Lani sounding out words...

For everyone that reads this on a reader, there is a video that we want you to watch....

Lani is really progressing in being able to take simple words and sound them out...she knows how all the letters sound!  Well, do not take my word for it...watch this short video and hear for yourself.  Listen closely as she sounds out the words we give her...she even adds a little commentary about life!  If you listen really close you can hear ella in the background!

American Idol - Kris Allen

I keep forgetting to blog about this, but remembered tonight as we were sitting down to watch American Idol. Kris Allen is a cousin of mine from my dad's side. No, I have never met him or even know him, but my grandad called to tell us he was going to be on American Idol so we have been watching out for him. So here is the relation, my grandfather's brothers grandson...did you get that? They really haven't showed him a lot, but he has a good voice. He is in the top 36, but not performing tonight. He was in the first "group" to perform in Hollywood and performed with 3 other guys and the girl and they were awesome! Keep an eye out for him!

President's Day - relaxing

We had a nice relaxing President's Day holiday yesterday. We slowly got ready and cleaned up around the house. I did my weekly monday chores and then we headed outside to play with the Hixons and Cantey's. It was a little cool, but such a nice day! The kids had a lot of fun playing and running around outside. We made our lunch and took it over to the Hixons driveway to eat. Always fun when we get to eat outside. After a fun day of playing, the kids took really good naps!
Robert and I then headed out last night for our Valentine's dinner - we never go out on Valentine's day, just to much to deal with. So we went to Number Sixteen in Hampstead. We know some of you really like it, but it was not our favorite. The food was ok, but afterwards I just felt ughh! But we enjoyed our night out as always!

Free Food at Chick-fil-A

Did anyone else know Chick-fil-a was giving away free food every Tuesday in February?! I think I heard it on the radio this weekend. So we decided to head over to EastChase Chick-fil-a this morning to see what the deal was. Today, EVERYONE got free chicken biscuits! The place was packed, inside and out! We were there for at least an hour and it did not slow down at all. Next Tuesday will be free chicken mini's! Mark it on your calendar and head over for some free food for the last of the month!

Fun Cousin Day!

We had a great Valentine's Day with ALL of our cousins! We started the day by going to Mimi and Grandpa's house (my parents) and having mimi's yummy pancakes. The kids had special Valentine pancakes with red and pink sprinkles in them and cut into hearts. Then they got some fun surprises from Mimi and Grandpa. Amie brought Myra Jane and Taylor over b/c they had to go to something with their church. So now Lani and Ella had all their cousins together at one time. Everyone played and had fun! Then we all headed off to the mall to ride the little rides, the carousel and to eat lunch. It was great fun and all the kids did so well!! We were sad to see Ashley and the kids head back home, but hopefully we will see them in a few weeks for Ella's birthday party. After taking Myra Jane and Taylor back home, we headed home for nap time. It's been a fun day and the girls still have surprises to open from Mattie when they wake up!

Ace Bowling Alley

My sister and her children are in town for a few days which is always fun! We love to all be together and the kids have so much fun playing together. So today after playing over here a little bit, we headed up to the new Ace Bowling Alley on the bypass. Lauren's mom had told her it was really nice...well it was! I realized quickly that it was run by some Koreans, maybe that's why it's so nice. It has marble floors, a game area, a coffee shop, huge screen tv's above all the lanes..everything was nice. The 3 kids (Cole (7.5), Lani (4.5) and Judah (3)) along with my mom and grandmother and me and ashley taking turns, bowled. I've never seen my mom bowl so well and the kids did great. Lani came in right behind my mom with a score of 95 I believe. Cole tied with my grandmother at 87 - and my grandmother usually is a really good bowler. It was a fun afternoon and the kids were all tired by the time we left. Definitely recommend you going to check out the new bowling alley!!

Interview for school

Last night we had our parent interview for Eastwood School. Members from the school board meet with parents of children who have applied to come to Eastwood School. So we got through the testing last week and had to finish off with the interview last night. I have grown up at Eastwood Church my whole life and many of the board members are members of our church. It was fun because we had Tommy James (whose known me since I was probably 3) and Allen McDaniel (who I babysat his children a few times growing up) to do our interview. It was so layed back and fun to be with them. We gave our testimony, answered a few questions and then they told us some things about the school. Then at the end we got a letter saying Lani was ready for Kindergarten and had done very well on her testing. So prayerfully as church members, we will be starting Kindergarten next year at Eastwood!!!

Krispy Kreme...

Does anyone else like Krispy Kreme better than Ella?

School testing

Well Lani had her Kindergarten testing today. We had to switch from Tuesday to today b/c she was feeling so bad. So we headed up to Eastwood at 11:00. She was great and excited and thankfully I wasn't nervous like I thought I might be. So off she went with 7 other children while the moms hung around and chatted. Several people had told me they color a butterfly but didn't really know what else to expect. So 45 mintues later they were back, and as we headed home I began to ask her what all they did. This is what I got from her: they colored the butterfly, cut out the shapes and glued them on the butterfly, each child was given instructions to do something with a bear - she had to jump up and down and then touch the yellow hat on the bear, they had to count to 10, they had to sort out colors into bins and then make a design with them afterwards, told what color something was, and then when done got to go read a book. So, it was fun to hear and pull the information out of her what they did back there and she seemed to have enjoyed her time. So next step is the parent interview with some board members next Thursday - exciting!
Here's Lani's butterfly she colored :)

Sickness

Poor Lani came down with a terrible cough last Thursday after being at MMO at Eastwood and them playing outside a good bit when it was quite chilly. She coughed all afternoon and all night. It took her at least 1.5 hrs to fall asleep. I felt so bad for her! So Friday we headed to the Dr. We sawTrumbull and he diagnosed her with Asthma - yuck! Lani is rarely sick and this Fall and Winter she has had a cough and cold way to many times. So we started a steriod and allergy pill. She still was having a hard time getting the cough under control so we borrowed Amie' s neubulizer which thankfully did help some. Then Sunday night was another terrible night, some coughing but by 3 said her ear really hurt - ahh! So Monday morning we were back in the Dr's office to see Morrison and found she has a double ear infection (again, NEVER gets ear infections). So now an antiobiotic for 10 days and he put her on an inhaler for the asthma. Thankfully she has started to feel much better and is sleeping great! Poor thing, I just felt so bad for her this weekend. It's terrible when they feel so bad and there is nothing you can do for them.

Mom's new car

Dad surprised Mom with her new car this past Thursday - GMC Acadia. They had ordered it a couple months ago, but with the car company problems, dad decided to hold off. Then when the GMC dealership closed here, dad had the car sent to Bham. Well mom didn't even know the car was still around or that he was doing still planning to get it now. So last Thursday after mine and my dad's work meeting in Bham, we headed over to get the car. The car is very nice with lots of fun features. The manager even gave us a big bow we could put on it when we got home:) So dad drove it home while I drove their Jeep.

So when we got home, we had to get mom outside, of which mom had no clue why we were bringing her out there. When she saw it she was very excited! It took her a few minutes for her to understand this was the same care they had ordered, dad had just sent it to Bham. We all had fun looking through it and letting the girls play around. Now she has plenty of room to haul around all 5 grandkids! It also has bluetooth installed so we had fun calling a few people while sitting in the car. Glad dad got to surprise mom!!

(Didn't get a good picture of the whole car since it was dark so I will post one later)

Zoo - those warmer days

Remember-ing those warmer days last week...now that it's freezing, I'm going to write about our nice day at the zoo last week! We took advantage of the warmer weather and headed to the zoo with the Hixons and Pittmans. It was such a nice day and great to get outside. It's been awhile since we have been at the zoo and now that Ella is a little older she had fun watching all the animals. We even had the peacock fly up while we waited for the train.