TaTa Tuck...

yes, I helped with the flowers...

Against my advice, Ryan brought home a baby turtle for Dylan. Now, don't get me wrong, he was a cutie....in a weird, turtle kinda way (obviously not too cute--i didn't even take his picture). He was the size of a quarter!! Dylan loved "Tuck", but after her handling him CONSTANTLY & putting her hands in her mouth repeatedly (DISgusting), Ryan saw the light...Tuck had to G.O. (thank you, God)


I sent out several plea's via Facebook & finally, we found a taker... thank you, Ashley!! Ryan delivered Tuck to his new mommy today, & we were a little worried how Dylan would handle it once she saw he was actually gone. I had been telling her for 2 days that Tuck had cried all night for his mommy so we were going to have to take him home. Every time I would say that, she would get pretty upset (mad), but I was hoping it would help ease the pain of the empty Tupperware bowl (which was thrown away after Tuck moved out). Come to find out, she didn't even miss him or ask about him for hours. No tears were shed...Hallelujah!! I think our trip to Hobby Lobby helped the situation. I caved & bought her a birdhouse to paint, so after that, she was SOOOO over the turtle. She has moved on to Habitat for Humanity...birdie style!! :)

My lil humanitarian..... :)

i love my job, i love my job, i love my job....

Well, it's 4:40 a.m. on Sunday & even though I'm not on call, I have been awake & on the phone with Sparks, on & off, since 3 a.m. And did I mention that I didn't even go to sleep until almost 2 a.m...?? Ok, that was my fault, BUT I'm a night owl & it's not a school night :) so what the heck, right? STUPID ME!! This "SUPERVISOR" thing isn't always so fun, but despite my frustration, I am very thankful I do have a job, a good job (most of the time). OH, there was also the 11:00 phone calls during the power outage....did I mention that?? That didn't bother me though...& I was awake.

I GUESS I JUST NEED TO VENT A LITTLE....

I'm extremely frustrated.

I want to sleep, but I can't.

There is no one on Facebook for me to talk to... GLAD SOMEBODY'S SLEEPING!

I'm hungry.

I'm thirsty.

I want a Sonic Breakfast Burrito (2 picante sauces, please). Random, I know!

AND a Dr. Pepper....a real one! Diet won't do!

I don't have either.

Now I'm even more frustrated!

Meatball's frustrated too.

He has been groaning at me through it all.

Where is my Ballmania lip balm? SIGH......

Anyone got the number to Jackson Healthcare?? We get paid well when we get "called in" but I don't get anything except a headache for nights like these. Can we fix that PLEASE, Mr. Jackson? :) THANKS!

Thanks for listening. I've got to go find my Ballmania.....

The Finished Portrait!!

The moment we've all been waiting for.....


DRUMROLL PLEASE.....

MEATBALL CHRISTOPHER RAINS------SO DISTINGUISHED!!

These pictures don't even do this painting justice! I was even more thrilled when I saw it in person. And the frame...it's so big & dramatic. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!

(Dylan thinks the Easter Bunny brought it...??)

A shot without the glare of the flash....

CLOSE UP!!

"bubba bubba boo"



Heather & I are having our oil painting party this weekend. Everyone's paintings turned out great. I just can't decide what I want to have done next! HMMM.....

If anyone is interested in ordering, please leave me or Heather a message & we'll
get you all the information. You won't be disappointed!! :)

Our Easter Weekend

Dylan & I headed to Stigler on Saturday. Our first stop was Memaw's house. We visited for a little while & then loaded up & went to eat lunch. It was so good to see her!! After lunch, we headed to my Nana's house for her birthday party. It was so nice spending time with family there, also. I miss everyone so much!! Dylan thoroughly enjoyed playing with Bennett & Bethany. They played hard & had so much fun!

Dylan & Memaw

Bennett, Dylan, Nana, & Bethany

We stayed in Ft. Smith for Easter this year. It was the 1st time in 4 years (if not longer). The weather was nasty, but it was nice to be at home. Ryan had to work, but I called him as soon as Dylan woke up (almost 9 a.m.--yay for me) & he was able to come home & see her get her Easter bunny stuff. Dylan let me blow dry & straighten her hair for Easter. She was so excited! We played beauty shop & chatted it up. I have to pretend she is my customer & I am NOT her mom. I refer to her as Miss & she stands so still & acts like a little lady. I love it! The conversation is pretty entertaining. It was going so well, when all of a sudden, she slipped off of her stepstool & hit her nose on the counter. My poor baby got a bloody nose on Easter. All of a sudden, I was mommy again... beauty shop was OVER!! :(

The Easter Bunny treated little Miss quite well!


Doesn't she look precious?? ;)

If you click on this picture, you can see her bloody nose....so sad!

Curls?? What Curls?

Look at all these kids!! Quite a difference from the

2 cousins Dylan has on my side of the family.
I love this picture!!

She loves to drum....but we'll just head back to Jamie & Lorelei's to let her do that!! :)

Hunting Eggs with Brax

On Thursday night, Josh & Mary invited us over to eat dinner & let the kids hunt Easter eggs. How exciting!! The kids had a lot of fun & ate way too much candy. OH WELL! Dylan found Katie Womack's $10.00 prize egg. She was excited to see her "4 dollars", but dropped it fast for a chocolate egg. At 2 & 3, they care much more about the candy than the money. I guess we should cherish these days....

We had a lot of fun too. It has been a long time since we've gotten together. I missed you guys!! Dylan was missing her some Braxton too! Hopefully when spring decides to stick around, we can do it much more often!

S.A.S.S.Y.

Huntings eggs followed by a romantic dinner for 2....doesn't get much better than this!

1st trip to the dentist

Last Wednesday was a BIG day. It was Dylan's first dental appointment!!! You're supposed to take your child when they turn 3...we were running a few months behind. Our plan was for Ryan to pick her up at school & for me to meet them there, but work was crazy, so Ryan ended up taking her without me. I figured with Paula & Ryan there, she would be more than fine. They say she did very well. She was a little scared of the dental chair so they moved her into a cozier room. She sat on Dr. Tim's lap like a big girl & let him check her out. I'm sure it helped knowing that Noni & all of her sweet co-workers would give her as many tokens as she wanted....& apparently they did! She came home with lots of prizes, stickers, & toothpaste & toothbrushes for all her friends at school. HOW FUN!! Dr. Tim said her teeth looked perfect, so we were all pleased with that!!Sweet Baby Girl

Trying out the chair with Noni. No love for the chair!

Dylan & Judy :)

Getting a pep talk from Noni

Opening wide for Dr. Tim

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR TAKING CARE OF MY BABY GIRL!

~~Chuck E. Cheese & Foam Flinging~~

On Friday evening, dad came up with my niece & nephew & we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. It was wild...as usual.....but the kids had so much fun. Hailey was very serious about her game playing. I hardly ever saw her. She is definitely in it for the tickets...I had my hands full keeping up with Dylan & Bennett! All in all, it was a great time. I just wish Chuck E. would learn how to make decent tasting pizza!

When we left there, Ryan called & wanted us to come by the fire station. The kids were excited to do that. When we got there, he had a big surprise for them.....he had sprayed foam from the truck ALL OVER the driveway. They ran & played & got each other soaking wet!! So much fun! The guys have done this for Dylan before, but she enjoyed it even more with her cousins there. Luckily the weather was decent so no one developed a pneumonia!! :) There are definite perks to having a daddy as a fireman!! (for those of you concerned about what kind of foam it is, they say it's almost identical to Dawn dish washing soap...it's harmless! Who knew that would put out a fire...?)

(I've also reaped the benefit...it's not everyday the firetruck will come to the Now & Then Shoppe, block off the entire street-- with lights flashing-- just to change a person's flat tire!! A bit embarassing, but good service none the less...)

Visiting Baby Alex

We went to Fayetteville last Wednesday to see Rachel, Graham, & baby Alex. Dylan was excited to see the baby, although after the initial greeting, she found more excitement in hunting snails in Rachel's backyard. Oh well...whatever makes a 3 year-old happy, makes me happy! We had a great day hanging out & passing the baby back & forth. He is such a cutie! His parents sure are smitten....who wouldn't be?? Proud cousin!

Sweet sugars!

Look at his little eyes....precious!

I love this picture of Dylan. I'm not sure what Alex was doing, but she was excited! :)

Rachel asked Ryan to put together her Baby Bjorn carrier so guess who got to be the first one to use it....

yep, the baby hog! :)

Not much to talk about...

Dylan loved her party favor from Amelia's birthday SO MUCH, she wore it to bed! :)

It seems like it's been awhile since I've posted, so while I'm waiting on Ryan, I thought I would fill you in our recent happenings. Let's see....last Friday night, my mom came up & stayed the weekend with us. I was on call so it was so very nice not having to juggle Dylan all over while Ryan & I both worked on Saturday. It's the first time since Dylan has been born that anyone has ever came & stayed my entire call weekend. I LOVED IT! THANK YOU SO MUCH, MOM!! We went out to dinner on Friday night & then when I got off work on Saturday, we got Dylan ready to go to her buddy Amelia's birthday party. Ms. Chris & Mr. Marty were sweet to offer to take Dylan with them to the party so mom & I could go shop for curtain fabric & run around town. It worked out great because Saturday's weather was so nasty I would have never wanted to take Dylan shopping in that mess!! Thanks again Ms. Chris!

On Monday a great thing happened!! I GOT NEW COUNTERTOPS & a new sink! :) I love them! We still haven't gotten our backsplash or our floors (Ryan's doing both so I don't know when that will be...ugh), but I cannot wait! Hopefully it won't be too long... I want to wait to post pictures. I'm afraid the rest of this outdated mess I call a kitchen won't allow you to see how fabulous they are....

I guess that pretty much sums us up as of lately. We are heading out the door as I type to go see Rachel & baby Alex. I will post pictures of that as soon as I can. See ya!!

Monday Funday...

Dylan was out of school last Friday through Tuesday for spring break. I took off work on Friday & Monday since Ryan was in Texas hunting, & he stayed home with her on Tuesday. I really enjoyed my time with her & being off work, but man were we busy....Fayetteville, Tulsa, 2 baby showers, grammy's birthday... EXHAUSTING! So needless to say, we were both so happy to stay in "play clothes" with bed head most of the day on Monday! The weather was SO beautiful. We stayed outside ALL DAY LONG! Everything she wanted to do, she wanted to do it outside...so that's what we did. It was a perfect day!! Let me just tell you all that we did...where do I start??

Dylan cooked "Macaroni & Cheese" for her & Meatball. Her secret recipe consisted of Fruity Pebbles, Dora fruit snacks, stale Reese's 100 calorie snacks, & just a little bit of SAND.

Unfortunately, Bubba wasn't interested...& he's not EXACTLY picky!!

In mommy's eyes, outside time is the best PLAY-DOH time!! :)

Dylan made me a ZOO full of animals & several birthday cakes, therefore we had SEVERAL birthday parties...I'm telling you, the child is obsessed with birthdays!

And then there was the "camp out"...

a little sand & scooter time...

great conversation with a good friend...

TIARA TIME!!

Casting spells on her Bubba, Bubba, Boo!

& MOST IMPORTANTLY....practicing her red carpet pose...who doesn't have one of those?!? :)


Are you exhausted? I was!! It was a lot of fun though. I love to see her so relaxed & having fun. OHHH, how nice it must be to be footloose & fancy free!!

We also had a picnic lunch, but I somehow missed the photo-op there...OOPS! After hours of outdoor fun, I finally coerced her inside so I could clean the house & clean us up before Ryan came home.

All clean & watching Noggin...her "favorite channel"!! Isn't she just precious?

(im)Patiently waiting on daddy to come home...

After her bath, she asked me to braid her hair because her daddy loves her braids. So cute!!