New year, bring it on

Well, 2012 has arrived... it didn't come in with a bang or anything, it's just here.  It's been rather quiet around here lately, Cyrena just started Upward basketball last weekend, so that's going to give us a little something to do for the next few weeks.  I have to admit, we're all waiting for softball and baseball season to get started.  It's really our favorite (although I have to admit, I love football too, but baseball is always going to be #1 for me). 

Just found out today that Kaylee got a part in the upcoming musical, Hairspray, at her high school.  This is her 3rd year to be a part of the musical and I'm very excited that she got a part.  We've enjoyed the last 2, but she's only had small parts or dancing rolls before (although she made a darn good flying monkey last year in The Wiz).  So I'm really looking forward to the first weekend in April when they perform the musical.  Other than school and the musical, her job at the movie theater is keeping her hopping.  She loves it and we're enjoying the benefits of free movies.

Jake's getting ready for baseball season.  He decided not to play basketball this year, so we're going to spend this off-season preparing for this year's baseball season.  He's on a a "team" at school for something called Destination Imagination.  I'm not very good at describing exactly what it is, but it's sort of like "Odessy of the Mind" for those of you who remember what that is.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes.

Cyrena is playing Upward this year, and I managed to talk her into doing basketball, not cheerleading this time.  Which I was quite happy about.  Cheer was too boring for me.  I just have to learn to not be so competitive.  This is a church league and it's supposed to be non-competitive, which isn't working out so well for me, being as super-over-competitive that I am.

Last, but certainly not least, Lily is growing up before our eyes.  She's becoming quite sassy and totally cracks us up with the stuff she comes up with.  As the old saying goes "out of the mouth of babes"... I'm pretty sure she's living up to that saying as much as possible.  We're thinking about letting her play t-ball this year.  She'll be 4 just in time to sign her up.  I think we're really going to have to give this some thought.  She doesn't do too well when things don't go her way.  I can only imagine what on earth she'd be like in the middle of a game.  You never know, she might surprise me.

Well, that's my once a year update, I said I'd TRY to do better, I made no promises, ha ha. 

some updated pictures

A friend of mine took some pics of the kids a few months ago, this was one of my favorites!
This was taken at Hedrix college in Conway.









Cyrena at the Daffodil Festival @ Wye Mountain

Riding the tube at Lake Norfork (Jake, Kaylee, Lily, Cyrena)

Kaylee - first day of school - Junior Year

Jake - first day of school - 5th grade

Jake, Lily & Cyrena - Daffodil Festival - Wye Mountain

Kaylee Prom - 2011

And 2 years later....

Well, last time I posted anything was in Aug. 09.  I guess we can blame Facebook for my lack of posting.  Once I started using Facebook, I pretty much forgot all about our family blog.  Well, as many of you know, lots of stuff has happened.  Kaylee is now a Junior in High School and driving (OH MY!!!)... Jake's a 5th grader now and has started Middle School... Cyrena is in her last year of elementary school (4th grade)... and then there's Lily, who is a wild & rambucious 3 1/2 year old who keep our life interesting to say the least!  We have so enjoyed our kids and their activities.  Kaylee's invovled in drama at school and has been in 2 different musicals, and is a part of "Off the Top" the improv group at our church.  She's a natural, and LOVES performaing.  Jake's still doing baseball in the spring, but has started his 2nd year of football and we are ready to get the games started!  Cyrena started playing softball in the spring and has found the sport that she likes, so we're just about to start the fall season.  Lily is at a new daycare, and is doing great there.  I went back to work full time in Feb. 2010.  I sure do miss staying home with her, but the checkbook said it was time to go back to work full time.  Jeff's still working in Little Rock, he figures he'll be there at least another 20 years until we get Lily out of college.  But the way time is flying by, those years will be gone before we know it.

I'll be really honest, this has been just a pretty tough year.  Losing Jeff's brother, Tom, and then my grandmother, Moneta, on the same day, then losing Jake and Keith just a few short days later, my family has learned a whole lot about what it means to really lean on Jesus and draw strength from Him when we just don't have the strength to carryon on our own.  We still think of all of them daily and miss them TERRIBLY, but we rejoice in knowing that someday we'll all meet up in Heaven and praise Jesus together for eternity.

I'm going to try and do better about posting in the future.  I know some of my family isn't on Facebook and may think we've just fallen off the face of the earth.  Well, we're still here, plugging through each day.

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.