Hollywood!

Just wanted to say thanks to my friends who voted and CONGRATULATIONS to my brother, Taylor. His new band that he plays with "The Fayetteville Funk Ensamble" won the category that they were nominated for last night. Velcro Moonshoe didn't win, but I heard they looked good! :) Hopefully I can post some pics when my dad sends them to me! Way to go, Bubs!

Girly Girls

The girls got some new sunglasses last week and Courtney loves them. It is fun to see her grow up and love to be girly!

This morning Lindsey wanted to paint her fingernails. I told her that was fine, but she had to stay in her bathroom. She just thought she was BIG STUFF! Then of course Courtney wanted hers painted. They are really starting to play with eachother and it is fun to watch. I told Lindsey she could try to paint them for Courtney. That didn't go well and Lindsey said it was too hard, so I painted Courtney's. Then we started playing....Courtney disappeared. I should have known....







This is what she walked into the living room with! MERCY! It was on her hands like that too, but I had to get that cleaned up so she didn't touch anything and it get all over something else! Oh my word! It was just little girl nail polish so it was very easy to clean off! What a day!

It is rainy and one of those days that we need something to do. I guess I need to be careful what I wish for, but I'm glad that I'm home with my beautiful, princess daughters!

Courtney Ann

This was Courtney this morning before church! So precious! I wish Lindsey had these classic church dresses, but she doesn't. This smocked dress was actually one that my mom made and I wore! How cute! It is a little short on Courtney so she may not be able to wear it long, but oh well. She got to wear it. It looked cute on her.















We are going to be moving Courtney to a "big girl" bed before too long. Lindsey had a very easy, no big deal transition straight from the crib to a twin size bed. For some reason I have these "reservations" about Courtney. She's a great sleeper just like Lindsey was, but is somewhat more adventurous, so I just am not sure she won't be getting out of the bed. She may not, but who knows. So I decided to start today at nap time. Maybe it is just my worries as a mom, but since Lindsey was so easy I just pray that Courtney will be too! :) We'll see. I'm sure many of you are laughing saying "yeah right" at this point! Who knows.

We are going to Destin in July with Ryan's mom and family. So my goal is to not have to take the pack and play so Courtney can sleep in the bed. I may end up taking it as a "back up" in case things don't go well at the condo, but wishful thinking that we can have 2 "big girls" by then!

Just a PRAISE for Ryan (and a "way to go"). There is a big account here for Cintas that nationally decided to go with another uniform compnay. Ryan fought hard for them to make an exception and for the Ft. Smith location to continue to use Cintas. They agreed and the contract is supposed to be signed this week. This is a BIG deal. Every other location of the company in the USA is using the other company, but the Ft. Smith one is staying with Cintas! This has been a big burden of his and thankfully it is soon to be over and a GREAT accomplishment for them. Ryan was quick to give credit to the route driver that services them. It was due in a large part to the good service they get and the relationship they have, which is obviously more the route guy than Ryan. However, Ryan had to meet with them several times and was able to convince them that it was worth them staying with Cintas! Yeah for Ft. Smith Cintas! There is another account just like this at another large place here, so pray that they will also continue to use Cintas! Lost business isn't a good thing...

Praise the Lord for this beautiful weather and warm sunshine! I love it! Have a great Sunday!

Where have you been?

I usually have something to write about, but really lately we have not had a lot going on. This is my friend, Mischelle's, new baby girl, Camryn. She is 3 weeks old. They came over the other night for dinner and Courtney wanted to hold the baby. She wanted to rock her. It wasn't her first time to hold Camryn either. Anyway, it made Courtney seem so big! It isn't a great picture of either of them, but it is cute none the less. When Courtney was through holding her, she literally started pushing her. Luckily I was right in front of her sitting down. So Camryn didn't get far, but who knows if I hadn't been sitting there!





Last weekend I went on a women's retreat with our church. It was just our church and it was in Rogers (not too far!). These are the girls that rode with me up there, it was so much fun! Most of us have become very close from our MOPS group at church. L-R it is Ashley, Erin, Shaina, me :) and Katie. We are trying to get Ashley to come to MOPS too!! I don't know where Dottie (the other one that rode with us) was when we took this pic...oops! Anyway, there were 6 of us girls away from kids and on the loose to eat and shop, much less be spiritual! We left early on Friday (2:00) in time to eat dinner and shop before the retreat started at 7:00! It was so much fun! I really didn't know these girls REAL well before this weekend, but riding up there, haning out and rooming together (and shopping some more) got us all so much closer. It was a truely fun weekend. The retreat was really good too. The spearker was a leader from the BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) in Fort Smith. It made me want to consider doing that sometime in the near future. Before it has seemed overwhelming because I have heard how intense it is. But, I think I'm at a place that I need that and could do it. Anyway, it was a great renewing time for me spiritually as well as a time for me to make some friends even closer friends!


This is Shaina and I! She had her camera just like I did everywhere we went. She has some more pics from the resturant and stuff, but I haven't gotten them yet. Anyway, the funny story about she and I is that we both went to Bentonville High School! She graduated a year behind me, but I did not know her. She remembers me and we remember some of the same people! It is just so funny to me. She only went to school there her jr and sr year, so I'm not that crazy for not knowing her! She has a little boy that is 2 weeks older than Courtney named Hudson! He's precious! Courtney will say "Hu-son" when we talk about going to play at church. So cute!


So for the millions that have been wondering where I've been, there just hasn't been much going on. The girls both have ear infections! Yippee! :( I was called from MDO on Tuesday to come get Courtney because she "wasn't herself" and they said she wasn't feeling good. She has bad allergies and that has made her not feel very good lately. Lindsey seems to be having the same issue this week, so they've both been on Zyrtec. It has helped, but not made it go away. Last night Lindsey said her ear was hurting. Then this morning, Courtney was inconsolable, so I decided just to make sure I'd take them to the doc. Lindsey has a double ear infection and Courtney has just one! FUN!

Please pray that Courtney will get her teeth in that are close. Bless her heart, she has been teething I think literally for 2 or 3 months with out exaggeration! It is so sad and so frustrating. Lindsey was a fast teether: fussy one day, the tooth through the next. Courtney on the other hand has the swollen gums, you can see it pushing through, etc. She only has her 4 top and 4 bottom teeth. Now it is time for molars and she doesn't have her eye teeth yet. I think the molars are working on coming in, but one of the eye teeth just looks like the gums hurt everytime I see it! I hate it...for her and I both. I never know exactly what the deal is. Please pray for that to happen quickly.

One more prayer request. Our friends, Bart and Ashley, are adopting and are waiting on their court date. They are very close to getting their court date which means they go back to Russia to get their little boy! You can read about their story here from an earlier post I did. They are a precious Godly family and are so excited to complete their family soon. Ashley's prayer is to have a court date by Mother's Day or possibly even be in Russia, so I'm praying that for her!

The weather is supposed to be beautiful here this weekend. I'm so thankful. Today has been cool and dreary, the sun is starting to come out so maybe that is a good sign of what is to come. Thank you Lord for the sunshine!

In the hall

No pictures to post, but just something to "note" for myself. Last night we had some bad storms move through here. This area gets more tornados than we did growing up just north. So, being the "storm watcher" that I am, I'm always watching with the weather guys to be sure nothing is happening here. Last night there were MAJOR storms here. At 11:30 I had just rolled over and was going to try and go to sleep, but I left the TV on just in case. About 12:30 I heard them talking about Greenwood so I started watching again. As I looked there were about 10 circles meaning rotation right on the edge of us. They were saying take cover if you live in Greenwood. I'm a freak about all of this kind of weather and always stay up and watch it and Ryan could sleep through it all and not be bothered one bit. I had brought it up before we went to bed that if the sirens went off and they were talking about Greenwood there was no way I was leaving the girls in their beds. He agreed. So at 12:30 with the circles, them talking and the sirens, we got the girls. Lindsey just sat in my lap and when I asked her if she knew I got her in the night and if she knew what we did she said no. She apparently has no memory of it. Courtney just wanted Ryan when he got her up and cried for her bed. She didn't cry the whole time. We were in the hall and Ryan was peeking around the corner watching the TV. Then he went to the guest room and got the mattress and we made a tent with it and sat under it. We all only sat under there for a few min. At one point the electricity flickered for a min. or so. That was a scary time for all of that min. Not because there was a tonrnado, but it was just no noise from the TV and you could hear everything outside. The winds were blowing so hard (they said 70 mph were in Greenwood) and the rain was loud too. I never really felt like something was going to happen, but for that min. I was a little nervous wondering if these strong winds were going to turn into something. Luckily they didn't. We watched for a few min. in the living room holding the girls to be sure that the bad stuff was gone. It was so they went back to bed. Ryan and I stayed up and watched just to be sure for a little bit. He said "I guess the girls went back to sleep?" So I checked on them and they were both sound asleep!

Thankfully they were troopers and apparently have no memory of what we did, which is surprising to me. I guess since it was literally the middle of the night it was just too long ago. I'm thankful we were safe and no major damage here. Fort Smith has some major flooding and some BAD hail damage. That was all north of us, so we just got a TON of rain! it is just starting to clear and isn't supposed to rain for the next week.

Workin' Girl & Playin' Girl

Monday I did some cleaning around the house. I have started asking Lindsey to help me. We are not far from a chore chart, but I'm sure that will be blogged about later! :) So I give her a swiffer duster and she goes to town! She loves it and does a pretty good job. She does all the drawers in my room, the living room and in her toy room. Yesterday she wanted to keep cleaning. So, I gave her a wipe to clean her kitchen and then she cleaned the toy shelf! I thought she would just wipe between the toys, but NO! She took all the toys off and cleaned the whole shelf! Way to go Lindsey!




Courtney likes to sing the clean up song and she does a good job of it. However, she was napping during clean up time, so she just got to enjoy the clean house and toy room! She is looking so big and is wearing shirts that I remember thinking "Lindsey looks so big in that" and now I think the same thing about Courtney!







On another note: Tonight at supper Lindsey was praying and she usually just says the "God is great, God is good" prayer. But tonight she prayed "God is great, God let me get a Cinderella dress to dance with the princesses at Disney World, in Jesus name, Amen." We'll see if that is in God's will or not! :) Ha! We have been talking about going to Disney. We are considering going this fall and Lindsey talks about it ALL THE TIME!!

Amelia Bedelia

I don't know if you know what I'm talking about when I say "Amelia Bedelia" but if you don't let me explain just a little bit. Growing up my mom and dad would read Amelia Bedelia books to me. They are books that used a play on words. Amelia Bedelia (you can't just say 'Amelia') became a housekeeper for this family and she would always mess things up but think she was doing them right. She had a list of chores to do and would always do them wrong. For example the list would say "draw the drapes" (meaning open/close them) but she would get a piece of paper and literally draw the draps. The other one that comes to mind is "dust the living room." So she got some powder to dust the living room saying "I don't know why someone would want dust in their living room." Ok, so she took things literally--I have a point and am getting to it I promise--and did exactly what she was told, even though it wasn't what it was expected of her.

The other day I was doing laundry and decided I would get Lindsey to help. So I told her "Go to your room, pull your dirty clothes basket out of the closet. Then make piles of colored clothes and white clothes." We talked about waht she had on had lots of colors and some things would just be white. So off she goes to her room. She comes back and says "Mom, they are getting all messed up." Being the neat and organized child that she is I just said, "Yes, when we put our clothes in a pile it looks messy, but we are going to wash them so it is ok. Just go finish the clothes." She comes out not very long later with this horrible look on her face and says "They are just messed up." So I go into her room and see what is "messed up." She pulled her dirty clothes basket out of the closet and THEN Amelia Bedila took her clothes WITH HANGERS and started piling them in the floor. (The dirty clothes are ALL still in the basket that is pulled out of the closet!) So what was messed up was all the hangers, not the dirty clothes. Bless her heart. She had a great pile of coloreds and whites going!

She did exactly what I told her: pull your basket out and make a pile of colored clothes and white clothes! I guess I just didn't say DIRTY clothes! :) So we hung the others back up and seperated our dirty clothes!

On the boat again

We spent the night with the Cowgur family. We usually stay with family, but decided it would be fun to stay with friends this time! Lindsey and Cole had so much fun together! They both have Leapsters now and so they were playing those together last night. It was so cute!



Then we went to the lake today for lunch with them on our boat. Cole wanted to drive all the time like Lindsey and Courtney. They all did very well sharing and driving the boat! Cole is so cute and so fun to be around! He is the life of the party for sure! Lindsey loves him and it makes me sad that they can't grow up together, but it is fun to see them when we can.

Weekend on the boat

THE grill I got for Ryan for his birthday! It worked great! It was so fun!

Grandad and Courtney looking at the water. Not the beautiful water, but water none the less. With all the rain it has made muddy lakes! Ryan grilled hot dogs for all of us (except Dad, he doesn't like them). Courtney was hillarious with her cookie, so that was the funny picture of her with it. On the way in, it was chilly so we were all wrapped up, thus Honey and Lindsey riding wrapped up. This was day one.

Courtney helping Ryan drive. It is hard to take turns. Lindsey and Courtney both want to drive so it becomes a battle ALL THE TIME! Mom got the girls these sun glasses at Wal-Mart! OH MY WORD! We laughed so hard at Courtney! She looked hilarious in them!

Turns on the bar

This is one of Lindsey's favorite things to do, "turns on the bar." She practices them at home ALL THE TIME. Then they did "flap heels" across the floor and Lindsey was behind as you can see, so she decided to just run to the front to catch up and restart! How funny is that?! They were finished and deciding what they wanted to end with and they were all huddled around Mrs. Liz. She is super sweet and I'm thankful to see how she loves these girls and they obviously love her. It was a fun time for us to get to see Lindsey dance. She did so good!

She's Got Moves!

This is Lindsey tonight at parent watch night. I had been videoing her with our video camera on her "real" dance stuff and remembered I could video with my camera. So, this is just her "free dancing" when they finished. She was so cute and did so good. Last time we did this watch night in the fall is when she didn't do ANYTHING. Tonight she did EVERYTHING she was supposed to do. She hesitated as they were just beginning tonight, but went on and did it all just right! It was fun to watch her have fun. She was for sure the cutest one, right?! :) I'm so proud of her for doing it. We went to eat pizza afterwards which was fun.

Privacy Please!

So if you are reading this you should only be someone I invited. I have been thinking about doing this for a week now. Last week at our MOPS meeting we had some police officers come talk to us about safety with our children. He talked about the dangers with children on the inernet. All I could think about was how many pictures I have on here and how open I am about what is going on in our lives. So I figured better safe than sorry with "exposing" my children to strangers.

Then my friend Lynne set hers to private, after getting a weird comment. I got one of those last week and attributed it to not having it set to the "no robot" comments thing. However, just to be safe I thought this would be best.

If you know of someone that reads this that I did not e-mail or that you talk to, tell them to e-mail me and I'll send them an "invite" to check us out! :)