Daddy's Girls

Well... it’s officially the end of another duck season and it was a good one. It’s always Matt’s favorite time of year but definitely not the same as usual. Of course he loves the times with his Dad and brothers but this was the first time he didn’t have several weekends with friends and he missed that. But hopefully next year it will all be back to normal!  We had a mostly lazy weekend but I did get a bunch accomplished around the house and we had a good time at Josh and Hailey’s house Friday evening. We hadn’t really been over there to hang out since they first moved in and we had a lot of fun!  We played with chickens, rode bikes in the porch, jumped on the trampoline and went for a ride to see some amphibian eggs. We came home with a bunch of fresh eggs and some new “pets” that are yet to be determined exactly what they are. 🤷‍♀️ The rest of the week was normal. Just school, allergy shots, art class... nothing crazy but we did too a cool experiment the girls liked.  And Katie taug

We celebrated the birthday for real this time and it was a great day! Lilli slept in until around 8:00 and got up to the decorated breakfast area and her gifts. It was the first time to decorate a birthday chair in this house. ❤️ Katie was excited because she got a gift on Lilli’s birthday too. They loved their blankets with the pets faces on them. She got that, money, gift cards, clothes, books... most of the family had sent gifts so she really racked up! Yaya came around 10:00 with more gifts and to take Lillian shopping. They got plants at Lowe’s and art supplies at Hobby Lobby before lunch at Sonic.  Katie and I did puzzles, had a tea party with the animals and watched movies while they were gone. The nice thing about homeschooling is we don’t have to answer to anyone when we declare a birthday a holiday. 😊  Matt took her to Petsmart for more fish for the aquarium after work. When they got back I had dinner ready. It was her favorite... fried deer meat, mashed potatoes with white

Tomorrow is the actual birthday but we have been celebrating this week. It started last Sunday with our “Picadilly Night.” Lillian said one day a couple of weeks ago that she really wished we could go to Picadilly. I know the food isn’t gourmet but she loves the choices and I mostly think she likes the memory of it because the only times we go are good times. We would always stop and eat there on the way down to Baton Rouge when we picked up Peggy. And once a year we went with Yaya after we took our Santa Claus pictures in the mall. My Mom used to take us there almost every Sunday after church too. It wasn’t fancy, but everyone in her Sunday school class would go with their kids and I guess it was good for groups so it is comforting to me too. So since we can’t go there... we brought Picadilly to her. I made carrot soufflé, green beans, mashed potatoes and macaroni. Plus Matt fried cod and we had Lilli’s favorite rolls. Oh and jello of course! There was the whole experience of them goi

Of course Lil’s birthday isn’t for another 9 days, but we celebrated with a party with friends tonight. I planned it early in case the weather didn’t cooperate and I wanted to do it while Matt was hunting. (I know he’d be here if we asked him to but I also know a backyard party with 6 girls wasn’t on the top of his list. 😊) It ended up being the perfect day to have it. It was chilly but you can’t expect much different for a January party and at least it was sunny and not windy.  It went from 4:00-8:00 and turned out super cute. Lillian loved the way the decorations turned out and all the kids were satisfied with the amount of junk food. 😂 We had chips for them to snack on when they got there and then they played for about an hour until the pizza came.  Then, after a little more playing, there was cake and ice cream. Followed immediately by popcorn, candy and hot chocolate durning the movie, The One and Only Ivan.  The movie was very cute and everyone liked it. The blankets for party

The first snow day I remember since living here was when Lillian was tiny. So small my parents hadn’t even left after her birth. And then we had one again when she was 5. I remember that one because Bella was a small puppy and Katie was not quite 2 and absolutely hated it. She cried the second we took her out, so she and I stayed in. In 2018, we had that really good one at the camp and Lillian remembers that but Katie doesn’t. So this will probably be the first snow day they will both always remember.  They have been forecasting it all week but we didn’t say anything to the kids about having enough to stick in case it didn’t happen, so when the snow started falling yesterday afternoon they were excited enough for this.  Just enough to catch on their mouths and make a couple of snow balls. They went to bed thinking we were going to get up and do schoolwork before any playing could happen if there was anything on the ground. So they were VERY excited this morning when I said it’s a snow

Yaya’s birthday was yesterday but we got together to celebrate today. It was definitely different but me and the girls and Hailey and the boys all met for an outside lunch and visit in Vivian. I brought Monjuni’s lasagna, bread, and salad, and of course we had to have cake. I was making chocolate cake with chocolate icing at 8:30 last night 😋 Capn and Matt had a good morning too. It’s been just the two of them the last couple of hunts so this pic is actually from last weekend.  I’m not sure this morning’s hunt was as good as this but I’m sure it was still a good day. We have some snow in the forecast for tomorrow night so here’s hoping I have snow day pictures to post Monday morning. 🤞

Our country seems to be falling apart today as we watch the news about the Capitol being breached by protesters that are upset about the circumstances surrounding the election. But I’m going to pretend none of that is going on right now and write my blog about happy things. 😊 Starting with our Josey had a birthday yesterday!  Now I normally don’t do niece and nephew birthday posts except when I’m talking about the party because it’s too many to keep up with. 😉 But being that everything is virtual right now, I felt like we were as much a part of the birthday as we could be this year and it deserved a note. We sent a gift home with Rachel at Christmas and she FaceTimed to open it. And I let Katie stay on the iPad a little later than normal for a school night and they played for hours. She was so cute and excited. She even tried on her new tutu for us.  Katie had her first allergy shots yesterday and did great. She’ll go weekly and she gets 4 shots each time, 2 in each arm. The nurse as

Happy New Year! 2020 has FINALLY come and gone. And while I don’t expect things to change overnight, I am hoping that 2021 can be the start of getting back to normal. Lilli said last night that it was weird to not be with Uncle Shanny and Aunt Alex and I have to agree. They weren’t here last year either because Alex was pregnant so it has been WAY too long since we’ve seen them. We are hoping a visit can come very soon and we can meet Lucas and get to spend some time with Logan (and their parents 😉). So for the first time since 2009, when I was 3 weeks from my due date with Lil, we stayed home and had no plans. (Even though Shanon an Alex didn’t come last year, Ryan came with the girls.) It was a quiet night with movies, fireworks in the rain and attempting to stay up until midnight. Katie made it until 10:00 and me, Matt and Lillian made it but were immediately in bed after.  We made deer bombs, cabbage from the garden, black eyed peas, and cornbread early this morning so that Matt c