Ten on Tuesday…

Well, after several weeks on hiatus, here is my Ten on Tuesday list…

1.  We have gone to the movies the past 3 Tuesdays.  Selah loved it the first week. The second week she did ok.  But, I think it is safe to say that after today’s movie, the newness has worn off.  She was up and down out of her seat more times that I could count.  I finally dug around in my purse until I scrounged up $4 to buy her a bag of Starburst.  That kept her entertained for awhile, but not quite until the movie was completely over.  Oh well…it was fun while it lasted.

2.  Speaking of the movies, today we saw Shrek.  I was a little surprised by some of the language and innuendos in it.  I know most kid movies have some adult humor, but I don’t think we’ll be watching Shrek again.  I know…call me old fashioned.

3.  Speaking of old fashioned, I have made the decision to homeschool Myla next year.  I am very excited about it (and so is she)!  I would encourage you, if you are a Christian parent, to watch the IndoctriNation Movie. A friend let me borrow it, and I’m so glad she did. (I now have a copy of my own if you would like to borrow it)  It is an honest look into our nation’s public schools.  It is very sobering and scary.  I do not judge anyone who has their children in public school, but I know that I am not ok with sending mine at this point.  I know we are going to be questioned and talked about and maybe even laughed at, but I’m okay with that.  I know that we are considered weird sometimes.

4.  In fact, I think I am going to do a blog post titled, “We’re Weird, and We’re Okay With That”.  It’s been swirling around in my head today.  I need to get on that.

5.  Myla has quit taking naps, but today, she had to take one.  Everyone in our house has had the “grumpies”  today so I’m hoping a good nap will help with that.

6.  The girls have LOVED the pool this summer, which is a welcome change from last summer.  Selah hated everything about the pool last year, so we really didn’t go at all.  This year, she is perfectly content just playing on the steps, which is fine with me!  Myla loves to be in the water but hasn’t totally mastered swimming yet. She doesn’t mind going under, in fact, she can stay under for longer than I thought she could, but she must can’t get the mechanics right.  I’m just thankful they are enjoying it because it is about all we can do outside…..it is so HOT!

7.  Last week we had the best vegetables every night with supper.  A couple from our church lives right down the road from us, and they have a huge garden.  They were so generous!

YUMMY!

8.  I have a great desire to get organized in my life, and Pinterest is helping me get some great ideas.  Now, just to follow through with them.  I do have the things to make a family binder with calendars, reminders and important documents.  I can’t wait to make it (and hopefully use it) ha!

9.  My mom is having surgery in the morning.  She fell several weeks ago and fractured her shoulder, tore her rotator cuff and tore her labrum.  It is going to be an hard surgery and recovery.  I feel so sorry for her.  If you think about it in the morning, please say a prayer that God would guide the doctor’s hands, and she would have an easy as possible recovery and rehab.

10.  I’m really glad that I like the Bible School songs from this year because I have heard them about 1,000 times!  We listen to them every time we are in the van, and sometimes we have to bring them inside to listen to them!

Happy Tuesday!

Blueberry Pickin’ and Mackensy Turns Two!!

On Friday, we headed over to Pontotoc to pick blueberries.  You can pick them there and buy them for much cheaper than the grocery store, so we thought we would give it a try.  The girls had a good time.  Selah hung with it much longer than Myla…as Myla quickly to hot and tired.  Selah is our child with more endurance for sure!  She did a very good job too…although I think she ate half as many as she picked!  Altogether we picked a gallon! 

Getting started!  It was a little overcast when we started, but soon the sun came out and it got HOT!

Both girls finding some on one bush!

I think Selah was stopping for a  snack break!

She also had an advantage being shorter that she could just go up under the bushes and find plenty!

We were so excited that Katie and her kiddos came over from Tupelo to join us.  Selah and Charlie picked some together.  Unfortunately, I didn’t do great with pictures after this.  We did go to a park to eat a sack lunch and play.  Then Katie and I rode out to the Amish country outside of Pontotoc to check it out.  It is definitely fascinating to see how they live.  On each of the mailboxes of the homes, it lists what they sell, then you just drive up in their driveway and shop!  I had an extra booster seat in my car, so Myla rode with Grace and Robbie, and she could not have been happier.  Katie gave them a little pep talk about how the Amish dressed/looked different than we did, and she asked them to not say anything about it in front of them.  They didn’t, thank goodness!  They were fascinated at how they did dress and look differently and how they wore no shoes!

Then on Saturday afternoon we were excited to go out to our old neighborhood and celebrate sweet Mackensy’s second birthday.  I can’t believe Susan and I now have four year olds and two year olds.  We went through both pregnancies together as neighbors and have depended on each other for support and encouragement during these fun parenting years!   Susan and Ethan had lots of fun water activities in the backyard, and all of the kids has SO much fun!  Then they came in a picnicked in the den!  I love this picture of Selah…she is enjoying her hot dog!

Sweet girl loves to eat!

Mackensy especially enjoyed her cake!!

Happy Birthday, Mackensy!!

Just for fun….2 years ago…

Mackensy and Selah at the hospital after Mackensy was born!  Time FLIES!!

Father’s Day 2012…

We had a great weekend celebrating Father’s Day! I am so, so thankful for my “Deddy”, my step dad, Frank, my father-in-law, Mr. Joe, and especially for Michael, who is an amazing father to our girls!

On Friday I took the girl’s to the Dollar Tree and told them they could pick out one thing for Michael.  I’m really not that cheap, I just knew if I didn’t limit it to one thing, we would come home with tons of junk!  Anyway, Myla picked out a pedometer, after I explained to her what it was.  She just saw it hanging up on a display and asked what it was.  When I told her, she said, “That’s it.  That’s what I want to get Daddy!”  She was SO proud of it, and was so ready for him to open it that she begged him to do it on Friday night.  I love her face in the above picture.  Her excitement is palpable.

So proud of her gift!!

While Michael was opening Myla’s gift, we turned around and noticed that Selah had taken the opportunity to go ahead and open her gift to Daddy for him.  I don’t think she ever got the concept that the gift was for Daddy and not her! (Ignore the piles of towels…it was laundry day!!)

What is it, you ask?  A pink cupcake, squeaky dog toy!  Daddy LOVED it!!  Ha!

Daddy with his girls and their gifts!

Well, Myla wanted to put the pedometer to the test, so she pranced around the house for a long time before logging several hundred steps.  Ha!!

Still walking…

This year for gifts, we went the homemade route, as usual.  We did the above pictures for the granddads and one for Daddy, of course!

For Daddy, we made this!  It was a spinoff of something I saw on Pinterest.  Michael loves this verse out of Micah, so I thought it would be good.  The girls loved doing their handprints and footprints, and I thought they turned out cute. Now, I’ve just got to find a place to hang them in our house! 

Myla tried her best to get Daddy to open this gift on Friday night too, but Daddy said he wanted something to open on Father’s Day!  I forgot to get a picture of the girls dressed for church with Michael…oh well!  One in their pj’s will have to do!

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy!

Back up to Saturday…the Meurriers were gracious enough to host everyone for Father’s Day!  We were so excited to see Aunt Mary, Uncle Spencer and “Baby” Luke, as Selah calls him, even though he’s not a baby anymore!

To say Selah was obsessed with Luke would be an understatement!  She followed him around ALL day hugging and kissing him, trying to give him his pacifier, giving him toys, etc.  Bless his heart…he was a trooper.  She was SO sweet and gentle to him which encouraged me for when the new baby comes.  She is normally very jealous acting around other kids when I’m around, but she had a ball with Luke!

All of the Meurrier’s grandchildren!

I love this picture!

Luke’s face cracks me up…he is like, “Would you mind taking these crazy girls away for a moment…I need some space!!”  I know how you feel Luke!

Bodie opening his picture.

And Granddaddy!  I think they really liked them!

CHAOS!!  Can you tell the girls wanted their hands on Luke at all times!!!  Poor kid!

Later in the afternoon, Myla wanted to “put on a show” with the VBS songs.  Of course, Selah participated too!

Luke turns ONE tomorrow, but since we knew we wouldn’t see him on his birthday, we took his present on Saturday!  He was excited to get some dump trucks!

Granddaddy and Sae Sae with their babes!!

Hot Springs Vacation, 3rd and Final Part…

On Wednesday of our trip, we decided to visit the Hot Springs Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo.  It was a little rickety, but the kids LOVED it!

First we visited the petting zoo part where they had goats, deer and donkeys.

I just thought this picture was funny!  He’s like, “What’s with the camera…I need some bread, please!”

Here come the girls to pet the goats!!

I think Selah made an effort to pet every.single.goat they had.  She LOVES animals.

Myla petted a few too!

I didn’t get a picture of it, but she would lean down and hug them as well!

This goat was trying to eat Bodie’s shorts!

Petting the baby goats.  They were SO little and cute!

After the petting zoo, we went inside to look at some little alligators.  Henry petted one of the little ones!

Selah hopped right up to pet it too!

Then she declared, “I wanna get in der wif dem!”  Not a good idea, baby girl!

Checking out the alligators that were 3 to 6 years old.

Then we headed outside to see the big gators!  They were everywhere!

This alligator started hissing at my mom because she was standing right by the fence kind of kicking the rocks.  Scary!

Next we went to the observation tower that stands high on a mountain over Hot Springs.  I love this picture of Henry and Myla that I got at the top of it!

All I have to say,  it thank goodness the elevator was working…I don’t think I would have taken the stairs!

Finally on Friday we headed to Magic Springs amusement park.  It was the perfect day to go!  It was 75 degrees all day, and it was not crowded at all.  Hands down my best experience at an amusement park.  I told my mom, I would take a day like that at Magic Springs any day over a blazing hot, crowded day at Disney.  Ha!

We rented this wagon for Selah…but it ended up that the big kids wanted in it more than her.

Henry and Myla on the bumper cars.  They started off like this, but Henry couldn’t quite get driving down, so they stopped it so I could get in with him and Frank got in with Myla.  They loved bumping into each other!

There was a great kiddie section ride.  The kids loved it, especially Selah.  She was up for any and every ride.

Flying in the bumblebees!

Myla and Henry on the hot air balloon ride.  I rode with Selah and tried to keep our cart from spinning around while we were going up and down, but one time I let it spin, and she said, “Whoa!!  That was fun!”

Me and Selah on the ferris wheel!

Henry and Selah rode this “free fall” ride.  It didn’t go fast, but it did go fairly high.  Selah just sat there talking to herself the whole time and clapped.

Picture of them up top.

Myla and Henry loved riding the old fashioned cars.

A unique thing about Magic Springs is that it is connected to a water park, Crystal Falls.  You can just change into your bathing suit and go swimming!

They had a good time but didn’t last long because when the sun went behind a cloud, it was COLD!

On Saturday, we headed home!  Myla made it all the way to Senatobia (25 miles before home) before she finally fell asleep!

We had such a GREAT time on vacation!!  Mimi and Bodie always make it fun for us!