May Farm Playdate

For those of you who were at the May Farm Playdate, you can see how far behind I am in my blogging... For those of you who weren't there, well, I am behind. Better late than never, though, right?

My kids always love going to May Farm. It is a farm that is about 15 to 20 minutes away. May, is the owner of the farm, and she has lots of farm animals for the kids to pet and feed. And what is a trip to May Farm without one of her wild and crazy "hay" rides?

Seven has no fear. He fed any animal that he could.

Rilian on the other hand, was "cautious" around the animals and wasn't too sure about feeding some of them. But he did find this little lamb that he felt comfortable enough around to feed. This lamb was named Easter, because it was born on Easter. 

You can see how "cautious" Rilian is about feeding the animals...he didn't want to get too close. But he did want to feed the donkey.

May has a section where you can sit and hold an animal. Seven held a guinea pig. It was hot that day, though, and the guinea pig was feeling the heat and didn't really enjoy being held.

I was proud of Rilian for holding the guinea pig too, seeing how he wasn't too sure about the bigger animals. You can really see the guinea pig trying to get away now. It was hot.

Rilian stayed brave for a little while longer and wanted to hold a rabbit. The rabbit was hot also and wasn't too interested in being held either. Rilian did a good job at trying to keep ahold of it so it couldn't get away.

Like most farms, May Farm has cats. This cat decided it was gonna lay on the table and join us for lunch.

After lunch, it was horse riding time. Seven rode first.

After seeing Seven ride the horse, Rilian decided he wanted to ride, too. But he wanted Seven to ride with him. Seven was sweet and held on to Rilian so he wouldn't fall off.

Piper's 7th Birthday Partay!

On May 18, Piper turned 7 years old! My baby girl is 7 years old!!! Time sure does fly! Piper will be starting 2nd grade in the fall. 

Piper decided she wanted a dog themed birthday party. Jeremy got to use his mad cake making skills. He let her pick three dogs that he would make on cupcakes.

She chose a Chiuaua. 

An Old English Sheepdog. 

And a Collie. When it came time to pick which cupcake the kids wanted, Finn said he wanted the one with a beard...this one. 

Jeremy got even more creative and made dog treats. Well, they aren't exactly dog treats. They are peanut butter cookies shaped like dog treats. 

Piper wanted to have a slip-n-slide party. We thought it would be fun to get the one with three lanes.

It even came with small inflatable looking kick boards, so they could race. 

There was a small "pool" at the end. It was really more like an area where water collected.  

Lots of splashing happened... 

It was a big hit. They had a blast! 

Time to sing to the birthday girl... 

Apparently, Gustavo was very excited that it was Piper's birthday. She tells me they are going to date in high school. It is funny to hear their "plan".

Since the kids were all wet from playing on the slip-n-slide, we put a blanket out and they had a picnic with their dog cupcakes.

Time to open presents... 

Rilian was very interested in this present of Piper's. She got some of the Littlest Pet Shop stuff. She plays with it alot and Rilian joins right in. It is funny, he calls it "Shopping Shop," instead of Littlest Pet Shop. 

After Piper opened all her presents, we turned the slip-n-slide back on. It was making quite a mess in our backyard and Rilian was enjoying the mess!

I love discovering a picture where I have caught my child in a jump, mid-air.   

It was interesting to watch Rilian. Notice how he doesn't walk ON the grass, he stays in the puddles. He's a funny kid!

Happy Birthday Piper! I am so thankful that God trusted me to take care of you 7 years ago! You came into this world 4 weeks early. You have never been behind. You have always been ahead of the game.

It has been a wild and crazy ride, so far...I don't imagine it will be any less wild and crazy as you continue to grow up. You are unique. You are very creative! I like how you like to do things your own way. If there is a table or chair or what have you, in the way of your destination, you don't go around. You choose to go over, or under. You like a challenge. I am excited to continue to watch you grow up. Right now, you say you want to be a police woman...so you can have a German Shepherd. We shall see if you change your mind. Whatever you chose to do, you will be great at it! I love you Piper!

Piper's New Doo

Piper had been asking to get her haircut for several months. She wanted it cut short like her cousin, Mabrie. Mabrie's hair is cute on her. It is above her shoulders. I REALLY did not want to have Piper's hair cut this short. She was three years old before she really had a good head of hair. And it was so pretty and long. 

I am not exactly sure why Piper decided to make this face when I took the picture of her beautiful long hair. I guess it is because she is my daughter. When I was younger, my mom liked to take pictures of me. I didn't want to get my picture taken that often, so I made faces in the pictures. Apparently what they say is true, you reap what you sow.

In the past, Piper has taken matters into her own hands. Translation = she cut her own hair without permission. I didn't want to keep putting off getting her hair cut in fear that she might take matters into her own hands again! I figured I had put off getting her hair cut long enough. I told Piper that on her birthday we would go to Cool Cuts and get her hair cut. She was so excited!

At Cool Cuts, the child who is getting their hair cut can pick a movie to watch while they get their hair cut. Piper picked Tangled. How fitting. 

Say good-bye to Piper's long hair! 

Piper's locks on the floor... We thought about donating it to Locks of Love, but her hair wasn't quite long enough.

After the cut is the styling... 

And now I present my 7 year old with her big girl hair cut!

Like I said earlier, I REALLY did not want to cut her hair this short. But I came to the conclusion that it is her hair. AND it will grow back. Piper is growing up and we may not always agree on things. Hair length is miniscule in the grand scheme of things. It is time to let my baby girl grow up and start making some of her own decisions. I can't keep her a baby forever...And she does look really cute with her new doo!

What Will Granny Think of Next?

I used to have a job at a local company that allowed me to work at home. I worked 20 hours a week. Jeremy's mom works half a days on Fridays and would pick up Seven and Rilian when she got off work. Then when Piper and Finn got out of school, she would pick them up and take them to her house. She did this so I could finish the rest of my hours for the week. I no longer have this job, but Jeremy's mom graciously continues to keep the kids for me on Friday afternoons. I am very grateful for this! I told her she didn't have to keep doing this, but she said, "When Jeremy was younger, I just wished someone would take him for 30 minutes so I could have a break. So, I am happy to do it for you." 

One Friday afternoon, I went to Granny's house for something and she said I had to see something. This is what she showed me...

Seven and Rilian were sleeping in boxes! I thought it was funny. But as I watched their still bodies laying there, it was also kind of creepy. It looked like they were in coffins. 

Now when the kids spend the night at Granny's or take a nap at Granny's, they each have a box to sleep in. This is usually the order for their boxes.

A little closer view of Piper and Finn...

And Rilian with his kitty...

It's funny because if the kids are at Joyce's and they get tired, they start to ask for their boxes.


I love Joyce's creativity. You never know what she will come up with next! And I mean that in a good way. 

The Unforgettable Storm

Easter was on a Sunday. Do you know what I look forward to on Sundays? A nap! I live for Sunday afternoon naps. I was awoken from my beloved nap by hail. Yes, hail! It was hailing...alot! It was the size of golf balls. Some parts of town got baseball size and even softball size. I am glad we didn't get any that big. This is our backyard, as the hail continues to fall. You can see steam coming up from the ground.

And the front yard. It just covered the ground. It knocked leaves off the trees. The green you see on the ground is leaves, not grass. There is a daycare by my kid's school and all the leaves were knocked off the bushes. It looked really weird. If you look to the street, you can see it covering the street, too. 

Here's a close up...it hailed for at least two hours straight! There was also rain. Pouring rain!

It was really loud! I opened the windows to let the cool air come in and we actually had to raise our voices to hear each other talk! Rilian just sat there watching it.

The town we live in does not have a drainage system for the rain. Well, it does, but the drainage system is the streets. That means when it rains, the streets flood. The part of town we live in has some streets close to our house that are major drainage systems. Certain streets become rivers. The water flows pretty fast and even comes above the curbs. No worries, though. As soon as the rain stops, it isn't long before the rivers turn back into streets again. But if it rains alot or for a long time, this can cause a problem.

Jeremy has a side job of repairing iPhones. Alot of people have had cracked or shattered glass on their iPhones and Jeremy fixes them. There have been other things that he has fixed on them, too, but the most common repair is to replace the front glass. He had one that he had just fixed and the owner of it lived near Dallas, but was in town visiting a friend. He was leaving that day to go home, so we needed to get the iPhone to him. We got in the van and navigated around the rivers or flooded streets, whatever you want to call them, as best as we could. It took alot of detours. One of the main streets by our house majorly floods and has a very strong current. A van sits up a little higher than a car, but not as high as a truck or SUV. We found a place to cross this major street that the water was a little lower than it was in a different intersection. There was no way around this street. We had to cross it in order to get to our friend's house. There were a couple of other majorly flooded intersections we had to cross, too. We almost didn't make it through one. We made it to our friend's street. I looked up in the sky and saw a rainbow. I like how the water drops on the windshield look.

In the above picture you can see a glimpse of how the streets flood, but this is nothing compared to other parts of town. We were driving along and passed a van that was on the side of the road and looked like it had just been pulled out of some water. Just as Jeremy made that comment, we were in water...and it was too deep...and our van died. Apparently, that street dipped down and made the water laying there too deep to pass through. You can barely see headlights in the distance in the picture...that is where it happened.

I started calling our friends to see if they could come help us. If we would have opened our doors, water would have come in. To be honest, I don't know how Jeremy got out of the van because I was calling our friends and listening to the comments the kids were making. I didn't really pay attention, I just realized Jeremy was out in the water. It was halfway up his thighs. I asked him later how he got out. He said he climbed out the window. Finn and Seven thought it was fun. They said we were in a pond. Piper was scared at first. I started thinking about how cold the water would be and that I would have to carry them through it. The kids were all wearing rain boots, but if they had gotten in that deep of water, their rain boots would have been pointless. Then a good samaritan in a truck stopped to help us. He hooked a tow strap up to the van. But it kept slipping off every time he tried to drive to pull us out of the water. Finally, he and Jeremy gave up on pulling the van out of the water. So, Jeremy, the good samaritan, and the lady that was with the good samaritan pushed the van to a nearby parking lot that was on a little higher and dry ground, while I steered. Jeremy tried to start the van once...no luck. Because of a previous vehicle drowning experience, Jeremy knew not to keep trying to start the van. About 8 years ago, Jeremy accidentally drowned our 4Runner. I won't go into detail, it's kind of a long story. But the town we live in, had been getting rain for several days and was flooding, literally flooding. And he misjudged the depth of the water and well, the rest is history. I think he might be getting a reputation now. ;)

Since our friends lived less than a mile from where our van drowned, we just walked the rest of the way to their house. The rain had stopped for the time being. The kids were in their rain boots, so we told them they could splash as much as they wanted to on the way to our friend's house. By the time we got there, their boots were filled with water from all the splashing. Seven and Rilian each fell at least once amongst all the splashing on our walk to our friend's house. It also started to rain again, a little. 

When we arrived at our friend's house, we went into the backyard and this was the scene...I just thought we were going to dry ground.

Oh well, at least the kids had a blast! I think it's funny that there are plastic Easter Eggs floating in the water.

Salem was pushing her "baby", Piper, in the baby stroller...too funny! And Seven takes a rain boot full of water and dumps it on them.

Are you wondering the outcome of our vehicle? It didn't make it...it served it's time...

We now have to do some vehicle shopping. I was so against getting a van in the first place. I drove a Jeep Wrangler...I could not go from a Jeep Wrangler to a minivan. Those were my thoughts when we were about to have our fourth baby. But financially, buying the minivan we did, was the best decision for us at the time. When the insurance company totaled our minivan, I begged Jeremy, "You made me drive a minivan for two years! Now can I get an SUV?!? If you don't like it, you can drown it, too." We shall see...

Easter

Yes, I am well aware that it is June and Easter happened in April. I am just now getting to blog about it. I'm a little busy, as you can tell.


My brother and his family came into town for Easter. It is always a joy to have them visit! What is Easter without dying eggs? 

You probably can't tell, but Seven is watching as Papa Bud moves the orange dye over to his eggs so he can dye them orange...remember, orange is his FAVORITE color! 

There is Seven's orange egg.

Rilian made a green egg. Rilian was a pro at dying eggs! I thought he would need help, but he took charge and did it all by himself! He was so good at it. It was cute to watch him. He took an egg out of the carton, put it in the dye, and took it out when it was "ready." Then he repeated it all over again. I wish you could have seen him!

Allie and Uncle Punk made a good team dying her eggs. 

Piper dying an egg purple. 

Mabrie dying her eggs. 

And Finn with his eggs. I guess he thought it was easier to use his fingers to put the egg in the dye. I would almost agree.

My beautiful children, dressed in their beautiful Easter outfits...I always like to take a picture before we leave for church. You never know what can happen to their appearance once we get in the car. 

We went to Nanny's for lunch, but our church got out before their church did. While we were waiting for everyone else to get there, we thought we'd let the kids play in the backyard. Well, we kind of got locked in the backyard. My mom's doors are weird and when you open them to go out to the backyard, they remain locked unless you physically unlock them. I forgot...and closed the door...and did not have my keys with me...they were in the house. My mom also locks her gates, so we couldn't just go out the gate and be free. What did my kids do while we were locked in the backyard waiting someone to come home and rescue us? The scaled the fence with their mad climbing skills. I guess they got bored with the swing set and found other things to do.

Watch them in action...

After being locked in the backyard for at least 20 minutes, Jeremy got a bright idea. I did not lock the front door when we came in the house. Jeremy hoisted Finn over the fence so he could run around to the front of the house and come in the front door and open the back door so we could get out. As soon as Finn came through the back door to rescue us, my mom and step-dad came home...good timing...

I like to get a family picture at Easter.

It's also nice to get a picture of all the cousins together! From left to right we have: Seven, Allie, Piper, Finn, Rilian, and Mabrie. Next year, there will be one more added to the picture. No, I am not pregnant. Trust me, 4 is plenty for me! My sister-in-law is due at the end of July! The sonogram says it is a boy. Yea! They are finally getting a son!!! 

I'll let you pick your own caption for this picture. 

Sweet girls! Piper was being silly. She had some honeysuckle hanging out of the side of her mouth.

And the boys...looks like Rilian was copying Seven with his sleeve.

Everybody loves Pixie! Pixie is my brother's family's Chiuaua. She isn't the typical Chiuaua. She is VERY sweet and calm. She just goes with the flow. She even lets Allie push her around in a baby doll stroller. It's really funny to watch! 

Jeremy thought Pixie needed to dress up for Easter, too. She is wearing Seven's tie.

Let the Easter Egg Hunt begin!

Seven was so funny. When he was dying his eggs, some of them had cracks in them. He refused to dye the ones that had cracks in them, no matter how much I tried to convince him. During the Easter Egg Hunt, he refused to pick up the ones that weren't dyed. He found a green one here.

Finn had a funny expression on his face when I took his picture...he was in a "mood" that day.

Rilian and his Easter Egg basket, with the eggs in it that he found.

Piper and her Easter Egg basket full of eggs! I love her dress. I went shopping for it when she was in school, and when I saw it, I knew it was THE dress! I just knew she would love it. It screamed, "Piper." If you can't tell from the picture, it has silver glitter all over it! And yes, she does LOVE it!

Like I said, Finn was in a "mood" on Easter. He is saying, "All these are mine!" (If you couldn't tell.) I love Seven's body language after Finn runs away!

The loot...my kids got enough candy to last until next Easter!