Christmas Holiday

We had such a great time in El Dorado over the holiday weekend! We went to church on Sunday morning and a candlelight service Sunday night (the girls were dying to see Alvin & the Chipmunks, so they got to do that in between services). We went to Grandmommie's house on Monday - what a houseful!! These are all of Grandmommie's grandkids and great-grand kids, minus a few who weren't in town for the holiday. We had TONS of food and got to catch up with the people we only see once or twice a year. After we left Grandmommie's house, we drove to Ruston to visit with Uncle Alex. We all gathered around and sang Christmas carols - it was beautiful!
And when we got back home on Monday night, we opened all of the presents. Here's Payton and Holland with their most favorite things from M'laine and Papa - Payton's Arts & Crafts set and Holland's Barbie Girl. We had them open their backpacks/tickets for the Disney Cruise last. I honestly thought that they'd find out about it before Christmas since EVERYONE else knew, but they were truly surprised. It's pretty much all they talk about now, so I'm so glad we only have 7 days left until we leave!

And then there was Christmas morning. Thanks for finding us in El Dorado and leaving such cool presents, Santa!!

It's Party Time!

There's nothing more chaotic than a school full of kids loaded up on who knows how much sugar, 2 days before Christmas vacation. I thought I'd go and help out with food and games, but I was struggling just to keep my sanity. God bless all the teachers in the world.

Here's Holland with her good buddy, Marley.

And hanging out with the fellas.
Payton taking a break from her snowflake craft to put on a big cheesy.And Payton's whole class full of crazies!

All Aboard!!

Payton and I had a fabulous time together today! All of the 2nd grade GT students got to go on a special field trip - a train ride just like the kids had on the Polar Express! We rode, had hot chocolate, talked to Santa, and sang Christmas carols. It was the first time either of us had ever been on a train, and it was great fun. After that, we went and had lunch at Cracker Barrel (sure beats school lunch!). The one-on-one time that I had with Payton was wonderful. What a great day!!

My kind of house

At the girl's school, the GT teacher, Mrs. Little, allows each student to pick a topic that interests them the most instead of everyone working on the same project all the time. Holland picked Photography, which she loves, and Payton picked Sweet Architecture. Her group got to make a model store out of candy that looks just like the old feed store in Elm Springs. They did such a good job, and it smells as good as it looks! It was on display this weekend at Shiloh Museum, so we went down to check it out and take some pictures.
This is most of Payton's GT group with Mrs. Little. They were all so proud!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Could we get a 5 day weekend at least once a month?? That would be just fine by me! It was a great Thanksgiving holiday! On Wednesday, the girls and I got out and went to "The Bee Movie". Not my most favorite animated movie of all time, but the girls enjoyed it. On Thursday, we went over to mom and dad's and had Thanksgiving with Pam, Henry, Rhonda, Rock, Leah and Ethan. Everything was sooooooo good! Then we all sat around and played board games (you know I take mine everywhere I go....). What a fun day!! On Friday, we did absolutely nothing. I never even put make-up on, and that only happens about 3 times a year. We got up Saturday and went to breakfast at Village Inn. We managed to burn most of the day out running around, and then came home to put up the Christmas tree. This is an event that is a lot like camping, in my opinion - it's all fun for the kids and a whole lot of work for the adults! Now the fun part is trying to keep the cats out of it! (They're spending a good bit of time in "time-out" in the laundry room.) Here are the girls putting the last of the ornaments on.
And this is Payton by 9 o'clock. How many pictures do we have of this kid sleeping???

This is what you call "Takin' it Easy"!

(Libby didn't even have the energy to finish her book.)

Picture Perfect

If you want to see something truly spectacular, you need to drive through Har-Ber Meadows in the fall. What a gorgeous sight! It was a photo-op that I couldn't pass up, so after school yesterday, I had the girls change clothes and we went over to take some pictures. These were with our digital camera, but I took several with our 35 mm. I'm hoping for a really good one that I can use for Christmas cards this year....

Havin' Fun with the Kinfolk!

Grant, Mandie, and Gavin came up here for the weekend since Saturday was Grant's birthday. He's ONLY 35 (I'll be sure and do the math before I ask next time....). We had such a fun time, as always! The girls and kids shopped while the guys took turns driving dad's new hot rod. I had a sinking feeling when my cell phone rang and Scott's name showed up because we were all trying to guess which one of them would come back with the speeding ticket. Fortunately, he just wanted to know if we needed anything from Wal-Mart. You may think it's funny that they would end up there, but my dad never passes a Wal-Mart without stopping.... So anyway, after that, mom made an awesome supper and we played "Loaded Questions" - tons of fun!!

Payton & Grammy -

We got the kids together for an updated photo -

Scott and Holland tossing the football around -

Me and dad with the girls -

And the boyz and their toyz. Nothing says "testosterone" like a souped-up Mustang!
What a great time - we can't wait to see you guys again next month!

Sleepovers, Sleepovers, and more Sleepovers!

The girls have definitely reached the age where they think that no weekend is complete unless they've spent the night somewhere else, or someone has spent the night here. On Friday night we had our 3rd sleepover in a row. Holland called a couple of her "old" friends, Sarah and Ashton, that she went to school with last year and invited them to come to her school carnival so they could meet her teacher and some of her new friends. They had a good time playing games!

And just hanging out together!

Then it was time to come back home and "build your own ice cream sundae" - the best part of the entire night!

Holland's BIG day

Today was a very special day for Holland because she prayed and asked Jesus into her heart in children's church this morning! When you grow up your entire life in church, it's sometimes hard to remember the exact moment when you made the commitment to become a christian. We know that this wasn't Holland's first time, but we know that she's old enough now to understand exactly what it means instead of just repeating the words that someone else has said. She's so excited at the thought of having her name written in the Book of Life! We're so proud of her and the choice that she's made. Life is so much sweeter when you walk with the Lord!

Friday Night Highlights

Seth and Joy wanted to go out for a "date night", so we got to keep Oliver for a couple of hours. We hadn't seen him since Labor Day, and it was amazing how much he'd changed in just 2 months! He's such a good boy and so much fun!
Then Chad and Leslie and all of their kids came over for pizza and cookies. (We like to tease them since they're no longer "one-on-one"). Look at what a ham Ryan is..... And I had to take pictures of Miss Blaire because she's just too precious. Leslie was happy that I was putting newer photos on here since all I had were quote, "pasty, white" pictures of her. I'd kidnap her if she would sleep through the night....

The Diva & The Gangsta

The girls got all dressed up and we went and met up with the rest of NW Arkansas at Har-Ber Meadows and went trick-or-treating. Seriously - the majority of houses were out of candy by 7:15. I've never seen such craziness before! We went with Lynn, Sarah, and Mary Claire and all had a really good time. The weather was sooooo much nicer than last year. We got home and the girls divided all of the candy up into chocolate and non-chocolate (the good stuff stays here and the rest goes to work with Scott). Check out these cuties!

This has nothing to do with Halloween, but we finished the letters for Holland's room. Not too shabby for a bunch of amateurs....

Did we really just have a weekend??

Because it felt more like intermission than an actual break. I guess it's because we were BUSY!

On Friday night, I took Holland over to Sarah's to spend the night and then Scott and Payton and I went to Red Robin and to Barnes & Noble, which reminds me of a story I have to share. As Payton and I were walking from the kids area to the magazines where Scott was, Payton was checking out the books along the way. There were some that I'll call "mature", so I was trying to get past those as quickly as possible. Leave it to Payton to stop dead in her tracks and say in her most audible voice, "Why black men love white women!". I did the whole ssshhhhhing thing, but apparently she didn't hear me because she said it again, only as a question this time, "Why black men love white women?" (and in the midst of several people....) like I was supposed to explain what that meant. I passed her off to Scott and made sure he knew that she had a question to ask him.

On Saturday, Holland got to go to her very first Razorback game with her very best friend, Lauren (it may have been boring, but at least they won!). They don't get to see each other 3 times a week like they used to, so they had a great time spending the day together!

I took Payton to Meghan's pirate party on Saturday. It was the coolest! They built a pirate ship out of refrigerator boxes and let the kids all decorate it, and they had a treasure hunt in the backyard. Payton loved it so much that she dresses up like a pirate and carries her sword around all day long now. She even mentioned something about a gold tooth....

We met Jill and Tony for dinner Saturday night, and then Lauren came home with us and spent the night. They had a big bubble bath, and then it was time for bed. Whew - what a day!!

We decided that we needed a project to do on Sunday, so the girls and I painted letters for Holland's room. The wall over her bed has been blank for over a year now, so I got letters at Hobby Lobby and let the girls help me paint them. I think they'll go perfect in her room once we get them finished. (I'll be sure and post pictures of the final product.)

Then Grammy and Pawpaw came over for supper and a movie on Sunday night. It was a nice relaxing end to a crazy, crazy weekend! I'm just ready for the next one....

Lulu & Emma Kate

Holland's most recent school project was to decorate a pumpkin (no carving allowed) and write a story to tell about it. Well, she chose to make hers into a clown named "Lulu", and her story is about how she had always dreamed of making people smile and laugh, and that is why she decided to join the circus as a clown. Pretty cute, huh? Payton wanted to paint one, too. Aren't they adorable? This is Emma Kate (which is apparently Payton's favorite new name because she told me in the car this morning that it would've been HER name if she had gotten to pick). Sorry, Pate - you're stuck!

Hangin' with Aunt Shannon

After what could have been a most memorable trip to Batesville (Holland's near-puking episode and Scott's really close call with a deer), we got to Shannon's Friday night and came back home yesterday morning. Other than the studying I had to do, it was a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Thanks for having us Shannon! We love you!

Holland's telling Judge, "Don't lick my face!".

Typical - the adults doing all of the hard work....

The girls showing off "their" creations. Scott made the large-mouth pumpkin just for Tony.

The marshmallow roast where the girls either caught theirs on fire and threw them on the ground, or roasted them to perfection and then gave them away. Those crazy kids aren't fans of marshmallows. Shannon bought some that were strawberry flavored and they were awesome!

Scott has XM radio in his car and I found the 90's station. It's my new favorite thing. I sang and reminisced for hours!! Here's Holland doing the Macarena in the back seat on the way home. Believe it or not, they actually thought my music was pretty cool....