The return of the Pigtails

I had taken a break from the pigtails but they are back...

It was cool Sunday so I decided to put Lia in a new outfit I had for her. Tights, boots, skirt... so cute. I had to add the pigtails and take a picture...

Where are your pigtails??

And then.... as if to say, "Mom, I think I want to model"... she struck a pose!


and I had to throw this in... Lia loves sitting in her rocking chair (it used to be mine) and reading her books...as you may have read in the previous post about pumpkin sitting... "sit" is a favorite word around here right now...


Brendon got hom and got Lia up from her nap... check out the pigtail bedhair!

And of course, when we went outside Lia wanted Daddy to "sit" under the tree with her...


Hope you had a great weekend too!

"Goodbye Tuck" (heard from Lia last week)

So, we were a one car family for about 22 hours on Thursday/Friday, but no more. Brendon found a great deal on a GMC Envoy in Charlotte, NC and it's what you'll find my hubby driving around town in...I'm so excited!



And a little bummed. I love the new car, but we had to say goodbye to his truck... and I'm a little sad to see it go. I didn't feel that way about the Altima... I was so glad to see that car go, but since Brendon owned the truck for 8 years... there are a lot of great memories...

1)It's the truck we drove on our first date. I remember he washed it that day and opened the door as I got in on the way to Chinese and a play a friend of mine was in.

2) Moves - It's the truck that moved us several times... well, it moved lots of people...but it moved me from college to my first apt...2nd apt....into our first home/apt as a married couple...to Atlanta (well, it only moved a few things that time)...and into our first house!

3) Good trips - We took the truck on a great trip to Bloomington and St. Louis in college.... and a fun spring break trip to FL.

4) Bad Trips - I remember one with my brother over the mountains to NC.... longest stretch of highway EVER!!!

5) And it was the first car we paid off...I remember getting the title in the mail and Brendon going to clean the car... inside and out, of course... to celebrate that it was ours.

Anyone else have a hard time saying goobye to a car?

Ok, this was too funny that I had to share... my friend Christy shared it and I had to put it up...

What reading e-mail has done for me

*I have to scrub the top of every can I open.
*I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny
Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.
*I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive
the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for
participating in their special e-mail program.
*I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking
out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.
*I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant
freaks with no eyes or feathers.
*I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a
water buffalo on a hot day
*Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I
forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five
minutes.
*Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can
remove toilet stains.
*I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the
car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas.
*I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these
products are atheists who refuse to put "Under God" on their cans .
*I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.
*And thanks for letting me know I can't boil a cup of water in the
microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face...disfiguring me
for life.
*I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be
pricked with an infected needle.
*I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a
perfume sample and rob me.
*I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually
Al Qaeda in disguise.
*I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don't support our
American troops or the Salvation Army.
*I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a
number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda,
Singapo re and Uzbekistan.
*I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have
their recipe.
*Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown
African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when
it bites my butt.
*And thanks to your great advice, I can't ever pick up $5.00 I dropped in
the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester
waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.
*I can no longer drive my car because I can't buy gas from certain gas
companies!


If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70
minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM
this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back,
causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it
actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's
ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician . ....

What has email done for you?

Bathroom Update...

I know you have all been on the edge of your seats to see the bathroom renovations. We might have been weekend warriors on the wallpaper, but the final touches are taking much longer. So, for now here is a look at the bathrooms...

1/2 bath -
here is a look at the vanity and the nice new green paint. I don't know what is up with the light bulbs we got, but they are all burning out...
Anyway, new mirror, new light...pretty!


here is a fun metal art piece I found to put on the wall. It's great and you can see it from the hall as you walk by it the door is open.


Crosses on the left. Each were gifts from friends many years back...


And I found these prints on metal that I thought were cute too....


I need to translate, but it's in French... that will be a different post unless I get a little help from a certain French friend!


Guest Bath

If you have ever visited us then you will be excited about this change...the guest bath which was a hideous green and gold stripe with a magnolia border but is now chocolate milk with blue accents. I have a few fun things planned for here, so I will post that sometime soon.


Here are the BATH letters and the blue towels I already had...


Master Bathroom -
Our bathroom didn't get a huge makeover (but we have big ideas for in there) but it did get a nice paint of coat and I love it...
Sleepy Blue from Sherwin Williams....here's a peek

Happy Fall Ya'll

If you have kept up with Shae's blog then you will know why I was excited to see this, but we went to the Pumpkin Festival Friday and found some fun yard art...


We went to the "festival" at Stone Mountain with the Stevens family and the girls had fun even if the adults were a little less than impressed. I think we just expected too much from the pumpkin festival at 10am in then morning. We did have some fun looking at all the pumpkins and taking some cute pictures of the girls.

It was Brendon and Lia's 1st trip to Stone Mountain, *ever*..


here are the Stevens with the giant Pumpkin Tree....


As Micah said..."Something tells me that in about 4 weeks that's going to be a giant Christmas tree!"


Haley and Lia hanging out..


Lia in the pumpkin patch

She liked the pumpkins, but mostly just wanted to *SIT* on them :)


a baby pumpkin...

Pumpkin Sitting...it's the newest craze!

i don't want to sit *next* to it... I want to sit *on* it!

Daddy and Lia in the photo booth...

giant scale...still only 20+ pounds...

Hanging out with Daddy...

Cool, Dude!

Last week at school, Lia learned about the seasons and brought home a bag with examples of seasonal objects. There was a leaf, a sun, some "pritty" flowers, and some "gasses"....

we're still working on application!

@ the Park with Nana and Papa B

the weather has been so pretty lately and we went to the park this past week to play. Lia loved running around and got to try all the fun things in the park...the tire swing, climbing across the bridges, the slides, the swings, and a few other attractions. Here are some pictures..

Lia taking a train ride -

going down the big slide with Daddy


a picture with Mommy...

hanging out in the grass..


with Nana and Papa B... thanks for coming to play with me!

William Henry

Well, we got the call last night and instead of telling us *when* they had scheduled the C-Section, Em'ly and Dave told us what they had done yesterday....they had a BABY!

My dear friend Em'ly had a little boy...William Henry @ 6:01pm. He weights 8 lbs 6 oz and is 20 inches long with some reddish brown hair.

I can't wait to see a picture of him, but until then I thought I would embarrass his Mommy with a picture of us 10 years ago....yep....1997.


She even loved me wearing overalls...that's a true friend!

Bathroom renovation...

I will blog more about this past weekend when I get some pictures from Holly, but the past 2 days we (and I really mean Papa B and Brendon) have been working on stripping out wallpaper in the bathrooms and painting them *pretty* new colors...

here are a few snap shots...

There's Brendon taking the paper off the 1/2 bath...did he take his head off too?


nope, there it is....

And Papa B starting on the paint in the guest bath... hmmm...this looks a little like chocolate milk!


and of course, the *only* reason we can get any of this done is because we have help... I mean - this would take *FOREVER* one nap at a time. Nana got to spend some time playing with Lia while everyone else made a big mess.



Before and after pictures to come...

Happy Birthday Lawson!!!

My nephew Lawson turned 8 on Monday and I can't believe it. We had a great time this weekend and I even got to take him in my mom's convertible to spend his gift card we gave him for his birthday! We love you Lawson and are proud of the young man you are growing to be!

Here is a picture of Lawson being kissed by his sisters!

The family photos were crazy, but I had no idea what was next...

Brendon took me on an errand and when I got back there were signs leading to my mom's house that said... "Picture this...Rachel's 30!"

We had a big party with friends and family. It was fun to have everyone there and catch up and visit. The kids had so much fun playing and it was just a blast to be around my family and friends!
Thanks to everyone that worked so hard to make it happen and ESPECIALLY Mother who put the whole thing together!

I am a truly blessed girl, and I don't take any of it for granted. It's hard to believe that I'm 30, but I'm excited the journey ahead.

After the time outside playing we all got ready and Taylor took a big family photo....


well, the real one is better than this, but I will have to save that for another post.

I took pictures of all the kids *except* Lia... I missed her! (see previous blogs for pictures)

Hannah..

Sarah Kate

Lawson
Benjamin

Laura Grace
Kirin

Isaac

Hope

Lia (this is from a previous post, but I didn't want to leave her out of the line up!)


Terrin

Elijah

Yep, that's 11 if you are counting... wow!

And then here are a few more...

me, Taylor and Victoria...


and Victoria and I bought these glasses over the weekend... did Victoria tell you, "Rachel's 30..we're the same age... we're in our thirties!"