Sisters

We watched White Christmas the other day and there is a song called Sisters that The Hanes sisters sing in the movie. It's my absolutely favorite part of the movie. Got me to thinking about Kaycee and Baylee and how much having a sister means to me. Although my sister and I in the past couldn't stand each other...these last 10 years of marriages and kids has made Dayna my best friend. She's that person I can say anything to and know that she won't judge me or think less of me (because usually we are thinking the same thing! lol) She takes care of Baylee like she was her own which means the world to me. But my point to all this is that when I looked at these pictures, I could see how much these two love each other. I know there will be (have already been) times when the going gets rough, but my biggest wish for them is to have the same relationship in the future that my sis and I have now!

Ahh the fun Christmas photo shoot

Well, we tried we really did, but I swear when these four kids get together it's like they lose their minds! Dayna and I did manage one decent group picture and I was able to get one to use in our Christmas cards, but other than that...check out the insanity!

What a ham!

Been experimenting with my new camera alot lately and to tell the truth I think I have the most willing subject EVER!

Kaycee loves posing for pictures. As you can see her brother, well not so much. But I love her enthusiasm and willingness to hold a pose until I get the settings exactly right!

I love how the lights of the Christmas tree are blurry in the background. Not sure how I accomplished that, but it looks really cool anyway!

I now know ALOT about Camaros!

Last week Conner won third place in our county Social Studies fair. It was an ALL day event!! His project was about how the Chevy Camaro has changed over the years....yep, nothing I was remotely interested in but, I know soooo much about them now! LOL
I am super proud of him and all his hard work. It was definitely a labor of love for him. Way to Go, Conner!!

Dancing the night away....

Last week was Observation week at the dance studio. Kaycee has her classes on Tuesday. I sat through 4 1/2 hours of dance class last Tuesday. I can now say I have a huge respect for the dancers AND their teachers. Kaycee takes jazz, ballet, cheer dance and tap on Tuesday nights. She is there from 430pm to 845pm with a 45 minute break in between her classes. This dance studio is new to us. We switched this year and I am totally LOVIN' the staff at our new studio, Rhythm N Motion. They treat the girls like family and really look out for them. I forgot my camera Tuesday night :(


Baylee goes to dance on Thursday nights. She takes ballet and tap. After sitting through a 45 minute tap class with 10 3-4 year olds tapping their way around the room I thought my head would explode, but Miss Amanda never lost her cool. If it were me about 10 seconds into the class I would have a nervous breakdown and start ripping tap shoes off little girls feet!

SNOW MUCH FUN

Winter Wonderland...seems like a perfect way to describe today!

Almost 2 feet of snow! Amazing! Haven't seen this much snow in years!
The kids had so much fun today. Of course I stayed safely inside the warm house taking pictures through the window!

Baylee could hardly walk in the snow so she stayed on the porch writing letters in the snow with a stick. Conner had a friend over so the big kids went down to the trampoline and tried jumping.

I did venture out once to go over to the office once and fell three times! I was so hoping no one saw me, but one of the guys at the shop told me to be careful on my way back, so I guess he was witness to one of them!

The kids are now curled up on the couch watching TV and NOT fighting so it's a great ending to a snowed in day!

School has already been cancelled for Monday....I sure hope we can venture out before then!

I got a new camera..... I got a new camera!!!!

So my splurge on Black Friday was a new camera.....a Nikon D 3000 to be exact!


And I absolutely LOVE it (not sure of all the settings exactly tho!)

Here's a couple of my first pics......


Here's the original:















And my edits:

















Really it's nothing special just using the b&w and sepia effects, but so far that's about all that I've figure out on it. I am hoping my sister (who has the same camera) will give me some lessons!!!

Happy Belated B-day, Kaycee!

So Kaycee's birthday is Sept 12, but we were so busy we had to put off a celebration until Nov 7th! I should get the "Mother of the Year" award, huh?

It was the best birthday party so far, though!

We had a dress up party at my hair salon. Kaycee invited a few of her friends and we car pooled it to Smithburg, MD to H&M Designs with my mom and sister. The girls got to pick from a beautiful array of prom dresses and then proceeded to the salon for hair, makeup and nail polish. Then they enjoyed some cake and punch. We finished the party off with a karoke/dance party. The girls had so much fun and they all were complete angels. Kaycee has a wonderful group of close friends. I am so happy she has connected with these girls! Kaycee declared it "the best birthday EVER" (So I win some Mom of the Year points with that!!!)


Baylee even got in on the action~ She sat so still while getting her hair curled!





This child is full of contradictions. She loves being a girly girl and getting all dolled up, but in the next moment the fancy clothes are left behind and she is off riding four-wheelers with her brother and getting mud stuck in her hair. She is a roller coaster of emotion. I never know what will set her into a downward spiral or giggly outburst. She loves with all her heart and sometimes gets her heart broken when that love doesn't come back to her in the same way. I have a feeling we are going to experience tears and heartbreak in the future, but I so admire the way she loves without abandon and wears her heart on her sleeve. I hope for her a life lived with no regrets!!!
Love Ya, Girl!

Halloween 2009

So it's been a while since I've posted anything, huh?

Gonna start with Halloween:

We had a huge Halloween bash at church. Operation Safe Kids was a huge success! We had so many kids come through our line. Baylee had so much fun handing out candy to all the children. She dressed up as a cowgirl this year. She kept saying "I'm a cowgirl....Yee Haw!!!"
She now insists on wearing the cowgirl boots EVERYWHERE!!!



Kaycee was going to be a cowgirl, too. But after a trip to Walmart she decided to be a good witch. I think the hat swayed her!

Conner was NOT going to dress up this year, until his Aunt Dayna informed him that kids without costumes would not be getting candy! He changed his tune pretty quick and borrowed a cowboy hat from his Uncle Trampus and we threw together a pretty good cowboy costume, if I say so myself!!!

First Day of School

Summer is coming to an end...first day of school- time to get back on schedule and wake up early. I am totally not looking forward to getting the kids up and ready every morning, but it will be nice to be able to work all day long without one of them calling me to whine about having nothing to do or that one has severely injured by the other!

They are growing up though. Makes me sad. I don't have any children in elementary school now. They are both officially intermediate students. Conner will be going to middle school next year, is that even possible?





Conner has a male teacher this year. He has always had female teachers so this will be an adjustment I'm sure, but his teacher seems really organized, laid back and very interested in science. So I am sure Conner will have a great year.











Kaycee loves her teacher already! Her teacher is my mom's cousin and my mom has her daughter in kindergarten this year. (Gotta love small town living, huh?) Kaycee was worried she wouldn't know anyone in her class, but to her surprise one of her best friends is in her class and her best "bus" friend is in there too.










Baylee is well... just Baylee. She insisted on wearing those shoes that morning and right putting her in the car with them on she proclaims "these are the hurtiest shoes ever" lol She will be going to Aunt Dayna's this year. I am so happy that she will be with someone who I completely trust and who loves her so much! She is planning lots of fun stuff for them!







Another milestone passing by....they seem to be passing by faster and faster every year :(

Food, Friends and Family

What would I do with out those three things?
Today I realized how interdependent I am on each~



Last week dad brought over a ton of fresh ground beef. I've used it for tacos and tonight we had delish hamburgers!

On Thursday Dayna sent me home with 2 cantaloupe fresh picked from her garden. Well they were in the house less than 24 hours and now they are gone. (fine by me, though...I hate cantaloupe!) I repaid her today with a totally cute pocketbook!

Yesterday my neighbor gave me about 12 jars of canned green beans. Yum, yum! I can wait to crack into a can of garden grown green beans in the middle of winter. Almost makes me wish for snow (well, not yet really!)

All those things came together today in my head and I was realized how truly blessed by God I am! A loving family, great friends and awesome food~ Life is SWEET!

Unsung Hero-My daughter???

There's really nothing "unsung" about her. She is pretty much all attitude and irrationally emotional lately. But somehow she received the unsung hero award for her softball team. Seriously though, she really blossomed this season. She has become more confident and even a little too sure of her self sometimes. Her attitude on the ball field was radically different from her usual "it's all about me" attitude. She cheered mightily for her team mates and shed a few tears when they lost a game. She hustled after the ball and was determined to get a hit when she stepped up to bat. I love seeing that in her!

You have no events scheduled today.

Got this in my inbox today from my Google calendar! How awesome is that???

No baseball practice, no cheerleading practice, no games, no nothing today!

So with all this free time you'd think I'd do some thing productive (especially knowing how nasty this house has gotten) but instead I packed the kids up and we headed to Target. I did need some grocery type stuff to make dinner, but we also picked up a new scooter for Baylee. As Baylee was riding Kaycee's old, beat up scooter around the office today, Jason mentioned that it's kinda sad that she never really gets anything new. Of course she was happy as can be with Kaycee's old scooter, but when I saw one on sale at Target I had to pick it up. Got it home and tried to put it together...not very easy, by the way! She took a few turns around the house with it and said "I like the other one better" URGH!!

Oh well her big brother seems to really be loving the new Dora scooter. (but shhhhh! don't tell any of his friends he is riding a pink Dora scooter!)

Tomorrow is another busy day...filled with lots of time in the car, things to do and places to go, but for tonight I will be relishing my "no events scheduled" day!

Our Weekend in Pictures

These pictures pretty much sum up our weekend. We do alot of NOTHING and it was wonderful! We spent a whole lotta time outside. I even got to finish a book I had been reading! The kids made good use of the swing set and the four-wheelers and dirt bikes. Kaycee ended up with a huge scrape on her knee when she tumbled from the 4-wheeler she was standing up on while driving?!?!?! What kind of parent stands safely on her porch and encourages their children to do stunts on extremely dangerous machines? I did in fact come off the porch though and tried my own stunt....only to be told by my son that he could see my underwear showing out of my jeans the entire time! LOL We also think Hershey got stung by a bee at some point....I could not stop laughing at his swollen lip!!!!

Both C and K had practice today. K is really coming along in her softball skills....just gotta get her to pay attention to what is happening on the field and NOT what her mom may be talking about in the bleachers! LOL We also visited Mom and Dad this evening and I took them a home cooked meal, ugh I mean a really good KFC family meal. All in all it was a nice, slow, relaxing weekend! The kind we haven't had in a long while and I throughly enjoyed it!

Conner found a baby deer (I guess the correct word is fawn) yesterday at our rental house. The mom was no where in sight. Found out today that it died last night so it must have been sick or something,. It sure was cute though!