Weekend of Birthday Parties!!

Wow!! I am so behind on keeping-up with my blog. Hopefully I will be all caught-up in the next few days : )

Last weekend the kids had 3 birthday parties and 1 daddy daughter date!! It was a busy weekend. The first birthday party was for our neighbor Aydan. He turned 7 years old and had a slumber party at Embassy Suites. Richard took Cooper and Emily for pizza and swimming. Cooper took all his stuff to stay the night....but I REALLY did not think he would stay the night. This was Cooper's first slumber party and he was very excited about it, but I could tell he was a little nervous too. Since he was going to be the youngest kid there, I was a little nervous too!! Come to find out, several of the older boys were too scared to stay but my brave little 5 and 1/2 year old stayed the night!!! He had the best time and I could tell that he was really proud of himself for staying the night. Here he is all packed and ready to go.



Saturday morning our church had a Daddy and Daughter Pancake Breakfast. Emily was super excited to have something special for just her and daddy. Richard said that she was not on her best behavior the whole time but they still had a great time sharing breakfast together. They even got sprinkles and chocolate chips on their pancakes--she loved it!!




The next party was for our neighbor Averi. She turned 5 years old and had a princess party. Emily had the best time getting all dressed-up, getting make-up on, and having her hair done. After all the girls were ready, they danced all around the room and had a princess parade. Emily had a great time...and I think we know where she will be having her next party!!





The last party of the day was for our other neighbor Sydney. She turned 6 years old and her party was at River City Gymnastics (I think they have the best parties!!). Both kids had a great time. Richard took all 3 kids so that I could stay home and pack for our trip to Utah. Here are some fun pictures from the party:





Sweet little Lucy likes to hold on to stuff...her blanket, a toy, even the side of her car seat


Hard to believe she will be 6 months old next week....sure wish she would start sleeping through the night!!!

Snow Day

I should really call this "Ice Day". The kids did not have school today due to the weather. At first we just had a little ice but as the day has gone on, we have gotten more ice and a little snow too! Richard has been in Vegas since Wednesday and it doesn't look like he will make it home tonight. Hopefully he will be home tomorrow--we miss him!!

I have been trying to keep everyone entertained today. We slept late and then had a pancake breakfast-YUM!! Next we built a fort. I used to love building a fort when I was a kid....Cooper and Emily enjoyed it but it did not keep them busy for as long as I had hoped. It was fun though!



They finally talked me into letting them play outside. They had fun but they got cold very quickly!! I did not have them dressed warm enough...I will be looking for some snow boots on the sale rack!


They tried to make a snow angel....I think that just made them get wet and cold!


Everyone is inside and finally warm again. Up next....making brownies! Happy Snow Day!!

5 Months Old

So...I am almost a week late making this post but I do have a good excuse. I have been SO sick with the stomach bug--plus everyone has had it except for Emily. I, of course, had it the worst. I think I am finally starting to feel better and how I pray that our family is done being sick for a very long time!!!

Here it is January and Lucy is already 5 months old! I feel like these months keep going by faster and faster. The big changes this month are that we put away the baby swing and got out some of the bigger toys. Lucy is sleeping through the night (sometimes) and on the nights that she does not she goes right back to sleep after a quick bottle. There are some days that she sleeps from 9:00pm till 10:00am with just a small 3 oz bottle at 5:00am. I still think I would rather her sleep straight through the night and wake-up by 7:30. Oh well, it could be a lot worse! One big thing that happened this month is that Lucy had croup! Cooper and Emily have never had croup so this was our first experience with it. Needless to say, it was no fun. I think she did have a mild case of it (we never had any of those really scary times where she could not breath). It took about a week for her to get over all of it...then came the stomach bug. Like I said earlier, I am praying for a healthy family from here on out!!

Here is Lucy enjoying some time in her jeep and watching Cooper eat lunch.



The jumperoo (she really likes this)



She is still a little too small for the highchair, but she likes being on the same level as the rest of us at meal time.



She has just started sitting up with the boppy behind her. I am hoping she will be sitting by herself pretty soon.


I'm trying to enjoy everyday with Lucy. It really feels like she is growing-up so fast. Knowing that she is our last baby makes me try even harder to enjoy this time with her. Happy 5 months sweet girl!!

No More Thumbs....Take 2

I think it was about a year ago that we tried to get Emily to quit sucking her thumb. It went so well and I really thought she was done with her thumb....but some how over time, her thumb ended-up back in her mouth. At first it was just at nap time, but the last couple of months she was asking to suck her thumb all of the time. We have been talking about "no more thumbs" for a while, but on December 31st Emily decided she wanted to quit. We bought some new medicine to paint on her thumbs.....and so far so good. It has been a little over 2 weeks and she has not sucked her thumb one single time!! We are so proud of her!! For the longest time she had been saying that when she is a big girl and quits sucking her thumb that she wanted to go to Build-A-Bear. Last Friday was the big day.



Emily was SO excited. After changing her mind several times, she finally decided to go with a very colorful teddy bear.


Right after this last picture was taken, it was time to fill her bear with stuffing. I'm not sure what happened, but the bear went flying through the air and there was stuffing EVERYWHERE. For some reason it scared Emily really badly and she was crying VERY hard. (this was not how I had pictured our wonderful day at Build-A-Bear) We finally got her calmed down. If you look at her face in the mirror, you can tell that she was still a little upset.



Here she is with her final product. She still was not in the best mood. (we had also stopped by the make-up store before Build-A-Bear and she has on blue eye shadow--her eyes look kind of funny)


After a yummy meal at Chick Fil A, Emily decided that she wanted to go back and play a little more at Build-A-Bear. I was so glad to see her having fun and happy about her new bear.




Thankfully she ended-up having a great time. I am praying that she is finally done sucking her thumb and that I will not have to have a blog post titled "No more thumbs.....take 3" : )

After Christmas 2009

Finally...my last post about 2009. We had a very low key New Year's Eve with the Simmons family. I think we did stay up till midnight, but just barely. On January 2nd we headed to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl with our neighbors the Fern family. The guys went to the game and Kim and I and all 4 kids went to the mall (my mom kept Lucy for us). The kids had a great time jumping on the bungee cord trampolines, playing on the indoor playground, and riding the carousel. After all the fun at the mall, we went to the hotel for some indoor swimming and pizza! We all had a great time....and of course I only took one picture. This in the driveway when we were pulling out of town.



When we got back home, we got out our baby walker. It is a jeep and Lucy thought it was pretty neat. She is still a little too small for it but it will not be long before she is walking all over the house in this.




While at my mom's house, Lucy discovered her feet! It is one of my favorite things to see a baby lay on her back and hold on to her feet--SO CUTE!! (and the fat rolls on her legs make it even cuter!!)





The weatherman said we were going to have some snow on January 4th and the kids were so excited!! Ends-up that we got a little bit of ice and just a dusting of snow--but they CANCELED school anyways!! So the kids were so excited to not have to go back to school Monday morning. They got all dressed to play outside in the "snow". It was really cold out, so they did not stay out there too long.

Christms Eve/Christmas Day 2009

We had plans on Christmas Eve to drive to Searcy and have lunch with Meme and the rest of Richard's dad's side of the family. It had been raining here for days and we were almost unable to make it to Searcy from Little Rock. The highway was covered with water in several spots, but thanks to our trusty GPS we were able to take some back roads and safely made it there. We had a wonderful lunch with family but we had to leave early to make it to church on time. Again....I did not take one single picture!! We were about home when I realized that we had left our camera at Meme's house--could there be a worse day to not have your camera!!!! I was so upset that we were going to be without our good camera for Christmas morning (we do have another camera but it is not very good quality). So all of our pictures from Christmas morning are not the best, but at least we have pictures!!

The kids went to bed really good on Christmas Eve and we had fun setting out all of the gifts. My mom and Matt (my brother) were here for all the fun too! Here is a picture of all the gifts before the kids got to them.


Cooper and Emily bright and early....bed-head and all!


It is SO hard to get a picture of all 3--you can tell no one was happy about this...


Emily really wanted a Cinderella Barbie from Santa (he brought Snow White too)



Cooper had asked Santa for EVERY Transformer...he got a box full of them!


Santa brought me some new Uggs...I think they are a little too big for Emily


Of course they each got some new dress-up clothes...





Lucy was a little overwhelmed by it all, but after a good nap she felt much better...


I was a little overwhelmed by this....


I actually cooked a great Christmas lunch for us and then Emily and I made cupcakes to celebrate Baby Jesus on His birthday.


Finally Richard's cousin Blake came over and he had our camera with him! I was so happy to see hm and our camera!!


And what night would be complete without a little "circus act" with Richard and the kids.


We had a great Christmas together and I think Mom and Matt enjoyed it too. I promise to take more pictures of the kids with family in 2010. I still have one more "After Christmas" post to make. Hopefully I will get to it tomorrow : )

PreChristmas 2009

I can't believe it is January 8th and I am just now getting a chance to blog about Christmas. Life is even more busy when all 3 kids are at home everyday! I was so happy for school to start back this week. I am going to do 3 separate post about Christmas--that way I will not be too overwhelming with pictures.

All 5 of us headed-up to NorthWest Arkansas on the 21st. Richard had some work to do up there and we also got a chance to visit with friends and family. Lynn, Amy, and Tyler met us at Embassy Suites to exchange gifts and the kids went swimming. We had a great visit, but of course I forgot to take any pictures!! This was the first time they got to see Lucy and they thought she was precious! After that we went over to Susanne and Andy's house for pizza and fun with all the kiddos. Sarah, Stacey, Susanne, and I went to college together--we have all had kids since then and this was the first time we have had them all together. We had a great night getting to visit with everyone!

Looking at all these kids, you can tell our lives have changed a lot since college....



Susanne's little boy, Kelso, is 2 months older than Lucy. We are trying to have an arranged marriage so that Susanne and I can be family!! How cute are they!!



I think Kelso was a little concerned that Lucy was not that into him.....



We also went to Fort Smith to help celebrate my Mom's birthday. Again, I forgot to take any pictures. That is one of my goals for 2010--to take more pictures. When we got back home, the kids were so excited to have a big package waiting for them.




My sweet Aunt Sharron and Uncle Steve are always so good to my kids. They got a box full of goodies--hot chocolate mix, cute mugs to drink it out of, Chick Fil A gift cards, M&M's, and a new outfit for Lucy. They are so thoughtful! The kids love to get stuff in the mail!




More Christmas post to come.....