Daddy's Girls

Lilli is one excited little girl today because she and I had a "Mom and Me" morning and part of what she wanted to do was go get her stuffed animals out of storage. This pile is just what is staying. Not the trash bag full she agreed to give away or the big basket full that never went to storage in the first place. I understand though. I had the same obsession as a kid and had hundreds at one point. And she actually plays with them. This and crafts is about all she's interested in.  I let them all "come home" because we decided to take our house off the market and no longer have to have it staged for showings. After 4 months of keeping it clean, 25 showings and 4 price drops, we are over it. We trust God's timing and it is obviously not the time we are supposed to move. We are disappointed to give up on the house with acreage but we have always been happy here and we know we will find something we love even more when either the market improves or we're i

It It is hard to believe that school starts 2 weeks from today.  It seems like it just started! But I'm determined to enjoy the last of it. We had Shanon, Alex and Allie in town and spent the weekend at Rio Bonito.  Most of the day was beautiful and there was lots of time spent playing in the pool. It's really too hot for anything else. It rained HARD that evening so we spent the rest of the day on the deck laughing and hanging out. The next morning meant Capn's breakfast and more swimming And then Allie came home with us and spent Sunday.  She was amazed at how well Lilli is reading  And then after she left Monday, we met Cara to watch The Secret Life of Pets as part of her birthday present. My goal is to do something fun each day the next two weeks. Gonna miss my girl when she's gone all day! 

Happy Birthday to the best husband and Daddy your girls could ask for. We started the celebration by putting out the decorations that go out for all of our birthdays. Lilli asked why I do it when he doesn't care about decorations. I told her he may not care about decorations being there but he would care if they weren't.  And it's more for me anyway. Not sure she got that. :)   They were excited for him to get home from work. He walked in and Katie said, "Let's get this party started!" We opened gifts, played with balloons, ate a huge meal and finished with cheesecake. We hope you had a wonderful day, Matt, and you'll never know how much we love you! Toooooooo much!!!

With our new babysitter, Raegan that is.  Today was the 3rd time we'd called her and she came today so I could go to the doctor, run by the store and get a haircut.    The kids normally come with me to those types of things and are bored and driving me crazy by the end.   But not today! She sent me this picture Of them happily playing while I was out. She plays with them the whole time and, even though she is only 14, I feel totally comfortable the whole time we're gone.  So excited we found her! She's going to have a steady job with us as long as she wants it. 

Pops picked a good one when he married Honey. Not many people would invite their step-daughter and 2 kids to come visit 5 days after moving in to their newly built house. But she knows it's getting close to school starting and it's now or never so she did. And it's beautiful.  We got here Sunday and it really has been a vacation. I haven't worn anything but gym shorts and no makeup and we're going to the pool twice a day. Our days have been the same all week. Wake up after all 4 of us are in the same room  I say 4 because we also have Piper. Jen and Ryan are in Costa Rica And Dan and Anna are with Luke. And Janet's daughter, Rachel is also here in the other guest room. We have a full house!  First thing is feeding the ducks over coffee Then we go visit Nana and Peggy at The Haven before coming back to swim Then back for naps. And then we come back to the pool either before or after eating a big family dinner. We've missed Matt and are ready to go home to see

"You should be here. Standing with your arm around me here.  Cutting up, cracking a cold beer, hey y'all it's sure been a good year.  It's one of those moments, that's  got your name written all over it.  And you know that if I had just one wish, it would be that you didn't have to miss this.  You should be here." - Cole Swindell This post is way more personal than I normally get. But if my goal is for my girls to be reading this as adults, I've decided it doesn't all need to be superficial. I promise it will still be mostly happy, but it's been a really tough month for me. I can remember when it happened, about 2 days after getting back from the deer camp after surgery, I felt this overwhelming grief over Mom again.  Anyone that has been through it knows what I mean when I say it's like someone punched me in the stomach (or is that just me?) You feel physically sick and just go through the motions. Because I was only a week out of major su

This is the kind of week I've been waiting for all summer. I'm FINALLY starting to feel like myself again after surgery  (except I still get very tired- my body still seems to need a rest to make it through a day without getting too sore- hopefully the need for that will be over soon but luckily the girls still nap everyday). We have had a lot of fun this week but at the same time haven't felt like we've done too much and all had our "rest time" everyday. We've had a girls day at Party Central and Don Juanz with Tiffany, Aubrey and Olivia  Katie helped me work the Helping Hands Food Pantry at the church  While Lilli was at water day for Sonlit summer Hallie came to play all day Friday while her parents were at work  And Matt and I ended the week with dinner and a movie at the Boardwalk while the kids played with their new favorite babysitter, Raegan.  It's  just what we needed before we leave for a week to go to Baton Rouge. Pops and Honey are in their

 I must be feeling sentimental today but I'm feeling so lucky to have these days with my kids this summer. I started this blog as a way to help me through my grief after losing my  mom. After she died, one of my biggest fears was I wouldn't be able to tell my girls what they were like when they were little so I was going to let this be my words. Now while I don't still have that fear everyday, I do still enjoy writing it. Because, let's face it, I'm not going to remember everything regardless.  But I sure hope I remember how KatieJane is at this age. She has been extra sweet lately and it's a good thing because she's also been a handful! ;) but it's a self esteem booster to hang out with her. She's constantly telling me I'm beautiful, smart, the best Mama, how much she loves me (I'm not exaggerating- at least 20 times a day)... And if it were up to her she would spend every waking minute with me. In her eyes I can do no wrong. Of course Lilli

We had a wonderfully lazy July 4th. I didn't even get out of my pjs until I got dressed to go to Sci-Port for We got there around 7:00 and had time for the kids to play, eat burgers and hot dogs and watch experiments  Before the big show on the rooftop.  It was KatieJane's first time to see fireworks other than what Matt pops on New Years and she was amazed. Lilli liked them but they made her a little nervous because they were so loud. We had the best view in the city and the night was a lot of fun. The kids weren't in bed until 11:00 and that's the latest they've ever been up. I loved celebrating with my little family. :) 

As we have every year since I met Matt, we spent the weekend at the lake with family and friends to celebrate the 4th of July. The main party was Saturday and I didn't take a single picture. But Danny and Susan came with Ragan, Chase and their families. Plus all of our family was there. Matt went home in the afternoon because he was still sore from his wisdom teeth surgery that he had on Thursday. And Hailey took the boys home too so that she didn't have to bring the dogs.  The girls and I ended up staying all day Sunday so the cousins could play some more. We went for a boat ride.  Cap'n worked on diving with the kids (Lilli is getting pretty good!) He took them to a "beach" to go swimming in the lake And cut up a watermelon for lunch  We almost spent the night again but decided to leave about 7:00 so that we could check on Matt and wake up in our beds today. I'm very glad I made that decision right about now as I drink my coffee and have nothing to do until