will now have arches at birthday parties. Wish I was kidding :)

This star archway turned out great. Boy was it work to blow up over 500 balloons (with hand pumps) to construct this large star and 2 smaller ones. I was very pleased with how it turned out. The girls loved it!

I wish I could say I created this beauty. We have a parent who is a wonderful pastry chef and she donates her services for the dance. It was awesome as usual!

My girls loved date night with Daddy! I'm just glad it's over and was a success. Now maybe I will have time to blog and catch up on my reading!

Ops I did it again.....

Drop the blog ball that is.

It's been a crazy few weeks.

Like our weather, my life has been so unpredictable.

Between sick kids, laundry, car pool, girl scouts, art, dance, HW, potty training, planning a Daddy daughter dance at the girls school, and added pressure caused by our great economy, I've had very little "me" time to read blogs or even post.

The times when I can hardly slow down long enough to catch my breath, help me to see what I'm most thankful for. It's easy to over look all the great things we have when times are tuff. I have been blessed with 4 beautiful, happy, healthy daughters, have tremendous family support, live in a free country and 11 years ago I married the man of my dreams.

March 7, 1998

There are so many things I would love to tell that young couple. For starters, don't blink, the years really fly by! Oh and being in your 30s is not as old as you think.

I'm looking forward to the next 50 :)

Puppy Love

This weekend, Rob took the big girls to play with Cookie's new brothers and sister. Cookie is our 1 year old Shih-Tzu. Her parents have a new litter and since the puppies are all being adopted next week they wanted to get some puppy love. Emerson and I stayed home for a much needed nap and took care of the other cookies taking up our time. Girl scout cookies. I now know the real reason they only sell them once a year! : )

A little pile of sweetness!

Connor loved having this little one sleep on her lap. Thank goodness they're all spoken for!

Olivia with her two favorites.

It was hard to get these away from Landon. Look at those sweet faces. All 3 :)

Cookie (on the right) and her mommy enjoying the sunshine. The girls said they mostly stayed together . How sweet. I'm just shocked that she sat still long enough for Rob to get that shot. I'm convinced she's a lab trapped in a Shih-Tzu body. The only time she's still at home is when she's sleeping!

Wonderful Wednesday!

Tuesday night's homework was to write about and draw a hero. I smiled when Olivia handed me her notebook to check her work and said, "I'm done...that was so easy."

It's the little things that catch you off guard and put things into perspective.

God is a hero.

And boy did he answer my prayers.

I stayed up way too late looking at a million photographs on iheartfaces. I'm so out of control :) With our Mr. Sunshine (aka daddy) out of town, I knew it would a rough Wed morning. I drifted off to sleep, praying for a pause button so I could catch up on my sleep.

Well...brace yourself...we got a no-snow-snow-day!

Yep, I did not have to wake and dress 3 sleepy ladies for school. We all slept until 9:45. To make it even sweeter, Connor came into the kitchen and saw the 1/16 of an inch of snow,she turned and squealed, "yeah, God gave us snow again!" When I asked her to repeat what she said, (this mommy tries not to talk in the morning) she giggled and said, "God gave us more snow...just like I asked for in my prayers." Too sweet!

Oh, and the snow was all gone before lunch. I spent the rest of the day making Valentine crafts with my loves.

Photo Contest:"The Eyes Have It"

I love this picture of baby Emerson. I think it makes her eyes look beautiful. Wish I had those lashes!
This is a great blog I just found. Check it out!!!I love taking pictures and and looking at all the great pictures other people take.

Pitch a Tent

This is as close to camping as we get!

Well with S'mores, haha :)

Emerson loves to play in these tiny tents that my sister gave the girls. They are small enough to fit American Girl dolls. It's so funny to see her and Cookie in their tents side by side.

Eme is always eating something! Cookie wants to know, "where's my treat?" When I asked to join the club she promptly told me," No, Mam-Sir, maybe later." LOL She studies at the-universal-use-of-manners-school. It saves time trying to decide if Mam or Sir fits.

Wordless Wednesday

One little monkey jumping on the bed.....

Emerson is a hand full!!!

Now that she is in a big girl bed she roams.

Yes, she is standing on the "bonka-bed" trying to wake up her sister.

She should be scared, but no, she's just proud that she made it. She said, "Hi, mommy...I'm climbing." She is giving me grey hair. No kidding. REAL grey hair.

Speaking of hair, I was going to post about her sweet new hair cut, but Rob has my camera in Auburn. No husband 4 days a week is bad enough, but now no camera...I might go mad. Only 3 more days until he comes home. I'm counting down the days!

SCORE!!!

We got a TON of snow. I'm going to say 4 inches maybe 5. Hey, it's the south. Last year we only got a glorified sleet day.

According to the girls, how the miracle came to be is still up for review. Olivia and Connor think they brought the snow by wearing their pajamas inside out, but Landon thinks flushing ice cubes and a putting a wooden spoon under her pillow did the trick. And yes, we started the day with a heated discussion of who really made it snow. The fights all end the same...a tie between baby Jesus and God.

It was a wonderful snow day!!!

Let it snow, Let it snow , Let it snow....PLEASE

The local weather man is calling for SNOW. Which means we aren't getting any, but it's still exciting to hear. My girls heard that flushing ice cubes is sure to bring snow, so we are giving it a shot. Soon we will be all out of ice I really LOVE snow days. A snow day after a National Holiday would be even sweeter!

Cookies and Santa

Landon is selling Girl Scout Cookies and she's thrilled!!!

I never let her join a troop until this year. According to her, she wasn't allowed to be a girl scout because, "she has too many sisters for her mom to get out of the car in order to walk me into the meetings." She makes a valid point. Unloading and reloading 4 kids more than twice a day does make me cranky. (Well, unless Target's having a sale.) The truth is there was just NO WAY I would have ever let her go to sleep away camp until this year. Going to camp is a big part of scouts and I knew she would want to go and I would be a mess. I think I might be able to let her go this summer. Key word being, might. However, being a chaperone could be part of the plan. Funny I know, but I'm not kidding.

Support your local girl scouts and buy some yummy cookies!!!

This is the only Santa that Emerson would have anything to do with this year!

Fun Times!

I have been busy trying to convince Emerson to use this: She does not want to potty in "her" potty. She just likes to sit in on it and read. Good thing it folds down to be a step stool.

It's not a total loss. She is doing OK on the real potty. Hey, it's one less thing I have to clean :)

All Aboard!

My older girls were all potty trained way before their 2ND birthday. Emerson was 2 in November. Oops! I was stalling hoping to keep her in a baby bed until after Christmas, but gave in over the break. She is sleeping in a big bed and doing great! The big girls are now really looking forward to teaching Emerson to potty like a big girl. Santa gave her the cutest little pink princess potty and Connor said, "wow mommy now we can put her on the potty train!" They even made choo-choo sounds when they told Emerson she was getting on the potty train. Too funny!!!


Now the fun begins. Having to remember to ask and run to the potty 5 million times a day and no less than 2 visits to the potty in every store and restaurant. The first visit is to check out the soap situation and the second to actually use the potty since they were too distracted the first time. I carry what I refer to as the potty bag. It holds, antibacterial wipes and spray, hand sanitizer, a portable potty, plastic bags, paper towels, and a complete change of clothes including socks and shoes. Everything one would need to disinfect the nasty public potty for use and then to clean the potty seat afterward. Oh, I can't wait! Maybe next week...

2009 Already!

We had a wonderful holiday break. It was nice to see family and friends. We were very busy, but blessed. We did a lot of traveling and even more eating. Yummy for my tummy, but not very kind to my behind! I took a break from the blog and the treadmill. At least catching up on missed blogs will be fun.
It was sad to see the girls walk into school today, but I'm not going to lie, I was excited to get home and play Landon's Super Mario Bros...uninterrupted! No girls or husband to share with. I felt 9 again. I loved to rush home from school and play the Nintendo with my sisters! Rob and I have been playing the new DS games when the girls go to sleep. My hand even hurts a little. No shame!
Well, now it's back to juggling our busy schedules. Rob will be back to traveling for work and I will become the slave to laundry, lunches and homework. What I'm going to miss most is hearing the girls giggle and whisper while looking at Christmas lights . I just love the lights! Next to getting Christmas cards it's the highlight of my day during December. I'm looking forward to what 2009 brings! Happy New year!