Been awhile!

Wow, I just realized that it's been nearly a year since I've posted anything to the blog. You can all blame Facebook for that. I got so used to using it, and most everyone is on there that wants to know about the kids, that I completely forgot about my blog. I will try and do better (TRY!! LOL).

Well, lots of stuff has been going on. Lily of course, turned 1. My baby is growing up so fast! She started walking (officially) right after her 1st b'day. And now she seems to just run everywhere - which will explain how she managed to knock out a tooth on June 8th! She was running and put her sippy cup in her mouth, just as I was saying "take that out of your mouth" she tripped and knocked out her tooth. It scared me to DEATH!!! She was bleeding like crazy and screaming (of course), and the tooth was still in her gums, just pushed forward. It was awful. And the stupid ER wouldn't put the tooth back in, they said it's a baby tooth, she'll get another one, so why bother! Well, duh, it's going to be 5 or 6 years before she gets the other one - that's why I think we should have bothered! Oh well, it just gives her precious smile a little personality all it's own.

Lucky me, beginning June 1st, I dropped to part time. I took Lily out of her daycare and she's been home with me this summer. She will start a mother's day out program that is located at the church directly across the street from my office, and will only go on Tuesday's and Thursday's. She's become quite Mommy clingy since being home with me more. So I think it's a good idea for her to go at least a couple days a week to play and interact with other kids. But I am LOVING being home more. And I am looking forward to having more time to get involved in the kids schools.

Kaylee starts High School this year - OH MY!! I am getting so old (LOL). It's so hard to believe that she'll be in 9th grade. She's pretty excited about it, and I know that she'll do great! And she's glad the school is closer than her Jr. High (it was all the way across town!). I'm sure she'll find plenty to keep her busy and get involved in. I'm just reeling from the thought that she'll be off to college in just 4 short years. Time moves too fast for me. At least being home more, I'll get to enjoy more time with her before she goes!

Jake is going into 3rd grade and just started playing flag football this week. He has to wait one more year before he can play tackle, and boy is he looking forward to it (I'm not sure how much I am though, ha ha). He'll start fall baseball in September, then we'll have a little break before Spring baseball starts up. During his "off" time, he's going to take a few pitching lessons and see how he does. He's pretty excited about all of it.

Cyrena has decided to give soccer a try. She's did Upwards cheer last year during basketball season, but we've really been trying to talk her into trying a sport. She'll start that pretty soon, and games will begin in September. She's starting 2nd grade this year.

Jeff and Kaylee went on a mission trip to Wichita, KS this summer (well, Kaylee actually went twice). They had a great time, and met some amazing kids, and really got to watch God work in their lives! They always seem to come home from these trips so blessed! We are still involved in the youth group at church (pray for us, LOL) and look forward to our new group of kids moving up to 7th grade this year!

Well, short updates on all of us, will post some updated pics soon - all 4 kids have changed so much since the last ones I posted!

Random pictures of everyone

Nothing new going on for us lately. Activities have settled down until after Christmas. Just thought I'd add a few recent pics that my Mom took of the kids when they were up here last.

Happy Halloween

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a great Halloween. We were lucky enough that the rain went away pretty quickly and we were able to have trunk-or-treat afterall. Kids had a blast, and of course were as cute as could be. Kaylee and her friend decorated the car in a "Luau" theme (thanks in large part to my friend Kim's creativity). Here are a few pictures.

Here are the kids on our front porch sitting with the pumpkin Daddy helped them carve.

Here are Lily and Jake (he's a ninja) right before we left for trunk-or-treat. Her whiskers didn't last too long. Guess it felt funny for Mommy to be "drawing" on her face. I was lucky to get what few I got on her.

MEOW!!!!

Cyrena was a "bride". She

wasn't with us that night, but she did come by to see us for a few minutes.

Here is Jake with his best friend Malachi. It's so much more fun to go to things with a friend.

Busy Busy Busy!!

Well, not much longer till Halloween. We're still working on what everyone will be....so far the only person who has made a choice is Jake, he wants to be an Army guy, pretty easy costume, just my style. We're going to decorate my car for the "Trunk or Treat" that our church hosts every year. I think we've decided on a Veggie Tales theme, how easy that should be.

Here's my little Lily looking cute as can be in her Daddy's hat. She's growing up so fast, I blink and feel like I'm going to miss something.
And guess what "little girl" this is. My goodness, Kaylee is growing up to be such a beautiful girl, I can hardly believe she was once as little as Lily. I should be getting some volleyball pics soon, one of the Mom's took a bunch of pictures of the girls while they were playing and is planning on making a CD for each girl. I'm looking forward to getting that. She also took several pictures of Lily, since she went to every game that I was at. It's hard to resist taking a picture of a cute baby!

Look at this big girl sitting up all by herself. She's gotten so good at it, she rarely ever falls over now. And it's so easy to get a smile out of her. She sure keeps us laughing.

Jake's busy with baseball, Cyrena's still doing girl scouts, we pretty much just go go go.

Just another day!!

No new pics to post, right now. I'm sure Nana will bring us some new ones when she comes down next weekend. Jake's getting ready to kick off the fall baseball season this Saturday with 2 games. We'll have 2 games each Saturday throughout the month of October. It's a short season, but it gives us something to do in the fall. Kaylee's volleyball team is still playing, I think we've got about 2 - 3 weeks left. I am hoping she can stay in one piece for the rest of the season, it seems like something new is hurting all the time. I never realized how much diving you can do it volleyball, I'm sure it can take a toll on you. Girl Scouts started back up for Cyrena, I'm looking forward to cookie time. Hey everyone outside of the Central AR area, our cookies are cheaper than the NWA ones, so be sure to buy from us. And Lily is just growing up WAY too fast for Mommy's liking. She is now eating like crazy, she loves her cereal, and now that she's had fruit, she's not liking the green veggies too well. She's also sitting up pretty well by herself now. I still stay on the floor with her when she's down there, but I'm not holding her up. Pretty soon she'll be able to get herself into a sitting position from laying down. She is also rolling EVERYWHERE!!! I turned my back for just a second the other day, and when I turned back around she wasn't on her blanket anymore. Guess it's time to babyproof the house. She weighed 17 lbs. 10 oz, and was 26 1/2 inches long at her dr. appt on Monday. Wow my baby is getting so big. She's really starting to show her preferences for people and things now too. So if you want her to know you, you'd better be sure to come around often.

Big day!

Wow, we have been busy. Guess I lost track of time and it's be quite awhile since I posted anything. Kaylee's volleyball season has kept us running. Last weekend Nana & Papa came up to see her team play in a tourney in North Little Rock. They played very well, went undefeated in Pool play, but then we lost a VERY close match in the first round of the tourney. This weekend there was a 9th grade tournament here in Conway, and her 8th grade team played. Once again they played very well, especially since they were playing all 9th graders. We made it through pool play again, and once again dropped 2 exciting games in the first round of the tourney. I was really proud of how well her team played, they didn't give up, and made those 9th graders earn every point they scored.


Jake & Cyrena got to be in the Faulkner County fair parade last week. Each elementary school made floats and the kids got to ride on the floats. Their school had the cutest theme, I thought. It was a giant Wall-E (from the movie) with moving arms. They had a lot of fun. Cyrena is about to get girl scouts going again, and Jake just started Cub Scouts again. Also, Jake starts fall baseball practices this week. We're really looking forward to getting the baseball season going. It's a short one in the fall, they only play 2 games each Saturday in the month of October, but we have a lot of fun.



Lily has grown up so much in the past month. She has started eating solid foods, and just today, she got to try honeydew melon. At the volleyball tournament, we were taking care of the hospitality room, and we had a fruit basket. Towards the end of the day, Lily was getting a little fussy. She had been so sweet all day long, and so good, but everyone has their liimit, and apparently she had reached her. I was eating a piece of honeydew, and she somehow managed to drag it into her mouth and started sucking on it. SHE LOVED IT, and threw a BIG fit when I tried to take it away. Jeff and I were very careful to be sure she didn't somehow chomp off a piece of it. And then another big discovery late this evening, her very first baby tooth is just coming through. She was gnawing on my finger (she does this quite often) and I could feel the tip of a little tooth just starting to poke through. My littlest baby is growing up. She's also starting to sit up a little on her own. Not for long, but it's the beginning. And she has finally discovered how to roll herself to where ever she wants to get. Tonight was the first time I really saw her doing this. She was laying on the floor a little ways away from me, and apparently wanted to be closer, so she rolled on over towards me.

Whew, lots going on. I'm hoping to get some good volleyball pics from another one of the Mom's on her team, and when I do, I'll be sure to get them posted.

YAY!!! School is back in!!!

Tomorrow is the first day of school. As my kids get older, I realize now why parents SO look forward to this day. It's going to be much easier getting the munchkins out the door and on their way this year, now that we live practically in the backyard of the school. The kids have been enjoying going over to the playground and playing. It's nice, we don't have to spend the money on a swingset now. I'll try to remember to get a picture of the 3 older ones and post it. Of course, in order to post it, I've got to find the cord for the camera. Still looking for a few things in boxes from our move. Here's a picture of all of us that Mom took a couple of weeks ago.


Check out our "cool girl". I saw these sunglasses and just couldn't resist. And the funniest part is, she wears them without fussing about it. Who would've thought??? She fusses over shoes, but the sunglasses are no problem. Today she was ever "peering" at Kaylee over the top of them, it had Kaylee cracking up in the car.

Well, I know, very few people can actually get me to let them take a picture, but here's one that I really liked of Lily and me. Lily, as always is precious as can be. I guess I'd better allow a few pictures to be taken, or else the kids will never remember what I looked like :) - I don't want them to think I always looked old.

Now here's proof that even angels have horns sometimes. This picture is just to let you all know that Lily has an ornery streak. She LOVES to "play" with hair (I use the word play very loosely, so far all she does is pull, and pull hard). She really loves her big sister, Kaylee's, pretty long hair, it's lots of fun to pull.


We so enjoy Nana and Papa's visits. They always seem to be over too quickly though. Lily smiles the biggest smiles for them, she already knows that they're special people, and she sure knows how to melt their hearts.








Look at how big my little angel is getting!!! She's wearing shoes no less (OK, it was a battle to get them on her, and it's a battle to keep them on). I just can't get over how quickly she changes. She's reaching for things, and grabbing anything and everything she can get her fluffy little hands on. She's not quite reaching out for me yet, but she's on the verge. Of course, everything goes in the mouth once she gets it in her hands. She now weighs 15 pounds and is just a little over 2 feet tall. We were at a b'day party for a friend of ours last weekend, and another couple was there with their 7 week old baby, and I thought Lily seemed so much older than him. It's amazing how much difference 2 months make at this age. Lily is also rolling from her back to her tummy whenever she wants to now. In the beginning, it was purely accidental when she'd roll over, but now, if a toy she wants is just out of her reach, she'll flip over to get closer to it. Of course, once she's on her tummy, with her arm stuck under her, she gets mad, but maybe that will just encourage her to learn to roll back over.

We hope everyone is doing great, and enjoying the last little bit of the summer. We miss you all, and can't wait to see everyone.