Party Time!

I'm playing catch up...what's new, right!? ha! The weekend of Sept. 11 we went to Mom and Dad's to celebrate Dad and Olivia's birthday! I can't believe my baby is THREE!...and, Dad is 57! ha! ;)

We had a house full of family, friends and FUN! Nothing better than that! :)

Little pinata fun for the kiddos!
Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to point out the World's Worst Pinata Holder...also known as my husband! Sheesh! ha!

Enough with letting them use a bat, time to pull the strings and do it the easy way! :)
But, of course, the big boys still had a good time whacking it with a bat! Hey, if we are going to make them come to a birthday party for their 3 yr old cousin, the least we can do is let them beat the crap out of a Disney princess pinata! ha!
Lots of help opening her gifts! :)
It was baby central this year. Katrina's twin girls and Tonya's baby, Callen! It was so much fun!
Me and my baby girl!
With their buddies, Carson and Keaton!
And, their other buddies, Dominic and Donovan. They are really out numbered! ha!
And, afternoon tea party with Nanny and Papaw!
Another year older, another great celebration...we are truly blessed!

Who's the slacker Mom??

I'm the slacker Mom...blog slacker, that is! ;) I guess in our start of Kindergarten nightmare, I totally forgot to post First Day of School photos. Somewhere between the tears, vomit, nose bleeds, anxiety and not eating, I forgot...silly me! haha! But, my goodness...isn't the cutest!? :)

With Liv!! I can't look at this picture without tearing up because I am in total shock at how fast they are growing.
This look back says it all! ha!
At her big girl locker! And, looky whose locker is there to the left....none other than the Main Man Griffin! ha!
Special treats at pick up after Day 1!
Oh, Abby...how far we have come in just 2 short months! I sure do love you, you high-maintenance, perfectionist, hard headed little toot! :)

What!?...

There is nothing at all dysfunctional about this family!! ha! Yes, that's a coconut bra!

And, I'm mad the pic isn't bigger, but I saved this from my phone and I have no idea how to enlarge it!

School Updates! :)

I mean, really?!? Have you ever seen a more adorable school picture!? :)

I just wanted to post an update about school, Abby's darling school pictures and a little someone else who gets a lot of time and attention in this house these days....Griffin!

Here is Abby's Kindergarten class! :) Aren't they sweet!? Can't they just stay this size forever! It's so awesome, though, to know that she will be growing up with such a good group of kiddos. I think back to elementary school and how many of the people that were good friends of mine, are good friends of mine still to this day. I can't believe in just the blink of an eye these kids will be grouped together again in caps and gowns!...okay, I am getting a little ahead of myself and a little emotional now! ha!
See that little ham in the front row, center? Yeah, that's Griffin!...the love of Abby's life! ha! Here he is with his 'stick up hair!' as Abby calls it! Apparently, Griffin only has 'stick up hair' on special days! ha!
So, from Day 1 the shining light of all of Abby's school experience has revolved around Griffin! All we hear is, 'he's so funny, he did (this or that) at recess, I was on Griffin's team in PE and we won, Griffin tried to hold my hand (he actually had to be moved from her table because I guess this got to be an issue-ha!), Griffin talks to me the most, my locker is right next to Griffin's, Griffin likes me!' You get the idea! Well, you know me, I had to get in there and get to know this Griffin kid! ha! And, I am happy to report, he's a total cutie, comes from a great family, etc.! Some of my favorite Griffin stories thus far:

*"Mom...Griffin showed me his belly button today and he has an outie just like Liv!" ha!

*He will come out and sit down by me when I am at the school to pick up Abby in the afternoons. Abby will mention something about lunch, etc. and he will nit pick at her and correct her...example:Abby-'We had applesauce today @ lunch!' Griffin-'No, I think it was pear sauce or something, remember?' They are like an old married couple! HYSTERICAL!

*Friday night Abby tells me that we need to go to the Central football game! I was surprised as 1. I didn't know she knew that Central was the name of the local high school, 2. how did she know there was a game. I ask why, and then she starts....'Well, two of Griffin's older brothers, Luke and Caleb, play football for Central and Griffin wants me to go to the game, blah blah blah! I asked how she knew all of that: brothers, their names, they play ball, etc!!! 'Oh, Griffin told me!' Of course he did! ha!

*Today as we were waiting for the kiddos to get released we got on the subject of Abby and Griffin and some of the parents were laughing about stories they had heard, telling me that he is so much older acting because he has three older brothers, we were laughing about Abby trying to meet him at a game. As we are talking about all of this, here they come and we hear...'Hey, Abby...look at me, I'm carrying my brothers back pack, it weighs about 55 pounds!' We all just cracked up, and one of the Dads turns to Abby and says, 'in other words, he wants you to see how strong he is!' haha! Abby just gets so embarrassed when people talk to her about it. It's so funny!

I wanted to make sure and document this because I just have this feeling that we will hear about and see lots of Griffin over the years! :)

And, in other school news, Abby is doing great. After that first week or 2, there hasn't been a single tear shed! She is doing awesome, she loves it, she has met so many sweet little friends, she has never moved off of green in any area (green is the best, meaning that you excelled in the three areas: attitude, behavior and community) and she aced all of her initial screening tests. Actually in Pre-Math (shapes, patterning, etc), Number Sense and Pre-Reading (letter recognition, etc) she got every single question correct. And, in Pre-Reading (letter sound recognition) she only had a few in the incorrect box. I am so glad that it appears that she will not have an issue with all the testing. I am amazed at much she is learning as far as writing and spelling. And, she could read quite a bit before she started school, but she is really starting to recognize words and sound out the ones she doesn't already know, even street signs, store signs...she's wanting to read everything now. We are so blessed that this is all coming so easily and naturally for her. She's always been a smart little cookie, so I am not surprised...it's just nice to know that it's official! ha! ;)

Scott's New Toys!

I need to get better pictures when it's not getting dark, but they were so excited to ride it! Scott's brand spankin' new Polaris!

There they go...off for a little ride before I make them come in! ha!
And, his new trailer to haul above 4-wheeler!
And, Liv and I stayed back to play while Abby and Scott rode around the neighborhood!
What a little goof ball! :) She wasn't too thrilled with the 4-wheeler at first but she likes it now.
They would ride it all day. Scott bought it mostly for hunting because he leases 60 acres with a friend but for now we just tool around here with it. In the evenings there are more 4-wheelers on the road in our neighborhood than there are cars...rural living for ya'! (as rural as you can get in Southern IL, that is-ha!) But, it's fun to ride over to the neighbors. There are 8 kids that are in Kindergarten at Abby's school that live in our neighborhood! Basically, our neighborhood makes up about 1/4 of their class! ha! Thankfully, they split them pretty evenly between the 2 teachers/classes. However, I fear for us adults when they are all teenagers! haha!

Dancing Queens!

The day I have been waiting for since I heard, 'it's a girl!' at Liv's ultrasound! Both of my girls... heading off to dance class, cute little leotards, sweet little shoes! Abby is an old pro when it comes to dance so she was excited to get back to business and show Liv the ropes! ha!
Abby in her first big girl class. Since she will be SIX (oh my word, that is hard to say and even harder to believe), she was bumped into the classes where they not only group them by age, but also by experience/skill. She's the littlest one in the class and LOVES to remind me that there is a second grader in her class! ha!
She is good at tap and she likes it, but she LOVES ballet!
Liv going into class! Look at that cute little butt in a leotard! LOVE! :)
Opps...she's in the wrong class! hahaha!
Okay, we got her into the right class! Look at that face, no doubt saying, 'Really, Mom!? I have to dance with these little kids...take me back to the big kid class!' haha!
Abby's second half hour is ballet. There she is at the bar with her fave teacher, Miss Katy! :)

And, in keeping to the fact that my children are TOTAL opposites, Liv could take or leave ballet, but give this girl a pair of tap shoes and it's ON! She taps to the beat of any song and shakes that little ghetto booty for all it's worth! ha!
Since it was the first night we were able to watch Liv's class, so Abby gets done 30min. before Liv so she came in to show the little ones a thing or two! ;)

And, my favorite picture of the night! The teacher told them to do what she does and follow her, then she turned around to face them, so Liv turned around, too! hahaha! She danced the whole section like that and never missed a beat! She doesn't need no stinkin' teacher! ha!
I can't wait for recital! I just love that the girls love it so much! I danced for MANY years and loved it. I also think it taught me so much. I enjoy watching them enjoy themselves and learn new things, learn the value of team work, following directions, responsibility, coordination, etc.

It also hit me last week that the 30 min overlap while they are both in class will be my only 30 min of alone time each week while Scott is gone! Pathetic, huh!? haha! In other words, they will go to dance every week whether they want to or not because Mommy needs her 30 minutes of sanity! haha!

First Jobs!!

This weeks blog off is first jobs.

I had the best first job EVER! I worked as an assistant to a beautician at Hair Nails and More. Started when I was 15. I answered phones, swept floors, removed nail polish...you know, all of that very difficult, very important stuff! ha! I got my nails and hair done for free and when I turned 16 and got my license, I got to run errands for the girls at the salon and drive my bosses yellow mustang! Oh, and I only worked on Sat. mornings and sometimes a night or two during the week! Like, I said....VERY serious job! ha!

I didn't have time to work during the school year because of cheerleading. I had either practice or a game just about every night. And, I also ran track a few years, so if cheer season was over, it was straight to track season. But, during the summers, I worked. I was not a fan of babysitting, so I always made sure to snag a fun job waiting tables. I worked at Kelly's Korner Kitchen in Greenville one summer and at Sam's @ Highlander Point one summer. LOVED working both places, made great money actually and had a lot of fun.

The summer before I went off to college a friend of mine talked me into working at a daycare center with her....HATED IT! NOT. FOR. ME! But, I stuck it out for about 2 months and made the most of it.

During college I worked at the World's Greatest Restaurant, Dumplin's! I was the dessert girl and worked my way up to waiting tables! ha! I also worked as an assistant for a man that sold Allstate insurance. LOVED the job, but he was a hot mess. I grocery shopped for him and everything. Totally ridiculous, but he paid good and I worked when my schedule allowed, so that was nice. I also worked for the university my last 2 years at Murray State. I was hired on as an Orientation Counselor/Ambassador. It was THE job that everyone wanted and they only hired about 30 students each year. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. They paid us $100/per orientation session...that's BIG time for a college student. That's a lot of beer! haha!

FUNNY WORK STORY! I got hired to work at Fred's my junior year of college. A few of my friends worked there and I thought it sounded fun. First of all, the horrible boss lady came out with my name tag on my second day of work (all I did the first day was fold clothes-ugh)...anyways, she comes out with a name tag that says ANDI and gives it to me. I tell her my name in Andrea. She says, 'we already have an Andrea here!' I say okay, 'I will even go by Annie, but NOT Andi!!' (I mean, really!? ha!) She says, 'sorry, we also have an Anne, so you will be ANDI!' I was almost in tears at this point. I put my f-ing ANDI name tag on and go back to sort more shirts when she comes out with a shirt for me to wear. Everyone has to wear red polo shirts. Not a big deal, I can handle that, until I unfold mine and it's an EXTRA LARGE! So, here I am with my extra large red polo and my Andi name tag! I go to the bathroom to put it on and just start sobbing. I actually walked out of the bathroom and QUIT! Somewhere I have a picture of me AND my room mate in the shirt (AT THE SAME TIME-ha!) with my ANDI name tag, and I have looked everywhere for it and can't find it. :( Hopefully, I will run across it soon so I can post it for you all!
And, there you have it, folks!

Love always,
ANDI