My Little Princess….

Need I say any more?



Emma you are awfully cute these days, but this attitude that you have picked up is atrocious! You love to lean your neck back and arch your back and throw a fit, or throw yourself on the floor and throw a fit, or squirm out of your car seat (while being put in it) and throw a fit. It is a good thing that we love you so much! During stages like this your Nene always loves to remind “that this is why God gives them to you as babies, so you bond with them, and love them through the hard times.” She is always full of good advice.

Taylor Learns to Read

Taylor my sweet boy you are starting to learn to read, and your daddy and I are so very happy. We struggled with Site Word Flash Cards for the past 10 months, but decided to give up on those for a while and just pull out the good old fashion Dick and Jane books and you have ready take to them. Most nights you want to read at least one story before bed.

Puff and Dick
Come, Baby,
Run, run.
Run and see.
Look up, Baby. Look up and see Puff.
Look up, Baby.
Look up and see Dick.
See Dick go up.
See Dick go up, up, up.
Oh, Jane. See Dick come down.
See Puff come down.
Down, down, down.
Oh, oh, oh.
See Puff come down.


You are also learning to spell, and you are proving to be more grown up and mature every day. Your daddy and I love you so very much, and are so proud of the Little Man that you are becoming. Speaking of Little Man this weekend while you and your daddy were headed to Bass Pro it was discovered that you have little man hairs all over your legs, and now you can’t wait to point out your “hairy man legs” to anyone that will stop and listen. I love you baby boy.

Sometimes is Does Pay to Play

When I was little I got an American Girl Baby Doll for Christmas one year. And I loved this doll, she was so perfect she had the most adorable little wicker bassinet that she sat in complete with a blanket and pillow. It was a big honor for me to get a doll because my parents never gave us dolls. They mostly got us Tonka trucks and wagons. So I was thrilled when I actually got a girl toy for this particular Christmas. I loved to just sit and look at my doll and not play with it because I wanted to keep it in pristine condition – in hopes of one day passing it on to my own daughter.

Within the past couple of days I have pulled this little doll out and let Emma and Lucy play with her. Yesterday Emma and I were “actually” playing with her, and Emma grabbed her blanket and pulled it by the lace and this stuff just ripped like soggy paper. I could not believe it. The lace was so delicate that it literally ripped easier than paper – it had just disintegrated. I am thrilled that I could pass this doll own to Emma to play with, but I wish that I had played with her more when I was little.

I have learned that it really does not pay to save things or collect things, and we just need to use what we have when we have it. I can literally apply this lesson to a lot of things in my life!

Saturday Night Visitors

Last night we were excited to have Pop Roy, Aaron, Audrey, and Baby Lila over for dinner. The boys all spent the day at Bass Pro Shop in Springfield doing man stuff. Taylor loves his Uncle Aaron so very much. Emma loved looking at baby Lila, and I know what she was thinking in the back of her mind that she couldn’t wait until she is older so they can play together. I just know these two girls are going to grow up best of buddies. We love hanging out with all of you so much, and only wish that we did it more often!!!

Beautiful baby Lila:

Lila and Mommy:

She Strikes Again…

and shamelessly steals more photos from her sisters Blog. HA! Today we got to have Krispy Kreme with Aunt Mary and Lucy, and we loved every minute of it.

I am so proud of myself and I did not eat any donuts, but I did have a nice little cup of coffee as we were leaving. I am trying desperately, once again, to loose weight. Seems to be the broken record of my life! But we will see how it goes this time around.

Yes that is Emma Grace wearing Taylor's baby blue outfit. I have got to go get her some little girl fall clothes becasue it is starting to get cold here in NWA.

Funny Emma Grace Story

Emma Grace has started pointing out parts of her body when asked on command. She can do her eyes, her month, and her nose. When Taylor was this age he was able to identify some of the same features, but my very favorite was when he would show us his eyes by glaring at us and blinking them very rapidly. I had always hoped that Emma Grace would do the same thing because it is one of my fondest memories. Well she has created her own funny memory for mommy and daddy to remember. When we ask her where her nose is, she will stick her finger right up it, and it cracks us up.

I love you Emma Grace and all of the new things that you do.

I love to steal…

pictures from my sister’s blog! I also love hanging out with my sister, Lucy, and my mom like we did on Friday night.

Boys, Fun, and Bloody Feet

Today we had Kenneth over for a Play Date. The boys seemed to have a really good time. They don’t always listen real well, but they had fun non the less, HA! We made candied apples, and they ate the grosses bloody gummy foot that I have ever seen. Taylor and Ryan found it on the Halloween aisle this morning at Wal-Mart, and thought it would be great fun. There were actually crunchy candy bones in side the gummy foot. It made me sick just looking at it, but the boys loved it.

Sweet story - At one point I heard Taylor say to Kenneth "Kenneth I wish that we were brothers."

Adults Night Out

Last night we got to hang out with Mary and Jonathan and have an adult night. We acted like kids but there were only adults present. Mary and Jonathan let Lucy spend the night with Becky and David for the first time ever, and we went to dinner and then went bowling. We did not get home until midnight, and I am feeling it today! I have not stayed out that late in ages.

Manna watched Emma Grace and Taylor, and we truly appreciated her for doing so. Ryan and I have actually had a date night twice in the last two weeks! I think we have gone about 2 year with out one so I guess we are making up for lost time.

Thanks for letting us hang with you last night Mary and Jonathan – we love you guys!

Taylor Not So Funny Story:

Lately my sweet little innocent Taylor has really learned how to play the guilt trip card, and while I should not make light of situations like these I am going to capture them in my blog so I can secretly look back on them and laugh on day.

The other day the kids and I stopped by Krispy Kream to get donuts to celebrate successfully getting our flu shots. Taylor wanted an order of 10 donut holes and a donut, so I ordered him this and got Emma Grace a donut. I said to Taylor that his sister would probably want on of his donut holes when she saw him eating them. He argued that they were his, and he did not want to share. I reminded him that his sister was the one that actually had to get 5 shots at the doctor, and he got out lucky with the “flu mist.” ( Taylor did not actually have to get a shot, but as tradition we actually always go to KK after visiting the doctor!” Again he argued that they were his and he ordered them, and I came back with “Taylor we are a family that shares,” and this went on back and forth a couple more times. Finally Taylor said “fine mom I will just give my sister all of my donut holes so you won’t think that I am a bad son anymore.” Wow, is all that I have to say about that comment. I told Taylor to knock it off, but I was floored that he has learned to put the guilt trip on so thick at the grand old age of 5.

Funny Emma Story

Emma is really coming into her own lately. She is walking absolute everywhere. She loves to throw a fit. And she love to answer yes to every question that comes her way. She is so very cute when she shakes her sweet little head up and down after a question is asked of her. Taylor likes to ask her silly questions just to get her to answer yet to them. Sometimes he will say Emma: “have you flown to the moon?” and of course she will shake her head up and down to imply “yes”.

Stolen Lucy and Emma Story

Yep, I just copied and pasted this story right off of Mary’s Blog, so I could have it for my own. As you read be aware that this is Mary’s writing. She entitled this blog post “Best Friends.”

I (Mary) dropped Lucy off at playschool this morning and as we walked in we were happily greeted by Emma Grace. Emma Grace waves and smiles so big when she sees her favorite cousin. I put Lucy down and Lucy ran and plopped down to sit next to Emma to have her morning snack. The funny thing about snack is that Lucy loves to eat it even though she eats three pancakes for breakfast at home. The workers told me that the girls are so sweet to each other. Then they told me a story which is actually why I started this post. They said," When Lucy wakes up from nap the first thing she does is goes over to Emma Grace to wake her up." I said," how does she wake her up." (I was thinking she softly rubs her back and whispers wake up BFF.) Instead they said that she lays on top of her. Ha. They also said that she doesn't wake up any of the other kids just Emma Grace.

Isn't that sweet! Well here is the rest of the story.
They girls have been going from 2 naps a day to one. Needless to say they are cranky when they get home. Laura has told me that Emma has been in the worst mood ever when she would get home like she wasn't getting enough sleep. Well come to find out Lucy has been cutting Emma's nap short everyday.

Girlfriends and Bowling

I love my group of girlfriends and this week we got to have one of our girls night out celebrations. We went to Fast Lanes and bowled and road go-carts. It was a blast! These girls have all been in my life for about the past 11 years, and I love them all dearly. We were all in the sorority together, and we all still live in the area, so we try to get together for a fun night out about once a month. I just wish that we could see each other more often! It is so very hard to balance spending time with friends and raising children. I would not trade my children for anything, but I sure don’t get to see my friends very often and sometimes that makes me sad. I am just thankful that we always pick up where we left off last when we finely get together.

We missed you on Thursday Shannon, Chandra, and Leslie!

Right, Back: Samantha, Jennifer Russell, me, Mauree
Front: Jennifer C., Libby

Emma’s 1-Year Pictures….

Well actually these are her 14-month pictures because she is my second child and I am not as prompt as I use to be. Bobbie Yocum took these pictures of the girls last weekend and I think she did a fantastic job. I can’t wait to see them all!

Pigtails, Doggie Doors, and “Kindergarten Teeth”

Have you ever seen pigtails so cute!

This is a picture of Ryan (dark headed) and Sean (light headed) both with pigtails. Don’t Emma and her Daddy look just alike!

Emma loves the Doggie Door these days.

She loves to stick her little head out it and see what is going on outside.

This morning we noticed that Taylor has two of his bottom big boy teeth coming in. I am a little bit worried because the baby teeth in front are not the least bit loose. He kind of reminds me of a shark right now with rows of teeth, HA! He is pretty excited though, he ran around church morning telling people that his “Kindergarten Teeth” are coming in.

Stolen Pictures

Yes I stole these pictures from Mary’s blog because I wanted to keep them always. Sorry to bore you with redundancy, but bear with me.

Taylor Deap Sea Fishing

Emma Loving Chocolate at the Melting Pot!

Shopping with all the babies:

Taylor and his pup:

This baby girl loves to swing:

Taylor and G-Daddy

Not sure how this happened:

The girl figuring out the slide at Chick-fil-A:

The End!