Ragan's birthday

birthday cousins...Emily and Ragan...trip to the zoo Catherine and Brooke

William, Emily, Catherine, Meghan, Ragan, her friend S, & Brooke...on the komodo dragon

William's favorite animals were the snakes...he sat in this little nook and watched closely as the rattlesnake slithered back and forth. I wish that he was a little more apprehensive, he stayed in this one place for 10 min. with me while everyone else walked through the exhibit (this snake was very active). Emily (8), one of the birthday girls...

Ragan ,(9) the other birthday girl

William's Christmas bruise

What holiday would be complete without a huge bruise on a child's facial area? LOL

William fell at my parent's house Christmas day and hit his face on their stone fireplace and this is the battle wound he has to show for it. OUCH!!

December 29, 2008..Happy Birthday Ragan and Emily

By the time the day was over yesterday I did not even feel like I had the energy to check anything on the computer...I was exhausted!!

Yesterday morning we left around 8:15am to bring William for his check up and do you know what??? HE IS ALL BETTER! I was so happy to hear the words "he sounds great! What a relief! No more meds., well expect breathing treatments but that is part of the norm any way for us. Dr. L also said that he could have his synagsis shot, so I drove straight to the clinic. They were closed :( but I will bring him on Friday, that will bring me a better sense of relief to know he is covered.
After the doctor's office Ragan's friend met us and my mom with M and E, and we went to the zoo...7 kids and 2adults (we were outnumbered). We were at the zoo about 4 1/2 hours and we saw EVERYTHING. Meghan and Emily don't go as much as we do. Since we have a membership we go and just stay for a few, the whole zoo is just too much in one day for so many little kids, but we all had fun. By the time we got back across the lake, we had to stop and get Emily and Ragan's birthday gift and then get the decorations for Ragan's cake (nothing like waiting to the last minute). We got home around 6pm and Ragan and her friend decorated her cake. Everyone started to arrive (we just do family on the kids "real "birthday)..MiMi, Pops, Meghan, Emily, Pat, Aunt Stephanie, Madison, and Riley, (Uncle John was working). The girls opened their gifts, then we sang to Ragan then Emily. It is fun to have 2 birthdays on the same day. Ragan got money and a magnetic calendar from us, office supplies from Aunt Steph, a bedspread she has been wanting and money from MiMi and Pops, a ring from Paw Paw John (he brought it over the day before) and a necklace, earrings and money from Pat. She definitely did well in the money department, we may have to take out a loan LOL. The kids had a fun time, they played with their American Girl dolls, Rock Band and John did some fireworks for Ragan (that is her fave part about her birthday). By the time everyone left is was after 10 and the kids were still running around, except me ha ha. I finally got everyone in bed by 10:30 even William and I crashed too. What a fun birthday Ragan and Emily had.

Happy 9th Brithday to my sweet girl, Ragan.

2 cakes, a fire, a movie, plus one clean house

I just have to brag about how productive my day has been today, considering most are not all that productive cleaning wise ha ha. After I got Ragan's entire room cleaned out yesterday it really motivated me to get the rest of the house in shape despite the Christmas decor still out (only one more day with it out LOL). Anyway, I cleaned C and B's room this morning and started on the house. I have 2 cakes to bake for tomorrow...Ragan and Emily both have the same birthday (E was born on Ragan's first birthday). So, I baked a cake for Emily first, she wanted strawberry with white frosting. She wants me to decorate it like a base ball...don't ask :)
The kids and I went to my parents' house and my dad made a bonfire. We roasted hot dogs and marsh mellows...there was a hitch....it was RAINING! No problem, William stayed inside with MiMi. The girls, Pops and myself stayed outside...no, it wasn't raining hard, just a light drizzle so we did not get wet until it got really started raining hard, plus we had umbrellas. John's dad stopped by to bring R her birthday gift a day early (they love to play with him). John also came over to help my dad with a new TV he just bought. We picked up Catherine and tonight was Brooke's turn to sleep at MiMi's house. We went home, got cozy and watched Horton Hears a Who, which was a cute kid movie..W even watched parts of it. After the movie I finally made Ragan's birthday cake for tomorrow which is a cookie cake so at least it was easy and fast, I will decorate it tomorrow. I got the kids to bed and now the house is clean for tomorrow for when we celebrate Emily and Ragan's birthday. Yeah!

Cleaning and a movie

The kids and I have spent the day home today. Usually the day after Christmas by noon at the latest, you would never know that Christmas was less than 24 hours over. Lights and ornaments are off of the tree. The tree is out of the house, needles vacuumed. Santas, nativities, wreaths and any other paraphernalia dealing with Christmas is in boxes and heading for the attic. This year since our "new" tree is artificial Ragan asked if we could keep it up until her birthday, which is Monday. I told her that we would keep it up and honestly I was thinking about keeping it up until the weekend of New Year....that is not going to happen. I am so ready to get it all cleaned up and the house looking normal again, the day after her birthday the tree is GONE! I do love all of the decorations, don't get me wrong, but when Christmas is over, it needs to go. This morning I worked on Ragan's bedroom. I had her help me clean it and John and I moved her bed around how she has been wanting it. All of her Christmas gifts are where they belong, closet clean and ALL clothes put away. I have also put all of W's toys away and most of C and B's. Tomorrow I will be cleaning out their room....that should be fun, NOT.
After W's nap we brought Catherine to spend the night at MiMi's house. When we got back John brought R, B, and W grocery shopping and a friend of mine picked me up to go to the movies. We saw Four Christmases...very cute. When we got in line to pay, this young guy stood behind us and asked if there was a machine inside to pay for the tickets, we said we did not know. Then my friend and I mentioned that we had not been to the show in a while (not meaning a year or anything). We said the last movie we saw was Sex in the City when it was out and he replied, "Oh, wow that is a long time." LOL We said we did not think it was that long ago (only a few months ago, which is not too bad), and told him that is what happens when you have kids. He mumbled something...I don't think is going to be having children any time soon LOL

Christmas #4

Christmas afternoon at Pops and MiMi's house

Catherine and her new DS game Emily "helping" William open his doctor kit Brooke showing off her new dangling LSU earrings and one of her monogrammed bags

Ragan and MiMi All of the girls (and boy), we were just missing Riley...Catherine, Madison, Ragan, Brooke, Emily, William and Meghan

Christmas pictures #3

These pictures were taken December 23rd at John's grandmother's house.

ragan with her webkinz

catherine with stylin' studio

brooke with her webkinz

william opening his tool box

Christmas pictures #2

Catherine and Brooke with their American Girl Dollsso happy to get Rock Band

Ragan with Julie

Catherine with Bity Twins

Brooke with her Just Like me Doll

*I don't know how Ragan always seems to escape group pictures, but she does ;)

narretto's christmas

the past few days

I will try to briefly catch up on my blogging LOL...we have had such a nice past few days. Even though I really don't have a big family at all (luckily I married into a big family), I love spending it with the family that I have. John and I brought the kdis over to my parent's house on Christmas Eve so that we could get our Christmas shopping done. The crowds were not bad and neither was the traffic. The two of us had such a nice day spending time together (John would have rather NOT been shopping), but we even went out to eat and it wasn't at a fast food place LOL. After we shopped we came home to drop off the gifts and then I picked the kids up from mom's house. I brought the girls to the dollar store where they each chose a gift for John, MiMi, Pops, and Maw Maw Pat. We started doing this several years ago b/c each girl wants to buy a gift and it was too expensive so I opted to do this, it is so cute to watch the thought process. Catherine got John a ceramic penguin, and my dad some mini blades (I don't know what they were even for). Ragan got Pops duct so that he could mark the trees he needs to cut down in the yard (he has been doing this lately), MiMi got glass dog, and Daddy a pack of pens. Brooke got Pops and Daddy a ceramic dog, and MiMi a candle. Everyoneis just so happy to get their gifts on Christmas Day. After the Dollar Store we went to John's mom's house to open presents and then get ready for bed.
John and I wrapped gifts until 1am Christmas morning...yes, I was exhausted.
Christmas morning the first one up comes into my bedroom and then we wake up the others. Once everyone is awake, then I run into the living room and start videoing them as they come into the room. They were so excited! William even had a great time this year, however he did not open his last 3 gifts, they were saved until last night and he even opened the one this morning... he just kept pushing them away when we would try to get him to open them. His big gift was a train table which he has really enjoyed. The girls got a lot of clothes and plenty of toys, which they did need ha ha, their big gift was an American Girl doll and some AG doll clothes and Rock Band (which was John's way of getting one LOL).
After we opened all of our gifts the kids had time to play for a while, then we went to Pat;s (John's mom's) house around 1pm for about an hour for lunch. Then headed to MiMi and Pops' house for the rest of the day. We have some friends (they are more like family) who come over to my parent's house, (I guess for the past 25+ years) every Christmas and Thanksgiving and they spend the day with us. It is nice to just hang out with them, they have a daughter a year older than Ragan so they all play well together. We opened gifts at MiMi's house with Meghan and Emily and the kids got even more things...monogrammed bags (purple and gold...LSU), DS games, webkinz, Barbie stuff, train (W), bristle blocks (W),etc. We got home pretty late but it was so much fun. Oh, Brooke's most exciting part about Christmas is that she got to change her earrings for the first time and she was very happy about that....we have done that quite a few times in the past 24 hours :)
So, today I was going to get the girls to help me pick up all of their gifts but they were having so much fun playing they didn't. My mom picked them up at 1pm to bring them to the movies. They got to the show, bought tickets, went into the theater and was not a row with 6 seats anywhere to be found so my mom told the manager and he said to come back for the next time. She had to waste 2 1/2 hours before the next movie. The next movie started at 4pm...I think the movie was called Story Teller, with Adam Sandler. They kids thought is was really cute. So my mom did not bring the girls back home until almost 7pm. WOW what a movie day LOL. John took off of work at noon so he, William and myself were home most of the day...so relaxing. I think I will get the house in order tomorrow...maybe LOL

Christmas pictures tomorrow...

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

christmas yesterday

Last night began our real "Christmas" you could say. We went to J's grandmother's house where his dad, aunts and uncles were. The kids always have such a good time when we go there. There was so much food and presents for the kids all over the floor. We stayed there late b/c the kids were having a great time playing. The girls got so many things....PJ's, Nintendo DS games, Pixos, clothes, earrings and much more. William got cars, tractors and even a big wooden work bench which would not fit in teh back of the van :( His OT will love it b/c you can put the pegs in different holes...any OT's dream LOL.
So, today John and I will drop the kids off at my parents' house this morning and we have to finish our shopping UGH Yes, we waited until the last minute...literally

Wordless Wednesday

I did it!!

Just wondering

Am I the only one who has not finished all of my Christmas shopping and wrapping??? John and I are going together to finish up on Wed. I don't like to wait till the last min. but we are waiting on a check, nothing like the last minute huh?

12 Days of Christmas

"THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS"

On the First day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…A child with a disability.

On the Second day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…A heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the Third day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…An ache in my heart, and a heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the Fourth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…A tear in my eye, an ache in my heart, and a heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the Fifth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…An unsuspected strength for the tear in my eye, and the ache in my heart, and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the Sixth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…A ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eye, and the ache in my heart, and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the Seventh day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…A sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eye, and the ache in my heart, and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the Eighth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…Supportive family and friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eye, and the ache in my heart, and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the Ninth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…Remarkable teachers and caregivers, supportive family and friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eye, and the ache in my heart, and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the Tenth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…An appreciation of small accomplishments, remarkable teachers and caregivers, supportive family and friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eye, and the ache in my heart, and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the Eleventh day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me…A sense of pride and joy, an appreciation of small accomplishments, remarkable teachers and caregivers, supportive family and friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eye, and the ache in my heart, and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the Twelfth day of Christmas, the good Lord SAID to me…“Reach out and share” your sense of pride and joy, your appreciation of small accomplishments, your remarkable teachers and caregivers, your supportive family and friends, your sense of humor, your ray of hope, your unsuspected strength for the tear in your eye, and the ache in your heart, and your heart full of love for your child with a disability.
~author unknown~

Award

Renee at my special k's sent this award to me...

Conditions of the award say that I must list 5 of my favorite addictions and then pass the award along to 5 other blogs.

1. frozen cappuchinnos

2. shopping for kids clothes

3. organizing (I don't get to do it near as much as I would like)

4. blogging

5. home decor magazines and television shows

I now pass this to:

1. Meredith

2. Amanda

3. Delilah

4. Kim

5. Sarah

Okay so to the 5 of you, the rules of this award are:

1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.

2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.

3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as well. To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gadget. Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

peace and quiet

I am definitely enjoying a lot of peace and quiet tonight. C and B slept out at a friend's house together and then R was invited to go to her friend's house for the night, so everyone is GONE. William is sleeping and John are I in quiet!!! I am going to wrap some gifts tonight since I have not started.
This morning I brought the girls to Global Wildlife to see Santa and then ran to a few stores in town to get a couple of things for John for Christmas. We did not do the tour at Global b/c we just did not have time however we did see 4 giraffes, kangaroos, bison, hundreds of different kind of deer, 2 camels and emus to name a few while we pulled in and as we left. The kids made crafts and took a pict. with the fat guy and then we left.

a day that did not go as planned

Today did not go quite as planned. We were supposed to go to the ped. office and then to the synagsis clinic for W's shot. After Dr. L listened to W's breathing she said that he sounded too bad to let him get his synagsis shot. She said the wheezing was terrible! YIKES! Now she took him off of the antibiotic that he was supposed to start the second round of tomorrow and put on a new 10 day anti., he is also on oripred (steroid), breathing treatments every 4 hours and he got a Rocefin shot (the equivalent of 2 days of antibiotic). Hopefully this will be the key to getting my little guy back is working shape. He is acting perfectly fine and is not missing a beat playing, so this is one of the reasons it is hard to tell when he is getting sick. I was a little nervous when Dr. L sat down to listen to his breathing this morning...she just got this funny look on her face and I asked if everything was OK and she just listened some more and said how bad he sounded....I knew we were hospital bound....to my surprise she said not now and she thought this would work...Please pray it does and that the hospital is NOT in our near future. We will have a follow up the Mon. after Christmas and then hopefully we will be able to get him his synagsis shot shortly thereafter. Until then we will have to be extra cautious that we are not around anyone with a cold and especially young children with cold like symptoms b/c he is so susceptible to RSV until he is able to get that shot...so no more Wal-Mart or any shopping for that matter with him.
So after the doctor we ran home for speech and then I picked R up from school (C did not go b/c it was a 1/2 day) along with 2 other kids and went home. The girls had friends over to decorate cookies and make ornaments. There were 14 girls in all and they had a great time playing and making crafts. The weather was great (almost 80 degrees), they played outside most of the afternoon. I can't wait until next year to do it all again. Tonight we went out to eat and now we are just relaxing around the house.

C's Christmas party

As you may remember, I just brought W to the Dr. a week ago yesterday. Tues he started with some more congestion and a cough (he is on antibiotic). Yesterday, I called the office to make an appointment for this morning so the the Dr. could check him out....he gets his synagsis shot Fri morning and they always ask about his respiratory (and fever)....I guess if it is too bad they will wait on the shot which that is a different story in itself of why we don't want to wait on that. I really wanted Dr. L's opinionon if he should get the shot or not. So this morning the office called me at 8:30 to tell me that they need to reschedule WHAT??? Dr. L had to leave by 10am and they scheduled us for that time (oops someone is going to get it LOL).They politely told me that I could see one of the other doctors and I told them that I would just wait until the morning to see our Ped. (that is just the nice version ;) )
So today B, W and I stayed home and I got things ready for tomorrow. The girls are all having a few friends over to decorate cookies and they all want to give each friend a picture frame...so I made them while the girls were at school. At 1:30 C had a Christmas party so we went to school and enjoyed watching the kids decorate cookies and open a gift (books) from their parents.

Christmas program

The girls up the their elbows in cookie doughB with "baby Jesus"

This was Brooke's last day of school until the new year. The school puts on a precious Christmas program every year. All of the children sing. ... the Pre-K class (since this is the oldest class at the school) has important part, like Mary, Joseph, drummers, and cymbal players...B was a cymbal player....they just played the cymbals for one or two songs. After the program there is a cookie reception MMmmm (not to healthy though). We went to eat lunch with some friends of our after the reception (we didn't eat enough there LOL). By the time we finished eating and got home it was 1pm. I figured that R and C might as well stay home today, after all they are doing absolutely NOTHING this entire week. As a matter fact the first thing R told me when I picked her up from school yesterday was that they did not have homework all week...is that the teacher's Christmas present to the parents?....well, it should be LOL.
Anyway, when we got home I put William straight to bed, (he was so tired) and the girls and I baked for two hours. It worked out quite well, when W woke up from his nap I was putting the last batch of cookies in the oven. I only have to bake some cupcakes for tomorrow for Catherine and her friends...she has the friendship table for lunch.

Brooke's school Christmas party

Today was B's Christmas party for her class. The children had fun, after their snack they went outside to play, had their faces painted and made an ornament. Willilam was with me and really enjoyed the ride that B gave him on the double seater bike.

**Please notice, as I said in the post yesterday about if you don't like the weather...

How do ya like the "summer-Christmas" dress? and William's Christmas Jon-Jons LOL

Louisiana weather

John left to go hunting on Thurs., the day that is snowed. Today, four days later, he came home (with a deer) and it was in the low 70's...only here. That's is why the saying goes something like....if you don't like the weather wait a minute and it will change. LOL The kids were so happy to have their Daddy back home, he was missed a lot and we even got to eat some yummy back strap for dinner MMMmmmmmmm

gingerbread house pictures

Ragan decorating her gingerbread house Catherine decorating cookies

Brooke

Even William decorated a house....he ate almost all of the goodies to go on it though, but her had fun too.

the little ginger bread village

tiger stadium and Mike the tiger in Louisiana snow

A friend of mine sent these pictures from LSU to me today...looks like we weren't the only ones enjoying the snow...

making gingerbread houses

William and I woke up this morning to lots of giggling from our living room. C and B along with their friends were up bright and early and it was only 7:30am. We did not get to lay around and relax much today, we picked Ragan and one of her friends up from the slumber party and went to MiMi's house.
My mom let all three of my girls along with one of their friends, plus M and E with 2 or 3 each of their friends come over to decorate gingerbread houses. There was a total of 13 girls...I think...last time we checked at least LOL. Anyway, there were a lot of little girls running through the house laughing, screeching and just yelling. They had fun putting the gingerbread houses together frosting them (glue) and then decorating them with lots of candy...M&Ms, chocolate chips, pretzels, etc. The girls also had a few cookies that they decorated too.
The kids and I got home, ate dinner and got ready for bed, we have had a very long last few days and we are ALL exhausted! I can't wait for tomorrow when I can stay home and just clean and wash clothes (never thought I would hear myself say that ha ha)

oldest man with DS...read about him

Read all about the oldest man with Down's Syndrome alive...it is amazing
http://www.wasecacountynews.com/news.php?viewStory=515

the past few days with snow...

What a time we have had the past couple of days. We have thoroughly enjoyed the snow... snowball fights, eating snow, crunching through it and even making snow angels however, I would not like to live where it snows on a regular basis. The ground is starting to thaw and it is becoming a wet mess. It looks like we have had a major downpour in the last day or so. Some of my friends are just getting electricity tonight, luckily we only lost it for a few hours yesterday...my friend said that when her dad called the electric company they said they they did not know what to do and they were waiting....no one knows what to do with this much snow. We still have quite a bit in our yard ...it looks so beautiful with the full moon shining on it, it seems to be glowing. Our porch still has a very thick layer of snow on it tonight....about 3 inches. The girls were happy to get out of school for the past 2 days this week and it was even better to find out that we would not have to make it up...the other schools in the parish were not closed although I am sure the attendance was very low.
Ragan went to her friends' slumber party tonight so C and B each has a friend spending the night. I just got them all to get in their room to calm down b/c we have to pick R up in the morning.
Oh, and tonight when C was brushing her teeth (she had a really loose tooth), she came to me and said, "Um mom, I need you to fix my tooth." What??....I looked and the tooth was twisted, and as she tried to straighten it out it popped out, no blood or anything. And if you remember from my other blogs about my children loosing their teeth, there was the note to the tooth fairy asking if she could keep it...ICK! LOL

Louisiana snow pictures

I have to admit it is very hard to narrow 150 pictures down to just a handful of my favorites....but her are some of them....

Catherine looking cute in Daddy's hunting hat..

this is how the kids warmed their feet after playing outside yesterday (notice William even has his little feet propped up too)

John cleaning off the satellite and throwing snowballs at me!

Ragan

Meghan and Emily

William checking it out...he decided quickly that he did NOT like it one bit and rather be inside...he cried at the door to get in.

narretto's with cousins

Brooke's hunk of snow

snowmen that we made this afternoon...a day and a half after the snow