Happy Birthday to the Sweetest Lil' Darlin'!!

We had such a wonderful birthday with our cousins and family.  

Best.  Party.  Ever.

Just good family, good cake, and good times.

The simple things matter the most.

 

  

Eli, you made me laugh out loud.

New Dr!!

I got tired of all the crap at the kids old Dr's office...Loved the Dr....not in love with the rest of the office.  So, we jumped ship.  Hopefully we will be able to get in on sick days, and with less red tape in general. 

LITTLE DARLIN WAS PUMPED about meeting Dr. Paisley.  She has talked about her for months.  She finally got to meet her and she was talking a LOT!  Danslen is quite a bit more shy than Daniley but if she is super happy you will need a plug. 

Easter is only halfway over but my pictures are so cute I couldn't wait to post!!  This year our church had a service on Saturday night and we went for it.  So, I have our Easter pictures a few hours early.  I don't know what came over my girls to love on each other like this.  The Holy Spirit must have really been among them tonight.  :-)

Earlier today we dyed our eggs!

We went to church, had an ice cream, and then did an egg hunt. 

May everyone not forget what we celebrate on Easter!! 

After church we had an egg hunt and Daniley met up with her friends Mylee and Cooper.  Look at these precious children!!

Since Daniley started school we don't have a lot of time together.  To remedy this, I took her to the beach, just us two, for a long weekend.  It was one of the best beach trips of recent memory.  We just chilled and relaxed.  The weather was perfect.  The last time I spent Spring Break at the beach I must have been in high school.  I did not realize how wonderful it was this time of year.
This kid is hilarious.  I just sit on the sidelines and watch her work the adults.  She strikes up a conversation and before you know it she's roped them in.  I even heard one tell her, "You should be on TV."  haha.  True entertainment for me!!

 This last one is a selfie of her.  She kills me.

Dan repurposed an old motorcycle tire, cut back an old tree, and BOOM!  Tire swing.  The girls LOVE it.  To not have wanted any girls, he sure does go out of his way...  Ha!!!!!!!

Dan and I have been married for 10 years.  Yeh, that's right.  TEN.  In some ways it seems like forever, and in some ways it seems like yesterday.  I decided for our tenth anniversary we would go to Hawaii.  For TWO WEEKS!  I didn't tell Dan anything.  He actually did not find out where we were going until we arrived at the airport and I handed him his ticket.  :-)

I sort of thought this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so we left the kids at home and headed out.  (Bless those precious GRANDparents for their loving care in my absence!!)  All I can say is Hawaii was everything I thought it would be.  I recommend that everyone try to make it there.  It's beach, mountains, rainforest, volcanoes, swimming, hiking, cruising, motorcycling, snorkeling.  It's adventure, relaxing, and exploring.  It's the heart of the Pacific right here in US territory.  Start saving and get your bags packed!!!

We visited two islands:  Kauai and Maui.  We have hundreds of pictures capturing the beauty of this place, but to keep it manageable I just picked out a few of our favorites.  If you need descriptions, I posted them on the photobucket website.  Click on the link to view the album.
Best vacation of my entire life!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and coming home to get our abandoned children...PRICELESS.  Here is pickup and souvenir time.

A very rare, few times in our lives to we accomplish something big in a very short time.  Think about it.  Most every accomplishment we earn by working long and hard--turning 16, graduating, buying a house, retiring.

Well, Daniley won a bike at a circus a while back.  Probably 3 months ago.  It has sat in the garage waiting on warm, sunny weather.  Today was the day I have long dreaded....teaching her to ride a bicycle.  We gathered up our helmets and pads and headed to the park.  (Dan was out, so it was just us girls.)  I remember trying to learn bike riding and I remember being about 6, falling, crying, getting mad, and it taking a long time.  I even remember the baton with streamers that I must have gotten the same Christmas, and I remember Dad saying "Abra Cadabra, Abra Cazam, Let Danica ride her bicycle and not fall down!"  The memories must have been really bad for me to remember that much detail.  ;-)  So, I absolutely dreaded this event, because Daniley doesn't have a lot of patience.  Well ready or not, here we go........

We get to the park.  Lil' Darlin' is on her tricycle in a mostly-empty parking lot.  I'm keeping one eye on her, and one eye (and two hands) on Daniley.  I hold Daniley's side as she pedals, running beside her.  Sometimes as a parent, you just have to let go.  And today was my turn.  I let go....

....and off she rode.  Just like that.  She was so excited.  (So was I!!!!)  After she realized she was riding, she SCREAMED with laughter and excitement, "I'M SO HAPPY!!!  I'M A BIG GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!"  And her word choices just choked me all up.  She never looked back, just blonde hair blowing through the wind.  Just like that, she was gone.  She didn't need me at all.  She was a big girl.  Even though I was ecstatic for her, clapping and cheering on the sidelines, for a short moment there I just felt empty.  I had flashes of her accomplishing big, great things, all by herself.  Spreading her wings and flying....  She's been dreading that bike as much as I have, scared.  And all she wanted was to be a "big girl."  And just like that, she got it.  She rode, and rode, and rode. 

She did almost run into some parked cars a few times.  She hasn't mastered the breaks yet.  So when she starts to fall she just kinda hops off and ditches the bike.  It is a little tall for her so it doesn't leave her many options.  We detoured and played on the slide for a little while.  Suddenly Daniley asked me what "ace" means.  Not knowing where new term came from, I said, "Well, it can be a person's name.  Or it can be a card.  Or you can have an ace in the hole.  Well, that's still sort of like a card."  She said, "Well what does it mean if you ace something?"  I said, "Oh, that means you do it really well."  She replied, "Oh, well I aced this bike riding.  I am awesome at every sport."  Yes, that's the real true Daniley right there.  Not always acing, but ALWAYS confident. 

The Blizzard of 2014

In Alabama, we get snow every year.  Half an inch here, half an inch there.....  But THIS, this is nothing I've ever seen before.  We got an inch of snow where I am, in Calera.  And y'all, the place has shut down.  I find myself laughing.   Hysterically.  And then I remember there are people out there that are for real stuck.  It is really difficult to understand how an inch of snow can shut us down.  So I'll try to explain.

We don't have any salt and sand.  We don't have snow plows.  And most importantly, all of us THINK we know how to drive in the snow, and NONE of us actually do.  So this morning at approximately 8am, it started snowing.  By 10am, employers started realizing that the roads were icy and would become moreso, so they started dismissing people.  The schools had the same forecast and planned to dismiss at 12 noon.  PERFECTO!!  Everyone is on the way home.  Everyone.

11:00am.  Dan texts me and says he has been about a mile in the last hour.  It is becoming apparent that people have wrecked clogging up all the roads.  This is Alabama, not New York City, but when EVERYONE gets on the road at the same time, and every road has 5 wrecks, everything stops.  EVERYTHING SHUTS DOWN.  Everyone is gridlocked.  At a standstill.  You don't think much about the importance of good roadways until now.  Main roads, back roads, interstates, dirt roads.  All of it.  No one is moving.
11:15am  I get a message from the school that they have moved dismissal from noon to 11:30am.  I have made arrangements for Daniley to ride the bus to Honey's house.  Everything is great.  By this time the roadways are concerning.  My office decides to let people go home.  I elected to stay at work.
11:45.  Dan has gone another 1/4 mile.
12:30pm  I get a message that due to hazardous road conditions, busses have returned to school and children must be picked up.  I go to get Daniley, but blocked roads prevent me from getting there.  I return to work.  Mom dropped of Danslen at Honey's and is trapped on another road.  ALL CIRCUITS ARE BUSY and no one can call anyone.  No one knows where anyone is (which is not overly concerning).  Dan and I are texting.  I am not sweating...I figured I would go get Daniley around 3pm.  No problem.
2pm.  Mom calls Mawmaw (she can't get me) and says she's behind a salt truck that's headed for Daniley's school.  She has no idea if Daniley is there or not but she's making a run for it while the roads are clear.  (Hallelujah)  Dan, on the other hand, has moved another quarter mile.  He is still 17 miles from home.  Under no circumstances do I want him driving after dark, so he has decided to ditch the car and walk to my boss's house, 3 miles away.  So yes, he can say he walked 3 miles in the snow...not barefootm, but in dress shoes, so close enough.  I am laughing at the situation.  I am sure he was NOT.
3:30  Dan arrives at boss's house.  He needs lunch, and a drink I'm sure.  And dinner.  Clothes.  And a place to sleep.  AND HE'S AT MY BOSS'S HOUSE.  THEY'RE GONNA TALK SO MUCH BS.  Lord help me.  I have decided to sleep at work.  Not because I have to, but I have always wanted to work storm duty.  I am actually on a storm duty team but since there weren't huge power outages I did not get called in.  So I'm just staying here to help along my coworkers, cook for them, and be on call in case we are needed.  I'll be resting on a cot.  I'm super excited. 
4pm  I get a message from the school that children with lost parents will be kept overnight.  This is Alabama.  I've never heard of a kid sleeping at school ever, but definetely not because of snow.  Remember, 1" of snow.  It's ok, because teacher's can't get home either.  So they are staffed.  Some of my coworkers have been on the road for 4 hours and have only made it 8 miles. 
Most of my friends are trying desperately to reach their children.  Everyone is upset.  Many of my friends have wrecked.  My situation is ok but there are others having serious problems right now.  People are running out of gas on the roads.

The county has been put under a "civil emergency" which is part of what is making me laugh.  Only in Alabama..........

It's 5pm.  I'm going to the back to let the good times roll.  We came up with a wild hog someone had killed and stored in the back.  Sausage coming right up....

The Christmas Flood

December 24, 2013.  A nice, quiet afternoon.  A little too quiet in fact.  So I go to see why the kids aren't fighting.  Both the bedroom and bathroom doors are closed with the lights on.  Because there is much more potential for disaster in the bathroom, I choose that door to bust open first.  And if I woke up on Christmas morning with my head sewed to the carpet I wouldn't have been more surprised.  Water is flowing over the top of the bathroom counter into the floor.  Hot water at that.  The sink is full.  The water is on full blast.  And it's just like a waterfall.  My sink runneth over.  I immediately shut off the water and start grabbing towels, and I realize this is pretty serious.  Big fluffy towels are just drowning in the floor.  All 12 towels in the closet, and the water is still just gushing out of the floor.  By that point, Dan has heard my tone of disaster and has arrived on the scene.  I told him to go downstairs and start looking for water.  In our closet ceiling, he saw one single drop still clinging to the ceiling.  He calls for a pitcher and busts a hole in the ceiling.  FLOOD.  Here is comes.  We go down ANOTHER level.  Water has traveled through the ceiling, along the plywood, and down the exterior of the pipes inside the walls into the basement.  So yeh, that's water on three levels.  And I'm STILL soaking it up upstairs.  I have no idea how long the water was running but I suspect a good 20-30 minutes.  Daniley said that she pulled the drain up and wanted the water to get warm, so she left it there and went to play...and forgot about it.  Our sinks don't have an overflow drain.  We ended up having to get a shop vac and vacuum the rest of the water up.  Momma done went bazerk!!!!!!!!!!!  But at the end, we came out lucky.  No damage, except the hole we punched in the ceiling.

Columbiana's Christmas Parade

 Someone loaned mom this bicycle (tricycle?) and she rode Daniley rode on the platform during the parade.  Afterwards Bentley and LD joined in on the fun, but one was NOT happy about it.

 

 So one got off and the ride continued.

 Merry Christmas!!

I have survived the wildest week of my life.  Having a baby was easier than this!  3 parties, 16 shirt orders, a week of work/school/kids/cooking/cleaning/etc., packing up after a craft show, and Halloween, and then packing and preparing to skip town 2 days later...Now that was a busy week, even by MY definition.  The difference between TRY and TRIUMPH is a little UMPH!  And we made it!!!! 

Halloween this year was so fun.  We got to see all our nieces and nephews, spend a good amount of time with each grandparent, and our costumes were awesome if I must say so myself.  I made the cloaks in 20 minutes flat with no pattern, so I'd say my sewing skills have reached the next level.  I'm more confident and faster than ever before.  (Life is just so exciting!!!!)

Here are my favorite pictures.

Family Counts!

Yesterday was Family Counts.  This is a carnival put on by my employer.  The State Fair would be jealous.  This is one major event that we look forward to each year, and in fact this year we gave up a weekend trip to the beach to be here.  This was Danslen's first year to understand, and she was sooooo excited.  I love these girls more than anything.  Hanging out with them makes the best days of my life.

 

It's well established that Daniley isn't scared of anything.  Lil' Darlin' isn't quite as gutsy, so we started small and then moved up.  This Frog Hop was the first thing she ever went on that was decently high.  She loved it. Notice how Daniley is holding her hand. <3 br="">

 

Then we got on this little doohickey and Daniley asked me to spin it.  Before I knew it I was spinning so fast I literally could not see anything around me.  

  

As we spun out of control I just fell over laughing.  When I get to laughing sometimes I just can't stop.  It's like my body goes into some kind of paralyzed state. Here I am.  Ain't I cool?  LOL.  

And then, one of my favorite things to ride with the girls:  The Sizzler. (aka The Scrambler.)  I love riding this with my kids because the centrifugal force pushes them into me and they can't get away.  It makes them laugh, which makes my day.  Here we are in the starting position.  

 

Here we are, after the speed started getting up.

  

And our final position.  Lil' Darlin' loved this ride so 

I'm safe in saying she's not going to be a pansy at the amusement parks.  :-)

  

Oh yes, she's got this down.

 

I could eat her up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

We also had snow cones, a reptile show, moon bounces, ice cream, corn dogs, funnel cakes, BBQ....

I was happy I only gained 3 pounds yesterday.  ;-)