Relay Luminaries

Hello all! First, thank you to EVERYONE who bought a Fight Like a Girl Relay shirt! I sold many of them and our team was so excited with the money we raised thus far. Now we are selling luminaries. For those of you unfamiliar with luminaries I will tell you quickly what they are about. In April we will be having our all night Relay. This is my first year participating, but it sounds like it's a blast, tiring, but fun. All of the 50 plus Relay teams will be together on this final night of Relay for Life. They have things planned for every hour throughout the entire night. Lots and lots of fun silly things. But at 9:00 pm Friday night they will be having the luminaries ceremony. This is a beautiful and touching ceremony where candles are placed in luminary bags and are lit to honor those fighting cancer, or to remember those who have lost their battle with cancer. These candles burn all night to remind us of the purpose of Relay for Life. The luminary bags are decorated with a pink ribbon and the name of the person the luminary was purchased for will be written on the bag. However, if you would like to decorate your own bag you can do so. The luminaries are 1 for $10 or 3 for $25.

They have an addition to the luminary and it's called the Flame of Hope. With this, a special torch will be lit in honor or in memory of someone you love that has been affected by cancer. A display sign will be placed in front of the torch recognizing that special person. Also, a picture of your loved one will be put on the big screen along with their name during the luminary presentation. This Flame of Hope is $50. If anyone is interested in either one of these, please send me an email or call me at 578-0514. My email is usfive@mchsi.com Please feel free to call or email me with whatever questions you have. The deadline for these are April 1st. Thanks guys!! Oh, the big luminary presentation is on April 24, 2009 at 9:00 pm.

New Blogger

Hey guys, I wanted to share with you my cousin's blog. Her name is Jenn Harden and she lives in Florida. I want to share her blog with you so that you all may pray for her and her family. Jenn is married and has a daughter and a son, and a son on the way. She is about 31 weeks along. However, this pregnancy is supposed to end very sadly. At her first ultrasound they found some things wrong with Matthew (the baby). These things could be fixed with surgery during her pregnancy, but they were not a candidate for the surgery. So now the chances of survival after birth are very very minimal. In fact, the doctors are telling them that he will not survive long after his birth. But because of her strong faith, she seems to be doing well. So I am asking that you all pray for her, her family, and baby Matthew. I know God is in charge, and it's up to Him to determine what will happen to baby Matthew. Only He knows what He has planned for them. Please check out her blog, and let's pray, pray, pray. We all know how powerful prayer is! Thank you guys so much! Her blog is www.themiracleofmatthew.blogspot.com

Fancy Nancy Party

The girls were invited to a birthday party with a Fancy Nancy theme. Fancy Nancy is a storybook character who likes to use big words and French words too so that she sounds fancy. Sierra was the little girl who was celebrating her birthday, and her mom had such a great idea for the party. She set up different stations with different things for the kids to do. One station was a dress-up area, one was a nail polish area, there was a make-up and hairdo barbie area, and an area to make picture frames and door hangers. There were a few games too, and one of my favorites was the icecream station! We had lots of fun putting on pretty clothes (and silly clothes as you will see below) and making crafts. The party was a hit, and a great idea for you all looking for birthday ideas.

Leah in the barbie make-up and hairdo station

Hannah and the birthday girl Sierra in the nail polish station

Rebecca doing none other than making crafts

I don't know who this is. Oh wait, it's Leah in the dress-up station!

Toni and I playing dress-up...aren't we cute??!!

Thank You!!

I want to thank you all for my birthday wishes!! I had a great birthday, and have been so busy since then to even blog. Jimmy and the girls made me my favorite cake for my birthday which we enjoyed after lunch....yummy! That night was dance and then we met Jimmy's family for dinner. His parents just bought a house and are in the middle of the move and Jimmy wanted to help with that, so we packed our bags and just stayed in the Rapids for a few nights. That worked out well because I had a dentist appt. the next morning anyway so that saved me a trip there. We came home Thursday, but then turned right back around and went there again on Friday for a field trip. Our group went to Cici's Pizza. They gave the kids a tour of the kitchen, showed them what everything is and how it works. Then they all got to make their very own personal pizza! The kids had a blast, and the people there were so nice and friendly.
This is our group with some of the Cici's workers.

Weekend Recap

Friday morning the girls and I were invited to a friend's birthday party at her school. Joy the clown was a fun surprise for everyone. She was so much fun, and really good with the kids. She had several tricks which she performed, including growing a bunny and making a live bird named Cookie out of cookie ingredients! The kids thought that was great! After her performance she did face painting and made animal balloons for everyone. I think every girl except one chose to be a princess, and every boy chose spiderman. Leah chose to just play with the toys! Below is a picture of the wonderful clown Joy. If anyone is interested in getting her to come to your party, picnic, school, etc., the number is 800-851-4873. The card says they serve NC, VA, and DC.

Rebecca's princess face

Hannah's princess face

After the party I had a few more shirt orders to fill, so off to Murfreesboro we went. My friend Toni (Mary Lou's niece) met us at Los Amigos for lunch. That was a trip!! My girls LOVE Toni, and we had the best time. I'm glad the restaurant wasn't any more packed than it was, because they may have asked us to leave. We were taking silly pictures (hence the blog two below) and laughing so loud...well maybe that was just me! I do have a loud laugh. Toni told Leah that if she could put the lemon in her mouth, bite down on it, and not make a sour mouth face, then she would give her a dollar. Well, she must not have realized how much my girls LOVE money because Leah was all up for that challenge. She put that lemon in her mouth and sat there with her mouth closed...no sour mouth! Toni ended up giving all three of my girls a dollar and of course they went straight to the bubble gum machines.

Friday night the girls and I had some friends come over to play and eat dinner. They really enjoyed themselves. Saturday morning we got up and just hung out until Daddy came home. He brought the girls their Valentine's which they loved. A neighbor's grandaughter came over for most of the afternoon to play, so while they played Jimmy and I cleaned some. Saturday evening my parents came over to babysit while Jimmy and I went out to eat. It was good to spend some alone time with my Valentine. We weren't out late at all. In fact, Hannah was still awake when we got back. Today was church and a big lunch afterwards. Jimmy stayed home with the girls today because he had to go help a friend cut down some trees, and I had to help with the lunch at church. The lunch was great, and we were able to hear the testimony of one of our church members. Him, his wife, and their five kids are leaving Saturday for a three year mission trip! How awesome is that?? I love our church, and I love that my kids love our church! I'm excited to hear updates from this family and see all that God has in store for them. So, that's my weekend....now I need a nap!

Ever wonder what your house would look like if you had three little girls living there?

Well here is a small glimpse.

The girls said they had to leave the dolls there on the porch for the night so their hair could dry. There were more on a towel on the floor. Earlier in the day they were playing hair salon and coloring the dolls hair, but come on, who goes to the hairdresser naked?? Maybe today they will take the dolls shopping for some clothes!

Crazy picture highlights from our day yesterday....Can you guess what they are?

Ok, yesterday the girls and I had a busy but fun day. We had a good time taking silly pictures throughout the day. See if you can tell what they are pictures of. Have fun guessing, some are easy, some may look gross, but they are not. Good luck!

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Busy Weekend Ahead

We've got a busy one coming up. It starts tomorrow morning. The girls were invited to a friend's birthday party in the morning, and they are really excited. They're having a clown at the party! Tomorrow evening the girls and I are having some friends over for dinner. Jimmy is going to the Rapids to stay with his folks. Saturday...Valentine's Day, we're just going to hang out until the evening. My parents are going to babysit while Jimmy and I go out to dinner...yay!! Sunday is church, and right after I'm helping serve lunch for a fundraiser we are having for a family from our church who are heading to Vanuatu to serve as missionaries. This will be their last Sunday with us for about three years, so we want to send them off with lots of love. Hopefully Sunday evening will be restful! I hope you all have a great weekend, and happy Valentine's Day!

Fun With My Cricut

Cathy, I so stole the idea from your candy jar...lol! I loved it so much that I came home and decorated a candy jar for my grandma for her birthday. Then last night, a friend wanted me to do one for her friend, so voila! I think she's going to like it. I can't wait to do one for my girls' rooms. I'm going to girly it up a lot!

By the way, I added a followers list to the right side if you'd like to become a follower! Ya'll have a good day!

T-shirts

I just wanted to thank everyone who bought a Relay for Life shirt from me! I will be selling them for a while, but I am thrilled with how many I have been able to sell so far. I'm sure we'll be doing more fundraisers in the near future and I'll keep you updated on those. But as for now, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

A new spot for the computer

The end of last week we decided to move our computer desk to my classroom. I've been wanting to move that thing for a while now, mainly to get it out of the kitchen. Also, I use the computer a lot during school. So instead of me going back and forth to print things off for the girls, I can do it in the room with them. Another good thing is that our computer desk is made for a corner, and the spot we've had it in for years is a flat wall. It never looked good there. So now it's in its perfect spot! I have something in mind to take up the space in the kitchen where it was, but I have to clean it and paint it first. As soon as that is done I'll take pictures. But knowing us, the king and queen of unfinished projects, it may be a while!

The new computer area.

Hannah's New Do

Hannah got a haircut yesterday, and it's the shortest it's ever been! I've been talking to her for several days telling her that they may need to cut it to her shoulders to get the dead ends off....I'm really bad about getting their (and my) hair cut. So she was prepared to go that short. While we were at the shop the hairdresser said she only needed about two inches off, but Hannah told us she wanted it to her shoulders. So....here's the old do...

And here's the new one!
I love it! It's so cute, and that part that she's excited about is that her and Rebecca will look like twins!

A couple of self portraits

Batman, Dora, and a Belly Full of Babies

Leah and I went for a walk today (yes it was freezing and she's getting a cold, but she begged!), just the two of us. Actually, she rode her bike while I walked. Not far into the walk she started telling me that her buddies Blake and Ben have a scooter like hers, but their's is batman as opposed to Dora. I asked her if she knew that they were twins (Blake and Ben, not batman and dora). I said, "They were both in Miss Terri's belly at the same time." Her response was, "Oh my gosh!" Then I told her about the lady who recently had eight babies at the same time, like twins but there were eight. I told her that this lady had eight babies in her belly at one time. This time she said, "Oh my gosh....I bet she was so full that she couldn't even eat." LOL!! Oh the simplicity of a three year old's mind!

Silly Kids

The girls have this rolling babydoll bed that has a canopy over it. They usually roll all their dolls around in this thing. The nice thing is that we can store a bunch of dolls in it when it's time to clean up and because of the canopy, you can't see all the millions of dolls! Here is a picture of the bed.
This morning Rebecca was wheeling it around the house. When she saw me she stopped and said, "Look what I have Mom." All of a sudden, Leah slipped the curtain to the side and poked her head out. I laughed and laughed because none of them had ever gotten in it before, and it took me by surprise. I don't know why they hadn't thought of it until now!

Lincoln Logs and Pig Tails

One of the girls favorite things to do is play with their lincoln logs. I stink at it! If left to me, I wouldn't be able to build squat, but the girls and Jimmy have got it going on. Here is Rebecca and Jimmy with one of thier creations. Rebecca is very patient; they sat their and built several different things. Maybe that's why I stink at it, lack of patience!
I was getting the girls ready for dance last night and ended up putting each of their hair up in pig tails. Jimmy thought it would be funny to put mine up in pig tails too. So....voila....

I quickly took mine down. Their just not as cute in a soon to be 33 year old!