On Cloud 9

Over the weekend here in Huntsville they had a "Fly In" at a small airport, Moontown, where every year hundreds of planes from all over come together and let kids from 8-18 fly free! This was a MUST for us and something we had been planning on for a few weeks to go to. Of course Heath and Bria weren't very happy that they were under the age, but Tys explained to them the night before that these were the rules and they would soon get a turn because their Grandpa was renewing his pilot's license and would take them up when he could. That seemed to appease them.

Chad was not able to make it in time to fly because he came later with a friend. So he will have to wait as well, but Alyssa was all EXCITEMENT! She called me right after she had been up in the air and said "IT WAS SO TOTALLY AWESOME!!!" My little mama LOVES to fly and has quite the adventurous streak in her! I knew there was a little me in there somewhere!

Since life has been pretty rough lately, my sweet hubby who is need of a break himself, took ALL the kids (even Laney) to the fun day so I could get a little break to get some needed things done! So these loverly pics are from him! I was able to run some much needed errands and get some more sewing done for our city's Street Festival. More on that in a later post! :)

I can feel the excitement!

On their way up to the sky!

Miss Adventure!

The gals with their Grandpa and the type of plane he has been flying!

4 women in one house...WATCH OUT!

I was feeding Miss Laney-bug while the girls were doing their after school chores and there was some arguing going on in the direction they were in so I asked what was wrong?

Weeeeeell, they both tried talking over the other and pointing fingers at who does more work and who did what last time and so on and so forth...all I said was "Hey! Let's calm down." And THEN Alyssa comes into the living room bawling! "Ittt's JUST SO UNFAIR! It's so hard being the big sister! it's so hard to always try to be good! Bria always says I don't let her do the rinsing!"

THEN Bria comes out BAWLING and saying "She never thinks I do anything right! She always thinks I don't work hard!!!"

I felt all sorts of emotion myself...wanting to cry with them, yell cause life has bee a bit hard lately, and what I actually did do...laugh and said "Y'all are not EVEN teenagers yet!" :)

We eventually got emotions under control and they eventually forgave me for laughing and had a much better day...but man I am SO not ready for those teen years!

Why can't it just stay like this? :)

Hosted by Cecily and Chris

A Little Bit Alyssa

When I was abt. 2 months into my pregnancy with her, I somehow knew I was having a girl and we were on a walk around our apartment complex, trying to figure out a name, when I said "Hey, how about the name Alyssa?" We LOVED it! :) Then we thought we would call her "Ally", but when she was born we thought "Nope. She is not an Ally, she is Alyssa!"

Alyssa is:
tender hearted
sensitive
giving
quietly stubborn
patient
loving
the little mama of the family
creative

She wants to grow her hair out to donate it again!

She has a way with all the other kids. Chad loves talking with her, Bria shadows her all the time and she is usually patient with it, Heath goes to her for comfort and Laney loves being held by her!

Alyssa has been begging me to teach her how to sew. I really want to teach her, but with a 4 month old and 4 other kids, homework, house, BIG dog and 2 cats, it has been hard to even think let alone teach someone something! :)
So one day Grandma came over to see if Miss Lys wanted to come over for a little bit and sew a blanket. Alyssa was on cloud 9!!! This was her final product and what made her day even more...is it is going to be donated to the NICU!

Say Cheese!!!

It's almost that time of year again when you wake up early to get your kids all prettied up to say cheese, hoping and praying that the picture is snapped when your kid is bright eyed and smiling!

Here are all the kids pics from the previous years of school and I have to say that it makes me sad to see them growing up so quickly and realize that I am NOT and will NOT be getting any younger even though many of my school memories are fresh in my mind! I would also like to add that my school pictures, especially from High School, are not that great! I would personally hunt down anyone that ever posted mine...

...So, my kids can kill me later, but I decided to show the world their pics before they get to the "want to burn these things" stage of their lives! :) Though I think that over all these pics turned out pretty good (for school pics anyways)!

He is sporting a designer hair cut by my hubby! hee hee! Chad doesn't like the clippers so we can only use scissors or else this kid FREAKS! We needed to use the clippers! :)

Another sporty designer daddy do! They didn't even wait for him to smile! But he is still a cutie!

Despite the lack of a toothy smile, I think he is quite the Rhett Butler!

I was pregnant and very sick in bed so I had no say in the hair do...I don't even think I knew what day it was to tell you the truth!

I had fun doing her hair! We woke up VERY early and it hasn't happened since! ;) I wish they would've helped bring out her best smile!

Not too shabby!

My pretty green eyed gal! Hey! I didn't realize this was the same shirt she wore the year before...ha ha! I guess we LOVED it that much! :)

Ok so what on earth is THAT background and I had no clue what she was holding onto until I figured out that THAT background silo looking thing was supposed to be a lighthouse on the beach! And in my defense I was still sick and pregnant during all of this and only managed to pull their hair back. They dressed themselves...can't u tell?

I was sick with pregnancy, but managed to lay her clothes out the night before and actually get her hair looking cute, but they had these pics right after recess...not a good idea!

At least her hair is out of her face! ;)

And here we have Dennis the Menace my friends!

Dare Devils

Me ate about 7 years old!

As a child I did A LOT of dare devil things:

such as running from the end of the hall upstairs and leaping with all my might off the top of the stairs as a 4 year old. I had seen my brother jump off the stairs a ton of times, but didn't realize at the time that he had done it from the 4th step! So, in mid air I decided that I didn't want to do it anymore and then ended up flat on my back staring blankly at the ceiling on the bottom floor. I hadn't rolled down the stairs...fell straight from the top. My sister who was abt. 13 at the time FREAKED and called my Aunt to check on me cause she thought I was dead (and in reality I shoud've been hurt more, but I believe I was helped from a higher power)! ;) As I lay there I don't remember feeling any pain (my sister says I was lying there for a very long time not moving or blinking). I just sat there thinking about what had just happened and I remember just lying there feeling like I couldn't move, I couldn't feel my body and then as soon as my Aunt came and helped me up I was fine. Of course I ended up getting a spank, as if a kid deserves that after plunging to their death, and then all was fine.

Then there was the time my step siblings and I decided to ride our bikes as fast as we could in the rain and we'd abruptly step on the brakes to skid across the road. Little did we think about road burn or other serious injuries that we could receive. So you get the point that there is or was a dare devil in me, but not in my little Alyssa.

When she was little she NEVER would climb anything nor jump from anything. Unlike her older brother who scared us because he jumped off anything he could climb no matter the height, at 18 months old. There were several times we had to take him in due to bloody lips that we thought might need stitches or teeth we thought might fall out, but Miss Lys was content to keep both feet on the ground. Until now. She recently learned how to ride her bike with only 2 wheels and has been doing great and 2 days ago she decided to do a wheely (all on her own no peer pressure there was no one around to see it anyways)!!! This is what happend:

Poor kid walked a little ways back to our house from her collision with the sidewalk to get help! Good thing my hubby was home cause I was laid out sick during this time!

After the accident she said she would NEVER ride again!!! I told her the story of when I fell and slightly scratched myself and saw blood. Then ran to daddy crying and he said "It's just a scratch you don't need to cry over that!" then a few weeks later I got into a bigger bike accident and walked my bike 2 blocks back home and went inside to my dad and said "Look DADDY! I didn't cry!" and he said "AWE! Baby you can cry about that!!!" So, I said "Alyssa you can cry and you don't have to ride your bike again until you are ready!"

My poor little girl! It makes me hurt just looking at her! But once again my non dare devil braved another day on her bike and this is what happened!

2 more trophies to add to her new found dare devil self! And she still wants to keep riding her bike! You go girl! I love this kid. Just when you think you have her personality pegged down she goes and surprises you with something new and amazing about her!

Some Firsts

Alyssa has FINALLY, at age 8, learned how to ride her bike with no training wheels! YAY! She caught on fairly quickly and wants to ride her bike every sunny moment! I think it is such a sweet moment between a father and his child. My father taught me and I remember that day very well. He took me out in the morning and after a couple of hours he gave up, but I didn't! I didn't go inside ALL day until I had conquered it! No bathroom break (which is amazing for a 6 yr. old) and no eating breaks! I remember I finally got it right as the sun was going down, I was proud of myself! And I think my little Lys is VERY proud of herself too! She wants to ride her bike every day now! Way to go, LYS!!!

Another first was Laney's bath without umbilical chord! Bath time is so much easier without that thing...I think! :)

All the kids enjoyed the moment for maybe a few seconds. In the end the only kid that still thought it was cool, was Little Mama...Alyssa. She will even still change diapers and it is usually without being asked (every mom's dream)!

The "Toe" Guy

On Sunday Alyssa and her daddy were doing the dishes while listening to Mozart. I was asking questions about Mozart's personal life when Alyssa asked this:

Alyssa: "What about that guy with the word "Toe" in his name?

Me: "ummmmmm....you mean Beethoven?"

Alyssa: "Yeah, that's the guy!"

Poor Beethoven! All that work and he is known for "Toe" being in his name! ha ha!

My Girls

Recently I found these adorable BFF necklaces for sisters and bought them for the girls. Growing up I had a few best friends come and go in my life. Sometimes you just go down different paths and eventually find someone else along your path of life that can love you that way and you them, hoping it will last! My oldest brother once told me when I was bout 14 and going through some really hard times with some of the gals at school (mean girls and social games that I obviously never got or really cared for) that "You will be lucky to find even ONE true friend in your life!" He was so right. There are a lot of great people out there, but there really aren't too many that will stick through all the weathers of life with you and maintain a lifelong firendship whether you live by eachother or not. I am lucky to have a few more than one in my life, but what he said really stuck. I have also learned through the years that my hubby, Dad, brothers, sister and children are my truest of friends! With out them life would be much harder to bare and they have stuck by me all these years!

My girls put a smile on my face and amaze me with their great capacity to love all around them. It makes me realize I have so far to go in my love for others. These two are very close. Wherever Alyssa is Bria is close behind! She has been her shadow since she could crawl! There are nights we get onto them for staying up talking while they are SUPPOSED to be going to bed, but I remember doing that with my step-sister and we have some fond memories of our being up til 2 talking about boys or whatever was on our minds. Of course my girls better not be staying up til 2 until they are much older cause I don't want to have to put up with the major grumpies! :)

The next few are of the same picture. I have been trying to learn my camera a but more as well as my photoshop. I really liked this picture and can't decide which variation I like better or what I may need to do different next time. What do you think?

The Fashionista

This little girl LOVES clothing, accessories and shoes! She also likes to put her own outfits together and some days I have to bite my tongue and let her out in public in something I know I will be judged on as a mother, but I want her to learn and I want to let her develop her own creativity. There are times I will tell her my opinion and why some things just don't go together and sometimes she listens and other time she says "well I like it like that!" How can you argue with that? :)

One day when we were shopping she said "I am a Fashionista, mom!" I laughed and she giggled then in her energetic and joking voice said "Cause I LOVE clothes....I want to marry them!"



























She is also a shoe-a-holic!

2 Cuties+2 Great Sets of Lungs=4 Poms Ready to Cheer!

The girls finished another cheer season and LOVED it! They got R-O-W-D-Y, cheered the team on, got the stand to cheer with them, ate TONS of candy as their game treats with free drinks from the concession stand and won spirit awards! So it was another great season for Alyssa and a great beginning for Bria! GO CRUSADERS!






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