It's been sooooo long.....

My oh my! It's been about 6 months since the last blog update. Yikes. Maybe I should make my New Year's Resolution now and agree to update this blog at least once a month. That should be an attainable goal. It's not like I am trying to loose the last 10 lbs. that I have been trying to get rid of since the mid 90's or anything. It's just simply an update to the blog. Should be simple enough!

So much has been going on. We just returned from a week at the beach to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was fun, the weather was great, and the family made it totally worth it!! We have so much to be thankful for and I am trying to think daily about what I am thankful for. Maybe that can put things into perspective during these few weeks until Christmas.

Syd & Ange celebrated birthday's. Syd turned 10 in October and Andrew turned 8 in November. Syd and her friend Madison went to see Miley Cyrus for their birthday. We surprised them with tickets and a limo ride to the concert. They had a great time and Miley put on a good show. She really is a cute girl with a good bit of talent. Too bad that I can't say the same for her brother. He is horrible and Metro Station should just disappear. They only have 1 good song and I feel quite certain that the song has been "digitally enhanced" b/c it did not sound that good live and in person. Andrew celebrated his birthday down at the beach at Lulu's. This is a tradition that we have been doing for several years. Super fun place and was great to have a party of 16 there to celebrate with us!!!

I had a birthday at the beginning of November and I am officially half way to 70!! Yikes! Lord help me! Enough of that!

We are 3 weeks away from Christmas break and I am glad that I have only a few more weeks until we are out again for 2. I need to get busy and finish decorating for Christmas. It will be here before you know it! I have 3 more trees to put up and decorate and I still need to decorate the outside. Looks like it will be a long couple of days! Poor Darby...he will have to put in overtime to help me finish it all in time (like for this weekend)!!!

I will post photos of all our fun in another post VERY soon. I promise. :)

I Am A Bad Blogger

Ok, I admit that I am a horrible blogger and all of the 3 people that read or check my blog have quit checking b/c I have not updated in SOOOOO long. This will be a post full of mish-mashed information about what we have been up to lately!

I will begin with what we have been doing currently and work backwards...hope that is ok with you 3 readers out there!!!

Today we went to the best place and had Italian ice...it's here in Helena and is so good. I took a few photos but I am unable to send them to my e-mail when I am at home b/c we get NO cellphone coverage at the house. I will add them later. Anyway the name is Carmella's Italian Ice. Yummy is all I can say. The kids had blue raspberry and i had pineapple. It was a nice treat on a HOT day! If you are in the Helena area after 2 pm you should check them out. Well, we stopped there on our way to a new Helena business and I have fallen in love with this place. Wildflower Wax is a great new shop in downtown Helena that has the best smelling candles, the cutest jewelry, great clothes, and fantastic boots.

It is a great store and the owners Jennifer and Dave were so nice and welcoming to the kids and I. We even got to meet their dogs; Daphne and Charlie. I left there with a pair of earring...watch out if your birthday is coming up b/c this is my new place to buy goodies, and I left with a candle. Sydney has fallen in LOVE with a pair of boots that we will be getting tomorrow....after talking with Dad first! Plus you can even make you own candles with different scents, colors, charms, bottlecaps, etc. It is so cool! My house smells soooo good right now!! Love the new candle and it matches my bedroom!

Check out their blog at http://www.wildflowerwax.blogspot.com/

This summer we have spent many of our days at Alabama Adventure playing at the water park. The kids have had a blast running into many of their school friends and making some new friends along the way. We go at least 2 or 3 times a week, so if you are interested...meet us at the bucket area and join in the fun!

We also went to City Stages to see 38 Special, Styx, and REO Speedwagon. It was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed ourselves. It was an adults only evening and we stayed out way too late b/c after the groups performed we went to The Rare Martini for more fun with Lava Lamp. We have seen Lava Lamp perform before at the SMAsquerade. They are great and play lots of 70's and a little early 80's music. So fun!!

38 Special takes the stage!

Melissa, Tracy, and I having a great evening!

Darby & I taking a break from all the dancing...haha!

Styx takes the stage...they did NOT play Mr. Roboto :(

REO Speewagon was up last. Or REO Stationwagon...as said by Will

The whole group of us enjoying an evening out!

Well, that should get everyone caught up on recent events. I have a few more things to post but I will do that soon. I hope that I can show you all my new plants, herbs, planters, and a few new things in the house. Also, we went to Disney in February and I have yet to blog about that so that should be upcoming. Hope you enjoy and I hope that you check out your local businesses. They are the heart and soul of our communities and we should do our best to keep them around!

Have a wonderful weekend! I will check in with you all very soon! :)

Not Me Monday

Just thought I would participate in the fun of Not Me Mondays. Here is a brutal look at the things that I did NOT do with my kids and family.

Last week I certainly did NOT find a scorpion in my son's sink only to tell him that I needed to borrow his flip-flop because I needed to kill a little bug in his bathroom. Nope, not me!

The following day I absolutely did NOT have a roach "print" itself on my field trip list at school only to have the whole dead carcass shoot out at me, which caused me to scream which subsequently made the children in my class jump and then scream. This would have caused pandemonium and certainly never would happen in school...much less Catholic School. No way, not me!

The next day I certainly did NOT get bitten by a spider on my wrist after painting flowerpots for my kids to give to their Mom's for Mother's Day. Thus, creating the bug-tri-fecta. Absolutely no way...not me. I am WAY too cautious about bugs to let anything like that happen to me. NOPE!

And finally, I certainly am not going to have a center at school this week to get my kiddies to cut out box-tops for education for me. Especially since I am the labels chair at school. That would be silly, even though it would be really good for their dexterity and cutting skills. No, not me!

Hope you all have a great week and check out My Charming Kids to find other things that people out there did NOT do!

Please Pray for Stellan

Not sure how many of you follow McMama but her son Stellan is in the hospital with a heart condition that is the same one he was suffering from in-utero. The family needs all the prayers that they can get right now. Tell everyone you know to pray for Stellan. Let's storm the heavens with prayers and good thoughts for this sweet baby boy. I have put a link on my blog to Jennifer's website. Please visit her site, check on Stellan, and pray. There is a link on her page to add the same link to your own blog, website, etc. Hope you all have a wonderful day and if you are a parents be sure to hug you children a bit harder and hold on a bit longer. Count all the blessings in your life and PRAY!!!

Love that Alabama snow!

Check out our Alabama snow. It was so fun.......

A lovely self portrait of Syd and I. It was just the two of us at first!

Linus hanging at the front door. After this was taken he took off like a mad man and ran like a crazy dog for about 5 minutes. He LOVES the snow. It's his second time to play in it!

She shoots and.....the net is frozen and the ball gets stuck for several hours. She made the shot!

The house as the snow fell down. The snow makes everything look even more beautiful!

We are so glad that it snowed today. Probably won't end up missing school tomorrow, which is a bummer, but it will be ok. Sydney and I woke up to about an inch of snow this morning. Darby and Andrew has gone to Mobile to spend the night on the battleship USS Alabama for Cub Scouts. They had fun but I think Syd and I had a better time! We played in the snow, made a snowman, had a snowball fight and watched another inch and a half come down. When it was all said and done we had almost 3 inches at our house. Too bad it's almost completely gone now. A great way to start a fun filled week. God is really so very good and to see the snow is awesome!

Happy New Year!

Hope this finds you all well in the new year. I can hardly believe it's 2009 already! I have so much to be thankful for. Good health, good friends, a great family, and God. What more can a girl ask for!



Well, I will update you on all the goings on in the lives of Syd & Ange. We stayed here for Christmas and spent Christmas eve at Nana's house. Grammy Shay & Pop and Granny & Pausie came for the festivities. Of course the kids are totally rotten and got so much! Here is a picture of them.



I am rotten too. I got a great pair of cowboy boots. REAL cowboy boots, all the way from Oklahoma! Now that is authentic and they smell so good! Check them out! What do you think?




We had a great night of chatting and eating. I need a weight watchers meeting location so I can lose all the weight I gained. The food was good but the company was better!

Christmas morning the family came over to our house for Christmas day. Santa was good to the children. Their "big" gift this year was a basketball goal for the driveway. It's nice that the kids can go outside and shoot hoops. How fun! Here are a few shots of Christmas day.

We finished off the day with a few games of Littlest Pet Shop Monopoly, Ange likes to use his toes to hold his property, and then we went to dinner Christmas Story style. You guessed it, we had Chinese food. I think that this is going to be a new tradition. It was so much fun and we made MANY references to the movie. If you are ever in Helena you have to got to check this place out. It's called Lucky China and the hot & sour soup is absolutely fabulous. I plan on ordering take out from them soon. Oh, by the way...we were NOT the only ones there!



I hope that for all of you 2009 brings many great things. 2008 was pretty good for us. Here are a few of the highlights:

1. We bought a new house in Helena
2. We went to Hawaii for 2 weeks
3. We went to the beach for a week with our friends
4. We started school :3rd grade & 1st grade
5. We had a fun Halloween party and attended another great one
6. We went to the beach for Thanksgiving with family
7. We celebrated the birth of little Shelby Grace. She is truly a gift from God and an answer to many, many prayers. God bless her!
8. We continue to celebrate the miracle of little Luke. He was early...really early and he has grown into such a cutie and a chunky monkey. (mom's words, not mine) He is also a gift from God!
9. We celebrated the birth of Christ and continue to praise him!
10. We celebrated our continued good health

We truly have so much to be thankful for and I can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for us. If it's half as good as 2008 then we are in for a real treat. Have a great 2009