the mccarter family

A fun night of at home entertainment!

2010-11-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

The girls got the idea to play dress up with their great granddad...AKA..."Pop." This was a Kodak moment for sure. He hasn't been in the best health lately and it was good to see him cutting up a little bit!They had to do the same thing with their Poppy later that night. Poppy was making fun of his dad in the pic above. He is sooo going to kill me for posting this. It's for the girls' scrapbook, Poppy! It's all about the laughs and memories. ;)These girls love to perform! These are just a bunch of pics of them acting silly! Mimi & Poppy were there to enjoy the show too! Emma isn't always into the performances, but as you will see she eventually got into it too. She is perfectly content in her own little Emma world most of the time! I love having girly girls! God definitely blessed me with my little drama queens!

See? Told ya there was a bunch of Emma!

2010-11-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

Emma is very photogenic, WHEN she wants to be...

She happened to be cooperating here...I love bathtime pics!

It seems to be when my girls are happiest!

Not sure what this Popeye look is about??

Gettin a horsey ride from Poppy!

My new camera ! ! !

2010-11-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

Why has it been so long since my last post?! Well, I have a very good reason! My camera died in June and I just got a new one. I can't believe I have so little photo documentation of the summer of 2010. Luckily I had my mom's camera for the couple of times a camera was an absolute necessity...like my babies' 3 year old bday party all the way back in August! So sad that I haven't posted these yet, but I just haven't taken the time to get them from my mom's camera! It's coming! Not that any of you readers have been on "pins and needles" awaiting a post from me, but remember one of these days I am going to print all these posts and put them in a scrapbook for my kids to have one day. It will be fun for all of us to read about the old days years from now! I am really enjoying my fancy new camera that my sweet hubby got me! It was well worth the wait! These are just some fun pics that I took of Aubrie and Kaitlyn being silly! Sorry there's none of Miss Emma, but they're coming!

I am going to be wearing out the new posts, so beware! Got lots to catch up on!

The rest of the pics....

2010-08-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

I wish that I could bottle her laughter!

I just think she looks so grown up! Her hair is sooo long!
Aubrie adores her big sister and Kaitlyn is definitely the BEST big sis a girl could have!
She looks 14 in these pics instead of 9! My friend that took the pics couldn't get over how photogenic she is!

My cousin Jon summed it up well when he said it looks like she's saying,

"Whatcu talkin bout, Momma?!"
You see everyone doing this type of picture now, but I just love it! I never realized how they are like stairsteps! I didn't have sisters, but would've loved to! It's so much fun to experience the relationship of sisters through these beautiful girls God has given me!It's not easy to get all 3 of these girls looking at the same time, but she got several and it makes me soooo proud!
She was yelling "CHEESE!!!" the whole time!This is the look I get when she is need of momma's help!

Still saying, CHEESE!!!
Half-grown.... literally!

My beautiful Aubrie!
We tried to get shots of all the combinations of 2 sisters at a time!

This is serious Aubrie....But this is the silly Aubrie we all know and love!

Another good one of the 3...

We will celebrate my baby girl's 3RD bday this month! Seems impossible!

Needless to say we are beyond blessed!

Day Photo Shoot

2010-08-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

My camera has been "out of order" and I hate it b/c I feel like I'm missing so much! Sooo...my sweet friend and co-worker Sabrina so graciously agreed to take some shots of the girls with her awesome camera! I want one so bad!!! She took a bunch, but I only have 5 to give you a sneak peek! I LOVE THEM!

My beautiful girls are growing up sooo fast!

I'll post more as soon as I get them!

Aubrie 5th & Mimi's 55th Birthdays

2010-07-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

On June 9th, we celebrated 2 very special ladies' bday! On the 9th, our family and extended family celebrated at the Fish Fry. The weekend before, we had Aubrie's party at the Bowling Alley....originally scheduled for Gymnastics Powerhouse. She was very excited about her gymnastics party, but when we got there to set up and decorate, we walked in the building and it literally felt like we were walking into an oven! The people that worked there had gotten there about 30 min. before the scheduled party to turn on A/C for a 17,000 sq. ft. building! CRAZY! We knew there was NO WAY that anyone there could enjoy the party, so at last minute we moved the party to the bowling alley! I was amazed how well everything just fell into place and everyone had a great time! Here is her cake that a friend of mine made! We call her the "Cake Boss!" She is awesome! It tasted just as yummy as it looks! The 2 bday girls!Blowin' out the candles!Aubrie & Gran GranEmma & NannyA beautiful picture of my mommy!My friend Molly was taking pics b/c my camera was messed up! Thank you sooo much Miss Molly! I would've had NO good pics of my baby girl's bday if you hadn't stepped up to the plate and taken these! Sooo...since I wasn't the photographer, there was actually a picture of me in the mix!My baby daddy...Not sure why none of us thought to have a 4 generation pic done, but here's 2 of the 4 anyway...I noticed when looking at these pics that Gran Gran, Mimi, myself, and Aubrie all have the exact same smile...too cool!

Emma and the woman that spoils her absolutely rotten! Aubrie, I love you so much! You were my firstborn and I've been in love with you since the moment I learned you were growing inside me! Words can't express the love I feel for you. I never imagined a love like this could be possible! You are growing and changing everyday and are always amazing us with your sweet smile and beautiful spirit!

End of the Year School Programs & Other Randomness...

2010-06-29T07:34:00.001-07:00

My Aubrie completed her first year of school in PreK. I was very hesitant to start her in public school when she really didn't have to go, but it was the best thing I could've done for her! She had a rough first 3 wks, but after that she loved it and made such sweet friends. This was at the the "Moving Up to Kindergarten" ceremony. The little program that they did was absolutely precious, but my camera went dead right in the middle of it and the few that I DID get were blurry! I was very upset! But here are the few I was able to get that weren't all messed up! Aubrie & Daddy

Aubrie & Mommy

Letting their balloons go to represent "moving up"The next week was their end of the year festival! So much fun! I am so blessed to have a principal that allows me to be gone for awhile when the kids have something like this!

I don't want to miss a thing!

Aubrie is in to taking pics, especially ones of herself!

This cracks me up! There was a whole series of these, but this one was the funniest!Aubrie & her friend drawing with sidewalk chalkEmma had her end of year Kiddie Kollege program and once again, my camera wasn't cooperating! I really think it is going out b/c I've used it so much! Sooo...here are just a couple from that night....again, very disappointing!Aubrie & Poppy in the audienceI seem to still be able to get decent shots outside. We usually go to Club Kerby to swim, but the kids enjoy their little kiddie pool that daddy got them for "in between" times.

This is Ridge! He and Emma are about 2 months apart and are bigtime buds! There were in Kiddie Kollege together this year and had so much fun! She prays for her friend Ridge every night. He and his parents were over the other night and this is how we found them in her room! It's cute now, but we'll have to be watching them in a few years! ;)Just a funny pic of the McCarter girls on family movie night!
Both of our girls LOVE fruit and this was the first watermelon of the season! I wasn't kidding when I said "other randomness" in the this post title....

Hope everyone is making sweet memories this summer! We sure are!

Mother's Day & Promotion Sunday

2010-06-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

Our church always promotes the kids' at the beginning of the summer and it was kinda hard to swallow this year due to the fact that Aubrie is now in the Kinder & 1st grade class!!! That just seems sooo big! She had the most amazing 4 yr. old teacher that stayed with them for the whole year, so that is why she is looking kinda sad! But she is loving her new class now! Emma moved up to the 3 yr. old class! My babies aren't babies anymore! Aubrie & Kate...together since birth (just a month apart).
I'm late on posting Mother's Day pics. I'm just behind period with this blog!
Me with the love of my life!

God bless the man that will proudly wear girly things on his head!

But really, does he have a choice?

Kaitlyn & me

Aubrie & me

Emma & me...so she wasn't too thrilled about having her pic made with mom, but....
she definitely made up for it with this pic! I don't even know who took this pic....prolly Aubrie, but I found it when I was uploading pics and I love it!

So blessed to be the mommy of such special angels sent from heaven!

Spring Fling @ the Woodall's

2010-06-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

I am so behind on posting! Sorry! In April, we had our annual church Spring Fling at the Woodall Ranch! Here are Emma and her buddy Addison playing on the porch. I wish Emma were looking, but she had a different agenda. Lots of horse riding!
Michael with Kaitlyn & Laney
They even got this ol' gal on a horse and everyone got a kick out of Michael leading the horse instead of me doing it myself. What can I say? I couldn't be more of a city girl!
Michael and Emma

Kaitlyn & Grayson

We also enjoyed a fun hayride! Aubrie & her friend since birth, Gibson...
Tyler and his mommy Tammy
Ridge & his mommy Amy
Daddy & Emma Mommy & her girls...who will NEVER look at the camera!
Emma had the most fun running up and down the ramp outside the Woodall's house!
One of my new fav pics of Emma...so cute that it made the blog header! Hope you like it!

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful children's program at our church and people like the Woodall's to open their home to us for such fun things! Thanks to Louie & Marilyn!

Soccer 2010

2010-05-19T18:26:00.001-07:00

We've been done with soccer for about a month now, but I'm just getting around to blogging about it! Kaitlyn took this pic of my little soccer girl and me (that's why my head is cut off...but I still like it!!). So proud of you little girl!
All the Wiggles after getting their trophies!

"GO, WIGGLES!!"....this was the team "circling up" that they after every game and practice!
Group pic with the awesome "Coach Wayne"
Thank you, Wayne, for being such a wonderful and patient coach for the past year!

I love this pic of Aubrie following right behind Coach! She really looks up to him!Keep your eyes on the ball!Just a random action shot!

Okay, so this is Aubrie's 2nd season of soccer and she informed me that I better not sign her up again! I really don't think I will push it either when fall comes around! I want to encourage my kids to "try" different activities and if it just isn't their thing (which soccer definitely isn't Aubrie's!!), then I am perfectly fine with that! I will blog about t-ball soon. I think she will want to play that again, but not soccer! This is a relief actually since she and Kaitlyn both are both playing 2 sports a piece and I am more than ready for them all to come to a close!!! We are going to enroll her in Paris Community Theater classes...I think she's going to be more "artsy" like her momma and that thrills me to no end! Although our soccer phase is probably over (unless something drastic changes), we will miss our Wiggle friends and soccer moms and dads!

First of many "ends of an era!!!"

Mommy & Daddy are so proud of you, Aubrie!!! Thanks for sticking to it and not letting your teammates down, even though you really wanted to quit sometimes!

I love you more than anything in this world!

Dancing with the Stars

2010-05-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

I am a member of the Leadership Lamar County Class of 2010. Each year the class adopts a projects for their class members to raise money for. This year, our class chose to raise money to repair the Bywater's Park Peristyle that is falling down! Bywater's Park is known for hosting Winter Wonderland, Paris Municipal Band concerts, Movies in the Park, as well as numerous weddings and other community events. Our main fundraiser this year is hosting Paris' own version of "Dancing with the Stars" (stars being some of our well known community members). Its going to be an awesome event and I wanted my blog readers to know all about it! I apologize for the poor quality of the copied flyer below! Hopefully those that are interested will be able to read it! You can email me to purchase tickets: ldmccarter@hotmail.comThanks so much for your support!

PreK Rodeo

2010-05-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I got to take off of school 1/2 day to enjoy going to Aubrie's PreK rodeo! My little cowgirl is growing so fast! With some of her friends in her class
Ropin'

Pin the tail on the horsey

My little drama queen can go to happy....to silly....to pouty in a matter of minutes....

Barrel rollin'....

She was totally captivated by the "real cowboy" who came to sing cowboy songs to them!

She now wants a guitar for her bday...pink ofcourse!

With mommy....

And Mimi.....

And Gran Gran....

and Emma....

the whole class

These "WANTED" pics were hanging in the window of the classroom (hence the glare)...

Mommy loves you baby girl and you are definitely "WANTED" by me!!!

Happy Belated Easter 2010

2010-04-10T05:58:00.001-07:00

These pics are out of order, but as I've said before, blogger is not my friend most of the time! I'm looking into getting the whole blog printed and moving on! I just can't keep up with everything b/c it has taken me over 2 hrs. to finish this post!

These first few are from the Easter egg hunt at my mom's house after church. We had a wonderful lunch with good friends and family. It was a lot of fun!

Earlier that day before church, I attempted to get some pics of the girls in their dresses in the front yard. Its really funny, b/c there are so many similar pics of my brother and me! We grew up in a house right down the street, so it kind of looks like the same house. Emma didn't want to cooperate for the group pics as you will see below, but she did do pretty good on the individual ones.

Well maybe not so muchAubrie was ofcourse ready to priss!

Kaitlyn is always so photogenic!

There was no way to do these pics justice without posting the whole series of them. Remember this is for their scrapbook, so if you get bored, just skip em! They make me laugh b/c I was trying to get a good pic of all 3 and ofcourse wasn't successful. You can tell that Kaitlyn was quite frustrated at having to pose for so long...you can see how with each pic she is getting more and more aggravated!

Notice Aubrie's tongue in cheek face in all of these!

2 out of 3 looking....

This was the best of all of them....maybe next year....but I wouldn't trade these "real life" shots!

I was trying to get a pic of what the Easter bunny brought, but Emma was engrossed in TV! Imagine that! You should have seen me trying to chase her with the curling iron!

She got some DVD's of some of her fav cartoons.

K got some Harley Davidson flip flops...

And Aubrie a Harley Davidson Barbie! What are we doing? These girls are going to have so much HD stuff due to the fact that their daddy works there....they'll for sure want motorcycles eventually! Not gonna happen...do you hear me girls...NEVER!

he day before Easter, we got a phone call from Aunt Holly & Gigi that the Easter bunny had visited their house as well! So...here they all are after hunting 85 eggs and getting baskets FULL of goodies! Thanks H & A for the GREAT time and for loving the girls so much!

Getting ready to do something...not sure what...but look at that face! LOVE IT! Aunt Holly & E with their hats...well actually both are Holly's hats, but Emma had to borrow it for a pic or two!

Our friend Sharie and her 3 kids came and spent a few days.

Em & Drake

Dying Easter eggs in the garage on the rainy Friday before Easter.

If it weren't for Mimi, I'm not sure how many experiences I could give the girls with dying eggs! I hate it! Always have, but its worth it to watch Mimi and the girls have so much fun!

Aleah, Coleman, & K This pic is random, but the evening after their school parties, Aubrie called me into the bathroom....this is what I found. She said she needed them to sleep!

Emma and her class at Kiddie Kollege party

Our friend Ridge and his "toothbrush" smile...After Aubrie's party, I signed her out early so that she could go to E's party too! I'm so blessed to have such wonderful coworkers who will cover for me so that I can go and enjoy these fleeting moments with my girls!

Emma and (some) of her class with the Easter bunny

I just love the action pics of Daddy with his girls! Have I mentioned how much I love this man for being so incredible with his kids!Goin' out for the hunt

He's a good dad, but sometimes he has to "have a few" before one of their events....just kidding, but he does look a little loopy in this pic!

Aubrie and her PreK class

And with her wonderful teachers Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Brazeal

I love being this angel's mommy!

Rackin' up!

Yes, I'm getting an 8X10 or atleast a 5X7 of this one!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I know we did! So many blessings, I lost count a LONG time ago!

Okay, enough procrastinating! I can't neglect this housework any longer! This is so much more fun!

Ft. Worth Zoo

2010-03-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

Emma & I went to the Ft. Worth zoo over Spring Break with some friends! It was the perfect day for it too and a great time for me to spend some one on one time with my baby girl (I say baby...she will be 3 before I turn around...sniff sniff!) We have never gotten to do things just the two of us, so it was a treat for us both. We did miss Aubrie though! She had better things to do...kid has more of a social life than me sometimes. She went on a trip with her Mimi and Gran Gran to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins who were camping at Lake Whitney. Emma and I were going to go too, but Aubrie informed me real quick that I was NOT invited! By the second day, she was wishing she hadn't said that though. It was very hard to be away from her for 3 nights and 4 days, but more on that later!

Here is the gang that went to the zoo...Emma and her friends Anna Claire and Addison. And the 3 very macho "big boys"...Jace, Cannon, and Grayson. This was at the end of the day. Can you tell the little ones had missed their naps?

This is now one of my all time fav pics (thanks Melissa for taking it)! This gorilla was literally right on the other side of the glass and Emma and him were having quite the conversation!
Addy, Em, and A.C.

Mommy & Michael Jr.Totally WORN out...this was her 20 min. nap before we stopped to eat in Rockwall! She was a champ though...all the kids were awesome! We couldn't have asked for better behaved kiddos!

Mommy loves you little girl!

Catch up....

2010-03-12T13:43:00.001-08:00

I've been putting off blogging since I've gotten to where I HATE blogger! It takes forever, but I finally had time to sit down and "grin and bare" it!

Aubrie has been testing her talent at photography lately! She took this one and many others...but that is another post in its own....love these feet! She really does a good job for a four year old.

And this one....

Mommy had to get some pics of her sleeping beauties....can't resist!

We've been loving the few days of sunshine that we've had lately.

Emma and her favorite piggy....Love the crossed-eyes

Right out of the tub + washed and blow-dried hair = Photo opportunity

It doesn't happen very often that I find matching clothes for all 3 girls! They love their new nightgowns that Mimi got them....

Our girls have been hit pretty hard this winter with strep, numerous ear infections, croup.... here they are...both very sick, but trying to smile and be happy....

Nothing sweeterKaitlyn is growing and becoming quite the social butterfly. We realize that this is only the beginning. Here she is with her friend Keegan.

January pics...

2010-02-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

The McCarter's have had a semi-uneventful January and have enjoyed kind of winding down after all the busy holidays. These are just some random photos of the girls.

Playing dress up @ Grayson's

She really has a good time with her friend Grayson because they are equally silly!

Kaitlyn amazes us everyday at what a little lady she is becoming! She is doing great in school and is just an all-around sweet and loving little girl! She is a girly girl in every way and is really getting into what clothes she wears and loves accessorizing!!! It's so much fun! She has loved having her hair put in sponge rollers since she was little bitty. Her hair finally got long enough again to do it. She reminds me of Shirley Temple!Aubrie enjoyed catching up with some old friends that she had in Kiddie Kollege. Chase had a bday party at the fire station and they all had a great time!
This picture is out of order...just another day of playing with Grayson!
New Year's Eve at the Kerby's was a lot of fun! I love this picture of all the buddies!
Can you tell Miss Emma didn't feel well that night? Poor baby has been sick off and on all winter. She was trying to feel good here, but it just wasn't happenin'..=(
This day was a little better, but you can still see it in her eyes that she wasn't feeling herself! Can't believe my baby is half way to 3! It really doesn't seem possible!We are looking forward to the cold weather going away soon! We need to get outdoors! Hopefully there will be plenty of opportunity to do so. Kaitlyn & Aubrie are going to be playing soccer, then Aubrie will play t-ball and Kaitlyn softball in the spring. Next year Miss Emma can play t-ball too! Much craziness to come!

A Truly Blessed 2009 Christmas!

2009-12-28T05:53:00.000-08:00

Santa was very good to me this year! Once again he surprised me with something even though we always agree that we won't buy anything for each other...just the kids! Last year he shocked me with a laptop and I felt terrible b/c I didn't have anything for him! I made him SWEAR this year that he didn't get my anything and he just flat out LIED! This was a true shock! My original wedding ring set always irritated my skin, so he went and got me another one that is very similar but hopefully will be better on my finger! This picture definitely doesn't do it any justice! It is beautiful! Guess I should've known better than to believe that he wouldn't do something for me! I'll have to come up with something EXTRA special for next year! Don't think I can top this though! Oh, and he also got on one knee and proposed again in front of the girls! It was very sweet! I love you, Michael! This was the "aftermath" of Santa's visit...minus the Barbie dream house that had already gotten moved to their room!Christmas Eve in their Christmas PJ's that Mimi got them...Gran Gran with all 4 of her great-granddaughters...Sweet Gran GranCousin Colby, his wife Melissa, and their baby Leighton...Aunt Trinia and cousin CandiceKaitlyn & Aubrie at Mimi's on Christmas Eve....look at all those presents. Mimi ran out of room under the tree, so she had to go up the stairs with them....SPOILED MUCH!My aunt & uncle Trinia & Jon (mom's brother)I wish this pic wasn't blurry, but my camera was on the wrong setting...it would've been a really good picture!Nanny & Papa got Kaitlyn a cake maker...she LOVES the show "Cake Boss" so this was right up her alley!!!

Hope everyone had as good a holiday season as our family did! God is so good!

Happy New Year!

Kaitlyn turns 9!!!

2009-12-22T06:40:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that Kaitlyn is already 9 yrs. old! CRAZY! She was barely two when Michael and I started dating. She stole my heart from the moment I met her! She was my first child no matter what anyone says! I've never considered her a "step-child!" Don't get me wrong, I know my place and I would NEVER try to take the place of her mother. But I know this little girl was part of God's plan for my life! He has given Michael and I a wonderful gift by allowing us to play a part in raising this special young lady! Here are 9 things I love about Miss Katybug!

1. You are the BEST big sister anyone could ask for!

You have a "motherly" instinct and your brother and sisters are so lucky to have you!

2. Your smile is addicting!

You can light up a room with your sweet spirit,

even though you are very shy around those you don't know!

3. You are thoughtful!

You put others first and are ready to help whenever or wherever there is a need.

4. You work so hard in school.

You know what you have to do to make good grades and you go for it!

5. You are so mature for your age.

You always have been ahead of your time!

6. You are so much fun!

You have a wonderful sense of humor and love to make people laugh!

7. You are beautiful!

You have the best features of both your parents, both inside and out!

8. You love to shop!

This is new! It is so much fun to see you develop your own style!

9. You are so adjusted!

Even though most kids have trouble with going back and forth between mom and dad,

you never seem to mind! I know it must be hard at times, but you don't let anyone know it!

I love you very much, Kaitlyn! I hope you know that I am always here for you!

Okay, enough mushy!

Kaitlyn wanted to have a slumber party and I volunteered to have it here. Her bday is on the 19th which fell on a Saturday this year. Perfect, I said! School is out on the 18th, so we'll have it that Friday night! I totally wasn't thinking about the fact that class parties at school would be that day and that the kids would be loaded with sugar and excitement! I let her invite 8 girls, thinking that with the holidays, some would be going out of town! NOPE! All but one came....with Kaitlyn, I had 8...3rd graders in my house! WHEW! At 2:30 a.m. I MADE them go to bed...they were WILD, but it was fun!

Kaitlyn & Mimi
and with Nana...her mom's mom....

Blowin' out candles on her A & M cake...her Uncle Bryant on her mom's side

is an Aggie, so she LOVES A & M!

We had a fashion show!

This is her bestie Sadi...which is really cool! Sadi's aunt Jana and I were

close friends growing up and were at MANY slumber parties together!

Opening up her presents....all the girls would squeal before she even opened each one!

It was head-splitting loud, but hilarious at the same time!

The gang!

I knew that Aubrie would want to be right in the middle of the big girls, so to be fair to Kaitlyn, I let her invite one friend to hang out with. She chose her sweet friend Kate and they had so much fun and it kept Miss Aubrie out of her big sisters' hair. Kate didn't spend the night and Aubrie went home with Mimi and Michael and Emma went to Mimi & Poppy's to spend the night. That left ME with all 8 girls! But atleast I didn't have to worry about them being quiet so others could sleep!
Silly girls!

School Parties & Programs

2009-12-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

Some shots of Aubrie's PreK party.... Kaitlyn got to come with me since she got out of school early...
I only got one good shot of Kaitlyn's school program. My zoom wasn't doing well....
Emma & her buddy Ridge at their Kiddie Kollege party & book exchange...
Aubrie at her school program....

Can you tell she was a wee bit excited!?

Rudolph Party

2009-12-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

We had our annual church Rudolph party at the Kerby's the first part of the month. Always so much fun! Emma really enjoyed Santa!
Aubrie & Kate

Emma loved her little Magna Doodle Santa brought...

Kaitlyn never to big to sit on Santa's lap!I was so glad that E wasn't afraid of Santa this year!

Kaitlyn who was a "helper" for the night! She didn't want to be put in the same category as the little ones.Emma & her friend AddisonNot taken at the party, but in front of our tree at home....

Thanksgiving Fun!

2009-12-21T08:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know its been awhile! I've been uploading these same pics to Facebook, and I feel like all my blog readers are also my friends on FB....but I have decided to still do the blog since I am going to eventually print this for the girls' scrapbooks! So bare with me! Aubrie and her best school friend Grace at their PreK thanksgiving feast.
Mimi & Aubrie

Mommy & Aubrie
Here are the turkey cookies we made for the feast....so much fun!
Very proud of her cookies!

Birthday Party & Soccer

2009-11-21T06:59:00.001-08:00

Our little Aubrie started PreK this year. The first 3 weeks were HORRIBLE! She cried everyday! I hated making her go, but after the third week, she LOVED it! She has a wonderful teacher and is making so many good friends that she will be with for the next 13 years, so I am so happy for my little social butterfly! She got invited to her first bday party with her new friends and we had a great time! Here they are posin' for the camera!Gotta get in those silly faces!

On the hayride she had to sit by Austin. She informed me about a week before the party that Austin was her boyfriend because both of their names started with "A"....and then proceeded to tell me that he kissed her in the "block center." The teacher told me that they had a class talk about saving those kisses and hugs for mommies and daddies! Go Aubrie! More pics on the hayride....Soccer season came to a close in the middle of this month. Here are some shots from her last game. Gettin' some lovin' from the "Mims" (meems)Waiting on the sidelines enjoyin' some blue gatorade....Gettin' some more lovin' from Daddy post blue gatorade (check out that blue mouth).Team shot of the "Wiggles"!!! UNDEFEATED!With Coach Wayne (AKA Daddy Wayne)....the most wonderful soccer coach on the planet!

Aubrie, we love you so much and are so proud of the beautiful and sweet little girl you are becoming! So blessed to have you in our lives! We love you more than you will ever know! Oh, and STOP GROWING SO FAST!

October Madness...

2009-11-02T18:16:00.000-08:00

Halloween was a fun and busy time for the McCarters! Our kids are at the perfect ages to really enjoy all the festivities! They all loved dressing up, getting candy, going on hayrides, and being with good friends!

This is on Thursday before Halloween at Emma's Kiddie Kollege party and Fall Festival.

With her class....Smiling for the camera....Saying "Meeeeow"Her buddy Ridge. She prays for her friend Ridge every night! Too sweet!An attempt at a class pic before going into the festival...yeah...ok!Enjoying the "treat walk".....And playing golf...I know her Uncle Ryan will be proud!Hopscotch....I was so glad that I decided to take 1/2 a day off of work and enjoy her party with her. I feel like my life is in fast forward and I'm missing out on so much! One day soon, they won't want me anywhere around, so I try to take advantage of every second with them....Emma & her teacher Ms. Audreyand art teacher Ms. JillFriday night we went to a party at some friends' house! SO MUCH FUN!

My little "flower child".....she can't take a pic these days without the peace sign....

Precious Cowgirl!!! She really wanted to be Gloria the hippo from Madagascar, but we couldn't find a costume. She settled for this cowgirl costume, but wasn't absolutely thrilled!And mommy's "titty tat"....that's how she says it since she says "t" for "c"....See what I mean about the peace sign!?Emma & Christopher...stopping to smell the roses.Emma & the "ghost"....that is what she called.Great time was had by all: Jack, Kaitlyn, Christopher, Kate, & Aubrie Spiderman was trying to help the titty tat with her ears and she thought that was pretty funny!She also found her big sister quite humorous!Aubrie and me on the hayride! Love this child to pieces!They had light sticks and thought that was so cool!Candy + Party = EXHAUSTION!Saturday we went Trick or Treating with the Cannon's and the Poore's who so graciously let us join them. (Justin, Cannon, Daniel, & Kaitlyn in back; Emma, Anna Claire, & Aubrie in front)Kaitlyn and one of her best buds Abby...Emma & her best bud Anna Claire In case you didn't notice, the cowgirl decided to be a princess Saturday for trick or treating. But the princess' shoes were too little and Poppy had to carry her most of the night....that or she rode with Mimi in her electric chair. Spoiled much!?It was so neat to trick or treat with my friend Melissa. We have pics of the two of us trick or treating as kids and now we have little girls just 5 months apart that are getting to do the same thing together. Too cool! Thanks for the pics, Missy!

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Family Projects & Baby Addy....

2009-10-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

I swear my 4 yr. old has multiple personalities! One minute she is my sweet angel girl smiling for the camera.... The next she says, "Leave me alone, mom! I'm trying to do my homework!" (princess crown and all)....She wants help with her "homework" every night just like her big sister. I hate to break it to her, but one day she will want nothing to do with the homework that she actually has for real!After getting bored with that, she wanted a turn with the camera. Not sure why I posted this...especially with the lovely fever blister I have had this week!!!!And then she wanted to take a picture of one of the projects we did a couple of weeks ago! She put the glue and glitter on all by herself!Friday night Michael took Kaitlyn & Aubrie to the Paris vs. NL game. I wasn't about to try to keep Emma still for the game, so we didn't go. We went to see my best friend Cheryl and her baby Addyson (Addy). Addy is over 3 months old now and is just precious!
Emma LOVED her. She's only seen her once when she was brand new. Emma still seems like such a baby to me! I can't believe she is exactly the same age as Aubrie was when I had her. She just giggled and talked to Addy and made her laugh! Too cute!Such a big girl....but she will always seem like a baby since she is my last one!We made homemade pizza last week. I had 2 big helpers, who might I add, look so much alike in this picture. Most of the time I don't see much resemblance, but I really do here!Aubrie did NOT like the smell of the pizza sauce!Both had a lot of fun putting on the pepperonis!

This video is looks like a black screen, but push play and it will hopefully come up!

Emma's 2yr. Pictures...FINALLY!

2009-10-10T18:17:00.000-07:00

My good friend since high school took these pics of Emma for her 2nd birthday! She is sooo talented! She doesn't even do this for a living...just for fun! Thank you sooo much Jen!!!

A lot of them are the same pic, but I couldn't decide whether to post the color or B&W...

Costume change....

Gotta be one of my favs even though she doesn't look like a baby at all anymore! TEAR!

One of her signature faces!

Can't believe you are 2 baby girl! You are growing up way too fast! Please slow down!

She moved into her big girl bed this week and is doing great! Pics of that coming soon!

Beginning of School Stuff....

2009-09-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

The actual first day of school pics are at the bottom of this post because I got them out of order. This past Friday night we took the girls to the square to see all the old cars that were there. They loved the fountain! I'm pretty sure Emma would've jumped in if we hadn't been holding her back!
They were playing some classic rock n' roll like "Mustang Sally" and other stuff. Both girls were "gettin' down!!!" Emma kept saying, "Dance! Momma, Dance!"

One of my co-workers had one of their cars up there and the girls got to sit inside.
Earlier that day after school we met up with some friends at Aikin. We called it a "Kiddie Kollege" reunion. These kiddos have been together there since they were just babies, but have gone their seperate ways this year. It has been very hard on Aubrie. She really misses her friends. They had so much fun playing together!
Tinslee, Kate, & Aubrie

Aubrie & MaiceyAubrie actually felt like posing on this day!!!Emma was her normal fearless self....

You probably noticed that she's missing her pants. She had a major blow out after we got there, but it didn't stop her from having a blast! Emma & Christopher. Look how he is holding her feet and talking to her! So cute!The big kids were very sweet to include Emma in their fun!This was the night before....the girls were helping daddy cook supper. This is the best one I got, but I included the other pics when Aubrie wasn't looking because they were so cute of Emma.
Emma with Daddy on her first day of Kiddie Kollege (this year).Showing off her new outfit to Daddy....Posing!Kaitlyn on her first day of 3rd grade...and Aubrie on her first day of PreKHer Mimi made her towel with her name on it....We actually got this backpack at Walmart for $5 and got her name on it.

Happy 2nd Birthday to my baby girl Emma!

2009-08-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today is Emma's bday! Can't believe she is already 2! She still seems like such a baby to me! I created this slide show to show at her bday party last Saturday, but never could get it to work. If you have 15 minutes or so and care to take a walk through her first 2 yrs....here it is!!! I know its long! Sorry!

Emma's Birthday PARTY!

2009-08-26T09:50:00.001-07:00

Although Emma's actual bday is today...the 28th, we had her party last Saturday! It turned out very well if I do say so myself! We actually got a decent family pic even with Emma's eyes closed! The bday girl with her tutu and "Birthday Girl" shirt that Aubrie wore for her 2nd bday as well!

Excuse the fact that some pics are big and some small. I copied some from my friend Molly's Facebook so that is why....Poppy taking E for a ride!Happy girl! Thanks to Tammy for allowing us to use the Kiddie Kollege riding toys for entertainment!Some special friends were there...

AddisonAnna ClaireRidgeMasonAnd special family as well! Doesn't Poppy look excited to be there?The Mimi...not sure what she was looking at???Cousins Colby, Melissa, and baby LeightonMiss Leighton...hopefully Emma and her will be very close growing up....I always wished for a girl cousin that was close to my age. They are 8 months apart.Cousin Julia with AubrieCousin Kira with KaitlynMy precious grandparents....AKA Toots & Pop! So blessed that they are still in good health and can attend the birthday parties of their 5 great granddaughters!Pop....turned 87 this week! Grand Molly...nice tonsils!I asked Grand Molly to read some stories to the kids since she is the most animated person I know! She was happy to oblige and the kids loved it!!! Thanks again, sweet friend! Listening intently to the story! Her party had a "storybook" theme since she has been absolutely IN LOVE with books since she could sit up! Books over toys ANY day for her!Ridge and Mason enjoying the story....I had to go to a Leadership retreat the night before the party and got in town just a couple of hours before it started! Michael and Aubrie made cupcakes and brownies and had a great time! I did manage to make the little cupcake toppers that were little pictures of famous children's book covers! You may be able to click on the small pics to see the detail!We got Emma a little cake of her own so that she could have candles to blow out! That's about all she did since she doesn't care for sweets at all. I can't tell you the last time she would try an cake, cookie, or candy....no complaints from Mommy though!Julia and Mason eating up those cupcakes! Atleast someone enjoyed them!Chocolate-faced Ridge and his mommy Amy!It's a hard life, huh baby boy!She did enjoy the Sugar Free Kool-aid very much!Present time! She got like 25 new books, along with some very cute outfits and puzzles! See how she just lights up when she has a book in her hand!Mimi and EmmaSomehow the pic of the Elmo outfit got lost in the shuffle of posting pics on here. It is so cute. She made the hat too that you see in this pic. Emma won't wear it for even a second. I warned Mimi of this too! But isn't it cute?!Poppy was happy to model it!We always try and get a pic of Mimi with all 3 girls at every bday party. Two weren't interested as you can see. I will admit that my two look VERY much alike in this picture! Same expression exactly! I don't see them looking that much alike very much! Thanks to my sweet hubby and daddy for getting everything set up for the party so that I could go to the retreat! Mimi helped tremendously too! What would I do without my sweet family?!

Old Videos

2009-08-15T20:40:00.001-07:00

My Little Tball Star!

2009-07-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

I'm embarrassed to say that this post has been in the works since April, but I was waiting to get pics from my mom's camera (which I finally did today). I just couldn't remember to do it! So...here is my little tball girl....better late than never. After about 2 games, she said she didn't want to play anymore. I explained to her that she said she wanted to play and that we were going to finish the season and not let our team down. She thought for a minute, sighed a really big Aubrie sigh, and said, "Okay! I'll do it! But don't even THINK about signing me up for next year!" But she ended up really enjoying all 10 games, so maybe she will play next year. Her signature pose (sorry its blurry). This is what she did everytime she made it around to home base....she would look at us and give a thumbs up! So cute!Just after hitting the ball."Check me out!""Enough pics already!"She and another little girl were the only girls on the team....we didn't realize till the last game that they were born on the same day! They had more fun socializing in the outfield than actually paying attention to the game! My friend Sabrina took these next few....I REALLY want a camera like her's!!! Aubrie was really showing out during the last game...this was taken on her way back to the dugout after making a "score" (which they really don't keep up with at this stage).Ofcourse all players got trophies after the last game and can't you see how excited she was!

Soccer is coming in the fall, so I guess we'll see which one she likes better in a few months!

More summer activities...finally got to fish!

2009-07-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

Emma is talking up a storm and changing and growing so much..

in less than 2 months she will be 2! Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy at the softball fields.."I see you!"My beautiful girl after playing on the slip n' slide..

Our dog Roxie..

We enjoyed a visit recently from my grandmother A.K.A. Toots...We got colored sand for our sandbox and it turned Emma blue.

She looked like a Smurf!We went bowling in Sulphur Springs a few weeks ago with our church.

Aubrie & Grayson had a great time!The team...the older girls were so sweet to help the younger ones!In between turns, Aub did some dancin!Just a random pic of Emma...spaghetti anyone?I think Aubrie is looking a lot like my mom these days.All dressed up in their new sun/swim gear that Mimi got them!
As I mentioned in a recent post, Aubrie got a Barbie fishing pole and rubber boots for her birthday and we went fishing at our friends' pond on Father's Day! A hot, but fun afternoon!

Here's Aubrie rarin' to go!Big sis!Little sis...my blue-eyed girl!Waitin' on a bite!This was Daddy's thing...mom just takes the pictures. He is such an incredible daddy and couldn't wait to take them! I actually think he was more excited than they were!First catch! Look at Aubrie's face! Priceless!She wouldn't go near the fish once she caught them!Paul & Kaitlyn after her first catch of the day.Emma is still too little to fish, but she loved watching and cheering on her sisters.Fisherman/Fashion Diva!!!

Summertime is here....

2009-06-11T08:06:00.001-07:00

Love the outdoors in the summertime!!! The McCarter sisters enjoying their picnic!

See our new patio furniture. Check out the new indoor/outdoor carpet too! LOVE IT!Silly girlies.These girls can talk their Poppy in to anything!Tellin' a whopper I'm sure!Before the new carpet....she's actually laughing even though it looks like she crying.
About to cruise!Ethan came over another night and got in on the water hose fun!

My baby turned 4 yesterday!

2009-06-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

So these pics are out of order, but just pretend you don't know! Aubrie turned 4 yesterday, but her party was on Saturday. We had it at "Princess Parties." I highly recommend this place for all of you that have little princesses. It seems kind of high at first, but when you think of all that you don't have to buy to get ready for a party, it is well worth it. Plus, the set up and clean up! That's a huge plus!!! They did the punch, all the paper goods, the party favors....all we had to do was bring the cake. They even do the invitations! Aubrie had a great time! Here she is after opening her 2 things that she had asked for: A Barbie fishing pole and rubber boots to go fishing in the mud! Too funny!Waiting for the other princesses to arrive!Princess Brenna My little 4 year old princess! UNBELIEVABLE!
Princess Tinslee
Princess LucyPrincess Kaitlyn...and her doofus photographer taking her pic in the mirror!

Princess Laney & Princess Kate
Princess Brenna & Princess Aubrie
Love this serious look! She is so pretty! But ofcourse I am biased!

Princess Kate getting her nails done... before the hairdos! See told you they were out of order!
The gang
Princess MaiceyMiss Emma...they didn't have dresses to fit her, but she wasn't very interested anyway!
One of her fake smiles!

I was going to do a really sappy post for her birthday, but I've already teared up the last several days when I think about how fast she is growing up! So, I'll skip that! Aubrie, I love you so very much and am so thankful that God has blessed me with your life and that he has given me the priviledge of being your mommy! I still have to pinch myself everyday when I realize the blessings in my life!

Birthday Party and Lots of Other Misc.

2009-05-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

Aubrie and Daddy taking turns with the camera. The next few are all sleeping pics. I just feel the urge to take a picture of her when she looks so peaceful! Here she is with her fav sleeping companion Squishy!This was right after a little pouting that she was doing because her Daddy wouldn't let her watch her show on TV. She was so exhausted and planted herself in the hallway. This is how I found her within like 5 min.I just thought it was cute that they were sleeping in the exact same position when I went in to wake them up! Excuse the indecentsy of these pics. I HAVE raised them better! LOL! Our not so "puppy" anymore....Roxie
Aubrie and Rox chillin' in the recliner.I was taking Aubrie's pic and Emma starts yelling "CHEESE" so I had to take her's too!Eating her HUGE apple!A couple of weeks ago we had some friends over to play. From left to right: Kate, Anna Claire, Cannon, Emma, Jack, and Aubrie.Our friend Anna Claire turned 2 this month and we celebrated with her! Her mommy was so creative with this Flip Flop theme. She got these sand buckets personalized with all the girls' names on them. Such a cute idea!

Emma had a great time!
Until she got all twisted up in the balloon strings! Anna Claire got this ride and Emma took over! Sorry AC!
Poppy came by the party and Emma had to get some love!Well her way of lovin' anyway!

Only 2 weeks of school for me and I hope to get back into blogging more often! My schedule has been crazy busy with all the end of the year events going on! I'm so ready for my life to slow down a little bit and spend lots of time at "Club Kerby" and catch up with friends and ofcourse lots of playing with the girls!!!

Prayers!

2009-05-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

Please pray for my friends Tammy & Jared (check her blog here) and their newborn baby girl Jenna Kate. She was born 3 weeks early yesterday and is having a hard time breathing on her own. They will have to send her to Dallas if she doesn't improve today. Thanks for your prayers!

Devoted to Dusti

2009-05-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

Hello friends, You may have received a prayer chain email at some point this school year asking for prayers for the daughter of my friend and co-worker...Dusti Gaither. Dusti has leukemia and she has done great with her chemo, but the treatments have killed her immune system. She is back at Children's Hospital. Her counts have stayed at 0 for a couple of weeks now and they have to be at 750 before she will be able to leave the hospital. They expect her to be there atleast 2 more weeks. Her mother, Michelle is having to be off or work with her and is out of sick days. It costs her around $150/day to be off. We are having a fundraiser for her selling tshirts. I tried to attach a pic of what the shirts look like, but couldn't for some reason. If you are interested in seeing the shirt, email me at the address below and I can send it to you that way. We have gotten 25 sponsors that will have their business' name on the back. All tshirt orders will be profit for the Gaither family as they are going to be out a lot of money! If you would like to order a shirt, please email me by this Friday. They are $10 for child sizes and adults up to XL....add $2 for anything about XL. If you know of anyone else that would like to order a shirt, please feel free to forward this on. Thanks so much for your support!
Email:Lindsay McCarter
lmccarter@parisisd.net

Spring Fling 2009

2009-04-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

We went to the Woodall Ranch for our youth's annual Spring Fling on Saturday.

Kaitlyn & Abby had a blast!

Until Kaitlyn found a present from the horses by the barn...."Okay, I can handle it!"
"Or maybe not!" Poor Laney in the background was so kind to hold her shoe!EEEWWWW!Sometimes the best pictures are when they don't even know you're anywhere around!She LOVED riding the horse with Daddy!So did Aubrie!But she had just as much fun hangin' with Gibson!

Thanks, Kim for taking pics for me since I left my camera at home! She got better ones than I would have anyway!

Great pics taken by a great friend!

2009-04-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

My coworker and friend Mindy took the girls' pictures the other day in their Easter dresses in front of her beautiful flowers. I couldn't have asked for better! She did an AWESOME job! Thank you, thank you Mindy!!!

I wasn't going to have my picture made with them, but I then I got to thinking about it and realized that I have very few pics of them with me! I'm always the one taking the pics!

So excuse the lack of effort in not wearing lipstick!!! Oh, and that lovely spot on my top lip is the last stages of a nasty fever blister! Ugh! Hate it! Emma wasn't thrilled with getting her pic made especially after she had fallen off of the bench. There are about 50 pics of her crying that are priceless!Aubrie gettin' some love!My Aubrie is going to be 4 in less than 2 months and it is unbelievable what a "little girl" she is becoming! There was a long time (as I'm sure you remember) that she wouldn't look at the camera AT ALL for me and often still won't. But she put on a little show for Ms. Mindy! She really got some good ones of Aubrie by herself!Here are a few of them together! It was so hard to get a really good one b/c Emma wasn't in the best of moods after her fall and she wouldn't get her fingers out of her mouth! It took mom and me standing in front of her singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" over and over just to get these!Here are a couple of great shots she got with no fingers in mouth and looking posed!
But this next series of pics are my favorite! She had been so unhappy the whole time and we were just about to give up, but then "Cookie" (Mindy's cat) came along and her mood totally changed!She thought Cookie was pretty funny!Her she is saying her new favorite word...."WOW!"
She calls a cat "A BAT"....not sure why, but that is what she is saying here.One of my favs! Soooo Emma!Love this one too!Getting over it!Look at that prissy hand!"Okay, ladies...that's a wrap. Nap time!"

Aikin Playground & Other Randomness

2009-04-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

My kids are growing and changing so fast and I have found myself wanting to capture every moment I can on camera. I'm not great at taking pics as you have seen in the past and if you never want to look at my blog again after some of my random posts about nothing, don't feel bad. My plans are to print these posts eventually and put them in a notebook for their scrapbooks to have when they are grown. So....anyway....nuff said bout that....the other night Kaitlyn and Aubrie were tackling their daddy and at first Emma thought it was pretty funny! Then she started fussing because she thought they were getting too rough!

Can't get enough of the pigtails!

The girls love going to Aikin's playground up the street! Here are action shots I caught!

Aubrie wanted a turn with the camera! Lovely, I know!

This was ALMOST evidence that "crack kills".....thanks for being modest for the camera, honey!

I've been playing around with a digital photo online program
called Picnik.com.....its really good and its FREE! So here are some that I've cropped and added text too.

My beautiful coworker and one of my best friends, Penny! This was at the "I Love Paris" fundraiser for Paris Education Foundation.

Kiddie Kollege Parties & Easter Hunt #2

2009-04-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

Not sure why blogger insisted that my pics be arranged this way, but oh well. Last Thursday was the girls' Easter parties and egg hunts at Kiddie Kollege. Here is "Miss Priss" as I like to call her enjoying the treats at her party. This is her last year at KK...she is going to go to PreK next year, so it was kind of sad knowing this was her last party at KK!

Right: With her friend Tinslee...they have been together at KK for 3 yrs.

Below: Miss Becky's class with the Easter bunny.

Right: With her friend Maicey.....

Below: On the hunt for some goodies....

Listening to Miss Becky read a story waiting for the par-tay to begin!
Meanwhile, Emma's class was enjoying their party in Miss Karie's class....

With her buddies Ella and Mason...isn't Mason the cutest with all that curly hair?!Emma didn't care for the Easter bunny AT ALL....

Watching her hunt Easter eggs was so much fun! She knew exactly what to do.
My little baby isn't much of a baby anymore!

Easter Hunting #1

2009-04-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

Well, spring has sprung and boy have the McCarter's been busy! Kaitlyn is playing softball and Aubrie is playing tball so we have been at the ball fields a lot. We have also been doing lots of Easter activities the last week. With all of this going on, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on! This first post is about the Easter egg hunt that the Poore's had for our little ones at church.

Emma has become quite the daddy's girl (always has been really, but even more so lately)....

Not sure what to think about all the egg hunting hoopla!

But having fun nonetheless!
Emma's name should have been Michael Jr.!!!
Aubrie always has lots of fun with her friend Kate!

Bring on the hunt!
Cannon and Daniel with the Easter Bunny!
"Look, mom!"

Emma with guess who!
I even got to meet the Easter bunny personally and she let me take her picture and help her get dressed! No autograph though!I was trying to take advantage of Melissa's beautiful flowers for a quick photo op....but Emma was not interested!Emma with our friend Paul....
She looks like such a big girl here! My friend Misty sent these pics of Aubrie and her son Grayson who have been friends since birth. They were having so much fun! Thanks Misty!
Picking her nose....lovely!Grayson must've not done what Aubrie told him to or something b/c she looks pretty upset! Or maybe he called her a name like "nose picker" or something....not sure! But he seems to be trying to apologize! heheheToo much drama for Grayson!"No more pics please!"
I'm really not sure what was going on with that whole series of pics....I just made up my own interpretation. Preschoolers are hilarious! Maybe not so much when they wake up at 4:00 a.m. throwing up like Aubrie did this morning. She was in my bed too! Eeewww! By 5:30 a.m. I had already had a bath AND a shower! Probably more of those to come!

I have to tell a quick story: Thursday night after Aubrie had been to her school Easter party and egg hunt (pics of that to come), I was asking her about her day, etc. and realized that she may not have a clue what Easter is all about....with the eggs, bunnies, etc. we seem to lose focus on the reason that this holiday is observed by so many! I said, "Aubrie, do you know the real reason we have Easter?" I figured she would make some reference to all the secular events that had been playing out around her all week. But she reassured me through this brief but but profound (for her age I think) conversation!

Aubrie: "Yep! We have Easter to Celebrate!"

Me: "Celebrate! Celebrate what?" (again expecting something about the Easter bunny)

Aubrie: "We celebrate Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, mom! And he rolled the stone away and he isn't dead anymore!"

Guess I was wrong! Happy Easter everyone!

Disney On Ice

2009-03-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Michael and I took Aubrie to see "Disney on Ice" in Dallas. She really enjoyed it and mom and dad enjoyed spending time and spoiling just one of our children! Here she is as we pulled into the parking lot at American Airlines Center. My attempt at taking my own picture! I'm not good at that at all!

Good of Michael atleast! Peter Pan
Little MermaidThe Lion KingYum! Cotton candy!This little light up toy was the hit for all the kids there....cost was $20....outrageous, but she enjoyed it very much!

The next few are actually from before the show...going in....out of order because Blogger erased all my work and I had to start over....can you see how excited she was?Just a couple of cute shots from another day....tried to get Emma in there too....but she wouldn't have it! Aubrie is holding her sleeping buddy....Mr. Squishy....not sure where the Mr. came from, but its cute!

Chocolate Faces & Pigtails!

2009-03-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen? Ok...I may be exaggerating, but really! I have been wanting to do this to her hair FOREVER, and finally did it! She looks so much older!!! Love these two girls so much!

Cheeseball #1 after finishing off the brownie mix!
Cheeseball #2!

On Spring Break and LOVIN' it!

Texas Public School Week....

2009-03-12T08:57:00.001-07:00

My 2nd grade class did their play today for Texas week! They were sooo cute! Just thought you might enjoy seeing some of the cute things they did!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE MY JOB!

Happy Belated V-day!

2009-02-15T17:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've been spending a lot of my computer time playing around on Facebook and have neglected my poor blog. I'm not taking near the pics that I used to either....not sure why either, but I'm going to try and do better about that! Anyways, I'm finally posting the ones I took of our Valentine's week festivities.

Here's Emma at her Kiddie Kollege party.

This was just minutes before she puked everywhere from eating and drinking all those treats!

Sooo....we had to change her clothes. She had her V-day outfit on for atleast a little bit!

And here is Miss Aubrie at her party down the hall....

Aubrie and Gibson tasting all their yummy stuff!

Michael and I were going to be gone on the actual day of Valentine's Day, so we decided to give the girls their gifts from Cupid a couple of days before. Emma got a new Elmo DVD!

Aubrie got cups and saucers that match the rest of a tea set that she got as a baby gift.

Kaitlyn has been asking for a bathrobe....so that's what she got....

We made a special Vday dinner....heart shaped pizza! The girls loved it! Can't you tell?

Okay...well maybe not from the above pic...but Aubrie had just woken up from a nap...she got more interested when she got a little more awake...but I think Daddy was more excited than anyone!

before being cooked....check it out...the pepperoni's are heart-shaped too!

The girls waiting around for them to be done...and acting silly ofcourse!

One of my very favorite pics of them together....it shows both of their personalities so well!

And the final product (turned sideways, but you get the idea)!

They were very yummy...even Kaitlyn ate them and she hates almost EVERYTHING I cook! Look at Emma in the background....not sure...but I think she was saying "WOOHOO" about the pizza being ready! ;)

It was a hit with her too, but then again, most everything is! That girl will eat ANYTHING!

After bathtime, we had a tea party with Aub's new tea set....awww....memories! I love having all girls!

As I mentioned, Michael and I were gone for Vday itself. I surprised my man and took him for Vday and his bday to Mena, AR to a little Bed & Breakfast. It was very relaxing and so nice for just the two of us to get away for a little over 24 hrs. As much as we enjoyed it, we were already anxious to get back to the girls! The place that we stayed was very nice. Here is the ONE pic we took while we were there. Here is the website to the place if anyone is interested. We highly recommend it! Debbie and Toni Anderson are the people's names and they were wonderful!

http://www.cedarrockbnb.com/

A Couple of Firsts.....

2009-02-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

Look how happy my girl is! She had just rode her Dora bicycle for the first time all by herself (with training wheels). I had it on video and it was so cute, but I CANNOT get videos to upload on blogger! I am so jealous of those that can. Goofy Daddy!

We took Aubrie to get a haircut so that she could show Emma what a big girl she was!

She made all kinds of silly faces in the mirror and was cracking me up! Don't know why my camera keeps taking blurry pics!
Emma didn't know it, but she was about to get her turn! Her first haircut at 17 months! Just the front though....it was getting in her eyes and looking pretty shabby!Not a fan, but I guess that's to be expected!All better!
This is our other baby after her first trip to the groomers for a puppy cut and bath. She loves to nestle down in any blanket or pillow laying around. Here she had found just the right spot on a huge pile of towels that I was procratinating about folding!
Just a cute pic of my girl who is growing so fast!!!

Attention Ladies & Gentlemen: Our Next Tourist Attraction: The McCarter ZOO!

2009-01-29T15:23:00.000-08:00

As I said in the last post, the McCarters have a new baby.....BUT we had to change her name. It was Bon Qui Qui and we were going to call her Bonnie. However, Aubrie insisted on calling her Bonnah...I just couldn't see it....SOOO...reintroducing.....Foxie Roxie (we call her Roxie). We've had her a week tomorrow and she just fits right in with our family!!! Look closely at this one and you can see one of our other animals. Santa brought the girls 2 male hamsters....Aubrie's is NEMO and Kaitlyn's is JONAS. Poor little things have been kind of neglected since Roxie came along!Here is their princess castle (cage).

Plus we also have a Beta fish named Lola (hence the ZOO comment)! It was my intention to JUST have a fish, but when your kids start asking for more pets....what can I say....we're suckers!!!

The girls and I got our Valentine gift early!

2009-01-24T19:13:00.000-08:00

This is the newest member of our family....Bon Qui Qui McCarter (we're gonna call her Bonnie). She is an 8 week old Matipoopoo....I know! Silly name.....that's 1/4 Matisse (I really don't know how to spell that) and 3/4 poodle! She's precious and as you can see you can't even tell she has eyeballs.....she's so black.

First post of the New Year!

2009-01-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been waiting to upload all the pics from my mom's camera to this post...BUT...since I see that isn't happening, I figured I would go ahead and put these out!

Kaitlyn got an Ipod for her bday and Aubrie had to check it out! Shhh! Don't tell big sister!Look at this sweet girl! I could just eat her up!

She got a rocking chair from my grandparents to match her table and chairs and toy box! She loves it! She looks so sweet in it!

I hope this is the beginning of another childhood prodigy! Poppy, are you proud?!

Me and Aubrie taking pics of ourselves.

This would have been cute if she hadn't put her hand up!

Michael and I got each a Wii Guitar Hero Rock Band thingy! Whatever its called! We are sooo addicted! Both of us just big kids ourselves!

Emma loves to sing with the band!

Here are some attempts of getting some pics of the girls in their dresses Mimi made!

Thanks Mimi! Not one of them looking at the camera...but still the best one!!!
Here's another toy Emma got from Santa. I can't resist these pics right out of the tub. I didn't pose her for this...but she ran from me while I was trying to get her dressed and well you know...photo shoot!This was right before she ran!

Emma has really been into watching Dora and The Wiggles lately! I hate to start her on TV so early, but what do you do when the sisters watch it!? Check out mommy's new pink laptop from Santa in the background! Thank you, Santa!!Another big moment in E's life....she started Kiddie Kollege at our church 2 days a week this month. She is adjusting well! Here she is on her first day!Aubrie started gymnastics! This was taken before she went to her first class!My little DIVA! Strike a pose...there's nothin' to it!Had to pose in front of our Barbie convertible before leaving! On our way with her Princess "fermos" (thermos)
"Watch me, mommy"Mimi bought Aubrie and Emma matching dresses like this one Emma is wearing and I tried to get them together, but couldn't....So try to imagine how cute they were!Kaitlyn is becoming quite the little social light this year! Here she is with her friend Abby who spent the night the other night! They had fun!

Merry Christmas...SMILE!!!

2008-12-24T06:34:00.000-08:00

You may have already read this one and not realized that I have a really long post after this one below it....so if so, read on.....

Our church did their annual Christmas caroling Monday night and Aubrie dressed quite festively....She will KILL me one day over these pics! Remind you of anyone?Sorry, I couldn't help myself! I laughed everytime I looked at her!

Rudolph and the rest of the McCarter clan wish you a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

December Activities....

2008-12-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

Aubrie has an obsession with shoes as I THINK I've mentioned before. She was exhausted and fell asleep with Daddy, but refused to take off her shoes. These are her favorite pair....Sunday best. Our favorite babysitter Bailey came over the other night so that Michael and I could have a date night and she got some really good shots of the kids. This is Aubrie with Bailey's little brother Daniel who came along to play with the girls!

I had so many different sets of pics to post that I decided to shorten the post a bit by combining some in collages. This was our family's day of hanging up the outside lights.

A couple of weeks ago our friends the Kerby's hosted a Rudolph party for the kids at church. It has become an annual event that we really look forward to. The kids watch the classic movie Ruldoph and also have a very special visitor...SANTA!

Emma wasn't quite sure what to think about him and wanted down from his lap pretty quickly....
until she figured out Santa had a present for her....her favorite thing....a book!

This is Emma's buddy Anna Claire, but getting them to pose was not gonna happen, so I took what I could get....

Here they are this time last year!

It was so much easier when they weren't mobile yet!

This was the first year that Aubrie hasn't screamed when she saw Santa.

Here she is right after he walked in the door....

For the sake of my time and your time, I collaged the pics of Aubrie getting her gift from the big guy....

Some attempts at a group pic! A couple of cute poses of Aubrie before church last Sunday....

The 19th was Kaitlyn's 8th birthday! Can't believe she is so grown up already! We had her party at Family Fun Center. This is what she did when we sang Happy Birthday. She gets embarrassed so easily these days. She was very excited to get her Ipod from her daddy and me.Emma spent the evening reaching and wanting either her daddy or me as you can see in this pic. She has been sick the past few days and this was the night she started to feel bad. Poor baby!!! But Nanny & Papa tried to keep her occupied. Kaitlyn and her little brother, Brayden....such a cutie!and cousin Dillon...doesn't she look thrilled?!The girls....Aubrie, Keraghan, Halle, and Chandler....Aubrie tried her best to stay vertical in regular skates, but it didn't take long for her to wear herself as well as daddy out!Then we switched her to skates that fit over her shoes....much better!She still got tired pretty quickly and had to take a rest under one of the benches (germ central)!
Ofcourse her new Barbie had to get her pic taken too!Chillin' with her friends!
We opened presents with Nanny & Papa Sunday night so that everthing wouldn't be so rushed on Christmas Eve & Day....Emma got a new baby...check out her tongue sticking out!
Aubrie got a doll that eats and pees her diaper! Fun!
Both got strollers to push their new babies in..And a giant pencil to doodle with which is something she loves to do!!Mikey thought he got a catepillar that sings his ABC's...look how excited he was!!! Sorry, daddy...its for Emma!"Well, then can I have the new doll?"Thank you Nanny & Papa for all our new things!!!The girls LOVE dress up and if we are at home Aubrie is in a princess dress of some kind. So, Mimi & Poppy got them this cool storage thing with a full length mirror that they are really going to enjoy! Emma has already used the mirror to give herself lots of kisses! Big sisters are always dressing her up too!This princess would not show her face to the papparazzi this day!We had a wonderful treat this year in having my great Aunt Joy & Uncle Bob come all the way from California for a visit. Uncle Bob is very popular for his magic tricks and ofcourse Aubrie had to get in on them!"I'm gonna try and figure this guy out!""WOW! How did he do that?""Gran Gran, do you know how he does that?"

Its Christmas Day and I am just getting around to publishing this post that I've been working on since Saturday....so MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my readers. I hope that God has blessed each one of you like he has the McCarter family! Aubrie and I are sick today and didn't get to go to Christmas on my dad's side of the family, but Emma and Daddy went. This is the 2nd year in a row that I have had to miss out...last year it was strep...but when I count my blessings, I could never complain! More pics of actual Christmas stuff later!!!!

My Little Christmas Girl!

2008-12-23T09:14:00.000-08:00

It was going to take me forever to upload all of these pics of Emma by the tree in ONE of her Christmas outfits, so I just chose to create a collage of all of them. She wouldn't look at the camera and wouldn't even sit still until we gave her the singing snowman to play with! Some of her expressions crack me up!!! I'm still working on a post with many more pics of the past couple of busy, busy weeks....and its not even Christmas yet!!! You can click on the whole collage to see individual pics closer.

My Day Job!

2008-12-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

I've posted before about how much I love my job, but I'm here again to tell you that I've really got the perfect job for me!!! I love my students (for the most part....all 450 of them), my co-workers, and my boss!!! I'm off on holidays and in the summers AND most importantly I get to teach the one thing I LOVE...MUSIC! So...although, most of my blog readers read for pics and updates of my own children, I can't help but brag on my school kids every once in awhile! Last week was our annual Christmas play....here are some pics of some of my favorite parts of the play! AND I promise I'm working on another post of the McCarter girls, but I can only upload those from home and my time there is very limited!

Here are a couple of my 5th grade choir opening the show! I promise they did smile despite this first one....

A group pic of PART of the play participants....there were 110 in all.....
This year's play had adults in it too! This is our art teacher in the middle and her husband on the right. The left is Santa Claus played by my preacher and good friend Patrick Cannon.
A couple of the soloists...

Football players doing part of the Nutcracker ballet.....they stole the show!
This little girl was the CUTEST!!!
Christmas shopping online...
One of the songs was "Christmas Fiesta" showcasing our bilingual class and their celebration of "Las Posadas"

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-28T19:18:00.000-08:00

The other night I kept my friend Jamie's little boy. This was an attempt of a pic with all 3 kids after their bath. The TV was way more interesting than the photographer!Some pics of the girls with their cousins on Thanksgiving....Kaitlyn & Kira...Aubrie & Julia...On Friday, I decorated our tree and had 2 of the best helpers! Even Snow White came to help!Here are some shots of our baby who turned 15 months on Friday! Please pray for her Monday morning as she is going to have tubes put in her ears. We know that everything will be better, but we are a still a little uneasy as it is our first time that any of the girls have needed surgery of any kind. We are so thankful that it is such a minor surgery! We could be having to put a shunt in her head....thanks again for all of your prayers about her head....when we had it measured the other day it had NOT grown a bit! YEA!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Obsession With Sleeping Pictures??

2008-11-15T06:34:00.000-08:00

The obsession started with the fact that Emma has had several bad nights in a row due to coughing! She was sleeping through the coughing for the most part, but momma wasn't! I kept getting up every few minutes to make sure she wasn't choking! So....finally I just put her in bed with me! She has NEVER slept in the bed with us and it is not a habit I want to start! Aubrie slept with us from about 8 mo. to about 15 mo. and I just never got good sound sleep then because I was always afraid she would roll out of the bed. Therefore, I didn't want to ever give Emma the opportunity....plus she has always slept well in her crib (unlike big sister). To make a long story longer.....this was her in our bed for the first time....Aubrie still comes and climbs in during the wee hours of the morning! So I had to take her pic too! Aubrie has started this random thing of waking up at 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. and wanting to watch a movie. Sometimes you can get her back to sleep and sometimes it is just easier to let her watch a few minutes of T.V. while you snooze back off for an hour or so. This is how I found her daddy and her one morning this week. See?....obsessed with sleeping pics!I did a little mini photo shoot of the girls in these matching shirts that Mimi brought them from Branson. Aubrie actually let me put her hair in pigtails too! She was in such a good mood and was making silly faces for me!

My sweet little girlies....growing and changing WAY too fast!Just one smile from Emma and it was back to watching Elmo's World (her latest fav!)She still would rather be read to than ANYTHING else! The first thing she does when she gets up in the a.m. is go over to her basket of books and bring one to you and says "Ead is" (Read this). How can you resist that? Poppy sure couldn't!

Exciting....

2008-11-07T12:14:00.000-08:00

I don't know how many watched "America's Got Talent" 2 seasons ago, but if you did you will recognize this guy. He was the 2nd place winner - Cas Haley from right here in Paris, TX. I went to highschool with him and we were in choir together so it was neat to watch him and root for him! Well, he came to Justiss on Halloween to play for the kids and it was so neat! That week was Drug Awareness Week so he also talked about the dangers of drugs, etc.

Fall Festivities......

2008-11-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

WARNING: Ridulously long post, but I just couldn't narrow it down!

A week ago Saturday, Michael and I took the girls to the Pumpkin Festival that they have every year downtown. Here is Aubrie with her friend Chase (doesn't he make the cutest policeman EVER)?! I got this pic out of order.....sorry!

The night before, Kaitlyn, her friend Keragahn, Aubrie, Kaitlyn's mom Toni, and I went to the opening night of High School Musical 3. I don't know who was more excited.....the girls or the moms!!! Here are the girls getting ready with the glitter, "bling", and lip gloss! Pretty cute!

Here's Miss Priss ready to hit the theater!

These 2 have been friends since Little Ark preschool!
Okay, back to the Pumpkin Festival.....Aubrie was entertaining pedestrians with her dancing!

Aubrie with Clifford.....or atleast I THINK that's who that is.
Emma met a new friend McKennon.....his mommy and I were pregant at the same time.

Sweet sisters that won't look at mommy for a picture!
Aubrie was thrilled to get a ride on the miniature horses!

Love that sweet face!

More dancin' in the streets.....
Thursday was Aubrie's Kiddie Kollege festival and class party. I wanted her to have curls so I put her hair in sponge rollers the night before. Not a chance of getting a good pic of her in them though.

You'd think the paparazzi was after her...... A LITTLE better.....too bad the curls didn't take....but she woke up at 3 a.m. the next morning wanting the curlers out!!!!She fell asleep on the couch and before Micahel took her to her bed, we had to get these potty shots.A couple of random shots of Emma's first time in the sandbox.....

Here is Little Bo Peep (minus the curls)....
Roselyn and Miss Mimi (this is what the Kiddie Kollege kids call her).

The little lost sheep.....I know I can't hardly stand how cute that is either!!!Would've been a good one.....
I never dreamed that Michael's face would look this sweet on a little girl!Aubrie's class.....With her teacher....Ms. Becky...Lots of fun things to do at the festival....fishing.....Bobbing for apples....Tic-tac-toeCake walk....and the party!

I believe this is the ONLY pic I got of Little Bo Peep by herself smiling AND looking at the camera.

Aubrie's friend Brenna...and little Anna Claire....and Kate as Tinkerbell.....Here is Aubrie and Tinslee who have been together for 3 years now...since the baby class.Silly girlies!
And the two girls with Gibson who has also been with them for 3 yrs. Don't choke the poor boy, Aubrie.I think it really hurt him judging by the look here. Sorry buddy!
My best friend Cheryl came over and got Kaitlyn ready....she chose to be a Hollywood Star. I get this look from Kaitlyn ALL the time!The finished hair....
I've never seen anyone that could go from looking 8 to 18 in a matter of minutes!

Our church had their annual "Trunk or Treat" and Little Bo Peep was sad..."what's wrong baby girl""I can't find my sheep.""Oh, there she is..."Kaitlyn and Chandler the chefRidge the duck...Doing the obstacle course....in heels!Emma couldn't quite do the course yet, but she was thrilled to be getting into biggest sisters purse!The highlight of the night was watching the 2 older sisters pass out candy to the 1000 kids standing in line. They seemed more thrilled to be doing this than getting the candy themselves. We are so very proud of them!

Hope everyone had a very safe and happy Halloween!

Dodgin' for Dusti

2008-10-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was a very out of the ordinary day for me! Those of you that know me very well know that I am NOT athletic to say the least. I haven't played a sport since church camp in 1992! Even then, I wouldn't have called it "playing"!!! But Tuesday I played in my first and most likely last dodgeball tournament! It was a fundraiser for Dusti (the 4 year old daughter of my coworker that I had asked for prayers for back in September). Dusti is in remission from her leukemia....praise the Lord!!! She is still having treatments, but is doing well. Our team is called "Westside Dodgers"....see me 3rd from the left! I know you are jealous of those purple socks too....
Here we are in action! Our first game was against 8th grade cheerleaders and we WON! The 2nd game was against 6th & 7th grade boys and we got skunked! It was a double elimination tournament.....our 3rd and LAST game was against 8th grade boys and good thing it was our LAST because I got hit in the face HARD and was numb for a few minutes! Those balls hurt especially being thrown by a big 13 year old boy! I know...suck it up....right?!

Here is our team with Dusti and her mom Michelle there in front.

Aubrie wanted to get in there too ofcourse!

Wonder where she gets not looking at the camera from?!
It was fun, but considering one of the members had a possible broken wrist and another one an injured toe.....I don't know if the "Westside Dodgers" will be enduring many more games of dodgeball!
Thanks again for everyone who has been praying for little Dusti! They are working! Our community and surrounding areas have done other fundraisers for her as well. Our Justiss Student Council (that I am one of the sponsors for) organized "Dimes for Dusti" and raised $1,000. They have had an ATV riding weekend in Honey Grove this month to raise money and I believe there is an auction coming up on Nov. 1st!

The 1st Half of October!

2008-10-18T07:21:00.001-07:00

Okay....I've had several people ask me when I was going to update and I didn't think I had enough to blog about and now I realize that boy was I wrong! There are way too many things to blog in this post and a ridiculous amount of pics! So, bare with me!

First of all, on the 3rd of this month I turned the big 3-0. I have been dreading this one for a whole year, but it wasn't bad at all! Especially since my mom bought this candle for my cake! In case you can't read what it says......."18 with 12 years of experience" Thanks mom for making it easier on me! Another plus was that on my actual bday, my sweet husband and I went to Dallas to spend the night, go to the movies, eat out, and shop.....basically just 24 hrs. to ourselves. We had a great time! We were also celebrating our 5th anniversary that was on the 19th of September. It was nice to get away, but we missed the girls and were anxious to get home the next day! I got some great gifts.....money to shop with and some much needed silverware for my kitchen, my first Ipod....hot pink....love it! The best thing was from my mother-in-law! She came over and cleaned my entire house and did all my laundry while we were gone to Dallas! Thank you, thank you NANNY!

The night before my bday, my whole family went to Jaxx Burgers (great burgers if you haven't been there....the old Depot off of Church Street).
Our 2 shots at getting a family pic. Nice Kaitlyn!
I wish I could take Aubrie's pose above and put it in this one.....
Emma had had enough.....especially when her sisters started decorating her with streamers from the cake....
My big girl! She is starting to look so grown up to me lately!

October 3rd was also North Lamar's homecoming. Those of you that know I work for Paris ISD....please don't think I'm a trader. I actually bleed both Wildcat and Panther blood! I know that sounds crazy, but I went to Paris schools from K-8 grades and then went to NL and graduated. Kaitlyn goes to NL since her family lives in the district. I am hoping that the other 2 girls will go there also so that they will all be together. But I love Paris too! Okay enough about that....here is Kaitlyn decked out in her blue and gold and riding on the float in the homecoming parade.
Michael and his "mini-me" waiting to watch big sister in the parade.
Sweet girl! Her shirt says "I'm a future Panther"!
She LOVES her pink car!
This is just a random picture of Aubrie. She was so proud that she had helped me make up her bed and put all the animals back on. Such a chore!

I just can't resist the bare bottom pics! She got away from me when I was changing her diaper!
We were getting ready for church and Aubrie wanted Emma to try on her dress!

There are too many of this next set of pictures, but I was just so proud of my big girls! This past Friday was NL vs. Paris football game. I wasn't about to go and wrestle Emma in the bleachers, so these girls went with Michael. I had to go and pick Aubrie up after the first quarter because she fell asleep! But she was so excited to go to her first football game! Look how old she looks in this cheerleading outfit. She can wear the one that Kaitlyn has had since kindergarten. Kaitlyn got a new one this year! I could just eat them both up!

Go Panthers!

Love this one!
And this one!
Don't know what this face is about!
Future real cheerleader I'm sure! Looks a little bit too natural!
If Aubrie takes after me she won't even come close to being the cheerleader type, but I don't know......she looks pretty natural too!

My favorite!

This was taken yesterday afternoon during her nap! She just looked so sweet and peaceful!

Yesterday after we got dressed for church, I had to do a quick photo shoot of Miss Emma in her dress that Mimi gave her on her bday. I've been meaning to take to Walmart to have her pics done in this dress, but haven't found a good time.
Like my foot in this one?
Last night our Life Group from church met at our house to eat, have church, and carve pumpkins. Can you believe that I have NEVER actually carved a pumpkin? I've painted a few, but never carved! I know why now.....I didn't mind cleaning all the stuff out, but the actual carving was a pain....it quickly became and daddy/daughter event and I took pics!
K was a little grossed out!

Pretty soon it became a DADDY only event!
The finished products.....great job Daddy!

Everyone left except our friends Doug and Amy and their precious little Ridge. Emma is the future Mrs. Ridge Owens for those of you who haven't gotten the memo yet!
Ofcourse Emma wasn't big enough to care about the pumpkins, but she did enjoy getting into everything else she saw!So much fun that they had to take a bath before Ridge went home.....shhhh.....don't tell her daddy!
Ridge didn't have any pajamas after the unplanned bath affair, so he had to borrow the LEAST feminine pair that Emma owns. We were crackin' up laughin' at him wearing them.
Stay tuned for pics of their Halloween costumes! I can't wait for you to see them!

Overdue Pics......

2008-09-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

Other than news about Emma, I haven't had anything big to post about so I've kind of stocked up on random pics of the girls to post........I realized the other day that I hadn't even posted that Emma is walking now. She is so cute because she's still in that "Frankenstein" walk with her arms out and trying to catch her balance every few steps. She's also climbing on everything. The other day I went to the back of the house for something and when I came back she had climbed up in the chair with Aubrie and was sharing her snack. Too cute! "Look what a big girl I am!" This was one of Aubrie's gowns that I LOVE! I just think they look so grown up in them! I was trying to get both of them looking and smiling since they were both in such good moods. They are hilarious in the bathtub together. After eating a fudgesicle the other night!
She just looked so sweet sitting there that I HAD to get a picture.
Nanny (Michael's mom) got the girls some clothes and this was one thing she brought. Even though it isn't quite time to wear this, Aubrie just had to try it on! Too cute! I'm sure you will see more pics of her wearing it!

Mimi took this picture the other day after Aubrie ate some nachos. I think she gets more food on her face than in her belly!
Despite the reason we had to take Emma to Dallas on Thurs., Michael & I did enjoy our one on one time with her. It feels so wierd to us when we don't have all the girls. Emma didn't know what to think about all the attention she got. She was so good on the way there even though she only got a 40 min. nap that morning. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES books as I've said before.

And she has recently taken to this baby doll that was a baby gift for her. I like to see babies play with dolls......so precious! In the waiting room, she was enjoying her freedom from her carseat. She's really into pushing things around. These chairs entertained her for quite some time.
All that fun finally wore her out on the way home. She slept the whole way!
Uncle Ryan came in for a visit and Aubrie enjoyed her time with him!

Emma.....

2008-09-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to thank everyone for your prayers for our little Emma. The appt. went well yesterday. The neurosurgeon explained things to us very well and we feel relieved that she does not show any signs of hydrocephalus at this time. She is right on target for a 13 mo. old. Her head is growing at a faster rate than what she would like so she wants to do another CT scan to rule out everything. She believes that everything is fine and that her head size should level out by age 2 like she said before. It is not the answer that we really wanted.....we wanted her to say that our baby was perfect and not to EVER bring her back. However, it was much better than the alternative which would've been surgery at this time. Thanks again for all your prayers and please keep praying about future testing. God is so good! Love you all!

Oh, and I promise pics very soon! Our computer at home has been in the "hospital" so I haven't uploaded recent pics!

Our Precious Emma....

2008-09-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

We are taking Emma to a neurosurgeon at Children’s Hospital in Dallas this Thursday the 25th. This is actually a 6 month follow-up visit. Her head has grown at a very high rate since birth. Her doctor here sent us when she was 6 months old to have a Catscan done…he was concerned that she had hydrocephalus (big word, I know….it means fluid on the brain). If she had had it, they would have had to put a permanent shunt in her head that would drain the fluid off the brain….We were terrified to say the least. Thank God her test came out fine and she didn’t have it. We believe that this was because of all the prayers that went up on her behalf!!! The neurosurgeon in Dallas looked at and measured Michael and my heads and said that we both have above average sized heads (yeah, thanks) and that it would stop growing or "catch up" by age 2. Well, we took her for her 1 year old "well-check" last week and her dr. here is STILL concerned because her head has grown another 2 centimeters since May….he said that her head is the size of most adults. I know her head looks big compared to the other babies at church her age…but seriously….it is not as big as an adults head…..Please be in prayer about this as we go this Thursday!!!! We appreciate them sooo much and we know that God is in control.

Prayer requests......

2008-09-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

For all my prayer warrior friends out there....I have two friends who need prayers for their family members. A friend and co-worker at school...Michelle Gaither found out Friday that her 4 yr. old daughter has leukemia. They are at Children's Hospital in Dallas and will be there for atleast 30 days. The doctors think that they will be able to put her in remission by then. Please pray for little Dusty and her family as they deal with this scary situation.

The other one is from my friend Amy (Hubbard) Dawkins. She called me tonight and asked that we pray for her dad Nasser Eydani. He has suffered a stroke while visiting in Iran. He and his wife (Jeanette) live in Denton and the family has been unable to get details on how he is doing. Amy's sister is going to Iran in the next couple of days to see about him, so please pray for her travels while she is out of the country.

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." Ephesians 6:18