Update: Day after: Isabelle's face

A cute little boy brought this card to Isabelle today along with a bag of candy. The front says I hope you feel better soon and the back says I'm sorry. I thought it was so sweet of him and it made Isabelle happy. She says, Especially the sweets!....LOL.
As far as how she is doing... I think she is doing pretty good. She is a very independent child though. Grrr (She doesn't even let us help her get splinters out....she digs them out herself.) So this morning when she had to take her band-aid off she was determined to do it by herself. She'd pull a little bit at a time. At one point she had half the band-aid hanging but refused to pull the rest. It took her twenty minutes to half an hour to get the band-aid off. Finally when it was time to wash her hair she didn't want me to get her face wet AT ALL. When it was time to put medicine on it before school she wouldn't even let me get close to her face for fear I would touch it. But I do think it looks better today then it did yesterday. Yeah!!! I am a little worried about the white spot wondering if it is infection though.

My Baby Girl...I think...LOl

This is what my baby girl came home from school looking like today. Now that just makes a mommy heart sad.
The teacher being a very wise woman thought since the weather has been decent lately the kids could go out and run off cabin fever energy today. Never expecting this to happen of course. The ironic part to me is that the little boy that pushed, tripped over, or whatever boys who are being boys do is the same little boy that Isabelle just told me about a week ago..."IF I was a boy, _______ would be my best friend."

Now in this situation I guess you can be "angry" but that wouldn't do any good....The teacher loves her so much and would never let her get hurt on purpose nor do I believe the little boy that "would be her best friend" did this on purpose.

She told me when she got home...."The day after Valentines Day too" LOL. Not sure what that has to do with it but it must mean something to her. What does bother me though is that when I got home from work she told me she had an ugly face. Of course I told her she is beautiful no matter what....(Wish little girls didn't already care so much about what they look like.)

So anyway I just feel so bad for her and wish I could take it all away....and of course as the mommy of a little girl that always "worries" about what she looks like...praying it doesn't scar.

Daddy and His Baby Girl...Making Memories

~ "Daughters who perceive that their fathers care a lot about them, who feel connected with their fathers, have significantly fewer suicide attempts and fewer instances of body dissatisfaction, depression, low self-esteem, substance use and unhealthy weight."

~ "A daughter’s self-esteem is best predicted by her father’s physical affection.� Girls with good fathers are less likely to flaunt themselves to seek male attention."

~ "Girls with involved fathers wait longer to initiate sex and have lower rates of teen pregnancy."

~ "76 per cent of teen girls said that their fathers influenced their decisions on whether they should become sexually active."

If that doesn't scare the day lights out of some daddies I don't know what will. I am so thankful that Matt takes extra time to show Isabelle she is special to him.

One of the ways he has done that over the years is by getting her flowers on Valentines Day and taking them to school to her. Today he came home from work and said, "I need to go get Belly some flowers for Valentines Day" and I said....are you ready...I said, You don't need to do that we already gave her something." Can you believe it...Me...of all people told the man I love he did not need to buy his baby girl Valentine Flowers. Now please don't criticize me for this brief indiscretion (I was just trying to save money) and believe me I have already "whipped" myself over this moment of stupidity. Anyway...more to the point. Daddy says, "But I ALWAYS get her flowers for Valentines Day and take them to her." I then being a much smarter wife said, "Then go ahead and get them." (Still really not seeing the importance of it all at the time. But if it meant something to him then of course I wanted him to get them for her.) Anyway by time we got to Heather's Flowers I had a little more of my old self (common sense) back and was actually proud of him when he walked out with her bouquet in his hand.

When he took them in to her at school she was excited to see him and smiled real big saying, "Mmmm these smell so good."

After school she got in the van and I asked her if she liked her flowers from daddy. And here is what she said to me......."Yes, Daddy ALWAYS gets me flowers for Valentines Day!" And there you have it I was officially defeated.....I am thankful for a man that cares so much about his baby girl and wants her to know her daddy loves her. If it takes something little like buying her flowers for Valentines Day for her to set a high standard for the "man" that will eventually be her husband then by all means......BUY THE FLOWERS.
Daddy and his baby girl!

Her flowers were beautiful too!

Valentines Day....My Baby Loves Me!

For Valentines this year we went out on Friday night after work to eat. (Remembering that we didn't want to wait in the long lines like we had to last year on Valentines Day.) It was nice we got right in with no wait at all. Now I'm not really a fancy girl and for me it is so much more important that Matt shows me he loves me through out the whole year rather on this one day out of the year. And he does a good job at it too! Sometimes I feel a bit guilty cause I am so spoiled by this man...

This is a picture of Me and Matt that Isabelle took that just didn't turn out just right. But I actually like how it turned out....:)

So anyway I was not expecting anything from him today cause as I said we "celebrated" Valentines on Friday night.

However......I did get some flowers.........
And all you Karen Kingsbury fans will appreciate the video he got me too!
If you have not read any Karen Kingsbury books and you like to read then you should try some of her books. She writes on the here and now realities of life.....She is a great Christian author.

My Kids and Valentines Day

Okay, So maybe I'm weird but we truly take advantage of Valentines Day to try and show our kids we love them. We don't spend much on them but usually try to get them something small. Sometimes it's candy but many times it's something they can use instead. I tell my kids I love them often but this is just another special way to remind them they are special to us.

This year we found this CD on sale at the Christian book store and thought Austin would like it. The deodorant and mechanical pencils are just some extras we through in. LOL

That's my boy....Austin!
We found this sweatshirt on clearance at Wal-mart and since Cody is always wanting to wear sweatshirts we just knew he would love it. Again mechanical pencil...extras. :)
Another thing I enjoy about Valentines day is getting to help the kids create their awesome Valentine boxes. They get to help choose what they want to create and we work together to make it happen. Some years they just don't turn out like we would like but this year I believe they both turned out super cute. (Austin's just too old to make one... Which makes me sad.)

Here is Cody holding his creation......
He is Mr. Alligator....And he had a good time munching on Ethan's Noah's Ark animals today.
Isabelle got this cute little jacket (again off the clearance rack) and a pair of Valentine socks with mechanical pencils. (If you haven't figured it out yet...They use Mechanical Pencils at school and we seems to go through a lot of them too.)
Isabelle with the creation she decided she wanted to make. Very fitting since she has been taking piano lessons.
Isabelle's "grand" piano.....
Now I know it's not a grand piano....but it is "grand" to us anyway!

Ice Skating

So we've been wanting to take the kids ice skating again for a while now and yesterday seemed like a great day to go....since we finally had 40 degree weather again. So we took a trip over to the Riverside Skating Center in Lafayette.We were all not real sure about how we would do on the ice since it has been so long since we went the last time. In fact Isabelle did not enjoy it much at all the last time cause she could not stand up at all that time.
Cody did a great job. He had many "focused" looks on his face....LOL.
Isabelle did a wonderful job this time around. As a matter of fact Austin come up to her and told her how good she was doing. He said, "Isabelle your doing better then I am. I think you could beat me in a race." I thought that was so sweet of him.
I love the look on Isabelle's face in this picture. I just love that girl.
Austin still a little unsteady on his feet. At one point he was standing by the rail and I asked him what he was doing. He laughed and said, "I think I'll stick to basketball." I was cracking up.
Belly getting more sure of herself on her skates.
Andromida went with us. She had a lot of fun too!
And this is our camera man. No really...I love this man. He did not want to ice skate because he says it hurts his feet. So he stood outside and froze to death taking our pictures just cause he loves us.
Taking a break....
Isabelle fell and said her knee hurt....She went off the ice for like....one minute...and was right back out there skating again. She just couldn't resist having all that fun.
Austin got much better the longer we were there.


Cody doing a great job staying on his feet. In fact he didn't fall at all the whole time we were there....Yea!
Isabelle's little skates.
Andromida did her best to try and teach Isabelle how to skate backwards.
I don't think she ever did get it but she sure didn't give up trying.
And trying some more. I was so proud of her for wanting to learn more......
The look on Cody's face in the picture just cracks me up. He really isn't mad at anyone.....Just really intent on where he is going and focused on not falling before he gets there.
Winding down a little bit out in the middle of the rink.
Austin's legs are so long I had a hard time keeping up with him. He is skating normal and I feel like I'm in a race. LOL
Still hanging out in the middle of the rink.

Me and our youngest boy....growing up so fast.....
This was Cody's first time to get to go ice skating. He did a great job too!!!


Me and my baby girl with her little rosy cheeks...
We had a great time together and we were glad Andromida could join us...
And to finish off a great night of fun together we had Culver's wonderful butter burgers...Mmmm.Just can't beat some great family time together...........

Indianapolis Zoo Boo October 23, 2010

We had a great time at the Indianapolis Zoo Boo this year. I have always wondered what the zoo boo was like and since Andy's family and our family bought membership passes this last spring break we thought we would check it out. Randy and Heather came to and it was a lot of fun spending the day with everyone. Although not much different then a "normal" day at the zoo there was a couple games and trick or treating that isn't obviously part of the normal zoo activities. The kids enjoyed dressing in costume and of course looking at all the animals....but I'm sure the candy and fellowship with family was the best part. Cody was a Pirate and Isabelle was a Southern "Belle".

My beautiful little Southern Belle was not thrilled with her costume before we hardly got started at the zoo. She didn't want to wear the hat cause "she's embarrassed" someone might look at her. She didn't want to carry the umbrella. It was too hot for the long sleeve shirt underneath her costume and the gloves were not comfortable. So by time she was finished she was wearing just he shirt and skirt from her costume and the skirt was ripped from walking on it because it was to long. LOL I guess not a great costume for my little "northern" Belle.

Cody of course enjoyed be a pirate for the day. He didn't mind at all wearing his costume.

I thought it was cute that Cody and Mikaila were both pirates (and no it wasn't planned) cause one year Isabelle and Mason were both pirates too.

Isabelle and Cody posing for their picture.

Bowling with miniature pumpkins was so much fun. She missed all her pins though. LOL

Cody getting ready to "bowl" down some pins.

Andy and Kristi's little cuties....Maliegh, Mikhi, Mikaila, and Mason.

I don't know but I believe our little pirates are wayyyy cuter then the zoo's pirates....

The kids thought the race car was super neat!

I know I should take more pictures of the animals but I never do. I guess I just like pictures of people better.

This picture was taken before Parker and Olivia got there that is why they are not in the picture.

This picture cracks me up...........

Trick or Treat. Smell my feet. Give me something good to eat.

Austin just wasn't at thrilled as the other kids....no he really just wasn't wanting his picture taken. I think he did enjoy spending some time at the zoo. However, he was a little disappointed we didn't go to the dolphin show....and we had tickets he could have went.........I just didn't know he really wanted to.

Mikaila Ariah

Mason and Parker

Olivia did not want her picture taken at all....so we had to trick her. This is probably the best we could do. LOL

Olivia and Isabelle leaning over to check out the animals. Parker and Cody "racing" the cheetahs.

Cody got to 20ft 8in before the timer went off and the record for the day was 21ft 6 in. So we think Cody did pretty well. He really is a great runner......

All the kids after Maliegh fell off the rock which made the first picture not turn out very well. LOL So we had to take another and of course they just wanted to be done with it. So Mikaila had to hold poor Maliegh and Isabelle thought she had to show Mikhi where his was supposed to look. LOL Oh well kids will be kids.