lots 'o fun on saturday, not so much today...

oh my kiddos have caught a bug. i was awakened last night at dee's to cecee throwing up all over me. so much for our sunday plans. beano made it almost the hour ride home before getting sick.
the good news is i think it's a short living bug. cecee's already acting better (after a handful of clothes changes for her & me). here's what she's been doing with the sick bowl (it's clean).

poor beano is still feeling rough. he is having a baad time.

we did have fun on saturday. we went to art & met our cousins there. beano made a water bowl for zaky
& some lovely pieces of art. it is so cool what happens when you use markers & a wet paintbrush.

looks like a watercolor!

we stayed all night at my great aunt & uncle's home. the playing continued there. by the end of the night, grandma deedee's lap was the place to be.
last night, as i was trying to get cecee to sleep, poor darbs ran into to tell me beano tooted in her face. he was running behind, laughing saying "i said sorry!" i'm sorry darbs!

hope everyone else is doing ok!

i'm a pepper

oh, how i love my dr. pepper. it's in my blood. i've been a pepper since a little kid. here's me & my papaw in our matching shirts.

i've been trying to give it up to cut back on calories & lose some "baby" weight (i don't know if it's called that a year & 1/2 later). i tried the diet dr. peppers, but they just don't cut it. we'll see, i've been craving a pepper pretty bad. this is harder for me to give up than smoking for 10 years!

update on papaw, he has an appointment monday with the dr & friday he has surgery to remove the cancer. thank you for your thoughts & prayers.

have a great weekend!

happy anniversary namaw & poppy!!!

happy anniversary namaw & poppy!
(pictures taken by beano)
i hope you have had a wonderful day. the love you share for each other is just awesome. thank you for showing us unconditional love and friendship. through your lives, you have given us examples of how to live, love, forgive, forget & go on. you have taught me so much in the 8 years i have been a part of your lives. here's to 39 + more years of marriage! we love you!

p.s. happy 14th birthday mr. grant!

alphabet book

for some reason, i decided to make the kids an alphabet book. i saw someone's on artscow.com , copied and modified a few things. it turned into a much larger project than i planned. i can't wait to see the actual book!
here's what i've been working on the past week instead of sleeping...

happy 1 1/2 birthday, my little one!

today is cecee's 18month birthday. it's hard to believe she's that old. it's hard to believe 18 months ago i was bawling my eyes out wondering what was wrong with her (rapid breathing & developed pneumonia). she is growing up into such a funny, loving, full of spunk little girl. we are so blessed to have her.

today, we had some if our best friends over. what a great time we all had making crafts and playing like kiddos do. the kiddos had fun (despite beano's grouchy look in the picture, he's loving to hide his face or make ugly faces for the camera now) & i love visiting with the mommas.
the kids received such an awesome christmas gift today, handmade with love. check out these puzzles! this is something i know they will keep forever. thanks melissa, derick & girls!

tonight, we celebrated cecee's 1/2 birthday with heart shaped jello, dinosaur grilled cheese and a small birthday cake made by the kiddos.


she especially enjoyed the icing.




i love to look for random things to celebrate & want to do something "magical" for the kids each day (even though i know it's the day to day stuff that really matters). i hope we are creating good memories like i have from growing up. we love to build fort tents, play pirate, jump on the bed, dance like crazy (beano already can dance like mr. mcdreamy on can't buy me love{one of my favorite movies as a teen} - the african mating dance!!), crate craps (crafts) and just be kids. i enjoy staying at home with them, albeit sometimes (ok, a lot of times)can be frustrating. but i get to relive the wonder of childhood every day.

gettin crafty with it

oh, the craft bug has bitten me. but i have so many symptoms i don't know what to do. i want to sew, crochet (don't know how), make photo jewelry (mediocre)play with pictures, paint, make gracie some more pillowcase dresses & applique ben some shirt.... i started cutting out my grandma's old material for a comforter i want to make. well, i decided it was taking too long
so, i made the kiddos each a pillow. easy enough.
and i made myself a purse out of a place mat, ribbon and some material i had cut out. the inside of the purse has 3 pockets sewn in (i was thinking!). i can't wait to carry it. i love the print!

the dentist...

today was ben's dentist appointment. i love his dentist's office. they have colorful artwork, a nice playroom, video games for the kids, movies playing in the rooms. today was a bit different for us. the previous times i had been back in the room with him. today, they said he was big enough to go by himself. i was worried the entire time; hoping he wasn't scared. but, my brave boy was very good they said. he got a goodie bag with floss, a notebook, toothpaste, toothbrush and balloon. i am proud of him. we need to do a better job of brushing his teeth, but he's doing great.


he is also getting the hang of that potty business all on his own. (he's really not pottying in this pic) i will be so happy to only have 1 in diapers!!! i can't believe my little guy is getting so big. why does 3 seem so old now? school's just around the corner....

boys night out / thunderstruck!

poppy, daddio & beano went for a boys night out last night. don't they look good in their matching shirts? that wasn't planned, great minds think alike. beano has on his shirt from the smokey hills.
the thunder nationals monster trucks were in town!
well, at first beano didn't want to go because he thought there would be monsters. once he understood it was big trucks, he was ready to go!

i thought he would love it. daddio was a bit unsure. on this one, father knows best.


the highlight was the cotton candy.
yummm

apparently, he had the best time walking out to the truck & talking about it all!

when they got home, he said he didn't like the cars flipping over. maybe he was a bit too young. but, i think the 3 guys had a good time together. we girls sure enjoyed our quiet night in! we all had a great late night when they got home. the kiddos were up playing till almost midnight!

my little monkey makin monkey bread

we have not stuck to our resolution of eating better (big surprise). this morning, before daddio & beano woke up gracie & i made some monkey bread. i had never had this before until meeting daddio. she did a lot of the work herself.
actually, she didn't want me to help at all!

it's a can of store bought biscuits, some brown sugar & 1/3 -1/2 stick of butter. so bad for you, but oh so good. i added some frozen peaches to it for some fruit.

it doesn't look so good on the plate (it actually looks pretty dross (our word for gross from allie), but it is delicious!

the kiddos have some major bedhead this morning...


p.s. happy day late birthday auntie jen!! we love you bunches & miss you!

peek a boo!

the kids love to play hide and seek and peek a boo.
my family often says "peep eye" instead of peek a boo. justin asked me why we say "pee pie"

here's some cute pics of cecee rocking in the rocking chair at the smoky hills...




p.s. happy birthday kristen!!! we love you!