Wrapping things up

We have had a pretty full month of finishing up things here!  It has been busy!  Emma graduated from preschool on June 11.  Her graduation was a red, white, and blue theme and she had a great time.  We have been blessed by her preschool.  She has loved every minute of it and has learned so much not only about educational stuff but also about listening to others, participating in groups, cleaning up after herself, and getting tasks done in a timely manner.  She has really matured a lot this year!

We are trying to take the girls across the street to the beach as much as we can before we leave.  They love to go but sometimes it is hard to make the time and also Darcy is an absolute handful when we go.  She takes off charging into the water with no fear whatsoever.

Emma on the other hand is a very calm beach goer.  She likes to walk nicely through the shallow water and look for shells on the beach.  My girls are SO different from each other. : )

I also made a trip to Texas to find a house for us to live in when we get there in a couple of weeks.  I found the perfect house, but things are not 100% final with it yet which is sort of stressful.  I am hoping that we hear back on all those details this week.  

We are also trying to figure out the best plan for Boo and trying to daily convince E that moving is not a horrible thing.  She reminds me every day that she does NOT want to move and that she loves it here and wants to live here forever.  

Amidst the chaos, I have managed to finish up a few craft projects after the kids go to bed.  I have painted several things for our new house and am almost done with this star block quilt that I've been working on.

Tomorrow starts our last week in CT and I have mixed emotions about it.  I will miss the weather here and the history of the area. I like the proximity to NYC and Boston and I love the unique homey quality of the homes here.  But it will be great to be in the South again.  We love the area we are moving back to and we are excited about being closer to our families.  I'm not sure if I'll cry our laugh when we leave here next week.  Guess we'll see...

A Barking Good Time

 Emma turned 5 this weekend and to celebrate we had a puppy paw-ty!  (Her choice, of course.)  

 The kids got to adopt their own puppy and give it a name and then carry it home with them when the party was over.  (Thanks to my mom who mailed me all of the dogs out of my old beanie baby collection for the kids to adopt!)

 There were puppy ears for everyone to wear.  Each puppy got their own bag of puppy chow (Cocoa Puffs) and a ball to play with.  

Then they took their puppy to the puppy salon, where they could "wash" their pups and comb their fur.

They had a good time getting their dogs clean!

Then they could go to the puppy doctor and give their puppy an exam or take their temperature....like baby D is doing here in her puppy's throat! 

They each got puppy vitamins (gummy bears) for their pups at the puppy doctor.

We didn't make an intense castle like we did last year for Emma's princess party, but we did have a small dog house.  And the kids had fun running around together and eating cupcakes.  

Here are E and D with one of their good friends and their puppies!

Quilt Along, Anyone?

Look what I got in the mail today.


That's right.  I've gotten sucked into this whole Farmer's Wife Quilt Along thingie.  Have you seen it?  Well, about a year ago a woman and her friend bought this book and agreed to make the quilt along together.  The book has 111 blocks that make up this sampler quilt and the ladies agreed to make 2 blocks a week and post the pictures together through flickr. Well, a WHOLE lot of people joined in and it became a pretty big deal from what I can tell.  (I love Camille of Simplify's block color choices.)

I am obviously too late to do the quilt along with them, but I do want to do it and it would be oh so much more fun if I had a glorious gal to join in.  Anyone interested in a fun, fabulous quilt along?  You can get the book at Amazon.  I'm thinking the beginning of June would be a good time to start.  Come on, you.  You know you want to join me.  Hand quilting, machine quilting, color scheme, random colors, scrap fabrics, new fabrics...think of the possibilities.  And in 1 year, you will have a beautiful sampler quilt.  I'm getting excited just thinking about it.  I may go stare at my fabrics now...

Dangles and unicorn pins

We were sitting at the table when Emma randomly said, "mom, I know you had dangles when you were a little girl."  Um, what?  Excuse me?  Joey and I, both stifling laughter, asked her what she was talking about.  She then proceeded to give us a long rendition of a home video she had seen of me and my sister over Christmas at my parents house.  The video was of Christmas 1984 and Toni and I were quite entertaining. Emma could quote whole parts of the video with a very accurate southern accent... "mama, feel her hair, it's made of yarn" (I got a Rainbow Brite doll that I was AMAZED with) and "mom, look! unicorn pins!" (my sister had a serious thing for unicorns). We were impressed that Emma remembered all of it with such accuracy, especially given the fact that no one had talked about the video in months.

Emma has always amazed us with her memory.  She remembers everything.  Even when you think she's forgotten.  She'll wait a few months and then surprise us by bringing something completely random up in conversation.  Don't ever say or do something in front of Emma that you don't want her to remember and don't ever promise her something that you don't plan on fulfilling because she WILL remember and bring it up at the most unlikely time.  I think Memory is her superhero power. ; )

Anyway, Emma will always remember my "dangles" as shown in this picture.  By which we finally realized she meant bangs ("mom, you know, that short hair that is in the front of your head...") but we have decided it is much funnier to call them dangles.  I think if I gave Emma dangles right now, she might look like the twin of the little girl in this picture.

May you all have a unicorny, dangly-dumptious day!

me and you and a dog named Boo

Boo is our miniature pinscher.  We got Boo back in Texas in January of 2003.  She was itty bitty and a mess from the beginning, but we loved her like a baby.  She has always been a cuddly, snuggly dog who loved burrowing into blankets.  Boo has been around through the birth of Emma (Boo & baby Em below) and the birth of Darcy and she endured the move to Connecticut and all the snow (which she hates).  

However, we recently found out that she has cancer.  And probably won't live for too much longer.  She has something called an insulinoma which means she has a very small tumor on her pancreas that causes her to not regulate her insulin.  She ends up producing too much insulin.  She is living on lots of mediation right now and is okay today as I type this.  But she has been back and forth...having lots of stomach problems and even getting down to just 5 lbs at one point.  I honestly never considered something like this as a possibility. In my head, I guess I just imagined her getting old and grey and dying in her sleep one day.  I didn't expect to have to watch her go through cancer.  Naive, right?

Boo has definitely been a challenge over the years.  She can't be trusted outside without a leash, she is majorly barky, and she is constantly begging for table food.  All things that add up to me being annoyed with her quite a lot.  However, I hope to remember her as the loyal friend she has been through the years.  When Joey was in Iraq for a few months before we had kids, Boo was my constant companion.  She kept me company when there was no one else around and was always glad to see me and spend time with me.  She still loves me unconditionally even though I have often pushed her aside now that I have two children.  She has been great with the girls, snuggling them, and letting them hug and kiss her.  

I know dogs aren't people; believe me, I live with the craziest dog on the planet.  But Boo certainly has unconditional love down pat.  She may not have the best manners, but she loves all 4 of us - faults and all - day in and day out.  We haven't given up on her yet.  We are going to give her as much love and care as we can while she is still around.  Hopefully this will teach us to give everyone, each other, family, friends, and strangers as much consideration, love, and care as we can because quite honestly you never know what could happen tomorrow. 

2 Arkansans, 1 Texan, and 1 Connecticut Yankee

I'm sad that I haven't kept up with this electronic scrapbook/diary of sorts.  Seeing the baby pictures of Emma that precede this post make me wish that I had been more diligent with my blog....so, I'm going to give it another go.
If you are reading this, then you probably know us and know that our family has increased by one since my last blog entry.  Darcy is now 2 years old and she and her older sister, Emma (almost 5!) are currently playing the Kinect as I type this.

The two of them are the best of friends, although Emma rarely admits it.  Nothing is more fulfilling then seeing the two of them in the corner having a tea party or building a tent or playing Polly Pockets together.  

Emma had dance class today.  Darcy and I always wait for her at the studio while she dances.  When Emma comes out after class, Darcy gets SO excited.  It's like she hasn't seen her in a week.  Shouting Emma and hopping up and down and then she runs to her and hugs her.  I never get tired of seeing it every single week.  

Well, anyway, like I said I'm going to try and be better about keeping up with this (even if I'm the only one who reads it ; ) I can't promise it will be coherent or even on the same topic every time b/c I am a gal with scattered interests who wishes for a craft blog, a book blog, a random thoughts blog, and a family blog... so this may end up being a complete mismash of everything. : )  Maybe I'll even convince Joey to write something sometime.

Hello again...

It has been so long since I've posted! Emma is now 15 months old and is walking everywhere. We just had her 15 month checkup and she weighs 21lbs 13 oz and is 31 inches tall.