A Baby Changes Everything

One of my favorite Christmas songs...my good friend Jackie sang it at church Sunday and did a great job. So thankful for The Baby that changed everything and for my own two kiddos that changed my life! Here is Faith Hill singing it....awesome song!

Thankful

With all that has been going on in our lives...Brittany passing away on Friday night, Mal's surgery to strengthen her vertebrae on Monday, visiting with Tommy tonight and seeing the grief written all over his face...I just came home tonight really feeling sad. The last few months have been very long since Mal's accident and at the same time Brittany was moved to Houston and waiting on her transplant, but at the same time they have passed in the blink of an eye as life does the older I get.

I was thinking back about our Sunday School lesson on Sunday on being thankful. Research has shown that expressing our thankfulness by listing something you are thankful for every day improves your mood, your health, your mental well-being. So, I decided to improve my outlook my making my list because I know the Lord has blessed me in more ways than I can possibly list on a single blog!

-I am thankful first and foremost, for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whom without my relationship with Him, I would be nothing and have no Heaven to look forward to for me and those I love.
-I am thankful for my husband, Marty, who is there every day no matter what and I love him very much.
-I am thankful for my son, Carson, who makes me laugh every day and has a heart of gold.
-I am thankful for my daughter, Gracen, who I love spending time with and brings me so much joy.
-I am thankful for my mom, my best friend, who is there for me come what may.
-I am thankful for my dad and for his love and support all my life.
-I am thankful for my brother, Michael, who makes me laugh hysterically almost every time I see him.
-I am thankful for Tommy and Ronda for bringing joy to my parent's lives.
-I am thankful for extended family....many have become my best friends and family can't be replaced.
-I am thankful for my friends who have been supportive to me at every turn and I love spending time with.
-I am thankful for our health...we may have minor problems come our way, but compared to many in our lives right now we are so immensely blessed!
-I am thankful that Marty and I both have jobs, a nice home to live in, clothes in our closets, cars to drive and food on our table because that makes us more fortunate that many others.
-I am thankful for our church family...they are amazing in every way!

I know that I am leaving off a million other things I have to be thankful for, but these are just a few of the things I am thankful for today!

"Jesus Will Meet You There"

Jill Sullivan, who lost her daughter Hannah to brain cancer, has been writing on her blog this last week about Steven Curtis Chapman's new album, "Beauty Will Rise." He wrote the entire album about the tragic loss of his little girl in an accident. The album is actually rip your heart out sad, but praises God at the same time. I saw a quote from him where he said that the songs were psalms to God from his heart. There are so many beautiful songs that will have the tears rolling but the song "Jesus Will Meet You There" is just so powerful!! It's a really heavy song but reminds us that no matter what we face in our life....Jesus is already there.

Jesus Will Meet You There

When you think you've hit the bottom
And the bottom gives way
And you fall into a darkness
No words can explain
And you don't know how you make it out alive
Jesus will meet you there.

When the doctor says "i'm sorry
We don't know what else to do."
And you're looking at your family
Wondering how they'll make it through...
Whatever road this life takes you down
Jesus will meet you there.

He knows the way to wherever you are
He knows the way to the depths of your heart
He knows the way cuz he's already been
Where you're going
Jesus will meet you there.

When the jury says "guilty"
And the prison doors close
When the one you love says nothing
Just packs up and goes
When the sunlight comes and your world's still dark
Jesus will meet you there.

When you've failed again and all your
Second chances have been used
And the heavy weight of guilt and shame
Is crushing down on you...
And all you have is one last cry for help
Jesus will meet you there.

He knows the way to wherever you are
He knows the way to the depths of your heart
He knows the way cuz he's already been
Where you're going

When you realize the dreams you've had
For your child won't come true
When the phone rings in the middle
Of the night with tragic news...
Whatever valley you must walk through
Jesus will meet you there.

He will meet you there.

Jesus will meet you there...

Mal's Home!!!

Mal came home on Thursday! We were so excited for her to be home finally...along with Karen and MiMi! We had an amazing service today at church organized by Jana Hardage. She did a great job pulling it all together and making sure things ran smoothly. We opened with a slideshow that I put together that basically covered the last three months in pictures from the car wreck to the waiting room while she was in PICU those first three weeks to her first bites of food then on to her first trips outside all the way through rehab at Baylor. It's amazing how much stronger and healthier she became across the three months and you can see her get stronger throughout the pictures. Jackie Tucker sang "Praise You in this Storm" to start the slideshow and then "Waiting on You Lord" played for the remainder. She did a very good job!



Also in the service, Tom Compton, our youth director, spoke about how Mal has impacted the youth and our church and though it was tough for him to do that as Mal's youth director...he did a great job! Another dear friend of ours, Brian Nivens, who coaches at Magnet Cove, spoke about how even kids at other schools have been impacted by Mal's testimony throughout this ordeal. He spoke from the heart and did a great job as well.



The youth group sang, Call on Jesus, which Mal loves and even though many are close friends of hers and were very emotional today they stepped up and did a great job and Mal really seemed to enjoy it. Jana then spoke and she sang "Jesus Bring the Rain" which is an awesome song and Mal had posted the words in her status one night. Jana is truly one of those people who can minister in music and has been such a blessing to me since she came to Caney!



We didn't leave much time for Bro Ro to preach but he did a great job of tying Mal's situation into his abbreviated sermon. He preached briefly on how we are supposed to be there to suffer when another member suffers and rejoice when another member rejoices. I know we do that at Caney..we brag when the bragging needs to be done and Caney has certainly stepped up and helped bear our burden since Mal's accident.



Here's the slideshow from this morning....

A Day of Contrasts

Today mom and I took Gracen to the ENT and Audiologist because she had failed her hearing screening at school. She has fluid in her ear and so he gave her antibiotics, steroids and a nasal spray to see if we can get it cleared up. Hopefully that will work as she does not want another set of tubes..she's had about 7 last time I counted it up with her last pair at age 6.

We had a good day though after the appt was over. We decided to make a day of it and went to the Park Plaza mall since we hadn't been in a while and look around. Justice is Gracen's new favorite store so we bought a few things in there, bought me some shoes I was needing, then had lunch and just browsed around for the afternoon. The guy in one of those booths lured us in and proceeded to curl Gracen's hair and sell us the iron he did it with..yeah we were suckers but he was from Israel and just too nice and Gracen loved it!

When we got home tonight we found out that a coaching friend of Marty's that is married to a girl from this area so lots in our area know them, lost their 10 year old daughter, Gracie, to complications from a seizure today. They lost their younger daughter about 6 years ago when she was 2 from the same thing. I had received a text about Gracie while I was shopping asking everyone to be praying for a miracle for her, and all day as I shopped with my Gracen it was in the back of my mind what they were going through today with their 10 yr old daughter and how very different our days were. I was having a wonderful day with my daughter and they were having the worst day of their lives...again.

Makes me want to hold my kids a little tighter and I am definitely so thankful for the blessed life we are living! Please say a prayer for this family now and in the days to come. They are going to need them.

Fourth Grade

I planned on getting back to posting more regularly, but that hasn't quite happened yet so I'm just getting our first day of school posting on here. The kids started fourth grade this year which is still hard for me to believe! They turned ten right before school started...their first double digit birthday and I about went into depression so fourth grade and changing classes was another big step for me and them both, but so far so good! Here they are on their first day of school. They wore their Mal's Pals shirt that we have been selling as a fundraiser for Mallory. Gracen kept blinking and that makes her so mad! :) I always take a full body pic so I can see later how big they have gotten and this is the only one that turned out okay.

Here they are in their favorite pose..hugged up!

They have two teachers this year, Mrs. Tolleson and Mrs. Cowart. Mrs. T is their homeroom teacher and she has them in the mornings then over to Mrs. C for Science and Math and then back to Mrs. T for the remainder of the day. The first day, Mrs. T told Carson she was going to print him a t-shirt with a "?" on it! LOL! Gracen said he kept talking and I asked who he was talking to and she said, "Mrs. Tolleson!" I said, "What?" She said, "Mom, he is constantly asking her questions and blurting out the answers. Finally he raised his hand because she kept telling him he had to raise his hand but he still blurted out the answer and she said Carson, that is not going to work either!" That's my Carson!

Now we are two and a half weeks into school and so far....no problems for talking...he's following the rules! I guess she got her bluff in on that first day of school! BUT, we have lots of days to come before the last day! :)

Phone Pictures

I haven't taken the time to post much this summer. It has just been crazy around here. I thought I would post some pics that I downloaded to my computer from my phone today. Most were taken the last few weeks.

This is Mal last week when she had just had her hair washed that morning. Gracen took this picture so someone was in the way and she didn't realize it.
This strange looking picture is Sydney and I shaving Mal's legs at the hospital. LOL! She had her hair washed that morning and had been complaining about how her legs must be way past needing to be shaved..so we broke out the razor and some conditioner someone brought in a goodie bag and her legs were smooth in no time! :) She was so excited about having smooth legs and clean hair!

Carson at the Pizza Shack a month or so ago. He got a stick-on mustache in one of those machines for a quarter and it was hilarious looking!

Carson eating ribs at Famous Dave's in Branson when Marty and I took the kids in July. He makes such a mess when he eats anyway, but especially eating ribs!! I just had to snap a picture with my phone.

Gracen and mom at Branson shopping this last weekend. We had a girls' getaway Thurs to Saturday. Gracen had lots of birthday money to spend..and spend it she did!! She bought some new school clothes and several pairs of shoes on sale!

Gracen trying on clothes at Old Navy in Branson.

I guess my next post will be our annual Back to School pics Wednesday! :)

Mal and Kidz Kamp

Well, I'm at home today and it's been a crazy couple of weeks. Spent all but one of the last eleven days at Children's with Mal so today we are going to stay home I think unless we decide to drive up tonight. Mal is making some progress in sensation especially. She is moving her wrists a lot better, moving her shoulders and lifting her arms better. Yesterday her basketball coach, Coach Flowers, came by and she joked with him about the funny way she waves now...a floppy hand wave. It was pretty funny and so refreshing that she can laugh about it. She has such a great attitude. I don't know if as an adult I could hold up so well if I were in her place. This morning she began having sensation in her armpit area which is a lower nerve on the spinal cord so that means more progress! She has some sensation in both legs with more in the right leg but slowly it seems to be coming in her left leg which is awesome! As of yet, she hasn't had any lower body movement but her arms have improved so much and are actually ahead of where she should be in rehab already! She got to get out in her chair the last couple days so she can get out of her room which I think helps keep her spirits up. She really enjoys visitors!! It has been great how many people have taken the time to come see her.

On a different note, due to the accident with Mallory, I did not go to Kidz Kamp this year. I really missed going, but Gracen decided to go on without me and had a great time! I really missed her while she was gone! Sydney was there and she has came home to spend the weekend with us. She is doing well with all of this so far. I think Kidz Kamp was good for her. I will post some pictures of KK when I get them from Judy who went.

Please Pray for Mallory

I know most of you...the whole host LOL!...that read this are on FB and have seen my status updates but I wanted to ask that you pray for my 16 year-old niece, Mallory. She was in a car accident on Monday night and is in Children's. She has a moderate spinal cord injury and severe shattering of 2 vertebrae in her neck..I believe it's the 5th and 6th but not positive on that. She will be having surgery around lunch today to put donor bone along with plates and screws in to replace the vertebrae in the neck going in through the front of her neck. Normally they would wait several weeks for the spinal cord injury to settle down some but they can't due to the severity of the shattered vertebrae. At this point, she has good use of her shoulders, a faint grasp in her hands, slight sensation at times in some places in her legs but not much else motor wise. They are telling us that since thankfully the spinal cord was not severed, injuries of this type are hard to predict. She could regain anything from no function to up to 80-90% function with extensive rehab and he predicts around 4 surgeries on the vertebrae. It is really all overwhelming and we just have to get through today's surgery and give it a couple weeks and we will know more. Thanks so much for putting her on your prayer lists! We know that God is is good and that He is the great healer.

Jeremiah 29:11 -" 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Please pray with me!!

A friend of mine, Lori Harper, had this posted on her blog and when I saw the title on my list of blogs I immediately wondered if someone at Lori's house needed prayer and as I clicked I was preparing to pray for them. :) When I saw the link to the caringbridge site about Kate McRae and went and read her latest update and then I watched her parents youtube updates...my heart is now broken for this family and this absolutely beautiful little girl. As Lori said, it does remind me so much of Hannah and the Sullivan family. I prayed for Kate and I hope you will as well.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ese3zYZ-NA4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czK94X9_ebQ&feature=related

Cruisin' to Mexico

Last week the kids and I went on a Carnival cruise while Marty was gone to the coach's clinic for a week. We left on Monday and returned on Saturday to New Orleans. We had a great time, even though Carson came down with the stomach virus as we were leaving on Monday morning...great fun! Fortunately none of us came down with it, although Gracen got sick on Sunday when we got back...a lot better than on the cruise though! We had a fun day at sea on Tuesday which the kids spent on the 2 new water slides they have on the Fantasy now, Wednesday we walked around in Progreso and then went to the beach there, Thursday shopping and then to a beach park Playa Mia in Cozumel and then Friday we had a fun day at sea. We did a lot of laughing and Carson kept us in stitches as usual!! I took a lot of pictures but here are a couple.
Mom and Gracen in Playa Mia at Cozumel. Gracen had just had her hair braided...60 braids in all! She loved it and wore it until the next Tuesday. It was sooo cute!!
Me and the kids after dinner one night. Gracen's dress was bought at the flea market in Progreso..she loved it!!

League Champs 14-0

Kirby Trojans-League Champs for the regular season!! Yeah!!! They were undefeated 14-0! Tonight we played in the semi-finals of the league tournament. Before the game, they presented the boys with their trophy. After the game, we took pics. The first is the "serious pic" and the second is their "silly pic" which drives Marty crazy! LOL! Way to go Car-Mart!

Tommy and the boys

Uncle Tommy and his boys, Taylor and Kameron, came to visit last Friday. They came down that afternoon and went fishing on a pond here in Glenwood with Carson and some others. Saturday Marty and Carson went golfing at the Country Club with them and then we all watched the Razorback baseball game. We won!! After the game, we went out in the yard for Tommy to do a little pitching coaching for Gracen and for Carson to show off his curveball daddy had been bragging about! :) Here's some pics I took.
Kameron and Taylor were the catchers. They are such good natured boys.
Here Tommy was making Carson pitch between him and Taylor while Tommy pretended to bat. Kameron was the catcher and Marty the umpire. No pressure! LOL!

Gracen pitching using some "corrections" Tommy made to her pitching. He really helped her out a lot. She hasn't had much pitching coaching since she started pitching..just a couple times.

Here they all are on our "baseball field" in our yard. Yeah, it needed to be mowed..hence the mower sitting out in some of the pictures! It started raining on Marty when he started mowing the day before. :)

Carson throws a pitch!

Tommy coaches her up! He was hilarious out there!!

Don't know what Marty was doing! The boys had to chase down a few stray pitches every now and then...gave them a good workout! He told Gracen not to worry about accuracy while she was learning the changes so Taylor got quite a workout.

They will remember Uncle Tommy doing this for many years. We don't get to see him that often so they had a great time with him and the boys!

A Couple Field Trips

We have been so busy the last few weeks that I haven't had much time to post. We've been on two field trips, to Mid-America and then Old Washington, had too many ballgames to count and then just doing the usual end of school activities. I have taken quite a few pictures but haven't had time to download them. Below are some that I took with my phone the last few weeks so I thought I would go ahead and post them. I'll post again with my camera pics, which are much better, when I have time.
While Marty and Carson went to the High School Baseball Finals at Fayetteville one weekend, I took Gracen and her friend to see Hannah Montana: The Movie. We loved it! It was actually quite enjoyable. After the movie, we went to Red Lobster where they had the bowl of ice cream the waiter brought them they are eating in this pic, Old Navy where they bought matching t-shirts and flip-flops, a couple more stores and then more ice cream at Scoops! We had a good day!

This is Gracen and her friend at Mid-America. They watched a lightning/electricity demonstration and then they went up in pairs and touched the ball which made their hair stand up. Gracen took her pony tail down but it really didn't do much to hers b/c it was so heavy. A few kids looked really funny!

Gracen on the way home from Mid-America. It started raining...what day didn't it rain in May??

At Old Washington, listening to the "farm man" talk about life back in "his day." The kids seemed quite interested. He made fire with a flint and cloth...well, he tried anyway! It was so humid that day that it only smoked! LOL!

Carson listening intently to the farmer talking.

Carson & Deric at the Print Shop. This was our last place to go before the surry ride and trip home and they were tired. They weren't listening to much that the man had to say by this point. Admittedly, they lost my attention by this point, too. It was a fun trip, though.

God bless!

Awana Awards

Tonight we attended the awards night at First Baptist here in Glenwood for Awana. We go to church at Caney in Bismarck, but the kids go to Awana on Wed nights here in Glenwood where some of our friends go to church. I tried to take pictures but the lights weren't bright enough and my flash didn't work from where I was. My friend, Stacy, took some for me and so I'll post those later. They both started T & T this year, which stands for Truth in Training, so they started new books in September. Gracen finished her book in the first weeks of March and Carson finished his book mid-April. He couldn't stand it that Gracen finished before him! Gracen did quite a bit in her second book as well. They received their First Book Ribbons tonight along with a goody bag of prizes. A 6th grade girl tonight got a plaque for being the first person in the 8 years that FBC has had Awana to finish all 3 books of T&T. That means she memorized around 230 scripture I believe he said. There are 4 books in T&T and Gracen and her teacher, Mrs. Carol, made a "plan" tonight that Gracen will be the first person to finish all 4 books. She and Carson both could easily do it at the pace they are going if they stick with it. I hope they will want to. When you finish all 4 books, you will have memorized over 300 scripture! That is truly hiding God's word in their heart and hopefully they will recall one of the scriptures they are learning when they are wanting to sin against Him.

God bless,
Sherri

Baseball & Softball busyness

Well, I've been so busy that I haven't had much time for blogging lately. I've not even been on the computer at home very much the last few weeks. So, this is going to be a little of this and a little of that....

Carson has been catching and pitching in his ballgames and he loves it. He is doing really well and having a blast! We were rained out tonight in the start of the 2nd inning. We were so far ahead already that they forfeited to us to keep from making the game up. They were a really young team.

Gracen has been pitching, too, and she likes it but puts a lot of pressure on herself. I get so nervous for her. She is doing really well especially considering she hasn't had much pitching coaching and fast pitch is so different, but of course she still walks some batters and she hates that!

Carson worked the concession stand with me tonight for a while and I could not believe how he could add up the money for the orders and make their change. I was blown away that he could do it. I am telling you that teenagers working registers can't count me back my change the way he was tonight.

On Thursday night, we had to talk to Carson about his tournament team and that he was not going to be allowed to play this last Sunday if the team ended up playing Sun. afternoon. He was questioning why and saying that certain friends went to church but they were still going and so I sat down and told him about being a witness for others and letting others see Jesus in you by making the choice to be at church. I told him that Marty's dad didn't let him practice or play on Wednesdays or Sundays and what did he play in college...baseball! Did he think daddy turned out to be a good person...of course! Did his dad's decision for daddy not to play during church keep him from being a good ball player? He thought a minute and said, "Apparently not." It was so cute. He smiled and looked up and said, "Mom, are you through with your sermon?" I just about fell out laughing! When Marty got home I told him about our discussion and he talked with Carson a little more about God giving him his talent and athletic ability and He could take it away or not bless our family if we choose what we know is the wrong thing to do by not going to church because of a ballgame. Carson agreed that the right thing to do is go to church so he was good with all that we had discussed. It was so cute and though he may question it again later, I don't think it will be a problem. I think he really understood. Now, will he always like it, probably not but I know in his heart he believes the right thing to do is be in church not on the field.

Well, I could go on and on with stories because we've been so busy. I hope to have time to upload some pics from our Mid-America field trip we went to on Friday soon.

All for now!
God bless,
Sherri

Resurrection cookies

On Saturday night before Easter, I began what I hope to be an Easter tradition with my kids, making Resurrection Cookies. If you have never heard of them before, they are really a great activity to do with your kids. Now, granted our cookies did not quite turn out the way they are supposed to look but my kids understood the concept and it is the actual making with the scripture reading that is the most important part.
Here the kids are "unsealing" the oven door on Easter morning. We had "sealed the door" with tape just as the tomb of Jesus was sealed with the stone after he was crucified. I didn't get any pictures while we were making the cookies because I was too busy reading the scripture and adding the ingredients and didn't want to take away from that by taking pictures but we put in vinegar as we read about Jesus being given vinegar to drink when he was thirsty, beat the pecans into pieces as we read the scripture of Jesus being beaten and a couple others steps.
Here the kids are breaking open the cookies, which should be mounds like a tomb but I think we didn't whip them long enough with the mixer, and the cookies are hollow inside just like the tomb was empty on that Resurrection Morning. Our cookies were "airy" looking but not exactly hollow. My kids got the point though! It was really a great experience with the kids. Easter morning at church, Bro Ro brought up something from the story we had talked about and immediately Carson elbowed me and said, "Mom, you told us about that last night!" He was grinning and my heart skipped a beat! :)

Carson and Gracen at MiMi's after church...they are so sweet when they aren't fighting! :)

Carson and Gracen with their cousins, Cade and Karigan.

God bless,

Sherri

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs....

Friday the kids had their last Easter Egg Hunt field trip to Daisy State Park. They started going in Kindergarten at Kirby and have gone every year so I was kind of sad that this was their first year even though I agree that 3rd grade is probably the last year it is appropriate! LOL! The kids had a great time even though we didn't find all the eggs..guess mowers will get those. :) Well, I was that star mother this year that had the eggs that weren't "hard-boiled" yeah, the kids had a great time smashing the yolks on the eggs I brought! I was afraid they would crack so I took them off after 5 minutes..not a good idea for future reference! No one would've known except my kids had decorated with these great sports stickers I bought and put their numbers on their eggs so everyone was pointing out that those were Carson and Gracen's egg yolks smashed everywhere!!! Then we played in the park area for a couple hours. A great time was had by all! :) Pics are below of our big outing.



Lainy, Jaci, Gracen and Miranda posing for the camera!

Carson (in the red) playing basketball at the park.

Carson hooping it up! :)

Gracen and Miranda chilling after hunting for the eggs.

Gracen hunting for eggs.

Jarrett & Carson after the egg hunt.

Gracen dying eggs Thursday night..showing off her pink egg!

Carson dying his eggs..we got interrupted by the tornado warning but got back to dying after the storm passed.

The kiddos hard at coloring eggs!

Hope you all have a great Easter tomorrow!

God bless,

Sherri

A Hog Game, Bud Walton and a little shopping

We went to Fayetteville on Wednesday to watch the Hogs play Missouri. We won 10-0 and had a great time. It rained the first 3 innings so that wasn't very pleasant but in the 4th the rain stopped and it was a beautiful, all be it, chilly night. Kyle Atkins, a freshman player from DeQueen, threw Carson a ball during batting practice so we stayed after the game so he could get autographs on it to add to his collection. Kyle isn't getting to play right now but we are looking forward to seeing him in the years to come. I feel really old since he was like 3 yrs old when I graduated high school and I babysat his older cousins all through school and we would go over and swim at his house. I remember when he was born!

Carson at the game..he and Cade got their faces painted!

We went by Bud Walton on Thursday to look around. We've all been before but when you're 9 years old you forget what you saw when you were "only 8!"

My little angels! ;)

The kids showing off their form!

Marty and the kids "watching" a video in Bud Walton about the Hogs Championship year..the video didn't work so they were staring at a blank screen and listening to the recording. LOL!

Always a highlight of any trip for the kids..swimming in the indoor pool! Some boys Carson played against in baseball from Arkadelphia were there so they had someone to play with after the game while they swam. They had a good time for a couple hours.

It was a quick overnight trip but we had a great time. Did a little shopping before we came home...Hibbett's, Academy Sports..all the usual places Marty will go to! :) A great time was had by all...as Marty always says! ;)

God bless,

Sherri

Kids' Spring Break

Well, I haven't written in a while but it has been crazy busy around here. Baseball/softball season has started and so Gracen and Carson each have practice twice a week plus Gracen has another night right now of pitching practice. Add in church and piano and we have been going almost constantly. This week Marty and the kids are on Spring Break. I am not out until next week. They are really not happy because of all this rain we are having, but have been having a good time none the less.

Friday night both kids had a friend over..wild!! I should've taken some pictures but I forgot! Need to get better about that. Sunday night we had Cade and Karigan, the kids' cousins over to spend the night and then we swapped for last night and they stayed over there. Tonight after practice, Gracen is going to a sleepover at Swaha for her friend Lainey and then tomorrow our family is going up to spend the night in Fayetteville. We're going to watch the Razorbacks play baseball and stay at a hotel with an indoor pool!! The kids love the indoor pool of course! I'll definitely get pics while we're there and post when we get back.

God bless,
Sherri

New Shoes and Chic Fil A

Yesterday was a good day...well, most of it anyway. I went to HS's for a hair appointment and then met Marty and the kids to buy the kids new tennis shoes. They are both in the upper end of kids/lower end of adult sizes which is very hard to find the shoe you want in the size you want. We ended up having a hard time find them both shoes but we did..paid more than we wanted but they both had to have a pair. We ate lunch at Chic Fil A and then Marty took the kids to the state finals for more games. They had gone on Thursday night also. I met some of my friends from my Caney CHICS class and we went to eat in HS's and to the movie to see Confessions of a Shopaholic. Good movie..really funny! I really enjoyed my night out with them...was a great end to my week. I picked the kids up on my way back home and Carson said he had a stomach ache since he ate CFA. He complained last time he ate there, too. Well, he made it inside the house....and threw up all over my bedroom carpet! What is it about kids that makes them not realize they need to go to the potty to do that. He just kept standing there throwing up!!! I finally got him to the bathroom but by then he was done. LOL! I scrubbed my carpet for a while to no avail...will have to be steam cleaned now. Just awful!! He kept apologizing and I never even said anything to him. I assured him it was no big deal with a smile while I wanted to scream and was about to gag myself!!! He went to bed and got up this morning and was fine. He says no more CFA for him...and I love it!!! Oh well...not cleaning that up again!

God bless,
Sherri

Gracen's Crazy Singing Video

Okay so she is sideways b/c I used my regular camera to video and without thinking I turned it sideways...well, duhhh you can't do that when using as a video camera..oh well, you'll get the point. I promised her I would only post this on here and not email it. She was good with that! She's such a mess!!

God bless,

Sherri

Preteen craziness!!

I read somewhere that kids are considered "preteens" from 8-12 years old. Yesterday I was talking to Gracen about how old she was getting and I was doing my usual kidding with her..you have to stop getting older, stop it right now, I don't want you to grow up so fast...she was doing her usual..oh mommmmaaaaa and she giggles! Well, we counted it up and realized that they were 9 years, 7 months yesterday. That means they are now closer to 10 years than 9 years. Sounds trivial maybe but when they turned 9 I was sad b/c it was the last single digit birthday. Now they are 5 months away from the BIG 10! I'm teary-eyed just thinking of it!

Gracen has really taken on these new personality traits the last couple weeks. It's really funny because she is always so embarassed to sing, act silly or draw attention to herself around a group but lately she's been doing this funny singing voice..really loud and even in front of others. She did it playing washers to distract Marty while playing with her older cousin Kameron who she doesn't see a lot and Marty about fell out laughing!! Now she goes around the house doing it constantly. She's using all these funny voices around the house...just things that aren't typical of her...we're thinking it's the preteen craziness coming out in her?! I plan on getting her on video soon b/c as phases go..it could be gone as quick as it started! I hate to see them grow up so fast, but I love seeing them develop such good personalities so far and love spending time with them. They are so much fun!!

God bless,
Sherri

State Tournament

We just got home from the state tournament. The sr. girls did not do very well..lost their first game which was not expected. We went up on Wednesday after school and the girls played Thursday at 4 pm. We stayed in a brand new hotel, the Fairfield Inn and Suites, which was actually really nice. We had a suite so when I woke up earlier than Marty and the kids I could sneak into the living room area and lay on the couch and watch tv for a little peace and quiet before the rush of the day started. It was nice to have the extra room for our little mini-vacation. We always enjoy the state tournament week and I hate the girls lost..Carson cried of course even though it wasn't Marty's team. He said, we had our whole weekend planned! It was too funny!



There was an indoor pool and last night the kids swam with some of the girls and had a blast! They played a game where the kids all made a line and the girl in the front had to swim backwards through all their legs...of course half the time everyone fell down and they all laughed hysterically! It was a great time watching them all. Jackie and I sat out by the pool and it is so funny seeing our kids play with these teenage girls who are so good with the kids and even though they lost they can relax and have a good time. Here are some pics I took...the lighting in there combined with my phone's camera wasn't the greatest but you'll get the idea. I also took some pictures of Gracen's spirit pants. Jacynda made Gracen these pants for her to wear like all the "big girls" have been wearing lately to the games. The front says Gracen and Sr. 2018 (Can't even believe she will be a Senior in 9 years!!!!!!!!!) and the back says I Love Coach Smith (of course! ;)) and Go Trojans! She was thrilled with the pants!!!



Gracen's Spirit Pants :)

The game...someone is swimming through their legs here...

Jesse holding Brody and Carson acting goofy!

God bless,

Sherri