Friday, August 31, 2012

Baby Steps to Preschool

Emma will be starting preschool on Tuesday. My baby is growing up. I'm so sad. But I'm excited for her at the same time!

Tuesday night, I went to a parent's orientation at the school, to learn the rules and fill out all the paperwork. Guess what I brought home! Em's first homework! It was an "All About Me" coloring page!





This morning I really had to hold in the tears at Meet the Teacher day, but Em was super excited!


Emma meeting her teacher, Ms. Hiner.


Then we explored the classroom, looking for her name!




Then it was time to check out the toys!



And the playground!



Em loved it so much, we had to MAKE her leave.

AND she's been punishing us the rest of the day for it! Can you say whiney?

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Lake Time with The Moss's

I'm going to start off by saying that I didn't sleep last night. Not one minute. So at this point, I may be incoherent. Just a warning. 

AND apparently editing is not my strong suit...as if you didn't know! Long post ahead!

Our good friends, the Moss's, got a awesome new boat, so we HAD to go out with them and try it out! We had an amazingly fun, and ahem, adventurous time! We went early this morning, despite chances of scattered showers.

Right off, Ace and Misty got on the tube!


Ace is an old pro and we were going too slow for his taste!

Me and the girls watching!
Then little Payton wanted to try! She was fearless, all fired up about it!



Em in (my) Costas!
Then Clinton and Ace went for a swim... had a bit of a trek back, too!


Then they got on the tube for another turn. This time Andy could drive a little faster!

Still didn't knock them off though! 



We'd been trying to talk Em into going out, but she was not having it. Until Clinton decided she didn't have a choice, and apparently neither did I, because I ended up on the durn thing, too!



After that ride, Em was super excited!

Giggling over their rides!
The girls got a little fearless and decided they'd go together... with no mamas and daddies!




I HAD to film some of Em and Paytie's first solo ride!


Haydon had been too nervous to ride up to that point, but he couldn't let the GIRLS out do him!


He was freaked out at first, but we finally got a "Woo Hoo!" out of him!
 You gotta do what you gotta do!

Potty break on-board! Ha!

Then one LAST ride! ALL the little kids at one time! From nervous to fearless in a matter of hours!



They did great! UNTIL a big swell topped the front of the tube! No one went overboard and thankfully, they all laughed!



Then we just cruised around and relaxed for a while!

Paytie was all about driving and steered us in circles and circles and circles!

Mischievousness, right there!

Em- "I'm NOT smiling!" Little heifer!

Andy is BRAVE man!

Love this picture! Silly kids!

Ace was very serious about driving!

Sun-bathing beauties! Ha!
So that was the fun part... now about our adventure, ha! It had lightly sprinkled on us on and off. No thunder or lightning, so no big deal. When it started getting heavier, we decided to head out. Mr. Work-a-holic (Andy) had to go work cows (yes in the rain!), anyway... so it was definitely time to call it quits!  We headed back across the lake, through the heavier rain. Had to cover the kids with the towel to keep them from getting pelted by the stinging rain. My shoulders are welted up! Ha!

We got to the dock, Clinton got out to back the trailer down... And we waited. And waited. Thankfully, the rain was just a steady drizzle at this point! And the boat has a cover!

He finally came back and said the key wouldn't unlock Andy's truck door. Why not? Because it wasn't the right key! Andy happened to have TWO sets of truck keys in his truck, and when Clinton parked the truck, he dropped the keys, then grabbed the wrong set! Uh-oh! 

No worries, though, because Andy said he had another set at his shop. Thankfully, not far from the lake! The men set off for the keys. Misty and I stayed on the boat with the kids, floating around (in the rain). And waited. And waited. By this time, we'd been on the water for about 5 hours.

Clinton came back alone and said Andy couldn't find the keys, but he was headed to the house to look (again not far!) Just funny at this point! Misty and I had seen some lightning, so we wanted the kids OFF the boat! Clinton and I got them off "rescue style" and he put them in his truck, out of the rain! Andy arrived then... no keys at the house! Bahaha! 

So Misty and I, still on the boat, just floated around and chatted, and had a grand time with no kids or hubbies, while they tried to jimmy the door open!! No luck!  They decided to cut their losses at the this point, and moved the boat trailer to the other truck! Finally, at 4:30  p.m. (6 hours on the water!) we pulled the boat out of the water. Andy's truck is still at the lake! :/

Clinton is a little embarrassed, (I think, he won't admit it!), but we all had a good laugh about it! Just had too good of a time today to do anything else! 

We can't wait to do it all again, but maybe we'll double check the truck keys first! Ha!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Aargh, Matey!

Paris Baby did it again! Em got to see Cinderella there two weeks ago! Well, this time they catered to boys (and pirate-loving girls) with a visit from Cap'n Jack Sparrow!

Emma wasn't sure she wanted to go. Kept saying she was scared. Then out of no where she said "but I don't have a pirate shirt to wear!", so I knew it was ON! I whipped up the best pirate outfit I could in short notice!





Cap'n Jack was really one of the owner's hubby! Got to say, he is a great sport! And did a great job!


We didn't sign up to do "official photography" pictures with Cap'n Jack, because I was SURE Em would be scared (well, she kept telling me she was!) Then, as we were leaving, she was like WAIT! I didn't get my picture! Ha!

We did get our CD of pictures with Cinderella though! Here are my favorites! Photos by Tara Swain Photography!







Friday, August 24, 2012

Kitchen Oopsy & a Mini iPhone Dump!

I noticed that my phone didn't have too many pictures in it that I haven't already shared this week. Look at me, blogger on top of things! Woot! There are a couple I can post, but first let me tell you about my most recent kitchen failure. As in the last 10 minutes, recent. AND it's not really a failure, just an "aww, that sucks, oh well, I'll eat it anyway!"

I have a kick-butt peanut butter cookie recipe. I get it out of a Cookie Bible cookbook that is really special to me. My mom gave me the cookie book for Christmas either after I got my first apartment or after I got married (can't remember which!) What makes it so special is that she wrote me a note in it about making cookies with my little girl one day like she did with me. Tear. And make cookies with my little girl, I do!

Anyway, back to the cookies. They usually turn out Ah-Mazing and beautiful! For example, I used the recipe HERE for some Valentine's cookies! In our attempt at being healthy as possible, we've started buying "Natural" style peanut butter for Emma. And that is what I used to make the cookies. No other ingredients were changed.

I think the oilier natural peanut butter made them spread more.


And the cookie are not the fluffy goodness they normally are! Here's what the Valentine's batch looked like..


They still taste good, the texture is off. So next time, I'll definitely take into account WHICH peanut butter I'm using!

Good thing, though, I had a little helper to clean up!



No wonder she's taken to calling me "Stepmother". :/

And here's little Cinderella, herself...


And a little silliness to start the weekend!