Mommy's Lil Blessings

CHICKEN HEAD

2010-04-25T08:56:00.003-05:00

We had some company over for a crawfish boil today and the girls took the opportunity to harass everyone with their new baby chickens!! Well not harrass them with the chickens as much as make them wear them on their heads!! The girls thought this was the funniest thing ever!! Thank goodness some of them were good sports about it!!

Matthew and Holly

Olivia loves her baby chickens!

Oh my Arianna what is that on your head!!

Chicken head Arianna!

Arianna put her baby chicken on her daddy's head LOL!!

The girls thought it was too funny to make Lee have two chickens, one on his head and the other on his shoulder!! LOL!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER

2010-04-18T08:34:00.005-05:00

The girls had a blast celebrating Christopher's birthday today!! He kept them entertained with his bubble machine and all the kids seemed to have enjoyed it. Them jumped in the spacewalk and played on the swing set all the while laughing their heads off. Me and Chris's mom went to school together so it was good to see her and catch up on life. I got to see afew more of my old buddies as well so it may for a really nice day!!

The birthday boy, Christopher!!

Olivia

Arianna

HOMEWARD BOUND

2010-04-12T00:37:00.007-05:00

Court went really well today and Ben will be free to return to Guatemala with his family very soon!! This is what we prayed for and God has granted it!! While I went to court Lee took the kids to the Children's Museum in downtown San Antonio, but forgot to bring the camera in so no pictures :( They seemed to really enjoy it though and had lots to talk about when we met up again!!

After court most of the crew who was down in support of Ben and Lilliam went to the Little Red barn to have lunch. We have never eaten there nor even knew this business exsisted but the food and service was AWESOME!! The staff was dressed as cowgirls and cowboys which made the kids laugh. But the funniest thing was when they brought us the GIANT sized menu!! Yep that's right this is the single largest menu I have ever laid eyes on! And if that print was too small all you had to do was take a look at the dining room wall because the menu was written there too!! Provided a few laughs for us for sure!! After lunch we stopped in to say goodbye to Ben and headed back home!! It was a long drive but so worth it in the end!!

Some of the group at lunch after the court hearing!!

This is the menu offered to us at the Little Red barn! And if this menu is too small to read then you can simply read it off the dining room wall:)

Liliam and Lee Jr.

A VISIT TO THE ALAMO

2010-04-11T23:29:00.013-05:00

We took a trip to the site of the Alamo today!! I was so excited to be able to see all the history and learn lots of facts that I didn't know! The kids may not have been as impressed but they seemed to enjoy it anyway!! Lee Jr. loved seeing all the old weapons used in the war while the girls were just happy to walk around and see all the people LOL! After the Alamo tour we went across the street and saw this awesome replica of what they think the original Alamo looked like before the war. It was really neat and I was amazed at just how much work the man who built it put into it! A short walk around the Riverwalk and we were all tired enough to grab some lunch and head to the hotel with it!!

We rested up for a little while and headed to visit with Ben and Liliam. We had so much fun over there and we left with anticipation for the court hearing the next day. We just know God is going to work it al out in Ben's favor!! His testimony will grow after tomorrow!! Back at the hotel and packed everything in the car because we're heading home after court tomorrow!!

Arianna, Lee Jr. and Olivia visit the Alamo for the first time!!

Arianna in her beautifu Guatemalan dress!! I LOVE her in the outfit!!

I can hardly believe how much my little man has grown!! Where has the time gone?

Outside on the walkway of the Alamo!

Olivia

I love this picture of Olivia!! She got tired of walking so she wanted on Lee's shoulders and this is the look on her face the rest of the walk to the car!!

Olivia and Lilliam

Just us girls!! Olivia, Me, Liliam, and Arianna

Us with Ben!!

DAY TWO SAN ANTONIO

2010-04-10T20:14:00.021-05:00

With a rainy day in San Antonio we didn't really know what to go and do. Well that was quickly decided when Lee and Lee Jr. discovered there was a HUGE Bass Pro Shop nearby!! This thing was twice the size of the one here in Baton Rouge so off we went. Of course I rarely ever leave home without the camera and man I'm glad I had it today!! There were so many beautiful areas to take photos so that's just what I did!! I got some great shots of the kids too!!

Olivia hopped on this pink 4-wheeler immediately and said mom asking Santa for one like this for Christmas!! Man we're in trouble!! LOL!

DAY ONE SAN ANTONIO

2010-04-09T23:44:00.015-05:00

We arrived safe and sound in San Antonio!! The kids actually did better traveling than I thought they would, but maybe it's because we left late at night!! We arrived and had breakfast before going off to meet Ben at his mom's house. Man it was so great to see Liliam and Ben on US soil!! We haven't seen them since December while we were visiting Guatemala! The circumstances of the visit were not happy ones, but God will work it all out and he'll be back in Guatemala in no time!!

The girls were so excited to see Ben and be able to play with him! He really spoiled them when they were in Guatemala! And Arianna absolutely LOVES Liliam! She gave out lots of kisses and hugs to both of them. Ben took the girls play in the backyard for the longest time. They played chase and then he taught them to climb in the tree and the kids loved it!! Oh and he taught us what dill grass was. First time I ever saw or tasted the stuff and it really does taste like a pickle LOL! Just kind of couldn't get past it was grass though:( Oh and Olivia quickly leanrd what buttercups were too. Not sure what the real name of the flower is but I do know when you smell them your nose turns yellow!!

Olivia found a flower and had to smell it, but never realized it was be on her nose LOL!

The girls were so excited to see Ben go up in the tree!!

Arianna wanted Ben to help her get in the tree like he did!

Going up!!

Once she was almost up in the tree Arianna changed her mind about it! LOL

Arianna and Lilliam

Lee Jr., Arianna, and Olivia at the Riverwalk in San Antonio

WHACKED OUT BIRTHDAY NINJA

2010-04-07T21:45:00.009-05:00

Today was a day full of shopping, picking up a birthday cake, visits from a friend and her son and a birthday celebration!! The kids had a blast running around the yard playing and just being kids! At some point Lee Jr. thought it was a good idea to go inside and get some of his paintball protective gear as well as a throw blanket and come out dressed like some type of whacked out ninja and all I could do was laugh. Of course I did have to compose myself long enough to take his picture!!!

Lee Jr. came out like this to defend himself!! ROFL! Have No clue what he was thinking LOL!

Olivia, Beau, Arianna, and Bree

We finished off the evening celebrating Lee's 34th birthday with the kids!! They couldn't wait to come home from dinner to eat a piece of his cake either!! It was so cute because Olivia kept asking mom are you done eating yet. I was like no Olivia we have to wait for everyone to be done. Oh man I want to go home and eat cake!! LOL!! Glad he had a great birthday!

Lee Jr., Lee, Olivia and Arianna

STUDENT OF THE MONTH

2010-04-06T21:08:00.004-05:00

Lee Jr. came home with the Student of the Month Award today!! Way to go Little Man!! I'm VERY proud of you!!

EASTER 2010

2010-04-04T10:46:00.008-05:00

Easter mornings are such a fun and exciting time for me!! I LOVE watching my kids wake up and run to the kitchen to see what the Easter bunny has left for them!! Olivia was the first to wake up and she ran to the kitchen and started yelling the bunny passed, look, look the bunny passed!!! Talk about I was all smiles!! She then went wake up everyone else in the house so they could come see too!! I am so going to miss these days when they're grown :(

My mom and Jay bought the girls a really cute dress for Easter so they wore it to church proudly!! They did well at church but when it was over they were VERY ready to head out to my brother's house!! I mean come on that's where all the Easter fun happens!! We always get together and boil crawfish or bar-b-que and have a HUGE egg hunt for the kids!! This year was no different!! Fun was had by everyone and it was great to have the entire family together for the day!! We even did something a little different this year. Me and Lee were able to go visit his little sister in Houma. She's only five months older than Olivia!! This is the first time he has ever gotten to see her on Easter so it was nice!! So all in all it was a great day!

Olivia put in her request for the bunny with the carrot from the first day she saw it!!

Lee Jr. and his hip hop bunny!! That bunny had bling and all LOL!!

Arianna and her big ear bunny!! I use to love these kinds of chocolate bunnies when I was a kid!

Lee Jr., Papa Jay, Olivia, Momo and Arianna~~ the kids LOVE their grandparents!

Shrimpy, Sage, Olivia and Arianna at my nanny's house!

Lee and his baby sister Star

COLORING EGGS FOR EASTER

2010-04-03T10:12:00.008-05:00

I can't even begin to count the number of times that Olivia asked if we could dye eggs since the coloring was bought! At least once or twice a day she would ask if it was time to dye eggs yet LOL!! SO when the big day arrived she took her bath with no problems and was quick to tell Arianna and Lee Jr. to do the same! As the kids dyed their eggs they would tell me exactly who they wanted to give it to and they said the Easter bunny would know too. Hmmm..... It's always a fun time for us because the kids get so excited and it's usually one of the rare nights I can convince them that they need to go to sleep sort of early!! If not the bunny will not pass :)

Olivia dyeing her blue egg!

Arianna coloring her yellow egg!

I'm so glad Lee Jr. still enjoys dyeing Easter eggs!!

Papa Jay helping Arianna with her egg!

Olivia getting a little help with her egg from her grandma!

EASTER EGG HUNT

2010-03-27T22:13:00.008-05:00

Our church did a community Easter egg hunt today and it was amazing!! They hide over 15,000 plastic, candy filled eggs each year!! It's a great day of fellowship and fun for everyone. They do games, face painting, snowballs, jumpers, crafts, hot dogs, drinks and the egg hunt all free to anyone who comes!! To me this is a remarkable outreach for the community. They have LOTS of families that show up and many of the kids return to the church to go to summer bible school! I know we go each year and love it!! I am SO glad I found this church and I only wish we would have found it sooner!
Lee Jr. wouldn't dare pass up the opportunity to show his love for the Saints!!

Can you tell how happy Arianna was about having to wait to find the eggs? LOL

Olivia waiting on the egg hunt to start!! She was very careful not to mess up her butterfly!

Lee Jr. found a ton of eggs!! This is the last year he can do the egg hunt though because he's going to be 13 next year!!

Olivia found a prize egg and won a $10 Wal-mart gift card!!

IT'S AN EASTER PARADE!!

2010-03-26T21:29:00.002-05:00

I took the girls to see Cole in his school parade today! They LOVED it and of course we saw lots of other kids we knew too! They both came home with a TON of candy!! And let me assure you those two little hyper girls don't need to eat too much candy LOL!!

Cole, Olivia and Arianna before the parade. We went especially to see him!!

Suzanne made this awesome little Easter outfit for Olivia!! And man she sure was proud to show it to everyone!! She kept saying look at my easter eggs lol!

Arianna posing in her cute Easter dress Suzanne made for her!!

Arianna and all her goodies!!

If you look closely you will see Olivia couldn't even wait to leave the parade before she started eating her candy!!

RECITAL COSTUMES ARE IN

2010-03-22T20:25:00.012-05:00

The girls got their costumes in for dance recital today and they're so CUTE!!! They'll dance to God Bless the USA in their ballet shoes and the tutu and to Yankee Doodle in the pants and tap shoes with the sailor hat!! I can't wait to see them up on stage, but man it makes me wonder where the time has gone!! My babies are babies no more!! They've grown into full fledged toddlers over night! WOW I wish I could keep them this age for just a little longer!!
Olivia says she likes her twirly skirt LOL!

My two little ballerina's!! They're going to rock the stage for sure!

SO CUTE!!!

The world's two cutest sailors!!

Isn't she so adorable in her recital costume??

Olivia trying on the pants for her costume!

The girls all dressed in their costumes!! They were so proud to show them off!!

Practicing their salute ending for the dance recital!!

IRISH ITALIAN PARADE

2010-03-21T20:09:00.005-05:00

The kids absolutely love going to the irish italian parade every year. It's so funny to see them get so excited about catching fruits and veggies when they don't eat most of them. You would swear they would be throwing candy by how excited they get!! This year was very different from the past years because it was actually kind of chilly out! The first time I can ever remember us having to wear a jacket to that parade!! Despite the weather we still had a great time!!

Olivia trying to see if the floats are coming!

Arianna had a BLAST!!!

The kids with their catch of the day!! Man they caught all sorts of vegetbles fruits, beads, toys and more!!

4-H CONTEST DAY!

2010-03-20T15:26:00.012-05:00

Lee Jr. did an AWESOME job at the 4-H contest day today!! He won a green ribbon in the photo-still life division, second place in the small animal talks division and the sugar-cakes division, first place in the landscape, people, and animals photos division as well as over all in the photo competition! That's seven ribbons in one day!!! I am SO proud of him!!! He really enjoys 4-H and always puts his all into it!!
Small pet demonstration!! Lee Jr. did his on his rabbit!

Archery workshop!

Olivia decorating her sugar cookie!

Arianna joined in on the baking workshop too!!

Lee Jr. decorating his sugar cookie at the baking workshop!

Over all winners in each category!!

The girls helping Lee Jr show off his ribbons he won today!!

ZOO

2010-03-18T15:09:00.006-05:00

Sometimes you just need to get out and enjoy the outdoors!! Today was another one of those days so me and the girls picked up our cousin Johnetta and headed to the zoo!! The weather was SO nice because it was kind of cool and breezy. We spent a few hours walking around seeing the animals and headed home!! Thank God the zoo is not too far and we have a membership!! Saves me from being stir crazy alll the time!

Me and my girls!!

I couldn't resist getting a photo of the gorilla sitting like this!

Arianna sitting on the gorilla's lap. I have a photo like this of Lee Jr. when he was her age:)

My baby girl has a fashion sense of her own!! LOL!

ST.PATRICK'S DAY BEAUTIES

2010-03-17T15:02:00.004-05:00

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!! My two little cuties proudly wore their outfits to school today that Suzanne made for them!!

MC DONALD'S FUN

2010-03-15T14:48:00.005-05:00

What does a stir crazy mom do when the kids need to get out and the weather is not so nice?? Take them to Mc Donald's of course. The kids have so much fun climbing all over the indoor play land at Mc Donald's. It gives me a break from then and five miunutes to myself so what more can I ask for??

CRAWFISHING AND FISHING

2010-03-13T12:36:00.013-06:00

The weather has been so nice around here that its time to get out and enjoy it!! We took the kids crawfishing this weekend and they had a blast!! My mom and step dad came down from Mississippi and joined in the fun with us and my brother's family!!! We caught as many as we could until the kids were tired out and ready to go. We bought a little extra and enjoyed a nice day of family time with a crawfish boil!!

The next evening we took the kiddos fishing for a little while. It's so cute because when you mention fishing in the house the kiddos are out the door as is. They can care less what they are wearing whether they have shoes on their feet or anything else!! LOL!! We let them fish for about an hour or so and headed in as it got dark!! Great family times that's for sure!!

Lee Jr. and Cole going to put out crawfish nets!!

The four little ones played in the grass and let the real work up to everyone else!

Learning to crack crab claws young LOL!

My two little princesses all ready to go out fishing!!

My little man LOVES to be fishing!!

Trying to catch a fish!

Trying to fix her pole

Mission complete!!

DANCING DIVAS

2010-03-08T23:10:00.004-06:00

The girls have been busy learning their routine for the upcoming dance recital and they love it! I was trying to sneak these pictures through the blinds in the viewing area, but as you can see Arianna spotted me and posed foe a picture!! I'm so proud of these two!! There's never a dull moment in the house with them. Their personalities are so different but I love them all the same!! They're actually very bossy and demanding for such tiny little tots and man do they ever run their big brother! I wouldn't trade these moments for the world no matter how annoyed I get with some of the things they do!! LOL!!

AND THEY ALL ASKED FOR YOU

2010-03-07T23:11:00.002-06:00

It's been way too long since we visited the zoo and Olivia has been begging to go. We went to church, had lunch, then headed out to enjoy the beautiful weather at the zoo. We had no idea anything was going on there until we pulled in and man the parking lot was OVER flowing! Come to find out the New Orlean's Hornets were having a promotion we weren't aware of because we're not basketball fans at all! We were still able to see lots of the animals and Arianna even had her picture taken with the cheerleaders!! It was so nice just to be outside walking around in GOOD weather!! It's been way colder than normal and lots of rain so we haven't been doing much other than hanging out inside. I know now that the warm weather is coming that we'll be visiting the zoo more often!! I need to let them get their zoo fix since we'll be gone to Guatemala for a month and won't get to go there until we come home!! The good thing is they will get to see the Guatemala City zoo so I'm sure they won't miss the animals too much!!

The kids want me to take their picture in front of the flamingos every time we visit the zoo!

My dino-mite kids!!

She looks very afraid huh?? LOL!!

A Dino-bite boy!

Arianna and two of the New Orleans Hornets Honeybees!!

Olivia on her deer! This girl LOVES the carousel!!

Arianna on her zebra waiting for the ride to begin

Lee Jr. on the white tiger

Olivia the Seal

Arianna the silly seal!!

Sealy Lee

Arianna loving the baby elephant!

Olivia thought the bear needed her picture taken by herself with the baby elephant!

GONE CRAWFISHING

2010-03-06T22:16:00.002-06:00

We took the kids on their first crawfishing trip of the year! The weather has been so cold that we weren't so sure when we would get to go but a few days of warm temperatures and we were off!! My kids LOVE being in the outdoors so this was so welcomed by them! It has been raining a lot the past few days so we went for a little mud ride first and the girls thought it was the greatest thing ever. Well actually Arianna wasn't so sure LOL! However Olivia is all me and had a blast! I mean who wouldn't enjoy taking your truck and speeding through tons of mud and water?? LOL!!

We were able to find a really dry spot out of the way so the kids were all set!! I had to laugh though because at one point Arianna wanted to follow her daddy to go check the nets. Well there's a ton of mud everywhere in those fields and as she walked to him she got stuck in the mud!! She hollered for him to help as I was getting one the phone and he said I'm coming!! Well about five minutes into my phone call I realized she was still stuck and trying to get out LOL!! Lee finally walked over to get her but man it was too funny!!! She also does not like to get dirty!! Yeah that's right she'll enjoy the mud but them immediately wants to be cleaned off well sorry honey that's just not going to happen! LOL!!

Now Olivia on the other hand is all about being in the dirt!! Seriously this child seems to WANT to get dirty and the dirtier she can get the better she feels LOL!! So she was in heaven when she took off those socks and boots and sat in the dirt to make some kind of piles. Apparently she had fun because she keeps asking when we will go back!!

My little man loves it outside too. He had so much fun!! It was kind of bittersweet as I watched him though because he's not my little boy anymore....he's becoming a young man. No longer does he need help baiting those nets and his hand held to help him through them out. He baits his own nets, throws them out, runs them all the while helping his little sisters enjoy doing the same thing! He's such a great big brother and I am so proud of him!!

Arianna waiting to go on her crawfishing adventure!

Olivia was determined to bring and wear her life jacket to go crawfishing LOL!!

Olivia looking for a spot to throw her crawfish net!!

Arianna holding her crawfish net!

Lee Jr. walking through the grass to go check his nets!

Arianna and her crawfish friend!

Olivia was excited to be playing in the dirt!

Olivia has learned that she can stand on the running boards of the truck too open the door!! She even knows how to unlock it!! Nice!!! LOL

LEE JR.'S P.A.C PERFORMANCE

2010-03-05T22:06:00.005-06:00

Lee Jr. joined the 4-H performing arts club last year and has been enjoying the various activities. This year they hosted their very first 4-H talent show and they had to perform! This was a parish wide activity so lots of people showed up so I wondered how he would do since he tends to be a little shy, Well he did AWESOME! I was so proud of him!! They performed Hard Knock Life from Annie and did a great job!! He made me one proud mommy!!

A group shot of the 4-H P.A.C

The final pose of the performance!

HOLDING THE HAIR BACK

2010-03-04T21:57:00.002-06:00

I had to laugh as I watched Olivia and Arianna figure out how to eat these adorable turtle cupcakes my mom bought for them. As I took the lid off I accidentally scraped a little icing off one turtle's shell so Arianna wanted that one! Olivia took the other so all was well until neither one of them would pick it up to eat them when they realized the legs would "fall" off!! What they didn't realize was those were icing legs and they would do that. After trying to explain it to them for at least a hundred times I gave up. Arianna decided she no longer wanted the stupid cupcake and walked away. Well Olivia as determined as she is decided the best approach was to lick the icing off!! Of course with her hair down she couldn't do that so she tried to hold it up herself, but still wasn't satisfied with the results so she called in back up!! Yep that's right she had Arianna holding her hair back as she licked the icing!! This went on for a while and was just too funny not to take a picture of!! LOL!! I wonder if this is a sign of what their party nights will be like when they get older???

OH NO THE BIG 3-OH

2010-03-02T21:35:00.008-06:00

Yep as of today I am 30! I feel no different or see it no different as any other day. I always go with the you're only as old as you feel and I feel as far from 30 as you can imagine! Now some days I admit I feel 10 all over again where other days I feel 85 LOL!!

We were suppose to go out to eat tonight, but I came home VERY sick!! I went shopping with my sister in law at the outlet mall in Gulfport and first Olivia puked as we walked out the Disney store so I knew she was getting it, but then I was not feeling so hot. By the time I got home all I wanted to do was crawl under the covers and sleep! Now if you know me well enough this is SO NOT me!! So I napped for a very LONG time, but I did get up long enough to eat a very small piece of cake with the kiddos and open my gifts! So the supper out will have to wait until we all feel better!!

We're all under the weather so the kids al laid down together!! How sweet is this?? Of course Arianna didn't nap because she was perfectly fine!!

A family shot for my birthday!

Olivia was delighted to tell me she had a toy for me for my birthday!! She hopped down, ran to her room and came back with her Little Mermaid toy!! She said mom I know you will like it because she's my favorite!! So sweet!!

The kids gave me the sweetest cards for my birthday!! Lee Jr. even spent free time at school to make me one!

She insisted her daddy sleep with her in her toddler bed LOL!

MARDI GRAS AND THE SUPERBOWL

2010-03-01T20:30:00.000-06:00

February was a month filled with parades, birthday parties, and the BIG super bowl game and celebrations!! The kids could not get enough of the parades and would ask me every day if we were going to a parade!! It was so much fun to see them enjoy Mardi Gras!! They were also VERY excited when we told them they would get to ride a float for one of the parades!! You know they were already in high gear for celebrating since we were all still excited about the big super bowl win!!

That's right my kids were able to watch the Saint's win the super bowl at a really awesome party!! We ALL had so much fun and man when it was over I don't think anyone was ready to sleep!! It meant the entire state went into party mode!! SERIOUSLY!! This led to a really awesome Mardi Gras!!

This is what happens when you decide to get involved with a water war!!

Olivia did her hair then Arianna's

Olivia is suddenly into clips and doing her own hair so here's her latest creation! TOO CUTE!!

Arianna and Boots taking a nap!

Arianna and her Mardi Gras wig!

As Olivia caught stuffed animals she would sit them in her chair so they could watch the parade!

My little Saint's fan meets some Star War costume wearing woman!! LOL!

My kids on the Redneck themed float we road on this year!

My child LOVES to go every where in this butterfly costume!

Arianna catching beads on my shoulder!

Olivia catching the parade on her daddy's shoulder!

The girls celebrating the Saint's big win!!

Me and Lee after the Superbowl Game!!

The three girls wanted to have their own party in the patio!

Me and my little man at the Superbowl Party

Lee Jr. celebrating at the Super Bowl party!

JANUARY 2010

2010-03-01T18:46:00.001-06:00

Another year started and we're hoping for many wonderful memories to come from it!! January was a busy month full of birthday parties, a new birth, Monster Jam and more!! I still can hardly believe we're already in March and I'm just catching up this blog. So many things have happened already that I didn't write about, but I'll keep updating until I'm back on track so stay tuned!!

Lee Jr. at Monster Jam

Olivia said I needed to take her picture with her doll at Monster Jam

Olivia and her nanny at Monster Jam

Lee Jr. and Arianna waiting for the parade!

My kids with my mom on her 51st birthday!

Arianna who just came down the slide but stopped to pose for me:)

Olivia getting ready to slide!

Arianna in her newest traje I got while we were in Guatemala!! I even got her the traditional shoes this time!!

Lee Jr. helping to carry one of the floats in the local Guatemala celebration!!

Lee Jr. helping to carry a float in the Guatemala celeberation!

My silly little girl who is so full of life!!! Never a dull moment when she's around!!

Olivia, Cole and Arianna playing dress up! What a great little guy he is to dress up as a princess because the girls wanted him to! I'm sure he'll hate me for these photos one day!! LOL!

I just love all the looks the girls are giving in this picture!! TOO FUNNY!

Olivia and her sparkler!

Arianna had a blast with the sparklers!!

Arianna, Breelle and Olivia waiting for midnight!!

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS

2010-02-07T21:20:00.001-06:00

We went to lots of Christmas celebrations during the month of Decemeber!! Since I'm playing catch up on the blog I'm only going to highlight some important moments to me!!

*The girls enjoyed their dance class party with all the other little girls!! They exchanged gifts and shared goodies!!

*We celebrated with an awesome Christmas party at my mom's house in MS. It was so nice to get together with all the extended family on my step-dad's side!

* We went to the Christmas party at Lee's work and man was he loaded!! It just so happened it was the night before the Saints played the Dallas Cowboys so Bourbon was packed and TONS of fun!! He sported a wreath he won at the party on his head all night long with his lonely little ballon dragging behind him!! LOL!!

*We made the traditional sugar cookies with the kids that turned into that traditional flour fight!! LOL!! They were covered in flour from head to toe but had so much fun! I mean they're only young once so you have to enjoy them while you can!!

*Christmas morning was a blast with the kids!! We watched them as they ripped through the paper and unveiling all the goodies inside!! I'm not really sure what the girl's favorite gifts were because they seem to like them all but Lee Jr.'s was defintely his shot gun!!

A happy ENDing to a Christmas day!!

I made this cute little ballerina bow holder for Rylee and Jim decided to try it on. LOL

Arianna, Olivia, and Lee Jr. with their giant stockings from their grandma

The kids and Boots in front of the Christmas tree!!

The finished product!!

Yep Arianna rolled around in the flour....NOT....she just got in a flour fight!

Do you think this will turn into a flour fight? It sure did!!!

Olivia getting ready to make sugar cookies, but where in the wolrd are her underwear?? LOL!

Olivia sleeping with her new puppy!!

Arianna and Olivia with their new dog boots!! Olivia was fully dressed when she got in the car but after getting mad she took her shirt off and threw it!!

If you look good this is Olivia sitting in the doorway with her new toys behind her on the porch!! She put them out there so no one else would play with them!! LOL!!

My SIL and brother gave me this card for Christmas. It was a note asking me to be the twins nanny aka godmother!! What a great gift!!

Lee Jr. with his new shirt! No smile but he said he liked it!!!

Arianna with her new Dora skates!!

Me and Lee at his work Christmas party

How much do you think he had to drink that he left his company Christmas party wearing this wreath on his head? Oh and don't let me forget he wore this thing ALL night long even when we went party on Bourbon St.

Arianna with Mrs. Nae and Olivia with Mrs. Merces at their pre-school Christmas party!

The girls with their stocking Mrs. Jo gave them!!

Olivia and Arianna with their dance teacher and class mates at their little Christmas party!

OUR FAMILY TRIP TO GUATEMALA

2010-01-09T23:53:00.027-06:00

Olivia snuggling with a ton of stuffed animals that will be distributed to the children of the villages!!

This picture is so bittersweet for me!! Seeing Arianna amongst those children reminds me that she could have easily been left behind to suffer in poverty!!

This sweet little girl climbed in my lap and sat there for the longest time!!

Arianna and this little girl in El Barranco hit it off from the start. They sat together during the clown show and played together after!! They were SO cute!! They even chased and caught baby chicks together!

Us with the food bags for Los Robles

The girls all loved little Abraham, they even gave him this little guitar.

Lee Jr. enjoying his fruity little drink!!

The kids had a blast playing on the dolly while we sorted donations!

A family shot on the way to Los Robles, Guatemala

My little man was such a big help!! Here he is helping to hand out food bags in Los Robles!

Us with the clowns that performed for the distribution day in Panajachel.

Lee Jr. had a blast giving out toys to the kids in Panajachel!!

Lee Jr. and Sebastian!! These two became instant friends!!

Olivia, Arianna and Lee Jr. in Antigua

Arianna LOVES her grandpa!!!

The image of Arianna's cousin, Josue that haunts my mind everyday!!

Us with Arianna's birth family

US with Arianna's foster family!! They were so excited to see her!!

NOVEMBER 2009

2010-01-09T22:43:00.025-06:00

November has come and gone with many things happening from birthday celebrations to preparing for our up coming trip to Guatemala!! Here are some highlights of the month and photos to enjoy!!

*Arianna's 4th birthday!! I still can hardly believe my tiny little girl I brought home from Guatemala is now a spunky little toddler full of personality!!

*Olivia went on her first official duck hunting trip!! That's right my little hunting princess woke up before day light to bundle up in camo and go out into the boat to wait in the cold blind for ducks to fly at sunlight!! I was hoping the boring cold the wait brings would keep her home for at least another year but no chance that was happening!! My girl LOVES to hunt!! Now if I could only convince Arianna hunting is fun I could begin to hunt again but there's no way she's buying into that!! It's been four years since I have gone hunting with Lee and Lee Jr. so I would really like to go but it'll have to wait another year!

*Lee Jr. made his first trip to the Renaissance festival during a class field trip and I think he had a great time!! I think the highlight of his day was buying a HUGE bottle of rootbeer!! LOL!! We met a queen, an ogar, and got to see many interesting exhibits!

*We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner as a family at my mom's in Mississippi. After our huge meal we played cards and had a great time!! Of course I had to do some Black Friday shopping the next day!!

*We put up our Christmas tree two days after Thanksgiving and the kids had a blast doing it!! They each have their own Guatemala ornament that they make sure goes on the tree each year!! It's too cute to watch them!!

*We also stayed really busy preparing to leave for Guatemala and I think we all got more and more excited as the date approached!!

Our traditional family Chuckie Cheese night to celebrate Arianna's 4th birthday!

Arianna on her 4th birthday party!!

Lee Jr., Arianna and Olivia

Momo, Arianna and Papa Jay!

Upside down girl meets her cake compliments of Uncle Jim!!

Olivia's first duck hunting trip!! Yep she LOVES to hunt!!

Sisterly love!!

Lee Jr. met a queen!

Me and Lee Jr. met an ogar today!!

If this is what the kids do when they like you imagine what they do if they hate you!!

The kids tree shot for 2009

This look tells it all!! She's FED up with me taking her picture!!

Arianna convincing Santa that she really needs a REAL baby for Christmas!!

2009 Santa photo

Lee Jr. doing the bungee jump at the mall!

Arianna high in the sky!!

Olivia on the bungee jump at the mall

Arianna's birthmother hand beaded this ornament and now she hangs it on the tree each year!

Olivia loves our hand beaded Santa ornament from Guatemala

Lee Jr. hung the Guatemalan bulb ornament

GO HOME DRITY BIRDS B/C OUR BOYS ARE 7-0

2009-11-03T20:38:00.007-06:00

I decided to surprise Lee and Lee Jr. with tickets to the Saints vs. Falcons game last night and man was my little man excited. He had NO idea when he left for school that he would be going to the game since I only found the tickets yesterday morning! I rode to New Orleans to get them and then home again to wait for the day to pass on!! Boy the smile on his face was PRICELESS as I told him we would be cheering on the Saints!! I sent the girls to play with Ellie and off we went!

Driving into New Orleans for this game was as bad as it is for Mardi Gras and parking was next to impossible to find! We did manage to park and get through the crowded streets as we watched officers trying to clear people out of the roads just so the traffic could flow!! It was ALL party last night!!

The game was an intense and AWESOME one to be at! You could feel the adrenaline all around you and the crowd was rocking! Our bless you boys sent them dirty birds home becoming 7-0!! I'm so glad we made it and my little man had so much fun!!

Lee Jr. sporting his black and gold hair and Saints tattoo which means he's ready for the game!

I think judging by this smile my little man was happy to be at the game!

Me and my little man at the game!

A glimpse of the stadium!

HALLOWEEEN 2009

2009-11-01T19:49:00.011-06:00

The kids had a wonderful time trick or treating and got LOTS of candy!! Each of them picked out their own costume and loved them!! Lee Jr. agreed to get his first scary costume this year!! He dressed as the Big Bad Wolf and LOVED seeing the little kids shy away as he walked by!! Only last year was he one of those kids running from the creepy people!! LOL!! Olivia was planning to be Tinkerbell and at the last minute decided to be a pirate and she had a blast!! We laughed so much at her because she kept saying look at my mean pirate face and would squench up her face!! Arianna was a little cowgirl and kept pulling out her little pin kgun telling everyone to stick them up!! LOL!!

We had a fun filled day with birthday parties, trick or treating, hayrides, hotdog roasts and more parties! I'm just glad we all survived Halloween with no ER visits this year!!

Making her mean pirate face!!

Olivia LOVED her pirate outfit!

My Little Cowgirl

She LOVED being a cowgirl!!

The Big Bad Wolf!

Princess Pirate, The Big Bad Wolf and My little Cowgirl cutie!!

My family:)

A LITTLE OF THIS AND A LOT OF THAT

2009-10-30T09:55:00.022-05:00

Time is passing by so fast and so many things are happening that I lose track of the time and forget to blog!! Our family has been super busy with the girls dancing, Lee Jr. in football, our couple's dance class and preparing for my trip to Guatemala!! I can hardly believe it's only 5 weeks away!! We're all in the countdown mode and the kids are getting so excited!! I know they're going to have a blast seeing the sights of Guatemala once again. I can hardly wait to see Arianna running and playing with her birthsiblings. They may not speak the same language but love is universal and you can tell when they're together how much they enjoy each other!

Last weekend we went to a Halloween party for Lee's company and then ventured out to Destin, Fl to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. The trip could have been better but we made the best of our time together without the kids. I went to my very first Irish resturant and laughed so hard because I had NO clue what most of the things on the menu were!! Thank God for Susan because I was able to call her and get the low down on the irish cuisine. The steak I ordered was AWESOME and more of an american choice I was comfortable with but I did venture out and try this brown bread they brought to us. It was actually good too! After supper we ventured out to Commander's Palace to check out all the little shops and then on to Pat O' Briens to listen to the band. Let's just say I'm convinced no where in the world parties like New Orleans!! Being bored out of my mind we settled to order a pizza and take it to the room to watch a movie. I could harldy believe it but I was actually asleep by midnight which is a rarity for me!! LOL!!

The kids had a blast carving their pumpkin for Halloween the other night!! Arianna and Lee Jr. LOVED sticking their hands in and pulling all the pumkin guts out, but Olivia stuck her hand in and pulled it right out and said NO WAY!! LOL!! She was ok with helping to cut the outline out but she hated the way the inside felt!! Arms crossed with a pout face on she stood and watched them do it!! LOL!!

Arianna gave herself a new haircut yesterday which resulted in her having SHORT hair! Olivia trimmed her hair a couple weeks ago but it was saved because she barely cut anything! Well Arianna found her brother's scissors yesterday and she went to town!! They cut over 6 inches off her hair to straighten it out!! I was so sick as I watched her long beautiful black hair fall to the floor. She was upset when I first told her they would have to cut all her hair off and she cried and stomped her feet! Once we got to the salon and they cut it she was beaming!! She LOVES her new haircut but it will take mommy some getting use to!! LOL!

Us at the Textron Halloween Party!

Me and Lee outside the hotel in Destin

An anniversary supper at Mc Guire's Pub in Destin, FL and the brown bread they served. Never had it before but it wasen't so bad!

A beautiful Destin sunset!

Me and Lee at Mc Guire's in Destin

Getting ready to carve their pumpkin!

Lee Jr. cutting the top off the pumpkin!

NO WAY am I sticking my hand back into that pumpkin!!

Arianna put a lot of thought into pulling out those guts!

Lee Jr. digging out pumpkin guts!

Arianna and the pumpkin!

Olivia with the pumpkin!

Lee Jr. with his pumpkin!

All that was left of the length once Arianna was done cutting her hair!

The do Arianna gave to herself!

Arianna LOVED her new haircut!!

BRACES

2009-10-14T20:01:00.006-05:00

Life here has been a whirlwind of activity, change and busy schedules!! Lee Jr. finally was able to get his braces on a few days ago and so far he's done really well with them. He complained that they were a little sore the second day and that evening when he had to wear his mouth piece for football, but no complaints today!! He'll go next week to have two teeth pulled in order to make room for his teeth to be shifted. He'll also have to go back in four weeks to have the rest of his top braces put on. All I can say is OUCH!! Hopefully he'll do well with them!!

The girls are attending pre-school once a week and so far they're doing good. No more tears are shed by either of us when dropping them off so I think we're good to go!! They're also back in dancing and loving every minute of it!! My girls both really LOVE music and dancing so this is right up their alley!!

I've been crazy busy trying to get through the last shipment before my mission trip in December and I'm glad to say I'm DONE packing! YEAH!! Medrano will be here in the morning to pick up the boxes and I'll be so glads to have my living room back!! Those boxes are packed to the brim with such wonderful donations that will be so life changing to the people they reach!!

Other than that life has been full of changes. Some for the good and some are still to be determined. I'm taking one of those long hard looks at my life and areas that need work and let's say it's not always a pretty sight!! I have reached a point in my life where the path splits and each direction is so unknown and so hard to choose, but I'm not giving in. Life may have me down but I'm not out. I'm trying to hold on to my faith and trust that I will be leads just where I need to be!! Please pray that all goes well!!

Lee Jr. trying to relax to get his braces on!!

Lee Jr. getting ready for his brackets to be put on!

Lee Jr. with the first part of his top braces on. He'll return in four weeks to get the back top braces once he has the two teeth pulled!! OUCH!!

Olivia sporting the outfit Suzanne made for her!! Both girls love it!!

Arianna

UPDATES

2009-10-11T09:05:00.003-05:00

Martina did a medicine drive for Guatemala and collected all of the items in the photo!! It's such a wide varierty of medication and I know MANY lives will be changed by them!! I received antiobiotic creams, hydrocortisone creams, diaper rash meds, vitamins, iron drops, prenatal vitamins, fever reducers, stomache meds, eye drops, nasal sprays, cold meds, bandaids, and much more!! I'm simply amazed at the generous hearts people have toward those in such a great need!! These medicines will be a true blessing to everyone who receives them!!!

Just to catch you up on things in my everyday life since I have been so absent from the blog world!! I've been busy doing packing, packing and more packing of donations for the last shipment for Project Santa this year! I have received some amazing supplies to go down to Guatemala and I know the people are going to be thrilled because I sure was!! I've also been trying to figure out fundraising efforts to distribute food baskets to the villages we'll be visiting on our mission trip. I have managed to get the 26 children attending New Hope Ministries sponsored for food baskets and blankets, and 56 families in Los Robles sponsored for food baskets as well!! I think this number is amazing!! That means 82 families will receive the food they need!! That's not all that I've been working on though!!

I'm now moving on to collect as much funds as I can do to a major distribution day in Aqua Escondido. I was told of this village recently and asked to go there because the people are suffering from the food crisis! I know it's a BIG leap of faith to accept yet another stop when the trip is so close away but how could I say no? How could I say sorry I cannot try to raise the money because my life is too busy or I'm afraid to fail so they will have to continue to be hungry?? I simply could not do it and I know all I will need will be provided! I have faith on this one!! I'm praying to raise $3,000 by Novemember 27th so that we can provide as many families in this village the essentials they need. My plan is to provide beans, rice, oil and corn to as many of them as I can. If the full funds come in then we will be able to add a small amount of fresh fruits and vegetables to that list as well!! Do you know the impact this is going to have on a hungry family??

I know times are tough for all of us right now, but I hope each of you would consider making a contribution to feed these hungry people. No amount is too small to make a HUGE difference in the life of someone who is suffering senselessly from hunger!! Let's all try to give up something that is not essential this week to help a family eat! Can you imagine the true sadness and hurt in a mother's heart when she sits up at night crying and praying for the funds to come in to feed her hungry child?? Prays for work that doesn't come and a meal that is just not enough. As I look at my children I am very thankful that I can feed, clothe, and educate them so they can have an opportunity to be something and do remarkable things with their lives. It also leads me to pray for those around the world who do not have that luxury! I think it's a true tragedy when food, shelter and clothing are a luxury! To me this is a neccessity but for some it's one they cannot afford. If you can't donate right now please help to spread the word about this food program. The more eyes that are opened the more needs that can be met. I am open to any suggestions any of you may have on how to do a better job at raising the funds. I will not give up on this and will remain faithful that we will touch many lives! Thanks to each of you for helping me to help the people of Guatemala! All of you are a true blessing!!

2009-10-07T20:27:00.001-05:00

I KNOW, I KNOW

2009-10-01T14:35:00.004-05:00

Sorry I lefy you guys hanging again but man life is kicking my butt!! I have so much going on right now that half the time I have no idea if I'm coming or going!! Good news is the packing for Guatemala has begun and it's going great too!! I have some remarkable things to distribute and I know they'll be life changing to those who receive them. All those happy faces and sweet smiles make all the work so worth it!! On that note I still have 11 food baskets left to get sponsored for families in Los Robles. They're $30 each and would make an awesome holiday gift for that special someone who already has it all!! I will return home on December 13th and will have photos mailed out no later than the 16th so they should arrive in time for Christmas!! How exciting is that to know you fed a family in honor of that special someone for the holidays!! I know times are tough for everyone so if you can't do a full basket it's ok just make a one time donation to go toward the food distribution in Aqua Escondido!! NO amount is too small to make a HUGE difference in the life of someone less fortunate!! I'll be able to post some packing photos as soon as I get my camera in from the shop. Should be by Monday!! YEAH!

TRYING TO GET BACK WHERE WE LEFT OFF

2009-09-21T21:11:00.010-05:00

It's been WAY too long since I have posted last, but life just had me busy and down and out for a while! I'm trying to keep my head above water and hopefully will be back to blogging more often. Right now my camera is in the shop so I will have to share photos from the last month instead!

So much has been going on since my last post. My little man turned 12!! Can you believe that? It feels like just yesterday he was a tiny little one pulling at my pants for me to hold him and now he's grown almost as tall as me!! He's also playing football again and is doing well!! Oh and he started the 6th grade too!! WOW is all I can say! He's growing up WAY too fast for me!!

Olivia and Arianna have started dance class again and they're loving it now. They're also back to attending preschool once a week! Surprisingly Olivia has been a little angel at school, but Arianna already had to go to the hot seat. Her teacher asked her to do something and she said no so she was asked again. Arianna then again said no and the teacher said yes you have to its the rules so she picked up a toy horse and threw it at the teacher. Sadly she's so excited about doing it even though she got in trouble for it!! I have no idea what I'm going to do with her!! LOL!

LOTS of things are going on with Project Santa!! I can tell you this is going to be the best year ever!! I have already shipped down seven HUGE boxes!! Marlene sent one and is planning another soon. Amy is shipping one this week and I have several more to go as well!! That means TONS of great things to distribute!! I'm also working on getting food baskets donated for several villages! I already have 26 sponsored for the children and their families that attend New Hope Ministries in San Andres along with a blanket and shoes!! I have managed to get 34 out of 56 sponsored for Los Robles as well. Once the last 22 of these are spoken for we will move on to get an additional 100 for El Barranco. The country is in a state of calamity and the food crisis is only worsening so I'm doing everything I can to encourage people to help!!

The cost of one food basket is $30 and is truly life changing for the family receiving it!! If you can't commit to the full $30 please consider making any monetary contribution. NO donation will be turned down as even the smallest amount will make a HUGE difference in some one's life!! I hope you can all find it in your heart to help by sponsoring a basket or by simply spreading the word!! Together we can not only make but exceed our goal!!

Lee Jr.'s first day of 6th grade!!

My little man's first day of football practice!

Arianna's reaction to her first day back at dance class!

Olivia paying close attention on her first day back at dance!

My little man turns 12!!

Arianna enjoying some shade in the boat!! Yep that's a leaf she's using for shade!

The bunnies getting their daily ride in the stroller!

PRAYERS FOR ADDISON PLEASE

2009-08-16T00:41:00.005-05:00

Brandon and Katie did all they could do to prepare to bring home a healthy, bouncing baby girl. They had a baby shower and painted her nursery in anticipation of her arrival. That all changed two days ago when baby Addison was born. The doctors were surprised to find her born with a bilateral cleft lip and pallet. The hospital she was born at was incapable of caring for her so she was shipped to a larger hospital on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi where there was a NICU. All seemed well until she once again took a turn today and had to be transported to Ochsner Hospital in Louisiana. Things are so touch and go for her right now that her father is bring forced into staying at a hotel with his mom and sister while Katie remains in MS. She's running a fever and was unable to travel to be with her daughter. Addison is facing surgery to fix stomach complications within the next day or two and then more to come to repair the birth defect.
This is a young and very sweet couple. They're really struggling with living on only one income and now they will not have any for weeks to come. The hotel is $89+tax per night and this is a discounted rate. The will also need to purchase their meals etc. The doctors are expecting her to remain here for the next four to six weeks if all goes well. They can really use any financial blessings they can get so here's where we come in. Can you please consider donating to help cover the expenses they're facing to remain in LA while their baby recovers and gets the care she needs. You can do so by clicking on the Pay Pal button here on the site and mark it Vegas Family and 100% of all monies that come in will help with their expenses. Please consider doing this and helping to spread the word. This little one and her family can use all the prayers they can get right now. Thanks again for all of your help and if you'd like more information please email me at vbayouangel@aol.com THANKS

BEACH FUN

2009-08-11T23:44:00.002-05:00

I took my little water bugs to the beach today and man did they have fun! Lee Jr. built a fort complete with a horseshoe lake and all. The girls tries to help, but he wasn't having it since they thought it was a good idea to fill in that lake with sand! LOL!! They hunted for hermit crabs and Lee Jr. found one of the biggest I have ever seen! We buried Arianna in the sand since she was the only one who would volunteer to do it and actually lay still long enough!! I think she was a little freaked out after I took too long to take the photos, but a few minutes later she was saying bury me. Guess I didn't traumatize her too much after all!! All in all I think they had a good time and it was nice to be able to spend time chatting with Jessica. I just wish we lived a little closer together because we always have so much fun hanging out together. Maybe one day we will????? Well I'm off to get things packed up so we can head out in the Am because Lee Jr. has to go meet his 6th grade teacher!!

My little man, he's growing up so fast!!

My sweet spirited girl, Arianna!

My little Livy, so full of life and spunk.

I love these guys more than I could have ever imagined was possible!

The three most important people in my world:)

Me and my sweet kiddos

MOGUATE 2009 AND MORE

2009-08-11T10:47:00.017-05:00

I would say MOGUATE 2009 was a great sucess!! 34 families with children from Guatemala attended the reunion and it was so much fun! We took the 13 hour trek to Missouri and I would say it was VERY well worth it. All of the families were so sweet and down to earth and the kiddos all played so well with each other! I met so many of the children that I have been "knowing" for a long time in blog land and their parents. We shared lots of laughs and good times and I wouldn't trade those couple of days for the world. One thing I do know is we will definetely be planning to go again next year and the years to come as long as Cindy keeps putting it on.

While I was there a lot of donations also arrived for Guatemala. Lots of the people attending brought in donations of school supplies and medicines that are very much needed!! It was a huge blessing in so many ways and I can't wait to get back home to be able to total it all up and post photos. Thanks to everyone who donated for helping me to bring relief to those who so despertaly need it!!

Arianna and Medina

Arianna simply loved the attention!!

Some of the boys!

Arianna and Noel. She's a REALLY Sweet young lady!

My kiddos all dressed for the pizza party!

Attempting to get all the kiddos together!

A shot of the kiddos

Me and my other half!

Me and the hubby!

Olivia and her little boyfriend Matthem. These two were aso cute together!

A few Guatmoms

He was such a little sweetie!

Me and the kiddos met up with Candy and her family yesterday for lunch. It was so nice to see them again and the kids are all getting so big! I'm not sure where the time has gone but each day I wake up knowing my babies are long gone. I now have adventuresome toddlers and a pre-teen. YIKES!! Aunt LaLa was traveling with them and it was so nice to meet her. I hear so much about her and see all the photos on Candy's blog so I kind of felt like I knew her. The kiddos are still as sweet as ever and man has Jagger grown. He's so full of life and all smiles too!! Hopefully we'll be able to get together with them again when we have more time!

Kya Blu

Jagger showing me his muscles!

Aunt Candy and Arianna

A POOL PARTY

2009-08-02T21:06:00.007-05:00

The kids were invited to Sarah and Joseph's birthday party at the pool today so we spent our afternoon swimming! Lee Jr. has finally over came his fear of water enough to learn to swim. Olivia for some reason has been a little more reserved in the pool than she use to be last year. BUT Arianna on the other hand has totally over come every fear she had!! She thought it was ok to politely jump in the big pool without her floaties and I had to run and pull her out. I don't think she would have panicked had I not freaked out! Here I was totally dressed with a child who can't swim trying to "swim" further away from me. Needless to say I ended up swimming today whether I wanted to or not!! She then decided she was going to jump off the diving board with the big kids and off she went!! She went under and came back up and was excited to do it again! This is a HUGE accomplishment given the fact that she screamed every time we would let her go in the pool last year. It seems all my kids are growing up and there's nothing I can do to freeze time.

I can hardly believe that my baby is now three and in a mere seventeen days my oldest will be 12. It feels like yesterday that they were babies being held so tight. And now they're strong minded, independent children making more happy memories in my life than I could have ever imagined. I'm so proud of each of them and the way they're turning out to be!! I couldn't ask for better children!

Little Miss Social, Arianna

Yep, Arianna was jumping off the diving board at the pool!!

Little Miss Olivia

My little man is so excited because he's finally over coming his fear of water and has learned to swim!!

THE BIG CHEESE BASH

2009-08-02T20:09:00.015-05:00

Can you imagine having reserved a party, sent out the invitations, cake bought and guest arriving only to find out the location has no record of your reservation even though you can provide your receipt? Yep it happened to us at the party! I arrived with cake in tow and gave the host our name only to find out they somehow left us off the list!! After being not so very nice to the manager and telling him no matter what he does or where he can fit us in that my baby is having her party there today!! They did some moving around and found us a table to fit all our guest and the party got started. Truly I didn't know if I wanted to scream at the poor guy or not and I surprised myself when I didn't. I may not have been very nice because I was just a tad bit mad but I didn't scream or cry either! Olivia was just too excited for it to be here big day!
We enjoyed the time with great friends and family and couldn't have asked for a better day. The kids all ran around like little wild ones giving the adults time to chat and catch up. Olivia was really afraid of Chuckie Cheese when it came time to sing happy birthday to her!!She hung on to me for dear life, but I did get a picture anyway!! She also got some really great gifts and was so pleased with each one. I know she had a great time and LOVED it all! Thanks to all of you who came to the party and sent birthday wishes to my little princess!!

The birthday girl!

I love this little one beyond measure. It kind of makes me sad to know my baby girl has turned three!! No more babies to snuggle..only little ones to cuddle and that will just have to do!

Olivia was scared beyond belief of Chuckie Cheese. She totally freaked out when he came to sing her happy birthday!

The family birthday portrait!

Arianna LOVES Chuckie Cheese! You'd never know just last year she was scared of him!

I guess there's always a party pooper in every crowd right?

Olivia loved her Tinkerbell dress up set!

A glimpse at some of the party guest.

Allie

Olivia and Cade

Arianna fast asleep!

This shows how much fun she had at her party!! Too pooped to go anymore!

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY OLIVIA

2009-07-31T06:49:00.019-05:00

It only seems like yesterday that you were just a dream and a prayer. I can remember longing for a child and the day the Lord blessed me with you was truly a dream come true!! I spent hours on end watching your every breath as you slept in my arms while thanking God for the miracle I held so tight. As you grow another year older I'm still so very thankful and truly humbled that the Lord brought you into my life. You light up my day with the way you've learned to live life. You're never afraid to try something new and your daily adventures keep me on my toes. You're a fiesty little one, but I wouldn't change a thing if I had the chance. I hope as the years go by you countinue to grow and love life. You're an amazing blessing to all who know you and I hope you have a VERY happy birthday and many, many more to come!! Love you lots my sweet little girl.

A shot as they were taking her to the nursery.

A proud big brother who was annoyed because I took WAY too many pictures of them!

Baby girl had a head FULL of black hair!!

Simply adorable!

My little sweetie!

Waiting for Olivia~~this was a shot from the baby shower the church ladies gave me.

Olivia on her second birthday!!

The loves of my life!!

The cookie cake for the special day!!

Her Mermaid birthday cake. I barely convinced her to wait until tomorrow to cut it!

She got the Dora fishing pole she wanted and her very own tackle box!

Olivia LOVING her Ariel doll momo and papa gave her!

LIFTING THESE CHILDREN IN PRAYER

2009-07-27T22:19:00.003-05:00

I would like for each of you to join in praying for Abby www.riggsfamilyblog.com who is fighting cancer. She was admitted to the hospital and can use some prayers. Also Baby Stellan is facing a medical crisis as well. He's a heart patient at a tender age and his parents are being faced with a hard decision. You can follow his journey at www.mycharmingkids.net We all know the mighty Healer has the ultimate say so any prayers for these two precious children would be greatly appreciated!!
May God provide the knowledge needed for those who are caring for them to make the right decisions to heal these children. May their families find comfort in His love and hope for a better tomorrow. Praying for both families to be home with healthy children soon!

BUSY AS EVER

2009-07-26T23:42:00.009-05:00

I'm not sure if life is getting too busy to blog a lot right now or if I'm in a blogging funk. I figured it's WAY past time for me to update the blog because we've been having lots of summer fun. I'm baby sitting for a friend to earn some extra spending cash and it seems like the number of kids have been up and down these days. I've had up to 11 of them at my house at one time and that's ok, but it would be even better if they'd go home at the end of the day! LOL! It seems like once they're here they want to stay!! LOL!

We're still battling the issues that have come up with the purchase of the house we're looking at and I'm hoping that gets settled really soon. We've been back and forth with the two attorneys and as of Friday they're assuring me it will be cleared up soon so we can buy the house. I just hope everything works out because I LOVE the neighborhood and I'm ready for some change!! It would mean a bigger yard, awesome HUGE breezeway, all the kids would have their own room, and their are other kids in the neighborhood. Oh and it's down the same street as Lee Jr.'s school,would only be maybe five minutes from the girl's pre-school and elementary school, and when Lee Jr. goes to high school it's only five minutes from there too!! The neighbor to the right are familiar faces since I grew up with their daughter and the ones to the left go to our church so how much better could it get? The downside is that at the rate we're going the sale won't go through until Lee Jr. starts school. If the issues get cleared up this week we still wouldn't be able to close until September since it's averaging 45 days right now. That means we wouldn't move in until probably early November because there are some things we would like to do in the house before we move in. We're closing in an area to make our master bedroom/bathroom and we want to paint, remove carpet, and a few other small jobs. We're going to try to do as much ourselves so we can save a little dough. So that's about all in a nut shell about the house!

This past week Lee Jr. went to church camp and LOVED it!! He came home so excited and has not stopped talking about it since I picked him up Friday! He made a few new friends and is already panning to go back next year. I have to admit though that me and the girls missed him a LOT while he was away. It felt kind of strange to have one of my kids gone for a week. I barely leave them for a day!! The girls are going to be disappointed in the morning though because he also wants to attend 4-H camp this summer and is leaving in the morning for the rest of the week. So just when they thought he was home to stay he's gone again. I'm really excited for him though and I'm hoping going to camp is going to help him build self-confidence. He'll be home on Friday afternoon and I'm already counting down the days!!

Olivia will turn three on Friday so after we get Lee Jr. home and unpacked we're going to take her somewhere to celebrate. Then on Saturday we'll have her birthday bash at Chuckie Cheese. She's so excited and all she has been doing is talking about what she wants for her birthday. It's too funny though because that list has ranged from a Barbie pet grooming set, to asking her grandma for five puppies, to asking me to buy her candy and then her telling her daddy she needs a Barbie bike, oh and that Lee Jr. needs to buy her four puppies too!! LOL!! I can hardly believe my sweet baby girl is now a toddler who is FULL of personality and WAY too independent! I'm so not looking forward to any of my kiddos growing up! I wish I could freeze time for a few moments longer!!

My little man waiting to load the van for church camp!!

Cole played dress up with the girls for a LONG time!! He's a great big cousin and the girls LOVE him so much!!

Olivia hopping a ride with Cole!! The girls were SO excited to have him come over and play!

The girl LOVES to ride her bike and she can go super fast for being so little!

Arianna, Ellie and Olivia cooling of in their little pool. These three are so cute and they play really well together!

If you're looking for something extra cute and unique for your little one I know just where you can find it!! Suzanne over at www.knotthemagain.blogspot.com is sewing to help provide monthly food baskets to her daughter's birthfamily in Guatemala!! So your little cutie can get an oh so darling outfit while helping a family in need!! She does custom orders too so check her out!!

Little Miss Arianna strutting her stuff in her new Hannah Montana outift!! Thanks Suzanne she LOVES it!!

Olivia's Dumbo dress Suzanne made for her/ She LOVES it!!

SLIPPY SLIDING BOUNCING FUN

2009-07-19T23:45:00.012-05:00

The kids had an awesome weekend filled with birthday party fun! On Saturday they went to Brennan's sixth birthday party and LOVED the slippy slide they had out for the kids. It was so much fun because there was LOTS of water activities ranging from slides to water guns and balloons!! We all had a great time!!
Today it was church and Allie's third birthday party!! The kids LOVED the bounce theme party and took a nice nap on the way home! That nap however lead to them being up really late and accompanying me to Wal-Mart after 10pm to get last minute items for Lee Jr. to take to camp tomorrow!! That's right my little man leaves for church camp in the morning and won't be home until Friday!! Then he'll stay home until Monday and off to 4-H camp!! The girls are REALLY going to miss him these next two weeks!!

She's loving her two piece!! LOL!!

The life of the party!!

Come on down!!

Enjoying the slip and slide!

Bouncy fun!!

Olivia coming down the BIG slide!!

My little man!!

Loving the pizza!

RAINING DIVAS

2009-07-17T23:24:00.009-05:00

The girls had a blast playing in the rain today and as I watched them it reminded me of how excited I use to be to do the same thing with my brother!! They ran, danced, sung at the top of their lungs, rode their bikes, wet their hair from the water pouring from the roof and laughed themselves silly!! They brought lots of smiles and fond memories to me today and had no idea they were doing it! After Lee Jr.'s nap he joined in from the porch but avoided the rain since he has an ear infection. I took him to the doctor this morning and he's now on meds and hopefully on the mend since he goes to church camp on Monday! Tomorrow will be spent gathering all the things he needs for the "special" days at camp!! They include designing a t-shirt and flip flops so we should have fun!!
On another note: we took the kids out to eat tonight and the minute Lee told them Olivia ran to her room to get dressed! (She was playing in her undies so she needed to find clothes!!) First she came out with a cute purple shirt and wanted help putting it on. Then came the flowered print shorts which matched since some of the flowers were purple. Next came the hot pink socks and pink boots!! Not really matching but being very insistent I helped her put them on. A girl can't leave home without accessories so she really needed the purple and pink beaded necklace, watermelon sunglasses, princess crown and the mirror to check herself out in. Did I let her leave the house like this? ABSOLUTELY!! She's only going to be young once so I figured she should enjoy herself. I am thankful though that she's the only one who likes to "dress" up to go out because waiting on both of them would make me stay home even more!! LOL!! On days like today I LOVE being their mommy!!

Riding in the rain and lovin' every minute of it!!

Dancing in the rain!

Playing bumper bikes!! Before I knew it they had stripped down to their undies and were loving the rain and the bikes!! LOL!

This is how my little Princess dressed to go out to eat tonight!! Oh and she did add sunglasses after I took this picture!

The DIVA up close!!

HOW MUCH DO YOU MATTER???

2009-07-14T11:03:00.003-05:00

I'm not always the greatest writer and some days it's hard to put into words why I want to go back to Guatemala and help who ever I can. I came across this on the blog www.buildingtheblocks.blogspot.com and thought it was a perfect post! I want you to consider those who are in this situation already, are on the border of being this child, and who were already saved from this life!! What a powerful post and so well said!!

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
~ Mother Teresa

Image with me for a minute…

Right now, today… you are small and alone.

You are hungry and lost.

You have no home, no parents, and seemingly no future.

You are scared, and weak, from days without food. You have no where to go, no where to be.

People walk by you but they don’t even look your way. It’s like you are invisible, nothing.

You keep walking, your feet are bleeding and sore… and yet still you manage to cling to the small bit of hope, the little voice inside your head that says maybe, just maybe, one day things will get better.

Maybe one day -you will matter.

It is getting dark outside- inside your fear is growing.

Where will you go?

Your heart is beating faster, and your fear becomes over whelming, consuming your every thought.

Then you see it, a dirty, broken cardboard box and you bow your head thanking God for His provision.

For you have found it- shelter.

Safety, if only for one night.

You slip underneath it, hugging yourself, vowing once again not to cry- because by now you know tears are a waste of your strength.

Your eyes become heavy, despite the sweltering temperature.

As you begin to drift off to sleep you pray, hoping, dreaming, of a family of your own one day...

of a place where you will matter...

to someone.

Half away around the world is a family...

They are just sitting down to dinner together.

They are smiling and their laughter fills the room.

Dinner is served and they bow their heads and they pray- thanking God for their many blessings… their home, their job, the food that is set before them.

They lift their heads and go back to the laughter and the joy.

They talk of their upcoming vacation plans, the lunch date they shared with a friend today and the movie they plan to see this coming weekend.

More laughter, more excitement, more.

As the leftovers are scraped into the garbage can and the table is cleaned up, hot bubble bathes are taken by all.

Evening settles in, and the family slips under their down comforters preparing for a good nights sleep.

Before turning out the lights, the husband leans over to kiss his wife good-night. She shyly smiles at him and begins to tell him that she has been feeling that perhaps God is calling them to adopt.

The room grows quiet as they are both lost in their own thoughts… their minds are flooded with questions, concern, and then inevitably -fear.

How could they manage?
Another child?
Why, they already have two!
Where would they put the child?
Who would share a room?
How could they afford to adopt?
Would they be able to take that vacation?
What would people think?
What if the child, you know, caused ‘problems’?

As their eyelids become heavy, they begin to drift off to sleep... and they think to themselves ‘surely not’.

Surely God knows this is not convenient.

Surely God wants them to take that vacation they deserve...

Surely he knows how busy they are.

They have plans and they have dreams.

As sleep overcomes them, the temperature in their master bedroom is perfect… and their pillows are fluffed to perfection.

Life is good for them, just as they had planned...

Because after all, they matter...

Too much...

to themselves.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. "- 1 John 3:16-20

Please pray for these children who are already living as orphans and those who are close to becoming orphans because their parents are ill. Please pray for God to show you how to help them!! There are so many out there living this life and so many times these children go hungry each night while wondering if they'll ever eat again. PLEASE consider giving to Project Santa because we already have 23 food baskets going to the families whose children are at New Hope. I would like to provide 40 more food baskets in Los Robles to those identified as high risk families. To do this I need to raise a total of $1,200. This will provide $30 worth of food for 40 families in need!! A small price to feed a family and believe me these food baskets will have a good deal of food in them. I will purchase the essentials for each family so please consider giving today! Please help spread the word and lets touch the lives of these families together!!

FFF---RED, WHITE, AND BLUE

2009-07-10T13:03:00.002-05:00

My favorite three people in the world in my favorite red, white and blue photo! What more can I ask for??

A POOL AT MOMO AND PAPA'S HOUSE

2009-07-09T20:59:00.005-05:00

Trying to beat the summer heat and boredom I bought the kiddos a pool today! It's not a huge one but it served its purpose and the kids had a blast!! I'm not sure if they had more fun playing in the pool or getting in and out so they could wash their feet in the bucket! All I know for sure is how nice it was to see them enjoying themselves!!
We also went to Gulfport to do a little shopping since Lee Jr. is going crabbing by the sea wall with his Papa Jay tomorrow morning! We had to get the usual things like chicken legs, water, gatorade and snacks which are all essential parts of going crabbing!! LOL!! Me and the girls will go off to Hudson's tomorrow morning with Lisa because they're suppose to be opening a new stock with lots of great deals!! I'm always up for a bargain so I'll let you know what I find tomorrow! Just to give you an idea of the steal of a deals they have my mom and Jay bought me 100 bottles of school glue last week for a nickel a bottle!! I think that's awesome!! I'm always on the prowl for school supplies for Guatemala so this will come and handy for the next trip!!

Loving their new kiddie pool!!

Come a little closer mom!

She just couldn't stop at washing her feet!

Put your whole self in and take your whole self out...the bucket!!

UNPLANNED VACATION

2009-07-09T00:39:00.004-05:00

Me and the girls came up to Mississippi to bring Lee Jr. to spend some time with my mom and step-dad and to bring my SIL to the doctor in Alabama. Well our one night trip is now going into night three and the kids are loving every minute of it!! They all love being up here and getting to spend time with their grandparents and my brother and SIL!! I'm sure we could move here tomorrow and they would love every minute of it! Talking about moving leads me to the fact that things are still up in the air with the house we were looking at. I'm just praying that if it was meant to be it will happen and if not then the Lord will guide us where we need to be.

Anyway I don't have really much to share tonight but I figured I'd leave you with a couple photos of the kiddos from tonight. Hope you enjoy!

Sitting on momo's lap showing off her cool shades

Watching some t.v. together

FIRECRACKERS AND GIRL OVER BOARD

2009-07-05T22:22:00.015-05:00

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!!

2009-07-04T09:05:00.002-05:00

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?

2009-07-03T10:34:00.025-05:00

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!!

2009-07-01T23:17:00.012-05:00

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

2009-06-30T23:50:00.007-05:00

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

2009-06-29T01:52:00.003-05:00

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

2009-06-28T21:21:00.010-05:00

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!

FFF FRIDAY--BUSY BUT STILL HERE!!

2009-06-26T21:08:00.004-05:00

I haven't participated in Favorite Foto Friday in a while so I figured now is as good of a time as any!! Life has been SUPER busy here! I've been getting in lots of donations for Project Santa and the kids have been keeping me pretty busy too!! All I can say is it has been HOT, HOT, HOT!! In fact way too hot to really get outside and do much! I've been baby sitting Ellie for her mommy to go to work so the girls have been occupied playing with her. Lee Jr. has been having several friends over every day for the last week so I'm surrounded by kids and loving ALMOST every minute of it!! LOL!
We've also been trying to get things straight to buy a new house, but we're running into some road blocks with the sellers so we're not sure if it's going to actually happen or not. We have all of our things done so now we sit and wait on them. We'll see but I feel if it doesn't happen then it's God's way of telling us now is not the time. We don't HAVE to move right now, but to be honest we've out grown our house since the girls are getting older and they have to share a room right now. I know back in the day MANY kids shared the same one room and they were all happy so I'm not sweating it right now.
I'm also excited that I received 31 more hand crocheted blankets today for the children of Guatemala!! 26 of these blankets are still available and up for sponsorship! If you would like to help a child receive one of these beautiful blankets check out the Guatemala blog at ww.heart4children.blogspot.com Your kindness can truly warm a soul!!

Olivia supervised the hose to make sure all the water went in the pool:)

Arianna sitting on her little chair making sure the sides of the pool don't fall while it's filling up!

How sweet is this?? He's a great big brother!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

2009-06-21T21:02:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful Father's Day!! My mom and step-dad were here and we got to spend the day with them. We all went out to eat at the Texas Roadhouse before they went home. It was really just a laid back day, but a great one!! We got to go visit Lee's dad and my dad too before settling in at home!
Happy Father's Day to all of you wonderful dads out there!!

Lee and the kids with his hand print shirt they made for him. They were so excited when they made it!!

Papa Jay and the kids! They absolutely LOVE their grandpa!!

PORT FOUCHON FISHING!

2009-06-20T23:15:00.009-05:00

We enjoyed an evening of fishing in Port Fouchon today! My mom and step dad are down from Mississippi so my dad, Lee, me and the kids took a ride to go fishing with them. It was WAY too HOT to go in earlier in the day but even going in the late evening was sort of hot. We did catch some fish and the kids had fun so that was all that matters!! They also caught a few crabs in the crab nets too! So I would say it was another great day!
I'm really hoping to start doing this more often like we use to, but the heat is so bad right now. The heat index has been between 101 and 108!! So yep it's WAY too hot to fish!!! LOL! I'm sure we'll get out and start boating again soon because man these white legs need some sun!!

Setting out a net!

Getting his crab nets ready!

My little fisherman!

My baby girl caught her self a baby crab!!

Olivia shared her baby crab with Arianna, who thought it was too cool! I even let her take it to the store with us to grab ice and half way there she started screaming my crab..my crab so I knew it was loose in the van!

Arianna sharing in on the excitement of her Papa's big catch!!

Yep, I caught a fish!

AQUARIUM AND BASEBALL

2009-06-19T22:58:00.012-05:00

Me and the kids had a busy day today with meeting some friends at the aquarium to ending the night with a baseball game! We didn't get a chance to visit the aquarium yet this year and since it is so HOT here we decided today was a great day to go! We got together with Dawn and her family as well as Laurie and Robert! The kids love being around each other and it gives us adults some time to chat! I'm not sure they ever really change anything around but when you haven't gone in a while it works out fine!
We left in time to grab some lunch and let Lee Jr. rest up for the game tonight! They were in the elimination tournament and lost so tonight was the end of their season! They played hard but lost and that's ok! There's always next year!!

Yep we're here to see the fish!

I have always gotten the kids picture taken here each time I take them to the aquarium. In fact I have some of Lee Jr. when he was little sitting/standing on it all alone!

My three little blessings!

Meeting the frog princess!

Olivia loved this turtle!! Seriously she would get very upset of anyone else tried to sit on it with her!

My girls pearly white matched the pearl in the oyster! She always gives me the biggest smiles!

Mommy's little star!

My sealy little man and his good buddy Star Robert!

My little Guatemalan star that lights my life!

A group shot minus one!

SWIM-BIRTHDAY PARTY

2009-06-13T23:04:00.010-05:00

We had a great today filled with lots of visiting with Lee's family. John is down from Utah with Kylie and Braxton so I got to visit with them at Ammie's birthday party! I was so excited to see Kylie because she was a HUGE part of my life for the first 22 months of her life! Me and Lee raised her until she went back to live with her dad and it was truly heart wrenching!! But, that little girl showed us we could open our hearts, home and love any child as if they were our own. She helped to diminish all the crazy fears we had of adopting a child! I'm so glad God put her in our lives and although it took a long time for the wounds to heal His plan still had a happy ending!! She's now happy and being well taken care of by her father. He's proof that people can really change for the better!!

Besides visiting with them the kids all enjoyed the pool since we were in the mid
90s today!! After the party I took the girls home and Lee went off to the batting cages with Lee Jr. in preparation for the big tournament next week! I'm glad they were able to spend some father/son time alone. I think Lee Jr. needs that sometimes because he was the only child for nine years and now he always has to share us with the girls. He's such a good big brother though because as I sit here blogging he's helping the girls make a homemade Father's Day card for Lee!!

Tomorrow I will go to Mrs. Gloria's church in Thibodaux for a blessing service over the shoes they have collected for Guatemala. In spite of the roughly 2,000 pairs of shoes I have already sent down there are more at the church and more are still coming in!! Mrs. Gloria even put out a VERY brightly colored poster board on her porch thanking people for blessing the people of Guatemala with shoes and asking them to please not leave anymore because we already have so many. Well many of days this sigh has gone unread or ignored! LOL!! Giving is contagious and it's such a good feeling to witness acts of kindness in this very cruel world around us. It just goes to prove that God made some pretty special people who are so willing to give from the heart to strangers in another country. As I sit and reflect the things that have already happened this year with Project Santa I am feeling pretty blessed to be a part of it. I look forward to doing much more this year!! I am now thinking of ideas and fundraisers that can help me to raise $1,200 to be able to purchase 40 food baskets to distribute to the families in Los Robles whose children attend the feeding program at Safe Homes for Children. I won't have an individual photo to begin with but I will be able to send the sponsors photos when I return. I'm going to put out the word very soon and if you feel lead to give to this you can simply donate via pay pal and in the message area write Los Robles or send me an email letting me know where the money is going! I appreciate each and everyone of you who are always willing to help! For the $30 it would cost to eat out as a family you can provide food to someone who may not have eaten for a few days! These food baskets are life changing for the families who receive them and I hope together we can make it happen!

Braxton aka Bubby!! He's such a little dare devil and he even managed to get Arianna to jump in the pool today!

It was so good to see Kylie again! I could hardly believe how big she has gotten!! I raised her for the first 22 months of her life and I'm so proud of all the things she grown to do!!

Too many kids in the little pool, but they were loving every minute of it!

Olivia floating around the pool. The girls both love their floatie swimsuit and floatie combo because they can really move around the pool without going under but today they added yet another floatie since a lot of the kids had them on!!

Arianna enjoying her floatie!

Lee and Star, his little sister who is only 7 months younger than Olivia!!

A VERY SAD DAY

2009-06-11T00:03:00.003-05:00

We put Blanca outside when I left home this morning to take a friend to the doctor. Three and a half hours later when I came home I found her laying next to her house dead. We have no idea what happened and since there was no physical evidence that there was any foul play the vet seems to think she either died of a heat stroke or heart attack! I feel so bad because I left her out to play, but she stays out for half the day everyday and nothing ever happened to her. She was such a good dog and the girls keep asking about her and I've tried everything to explain to them that she's in Heaven now. Olivia keeps asking me why baby Jesus took her Blanca and all I can do is hug her tight and say it happens sometimes! Arianna just wants me to take her to the doctor to fix her. Death is such a hard thing to explain to a child especially when as an adult I often struggle myself. Lee told me he wants to look around for me a new dog and I said no way because in the last year and a half I have lost two pets so for now I don't want anymore!! I'll stick to the two bunnies and the fish!

On another note we're trying to make a HUGE decision for our family right now so I would like to ask for prayers. We're currently considering a house in the next town over, but it's a HUGE jump because we won't be selling our current resident to move. Lee put a bid on the house and it seems they may take it but I'm as worried as can be! I'm just not sure if now is the best time to buy or not!! So for now as we decide I'm just praying for some guidance! We should know more next week because there are seven people involved in the sale and one is out of town. It'll also give us time to get inspections done and hopefully find someone who will insure it if we decide to buy!! LOTS to think about so please pray for us to be able to make a firm decision soon!

I CAN SEE THE FLOOR!!

2009-06-03T10:27:00.003-05:00

Nope, I'm not delirious either!! After having SEVEN HUGE Medrano boxes taking over my living room for the past couple of weeks they have now been picked up!! WOOHOO! Medrano was suppose to be here between 10-11am but right before 9am I heard a knock on the door and it was them!! I was so excited because this means lots more room for more great stuff! (Just don't tell my hubby I said that!! LOL!) I packed literally almost 2,000 pairs of shoes into that shipment as well as over a 1,000 toys plus school supplies!! So with all that said I bet you're wondering what next huh?

Well this shipment did lack some of the things that I would really like to see go to Guatemala for the children. Remember me talking briefly about the Los Robles school? Since I will be there in December and school starts in January I thought it would be nice to have those children walk into a school that had some great resources to help with their education! They're going to be receiving the new spanish books that were ordered during the book drive so this in itself is going to be fantastic!! I would also like to be able to bring them some school supplies down to the children who may want to come to school but cannot afford the supplies! You know basic things like glue sticks, crayons, rulers, markers, scissors, staplers w/staples for the teachers, white board markers, paper clips, and ink pens. If anyone has a store in your area that handles spanish materials like flash cards, posters, etc. that would be great too!! I know shipping expenses are great so I'll also offer that anyone wishing to donate school supplies can send whatever amount they would like to purchase and I can buy them here to make it cheaper because if you're going to send these items we also need a contribution to help with the shipping cost to get the things to Guatemala!!

I'm also hoping to be able to bring down Over the Counter meds. These are VERY needed items!! I have one person who has shown interest in doing a drive in their area so if anyone else is interested please let me know! I would really appreciate it. Also if anyone knows where to get reasonably priced toothpaste I would love to hear about it. I have received lots of toothbrushes, but no toothpaste yet and I would like to give them as sets. I'm also in need of bars of soap. This is all I can think about off the top of my head so if you're interested in donating any of these items please feel free to email me or leave a comment with your email addy and I'll get back to you!

FUN IN THE SUN

2009-05-31T23:49:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful day today!! Michael and Tuesday hosted a school's out water bash at their house after church for all the Sunday school kids! I don't think one person went home disappointed! The kids had so much to do between a huge water slide, pool, trampoline, swing set, and kiddie pools for the little ones! Of course no water day would be complete without a water balloon fight and they had those too while also using water guns!!
Little Miss Olivia I think was the only other child besides Arianna, who didn't get sun burn today! Once you scroll down to the photos you'll see why! Let's just say the girl LOVES sunscreen!! Now Lee Jr. on the other hand is as red as a crawfish! He had no time to reapply and now he's paying for it!! There was lots of fun conversation for the adults that went basically uninterrupted since the kids were so busy playing! What a great day it was!!

I also came home and managed to sort through some more of the donations to make it easier to pack tonight! And packing has been what I've been doing! The fifth box is complete and just needs to be taped up when I have an extra pair of hands tomorrow! Looks like if the Medrano office has two more HUGE boxes they'll hopefully be packed up too and ready for pick-up. In case you're keeping count it looks like the first shipment is going to be seven boxes!! Can you believe that?? What's even more unbelievable is that this will NOT eliminate all the donations from my house! There's still going to be some left and more on the way! So that also means LOTS of smiles on people's faces in Guatemala.

I'm so pleased with how well this project is going off and I couldn't ask for a better result! God really has His hand over this and has allowed it to grow larger than I ever could have imagined. I just have the feeling that He's just beginning on the work He has in store for me. On days like today I feel so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful thing! I promise I'll have pictures of the packing uploaded soon!

My little man!! I can hardly believe just how grow up he is!

I need to re-apply my sunscreen often so I won't burn!! ROFL!

Yep..I'm rubbin it in!

Pullin' out the big guns...anyone wanna piece of me??

She was so proud of the little water balloon she filled up all by herself!! LOL!

Spending time with Daddy!

OK this didn't work..let's try again!!

Yep they got it!!

FFF--MEMORIES

2009-05-29T00:47:00.005-05:00

These are only a very few of the thousands of photos I have that together make an amazing journal of memories for me and my children. Each moment with them makes memories that will last a life time!! I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed creating them!!

Making memories with my girls by polishing their nails, my nails and the dog's nails a pretty blue because they wanted to!

Fun times on the water slide at one of the birthday bashes!

Rembering the smiles that were on their faces when we went to Chuckie Cheese for Lee Jr.'s birthday!

5th GRADE AWARD CEREMONY

2009-05-26T10:19:00.007-05:00

Lee Jr. received several awards this morning at his ceremony. He's a really great kid and I couldn't ask for a better son...unless having to beg him to pick up clothes and clean up after himself counts. LOL!! I'm really proud of him because he has worked so hard this school year and achieved so many great things!! I can't wait to see what the next school year is going to bring, but for now tomorrow is his last day of 5th grade and I can't wait to have him home for the summer!!

Congratulations Lee Jr. you have made us VERY proud of you! Keep up the great work!!

Outstanding 5th grade Library Student Aide award!! This is the second to best library honor award. Others received them for volunteering and then Don received the leadership award!! I hate to admit it but I got this very same award when I was in school!!

Band achievement award!

Honor Roll Award

5th Grade Social Studies Award!

They're so proud of their big brother!!

UPDATE AND REMINDER

2009-05-25T07:59:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to encourage everyone to take a minute to order a book for the children of Guatemala. We've exceeded our goal of $500 in sale which means with each purchase we make the kids are also earning 50% of the total in free books!! Osbourne has some really GREAT books with reasonable prices!!! The site is http://www.ubah.com/BF31840 The sale will end tomorrow at midnight so please help spread the word by posting to your FB, my space, blog or by helping to send out an email to friends and family. Having access to books means a greater chance of these children learning to read. Being literate opens LOTS more doors for these children as well.

You can order books especially for the children of Guatemala with double benefits!! They will receive the books you order for them as well as 50% of your order in free books!! You can also choose to order especially for your family and they will still benefit by receiving the free books from your total!! As of right now we're up to $683 in sales which means the kids have also earned $341.50 in free books. The even greater thing is that they have 86 books that were already purchased for them!! This is going to be life changing for so many children!! Thanks to all who have helped to make this book drive a success!!

NEEDING SOME PRAYERS

2009-05-20T13:56:00.003-05:00

I don't want to go into any details because this is a public blog but I would like to ask each of you to say some prayers for my family today! Especially my mom who is having a REALLY difficult time! Thanks!

D.A.R.E. GRADUATION

2009-05-18T22:17:00.005-05:00

I can remember when I took D.A.R.E. in school and I was so glad to see it was still around! This day in age I think there's very different forms of peer pressure that seems to come in an earlier age than I can remember. I know we all get curious and try something we shouldn't but things are very different for our children. They seem to have WAY more to try and it seems to be WAY more accessible! I'm hoping to keep my kiddos on the straight and narrow for as long as I can and it's nice to know that there are programs in the school to back me up!! Today Lee Jr. graduated from his D.A.R.E program and man was he proud! He worked all year long on various projects and essays that led up to today and I was so proud to see it come!! We even had an opportunity to stay afterwards and have cake with him. Such a proud day for me, but it also reminds me that Lee Jr. is FAR from being my baby anymore. He's growing into a very independent young man and he'll be entering into the teen years next August. I can hardly believe that he's already that old because as I watch Arianna and Olivia play I can remember the days when I did those things with him. I'm very proud of all his accomplishments and he tries really hard to please everyone and I think I've done a pretty good job raising him! Now don't get me wrong he can make me pull my hair out some days, but even on those days I couldn't imagine life without him! I'm finding myself being a very proud mom once again and feel so lucky to have been blessed with my three kiddos! I wouldn't trade them for the world!

Accepting his D.A.R.E. certificate!!

My proud D.A.R.E graduate!

Olivia woke up from a nap today and went straight to her room. When it stayed too quiet for a few minutes and she didn't come out I went to check on her and this is what I found!!

RUB, A DUB, DUB, DIRT IN THE TUB...AGAIN

2009-05-17T21:45:00.010-05:00

Lee Jr. had an ALL day baseball tournament today! I missed the first and third game because I was working the concession stand since only me and one other mom volunteered other than the regular booster club members!! I did catch the second game because I knew it was going to be a good one since we were playing a rival team!! They beat us the first time we played them and then we beat them the second time, but once again they beat our boys today!! It was a close one and it definitely kept us at the edge of the bleachers!! They all played their best and had a great time so that's all that matters!!

Now my girls managed to have a ton of fun since they found a sand hill right by the field we were playing on!! They played and played in that sand with the other kids from the time the game started until it ended! I have no idea what's so exciting about sand but they were happy and that's all that counts!! Right after the third game began it started STORMING!! I was stuck in the concession stand and I just knew the girls were playing in the rain but I was wrong!! They were completely dry when Lee came to meet me at the concession stand!! The rain cleared up and the games continued, but once it was over and they were waiting for me to finish up in the concession stand they grew bored and found something else to do. I mean how could they resist that ever so tempting huge water puddle that was not so far away!! I mean especially when Brock was so happily walking through it. As I looked up they headed that way and I knew there went the clothes!! LOL!! At first it was that little not so sure walking through the puddle, but soon into the let's run like mad through that puddle!! Next thing I know they were jumping up and down and plopping down in it! I thought it was funny and took a few photos and let them play as I went back to watch from a distance. Well next thing I know Brock showed them how to run and slide in it like it was a slippy slide! After that Arianna kept running and would throw herself down while rolling in the puddle!! Hey they're already dirty so what do you do?? Let them play and then find the hose to clean them up and change them into some donated clothing for Guatemala since they had already needed the extra change of clothes earlier in the day! They didn't mess those clothes up so I'll be able to wash them and put them in with the donations!! I can tell you one thing though that in the girls' book a sand hill and water puddle are by far WAY better than watching the game!! We'll see what tomorrow night's game brings!!

A sand hill is much more interesting than a baseball game!

Queen of the Hill!

She decided it was a GREAT idea to jump off the sand hill!! Silly girl!

They ran, and jumped...then they sat down!!

Arianna showing Brock how she can roll around!!

The mud bearded lady..I mean Arianna after rolling around in the mud puddle!!

The below photos show just how you get dressed if you've used all the changes of clothing your mom has with you and all she can find is a bag that someone gave her to take to Guatemala!!

THEIR FIRST DANCE RECITAL

2009-05-16T22:23:00.022-05:00

The recital was a total hit!! I think my anxiety level was through the roof today as I tried to get both girls ready in the dressing room alone as they ran wild!! Seriously I just waited for them to have a complete melt down because they were so WILD today and were running like little crazy people around the dressing room! I was SO excited as the curtains opened and there stood my two little girls shining brightly on the stage!! I was even more proud as the music started and they began to dance!! That's right in front of all those people they danced!! Now I have to admit I was pretty impressed because Olivia did the ENTIRE dance the right way!! Arianna remembered some parts of the dance but other times she just did her own thing, but no matter what they were SUPER cute!! My heart was so full of pride as they walked off the stage but my heart was full of sadness as I realized just how much they're growing up!! They're not the little babies I once held, but they're becoming more independent little people! I'm still the one they run to when they're hurt or scared but they don't need me to do all the things like they use to. I can remember not too long ago when they would have NEVER went back stage and stood with the teachers as they waited to go on to do their number! And here they were dancing in front of hundreds of people all alone!! My heart is full of pride tonight as they did such a wonderful job!! Congrats girls and you two really stole the show!!

Arianna all ready to dance!!

Olivia all dressed and ready to go!

Sisterly love!! Aren't they the cutest together??

Me and my girls before the show!

Angelina, Arianna, Faith and Olivia getting ready for the show!

My two little stars!

Dancing on stage!

A family shot minus the big brother who was still watching the show!

Olivia opening her recital gift.

Olivia's bracelet with a ballerina shoes charm!

Arianna opening her recital gift.

Arianna's ballerina bracelet we gave her as a recital gift!

Papa and Arianna...there is no Momo picture because she began to have a melt down after we took this one!

Olivia and her Momo

Olivia and her Papa Jay!! Can you believe at one time he couldn't even hold her!!

My little baby is not such a baby anymore! She's growing WAY too fast!!

It's my recital and I cry if I want to...cry if I want to..you would cry too if it happened to you!!

No Lee Jr. was not trying to "dip" here she did this all by herself!

Lee Jr and the girls! He's such a good big brother to them!

Yep she's still crying!!

This is what happens when they're told they can start the four-wheeler!! They just plop the girls on and push them! LOL!

The girls went for a ride with Cade!! They LOVE the four-wheeler!!

FFF---BLOOPERS

2009-05-15T00:00:00.002-05:00

This week's favorite foto Friday theme is BLOOPERS!! I had to look through my memory card because I wasn't even sure I had any of these photos because I usally delete them but I managed to find a few. I hope you enjoy them!!

I also want to remind you all about the book drive for the children of Guatemala. We're a little more than half way to the goal of $500!! This would ensure the kids would receive all the great books you have selected for them as well as a minimum of $250 in free books!! I hope you can take a moment to look!!
http://www.ubah.com/BF31840

AND HE LOOKS DOWN BEFORE I COULD TAKE HIS PICTURE!

SILLY DOG THAT'S SISSY'S SEAT NOT YOURS!!

THE ALLIGATOR WE ACCIDENTALLY CAUGHT ON THE FISHING POLE!

BUSTED EATING A CUPCAKE UNDER THE TABLE WITH HER EYES CLOSED!!

EYES CLOSED!

LOVING THE RAIN AND A PLAY DATE

2009-05-14T22:33:00.010-05:00

We had a great day visiting with Laurie and Robert today! It was so nice to actually have some adult conversation while the kids ran around!! The girls really love it when we can get together with them because they enjoy playing with Robert. Lee Jr. was even excited to see them since the rain caught them at our house and they were still here when he came home from school.

We let the kids jump on the trampoline and ride the power wheels/bikes around the yard for awhile then went in to cool off a little since we're hitting in the 90's everyday now! You know we have the wonderful sticky, funky, hot here!! I decided we needed to go get some lunch somewhere that the kids could still have fun so we went to Mc Donald's. I think they played more than ate but that's ok!! It gave me and Laurie some time to chat and catch up with each other!!

Since it was storming when we got home she decided to stay and help me pack up the last stretch of the second box since I decided I should be able to add a little more to it. You should have seen us vacuum sealing those 150 stuffed animals into a bag while she was laying on it to make sure it went down as far as we could get it!! We finally got it, but guess what I had to do it again tonight!! Somehow the bag came unsealed so me, Lee Jr. Lee and the girls resealed it so we could tape the box up for good this time! I'm getting so excited to see all the great things that are going into those boxes. So many people will benefit from all of the generousity that folks have shown! So now the two boxes are sealed that final time and the address is neatly printed on it and I have sorted LOTS of the other things to make sure to take out what couldn't be sent to Guatemala. I found several pairs of shoes so far that are too big to send like size 12s. I don't want to waste the shipping money to send them so we will try to sell them at the yard sale to earn more shipping funds!! My dear husband informed me tonight that I have more boxes in the attic of the shed than I think I do so it looks like that's what we'll be doing REAL soon!! It's just so hard to find time to get up there. He has however already pulled down several boxes! We had baseball practice today, game tomorrow, dance recital on Saturday and a baseball tournament on Sunday (he plays three games this day!). So life is busy but I am determined to get these first five boxes packed to the brim with as much of this stuff as I can. I don't want to tell my hubby this but it makes more room for other things!! LOL!! No really I'm just doing the best I can so I can get it all figured out and continue to earn some extra cash to make sure it all gets down there!!

Just a little update on the book drive before I sign off! We're now up to $276.92 in orders which means we only need $233.07 to earn those kiddos a minimum of $250 in free books!! Those books can be so life changing to them so please take a moment to visit the Guatemala blog at ww.heart4children.blogspot.com for more info. I think it's a great opportunity!!

A princess in training!!

The girls LOVE to play with Robert and were so glad he came by to play!

Oh look there's Dr. Mickey...I mean Olivia!! She is definitely my dress up diva!

I keep telling Laurie that a little girl looks really good on her!! LOL! Arianna brought her this crown and told her to wear it. When she put it on Arianna went up to her and pushed it further on her head!! I guess she just didn't do it right!! LOL!

Looks like "Dr." Olivia got all wet!!! The child absolutely adores this scrub top, but I have NO clue where it came from!!

Arianna LOVING the rain!

Once Olivia got cold she needed an umbrella to cover the rain!

DRESS REHERSAL

2009-05-13T22:44:00.006-05:00

Tonight the girls had their dress rehearsal for the recital this weekend. Arianna went on stage and continues to look around and shake her little booty every now and then, but nothing that she's suppose to be doing!! LOL! However Lil' Miss Olivia decided there was no time for a nap today and went to sleep on the way to the auditorium so she refused to dance! She told her teacher she wasn't dancing because she was tired!! Oh my goodness what am I going to do with her?? They both looked really adorable and I wasn't able to get much video footage so I may just have to see about buying it the day of the pageant since today was our only chance to video! No picture taking on recital day either, well at least in the auditorium. I plan to take lots of pictures of the girls with their grandparents and brothers who are coming along to cheer them on!!

Life here has been really crazy and I think I'm in some sort of blogging slump. I was doing so well and posting everyday and then life began to happen and now I'm slacking!! I managed to get the second Medrano box packed today and this will be it until Monday! I found out that they can order some boxes bigger than the ones I have so they'll be shipped to our little office and I can pick them up Monday evening!! Hopefully this will help because I can hardly believe all the awesome things I have already and the things still coming in. This is going to be a remarkable year for Project Santa! This mission has doubled in size from year to year so I really need to get the ball rolling to hopefully set up a non-profit or find one that I really trust and can work with. I want to remain in the same area but I am willing to travel to other areas in order to work with a group. So if any of you know any really good ones out there let me know. Or if you're willing to give some input on starting a non-profit I would really appreciate it!!

I'm also still looking for fundraising ideas if any of you have one. I've done a yard sale that helped to earn a good amount of shipping money and I plan to do this again next month! I still need to cover a few more boxes and then work towards the food for distribution day. I'm also going to look into some other options and keep you all posted on how things are going. If you plan to send me some things for this year please let me know so I can start to figure how many more boxes I'll need after this shipment! Also if you choose to sponsor a child at New Hope for a food basket and blanket and have not paid your sponsorship fee then I need to hear from you as well. I still have four children who have not been paid for and I haven't heard from the sponsors again. I'll let it go another week or two and those children these sponsors choose will be re listed!! I want to make sure they all receive a basket and blanket. So I think that's all the news I have for tonight!

Arianna on stage.

Nope no dancing for Olivia today!!

Arianna after she came off the stage.

This is the look I got when I asked Olivia why she didn't dance.

FIRST YEAR OF DANCE TROPHIES

2009-05-11T23:01:00.004-05:00

The girls received their First Year of Dance Trophies tonight!! We were able to sit in class tonight and watch as they practiced their routine for the recital this weekend!! The first time around Olivia was just not in the mood and just sat their while Arianna spent all her time looking around!! I guess the second time was the charm though because Olivia danced her little heart out but once again Arianna pretty much shook her little butt every now and then and looked around! They have a dress rehearsal on Wednesday evening so tomorrow night I'll put their hair up in little sponge rollers and let them sleep in them. This way mid-day on Wednesday I can put their hair up and get them all dressed and ready to go. I sure hope they do well on their big day!! I'll get to video on Wednesday which is going to be great because it'll give me a chance to get some up close shots of each of the girls!! They've really come a long way and I'm so proud of them!!

Once practice was over I took the kiddos to Wendy's because Lee Jr. had a baseball game tonight. We got to the field and the warmed up and made it half way through the game when it started to STORM. After about ten minutes and the wind blowing rain the umpire called the game. We ran to the car as fast as we could but we still all looked like little wet dogs by the time we got there. All of the kids were laughing so hard as we ran for cover!! If it wasn't so late I would have probably let them enjoy themselves because they thought it was the coolest thing!!

Now everyone is in bed but me! Can't seem to sleep which is becoming the norm around here. I have SO much on my mind and I just ask each of you to keep my family in your prayers. We have some VERY difficult circumstances occurring in our family, but since this is a public blog it's not the place to air it out. I just ask that you pray for my family members to find peace in the decisions being made in the days to come!! Life can be so difficult sometimes and it's so hard to just give it to God!! I'm praying that God can help me to learn to accept the things in my life that I cannot change!! I'm an emotional mess with all of this and prayer is the greatest gift any of you can give!!

Practicing their routine!

See it mom!! She would NOT take her picture with the dance instructor no matter what!

Arianna and Joh'anna

Olivia with her trophy

Arianna with her trophy

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

2009-05-10T23:11:00.014-05:00

I hope each of you had a wonderful Mother's day because I know I sure enjoyed mine! We drove to my mom's house in Mississippi last night so we could enjoy the day with her and I'm glad we did!! The kids had a blast running around the yard and they even got to see some special visitors today!! First they chased this wild rabbit because they just knew they could catch it!! We laughed as we watched from the porch and laughed even harder when they came back and told us how close they came to catching it! Let's just say the rabbit smoked them long before they made it even remotely close to it!! LOL!! Then Lee Jr. found this cool land turtle walking across the yard!! Thank goodness he was a nice fellow since Lee Jr. picked him up and carried him inside to show me what he found!! They even tried to feed this poor turtle a banana which he so kindly refused. We let him hang around on my mom's porch for a few hours and then decided he needed to be turned loose in the woods across from my mom's house! Once Lee Jr. set him on the ground and we were walking away Olivia stops and waves to the turtle and says "bye turtle now go find your mommy." Now isn't that just too cute??

We took them inside to enjoy some cake my mom baked last night before making them all take baths for the trip home! It wasn't long that we were inside before we realized my mom's AC was out!! Yep it was as frozen as a popsicle, but thank goodness they were able to get a repair man out because by the time he got there her house was almost 90 degrees!! Air conditioning is definitely not just a luxury down south at this time of the year!! I was very glad to see the house was cooled off by the time we left because it would have been WAY too hot for them to stay there if not! It looked like my mom enjoyed her special day and I was happy to be there with my kiddos!! I do have to admit that the only thing that would have made it better than it was is if I would have been feeling better. I even had to take some meds to ease the nausea which lead to a nap on the couch. I do think my body was happier about it than I was though!! I will definitely be placing a call back in to the doctor in the morning because I REALLY believe they're missing something!! I won't dwell on it though because today was too perfect to complain!!

Now I'm off to go do some more packing because I've already gotten an entire Medrano box filled to the top!! I need to get four more of these babies packed and ready by June 4th when they come for a pick up. I figured five boxes was going to be plenty enough to hold what we already have here, but man I was so WRONG!! I honestly think we're looking at more like 7-10 boxes being sent down for Project Santa!! I know we're up to over 1,800 pairs of shoes and 1,500 toys! This is going to be a remarkable year!! I'm planning to try to have one more yard sale next month if I can get it set up with the church in hopes for a little more shipping money! I'll also be putting up a raffle on my blog really soon for some REALLY beautiful custom made jewelry. So for a buck you can win this amazing set so stay tuned!!

Arianna giving her momo lots of love and a beautiful purple rose bush!! She was so cute toting this big ol' plant to her momo with a HUGE smile on her face!!

Olivia was VERY determined to buy this Winnie the Pooh card for her momo even though it was for a great grandma. I let her buy it anyway and she even bought her some chocolate covered cherries which is one of her favorite!!

Lee Jr. picked this shirt out especially for his momo!!

The three little blessings that make Mother's Day and everyday so precious to me!!

Papa Jay and his gang!

Arianna and Olivia washing their momo's porch with water from the ice chest and napkins they found on the food table!! When one napkin gave out they'd toss it off the porch and get another!! And who were we to tell them they weren't helping!

Look what Lee Jr. found in his grandma's yard!!

This is what happens when Olivia is put in time out ON the chair!!

Mr. Turtle

Setting their new found friend free!! Olivia even turned around and said bye turtle now go find your mommy!!

FIELD TRIPS AND BLAH DAYS!!

2009-05-07T23:11:00.008-05:00

The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity that has kept me from blogging much. We had two field trips, ball practice, a ball game and sickness mixed into the bunch!! I have no idea what the school was thinking when they choose to take all the 5th grade D.A.R.E graduates to the baseball game in the middle of the day as a treat!! Ok people seriously 90+ degree weather plus kids in the full sun equals nothing but trouble!! There were several kids who got really sick almost passing out from the heat, one who had to go see the EMS and could barely get on the bus at the end and had to be wheeled in a wheelchair to the bus, a teacher who fainted in front of her class....yep it was that bad!! It was bad enough that the kids were all asking to go back to school!! LOL!!

As if that wasn't bad enough the next day their required field trip was to the Destrehan Plantation Heritage Day. This was totally BORING and each year they're required to go and nothing much changes! Once again we had the kids asking a million and one times how much longer before they could go back to school. I felt HORRIBLE and I knew before I went to bed the night before I was getting the virus that Lee had the day before. I was able to take some meds for the nauseau but I had NO idea it would make me so sleepy! Thank goodness one of my friends came along to chaperone and was a HUGE help!! I brought both of the girls with us on this trip because of babysitter issues the day before and they were a hit! I think the kids enjoyed them more than anything else!! I guess it's because the girls didn't have to use much convincing to have Olivia go over and whack the boys! They were all laughing hysterically too!! Oh and we did even have one of the people who were doing presentations slap a little boys hand! I was in the restroom thank goodness because I made sure the teacher was well aware of it when we found her!! I even had to tell Ben that he should have slapped his hand back and told him he's not suppose to hit other people's children!! Of course being the wonderful child he is Ben just smiled and said he didn't want a scene. I thought he deserved an apology though! So two boring field trips both having crazy things happen lead me to think that next year we will look at the field trips and decide ahead of time if Lee Jr. really wants to go or skip school and spend some time doing something fun with me and the girls!!

So life has been crazy and I'm feeling a little better today so I was able to go grocery shopping this afternoon. I even managed to do most of the laundry! I seriously cannot go one da without washing because then I'm behind!! The girls have pre-school tomorrow so my day will be spent cleaning house and I'm praying I get a lot of it done! I've been such a bad housekeeper lately!! I hate to admit but I have a lot on my mind these days and things are falling by the way-side. I'm praying things will get worked out soon and that I can find some peace with several issues that have been bothering me. I just need to learn not to stress over things I cannot fix. It's so hard to do, but I'm getting there!!

I also wanted to let you guys know that I have a bookdrive open until May 26th for the children of Guatemala. http://www.ubah.com/BF31840 This is the link to the sale and if you want more info please check out all the details at www.heart4children.blogspot.com I'm shooting to reach $500 in sales so that the two locations can recieve 50% in free books!! That's a lot of books for free so take a minute to check it out!!

The group of boys for the baseball game!

Lee Jr. and Boudreaux

The group for the field trip.

The vintage band played a few numbers for us.

Heads or tails? Field or first bat??

WELCOME BABY ALLY

2009-05-04T23:06:00.003-05:00

I was able to go to the hospital tonight and see baby, Ally!! Well actually I was able to see her yesterday through the nursery glass because she couldn't come into the room just yet since she was delivered by emergency c-section. Today mommy and baby are doing well and should be home in the next few days! She's only 5 pounds 8 ounces so this is the smallest baby I have held in a VERY long time!! She's absolutely perfect!!!

Tomorrow I'll be going on a field trip with Lee Jr. for his completion of the D.A.R.E program. We're going to a baseball game so it should be fun and it'll give us some one on one time. Well sort of anyway since i'll have three other boys in my group!! I know we're going to have a great time though and I should have lots of great photos to show you tomorrow night!

Albert, Holly and Ally

Ally Janette

4-H ACHIEVEMENT DAY

2009-05-03T10:14:00.008-05:00

Lee Jr. really scored big at his 4-H achievement day! He spent about five hours competing in various competitions and contest. Some involved public speaking while others were of a simpler nature. This was the final day to end this year's 4-H club. They also had some really fun things for the kids to do. I was not able to make it this time because we had the yard sale for Project Santa yesterday, but Lee went to him get his awards at the end of the day! Of course I just had to take photos of him when he came home with four ribbons, a certificate, a plaque and the school trophy!! I'm really proud of him and I think he's definitely coming out of his shell!!

I was also very excited about the yard sale outcome!! We did really great but I have to admit that I was REALLY nervous that it was going to be a flop because it was the last weekend of jazz fest (Bon Jovi was playing), the Thibodeaux Fireman's Fair and the Naval Airshow at the air base! We had a ton of wonderful things and we managed to collect enough money to cover almost two boxes. We were a little over $100 to go to cover the second one. So I packed away the best of the stuff we had left over and then sent some things that were not easily stored to the local thrift store and we will try this one more time, or I'm hoping to anyway!! I figured any amount of money we could raise is going to be a great big help to Project Santa. I have several people who expressed interest in helping if we try again so I'll keep you all posted, but for now go to the blog and check out all the great photos, info and updates at www.heart4children.blogspot.com

Lee Jr. with all the other students who received an award at Achievement Day!

He took home 4 ribbons today!! A first place for Project Exhibits/Talk, and a 3rd place in Public Speaking, You and the Environment talk, and the Horticulture Identification Contest!!

Lee Jr. was awarded Outstanding Member of his 4-H group and a 1st place certificate and medal for his poultry project book.

Lee Jr.'s 4-H club received 2nd place for outstanding club and he was able to accept the award and bring it home for them. He will be taking it to be displayed at the school tomorrow!