Red Ribbon Family Picnic

Alexis' school had their annual Red Ribbon Family picnic last night. Aunt Nelda picked up Abby from school to meet Alexis and I at the picnic. Rodney couldn't attend, as usual he was working late, however the girls still had a blast. They had hotdogs, chips, drinks and dessert for everyone. Two bounce houses. Some of the older kids painting faces (nothing special) but the kids were still excited. Abby got cat whiskers and Alexis got a butterfly. Then the girls got to sit in a police car and see a fire truck. It was a lot of fun and when it was time to go they were sad. That means they were having too much fun. Here are a couple of the pictures...

Yummy...hot dogs and chips:

Kitty Cat:

Fire truck:




Wow...this is too loud:

Lock them up...(a mother's worst nightmare) hopefully they won't be in the back of a police car again LOL :

My night in the ER last Friday/Saturday morning...

UGH...so Friday night I had bunko (pictures below). My neck had been hurting all day, but it was manageable, until I got home to go to bed. I couldn't lay down. About 2 am I was in tears. It felt like I had a charlie horse in my neck. The most pain I have ever felt so Rodney got the girls out of bed and took me up to the ER. OMG..they said the wait was going to be at least 2 hours so Rodney took the girls back home to bed and I continued to wait. I got back to the ER at 4am, didn't see a Dr. until 5 am and didn't get any pain medicine until 6 am. What a nightmare. Rodney and the girls came back and got me at 6:30. The whole time I couldn't even lay on the hospital bed because I couldn't let my head tip at all. Not to mention I was on a bed in the hall the whole time since there were no other empty beds. They determined that I was having a mussel spasm in my neck and it would just have to go away with rest. They game me an anti-inflammatory shot in my rear and some pain meds. I was sent home with a prescription for more pain meds and a mussel relaxer. Today it still hurts on one side, but as of Monday it was already getting better. I can't wait for the pain to be completely gone.

Burrrrr...

So we had to actually kick on the heat last night. It was in the 40's this morning. A bit chilly, but not too bad. Of course since I told the girls it was going to be cold, Abby asked if that meant we would have snow. LOL Wishful thinking for her I guess. We don't get too much snow in Dallas, more like a mess of ice. Hopefully we will get at least one day before winter is over so the girls will be happy.

Halloween Bunko...

So this month our hostess decided that we would dress up in the sprit of Halloween for Bunko. It was so much fun and Maria made the best food ever. I think I gained 10 pounds that night. LOL I just had to share some of the pictures from the night. My friend Kimberly was nice enough to lend me her Hot Vampire outfit. I loved it and you just have to love my fake fangs as well. LOL I think the girls expect me to dress up for Halloween too now.

The Wench (Kimberly):


Tasha and I, Hey at least her hand is not in front of her face..


Krysta and baby Sam:


I want to suck your blood..


Doreen and I...


What was Sam drinking???..


The payout...Krysta won the big bunko pot and left with like $150 (or something). I guess happy hour is on her next time. :)


The group. Yes, that is a prego in the genie outfit. Now she has guts. :)


Shots anyone? No wonder vampires are so mean, they can't drink shots with those teeth. LOL

Look who got her first school picture:

well Alexis got her Kindergarten pictures back and I think they could have done a better job at getting her to smile, but they still came out nice. Abby had her pictures done on Monday so I will post those as well when I get them back.



Alexis is doing so good. We had our first parent teacher conference and her teacher said she is doing amazing and we really didn't even need a conference. (guess all that money for pre-school paid off… smiling) Anyway, she is reading beyond what is expected at this point and the teacher is happy to report that she is a great helper with the other students that are struggling. She loves to journal in her writing book and the teacher told her once about spacing her words and she picked it right up. She said Alexis is one smart girl (she must get that from her Uncles, unfortunately she got her attitude from me, UGH!). She is doing an amazing job of sounding out words and loves to read to herself at night now. We bought her the second set of the BOB books and now Abby has taken over set one. So last night we sat in the recliner, Abby on my lap and Alexis next to me. Alexis would read a couple of pages, then I would read Abby her pages and Abby would tell me what all the letters were in the words. Abby will be just as smart in no time if we can keep her sitting still. All is well, sorry it has been a while since I updated everyone.

4th of July Family Pictures...

OK, a bit late, but I finally got them scanned so I could post them. When we were all together in NC for the 4th of July we got a few different family pictures done. After all who knows when we will all be together again. :) And let me tell you what a job to get everyone to look and smile together for all these shots. The kids were so worn out when it was over.

Our family:


The whole group (Zach especially loved the matching shirts and thinks we should wear them at every get together)LOL:
Jason, Julie, Jaden and Kayla/ Me, Rodney, Alexis and Abby/ Zach and Grandma Jo!


The Abrams crew (past Abrams and present):


The Kids and Grandkids of Grandma Jo:


Grandma Jo with all her grandkids:
Alexis, Kayla, Jaden & Abby

Little Helpers

The girls are growing up so fast. they are becoming great little helpers. Abby likes to help with the laundry. She gets her step stool and puts all the clothes in the washing machine for me. Alexis likes to push the vaccum (not very well yet), but she is trying. And they both like to clean the tables. I also discovered that they like to help hang up my clothes so I had them helping me the other day and when we got to daddy's clothes they had more fun putting on his shirts than hanging them up. Of course I had to grab the camera.

New PJ's from Aunt Julie

Aunt Julie sent the girls a couple of really cute clothes. She always finds really good deals. She sent them a set of PJ's and they just loved them. Check out the poses.

Woo Hoo...new countertops

Well we have been debating on spending the money for new countertops for years and finally decided to do it. Since adding a more expensive countertop to our house won't really increase the value since most of the houses in the area that have been selling don't have one we just went with another laminate. It looks so much better and will really look good once we get the back splash done (hopefully next week). The old countertops went all the way up to the cabinets and had chips all along the edge. The new one's have a no drip edge and look so much better. We stayed pretty neutral for the color.

Here is a sneak peek of the before and after and I will post the final project when it is done as well.

Before:





After:

My little writer..

Well she is trying and school has only been in session since Aug 25th. In the last two weeks she has written two books by herself. You can really see how she is trying to sound out the words even if they are not right.

This was after our camping trip (and I know I still need to post the pictures from two weeks ago)

I am, by Alexis



"I am setting up the tent"


"I am looking at a rainbow"


"I am going camping"


"I am at a playground"


"I am sleeping"



and then a week later she came home with this book that she wrote:

I can see, by Alexis


"I can see the bear"


"I can see me"


"I can see the trees"


"I can see my hand"


"I can see skunk"