RIP Dolly Mae

We will miss you Dolly, you were part of our family for the past 13 years and you were such a good dog. At least you'll see your mom Cleo and sister Daisy Mae in doggy heaven, along with China, Taz, Abbie & Shadow. RIP Dolly, we love you.

Why don't friends with kids have time?

This article was posted by a friend of mine on Facebook. I am not a stay at home mom, but I can still relate to everything in the response. I work full time and do all of these things in addition, so you can imagine my availability. Granted, Phoebe is growing up and becoming more independent, but I still want to spend every available minute with her before she gets to that age where she doesn't want to hang out with me. =( So I don't get on Facebook or on the computer at home except maybe once or twice a week. Right now I'm posting this before she wakes up. I do feel so out of touch with everyone, but I feel so in touch with my daughter, which is the most important to me. So hopefully my friends and family understand. We'll be in touch again one day. :)

Tennessee Vacation - June 20-23, 2012

We flew in to Nashville on Wednesday, June 20th. We had to get up at 4am and leave the house for 5am to catch a 7am flight. We arrived on time in Nashville at 9:06am. When we got to the baggage claim, Mikey spotted my dad outside, me and Phoebe went out by them and Mikey stayed to collect the baggage. Well he was taking a while so I went back in to check on him, he's still standing there waiting for the luggage. There are only a few bags left on the belt, none of them ours. Then the worker turned off the lights and power to the carousel, which meant there were no bags left to be claimed. No one offered assistance, we stood there, looking lost. I finally decided to ask the United Airlines lady who was a foot away, "what do we do if our luggage isn't here?". She didn't even look at me then said "I'll need your baggage receipt" and she walked away, continuing to work. She may experience this chaos everyday, but we haven't flown in a few years where we had to check luggage. So she could've acted a bit sympathetic to our situation, geesh. I follow her around until she finally asks me for the baggage receipt. She types something on the computer then tells me our luggage wasn't placed on our plane and it would arrive on the next one, which was due to arrive in 2 hours, at 11:30. We had the option to come back and pick it up or have it delivered. We chose to have it delivered, which would be within 2 hours of the plan arriving, so within the next 4 hours. My cameras were in the luggage, so no pictures could be taken. We headed to my dad's house, but stopped at Cracker Barrel to grab a bite to eat on the way. We hung around the house and the luggage finally arrived around 3 or 4. Phoebe learned to play pool and ping pong. She loved both. And I was introduced to Arizona Diet Green Tea, which I now drink everyday. :) We went to Rock City and Ruby Falls on Thursday, went to the mall to walk around & ate at Rainforest Cafe, which was great, on Friday! Then we flew home on Saturday. Talking to Phoebe - asking her which part of vacation was her favorite. Here is her response: The airplane (I really loved flying on the airplane) & getting to see Granddad and Granny Liz. Her next favorite part was when she got to get rocks from Rock City. I listed the things we did and she put them in order of which was her favorite. 1-Playing pool & ping pong 2-Eating at Rainforest Cafe 3-Rock City 4-Ruby Falls - she liked when the tour guide clapped her hands & turned on the lights 5-Seeing the mountains during the drive to Chattanooga 6-Going to the mall She got to meet Jellybean, their Cockerspaniel rescue dog. Phoebe was really impressed on how she could go and find the treat Granddad hid. They had Jellybean stay upstairs by the back door, which means she couldn't see which part of the house they were going to. They hid the treat downstairs in the basement. They came back up and told Jellybean to go find the treat, she took off on a hunt, she didn't find it right away and she thought about giving up, but they told her to keep looking, and she sure did find it! Amazing dog. :)

Tennessee Vacation Pictures

Phoebe found her lost tooth!

Daddy was upstairs playing his game, me & Phoebe went in the bathroom, I was in the shower and Phoebe was playing / dancing, then she spun around on the floor and noticed something that looked like a tooth on the floor, in the corner by the bathtub. She picked it up and sure enough, it was the tooth she thought must have fallen down the drain. So she is super excited that she gets to keep her tooth. She is thinking about leaving it for the tooth fairy, in case she needs it. :) But for now it's in a small zip loc bag which has "Phoebe's tooth" written on it. Everyday she says "I can't believe I get to keep my tooth!". :)

Phoebe lost her 7th tooth!

And we think it fell in the shower drain last night! So she wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy explaining. She woke up this morning to $10 under her pillow!



And she got to play with a real ladybug yesterday (Daddy found it when he was trimming up the trees & hedges). =)

Phoebe Graduates Kindergarten & Jazz Recital

Today was Phoebe's Kindergarten Program & Jazz Recital. We had a busy and eventful day. The Kindergarten Program was at 8:45 this morning. My hubby ended up losing my car keys at the program, so we were preoccupied with looking for the keys and ended up missing the slideshow that the school put together. Mikey literally ran to our house to get the extra set of keys and his car, while me and Phoebe waited at the school. After that, we went to grab a quick bite at Chelsea's deli. Mikey went to work, I worked about 2 hours from home, then me and Phoebe headed to her dress rehearsal from 1-3. We got back home, got ready and once Mikey got home, we headed to dinner at Sharky's. It was Phoebe's day so it was Phoebe's choice (and she made a good one, it was delish!). Next we headed to the recital. Nanny, Uncle Rudy, Aidan & Evan came to support our girl. They've been there every year and it means the world to her.. and us. Here are some pictures from today and I'll hopefully post videos soon. Oh and I received a voicemail from Phoebe's teacher tonight, apparently we gave her my car with her flowers! Mikey threw my car keys in the gift bag with her flowers. :) Silly, silly boy!








Below is a slideshow of all the pictures, you can click on the slideshow and it will bring you to the album if you'd prefer.

Here's a video of the Jazz performance during dress rehearsal. Sorry for moving the camera, it wasn't focusing correctly in the beginning. We couldn't record during the recital, so I'll share the professional video when it comes in.

Rest in Peace Taz

Rest in Peace Taz. 2/15/1999 - 5/20/2012.
You came into our lives 13 years ago, and you'll remain in our hearts forever. I'm glad we got to come visit you before you left us. Have fun playing with our China girl. We'll miss you!

Make that 4 teeth out in 3 weeks!

Yes folks, she lost ANOTHER tooth. It was a tooth on the bottom, next to the 2 she had lost last year and are growing in. It was merely hanging on by one corner, she wiggled it for a few seconds and out it came. No blood this time either. Now I'm concerned that she's losing too many teeth!



She lost her 6th tooth and the tooth fairy didn't fail her, Phoebe woke up to $6 under her pillow.

Make that 3 teeth in 11 days!

Yes, she lost another tooth. And there's another loose one on the bottom. Now she's missing 3 at the top (all together of course)! 

MawMaw & PawPaw's Visit

MawMaw & PawPaw stopped in and stayed the night on their way to vacation in San Antonio. We went to dinner at Rico's last night then came home and hung out for a while. We made a cake for their anniversary and we all had a slice of that then played with the rocket launcher, which had us all cracking up. Phoebe had a wonderful time. MawMaw & PawPaw left on Monday morning while we were at work & school. I came home to let Jack out at lunch, before heading to have lunch with Phoebe. Well they left Phoebe a note saying there are 10 notes hidden around the house. She came home and went to find all of the notes, she had so much fun, she did it twice after that. :)

2 Teeth Out in 3 Days?!

Phoebe has a few loose teeth. On Thursday, after I picked her up from school, she told me that she really thought her tooth would fall out today. I checked it and one of them seemed to be barely hanging on. She didn't want to eat or anything because she was scared she might swallow eat. So I told her we could always pull it out. That scared her, lol! But I said "no, just gently wiggle it back and forth to help it loosen up a bit. Well she was at the sink and must have started wiggling it because a minute later she said (with a mouth full of blood), "Mom, it's out, I can't believe I got my tooth out!" She was full of excitement as I rushed over to see. But Mom was full of fear because that little tooth certainly had a lot of tissue on it. I was thinking "oh my goodness, what have I done?!" During all of this, she's still jumping up and down with excitement saying "I can't believe I got my tooth out!". I gave her a cup of cold water and told her to keep rinsing it until it stopped bleeding. The other loose tooth next to it was bleeding as well. I figured I really screwed up. I can laugh about it now because she's okay, but at the time I was seriously worried. So we learned a lesson there, just let the teeth fall out on their own. :) Here she is with the tooth she lost (well pulled out) on April 26th.

Then today, Saturday, April 28th, she went in her room for a second and then came out with the fake vampire teeth in her mouth, we're laughing at her. Then Mikey was headed upstairs to play Call of Duty with his friends. Phoebe followed him and he yells to me from upstairs "Net, her tooth is gone!" as he was giggling. I said "what?!" Phoebe ran downstairs and showed me that her tooth fell out. We checked the vampire teeth that she just took off and yep, it was in there. Too funny! So now she's missing her 2 front teeth. She's really excited about the tooth fairy again too. :)

Jackson - before & after grooming pics!

This is what Jack looks like before he gets groomed every 2 months:


Here is the after pic, it's like he loses 10 lbs with a cut! :)

Phoebe's Rewards for Being a Heart Hero!

Thanks to all of you that contributed to Phoebe's heart hero fundraiser. She raised a nice amount and received several rewards. Her favorite is the rocket launcher. :)

Cousins came over for a Playdate!

They had a great time together!

Easter Weekend 2012

Good Friday - MawMaw & Paw Paw's - had crawfish boil, Kinleigh, CP & Kelli spent the day there with us. Saturday - headed to Biloxi Beach, stopped at Surf Style souvenir shop and they let Phoebe pick out several items, she LOVED that store! Sunday - went by Aggie & Brian's - bbq'd, everyone but Matt & Joe came by Aggie's.. they had a lot of deliveries to make. Here's a link to the pictures. I'll add details to the trip soon (I hope!).  April 2012 Pictures Someone made out pretty well for Easter... :)

PJs & Pancake Day at Cheer

PJ & Pancakes this morning at cheer... and they could use some help so mommy got to stay! We had a great time! The girls had pancakes in their pj's, then we made spirit sticks to throw at the crowd during the game next Saturday and we made a team poster. Then we had a scavenger hunt! Mommy truly got a workout running around the church, up and down the stairs - I think it was a setup, lol! Phoebe had a blast! Then they practiced their "Footloose" dance which they will perform during halftime at Saturday's game. :) Phoebe is really enjoying herself!

I recorded a video of the Footloose dance. I'm not sure if the video will work. It shows that it matches Third Party Content (Sony) because of the Footloose song, but here's the link: http://youtu.be/4E5_MO5u9V0 It's set as unlisted, so only those with the link can view it.

5 Grossest Things You're Eating - YUCK!

If you eat any of the following, you may want to read this… or you may not want to, lol! 5 Grossest Things You’re Eating:
1) Canned Mushrooms
2) Jelly Beans
3) White Salad Dressing, Coffee Creamer, Canned Icing
4) Shrimp
5) Grain Products (packaged bread and baked goods)
For more info, the article is here: 5-grossest-foods-supermarket

Just some cute pictures

Phoebe got stuck rock climbing!

We went to Aidan & Evan's birthday party at Lifetime Fitness today. The last hour of the party was rock climbing. Phoebe got all the way to the top but couldn't get back down because she was too light. She did okay the first few minutes, but then she was getting a little scared when she realized she was stuck. You heard her say really low "I think I'm stuck". Poor thing. Daddy handed me his phone as soon as he realized she may be stuck. He was ready to put on a harness and go get her. The employees took care of it though, they went in the back and did some kind of release. She didn't freak out too much, but the poor thing was scared. Needless to say, she was all partied out after that and was ready to go home. We took her to Wendy's on the way home as a treat for being so brave. She's been wanting to go but we've been trying to stay away from the fast food. She was fine by the time we got to Wendy's.
She was excited and ready to go!

When she first reached the top:

This is while she was stuck at the top: =(

This was when she finally got down and the employee was reaching for her.

Help Phoebe be a Heart Hero!

Watch the following ecard for additional information:

Youareinvited:WatchMyCard