Baby Shower Decorations

A girl that I work with is gonna have a baby next month and we had her baby shower tonight for her. I was responsible for the decorations and the games. So I went online and found some great ideas for centerpieces using diapers and other baby things that the MOMMY can use for BABY later. I thought that I would post some pics of the decorations that I made. There is one that another person at work gave me the idea for, and that is the diaper basket. (the one with the pig loofa). Thanks Diann.

Any way I am going to do a separate post of the MOM-TO-BE in a little while.

Can You Guess How Many Jelly Beans is in the bottle? If you make a guess, I will tell you How many were in there! :)

Roxy Thinks She Is A Big Girl

Well, it has been a while since I posted pics of Roxy, so here are some updated photos of her. Unfortunately, she is just like the kids and won't stand still for the pictures, so I had to chase her down. The one of Eric holding her is the longest she laid still for any picture and she was fighting him to get out of that postition. She thinks that she is a big girl now and shouldn't be held like a baby. :)

The other two pictures were taken at my brothers house, we celebrated his birthday early since his son Matt was in for the weekend.

In order from left to right you have: Lacy,Curtis, DJ, Cody,Casey, and Matt. I will post more birthday pics of my brother on his ACTUAL Birthday.

Looks Like I too have been tagged!!

Today, My cousin tagged me with a four word Meme. It is where you get four words and you have to put your definition of these four words. My four words are Ball(Isabella's fave toy), Heart (Isabella's fave treat), Sheep (Isabella's fave animal), Sister (Isabella's fave person)

Ball- That is a little toy that Casey just loves to play with. She only has a billion of them and I am talking about the little bouncy ones that you get out of the gumball machines.

Heart- This is what you give totally to the people that you love and most of all you give your heart and soul to God. And I love to fill my heart with Joy.

Sheep- That is the animal that says baa-baa. Or you could say that we are all sheep(lambs) of God's flock.

Sister- This is something that I didn't have, but I had someone that was Like a sister growing up and this was Sheryl. She was like my big sister. It is someone that you love, enjoy being around, that you can trust with anything, and someone that you can look up too. I am so blessed to have had Sheryl as my Big Sis. And I am so glad that Casey has a Big sis to look up to.

Now my turn to tag someone. I don't know that many people who blog: So I pick Renisa, Appalachinartist, ElvisTeddybear. (I don't know how to attach the links yet) Here are your four words. And these are going to be random out of my head. So look out.

Flower, Gift, Heaven, Purple

Cody Marches for Homecoming

Tonight Cody marched in the band for his schools homecoming game. The band started the game out. They did such a wonderful job. I wish you could have heard Cody play the symbols. Sorry the pictures are so dark, but it was dark outside and Cody wasn't that close to me.
This bottom picture was taken at Renisa and Samie's birthday dinner. This is Casey, Lacy, and Caitlin. They are all cousins with a year between each. (lacy 6, casey 5, caitlin 4)
This reminds me of how close in age me and two of my cousins were. Trish being the oldest, Deanna following her by 5 months, and then me following Deanna by 5 months. Of course we didn't live as close to each other as these 3 do. But we had our good times.
I got an email today with a story in it about how God helps us when we least expect it and how sometimes God is helping us and we think that the world around us is falling. Any way there was a quote in this email that makes perfectly good sense and it makes you look at those bad times a little different. Here is the quote. "When you're down to nothing, God is up to something"
Doesn't that just sum it all up?! :)

Casey's Kindergarden Picture

We got the proofs back today for Casey's Kindergarden picture. So I thought that I would publish it for all to see. Hopefully I will get Cody's soon so that I can put it on here also. I tried to publish our family photo that we got done for the church directory but it wouldn't upload it for some reason. I will try again later. So everyone can see our family.

Campbell's turns PINK

In an effort to increase their sales and to promote breast cancer awareness. Campbell's Soup has joined Krogers and has turned their labels pink for the month of October. They will donate 3.5 cents to the Susan G. Komen Foundation through Kroger for every can sold.

Interim Reports Are Out!!!

Today our kids got their interim reports. This is the report cards before the report cards. Casey did really good. She got a check on works independently and completes work. A check on Demonstrates self-control and a Check on Average for effort/attitude. So over all her first report was good.
Samie got all A's and B's. And this is with her being sick and doing cheerleading.
Cody on the other hand got 4 A's 1 B 1 C and 1 D. He does EXCELLENT on his state test scores. I mean really.
In math he got 745-distinguished (highest is an 845), reading/lang arts he got 718-distinguished (highest is an 810), science he got a 750-distinguished (highest is an 845), and in social studies(his lowest) he got a 717-above mastery (highest is an 845). These scores are measured in 5 different levels, novice being the lowest and distinguished being the highest.
So I don't get how he isn't making all A's and B's. I just don't understand.
Enough bragging and complaining.
I want to tell you what Casey did at Cheerleading practice today.
She was doing a cheer "Hey, Hey, are you ready, are you ready, to strut your stuff" well at the strut part, little miss Casey did a quick split to the ground. So instead of your stuff it was OW.
I couldn't help but laugh. Cause I really didn't think that she could do a split and that quickly.
She wasn't hurt though. Because later she was doing the same thing but falling on her butt instead.

Roxy's First Bath

This was taken yesterday. But it was a group effort giving little Roxy her first bath. I was quite shocked at how well she did though. After giving a bath to a cat a few years ago. This was a nice change. She just stood there while Eric, Cody, and Casey scrubbed her with the Flea Shampoo and then while they brushed her and towel dried her. The only thing is that now she thinks she gets to come inside every night. She is already spoiled and we have only had her for 3 days. We kept her inside until she dried off. And then we put her back outside on the sun porch. She whined and scratched at the door. Then I let her in at the door and petted her and calmly tried to explain that she was an outside dog. I don't think she got it. :)

Casey is posing with the towel, prepared to help dry Roxy off. And then you have the Guys holding the girls. I think that Roxy weighs almost the same as Casey.

Any way, I decided to try out this beta blogger and see how well it does, so far I like it because everything is so much easier on figuring out on how to do it.

See everyone later.

Meet Roxy

I would like you to meet Casey's new puppy, Roxy, she is a shephard-mix and 3 months old. Eric took Casey to the animal shelter this morning to look at dogs and she came home and said there were 2 that she liked. Actually 3 but the one was bigger than me. And she had already named them. Chewy, and I forget the other. Any way after Casey's game we went back to the animal shelter so that I could help them decide on a dog. Well, I didn't like either of the ones that they had chosen from earlier, I liked the one we got and another shephard mix. So we ended up letting Casey pick which one for the final decision. And now she is ours. She is very friendly, and she is going to be very big. But I thought it would be better to get a pup to grow up with Casey than an adult dog that had to get use to Casey. Cody is away at camp this weekend so this will be a surprise for him too. Even though he has to watch how much he is around Roxy, for he is allerigic to dander.
Oh, before I go, one more thing. While Casey was getting ready for her game today, she was sitting in the living room, with her shoes and I couldn't quite figure out what she was doing, but she was tying her shoes. SHE DID IT!!!! And did a pretty good job too. I just wanted to take a picture of her little bowtied shoes but I held back. :) So then at the game, guess what Casey was doing instead of cheering? YEP, untying her shoes so that she could tie them again. She is growing too fast.

The Best Gifts EVER

Here are some more pics from Sunday. As you can see Renisa got some cute gifts and a not so cute one.:) The above is my brother DJ, he didn't want his picture taken. But this proves that he has only a face that Renisa can love. Just kidding Bro.

"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see." --John W. Whitehead

Birthdays allow loved ones to......

express their appreciation for each other, recognize all the joys that loved ones bring and celebrate the importance of a cherished life.
This past Sunday we celebrated Samie's and my sis-in-law, Renisa's birthday. For the past few years we have celebrated both of their birthdays on the same day. This year we celebrated with cake, ice cream, and tacos. They even blow the candles of the cake out together, except this year we forgot the candles and they had to blow out regular candles on a plate. But the cake was good and so was the food.
The top picture is of the birthday girls before we sang Happy Birthday and My Brother, DJ(Renisa's hubby) made some comment to Renisa, that is why her mouth is wide open. But I can't seem to remember what the comment was.
I was going to post a Love Thursday a day early but I really needed to WISH RENISA HAPPY BIRTHDAY instead. Or as Casey would sing.....Happy Birsday to you, You are the Birsday girl.

It's A Makeover Sleepover!!!

It is finally over. And boy do I feel old. :) I remember having the ability to stay up all night and still have energy the next day. Not Now!!
We had invited a total of 6 girls(age 12) for Samie and 1 friend for Casey(age 4). Needless to say it was fun. The picture above with nobody in it is the set up of the party. Everyone got their own makeup and bag. Even Casey and her friend had their own stuff upstairs. After they put their makeup on like punk rockers(its still in after all these years) Eric took them outside to sit in/on the dune buggy. He had to get in the picture with them. :) As the night went on Samie got ICED, and to think we use to use butter! Near the end of the night, Eric played the guitar for them all, and he had the girls oooing and ahhing. ;)
I think that they finally started to fall asleep between 3 and 4 in the morning and were all up at 7 or 8 in the morning.
The little ones were in bed by 11pm and was still asleep at 8:30am.
For the most part, I realized that I am not young anymore, and that teenage girls are more difficult to entertain than boys, for boys will play video games all night. Not girls, they did makeup, hair, watch movies, listen to music, dance, play truth or dare, gossip, ate, and who knows what else.
Have a wonderful day, and I will post again soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMIE!!

Today is Samie's Birthday, she turned a whole 12 years old. So now her and Cody are the same age. Just for 6 months.:) She is having a slumber party this weekend and she gets to go to a dance. I just can't believe how fast they grow. Did we grow this fast? I don't think that we did, I remember it feeling slower than this. ;)
I just wanted to wish Samie a Happy Birthday!! As she enters into teendom, I just hope that she takes life slow and enjoys as much as she can.

I think Oprah Winfrey says it best: "The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate."

Casey Cheers!!

This past Saturday, Casey's cheerleading team got to perform their dance all the way through. The picture of Casey by herself was her doing one of the cheers. The one above is the pyramid and cradle that they did. They actually did a good job. I was especially proud of Casey for actually trying.

These three pictures are actually the beginning of the dance and they are backwards. There are several girls on the team. I think Lorrie said that there were almost 30 girls on this team. There are 4 total Midget west, Midget east, Peewee west, Peewee east.

Any way I thought that I would post some pics from the game. Because they did so good.

"It is difficult to imagine anything more nourishing to the soul than family life." --Sir Thomas Moore

Labor Day Pics

Here are a few pics from Labor Day this year. We decided to have a picnic at the park with just the family. It was nice to get out. Only problem was that the bees were just plain horrible. They got into the chicken salad, the dip, on our plates, but luckily nobody got stung.First picture is of Casey. Making her usual faces.:)
These next two pictures are of my cousin Sheryl's husband Matthew. As you can see he was being chased by Curtis. We told Matthew that he couldn't ride the bike without the helmet. I have to apologize for the blurriness, for I was trying to sneak up on Matthew and take his picture but I was laughing to much. As you can see, he tried to take it off real quick. :)

This is a picture of my nephew Curtis. His favorite color is green. He was the one chasing Matthew. But what I didn't catch with the camera, is that Matthew was also chasing Curtis and running over his bike so that Curtis couldn't get on it to chase him.
This is a picture of my sweet little niece Lacy. She is a year older that Casey, but they are about the same height. Lacy is 6 and in 1st grade. We were picking on her asking her why she wore a shirt that said "Daddy's Boy" on it, for she isn't a boy. We had her going for a while.
Sorry but there aren't any pictures of Cody, for when I finally got the camera out, he sat in the van, saying he wanted to go home so he could play his Playstation games. Also at the top of the page is a picture of another butterfly that I took today. I just love butterflies. They are such pretty insects.

Happiness is as a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. --Nathaniel Hawthorne

My Mixed Team...

Go Team Go!! I decided that since we had Samie this past weekend that I was going to do some pictures of all 3 kids in their different uniforms. Samie in her Middle School Uniform. She made the team and beat out 2 7th graders. Not bad for her first year at the Middle School. Casey was in her Midget League cheerleader outfit. And Cody in his band uniform. He made the stage band this year. I am very proud of my kids, and very thankful that they have the talent that I lacked. I couldn't play an instrument, so I was in the choir, couldn't sing that well either. :)
And I didn't have enough rhthym for cheerleading. I did have the mouth though.
Anyway, the kids try their best and the picture didn't turn out too bad.

But I do have to say that the colors clash a little. But with Samie and Cody going to different schools, that would explain the clash in the colors. And do you notice the smile Casey has, that is the cheerleader attitude smile. :) Aren't they great.

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 1Timothy 4:12

Enjoy The Little Things.....

For one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. --Author Unknown

I think it is funny how kids can be sometimes, they don't understand what "stink" means. My little girl loves to smell good. And she loves bath and body works lotions, sprays, bath gels, you name it and she likes it. Even though she is only 5. Any way for this past Christmas for a stocking stuffer we bought some of the samples from bath and body. MISTAKE!!!! I try to tell just a DAB will do, or just spray ONE time. But Casey thinks that the more she sprays the better she smells. Needless to say, mommy doesn't do well with the smells, my head starts to hurt and my eyes start to water.
Well, Casey came in a little while ago, and I could smell that she had once again sprayed some Smelly stuff on. I asked her "Casey how much did you spray?" To which she says "Just one Mommy". I then asked "One Bottle?" To which her reply was "Is it making your eyes water?" Then she moved a few feet from me, "How bout from over here?"
I guess she is all girl. She likes to wear the dresses and the makeup and smell GOOD.

Of course every child goes through that stage of overdoing stuff. And we just have to think of how we want to remember these little things.

The picture above was taken at my mom's house on Sunday afternoon. I was actually trying to get a picture of a hummingbird at my mom's neighbors house. Nunu seen it at the end of the trailor. So I took the picture and blew it up with Photoshop.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear. I John 4:18