Christmas Programs

T was a very sad Christmas tree...she lost her lights to "shine for Jesus"!

T is all ready for her handbell performance!

R got VERY serious when Santa appeared onstage at A's program...he wasn't sure what he thought of him!

One of the MANY penguins who saved Christmas! This is A with her two BFFs! These 3 little girls are pretty much inseparable! And yes, they are the same age as A!

We have been very busy lately with both girls rehearsing for Christmas programs at church and school! A had "How the Penguins Saved Christmas" at school, and A & T were both in "It's a Wonder-full Life" at church. They both did a great job, and it almost makes me cry each time I see one of my kids on stage! T even had a solo in the church program, and she did great singing all by herself in front of a packed sanctuary! T's handbell choir also played during service on Sunday, and again she did a great job! As you can tell, I am just a little proud of the girls! And to brag a little on baby R...he was a very good little boy at all of their programs!! What more could a mommy ask for?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY T!!!!!

T getting ready to blow out the candles on her cheesecake!

Just some of the "fruity" spread we had!

Birthday dinner at Ruby Tuesday's...T had been craving a turkey burger for a good while!

Opening presents from Daddy on her birthday!

T turned 11 years old on Nov. 19th. We had celebrations all spread out from the day before her birthday until the Saturday after Thanksgiving! The big celebration was Saturday...we had a fruit party with strawberry swirl cheesecake and chocolate covered strawberries and every other kind of fruit imaginable, even a yummy fruity punch! Everybody showed up (we had 29 people at our house, not including me and the 3 kids), and it was wonderful to celebrate T's birthday surrounded by family from all sides! Thanks to all who came to help us celebrate our "big girl" T's birthday!!

Jeremy Camp

Jeremy Camp from Shannon Willis on Vimeo.





I had the opportunity to see Jeremy Camp in concert last weekend, and it was great! Rai and I have wanted to see him for years, but we just never got the chance. My friend C and I went to the concert (3rd row...awesome!), stayed overnight (without kids!) and did some great Christmas shopping the next day! It was just the break I needed!! I came back refreshed, which was a good thing, because I got to come home to a sick baby!! Thanks MiMi & PaPa for helping out with the kids so I could have this little break! It was a great trip and I highly recommend seeing him if he ever comes to your town! If you aren't familiar with his music, check him out...he has a new CD coming out today!

Happy Halloween!

We finished off the evening with a visit to Uncle Jason and the fire trucks! Thanks Uncle Jason!!!

T kept saying baby R was "the hippie's pet monkey"...I'm not sure, but I don't think hippies had pet monkeys...

All 3 superstars posing for the picture...R was "chattering" the whole time just like a monkey.

R playing the part...

R loved looking at his monkey feet!

We had a great Halloween evening! T was a "hippie", A was Hannah Montana (the first time that she has NOT chosen to be a princess for Halloween), and baby R was one of the cutest little monkeys I have ever seen!!! Even though R is not quite old enough to enjoy the "trick or treating" part of the evening, he tolerated his costume quite well...just long enough for pictures and visits with Aunt Christie and MiMi & PaPa! Then he spent the evening with MiMi & PaPa while I took the girls trick or treating...they had a good time and came home with a full year's supply of candy! We thought baby R made quite the handsome little monkey. A friend in Georgia gave us this costume last year when R was just a tiny little thing, and it's been waiting patiently for this year when he would be big enough to wear it! It was worth the wait!!! Our "chunky monkey" gave us all the giggles every time we looked at him!

Playtime for R

R has an almost embarassingly large collection of toys...my living room usually looks like a tornado has hit because he likes to dig everything out and play with them one by one! It's amazing though that with all the toys he owns, he can spend 20 minutes climbing in and out of the kitchen cabinet and have the time of his life! He loves the tall cabinet that we use for our pantry...and I let him play away because there is nothing in there that can hurt him! Plus there is just something too cute about a little face staring up at you from inside the kitchen cabinet! : )

FALL IS HERE!!!

One of R's first attempts at picking up the "ball"

T being a great big sister and helping R...

A says "This is the one!"

The finished product of an afternoon of fun!

One more for the photo album!! Sable is usually in the picture, but as you can see, she wasn't in the mood for pictures this day!

Fall has definitely arrived here in Arkansas! We went for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch last weekend and the kids each picked out a pumpkin. We dug "Johnny" the scarecrow out and put him up with our fall decorations. He has been used for many years, but when I mentioned that we might need to go and get a replacement Johnny, A had a mini-meltdown. At first I was puzzled by her extreme attachment to him, but I got to thinking...Johnny has been with us through 4 states now...he has been the one "constant" in this fall tradition. The flowers change, the pumpkins change, the house they sit in front of changes, but 'Ol Johnny stays the same! So we added a little duck tape and Johnny will hopefully serve us well for a few more years! Baby R enjoyed roaming around the pumpkin patch, but he met his match when he tried to pick up the pumpkins! He couldn't figure out why he couldn't pick up those "balls"...he picks up the big orange (basket)ball at home all the time! The girls were very sweet helping him get through the rougher ground out there...he had to hold someone's hand in order to stay upright! It was a good afternoon, and we came home and got everything set up for our annual picture with the pumpkins. I love these simple little traditions...its fun to see the kids get excited over something as simple as picking out a pumpkin and this year sharing their "pumpkin picking" skills with little R.

For Daddy

The shirt says it all!!! This one's for you, Daddy!! Thanks Crystal for the great shirt!

First steps!!

This was one of his very first attempts!

Getting better at it!

In his jammies getting his last few steps in before bed!

He heard the "woof woof", so he had to see what she was doing!

All tuckered out...got his blankie and he is ready for bed!

Baby R started attempting to walk the week before his 1st birthday. He has now almost perfected it, and actually even runs sometimes! I was not ready for these "walking" days...he is growing up so fast, and with R gone I just kind of wanted time to stand still until he came home. He has missed so many changes in baby R! When R left in December for training, baby R was only 3 months old...and with only a couple of visits since then, R will return in March to a walking, talking 18 month old little boy! We overwhelm R with pictures of the kids, and I have his first DVDs going out this week so that he can actually watch baby R walking and A playing soccer...action is SO much better than still shots! I have a feeling that baby R will be all about Daddy when he gets home...he loves "boy" stuff and I am sure R will be happy to accomodate him and do all things "boy"!

A new additon...

Baby Kayden...all 5 lbs 8 oz of him!!

T & A LOVE their new cousin!! And so do I!

This is baby Kayden. He is the newest member of our extended family. He was born 8 weeks early weighing 3 lbs 10 oz, but he is showing he's a tough little guy and doing very well. He was born into a difficult situation. Please keep Kayden, his mom (my cousin K), and her parents in your prayers. They all need a lot of prayer! We love this little guy already, and we want everything to work out for the best for everyone!!

Future Rescue Hero!!

See how happy little R is? Of course, PaPa is pretty happy, too!

R LOVES firetrucks and police cars, and since my dad works for the city, he has access to both. We spent one afternoon letting R sit in the big ladder truck and in a police car that Dad was working on. Little R LOVED it!!!! He threw a fit every time I asked him if he was ready to go...he was having so much fun! If there was a heaven on earth for little R, this was it...the only thing that could have made it any better was to throw in a tractor and a motorcycle!

The Birthday Boy!!

Lighting the candle on baby R's #1 cake...

The first taste...

OOOHHH....YUK!!!

The tractor cake...just like PaPa's real one!!

A made a very special birthday present for R to hang in his room...he wasn't too impressed now, but I assured her that it will mean a lot to him someday!

Well, it's true!!! Baby R turned a year old on Sept. 8th. We had a party for him on the 6th here at our house. We had quite a houseful of family and friends here to celebrate with us, so that made it very special. We had a cookout, a hayride (thanks PaPa!), and then we had cake and ice cream. R had his very own #1 cake...chocolate with chocolate frosting! I was very much looking forward to him digging in and enjoying it because I usually won't let him have anything that unhealthy for him. As you can see from the pictures, he was not impressed with his cake!! He didn't like the way it felt on his hands or the way it tasted, and he couldn't figure out why everyone was staring at him and laughing!!! It was a great evening...thank you to everyone who came to share the fun of celebrating our first year with baby R...and what a fun year it has been!

Fair Pageant

R in his cowboy gear!!

A along with the other winners of her pageant.

Again, I must point out how much taller A is than all the other girls her age!

I thought she looked very grown up and beautiful!!!

Our local county fair was this last week, and they always have a fair pageant as part of the festivities...so of course A and R were entered in it!! I was in the pageant when I was about T's age, and I tried to get her to do it, but she very quickly told me "No Way!". So we entered A and R. R's was a "western wear" theme...he wore Wranglers and Ropers and all that good stuff! He had a "Tough Enough To Wear Pink" Wrangler shirt...part of the proceeds go to breast cancer research, which I thought was great! A's theme was just "Sunday dress". The pageant was supposed to be on Wednesday, but because of bad weather it was postponed until Saturday. That meant we had two pageants and R's birthday party on the same day!!!! It was total chaos!!! But, it was fun even though R didn't place in this one. A didn't place, but she won "audience favorite", so she was thrilled! Her exact words were "There were like 10,000 people in the audience and only like 11 judges, so it's more important what the audience thinks anyway!" (In reality there might have been 150 people in the audience and there were 3 judges, but it's neat to hear how it looked to her!)

Labor Day Hike

This is at the top, where it all began!
The girls are "ready to go"!

Taking a little break...halfway there!

T and A braving the falls!

We made it back to the top!! YEAH!!!

For Labor Day we decided to go to Petit Jean State Park and take a hike! We have this great backpack for R that he loves to ride in, but we just haven't used it much. So, we decided now was the time to break it in right! I had been on one of the trails before, and I remembered it ending at a waterfall, so I thought that would be a great one for the girls to see! So we packed up a picnic lunch and loaded the van with all 3 kids, myself, and my parents, and we were off!! We found the trailhead and it said it was 2 miles long. No problem, we think!! The trail is mostly made up of natural steps made out of stone...you go down hill pretty much the whole way in to the waterfall. At the end you are in this deep canyon with the waterfall pouring down over the rocks into a pool of water. It is beautiful, and the girls enjoyed it, but man was it hard with little R on my back!!! I carried him the whole way down (and survived)! After a short break for the girls to play in the water, we headed back UP the trail with little R on PaPa's back. PaPa made it almost the whole way...he had to give little R up near the end. We kept saying the whole way down and back up "who's idea was this"? But, after about 15 minutes to recover at the end, we all agreed that it was fun...T is ready to go again!! (By the way, I know I am going to hear it from R when he sees this, and others will probably think it...but YES little R has his binky in his mouth in EVERY picture...I know! He is getting several teeth at the moment, including his two top teeth, so he has been quite the "binky baby" lately! I figure if it helps ease his pain, then that's okay! Once the teeth are in, we will make sure he has it less! So no nasty e-mails!! Remember, I am single parenting right now, and whatever makes things easier on me usually goes around here right now!)

Just a Swingin'

Our current house has a porch swing, which little R LOVES!! He has to have his daily swinging time, or things just aren't right! He thinks he is such a big boy because now he will sit by himself (not in our laps) and swing, and he loves it!

Sittin' Pretty

R is getting so big, and becoming such a fun little person! We have an old wooden rocking chair that we have had through all 3 kids now. The girls would sit and rock, but until now little R just wanted to push it around his room or stand up in it backwards!! Just in the last week or so he has started sitting in it and rocking. He almost always sits with his little feet crossed, and it's no different in the rocking chair! As you can see, he is quite proud of the big boy he is becoming!

First Day of School...

T & A ready for their first day of school!

A took Daddy with her...she made sure her "Daddy button" was on her backpack!

T with her new haircut and no braces for the first day of school!

The girls started school again on Monday. They were both a little nervous because they were starting at a new school (AGAIN!), but they have both made friends already and have had a pretty good week. They will get to go the full school year at this school, so that is always an added bonus!! They are even riding the bus to and from school if you can believe that!! We live "in the country" as the girls call it, and traffic was CRAZY at the schools, so after 2 days of baby R and I being in the vehicle for an hour in the morning and afternoon, we decided that was enough! Hopefully this will be a memorable year full of fond memories for them!