Daddy's Girls

9 Year Old Interview  What’s your: Favorite color? Neon green Toy? Dragons Fruit? Oranges Show/movie? A Kid Who Could Be King Lunch? Turkey and cheddar bunnies  Outfit? Sleeping onesie  Game? Minecraft  Snack? Cheddar bunnies Song? Wake me up  Animal? Dog Book? Wings of Fire Best Friend? Shaleigh and Lily Cereal? Capn Crunch  Game to play outside? Dragons Drink? Gatorade Holiday? Christmas  Breakfast? Pancakes  Dinner? Chinese chicken on a stick  What do you want to be when you grow up? A Vet Lillian had to be checked out today because she was throwing up and running fever at school. But I took advantage of having her one on one and did her interview that I forgot to do on Friday. Most of her answers have changed except her favorite game is still Minecraft, she still loves dogs, Shaleigh is still her best friend and she still wants to be a vet. So neat to see how she changes through the years! 

We lost my Aunt Peggy, my Papa’s sister on Saturday, January 26th. She had a stroke a week before and was in the hospital the whole time. She had a feeding tube at first but pulled it out so after that we knew it was only a matter of time. It doesn’t matter that she was elderly and sick, it’s always sad to lose someone you are close to. It’s hard to imagine Baton Rouge without so much of my extended family but when I was little (probably until middle school) Peggy was my only family that lived there. My Mom worked 50-60 hour weeks and my Dad worked shift work so she helped with me and Allison and we spent the night with her a lot. Within a few years after she moved to Alexandria I moved to Ruston so I would pick her up when I went down so she could visit too. She never married or had kids and didn’t even work much passed her 30s. Papa mostly took care of her but her younger life was so interesting. She was well traveled and lived in Europe awhile. She could tell you anything about our ...

Well that’s it... another hunting season in the books. It really does go faster and faster each year. I’m sure that’s because life has gotten so much busier but I know Matt agrees. It could never be long enough for him though!  The girls and I had a good day. It started lazy with some movies together. But we did some Justice shopping  (Lillian’s gift card has been burning a hole in her pocket since Christmas- she really wanted this backpack!) and getting some cupcakes individually packaged for Apollo’s bake sale tomorrow.  Then we finished up the afternoon with walking the neighborhood to sell Girl Scout cookies Lillian came too but she was over it after about 3 houses. They did great and got lots of orders but handled the rejections well too.  The night was finished up with Matt grilling us the best ribeyes. I know he loves his weekends at the camp  but we’re ready to have him home! 

Saturday was a super full day that started leaving our house at 7 AM for Lilli’s Destination Imagination Super Saturday tournament. Before seeing it, all I really knew about DI was that Lillian had been researching presidents that are on coins and what I’ve heard from her teachers which is almost exactly what the website says:  “DI is an educational program where student teams solve open ended challenges and present their solutions at tournaments... In working to solve challenges, teams learn important life skills like time management, collaboration, conflict management, and creative and critical thinking.” That’s pretty vague but this is what I saw... The first challenge was they had stacks of boxes they had to stack to match pictures that the stackers couldn’t see. They had to come up with a way to communicate with each other using no words or gestures with only a few items such as paper cups, pipe cleaners and rubber bands so that the spotters could get the builders to build the...

T oday is YOUR day and it was a good one! We woke you up to a fully decorated table complete with donuts for breakfast. Followed by presents and playing with your sister all before school. There was another BIG surprise when we went out to the bus. A 6ft. Birthday cake to be exact! Now the whole neighborhood knows what a special day it is. I can’t wait for this to become a new tradition each year. School was pretty short-lived. I checked Lillian out at 10:45 to meet Yaya for lunch and a movie. Lilli and Yaya look so much alike in this pic! It was a really nice day and I think she felt very special, which of course she is. ❤️ Then Lillian and Matt got some time alone together while I took Katie to her soccer evaluation. That starts back up in March but the new league we are playing in has tryouts to try to make sure the teams are evenly disbursed. He dropped Lilli at Girl Scouts and I took Katie when we got done. Then after their meeting we all met back up at the house for Chinese takeo...

The “Baton Rouge family” came in for a birthday party and duck hunt for the 9th year in a row this weekend. Jen, Ryan, Anna, Piper, Holman, Brandi and Chance spent the weekend with us plus Shanon, Luke, Cara and Josie for a weekend of fun. It was a little different because it rained Friday evening and Saturday was so cold and windy it was almost painful to be outside. That didn’t stop the hunters from going out of course But the rest of us pretty much stayed in. The kids would go out for a little bit at a time but never too long at once. Then would come in and warm up by the fire for a while. Nobody got to ride four wheelers or sit by an outside fire which made it different than any year before but we found plenty to do. Josie was right up with all of the girls The grownup girls did some pampering and played games But the highlight of the afternoon was Lillian’s Birthday party. She’s not having a friend party (just a movie with 2 friends after her DI tournament next weekend) this year ...

Miss Kathleen won the 2nd round of the American Heritage poetry competition today! It’s a national competition with many different levels. She won the classroom level back in December and then at the school level today. She will go on to compete in the parish competition next month. Matt was there too but had to sneak off before the winners were announced. That was OK with her though. She always beams when she sees her daddy and was so excited he was there. We are so proud of her. She was definitely nervous before they called her name but she went up there confident and did great. She was the first one out of the whole school too so she didn’t see anybody do it before she did. Public speaking is a great skill and I’m so glad she participated. This was the first time Lillian did not but the first round was the same week as her talented theater play last month so it was too much to try to learn all at once. Congratulations KatieJane!  It was a fun week for Apollo. Tuesday was the fun...

The kids went back to school on Tuesday so that means back to normal life. Of course “normal” for us means curve balls get thrown all the time. So the first day back to school (which was also going to be my first day in the office in over two weeks) was spent home with sick Katie who threw up all morning.  After a dose of zofran, nothing could stop her from going outside to do a video for Yaya‘s birthday though.  Thursday was report card day and they both did great! Katie doesn’t really get grades yet but she had mastered all of her skills for the nine weeks. And Lillian made the honor roll! Friday started Girl Scout cookie sales. I thought life would slow down after the holidays but this is going to be an incredibly busy time of year. We will be selling for the next few weeks and doing booths the last weekend of February and first two weekends of March as much as we can.  On top of that, Between both sides of the family six of the cousins (including Lillian) have birthda...

Pops and Honey are going to Norway for several weeks and will be missing the time he usually gets with the grandkids in January. And our trips to Baton Rouge are always nice but there are so many people that we’ve never get much one on one time so he decided to come for the weekend. Saturday morning we went to see Spider-Man. It was harder than you’d think find a movie both Pops and Katie want to see. :) He had woken up pretty early and wanted to nap so we dropped him at home to do that after the movie and met Cara at Sciport. Saturday night was puzzles with Katie while we watched football and ate dinner. We really didn’t do anything too special but those are the best visits. Nothing but playing with the kids and catching up. This morning Lillian wanted to show off her cooking skills and made us all breakfast. He left after breakfast to get home to work in the pantry and get ready to leave for his trip on Thursday. His visit was short  but always sweet.

We had a great 2 night mini vacation on Toledo Bend for New Years Eve. We’ve spent it celebrating with Shanon and Alex for 9 or 10 years now (something like that I think!) 😊 And every year it gets better. Most of this trip was spent fishing and hanging out. We set yo-yos when we got there and woke up Monday morning to a catfish on the line.  Look at the excitement on Katie’s face!  So, after Shanon and Matt ran to Walmart for more bait, the rest of the day was spent sitting around on the deck and fishing (and drinking mimosas of course)  Logan loved hugging the dogs. It was the sweetest! Katie had never caught a fish before and she caught 3 in 5 minutes. We got a total of 15 and that was enough for Matt to fry (first meal in his new Christmas fryer) to go with our black eyed peas, cabbage and cornbread on New Years Day.  The house the great, the scenery was beautiful and the fishing was fun. But the best part was that we were all together. Happy New Year! 

We got back today from a great 2 night trip with Shanon, Alex, Logan and Jeremiah to Toledo Bend. It’s been our tradition for years to celebrate the new year together and this year we spent the whole time fishing and hanging out in a house we rented. It was so nice and everyone had a great time! I’m way to exhausted to do my full post with pictures but I hope the way we started the year sets the tone for the rest of it. A nice, relaxed time with friends that are like family just enjoying each other’s company and the beauty of this world God created.  But the best part was ringing it in with those 3. They are my whole world and make everyday better. Cheers to the New Year! Bring on 2019! It’s going to be a good one!