FIRECRACKERS AND GIRL OVER BOARD

We spent an awesome 4th of July in MS with my mom and step-dad's house. The kids were so excited to be going to grandma and grandpa's that they could care less if it was a holiday or not! They were kind of excited about the fireworks they bought though! It was too funny because all day Olivia kept asking to do her sparklers and when the time came she didn't want to do them!! LOL! We enjoyed bar-b-que and a great card game before lighting those fireworks!! Arianna LOVED the fireworks this year which surprised me since she was terrified last year!! I'm so glad she's coming out of her shell!!

We made it home today in time to do some unpacking before heading out in the boat! We all LOVE to be out on the water and since we had some day light left we figured it would be a lot of fun to do. The kids were so excited and you'd swear it's their first time fishing everytime we go!! LOL! I'm glad to report that I caught the most fish coming in with 7 while Lee Jr. caught 2 and Lee only one!! LOL!!

While we were fising Arianna kept leaning WAY over on the side of the boat and I kept telling her if she didn't quit she would fall in! Well all I can say is thank God she had a life jacket on because I leaned over to get some bait and heard splasha nd there she was in the bayou! LOL!! She was upset because she thought she lost her orange croc!! LOL! Once she realized it fell in the boat as she was going over she wanted to do it again! In fact she jumped over twice after that!! That's a LONG way from the little girl who was scared of the water at the begining of the summer!! I have no idea what I'm going to do with them!! They're all so different but they sure do keep me on my toes!!

I hope each and everyone of you had a great 4th of July and weekend!


Looking for her momo right after she fell into her GIANT ivy!! LOL!! I thought her expression was too funny! I was actually trying to taker her picture in front of it when she tripped and fell in it!


I think this is my favorite photo from the 4th!!


Olivia LOVES her Paran!!


Playing cards after eating bar-b-que!


Olivia wanted help from her nanny with her sparkler!


Arianna LOVED the sparklers this year!!! We know now though that we need to stand FAR away from her because she likes to make circles and who ever is in the way (my mom) will get hit!! YIKES!


Lee Jr. with his sparkler! I have taken his photo every year with a sparkler on the 4th since he was born!


Hanging on to the side of the boat after she jumped in, on purpose this time!


Lee Jr. with his catfish


They hooked this alligatir a few times, but he kept getting off so once again no close up shots!


Cheese!


The lake runners, perch and catfish we caught!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

I hope each of you will have an amazing 4th of July! Please don't forget to take a moment to remember those who have fought and lost their lives for us to have our freedom and those who are still fighting! Their sacrifices are greater than we will ever know!!

FFF----FEELING FROGGY?

I was in serious need of some family time outside of the house so I spent the entire day with the kids doing fun stuff!! We started off the day with going to the movies to see Up and then off to the mall to look at some new drapery! We headed home and colored and played with Mr. Potato head while waiting for Lee to come home from work. It wasen't long before we were headed to the bayou to go do some fishing! Nope we didn't catch a thing other than a crab!! LOL! So we enjoyed some boat riding for awhile until almost dark and decided since froggin' season is open we'd go. Off to the house to get the go devil and a froggin' we went! This is the first time the girls got to go and they had a BLAST!! Arianna LOVED the frogs but hated the darkness! LOL!!
Imagine being surrounded with water and no matter where you look there is total darkness. This is what froggin' is like!! It's actually an adrenaline rush because you ride around shining the light to see their green eyes and when you spot one you ride close enough to either catch it with your hand or scoop it with a net! Lee Jr. prefers to catch them with his hands!! LOL!! They're some fast little suckers too because if you hesitate even for a minute they're GONE!! My husband has also taught my kids that if you shine the light and see red eyes that means it's an alligator. That part is not so bad but telling them if you can get close enough and they're small you can whack them with the paddle and knock them out!! Why in the world would you want to do this is what you're thinking now right? Well to take pictures of course and then if you put them back in the water they will wake up and swim away! Crazy huh? Well we did see one small gator and Lee Jr. tried to whack him but it simply went under water! I guess he didn't do it hard enough! LOL!! We left out of the water at almost 2am so I would say they had a great time!! Stay tuned for more adventures!


They just came out the movies from seeing Up! Suzanne I tried to get one of the girls by themselves so you could see how cute the outfits look on them but neither one was having it!! I'll try again on the 4th!


I guess she'll ask for a car when she's 16 and a boat for her 17th birthday because the girl LOVES to drive the boat and be on the water!


The smile says it all! He LOVES to be on the water!


We didn't catch any fish but we did catch a crab!


Not so interested in fishing!! LOL! Arianna thinks when we go fishing it's like a picnic because she LOVES to eat the whole time!! LOL!


The girl LOVES to go fishing! Seriously she will be the first to grab a pole when we say we're going!


She loves crabs!!


Me and the kids going froggin'


Arianna and her baby frog who she actually killed! Not on purpose but she didn't want to lose him and squeezed him too tight!


Shining the spot light to look for the frogs!


Look he got a frog!


Taking a break from froggin'


Kissing her frog good-bye! She kept on doing it so I just had to get a picture!!


This the look Olivia gave Arianna when she tried to get her to kiss the frog!! LOL!


That smile is telling us we're going to have to kiss her frog!! Seriously she told us to kiss her frog before she let it go back to its mommy and we daid nope and she laughed!!


Daddy, he didn't turn into a princess when I kissed him so you try!


Here mommy his my frog!


Yep, he caught himself a frog!


This is how I found Lee Jr. and Arianna..waiting on the dock together for Lee to pick the boat up! Too cute!

12 KIDS + 2 ADULTS = LOTS OF FUN!!

Me and a friend decided to take the kids to Chuckie Cheese to play today, but I have to tell you that meant 12 kids with 2 adults!! They ranged in age from two to twelve, but there was lots to do for all of them!! We had an awesome time and didn't have to fuss them at all for the entire four hours we were there!! Can you believe that? I know I hardly could! LOL!! I'm just glad on days like today I have another insane, mini van driving mom to share the fun with!


I'm still lovin' those pig tails!!


Kary, Arianna and Olivia driving Chuckie to school!


Arianna LOVES Barney even though she has never watched since leaving Guatemala in 2006. She gets on the ride and hugs him every time!!


Lee Jr. playing some sort of dinosaur coin toss game!


Lee Jr. and Hunter being deer hunters!


Ellie loved riding the carousel!


Aaron bustin' the moves!


The silly girls tried to come down head first and at the same time which ended with them looking like this!


The kiddos had so much fun today!!

PIGGY TAIL DELIGHTS

Summer days seem to be flying by and before I know it my kiddos will be back to school:( Lee Jr. is going to be in the 6th grade and the girls will attend pre-school again this year with the three year old class which meets two days a week. I'm still trying to figure out how to get away with only sending them one day because I feel lost without them! Now don't get me wrong that one day a week last year felt good but I was so busy playing catch up all the time that they just as soon have been home with me. I will admit it was kind of nice to be able to run errands without having to buckle and unbuckle two car seats each time while trying to go in and handle business with the girls fighting with each other or one of them throwing a fit. It's hard to believe how much you can accomplish when doing it alone, but still in all I'm use to them being here and maybe just maybe I don't want them to grow up. Time is flying and I'm trying to savor every moment of it!!

They've been having a play mate almost every day since I'm baby sitting Ellie for her mom to work. Those three are so cute together and get along well. They spend the day playing dress up and pushing each other around in the baby strollers. They barely quarrel which makes it lots of fun to watch them. Olivia is the little mother hen who comes and tells when someone is doing something wrong. Too bad she doesn't tell on herself!! LOL!! She's my little spitfire and never misses a beat! I'd go out on the limb to say she's a little wild most of the time, but to me she's absolutely perfect!! Now if I can just figure out how to tame her just a little!! LOL!! Arianna is still the laid back one who is learning to stand her ground pretty quickly. She's still always happy for the most part and the girl has NEVER met a stranger! Seriously! This worries me when we're out and about because she'll go with anyone! So I'd say my girls are like oil and water but together they find a perfect mix to bring lots of laughs to our family!!

Lee Jr. is probably tired of hanging out with the girls so he was thrilled when his little cousin invited him to spend the day at the camp today! I think it's safe to say he had a blast because he never stopped talking about it since he has been home!!

So that's just a little insight into the things we've been up to so far. We have lots to get done right now since it looks like we'll be moving. I'm really excited about it, but I'm trying not to get my hopes too high because the family selling is dragging their feet. It's a property that was inherited and they have seven people involved so it's taking longer than we thought it would! I just figured if it's meant to be then it will work out because we don't HAVE to move right now. I've been hoping for a bigger place that would allow the kids their own room since the girls share a room right now and a bigger yard. Well this house has both and is only about five minutes from where we live now and is the neighboring town. This is awesome because it would mean all the same schools for Lee Jr. and the girls too!! So for now we're praying and waiting to see how things work out so I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Oh and I know I have been a BAD blogger lately but life has been crazy and I'm in a blogging slump I guess!! I know my readers have gone down tremendously so I'm trying to do better! I'm going to try to at least start posting every other day so I can have all this fun stuff recorded for you the readers and for my kids when they're older!! Thanks for stopping by!


Arianna is so cute in pig tails but cries the whole time I'm trying to put them in! I guess I take too long foe her liking!!


When Ellie seen me taking the girls picture she came running over saying CHEESE!!


The girls! They're so much fun to be around and they really play well together!


I LOVE her little piggy tails!!

PRAYERS FOR ANOTHER GUATMAMA AND HER TOT

PLEASE take a moment to visit http://avianareese.blogspot.com and pray for this family and their little girl!! She was hit by a car and is currently in the hospital. Please pray that God allows them to feel His arms of comfort and support wrapped tightly around them. Pray that God heals this little one and brings her home to her mom and dad soon. She has a LONG road ahead of her, but we all know prayers go a LONG way in healing!! Makes you want to hug your kids a little tighter and longer that's for sure!

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

Yep we took the kids to see the circus tonight and they loved every minute of it! They got to meet lots of the actors in the pre-show entertainment and for the most part they did well. Olivia would say hi but didn't want to take a photo with any of them! Now Arianna on the other hand wanted her picture taken with ALL of them so I have lots of great photos of her! Lee Jr. did better than I thought he would because I figured he might think he's too old for the circus, but he was excited to go around the arena floor and have all the folks sign his program book.

I have to admit that I think this year's show was definitely not as good as the one we seen last year!! Truly this was my least favorite Big Top show I have ever seen! The entertainment was nothing in comparison to the previous shows I've been too and things were WAY over priced!! I know they need to make their money but $10 for a snow cone is a little much to me!! Especially when you have three kiddos with you who all want one and you feel really bad for saying no. OK and if that's not pricey enough for you guys the cotton candy was also $10 a bag! Yep you read that right and they wanted one of those too so I made them share it. I know not the nicest thing for a mom to do but we had already taken them to eat before we went!! I also feel really bad because I didn't get them their shirts this year, but in the past they were around $20 each and this year they were $32!! A little much for a circus t-shirt when I can get some cute custom outfits for that! So that's my gripe on the circus front!! LOL!! We did get a little surprise though because a family friend had seats right next to us and neither knew the other was going! How sweet was that??

Oh and before we went to the circus we went to a wonderful church service! Pastor Paul started a new series today on helping friends through tough times! Today's sermon was on helping a friend through divorce and I learned some VERY good tips on things that should and shouldn't be said or done with others are going through a tough time. I also learned some things that I can apply to my own personal life as well. He's going to be preaching three more sermons on helping a friend through depression, debt, and death as well. I look forward to each of these because I know I find myself wondering what to say when faced with certain circumstances. It's always easy to tell someone you're thinking of them or praying for them, but I never thought that was enough. Now I'll be prepared with some good advice from the Bible to help them get through things. It couldn't have come at a better time either because I have several friends who are going through divorces and some serious financial issues. Being armed with the word of God never can fail you.

Now I will admit that I'm not one to beat someone over the head with my Bible or shove religion down their throat but I am a Christian and I'm also human. I struggle with remaining on a Godly path and I'm trying to learn to become more of what God wants me to be. I'm learning to worry less about what others around me think and more about what would be pleasing to God. I've been growing spiritually in a big way these past two years and God continues to do BIG things in my life. He has lead me on a ministry in Guatemala that I never dreamed I would ever do or could do for that matter. Opening my eyes and my soul to the world around me has changed me in more ways than one, but that's for another post. So I'll end it at that tonight since I have some more housework to do before catching some z's!!


The girls made Lee carry them all the way from the parking area to the entrance!


Just clown' around with daddy!


I LOVE my little clowns!


A true clown in every sense on the word!


Arianna and her clown snow cone cup!


Eating her baby Dumbo snow cone!! Yep every elephant is Dumbo in her book!


Lee Jr. and his clown cup..his was empty before I got to take a picture!