Wild Things!

We took the girls to Wild Things Farm in Pocola, OK today. They loved it! We rode on the hay ride, found our way through the corn maze, looked at all of the pumpkins, and learned how to milk a cow...well, a wooden one anyways.

Alivia loved the corn maze! She is a maze expert. Aleigh liked seeing the horses and sheep while we were on the hay ride.

Pre-school!

Alivia is loving pre-school! This picture was taken on her first day. She is doing a great job. She has learned about vowels and consonants (yes, she told me what consonants were!). She knows colors, shapes, numbers, and letters (of course, she knew most of them before school). She is learning how to spell and read. It's amazing to see how much she has learned already! She loves her teacher and the assistants that come in the afternoon. We are so happy that she's enjoying school, and that she likes to go. I was really worried that she wouldn't like it after a few days, but she always wants to go.

Aleigh seems a little lost sometimes without Alivia. She will ask where Alivia is and wants to go pick her up from pre-school. Aleigh has started calling her Alivia instead of just "sister". Aleigh has become quite the talker. She rattles on about all kinds of things. She loves to tell me about what is going to happen each day. For example, she will tell me each morning "Aleigh go to Granny and Pops, sister go to pre-school, Daddy go to college, Mommy go to work". Her new favorite word is "remember". She uses it all of the time!

End of Summer

Now with summer coming to an end, we are getting ready for school. Alivia starts preschool tomorrow and Shawn goes back to college next week. I'm getting used to my new job as Assistant Director of Pharmacy at Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson (right outside of Fayetteville). I went back to work full-time in June, so that Shawn could focus on going to college full time and not have the pressure of working AND studying. We are still living in Van Buren, but will probably move to northwest Arkansas sometime next year. Right now, I'm making the drive every day. It takes about 45 minutes, but so far, it's not too bad. We will see how I feel about the drive when winter gets here!

With the end of summer comes.....football season!! We've been watching preseason football, and the girls are getting excited about watching the Razorbacks in a few weeks! We plan on taking Alivia with us when we attend the Ole Miss game in Mississippi in October. She really liked the Spring Game when Shawn took her earlier this year.

Go Hogs and Go Niners!!

Vacation 2009-New Orleans!

The day after Aleigh's birthday party, we packed up and drove to Memphis. We caught a train out of Memphis and rode all the way to New Orleans. It's a great way to travel with young children because they can walk all around the train, take a nap, or play. The girls really enjoyed it, especially since they weren't confined to a chair for the whole ride!

Shawn and I decided to take this trip in May to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Can you believe it?? Ten years!

While we were in New Orleans, we took the girls to the aquarium and the zoo. We also went on a carriage ride and ate at Emeril's NOLA resaurant. Great food!

On our last day in New Orleans, we had the lunch buffet at The Court of Two Sisters. Shawn and Aleigh had turtle soup and catfish roulade. That girl will eat anything! A jazz band was playing, so Alivia requested "When The Saints Go Marching In". That resulted in the last picture that was taken on our trip...the girls dancing together in the courtyard in their matching red outfits. So cute!

Alexandra's second birthday

We have had a busy summer, and I haven't been able to keep up with the blog! Bad mommy! I'm going to try to get everything up to date...starting with Aleigh's birthday party!

The party's theme was Yo Gabba Gabba with Foofah on the cake. Aleigh got a lot of cool presents and got to play with some of her friends, Garrett and Reed.

Easter 2009

We had a fun Easter weekend. Saturday was really busy. We had to color eggs, go to the Easter egg hunt at the hospital, and go to Grandma Garr's 90th birthday party.

The egg hunt at the hospital was great! They divided the lawn into three areas...one for the 2 and 3 year olds, another for 4 to 6 year olds, and the last for 7 to 10 year olds. I thought that was a wonderful idea because it kept the bigger kids from trampling the smaller ones, and everyone found plenty of eggs. We had a slight meltdown when Alivia spotted the golden prize egg (there was one in each area), but a little boy beat her to it. She was so upset! I just told her that it had a little more chocolate in it than the other eggs, and she had more of the other eggs than he did. That seemed to satisfy her!

At Grandma's birthday party, Alivia sang "Happy Birthday" to her. Grandma walked in and Alivia just started singing. Finally, everyone else joined in. It was so sweet. Grandma enjoyed her party, and it was nice to see so many people in the family come together. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.


The Easter Bunny came to visit the girls on Sunday morning. They had lots of fun surprises and quickly found all of the eggs. It was very nasty outside...raining, windy, and cold. Since Shawn and I had both been sick, we decided not to go to church and risk getting the girls sick, too. We had a big breakfast, and then I made a ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and biscuits for Easter supper. I was happy that everyone enjoyed it!

Alivia's 4th Birthday Party!

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It was at Chuck E. Cheese. It was my mom's idea. I will do it ONE more time (for Aleigh's 4th birthday). I think it was approximately 100 degrees in that place, and they were making people leave due to capacity.



However....both girls had so much fun! Alivia loved her presents. I cannot believe that she is going to be 4 on the 11th! On Wednesday (her actual birthday), I am taking her to Western Arkansas Ballet to sign her up for ballet classes. She is really excited! We will have gymnastics on Mondays and ballet on Tuesdays.

Of course, I have to include a picture of Aleigh shakin' her bootie with the Chuck E. Cheese band.