Easter 2014

I love Easter, I love all the holidays but Easter is especially wonderful for what it means to me beyond the chocolate and sugar covered bunnies and chicks hidden in baskets of fake, way too green grass. I love to remind and continue to teach my children about the Savior and His greatest gift. I try to do that everyday, but it seems I try to try a little harder to help the kids remember how beautiful and special the Easter season is.

However, to look at the kids tearing through their Easter baskets, you wouldn't think I do such a great job but I know they're just excited about the candy and goodies. We had a great Easter Sunday. We went to church in Bristol and then to Bubbles' and from there on to Joseph and Becky's to have another lunch/meal and to hunt eggs. It was a long day but a great day. I wouldn't trade it for anything, not even a little more sleep.











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I love to see the Temple

I hope the kids loved seeing the temple. Kylia and I packed up my bunch and Addisyn too and went to the open house of the Ft. Lauderdale Temple in early April. The kids' favorite part was opening the gifts/treats we wrapped for each of them to make the 7 hour trip more bearable for us. I love those kids but those presents weren't really worth it. I mean, kids can fight over ANYTHING! They also loved the minivan that Kylia had rented where they could watch lots of movies. Brittyn loved the can so much that she colored in one of the cup holders in the back of the van with a beautiful purple crayon, probably a part of one of the gifts we let them open them. Either way, she wanted to leave her good review for the rental company to see. Thankfully, Kylia and I saw it first and were able to get most of it out with a magic eraser. I hope they remember their first time in the temple and have good memories of that trip because there were lots of memories made.

We have a lot to learn

I still have lots of pics to go through. I still have lots of stories to tell about my kids so one day we all remember all the fun times we had and probably some of the not so fun times too. It ain't all sunshine and ice cream my sweet babies, sometimes lessons have to be learned. Sometimes we have to learn to sit still and stop screaming and just touch the nice puppy. He will not bite you. Sometimes we have to learn to get ourselves out of the dryer and that mommy will not always be there to help us, even when she is actually standing there trying to document the whole encounter. Sometimes we have to learn the we are able to dance the big girl dance and that we have to try on the costume to make the whole thing come together for our good. Day by day, we have a lot to learn, some things fun and good, others not so much. One day, we'll get there.











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The players take the field

Ryan participated in her first field day at her school this past year. Field Day is basically an intramural day or track and field day, like it was called when I was in elementary school. I know, that I remember that and that I can still remember events and outfits that I wore for track and field day make me feel super old. Growing up stinks. But now I have an awesome six year old and a couple of other awesome little one of my own too so it's nothing to complain about. So, Ryan's class was dressed in orange and thanks to her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Katie Cowart, the class had their names printed on the back of their shirts and all the girls were given ribbons to put in their hair. Mrs. Cowart is like me in that we believe that our girls should have their hair out of their way and look good doing it, and a cute hairbow or ribbon goes a long way in achieving that. So Ryan got her ribbon, I sent her with a hairbow but it wasn't like Mrs. Cowart's ribbon so she switched it out. The kids participated in several events like running drills, rope pulls and pseudo-tire drills to show off their skill and agility they've learned over the school year. My favorite was the rope pull or tug of war, girls VS boys. The girls gave it their all and gave the boys a diet snack, yeah they won!!! Ok, so it wasn't that dramatic, these are kindergarteners after all, but it was super cute to watch the kids play and have such a fun day!

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When stars collide

Ok, so I don't know what actually happens when stars collide beyond what I see in movies and hear in love songs. So, Ryan and I made our own predictions and we created a planet, a planet we named ORYAN.

Ryan had a school assignment to create a planet. We had been watching a lot of the Toy Story movies and Ryan has always had a fascination for "Pizza Planet" so we decided to make an actual pizza planet! What could be more fun or delicious?!! We used a round cardboard cake board for the pizza, red tissue paper for the sauce and various pages, Pom poms and fuzzy pipe cleaners for our cheese and toppings. We had a delicious time and she did really well on her assignment!





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Picnic by the pond

Well, not exactly, but we still had fun. One Sunday afternoon in the early spring, it had to be before Easter, Joe brought Amelia to the house. He had gone to his mom's for something after church and Amelia asked if she come come over. So as soon as she comes over, Ryan has to plan something awesome and she wants to have a picnic! I had just made the kids plates of snacks but it was such a nice day, not too hot and definitely not cold so I packed some extra snacks and a blanket to sit on and we left the house and headed to the pond beside our house. I wrapped the kids plates clear wrap and let each one take their plates with them.

Now, what you don't see in any pictures is that no sooner could we get to the park is my precious Brittyn immediately spills her plate, onto the ground, food first. And yes, it was every bit that dramatic, I couldn't have planned it better myself. So, before I could get mad, we all went home, made some more snacks and made our way back to the pond.

Thankfully, it didn't take long to have a great time. We ate our snacks, we took walks and we had a lovely afternoon. Ryan hasn't stopped asking for another picnic since then, so hopefully we can go again once the weather cools down.


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March Madness

Yes, this happened. The first Saturday in March, it happened. I had my girls and Addisyn and was being a good mommy/aunt and taking them to the play park and I couldn't even get out of my neighborhood before someone backed into the passenger side of my car!!! Thankfully, all the girls were secure in car seats and seat belts and everyone was fine. Everyone except for my Ford Explorer. My car. The car I'd had for 10 years, going on 11!!! The car I picked out myself, I loved it so much. The car that we came home from Atlanta in back in 2003. We went on trips, we moved across the state, we journeyed back to visit family, we moved back to Tallahassee and we brought all three children home from the hospital in my Ford Explorer. I loved that car and I hated that car but it was paid off and I kept on driving it because it kept working. The car I wanted to get rid of several times but when I finally had to get rid of it, I couldn't bear to. I laughed at Kylia when she got rid of her old car because she cried. Who would cry over a car? I am now eating my words.
I remember the day that I drove my rental car to gather my things from my explorer for the last time and I was crying before I could get into the lot. It was a cold day. My car was in the back of the lot, the poor fella brought me tissues. I couldn't park the rental too close to my darling b/c I didn't want it to see me driving another car. I was all by myself and I had to clean my car out all alone. So I cried, more than I should have. I took pictures of the inside. Pictures of the mileage, of the cracks in the back that I never got a recall notice for and still wonder why not. I took pictures of the junk that my kids left in the car, there was a lot. I took pictures of the blue Ford emblem on the steering wheel, the paint had come off because I put a sticker there of Ryan's and when I took it off, some of the paint came off too. I didn't feel too bad about it at the time but I do now. I gathered up everything I could and cried as I said goodbye to my darling. I still miss that car. I'm sorry I laughed at you Kylia, for crying over your car. I'll never do that to anyone again.





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Another first for Hunt

As if his first haircut wasn't traumatic enough, the Sunday following his haircut, Hunt was finally old enough to go to nursery!
And, as I'm writing this in September and he started nursery back in March, I would love to say that he's totally gotten into the nursery groove, but alas, that is not the case. He is getting better but he still needs mommy to come in with him and ease out. I try to do this without him crying but that doesn't always work either so we just make the best of it until it changes. But I still love my little man and enjoyed going with him on his first day.








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