Our Easter

My favorite time of year is Spring. I love when the trees start to turn green, my tulips bloom, and the refreshing smell of rain showers. Here are a few pictures of us coloring eggs, us on Easter Sunday, and some of my beautiful family!

Popa & Nana with their sweet babies!

Cousins

How cute is he???

My wonderful family

The girls waiting to hunt eggs.

Can You Believe It!

Todd and I have been married for 15 years today! We both can't believe it, and it just doesn't seem that long ago.

Happy Anniversary Todd!!

BEWARE...New Teen In Town!!!

Ash ready to party

What can I say, I officially have a teenager! My firstborn turned 13 on March 21st and we made sure we rang in the new hormones RIGHT!! I rented a tent and booked a DJ and we had about 20 kids hang out with us. We ate and danced and then ate cookie cake, then we had hot chocolate and smores. I don't know about all the kids, but I sure had a great time and didn't want to see the party end (they seemed to have fun...see video...haha)


We made signs to hang around the tent and I think I cried everytime I made one!!!


This shows every birthday since she was born...ok, I'm tearing up...let's get on with it!


Then my sweet Lizzie wanted to write something to her big sister, so this is her sign to Ash.




Tears again...



The party place


(l to r) Emilee, Julie, Wyatt, Ivey Grace, Sam & Ash


Ash and her peeps


Peyton & Heath kept the girls entertained. I laughed so hard my stomach was hurting just watching them! They were so funny!!

I hope all your wishes come true, my sweet girl!

Ash,

You have no idea how much fun I had planning your birthday party. I treasure the moments that I get to spend with you and your sweet friends. Enjoy every minute of your life, it will go by so quickly! Happy 13th Birthday!

I love you!!!

Check out the videos I made of the kids dancing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsslWnvfl5s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pTmUiyEHz0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=borNHelhFmU

Watch at your own risk...may cause laughter!

Valentine's Day and a Special Visit

On Valentine's Day I get the girls a little bag of goodies and always chocolates. This year they got a picture frame for their rooms, Lizzie got a book and Ash got a magazine, Dove chocolate (YUM), and some little pots to grow their plants in that come with them (strawberries & wild flowers). We will see if that works...it looked cute! I hope you all had a very Happy Heart day!

My sweet loves!

Blowing Momma a kiss.

Happy Valentine's Day girls!

Dad being goofy with the girls!

My sweet niece came to visit and go to a play with Lizzie Grace and their Nana. They went to see The Monster In The Closet. Lizzie Grace LOVES Loren and wants to be with her the whole time she is here. I wish they lived closer! We miss our little man too!!

Indulge Me For A Minute...please!

I want to brag about Ashlyn for just a minute so please bear with me. Ashlyn's volleyball team had their end of the season banquet at the beginning of Feb. The girls had a really nice dinner and were also given their trophies along with several other awards.

For those of you that didn't know or forgot, Ashlyn broke her ring finger on her right hand right before the regular season started. She didn't get to play and she was heartbroken. Even though she was hurt she went to every practice and every game even though she couldn't play. She even learned to bump the ball with her left hand (this made Mrs. Lanora VERY nervous...haha). Ashlyn was the cheerleader for the team and she became really close to Mrs. Lanora.

Coach Brooks and Mrs. Lanora are the sweetest coaches Ashlyn has ever had. They are so easy to talk to and get to know. As they were giving out the awards for both teams they came to the Team Spirit Award. Mrs. Lanora gets up to talk and as she does she chokes up and stops talking. Then she tries to start again and she stops and looks back at Coach Brooks and asks him to do it for her. Coach Brooks said that this award was going to a person that got hurt before the season started, but had so much heart and wanted to play so bad that when we lost it hurt her just as bad as if she was playing. Of course the award went to Ashlyn! I turned to look at Ash and she was in tears. She did not expect to hear them talk about her like they did, but she was so thankful. And I was proud of her!


Jasmine, Coach Brooks, Ashlyn, Mrs. Lanora & Leah


Ash listening to them talk about how she showed her Team Spirit.


Mrs. Lanora was proud to give Ash her award, but just don't ask her to talk about it...haha.


(from R front to back and the L back to front)
Lilly, Ivey Grace, Heather, Tabitha, Mallory, Ashlyn,
Sam & Lauren. They are sweet girls!


This last picture was Ash on the day of her Honor's Breakfast. Ashlyn was one of 26 people that received all A's for the year out of her 7th grade class. There are over 350 kids in Ash's grade, so we are really proud of how she has kept her grades up while playing all these sports. This is Ashlyn's second year in a row that she has received all A's while in middle school. Way to go Ash!!! We love you baby!

Road Trip

Don't you love just getting a wild hair?? Our family does, but we had a little help. Ashlyn's basketball coach had mention to their team that she might take them to Auburn to watch the Lady Tigers take on the Lady Vols. Well, as it turned out she didn't but we still wanted to go. So we loaded up and with NO tickets headed down to Auburn (3 1/2 hour drive). The game started at 2:00 and when we arrived, people were already standing in line! So we hurried and got in line for tickets and we kept hearing people say, "I have never seen this many people here for a game" and "I hope there are enough tickets". As it turned out, this was the biggest crowd to ever turn out for an Auburn basketball...EVER!!! There were 12, 067 people in attendance and this beat the prior record by 5,000!




Waiting for tickets!

I just have one question. Why wouldn't anyone want to go to an Auburn basketball game if they were close enough??? I would be there if it wasn't for the 3 1/2 hour drive! Anyway, we had the best time and the girls were surprised that it wasn't like going to the HG games (which we love to do) but this was on another level...haha The cheerleaders threw shirts and towels into the crowd, they had a dance cam, they had a rubber chicken catching competition, they played Simon Says and they had the family cam. Ashlyn looked at me during the game and said, "I am so going here when I graduate!" And I just smiled and said yes you are and I will be coming with you (haha)!! But the best part was watching the Lady Tigers school TN in basketball. They were amazing, and a few of them were from here! After this game they are 20-0 and we already have tickets to go and watch the AU & GA game. This time we wont have to stand in line...yea!



After the game, we stood in line for about an hour and a half to get autographs and then I figured out the autographs that the girls were really wanting were in another line! They separated the starters and the rest of them team. So we went and stood in ANOTHER line and finally got the autographs and some pics. And as we were leaving the Auburn Lady's coach was standing right in front of us signing a girls poster so we stopped and the girls got her autograph too and pic. I told Ash when we left that she should have told her that she will be seeing her again one day. Ash just laughed and said yeah right! Maybe, just maybe...

WAR EAGLE!!!


Lizzie, Coach Fortner & Ash


Allie Smalley, the girls & Whitney Boddie


Leaving out!


My little fly catcher...her Ipod was still playing!

Tag...I'm It!

I've been tagged by Joy who has bestowed this honor onto me...
So it's now my duty to list 5 things that I am addicted to.

My current addictions included...

1. Facebook. How did I get by everyday without knowing what all my friends from elementary, middle and high school were doing? Or, my neighbors from my childhood days. Friends I use to go to church with or people I still see everyday. Once you start it you can't stop!!

2. Dove Ice Cream. They only come 4 to a box, which should tell you something...expensive! But they are to die for!! If my kids ever see them they are goners :( I asked for one last night and as Todd sat over there with a sneaky smile Ashlyn says there aren't anymore! I looked over and he said, "I probably ate the last one the night you went to Starbucks for your PTA meeting." Yeah, you were just getting back at me for my Double Chocolate Chip Frap that you didn't get!

3. Wii. I just love trying to beat my family, especially Todd. The girls beat me A LOT. I love playing Guitar Hero! I think I was destined to be a guitar rock star...stop laughing :)

4. Making pictures. Since I became addicted to blogging, I have my camera in my purse at all times, just in case of that perfect Kodak moment.

5. El Palacio. This isn't just a current addiction, but addiction I have had since I was little. I love to eat at this place! We go there at least once or twice a week. The people who wait on us, know exactly what we drink and what type of cheese dip we get. They have always made us feel special there. They have seen me go through boyfriends, get married, and have my babies. They even give us a hard time come Iron Bowl time. They ask about one of us if we are missing someone when we show up. They are part of our family.

And because I love reading your blog Kera, I tag you!!

Where have we been?

Well I have either been slacking on my posts or not a lot has been going on. One thing that I did want to tell you is Ashlyn's basketball team went to the county tournament and they won their first game against Riverton (50-30) then they had to go up AGAIN against Monrovia.

Well you know our track record with Monrovia wasn't good. They had beaten us twice during the season. The last time we played them, with 1 sec. left on the clock, a girl from Monrovia throws it from half court, and we just know it will miss, but guess what????? It didn't...it was nothing but net and we went from cheers of joy to our jaws dropped open saying, "I can not believe what I just saw!" We will probably never see that again as long as we live and it was heartbreaking, but we had to suck it up and play them again to get to the championship.

So we played Monrovia again on the 15th. It was going pretty good for awhile and then our girls just began to get tired (we didn't have a lot being subbed in). So we had a chance with a few seconds left on the clock to tie it but it just didn't work in our favor yet again. Oh well, there is always next year!!

So we finished 3rd in the county, so that isn't too bad! So now basketball is over and Ashlyn is thinking about signing up to play rec. volleyball. It is only about 4 to 6 weeks long, so not too bad. Ash is also thinking about playing travel basketball, but we aren't sure yet. We think that runs from March to the end of April or beginning of May. Then it will be on to Lizzie playing softball.

Well other than that we are just taking it easy and hanging out at home.

Our dog will turn 2 on Friday so Happy 2nd Birthday Miley!!!

Basketball Homecoming At The Middle School

The first week back from Christmas break started with a bang. It was Homecoming week and there was no resting for the parents of kids on the girl's basketball team. Well at least not some of them. I helped decorate the gym lobby, glue pins and ribbons for the Homecoming Court, and I also made the 7th grade girl's banner to hang in the gym during the game.

I also participated in the Pep Rally they had at 1:30 on Friday afternoon. I was told to go out in the middle of the gym and sit in a chair with other parents and a teacher from 7th grade and one from 8th grade had to place the player with their parent. Well unlucky for Ash I was there instead of Todd so she got placed with everyone except me! I also was put with an 8th grade boy, so for a minute or so I had a son. He had blonde hair and that was probably the only reason I was put with him...haha. The principal of the school had to try and match us up and he got all of us right.

After that I got to play Charades in front of the student body with our 7th grade ball players helping us while the 8th grade players helped their parents. We were given words to pick from and then the Coach would tell the 8th grade ball players to act out that word to see if the 8th grade parents could guess it. Well they did, so it was our turn. They picked a word for our kids to act out and we guessed it too. Then it went back to them and then back to us. We were at a tie, so she gave us a tie-breaker, but with a twist. We had to act it out this time and our kids had to guess it. Well, she gave us our word and she was laughing (not a good sign). Our word was "school bus". We got up out of our chairs and walked to the middle of the court and got on our imaginary school bus along with our bus driver who stopped and picked one of us up as we waved to the crowd.

Well guess who got the word first? That would be my smart daughter. She was yelling "school bus" and the Coach thought that our impersonation was the best!! We had done our job. Ash wasn't even embarrassed either.

I was glad she wasn't embarrassed because we also had to chaperon the dance after the game and a few of us Moms got out on the dance floor and showed them some of our dancing moves. They even played Thriller in which the kids were looking at us like what in the world were we doing but then they joined right on in with us. We have some pretty cool kids to let us join in and act like we are 13 again. I will just have to learn some more dance moves before next year!! My daughters (Lizzie got to go to the dance too) on the other hand were getting down and I loved to watch them having a good time. It was so hot in there I didn't see how they were still going but I forgot they are young and I am not!!


Side note: All four teams won their last home game. It was a terrific Homecoming!

They were announcing players at half time.

Ashlyn

Ashlyn guarding her girl.

Ash shooting and it SWISHED the net. Way to go Ash!

Basketball Christmas Party

Ashlyn's team has done really well this season and have had several games in late December. They also had their team Christmas party when they went to Cowan, TN for a tournament and they won both games during their break. We spent the night up there and the party was at the Pizza Hut right down from the hotel that we stayed in. The girls had a good time!

7th grade b'ball team and a few extras

Ashlyn & Sarah (she was Ash's Secret Santa)

Waiting on the pizza

Everybody was holding up their new pj bottoms they got in their stockings!

7th & 8th grade girls

Kids will be kids...Lizzie, Kirsten & Ivey

Looking good girls

We took some of the girl's pictures on this rock in Monteagle, TN. It was really neat and a little scary that far up. What a beautiful view we had. In the picture on the left (in the back from right to left) we have Ivey, Kirsten, Haley, Haley, Tyra. (Then from right to left on front row) Emily, Emily, Lizzie & Ash.

I am glad I get to spend time with Ashlyn and her friends. They are really cool kids!