Wordless Wednesday: Thanksgiving 2010 at the Farm

I'm taking advantage of "mostly" Wordless Wednesday because I have 2 littles sleeping beside trash cans tonight. Perhaps I'll finally get around to sharing all my favorite pictures that never made it to the blog last year on Wednesdays.

Sweethearts

Yesterday morning the girls all dressed in their red dresses for church and then covered themselves with heart stickers.... so I took a couple of pictures of our little Valentine's. The picture quality was awful on all of them, but I had to go ahead and post this one because of all the facial expressions. Really, really LOVE these quirky girls!!

Valentine's Day 2010

Maggie, Kate, Ella, Sarah

Valentine's Party Pictures

Ella

Maggie

Kate (please excuse the hair, she wore it in pigtails all day and decided to pull it down at 5pm)

Sarah

The girls and I went to church last night for the children and youth Valentine's party. They played games, had fun, made the cutest little heart shaped frames.... hence the dorky posed photos above. Ella and I spent the afternoon making and decorating the cake. She was so proud to show it off! One more Valentine's Day kids celebration and two birthday parties on Saturday then the sugar high will hopefully begin to fade!

Play Date

We had a great time visiting with Lawson, Jessica, James, Luke, and Mr. & Mrs. B over the holidays. Ella and James were fast friends. Maggie, Kate, Sarah, and Luke tolerated each other the way 2 and 3 year olds tend to do when no one is on familiar ground. We adults were able to have entire conversations without much interruption.... which was a stark contrast to the last time we were able to all get together.

We had holiday play dates with several other buddies planned that never took place because the girls were all sick, but hopefully the cold germs are on their way out and we'll be able to reschedule soon!

Christmas Program...A Cast of Characters

This year our church Christmas program included quite a cast of interesting characters. Maggie, Kate, Sarah, Rylee Ann, and Emma Grace all made their acting debuts... Ella, of course, got a head start last year when she and a couple of buddies were angels.

The young actors waited with a fair amount of patience during the rehearsals prior to eating pizza with the big kids because really the youth group does all the "work" of the play and these guys just got to enter on cue and look cute!

The girls thoroughly enjoyed being "princess angels". Maggie, Kate, and Rylee Ann thought it was pretty cool, but Sarah was absolutely in heaven!

Jackson played an adorable puppy dog... he had all the girls cracking up with his antics.
I didn't get a photo of Ella and Laurel during the actual performance because they were never standing still together, but they opted to just be "regular angels" so that they could wear their pretty Christmas dresses instead of the princess costumes like the little girls.

Sweet Emma was the show stealer with her boogie to Frosty the Snowman. I don't know how the youth group held it together while she was dancing away!?! It was adorable.

The youth group did a fantastic job of making the show go on while this rogue crew of little ones traipsed all over the stage. They really did an amazing job!

Thank you Cindy, Lora, Kim, and Dusty for allowing the girls to take part in this special tradition! I look forward to many, many years of exciting Christmas pageants to come!!

Best Fireworks Ever

Saturday night the girls, Mimi, and I met John and Mike on Lake Burton for the fireworks show.
We were a bit early so we spent a little time letting the girls have a shot at driving the boat. They all promptly drove us in circles.... it was too funny because they each thought they were doing the best boat driving job ever!

There was plenty of beautiful scenery, tons of giggling, and just an overall good time. I would have never imagined that seeing fireworks from the middle of a lake with thousands of other boats all around would be the best fireworks show ever, but it absolutely was!




It might have been due to the amazing fireworks display itself, or perhaps it was the nearly full moon shining on the calm lake below, but most likely it was the best fireworks display every because my heart was already so full of gratitude to God that Scott is safe and on his way home!

*** Scott is at Ft. Dix until the end of this week, but he's due home to us by the weekend!

Our Little Firecrackers

I have learned a great deal about myself and my children over the last year. I have learned things about my husband that I might never have had the opportunity had he been here with me instead of half way around the world in Iraq. I can tell from reading messages he's sent that Scott has learned a great deal too. Last year I had no idea how things would turn out (*who ever does, really*), but I am pleased to report that Scott is finally making his way home to us and we did okay while he was away! No, we did better than okay, and so did he!!

So on this momentous, for us anyway, 4th of July, I would like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those who serve our country in defense of freedom! We won't forget your sacrifices nor those of your families who love and support you through until you come home. And may we never, ever forget those who have made the ultimate sacrifice!

To my sweet husband who has been dearly missed this past year... the girls and I are very eagerly awaiting your arrival home to the states and even more so home to us!

And to our sweet little firecrackers, Ella, Maggie, Kate, and Sarah, thank you for giving me a reason to keep going every day, for making me laugh, and helping me to get through this time without your Daddy! I wouldn't have made it without you gals.... even though you did occasionally make me think I was going to loose my mind, and boy will I be glad to have my parenting partner back! whew!

Happy Independence Day and God Bless the USA!

My Aching Ears

I sit in blessed silence in the evenings after the girls have gone to bed and think about all the great things I should put here on the blog, or at least write down so that I don't forget them. Instead I've mostly just been sitting stunned at the sound of absolutely nothing for a few short hours before going to bed each night.

We've had more than a week's worth of rain in recent days, and as a result the girls' volume here at home (well everywhere actually, we just haven't been too many places) has been almost unbearable. I considered taking Ella to have her ears checked but decided that it is just a bad case of spring/ cabin fever. I came to that conclusion after discussing the phenomenon with her preschool teacher and realizing that she perhaps wouldn't seem so loud if she weren't talking ALL THE TIME!! She's not alone in her constant chatter as Maggie, Kate, and Sarah have more than plenty to discuss with myself, Ella, and each other at all times as well.

We are really missing our glorious outside weather days like the ones in these pictures. Mimi and I tried to use wishful thinking to change the weather this morning and even took the girls hiking in the brrrr cold to a nearby waterfall. They were just so excited to be out of the house that they happily braved the cold, wet, nearly one mile walk downhill before we turned around and headed back up.

We're supposed to have great weather tomorrow... and a parade. I'll be sure to have my camera handy for more bloggy inspiration for next week because Sunday the highs are forecasted to be in the 70's, but by Monday we'll be back in the 40's. Yuck...

In other news, Gamma sent the girls a set of Resurrection Eggs. I made a set at a MOPS meeting this time last year, and Ella and I used them. This year we're doing the devotional that goes along with them each night all together. I'd say that the interest level thus far this year is about what it was with just Ella last year. I'm not sure any of the lessons are sinking in, but at the very least they are being exposed to the Resurrection story.

I was prompting Kate to tell Kay about our nightly devotionals yesterday morning and she was doing great until.....

me: "Tell KayKay what was in the first egg we opened."

Kate: "A donkey."

me: "What did the donkey do?"

Kate: "It carried Mary to Bethlehem."

me: "Not that donkey, I mean the other one..."

Kate: "Jesus rode on it."

me: "What did the people say?" ... expecting Hosanna in the highest, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.... something along those lines

Kate: "I'll get you my pretty".... spoken just like the wicked witch of the west in Wizard of Oz

Needless to say, we'll keep working on it!

Hope you have a very blessed and sunny Saturday!

Very Untimely....

Untimely indeed, but I felt like I should publicly thank the people at Caring Corners who not only sent us a wonderful Mrs. Goodbee Talking Dollhouse to review way back in October (which the girls thoroughly enjoyed), but also sent one for us to give away to another family over the holiday season..... even if the acknowledgement is about a month late!

There were record numbers of people signed up to participate in our county's White Christmas this year on the receiving end, so I was very happy to be able to help even if just a little.

Together with the dollhouse and accessory set, we also purchased a few items to make Christmas just a little bit brighter for another family . I searched for a family with little girls close in age to mine since they enjoyed it so much! My girls did most of this shopping with me.


I would love to report that they were as excited during the "shopping for others" and "giving to those less fortunate" portions of the holidays as I was.... Instead I had to do lots of explaining when displaying all the goodies for the photo above before packing them up to send away last month.

They were, however, happy to give to one another this year which was evidenced by Ella's insistence on personally getting something for each of her sisters and myself. Perhaps by next year they will be mature enough to enjoy giving to those whom they have never even met.

Thanks again to the people at Learning Curve for the opportunity!

Christmas Day 2008

Please just overlook the nutty, pants falling off and inside out pajamas that each of the girls were wearing on Christmas morning this year. They all had quite a time coming to a decision as to which particular pair would satisfy their little souls on Christmas Eve, and because I was in no mood to argue (and still had presents to wrap and set out) we just went with whatever they picked out.

I hadn't anticipated the deer in the headlights feelings that I would have on Christmas morning. When the girls woke up at just after 6am I realized that it was way too stinkin' early to call anyone to come over and help, but I couldn't figure out how I was going to be both the mom, the dad, and the photographer all at the same time this year!

I was able to hold them off until about 6:30, at which time I called Mimi and told her I was going to let them go ahead and check out their goodies from Santa. I must have unconvincingly mentioned that I could handle things, and that she should just wait to come over whenever she got up.

Thankfully she did come over shortly thereafter (thanks Mimi!) and assist with the opening of packages. All the girls had asked Santa for was sleeping bags... in their individual "fabrit" colors. They were thrilled to see that he delivered them, but no more excited than they were to find feather boas, tooth brushes, and their own tubes of chap stick in their stockings. Isn't it crazy the things that kids gravitate to and enjoy?!?

One of my biggest stresses of holiday shopping was buying one item for each of the girls that was not "the same" as everyone else was getting. I don't know why I was so worried over it. They were each pretty clear as to at least one thing that they wanted that the others didn't, and it turned out that those gifts were some they enjoyed opening the most. Kate got a My Little Pony, Maggie a special baby doll, Sarah a pink dress up dress, and Ella her first barbie doll.

After we spent the morning here at home with various family members stopping by to see the girls and their new toys, we snuck in an early nap and then headed over to my Granny Ruth's house for a late lunch. Dad's side of the family isn't as large as Mom's, but the girls had an equally large time there. Ella received a music box/ make up set from her great-Granny Ruth, and she generously shared the contents with all of her sisters. Everyone got in on the action. Pop Dickie painted Sarah's finger nails and toe nails.

Kenneth and Glenda enjoyed a front row seat watching as all the girls used every bit of makeup in that box..... very decoratively, I might add.

Granny Ruth opened presents for quite a long time. Even with four wonderful little helpers I bet it took her 30 minutes to get them all.

At the end of the day Maggie was clearly the winner of the war paint award. Unfortunately one of the tubes of lipstick in the box was purple... that was the one Maggie chose as you can see in the above photo to go with her blue eyeshadow.

I was impressed that Ella didn't mind sharing her new stash with Maggie, Kate, and Sarah. She was in her own world and just plain thrilled to be painting her own toes.

Sarah more than made up for Maggie's lack of attention to detail with the make-up. She stood in front of the little mirror for the longest time getting the lipstick, eyeshadow, and blush just exactly where she wanted them..... just look at that concentration!

The best news of the day was that all the makeup washed off easily when it was time for bed. The girls crashed out rather early, and I was in the bed at the unbelieveable hour of 8:30pm as a Merry Christmas gift to myself!!