What a Day!

It's been a crazy, crazy 24 hours! Some of our best friends took their oldest daughter to Lance yesterday morning and he ended up sending them down to Children's hospital. Their youngest two stayed with us. Yes, for those counting, that's SIX kids! Whew! As another friend said, after taking care of six, when we get number 5 it'll be a breeze! Ha!

Lance had a meeting last night, so I just fixed hot dogs for the kids and then sent all of them off to get pajamas and take showers. Bed time was definately chaotic, but all teeth were brushed and everyone bathed and in bed by 8:15! Woo hoo!!

Then this morning, well, Whew! That's all I can say. 6 kids up, dressed, hair combed, book bags, 3 lunches made (for my kids), pancakes made (thank you, Lance!), medicine taken, and all AT SCHOOL ON TIME! I deserve a medal! Haha!!

Then Emma and I went to Bible Study and after that, my day got crazier. :) I've been having some severe abdominal pain since Saturday. It's been pretty intense. Today, I had had my fill and told Lance something had to be done. So he checked me out and then sent me to one of his partners. Jim didn't like how tender my abdomen was either, so he sent me for a CAT scan! Oh my! My anxiety levels went through the roof.

They were both concerned it was appendicitis. (Which thankfully it's not!) But I started thinking of all that I had to do and how it would get done and how long would I be out of comission. I was stressing a little. :)

I'm so thankful that it's not appendicitis, but now I'm frustrated because I'm hurting and we don't know why. Just praying that it doesn't get any worse and will actually get better tomorrow.

(And our friends are on their way back home. Their daughter is on a treatment regimin and is feeling better. So thankful.)

Weekend Wrap Up

This has been an interesting weekend. It has had so many ups and downs. I can't figure out if it's been a good weekend or a bad one :)

Friday was a very frustrating day for me. I had one bad customer service experiences right after another. Seriously, 4 different companies/stores who just weren't getting it done. And they just kept building on my frustration. But, lunch that day and then that night was fun.

My neice Hattie has been on "lock down" since she was born. :) The doctors have wanted her to stay away from kids and the general public until she was 2 months old. That day came Friday! Ha! So Emma and I met Leah and Hattie for lunch. Emma was sooooo excited!

Hattie looks like a peanut next to Emma!


Luke's Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet was Friday. I gathered up some decorations for the tables and decorated right before the banquet. I totally forgot to take a picture of them, but they turned out pretty cute. Just basic blue and gold plastic table clothes with a mason jar with blue and gold balloons coming out of it filled with river rocks and wrapped with burlap and blue and gold ribbon. Then the mason jar sat on a burlap square and blue and gold Hershey's kisses scattered on the table. Manly, but cute. :)

Luke didn't have a rank to achieve since he's a Weblos for 2 years, but he did earn his card that allows him to carry a pocket knife on Scout events. He was stoked! :)

really bad pic, but he's reading his pocket knife card

He got to help hand out patches to some of the other scouts. :)

Mom, Dad, Jeremy and Leah all came to the banquet. Lance's parents couldn't make it becasue they had cows and calfs to tend too. :( And when the banquet was over, Jeremy and Leah continued celebrating Hattie's freedom by coming to the house to hang out for the night. We haven't done that since before Christmas and we had missed them just stopping by for no reason.

Saturday Lance and Luke went over to Lance's cousin Bobby's place. His son, Easton, and Luke are buds. They did some fishing and Luke rode a dirt bike! They tried to send me pics and video, but couldn't get it to go through to me. Luke was sooooo excited! When he came home and told me about it, I said that was awesome. He looked at me with surprise and said, "I thought you'd be mad!" :) I just wish I could have seen it.

I wasn't feeling too good Saturday. (I'm still not) So the girls and I were pretty low key. It was warm out, so they played in the backyard for a long time. Then I started feeling too couped up in the house, so I hooked up the bike buggy to my bike for Emma and us girls went on a bike ride. We had a blast! We rode over to some friends house for a surprise visit. They are moving soon, so that's the last time we'll be able to do that. I have a new bike and really liked it. I told the girls that we are going to do a lot of bike riding this spring and summer. I plan on loading up the bikes this summer and taking the kids to some easy bike trails near us. They will love that!

Hope hasn't felt great this weekend either and her temp has been elevated at times. (not a true fever, but up from normal) We didn't feel comfortable with taking her to church, so we had to stay home. Lance is on call this weekend so he was at the hospital this morning. The kids played outside and we watched a movie.

I hope that tomorrow I'm feeling better. The jury is still out on whether Hope will go to school. Hopefully we'll both be back to normal. :)

Hi - Yah!

Luke graduated to his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do tonight. He has really loved Tae Kwon Do these past few months. We LOVE his teacher Mr. O'Conner. He relates so great to the kids and I can see that he was probably a lot like Luke when he was young.

I'm glad we've found a "sport" that Luke excels in. And it teaches such good life skills. It totally reinforces what we are telling him at home. Respect, honor, courtesy, goals.

We are so proud of you Luke!!!

Good Day

We didn't make it to church this morning. The weekend and previous week caught up to us this morning. I had the alarm set for the latest possible time. And it did go off. But when it did, not a person in this house was stirring. So I turned it off and the kids didn't get up until 8:30 and us at 9. (We have to leave for church by 9) So, we took it easy this morning and had a late breakfast and headed to the farm.

Lance bought me 2 apples trees for Valentine's Day. I know, I know. It doesn't sound like a very romantic present. But when they are accompanied by a card talking about Joshua setting up the 12 stones as a marker to remember where the Israelites had come from and how God had provided for them. And how he wants these trees to be a marker in our family to remind us of these days in our lives, it's pretty darn romantic!

So we went to the farm to plant them. We spent about 4 hours there today and it was wonderful. The weather was beautiful. The kids played the entire time. We got the trees planted. We sat around a camp fire. And I got to drive a tractor! Ha! I have spring fever!!!!!!

Those round panels are around each of our trees. Can't WAIT for them to produce in a few years. :)

Luke building his fire

He made his father proud! He did a great job!

Sitting around the fire

The girls were looking for slugs

Hard at slug hunting!

Every day is good when you get to drive a tractor!

Whirlwind Weekend Trip

We made a quick trip to Little Rock last night and came back tonight. I got a call from one of my dear friends, who was a bridesmaid in our wedding, on Wednesday telling me that her momma, Mrs. May had gone on home to Heaven that night. I was heartbroken for her. I loved Mrs. May. Mary Kay and I spent so much time together in my 20's. And a lot of that time was at her parent's house. And then when Lance and I got together, Mrs. May just welcomed him into the family. And she loved making him buttermilk pies!

I'm going to miss Mrs. May. I hadn't seen her much in recent years. We moved to NWA, Mary Kay moved to Memphis, and then Mom and Dad moved here and we quit going to LR. She came up to NWA a couple years ago to stay with a friend of hers who was sick. She wanted to come see us, but couldn't get away to do it. I wish so badly I'd been able to connect with her then. I'll always wish she could have gotten to know my kids. Love you Mrs. May!

We decided to take the kids with us and make a quick weekend getaway out of the trip. They don't get to stay in a hotel often and we knew they would love it and also the opportunity to swim in the hotel pool! :) We got into town about 9:00. I got the Lance and the kids settled in the room and went over to the Parr's house to see Mary Kay and the family.

This morning we got up for the wonderful Embassy Suites breakfast! While we were eating, we heard the lobby piano. We looked over and this is what we saw...

How many high school senior wrestlers do you see playing the piano???? The kids loved it because he was playing some Adele songs and another song that is on one of the Disney movies that they like. So after we finished eating we went over to tell him how much we enjoyed his playing. He was an amazing young man. I asked him where he was planning on going to college and he said, "OBU" Ha! I gave him a high five and told him that's where Lance and I both went. We talked with him a couple minutes and I told him to keep up the music. What a blessed start to our day!

And I have to share this. Evidently Lance had some trouble getting the kids to sleep last night. They were wired! I understand the excitement of staying in a hotel, and being out of town, but this was out of control. He told me when I got back last night that they wore him out! And then this morning, Sara woke up before Luke and I did. The little girls woke up really early, so Lance had taken them out of the room. When they got back to the room and Luke and I were up, Lance found this on the night stand...

In case you can't read it. "Dear Momma, last night daddy sort of thretened Emma. He said Emma I'm about to put you out in the hall and Luke said but she would get kidnaped. Then daddy said well I don't care at least it would be quit in here."

Hahahahaha!!!! As funny as it was, Sara did earn a talk with her Daddy about it. But I'm still laughing! Oh my.

There is a pen shop in LR that Lance loves so I told him to go on over to it while I took the kids to the pool. We would all enjoy that arrangement the best! :) The kids had a blast swimming. That's 2 times swimming in the last 7 days! One of my favorite things was Hope and Sara trying to teach Emma to swim. It was precious! And she has lost all fear of the water. I forgot to bring her floatie, but it didn't stop her. At one point she jumped off the side with Hope without anyone to catch her!

The kids begged and begged me to get in the hot tub. So 5 minutes before we had to go back up to the room, I let them get in for a few minutes. They LOVED it!

We drove the kids by our old house after we left the hotel. Brought back so many memories. I really wanted to stop and knock on the door and explain who we were and ask if we could look at the house. :) Maybe one day we will.

After the funeral, we headed back home. At dinner time, we stopped at a restaurant that some friends had told me about a long time ago. We'd never even heard of it, but they swore it was great, so we thought we'd give it a try. They were right. :)

The Red Rooster Bistro

Look at this!!!!

 

And yes, this tastes as good as it looks!


All in all, it was a good weekend. 6 hours of car time with my hubby to talk while the kids watched movies, visiting with a dear friend, watching my kids play, good food, and seeing lots of old friends. The only bad thing was it was a funeral of a sweet, dear woman that made all that happen.

Enough With the Sickness Already!

I had planned on not doing anything today except laundry. So Emma and I stayed in pj's all day. She was kinda quiet today and wanted to be right beside me. Which I didn't pay much attention to. She was laying on the couch beside me late in the morning and I felt her head. It felt warm, but I though it was probably because of the flannel pj's. I went ahead and got the thermometer. Yep. 101.

That explained why she was so much quieter than her normal self. I have to admit. I hate when my kids have a fever, but I secretly like it a little because of all the cuddles. :)

I could tell at dinner that her fever was coming back. She started saying she was cold and didn't want to stay in the bath very long which is very unlike her.

This was taken before bedtime...

Bless her heart. I am sooo ready to be over the sickness in the house!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Whew! I'm glad it's over. Ha! It's been such a busy 7 days, that I am spent. It all culminated today, so I'm relaxing by just doing laundry tomorrow. :)

I stayed up last night making shirts for the girls. I am LOVING applique! And I did my first ruffles. I think they turned out sooo cute. I can't wait to make some more. And the girls were so excited to tell everyone that commented on them that their momma made them. (Which is why I do it in the first place)

Valentine's waiting at breakfast

The shirts

She cracks me up! Posing at Wal Mart!

Sara's class party (and her glow bug)

At Hope's party

And Luke's party (I can't get over how much we look alike in this pic!)

And then Mom came over to watch the kids so Lance and I could go out. (Daddy is out of town) We went to dinner and a movie. Dinner was great! The movie, not so much. Pretty much an epic fail! Ha! But that will be part of the memory of this Valentine's Day. :)

Snow Day 2012

I didn't have time last night to blog about our snow day. :) It's probably the only one we'll have this year. Which is crazy. Last year we had record, epic snow and this year we got 2 inches. The kids were so disappointed. But it was a great snow! Perfect for snow balls and and snow men.

I have to keep it real before I share the fun stuff. The day started out rocky. The girls went WILD first thing in the morning, destroyed their room, and busted a toy ball that had sparkle liquid of some sort in it on their carpet. It wasn't exactly a shining parenting moment for me. And then I found out that Luke had a project due at school yesterday that he hadn't done and he didn't have his homework with him. I did handle that a little better.

And then last night, it was rocky again trying to finish up Valentine's boxes for school and get everyone in bed. Another parenting fail. But the middle part was joy.

Isn't that how life is day to day? The mess ups overshadowed by the joys? I sure hope my kids remember more of the joys than the mess ups.

Here's a photo snap shot of our snow day...

I love my pancake pen!

I made homemade maple syrup for the first time! Yummy!

Love this crew more than life!

The girls' first snow woman :)

There were bird tracks everywhere. So cool!

Making the biggest snow man ever!

Posing. Ha!

Biggest snow ball EVER!

I didn't get many pics of Luke because he was so busy playing with friends and making a snow fort. :)

Four Letter Word

I have to write this down so I don't forget it. I was getting ready in the bathroom this morning. Hope came in and was waiting for me to brush her hair. She was standing there rhyming sounds and words. She looks up at me and says, "Momma, listen to this. *itchy, witchy."

I about choked. :) I just looked at her and said, "Hopie, that's not a nice word. Just don't say that again." She looked at me with big eyes and said, "Momma, is that the B word???" Haha! I have no idea she'd ever heard that there was a B word! It was totally innocent rhyming, but the next thing she said cracked. me. up.

"Momma, can I tell Luke I know the B word??" Hahahaha!

Just Dance!

After dinner tonight, Lance and I were in the kitchen talking and the kids were in the living room. All of a sudden we heard Trace Adkins singing very loudly. We rounded the corner to the living room to find Hope dancing to Girls Love Country Boys. Hahaha!

That lead to an impromptu dance session. I taught Luke to 2 step and Lance danced with the girls. Such a fun snap shot moment in life.

We didn't get any pics of Luke and I or of Emma and Lance, but we did get these two...

2 steppin'!

The Cha Cha! haha!

Happy Birthday Dixon!

Dixon is the son of our good friends Hayes and Sarah Lauren. He turned 5 yesterday. Sarah Lauren always has a shirt made for him with his age on it. Which is the coolest thing. I so wish I had thought to do that for my kids. She hadn't been able to get with anyone to have it made this year, so I told her I'd give it a whirl! I had just talked to a friend who gave me some pointers on applique, and had gotten some material to do the girls some Valentine's shirts. I did Dixon's shirt first and it turned out great!


Hadn't cut the strings yet! :)

And tonight was Dixon's party. Sarah Lauren rented a hotel room at DoubleTree and had a swimming party in the pool. 20 kids! It was so much fun! The only glitch was when Sara puked all over the pool deck. Lovely. She had been in the hot tub and I think she got over heated. I made her sit out for a while and she was fine. She swam the last 20 minutes of the party and then again after everyone left and we went back to down to the pool with the Wades.

She's not in any pictures because 90% of them she was sitting in my lap at the pool. And then she was taking pictures of Dixon opening his presents.

I spent the day today making his cake. (It's hard to see the writing. The water turned out too dark.)



Hope having a blast. She was quite the little fish!

This picture cracks me up!

 

Luke gave rides to all the little girls. It was so sweet!

 

The Birthday Boy!



Prayers and Bank Robbers

We had quite the action this evening in Centerton! Some guy robbed one of the banks that's about a mile from our house. He was armed and demanded that the teller give him $8000 or he'd start shooting. Crazy! Hope and Emma were at my parents and Luke and Sara and I were at Tae Kwon Do. When I found out about it I called my parents and told them not to open the door to anyone. The police were going door to door and telling everyone to stay inside. It was a little scary!

Luke was freaked out the most. Bless his heart. He worries about things more than any of the other kids (gets that from his Daddy). He didn't want to even head back to the house after Tae Kwon Do. So when we got home, this is the first thing he did...

He was ready with his barricade. And he wasn't joking! He was serious. He thought it would hide him well! Bless his heart.

And then later in the evening, Emma yelled for me from the bathroom. (I'm seriously putting this in the blog because it was hysterical and I don't want to forget it.) I got in there and she told me she was pooping. (I have to wipe. TMI, I know. Sorry!) So I stayed in there with her and this is what I hear her saying quietly. "Help me, God, help me. Jesus helped us, He died on the cross.) HAHAHA!

Glad to know we're modeling for our kids that you can pray to God at all times!

Super Bowl Sunday

We had our first Super Bowl party tonight! We're not huge sports watchers, and honestly, the Super Bowl has never been that big of a deal to us. As a matter of fact, last night when Lance and I were getting the groceries for tonight, he looked at me and said, "Ya know, I don't even know who's playing in the game." Ha! I looked at him and had to honestly say I didn't know who was until I saw the paper plates at Wal Mart for the Patriots and Giants. :)

And how funny is it that Luke asked us today when we were having the kids pick up their rooms, "We've never even had a Super Bowl party. Why are we now?" Haha!

But it was a great excuse to get together with some good friends and eat some good food and have some fun. The game was on the entire time, but I can't say I saw a single play! We had such a great time visiting and letting our kids have fun with each other. Why don't we do that more often??? :)

Here's the crew...


Man! That's a lot of kids!!



Divide and Conquer

Today was a rare day that our family was split up and we all did different things. I don't mind it every once in a while. :) One of the goals I have for my family is that we live our lives together. I don't want us to all just do our own thing. I want our kids to go to their siblings activities to support each other. And to have their parents at their events and activities to know that we love them.

But with a family as large as ours, that's not always possible. :) Today was one of those days. Lance took Luke and Hope with him to the farm and then to get hay at his parents' house.  Emma and I went to a baby shower and to Wal Mart. I think Sara had the best time of anyone in the family today. Mom took her to Crystal Bridges for an art class. It was four hours long! She had sooooo much fun. That is right up her ally. She loves to draw and write and color.


Ready to go!

Mom took some pictures on her phone while Sara was painting. I was soooo glad she did. I hated not to get to see her doing something she loves, but I love that she and Mom got to share this memory.



I LOVE this picture. The concentration on her face says it all.



This picture cracks me up. Emma ran over to to get in the picture. I couldn't tell her no. :)

 Lance and I haven't gone to Crystal Bridges yet. I can't wait to. It's really going to be such a great thing to have right in our back yard. This was the first children's art class they've done. Mom said it was packed. Sounds like it was a great success. What a great resource for exposing our kids to the arts.

2 Girls on the Town!

Emma and I had a busy day today! We started the morning at Chick Fil A for a birthday party. Woo Hoo! One of her friends from preschool is the sister of one of Sara's best friends from preschool. And they all see Lance as their doctor, so we have become friends with the whole family. :) Emma has been looking forward to Anna's party for days now!

Emma with the birthday girl!

After the party we went to Hobby Lobby. I need to by some Valentine's material. I'm going to try my hand at applique. And ruffles! Gasp! I have wanted to do it for a long time, but I've been intimidated, but now I'm going to tackle it head on!

Then it was off to lunch with my girlfriends. Since Leslie is back from Dubai, we all wanted to get together like we used to. So we met for lunch and it was so good to all be together again. :)


The girls



Reunited, And It Feels So Good!

Some of our dearest friends surprised us last November when they told us they were moving to Dubai, UAE in a month. God was calling them to work with the laborers that are basically modern day slaves. We were shocked and saddened to see them go, but excited that they were following God's voice.

They came home for a few weeks this summer and we got to see them for dinner. Then they went back. We knew they were coming home again for good, but 6 months is a long time to only get to visit on Skype and by text or Twitter. (Although, I have to say Praise God for technology that we were able to see and here them from thousands of miles away!)

Well they came home for good last week! Sadly, they aren't going to be in our area, but at least they are in AR! I'll take 5 hours over 20 hours by plane any day!

Welcome Home Caubble Family! Missed you!


Love you, Friend!