Some pictures to share!

Thanks to my mom and some others, I have a few pictures to share from this summer!

Claire opening her birthday gift from Nana and Grandpa.

Princess night gowns!!

Getting ready for a swim. I have no idea what that look on her face is!

The kids and I in the pool...yeah, I've got a dorky hat on. ;)

Dad and Will having a water war.

Will at his CDO water day a few weeks ago.

Scott shooting at people at a friend's swim party in June.

And last, but certainly not least...my favorite pic of the summer. This was captured by a friend of ours at a swim/birthday party. It's priceless. I will cherish this always. (And yes, he had permission to do this by the homeowners!) ;)

Claire's First (Real) Haircut

I say "real" haircut because I have trimmed a teeny bit off the ends in the past, but this time I actually took her to the hairdresser and she cut quite a lot off. Claire had some natural layers going on and I wanted to even it up a bit. She looks a LOT older :( , but I think it's very cute. And of course, it will grow! :) (By the way, these pics were taken with my webcam since we don't have a camera; that's why they're a little weird!)

From the front...

...and the back. It's a little kooky, we didn't style it or anything...I will do that later tonight after her bath and take more "styled" pictures.

...And Mom got her hair cut and colored, too! Fun times. :)

Happy Easter!

Claire's class after their egg hunt at Children's Day Out.

Will after his egg hunt. They got to have theirs at the park.

Dying eggs!

Today after church in the neighbor's garden.

This is the only decent one that we got of them together!

Pictures by Robyn

Robyn was able to take photos of us while we were in Lubbock a few weeks ago! Check out her photography blog for a sampling of the pictures!

Goings-On

Hello! I am still alive :)

So much has been going on, and most of the time I am way too tired to even consider blogging, but I thought I'd update since I have a few pictures to share.

A couple of weeks ago, we went down to San Antonio to visit my grandmother and meet up with my parents. The kids and I went on with my mom and dad to Katy and Scott returned home to work on his essays for his comprehensive exams. We returned a few days later by plane. THAT was an experience I'd soon like to forget. Plane travel alone with two kids is not much fun. I did survive, though :) My mom took a lot of great pictures of my kids riding my brother's girlfriend's horse, but alas, I do not have those. Maybe my mom will email them to me (hint, hint!) ;)

Scott has since finished his essays and turned them it (Praise God!) and we are done with grad school stuff for a while. We also found someone to baby-sit our kids on those days that they're not in "school." So that is another "Praise!" The flower shop was extremely busy last week with several funeral pieces, so I definitely got in some "practice." This week has been a little slower so far, so that's kind of nice (it is our local schools' spring break, which is always notoriously slow).

The kids are doing well. Claire was sick for a while before we went to my parents' house, but she is better now. Will is currently obsessed with pirate "jewels" (which will explain a couple of pics), however we haven't watched Pirates of the Caribbean for several days as he is currently hooked on Star Wars (my fault, I let him watch it the other day). He still likes to dress as a pirate, though. Claire likes to do everything that Will is doing and is a sweet little helper. She is showing her intelligence here lately by recognizing some of the letters of the alphabet and talking more and more. She loves to sing and dance and is even starting to show interest in the potty. Kids grow WAY too fast!!!

One funny thing that Will has been doing the last few days is asking me if I am going to have a baby. I am not sure what has prompted this question...maybe it was the fact that we went shopping for a baby shower gift a few days ago. Anyway, he's asked me several times since about it and I have told him, no, that I'm not going to have a baby anytime soon. He says that I should and he wants a brother. Hmm. I'm not so sure.

Anyway, time for the pictures!

Scott and the kids watching Cinderella in our bed.

Claire's ponytail!

"Smarty Pants!"

Man, I wish this picture wasn't blurry! It would have been so great!

Will watching a movie while wearing his "pirate jewels", a Mardi Gras mask, and his Capt. Jack Sparrow hat.

Will (again with the pirate jewels) and his St. Patrick's Day hat he made at school (so cute!).

Claire with the leprechaun hat.

This is how I found my children when I came home today...Claire asleep in her chair (but sitting in it the wrong way, with its back on the ground)...

...and Will deeply engrossed in Winnie the Pooh, with my couch's arm cover on his head and wearing (of course) his pirate jewels. Funny.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Oh, my. Where do I start? We've had an interesting few weeks at work. Valentine's Day was pretty horrible, not because we were so overloaded with work but quite the opposite. It was the worst V-Day that I've ever seen, and I've worked in the flower business for about seven years now. Aside from that, we've had some people leave the shop, mainly for health reasons; they needed health insurance and my boss can't really provide insurance that's reasonably priced--it's a small business! However, the people that left included the lead designer for the shop, who has had 25+ years experience in floral design. She is phenomenal in what she can create and do. The other person that left has been our other full-time designer since October. I have been designing some off and on for the past few months, but not in any major capacity. I only work three days a week.

Sooo....guess who's the new lead designer? Yep, you guessed it...ME! This is both exciting and scary at the same time. Today I went in thinking I would only work from 9:00 to 2:00, but ended up having to stay til 5:30 because we had a lot of funeral work orders come in. But, I made two $75 dollar standing easels and several other things and everything looked pretty good! Not 25+ years-experience top-notch, but certainly not bad.

This means I am going to have to try to go back to work full time. This is going to be hard because I don't really have anyone to take care of my kids. So, please pray for me in this new position and also that I might find a good place for my kids to go on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (they go to "school" on Wed. and Fri.). Scott is also trying to finish up his comprehensive exams, which is really 4 papers, in the next couple of weeks for his Masters of Arts in Biblical Interpretation from LCU. So, AHHH! This is a crazy time for all this to be happening. I am just asking for prayers as we try to accommodate all these new changes.

Oh yeah, and Claire has been sick with RSV for the past week--bad timing! She seems to be at the tail-end of it, though :) To close, I leave you with a couple of random pictures...because what's a blog post without pictures??

My sweet hubby surprised me with roses on Wednesday! Beautiful!!

At long last...Scott's diploma from ACU came in a couple of weeks ago!

Sweet little red shoes on Claire for Valentine's Day (from Nana).

And finally...

A sign of the future?? Will decided he needed to take a nap outside in this cardboard box the other day. (He stayed in there for about three minutes) :)

Trying Something New

We decided to convert Claire's crib to a toddler bed last night. Of course, she only slept in it for about an hour and when we went in to check on her she had fallen onto the pillows on the floor and woke up when we came in the room. Once she saw us, she wouldn't be consoled, so back to our bed she went. She did sleep in her bed for her nap this afternoon, though. She has weaseled her way into our bed for the past few weeks, making it increasingly hard for me to actually sleep and get up in the morning, as she likes to flop all over ME (meaning, not Scott). So, I was thinking maybe her own "big" bed would encourage her to actually sleep in it. We shall see! I'm sure it will be interesting.

Speaking of interesting, there hasn't really been any of that as of late. We are just taking life as it comes, living each day at a time. Work is slow right now, as it always is in January, but V-Day is just around the corner. Ugh. I don't want to even think about it! It hasn't quite hit Scott yet that he doesn't have to return to school this semester, as we're still in the break-time between semesters. I'm sure he'll feel more freedom in a couple of weeks when he realizes there is no homework to be done.

Will and Claire are still immensely enjoying all of their Christmas gifts. Their time is mostly occupied with playing or arguing over who gets to play with what. They did start back to Children's Day Out this week, and I have to say I'm sort of glad. I do love spending time with them, don't get me wrong, but our schedules work out a lot better when they are in "school."

I will leave you with a video Scott took of Claire (I think it was last week, or maybe the week before...I can't remember!). Will had a Frosty from Wendy's that he had forgotten about whilst trying to hide it from Claire. Well, she found it and dug in. It's pretty amusing and shows her personality quite well :)

Merry Christmas, A Little Late

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year! Ours was great; we had a quiet little family Christmas at home. Our kids were awesome and slept in til 9:30. After we opened presents we made Cracker Barrel pancakes (someone gave us a basket with the mix) and we enjoyed watching all the DVDs Will received for Christmas including WALL-E, Kung Fu Panda, and The Polar Express. I even got a nap! It was great!

Claire amid the mess!


Claire playing with her dollhouse


The mess in full view...Will and I are talking to my parents via Skype on the laptop.


Will and Claire playing with his new pirate ship in his room.

Will and Claire eating their pancake brunch while watching WALL-E.

We had "Christmas" with our families back on the weekend of the 12th & 13th when Scott had his graduation. It was nice to have everyone here then and get to visit. In the interim between our Christmases, we went to Lubbock to give presents to the kids at the Children's Home twice (we found a rouge present in Scott's office after returning from the first trip), hosted the LCU Praise Choir students for their Christmas Tour, and had a Christmas party for the Youth Group kids. Scott's 31st birthday was also last Monday; as his "present" to Scott, Will slept til 11:30 that morning!

Scott and Claire both have sore throats right now, but other than that, we are well. Since we were home for Christmas this year, I have been working at the shop as designer the past couple of days as our lead designer is on vacation. It's been really fun and I have done a lot of funeral work which I haven't been able to do yet. I have really enjoyed it.

I guess that's about it for now; Scott has to preach this weekend, so I'd better let him work on his sermon! If I don't post again in the next few days, I wish you all a happy New Year as well!

Commencement

Scott is the second person on the second row.

I think they are conferring the masters candidates' degrees upon them here.

Scott being hooded.

Receiving his "diploma" (an empty tube).

Afterward, at the reception, we met up with Scott's professor, Dr. Doug Foster.


The whole family

Will loved Scott's graduation cap and wanted to wear it all weekend. We let him wear it in Cracker Barrel and Target (without the tassel) and we got lots of comments on it :)

Congratulations, Scott. I am so very very proud of you. I love you!!

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas-time!

We had a busy but fun Saturday. In the morning, our friend Amber came to photograph us for our Christmas cards. She is a professional photographer that attends our church and if you live in or around Big Spring, you should check her out. She does amazing work. Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot:
If you are interested in seeing the rest of the pictures, you can follow this link: http://www.staceyphotography.com/prather/

That afternoon, I took Will to our local museum where Santa and Mrs. Claus just happened to be spending the afternoon (*wink, wink*). He had his picture taken with them, too, and we decorated gingerbread men cookies and looked around the exhibits at the museum. I then took him for a late lunch at his favorite place, of course--McDonald's. A grand time was had by all. We had a great "date." (The Santa picures won't be ready until Dec. 16th, so I will post it then).

Then that evening was the big Christmas parade. We ended up in the same spot as last year next to the same family. We had a good time chatting with them, waiting for the parade to begin. The kids soaked up the parade, crying, "LOOK!!!!" at every single thing that went by. We saw horses, monster trucks, motorcycles, classic cars, low riders, fire trucks, tiny cars, a boat, semis, and of course lots of people riding on the back of trailers. I think this year's parade was better that last year's. Some of the floats were really awesome.

The Steer mascot dressed as an elf led the parade.

Here comes the band!

I thought this guy was funny.

This one doesn't really need a caption...

Western Container's float (they make Coke product bottles--I think).

I guess this horse is a Clydesdale. It was enormous!


The boat full of cheerleaders.


That's the Grinch in jail! (Sheriff's Office float)

And last but not least, Santa and Mrs. Claus end the parade!

Since then, I have been trying to get my house decent for visitors. The first of the visitors come tomorrow; Scott's parents and grandmother. The first of his finals is tomorrow also and his second final will be Wednesday. Then we are home free! Graduation is this weekend and we are so excited. My parents will be meeting us in Abilene on Friday and then coming back to Big Spring with us for the rest of the weekend. I usually work on Mondays, but Scott needed extra time to himself to study and write today (he has a paper due tomorrow, too) so I stayed home today and it was probably a good thing because the house needs constant attention with my two running around taking apart everthing I've just done!

Claire is really starting to spout off the words now. She picks up a lot from her brother. You can really tell by the fact that she has started growling, much to my chagrin! Anywho, there's a little update on her.

As for Will, he just cracks us up all the time. Today he told Scott (albeit quoting from a movie), "Dad, sometimes I just think I'm a genius." Really?

Until next time (hopefully with graduation pictures!).