HO HO HO

The last few days have been C-R-A-Z-Y! We are all done shopping and ready for Santa to come! Megan asks every day how much longer. She is getting really excited. Tonight I have to finish packing and bake a chocolate cake. James will load the car. I am already tired, but just keep plugging along. We will be leaving tomorrow to spend Christmas Eve and Day. Then off to Mom and Dad's on Tuesday. We will meet Dad in Mexia. James has to go back to work Wednesday so he will meet us down there next Saturday. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and your new year is filled with happiness and blessings from above! We love you all!!! ~James, Amanda, Megan, and Bethany

Clothes, anyone?

Well today was the big day that we went through ALL the clothes in the house. All closets and dressers have been emptied and sorted through. Our living room was FULL of clothes. The kids clothes and mine have been sorted and gotten rid of! We got rid of two trash sacks stuffed with clothes, plus one stuffed with baby clothes and one to give to Kyndal. WOW! It has been such a blessing to get so many clothes. I will never know the amount of money it has saved us, but I will always be greatful to our friends who continue to pass them on. Now I've just got to put them away.

Frosty the Snow....Ferret?

Last Tuesday night James came home from a Bible study and found a ferret on our front porch. I couldn't let her stay outside and freeze, starve, or get eaten by another animal. So inside she came. I thought we could keep her in the bathtub, but no she was out of there in about 2.2 seconds. So I thought I could just shut the door and keep her in the bathroom if I put a towel under the door. That took about 2.2 minutes for her to figure out how to get the towel out of the way. So we fixed her a box with lots of little bitty holes in it and duck taped it shut. We decided she needed a name. She was white with a few speckes of gray. So with it being Christmas time, we ended up naming her Frosty. (We didn't know she was a girl at the time.) I went around the neighborhood Wednesday looking for her owner and posted signs, but no reponses. So I called the Ferret Rescue people and we took her to them. She was stinky and I just didn't like having her in my house. Megan thought we could just give her a bath and go buy all the "ferret equipment" we needed to keep her. That is one animal I DO NOT want in my house. So she is off to a good home until they can find a someone who will adopt her. Megan was sad, but I think she got over it rather quickly.

Fire Station

A bunch of us from church went to the fire station and took a tour. It was neat to actually see inside of a fire station. They showed us where they eat, sleep, and hang out. They also showed us all the ins and outs of a fire truck and ambulance. One of the firemen suited up and had the kids see that he really wasn't scarey. They said kids tend to hide from firemen in a fire because they are scared of them. Megan didn't like it much at first, but she eventually went and shook his hand. We had a good time. I am glad we went.

Brent and Elizabeth

Our friends were in Texas in for a visit and so they came by to see us. They moved to Ohio a couple of years ago when she was pregnant with their twins, Brandon and Natalie. It was nice to see them and meet their babies. We are so glad they were able to come by. Hopefully we will see them again before another two years goes by!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Our house is slowly but surely looking like Christmas. James got all of our stuff out Sunday. He got the lights put up outside. I love to see our house all lit up. It just feels so "Christmasie". Is that a word? Anyway, we also got the tree put up and decorated. It is BEAUTIFUL. Megan and Daddy put most of the ornaments on. It was a little front heavy, but Mommy got them all scattered and a little more evenly distributed. We still need to get some candy canes put on it, but it is mostly finished. I've got everything else out and ready to be put out, but for now it is all still on the mantle. I just can't seem to get motivated to do it. I will try to have it all done by the weekend. Bethany sure does like to see the Christmas lights. She squeals every morning when we turn the lights on. She is so funny. She has gotten a few spankings for playing with ornaments, but she is learning to leave them alone. Megan asks almost every day if it is Christmas yet, but is a good sport when I tell her "not yet". I have not even started shopping yet, but will have to wait until I get my check from Jeff or James gets paid again on the 15th. I know it will all get done. Happy shopping and decorating to you all.

GO AGGIES!

The "BIG" game was on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The Aggies took on the Longhorns in Austin. It was a nail biter, but the Aggies pulled it off. It was exciting. In fact, the guys all fell asleep right after the game. I guess all the excitement wore them out. :)

Thanksgiving

It has been a while since I last updated. OOOPS! Please forgive me. I hope you all had a nice Turkey Day. We sure did. We headed down to Mom and Dad's on Wednesday and didn't return until Monday. We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Mom, Dad, Aunt Beth, Uncle Jimmy, Christopher, Amy, and of course the 4 of us. We had plenty of food and lots of fun. We didn't start out our time at Mom and Dad's very well. When we got there Wednesday night we ended up having to take Megan to the clinic. She was breathing really hard and a treatment didn't help. They took xrays and determined she had a touch of pneumonia and an ear infection. One dose of antibiotics and a few hours later, she was feeling fine. They also said she was a little dehydrated, so Grandmom took her to Walmart and bought her a "special cup" and lots of Gatorade and juice. Grandpa was nice enough to go to the pharmacy on Thanksgiving day to get her medicine. It was not easy finding a pharmacy that was open on T-day (that was close by), but after several phone calls I found one. James and Mom were sick all day Saturday and sunday, so those days we didn't do anything. In fact, that's why we stayed until Monday. James took a sick day so he could recooperate a little more before we headed back. Every one is doing well now. I think Bethany and I escaped it.... (knock on wood)

Who am I?

Can you guess who I am? (answer below)



Food from Israel






more food



Looking at thistle brought back from Israel.











We had some people from our church that visited Israel this summer. They wanted to share the experience with us. So they cooked us a meal and showed us lots of pictures and "stuff" they brought back. It was really interesting. The food was different but good. To add to the fun they had us dress as a "Bible character". We had lots of fun guessing who everyone was. Did you guess who I was? If you guessed Noah's wife, you are almost right. That's actually what I intended to be, but someone else came as Noah's wife. So I then became Noah's daughter-in-law. :)

Scarred for life....

My poor baby girl. Megan was on the bed today and, according to her, tried to scoot up on her pillow and hit the headboard. She had a nice gaping wound that took 6 stitches to close up. They used disolvable stitches, so at least we won't have to go to get them taken out. Daddy had to stay with her while they sewed her up, and I took Bethany for a walk. It has been a very stressful day for this momma! I found out that I DO NOT handle emergencies very well. Of course it took about 45 minutes to find James, so that did not help either. She is acting fine and is still wanting to go to Bible class tonight, so I guess we are all going to survive! Phew! That was a close one....

Pictures.

I will post new pics soon. Keep checking back!

Volleyball

We went to Mom and Dad's this weekend to watch Shai play volleyball. She did so well! She got the ball over the net on most of her serves! YEAH! Her team won all three games they played that day! We went to Pizza Hut afterwards to celebrate. How fun! It took us forever to get down there Friday night. We had to fight the A&M/OU traffic. They played on Saturday night and I guess everyone headed down on Friday. Poor Ags lost by 1 point! Last night, however, we made it home in 3.5 hours even with stopping 3 times. We were so excited to get home and get in bed "early". Well, we pulled up to the house and our garage door was open. I am almost positive I closed it when I left Friday. So we called the police and they came and checked everything out for us. I guess I am just going to have to be more diligent about closing the door. I have checked and can't find anything missing. I'm just glad no one took advantage of my mistake. Hope you all had a great weekend as well.

Ear infection

Poor Bethany! She has been kind of sick for a couple of weeks. She started some yucky coughing on Monday. By wednesday she was fussy and her snot was all gunky. I took her to the doctor on Friday and of course she has an ear infection. We have had a few long nights. If she doesn't sleep tonight I will be calling the doctor in the morning to get some different meds. Please pray that we she gets better and we all get to sleep tonight! I am sooooooo tired!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween. Megan was the prettiest "Cinderella in a white dress" aka Bride, I've ever seen. She was complete with glass slippers and all! She originally wanted to be Tinkerbell, but changed her mind about a week before. Bethany made the cutest "Flower Girl"! She wore Megan's flower costume from her first halloween. Some friends of ours had a party at their house and we took all the kids trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. Bethany had been coughing for a couple of days, so she stayed inside with Daddy. It was really cold that night, so our little bride was ready to go home after about 2 blocks. That was more than okay with me! James borrowed a costume from friends. It was really cool. He even won fourth place at work. Hope your Halloween was safe and happy without too many tricks and lots of treats!

Weekends & Stuff

We have been BUSY! I keep meaning to update but just haven't sat down to do it. A couple of weekends ago we had a fun weekend. Friday night Megan and I went to a "sleepover". We had a good time. Megan spent the night with Sierra for the first time. We watched movies, did a little scrapbooking, and visited with each other. Bethany stayed with Daddy that night. I think she did pretty well. That Saturday nite was Date Night. Some friends and I got together and had a "date night" at one of their houses. It was nice to get together with our friends without having any interruptions from our children. We plan on doing it again in a couple of weeks. Last weekend was equally as busy. Friday we had a party with some friends from church. It was not our usual "Fall Party", but we had a good time anyway. The kids dressed up and played games. James dressed up in his suit as "Father of the Bride". We had hot dogs and oohed and ahhed over how cute the kids were. That Saturday we went to Zac & Hillary's to play games and watch a movie. There were several of us there. More good times with friends! Of course Tuesday was Halloween, see other post for those details. Then this weekend we went to Mom and Dad's, see other post! We have been very busy, but wouldn't have it any other way. Hope all is well with you all. Drop us a line sometime and let us know how you are doing.

Goings on....

Things have been about "normal" for the last week and a half or so. Just grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, taking care of the kids etc.... We are hitting a busy streak starting this weekend. Will update after our busy weekend.

Tumble, tumble....

We went to Mom and Dad's a couple of weekends ago. Had a good time. We made eggrolls for my birthday (YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY!!!), and Mom & Shai made a cake too. Megan did a LOVELY job decorating it with sprinkles, strawberries, and 13 candles. So I guess I get to be 13 again! YEAH! Life was a little, okay a lot, easier back then (I just was too silly to know it). We didn't do much over the weekend, but it was nice just to sit around with Mom and Dad. James took Monday off, so we were sitting around and getting ready to pack to go home. I had put the gate up on the stairs and James then went up stairs to make a phone call. He put up the gate behind him but Megan wanted to go up so she took it down. Bethany aka Miss Big Stuff decided to go up too. We are not sure where she started her descent, but according to Megan she "did circles all the way down, even on her head". Of course I jumped and ran when I heard *thump**thump**thump* *waaaaaaaaah* (Not a good feeling) I found her at the bottom of the stairs, sitting and looking up at Megan. She had a bloody nose, busted the inside of her top lip, and got a little carpet burn. We were soooo fortunate to have so few injuries. I watched her very closely for the next few days, and she seemed fine. She did develop a little bruise on her nose and eyelid. All things that I can handle. This Monday she was super fussy, had another bloody nose and seemed wobbly. So of course I panicked. I took her to the doctor and he said it looked liked she was getting a sinus infection. That was several days ago and she has not developed any more symptoms. Another lesson learned: ALWAYS make sure the baby gate is up TIGHT and secure!!!!!

Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch

This is the group that went. This was at the end of the day and Bethany was wiped out!









Megan finally gets to pet the monkey (Michelle).



Megan with Frodo the Wallaby










Haley and Megan on the trailer ride
















Here we are eating lunch!










Bethany with Sammy the donkey. She stood there for quite a while.



Bethany with Biff teh Irish wolfhound. What a HUGE dog!
















Bethany on the trailer ride, standing in front of Momma. She always thinks she is sooooooooo big!






Last week we took a field trip with some friends from church. We went to the Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch. We had a ton of fun. They have all kinds of animals there. They have lemurs, monkeys, sloths, horses, donkeys, zebras, camels, buffalo, a potbelly pig, wallabys, and lots more. We even saw a baby sloth, too cute. I just wanted to share some pictures with you! Hope you enjoy!

Our fun trip this week....

Megan with Lexie the Lemur











Amanda & Bethany with Michelle the Monkey





I will post more photos when we get home. It takes TOO long on Mom's computer. Just thought I would post a couple so you could see what we did this week. More to come....

9 nieces and nephews

As of 24 hours ago we only knew of 8 (Taylor, Shai, Hannah, Cole, Gavin, Rylan, Joshua, and Kyndal). We heard from April last night and she told us that number 9 is on the way. Congratulations April and Ryan!

Another week...

Another week has come and gone. We did a little shopping, some walking, and playing at the park. Thursday we went swimming at a friend's house. It was nice to get in the water for a little bit. It was a little chilly when we got out, but worth it. Bethany has been a little fussy this week. I wonder if she is getting more teeth? We had a busy day yesterday. I had an appt with the chiropractor, got tags for the van, and opened a new checking account. We also went to the mall instead of the park for a walk and some play time. James got a bunch of furniture moved around yesterday too. I now need to go and get the right clothes in the right room. Megan and Bethany's are in our room and ours are in the front bedroom. We also need to get the toys put where they belong. So much to do to get this house ready to sell. Please pray that is sells quickly once we put it on the market and that we find just the right house for us. The school district we would like to get into is expensive to live in. Hopefully we will find something that we can afford there. We are still in the middle of the dog dilemma. Still not sure what we are going to do with him, but he's got to go. Heard from Amy a couple of days ago and little miss Kyndal is sick. I hope she is getting better. Hey Amy, let me know how she's doing. Mom made a trip to the hospital this week with heart stuff. They are not sure what is going on, keep her in your prayers too! I hope the rest of you are doing well! ~AK

Weekends

Did I not ever post last week? Ooops! Well last weekend was semi-boring. Friday, James spent most of the day dealing with a leaking pipe in the front yard. He finally called his dad to come help. So Grammy and Papa came up. They got it fixed and I think most of the water has soaked back into the ground. Saturday we took the girls to the park and had a McDonald's picnic. They had so much fun. They both loved the swings. I have pics, but as usual have not put them on the computer yet. Will get that done sometime. We then went to Walmart for our big grocery shopping trip. We finally have food in the house! Sunday we went to a potluck with our group at church. We also went and looked at a few open houses in that area. I found the house I want, but James won't let me have it. It is just a "wee-bit" out of our price range. I just don't understand why he won't write them a check. HA Last week was the same ole, same ole. We did finally get rid of our blue couch. Some friends of ours put it in their game room. The back room is not so cluttered now. This weekend we worked on the house a little. Our front door lock quit working, well at least the keys did. We could lock it from the inside, but couldn't use the key outside. So we went to Lowe's and bought a new lock. While we were there I found a mirror on the clearance table for $15 that we bought. I thought after 2.5 years it was time to have a mirror in the front bathroom. It looks great! We spent Saturday working on the house. James finished trimming the bushes, putting the new lock in, and putting a toilet paper holder in the front bathroom. I cleaned up the inside. I finally got my closet cleaned out. It looks soooooooo much better!!!! I now have a big bag of clothes to go to Goodwill! Sunday of course was church. We went to evening services with some friends of ours. It was good to see them. They keep trying to talk us into moving into their neighborhood. We would love to, it would be fun to live close to them, but it is sooooooooo far north. It's a joke at church that they live in Oklahoma. haha Well that's what we've been doing the last couple of weeks. I am down to 2 chiropractor visits this week, so that will help greatly. Tonight is ladies Bible study night, so James will be at home with the kids, while I get to spend a little time with friends without the kids. Yeah! The kids continue to entertain us daily. Little Bethany loves to make you laugh. She is quite the funny girl! Megan just gets smarter and smarter. She spelled Jesus for me the other day! She must have learned that in Bible class. Not much else going on here. Just staying busy going through stuff to get rid of. Hope you all are doing okay. Till next time......
By the way, we are going to have to get rid of the dog. Megan can't seem to leave him alone and he has bitten her several times. Two times it was really hard. Rather she deserves it or not, I can't let him keep biting her. Know anyone that wants a 1 year old Shih Tzu? The people that gave him to us want to give him to someone they know, but they haven't found anyone to take him yet. They better find someone soon, I don't want him around here much longer. He is so cute and so sweet (as long as you don't hit him, pull his hair, drag him around by the collar, etc), but he is biting my little girl! I can't let that continue to happen!

Seventeen

Just wanted to share a little story. I will update tomorrow with news from the weekend and a couple of pics.

Tonight we were sitting in church listening to the sermon. Megan is sitting beside me looking at her Eggemeyer (sp?) Bible story book. She keeps looking at the power point screen and then back down at her book. She leans over and says, "Mommy, can you help me find 17?" I'm a little puzzled until I look up at the screen and see Acts 17 in big bold letters at the top. What a smart girl! Whether she heard 17 or not, at least she put it together. (I was also impressed that she wanted to look it up in her own Bible!) She is getting so big, so fast!!!

My cars

I felt this subject deserved its own posting. About three weeks ago James and I were leaving to go to Sam's and then to Walmart with the girls. He had parked our red car in the driveway and so he went and moved it over so we could pull the minivan out of the garage. Well sometime between getting out of the car, getting in the minivan and backing out, he forgot the car was back there. I heard a strange crunching noise and within a split second knew what had happened. Needless to say, my husband wrecked both of our cars at once. After a few tears and getting over being mad, it wasn't as bad as I first feared. The car door is wrinkled and missing some paint on the side mirror. The van is missing quite a bit of paint on the rear passenger side bumper, has a dented side panel, and has a nice red streak from the cars side mirror. I am trying to figure out where the money is coming from to get it fixed, but not sure when that will be yet.

Where we've been lately

I know you've been wondering where we have been, right!?! Well let's see if I can sum up the last couple of weeks. We were supposed to leave for Mom's on Friday, Aug 25, but the day before was when we learned of Jessie's death and decided to stay home so we could attend the funeral. We ended up spending that Saturday night at James' parents. James took me to meet Dad in Fort Worth on Sunday. I rode with Dad to Oklahoma for the funeral. On Monday we attended the funeral then headed back to Mom and Dad's house. Since Amy was down from Colorado I wanted to spend some time with her. We had a good week. The cousins got along fairly well and Amy and I got to visit. James came down the next weekend, which was Labor Day weekend. They had their "big" city wide garage sale that weekend. So the kids were left at home with James and we went "garage hopping". It was really pitiful and it was pretty much a waste of time. Oh well, you just never know. I also got my hair cut while I was down there. I got about 10 inches cut off! I love it! I will see about getting some before and after pictures put on here soon. Also while I was at Mom's I began to experience some severe back pain. There were times I could barely get out of the chair. So as soon as I got home I contacted a chiropractor to see what he could do for me. He took a bunch of xrays and determined that pretty much nothing in my back is where it should be. Dad said "Welcome to the Isbell family". HAHA Dad! So I have been going every other day for adjustments. So far not much has changed, but he said it could take up to a month to experience relief. So much for my over night fix I was looking for. Oh well, maybe this will help with just more than the immediate problem. My appointments have been kind of all consuming since we got home. Between finding babysitters, getting to appointments, and trying to stay out of pain while keeping the house semi-clean has been taxing. Last week we were even down to one car since the battery was dead in the van. James took it in Friday night and got it replaced for FREE! If it had been next month we would have had to pay, how often does that happen? We did pay $11 for an "upgraded" battery. We have now had the dog for almost three weeks and he is doing fine. I think he is tired of Megan bugging him and she is learning to leave him alone. He did bite her pretty hard the other day, but no broken skin. Megan is doing fine. She stays busy bugging her sister and the dog. She is really wanting to start "school". I guess I should get in gear and get that started. We are going to do preK at home. Bethany is now walking every where, off of baby food, no longer nursing, and has a new tooth. She has definitely had a lot of changes lately. She loves Boston. Whenever she seems him she points and yells "Baw, Baw". Too cute! Mom and I are going to start selling stuff on ebay. We've both got so much "stuff" that we need to get rid of so we are going to sell it. I need to help offset my chiropractor bills some! I guess that's about it for now. I will post again if I think of anything. Hope you are all doing well.

Jessie

For those of you who don't already know.... My cousin Nikki lost her husband on August 24. The tractor he was riding on exploded and burned him on 80 percent of his body. He survived a few days, but his injuries were too great to overcome. He left behind a lovely wife and two beautiful children, Spencer and Sydney. Please keep them in your prayers as they face the difficult days and months ahead.

It's a boy!

Never thought I would say those words...haha
For some crazy reason I agreed to take our friends little Shih Tzu dog. They are moving and can't afford the pet deposit at their new apartment. So we are now the proud owners of little Boston. He is one year old and just about the cutest little thing. He is potty trained and knows several commands, Sit, Come, Stay, Laydown, Stop, and a few others. He even came with his very own food, bowls, bed, toys, pillows, shampoo, and cologne (yes, you read that right, doggy cologne). He is very good with the girls and even though we haven't had him 24 hours, seems to be doing well. Megan is loving it! I caught her taking his blood pressure and giving him medicine from her doctor kit. Bethany thinks he's hilarious until he gets close enough to touch, then she's not sure what to do. James is excited to have another male in the house :), and I am still wondering what I've gotten myself into. Just thought I'd share this new bit of news with you all. Look for Bethany's one year pictures soon. I had them taken today and they should have them up on the web in a couple of weeks.

Birthday pictures (finally)

The birthday girl sitting in her chair.





A present from Megan.
Megan blowing out the candles. (Take note of the beautiful cake!)




Yummmmm








I've eaten my cake, now get me out of this seat.




Please get this stuff off my face!







Well it has been 23 days since her party and I am finally getting these pictures on here. Amy has really been bugging me about it. :) I hope they are worth the wait!

Cake at Grandmom's

Grandmom thought Bethany needed a cake at her house, so here it is. Shai did NOT like Bethany touching the cake, but we all managed to get a piece of it.








She is done!








I just thought I would throw this one in. Megan did not want her playing with the kitchen, and she finally got to it when Megan wasn't looking. She looks like she is rather proud of herself.

My new favorite quote

I ran across this quote today and just had to share...

"God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame." -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

That pretty much sums up everything. I especially think this applies to my children. God has given me more than I could ever ask or imagine. I couldn't imagine two girls that could ever be more wonderful than my two. How blessed James & I are that God chose to give us these two most precious gifts!

Bethany's bow

Hi Aunt Amy! How do you like my bow?

Spaghetti

Mmmmmmmmm............My girls love spaghetti, can you tell? Just thought I would share a couple of pictures from supper tonight. They were just so cute sitting their with their spaghetti faces. They have both had a bath now and are clean and smelling sweet (and so is the kitchen).

Pictures and other happenings

I finally got some pictures added, see "Shai's visit" for those pictures. I will be adding pictures to "VBS again" and birthday pictures soon. It can take a while to get them all saved on the computer and uploaded onto here.
We are doing fine. I was really busy last week. I had somehow gotten myself into hosting two showers. So I was really busy getting things together for those. They were both really nice. Other than that, it has been life as usual. We have recovered from the birthday party. It was fun to have everyone here to help us celebrate Bethany turning one. I made her cake and I must say it was rather cute. Nothing fancy, but definitely cute. Will post a picture in the birthday section. We also had cake on Wednesday. So with the cake at Grandmoms, the cake at her party, and the cake on Wednesday, we are all "caked out". I took Bethany for her one year check up at the doctor's last week. She weighs 16 pounds 10 ounces and is 28 inches, yes she is tiny for her age. She got two shots which did not make her or Megan happy. Megan cried and said "I don't like Bethany to get shots." It didn't help that Megan was feeling bad that day too. She kept crying and saying her tummy hurt. They think she has a little reflux, so she is now on medication for that. Keep her in your prayers that that is all it is. They said if she wasn't better in a couple of weeks they would have to run some tests. By the time I got them both calmed down after the whole shot thing, Megan had fallen asleep on the exam table. It was such a sad little sight. Bethany is doing more things everyday. Of course she is into EVERYTHING! She is really trying to walk. I know she will take off running any time now. She is also eating anything I'll give to her. She even ate spaghetti with sauce yesterday. I have given her a few things with milk in them and she has not had a reaction. So we are keeping our fingers cross that she has skipped that curse! I am starting the weaning process. We are going to take it slow. We are down to morning, nap time, and bed time. She has been really unhappy about that a few times, but she gets over it. She went to sleep this morning without nursing, so maybe we can cut out that time soon. Not much else going on right now. Amy will be here in a couple of weeks, so we will be heading down to Mom and Dad's to see her then. I hope you are all having a great week! Will post again when there is something to write about. Don't forget to check out the pictures I added on.

Count Your Blessings

Megan has been singing this song all morning. I have heard, "Count your blessing, one by one by one"... all morning. She is even singing the right tune. We sang this song Sunday night and she is just now coming back with it. It is too sweet! Of course, it has made me stop and think....
I can not count all of my blessing, they are too numerous. I have a nice house to live in, food in my fridge, clothes in my closet, and lots of friends and family that I love and they love me! I have a wonderful husband and the two most precious girls ever! What more could I ask for? The last week has brought on a lot of reflection. I just can't believe my baby is 1 and Megan is on her way to 5. The last year has gone by so fast and I know the years will only go by faster as they get older. They are both such a joy to have in our home. I love them both so much and I am so thankful that God has blessed me by letting me be their mom!

Happy Birthday Bethany!

I just wanted to wish my sweet Bethany a very happy birthday! The last year has come and gone so quickly. We had a good day. I will tell you all about it tomorrow and post some pics of my one year old!

Bethany, I love you Sweet Girl!!!

Teeth

I just had this conversation with Megan...

Megan: "What would happen if we didn't have teeth?"
Me: "It would be really hard to eat."
Megan: "Oh.....what would happen if we didn't have gums."
Me: "Ummm, I don't know."
Megan: "We wouldn't hang our teeth?"
Me: "What do you mean."
Megan: "I mean, we wouldn't have anything to hang our teeth from."
Me: "I guess you're right"
Megan: "Yeah, and then our teeth would hit our tongue."

She is such a funny girl and comes up with this stuff out of the blue.

MIA

I know I have not posted on here in a while and am getting caught up tonight. I will have to get caught up with pictures later. We have been busy this week trying to get ready for Bethany's party on Saturday! Can you believe she is turning ONE!?! This year sure has gone by FAST! I am going to stay home and get things ready tomorrow for this party. We just invited the family, so we are keeping it small and trying to keep it simple. I just have a couple of more things to get and we will be set. Tomorrow I am going to pick up the cake pan so I can make her cake on Friday. I know I am insane after the last fiasco I had trying to make Megan's "castle cake", but I am keeping it simple this time. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will turn out at least semi-good. I will post details and pictures after the party for sure! Next week I will be busy getting things together for 2 showers. We are having one shower Friday night and one on Saturday. I am helping host both, what was I thinking? I really don't have to do a whole lot for either one, but still have some things to go get. I also have to prepare the games for the Friday night shower.
We are all doing well. We just try to enjoy our time together and soak in as much as possible. My favorite thing these days is to watch the girls play together on the floor. It usually ends with one or both crying because Bethany is "messing up" Megan's stuff, but I still try to enjoy watching them while they are playing nicely. Bethany is still trying to walk, but just hasn't quite gotten it. She will be up and running soon I'm sure.
So, I guess that's about it. Have fun catching up with us. There is lots of new stuff on here tonight, so keep reading..... I hope you all have a great week. I will post soon to let you all know how the party went. Love you all! Good night!!! ~Amanda

VBS again

Megan getting a prize out of the treasure chest.










Shai getting a prize from the treasure chest.









Megan with some other kids playing a "helping" game!











Shai singing the hippo song.

















The church where Mom and Dad attend had VBS this year. Mom invited us down to go. So after our visit here with Shai we went home with them and took the two big girls to VBS. They had so much fun. Megan loves going to "school"! They had a small group, but still had fun. Megan is still singing all the cutsie little songs. We enjoyed our time with Mom and Dad too. They were tired and trying to recoup from their vacation too. Wednesday I went with Dad so that I could drive him home after his doctor visit. I'll have to tell you about that sometime, it was quite the experience. Mom said that Dad and I bonded. haha We also got to see Mom and Dad's new bulldogge puppies. There are only two left, but they are just too cute! Megan loved to hold them and I think Bethany liked them too. Mom made Bethany's birthday outfit while we there. It is a little pink dress with a poodle on it, it has a matching bib that says "Ooh la la, Bethany is ONE". It is very cute! That about wraps up that trip. James came down and spent the weekend and we came home. Thanks for having us Mom & Dad. We always enjoy our time at your house!

Shai's visit

Read on for the full story...


Craft Time - This went on at various times throughout the week. This was a little house they made for some miniature bears Shai bought at Walmart. I think they were putting their handprints on it here.




Shai at Jumptown coming down the slide










Megan at Jumptown














Bethany at Jumptown














Shai at the pool











Megan at the pool (Too busy to look at the camera)









Bethany at the pool - that little girl LOVES the water















Shai on the waterslide at the birthday party. She had a blast!










Megan on the water slide, she only went down once.


Bethany on the water slide. She was not too happy!









Here we are at the aquarium. If you look straight down from here you see the top of the water exhibit.


Looking at the fish - I think this was the Australia exhibit.















Us by the jaguar. I think this was one of Shai and Megan's favorites. I must admit it was kind of cool to see one that close.






Shai by the orange monkeys, her other favorite.










Shai by the penguins - She had been asking all day to see them, and we finally got there.









Megan by her favorite thing, the flamingos.
















And Bethany's favorite, the underwater viewing area. She stood there for quite a while.








Mackenzie, Shai, and Megan watching a movie during the sleepover.







The "roller coaster" at the mall. I think they all enjoyed that.

















Wheeeee! More roller coastering.








Shai finally got here Wednesday afternoon. We were all really excited! We got all of her stuff in, ate supper and went to church. Nothing too exciting. Thursday we spent at a friends house just hanging out and having fun. There were a couple of kids there close to her age, so she was happy. Friday we got up and went to JumpTown. It is an indoors and has several bounce houses, jump mazes, blowup slides, etc. Megan didn't really like it, but Shai had a good time. Bethany liked it too. We bounced around a little bit too. We stayed for about 45 minutes.
We then had lunch and went swimming. All went well. My friend has 2 boys, ages 10 & 8, so Shai had them to play with. We then came home, changed, and went to our nephew's birthday party. They had a blowup water slide which was a big hit. Of course Megan didn't like it much, but Shai had a blast! We also got to see Grammy there, she finally got back safe and sound from Australia. She had lots of stuff for us from the Land Down Under and lots of stories to share. I'm sure she will be sharing more with us soon. Saturday we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. There is so much there, everything from monkeys to frogs to jaguars to alligators to birds, and of course lots of fish and other aquatic creatures. It really is a neat place. The shark tank was really cool. You can walk through a large tunnel and the sharks are swimming above and beside you, or you can go to the top and look down into the tank. The HUGE aquarium with all kinds of fish, turtles, manatees and such are in there. Shai's favorites were the "orange monkeys" which put on quite a show and the jaguar. She kept asking the whole time when we were going to see the jaguar. We finally got there and he was laying right by the glass. It was cool to be that close to one. I think Megan's favorite was the flamingoes, we had to drag her away from them. That evening Shai and I went to see Cars. It was just as funny the second time. I will probably go see it again when it hits the dollar theater. Sunday morning we went to church and out to eat at a Chinese restaurant. That afternoon we all took a nap. Everyone was tired and a little cranky. Sunday we went to church and a Chinese restaurant for lunch. We came home and everyone took a nap. We were all tired a little cranky. Sunday evening we went to church and to Wendy's. Shai played with the preachers daughter and ended up having her spend the night. Monday, I did some laundry in the morning and then took the kids swimming. We stayed for a long time and had lots of fun! My friend has 2 boys, ages 10 & 8, so Shai had someone to play with. The preachers daughter and son were also there, so that helped too. That evening I went to a ladies Bible study and left the kids with James. He took them to the Big M (McDonalds) and let them play. I came home, finished laundry, and got us all packed up. We got up Tuesday morning and went to the mall. I had been promising Shai we would go to the mall, so we squeezed that in before Grandmom and Grandpa got there. Shai had fun spending ALL of her money. I even gave her a couple of dollars to make her last purchase. Mom and Dad met us at the mall for lunch. We went back to the house, loaded up, and we off to Mom and Dad's house. We had such a good time and I am so glad Shai got to spend some time with us this summer. Last summer she didn't get to since I was dealing with the pregnancy and new baby. I hope she will come back next year. Maybe we can get her here sometime in the spring so we can go to the zoo. She always wants to go, but it is just too hot in the summer. That wraps up our visit. I love you Shai Lee.
~Aunt Manda