Celebrations and Good Times

 We have had several celebrations here lately that have kept us pretty busy and just good times. 

We celebrated Memorial Day and cooked out with Dakota and the girls. 

We took a day and went to the movies. The girls love Spirit and we were waiting on it to come out.  It was a day well spent. 

I bought a few more preschool things for the girls. One is a pre-made activity binder and it was well worth $20. They love it.  The pieces are already velcroed and very well put together. I bought a tracing book for Caroline. It starts out big letters and numbers then it reduces in size once they learn how to make the letters. You can finger trace too. I got Atleigh a new activity book.  I will be taking out the pages and putting them into sheet protectors so they can use dry erase markers and reuse them. 

They love activity binders. I have also been checking into busy binders. Goodness, I've got to stay off of Pinterest and YouTube.  

They have been helping me in the house a little to earn some more spending money in their lock box. We are going to take then on a little overnight road trip. It us going to be a test trip to see how well they do before we start making some longer road trips. 🙃 

We are not going to grow a garden thus year but we did manage to get just a few cherry tomato plants and mini pepper plants for them to eat off of. They love to dip them in ranch dressing.  They helped me plant them one day and Atleigh worked so hard stretching the water hose to the garden to water them. A cracked hose makes a good splash pad too. 

Dear hubby and Dallas went to my momma and daddys house one day to help them cut off and cut up a huge limb that broke off into their yard. If you will notice in one picture there is a snake hanging down from one limb.  There wound up being two snakes in that tree limb after cutting it up. Cotton mouths. No telling how many times they have walked under that tree. 

They loaded up the Ranger and worked one day on it. Bless them. He has always taken care of my parents. 

We had Graduate Recognition 🎓 one Sunday at church. Dallas received a military Bible from our church. 

We had a death in our family also. It was one of my Uncles. My momma is the youngest of three children. She has two older brothers.  He was a retired Paramedic.  He was proceeded in death by his wife to which they were a Paramedic team. They drove an ambulance together same shift and hours. 

This is my momma and their other brother, his only daughter, and me and my sisters. 

My other Uncle and Cousin traveled 11 hrs. It was a rough trip for him and it wore him out for several days. 

Me and my Momma are going to make a trip back to the gravesite and decorate my grandparents graves.  We got to spend some time with them while they were here. They stayed with my momma and daddy and that was very good for my Uncle. There is a big age gap between me and this cousin but we have so much in common. She was the one who inspired me to homeschool  our boys when they were little. 

June 14th is National Flag Day and every year we try to replace our old torn flags due to weather and put up fresh ones. We dispose of the torn ones properly.  If you don't know how to do this, you need to research. An old flag should never just be thrown in the trash. Look it up. We fly our American Flag and Marine Corp Flag with pride. We also taught the girls a little lesson about the Flag that morning.  Semper Fi from our house to yours on National Flag Day. 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Nothing to see here but a couple of unicorns brushing their teeth and making faces. 😬 . Because we can. We were getting ready for the day because it was Atleighs bday. Yep,  unicorns.  Me and Poppie had our own party for her because she was not having a party until 5 days later and she did not understand that it was her bday and we weren't doing anything. So bring on the party. The one thing that she was the most excited about was that we baked her cake together and decorated it together. That's all she talked about all day. 

She patiently waited all day until daddy got off work so he could celebrate with us. 

She is such an appreciative little girl. 😍

Then that Saturday we had her bday party her mommy and daddy were planning. 

Somebody done stole my man and taking all my kisses.

Then we celebrated Father's Day. 

Poppie has a new travel blanket so he can take us girls anywhere with him. It says, "Carrying Your Love With Me". 💘

The next day we went to see my momma and daddy for Father's Day. 

Fresh cut flowers from my flower beds

Ma Kettle, what's for supper?

Well, chilren, it's chicken parmesan with fresh mozzarella and bruschetta, that's what. 👌

We are just spending this summer trying to get caught up on some things around the farm. 

We still do not know of Dallas' ship out date yet, but we are just spending as much time with him as possible. Alot has changed in the past 30 yrs since Dear hubby enlisted and went to bootcamp. Now they don't let them come home for 10 day leave after graduation. They go straight to MCT school.  This will be completely different. I think he's getting  a little antsy.  He is hung between wanting to go and wanting to stay. We will see. 

I hope everyone has a blessed day. Maybe I can slow down a little or at least remember to blog. 🤦‍♀️ 

Congratulations Class of 2021

 Well, we made it through two graduations.  

My best friends daughter graduated first.  We had the pleasure of attending her graduation.  It was also my old school. I got to see some of my old class mates who had children graduating. There is only two weeks difference between Dallas and my best friends daughter. Her name is Kalee. My best friend and I were pregnant at the same time. She was at the hospital when I delivered Dallas but two weeks later I missed Kalees birth. I felt so awful. I had had a rough day and night with Dallas feeding every two hours and not sleeping so I had turned the ringer down on our phone. Low and behold, my best friend went into labor and headed to the hospital. We missed the call. 😢 

I promised that since we missed the birth, I wouldn't miss the graduation. 😁

Dear hubby got off work and came home and surprised our girls big time. He was hiding in the closet when Dakota brought them that morning on his way to work.  He video called Atleigh like he always does and they talked for a bit, then as they were talking, he came walking into the living room and still on the phone. She was so excited and surprised. They put the phones down and just ran to him and hugged him. Their hugs brought a few tears to Poppies eyes. 

Then they were stuck together like glue. They have not let him out of their sight. 

He told his company he had to make it home for Dallas graduation or he was just leaving. He has never missed important events of our boys. So it was Dallas night to graduate.  

We were afraid that Dakota wasn't going to get to make it. He was on call. We were so blessed his phone didn't go off. 

We let the girls come home with us and spend the night and it's a good thing we did. Around midnight he got called out. 

They have no problem staying with Poppie and Gmaw. They never want to go home. 

We have been having some pretty weather and getting outside more in between rain. 

Atleigh finished up her softball season. One night she spotted her Poppie when she got to a base that was close to us and she held out her little arms and wanted him. We told her to focus on running and she could have Poppie as soon as it was over. ❤

We still do not know a ship out date for Dallas but we are going to spend as much time with him as possible.  

We received Dallas yearbook from school and this was their Sr dedication pages we had made for it. 

Just a daddy and his sweet girls 

I have a new read and I'm loving it. 

This lady has alot of books that I'm going to read. 

I have another stroller hack for you. USB rechargeable fan. Use a binder clip or carabiner hook to hook it to the stroller for extremely hot days on kids. 

I found the easiest and tastiest pie crust to make ever. 

We have a new project we are working on. Well,  it's Dakotas idea and dream. Not gonna tell you yet. 

Seniors Class of 2021

 Tonight, he will be closing the door on one chapter of his life and starting a new adventure.  Time has flown by way too fast. We don't know a ship out date yet for military but it will come way too soon for me. I'm a little emotional. I will never be ready for my kids to untie the apron strings. They will always be our babies.

And I have the best photographer ever. More pics to come. 

Me Time Today

 I did not have my little buddies today so I just had some me time.  I had been wanting and needing to do a project for Caroline for a long time. 

Well, when you lose one, you just have to make another. Yes, that is a back pack made from Pioneer Woman placemats. Cause I'm a cool Gmaw like that. 👍😎

I made two of these last year for the girls and one got lost so I finally got them back ad said they are going to stay at my house now. We are not loosing another one. 

Road trip/Traveling  activity back pack. Cause I can, and I did and "Don't you wish your Gmaw was hot like theirs!" 

I should stay off of Pinterest and YouTube....😁😁😁😁❤😉

I have small activities and toys to keep them busy for road trips. 

You can go to Pinterest and YouTube an type into the search bar: travel hacks for toddlers or road trip hacks for toddlers and oh my goodness, the possibilities are endless. I am going to watch some videos on activity binders, busy bags and sensory bins for the girls. 

I found a cute little ways to fix up little activity boxes. Here is one with Legos. You take your base and you can either glue it or just lay it in the lid and use the lid as a work space and then the pieces in the other side. And it can sit on a travel tray in their lap, which I have,  and they can play. 

In the other box I have a little doll play set for each of them for playing with. 

Taking smaller little toys is better than traveling with large toys that takes up too much room in a vehicle. 

This will go right in between their carseats. I had this bag when Dakota was little. Used it for going across country with two kids.

This is basically all I did today. I straightened and organized our Preschool stuff and now I feel accomplished.  

Fun Time At The Fair

 We got to take the girls to the fair last night. I was so glad to get to hang out with my boys and girls plus one.  

The girls were so tired and was upset because they wanted to go home with Gmaw. Bless them. I promised them I'd be there first thing in the morning to pick them up for church. Daddy likes to go to church with a nice little Christian couple friends of his and that's fine. The girls just love going with me. 

So that's exactly what I did this morning. 

And this is how our morning at church went:

 So the moment finally happens when you are I'm a public restroom, namely at church,  and you take your littlest granddaughter(you know, the mischievous one) in the bathroom to change her and then decide you might as well go while you're in there. Then all the sudden you are seated and defenseless, it happens. She looks at you with that little mischievous smile and has her hand on the door lock at the same time. Yep,  you know what happens next. 😳🙄🤦‍♀️😱 

Then after an hour of training and teaching her to not talk during church, as soon as the deacon says, "Amen" at the closing prayer and then she shouts, "Can I talk now!!!"   Yes, by all means you can talk now. 

And then there's the time that you work so hard to get her hair fixed for church and you threaten.....I mean, encourage, her to leave her hairband in her hair,  then she finally jerks it out proudly because she just wants wild and free hair. 😜

I swear I need a shirt that says, YOU'RE KILLING ME SMALLS, And she needs one that says, HI, IM SMALLS. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ 

And then there's little Atleigh who is just content to color, draw, try to read and just snuggle with me and eat her snacks 😋.  Two different personalities,  but life is still good.

After church their mommy came to pick them up. Atleigh takes one look at her mom and says, " Don't ever come pick me up at Gmaws. I'm staying here!" Oh my. Mommy had to bribe her to leave. 😳 

Just goes to show we have an awesome relationship with our grandchildren.  

The Gmaw Mobile got a good washing today and is ready for road trips. This has been a life saver. That fair was too crowded for my liking last night and there is no way I can carry two toddlers myself.  ❤😁