Laurie's Life

We had lunch at the Silver Caboose in down town Collierville, TN with Kay's side of the family on Friday. The food was excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was wonderfully done, home-cooked tasting food. Uncle Charlie and cousin Jimmy We are so blessed to have such nice families to spend the holidays with!!!!!! Steve was reading the menu to Sarah Kate. I love this area of town. We went to some wonderful gift shops. One of the stores had birds. Beautiful birds, I must add. Aunt Cissy and Uncle Justin sent the girls these darling Christmas p.j.'s SK loves that they have a tutu. Sweet baby Zach.

We spent Thanksgiving at Steve's Granny's house in Mississippi. She has a big wonderful family and I always enjoying being around them! Here are my girls playing with their beautiful cousin Maddie. This is Sam Henry, Josh and Steve's twin cousins, Allison and Angela. Sweet sweet people! Emily having a little cuddle time with Granny. She is 88. Olivia and Carol. Notice the ultrasound pictures Olivia is holding. She has a baby boy due in 10 weeks. These girls are a lot of fun to be with. Resting after the delicious meal. Cousin Mills. Here are the girls are with Kay-K as we were about to go to Granny's house. Lauren and Erica. Sweet girls. Lauren is a pediatrician and she ought to send me a bill after all the questions I asked her. We had a great day and a ton of good food. I know I have gained weight. We have so much to be thankful for.

A few days ago I was looking up my current favorite artist on Youtube. His name is Dave Barnes and if you are not familiar with his music, you need to be! He is so very talented. He is the one who wrote and recorded "God Gave me You." As I was watching his different videos, I came across a wonderful couple who videoed their marriage proposal and used the song "God Gave me You." This couple's proposal reminded me a lot of my own experience. Steve and I met at University Baptist Church in NWA about 9 years ago. We met in a Sunday School class. We got in engaged on April 7, 2004. Steve picked me up on that Wednesday night and I had an idea that he was going to propose to me. He told me that we were going to go out to eat. He stopped at the church and we got out. I kept asking him what we were doing. He took me to the church's chapel (it used to be the sanctuary). He had a stool on the stage and roses and a Bible. He told me to sit on the stool. He

If you have spent any time on this blog at all, you know I am terrified of birds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a bird phobia! Several of you have told me about the new Animal Planet show called "My Strange Animal Phobia." You could not pay me a million dollars to be on that show. As I walked through our entry way I spotted this bird on the front porch. I gasped and made sure that the door was locked (like the bird would really open up our front door). Birds love and adore our front porch. Notice the lovely wiring and fake snake to "scare them away." You see it works well. As much as I despise birds, I can't chase it off on a cold night like this. Poor thing is trying to find a warm place. My hunter is home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Steve has been away hunting with Scott in South Arkansas. We are soooo THRILLED that he is back home!!!!!

On Saturday I took the girls to a party for Sarah Kate's friend, Parker. The girls had a really good time playing and I had a really good time talking to my friends. Sarah Kate's latest: Every night when it is time for bed she brushes her teeth, goes to the potty, gets her p.j.s on and puts on a PAIR OF SHOES. I have no idea why. I put shoes beside my bed when we are under a tornado watch at night, but I have never slept in a pair of shoes. I go in after she is sound asleep and take them off. She wears whatever she sees: boots, ballet shoes, sandals. She has even worn a pair of Mary Jane's over footed pajamas. Oh well.............She is prepared.

Yesterday I took my girls to a Birthday party for Sarah Kate's friend, Kinley. Emily went along with us. The girls and I had a wonderful time! We are going to another party today! Party on Sisters. Harper rode with us and Friday and Sarah Kate got mad about something. Can you tell????? She acted really ugly. I don't even know what she was mad about. Harper kept asking Sarah Kate what was wrong.

Harper got to ride with us today and she was so happy! Sarah Kate loved having her ride along. They laughed the whole time! Sweet little girls!

Emily lost her second tooth yesterday! She let one of my friends pull it. (This is her Cat in the Hat face) She is growing up!

I heard Beth Moore say several years ago that "impression without expression, causes depression." I don't want to be depressed, so I will share how I was impressed over the past few days. I taught art for over 12 years in the public school systems. I really believe it is the BEST job in a school! Every year, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Arkansas Art Educators conference in Little Rock. I always learned so much and got to be around some of the neatest and most fun people in Arkansas. I have been out of the classroom now for 5 years. I left when Emily was born. I do not want to lose my teaching certification, so I am working to get 60 professional development hours. I have to have them done by December 31st. I applied to keep up my certification last January. I have had to watch some of the most terribly boring videos in the world and take test on them. I knew that attending the conference would be an easy and fun way to get a big chunk of hours. I

My little Pinkalicious. Our favorite Trick or Treater, Harper and my girls. Last night was very LOW STRESS and I loved it. We went to a few houses on our street and then passed out candy. Emily LOVES to pass candy out to kids in costume. She was so sad when our doorbell stopped ringing.