Here's a video of Jack's preschool graduation!

To Church with Kate...

The Boys were busy today, so it was Mom and Kate to church today. I think getting Kate all dressed up is 1/2 the fun! She was in a fine mood, so we spent a few minutes on the church steps before Sunday School. I got some precious shots, might be wall hangers.

Here is Jack just before his first T-Ball practice!! He's SO excited, you can see he's got all the gear. It's going to be a fun season, we've got a great coach, some old friends, and some new friends too!

Easter!

Precious Easter Morning. What a gift.

Do you think he got enough eggs? Cici didn't...

She said, Here Jack! Put them in here and go find more!!! And of course, he did!

Cowboy Jack

"R" is for rodeo, and that's exactly what they had while learing about the letter "R"! Nothing is more exciting than getting to go to preschool dressed like a cowboy. They made horses, and cowboy vests, and had rodeo races. A young boy's dream....

Sleeping Beauty

I should give you some background on our sleeping beauty. The day Kate was 12 weeks old, I was determined that she should be able to sleep through the night. In order to support my theory, I researched sleep books extensively and found one that i thought looked marvelous, and it was available for immediate download, even better. That book changed our lives. i read it that afternoon, and with Blake's moral support, let this sweet girl cry it out that night. I'm happy to report that it only took 20 minutes, she slept through the night, and has done so VERY consistently ever since then. By consistently, i mean this girl loves to sleep, and she has not awoken us in the middle of the night more than a dozen times in the last 15 months. Now, she almost takes herself to bed. We can usually sense her mood change and we simply have to ask her if she's ready to go night night and she pats herself on the chest and says night night and waves. Off to bed she goes.

In the last week or so, she has started attempting to take care of her bedtime ritual all herself. We refill her vaporizer water tank every night, and she's been delivering it to us for more water. After we refill, she leads us back to her room, pushes some buttons on her cd player, and walks to her crib waiting patiently to be lifted up and tucked in. That's it, she might not go right to sleep, but she's happy and content until she does.

Amazing I know, i'm scared to death she's going to turn on us any day and we'll need one of those crib tents to keep her in there, but for now it is bliss. Well, some nights she takes herself to bed earlier than others. Tonight, she didn't even have the chance to say night night because as you can see, she didn't make it to her carrots...

Hot Humid Arkansas

For anyone who has seen me lately, i haven't given up "vacation hair" since returning from a fabulous ski trip nearly a month ago now. You know how it goes, those who have curly hair want strait hair and vice versa. Well, my hair has always been just annoyingly kinky. After having children, with a little coaxing, i have a pretty full head of nice crazy curls. Before ski trip, I was blow drying for what seemed like ages, then on to the flat iron. Okay, sorry this story is getting longer and longer...

Anyway, i hadn't even tried the curly hair with my new short hair until we decided that we needed to catch the shuttle to dinner in a short 30 minutes. Not washing the mess of hair that had been flattened by a beanie while skiing all day was NOT an option. So, curly it was. Being unprepared, my fellow curly haired friend (she EMBRACES her curly hair and doesn't even think about trying to straiten hers...) loaded me up with product and to my surprise, it's wild, but totally acceptable enough that i've officially re-given up the flat iron. Sorry to all of you out there who liked my hair straight. The extra 20 minutes in the morning is WAY more precious than the straight hair.

Now, for the point of this blog. I really have a burning deep down desire for Kate to have curly hair. I hope i'm right and that she will EMBRACE and LOVE the curls... But, it was a hot and humid March saturday and i was resisting the air conditioner. So, she might have perspired just a bit (she definately didn't sweat) while she was napping. When i went in to get her up, i swear her hair looked like i'd been after it with a curling iron, thus the pictures. Aren't those curls ADORABLE??? I love it. I'm sure that when her hair grows, the curls will get straightened out a bit, and she'll end up with annoyingly kinky hair like i once had, but i'm loving it while it lasts!!!

Kate and Allie

Kate is beginning to discover how much fun it is to be outside! Of course, she follows brother around and loves to watch him ride his bike. And she really likes Allie. The cold winter nights were good for their friendship!

Jack's Room

I've been promising pictures of the orange walls/chocolate ceiling and here it is!!! Jack thinks it is very cool! It's quite a change from the rose floral decor that was in here when Carolyn and I shared this room!

Dream House Update

And here's the kitchen! The double window looks out to the back yard where the children will be happily playing while i'm being Betty Crocker... :)

Another shot of the kitchen, the space under the windows is where the kitchen table will be. The laundry room is off to the right, dining room to the left. The wall framing you see on the right will be a new section of cabinets with a bar top for stools!

Oh yes, just when i thought we were done ripping stuff out? The electrician informed us that it would be better to rip out the entire ceiling rather than having him cut holes and run wires for the 10 new can lights that we wanted intstalled!!! So, down the ceiling came...

Bye Bye carport, the back hoe is now sitting in the parking spot that was built by my parents to house the "Novas". Note that it is plural, those of you who remember, my sister got a brown one and mine was grey. Of course mine was WAY cooler because we added a red racing stripe... It was a custom job!!! Whoever happened to get home first scored the covered parking spot! This will be the site of a massive garage project complete with outdoor kitchen, fireplace, etc. It's going to be very cool for many backyard barbeques to come!

There's more, so keep checking back!

Madeleine Rose!

What a precious gift my family received on January 16, 2009. My sister and her family welcomed another sister and daughter (that makes THREE GIRLS), Madeliene Rose. What a cutie!!!

Big Brother

This little sister REALLY loves her big brother Jack! And, how sweet he was to take her on her first ride in the Gator. Although he couldn't go quite as fast as he would have liked, he understands that he's just going to have to drive her around! I'm sure this won't be the last because it's obvious that she LOVED it!!!

Dream House...

Okay, for those of you who don't know, Blake and I have started yet another Downtown Batesville Restoration... Yes, we have lost our mind, but my husband is a saint for not throwing in the towel yet!!! I love you blake... :) Anyway, The house is located on Boswell Street, and the cool thing is, that my Great Great Grandfather JB Fitzhugh built the house for my Great Aunt Lucy as a wedding gift. Aunt Lucy and Uncle Tark lived there until my family moved back to Batesville in 1978, I was three years old. We lived there for about 12 years before moving to my grandmother's house on Main Street where my parents still live. So, i'm coming full circle and moving my family back in!!! Here's a small sample of "before" pictures, i'll add a few more later, so check back.

This is the living room, with the front porch out the window to the left and the dining room through the french doors to the right. The door to the left of the fireplace leads to Jack's new room.

Here's a shot in the kitchen, behind the camera is the main work area. Observe the fabulous blue wallpaper...


Oh, and the master bath. How about that floor??? Do you see the teal green door and cabinets??? This entire room was gutted and will get new cabinets and a tiled shower, it looks tiny and dungeonlike from here, but after we tore everything out it looked SO much better! The cabinets on the left side are so deep that i used to hide in them as a little girl!

The master bedroom, our new "grown up" king size bed will reside in the bay window. There's an office nook over to the right side of the room.

And, here's the kid den. Jack proudly tells everyone who tours that the cabinets are where his toys will go!

The process has been difficult, with any old house we've found many things that have made us regret the day we started. Kate's bathroom and the kitchen have both been down to dirt floors. We found a hole in the sewer pipe under the house, a gas leak, and active termites in the kitchen!!! Did I say difficult, more like a nitemare. But, we are pushing through and it will really be fabulous when we are done. More pictures to come!!!

Kate and Allie

Fast Friends they became…  Allie got to spend some cold winter nights in the house and she really enjoyed hanging with Kate.  Especially while Kate was in her highchair eating!!! 

Catching Up...

Okay, so I’m a little behind!  Here we go, back to Christmas.  Of course we had a BALL!  Kate got her first kitchen set and Jack’s clear favorite was his wakeboard.  It might seem logical that the “big” gift of the wakeboard should have come from Santa, but Jack was pretty sure that his daddy needed to pick it out!  So, from daddy it came…