Happy Halloween!

We have renamed Halloween as "Night of the Living" around here...the four of us have had the flu for two weeks! I was first...followed by Grant (who had the worst bout), then Julia...and Paul was the caboose. Trick or Treating was really our first outing after everyone was fever free. We had to miss our church fall festival this year (insert sad face) because both the kiddos were still running fever. Thank goodness we were all feeling better to get dressed up!!

Happy Halloween from our rodeo clown and rodeo queen! Enjoy the pics!

Note... We talked with Grant about how rodeo clowns (bull fighters) wear "run fast" shoes because they have to get away from the bulls...in hopes he'd agree to wearing his tennis shoes instead of crocs or something crazy. Well...he very emphatically insisted that he would wear sister's cleats...those are run fast shoes. The boy has a mind of his own!!!

P.S.--Lindsay, this post is for you, my friend! :) Love you!

Dropped off the face of the earth??

Nope! We have not dropped off the face of the earth! Life has just taken a couple very unxpected (but good!) twists and turns since my last post....in JULY!! Where have we been???

1. We enjoyed a wonderful trip to Atlanta with Daddy in July. We got some great pictures, met up with some old friends, and truly had a very memorable and fun trip together!

2. We made a few day trips to a beatiful area nearby for some boating and fun in the sun!

3. Julia started 1st grade!!! I cannot believe my baby girl is a big ole' first grader!! She's doing sooooooooo well!!!!!!

4. Mama got a job! The same week Julia started school...so did I!! What a change for us!! After having been a full time stay at home Mom for over 6 years...it's been a wild and crazy time for us. I am now teaching (full time) math online! More to come...

5. Grant started Wee School! Look out, Wee School! I warned you! :)

6. Daddy has been W-O-R-K-I-N-G! A lot.

7. Sweet Pea's (my business) has gone BANANAS!

I hope to post again (soon!) with more details and pictures about all the things listed here...I just wanted to begin by letting all our faithful blog readers know they can quit harrassing me for info! LOL We're here! I'll post again soon!! Happy fall, y'all!!

Look out!

We're tagging along with Daddy on a serious road trip! Our little family of 4 will be packing up and heading toward Atlanta a little later today...we're hoping to have a really great trip! Daddy has some business meetings to attend...hopefully the kids and I can entertain ourselves around Atlanta while he's tied up! :)

In bigger news, I'd like to remind all my blog readers to pray for our friends the McCones. It's been a while since I've mentioned Alan and Melissa...Alan has been battling kidney cancer for almost a year now. He's in Houston today for a new set of scans and some other testing...we're praying for good news for them! To the McCones: We love you guys!!! Be safe!!! You're in our hearts and prayers constantly, and we so admire you for your strength and faith!

Next stop: Atlanta.

Daddy Time!

I know I don't often enough take the time to point out what a wonderful man God blessed me with 14 years (!!!) ago! Paul and I will celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary later this summer, and I have to say that our life really is what I thought it would be. He is the person I prayed my spouse would be all those years ago in youth group! I am so thankful that he is the Daddy to my children that I didn't have...and that so many kids don't have. He is loving and kind, he is fun and reliable, he has high expectations and the biggest heart in the world! Add to that being a strong Christian role model, a hard worker, and an absolutely amazing husband! How'd I get so lucky?? Here are a few pictures/videos of Daddy and his babies.... Hopefully he won't mind! Happy Father's Day! We've been amazed by the progress both kids are making in the little pool this year! Julia is taking swimming lessons and is doing great! I'll have pics/video of her next week when she finishes... Grant was really afraid the first couple times he got in this year....not anymore! He's quickly turning into a little tadpole! I think we're going to have a daredevil on our hands for sure with this one! I love watching those little feet...they're moving WAY faster than he is, but he can make it all the way across the pool now!

Look out Calvin Klein....there's a model in the making!

I told Grant that I wanted to take a picture of him wearing his first "big boy underwears" and I think he was a bit embarrassed. He wouldn't turn around at first...



and when he did turn around and I told him to move his arms so I could see his belly, this is what he did! I love it!!! :)

Some of Sweet Pea's Creations

Here are some of Sweet Pea's newest creations that haven't been posted on my website yet. I'm hoping to get to that soon, but I thought I'd share here for those of you who are interested...

The week in review...plus a little extra

Well, I didn't load any kid pics in my last post, so I figured I'd better get back to it! Especially since I've been told that I'm "biased" (HA!) with my blog...better keep it up! I figure this is my family blog and I've got every right to be as biased as any mom should be! HA!!!

Here are the only two pictures I took while we were camping...Daddy getting ready to take his kiddos fishing, and sister hitching a ride.





Grant's proof that Sunday School can sometimes be a dangerous place! :) While he was being the helper to pass out napkins to all the other kids in the 2 year old class, he somehow knocked a chair over that landed on his big toe and made a big boo boo. It hurt! He was pretty upset about it for a while yesterday, but some Motrin and a nap made it all better! This morning when he woke up, the first thing he asked was, "Mama, is my toe still blue?" Um, yep.



Ditto grew a lot while we were gone camping. She's six weeks old now and quite the explorer, even if still a tiny little thing! One of our babies has gone to live with her new family so far...the rest will follow pretty soon!



I did try to take pictures of Julia's kindergarten graduation, but most of them didn't turn out too great...it was dark in the auditorium and we were really far back! Here are a couple that I was able to get... After her graduation, she had a super fun night with some of her buddies....supper at Johnnie's and the first time she got to spend the night with a friend.

Just in case you notice...

a limp, here's the story. Uuugh. Arg! =(

I try to keep the blog as cheery and kid-centered as possible since I know that's what most of you are here for...and this definitely affects around the kiddos!

We left last Sunday afternoon to go camping for a week!!! We looked like a cross between the Griswalds (thanks to a comment from a well-meaning friend!) and the Sanfords as we headed out seeking some family fun, some sun, and some fishing...with a lot of playing and good food mixed in. Somewhere along the way, I missed the memo that the Mama would be stuck in a chair in pain and virtually unable to move the whole week!!! Let me repeat.... Uuugh. Arg!

So the story is this... I have scoliosis. (Among other things, right, friends?) And a twisted spine. Sometimes I have boughts of back pain that are "normal" for my back. A couple days before we left to go camping, I started having some back pain. When we left on Sunday, I was in quite a bit of discomfort, but thought it was from working frantically to clean house and pack. By noon on Monday, I could barely walk without tears, nausea, and feeling like I would hit the ground at any minute. I came home Monday afternoon to see the doctor...who gave me pain medicine and told me to stay on a heating pad and not move until morning. I went for an MRI first thing Tuesday morning and had the results by noonish. I have some new back issues. Fun! I don't know how it happened...there was no "event" to cause it, but I now have a couple bulging disks, a possible small tear in one of them, and all the nerves on the right side are (were) inflammed. The instructions were to "enjoy vacation from a chair" and check in with the doctor's office on Monday for a plan of action...that seems to probably include a visit with some other doc (yet to be determined whether he/she will be a neuro or osteo doc) and fill the time before that appointment with torture. Oh wait...I meant physical therapy.

So........what normally would be a post about how much fun we had camping, filled with pictures of the kiddos being their funny little selves is this. Uuuugh. Arg! I did manage to get just a couple pictures of them, but wasn't able to chronicle our trip as I usually do. I missed Julia riding the innertube, Grant playing in the lake, the kiddos fishing with Daddy... I didn't even get pictures of them playing in the camper or around our awesome campsite because I couldn't move well enough to get my camera to begin with, or to twist and turn like I needed to get their picture. Uuuugh. Arg!!

Regardless, all in all, we had a good week! The kids had a blast with their daddy, and especially with Net Net, Uncle Donald, Alex, and Zach. Daddy and Uncle Donald caught enough fish to feed us a couple times, plus a few for the freezer. Net Net was a HUGE help, as always! We weathered the rainy day fairly well, even though we were actually digging for sweats and jackets! The wind wasn't bad, and neither were the bugs. If I had just been able to get out of the chair! :)

On that note....I'm about to get out of the chair for some medicine and bed! Thanks for checking on us and I promise more up beat posts and cute pics in the days to come!!