New! - Who knew?

This is a very exciting post for me. I have so much news to share and don't know where to begin.....

I am thrilled to say that I am feeling so much better and am now seizure free. I have been taken off all of the meds and can not begin to say how much better I feel. A "new" person would describe it well :-) Thanks for all of your prayers and concern. God is truely moving and working miracles for us.


After many prayers, I have been blessed with a new job. The new job was an absolute blessing and I know that I am going to be very happy where God has placed me. I will miss those sweet little faces at Montessori but I really feel that this move is exactly right..

I am working for a fantastic ministry. It is called Child Evangelism Fellowship. You can go here or here to read more about it. My official job title is: Office Manager. But, you know me, that sounds a little formal. HA! I am excited that I will in some way being doing just a small part of God's work through this. I am thrilled to be working in a christian environment and also back in an office which is what I love and have always done.


I will also be volunteering at Frazer (my church) in a way that is quite personal to me, food pantry and clothing ministry. I remember quite well how those ministries so helped us when I was growing up.


Another new thing I am doing is working - actually volunteering - in the kitchen on Tuesday nights at my church for the singles event TNT or "Tuesday night Together". It has been a wonderful and fun experience for me.



One side note: this Tuesday, June 30th is Spirit Night at Chick-fil-a. Proceeds from the sales from 5-9pm (as long as you let them know who you are there for) will go towards this wonderful ministry.

for more information, follow this link if you have a facebook account

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=116124565752&ref=nf

Fun at the beach....

Orange Beach

We took a much needed relaxing vacation to the beach last week. The weather was perfect and our moods were all great. We had a wonderful time enjoying the sand and the ocean (and doing a few other fun things). It was by far one of our best beach trips ever!

Where we stayed

I used a filter on a software program I have to create this sketch like picture of our condo!

Beach portraits 2009

We decided to wait until our second day to get out and do some beach pictures. After the shoot we went to a wonderful place to eat called Grazie. It was (in Lily's words) a Fancy place to eat. It was a wonderful evening.

Me and my boy

Me and my girl

Me & my sweet angels

Daddy and his boy..

Sean's hair is a bit long - time for a haircut

Daddy with his girl....

Daddy with his babies...

Gulf Shores

We took a break from the beach and took the kids to The Track in Gulf Shores. They had a blast. We rode bumper boats and did the go carts several times. The kids rode all the kid rides and Sean even got a chance to drive his own go cart. We drove to Foley another day for a little outlet mall shopping.

We were not late for THIS very important date!

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party

by The Party Palace

the Queen of Hearts

Lily with Alice and the Queen

Sean and Tyler: boys have fun too!

Sophia Grace

Sean


Sean and E.G.

Everyone had a blast!

thank you Party Palace!


We had so much fun on Saturday at the Mad Hatter's tea party! Alice was there to greet the children as they each took a seat around the table for a grand tea party. Later the children helped Alice find the white rabbit and even painted the white roses red. But this did not sit well with the Queen of Hearts as she came out screaming "off with their heads"! The kids were entertained by Alice and the Queen and each had an opportunity to take pictures with them. It was a day will not soon forget.

If you have not been to the Party Palace yet for an event you need to check them out

http://www.the-party-palace.net/

The next event is "To Infinity and Beyond" and we are definitely not going to miss that one! See ya there....

Double Trouble

Sean and Sophia

These two are absolutely inseparable. There is a wonderful story about our pregnancies with them which my sister and I love to share. Our due dates were two weeks apart so these two have been best pals since birth. I used to lay Sophie on my belly before Sean was born. She has always loved to "hug" her cousin. They truly have a special bond as do my sister and I.

Two sweet sisters visit the Murphys

Sean and Lily absolutely adore these two girls. They are my best friend's daughters and stayed two days with us. They are just the sweetest girls and are such a big help to me with the kids. I took all of the kids out for a fun photo shoot and snapped these and much more. We also went to the Art museum and out to lunch.

Lily is invited to her very first POOL PARTY on Saturday and she is beyond excited. Since school is now out, she has really been missing all her little friends. Her classmate, Drew, is having his birthday party at the YMCA so this will be the perfect opportunity for her to see them all again. Of course, we have to be "dressed to impress" for the occasion. Lately, all Lily talks about is being "fashionable". I just about fell over when she said that the other day. And, what is fashion for a little southern girl without attire involving either smocking or a monogram? I had a tough time deciding folks... (really tough)!

In fact, I held on to a smocked swimsuit and the Bailey Boys one I ended up with until the last possible minute. Oh yeah, I also had the most adorable Kate Mack suit that I just could not let go of. The thing is, I could only get one. Oh, by the way, I was at Stork land and "they ain't cheap"! LOL.... Luckily, I had a gift certificate and that helped out. I had gotten a flyer in the mail that had the Bailey Boys one advertised in several different colors and it was just too darn precious. I decided the blue would best match her eyes and of course had to have the matching bow :-)

I think she should be on the cover of the swimsuit edition (a little tykes version or course). How about you? HaHa

Learning can be fun!

I am learning some things that I have always wanted to learn about taking pictures. Blurring backgrounds is something I have really been dying to learn to do. Thanks to a favorite blog and my great friend Lori, I learned a little about something called aperture. I also learned that there is Oh so much I just do not know about taking the perfect picture..... But, I am having great fun learning!!!!!

Here are some practice shots:

One of my gardenias that is not quite as white anymore :-(

Sean's plant

A picture of Lily that I actually blurred (the background) myself in edit using her technique.

I like BIG bows and I cannot lie......

HA!

Really though, she sure was enjoying this ice cream cone..

It is always fun watching her eat ice cream. She loves it so much!

Our little Ballerina

Our sweet girl absolutely loves ballet.... Sadly, we had to take her out a few months ago since I was not able to drive her and Buddy was teaching evenings. Seeing all of her friends and her cousin do their recitals has been fun, but, I could not help feeling sorry for my sweet girl that she has missed out. Yesterday, Sean, Buddy & I had a great idea to let her have a recital for us. We made it very formal. We put music on and took our seats in the living room as she danced in front of us. She was so beautiful. We took pictures and gave her flowers (I happened to have some on hand) at the end. I could tell she was taking it very seriously. She had the "audience" all to herself and just captured our hearts as she usually does.

The sweetest sleep

Buddy snapped this shot of Me & Sean taking a nap yesterday. I love snuggling down with my kids for a nap. It is the most relaxing sleep!

Another milestone for our "Miracle Boy"!

Sean had his kindergarten graduation ceremony today.

As Buddy & I sat and watched him walk up to receive his diploma I could not help remembering the miracle of his being here with us to celebrate such a momentous little occasion.

Words echoed in my mind as he stood on the stage in front of me and time stood still for a brief moment. Words like: "no fetal pole", "odd gestational sac", "eight weeks and still no heartbeat" and "Mrs Murphy, with beta pregnancy numbers this high we both know the baby should have a heartbeat by now"! And the most painful words that will forever ring in my mind and remind me of the miracle of it all - "termination Heidi"! "There is just no heartbeat"!

I sat in stunned, but proud silence today as I watched my baby boy walk across the stage, remembering that I actually was on the hospital schedule to receive the ordered D & C to terminate the pregnancy of my precious child. But, how could anyone have known? Anyone but God that is. He knew the whole time.

I watched him with tears in my eyes as he shook the principals hand today and took his little diploma. Remembering all the prayers of faith, the canceled D & C and the second opinion. Remembering the Dr. telling me there was a heartbeat after all and me refusing to believe it. It was all a whirlwind of emotion today as our son achieved another milestone in his precious life. And, it always will be....

I never take for granted the miracle of my son, Sean!

My sweet Lily

I just had to post a closer look at this picture (previously included in a collage) of my baby girl...

A bundle of sweetness! And a little attitude. :-)

Busy week & Sean's birthday

Last week was a very busy week. Beginning with church choir programs for both kids, school programs & parties, and ending with Sean's birthday party. I have so many pictures to share. I don't really like sharing them in a collage, but there are just to many. If you click on the collage, you should be able to get a closer look at the pictures. I am working on some slide shows and maybe a video clip or two.

Sean's birthday party was a blast!

We had all the food catered in and hired Darth Vader to entertain the kids. I made the boys Jedi robes and the girls wore Princess Leia robes. The "Yoda Soda" that I made to drink was a big hit with the kids. We bought light sabers for each of the boys and they all "battled" it out in the back yard. After the party as the guests were leaving, I heard several boys saying "I want my party to be Star Wars too"!

I think I may be ready for another party in about 6 months. Ha! I really am glad that the Sean and Lily have birthdays so far apart. It does give me plenty of time to recuperate and plan :-)

Sean's 6th Birthday

STAR WARS PARTY

Birthday Boy

Guests

Decorations

The Girls

Fun with Darth Vader

Water Fun...

Our niece Sophie has a very special place in our hearts. She and Sean are practically inseparable and have been since they were babies. She was not going to be able to come to Sean's birthday party on Saturday because of her dance recital so we let her spend the night before the party with us and be a part of all the preparations. We took a break from all the cleaning and decorating for some fun in the water on Friday afternoon. I had the best time capturing all the fun they had.

Sean's end of year school party

Sean's kindergarten year is quickly coming to a close. Last Thursday, May 14th, we went with his class to Ace Bowling center for a party. He had such a fun time and we took plenty of pictures of it all. The kids bowled a few games and enjoyed a pizza party afterwards. It was such a joy to be able to share all the excitement with him and his freinds.

Lily's K3 Preschool program & end of year party

Lily had her end of year program and party on Friday May 15th

She was really cute performing, and at one point she even yelled out "Hi Daddy"!

It was priceless. After the program we went back to her class and she presented us with a big book of some very special "work" she had done for us.

The day was all about Lily since there was still more excitement to come. We all went to a park where the end of the year party was held. It was exciting watching her play with all of her Friends and capturing some very special moments of her. Sean was still at school so we really enjoyed getting to spend some time with just her.

After the party we headed over to Chappy's Deli where a few other parents and her friends were having lunch. It was a very special day!

Lily's program marked the end of K3 - now it's off K4 - Our baby girl is growing up!

Lily with a few of her friends and her teacher

Kid's spring program at church

Sean's choir K5 through 2nd grade

Lily's Cherub choir K3 & K4

Sean, Lily & Makenzie before the program:

Sean with some friends after the program (bottom right corner)

Cousins

I just love this shot I captured a few days ago of Sean with two of his cousins. Arianna is the little one, my brother's baby girl and the other is Sophia my sister's youngest child. Sean just adores babys and he and Sophia are inseparable. We had so much fun the other night when they all came over to visit.

Planning Sean's 6th Birthday party

We spent much of today preparing for Sean's 6th birthday party next Saturday. It was so much fun planning the details with him and deciding what to serve and what games to play. The biggest excitement of all was deciding to book Darth Vader as the surprise guest.

I am going to take it easy this year and have Chick-fil-a catered in. Icing Illusions will do the cake and I am also making cupcakes to line the middle of the table and made to look light a green light saber. I will make a "Yoda Soda" as I had originally planned and he is really excited about that. It will be a green punch of sorts....

I am planning to have little Jedi robes (capes) made for each of the boys and I will do some white ones for the girls (Princess Leia). I will ties them with some rope and silver ribbons.

One very important detail that I was a little late getting made were the invitations. I wanted them to be unique but was at a loss.

Thanks to the help of my great friend Jennifer this is what we came up with. Since these are a little late, I have already called many people and will send some e-vites out. This was an extra special touch I did not want to leave out. I think the boys will get a big kick out of these.

Thank you Jennifer!!! I love these!!!!

Newest creation by: Frogbelliesandblossoms

Take a look at this beautiful set by Julia -

And the lovely little Miss Sophia (my niece) modeling it!

A sweet moment

Although the frustration of sibling rivalry is often pretty common around here, this is how my children feel about each other much of the time.

Expressions of Spring

Learning from Mr. Bill

Our neighbor Mr. Bill knows almost everything about planting and growing things. He has the most beautiful landscaping with flowers and things around his house. The kids just adore him. Recently Sean brought a little plant home from school and wanted Mr. Bill to teach him all about how to take care of it. Here are pictures of their time together. It was so precious that I just had to capture the moment. My favorite picture is the one of their "hands"....

A day in the Park....

A few weeks ago a very dear friend of mine and her two daughters picked me and the kids up for a fun filled Saturday. We packed a picnic lunch and headed for the park. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the outdoors. After the park we headed to Marble Slab for some ice cream! YUM.....

LOOK at this cake.....

I have a friend who can do just about anything. She (I helped a little) did Sean's Toy Story cake last year. You may also know her as the lady Lily models for, "Mrs. Julia" a very multi talented and just all around sweet person.

Anyway, I think I may have finally found Julia's weekness. I am planning a Star Wars party for Sean's birthday and Sean has decided that he wants a Yoda cake. We found a picture of a cake and showed it to her.....she was not exactly sure about it. HA!

hmmmmm, I wonder about the talented Mrs Lester????

While I have some extra time on my hands here in the hospital and to get my mind off of missing my kiddos I will be working on some party details and designing his invitation. It is a little joke about the cake though. He really, really does want this cake. I think it looks creepy! Ha..

I was thinking of doing something a little easier like maybe cupcakes in a row (light saber) and making them grey and lime green. Tell me what ya'll think. Any ideas?

Smile

Cannon EOS 50D SLR -SWEET-

We decided it was time to do a little upgrade. Meanwhile, my sister got a great deal on our other camera, the cannon 20D, which is very close to this one. We will have so much fun taking pictures of our kiddos together. Now that makes me smile :-)

Mommy gets a PINK party ( well...sorta )

Buddy & I usually celebrate OUR birthdays for the kids. They insist on a party for us complete with a cake and all. So we oblige. This year we went pink for my birthday with some of the leftovers from Lily's Pinkalicious party. She was very pleased. Buddy took her & Sean to pick out a cake and they set up the table (with a tiny bit of help from mommy).

My sweet co-workers

I have been resting at home for the last few weeks after a little accident at work. Birthdays are always a big deal where I work. For the children, there is a special song we sing after the happy birthday song that says: "we're glad you were born". It is very sweet and never fails to bring tears to my eyes. In fact I still have Sean's "celebration of life" from his Montessori class on video. Anyway, we always get together for the teachers and try to do something special. A card goes around and each person signs it and we will be surprised in class with out favorite flowers and a gift card and usually a chocolate cake of some sort. AND of course the Birthday songs... I was feeling a little down that I would not be at work for my birthday so imagine my shock and surprise when several of my co-workers brightened my day by showing up on my front porch with "the works" from the school. My favorite Calla Lillies, a chocolate cake, a gift card from Kohls, the sweetest little card painted by my "kids" and one from my co-workers, personal gifts from some of them (thank you Carmen, Jen & Gert) and they stood in front of my house and very loudly sang the "happy birthday song" followed by "we're glad you were born"! How sweet is that?

Lily"rella's" slippers don't fit anymore

It was a sad, sad Sunday morning a few weeks ago when Lily insisted she wear her favorite little slip on ballerina flats to Sunday school and they did not fit. I knew they were getting much too tight on her and had tucked them away in her drawer wanting to have them shadow boxed with a favorite dress she had already outgrown. We went round and round and she shed many tears. However, she found them and jammed her little feet into them anyway. She ran into the great room and yelled "tada"! It was hilarious! I could not help but laugh at her. I wish I had taken a picture of her feet. She actually looked like the stepsisters in the Cinderella movie. Her foot was about to pop out and you could actually see under her arch and into the shoe.

These will forever be her favorite shoes I think, and mine.

Grandparents Day - a late post

I meant to post these pictures a few weeks ago but I have gotten really behind on my blogging lately. I really do have a good excuse :-)

Oh, I am planning yet another party! Sweet Sean will be turning 6 in a few weeks. This year he is all about everything Star Wars so I am running with that. I have discovered this is really popular for boys parties and have actually found many good ideas. Easy ones too which is good for me as I am having some health problems lately. I will not go into it at the time, But, I do ask for your prayers as I will be spending some time in the hospital this week at UAB for tests. If you want to know more you are welcome to email me at minnie7010@gmail.com and I will share some details with my close friends.

In the meantime enjoy these sweet pictures of Sean & Lily with my mom and Nell on Grandparent's Day at their school

Easter 2009

Stop and smell the flowers

We got dressed early Easter morning to have plenty of time to take pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes. They are crazy about flowers and so sweet about bringing some to me. I did not rush or pose them in this shoot and was glad I got some great candid shots especially this one of Sean....

What can I say? The girl likes PINK!!!!!!!!

In the words of a Facebook friend... Lily went monochromatic at the church Easter egg hunt this year. She has been a little stuck on pink ever since the Pinkalicious party. But this, well.... this was a little over the top. I think I may be getting a little worried about her now. She absolutely refused to pick up any eggs that were not pink. Oh well, she's just Lily I guess :-)

Co-Pilots..... Riding up front on the monorail

Getting to ride on the front of the monorail can be a bit tricky. We actually were not even trying this year. We came to the ramp empty one afternoon accept for one family standing in the front spot where you would board with the pilot. We actually rode once a few years back on Sean's birthday. He did not mention it this trip so we were not going to go out of our way to try for it. Believe me, it is really hard to get up there.... Anyway, we just got in line to get in on another seat and the lady approached us and asked us if we wanted to ride up front. She said we would have to wait for the monorail to cycle around once and then again if we wanted to do it but it was going to Epcot and that was the best ride since it circles all around the park. Of course we said yes!

The kids were so excited... again! They got flight wings and a co-pilot licence and here is some of what got to see from the front.

Our little Photographer

Last year we let Sean take a few pictures with our camera and he showed a real interest so this year we decided to let him have our old digital camera. He was completely on his own which meant we were a little slower in the parks. It was so cute though watching him. It also meant that he did not always want his pictures with the characters. He wanted to take pictures of them and some of Lily with them.

Here is some of his work: completely unedited or cropped

We captured him first doing his "thing"...

He wanted one of us in front of the castle

He posed us this way. I know..... we look way to serious!

Our Resort -

Jungle Cruise - from a moving boat

A nice lady taking photopass pictures at Chef Mickey's (he asked)

Time Out!

I don't really remember what was going on here! I saw this picture in the mix when we got home and I just thought it was funny. Buddy could not remember either. He was probably having one of his daily fits about wanting to go down to the resort arcade to play video games. This time came much to early but I think he actually would have preferred to swim and play video games all day then go to the parks :-)

(seriously, I thought boys are like 12 when they start this)

sigh.... he did have a blast though!

A Room With a View

This year we stayed at the Contemporary Resort. It was our 7th wedding anniversary and we wanted it to be special. Our first day there was also St. Patrick's Day. All the times I joke about "Murphy's Law" we sure did have the luck of the Irish on this day. You will see us below in a photo we took with the resort supervisor Ms. Judy (or as Lily affectionately called her, fairy Godmother). When we booked there were only two rooms left in all of Disney and let me tell you, they were not the best of rooms. Cheap? No way but when you are desperate you take what you can get.

Anyway, the lady in reservations assured us that even though we were out of luck getting a castle view room she would at least put us up high so we would not have to hear the monorail noise (that is the resort that the monorail passes strait through) and since it was our anniversary she would try really hard. We were very disappointed though when we got there and our room was not only on the lowest floor (5th, and monorail is on 4th) but also facing 24/7 construction. Buddy went down to see how he could sweet talk someone. He got lucky when he ran into:

"Fairy Godmother"!

We were only hoping for a room a little higher up. But, imagine our very pleasant surprise when we were given a room on the 10th floor with this fabulous view.....

The Castle at Magic Kingdom - Buddy took these from our balcony

Grand Floridian Resort and Spa -where we usually love to stay!

The Polynesian Resort

Monorail view - kids loved this..

We really enjoyed our room. The castle was so beautiful at night. I could hardly go to sleep from staring at it. It stayed lit up all night. I woke up a few times in the very early hours and would go look out at it just to see if it was still lit up. We were out late most nights but stayed in our room one night to see the fire works over the castle and it was wonderful. Lily sat on my lap on our balcony and told us it was the best night of her life. We could also see a nightly boat parade that came by in the Seven Seas Lagoon and that was pretty neat. We loved our room -Thank you again Fairy Godmother -AKA: Ms. Judy

I loved this.......

Power Rangers

We actually stood in the Power Ranger lines this year. I don't know how but we caught them pretty short. Everyone must have been over at the new Toy Story Mania ride. (more on that later) The kids were pumped. Sadly though we did not get blue ranger and the yellow one was a photopass and will be on our disk.

They were doing these hilarious and totally unprovoked poses in front of the car just before all the rangers got on and drove off. They had a blast here.....

Lily rides the "Tea Cups"

Lily was the only one who wanted to ride the "tea cup" ride. Sean though it was a baby ride and went on the Indy speedway with his daddy. I was stuck riding it with her and it was tough because things that spin tend to make me a little nauseous. I though I would take you back on the ride with her though because I did not realize I had gotten all these expressions as we rode. She loved it...

Please enjoy the Mad Tea Party with Lily

She's ready

getting started.......

lets go faster......

I'm getting a little dizzy.......

soooo much fun......

I'm done.........

Why I love Disney at Spring time - Epcot Flower and Garden Festival 2009

WHAT... Mommy has not made a single Disney post yet?

Listen y'all! I know you have been waiting to see and hear all about Disney world and I promise it is all coming very soon. In fact it will be tonight I think. At least some of it. We got home Sunday night and woke up Monday morning for the weekly rat race of work and school and with two nights of church so far this week and an emergency visit to the doctor with Lily due to an injury we have not had much time.

I just uploaded all the pics from our two cameras and we let Sean use our old digital so you will get to see some of his work (which is pretty good by the way). We also have the Disney PhotoPass pictures on disk coming in the mail soon. But I can't show those until they get here.

We had a good time considering the rather large spring break crowds. I will say that we had some very interesting and adventurous moments this trip. some funny and some not so funny moments.

The kids got much more out of this trip then ever before. They were a great age this time. Sean loves all the big rides and is tall enough for all of them. He is my little partner because Buddy surely will have no part of any of it. My little daredevil did the Tower of Terror two times and the biggest, newest and most intense roller coaster there: Expedition Everest. We did it at night which made it a little more intense and I have to admit I was a lot afraid on that thing. He was laughing..... little stinker!

Happy Anniversary My Love

Seven years ago today I married you, the most wonderful man on earth. Our love has endured some tests. It grew stronger. We faced some sorrow and loss together. It brought us closer. We patiently waited for the family we longed for and leaned on the faith of one another after each heartbreaking loss. We trusted in God and he gave us our desires. Two precious miracles, our children Sean and Lily. Thank you for loving me. You are a Godly man, loving husband and devoted father. Happy Anniversary. May the next seven years be even better..... I love you!

Look who's ready for Spring Break 2009

My Little Miss Sunshine....
We were busy all day packing and getting some last minute things done and ready to get away for our big spring break trip. We picked this cute little swim suit up last night at Sam's for Lily and of course she had to model it for us today. She actually thought she was modeling for Mrs. Julia of(Frogbelliesandblossoms), our fabulous children's clothing designer friend. She usually models for her and we had just finished doing a huge shoot for her a few days ago so I guess she was in that mode.
I thought this suit was precious though and could not resist taking a break today to snap her picture in it.

Yes, I still blog................

I'm back after hiding out for a bit. I've started an actual post several times. I've started a post in my head a million times.

We have had a crazy past few weeks. There are so many things I want to post about and I know I will never catch up. Cute things that I wanted to share but have forgotten now.

There are some things I would like to share but can't. I will just let you know that we are all fine. I have had a few med changes and have been trying to adjust. Buddy had a small procedure and is fine and Sean is recovering from his broken foot. He will finally get his cast off Friday.

We are taking a SPRING BREAK vacation to an undisclosed location. And although some of our closest friends do know I will let you in on the secret too. It's our seventh anniversary and we decided to go somewhere with the kids. We have hired a sitter where we are we will be for one of the evenings and have some pretty nice plans for just the two of us which we are both looking forward to.....

Here is a clue: A dream is a wish your heart makes! Figured it out yet?


And now this sweet story:


I had a lot on my mind yesterday. Way to much to stop and be bothered with my four year old. Her soft little voice nagged at me that she was worried about something. How could she be worried I though sarcastically. I selfishly though about all the important things I had on my mind and the things I had to get done.

And then I looked at her. I REALLY looked at her! She looked so worried. I was modeling her in some clothing for Julia. I set the camera down and we had a talk. It was the sweetest (and a little funny) conversation I have ever had with my daughter. I hope I can remember it all.

"Mommy, did God make the wind?" she asked me. I reminded her about the song she sings about the winds and the waves. "mommy, did he make the sunshine"? I told her yes! I was quite surprised when she told me she wished he had not. "Why"? I asked. She tells me it is shining in her eyes and that she can't see. I explained that God made the sun so that everything including her could grow. That was when she explained to me she was so worried. She was worried because she was not growing at all. "Sean's is growing mommy"! "He has been 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and now he is almost 6! I am sooooo tiny and just still 4". She was in tears and it was so real to her. There was just no amount of explaining I could do to her about birth order or the fact that she had a birthday and was 3 a few months ago that could make it all better. And then came her big plan.

"Mommy, I know! I could be God"!!! "No Lily"! I told her she could not be God.... "Yes I can, you can just make me a girl Jesus costume and I can be him" :-) She smiled and went along her sweet little way!

Soooo. I have one child who has such faith it God that he prays for the healing of any and everyone who walks through our front door and now our daughter wants wants to BE God. Lets just hope this is a theatrical thing. Maybe they are doing auditions in Sunday school for the Easter drama or something. :-)

Just like daddy.....

Today will be a very busy day for us. We had another Murphy Dog Hopeful interview this morning. This time it was with a Boston Terrier. I will have more on that later and we have an in-house visit this evening with "April". We have a party to attend in Ramer which we are super pumped about. But now for the reason for this post:

Out of the mouth of babes is truly fitting here:

Sean came into the den crying this morning. He was soaked on his pants and had gotten his cast and the boot wet. I asked what had happened and he told me it was from trying to get ice out of the fridge and water came out. What had happened was that like many times before, he puts water in the cup first and then adds ice..... The water all splashes out on him. I reminded him of how to do it. By this time he was a wreck and crying loudly while saying these words:

"Well I am just like my daddy, I can't remember anything you tell me"!
I am sorry but I just had to laugh. Even Buddy got a good laugh out of this one:-)

A kid "funny" worth sharing.....

I KNOW, I KNOW!!!! I have not been keeping up with my blog lately. I have so much to update you on and some really cute posts in the works. So many cute pictures to share....
However, I have been working extra hours and feeling a little tired lately. It may come a little later then sooner.

Now, this one is so cute.... Buddy was keeping the kids today and had to call me at work to share this with me. He heard the kids talking and thought it was so funny! It went a little something like this:

Lily comes in with a DVD that won't play and keeps skipping.

Sean looks at DVD and says "Oh my goodness, look at the fingerprints"! - (he shows it to daddy)

Daddy is saying at this point this is why the DVD will not play.

Sean: "My eyebrows are popping off! I might have to go to the hospital"!

Sean's first broken bone.....

I guess I should have included this under the weekend post as the "cherry on top" of our perfect weekend since it technically happened yesterday. Sean and buddy were playing around and wrestling on the floor like they always do and Sean flipped on his little foot. Anyway, he broke his foot!

We did not know it until today though. We though something was probably wrong and when he woke up this morning still crying out when he put pressure on it we made an appointment right away. He is getting used to the cast and is loving all the attention.

Daddy promised him a playstation game if it was broken and if he had to get a cast. I think he would have been heartbroken if the x-rays had come back clean. Needless to say, we went right away and got him the game he has been wanting. He will have to wear this cast for four weeks and then we will have some more x-rays.

"Where the vote people live"

We have not been out with the kids for a while. I mean just out somewhere for the fun of it. Saturday was a perfect opportunity. The weather was gorgeous and we were all rested and ready to go somewhere. We thought of the zoo but after we slept in a little to late and had our breakfast, we decided to try something the kids had never done before. We had a few things in mind, but first we went downtown to the Capitol.

First of all I think that the area around the Capitol is beautiful. There are so many nice places to take pictures. The kids wanted to eat at Chris's hot dogs but we decided to wait and see the capitol first . We had just gotten them out of the car when Sean announced that this was the place where the "vote" people lived. He said so sweetly, "Oh, I hope I get to see Obama". I thought that was to cute. I explained to him it was the State Capitol. We looked around and took some pictures....



After all that fun and tons of pictures we decided for some good ole fashioned BBQ for lunch instead of hot dogs. We had not been to Country's BBQ in a long time and it sounded perfect! We had a great lunch and talked about what to do next.

Everyone needed a haircut except me. So we we took a family trip to the salon. What fun. Listening to Sean talk to his stylist was the highlight of the day. He explained in great detail how we got to go to the "castle" (capitol)and that there were lots of statues there (Jefferson Davis) he took pictures with some of them. He told here that it was where the "vote people lived". He even had the had Lily's stylist cracking up.


It was what I would call a perfect day! Of course no day is perfect right? and we have something in this family called Murphy's Law. We got home and got everyone settled in for the evening and talked about what to do for dinner. But I was still feeling giddy from our wonderful day. I decided to go out one more time. I went to Movie Gallery to use the mailer certificate to Buy one get one free. Sean wanted to come with me to get a PlayStation game.

I am perfectly fine now and was only my pride and maybe poor Sean's that was hurt in the end. But, just before we entered the store, right in the parking lot, I fell! I mean I really fell hard. Busted, skinned knee and hand, twisted ankle, shoe flying off fell........Nice people came over. They helped me up. Sean rubbed my head and when they all walked away he sweetly said "mommy, I hope you're ok, but you embarrassed me a little". But even with my skinned up parts we still had a great day!!!!

Saturday Funnies

Here are some funny, cute and a few smart (ish) things the kids have been saying lately. They make me laugh so many times during the day. Many times I even mean to write things down in their baby books but then forget. These are some that stood out to me and I wanted to share.

Lily: Mommy what planet do we live on? Earth I say.

Lily: Do you think we could move to the planet Saturn since it has rings? Rings are so "fancy".


I was humming Fur Elise today when Sean walked in and heard me. He said: " Mommy, I love
Beethoven too"!


Lily: "Mommy, can you take me to China? They have rivers there and I want to see a river"!



Lily has been on an antibiotic. We usually don't have any problem getting her to take it since they are usually pink and taste like bubble gum. This one however is a different . It is thick, white and does not taste good. Twice a day we go through a pleading and begging then it ends by asking her if she is going to take it the hard way or the easy way. The hard meaning we hold her down and the easy way meaning she takes it on her own then drinks "good juice" real fast to make it better. She opted for the "easy way" each time after much pleading. That was working well until yesterday when she outsmarted me. I asked her the same question as she held her had over her mouth .

Me: "Lily, do you want to take this the hard way or the easy way"?

Lily: "I want to take it the none way"! - She thought she could outsmart us huh?

Not Me Monday

This blog carnival was created by mckmamma. It's fun and therapeutic so just join in the fun.
Go over to her site and to see how it's done.

My Not Me's were on time but I accidentally hit save instead of post before going to bed last night so they are a little late: Is that allowed? :-)

I did not forget my regular set of keys when I went out today thus locking me and the kids out of the house tonight.

I did not get dinner on the table after 8:30 pm and get so busy cleaning up afterward that I forgot to read the bedtime story I promised to my precious four year old daughter. Oh, and she did not fall asleep while waiting for me and end up sleeping with spaghetti on her face - what mother would ever let that happen?

I have not put off writing thank you cards another week. I would never do something like that. I would be such bad etiquette.

I did not bring a 5 pound bag of peanut m&ms to work and put my name on it.

I am not engaged in a silly and desperate attempt with my husband to gain more facebook friends therefore searching out and being accepted by people like Hota Kotb. - Not Me!

I did not forget to fold laundry.

I really, really did not fix lunch boxes for the kids for tomorrow! But that is because we are picking them up early and going to have lunch with dear friends whom we have not seen in a long time. Hopefully I will have pics to post. YAY!

What have you NOT ben doing this week?

Update on Arianna's RSV

Edit to earlier post:

The last I heard I think the baby is getting to go home. Thanks for prayers.... She will go home with neb. treatments and some antibiotics. This was tremendous improvement because I know how bad RSV can be especially when complicated with Pneumonia.

Posted earlier:

I have not been able to be around her still due to the kids and I being sick but I spoke with Sabrina (her mom) this morning. I forgot to mention that she has pneumonia. However, Sabrina said she had a better night last night and seems to be getting better. She was waiting for the Doctor to come in and talk to her.

Daddy's Birthday

I forgot to post this last week! Buddy had a birthday. I won't tell which one :-) The kids picked out everything so it was not fancy. But, everyone was happy and daddy loved that his kids picked him out a Spongebob cake. It made him feel quite youthful I am sure. I made him a very nice dinner. Of course, I don't have any pictures to share. It was a wonderful day.

Praying For Arianna

This is our sweet niece Arianna, my brother's newest daughter. She has been sick with RSV this week. Today she was at a hospital in Prattville, but has just been taken by ambulance to another hospital. Please pray for her. She is very sick and only 4 months old. I know RSV has really been ugly this season as some of my Friend's kids have already had it. A few other relatives have had it as well. We have had many on the prayer list. Please add sweet Arianna. Thank You!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not lay on the sofa the entire weekend in the same clothes and not
do one bit of laundry for myself even though I have nothing to wear once again at the start of a work week.

I am embarrassed to say that I did not do any dishes. But, I have been sick so does that count?

I did not put off going to the grocery store. We are out of milk and everything that matters. I did however scrape up some stuff to make up a nice casserole even though I felt bad and I got kudos from my husband.

I have not put off sending Christmas Thank You cards ....

I Did not fall asleep on the sofa early leaving my kids unattended and wake up in the AM hours finding my 5 year old playing on his playstation.

Well, I'm sure there are tons more I did not do today especially since I was not feeling well and laying on the sofa a good bit of the day. But, that will have to do for my very first

Not Me Monday!

Still here...

Checking in to say:
Just a little under the weather (or under the covers I should say). I just wanted to let you know that we are all fine and being lazy around the house. Getting absolutely nothing done and enjoying the extra long weekend off. I have literally been laying on the couch since Friday evening. Buddy had a small procedure done Friday morning and is fine. I just seemed to have a terrible head cold. It is getting better but now seems to be draining down into my lungs and I am a little nervous. So, to the Dr I will be headed this week to get myself on some meds.

I've Been Tagged

I have been tagged by Kristi

Go to the 4th folder, pull up the 4th picture and post it, describing it.

Here I am on my wedding day with three very special little boys. My two nephews Spencer and Benjamin and my Great Nephew Everett. I remember the day so clearly and how funny they were. Each of them added their own little flair to the wedding and made everyone laugh. Spencer was so serious, Everett was swinging the pillow during the ceremony and Ben was instructing the Flower girl how to drop the petals in great detail. That was seven years ago and these boys are almost grown but I still laugh when I see this picture.

I'm tagging:

Heather

Teresa

Amy

Leigh

A saturday Full of Birthday Partys

a late post......

Saturday we had five birthday party invitations all for around the same time. Three of them were for 12:00 to 2:00 and the other two were 11:30 to 1:30 I knew there was no way to do them all. One was our niece Abby and that one we were absolutely going to. But there were two others that were very important to us and we wanted to use a little creative planning and try to make it to a little of each of them.

So I called a mommy (Lily's friend Ainslee was turning 4!)to see if we could come over before the party started and spend a little time and bring the gift by. I had called the night before and found out that she would be heartbroken that Lily could not come. And Lily would also be heartbroken if she found out about the party and could not go So I did not tell her. When I realized I could arrange it. I surprised her that morning when we went for a bit.

After that, we ran to the Zoo where Abby was having her party. We had fun riding the train and seeing all the animals. It looked like it was going to rain any minute and was pretty windy but the rain held off and it was nice enough for us to have a great time. When that party was over we called our good friends the Mann's who were celebrating the first birthday of their beautiful triplet daughters. We had also called them earlier and explained our dilemma and decided that we could just drop by late. It actually worked out better because everyone was gone by then and we all got to spend some time together and catch up after not seeing other for a while. In the end, It was an exhausting but very special and fun day!

Here is Sean , Lily, Amy & big brother Seth with the sweet birthday girls!

Triplets: Taylor (in Lily's lap), Dakota (in Amy's lap) & Piper (in Sean's lap)

Cousins: Sean & Sophie with their zoo faces

Lily, Sophie, Sean and Rowan.

Sean with the sweet birthday girl Abby 3 year old....

Sean's new smile

Sean had to go to the dentist today to have a repair of a filling on his front teeth. For the second time since Christmas his filling came off. We decided to and agreed with the dentist that because Sean would be loosing those teeth soon anyway, and that one was week and loose anyway, to go ahead and extract both of the teeth. So what began as a simple procedure today ended with our big boy losing his first teeth. Not quite the way we hoped he would loose them but he is fine. He was not sure what had happened to him and we had to tell him later. He slept a good bit of the afternoon and seemed to perk up later in the evening.

Not sure what just happened and a little medicated in this picture.

Sean showing off his new smile.... We all love it....

Silly Lily had to have her picture taken spaghetti face and all :)

Sean's new room

Indiana Jones room - still border to be added and a few things to be finished -



reading his Indiana Jones book

dressed up as Indy, showing off his new whip

deciding where his next adventure will be......

holding the crystal skull.

We still have some ideas for this room. Maybe painting a bottom wall border of grass and creating two bolder type rocks or beanbags chairs maybe covered in gray fabric made to look like boulders to sit on either side of the dormer window that he has up there. Also maybe a fake tree plant and a large type elephant or zebra or some type animal hiding in the corner to make it look African/safari. At the dormer I am also thinking of putting some netting coming halfway across as a sort of hideaway for him. We put the pictures up today and they really made the room some alive some more. We have a "movie set" looking chair that has been in our family for a few years and it matches so it sits in the corner with the hat and a satchel I made for him.

Thanks for letting me bore you with the details of my boys room. He loves it.........:)

Busy Days - Warning - very long post! Will post pictures soon

I apologize in advance for the length in of this post.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. To my blog buddies, I have been following you all faithfully though not always commenting. Lily is sick again and on another antibiotic but not too bad. She had her four year old check up the day after Christmas with shots. She was always on the tiny side but we were pleased that she grew a whole three inches this year and is now near the average range. We took the kids to Build a Bear just after her appointment with the gift of the bear and gift cards they had gotten from my mom and I will have a post with pictures coming about that soon. That made Lily feel better as she was not to happy about the shots. I have two weeks off work and have been enjoying the time.

---------------------------------------------

The past few days since Christmas have been very busy and productive ones for us. We have spent our time off doing some cleaning and organizing and putting our Christmas decorations away (though some say we may have bad luck now).
We decided to test Sean's Independence by trying out an upstairs bedroom for him. We have two rooms upstairs one of which is a study. The other one we had tried as a guest room before, and then as a playroom last year after Christmas when the toys were overwhelming. But, it just did not work out. Toys were constantly being hurled down the stairs and fights were breaking out between numerous play dates, siblings and such, and toys were being destroyed. It was just a disaster. Not to mention the fact the night after night I was bringing basket loads of toys back up to the playroom that had made the way down stairs to overcrowd their bedrooms again. So midway through the year the playroom fizzled. In it remained remnants of broken toys, yard sale hopefuls, giveaways and a full size bed that we hoped would be used for Sean soon instead of the 50 year old twin he was in.


We knew one day Sean would be ready to move upstairs, we just had no idea he would be ready so soon. He is such a brave little boy. He just gets right into bed and tells us "goodnight"!
He loves Indiana Jones so we decided to go with that theme. Instead of going with the character bedding we just went with Browns/Khaki animal and muted earthy tones in the bedding and pillows. There are a few chairs and a dark brown throw. A small bookcase beside his bed holds a globe in matching tones and an Indiana Jones play set and Mr potato head. His Lego table is set up with all his new Indiana legos he got from Santa. The upstairs room is more then double the size of his old room and he has his own bathroom so he really does love it.


We are taking Sean's old room and attempting another playroom. It really will be more of a Lily's toys/television and game room. And since Lily has such a small room I thought she needed some extra space. They will still share it though and it will allow Sean to be down with us and not feel secluded away from the family.


We are searching for themes and are open to suggestions. We are thinking of Disney since we have so many posters, and pictures and because it Will be mixed gender but we are still open.
So far we have a Mickey mouse T.V., a kid size rocker (girly), easel/chalkboard, 2 doll houses, a Disney castle a toy box (girly), some pop out play tents and a few other things that could take up some space in there.


We really want to do this on a small budget. It will get a paint job and probably a border (not sure yet). Any creative suggestions would help. (hint for Melissa or someone with her equal talents). I think I want to keep it simple and classy. I thought of yellow and blue for colors and maybe a simple light yellow/blue panel for the windows.

Anyway, after all of that work we felt we all needed a little break. Especially Buddy & myself. We rarely ever get any time away without the kids. We hate being separated from them but we know it is essential for a healthy marriage so we took our opportunity since we have the entire Christmas Holidays off. My mom kept the kids and we drove to the great big city of Birmingham (ha). One of our favorite spots though. A trendy area that we often like to visit just for a nice overnight getaway. A nice hotel and great places to eat there. We went shopping at the Galleria and ate lunch at another one of our favorites J. Alexanders. Nothing extravagant, but just enough for us.

I have lots of pictures to post soon. Sean's room, Build a Bear trip, Birmingham and a few others. In the mean time Happy New Year to all of you! I hope 2009 will be a better one for all of us.

Christmas Morning and Christmas night

We are pretty lucky I guess, because our kids actually let us sleep in. It is great on the weekends when we are off. But not so good on school and church mornings when we have to drag them out of bed. Anyway, on Christmas morning we actually slept in a little and when Buddy woke me I briefly forgot it was even Christmas morning at all. We had to wake the kids like we have every Christmas for the past 5 years of Sean's life and 3 of Lily's. It did not take them long though as they are getting older now and more into it.

They were very excited to see what Santa brought them. Lily did not seem to totally overwhelmed. Of course, she is a lot like me. Always contented with just about anything you give her. Sean on the other hand walked into the room and was very excited over everything very briefly and then realized that Santa forgot to bring him a bicycle. He got over it quickly though.

Indiana Jones Lego's were the big hit for Sean and an Authentic Disney Castle play set and a real doll crib were the big hits for Lily. Lily had only asked for one thing: Dora saves the Snow Princess DVD and Sean asked for the Lego's. We did not know until the night before Christmas when we saw Santa at the zoo that he even wanted a bicycle so we really missed the boat on that one. It was a great Christmas though and our kids got more then they needed:)We got some new Pajamas from maw-maw so we came home and got ready for bed. The big gift from her though was the Build a Bear Workshop gift cards, money and a bear that she pre-bought for each of the younger kids. We have a trip planned for Friday (today) and I will post pictures soon. It was pretty chaotic but tons of fun.

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas

This year we hosted the Christmas Eve party for Buddy's side at our house. We rotate each year having it at alternate houses.
We usually do this on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas Morning I do a Breakfast and have Buddy's brother and sister over and then we head over to my mom's house for my side of the family. It all makes for a pretty fun but usually very exhausting few days.

I try to remind myself who it is really all about. This sweet and gentle prayer from a child reminded some of us.


I was worried there would not be enough food to feed us all. Ha! We had enough to feed an army! I felt guilty.

Then I worried if we were going to have enough gifts for us all to feel we got our fair share in the gift exchange. Ha! Seriously, just kidding. This picture does not capture the massive amount of gifts that covered our great room. I truly felt ashamed.

Sean said the blessing for us at Christmas breakfast that went a little something like this: "Dear Jesus, Happy birthday and I hope you have a Merry Christmas, Amen".

The wonderful Christmas chaos

This is what Christmas Eve gift -unwrapping chaos looks like in our family -

We got it all cleaned up and then Santa came!

We crashed........

Teacher Gifts

This year for teacher gifts I decided to steal an idea from a very creative fellow blogger Melissa Lester. She had the idea of these beautiful cake plates. I added the hand painted spreader with a little note attached: "Don't spread yourself to thin this Christmas". The teachers really loved their gifts and much love went into making them all.

For Heather - Merry Christmas

My sister Heather has been wanting to get a blog started but never seems to be able to figure out how. She has been asking for help and I have been telling her I would. But you know how busy we all get? Time just got away from us and we just did not seem to get around to it. She did get one started a few years ago just for pictures but never did get the hang of blogging and forgot her passwords. Ha! That was the end of that one. Anyway, I thought I would create her a blog and surprise her with it. So, I started her one with just a neat header that I thought she would like and a few gadgets. She can change anything she likes and add all her own stuff. Add her if ya like. She is funny and cool. I hope she will come along with me to the next blog luncheon girls....

Heather & myself on Christmas Eve about 28 years ago.

A Christmas Party on Lake Jordan

All I want for Christmas

All I want for Christmas is this Lake house.......
(and this is just the back deck)


and this view of the water......

On Saturday we were invited to the lake home of a friend for a Christmas party. It was for the Sunday school class at Frazer which Buddy teaches. We were excited to be able to bring the kids. I think they were more excited actually. We don't bring them to much to do with the class usually, and the members are always asking about them. They were all very glad we brought them and the kids were very well behaved. The food was delicious and the weather was perfect. We went outside and took some great pictures and had a nice fire inside. The place was decorated beautifully and we all had a wonderful time. Thanks to Roger and Jo Turene for sharing their beautiful home with our class once again.

Christmas Plays

On Sunday The kids had their Christmas programs at church which consisted mainly of singing. Sean's 5 year old choir was asked to sing 2 songs in the 2 morning services which was exciting because it was the 9:30 am televised portion and my dad who lives in North Carolina was able to watch. We have not seen him since spring. We are hoping he will be cleared by his doctors and we can pick him up next week so he can spend the holidays with all of us.

Then, today Sean had his kindergarten program. He had a line to say and did very well. I was so proud of my big boy. He was an Englishman (quite fitting since Buddy has taken about 25 trips) and said the words "plum pudding is served with little treasures inside".

Buddy is not feeling well and is now the one on antibiotics. It is no time to be sick though because it is such a busy weekend for us. We have a few parties to attend. Actually between the four of us we have four parties to attend this weekend. One will be a Christmas party at the lake home of friend which is always very beautiful. The decorations are stunning and we will surly have some great photo ops. We are taking the kids with us. It will be a trip on a bus with a group which will be fun for them I am sure. An adventure they are looking forward to.

Tomorrow (Friday) night I am going to my boss's home for the annual Christmas party. I am looking forward to the party but it is without spouse's so I am not really looking forward to going without Buddy. I have really fun co-workers though so it will be fun I am sure. I just really love my family time and hate being away especially around the holidays and when weekend times are precious. Daddy will do fine though. They will bake cookies and watch a movie. They already have it planned. And mommy is NOT staying at this party too long.....

Pictures of the Church Christmas program:

Christmas Parade

Last night we went to the Christmas parade.
It was very cold. We enjoyed it though.
We are looking forward to going to the
zoo lights, Calloway Gardens, candlelight
services and quite a few other events to make
this Christmas season magical....

Getting our Christmas Tree

Perfect!
Our 2008 Christmas tree. Can't wait to decorate......

2008 Christmas Card Picture

We finally got the picture for this years Christmas card. I guess I should let it be a surprise. I was so excited that we got a good one of them I just had to share. We usually take them out to ASF or somewhere nice and put a little more into it. With the kids being sick and so much going on in our lives I really did not have high expectations this year. I knew time was getting away from me and I needed to hurry and get moving on it. We slipped them into their outfits and stepped out onto the front porch. Buddy snapped this one which I think turned out pretty good.

To all of my new blogging friends.... (lunch bunch) I would love to include you in my Christmas card list but I need your mailing address. If you do not want to leave a comment under this post with your personal address then you please email me at minnie7010@gmail.com.

Sick kids

We tried. Sooner or later it was bound to happen though.

Sean has had a great run of 5 1/2 years with superior immunities. With the occasional cold, a few bouts with croup and mononucleosis last year he has finally succumbed to a sinus infection and was put on his first round of an antibiotic in his entire life.
I know it sounds silly but I am not taking it easily. We were very proud of the fact that our child has never had to have an antibiotic. It seemed to surprise people given his age. Even his pediatrician seemed impressed when he looked back on the chart and realized how old he was and and how well he had been. Each year as he turned another year older we impressed the doctor with "still no infections or antibiotics". He attributed it mostly to the fact that he was at home with me most of the time and not in daycare.
As he got a little older he went to "school" half days but still stayed really well. I used to swear it was because he was a breastfed baby. But, I have friends who nursed their babies and the children stay sick. I guess it pretty much depends on the child's own immune system. Sean was blessed with really good immunities just like his daddy. Lets just hope he keeps it up and this antibiotic he is taking will not be a new trend for him.

Lily on the other hand was not so blessed. She seems to have inherited my terrible lungs (lets hope not) She has already had pneumonia and bronchitis a few times in her short life.


We spent yesterday in the pediatrician's office with them. They both have sinus infections and Lily has Bronchitis. They also ran strep cultures on them which came back negative at the time. Today the office called us to say that Lily's was positive after all.
So, poor Lily has a sinus infection, strep throat and bronchitis. She is of course on an antibiotic as well.

She slept most of the day today but does seem to feel a little better tonight. two days of the meds may seem to be working. Sean is definitely feeling better already.

Our Thanksgiving

Considering that Lily was sick and in bed for most of the day we did have a pretty good Thanksgiving.

The day started out as planned and I was able to prepare all my dishes with a little challenge out of respect for the religious beliefs of our guests.

The Turkey was kosher and I was not using any chicken stock in dressing or bacon to flavor vegetables. I had not planned on or remembered this in my preparation so I had to make last minute adjustments in making the dressing. We had to wait a little later to eat since I had to wait on the turkey drippings to moisten the dressing. Also, the Lima beans were not as flavorful as we are used to. But, I am sure they were much healthier without the bacon. The sacrifices were worth it though for the special time we all shared together

Lily stayed in bed much of the day and even missed the meal which was disappointing. She was feverish and threw up several times. Our guest (Ms. Anita) who is Indian and Muslim bought her a scarf for her birthday. She was happy to get it. She always loves to see Anita's Scarf s when she sees her so it was very thoughtful of her to bring her one of her own I thought. She wrapped it around Lily's head when Lily felt like getting up and I snapped a picture. I thought it was a sweet picture but I just wanted to assure you that we are not changing our religion.......

Anita & Heidi with Sean, Lily & Zeshan

Our (Un)-Traditional Thanksgiving

I am quickly getting things around here ready for tomorrow......

Getting the china out and the silver polished.... This is my favorite time of year.
I have not felt myself lately and because of that I am cheating just a tiny bit. I store bought a few desserts this year. It is usually my favorite part to make them all. But, even as I think about tomorrow I can't help but get tears in my eyes. I just love Thanksgiving. Maybe it is because I did not have much growing up. My mom always made it special for us. My kids certainly have all they need so I have to try to find ways to make the Holidays extra special for them. I want them to see that there are people less fortunate then they are. They are both very tenderhearted and especially my Sean. Each year we try to do something different or have someone different over. We try to have different family members on alternate years and also a family of a different culture. We always try to have Uncle S. since he is alone.

This year we are having Uncle S. along with a Muslim family. We also have a friend who recently lost his father and is now all alone. Buddy (Thank Goodness) thought of him at the last minute and called him. He had no place to go. So now we have a table full. Just the way I like it!

Perfect setting to get my mind off of myself and onto others and Christ centered where it belongs. I hope you all have a wonderful, safe and happy Thanksgiving with your family, or whoever you choose to spend it with.

Pinkalicious party pictures

Here are the pictures from the party finally. There were so many. I was just going to put them in a slide show instead of posting them but I could not get photobucket up for some reason. So I just did a few collages to minimize the amount of pictures since I really wanted to show them all.

We had so much fun and I am finally recovering. I did some more cleaning today. I was taking some decorations down today and Lily walked in and said in a very matter of fact voice, "WAIT! you are supposed to leave those up there until I go to college. I still have a few more birthdays you know"! Where on earth does she get the things she says from.

Blowing out the candles and cupcake tower

Tables with pink foods, green foods table and sweets table

Pinkalicious.....

Friends

Decorating Cupcakes

Decorations

Games

If the pictures are to small to see in the collages just click on it and it should zoom in.

A few pics of tables and decor out of collage

Lily's 4th Birthday Party

The Pinkalicious party is over and I am I am very exhausted from it all and need some rest. It was, well..... PINK and perfectly wonderful. Lily and about 13 of her friends had a great time playing pin the "pinktail" on Pinkalicious and Pink Flamingo Bingo. The girls decorated cupcakes and then daddy read the Pinkalicious" book.

They all enjoyed pink foods which included: ham rolls, fruit, yogurt, cocktail shrimp, strawberry applesauce, strawberry bagels with cream cheese and pink lemonade.

We also had a green foods table which included: broccoli, pickles, green grapes, cucumbers, celery, and spinach roll ups and green punch. (You must read the book to understand all of this)

We had a "Sweet Treats" table with pink candy kisses, pink m & m's, green m & m 's, pink candy cupcake suckers, white chocolate covered pretzel rods dipped in pink sprinkles, pink whoppers, raspberry cookies wafers, cherry craisens.

Cupcakes were served of course and they were just like the book thanks to Publix.

More Pictures to come..........