Chocolate Soup

This past weekend my mom and me and the kids took a trip to Memphis to visit my Aunt Marcy who lives in Germantown. It was really nice to be able to spend some time with my aunt. We try to take turns visiting each other. One reason for our trip was my aunt's birthday. After church Sunday, we took her out to eat at Cozymel's. I love any kind of Mexican food, but Cozymel's always seems to have some different choices than your everyday tacos and burritos. I had their blue crab enchildas with corn and relish. Some of you may think that sounds gross, but they were delicious!

Another reason my mom and I go to Memphis is to shop. We like to go to Wolfchase Mall, especially the Disney Store, and to The Children's Place. But the best place to shop for children's clothes in Memphis is Chocolate Soup. There are very few products/companies that I personally endorse, but Chocolate Soup is definitely at the top. It's a fairly small store located on Poplar next to Pier 1. If you're ever in Memphis, you should try to go there. They have really cute clothes for girls and boys and their prices are excellent! They always have a sale going on. Right now, the fall/winter items are an extra 66% off already reduced prices and the spring/summer stuff is an extra 40% already reduced prices. We always load up on clothes for the upcoming season. They have a wide variety of clothing and we always manage to find things that are a little different. They also have a lot of 2 or 3 piece outfits that are usually around 10-12 dollars. Daphne and Kaylee really like going and picking out stuff to try on. There's also a play area for kids who get tired of all the shopping. Right now, that's Noah's favorite place to hang out in the store. If you do get a chance to go, allow yourself some time because the store is packed with clothes and it can take a while to look through everything.

I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures from this weekend. I'm really bad about taking my camera with me. I'll try to get the kids to model some of the things we bought and post them. I hope everyone has a great week!

Through the Eyes of a 4 Year Old...

Yes, this is another post about Kaylee. I realize that I haven't posted much about Daphne at all, but it has not been intentional. I will try to post more about her in the future.

First of all, Kaylee went back yesterday to have her blood drawn again. I talked to her about a few days before, the night before, and then the morning of hoping to prepare her better than last time. She remained calm until we actually got into the lab and then she started throwing another huge fit! I had my legs and arms wrapped around her to hold her still while the nurse was trying to pry Kaylee's hand open. This continued for a couple of minutes until they stuck her finger. Then Kaylee stopped in mid-scream and said, "Hey! That didn't hurt!" The nurses thought is was hilarious!

Now, back to my original post. Kaylee got a digital camera for her birthday and she hasn't stopped taking pictures since. I like to look at them because it makes you see what and who she finds special. I'm not going to show them all because there are a lot of them and most of them are too blurry to see. The name of this slideshow is "My Favorite Things" because Kaylee and Daphne both are always singing that song from "The Sound of Music". I hope you enjoy a glimpse of life through the eyes of a four year old...

My Plea: Temporary Insanity

Daphne took this lovely picture of me with her camera!


I have a confession. There are times, my family and others might say many times, when I don't always think things through like I should. Well, ones of these times occurred yesterday afternoon.

I was trying to fix the heater/vent in the kids' bathroom when a big chuck of the popcorn ceiling came down. Now, I must mention Micah's suggestion because looking back on it, this might have been a better idea. He suggested that we just get some white paint and paint over that spot. My thinking was that we would never find the exact same color of white paint and it would never look right. Plus, since that piece fell off so easily, it wouldn't be that hard to do the whole ceiling. And that leads us to the plea of insanity...

Yes, part of the ceiling came down easily, but the rest of it took forever! I have worked on it for about 5 hours total now and as you can see, it's a long way from being finished. The good news is that it is a really small bathroom. I really enjoy doing things like this, but having 3 kids and a husband to take care of makes it really hard to do these home improvement projects. I have to finish this tonight (I won't get it painted) because we just re-caulked our other bathroom and it has to dry for 48 hours. So, if Micah and I want to take showers in the morning, I had better keep working on it. Wish me luck!

The Week in Review...

Well, it's been a while since I posted so I thought that I would catch everyone up. First of all, I just want to say that Arkansas has some of the craziest weather. Last week we had a very windy day with gust close to 70 mph, then we had some sleet and snow mix on Thursday and Friday. Then on Saturday, it was sunny and in the 50's so Micah, me, the kids, and our dogs to a long walk through our neighborhood and then stopped by McDonald's on the way home. We had a lot of fun and Daphne rode her bike the whole way! She loves to ride and she's getting to where she can do it with very little help from us. Then yesterday (Monday) our high was 78! It was perfect park weather! And finally for today, we have had tornadoes and bad storms all over the state and the temperature has dropped back into the 40's. I have lived in Arkansas my whole life, but I still say all the time that I can't believe how much the weather can change from day to day.

Now to more interesting things... Last Thursday a group of girls from church had a girls' night out. We went to eat at TGI Fridays and then watched 27 Dresses. We all had so much fun! All of us are mothers and we really needed the night off without kids! The group that went is from our Bible class that we've been having Wednesday nights. For right now, it is just for mother's of young children and we are reading the book "Chasing God and the Children, Too". It is a really good book and very easy to read. The chapters are a little long so sometimes we have to break them down into two classtimes. If any of you are looking for a good book to read, I recommend this one. The author speaks frankly and gives some really good advice about getting your house into order, finding personal time to relax, etc. This class has been a great learning experience because all of the moms talk openly about their lives and what works best for them. It has also been a really good opportunity to get to know each other better.

On Sunday night, that same group threw a baby shower for our friends Sean and Tressa Ashberry. And yes, I know that it was the Super Bowl, but that was the only time that was available. And it worked out well because I got home in time to see the last 8 minuntes and watch the Giants win! Sean is our church's Involvement Minister and he is also attending preaching school at Harding. He does a great job balancing the two and we are very lucky to have him. He is very sincere and is doing great things for the Church. Sean and Tressa have a 14 month old named Jackson. They are expecting a baby girl in March, but they won't tell the name. The whole theme of the shower was brown, pink, and green polk-a-dots. We used brown tablecloths and taped polk-a-dots all over it. The cake was cream with the bottom layer having stripes and the top layer decorated with more polk-a-dots. On the wall behind Sean and Tressa, we hung a "clothesline" and hung onesies, bibs, socks, bows, shoes, dresses, etc. from it. My friend Angela had painted all of the clothespin a solid color with polk-a-dots. She is very creative and artistic. She comes up really cute ideas and I usually say, "Sounds great! When will you have it ready?" I'm hoping to post some pictures from the shower in the next few days.

And then tonight, my parents and all of us went out to eat at Olive Garden. It was to celebrate mine, my dad's, and Micah's birthdays. As always, the food was delicious. And, as always, I ate more than I should have!

That's about all that happened this week. If I don't post again before next week, please keep Kaylee in your prayers. I take her back to the doctor on Monday so that they can draw blood for a fasting test. Some numbers from her last test came back high. I'm not really sure which ones. I'm hoping to find out more on Monday. The good news is that Daphne will be in school and Micah can watch Noah, so I'll be able to focus just on Kaylee. Thanks!

Noah's Super Cool New Shoes

Yes, they are on the wrong feet, but he puts them on all by himself and doesn't seem to mind.


Noah loves shoes. He picks out which pair he wants to wear everyday. He was two or three pairs that are his favorites. Noah also likes to get Daphne and Kaylee's hot pink Crocs and wear them around the house. I think it's hilarious, but of course it bothers Micah because no boy of his is going to wear anything pink. So, the other day, me and the kids were in Payless in the mall. I thought that since I had Noah with me, I would go ahead and try some shoes on him. We found a camo pair of crocs and these Cars crocs. My plan was to buy both pairs and save them for his birthday in March. Well, Noah didn't agree with that plan. He threw a fit when I tried to take of the Cars shoes. Usually, I do not give into my kids when they act like that, but it had been a long day and I know that I cannot win every battle. So Noah got to wear his new shoes out of the store. He really likes them and shows them to everyone. The only time he takes them off is at bedtime. He sits them next to his bed so that he can put them on first thing when he wakes up. I was able to hide the camo pair when we got home so at least part of my plan worked. Now, I just have to remember that I have them when his birthday gets here!

Trauma with Added Drama

Today was a very traumatic day for Kaylee.

It actually started off really well. Micah's parents took just Kaylee out to eat at McDonald's for lunch for her birthday. But, shortly after that, she had to go to the doctor for her 4 year old well child check-up. That's when things started going downhill.

Everything went well at first. She's healthy, in the 50th percentile for height and weight, and is doing everything a normal 4 year old should be doing. The doctor said that they were going to run some blood tests just to check things out. That is when the trauma begin. The nurse had to prick Kaylee's finger to collect blood. I realize that this does hurt, but Kaylee, as a have mentioned before, can be very dramatic. She screamed and kicked and put up the best fight she could. I had to hold her down which upset Daphne and made her cry which upset Noah and made him cry. The nurses found the whole espisode quite amusing. But the fun didn't end there! We then had to go back to our room and wait for the nurse to give Kaylee her shots. This is probably the first time that Kaylee has known what to expect and has anticipated the shot hurting. She remembered Daphne and Noah getting their shots this past summer. Kaylee kept asking me if it was going to hurt. I felt like I could not lie to her so I kept answering her, "Yes, it will hurt a little, but we all have to get shots to keep us healthy." But, of course, my logical reasoning didn't help. So, once again, I had to lay on her while the nurse gave the shots that made Kaylee cry that upset Daphne and made her cry which upset Noah and made him cry.

I was so relieved when we finally walked out of the doctors' office. We celebrated everyone's survival, especially Kaylee's, by getting ice cream at Sonic.

My Brother-in-Law Marshall

I just wanted to let everyone know that my brother-in-law Marshall is currently in Iraq. He is a Marine and has been over there since early September. For some reason, I couldn't get the picture any larger without making it blurry.

Marshall is Micah's youngest brother. Micah's family is taking turns writing to him and since this is our week to write, I thought that I would post something about him, too. Marshall is married to Amy Ireland. Many of you might know her or her family from Harding. They celebrated their one year anniversary in August. Marshall is one of the best persons I know. He has a huge heart, a great big smile and a wide variety of hats. He can go from a cowboy to a trucker in no time. But no matter what he's dressed like, Marshall always has a positive outlook on life.

A lot of us begged Marshall not to enlist with the Marines, but it was too late, he had already signed up. I'm not happy that Marshall is in Iraq, but I know that he is making a huge difference in peoples' lives, both here and there. And for that, I'm very grateful.

The girls ask me weekly when they'll get to see Uncle Marshall again. We all miss him so much. Please keep Marshall, Amy, and Micah's parents (Steve and Gail Sexson) in your prayers.