Beach trip with the Hull family

The girls and I went to the beach with the Hull family. We had a wonderful time and went to a water park called Shipwreck Island. Here is Bella coming down a water slide.Here are the 3 scrooges! Kaylee (4 yrs old), Avery (2 yrs old) and Bella (2 yrs old). They are best friends.
My beautiful girls.
Here is Bella on another water slide. She had a ball. I wish I would have gotten more pics of Jordan, but she and Mr. Jimmy went to ride the big kid rides. So, I missed em.

Beach Trip 2009

Parachuting! Todd, Jordan and Gammie went parachuting at the beach. They all enjoyed it. (I didn't go because I have been once already and I wanted my mom to be able to experience it- in case you were wondering).
Jordan and her friend, KK, had a nice relaxing time at the beach in their "lounge chairs".
Here is Bella eating her sandwich under the tent. Yummy.
Jordan & KK eating their lunch, not under the tent... but not in the water, either.

More dress up!

Here are a few of Bella's "costumes" (sorry I couldn't figure out how to rotate the pics). The one with the pink shirt, she was modeling her father's day shirt, except she added duck feet!

The one in the yellow shirt, she was in Jordan's room while she was cleaning it, and put Jordan's clothes on (by herself, I might add). She has on Sisters undies, socks and shoes. Too cute.

And the one with her in black, she was playing dress up with sister at Gammies house. She was practicing singing "The Climb" my Miley Cirus. She so makes me laugh.

Daddy's 'lil helper and Mommy's 'lil princess

I'm thinking that Bella will be a pretty well rounded little girl. She enjoys playing dress up, but loves to help daddy "fix" stuff, too. In this picture, she is helping daddy put together our new grill. She did really good. When she got done with that, she and Sister got to play in boxes. Why do we buy toys??

Easter 2009

Yep, it has been a while. But did you expect anything else from us?? I am sorry, but I am playing catch up now, so they should be in chronological order, so just pretend like I posted these when I was supposed to! :)

Here is the family decorating Easter eggs on Easter eve. I always look forward to this. Jordan makes beautiful eggs and Bella even got to decorate a few this year, too.

Also, we took the family to an Easter Egg hunt at a local church. Here is Bella hunting eggs and sliding down the big slide. Jordan mainly walked around and just talked with her friends, so there are none of here while we were here.

Bella's 1st day of "school" (aka- Mother's Day Out)

I know it has been a while, and I appologize for that! Bella started Mother's day out on the 1st Wednesday of March. She really likes it. We call it going to "school" since that is where sister (and all of her friends) go. Here is a pic of her and her teacher, Ms. Traci. She is very nice and Bella likes her well. The second picture, daddy DID NOT love!!! It is her holding hands (on her first day!) with her friend, Cannon. Cannon is a preacher's son and he gives her kisses on the cheek sometimes. He is a sweet boy. Bella wanted to go play with her friends this morning when she woke up. She is learning a lot (how to walk in a line and sit quietly in Big Church!). They grow up so fast.

Camping this Spring Break at Buck's Pocket, AL

We go camping every spring break, and this year we went to Bucks Pocket. It is in North Alabama. We had a wonderful time, as always. Bella went on two hikes (fell asleep on the 2nd one) and Todd saved Jordan and KK's (Jordan's friend) lives from being taken away and carried down the rapids. We all look forward to our camping trip each year and Bella suprised me by how well she did. She will be ready for some major hiking next year! We were considering a hiking backpack for kids (so Todd could carry her), but I think we will invest in her a hiking stick instead! She gets pretty excited ab0ut the stream from the waterfall running so close!

"You are my Sunshine" Take 2

We spend a bunch of time singing songs and reading books. This is my favorite song that she sings. She is distracted by the camera- she sings it REALLY sweet when there is no camera for her to "cheese" to. She is so funny!

"You are my Sunshine" Take 1

Alabama Snow!

Despite my pleas for her to hold on, Jordan was TOO anxious to blast me with snow balls. It was so much fun playing with her!

Bella DID NOT like the snow. She hid her face when the snow hit it and cried because her little hands were cold (she wouldn't keep her mittens on). Sorry there are no pictures of her to share. I only have her crying!

Here are a few pictures from our snow that we got Sunday morning. I will say that Saturday at 1:00p.m. it was 71 degrees. By Sunday morning, this is what our house looked like.

As you probably know, we don't see snow very often, so it is a real treat when we do. So, bear with me as I show off what snow looks like on our trees... and our kids!

The Hokey Pokey!

Hokey Pokey Elmo has been a wonderful investment. It was given to Bella on her 1st Christmas and she still loves it. She has progressed to actually trying to do the hokey pokey with Elmo instead of just trying to figure out out to press his hand to make him sing. Sister is definitely a contributor to her learning to dance.

I LOVE "AS SEEN ON TV" CHRISTmas!

I love my "as seen on TV" sweeper that Nana gave us. Bella loves it, too. That surprises me because she is a little scared of the vacuum cleaner's noise. She doesn't mind the noise from the sweeper, though. She loves to "help" me sweep. I love it, too because she does actually help. She gets a little distracted in the video, but really does help me a lot most of the time.

Todd's hunting trip

I can't talk him into putting these on here, but when Todd went to Arkansas, he killed a total of 12 ducks. He will have to share the details with you, but here are some pictures of his trip!

Future basketball stars!

Jordan shot some basketball last night and Bella chases her around with her own ball. Bella can't dribble yet, but sister keeps working with her, so it won't be long. Even with the distractions, Jordan got lots of practice in. She is making some good progress. They were taking a breather here and I thought it was cute!

Jordan's first Valentines Day dance!

Friday night, February 6th, Jordan attended her first Valentines Dance at the school. It started at 5:00 and lasted until 6:30. I was unsure if I was gonna let her go, but I found out that I knew many chaperones. She had a great time and even danced a little (with her girlfriends, of course). They sure grow up fast!

Learning to ride

Bella is always chasing sister when she rides her bike, so when we went out to play, we brought Bella's motorcycle that she got for Christmas outside with us. She is still learning to steer it, but she has learned how to push the gas pedal by herself! Now she can almost keep up with Jordan!

Daddy goes away, the girls go to play!

Todd went to Arkansas last weekend to go duck hunting (pictures from his trip are coming!) While he was gone, us girls (Jill, Jordan, Bella, my Mom, and a friend of Jordan's, Jacey, and her little sister, Julia) got a hotel room at Embassy Suites in Montgomery on Friday night. We had a girls party. We ordered pizza and swam in the indoor pool all night!

The girls played hide and go seek-- Bella and Julia were on a team. This is them hiding behind a chair.

We were across the street from a very nice hotel that had a beautiful water fountain in front of it. We all spent lots of time looking out of our window at the pretty view of the water fountain and all of the city lights.

Mom took the girls swimming early Saturday morning, too. After breakfast and checkout Saturday morning, us girls -everyone except my mom- went to visit the capital building. We tried to get inside, but only guided tours were allowed. I have lived here my whole life and never been inside our capital! Ugh. Well, us girls walked all the way around it and looked at the outside (in the rain, i might add). After our outdoor tour of the capital, we went to the mall, then to a movie, then out to eat. A very busy weekend we had.

Although we missed daddy a lot, we had fun while he was gone.

Where did your whiskers go?

While we were in Kansas, Todd let his whiskers grow out. Bella liked to play with them. He has to shave for work and they have been gone for about four days now. Well, Bella noticed today that they were gone and she was both disappointed and confused. She wanted them back... Then she sees the camera and SMILES PRETTY!

She went to the big girl potty!

Yeaaah! Bella woke up from her nap yesterday, Tuesday, 01-13-09, and said that she had to go potty. We took her and she went tee-tee in the big girl potty!! She went phew-wee in the big girl potty at Pa-paw's house, but that was by accident. I didn't want her to to use the bathroom in the tub with Jordan, so I put her on the potty. She actually told me that she needed to go this time. We were so proud of her.

No luck going today, but we are in no hurry.

I could get used to this!

I could definitely get used to being surrounded by this many babies! By Todd's expression, I'm not sure if he shares my feelings, but I love it! He did very well (only because he didn't have to help with all of them). With all of the help that Jordan gives, I might could keep my sanity with a busload of kids!! I don't know if Jordan would keep hers,though.



Jordan, Mason, Ellery, and Bella are all so sweet. It was a joy to watch them all play. I miss them (and their parents and grandparents) so much already.

The hunter!

Through all of the years that we have traveled to Kansas, and through all of the photo shoots with Toddy and all of the pheasants that he has killed, this was Jordan's 1st year of being a willing participant of holding the birds. Maybe there is still hope of getting her out in the field some day!! For the record- she refused to eat the pheasant that Todd cooked. She didn't like the idea of holding it, then eating it.

Bella didn't want to put the birds down. Although she didn't quite understand what was going on, she, too made Daddy really proud by carrying around and showing off the birds that he brought home. She wanted to kiss them. Too bad they had to go night- night.

The human hamster ball

For Christmas, Jordan got a big ball that you get inside of and allow someone to push you around. She calls it her human hamster ball! Unfortunately, when Todd blew it up for her, he discovered that it had pre-existing holes in the plastic. He did blow it up the best he could for a little test ride before it has to be returned. Too bad Bella couldn't ride in there with her. What fun for the both of them.

Sweet, Sweet girls!

Jordan stayed really busy all week trying to keep up with two extra rugrats! She is a wonderful help. She thoroughly enjoyed playing with Mason and Ellery all week long. Jordan tends to migrate towards the smaller ones, and Bella quickly shows Ellery how much she loves her!

We did it!

Hello everyone!

I know you all probably can not believe it, but we have actually started a blog. Thank you especially to Mandi and Rob for teaching us how to get this started and helping us to set it up! I am really excited to be able to do this. Todd and I both really want to thank everyone for all that you have done for us. We had a wonderful time visiting everyone in Kansas. Thank you for taking time out of your schedules to spend with us and for loving us and our babies so very much. The gifts were wonderful and we appreciate them so much, but the time we share together is the best gift we could ever hope for. Thank you, again.

Here is Bella doing her "Stand up for the Cornwhiskers" cheer with her buddy, Mason. Daddy warned her that just because he is in a football uniform, she doesn't have to like him! Bella has been doing this cheer ever since then. Sister (Jordan) cheered this past football season and Bella learned this cheer... it goes, "Stand up. Give a cheer. The mighty ____ are here!" Well, in the blank, we taught her to say Cornhuskers. She continues to think we are saying Cornwhiskers and rubs her chin when she gets to that part of the cheer. It is too cute!