Merry Christmas!!!

This post is especially for Riley Grace!!! She called this morning (several times) and wanted me to update the blog. She said, "Mama, the last time you put pictures on it was at our birthday party." I'm a slacker- I know!


These two pictures are the ones I chose for my Christmas cards. Riley Grace was such a trooper through this picture session because Maggie Ruth was being a pickle! She did not want her picture taken and she was much less than cooperative! Riley Grace wanted the cows in the back ground...

I also wanted to show you all this awesome centerpiece that Riley Grace (with some help from Aunt Kim) made for us. Its been sititng in the middle of our kitchen table and I must say it is my all time favorite. I LOVE lots of color and once I put my Fiestaware and runner on the table it all looks so fun and festive! Thanks Riles!!! I love you and miss you TONS and TONS and TONS! I'll see you tomorrow afternoon!

My husband is going to shoot me...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanks to my sister-in-law...we've been elfed! I can blame it all on her- Right? I actually sat down one night last week to play with this and couldn't make it work, but Shonna came through on it. She kept the girls last night for us so she and Riley Grace created this for us! For some reason it added an extra little elf... we're saying that's Jack! Hope everyone gets as good a laugh out of it as I did Shonna and Jamey's! I haven't laughed that hard in ages! Merry Christmas everyone!

Oh, we're on the books (to induce labor) for January 16th! Jack will be here in just over one month!

Two (almost) Birthday Girls

I'd elaborate on this post if I could ever find more time...it only took two hours to download the pictures to make the slide show. UGH!!!

We celebrated Maggie Ruth's 2nd birthday (which is actually Dec. 9th) and Riley Grace's 9th birthday (which is Jan. 8th) this past Sunday. With the Christmas holiday festivities and Jack's arrival we decided we'd go ahead and celebrate!

We had a blast and the girls seemed to thuroughly enjoy having it together. With Jack's birthday likely being very close to Riley Grace's we may make this an annual event!!!

Merry CHRISTmas! Jesus is the Reason for the Season!!!

Walking in High Cotton...

Old times there are not forgotten... I hope my girls never forget these times!

Its harvest time again... cotton is in the works right now, my personal favorite. This afternoon I took the girls over to the Riley Place where Russell was busy building modules. The girls got to get up on the module builder and watch him. Of course, Riley Grace was busy working it in no time at all. She just needed a refresher course. Maggie Ruth and Riley Grace both got into the module builder and played in the cotton before it was packed down. They had a great time and didn't want to come home!

Riley Grace went FLYING...

Riley Grace got her first airplane ride on Saturday. My daddy called Saturday morning and wanted to know if RG could go up with he and Uncle Mike later that afternoon. My Uncle Mike is one of the best small aircraft pilots I've ever flown with (I've actually flown with several) so I was thrilled at Riley Grace having the opportunity to get to fly with him. She had a blast and I'm so glad she got to finally experience flying. (She was rather upset with us when we left her here in April and flew to Amarillo. Maggie Ruth got to ride in an airplane before her!! She was not happy about that.)

Prepared for take off... I think it was a little more uncomfortable than she was expecting.

Flying over her school...Andalusia Elementary (the big circular area)

flying over our house...

Ours is the house and barn on the left and Aunt Amy's is on the right (doesn't the field behind her house look neat the way its been plowed?)

All done with her first airplane ride... in her words, "It was totally awesome!"

Who knew that two tiny little girls could have this much fun at the county fair? Jamey, Shonna, Russell and I took the girls to the fair Saturday night and it was well worth the trip. These two will be riding the Zipper, Gravitron, Himilaya, etc. in no time! The little race cars that sling them around the corner were hands down their favorites. I think the lady running the ride enjoyed watching them as much as they enjoyed riding it. Their ride must have lasted 5 minutes. Those poor people are usually so happy about their disposition that they can't smile or let the ride last longer than 45 seconds. After lots of greasy fair food, a couple of balloons, several rides, and some serious talent at the adult talent show we called it a night.

Riley Grace and I were supposed to go to the fair Thursday night but the rain sent us to Old Mexico and the movies instead. We enjoyed a girls night out with our friends Sharyn and Julia. After a yummy supper at Old Mexico we went to see "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." Kind of reminded me of my sisters life with dogs! We had a good time despite our change of plans.

Our Friday visitor...

YIKES!!! I don't care what kind of snake I come in contact with- A snake, is a snake, is a snake!!!! When I drove up into the garage Friday afternoon this creature was sitting at my back door. Fortunately is was only an Oak snake, but that somehow hasn't eased my nerves much. I can just see Maggie Ruth or Riley Grace opening the door to him sitting there. I'd have a stroke. For those family members that read our blog- NEVER FEAR... Russell sent Uncle Darrell over to kill the snake, only he couldn't see him until I walked closer to the steps and pointed him out!

Mornings at our house...

Regardless of how I may perceive my life sometimes.... I'm living my dream!!! I often get tangled up in the little hassles of everyday life and forget to stop and realize just how good God really is to me (for whatever reason-I have no idea why). I have two of the most precious little girls God ever sent to this planet. Riley Grace is the sweetest little soul you could possibly imagine and Maggie Ruth, well she's Maggie Ruth...there's not another one like her!!!

Every morning, Riley Grace gets up (on her own with an alarm clock), gets herself dressed, makes up her bed, packs her lunch and snack, and is sitting at the bar eating breakfast before I can drag myself to the kitchen. She's usually eager to go get her "sissy" up so that they can walk to the barn and feed Scamper. I made Caroline and Maggie these little black t-shirts with candy corn on them over the weekend and Riley Grace asked if I could make her one too. She's still so proud and appreciative of my sewing for her. She designed the shirt herself and was thrilled to wear it to school this morning. She makes my heart smile when I stop to think of how blessed I am to have such a loving, tender, kind-hearted, sweet little girl. (What in the world did I do to deserve her?)

Then there's Maggie Ruth... most of you who know her know that she's a totally different personality than Riley Grace...TOTALLY!!! Not necessarily all bad, just much different. I call her my "challenge"! Her mind is usually made up before you have a chance to offer any other suggestions, therefore inducing small (some larger) fits if things must go otherwise. She constantly puts a smile on our faces. She's so curious, mischevious, highstrung, persistant, fearless, the list goes on. She's also very loving. She LOVES to give great big hugs where she wraps those skinny little arms around your neck and squeezes as hard as she can. She's a kisser too! You'll usually have a big wet spot when she's finished but its the sweetest sugar you can imagine. Thank you God for my challenge and please continue to show me ways to guide her!

This is just a picture of the girls coming in from feeding Scamper one morning this week. Notice the hoods, Riley Grace bundled them up because it was a little chilly outside.

Sweet RG!

Rudy!!

Forgive me for rambling, I just know that I often overlook how privileged I am to be the wife of a Christian man, and the mother of such special children.

Another Saturday project...

...this time it was for my sweet neice Caroline Grace.

This is the finished product that Caroline is modeling.

I've never been a big purple fan, but I must say I really like this purple chenille.

Caroline is considerably smaller than Maggie Ruth so I had to really alter the cut of the pants to fit her little frame. She's so petite.

Maggie Ruth is seen here sporting her favorite attire... any old, raggedy, worn out, stained t-shirt.

Next on my project list is my other sweet neice, Rachel!

Saturday's project...

Its almost amazing to me that I packed my sewing stuff up and drove about 45 minutes to do a little sewing. I have TONS of fabric and TONS of ribbon and other fun notions, and find NO time to put them all together. A friend of mine, Sam, invited me to come to Ino this past Saturday to sew with her and some of her friends from church. It was SOOOO much fun and I can't wait to do it again very soon. This is my 1/2 finished project...

The pants on the left are for Maggie Ruth, the onesie is for Jack, and the skirt is for Riley Grace. I've still got to put the initials on the girls tops and make the pants for Jack.

The cute waist band and trim on the skirt were actually an accident. I cut Riley Grace's skirt too short and needed to add a little length so ... there you go... a little extra!!

My friend Sandra put this J on Jack's onesie with her monogram machine. I'm hoping that within the next few weeks I'll be the proud owner of a Janome embroidery machine!!! If not, I'll just keep bumming my monogramming and appliques off of my friends.

I hope to have the entire project finshed much sooner than later so that I can start on another. I'll try to post the finished project when I do.

Thank you Valerie for letting us come sew (sorry for the disaster we made of your house). And thank you Emily for the awesome babysitting job!

Scratch...

that is all I can do these days! My usual pregnancy rash had made its grand entrance into my life again. This time it seems to be a little more intense than its been before. After 2 rounds of steroids my entire family will probably be ready to send me to the moon. I'm like a raging bull when I take them and I promise I don't want to be. The bad part is they haven't worked so far and there's no guarantee that they'll work this time, that means I've got 4 more months to SCRATCH!!!! If you've never been covered in little bitty red bumps that itch like you've been in an ant bed, it will make you CRAZY! I feel like a nervous wreck when I'm itching (which is pretty much 24 hrs a day right now.) I promise I'm not having a pitty party (yet) but I'd appreciate any and all prayers you could lift up on my part right now, and if not for me, for my family that they can tolerate me for the next 4 months.


I know a lot of you check all of the same blogs that I do and if you haven't checked The Jewells lately, you need to. First of all her humor is PRICELESS!!! Second she has a really cute link to http://www.boutiquemia.com/ that you need to take a look at. Its got precious little girl clothes and some really cute womens clothes as well. She bought herself 2 of these super cute tops this summer and they are awesome (the peasant top isn't pictured though). I've copied the pattern to the sleeveless top and hope to make it my very next (very soon) project.
She's also having a clothing party on Sept. 18th for http://www.shabbyapple.com/ -again some great clothes for women and children. Let me know if you'd like to go, I'm going to try to make it. I've already picked out a few dresses for the girls


Lastly, a few friends have told me about this website and I'm enjoying it... with the cost of groceries and everything else these days, it somehow makes spending that money not quite as painful. Its actually a little fun to see what I can save... http://www.couponmom.com/

Its been too long...

Its been too long since I've last blogged, I know. There seems to be so much going on I hardly find time to sit down at this computer much less take the time to post. I'm going to try to give you all an update on our past few weeks. First of all, as you already know, school has started, soccer practice is in full swing and we'll start dance next week. Riley Grace is loving 3rd grade and Maggie is having a hard time letting her go each morning. This is Riley Grace's "First Day of School Picture" that was actually taken about a week late because I had totally forgotten to do that!

Each morning as we're getting ready to take Riley Grace to school, Maggie Ruth has to have all of her gear like "Sissy's". She wants a backpack (which RG bought her w/ her own money), a lunch box and whatever else her sister might be leaving with. Riley Grace is such a good sport about it. She usually gets Maggie a snack to put in her lunch box and some "junk" to stuff in her backpack so that Maggie thinks she's "loaded".

On our Hurricaine Fay weather day the girls gave me a flashback from my childhood...forts- in the house! While I was busy doing some laundry Riley Grace was busy building a fort for she and Maggie Ruth. Man, the times that Kim and I would do that! Maggie was loving every minute of it!

She also decided that she now likes the infant swing (which she HATED as a baby). I had cleaned out her closet trying to make room for Jack and some of his things and sat this swing in the sun room. When I came out of the laundry room Maggie Ruth was trying it out. She never fails to amuse me!

This next picture is a typical day at home... anything goes!!! Maggie wears WHATEVER she wants (or doesn't want) and clonks around the house in everyone's shoes. Thank goodness she can't take a picture of me and post it because I pretty much do the same, minus the shoes.

To add to all of the current chaos at our house, our dog Scamper has given us a little drama too. He found a girlfriend about 2 months ago and disappeared. Well, he's resurfaced but doesn't want to stay at our house anymore and his girlfriends owner doesn't want him to stay there. Oh, the drama...he's now at the vet getting "fixed"so that maybe he won't have those girlfriend tendencies anymore...we'll see. Our fall garden is ready for attention so I've also been busy shelling peas and putting them up...FUN STUFF!!!

A few weeks update...

Well, I'm officially out of my "slump." Riley Grace is back home with us, school has started, and life seems to be getting back to normal. Over the last week or so we've had lots of fun and I just thought I'd share some of it with you all.

Maggie Ruth and Caroline enjoyed the TINY little pool one night after they ate supper with us. Its funny to watch them stir around when they're having fun. They're like a bunch of little ants...they never stop moving.

Maggie Ruth also loves her sister's goggles. I happened to catch them actually on her face in this shot, but they're usually hanging around her neck like a necklace. Last weekend we were in Birmingham for the Commodity Conference (Riley Grace had Russell take this picture one afternoon in the hotel). We did some shopping, swimming and very little resting. We were back home Sunday afternoon in time for church and then it was home to get ready for the big week. School started on Monday.

Monday when Riley Grace got home from school, she went to her bedroom to do her homework and guess who was close behind her... her shadow, Maggie Ruth. Riley got Maggie a notebook and pencil so she would think she was doing her homework too. They were too cute.

They had to pose for me once they realized I was taking their picture.

Riley Grace's best friend Julia came home with her on Wednesday afternoon and this is what I found them all outside doing... playing in the water hose (minus a few pieces of clothing).

Riley and Julia were good sports... they'd just sit down on the patio and let Maggie wet them. She was loving it and they were too.

Our most recent fun was Caroline's 2nd birthday party last night. It was so much fun! I'm sure Shonna will be posting it soon so check out her blog for more pictures of that (I forgot my camera, but it worked out well because I was Shonna's photographer.)

Jack is on his way!!!

Its official and by Uncle Mike's prospective--100% a boy!!! Russell and I went by Uncle Mike's office today and he tried for quite some time to get a peek at this baby! We had just about quit when he said, "let's take one more look." This time he decided he would cooperate (Jack, that is). He told us that he is 100% sure its a boy. We got a good look several different times and "the turtle" as they sometimes call it was definately there!!! We're thrilled! Sorry some of the pictures are upside down. The one that says "Its a boy!" is clear enough though!

We're headed out to Birmingham tomorrow about lunch. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Too long, I know...

I'm sorry its been so long since I've posted. I'm kind of in this blogging rut right now. I get in this same rut every year about this time. Its been too long since Riley Grace was home and I miss her so much. We'll be leaving for the Commodity Conference in Birmingham on Thursday and we'll be picking her up on the way. Sadly, (not for her though) she starts school on Monday so we won't have much time before she's gone again. We've been out of touch for a few weeks and there's really not much new info to share. Maggie Ruth is testing out a new very challenging stage that I'm slowly making (maybe not making) my way through. She has decided that it is necessary for me to give her my UNDIVIDED ATTENTION AT ALL TIMES!!! So needless to say we're both trying to adjust to how this works. I'm not doing so sporty with it! By the time Russell walks in the door each night I'm ready to run out into the pasture and into the woods.... you get the picture. I know, this too shall pass, just when???

On a different note, several of you have asked when we would find out what we're having. Well, we're going late Wednesday afternoon and Uncle Mike is going to see if he can tell. We'll be 16 weeks so its a little early, but he said he didn't mind looking each week until we could tell! Maybe we'll have some new news by Wednesday night!

Russell is working nonstop as usual. His hours get longer as the days get longer. He was just recently elected the President of the Covington County Farmers Federation and will take on some extra responsibilities to go along with all that he does on our farm. He's a determined man and I have NO doubt he will handle this well!

That's pretty much it for now. Sorry to be out of touch, hopefully that will change in just a few days.

Riley Grace's Swim Meet

HOLY COW is my very first description! Riley Grace did SUPER!!! We got there about 4:30 for her warm ups and watched her do all of her different strokes-she's got them all down pat! Maggie Ruth was so excited to see her sister that all she wanted was for Riley Grace to hold her, a little hard for Riley to do getting in and out of the pool, but she was there as soon as she'd get out. They hugged and kissed and hugged and kissed til I almost cried. Then the meet started around 6. Riley Grace was in a freestyle relay, freestyle, butterfly, and breast stroke heat. Her team finished first in the relay, she finished 2nd in freestyle and butterfly and won her breast stroke! Then I cried... but I couldn't let her see it! I was SOOOO proud of her and she's so humble about it. I got to meet her very sweet friend Jordan that lives in her neighborhood in Montgomery and swims on her swim team. They were so cute cheering each other on as well as there other team mates. I wish the pictures were better of her diving in and starting her races, but I was holding a large squirming monkey that wasn't too excited about her sister being at the other end of the pool.