Emma's Triumph

Each year my cousin puts together an NCAA bracket contest for the family through yahoo.  My granddad offers $100 to the winner.  It is lots of fun as there is a message board and we can look to see who is winning and make comments back and forth despite being scattered around.  This was Emma's first year to participate.  I let her choose her own winners, and she was able to do so completely on her own because all she had to do was point and click.

After choosing the first couple, she said, "I'm just going to choose the one with the lowest number."  And with a few exceptions (UK, Davidson, and WKU mainly and just for the first or second rounds)  that is what she did.  Well, in a year where all four number ones make it to the final four, that is going to bode pretty well.  Emma beat everyone else, and was pretty happy to hear about all the people who she chose better than. (Especially Uncle Doug)

Anyway, she received her $100 presented by my granddad a few nights ago.  My grandmother took pictures, and I am so glad that she did.  Emma had lots of fun with this, and I'm sure will look forward to this again next year because any kind of competition in our house is a big deal.

Congratulations!

If you know our family, you know that my husband works extremely hard.  His three jobs require a lot of time, but he enjoys them all and gives of himself freely.  Next week he will be honored at a banquet at the state athletic directors' conference.  He has been nominated and is a finalist for Athletic Director of the Year.  I am so proud of him.  In a profession that often goes with little gratitude, it is nice to receive recognition--and his is certainly well-deserved.  (I have no idea why my picture is posting sideways; it is not like that in my file.  Oh well!)

Little Things

Isn't it sometimes the little things that make life the most fun?  I just have a couple of cute stories about my girls to share.  A couple of weeks ago, the four of us went shopping.  We met DeeDee and Josh to eat (which was lots of fun) and then headed over to the mall.  Annie told us that she wants an airbrushed t-shirt with a basketball going through a net on it.  How cute is it that she had thought it through like that?  Then she told us she was starving.  The girl has a hollow leg.  Tim took her to get a sandwich at Subway, and Emma and I went to Old Navy.

As we walked into the store we had the funniest conversation.  Here's how it went:

Emma:  I like shirts with no sleeves.

Me:  Yhea, but they don't work out too well for school.

Emma:  Do they work out well for a date?

Me:  What did you say?

Emma:  Do they work out well for a date?

Me:  Well, yes, I guess they do.  Are you planning on going on one?

Emma:  Nooooo.  (Said like you silly, I just wanted to know for future reference.)

This is information that I'm afraid she will be far too ready to use before I am even close for her to need it.  Ugh.  Oh, and I hope that you noticed that while Emma is admiring sleeveless shirts Annie is hoping for an airbrushed t-shirt and eating her *second* supper.  Too funny!

Another funny thing tonight.  Emma fell asleep on the couch just before supper, so we decided just to let her sleep.  The three of us at together, and Annie thoroughly enjoyed our undivided attention.  When we finished, Tim asked her how she would like to go for a bike ride.  That sweet little face just lit up!  She was so excited to go do something like that--just her and her Daddy.  Aren't little things amazing blessings?

Photo Fun

Hey there everyone!  I just want to share a fun website that I found.  OneTrueMedia.com  allows you to make videos like the one below.  I used some pictures from our WDW trip.  You can see a montage and a slide show.

 Enjoy!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Best Morning Ever!

Updates!!!

Finally!! I have tried to update many times; all with no success. This time I was able to upload some pictures, so once I got started I just kept going! We had such a blessed Christmas with many wonderful memories. I'm going to just give a brief caption for each picture.
Mom and I got Annie and Emma matching Christmas pajamas. They looked so cute and loved wearing them each night.

Annie had a solo in her class Christmas program. "Strike the harp and join the chorus!" She sounded beautiful and just stepped right up there like there was nothing to it. Some of them also did a little dance with their teachers. We all had our fingers crossed because the strap on her shoe broke as she was going up the risers at the beginning.

We had a wonderful time at the Opryland Hotel with Scott,Tina, Jon, Angela and Alex.
After spending the night we headed over to ICE! for How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was so cold! I think 14 degrees. They passed out heavy coats to everyone--even little Alex.
All of the ice was painted and looked like it came out of a book. There was a giant slide--with a giant line that Annie determined was not worth the wait, but only after the fact. The Who's were all super cute. At the end was a crystal clear life-sized Nativity.
They had a store at the end (of course) where they sold hot chocolate and many other things including this elf had that Emma tried on.

This is a cute picture of Alex at Keith's house when we had Christmas there. Everything happened so fast there that I didn't get too many pictures. The wrapping paper was flying!

We let Annie and Emma open their Wii on Christmas Eve after we returned home from church. Mom, Dad and DeeDee, Scott and Tina and eventually Doug and Mandy were there. Annie had no idea. I had totally convinced her that there were no Wii available. I had had ours since before Thanksgiving. She was shocked and thrilled. I really wish we had the video camera out for it.

Christmas morning after they gave each other their gifts this is what they did. What a blessing to see them love on each other.

Emma wanted some pink boots for Christmas. We asked her where we should get some and she replied, "G-Y-M-B-O-R-E-E" Okay. We didn't know she could spell like that! We got them at Pistols & Petticoats.

Here is Emma all decked out to go to Mimi and GanGan's house with her new dress, new scarf, new tights and new boots.
Mom and Dad got Annie a Barbie mp3 player. I loaded it with some Hannah Montana, High School Musical and lots of praise songs. When I gave it to her, I said, "I put quite a bit of praise songs on there." Her reply, "Okay, I'm glad." Alrighty then! I'll take it. She puts the little ear buds in, which will not go above a certain volume and dances around the house.
DeeDee is looking pretty excited here, but I'm not sure about what. I like this picture because in one way she looks pretty grown up, but in another way it totally reminds me of this picture of her from a Christmas morning when she was about three. She's still pretty cute!

Doug has his painting that DeeDee did for him and Mandy. Theirs was black with deep red polka dots. Ours is striped and just as pretty.

GeeGee and GaaGaa gave Annie and Emma these cute little dog purses. The strap is attached to the collar and looks like a leash. They have been going lots of places with us lately.

DeeDee and Emma went into GanGan's study to play Wii, but Emma didn't quite make it.

One morning after Christmas, Emma was bowling in nothing but her undies. Things weren't going too well, so she went and got her "lucky boots." How about that follow through?

We had tickets to the Music City Bowl this year. Tim and Annie went last year, but it was the first time for Emma and me. Also joinging us were Scott, Tina, Keith, Taylora, Taylor, Will and Colton. Doug and Mandy gave Annie and Emma these very cute Music City Girl shirts for Christmas.

I had to take Emma to the restroom during our tailgating. We were near an Exxon station, so we opted for that rather than the port-a-potty. We waiting for 45 minutes! That place was packed. Emma never complained one time. She is such a patient, sweet little thing! She did much better than many of the grown women around us.

Here is Annie, Taylor, Will and Colton ready to tailgate. The wind was blowing, but the temperature wasn't too bad at this point. Once the sun went down, it was a different story! Quite chilly!!

We have been going to many, many ballgames. Annie is the primary water girl/manager this year. However, each game she takes on recruits. Which ever of her friends happens to be there will come over and join her. Jadyn is a very good friend of hers.

Emma and Hallie Anna (her dad is the girls' coach) have also been water girls a couple of times. They are good friends and in the same class. It is a good thing that we win pretty easily and Coach Lindsey is such a good and patient man. I don't know too many men who would be okay with sometimes having as many as five water girls. If nothing else, our girls stay well-hydrated. Annie even said that had she not been there to give them water the other night we might have only won by 30 points instead of 40!
Finally, a couple of weeks ago we had a great visit with the Pettys and Shadburnes. The kids played Wii most of the night and had a blast. This is Drew, who was in our wedding, singing to High School Musical and Alex.

Here is sweet little Ella, who we had never met! She was so cute, but I couldn't understand a word she said. :)

This is Olivia, who was also in our wedding. She has grown into a beautiful young lady, and is so sweet. Kathy is there beside her, but I didn't get a picture of Mechelle, Betsy or Buddy. It was so good to be around them all again though.
These are Kathy's two youngest kids: Gracie and Jack. They look so much like their dad, Adam, who couldn't be there. I also have a picture of Francie, but I think my luck with uploading pictures is over--at least for now. We enjoyed having all of them here so much, and we really look forward to seeing everyone again soon!

I hope that you all are doing well. I am going to try to be more regular about my updates. I'm going to go back and post some pictures from this fall provided I can get some cooperation! Take care and stay warm.

The Playoffs are Here

I'm sorry that it has been a while since I last posted. I have had so much to share, but we are just too busy. This blog has been last on a pretty long list for about a month now. The few times that I have attempted updates, it hasn't worked. Ugh.

So anyway, I want to share with you what my husband has been up to. The playoffs began last week, and we won the first round. So now we are off to play Warren East tonight. They have been really good the last couple of years. They beat us earlier this year. We are not favored to win. However, we feel really confident about the game. Should I say that? Is it unlucky? I think that I may be a little more superstitious than my husband is. They have had a great week of practice full of motivation, hard work and some fun.

Wednesday it absolutely poured down rain. Practice started with fair weather, but half-way through the bottom fell out of the sky. Water was standing on the field--in some places ankle deep.

When practice was over, Tim began talking to them about how no one expects them to win. They are going to have to go up there to Warren East and do unexpected things. He went on to say that he too would have to do unexpected things, and to show them how much he believed that they could win this is what he did.

He was covered in grass-clippings and soaked head to toe. He told his assistants what he was going to do before he did it and handed them his phone and keys. One of them filmed it. (He didn't even know that he had a video camera on his phone.)

He called me later and said, "You won't believe what I just did." I have had so much fun watching this, and I hope that you do too.

We are so hopeful for tonight's outcome. Each week has its own set of stresses and pressures, but this week has truly had a good deal of excitement included in it as well. I can't wait for 7:00. It will be cold and the game is away, but I don't think we will notice much. Go Wildcats!

Homecoming Highlights

Helping the juniors with their float.

Running Powder Puff Football

THE PARADE!!

My Funny Girls

I wish I had taken a picture of Annie's messy closet before we picked it up tonight. On the floor there was a blanket and two pillows. They had brought in a bunch of stuff from Emma's room--a toy microwave, play food, a pretend laptop, etc. So we took about three trips of stuff back to Emma's room and got Annie's closet back to normal. I was changing Emma out of her clothes and into her pajamas, and I said, "What were you all doing in there anyway." She said, "We were playing dorm!" It just cracked me up.

We also took all of their dirty clothes downstairs and Emma helped me get the washer started. Then we took a load of undies into the den. I asked them to fold these and make separate piles for each person. Emma was very excited. We were planning to make some chocolate chip cookies (refrigerator dough variety), and I called her to come and help. She said, "No, I'll just let Annie do it. I'm going to finish folding these panties." Okay! So Annie made the cookies, Emma folded clothes, and I just had to share how silly my girlies are.

In other news from the weekend, we lost to Warren East Friday night. Most likely we will see them again in the regional semi-finals (I think; things have changed this year, so I'm not straight on everything quite yet), but this means that we will likely play at WEHS not FSHS. Annie and Emma were so excited that Will, Nana and Papa came down for the game.

We had a great visit with Uncle Doug and Aunt Mandy, of which I got no pictures. What was I thinking? Last night we watched the UK ballgame, had a great supper and made S'mores out on the deck with the chimney pot. It was so much fun.

Okay, the cookies are ready and I have an assignment due at midnight (told you this was a subconsious way to procrasitnate but feel alright about it), so I'd better close this up. It's homecoming week! Wish me luck.

This is our song!!

This song totally describes our lives. Tim and I watched it tonight, and we can totally identify with pretty much every last bit. Hope you like it too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uISuvTiTYJA

Finally Five!!!!

Today was Emma's long-anticipated birthday party at Imagination Stations. She had such a good time. This is a place in Bowling Green that has many birthday parties. I think that practically every child in her preschool class had their party here. Finally it was Emma's turn. She decided six months ago that this was the place for her party. It has been a long wait.

It was so fun to see her playing with her friends. They ran, jumped and slid on inflatable playareas for an hour and a half. After that, we moved on to the party room where Emma took a little help from Hallie Anna when it was time to blow out the candles on her Cinderella cupcakes.

The final part of the party is opening presents. Emma got to sit in a big director's chair to open the presents. She had been talking about sitting in the big chair for a week.
Imagination Stations is a great place for a party. All we had to do was show up with a cake. They take care of the rest. They served the cake, handed Emma the presents, wrote down who gave her what, loaded our car and cleaned up. And every guest had a great time! It doesn't get much better than that.

I won't talk much about the fact that my baby is five and told me today that she can't be a snuggle bunny anymore. :( I don't think that will hold true--she's been a snuggle bunny since the day she was born. But she is definitley getting big. I love the little big girl that she is growing into even more than the baby she was, but I still want to snuggle!