Growing Up at Bass Pro Shop

Every year when we are in Destin, we manage to make a trip to Bass Pro Shop at Destin Commons and take a picture of the girls in the viewing hole of the huge fish tank. Its something the girls expect and ask to do! I knew I had taken many pics, so I thought I'd see what they look like through the years....

2005

2008

2009

2010

2011

oops...missed a few milestones!

Oops- it appears I didn't do a SARAH KATHERINE is FIVE post! Sorry! Well...regardless, she turned 5 on April 20th! Since then, we've had all the end of the school year activities and summer break has officially started! The girls plan to have a great summer, full of being lazy, overnight and day-camps, VBS, and much more! They are both at home with a babysitter for the summer and we are officially 100% DONE with daycare forever- woo hoo!!! OH - and we got a new puppy! His name is Barkley - he is a yellow lab. He is now 3 1/2 months old and a complete handful. He's lucky he's so dang cute!

Below are some pictures of Sarah's birthday and a few other things!

Sarah as a Cheetah in her class circus on 3-31-11:

Sarah's "Special Day" at school - they all came to our house to hunt Easter Eggs:

Sarah's 5th Birthday party:

Sarah's LAST DAY OF NURSERY SCHOOL on 5-19-11. She is now officially a Kindergartner:

Sarah's end of the school program at Nursery School:


Spring Break in a VERY CROWDED DESTIN!!

And Beth got BRAVE and did the zipline at Sandestin's Baytowne:

Barkley came to our home on April 10th - all 14 lbs of his 8-week of self! ONE BIG PUP! He is now 15 weeks old (3 1/2 months) and is pushing 30 lbs!

This one was taken last week - 14 weeks:

Beth was a "flower" in their end-of-the year program, Alice in Wonderland. She had a very injured toe that night and my camera doesn't take great pics in the dark...so this is as good as it gets!

And Beth's last day of school picture 5-20-11. She is officially a 3rd Grader!

Beth is EIGHT!!

I cannot believe I have an 8 year old! ACK! Has it really been 8 years!

Beth is growing up...big time. Just recently I've started noticing an "attitude" change...friendlier, more patient with her little sister, and more helpful. Its nice. She is having her first slumber party for her birthday...this weekend. Lord help us! :-)

Good grief- how is it that we've already gone from this...

to this...

Happy 8th Birthday Beth!!

I'm so, so sorry!

I haven't blogged since January! ACK! I'm so sorry...if anybody cares...if anybody reads this blog anymore. Facebook has really taken over now, as my source of providing info to others. Again, I apologize...

But honestly, there hasn't been much to update everyone one. I'm not sure I've even taken more than 10 pictures since Christmas.

We've had a crazy 3 weeks. Kids Closet week (my LAST Kids Closet) was Feb. 27-March 6 and it was an insane week, aside from KC. I didn't post my usual pictures of my awesome "finds" due to the craziness that ensued that week, but I did pretty darn good!!

On Tuesday night, March 1, we discovered a water leak in our cold water line under our house and had to shut off the water until a plumber could get to us...

Our beloved 11 year old Bailey girl (our yellow lab) got very sick on Wednesday morning, March 2nd, and we had to put her down. Ugh.......

The "sickness" ruined our flooring in the house, so we were having to deal with carpet/flooring quotes on Friday, March 4th and making a snap decision on those quotes. It was NOT a planned remodel....but regardless, it was going to to have to happen ASAP.

The hardwood started going in last Friday. They SHOULD be done with the wood (and carpet in the bedrooms) by this Thursday/Friday. The girls bathroom is also getting retiled, because the current flooring in there is 1/2 nasty old carpet and 1/2 nasty old green tile. We are vacating the house for the week so the flooring guys can work as late as they want to at night. We've had to clean out all closets' floors and under all the beds...we've had to move all small objects out of their normal resting places...I had to unload the china cabinet...I had to paint 253 feet of shoe molding. Fun times....

On top of THAT, we were in the middle of a PLANNED exterior remodel and Bob sanded and repainted our front door and he hung new shutters this weekend. I will paint the ugly ironwork to match the door/shutters next weekend. We were originally going to replace the ironwork with colums, but alas, a rather large unplanned for reflooring project arose, and our budget went down the drain! So, a repainting they will get... I will post before/after pictures when everything is done.

The girls and I were able to escape for a bit yesterday to the Adventure Science Museum (Bob dared not leave home as UK played UF for the SEC championship at noon!). It was then girls' combined birthday present from my parents. Then we dropped off Grammy at the airport to meet my dad in Destin for the week...hence while we'll be at their house this week! It was a fun day and I think the girls enjoyed it!

3 weeks till spring break...we need a vacation pretty badly!

Nerves

I really have nothing exciting to report. Beth was sick all last week...blah. Just a nasty cold virus that wouldn't loosen its grip on her, so she got 3 sick days and a snow day - yeah!

Why did I title the post NERVES? Well....here's why....

I WAS nervous regarding Sarah's school choice for next year. Last fall I made the decision to go ahead and move her to full-day Kindergarten at the same private school where Beth is now for the 2011-12 school year. We will be moving her out of her preschool/kindergarten program she has been in for 2 years. Beth STAYED there for Kindy, so this will my first Kindy experience at this school, however, its the SAME teacher Beth had when she was in church Kindy, so I'm psyched about that! SO, basically, after 5 years and 2 kids, we are leaving our Church school. I wish I could say I was sad, but I feel and I know its time to move. I need the move for me. I need the girls to be at the same school. I need to remove myself from being so intertwined in the Church school. I am the Board Chairman. I am 1 of 4 Kids Closet Coordinators. I am resigning both those jobs in May. I need to pull Sarah out of Church Daycare. She will leave there in May, as well. Honestly, I need a separation between Church and school and daycare because the lines get crossed and fuzzy sometimes. I need my church to be MY CHURCH and nothing more. And that is all I will say about that without going into crazy details that don't need to be on the internet.

SO ANYWAY- I just found out out that Sarah will definitely make the cut for Kindergarten next year. She is on THE list and NOT the "WAITING" LIST!! Now I can RELAX!!

Bob has gone back to school to finish his masters degree in Occupational Safety & Health- 2 nights a week. Yeah -that makes me a little nervous, too. Not that he is going back to school- but gone two nights a week on top of his already busy schedule. HOPEFULLY he'll be all done by next Christmas!

Bob also got a great new potential client...I say "potential" because the contract isn't signed yet and we know better than anyone, that things can change and happen before anyone signs on the dotted line and that makes me nervous. Rates and dollar signs haven't been discussed yet, so...again...I'm nervous that it all works out okay because it really is a great opportunity!

On a different note- Beth had 3 tests yesterday and made A's on all of them -yeah!!

Holidays

Whew! What just happened!?!?

Did December come and go already? Holy cow! The holidays really flew by this year!

We obviously stayed busy, hence no blog updates for a month! Sorry!

Here are some of the best pictures:

Before Christmas Dinner at my mom and dad's house

Our family:

My parents and brother and sister-in-law:

Bob and Sarah Katherine:

me and Sarah Katherine:

Sarah's excitement over a gift! love the expression!

Christmas Eve morning at my mom and dad's house...girls going through their stockings:

Sarah finally got her Jasmine crown!

Bob can finally stop packing in luggage with MY monogram! :-)


Barbies from Dandaddy...


In Murray on a snowy Christmas Eve - Sarah w/ Aunt Becky and Beth w/Aunt Becky:


More fun in Murray:


Traditional reading of The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve before bedtime:


SANTA CAME!!!


For Sarah Katherine:

For Beth:

A WHITE CHRISTMAS!


The girls checking out their stocking gifts!

There is a back story to this next picture. Sarah is holding a bag of Pistachio nuts Santa left in her stocking. She obviously isn't nearly as thrilled about them as she is the lipgloss in the picture above.... She LOVES Pistachio nuts and will eat them by the bowl full. I teased her that Santa was going to leave her a bag of them and she did NOT think that was a neat idea for some reason! Well...Santa brought them anyway!!

Beth opening the gift from Sarah Katherine- MORE Rainbow Magic Fairy books!

...and the sister hug that came after!

I think I took this right after Beth gave Bob the gift she picked out and paid for by herself at her school's Santa Shop!

Bob gave Sarah a Zhu Zhu princess Castle. That darn thing was hard to find! It didn't come out in stores till Dec. 10th or so and I couldn't find it anywhere. I lost COUNTLESS auctions on Ebay for it and finally won one...only to discover it a few days later at Walmart for 1/2 of what I paid for it on Ebay! Errr...........Oh well...her expression made all that totally worth it!!

And Beth's big gift from mom and dad was an IPOD Touch....think she likes it?

I gave Sarah a new "round chair" as her old Dora chair was literally falling apart. She was unimpressed that it wasn't a toy, but got over it pretty fast!

And the day was topped off with snowman building in the back yard!!

Back to reality now!!