Drum Roll Please......

Kitchen Update

Here is the very very begining of our kitchen re-do! This is the kitchen before we did anything to it:

Here is the same view, new microwave and countertops!

New countertops, new sink/faucet, stained bottom cabinets,

unfinished top cabinets

New backsplash is AWESOME!

The most finished look...shows everything:

granite countertops, new color for cabinets all over, tiled backsplash

I'm absolutely loving the look of our new kitchen. Ryan has worked amazingly hard at this. I'm so proud of him. It looks beautiful! More pics to come. He still has to do the grout and get the stove/oven in. I'm so blessed!

Operation: Kitchen Re-Do

Here is what is left of the old kitchen: Here is what I came home to on Wednesday morning:

Here was the "must dos" of yesterday:

1. sheetrock back on the backsplash

2. new dishwasher installed

Here is the other big project, my assignment of the entire thing:

CABINETS

Granite is coming this morning at 9:30, better go get busy!

First Day of Spring...SNOW!

Saturday was the first day of Spring and this is what we woke up to on Sunday morning....5" of snow! Seriously?! It was very wet, good snowman making snow! The girls bundled up and went out just long enough to make a BIG snowman with daddy!

I forgot to go take a picture of the "final product" but you can see that Frosty ended up being fairly tall! They even made a baby Frosty to go with him, but even by first thing this morning the baby was melted. Frosty is still standing, but leaning pretty bad! It is supposed to be in the upper 50s today and then close to 70 tomorrow! This weather is CRAZY! Lindsey even said yesterday that she's tired of the snow and ready for spring! Me TOO...bring on the capris and flip flops!

Happy Birthday....to everyone!

Sat. was Ryan's birthday! He turned the big 3-2! The girls were so excited to make him a cake! So here we go....all 3 of them! How fun! I see lots of fun times in the kitchen in our future! Notice the big girls in their aprons! The shadow is funny on Whit's face, but she was mezmorized by the mixer!
The next morning, we did the icing!

Then opened presents! She's as big of a Saints fan as he is!

She was excited for him to open his Saints Super Bowl Champions shirt!

Nothing better than homemade wrapping paper! (this is Courtney's side)

All his girls!
(This is Lindsey's side of the wrapping paper)

Yes, he got a nerf gun for his 32nd birthday!

Shooting....

Reloading....

Revenge....(shooting daddy back!)

After presents, we got ready and went to Fayetteville to eat with Honey, Granddad and Uncle Taylor. Amber (soon to be AUNT Amber) had to work, so she couldn't come. We have never been able to find a time to get together to celebrate Taylor's birthday (Jan. 20), Honey's birthday (Feb. 7) and then it was obviously now Ryan's birthday. Mom brought these cute and very yummy cupcakes! It also worked out that we were celebrating Mom and Dad's 34th Wedding Anniversary. I felt HORRIBLE that I forgot. "Mom of 3 brain moment" I guess. They were sweet and understanding! Thanks mom and dad!

Honey got the girls the sprinkle cupcakes....

Ryan chose chocolate milk shake

(please excuse Ryan's eyes. Somehow he manages to do this in a lot of pictures. By the time I realized it, Lindsey had aleready started eating hers so we coulnd't "re-do" the picture!)

Somehow I didn't get a picture of anyone else that was there.

Then we ventured to Uncle Kyle and Aunt Miah's house to celebrate there. Besides being Ryan's birthday, his dad, Mark's birthday is Monday. So we took the famous yellow cake with chocolate icing, like every Scogin man loves! The girls added the blue sprinkles! Thankfully Aunt Miah came through with candles!

Would you like some cake with those sprinkles.

Of course the girls wanted to use ALL of the candles in the box...so we did!

Helping daddy blow them all out!

Whitney was WORN OUT to say the least! Thankfully she is a super

sleeper and took a short, but very much needed nap!

We had a fun day celebrating all of the birthdays! It is always fun to see family. There are many days I wish we lived closer and could hang out and have dinner more regularly. Maybe one day! We are so blessed and our girls are more than blessed with great grandparents, aunts and uncles!

9 Years of Bliss!

Today I'm celebrating with my amazing man, 9 wonderful years of marriage. I scanned these pictures in and cut off Ryan's head on the first one. As I looked at the pictures, I realized how "old school" my pictures are. Oh well, I'm thankful to have them. Here is a walk down memory lane of that day...

My family

(the girls don't recognize Uncle Taylor)

Ryan's family

My girls
(I didn't scan the boys' pic in, sorry)

Can you tell we were happy?!

Why in the WORLD did my mom let us use red punch?!

My best friend from 6th grade, the best friend in the world, Martha caught the boquet at my wedding (she was already engaged and getting married in 2 months!)

This day was perfect. There are very very few things I would do differently. One being that I wish we had stayed at our reception a little bit longer. Ryan wanted to leave....hmmmm, wonder why? :) Also, Ryan wanted to leave in a boat from the reception (we had our reception at the Yacht Club in Bella Vista) and I was determined to leave in a limo and stand up and wave good bye out of the sunroof. For whatever reason I was doing that NO.MATTER.WHAT!! Now looking back, how cool would it have been to leave in a boat?! Oh well...we were young and in love and it didn't really matter!

My husband is amazing. I hope that all of my married friends feel that way about their spouse. God knew what he was doing. Ryan complements me in ways I don't even realize that I need. He works hard for our family so that I can stay home with our precious (most of the time) girls! I don't thank him enough for allowing me to do this! He is a man of integrity and I respect him for all that he stands for. I have loved watching him with our girls. To say that he is a "good girl dad" is a complete understatement! They think the world of him!

When I think about my wedding day, I now think about my girls' wedding day. I don't pray everyday for it, but when I think about it I do. I pray for their future husbands. I want my girls to be as blessed as I am. I want them to have a husband that loves Jesus, cares about his family, loves his wife and children, works hard for thier family and is respected by others. Our girls don't know it now, but their daddy is setting a very high standard and a wonderful example of what they will need and want one day!

I love you Ryan and thank the Lord that you are mine!

Project BLING!

Gotta love some bling! Courtney will be so excited when she gets home from school! Lindsey was "thinking about it" on whether she wanted jewels on her new converse or not.

Love these girls!

These are some moments from the past couple of days that have "made my heart smile" just when I needed it! You can see the tub of clothes there beside the girls. I have been changing over all of their clothes. Pulling fall/winter clothes out of their closets, putting the spring/summer clothes in. Which means a big mess while getting it all organized, washed, and hung up. So, literally for 2 days I have been working on this project. In the mean time I managed to play a few games of Candy Land, have friends over (yes, among a very messy house), eat lunch with a friend randomly (after seeing her in the pizza place as we were driving through), reading and being read to, and hearing some precious playtime among my girls!

It took a little bit for Courtney to become super interested in Whitney. She never acted like she didn't like her, but was just not taken with her like Lindsey always has been. Lately however, that has changed. She is LOVING her baby sister. This is what I found as I peeked around the corner on Thursday. Precious to a momma's heart! Can you tell that Whit is breaking her neck to look at Courtney? Love it! Then today as I was doing laundry like a mad woman, I noticed all the lights in the house were off (I had been folding clothes in my room, Whitney was napping). It was a pretty cloudy day, so it was fairly dark. So when I found the girls, this is what I saw:

Lindsey trying to read a book to Courtney. She was struggling, but trying so stinkin' hard! I grabbed my camera. It was so dark (and I had no idea what to change on my settings to help) and I didn't want to use the flash so this pick is super blurry....but it means the world to me, blurry and all! After I took it, they explained that they were camping! Of course! Just after this Courtney decided to get under the "cover" and pretend to sleep! I love them! Sometimes they do get tired of eachother, sometimes they talk ugly, but when I see these moments, I'm reminded that they do love eachother! I can't wait to see Whitney right there with them!

Great Pics!

My photog friend Julie took these pictures for me yesterday!

I love them!
Precious!
Thanks Julie!

Prayer

Please pray for my Uncle Allen and his family. He's back in the hospital. If you want to read updates, you can click on "Uncle Allen Updates" on the list of blogs on the right. Thanks!

Whitney June

Whitney is getting so big! It has just hit me this week. I'm ready for her to get bigger and for us to really get to know her, but at the same time it is so har to watch her grow up so fast. This is the precious baby girl I saw sleeping the other night. Fingers in mouth, check. Blanket in hand, check. Precious... Today Lindsey asked me to change the batteries in these cars. She played with them for a while. We noticed that Whitney loved watching the cars. Lindsey even noticed it. She was finished playing and said, "Mom, Whitney likes watching these cars, so I'm going to leave them on, even though I'm done." Ended up being a really good idea. Whitney sat like this for a good 5 min. watching these cars going around and around. Then, she was done....

Saved the best for last....

For those that don't know, we've had trouble getting Whitney to take a bottle. Doesn't seem to matter which kind of bottle, formula or my milk, no matter...she is VERY uninterested! She used to just take a bottle easy, but she flipped a switch, and wanted nothing to do with it. I think she talked to her friend Beau and heard that if you hold out, you don't have to take a bottle....just sayin'. Anyway, one day last week I just thought I'd try it because I had some milk pumped. I warmed it. I put it in the bottle that she seems to have liked themost. She was laying on the floor and I just stuck it in her mouth. She was flat on her back, laying in the toy room. Then she did it...she started drinking it. Sucked it ALL down. That was last Tuesday. Fast forward to last Friday, I was at Bunco and Ryan couldn't get her to take a bottle. I was just up the street so I came home and fed her. No big deal.

So again tonight I had some milk in the fridge, I was going to have to throw it out if she didn't drink it today. I was trying to get supper ready, the girls were all crazy, Ryan got home and I just said, "Why don't you try to give her this bottle?" Sure, go ahead. Off hand I just said, "Try laying her flat on her back in the floor and see if she'll take it." So he did. Oh.my.word! Check out this picture....

There you go! That's how you get a stubborn baby to drink from a bottle!