i'm a terrible blogger

Our little snowman- he MIGHT have been 2 feet tallLilaKate's first time sledding
my precious family

Zane & LK on the Ranger

me and Austin on the 4 wheeler

fyi-my dorky fur Elmer Fudd hat was SUPER warm!!

WoW! Is it really March? Next week is Spring Break! I haven't been a very good blogger lately...a lot has happened since January...I turned 39, LilaKate played in the snow for the first time, my precious Memaw passed away on Feb 11th at the age of 99, David's dad had a scare with cancer- but praise God is was benign, Austin & Zane finished up their basketball seasons with the Saints, Zane is starting another team this month, I started Fit 4 Christ but I haven't been in 2-1/2 weeks because I've been really sick with sinus stuff and coughing, and the weather has finally started giving us glimpes of Spring!

recap of 2009

I've been putting this off because it's overwhelming, but I wanted to post a recap of our year....wanted to do it before Dec. 31st but that just didn't happen....

2009

January

Austin got his braces off

I turned 38!

Ice Storm- had no power for 6 days, whole family got the stomach bug & spread it to the Lee family because they were so kind to take us in sick and all

February

Zane broke his arm at a Super Bowl party

Austin got his driver's permit

March

went to Little Rock for Spring Break, me & kids had fondue for the 1st time,

& LilaKate got in the hot tub for the first time

April

LilaKate started crawling

my friend Teresa came to town and I got to see her

took LilaKate to story time at the library

May

school was out- Zane finished 4th grade, Austin finished 9th grade-woo hoo!

discovered Frozen Tung

June

celebrated 18 years of marriage to my wonderful hubby

Zane attended VBS for the first time(sad, I know) & Austin was a counselor at VBS

Austin went to Beach Camp with our church youth group

we went to Destin with David's family

celebrated LilaKates 1st birthday at the beach

July

got home from the beach on 4th of July so we didn't have a big party this year, but we did have time to go get some fireworks and blow some stuff up!

Austin went to Sky Ranch as a counselor for Kids Camp

Austin passed his driving test

August

had my 20 year class reunion

got Camo- he was so tiny and we thought he was a girl til the vet told us otherwise

enjoyed way too much Frozen Tung before summer ended

started women's fall bible study- Jesus the One & Only

the boys went back to school

Austin started basketball

September

Austin had a baskeball ball tournament in Tulsa and we all went for the weekend-

he started getting sick while we were there and ended up with the swine flu!

Zane was inducted into Student Council

Austin got a secondary infection from the flu and ended up with pneumonia- needless to say he missed a LOT of school

found Austin a truck for when he turns 16

LilaKate started walking

October

Zane had the 5th grade County Fair

Zane went trout fishing with his Grandad

took LK to see Memaw

took the kids to a Pumpkin Patch- McGarrah Farms

David took the boys to Texas for a deer hunt and Zane shot his first buck!

David went to Illinois for a deer hunt

went to Loving Choices Banquet with Mark, Michele, & Blaire-an awesome experience

Halloween-LilaKate was a pumpkin because her Dorothy costume was WAY too big, had a great night at the Lees

November

Zane went to New Life Ranch for the 5th grade Science trip

we had a boy/girl hayride & bonfire party for Zane's 11th birthday

saw Tim Hawkins in concert

had Thanksgiving at our house

Zane started basketball practices

December

went to a women's conference in OKC with my sister- Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, & Kay Arthur

Shiloh won the football 4-A state championship

Austin went to New Life Ranch with the basketball team

my baby turned 16!

my hubby had a birthday too, but I won't tell his age

had a wonderful white Christmas!

time to say goodbye

Brady & Zane were playing with balloons before everyone left Saturday when one of them went into the lake- if you have boys, you know this was an immediate challenge to see who could pop it first.Austin joined in and ended up popping it! Of course, he couldn't be shown up by his little brother and cousin now could he?
Lindsy & Tracee

the boys

Austin, David, & Papa- 3 generations of Kings. I was glad when everyone got back to Little Rock and Hot Springs Village safely. Now back to reality...school, basketball, & schedules! Only 3 more weeks til Christmas Break!

Thanksgiving Day o9- desserts

After lunch my family came over for desserts...like we hadn't had enough food already. I think we had 5 pumpkin and 5 pecan pies- 10 pies! This is my sister's family- Caleb, Michele, Mark, & Claire I need to work on my camera- a ton of my pic are fuzzy. I think the settings got changed on it, but this is the only picture with my Memaw so I had to put it on here. It's Tracee, My Mom holding LilaKate, Judy, & Memaw-who is watching Zane.
Lindsy & Claire out by the fire pit
Caleb & Austin gathering wood for a fire- they think they are hiding from me and my camera behind the branches...muah ha ha ha ...never!

it was fun to see cousins from both sides of our family having a good time together!

Thanksgiving Day 09- lunchtime

Austin and Tracee makin' bacon Thanksgiving morning. This is something Austin won't soon forget. The 2 of them kept getting popped with bacon grease, even with the splatter shield, their efforts were worth it- ALL of it was eaten in a matter of minutes! I will never forget the 2 of them laughing and yelling the whole time! crescents, green bean casseole, & corn casserole all cooking in the oven...the house smelled SO good.
Me & my baby. He loves showing off how much taller he is than me...I think he was trying to sweet talk me into a bite before lunch!
David carving the turkey. He got it from Richard's Meat Market in Fayetteville and warmed it in the green egg- it was so good!!
No pics of us eating. It was so yummy I forgot to take pics, but LK was so funny- she LOVED the green bean casserole. She kept asking for more and more and more...

We are beyond blessed. We were surrounded by family, food, and fun! I love Thanksgiving because everyone gets together just to be together(and eat, of course!). I am thankful for all GOD has blessed me with...my cup truly runneth over!

cousins

David's family came to our house for Thanksgiving this year. It was so nice just all being together. Here are all the cousins...Zane, Austin, Brady, Lindsy, & LilaKate just hanging out on the computer, laptop, and watching Yo Gabba Gabba! The older kids were so sweet with LK. Trying to get a picture of all 5 of the kids

Wednesday night I found Austin & Lindsy on the roof putting up our Christmas lights. It was a very pleasant surprise. It was chilly when the sun went down so I went inside and made them some hot chocolate-yum!

Aust & Linds hard at work. She was his box opener!

a couple of birthdays

November 22nd was my nephew's 15th birthday. He is laughing at the musical Elmo card the Zane & LilaKate picked out for him. We all went to my sister's for ribs and ice cream cake. Then most of us went to see New Moon. Nana and Grandad took LK home with them and put her to bed!He loves Reese's Puffs, so we wrapped a box to go with his $$$

LilaKate was NOT a happy camper that night.

Nov. 23rd was Zane's 11th birthday. Sadly, it passed almost like any other day. He got up, went to school- couldn't find socks that morning so he was late getting out the door. I think I yelled something like, "Come on pick out a pair of socks or go sockless. It's time to go right NOW! Dad & Austin are in the car. Oh, have a great day & happy birthday! Bye!".

After school, Tyler came home with us. His sister had a ballgame in Huntsville. So that was fun for Z. David made them french toast(Zane's all time favorite food) for dinner before they had to go to basketball practice. I wasn't even there because I had to go get Austin from HIS basketball practice :( When he got home from practice we gave him some birthday money- which is what he asked for, Tyler's parents come to pick him up and it was time for bed. BUT I did remind him of what a wonderful party he had 10 days ago. I can't believe my baby boy is 11. He is such a funny kid. I look forward to what this next year holds for him...

A beautiful November day

Saturday, after Zane's party we got LilaKate dressed for the Razorback game and went outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. I love that she carries her blankie(hm hm) everywhere she goes. She swings one arm when she walks. It's quite sassy!
I think she figured out she had to go to bed and missed the hayride last night.

Everything is a discovery...a leaf, a rock, a stick, and bug....

Off to the next adventure...

Zane's Party-1

Every year I ask my kids, do you want a friend party or do you want $$$ instead. I try to make the money worth NOT having a party. I mean, I'd gladly spend the cost of a party without all the work! Anyway, in previous years they've chosen the cash, especially Austin who is my saver, but this year Zane wanted a party and he wanted a boy/girl hayride & bonfire. I figured they are at a perfect age for that. Too young for major boy/girl issues and old enough to clean up after themselves. So, we prayed for a good date, then we found out Shiloh would have a bye week on Friday Nov. 13th...so the planning began. We set up a fire pit in the front side yard. I have to say David did a great job. It was perfect.

Brundi came up witht he idea of putting the glowsticks in the tree. It was really cute, but took awhile to break and shake 60 glowsticks!!

Brundi had come in town to do some work with David. The kids were SO glad to see Mrs. Crawford!

Connor, Andrew, Zane, & Jake at the food table.

AJ, Heather, Shelby, Olivia, & Hallie hanging out by the fire!

Zane's Party-2

Some of the girls sitting around the fire eating...I think 80% of them had on their boots. So cute!

Cameron, Canon, Chase, Zane, and Jake...the only 5 brave boys that sat with the girls around the fire.

Hannah, Natalie, Grace, & Ashton. Grace must've been really hungry!

Zane doesn't like icing, so when I ordered his cookie cake I did exactly what he said. Icing around the edges and Happy Birthday Zane. No pictures or anything because that means more icing....so here's his plain jane cookie- just the way he likes it!

I have this problem...I always put the candles on backwards. I tried to not do it, but lookie there- I did it again! And by the way,those big number candles don't stand up very well in cookie cake, I guess it's not deep enough. Anyway, it was a fun night for all. I wish I'd taken more pictures but I was just having too much fun!

sweet moments

Zane knew he wouldn't get to go to our annual neighborhood pumpkin carving party, so he decided to carve his and LilaKate's pumkins one day after school. Do you see what they are wearing? It was a beautiful day to be outside. LilaKate was curious about what Zane was doing...so was Camo. He would NOT get out of they way. I ended up having to hold him because Zane was afraid he'd cut his paw.

I love this sweet picture of LilaKate holding her blankie, watching big 'bubba' while he was just working away.

LilaKate sat right where Zane had rinsed off the pumpkins and played with leaves without a care in the world. She didn't care that her booty was wet, she was just enjoying the gorgeous day that God gave us!

The final results. I know Zane's $8.00 is showing. He picked this pumpkin at the patch and the lady told him it was a display to show how much that size pumpkin would cost. She told him he could still buy it but the price would not wash off-- he wanted it anyway. I thought he could carve it where you didn't see the price, but when he got done I saw that he carved it dead center under the $8.00. I just had to laugh...I love his personality. He is not a follower. He does what he thinks is a good idea & he thought the $8.00 should show!

pumpkin carving party

On Friday the 30th, Austin, Caleb, LilaKate, & I went to our neighbor's house for their annual pumpkin carving party. David was in Illinois and Zane was spending the night with friends. Austin & Caleb used some patterns and made a spider and the headless horseman. They worked really hard on them... Me & LK enjoying watching all the carving going on
These are some of the masterpeices...I just LOVE the bumpy pumkin. I want one of those next year!

Austin & Caleb's pumkins. I was very impressed. I had to leave and take lIlaKate home so she could go to bed, but the boys styaed for the judging. They both won prizes. Actually, they said everyone won something because there were only 8 pumpkins!

All of our 2009 pumpkins on our porch