And they return

The girls have spent the past week in Ark with my parents. That's six days without preparing anyone else a meal (too bad for shannon) and six days without the constant spelling bee that goes on in my house, six days just hanging out with Shannon, and six days of going to the bathroom alone. I had no idea how much I would cherish just that last one....

Now they are back....and boy are they ever! I'll have plenty of pictures etc catching you all up on what happened in both states during that visit, but for now I'll just give you picture of day one so far without papaw and gran. Once again, it will be done in the form of my emails to Shannon. Boy have I missed this craziness!

Caroline has hidden the monitor from me. I have no idea where it is

Taylor has sprayed herself down with SENSI by Giorgio Armani and you can smell her coming from three rooms away

They are already eating lunch and there goes Caroline's plate flying across the room

The big ones have been singing, "Give me the beat boy to free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away...."

Next email

Anabelle has changed her tune to, "I love you when rats are in my house." WHAT?!?!!?!?!?

Next email

Just so you know..."Chubaka is coming to our house and he is a woman." -ACR

Shannon's one response:

Keep em coming...this is great stuff

Goin' to the big D....

You don't want to know how many hours we have driven over the past five days. I can't actually tell you because I refuse to add them up. Let's just say it was a lot. Right smack dab in the middle of our driving, we found ourselves in Texas with The Other Rushings. :)

They painted with Victoria. (Sorry Erin, I just realized that I could have apparently stopped the whole paint on the floor thing. I didn't realize until I saw this picture...sorry)

Swam with Uncle Nicky

Chatted with Granny Ilene

Rocked with Aunt Barbara

Played with Papadopa Dee

Played chess with Christian

Got carried around all over by Christian.

Hung with Uncle Jason

And cooled off in the water while all the big kids were in the big pool. (at one point, my car read 106! That for the record is too hot)

Look at those three handsome guys. I don't know if they could be more different but still the same. They don't see each other a lot, but it is so fun to watch when they get together. They really have a great time. This time it all centered around one thing...pitching machine

This is Nicky and his crew..Erin, and Christian and Victoria.

The only one missing was Lexi, she was vacationing in Florida, so we didn't get to see her. I guess we'll have to wait until next time.

We don't get to see the crew often enough, but we have fun when we do.

Walking in Memphis

We have driven through Memphis countless times in the last four years that we've lived in AL. We know where all the clean bathrooms are, but we had never stopped to enjoy Memphis. To us it was just a really convenient place to meet my parents or take a potty break or get some lunch at Chickfila. On our way home from Ark last week we decided to stay the night in Memphis and enjoy the zoo.


The zoo was cool and all, but my favorite part was breakfast in bed. :) The girls thought it was pretty awesome. They even got to sleep on a couch that turned into a bed. ;)
The Memphis Zoo was awesome. We went on July 4th and it was a bit warm, but I don't remember my kids whining about it at all. That tells you how much fun they had. We started with the pandas.

The polar bear exhibit was by far the coolest. You could watch the polar bears from outside or go inside (to the air conditioning) and watch from the aquarium. It was so fun to watch the polar bear interact and swim around. The picture below was about 4 seconds before Caroline lost her mind. For some reason a huge white beast just inches from her face scared her to death!!

They even have a great shaded playground right outside the food court area.

All three girls had a great time. Definitely something we will do again.

I should be doing laundry...

I should be doing laundry, but instead, I'm doing this...A little while ago my girls said, "Mommy, can you come in here and take some pictures of us on the ottoman and put them on the blog." So that's just what I'm doing. I'll do laundry later. Summer is the best!!!

Soon, I'll find time to post pictures of the Memphis zoo and the visit from uncle jared and aunt brandi, now I'll go do some laundry. The laundry never ceases!!

Ark day seven

Started off with sausage balls and ended with pig tails.


We spent most of the day at MaMaw's where we got to see Aunt Joan. She's always been the aunt that all the kids like to hang out with. She's cool like that. ;)
After naps and dinner, we had to do our measuring. Each girl has a post at the shop where we mark their height on each trip to Green Acres. Now that Caroline is walking, she got to get her first marks on her post.

Gran and Taylor played dominoes and Anabelle played her own way.

And now for the biggest news of the day......

It's time for pigtails!!!!!

Ark day six

Me and the girls headed to Monticello this morning...pronounced Mon-tu-sell-uh :) We saw some of our favorite people. We spent all day at the Montgomerys with them and the Taylors. The grown ups had time to visit while our SEVEN children played and caught up. They had a great time and so did we.

We even had a visit from Lilah and Bliss. It was so fun to see them with Caroline. I think she got a little nervous b/c they out numbered her. Of course we got to see Amy, Emily and Carla also. So good to see some of my Leonards. Love them.

We ended the day back on the swing at Green Acres. Great day!