This one is gonna get me hurt!

I have this friend.
I talk to her ALL the time.
I have known her since we were in the 3rd grade.
She's my longest friend.

You know, usually, when a friend moves away as a kid, you lose contact with them.
Not us.
We talked when we could, wrote a million and one letters,
and visited each other whenever we could.

We even have a song. Yeah, I know, sappy!
I still get teary eyed when I hear it.
It's "How Can I Help You To Understand." It was really popular when I had moved away. And in the first few lines, it talks about a little girl who was moving away from her best friend.
(Sniff, sniff...ok, I'm good.)

I was her maid of honor in her wedding, and she was my maid of honor in
Neil's and my wedding.

I went to the hospital when her husband called to tell me she had her daughter.
She was one of the very first people who knew I was pregnant before our families knew.

We have laughed a ton, and cried a ton.

Now, we don't see each other much. Maybe once every few years.

But we talk almost daily.
And for hours.

I was talking to her, for maybe the 3rd time today, and she was playing on her computer. She told me I really needed to add to my blog. She said, "How will I know what's going on with you??" Ummm....I don't know, maybe the HOURS we talk on the phone DAILY!!!

Anyway, so, that's why I have sat down to the computer today, to add to my blog.
It was for you Rhonda!

I tried to find this picture that I love of us. It's one of the times you came to see me in Dumas. You were about to leave, and Mom wanted to get a pic of us, so you sat on our bench outside and I sat on your lap. But I couldn't find that one. But..................we all know I don't like to blog without pictures, so without further ado....

This is my friend Rhonda! This couldn't have been long after we met.

And here we are at my wedding.

This is probably the last picture I have of us.

It might be time to schedule another photo shoot!

Anyway, I just wanted to say "HI! Rhonda! and I love ya!"




Please don't hate me!!!!!!!!!! ;)

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!

I have proof, besides the HUGE scar running across my lower abdomen, that at least one of my children came from me! I was looking through Lily's birthday pictures, and I found one that looked just like one I had of me in high school. I was so excited, ask Neil! I, of course, had to hunt down that picture!

Can you see it??? I think it's the chin! She may be the spitting image of her father, but now I know there's at least a tiny bit that I can see of me in her! I'm so happy!!!

Now Emma? I think she has my baby toe. But no one wants to see that.


Or do you????

Lily's Princess Party!

Since Lily's birthday was during Spring Break, I made cupcakes and brought them to school the day the returned. She was so excited to share them with her friends.

Lily had so much fun at her party. She was adorable in her Ro dress and all the other little princesses and princes were so sweet, too! She loved her cake. I was so happy that it matched her dress. She even noticed it, before I said anything. It was so worth the money. (Yes, it was Neil!) ;)

I didn't have many activities planned, but we did make crowns. Can't be royalty without them!

I finally got sister to make one. She was determined she was too big for it, but she didn't last long once the girls and Kade got started on them.


We also played "Kiss the frog", where the girls and Kade put lips on a frog. The one that was the closest was the one to turn him into a prince.


And we played the Princess (Prince) and the Pea. I had four pillows and put a ball underneath one of them. The kiddos sat on the pillows and had to figure out which one of the pillows the ball was underneath. When they found it, then they were a true princess (prince.)


Thought this was cute of the girlies.

Before we headed outside, we had to glam up my nephew. His dad wasn't there, so we had too! He loved it! Isn't he cute Ike??

And speaking of Ike not being there...Isaac has made it sort of a tradition, that when he isn't able to make one of the girl's birthday parties, he calls them during the party. I have the cutest pictures of them talking to their uncle Ikey while the party goes on around them. Here, Lily was outside playing, and while she talked to Ike she walked around and around their car. It was so cute.

Here are Kade, Lily, and Mema, playing with Lily's new mermaid Barbie in the tub.


And before Aunt Sabrina, Destiny, and Kade left, the girls decided Sabrina needed a little lovin's!

Happy Birthday Neil!

I know I've already posted about Neil's birthday. But, I did want to show pictures we took on his actually birthday.

We got a pizza and cheese bread from Papa Murphy's. We love their pizzas.
I stuck his candles in it, without looking at them, and had him blow them out.


I hadn't paid much attention to them, until Neil started looking at it funny. Yeah, I'm a dork. I put the 3 on backwards. I never noticed. Obviously, because I took pictures of it.


So, he fixed it.


Happy Birthday Neil! I couldn't imagine sharing my life with anyone else. You are my best friend, and the best daddy my girls could ever ask for! Love You!

Happy Birthday Lily!

My baby turned 5 years old a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe my girls are growing up so fast! We had lots of fun celebrating her day. I had tons of Mommy guilt because on her birthday we admitted my grandmother into the nursing home. So, all the attention wasn't completely on her. But we did meet up with Uncle Ikey and his family at Chucky E. Cheese. We had hours of fun. We just let her play until her little heart was content. She got lots of good stuff. Lots of movie! Which is a great thing. We love movies. Mom got her Pinocchio and her GG got her Mary Poppins.


We got her a Barbie movie, Dora movie, and Madagascar 2. So, she is set with movies. Well, until Easter, and the Easter bunny got each of them a movie.

Emma got her a pair of sunglasses. They were Tinkerbell. She loved them.

I think her two favorite gifts were her Princess Ro dress and her umbrella. We gave her a princess party, and she so wanted to be Princess Ro. Of course the movie came out ages ago, and I thought there was no way that I would find a dress. I hadn't see it in a long time. But, thankfully, I was walking around Target one day and found one! I barely looked at the price tag. I was so exicted to find one. So, she was thrilled.

I just love the look on her face here. We have had to remind her numerous times, that an umberella is used outside. Not inside, as a shield to protect herself from her sister.


Here's Emma and Lily with some of Lily's loot. And, apparently, it's raining in Grandma's house. :) She was so cute in the outfit. She would not take it off. We walked around the nursing home and the store with her in it. Everyone thought she was so cute.

As I said earlier, we took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese. We had so much fun. And it was nice spending time with Uncle Isaac, Aunt Sabrina, and Destiny and Kade.

Here is Emma in front of the band. Lily is skittish of people in costumes, so she admired them from a far.

While we waited for the pizza and the rest of the family, we decided to spend some of our coins. The girls love skee ball. Actually, everyone in our family loves this game, so that's where most of our coins were spent.


While we waited for everyone else to finish their pizza, Lily noticed the cotton candy and the balloons. So, I grabbed her a bag of pink cotton candy. She loved it. And she got a Chuck E Cheese balloon, but I don't have a pic of that.

Gotta love people taking your picture while you are eating!

Here is her dessert pizza we used as a cake. I thought it was really cute.

...us singing Happy Birthday! to Lily...

...Lily driving...


...playing the drums...


...driving again!

Emma got to say hi to Chuck E.

We had the girls combine their tickets and they got 251. They did really good! Of course all they picked out was junk, but they love that junk!

We went up to the nursing home the next day to sing Happy Birthday to Lily with Grandma and GG. We wanted them to see her blow out her candles.


Here we all are. Four generations. Most of you probably know this, but up until a week and a half ago, we had 5 generations of women/girls in our family. There was Lily and Emma, then me, then my mother, my grandmother, and my great grandmother. My grandmother past away a week ago, but we still have my great grandmother. She will be 101 in August.

Anyway, that was Lily's birthday. She had an awesome party, and I will post pics of that in a little bit.

Happy birthday Lilybug! We love you!

Wow! It's been forever since I've had the time and patience to sit down and blog. And, yeah!, I have no babies this afternoon to babysit, so maybe I can get some things down. Of course, as soon as I started this, my best friend called and I talked to her for 35 minutes, and I had flowers deliver! So pretty!!!! Of course, I will show them! Anyway, now, I've gonna go get supper started but, I will try to get back on tonight. Oh, WAIT! LOST is on tonight. Hmmm.....ok, I will try to get on before, or after that is on. Maybe Neil won't mind. Sorry for the hiatus. Hopefully, now that life has settled down into routine again, I will be able to get on here more. Bye!