we can do it! we can do it!

i'm pretending to be the mice from cinderella and am embarking on a sewing adventure!

my princess of a daughter emily jane is turning five next month and her mimi and grandaddy are surprising her with this...

(an american girl doll - elizabeth - for those of you unfamiliar with these)

and i thought "what more fun could there be to have a matching dress for emily jane?!"  so here's my adventure...

trip to JoAnn's to get the material (poor marie had to suffer through the whole hour long process of finding the EXACT right stuff)

cutting the pattern...
cutting the material...
pinning...
re-pinning ...
sewing!
here's the bodice so far. :)

i'll update as i get it done.  and no spoiling the surprise! not a peep to my princess!

the dynamic duo

marie and wakefield have made themselves quite the partnership in TROUBLE.  here are a few examples of their escapades.

marie putting "treats" (a.k.a crayons!) out for wakefield.  apparently she wants him to have technicolor poo.

playing with toilet paper - this has happened in every bathroom multiple times!!!  so many wasted trees....

marie feeding wakefield - perhaps he likes his food soggy and his water flavored?

a first grader and a pre-k-er

so this year begins a completely new phase of my life!  i am not changing diapers AT ALL - a first for me in SIX YEARS!!  AND i have 2 kids in school all day!  it's just me and marie hanging out doing our own thing!  it's WONDERFUL!

eben is now a first grader and feels very grown up and like he's BIG STUFF :)  his teacher this year is the "grandmotherly" type and loves dalmations - which makes eben super happy. he was so excited the first day of school.

emily jane is going to a full time pre-k and comes home chatting non stop about everything she's learning and everyone who is her friend and how her teachers are to awesome. :)  she walked straight into her class the first day, almost as an afterthought she turned around and gave me a big hug, said "love you mom! bye!" and off she went!  she LOVES school - did anyone doubt? 

marie and i will start our church's mmo/preschool on sept 6 - we'll see how she does but i'm thinking she'll love it.  she asks constantly all day long "where's emmyjane?  where's eben?" :)  i think she misses them yet at the same time is loving ruling the roost here at home.

Marie turned 3 years old...6 months ago...

so its taken me 6 months to post about marie's birthday parties...oh well...such is the life of a wife and momma

party #1 with Gramma and Grampa
(and the rest of the gang)

we took the whole family to see the circus - which was oh so fun!  the kids loved it!  the pictures didn't really turn out - i guess strobe lighting isn't good for picture taking ;D

trapeze artists

tiger tamers (eben's favorite part)

our picnic at olympic park :)

party #2 with Mimi and Grandaddy

an almost too exciting birthday candle blowing...

her most favorite thing of all these days

party #3 on march 31 

(her actual birthday)

eben doing his version of baking a cake ;D

pots and pans! yay!!

 

  

 it's a baby potty! yay!!!

big girl panties!! (do you sense a theme? HA)             the Rapunzel movie (and toy lizard)!

coupon coupon i got a coupon

so i've jumped on the coupon bandwagon and am really starting to "get" it!  it's been a few months now since i've started and i'm just now at the point where i am saving a good bit of money with it. : D

i am SO excited about my trip this morning!!  i went to publix (their sale is a GREAT one this week) and spent a WHOPPING $1.83!!!  which really saved me since it's the end of the month and i'm always low on cash at the end of the month.

i bought
19 boxes of pasta
18 cans of veggies
2 bags of frozen veggies
2 bags of rice
1 bag of sugar
1 box of meds

i bought mostly what was on sale (saving $28.90 off of the retail price)
i used  coupons which totaled $34.80 (mostly printed from the internet, a few from the sunday paper)

i saved $63.70!  i am really starting to just love couponing!!!

my all time favorite website is SouthernSavers.com and she does ALL the work for me - coupon matchups, sale ads, deal alerts...everything.

you ALL should give couponing a try!!! it will take a few months to really get the hang of it and be able to buy only the sale items...but it is definitely worth it. :)

YAY for saving my pennies and watching them add up.

friday funnies

a too funny conversation right before bedtime. :)

me (thinking i smelled something unpleasant): marie...did you dirty your diaper?

marie: no.  i fine.

me (still smelling something unpleasant): marie, do you need a diaper change?

marie: no.  mamma shange my biaper.

me: gramma changed your diaper?

marie:  yeah.  mamma shange my biaper.

me: marie - you haven't seen gramma since yesterday.

marie.  **pause**  oh.

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as eben got off the school bus he put his play spy phone up to his ear and said:

"sorry mom.  can't talk.  i'm on the phone with my ghost enemy."

then he went into the house without another word to me!

silly boy.  ghost enemy.  sheesh.

too funny to wait til friday

at a wedding reception this past weekend, emily jane and a friend (boy)were walking around holding hands.  they wandered into the sanctuary where one of the women from the church went up to them and said that they could get married next.  to this emily jane looked at her friend then replied:

well, i'm not QUITE ready.


HAHA  good thing!!  she's only 4!!!

friday funnies

tonight before bedtime i told the kids that whoever made the mess needed to go clean it up really quickly.

emily jane: i made it.  it's a really big mess.  i don't think i can clean it up by myself.

eben: yes you can.  i have faith in you.

HAHA!

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marie's latest thing...

marie: mommy mommy mommy!!  guess what?  mommy mommy mommy! guess what?

me: what?

then she just smiles and says it again.  and again.  and again. i guess she likes me looking at her and saying what?  either that or she has done something completely mischevious and loves not telling me what it is. ;D

1 day and 2 challenges

god's growing me in mighty ways today.

challenge #1
i love my cbs group!  today was the first day and i thoroughly enjoyed it!  i have been missing and longing in a spiritual way and was completely satisfied today.  wednesdays just might be my new favorite day. :)
challenge: i am a wife.  am i BEING a holy wife? i am a mother. am i BEING a holy mother? i am a sister.  am i BEING a holy sister?  i am a daughter.  am i BEING a holy daughter? i am a friend. am i BEING a holy friend.  what an awesome challenge.  rhett - sermon material right there!!

challenge #2
emily jane stole for the first time today.  she was really admiring something in rhett's office and i saw her put it in her pocket.  i held my hand out and she handed it right over (which shows she knew she couldn't take it).  i said taking something that is not yours is called stealing.  god says do not steal.  if you'd like to look at it for a minute you may ask daddy.  she asked, he said yes. i forget all bout it.  later in the car in the backseat i over hear her say to marie "sshh.  don't tell mommy." i turn around and what does she have in her hand?  the thing she was told not to take!!! UTURN in the middle of the road - marched right back into daddy's office - with her still holding what she had stolen.  big talk...big trouble...big tears.  *sigh*  i was shown the sinfulness of my children yet again today.  we had another talk on the way home for the 2nd time about how we aren't to steal because god says not to.  if we want something we have to earn it and pay for it.  if we take something that isn't ours then when they need it they don't have it and they have to use their money to go buy another one.  i told her if she was a big helper around the house she could save up her allowance money and go buy her very own.  which perked her up.  and which is why it is now time to get off my blog because she is standing right here staring at me waiting for me to give her some chores to do. :D yay for mommy's big helper.
challenge: train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from You.

friday funnies

we went to wendys at the airport and they forgot to make the kids' burgers plain.  this was their reply.



marie: bluk!

emily jane: i guess they did it their way instead of our way.

eben: yeah.  i guess they forgot and didn't try to remember.


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our neice lost her tooth over christmas.  mimi told her she might put some money under her pillow for her tooth.  she said "you'd give me money for my tooth?!"  and mimi told her to check her nightstand in the morning.  then she said "you can leave a one or a twenty.  whichever you want."

HAHAHA

wordless wednesday

came downstairs from wrapping presents and found a sock taped to my tv.  i laughed out loud.

friday funnies

me: eben, is your chocolate milk good?

eben:  BETTER THAN MY WHOLE LIFE!!!

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emily jane's monologue while riding in the car and passing by a golf course...

there a field!  

it's like the field by grandma's house!  

that's a nice hockey field. 

it doesn't have horses though.

grandma's hockey field has horses.

horses would make that hockey field better.

oh look!

it has a nice gate.

that is a lot nicer than grandma's gate.

but i like horses better than gates.

marie, did you see that hockey field?

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eben: mommy, more chocolate milk please!

marie: mommy, beben wan' teet tee!

eben: no marie, not sweet tea.  chocolate milk.

marie: oh! beben wan' chok tee?

eben: (giggling) no, not chocolate tea. chocolate milk!

marie: oh! chok muk! ok!  mommy, beben wan' chok muk!

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and just for laughs.....i found this website that has made rhett and i bust out laughing.  we've had a little too much fun with it.  but this is definitely the funniest ecard they have.  cracks me up!

wordless wednesday

cruisn'

rhett and i have had quite a ... um ... interesting fall. and we really needed a vacation. our dearest friends and family knew this and we were surprised with a WONDERFUL early christmas present of a cruise! yes - a CRUISE to the bahamas. :D so my parents graciously watched our kiddos for us and we headed out of town!

it was the most relaxing vacation i've ever taken. just rhett and me and a boat full of strangers and loads and loads and loads of all you can eat food. :D

the sunset our first night on the boat. we were still at port in florida because they were having "technical issues that their technicians were technically fixing" which they eventually did. :)

this was taken at the front of the boat the second morning - it was SO windy!! can you tell HAHA

we spent the second day in nassau, bahamas. :) this is the welcome center to the city.

we took a water taxi to paradise island (where people like oprah, nicolas cage, etc. own houses) to the Atlantis Resort. it was AMAZING!

that bridge in between the two buildings is one suite - which was built for michael jackson but he sold it back to the owner of the resort. it goes for $25,000 per night (according to the water taxi tour guide) with a minimum stay of 4 nights. and it's booked solid for the next 5 years. so go ahead and book it now he said cuz you'll have time to save up for it! haha :D

this was one of the water slides on the resort - it shot you into a tube that went through the pool at the bottom that you see - and inside that pool are SHARKS! crazy huh?

see the tubes going through the shark tank? i was so impressed - if only i had a room key so i could've tried it out...HA


another shark

more sharks


a manna ray - it was HUGE. must've had at least a 9 foot wing span.

the predator tunnel. crazy.


some scenic place at the resort.

the closest i got to the ocean. :D i actually didn't even put my swimsuit on the entire cruise...who does that?! old fuddy duddy 30 year olds! that's who. :D


our boat.


rhett won the game "last man standing" he won the game on knowing the answer to a question about the movie footloose! bahaha and what did he win? and 24k diamond encrusted plastic piece of ship. ha


my and my husband. yay!

our final day on the boat - a day at sea.


we took a towel folding class to learn how they make all those towel animals. :D and we enjoyed ourselves too!!


rhett's elephant


my elephant


mr and mrs elephant HA


mr and mrs puppy

we played puttputt - well, tried to play putt putt. the course was at the front of the ship - remember my front of the ship picture? we'ld put our ball down and the wind would roll it away before we could hit it. it was really funny. and i ended up losing - but only by 1!! not too bad with the crazy wind.



we also watch a man carve this ice sculpture in 15 minutes - it was awesome!



we also went to a few comedy shows - they were hysterical!


we also played lots of bingo (old fuddy duddy 30 year olds again i know) and lost every time, ate lots and lots and lots of delicious food. took naps every day. enjoyed um parts of the shows...some were a little too las vegas if you know what i mean. and had the best time ever. yay for early christmas presents!!



our last night on the boat.
getting ready to drive back home. we don't look too thrilled do we - HA.


arriving home and seeing our kiddos. i just love them to pieces! aren't they precious? i did miss them while we were away - probably not quite as much as i should have but hey, i was on a cruise with my husband!! what can i say? ;D
they're wearing the tshirts we got them on the cruise - when the sun hits eben's and emily jane's - they turn colors. its pretty cool! :)

pretty cool stuff huh?