Beautiful

It's so beautiful outside that even Lady (who only goes outside to do her business and immediately comes back inside) sat out in it to enjoy the weather!! :)

This is how Lady is normally found!!! :-)

This is what happens when.....

Your big sisters try to keep you entertained!! :)

You leave a pile of laundry on the couch for too long!! (Do you see the doggie head in there?)

You still haven't put all of the laundry away!!

It feels like the surface of the sun outside....you make due with your kiddie pool, invite friends over and popsicles are a must!!

Lady

Loves snuggling with her mommy and baby brother:-)

Keeping him warm:)

With every baby, Lady has always laid on my belly! Even when I was just newly pregnant, she was all over my belly! She gets herself nice and comfy. I think she figures this is the only time she can cuddle with them before they start making noise:)

Too cute not to post:)

Goodness...I'm on a posting roll:) But my kids were being too cute today that I had to post!
Our sweet Lady has been really good with her sisters! I caught Jordyn hand feeding Lady her dog food and Lady was being so sweet and taking it very gently from her. One at a time!!
Don't you just love that little baby belly sticking out;)

Lady has also been getting into a lot of trouble lately because she keeps eating Jordyn's leftovers!! It doesn't help that J.J. pretty much hands it to her either though. Travis finally got really mad at her tonight after finding her eating fruit loops and our sensitive Makenna got really upset. She was so worried about Lady and I found Makenna downstairs consoling her! She is very attached to Lady;)
I also felt very proud of my big girl tonight!! I had put a load of laundry in and a little while later I hear Makenna in the room. I went to see what she was up to and this is what I found!!!

She got a chair and started moving the clothes into the dryer. I love it!!! She couldn't quite reach the bottom but I can't wait until I can ask her to do this chore for me!! Now if I can only get her to fold too;) And excuse the undies!! She has been in the habit of changing clothes a couple of times a day. I caught her before she could put another outfit on but she never put her other clothes back on. O-well!! :) She has also been wanting to wear the same outfit everyday this week. I finally convinced her to wear something else so I could wash it.....hmmm....maybe that is why she was being so helpful with the laundry:)

Something different

So, I'm half way through our vacation posts and wanted to just post something different. Makenna has always loved her Lady but she has been especially loving since we went out of town. She was worried about her the whole time and couldn't wait to go pick her up when we got home. Before the trip, Lady didn't let Makenna pet her for very long but it seems like things have changed since. I have seen her on numerous occasions enjoying Makenna's loving for quite awhile. Normally, she moves away from her as soon as she can get away but she has been sticking around!! I love it. I have always wanted this for my kids but we had Lady before we had kids so she is more of an adult dog. She still is but I am glad she is letting her sisters love on her too;)

And our Miss J.J. is talking up a storm!! She started saying a ton of new stuff during our trip. She mainly learned how to say, "I want THIS!!" And of course when we got home, her big thing was, "Lady, HUSH!!" I love how kids repeat what we say and I learned a long time ago that I need to be careful of what I say. I used to tell Lady to shut up but once a baby Makenna started to say shut up, I started to say hush! I'm glad that I did because whenever Lady barks, we hear Jordyn trying to get her to be quiet. It's so funny to hear an almost two year old say it!!

Crazy, crazy day!

Well, the day started out great. I cashed in my gift certificate that Travis got me for Mother's day. He had gotten me a manicure too! I haven't had one of those since we got married since I can't have long nails while massaging. But I figured this was the perfect time to do it so they can be pretty for awhile;)

We tested out the ipod (with Einsteins) and headphones for J.J. to see if she would keep them on during the flight. It was a huge success since she didn't look up once after Travis put these on. So, it will be a convenient way to keep her occupied.

Unfortunately, this afternoon, my sister's bulldog Cash died. He had some sort of trauma earlier in the day and then my Mom was watching him while they went to the lake. All of a sudden he starts to throw up blood and my poor Mommy freaks out. She got him to the vet very quickly but they couldn't do anything for him. He had some internal bleeding that was slowly killing him. It's just awful and my mom is so upset. I just want her to know that it's not her fault and that she just happened to have him at the wrong time. I was there with her and I have never been there right when a dog has died. I gave him his last kiss and hug for my sis and my stomach has just been upset all day worrying about my mom. I love you!
And then we took our Lady bug over to Travis' moms for her to stay while we are gone. Makenna is so stinking cute! She was upset when we left and said, "I think Lady is thinking of why we are leaving her! I'm going to miss her!" I love that my babies get to grow up with a doggie. It is so special and they learn how to love animals from birth!

And it is now past nine and I'm still not packed!! Ugh! I am so drained from the craziness of the day that I just wish I could wiggle my nose and have it be done. But packing is the worst part for me. I will be just fine once we get on that plane and get on our way. Thank you Nancy for watching our house and taking care of Lady. I am also going to try and post when I can or I am going to have way too much to blog when I get home. So if anyone reads this anymore, check back and see some cool pics in the coming days.
See ya'lls later!! Off to some cooler weather. It's going to be 110 degrees this week! We are getting the heck out of dodge!
*edited to add....I reached my first goal for weight loss just in the nick of time!! Now I just hope that I don't gain it back on the trip;-)

You just gotta smile;)

She apparently didn't want her picture taken;-)

Papa Claus and more snow!

Makenna wrote her first letter to Santa this year. And by Santa, I mean Papa!! Ü I sent it to my parents house and they wrote her a letter back telling her to be a good girl and to listen to her parents. She still tells people exactly what it says in that letter but unfortunately it didn't work like I had hoped;)

And it snowed for the second time this week. I didn't take the kiddos out in it because Jordyn is finally getting better and I didn't want to freeze the girl. And Makenna woke up grouchy from her nap so she didn't want to go out;) I'm sure we will have other opportunities when they get older.

And what does a spoiled, loved doggie do on a snow day? Why, snuggle on the couch under the blankets of course!!! Ü

Can you believe that Travis is off work tomorrow because of the snow??? Too funny!! It's not even snowing anymore;)

In an effort to be more frugal!!

Before....(and this was a month ago)

During;)

After

We bought some clippers and Travis shaved Lady. I just couldn't justify spending that much money on getting her hair cut if I wasn't doing it for myself. I think Travis did a great job. The first picture doesn't really show how really hairy Lady was. She did really well too. Once she figured out what we were trying to do, she just laid down and hung out. That is until he started moving toward the rear;) Haha!

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home

All the girls got really close to their Daddy over the summer especially with their alone time while I was at work. He had to get back to work last week and we were waiting for him to come home a couple of days ago. I lifted the blinds and this cutie just stared out the window for a long time.

And so did this one;) She misses her daddy too!!

Didn't see this one coming!!!

This has been one interesting week!! Everything decided to break all at once. When they say, when it rains, it pours.....they were right. I just wish they were actually talking about real rain. First, our dishwasher decided to break because our sweet Jordyn climbed up it and started pushing a bunch of buttons and made it freeze up!! Then, Lady decided to be sick and we had to take her to the vet! Then Travis and I were playing around and we fell on our vacuum and totally busted it. It still works but it's crippled now;( And then of course, on the way home from work on Wednesday, the service engine light came on in the altima!! That one was a blessing though. Travis ended up looking at our warranty info and it was set to expire on Monday!! Helllllooooo!!! So, we paid the money to get it checked out and they said it was just an exhaust leak which means nothing! But then later on that night, the light came back on again!! So Travis, took it back down there and they said there had to be something else going on and they wanted it all day. That was finally the last straw. We have had that car in the shop many times this last year and they were very expensive repairs!! Plus, it's just very annoying to have to take it in all the time. It's a big waste of time. And it is pretty scary to have a car that has needed expensive repairs without a warranty to back it up. So, we decided to look for another vehicle. We weren't planning on just running out and buying something quickly but we found one that we really liked for an awesome deal!!! We couldn't pass it up because it was cheaper than base models and it has some nice little extras (like chrome wheels with high performance tires for Trav;) It was also at a dealership that sells very expensive cars like Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys and Aston Martins!!! So needless to say, they weren't very busy so Travis pretty much had the place to himself and there really was no pressure at all because it was already at such a low price. It all just depended on the trade and even then, they gave us a good deal. I'm so glad because the Nissan place we looked at before was so rude and everything there was at least a couple thousand more for less car. So, we definitely didn't see this coming. We had no idea that we would have a new van (that is less than a year old) this weekend. We weren't planning on it but I know it was a blessing because everything fell into place at just the right time. I am however hoping for a better week next week. We can't afford for everything to continue to break at the rate it did this week;)

Can I just say that it's much easier to get kids into a van than a car!!!!! Too bad we didn't have this last weekend for our trip;)

Puppy smooches

One Spoiled Pooch!

Travis and I were both in the den and I decided to go pop some popcorn when I found our Ladybug laid out on the couch. She was just out in the living room all by herself and I guess she decided to make herself comfortable;)

Way-Back Wednesday

I'm 20 here with my adorable niece who just turned 13 last week!!!

I told you Travis had a blow dryer in high school and now I just proved it;) This is what I call his Vanilla Ice hair.

And I thought I would throw in an old pic of our Lady. This was taken in 2002 when she was 1. She didn't even have her curls yet and actually looked pretty scraggly but we still thought she was a cutie.

Snuggle and a Snooze

What do you do after a morning full of cleaning and organizing??? Well, a snuggle and a snooze, of course!! Our sweet Lady bug gets so cuddly after she has been groomed.


Can you say spoiled??? Our freshly washed sheets are laying next to her and a few minutes later, she was all snuggled in the middle of them;)