Aunt Shannon Visits

My sister, Shannon, had a client in Texas this week. She decided that she would catch an early flight and spend 1 1/2 days with us. She got to go to Jillian's soccer game, play family games with us, and go to church with us on Sunday morning. It was a really nice visit, just too short! But then again, it always is! Miss you Shannon!

Beautiful

I have to say, Steve has done it again! We have a great looking yard again this year and it is all thanks to him. Even our next door neighbor ( a landscape architect) commented on how good it looked. I must say, I love the view our my office window of our beautiful tulips and daffodils (I think that's how you spell that). Thanks honey for the beautiful yard! :)

Goal!!!

Jillian is doing GREAT at soccer this season. The only complaint I have is that she has only scored goals on games that either her Daddy or I have missed. Luckily, Abby was there to catch some great pictures of her getting this goal. Thanks Abs!

A hunting we will go

We had the blinds open this morning to watch some birds that were eating some berries off of our tree. A few minutes later, Max joined us. Needless to say, he was WAY more interested in watching the birds than we were. At one point, I thought he was going to take out the window. He sure surprised us when he came bolting in the room and flew over to the window! If you look closely, you can see the bird in the pictures. Can you believe that concentration? :)

My Schedule

I must admit that I don't have a set work out schedule due to my busy life, but I'm going to start working it in. Hello, Hawaii in November! :) I told my friend, Dana that I would tell her how my week goes. I know she thinks I'm a freak because I have every thing organized, but how wrong she is. Too many monkey wrenches get thrown into my day. Here goes:
Monday: Take Abby to school, get house picked up from the weekend, make lunch for Jilly and take her to school. I have 2 hours to code while she is there and I try to get 100 done in a day. Pick up abby and jilly from school (this takes about 1 hour- Jilly is out at 3:05 and Abby not until 3:30). Come home, do dishes, make dinner. Steve comes home and we eat, do homework and literacy, bath/ shower for the girls and bed.
Tuesday: Drop off Abby and Jillian ( Sonshine School), go home and code like a crazy lady...try to get some extra ones for the ones that I'm sure to miss later in the week. Work on music for Sweet Adelines, do a load of laundry (sheets or towels usually), might go run errands like the grocery store while I'm childless, pick up girls, dinner, dishes and off to rehearsal for Sweet Adelines.
Wednesday: Abby to school. This is my laundry morning (usually 3-4 loads), lunch, take Jilly to school, code while she is there, pick up both girls, literacy and homework, dinner, dishes, bathe and off to church.
Thursday: Drop off both girls, clean my Mom's house, code 100 charts, pick up kids, quick dinner and off to soccer practice for Jillian (Steve is the coach), literacy and homework, baths (definatly), and off to bed.
Friday: Drop off Abby, Jillian and I run errands and goof off a little bit, take her to school, code 100 charts, pick kids up, family night.
Saturday: usually very busy with soccer games this day right now, or rehearsals for Sweet Adelines since competition is coming up. Family time.
Sunday: church and cleaning day. I do the bathrooms and dust and Steve vacuums and mops. When he helps (which is often) we can get it done in about 1 hour. I also do about 3-4 loads of laundry this day as well.Catch up on any charts that I didn't get done during the week.

My life is pretty busy during the week because Jillian is in half day school and Abby goes all day. That really breaks up your day.
I'm bad about cleaning the sheets once a week like Dana does because all of us bathe before we go to bed and I don't think they get that dirty. Maybe people think that is gross. I usually get them all done about once every 2 weeks unless someone spills something or has an accident. I will not, however, reuse a towel once someone has dried off with it. the thought of a wet towel sitting out and any little thing floating in the air will stick on it really grosses me out. I do a load of towels at least twice a week.
I will soon be joining the jazzercise place here in Edmond once soccer is done at the Y. It's more my speed. I like the dance aerobics and they do that and weight training all in one class and childcare is free. Now that you know too much about my life, please share your week with me! :)

The Aftermath

I did manage to keep up with the dishes and trash, but this was the view from the play room after the party was over. Abby and Jillian were always wanting to sleep together, so we put both of their beds in Abby's room (the bigger of the 2), and turned Jillian's room into toys and play stuff. It seems to work out well when we have friends over. That way only 1 room gets massively destroyed! :)

Actual Birthday

We took Abby out to eat on Sunday (her actual birthday). Her Mema and Papa came since they did not want to spend the night on the floor in sleeping bags on Friday. I just can't believe how much she has grown up. Abby, you are so special! Everybody is drawn to you and your beautiful big blue eyes. You make friends wherever you go and are becoming a really great reader. It is hard for your Mommy to believe that you are already 7 years old when it seems like yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital. I'm so proud of the girl that you have become and pray that you will always stay so sweet and loving. I love you, Snuggle Bug!

Abby turns 7

Well, our little baby has grown up into a big 7 year old! We let her have a slumber party on Friday night with 7 of her friends. That made 9 girls total. It was a little loud in the beginning, but I had a lot of activities planned for them and it wasn't too bad. We did the popping confetti outside, decorated and ate our own birthday cupcakes, painted nails, watched Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Leann came over and made each of the girls their very own unique braclets. We had a really good time. The girls were all asleep by 11:30, but they woke up at 6:15 AM. i told them they could not get out of their sleeping bags until my alarm went off at 7. Abby had a great time, and got a lot of really cool gifts. Her favorite was the Nintendo DS that her parents bought her. Now I just have to limit the amount of time that she can spend on it! :) Thanks to all the girls that came to help Abby celebrate her special day!

Safety First

We had a lovely tornado scare last Sunday night. The power went out around 2AM so we decided that we should see what was going on. We got our battery powered TV out and discovered that there was a tornado on the ground less than a mile from our house. We scrambled and got the girls up and loaded us all in to the hall closet. This picture was taken afterwards when us girls wanted to wait a little longer in the closet to make sure it was safe. Luckily, we saw that the storms were bad before we went to bed and Steve got the closet cleaned out and the girls bicycle helmets out of the garage. For those of you that don't live in Oklahoma, it can protect your head from flying debris by wearing a helmet. Needless to say, the girls slept with us for the rest of the night, and we were very tired on Monday! :)