Abby Lost Her First Tooth!

Look, everyone! Abby is growing up! She lost her first tooth on Thanksgiving Day! (She looks SO cute!) Luckily, the tooth fairy was able to find us even at Aunt Roxanne and Uncle Bill's house!

Girls Gone Wild!

Not really "Girls Gone Wild", but I got your attention, huh? ha ha!! This past weekend, eleven ladies took a weekend trip without kids and without husbands. The world did not stop, and I even think MOST of the husbands and children had a pretty good time without us! We had a FANTASTIC time, and even though I forgot my camera, I can always rely on responsible friends to remember theirs (thanks, Shelley!) We shopped and ate and shopped and ate some more, and just generally had a relaxing time. It was so fun, and we HAVE to make it an annual event!! Thanks, friends!

Face Paint

One of the girls' most favorite part of the Renaissance Festival was having their faces painted. The painters were real artists... believe me, I have tried to paint kiddie faces at school carnivals and such, and it is NOT easy. These people made it LOOK easy, and the results were really lovely!

Catching up

We have been so busy over the last few weeks (while our Internet was down) that I thought I would post photos of our busy days.

We went to the Texas Renaissance Festival a few weekends ago and had a wonderful time. The little girls dressed up as fairies, but our "mature" eldest child wouldn't go there... on the first day of the festival, she wore a "renaissance" dress, but then opted for regular clothes for Sunday. Above you can see them meeting the fairies. The fairy in front was the "Queen of the Fairies", and she was beautiful. She thought the girls were just beautiful and posed for photos with all of them (I'll try and post them later when I have more time.) She was especially taken with Grace, who was the same age as her own daughter, who is also named Grace. The other fairies agreed that her Grace and my Grace could be twins... both very blond and cute. The fairies gave the girls "fairy wishing stones" which they now treasure.

Below you see Grace, Kate, and I riding the carousel. What fun!
Here is a photo of Abby in the "Secret Fairy Garden". Doesn't she look beautiful? (Note the dirty tennis shoes... that is very authentic for "real" fairies! ha ha)
Here is Luke, riding the giant swings with Grace and Abby. Katie wouldn't ride this time, but we talked her into it by day 2.
Here is a photo of the big girls' face paintings. They were really well done. I'll try and post a close-up view in the next post.
As you can see, a fantastic time was had by all. We camped in our RV and had some wonderful, well-needed family time.

I'm BAAAAAAACK!!!!!

I know you all have been SO disturbed by my absence from the blog... My Internet has been down for about 2 weeks here at home. Guess why? (I'll give you a few minutes here to contemplate my "country" life...) Yes, A COW bent my satellite dish and rendered it inoperable. It's too comical to even get angry about it. But, I will have my revenge... the fence builders are coming TODAY to create a beautiful fence to keep the beasts out of my yard!

Many more photos to come soon, and lots of wonderful stories (mostly about the Grace...)

Photo by Bridgette

My extremely talented friend, Bridgette, asked if she could snap some pics of Grace and me at church the other day. I'm thinking just some practice snap-shots, but WOW! This girl has a fantastic eye. She made Miss Grace and myself like like pros posing in a studio! This is my favorite photo that she took. I love it. I printed it off and framed it. Thanks, Bridgette! Love You!!

Pumpkin Patch

Abby's Kindergarten Class went to the Pumpkin Patch on a field trip Halloween Day. They had a fantastic time! Above you see A. sitting on her favorite pumpkin.

The kids learned ALL about pumpkins, from how they grow to their seeds and they even got to do some other "Fall" activities. Before they left, they got to play some games. One of them was a Pumpkin Rolling Relay. Below you can see A. quickly rolling her pumpkin to the finish line!
The next game was a hopping race. Below you see A. hopping to victory.
At the end of the trip, each child got to pick a pumpkin to take home. My favorite part of the day was watching those 60+ kindergartners trying to get those huge pumpkins back to the bus. Classic! They were rolling them, kicking them, carrying them, whatever they could think of. They had to go across a pretty large field, and by the time they got to the bus, they were pretty tired. Check out the expression on Abby's face. Can you say whiny?!?!?!?