Puttin' Up...

We love fresh veggies, especially those we "put up".  This year I had a special helper that helped with...

making Blackberry Jam, which I must add that Matthew says was ridiculously good and that my southern roots must have finally appeared.  That cracked me up.

She did so great at smashing the berries and putting the lids on the cans, we promoted her to pea scooper.

Also, White Acre Peas... my absolute, by far, hands down most favorite vegetable.  I could eat them until they ran out of my ears. 

Playing catch up...

Wow, I need to do a little blog catching up… So much has been going on, so here’s just one big post with a lot of stuff… Chiefland Cheerleaders! The High School Cheerleaders offered a day camp for the Elementary School students and gave them the opportunity to cheer at the Spring Jamboree. Of course we jumped at the chance and Gracie had a blast with the big girls. The camp lasted about five hours where they learned three cheers and a dance to Baby by Justin Bieber. I don’t have to tell you that the Diva loved shaking her thang out there on the field. She did AWESOME and I’m pretty sure we have a cheerleader on our hands. 

Gracie is right between the two older girls on the right, she's 7th from the right.  Standing perfect, I must say! 

  Beth, Katie and Doris came out to watch her cheer, which was very special to Gracie. She loves having older cousins - kinda makes her feel special when they "hang out".

 

 

Savannah also was there to watch her big sister cheer, but she mostly enjoyed swinging on the railings.

Well that and being super silly in the stands. 

The school year ended and Savannah had her year end program. This time we had no feet over our head!!

She did wonderful as did all of the children. Gracie was a big kid this year and watching in the audience with Pop, Susan, Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy and Daddy.

Next was Gracie’s end of the year awards where she received the Principals Reading Award and Citizen Award.

We are so proud of all that she’s accomplished this year. She Mastered every skill on her report card and is now officially a “Grader” as they call them, 1st grade!

Since it summertime, we’ve been doing a lot of outdoors things with the girls since we don’t really have scheduled bed times right now. The girls have their cousin Katie watching them this year which makes it nice for everyone, Mom and Dad included. Katie makes a little money, Mom and Dad don’t have to wake up tired girls and send them off, pack lunches or worry about bedtimes and the best part is that Gracie and Savannah get to play and swim and just be kids all summer. I feel very fortunate!!

Country bumpkins cooling off after picking blackberries.

Sweet Summertime...

Here comes Peter Cottontail...

We had a great Easter this year – fast paced – crazy, but enjoyed spending time with our family. Saturday we spent the afternoon with Matt’s family hunting eggs and having a little cook out. It was a great start to some egg hunting and Easter bunny fun. Gracie, Savannah and Micaela hunted 100 eggs, so needless to say there were plenty to go around. A special thanks to Katie and Doris for hiding all 100 eggs. I think we found 98… Gracie was all business…

Savannah was her happy little self even though she was sick with an upper respiratory cold and a nasty cough, she smiled the entire weekend.

Of course I did not succeed in getting any pics with my camera of their Easter dresses, but they are on my aunts. They were both so beautiful! We attended Church with my Grandparents, Grace Methodist, in Lawtey, FL. A beautiful turn of the century wooden church, just the kind that I dreamed of getting married in, with a white steeple, amazing woodwork, stained glass windows and the bells still chime. The message was wonderful, but I must admit that both Matthew and my attention spans were short as we were admiring the wood working and beautiful details to the windows in that church. The ceiling was incredible. After Church we all gathered at my Grandparents house for some Easter lunch, ham, baked beans, potato salad, mac and cheese – our traditional start to the Spring and Summer season. The Easter Bunny visited G-Pops and G-Mamas this year and left some very special treats for the girls as well as hid the eggs that we colored the night before. The bunny has the same method for hiding as when I was a child - little nest with a beautiful colored egg on top. ;) I have to tell you, I was so exhausted the night before that I just about colored the eggs without boiling them first. My Grandmother just so happened to ask, have you boiled those. Ugh, the brain of a working, exhausted mother of two… But, Gracie, Savannah, G-Mama, Terri and I got them all colored and oh glittered up for the Easter Bunny!! Regardless of the goings on, we enjoyed celebrating but also know and talked with both of the girls the true meaning and the importance of Easter – our Risen Savior.

Spring Break 2012

We, Matthew, my Mom and I, decided to spend a few days in Cedar Key for the girls Spring Break this year. We knew we wanted to stay somewhere close to home and not make it a big issue, so we decided CK would be perfect. Matthew couldn’t really take off to go anywhere, so we came to him. We rented a condo at Cedar Cove, right on the beach. Had a great room with a really nice view – really enjoyed the balcony!! We spent Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday night down there – got up super early on Saturday and headed home.

Morning 1 – by 9:30am the girls were ready to go the beach!!

Loved being able to walk 10 feet and not have to haul a car load. We played, sunned, swam.

Around 11:00am half of Chiefland Elementary ended up at the beach, so Gracie just had a ball playing with a lot of her friends. Of course they all got really brave and the next thing we knew they were clear out to the buoys.

Ugh, that water – mud and all, and not a single care in the world. Guess as the old saying goes, ‘what you don’t know, won’t hurt ya’. Well as their mama, I can tell you I know what is in that water and although I’m not at all scared of it, I just choose to sit on the beach. Those crabs HURT!! I figure in due time, they will experience the same pain that many of us have at CK beach.

We relaxed by the pool – Matthew and the girls swam in the FREEZING water.

Gracie is a FISH!! Cold, hot, raining and dark of night, she wants in the water and doesn’t want to come out unless you bribe her or……… she has to poop. Sorry, just had to put that in there. What is it about the water that makes them have to use the bathroom like ASAP. Each day I knew we wouldn’t get far before the MOM I GOTTA POOP sound was heard.

It was a great escape for a few days! Thanks to my Mom for all that she did. The trip was wonderful, even though it was 20 minutes from the house, it felt like a 1000, and for that I was thrilled.
On Sunday I started (HA!) and finished my last two finals for my AA. Passed them both with an A. FINISHED – now to finish my B.S.!! For now, I’m taking the summer off!! Whewwwwww….

Yeah, so what...

So much drama in the air lately and the more and more I read, the more and more I realize what is really important in life and drama AIN’T it. A quick walk through Shands hospital will make one realize what “problems” really are and the petty crap that we all complain about aren’t “problems.” Whether it’s relationships, money or even in my case a septic tank that was giving us a fit this week, in the big scheme of things those are seriously MINOR. I get so sick of hearing people complain and complain on Facebook, posting status updates every 15 minutes only to thrive on the attention that each post receives. The attention givers being the same 4 or 5 people each time that seem to try and positively pump the person up. Just funny to me that Social Media has created this world of fake friends for people – those “friends” praying for you and such…and some of those friends never having laid eyes on you.
Funny, those who know you best usually reserve their comments, but those that have only been there for the last pour, seem to spill their psychological puke all over your Facebook. Glad I’m one of those that reserve my therapy for when asked.
I suppose I should just delete my Facebook if it really bothers me that much, but honestly I do gain more enjoyment than disgust from it. I will continue to just roll my eyes and gag…oh and its been 5 minutes, so could you please post yet another profile picture. I seem to have forgotten what you look like in 4 minutes. Ugh. Enough, I’m going to bed.

We had a VERY Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Heart Day!
We had a great Valentine’s Day. Took the day off to be with the girls, both had parties at school.

I had a fun time crafting the girls Valentines this year. Gracie decorated hers with stickers and glitter glue. Just a side note, glitter glue makes me crazy. Anyway, she did a great job. We made Butterflies for the girls and Super Heroes for the boys.

On occasions such as this, the girls always wake up to their suprises on the table. Gracie asked this year if their Valentines would be on the table, and of course they were, waiting on them to wake up! (From both sets of Grandparents and their Great Aunt Terri - lucky kids!)

First stop was Gracie’s school for an 8:15am Valentine drop off. I hung out for a little while and worked with some of the kids on sorting some conversation hearts and grafting the amounts. Fun and learning.
Next stop, 9:00am for Savannah’s little party. She was mad at me from the start. Not sure why, just being Savannah I guess. She finally perked up after a little bit of an outside discussion with Mommy.

11:00am, back to Gracie’s school for the official Valentine exchange. She had a blast – all of the kids did. They were allowed to choose one item to eat and also were able to drink their “Love Potion” that one of the other moms prepared for them. Very cute idea and the kids loved it!!

We finished up the day with a steak dinner for all, which was delicious and a very fun evening out on the “town.” Big Chiefland ya know! Both girls were jacked up on candy, but quickly crashed and burned at bed time. (sorry for the quality of the pics – I forgot to charge my camera, so I was working with my phone. )

Love,
Kari

Christmas Follies!

I thought I would share some really cute things that Savannah did over the Christmas break. 

We will start with the Annual Kountry Kids Christmas program.  This was Savannah’s first year with the two year olds and her teacher Miss. Melissa.  Side note: Gracie was very shy and hardly ever made a sound and basically had a “deer in the headlights” look going on for most of her programs at KKids.

But Savannah – well that’s a different story.  Just take a look!! (It gets good at the end)

 

And here's one more - this one leaves me speechless every time.  Poor thing was just a nervous wreck.  Ha, yeah right!  She is just the cutest thing though, I must admit.  :)

A few pictures from her 3rd birthday (12/17/11).  It was a Barbie theme of course.

She was surrounded by her cousins and could not of been happier. 

We had a little cake and ice cream!  YUM!!

Did a little bird feeder craft that included peanut butter.  Yes I know, you're welcome.  Ha!

And thanks to my cousin Katie, my bird feeded turned out perfect!

It was a very good day!