Emma's Vision for a Brighter Education

Today Ian and I went to pick Emma up from preschool. She immediately hugged me and told me she had been a little sad today because she missed me. Her teacher, Ms Ann Marie, told me that yes, in fact, she had noticed herself that Emma was a little sad today, especially when the class was on the playground. Ms Ann Marie asked Emma to come sit by her on the bench while the other kids were playing. She told Emma that she noticed she was a little sad today and asked her what was wrong. Emma told her, "I want a dog." Yes, this has started again in our house now that our neighbors have just bought their third pet dog. Then Emma proceeds to tell her teacher that school is boring. As Ms Ann Marie tries to cover her mouth to keep from laughing she asks, "Well what can we do to make school better?" Emma quickly answers (so you know she has given this a lot of thought), " A pool and free dogs!" Ms Ann Marie told Emma, "Well that would make it more exciting!" Emma is in for major disappointment in Kindergarten where there are no swimming pools and no free dogs!!! Maybe this is the incentive Emma needs for a future in politics....

Sickness in the House

Sorry to report that there will be no video update of Ian and Beck today. Ian has a fever and what seems to be a cold so Beck is staying at home today, away from the sick germs. When I told Emma this morning that Beck wasn't coming, she stuck that bottom lip out and said, "Awwww." She did understand though.
Derreck and Uncle Matt will be running the 1/2 marathon on Saturday. As long as it isn't raining, the kids, Beck, Aunt Suz, Grana and I will be down there taking pictures and cheering them on!
Have a blessed week!

CMT Awards

(Abby typing)
Well like my mom said Beck stays with us on Mondays.But my aunt Suz said that she was going to take me and her to the CMT awards! That Monday when she picked Beck up she took me with her too. On the way there we talked about where we were going then we went to Sonic
for dinner.We went to her house for her to change and for me to eat dinner.After that she told
me that her friend Tod (the one that got us the tickets because he works there)is going to drive
us there.So he drove us to the CMT awards!But there I had to go to the bathroom so Susan took
me .When I was washing my hands Suz couldn't find the tickets but luckally she found them
but back to the concert.I loved Carrie Underwood,Taylor Swift,and Leann Rimes they were awesome and I loved all the music preformances! But my favorite part was all the awards for the singers.Well your probaly guessing how loud it was well it was so loud that I thought that my ears were going to fall of!But after the show they shot out confetti and fireworks!Well the show was awesome!

Outdoor Skating and Emma's New Do

Derreck took off early from work yesterday and he spent a lot of time outdoors with the kids. Ian sat in the stroller as Abby skated and Emma tried for the first time. You can see from the pictures that Emma was very proud. She spent the majority of the time walking around in the skates but she had a blast.

I left them to go to a Swim Team meeting at our newly opened Recreation Center in town.

I signed Abby up for the team and she will officially try out on May 12.

Her best friend Jorja will be on the team too. I will let you know how try outs go.

Abby really enjoyed the CMT awards. She will post her version at a later date. She is now a fan of Taylor Swift, LeAnn Rimes and

Carrie Underwood. Of course the hit of the night was seeing Miley Cyrus.

Abby got home at 11:30 that night and then had to get up the next day for school. She was quite the trooper and made it just fine.

Last night I told Emma that I would be taking her to Great Clips for a hair cut today (I had a coupon that expires today---most of you know how coupon crazy I am so there is no way I could let this expire)! This morning at breakfast Emma proceeds to tell me that she is getting her hair cut short. I jokingly asked her if it would be as short as Ian's.....no was the answer. As short as Daddy's...no. She then tells me she wants her hair just like mine so she can be my twin. For those of you who haven't seen me in awhile my hair is very short in the back and long on the sides ( a stay at home mom's version of Victoria Beckham's hairdo). After verifying this is what Emma truly wanted, I felt a little skeptical about taking her to Great Clips for this drastic of a change (see above photos for how long her hair is ). After searching for other coupons( I refuse to pay full price) I found one for Sweet and Sassy Kids Salon. So after dropping Abby off at school (who told Emma that she is going to think about Emma's new hairdo all day---I can't tell who was more excited), we went to the salon. This place is a girls dream come true. It is full of bright pink , purple and green everywhere. There are movies playing at each hair station, Disney-esque music blaring and Webkinz galore (more on that later). We are greeted by a lady named Shelby whom Emma instantly loved. She asked Emma how old she was and since she was "of age" offered the full shampoo treatment. Emma was a little unsure this being the first time she would have experienced this but she loved it once it was finished. Shelby and I decide that Emma should have more of a kid's version of the haircut that Emma desired vs. looking like a Spice Girl.. Emma sits still the entire time and even laughed when Shelby cut off the first very long stand of hair and showed it to her. That's Emma for you...when she has her mind set on something nothing can change it (Shelby even asked her twice if she was sure she wanted her hair cut this short and Emma answered Yes emphatically each time). Ian watched and ate Gerber gummies the entire time. I wished I had my camera with me just to take pictures of this event. After Emma was done she opted for the star glitter tattoo on her cheek and glitter spray in her hair( I don't get this offered at my salon!). Shelby then tells her that she can have a balloon and a lollipop. Emma (the negotiator that she is) asked instead if she can have a Webkinz. Shelby laughs and tells Emma to ask me. I tell her when she saves up enough money she can come back( my standard answer in situations such as these).

As we walk to the car, Emma has a confidence about her that I haven't seen before. She is very proud of her new hairdo and she informs me that she will only have her haircut there and by Shelby from now on. As we drive away and decide to go show her new do to Daddy at work, Emma begins to share her latest thoughts. Bear in mind that ALL of these are direct quotes and I could not have made this up even if I had tried....

" I think that Callan will fall in love with me now." ( Callan is a boy in her class) I am too shocked and about to crack up so I don't really respond too quickly. This gives her time to keep talking. " I think all ladies will want to look like me." She keeps going.. "I think all boys will fall in love with me...well , only the five year old boys." Where does she get this stuff?

She asked me to shoot a video of her to show off the new Emma. Enjoy!

Beck and Ian are currently napping as I write this. I have two videos to post today. One is of the boys eating. They were facing each other and jibber jabbering when I started the video. Of course, most of this came to a screeching halt when they saw the camera but trust me they were having quite the converstation. The second video documents Ian's attempts to get Beck as Beck sits in his chair. Pretty funny! There is a popping sound at the end which sounds like Beck is about to fall out of his chair. Don't worry--the chair just moved a little and Beck was still safely strapped in.



Beck has spent the majority of his playtime today crawling after a truck as he pushes it with his hand. He can do this for minutes at at time( which is impressive when you consider he is 11 mths old)! Emma thoroughly enjoys both babies and was so diappointed that it was too cold to take them for walks today.



Abby goes to the CMT Awards tonight with her super hip super cool Aunt Suz! Abby is so excited. I will let her post when she can and she can give you all the details.

The Aftermath of Our Walk

Ian & Beck...The Adventure Begins....

Today is the first Monday that Emma, Ian and I are blessed to welcome my nephew, Beck, into our home. Beck is going to be spending Mondays with us while Suz (my sister in law) creates/plans a launch party, which will be held in July, for a new magazine. When I told Emma that Beck would be staying with us on Mondays, I believe her exact words were, "That is so cool!" So for the next few months check back on Mondays for the latest updates/videos of Ian and Beck (and Emma if she will allow it).

Today we went for a nature walk around the neighborhood. I loaded Ian and Beck into the double stroller that a friend of mine (thanks Shelley) gave to me. Emma, our environmentalist/humanitarian, spent the majority of the time examining each and every bug that crossed our path and screamed to make me stop the stroller if it looked like I was even close to squashing the bug. As we strolled I begin to hear grunting. I realized that there was a flap I could pull back on top of the stroller where I could then see the boys through a clear plastic cover. They cracked me up. Beck would reach over and grab Ian's face. Ian would then whine and he would then reach over and try to grab Beck. Beck then would try to "play nice" and hold Ian's hand. This just made Ian more mad! It continued like this off and on the entire walk (which we kept to 30 minutes). We came back, the boys had lunch, and now they are napping. Before then , the boys played on the floor. When I say play, this consist of one boy grabbing at the toy the other one has, crawling off with it, gnawing on it and then dropping it. Occasionally each boy will stand for awhile and then fall down. There was one time when Beck was crawling and Ian attempted to climb on Beck's back. I am guessing he wanted to ride Beck like he rides his new Bounce and Spin Zebra ( Grandmommie, I will post pictures of Ian with this later for you to see this great gift that you gave to him). After pulling Ian off and laughing, I see him go for Beck's back again, stop and look up at me as if to say, "are you seeing this," then change his mind. This is going to be a funny experience. I am blessed to get to be a part of it.

(Abby typing)

OK, about four,three,or two years ago I had this conversation about when I was born with my

parents.They told me that inside of me my vessels in my heart had to be switched back to the way they are

supposed to be or I would die!So I had to go in an airplane to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio I had to

take an airplane because we were in Jackson,Mississippi.But there at the Cleveland Clinic they

had to give me this medicine that made me fall asleep and when I fell asleep they opened my

stomach with a knife and switched my vessels in my heart to right order they were supposed to be but then when I woke up I was still not breathing very well and I only had left till I was about to die!

The doctors needed the right blood then they saw this nurse and she gave Abby some of her blood and I wasn't going to die!When the story was over I almost fainted!

Ian decided today that every time I jumped towards him while he was eating was the absolute funniest thing ever. Of course, when I pulled out the camera to video him, he didn't laugh quite as much but it still is pretty cute.

Things I have learned over the past couple of days:
1) I can't believe that my baby girl Emma is officially registered for Kindergarten. She goes for testing August 11. WOW!
2) Always make sure you check that you have zipped your pants up after using the bathroom. Especially, when you are racing out the door to Walgreens, where you will talk with the manager and clerk for a lengthy period of time. Oh my!!!
3) Emma is frightened of ants but loves spiders. I went to pick her up from preschool today and heard her crying in the classroom. During nap time, she trapped a black ant under a cup (????) and then screamed for her teacher. This is the same child who held several worms while the class made worm farms on Tuesday.
4) Trying to get two kids out of the car when it is storming outside is quite the challenge. Thanks to Callan's mom for helping me by taking Emma into school for me!!!