Grandparents Day

One of the things that we all enjoyed growing up as students at Arkansas Baptist was Grandparents Day. It was always fun to have Mom and Papa and sometimes Grandma come to school with us and see what we do all day. Now, it's Ellie's turn. Yesterday, was grandparents day. I don't have pictures...couldn't get close enough...but that is TOTALLY OK. There was a music program yesterday morning. I was a nervous wreck. You may have heard me mention that E's first program at Christmas was a real challenge for her. While she sat on the steps with her class and teacher, she didn't sing a word. She didn't do a motion or anything. I was OK with this because she didn't pitch a fit and she learned what being in a program was all about.

For this program, E's class came all the way down the aisle from the back of the church. That is a long aisle! They walked to the front and sang London Bridges while playing the game. It was hard for us to see her, but she did it! We (me, my parents and Brian) were sitting in the back watching her in awe! She even was the one they "locked up." Then they moved to the stage. E was right in the middle between McKinley and Bobbi, two of her friends. She sang every word and did every motion!! She smiled the entire time!! She had asked me to buy the DVD, but I told her I wasn't buying it if she didn't sing. Since she sang, I HAD to buy the DVD. We'll have a viewing soon!

Then (keep in mind she hates crowds) she was all smiles when the grandparents all came to her classroom!! She showed Mimi and Papa Jim and Nannie and PawPaw her class. It was great! I am so very proud of her! She finished the morning with breakfast at McDonald's with Mimi and Papa Jim. She took Mollie too! They had a great time. Last night, we had dinner at Purple Cow with Nannie and PawPaw.

It was so fun to watch Ellie have a great day. God is so good and has done an amazing work in the life of my Ellie. What a blessing!!

Mollie and the Fire Truck

For those of you who don't know, I am the WEE Care Director at LRFBC. One of my main responsibilities is running our First Kids Day Out program. Currently, we have 6 classes with roughly 30+ kids who attend. Ellie went through the program, and Mollie is currently enrolled. Annie will be going in the fall. Anyway, 2 of our classes were talking about Community Helpers this week. So, Cherie Carney, our Children's Minister, helped me greatly and arranged for the fire truck to "school" today. We weren't positive that they were coming until they actually arrived. They were a HUGE hit. Mollie absolutely loved it!! The three fire fighters who came were super nice and couldn't have made it a better experience if they tried. It was a great morning!

Mollie and BooBoo (aka Brittney) sitting in the fire truck.

One turn in the truck wasn't enough for Mollie. She had to get back in the truck. This time she sat with her new friend Rebekah. Rebekah was recently adopted by one of the teachers at AB. She is a miracle!

Spring Fever

Spring has sprung in Little Rock - Praise God!! Here are a few pics of the girls enjoying the beautiful weather today. It was super nice to be able to send the girls outside while I took care of a little housework and started dinner. I think the girls went through about 4 or 5 bottles of bubbles. Actually, I think Mollie spilled that many bottles. It was a hoot!

I also included a picture that we took of the kiddos after church on Sunday. My family didn't get to see the girls all dressed up on Easter Sunday, and Noah was sick so he didn't get to wear his new outfit. So, Mandy and I thought it would be fun to take a picture of them in their Sunday best. Aren't they precious??!?! Mandy's picture was a little better than mine, but they are still cute.

Cousins!

After school today, Ellie changed into her new I love NY shirt that Stephanie got her. She also put on pink pants. She said she wanted to be all pink. Mollie decided to follow her lead. She changed out of her I love NY shirt and wanted to wear her pink ballet outfit. The kicker was that she also wanted her monogrammed panty covers. It was quite the ensemble!


Isn't she precious!?!?!?

Mollie kept coming in and out of the house until she got me to come outside and help her swing. She thought it was great!

Ellie was all about swinging and showing us how high she could get.

My angels.....when I went inside, I told Mollie that Ellie would help her if she needed to be pushed. So, Ellie got off the swing to practice. Mollie ended up falling off backwards and landed on her bum. It was so funny. I got Mollie back up on the swing and showed Ellie how to push her. Every once in a while I would hear Mollie scream, turns out that every time Ellie tried to give Mollie a push Mollie would scream. Guess she was afraid she would fall off again. :)

My Favorite Little Man

My favorite little man, Noah, turned one on April 10th! It is so hard to believe that it has been a year since we were at the hospital greeting him for the first time! He is such a joy and has stolen our hearts. Mandy had a big celebration planned for the day after his birthday. However, Noah and Mandy both got sick. It was so sad. We ended up celebrating his big day this past Friday. Even though it was a little late and not the party that Mandy had planned, we had a great time being together! I think Noah had fun too!

This was before Noah started trying to throw his cake. I have to admit my brother was a great catcher!

I think he liked the blue ice cream his MarMar made better than the chocolate cake.

Ellie and Mollie were a little too anxious to open Noah's presents for him. Mollie opened our gift to Noah twice before he even got to look at it!

Stephanie and Caleb got Noah a fire truck. It was a NYFD truck that Steph got while she was in NY for spring break.

To see how much Noah has grown, check out the video Mandy created of his first year.

Happy Easter

Sunday morning, our pastor preached from Mark 16:7 and talked about Second Chances. I was reminded of how awesome our God is and how blessed I am to have been given a second chance. God is good! Before the sermon, Bro. Jim had the guys play a video that showed various pictures to illustrate the Scripture. I was amazed as I watched Ellie watch the video. I could tell that she is beginning to get what it was all about.


After worship, we headed to Brian's parents for Easter Sunday lunch and then to my mom's to say hi and goodbye to Kelsey and Micah. It was a good day.

You can't tell but E has stickers on her cheeks. She's such the model!

My dad said this is Brian in girl form!

Hunting eggs at Mimi and Papa Jim's

Examining the eggs

I found a comfy spot on the couch so that I could open the Thumbelina dolls the girls got from in their bunny nests.

Dunna & Mollie

Mollie was wiped out! She curled up with Mimi on the couch.

Checking out what the Easter Bunny left us....

Building Bunny Nests

One of my favorite memories from when I was a kid was building bunny nests at my Mom and Papa's house. We would build them the day before Easter. It was a tradition that my grandmother was carrying over from when she was a kid. It was always so much fun to get to Mom and Papa's after Easter worship services so that we could see what the bunny had left for us. My mama has continued the tradition with my girls and with Noah. So, Saturday we headed outside to build nests with the kids.

Ellie talked Mimi into trimming flowers and leaves off her bushes for her nest.

Ellie was having too much fun!


Josh showed Noah the proper technique for building a nest. The theory was always the bigger the nest the larger the stash that would be left.

Noah lost interest, but Josh was determined to make it perfect!

Mollie and Ellie's nests.

Just a side note...about 10 am Easter morning, the bottom fell out of the sky! Fortunately, the bunny saw fit to leave the kids' prizes inside the house. :) He's such a smart bunny!

Annual Egg Dying at Mimi's

Each year, we go to Mimi and Papa Jim's to dye Easter Eggs. This year was no exception. We had a great time! However, we had a few absences. Micah was busy mowing the Mom and Papa's yard and Mandy was at home getting ready for Noah's birthday party. However, the party didn't happen. It was so sad! To read more, check out Mandy's blog. Our little birthday boy ended up having a fever. I think we all had a great time though.

Mollie was in heaven. She had Dunna.

Noah and Josh dying Noah's first Easter Egg!

Mollie taking a little hot dog break while we dyed eggs.


Ellie was having a great time with the eggs!

Ellie anticipating the next egg to come out of the dye.

Caleb dying an egg.

Stephanie made a special creation...the "I love Caleb" egg.

Brian dying the annual "nasty" egg. It's the last egg to be dyed and is dyed in a mixture of all the colors. Boys!

Annual Easter Egg Hunt

Each year, we have an Easter egg hunt at church. This year was no exception. It was treat though this year because Brian was off work (pager day off...yes, B there are some benefits to you being on call) which meant he was able to help me juggle the girls so that I could be at church helping get things set up. We didn't have quite as many eggs this year (only 2500 or so), but we had a great time and an amazing turn out. Who would have thought we would go from having 50 people to having 200+! Wow!!! God is awesome and at work at LRFBC. It was fun to see some of my First Kids Day Out families come too. We were also joined by Karen, Robert, Kasey, Haley and James Luttrell. We so loved having them in LR with us this weekend. Britt, Anna, Alli, Blake and Tammy were there too. The girls are always a huge help with the girlies. PawPaw also joined in the fun. Mimi didn't make it this year because Micah, Kelsey, Caleb and Stephanie were getting into town at the same time. Papa Jim is buried with tax season. However, the girls went by after the hunt to share their eggs and have some Mimi-Time. You'll notice from the pictures that the girls were inside. We had to be inside this year (at least the little guys did) since it was so windy and chilly here. Here are a few pics of our afternoon...

Mollie just before her egg hunt started.

Mollie was a little timid about hunting for eggs even though they were ALL over the room. So, I took her to the corner where she quickly got over her nervousness! By the way, I don't like pictures of me when I am pregnant, so enjoy!

PawPaw and Ellie making a scroll carrier during the Jerusalem Marketplace.


Ellie and Kasey waiting for their next stop.

Ellie with her friends Kasey (facing the camera) and Bobbi (back to the camera) at the hunt.

When Mollie opened her first egg, she squealed with delight! Brian said it was hysterical. You see, she found Hershey Kisses also affectionately referred to as No-No's at our house. They are her favorite!!

Ellie showing off her loot. By the way, she picked out the boots. However, she is a hoot when she's allowed to pick out her own wardrobe.

First it was a blue neck, now it's a blue hand

I'm sure you've read about my little blue neck. Well, this past weekend thanks to Ellie we have added Blue Hands to the list of "funny things my kids have done." Ellie was trying to dye an Easter egg so that it was one color on one end and a different color on the other end. With everyone watching, Ellie stuck her fingers in the cup. All of a sudden, they called me into my mom's kitchen. When I walked in, everyone fell out laughing. This is what I found....

Blue Neck

I have been very fortunate this school year to have a fabulous friend watching my kiddos while I work for my dad and run errands. I have to admit that I have gotten extremely spoiled! Over the summer, I had Kelsey here helping me non-stop. It was amazing. However, when she left to go back to school, I was devastated! Fortunately, Brittney Segars was looking for some extra cash and was available to watch my girls. She loves the girls, and the girls love her. Both Kelsey and Brittney have become the younger sisters that I never had. God is so gracious to give me that gift.

Well, I said all of that to say this.... Last Thursday, I ran to work at dad's before heading to my doctor's appointment. After my appointment, it was back to church to help get set up for Purses with a Purpose our ladies' event. Brittney had the girls while I was busy with all my craziness. They spent a few hours at Britt's house watching TV and playing. Apparently, Mollie fell asleep on the couch (usually she sleeps in Big Daddy's chair - Big Daddy is Britt's dad Jeff). Anyway, Britt said she checked on Mollie who was snoozing away. When she came back a few minutes later, Mollie had colored her neck blue!! Oh, my stars! Only Mollie!!! Britt tried to get it off but there was no way it would all come off. When they got to church to meet me, I fell out laughing! It was hysterical. She had basically taken a marker and using it like make-up she colored her neck. I kept forgetting to take a picture, but I finally got these shots a few days later. It's kind of hard to see, but you can still see that her neck has a blue tint to it!




When I gave Mollie a bath Thursday night and was scrubbing her neck, Mollie said, "No mama. BooBoo clean my neck." She tried, but Mollie did too good of a job. ha!

Ya know, Ellie only did something similar one time. She and her BFF Kasey decided t put make-up on each other. Hmmmm. Make-up? Crayola marker make-up. It was priceless! Hopefully, Mollie will have learned her lesson. I guess only time will tell.

Goodbye ER

I can distinctively remember when I was a senior in high school and we would spend our lunch time on Fridays discussing the new episode of ER that was on the night before. We were all hopelessly addicted to Dr. Green, Dr. Ross, Dr, Benton, etc. It was definitely THE show to watch. There were a few seasons that I was not the most faithful viewer, but I always loved the show. During much of the time that I have known Brian, we have spent our Thursday nights watching ER. I guess the old saying is true....all good things must come to an end.

I wasn't able to watch the entire series finale. Although, I'm hoping it is online or that someone tapes shows the old fashioned way with a VCR. (I helped host a ladies event at church: Purses with a Purpose. It was awesome!) When I got home from church, this is what I found on the couch. Brian was glued to the TV, and the girls were passed out!!

Ellie goes to the fire station

Yesterday, Ellie and her class went to the fire station! Ellie was thrilled because Mimi went on the field trip with her. From what I hear, they had a wonderful time! Papa Jim even joined in the fun and went to the fire station. They visited the fire station across the street from my dad's office. Ellie told me yesterday afternoon that she had to have a fire drill after her bath. I think she paid very good attention to what the firemen told them. After the fire station, they loaded the bus and headed to Krisy Kreme Donuts for a little sugar.

Ellie just before going into the fire station.

Ellie and her friends listening at the fire station.

Ellie and her class with the fire chief.

Ellie at Krispy Kreme.