I USED to...

...say "vanilla" envelope instead of "manila" envelope cause that is how I thought it was said since I was about 5 yrs. old and NO ONE corrected me until I was in my 20's...boy do I feel sheepish. Maaa maaaa!

...think that surely a parent could keep scissors and writing utensils away from children and keep them from writing and cutting things they shouldn't...then I had kids!

...want a horse, but my dad always said "No"! and in my frustration I said "When I grow up I am getting MY horse and NOBODY is gonna STOP me!!!" Now I have a dog that is as big as a Shetland pony (ok not quite, but he is big) and now that I know how much work it takes to own a pet, I NEVER want a horse! ha ha! My dad always gives me the "I told you so" look!

...love Buffet Restaurants, but now I can barely finish eating a full plate so it isn't worth my money.

...have trouble getting to sleep at night, but now I am out within minutes...when I actually get to bed! :)

...dislike Russians because I grew up at the end of the Cold War Era, so I didn't trust them, but then I married someone who lived there for 2 years who loved the people. Then I met a few myself and have learned that a countries people are separate from their politics.

...think that I would be the one to teach my kids about the computer, but have found that they know WAY more than I do and one day Chad at the age of 4 had to show ME how to do something!

...think that I would have a perfectly clean house, but soon learned that it was either the kids being happy learning, exploring and having fun or me yelling and being frustrated all the time.

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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!

First Day

On Heath's first day of pre-school it was raining and the rain was not winning any friends with my kid! On his way into the school building he said "It's s'posed to be SUNNY!" and continued pouting and saying "It's not s'posed to be raining when I go to school!" After a few questions from me and honest answers from him I soon realized that he had big dreams for the playground that day!

Overall he had a good first day aside from the fact that when his fellow students were packing up he decided that he didn't want to do it. His teacher, who had Bria and Lys before, said that he wouldn't be able to leave until he packed up! When I entered the room he had his stubborn face on so I thought...great what has he done now! and as soon as he saw me BIG tears rolled down his pinchable cheeks! He said "She not let me go home with you"! Mrs. C and I talked with him and were able to convince him that he was going to go home with me, but he had to do what she asked first.

Since then he has been doing much better!

This is the ONLY smile face I was able to get from him that morning.

The rest were all silly faces...his trademark! :)

Last year I was home alone during Heath's preschool time. This year I am back in my element with another kid! Laney is so fun! Heath loves having another sibling home...though I am sure he wishes she were old enough to play with him! :)

It was THAT kind of morning and Laney made do with jammies!

Laney-bug is drooling all over! Soaks through her clothing, bibs...you name it! We also love giving her kisses as much as she loves giving them herself...drool and all!

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

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!