Daddy's Girls

Lillian ended the Arkansas deer season on a high note yesterday. She got the 8pt she and Matt had been hunting the last few weeks last night.   (You might remember this was on her list of goals on he mirror from a few posts ago) She got those first two during the opening weekend last month, and on the half dozen (or more) hunts they’d been on since, they hadn’t seen another. And I don’t mean that they just hadn’t seen a deer that they wanted to shoot, they literally hadn’t seen another one until this weekend. But they got him and couldn’t be more excited! It was so cool to hear her tell the story of how it happened. And not only did she get him, she learned some lessons on blood trailing and cleaning, and she got to use the pocket knife Matt gave her for the first time.  He said she could have done it herself, but he helped because it was late and they were hungry. 😉 They are making some amazing memories and bonds that will last a lifetime. Before that hunt, they had gone duck hunting

We have had a wonderful Christmas weekend celebrating with family. Our holiday got to start on the 23rd because Chad surprised Rachel with a night out and we got an impromptu sleepover with Austin and Josey. We got to wake up on Friday morning to a surprise from Coco. She wrote her note in m&ms and by 8:30AM they had eaten them all as well as the cotton candy she had wrapped under the tree We got to Yaya and Capn’s house about noon and they played ALL afternoon. They rode around, made gingerbread houses, made reindeer food and of course there were presents! By 6:30 Katie had crawled in Matt’s lap and told him she was going to fall asleep if we didn’t go home. ❤️But we had to let Yaya read The Night Before Christmas first. It sure beat watching her do it on the phone last year! What a blessing to have our traditions back this year. We woke up Christmas morning to some happy girls. They only had a few things on their wish list this year so they pretty much got them all. The big gifts

We are home from a busy, fun filled weekend in Baton Rouge that we spent celebrating Christmas with my side of the family. We stopped by Nana’s first thing to say hello Because our Christmas #1 was just Dad and Janet with their kids and grandkids. Janet’s step-sister and her husband were also there, as well as my cousin, Michaelyn, who is more like a sister. 22 of us! Janet called it a Christmas miracle to have all of their immediate family in one picture. 🥰 She cooked a nice meal and we all exchanged gifts and had a nice visit  Saturday Morning we were up bright and early and at the church before 7:00 for The Great Turkey Giveaway. This was the 11th year and it gets bigger each time. 545 families were served a frozen turkey, bag of canned/boxed goods, a bag of fresh produce and a loaf of my Dad’s homemade bread. He bakes for months to have over 500 loaves to giveaway. What a blessing to the community! It is run solely on volunteer staff and donations and it’s really amazing the work

We ended last weekend with a girl day with Yaya to see the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker.  We attempted this several years ago but Katie was so small she slept in my lap through the whole thing, and Lillian watched, but didn’t really appreciate it. But now they are old enough to truly appreciate the beauty and the difficulty of all of the dances. It was a great show and a really nice afternoon of lunch, the ballet and girl time. ❤️  Katie went home with Yaya from there so that I could have a girl day with Kelli on Monday to celebrate her first semester back in school and also get some work done. They had a fun day of cooking and playing NONSTOP Lillian’s week was busy with studying for her first year of midterms. It was a lot of work with a big test in each core class and a whole different world from the last week before break in elementary. We are used to class parties and pj days but those days are done for her. It’s amazing how much she’s grown even

The Christmas fun continued last weekend even after Pancakes with Santa. On Sunday evening we met Cara, Luke and Josie at Christmas in Roseland for our annual visit to those lights. It was Britney and Bella’s last Sunday night with us (no more chemo for Heather!) and we brought Landry and Kaylee along too so there were 6 kids in my car. A pretty typical day for me. 😉 Josie got to meet some of the kids that would be at our party so that worked perfectly to where she wasn’t shy last night. Katie and I spent the week getting ready. We cleaned the house, shopped and made all of the games. (There was some school in there too but definitely not as much as a normal week 😉)  Of course Lillian was at school during most of our work time, and she went hunting with Matt Friday afternoon and yesterday morning.  Never having a day to sleep in during hunting season is catching up to her. 😁 We met in Plain Dealing for lunch again and came back home to rest before setting up. The party went from 6:0

It’s now December so it is officially the Christmas season. It may still be in the 70s outside but that hasn’t stopped the Christmas cheer. Coco came this week and has been up to her usual shenanigans. The advent calendar is counting down with a gift and candy everyday  Me and Katie went to a homeschool group play date that is going to start getting together once a week And this morning we went to Pancakes with Santa at Jubilee Zoo with Cara and Josie. We didn’t go last year because of Covid so we were very glad to get back to our tradition. Lillian decided she wanted to deer hunt with Matt instead of coming with us. It made me a little sad but I love that she loves it and that they are getting this time together. Plus, she’s not too old to ask if we can bring her a stuffed animal ❤️ We came back and rested a bit and then got to work doing our Christmas baking. We made and decorated sugar and peppermint bark cookies for our cookie Swap party next weekend. And made the red velvet cake b