When the Dad is Away, the Girls will......

.....sleep in our room! Yep, I have a hard time sleeping when Bill is out of town, so the girls all sleep in our room with me. Actually, Em sleeps in the bed with me and Hayley and Syd sleep on the futon in our room. It helps me get much needed rest to get through the days when he is gone! We usually make a big production out of it by watching a movie up there on our big screen and eating popcorn. But our sound system decided not to work for me, so we have had to settle for watching tv in Chloe's room downstairs and then going up to bed like normal.

So, where did Bill run off to this weekend? Well, I am not sure if you all heard about the explosion at the oil refinery in Big Spring, TX that happened last Monday. The company that Bill does the computer networking for owns that refinery. Everyone has been down there helping out to get the refinery back online. They have been working 12 hour days and this weekend was Bill's turn. I am so glad that he will be getting home tonight! The girls can't wait, either!

Africa Presentation

Each year our elementary school has an African presentation. It all started because Hayley's teacher lived many years in Africa (in Nigeria and Mali). Back when she was Sydney's first grade teacher in a different elementary school, the program was much smaller. Only a handful of children from Syd's class participated, it was held during a PTA meeting, and the students only sang one song and spoke a few words. Since moving to our new elementary school, the program has grown to epic proportions....okay that might be a little exaggeration, but it really has become something special for every child to participate in. This year was no different and Hayley got to be in it. We were very happy that she was chosen to play a drum and had a speaking part. This is very new for us! Sydney likes to perform, but she is so shy that she doesn't usually get these more prominent roles in a program. Of course, I was also very excited to test out my new camera (which also does video) in the gymnasium. The new camera worked perfectly (although the video lost some of its resolution in the compression when I uploaded it to blogger, so it is kind of blurry) and the show was outstanding! Many kudos to Mrs. Parham along with the 1st grade team and the specials teachers for putting on a great show!

The video below is around 7 minutes long. I don't expect anyone (except grandparents) to sit through all of that, so just fast forward as much as you like, but I promise you will enjoy any parts that you watch!

Merry Christmas....er, I mean Happy Valentine's Day!

My parents came down this weekend for a little visit. They had planned to come in January for Bill's birthday and to go to IKEA. But I got sick, so they delayed their trip until Valentine's Day. We all went out to eat at Boston's for dinner then came home and exchanged gifts. We got each of the girls a Webkinz and my parents gave them stuffed bears and Hershey Kisses...yum! I didn't get Bill anything (I'm mean), but he got me a Webkinz (it was free at Hallmark for buying 3) and a game for my DS (we are so romantic). And then, Sydney gave my parents their Christmas presents! You see, she had bought them gifts at the Colt Corner Holiday Shop at school, we took them with us in January when we went for Christmas, but they came right back home with us! LOL! So, they finally got them. And then, I gave dad a Christmas present from me, too! The one I had given him (a handheld Kakuro game) didn't work well. So, this time I gave him a huge flashlight that sits on a tripod. Much better! And he will be able to use it while he is redoing their house. So, we had Christmas and Valentine's Day all in one! Not bad! We spent the rest of the evening putting on a SingStar concert for mom and dad....so fun! ;o)

Good Morning to Us!

We were awakened at 6:45 this morning to the sound of rain, thunder, lightning and HAIL! It sounded like someone was throwing baseballs on our roof! Bill woke up and said, "Is that hail? The poor cars.", then went right back to sleep. I, being curious, had to get up and check it out. As I was walking downstairs, I met Sydney in the hallway, and then Emyley and Hayley followed right behind us! My dad was already up and in the front room and told us that it had been hailing for awhile. Then he went back to bed. Then a couple minutes later, my mom joined us downstairs! I guess hail is a "girl thing" since we were the only ones interested while the men-folk were sleeping! LOL! And since I had just been awakened by the storm, it took me a good ten minutes to think to grab the camera, so actually, there was a lot more on the ground before I took the pictures...the road was completely covered when we first got downstairs. But it is melting fast and at least we finally got some rain.

Bed Hopping

We recently did some bed hopping in our house.....long story. Basically Sydney bought a bed canopy with her Justice gift card from Uncle Steve and Aunt Keri, and I didn't like the way it looked over her twin bed. So she got our old Queen sized bed that was in the playroom. Her bed was going to go in the playroom as a daybed-style bed, but the headboard & footboard had to stay attached to the frame since they were the feet. Emyley's bed was the top bunk of the bunk beds and had rails all the way around, so we put hers in the playroom as the daybed-style bed and gave Sydney's bed to Emyley. Told ya it was a long story. Anyway, with my new camera, I just had to take some pics! LOL!!

Emyley's new bed....Sydney's old bed.

Playroom with "daybed"....Emyley's old bed.

Hayley's bed....no changes, just didn't want to leave her out! ;o)

Happy Birthday to Me!!! (well, yeah, a little early)

While we were out and about this weekend, we stopped off at Best Buy to just look around. Anyone who really knows us, knows that we don't "just look around" very well! We eventually ended up in the camera section. I have been wanting a new camera, but I wanted a fancy one....SLR, I think they are called. However, that was not in our budget and probably won't be for a few years. The camera that we have now doesn't hold its charge very long and takes horrible pictures inside the school gymnasium (where all the programs take place). Anyway, I found a camera I liked (not an SLR) while we were at Best Buy, but I didn't buy it! Yay me! LOL! I did write down all the info about it, so I could look it up online and make an informed decision. Of course, the first thing I did when we got home was look up the camera! LOL! It had excellent reviews, so off Bill trots to our new Circuit City, which had it on a really good special. An hour later I am holding my new camera and was told that it was my birthday, valentine's, anniversary, christmas presents! LOL! I really am in love with it. We had a moment of panic when Chloe decided to chew threw our vacuum cleaner cord, and I thought my camera would have to go back so we could get a new vacuum. But Bill fixed the cord....YAY! Anyway, told ya we aren't very good at "just looking around"! Here are some pics from my new camera!! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Nana!!

We went to Sherman this past Saturday to take Bill's mom and her husband, Joel out to lunch to celebrate her birthday. Since a new Cracker Barrel opened up there recently, we decided to eat there. I just love the atmosphere...wonder why? ;o) We all had a great time and was happy that we got to spend some time with Nana and Joel!