Household Simmons

January 2010

2010-01-19T10:09:00.004-06:00

I started a new project on January 1st, it's called Project 365 and I am supposed to take at least one picture per day, so this picture just happens to be the one I took on 01-06-10, I thought it was cute of Brinlee and wanted to share it.Here are Brinlee's 7 month pictures, her BFF Rylee came for pictures too and they were so cute! Brinlee is now on the move, she does the army crawl and just today when we took these pictures, she actually was up on her hands and knees and made a couple of "steps" really crawling, she is also learning to pitch a little fit when we take someting away from her, it's a little comical to watch, and when she gets hungry, she wants it right now! Brinlee and Rylee, this reminds me so much of Derek telling Robbie a funny story, and Robbie's reply? " DUDE, For real?" LOVE it!

Jake, Nicole and Carter came to visit and we took a few pictures! He's just the sweetest little man I could hold him all day. Jake and Nicole went to Oaklawn and spent some time together and we got the honor of keeping little Carter for the afternoon and it was just wonderful! He's now 4 weeks old and is a great baby, he's so easy to take care of and we can't wait for him to come visit again!

Don't they make a beautiful family?

December 2009

2009-12-31T09:45:00.004-06:00

For Brinlee's 6 month birthday, we had a little bitty party, and she got to tear into a cake, she liked it pretty good and even opened a present. She is so fun! What a great evening leading up to tomorrow when we go to Little Rock and wait for Carter's arrival!

12-17-09 He's here! Carter Jacob arrived this evening at 5:05 PM and weighed 7pounds 2 ounces. Mommy and Daddy are very proud and all are doing great! Carter brings this year to a close with him being the 3rd grandbaby born in our family this year! What an amazing year! We are all so blessed, healthy babies and lots of happiness!

Mike and his first born, with his first born.

Christmas morning, Morgan had a few surprises, here she is opening either her new phone, or her iPod touch.Christmas Day at Mema's, Brinlee had a ball, she loved opening the presents, she tore and tore at the paper and as you can see, she loved her new toys!

November 2009

2009-12-01T09:32:00.000-06:00

Brinlee is now 5 months old and has new thing she does, she loves sticking out her tongue! She's also gotten really good control of her hands and grabs everything, she chuckles outloud and is about the happiest baby I've ever seen! Jake and Nicole came for their maternity pictures and we can't wait to meet Baby Carter in just a few weeks! Aren't they the sweetest couple? They are so in love and will make great parents!

November always brings around Santa pictures, this year we had lots of little ones to meet Santa and we had a great time taking pictures!

This is the only one we were able to get with all the kids with Santa, by this time they were all pretty much done with pictures and wanted to play, as you can see, Santa was worn out too!

October 2009

2009-10-31T22:02:00.003-05:00

Brinlee is now 4 months old and cute as can be! We are all enjoying her so much. She has lost a lot of her hair but we can see that she has new hair coming in and it looks to be blonde, just like her daddy's was when it started coming back in.We took a quick little jaunt to Shady Lake for our last camping trip of the year, it was beautiful and we can't wait to go back!
On Halloween, Mike and I took Morgan, her friend Isaac and Brinlee to Malvern to The Family Farm, it was so much fun, they got to pet lots of animals and play on zip lines and a big swing. Brinlee loved looking at the animals and if she could have gotten her hands to work right, she'd have had ahold of her a bunny rabbit!

September

2009-09-19T08:52:00.001-05:00

Labor Day - We recently got a new camper and couldn't wait to try it out, we had originally planned to go to Shady Lake with the Ivey's, but Morgan tested positive for the flu so after long deliberation we ended up going to 3 Sisters, Morgan felt okay and we had a ball, it was 6 days of perfect weather and absolutely the best camping trip ever! We love our new camper and can't wait come back to 3 sisters!

Geocaching is great fun!

09/09/09 Morgan got her braces on the top teeth today, she was really excited but tonight is feeling the paint a little bit more than she thought.

Brinlee is now 3 months old and is so much fun! She is smiling a lot and laughs out loud!

August 2009

2009-08-14T20:43:00.001-05:00

Brinlee is growing so much, here she is at 2 months, she has to go get her first shots in a few days! That's gonna be a tough thing for her Mommy and Daddy. Jordyn brought the kids over today, Kyler is now 1 month old. Braylin is 2!

Camping at Brady Mountain

2009-07-28T11:37:00.000-05:00

Brinlee got to float in her little floaty boat and she also wore the little bathing suit that I bought back in 1986 when I was pregnant with her Daddy! I thought I'd surely have a little girl back then LOL. Morgan also wore it when she was first born, I just love seeing it being put to use!

Dipping her toes in the water with Daddy!

Morgan and Alexx playing in the sand.

Another baby!

2009-07-21T20:33:00.000-05:00

Kyler James arrived today at 11:11 am and 7 pounds, Mommy and Baby are doing just fine!

We are heading to the lake for our camping trip, more pictures to follow!

Photo Shoot #2 with Mommy & Daddy

2009-06-27T19:53:00.007-05:00

As promised, Family pictures with Brinlee!

Brinlee's First Photo Session

2009-06-21T19:37:00.000-05:00

Derek and Jessica spent Father's Day at our house, all the kids were here so we were very blessed. Jordyn's baby will be here in about 3-4 weeks, Jake and Nicole were here too, their baby is due December 25th so things are hopping around here for sure! Today we did some pictures of Brinlee in the studio, we will do several sessions for her newborn pictures, there's just no way to do everything I wanna do in one session LOL. We are going to have mommy and daddy in some later this week so be sure and check back to see those! For now, here's a few from today at 5 days old. Isn't she just delicious?

This picture of Brinlee in the breadbowl is very special to me, this breadbowl belonged to Brinlee's Great Great Great Grandmother, she used it over 100 years ago for her bread making, oh if this bowl could talk! I feel very blessed to have the bowl and to be able to use it in Brinlee's pictures.

Here is me and Brinlee at 1 day old, needless to say, I'm crazy about this girl!

Big News! She's HERE!

2009-06-18T18:53:00.004-05:00

We have had a busy 3 weeks! June started with Morgan's birthday party, then we decided on a whim to try to get a camping trip in before the baby comes. So Suzanne and Alexx came up with their camper and Morgan and I (& Jessica) met them and we set up our campers at Brady Mt. Mike came up and helped us, we could not have done it without some man muscles LOL. Anyway, for the first night, it was just us girls, Jessica stayed with us and then my Mike and Suzanne's Mike came up and stayed after that first night. The girls rode their scooters, swam and had a ball! On Friday night, Jessica was planning on staying with us again, because Derek and some friends were out fishing all night, but about 2:30am she woke up hurting real bad and had him come get her about 4am. They ended up not going to the hospital but we thought it might be time! Then on Saturday evening they came back out and we all ate and swam, Jessica had a great time swimming and said it felt so good to get some relief on her back.

Sunday we packed up and went home, I spent all evening doing laundry and bright and early Monday morning (June 15th) she woke up with harder contractions. Derek brought her over here to me and he went to work, since we had so many false alarms, we thought it was best that I take her to the doctor if she was still having contractions after a few hours, she was so at 9:30 we went to the clinic. She got to see the Nurse Practitioner and they checked her, (3cm) and put her on the monitor for about 30 mins to see if the baby was doing okay and then sent us home to walk and come back to see the doctor at 1:00, by then Derek was off work and showered and met us there. We thought she was gonna get to see Dr. Henson but as bad luck would have it, it was Dr. Cardenas and she was not happy about that. He sort of blew her off, said she was still 3cm and said go home. She was MAD! LOL So they went home and I came home to do more laundry. About 6:00 they called, said she was still having contractions, (since 7am mind you) and said they were going back to the hospital. I met them there about 7:30 and were we happy to know Dr. Henson was on call and in the building! WOOHOO! He checked her, put her on the monitor and said "we're gonna have a baby". Long story short, it was a long night, he broke her water the next morning and started pitocin about 5:45, 6:50 she got the epidural, 8am - 4cm, 10am - 6cm, 11am - 8cm, 11:35 she was ready to push and the baby arrived June 16th at 12:18pm, Jessica did such a great job, it was an awesome experience and we are all so proud to announce the arrival of Brinlee Dawn Toland! 7 lbs 10 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long! She is absolutely beautiful as you can see! I know I'll more pictures to share soon so stay tuned!

Out with May Showers, in with June blooms!

2009-05-28T21:22:00.004-05:00

As June approaches, this means 5th grade graduation, and a birthday party for Morgan as well as a Dance Recital that this year will consume 2 days of dancing and the big event will come in June with Brinlee's arrival, although this week we have our doubts that she'll wait until June. Tuesday night after Morgan's graduation, Jessica was feeling a lot of pressure and just didn't feel good at all. About 10:00pm they called me and were headed to the ER because she was hurting so bad and she had not felt the baby move in a couple hours, which had her (us) a little alarmed too. To sum it up, they kept them until about 1:30am and she is dilated to 2 cm and 70% effaced so that is a good start. As this week has progressed, she's become more and more miserable so we are thinking it could happen at any time, or might not happen for 3-4 more weeks. Personally I am hoping we can at least get through this weekend's dance recital and maybe even through Morgan's June 6th birthday party.

Here is Morgan getting her diploma, she also received a Presidential Gold Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence. We're so proud of her and can hardly believe next year she'll be a 6th grader!

Morgan and Mrs. Vaughan, her 5th grade teacher, it's been a great year!!

Today Jessica and I finished up the t-shirts that everyone is going to wear at the hospital. Mine says "Brinlee's Nonni" Mike's says "Brinlee's Papa" We made one for Derek that of course says "Brinlee's Daddy" Morgan got one too and has decided she'll be called "Aunt Sissi". Us girls are wearing pink tshirts, the guys have gray, and all the letters are pink. I'm also trying to finish up her baby booties, I started them about 3-4 weeks ago, and sort of forgot about them, so I'm eager to get those finished! I have made these same booties for friends and for myself when Morgan was on her way. They're so sweet and really special, I still have Morgan's and I hope that Brinlee's will be a keepsake she'll always have. I can't wait to see her wear them home from the hospital! I'll take some pictures when they're all done.

Wedding stuff

2009-05-24T21:35:00.013-05:00

Well, the wedding came and went without a hitch! LOL, except for the 2 that actually got hitched! The weather held out and was actually very nice, I did get a little stressed while setting up and decorating, I sort of got emotional while decorating Derek's grooms table,

I wanted it to be special for him (and it was) and things were not going exactly how I had envisioned and I started squalling, but Suzanne said just do what you can with it and I'll finish it up. So that's what I did, she had to make me leave so I could get back home and clean up and get the cakes and then get back out to the park in time so it's a good thing I had her there keeping me in line. I left there knowing the decorating was in good hands. It was 3 minutes until 6:00 though when I got back with the cakes and wouldn't you know the top layer on the wedding cake had slid and it got a little messed up, but I just sent it to the table and some little angels swooped down and repaired it as much as possible and it was fine. Once I realized that I didn't arrive with all the guests already seated and staring at me as I drove up, my stress level went down and I relaxed. I actually sat down and enjoyed the ceremony and did not stress at all once things start moving. Jessica was beautiful and Derek was dashing :) AND I'll tell you one more thing I did not do, I did not shed one tear! Believe it or not! Most of you know that I'm a real squall bag, I'm not sure what happened, I even had my "Mother of the Groom" hankie in hand and ready. I think I probably held it together because I had read, written and printed the ceremony and vows over and over so many times that it wasn't that emotional to me. I did cry when I read them the first time LOL. Oh and I've cried several times since then talking about it to others. My husband cried LOL, he performed the ceremony and got all choked up a couple of times while doing the ceremony, then he told me later what caused it, the first time was because he looked up at Derek's face and saw that little boy (okay now I'm crying again) that played in the yard with the unruly Dalmatian, and the same little boy that he spent the day with, hitting pears down into the woods using baseball bats. Then he got himself composed and in a minute or two, he looked over at Derek's dad and he was just a boo hooing, that did him in... So ANYWAY, sniff sniff... It was beautiful, we got some gorgeous pictures, (Thanks Suzanne and Mike) we had wonderful food, (Thanks Donna) The decorations were beautiful, it was all just great! Derek behaved himself too, I was afraid he'd play some sort of jokes or something LOL, and he didn't complain about taking too many pictures (he really hates posing) and I he didn't get cake on Jessica's face LOL. I was so proud of him, he looked so handsome, it's hard to believe he's grown and married already... Well enough chit chat, now for a few pictures!

Okay, this picture needs a little explaining I know, there are a whole series of these and they are just priceless but this one sort of sums it all up. Derek had this big huge pair of panties tucked inside his coat sleeve and when he went to take the garter off her leg, he whipped out these big panties, the crowd roared and Jessica was shocked! LOL Good times...

May 2009

2009-05-16T20:09:00.005-05:00

Wow I cannot believe how fast time is flying, soon school will be out, the baby will be here and we'll be right in the middle of summer. This month started out with a trip to Branson with Morgan and the 4th and 5th grade of from her school. We had a great time attending World Fest at Silver Dollar City but it rained pretty much the whole time we were gone. We managed to see everything we wanted, shopped a good bit and even got to go to Branson Landing and eat at Joe's Crab Shack! I have always wanted to eat there and it was great! I bought me and Morgan both a Joe's tye dyed tshirt, yeah I know, I'm a total tourist!

We are also in the midst of planning a wedding! It's May 22nd and we are hoping and praying that the rain stops and we have nice weather because it is planned outside! We do have a pavilion rented as well, but it will be a tight squeeze to do everything under the pavilion. The plans are pretty much all finalized and I am beginning to feel a little relief the closer it gets to the big day. I feel for folks to spend months planning a wedding, it would be too stressful for me, I'm actually thankfully the kids decided to do it pretty soon, it only gave us a month to plan, but that's only a month to stress too! Next week, I'll have pictures of the wedding to share.

Last week, Jessica and Derek's best friends, Kayla and Rob, had their baby girl Rylee, she's gorgeous and I had the pleasure of taking her first pictures here just the other day, at 6 days old she was a perfect angel. Having Rylee arrive has sure made us all anxious to get Brinlee here! It won't be long that's for sure!

This month there is something going on every weekend, Morgan and I are going to an out of town graduation on the 17th, the wedding is the 22nd, her dance recital is the 30th-31st, the following weekend, June 5th, is her birthday, so I plan to have her party on June 6th, it seems lately we don't have a weekend with nothing planned. We hope to go camping soon after school is out, but before the baby comes but I am not sure we'll be able to fit that in!

Showers and updates

2009-04-29T19:52:00.009-05:00

What's going on with us lately? Well, we are still preparing for baby Brinlee, it's getting close to the end of school, so there's plenty going on withthat, we had Jessica's baby shower and she got lots of nice things, here are a few snaps from the day!

This is the diaper cake I made, it came out so cute and everyone loved it! It's super simple, anyone can do this!

I made cupcakes for the guests, Jessica had a special request of Strawberry cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, so the pink ones were strawberry, the white ones were white cake with butter cream frosting. I made these cute little cupcake holders out of doilies! I first thought I could cut some with my Cricut, but after cutting just one, I knew that was a lost cause!

The Happy parents to be, Derek was at the shower just long enough to say hi to everyone, then he headed out the door!

Me and Jessica
Jessica at 31 weeks, Jordyn at 27 weeks and Kayla at 38 weeks.

Braylin couldn't resist those cupcakes! She's 21 months old now.

April 2009

2009-04-16T21:21:00.006-05:00

April has come and halfway gone already. Exciting things are happening, Derek and Jessica got a place to rent and we worked on getting that ready and all moved in the last couple weeks, we are so relieved to know they are in their own place well in advance of Brinlee's birth and still while Jessica was up to painting and moving! She and I painted 2 bathrooms and Derek laid new carpet in the bedrooms and living room, it's fresh and clean and perfect for a new family. We ordered Brinlee's bed and changing table and Derek got them put together.

The next big thing that is coming up is Jessica's baby shower, she's so excited to be able to have it at her own house. Today I made the diaper cake that will be the center piece and I must say, it's pretty cute! Stay tuned for pictures!

March, Holy Moly! I missed an entire month!

2009-04-02T20:56:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I haven't posted since February! I'm so ashamed, there's been so much going on, apparently it just slipped my mind. I'll try to summarize, March just flew by, first was mine and Jessica's birthdays, on the 5th (me) and the 6th (Jess). Mike and Derek and Morgan made us a wonderful dinner and even got us a yummy cheesecake and put candles on it representing our ages added together, it sort of had us confused when we first saw "66" on our cake, but soon we knew what it meant! LOL. Then on my actual birthday, I left and spent a long weekend with my girlfriends scrapbooking! 3 days of scrapping and eating and lots of laughter. Then came packing and planning for our camping trip to Lake Millwood, the night before we left, I went to Jessica's shower at Donna's, she got lots of wonderful stuff. The next morning we set out for the lake, we had a great time, the guys did LOTS of fishing (and actually caught some big bass!) and we even saw some alligators! But the rain put a damper on it, and to make a long story short, we came home 3 days early. But I lucked out because by coming home early, it enabled me to attend yet again, another weekend of scrapbooking with Jill, Kay, Angie, and Alicia! What a way to end the month of March right?

Prima Ballerina

2009-02-23T19:05:00.008-06:00

Morgan has been taking Dance since she was 2 years old, she's taken tap and ballet as a little dancer and then when she got about 7-8 she started taking Lyrical, Musical Theatre, Hip Hop, Jazz, and Clog and sort of got away from the typical Tap and Ballet. This year, I was happy to get her back into Ballet, even as a little bitty girl, her teachers always said she was a natural, she had the poise, the grace and had beautiful arms and hands and I of course always agreed. Watching her amongst others, made me see what they were talking about, it seemed like her hands and arms always had that beautiful grace that seem to come natural. When she started this year she was determined to get her technique back and work her way into Pointe shoes. Well, a few weeks ago, her teacher said that she and 3-4 others in her class were ready to move into Pointe and she had them stay after class every week for an extra 30 mins to work with them. 2 weeks ago we made the trip to Little Rock and got her fitted for pointe shoes. $108 later she had her wish! Her friend Anna Claire came over Sunday afternoon and we took pictures of them in their pointe shoes before they had a chance to get them all dirty and worn! Here are a few from that session. Let me say that when I opened these images up and started working on them, it nearly brought me to tears, where did my little girl go? I am used to seeing her dolled up in make up and fancy dresses, after all we've had years of dance recitals, but these images show me how she truly is turning into a young woman and I find it bittersweet. She's only 10 1/2 but she sure looks a lot older to me in these pictures.

This is Morgan and Anna Claire

I've been tagged!

2009-02-16T10:54:00.006-06:00

My friend tagged me and I "think" my responsibility in this is to select an image to share. It's supposed to be the 6th image from my 6th file so here goes! This ridiculous picture was from Super Bowl Sunday, everyone was piled up watching the game and some 3D commercials. This is Derek, Jessica and Morgan. Thank GOODNESS I didn't have to pick the 7th picture! It was ME wearing these horrid 3D glasses!

My responsibility also requires me to tag 6 others! So I am tagging Brooke, Liz, Kelly, MckMama, Jenna, & Jessica.

Tales of a bed and Valentines Day

2009-02-15T13:07:00.010-06:00

Okay, so I promised the story about one very special bed. Here goes, back in 1986 when I was pregnant with Derek, my sweet little grandmother came across this miniature baby bed at a garage sale. It was brown and just needed a little TLC, I think she paid all of $10 for it. She brought it to me and I was immediately in love with it! It would be perfect! It was on rollers, and narrow enough to go through doorways so it could easily be moved from room to room. I set to working on it, and painting it white and later found out it was actually called a "Eurocrib", whatever it is called, we loved it! I used it for Derek for several months and over the years have loaned it out to close friends only after promising in blood they would not let anything happen to it and it would safely be returned to me, and it always was! When I became pregnant with Morgan, I once again got it out and started working on it, at some point over the years, it had been stored somewhere that had allowed it to get wet and the inside peices of the head and footboard were warped. This however didn't stop me, I peeled off the yucky part and just covered it in some pretty baby fabric and with a fresh coat of paint, it was ready to use again! I also used it a couple years ago for a few months here at my house when Braylin was a little baby, then it went back into storage. But now, it is going to make a full circle! The one who it was originally intended for, is now going to become a Daddy and his little baby girl will be sleeping snugly in her Daddy's baby bed! Jessica chose to paint it brown and we've put it together and it has the crib skirt on it here in these pics, it is not by any means finished but I will share it at this stage anyway. We are going to tie the big pink bows on the corners, and it will have the polka dot fabric inset on the head and footboards to cover up the not so nice wood there. I love so much that Jessica was excited about this little bed, it means so much to me and if my grandmother were alive today, she would be thrilled to know that Derek's baby would be sleeping in this little $10 bed that I wouldn't take any amount of money for!

Here's a couple of shots of Morgan with her Valentines Day Loot!

Projects and pics!

2009-02-10T20:51:00.011-06:00

We started working on Brinlee's baby bed, and as promised I have pics! This is the little bed they are going to use as her bassinet, once I get pictures of it all finished I will go into more detail of the significance of this very special bed, so stay tuned for that story! For now, here is a peek at her mobile and the bed skirt we are using with it. This fabric is so sweet, it's green, pink and brown paisley and then we have polka dots to go with it, we made a matching cover for the mobile and it is just the cutest!

Here are a couple of pictures from the February 3rd Ultrasound where we found out that this baby is a girl! We only got a couple of shots, because she chose to get the DVD so we had to take what we could get, we loved seeing these long legs and feet and her sweet little face. She was so active during the ultrasound it was hard to see very much for very long!

Oh, by the way, her mommy and daddy made an announcement the another night, her name is Brinlee Dawn! I am proud to share my name with the sweetest little baby girl in the world! :) Mike says I am gonna have trouble fitting my head through the hospital DOUBLE doors! LOL

It's a GIRL!

2009-02-04T15:35:00.011-06:00

Yes we went to the doctor yesterday! Derek and Jessica's baby is a girl! We are so ecstatic to finally find out what it is! Let me say that if this little girl is born as rambuncious and energetic as she was yesterday during the ultrasound, she is gonna keep us on our toes! The US tech just kept saying over and over what a wiggler she is! LOL. We even saw her yawn really big twice, it was so sweet! She has really long long legs too (after her Mama hehe) Jessica and I are eager to start getting ready for this little girl. We did some shopping yesterday of course and got her bedding and 6-8 little outfits. We also got her signed up with the baby registry at Wal Mart and JC Penney, that was a lot of fun, going through the baby department scanning all the stuff she wants for the baby. I wish they had that back in my day! HA! Here she is getting ready for the Ultrasound!

and after. I would have posted this entire picure, but I caught them off guard and Derek's eyes are closed :( I think he did it on purpose just to aggravate me!

Tomorrow we plan to hit Hobby Lobby and Hancock Fabrics in search of fabric for the Euro crib we are working on. Sunday we sanded it down to get ready for painting, and we bought the paint for it yesterday. We want to make a frilly bedskirt and we are going to put some fabric also on the inside of the headboard and footboard of the bed, we bought some 4 inch floppy wide satin ribbon yesterday and are going to tie big pretty bows on the corners. We also want to make one of those French bullentin boards, I think that is what they are called. The board covered in fabric and ribbons. I'll post pictures of the projects as they come along! This is a picture I see pretty often around here, it's Morgan doing her homework! LOL

Ice! Super Bowl and a Baby bump!

2009-01-27T07:55:00.007-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted so there is much to catch up to! First, we are in the midst of an ice storm here in Central Arkansas, Hubby just left for work and had to chip off about 1/2 inch of ice from his windshield, it looks like the roads are okay right now but they are saying that later on today, a big band of ice will come over us and drop anywhere from 1/2 to an inch on us, and to the north of, up to 3 inches! I am praying this is not a repeat of the Ice Storm of 2000. We had a fireplace where we were living back then and it kept us from freezing when we lost power for 3 days. Our current house has no fireplace and no gas stoves! Not sure what we'll do if the power goes off again... At 6am this morning, the phone rang and it was the School District letting us know that school is cancelled, Morgan is pretty happy about that!

If you read my last post you know that along with thousands of others, I've been praying for 2 little babies, Harper and Brayden, that were recently born with some problems that are giving them a slow start. I'm so thrilled to say they are both doing better, so please check their sites to see how they are doing! Speaking of babies, did you see the news this morning about the lady in California who gave birth to Octuplets? WOW, they range from 1# 4oz to up over 3#. I wonder if they'll have a blog? :) We all should definitely keep that family in our prayers, as well as all the little babies in the NICU's.

Let's see what else is going on at the homefront... Jessica and I (& the whole family)are still counting down the days until we find out if baby Toland will be a boy or a girl, just one more week and then let the shopping & crafting begin! I am gonna share a picture from this week, Jessica wanted a few snaps of her at her current size, so here she is at 18 weeks 5 days. That baby bump is growing into a baby mountain! Be sure to check for my post next Tuesday that will announce if it's a boy or a girl!

Super Bowl is this weekend, who are you rooting for? The Steelers or the Cardinals?? We always have a Super Bowl Feed as Mike calls it, so we need to get our SB menu planned right away, he did tell me last just as I was going to sleep, "I want a lot of finger foods for Sunday, and I want it all to be fried" Great, I hate frying stuff, but I love eating cheese sticks hehe. What is on your menu for Super Bowl Sunday?

Saturday, laundry day, babies who need prayers.

2009-01-17T15:34:00.000-06:00

My day usually starts with coffee in front of my computer, I like to catch up on my friend's Facebooks and there are a growing number of blogs I like to start the day with. If you are a blogger, you know how you can really get deeply involved with blog laddering, well my most favorite blog is one I've followed for months it's MckMama. I'm SURE you all know her! She mentioned someone who needed our prayers and as I kept following links before I knew it I had found 2 babies that need our prayers so like 1000's of other bloggers I am passing the word and asking all the prayer warriors for your prayers for Harper and for Brayden both of these babies are in Arkansas and it amazes me how small the world really is. Brayden is in ACH and Harper was flown to Oklahoma. Their families can use our prayers! I think blogging is just the bestest way for families and friends to keep in touch and is especially valuable in times like these, even strangers care and really to help any way they can, even if it's only through our prayers.

Today also started with laundry, I stripped the bed first just to be sure I wouldn't crawl back in it, it didn't work though because by 11:00 I was back "on" the bed but only because Petey (chihuahua of the burrowing variety) insisted. He follows me around where ever I go and cries, he goes and stands in front of my bedroom door outside my office and cries until I come and see what he wants. It's either hold him in my lap, or lay down with him, such a needy little 6 pounder. His favorite thing though is fresh hot clothes out of the dryer and anytime he hears the dryer door opening he comes running. If I am pulling towels or anything that I dry completely, he makes every attempt to get into the basket and bury up in the clothes. It's like an obsession with him and heat. So, he's my buddy on laundry day and today is no different. About 1:30 I decided I needed to buy groceries, Mike and Morgan have gone to the coin show and honestly I needed to escape Petey's worrisome neediness LOL, (plus I needed food!) So I did that and came back to resume laundry in the dungeon. (it's now nearing 4:00 and I'm on load 4) *sigh*

I'm gonna add a little something just for the "awe factor" this is a little 9 week old that came for her session yesterday, can we all say AWE?

Oh, you might have noticed the lilypie counter on the right, that is for my Derek and Jessica's baby that is due in June. Derek is my 22 year old son for those who don't know and this is my first blood grandbaby and Jessica and I are chomping at the bit to start buying for this little bundle, BUT we don't know if we should buy pink or blue yet so we are holding off! Currently we are on the countdown to Feb 3rd when we will (hopefully) find out if it's a boy or a girl! Personally, I just feel like it's a boy, but we'll just have to wait and see! Well, my laundry awaits... Maybe later I can scrapbook and share some of what I'm working on!

Happy New Year

2009-01-13T08:30:00.000-06:00

So, for the new year, I decide to create a blog for ME, I have one for my business, but this is for ME, I wanna talk about Me, Me, Me... you get the drift. Well, I'm exactly 13 days overdue in getting this started, but nonetheless it's here. I already spend too much time on the computer between work and ahem, boredom so it's not like I needed yet ANOTHER "duty" online but as much as I love reading and following the many blogs I have in my little safe of treasures, I figure I should join them! What prompted today to be the day? I'm sitting here, minding my own business, enjoying my second cup of coffee and I get an email from my husband's Iphone. Let me back up, this morning Morgan didn't want to eat breakfast, I asked why not? She shyly said, while getting dressed, "because Daddy said he's taking me for donuts...." "REALLY" I said. So, off I go to talk to "Daddy" there's some history here as you might expect, much discussion has been made about not feeding her donuts in the past. Specific instructions have been given numerous times, easy stuff to understand mind you, like "Don't take Morgan to get donuts for breakfast!" IS there anything unclear about that?? Okay, so I say, "she says you told her you were taking her to get donuts for breakfast, is that true?" he says "well yeah" then proceeds to tell me that he thought I meant "not to take her to get donuts after she had already eaten breakfast here" (do you see where this is going?) then he goes on to tell me that there's a new donut shop up near her school and they have the best and hugest apple fritters! AUGH, I pull out some hair and go off to help her get her backpack together.... So they leave, unfed, no wait, he ate cereal, she is unfed. So then I get this photo and all it says is... "I told you they had the biggest Apple Fritters around" Grrrr..... my reply? "You did not just feed that to our child for breakfast? I'm tellin!!" his reply just now? "Yeah baby! Breakfast of champions. She could only eat half. She took the rest for lunch. You can't find another $1.25 doughnut on the planet as big as that one. It's as big as your face."

So, here I am tellin! Not only did she get a belly full of this sugar, grease laden delicacy for breakfast, she'l get another "hit" of it at lunch too! I feel a note from the teacher coming on. If she calls me after while and say's she sick, he's going to go get her! BWAH HA HA HA!

Now I want a danged Apple Fritter, but I am not getting out of my pajamas in search of the new donut shop, no not me!