Just a few...

people in my life that I am VERY thankful for this Thanksgiving season...

Grandparents - Pop & Haley at Grandparent's Day

Tootsie!!  With the girls at Grandparent's Day

My boys - the best husband and son a girl could want or need

My little turkey holding the turkey cuupcake his daddy made

Two amazing little girls

and a group of friends that I can be silly with!

a little Tuesday randomness

Uploaded the pics from my phone yesterday and here is the ensuing randomness!


Super Cute Soccer player Sam...too bad the season was a disaster!



Haley getting her face painted at the Revel

Gracie's pumpkin face

Gracie rockin' the sunglasses



Because this is just so typical of life with these three!



beauty of technology...a pic of a dress I texted to Aunt Becky for her approval!  By the way, CDC, my sweet new neon running jacket which glows in the dark is behind me!

Velcro man in action

an attempt to document my wearing of orange and blue for the Auburn/Georgia game

and finally baby brother on the slide!

Happy Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween weekend...beautiful weather, fun friends and lots of sugar!  This was the first year the trio went door to door trick or treating and they had a blast!  Sam loved being Woody from Toy Story so much that he was requested we call him Woody, not Sam from now on...he is one silly little boy!

Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat



The girls and baby Asher...my how they love him!




Cutest Elephant E.V.E.R.!!

  

DJ Lance passing out candy



Our ballerina, Woody and Minnie Mouse







Happy Halloween



Woody





what a beautiful Minnie she is!



And a beautiful ballerina



wordless Wednesday

wounded



Exhibit 1

I loathe ironing.  See above exhibit 1 for a prime reason!  Now, one might ask how I managed to burn myself in a perfect triangle shape on the back side of my arm so let me explain.  First off, I don't usually iron (again, exhibit 1); I have a wonderful husband who actually enjoys it and irons all of his own clothes.  However, I had to be at church early on Sunday morning so Saturday evening I was gathering the trio's clothing so I could be prepared and noticed Sam's shirt was terribly wrinkled, needed some pressing (ok, so it was still in the laundry basket of clean clothes that had been sitting out for two weeks as I gather things out of it instead of closets and drawers!) and figured I'd step up and do it.  While I was at it, I decided to grab a few pairs of Jason's pants (that had been sitting on top of the dryer for 4 days) and iron those as well.  I handled the size 3T shirt well but I think the pants looked better before I touched them with the evil hot iron.  After 30 long minutes, I decided I was done and unplugged the iron and started to take it back to the laundry room.  As I was walking from the den to the laundry room, I saw several items laying in my path, children's socks, a block, cheese crackers, and in an attempt to multi task, picked them up along the way.  I guess I forgot I was holding a VERY hot iron in my left hand and as I bent down to gather a sock, I felt the pain screaming through my right arm.  Being very close the freezer, I quickly grabbed a piece of ice to place on the burn, but the damage was done.  As wonderful as my husband is, he wasn't very sympathetic with my wound as he showed me two of his own...the price of wrinkle free clothing he told me! 

So next time you see anyone in my family with nicely pressed, wrinkle free attire, commend Jason...my ironing days are over!

another first

First school pictures!  Like Candace, I was a bit hesitant about purchasing them, but for many reasons, I'm glad I did.  Not that these are the best photos ever snapped of these girls, but they are only five once!

decorating pumpkins

For the sake of honesty, Saturday sucked...I'd give it a 3 out of 10...so I guess it could have been worse.  I couldn't go run, Sam didn't play soccer again, suburban ran out of gas, Jason had work to do, everyone needed more sleep, blah, blah, blah.  In an attempt to redeem the day, we decorated the little pumpkins the girls and I picked up at the grocery store earlier in the day.  As you can see from the photos below, the only stickers I could find had their names on them so the pumpkins litterally shout Haley, Grace and Samuel!

Gracie pre decoration

Haley concentrating hard on her sticker placement

our lefty showing off his marker masterpiece on his hands

Haley's pumpkin, obviously!

Sam was shouting Happy Halloween

the completed masterpieces!

Good news, we had a fun time with this activity.  Bad news, the whinning, fighting, crying (and not limited to H, G, & S) recommenced shortly thereafter!  Sunday proved to be just as busy as our Saturday and I had planned on a quiet weekend, but I think I must remember that life with 3 young children does not equal calm and quiet.  The only prayer I could muster up this morning when my alarm went off so that we could do it all over again was Lord give me strength, Lord give me strength, Lord give me strength.  Good thing He's listening 'cause I'm gonna need it today, tomorrow, day after tomorrow and for the years to come!!!

lady in red

I've been wanting some red shoes to spice up my basic black, white and khaki wardrobe.  Between new school shoes for the trio, ballet slippers and tap shoes for the girls, soccer shoes for Sam, and all the other things small children require, there isn't a lot left in the budget for mommy.   Then I remembered some plain black flats in my closet that I no longer wore.  Being the daughter of a spray paint king, I made the short walk to my parents' house, dug through my dad's stash of paints and voila!  Red spray painted flats!  I heart them and they were free!  However, like a Monet painting, they look much better from a far than up close due to some spray painting imperfections but I'll take 'em!!

soccer stud!

Team Superdog had their first soccer practice on Friday afternoon. It was interesting to say the least! Jason stepped up and will be "coach" for this season of play. Sam had a hard time keeping his hands off the ball and Gracie was ready to play with her brother and friends.  This is gonna be fun for all involved!

you know your're growing up when...

a PTA card comes home in your kindergartner's backpack!  And yes, it says Nora Green...

not to be forgotten

My baby boy!

He's so smart, so opinionated, so loving (when he wants to be) and growing up so quickly.  I love the way he greets me each morning, groggy, grasping his blue blankie, hair sticking up, giving me a big "love you mama" hug.

He's having a little difficulty adjusting to the girls going to kindergarten; he keeps telling me he is 5 and he needs to go to big school too.  While sweet, it can be a bit frustrating as he'll argue with a wall just to prove he is right.  I have continually told him this week that I was there the day he was born and it has not been five years yet, but ONE day he'll be old enough to go to kindergarten.  It has only been three days so I'm hoping we'll all adjust to the new normal soon!

a first day update

The first day ended up being a great one! I couldn't get to daycare fast enough to pick everyone up and look into their folders! Each afternoon they'll bring home a folder in their backpack that will contain any paper work that needs to be signed, any artwork created, any homework to be completed, or anything else the teacher needs the parents to review. Also, there is a communications notebook where the teacher can leave notes for us and we can do the same. Mrs. Liner wrote Gracie had a great day and that at one point she asked her to "hold you". Mrs. Liner said her now 13 year old daughter used to say the say thing and it brought a little tear to her eye to hear our sweet GTG say the same thing. Mrs. Bell left us an assuring message that Haley was perfectly alright 10 minutes after we left and she did great all day! I actually got a good bit of information out of the girls themselves. They ate spaghetti and garlic bread in the cafeteria which they both liked. They had to carry their food to the table which they apparently handled quite well. Haley said she sat next to a boy and a girl at the lunch table but didn't know their names. They played on the playground at recess and were able to see one another and their daycare friends that are also at Shreve Island. Gracie specifically told me she slept on a Dora blanket as I totally forgot to send their nap mats...strike one for mama, but they had them this morning!
So far so good and I can't wait to hear about today's adventures.

1st day of kindergarten

Today these little five year olds started kindergarten...uniforms and all!

They are going to a great little neighborhood school called Shreve Island.  They are the only Shreveport school on the year round system and I am pretty excited about that.  This should be there home for the next 6 years!

Hoping her thumb will come out of her mouth at some point.  We did manage to leave piggy at home so that was a really big girl move!  Only saw one little tear in her eye...she'll be fine, right?

There were LOTS of tears from this one which brought tears to my eyes.  Her teacher, Mrs. Bell is going to be great and was very comforting.  I'm praying the tears quickly dried and she is realizing how much fun kindergarten is going to be!

Baby brother with crazy bead head in on the action too!  He asked if he could go to kindergarten with his sisters...how sweet is he?!