Goings On

I know, I know, it's been FOREVER!!!! Part of the reason is because sometimes Blogger is D-U-M-B and won't upload pictures. I have tried....honest, I have.

We have been so incredibly super busy. Brian went to Alabama for 6 weeks to the NCO Academy, Emily has finished the 2nd grade, and now it is SUMMER!!!!! Currently, the girls are at Meme and Papa's house, and I'm pretty sure they'll stay there alllll summer. :) We got season passes to Busch Gardens (it's only 30 minutes away) and of course, the beach. I am looking for a full time job since Savannah starts Kindergarten in the fall. I know, I can't believe it either. But for now, we are enjoying hanging out with friends and concentrating on having FUN! There's going to be a bazillion pictures, so hopefully you're ready...... (these are NOT in chronological order, because I don't feel like doing that...sooo....)

Emily made the Honor Roll at school this year, and was the BEST reader in her class. I'm SO proud of her, and SO glad for the opportunity we have to send her to a Christian school. She did very well in school this year....MUCH better than when I was teaching her. :)

Emily and her teacher Mrs. Pope. We LOVED Mrs. Pope. Thankfully, she is moving to kindergarten next year, so she will be Savannah's teacher. I literally cried when I found that out. I am SO thankful that Savannah will have an incredible teacher.

This was her on the last day of school. I took this picture in the same dress she wore the 1st day of school, cause you know how much I like comparisons. However, the computer crashed several months ago, and I don't have the picture from the 1st day anymore. BUT, you can go to this post and see it.

We went home several times while Brian was gone. There was a mother/daughter banquet at mom's church, so we were able to go for that. Our favorite babysitter, Nat Nat was home from college, so the girls enjoyed seeing her.

While Brian was gone, the yard got out of control. I am pretty independent...as a military wife, I don't wait on my husband to be home to hang pictures and curtains and other "man" stuff. BUT, the yard is something I do NOT do...well, I have, but I don't like to at ALL!! Thankfully, one perk of being close to home is I can call my daddy and beg him to come help me. :) SO thankful for all the work he put into the house. I couldn't get into my garage because of the bushes, but now they are gone, and I am sooo happy. We got new windows on our house, too, and since this picture was taken, a new roof! We are so happy with our landlord and all the work he's done on the house since we moved in.

Before

After--LOVE IT!

We went home for Spring/Easter Break and had a great time relaxing in the country with mom and dad and our best friends.

The girls in their Easter dresses

Our "besties"....this was the best pic we could get. Have you ever tried to get 6 kids ages 2-8 look at the camera at the same time and stand still...yeah, it's not easy.

The girls enjoyed spending time with Melanie's girls over Spring break. Melanie and I "endured" each other. ;) hahahaha I can't even type that with a strait face. SOOOO happy to be so close to them again.

These last two are random pictures. The first one is for Miss Sarah....It's Savannah holding an inch worm. Sarah, your influence goes on to my "girlie" girls. We love and miss you more than you know.

And this last one is just a good picture of Savannah at Meme and Papa's "farm".

This is a completely random blog because it's been 2 and a half months since I've blogged. Again, I'm going to try to be better. Ugh....

Here are the girls in their Christmas dresses....yeah, it's been that long since I've blogged.

This was their big present for Christmas. They have LOVED it, and I am glad no bones have been broken....yet......




This past weekend was our Draggin' Derby at church for the kids, and those who still think they're kids. The girls had a lot of fun. Emily won 2nd place twice and 3rd once. She had SUCH a good attitude about not winning first. We were proud of her.

This is what Savannah was more interested in...playing my iPod with her friend, Trevor.

Emily and her 'participation' trophy. :)

We had some visitors from TX with us this last weekend. The Longorias were in VA visiting family and it was SO good to see them. The kids had a blast playing with one another. My how they grow!!



Things are crazy, but good around here. We are ready for the lazy days of summer. Brian's job is going well. He's been working 12 hour days most days, but hopefully that will end in a couple weeks. Emily still loves school, and makes really good grades. Savannah likes being at home, but is making more comments about being ready to start school next year "when she's big". I can't imagine not having any kids at home all day. I guess I'll get a "real" job. Hope everyone is ready for spring!!

snow...then Snow...then SNOW

We live 5 minutes from the beach....not the ocean...it's the bay, but we don't care. It's sand salt water, so it qualifies as the beach. See? Here is Savannah enjoying it....this is what it looks like.

I can't wait to get back to the beach as soon as it gets warmer. .....sigh.....oh..anyway.

Since we've been here, we have had 3 different snows. It's just weird to me that we live 5 minutes from the beach and still get snow!!

The first snow was nice....it didn't cancel school, and was gone before too much time elapsed.

This is what it looked like:

The second snow was much more fun. The girls got to play in it...throwing snowballs at daddy and enjoy it. Em was out on break from school, and Brian got to leave work early....although it took him an hour and a half to go 3 miles. They released the entire base at once. A LOT of people itty bitty base.

The third snow....WOW...it was great!!!!!! It started Christmas night, and didn't stop till late Sunday night. It was SO fun, and SO beautiful. We were glad my parents were here to be home bound with us. Emily was out of school and Brian didn't have to work, so we all just sat here and enjoyed it. Savannah was sick, so she didn't get to play. Emily tried, but it was too cold.

Dad measured it at one point and it was 10 inches...our final official amount was 13 inches. Definitely the most snow I've ever experienced.

Of course we had to have snow cream.

Silent Night

Let me start this by saying we love our church, I mean really, really love it. When we left our church in TX, we thought we'd never find exactly what we were looking for here...and to be honest, when we found Maranatha, we didn't know if it was exactly what we were looking for, but now we do. The preaching is wonderful, the music ministry is something I've been craving for a long time, and we have incredible friends. We praise the Lord every day for our church. Ok..that being said, here are some pictures of the children's cantata that was written and directed by our music/children's pastor and his wife. Emily was an angel, and by the far the prettiest one. hee hee






This is her one line...if you watch you can see how nervous she was. :)


This is what Savannah thought of the whole thing. :)



Stay tuned for the White Christmas Post.

Emily Turns 8

It's snowing outside and I have nothing to do but sit around on the couch and relax....well, that's all I'm gonna do anyway. I thought I would take some time to share Emily's birthday celebration with you.


I can not believe I have an eight year old. It makes me feel sooooo old!!!! Emily suffered all birthday week with various illnesses.



We made 1 Dr office visit and 4 ER visits in 7 days. She had horrible ear pain that they didn't finally diagnose as an ear infection till the last ER visit. One ER visit was because the medicine they gave her made her swell horribly. I didn't take a picture, but it was kinda like the movie Hitch....remember, where he ate the shellfish and looked like this?




Well, she resembled that....except she's an 8 year old girl and not a 30 year old man....anyway. She missed several days of school, but really wanted to go on her actual birthday so she could share it with her classmates. I made cupcakes and Brian and I were able to have lunch with her at school. She was very excited about the birthday crown that she got to wear.


Emily's class singing Happy Birthday to her.



Brian and Emily handing out cupcakes to her classmates.

Mom and dad came up to help us celebrate. As is our tradition, we made plans to take Emily out to dinner where ever she wanted to go (well, within reason...Chuck E Cheese and McDonalds are not considered options). She picked Olive Garden and we were very excited. Then, about 5 minutes before we walked out the door, she said, "I don't really feel like going out." So, we stayed home and had a wonderful spaghetti supper and cake and ice cream. After running around all day, we were all thankful to stay home.


All the presents and balloons Papa got her.


Still gets so excited about drawing paper.


She asked Savannah to help her blow out the candles.


Of course, Savannah gets presents, too. :)

Fall Fun

I have SOOO many pictures to blog about. I've been really good about taking pictures, and have moved on to being horrible about blogging. Ugh...one of these days, I'll get them both together.

Anyway, Melanie came up for another visit on her way to WV for the holidays, and we had SO much fun (as usual)....despite the minor hole in my bumper.....we'll just stay silent on that one. Anyway.....

We took the girls (Melanie and Noah stayed home to pack) to our church's Family Fun Night. It was a LOT of fun. They ate lots of candy, and played lots of games. Here are some pics from that.

Emily in her element.


Mr. Jon helping Savannah golf. We have made some really good friends here already, and for that we are truly grateful.

The girls.

Another thing that has been fun to experience is a real FALL! You don't get leaves like this in Texas. The girls have had a lot of fun raking them and jumping in them.

I'll leave you with this for now. More blog posts to come...promise.

WPS

Has it really been over a month since I last posted? Yikes!!! I would go into a long mantra of what I've been doing, but I'm sure you don't care. :o) So, I'll give you the short version.


We've gone to Goldsboro a couple times. I really is SO nice to be able to "run home" when we want to. We knew it was going to be nice when we moved back, but we had no idea it would be this nice. Living 3 hours from my parents is wonderful. I think since we've moved back, the longest we've gone without seeing them is 2 weeks.

We L-O-V-E our church. I mean, really love it. We have made some friends, and gotten involved. I'm able to play the piano a little bit and work in nursery, and Brian helps in children's church. Last Sunday, they had 76 kids! Ron Comfort was just here for a revival, and it was really good. I love being a part of the church choir.

Emily is doing really well in school. She loves going to "building" school. She has a hard time getting up some mornings, but she's adjusted very well. She makes all A's and her teacher says she has such a tender heart and is a joy to teach.

Savannah is getting so big. It's really unbelievable that she is not so much my baby anymore. She's getting harder and harder to carry. She loves her big sister! Her skin is doing ok.....not great, not terrible...well, sometimes terrible....and sometimes great. There's really not an in between for her.


Now, to the WPS title. If you don't know (and if you don't, you need to know) stands for Woo Pig Sooie!!! The first weekend of November, Brian and I got to go to an Arkansas game. They played South Carolina...well...the Razorbacks played...the Gamecocks, not so much. hee hee It was an amazing game. Cold, but amazing. We had SO much fun, and thanks to mom and dad for making a HUGE sacrifice and keeping the girls (can you hear the sarcasm in that?)




Our QB right in the middle.


Big Red