2010...Already?

I have taken a VERY long blog break and think I'm ready to return. Funny, it's 1year and 1 day ago that I last posted. Even funnier, my girls just got back from girl scout camp! It is like I pressed pause on my blog and have just returned a year later. I'd love to give a great reason for my absence, but I've got nothing! No new baby, illness or jet setting career... just lack of motivation.



I made a decision to slow down and learn to say "no" once in a while. (Mostly to myself!:)) For the first time in 12 years, I didn't even send out Christmas cards. It was SO relaxing not having to capture the perfect shot of my girls. Ironically, I took a million good ones that would have been perfect.



I've enjoyed just reading my favorite blogs without pressure to post my own. I did not think I would miss blogging as much as I have. Now, I'm excited to jump back in and hopefully have some great stories to share! We've had a wonderful and busy year. And for my friend at 40 pink Piggies (who needs to add her little prince to her side bar) I will have lots of photos, too!

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!

Wordless Wednesday

Slack Blogger Award

Guess I'm not really back. My girls are taking turns getting sick. If they all got sick at the same time who would feel special?! Even Daddy's sick. There aren't enough hours in the day to care for a sick man and still blog. He actually created my Christmas Elf show, since my computer is trying to die. I seem to have too many cookies and not Java.

Thanks, Honey. Hope you feel better!

My Christmas Elves!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I'm Back!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. We spent Thanksgiving Day in town with my family and then headed to VA to spend the rest of the weekend with the in laws. It was Delicious to say the least. I ate way more than I should. (Or any grown man should for that matter.)

The girls spend many hours working on these:

Olivia made the pink one. Landon made the multi-colored one. Connor wanted traditional Christmas colors of red and green. I added the pom-pons. They had a blast. Guess what they want to make everyone for Christmas?

* Thanks for all the comments about my talented girls. They have many wonderful talents, but patience to sit and knit isn't one of them. They used a Singer Knitting Machine. It's a toy for ages 8 and up. Very simple to use, but by no means produces a perfect finished product. Great for kids projects. I'd wear a scarf made by my girls, imperfections and all.

Tutu Sweet!

I made my sweet 2year old this adorable tutu for her birthday. She loved it. When she saw herself in the mirror she twirled around. It was precious. We will be celebrating with extended family over Thanksgiving, but still wanted to do something on her actual birthday. The big girls decorated mini bunt cakes and I made Emerson a giant cupcake and even put a tutu on it as well.

She looked so proud sitting on the table with her cupcake.
Blowing out the candles was her favorite part. Daddy re lit them no less than 10 times. She was surprised every time she blew them out. She cheered, clapped and said "one more, Daddy"


She would smile a huge grin and say "I did it!" "Do again, peeease."

She really enjoyed eating it.

Especially, once the tutu came off and she was in her highchair!
Her new favorite word is cupcake.

She's 2!

Happy Birthday Emerson! Today our baby daughter is turning 2. It's hard to imagine we ever spent a day without her, yet it seems like only yesterday we were debating names while waiting for her to be born. Emerson is quite the handful and is always getting into everything. She definitely keeps us on our toes! We are so thankful for her abundant smiles and the adorable way she places her hands on her daddy's cheeks when she gives him a kiss. It melts our hearts to hear the sweet sound of her voice as she sings to her dolls and giggles with her sisters. She is truly a blessing. We love you, doodlebug!

Wordless Wednesday!

Agony

While reading a bedtime story, my 8 year old daughter leaned over and gently patted my hand and asked me, "Mama, one day will my face be in agony, too?" I was puzzled and said, "I guess if you're upset about something." She smiled a confused little smile and replied, "Oh, I thought you just got agony when you become a teenager."



Yes, friends she was actually referring to the gigantic zit on my chin. While I'm thankful to have had clear glowing teenage skin, I do feel cheated to now be dealing with pimples in my 30s. So, in answer to Landon's question, I stopped laughing and simply replied, "when your face gets bumps on it its called Acne, but I assure you it's agony as well!"



I am actually feeling 16 again. Twilight comes out on Friday and I confess I'm a little more excited than I would want to admit. The book was very entertaining and I can't wait to see if the big screen portrays Bella and Edward the way I've imagined. I'm sure to be surrounded by 14 year olds with "agony" and will fit in perfectly.

Emerson Montgomery

This sweet little angel is turning 2 on Friday.

She was only 6 months in this picture, but it feels like yesterday!

Maybe an indoor wedding is a good idea....

Cheryl, my sister-in-law, is looking for the perfect wedding location.Outdoors is one thing, but it's safe to say, marking water off the list might be a no brainer after seeing how well it turned out for this bride. I saw this on Tickled Pink and Green and I'm still laughing. I feel so bad for her, yet still I laugh. Since I'm almost 11 years past the will-OUR-day-be-perfect-fear it's safe to laugh. (and it helps it was more than perfect!)

Candy, candy and more candy!

This is what we did with our candy!

We had SO much fun!

The front with a cute green walkway. Landon even carved faces on the candy pumpkins.

Olivia gave the back pizzaz with a purple, orange, green M&M pattern.
Connor was in charge of roof design and the pumpkin patches contained in adorable candy corn picket fences.


Landon added more details then I ever imagined.

Notice the bat and spider web.....She is so creative!


My 4 sweet girls

I asked them to smile and don't touch! 3 out of 4...not bad.



Taking turns pretending to get a bite...

After dinner they ate all they wanted and then Emerson knocked the platter off the table.

Yes, it broke :( At least it had a great finish.


This is my new favorite Pumpkin. Such a cute little polka dot lady. It is georgous (the photo does not do it any justice). It was easy to make (drill various sized holes) and is sparkley and fun!

Happy Halloweeen!!!

Emerson made a sweet Auburn Cheerleader. GO AUBURN!!! Yes, she ran all over the neighborhood saying, " more tick-teet." Even today she told the key man at Home Depot tick-teet and held out her hand. Two weekends in a row of dressing up and getting candy really made an impression.

Connor was half angel-half devil. Very fitting...90%sweet & 10% mischievous!

Olivia as a cute fall witch She was going to dress as a 50s sock hop girl but changed her mind when she realized the "poodle in a skirt" was not a real puppy to carry around with her.
It explaines why she was so excited I said she could "keep" her costume after halloween.

Landon was a Pumpkin fairy

I was very proud of the way her pumpkin hair turned out. She was just adorable!