Goodbye Sweet Lillie Bea

My Granny Bea went on to be with her Savior today. I know she's singing praises up there in heaven right now with the angels. She's probably jumping and dancing too, because she hasn't been able to do that in more years than I can count. She's also hugging the necks of her mother, husband, and so many other loved ones who passed before her. And I know without a shadow of a doubt that she is worshipping her Lord, Savior, and best friend, Jesus Christ.

I'm so grateful for her godly example for all these years. What a blessing to have a grandmother who left such a wonderful legacy to a large family. She served others her entire life and more than anything she was a prayer warrior like I've never known. She was never able to shower us with gifts and other things grandmothers so often do for their children, but I know that she wrapped us in prayer every day and that is better than any earthly gift we could ever receive.

She will be greatly missed, yet we are rejoicing that she has a new body and that she is happy for all eternity. We'll see you again soon, Granny! When it's my time just meet me at the gates of heaven!

Zora's New Do

Zora begged all last weekend to get her haircut so we took her Monday morning. Love it!

Time for an Upgrade

I'm getting a new phone today but it is not intentionally. I dropped mine in my Pepsi last night. Bummer. It's completely dead. Dead as a doornail. Done. :(

So, hopefully I'll be able to recover everyone's numbers. If not, don't get offended if I don't call you because I probably won't be able to remember all the numbers. It's sad, but I rarely dial phone numbers anymore. It's just too easy to use my cell phone. You might just have to call me!

So, I'm off in search of my new phone!

Kids Say the Cutest Things...

Zora has just been full of "deep thoughts" lately and today she said a couple more cute things that made me smile.

A song was on the radio with these words

"There is hope for every man

A solid place where he can stand

In this dry and weary land

There is hope for every man..."

She said, "Mommy, there's hope for women too!" Yes, that's right. I explained to her than it meant mankind not just men.

Another conversation that took place in the car today was about moving. She's been asking a lot of questions about moving because our friends just moved to Arizona and her Uncle Jamie is moving out of my mom's house and into a rent house. She also knows that Joel has lived here his entire life and has never moved, so naturally she's curious. She started asking me how many times different people in our family had moved and all the different places they had lived.

Then she said, "Mommy, I've moved before."

I said, "No, honey, you've lived in the same house we live in now since you were born."

"But, Mommy, I moved from heaven to earth when God put me in your tummy!"

Priceless... I love their sweet, innocent little minds :)

Photo Shoot!

Several weeks ago I took the girls for a photo shoot at Images. The results are in... I love them... see what you think!

From the Mouth of a Babe

Do your kids ever just put you in your place and teach you a valuable life lesson? I had one of those moments from Zora on Friday.

I woke up Friday morning with a smile on my face ready for a fun day with the girls. Our plans for the day were to go to playgroup for "Bike & Trike Day", then meet some of our little girlfriends from dance after lunch, and to end the day we were supposed to go to my dad's house for dinner.

Instead, Zora woke up with a tummy ache. Bummer. Should we stay home or will she be okay? Then, Lily wakes up with a tummy ache. Double Bummer. We sit down for breakfast and Zora eats really good, but Lily takes one bite and says no more - not a good sign, right? By now they are both begging me to stay home all day - another red flag! So, I decided to stay home from playgroup and maybe later in the day they would feel better.

Fastforward to 30 minutes later... I'm talking to another playgroup mom to let her know I won't be there and Lily starts puking all over the couch... nice! I hung up the phone, showered Lily, cleaned the couch, and started a load of laundry so that we wouldn't be spreading any of those nasty germs...

Fastforward another 30 minutes... Lily is back on the couch resting with towels and a trash can at her side, and I go to unload the dishwasher. I open the cabinets and I realize that overnight ants have invaded and are on a rampage in my kitchen. Frustrated, I instantly turn into a mass murderer. I'm killing ants like you wouldn't believe and as I'm standing there Lily starts begging for something to drink. I offer her very small sips, and go back to my killing spree. While I'm not paying attention Lily gets her cup and starts chugging it down. What happened next? That's right - puking episode #2. At least this time it's on the tile kitchen floor which is much easier to clean up! So, Lily gets shower #2 for the day and here comes load of puke laundry #2 for the day as well!

Then Joel calls to see how my day is going... poor guy... he got an ear full. Not that any of this was his fault or something that he could change, but he ever-so-sweetly decided to come home to help out a little. He came home with ant killing spray, so I quickly cleaned out all of the cabinets and let him spray them down. While he was doing that I'm running my mouth about how all MY plans for the day went south fast and I'm having a ROYAL PITY PARTY... then Zora humbled me with her life lesson... she very sweetly said,

"Mommy, sometimes life is just hard."

Oh....

Wow...

I now feel about 2 inches tall because my 5-year-old just totally put me in my place and reminded me that life is not always a bed of roses and that sometimes you just have to put on your big girl panties and deal with it!

I must say that after that my attitude about the day changed and we ended up having a rather decent weekend. Lily felt much better by that afternoon and I haven't seen a single ant since Joel sprayed. Life isn't so bad after all, huh?

Fire Station Field Trip!

A couple of weeks ago our playgroup took a field trip to visit the fire station in Prattville. We had a huge group show up for the fun and I think the moms and kids all had a lot of fun! Afterward we had a yummy lunch together at Mazzios. Here are some pics from our trip...

What a fun (and cute) bunch of kiddos :)

Standing by the firetruck with their buddy Kylan

In the captain's seat!

On the firepole

Zora taking her turn spraying the fireman's waterhose. Lily refused to do it :(

Mark Thomas spraying the waterhose... isn't he the cutest???

I absolutely love this picture. This is Zander wearing the fireman's coat.