Thinking of Friends

Our heart aches for our friends who have lost their loved ones. So we take a moment and pray & think about them. And it reminds us to be thankful for what we have, FAMILY & FRIENDS, you may never know how much they mean to you until you lose them.

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Romans 12:15

FIrst grade

I don't think she was too scared.

1st grade

Kierra started First grade yesterday. I wonder why as moms we worry so much, I wasn't sad that she was growing up and going to a new class and teacher. I worry so much about if she has a problem, will she ask the teacher for help. I worry that she will get her feelings hurt or hurt others out at recess. I worry that she will get lost or miss the bus. I know that this is part of the process of childhood but I want to protect them so much from the bad stuff.

I want my children to be leaders and stand up for themselves and for the ones who are weaker and don't let others bully them. I am sometimes maybe a little to adamant about this. Lexi last weekend was at a party and I found her crying, I asked what was wrong, she said, "someone had pushed her hard in the stomach". I asked, did you tell that certain someone that was not nice and it hurt you OR at least screamed extremely loud so she knew that she did something wrong. Don't get me wrong, I don't want my children to hit back or bully, but I do want them to stand up for themselves and others.

What is funny, I would have thought Kierra would be the one who would have problems, no one messes with her. Lexi seems to be the one who always gets picked on. We have some things to work on.

What are some ideas or ways to help your children to be strong?

Where does the time go!

You know that I say that all the time, I wish I could capture time in a bottle, or at least have it slow down a little. Kierra has started her Christmas list: Trampoline, bean bag chair and a few pet shop animals. Lexi is still thinking about hers. But they wanted me to call Santa and to let him know that they have been good.

I have a little wish myself for Christmas, so if anyone knows Santa well could you please let him know that I want a really nice CAMERA, so I can take more pictures instead of having to borrow others when mine is not working. I guess there early planning from their mother.

We also are trying to have the girls do a few more chores. We had them stack wood on Monday night and you would have thought the world was coming to an end. Lexi tried to think of everything she could to get out of it. Wood is to heavy, it has splitters, etc. But she did it. Kierra was a trouper, smashed finger and blood. Which is a great reminder how different they are.

Kierra & Dad

Kierra loves to call her Dad - Big fat chubby Tortoise, she has special names for all of us: Lexi - Sister or Sexy Lexi (which Lexi hates) and I am her Ramre, or Mama Llama, or Mom can't you hear me!!!

Lexi and Dad

Time Flies on!!!

We have been extremely busy this summer, Jared & Carrie's Wedding!!!! It was beautiful and alot of fun.

Hopefully time will slow down in the month of July.:)

There are so many things I would like to accomplish before summer is over, but I am running out time. I started a new job yesterday, I am now offically working for Travis, I know, I wonder how it will work out, he did not yell at me once yesterday, I won't say that he didn't get a little esperated at me at times (he says I don't have a very long attention span, maybe that's where Lexi gets it)I am only going to be working for Travis in an emergency capacity until I go to driving school later this year and then I will take on a section of his route and continue to work my other jobs, OH YEA!!! So time will not slow down anytime soon.

So what is happening this summer for you? I hope something great and exciting!

How's Life

Hope life is going well, we are in overload mode, as Travis would say, "I can't wait until June is over". We have had an abundant amount of things going on! We celebrated my parents 50th Wedding anniversary with an open house last Saturday. We had a great time, my parents loved seeing all their old friends. I believe they enjoyed their day. (pictures soon!) Now onto Jared & Carrie's (Travis's brother) wedding next weekend, we are all in the wedding. The girls are so exited to get to dress up and get their hair done, me too. The girls can't wait to see their Llama Mama(my new name)in a dress. Last month it was rawmray (I don't know why) and before that it was sugar mama. Kierra loves to holler the current name at the top of her lungs and I am suppose to know she is talking to me.:) It's been awhile since I have worn a dress, the girls don't believe me when I tell them, I have worn them. But who needs to wear a dress to the functions we go to: Bon Fires, after school parties, race track etc.

Growing up too...fast

I can not believe how time flies so fast, almost June, unbelievable!!!! So for the month of May: HAPPY VERY LATE MOTHER'S DAY! Love ya mom! Would have wrote more but thinking about all the wonderful things that my mom does only makes me cry!!! And I forgot to say "Happy 34th Birthday to Travis! I love you so much and yes, you are 34!!! He thinks I am wrong, I think he has conveniently forgot a year. I have pictures of the girls and I can not believe how my babies and yes they still are my babies, have grown up. Kierra has made it through kindergarten with flying colors, and I can not believe what they do there, I am not looking forward to High School, I will have to seek outside help for homework since in kindergarten they even do science projects: raising caterpillars to butterflies. Kierra read, "Green Eggs and Ham" for the first time the other night all by herself, she was so exited that she had read 62 PAGES. Lexi is my emotional, sensitive, tenderhearted one and she is showing such growth in preschool, she will be one of the older ones next year and so she will be able to lead instead of worrying that everyone is being "mean" to her or making fun. (She is way to sensitive, I wonder where she got that from) My prayer for each one of girls is that they will lead and not follow and maybe play a couple of sports, too. No really, I want them to grow up to be Women of God and have self esteem and not be affect by the world but effect it instead. High hopes, yes, also hard work for me, too. I have a extremely big job ahead and I don't take that role lightly, sometimes, it is overwhelming but I want only the best for them and from them. Love ya all.

Time Flies

Boy time flies when you are having fun! We have had an extremely busy couple of weeks. Lexi had a great time on our preschool bike ride outing, she did not ride her bike or in the wagon, she chose to WALK the entire 3 miles, boy was she pooped when it was all done. She went to bed early that night. Kierra had an amazing event happen for her, she witnessed the birth of a baby llama and I'm not kidding when I say she witnessed it! She comes running into the house, yelling "the llama just had something HUGE fall out of its butt! and there it was a adorable baby which we now call Isabellastarlight (Kierra & Lexi named it) even though it is not ours but our neighbor's, we feel kind like parents or least family since we were there during the process.

All's Quiet

We have had a quiet week, Kierra was sick for 2 1/2 days, the 3rd day she "played" her momma and pretended to be sick so she could go and spend the day at Gramma & Grandpa's (she probably should have gone to school)its Kindergarten, right, so who care, well, the school does it seems, I got a phone call from her teacher making sure she was ok and to please contact them with an update. That's great that your school care enough to call, but amazing, that it seems they are checking up on us. I am thankful that my children are healthy after reading blogs from others, my heart and prayers are going out to "Baby Stellen" and his family. Tomorrow is the big preschool bike day, Lexi so informed me that she was not riding her bike,she has not mastered it yet (and gets EXTREMELY fluterrated with it-Lexi's words) and she was not a baby so she was not going to ride in the wagon. She is going to WALK!!! It's 2 miles to the playground and back. We will see how she does. Hope your weekend will be as quiet as ours. We are working on some landscape projects and will post pics after completed.

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter Sunday, we got to spend time at church and the rest of day we spent with both sides of the family and of course, we ate way to much. As you can see the girls loved their dresses. I didn't get pictures of the girls eggs that their Nannie helped them color. The weather was not cooperating and the girls didn't want to spend to much time outside. The girls got great gifts from each of the Grandparents, THANKS for all the sugar!!

Thank you Mom & Dad!

It's a sad day for me, today is the day that my 14 year old cat has to been put down. She has been starting to act funny and she was trying to destroy my house, so I called the vet and set an appointment. When I called my parents to ask one of them to go with me (as I am crying) they told me they would take care of her for me. I am so grateful that they are willing to take of this for me. Or maybe they didn't want me to lose it in the middle of the vet's office. I'm not sure which is the case but I am so THANKFUL. So, so long Sammie, as the girls would say, have fun in heaven.

Words-Lesson Learned

I had to deal with an issue with my wonderful older daughter the last few days, first thing I want to say about this special child is that I am learning even though she is somewhat shy, she is extremely competitive, but I am straying from the point. Now to the story, a few nights ago, Lexi, Kierra & I were playing a game (GO FISH!) and she was struggling because she was losing so she was being a bad sport so after much discussion she was sent to her room by her dad because he was tired of hearing the discussion. Well she decided to write a note displaying her displeasure with her dad. I wish I had taken a picture of the note. She had misspelled a couple of the word, but I could read and understand what was written. I was very proud of her writing skills but very saddened about the words and language she had chosen to use. So I had to decide how to deal with it, but I struggle how to handle it, but God took it out of my hands, he used a sad situation that Kierra had witnessed yesterday where people she loved said some very vicious things to each other. I was able to use that situation to explain to her that words are extremely sharp tool that can wound and hurt others and its important to use and choose our words carefully, its important to express ourselves but not to hurt others. Thank you God for using a bad situation to help us learn to watch our words, written or spoken. I have learned a very valuable lesson through all of this, REMEMBER OUR TONGUES & PENCILS CAN BE EXTREMELY SHARP. As I fell asleep last night I prayed that I could apologize and ask for forgiveness from everyone that I have sharpened my tool on and only hope that I will have the opportunity to be forgiven. I will remember to watch my words today and hopefully tomorrow, also. Lesson learned.

MARCH Madness!

Its time for college basketball!!! I tried to be sick so I could just stay home but to no avail, I am well, DARN IT. I even tried to see if one of the girls wanted to stay home but they weren't sick either. So I am going to sit at work and pretend I am working hard, while I watch games live on my computer, there is even a boss button so I can push that and a file opens up so it looks like I am working hard. I will have to make sure that I don't yell to loudly when something exciting happens (reminder to self, keep quiet!) and when I get home tonight I think I will have a fever come on yea, a fever, so I will have to go and lie down in the bedroom with the TV on, of course. So have a great day and please no phone calls because I am to busy working today.

Question of the Week!

When do we allow our children to make their own choices & or decisions, what age, etc? I would love to hear your comments because my wonderful husband & I had a dicussion about this and of course we had different opinions (go figure). He felt that MAJOR hair cutting falls under the Life changing circumstances and should fall under the parent decision making, and of course I disagreed. This to me is not considered a life changing issue, what do you think?

Kierra's Hair cut

Kierra had her first major hair cut yesterday. We had 4 inches cut off, you would have thought her dad was going to have a heart attack. She loves it!!!! I keep catching her looking at herself in the mirror.