The girls ready for church.

So Alison was not satisfied with last night's picture, so she wanted some more done this morning with her sister right before church.  Introducing the Sears Girls....

Without the flash.

With the flash.

Sew cold today and we loved it!!!

To pass the time, there are a few things I like to indulge in. 

1.  Chat on the phone with my best friend, Heather.
2.  Play the Wii with the girls.
3.  Chocolate cake frosting (yummmmm!)
4.  SEW!

Today it was a nasty wintery mix day around here.  The high was 34 and that is exactly where it stayed today.  So Alison has been asking me to make her a new church dress and this is the one she picked out. 

It was so exciting watching her watching me create her idea of a perfect dress.

We will be trying it out tomorrow at church.  She has already picked a cute little pink turtleneck and her party shoes.

Artsy Fartsy kids

Grandma Chicken sends amazing birthday cards.  This one you color the back; so each of us chose a panel.  Here are the results.

These awesome dogs are from our cousin Brynn.  The girls love these little projects.

Today I got a wild hair and decided to take the girls to paint some pottery.  They loved it, so I figure there will be more pieces to be made and money to be spent.

Ashley made a trinket box, Ally made a cat figurine.  And I made two trivets, each one had the girls name and handprint.

This is just to prove why we do not play the Wii with Ashley.  She is obviously the score on the left and I am on the right.

Trip to Louisiana

It just seems like every couple of weeks we are traveling on a new adventure ~ here is our latest one.  I took the girls down to Louisiana to visit my parents for a long weekend.  They were so amazing in the car.  It is 600 miles from our home in Georgia to my mother's house.  The girls made the trip in one day.  Pretty amazing considering they are 3 and 5; oh and let me not forget the dog went with us as well.  It was a wonderful weekend.  The girls spent the whole weekend with other kids.  My nephew, Jayce stayed the whole weekend with us at Maw Maw's house.  Each day my sister brought over the twins she is keeping for a friend.  The friend is deployed for a year, bless my sister, the twins are just turning two years old.  So most of the pictures are of the girls just having a blast.

Maw Maw and Paw Paw

Alyssa, one half of the twins.

My sister, Kim and the other half of the twins, Eric.

Alison, Jayce and Ashley.

Everything that Jayce did, the girls were right there. 

Paw Paw is an accomplished pianist, so anytime he gets a chance to teach a grandchild to play the piano he takes it.  Thanks Paw Paw, you have amazing patience with ALL the grandchildren.

Ashley was absolutely amazed at Paw Paw's talent.

The bag my mom made for me, professional quality ~ I love it!

Just a miscellaneous picture of our lemon tree Rusty has been nurturing.  It was an awesome feeling to walk out and pluck a lemon from our own tree in the living room.  Thank you Rusty for your hard work!

H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y-!

Happy Birthday Ashley!

We took Ashley for dinner and ice cream at Red Robin.

The birthday girl half asleep.

Thanks grandma chicken for the bead making kit.

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The girls wanted a new cupcake design on the tray.

Here are the Princess Pink cupcakes we took to church.

Alison is just practicing for her birthday next month.

I went into labor...

Five years ago to the day, I remember watching the dreadful movie "Stepford Wives" in my living room with Rusty.  There was stress and exhaustion all around us.  We were quietly watching the movie, him on the couch and I miserably in my big chair.  He was the Executive Officer of 70th Engineers and in about 11 days they would be deploying for a year long tour in Iraq.  Then they started . . . . . contractions.  So on a cold January evening at Fort Riley, Kansas we packed up and headed to the hospital.  We thought for sure that this was a false alarm; we were wrong!  I was admitted and then the fun began.  But no one informed me of two important facts when admitted for labor:  1.  you may not have anything to eat once you are admitted and 2. since the anesthesiologist lived so far away, you must ask for an epidural early.  So once starvation set in and the epidural wore off; Ashley decided to come and join us in the crazy world.  In that moment, the stress of the looming deployment and all the hunger and labor pains absolutely disappeared.  Then there it was, the first noise from my first born ~ music to my ears.  She was healthy and had all her fingers and toes.  Soon after I had my jell-o and she and I snuggled into our first nap together.  We love you Ashley and happy birthday!

Wow, it is winter!

The girls were absolutely excited to wake up this morning to see some snow on the ground.  But I had to explain that it was nothing like what Grandma and Grandpa has in Michigan.  But we enjoyed it anyway!

On a more warm note, the girl's birthdays are coming up so they designed some dresses that they wanted me to make.

If you do not know by now Lady Cluck has been missing since our visit to Michigan.  I was told that the hawk is a chicken's big predator in these parts.  This is what I found in our yard this morning ~ can you say culprit?

A day with the girls

Today we decided to skip the gym and travel to Kennesaw, Georgia (about an hour away) and visit a friend of ours.  She is the daughter of our neighbor, Anna.  She is so good with kids so will all had a blast.  We took the girls to Bounce U, to lunch and then to her college apartment.  I apologize for the blurry pictures, but it was hard keeping up with all the running and jumping.

It was a wonderful and tiring day, thanks Anna!