Paris Hilton And The Easy Bake Oven

The other day the girls decided they wanted to get the Easy Bake Oven out and bake a cake. I've always been fascinated with the idea of baking with a light bulb. How and who came up with that idea is beyond me? Well, here is a picture of Lela icing her "cake." Lacey in the mean time decided to change her clothes and return dressed like Paris Hilton - crown and all. I ran and grabbed the camera because it was just too cute to pass up.

2009 New Year's Resolutions

One thing I love about the New Year is it is a time for reflection and a time for looking ahead. A time to look at our past accomplishments and realize where we have been and hopefully see where we are going. I've really not been big on resolutions but I'm finding that the older I get I like to see what I've done. So, this year I have decided that I will make some.

1. Organize all my recipes. (This something that has been needed to do for a long time and it just seems to keep getting worse by the day.)

2. Straighten up all my fabric, quilting & sewing stuff. (I'm hoping that by having all my fabric and sewing stuff organized I will be able to be more creative.)

3. Put Proverbs 3:5-6 to action. (This is a pretty straight forward one, if you ask me.)

4. Paint Lela's room. (Last year I bought fabric to make Lela a duvet cover. I had planned on redoing her room, since I had this new fabric...so I need to start somewhere.)

5. Step outside my comfort zone. (I feel as if I need to start experiencing more and trying new things. I signed up for a pastels art class, my first class was last week. I really enjoyed it.)

6. Start a creative blog. (I have found some amazing creative stuff "out there" and this would be a good place to keep them. Plus, I feel it might be a good creative outlet for me as well.)

7. Clean up my desk and area around it.

8. Lose 6 more lbs. (I've already lost 14 lbs, which I started the day after Halloween. So, just to make it an even number I thought 6 lbs. more would be good.)

9. Clean & straighten out all kitchen cabinets. (I've already been working on this one. All I have left is the cabinet under the sink and the one above the fridge. Yeah!)

Best Friends

Lela's best friend, Katharine will be turning six on Tuesday. Last night to celebrate Katharine's birthday, we (Wendy - Katharine's mom, me, Katharine and Lela) went to have dinner at The Sundial and to the ballet to see Cinderella. The girls had a blast at the restaurant that "turns in circles." They just thought that was the neatest thing.

Wendy ordered both the girls Shirley Temples to drink. That was a first for Lela. So, as we were "turning in circles," we pass by the bar. All the bottles are sitting out behind the bar and Lela says "Oh look Katharine, I gotta figure out what else I'm drinking." I thought I was gonna die laughing.

Athens And The GymDogs

On Friday night, we took the girls to see the GymDogs in their first meet of the season against West Virginia. Lela and Lacey were both so excited about going. They love watching the girls tumble and flip. My favorite thing that I find so funny is they can name just about everybody on the team - Kathryn, Courtney, Grace, Hillary, so and so forth. (I guess it's the important things in life, uh?)

Off And Running

Yesterday was the girls first day back at school after being out for Christmas Break. Talk about rough. It has actually been nice not really having a schedule, but it seemed to go by so fast. Wow! Where did the time go? I think what made everything feel so crazy was it not only the first day of school, but also choir and my bible study. Talk about jumping back in? Can't we just ease into? Oh well....

Starting Off On The Wrong Foot

I have decided that if yesterday is any indication of what the new year has in store for us then I want to start over. Early yesterday afternoon while Daddy had gone to Home Depot, Lacey decided to kiss the foot board of her bed with her forehead. Ouch! Needless to say it left a nice little indentation. We ended up taking her to get four stitches - two on the inside and two on the outside. I got to be lucky one to hold her while she was getting the stitches. Why, me? I grabbed her hand in an effort to comfort her and I didn't realize how hard I was squeezing it because she said, "Mommy, let go! You hurting my hand!" Oops. I guess it was me who needed some comforting.

Nacogdoches And The New Year

Well, we got to Nacogdoches late Wednesday afternoon. It was so good getting see the rest of the family. It had been six years since we had been out there to visit. In fact I was pregnant with Lela and it was Thanksgiving. So, it was definitely time for us to go out there again.

Lela and Lacey has a blast that night getting to play with their cousins Britt(4) and Luke(8). They were so excited running up and down the hallway with the boys. They were a little disappointed, though, that they didn't get to see Bryce(12) that night but that quickly went away.

Thursday was spent having our New Year's Day dinner of ham, cabbage and green beans with Aunt Carolyn, Uncle Tommy, Cousins Carol, Bryce and Luke. Later that day we packed up and went to see Carol and George's new house that they are building and head out to the farm to ride four wheelers, build a bonfire, cook hot dogs and shoot fireworks. It was so much fun just hanging out.

Friday came and we got up early to head on back home. It was so good to see the family and get to visit with everyone. Thank you all for your hospitality. We love you and can't wait to see you again. Here are some pictures from our trip to the farm: