Mommy's Little Helper....

Lucy is helping mommy...see?  I need ALL the help I can get!

I could eat her with a spoon!

         

Trying to get in to the cabinets...but there are childlocks...haha!

If you look closely, she was in front of the dishwasher and she was trying to catch the steam coming out of it....

Daddy's little helpers...

Daddy took Karis and Brayden on the boat fishing the other day and they "helped" daddy catch tonight's dinner!  They love to go fishin' with dad!  Check out all that they caught!  We'll be having a fish fry tonight for sure!  Wanna come???

Watching daddy clean the fish...ewwww!  They kept saying, "Ouch!  I bet that hurts!"

It's a picnic kind of a day....

Salad...it's what's for lunch!

 I have been eating alot of this lately...not because I am dieting (although I might need to because my clothes are getting tight)...but because I LOVE this stuff!  I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner (ok maybe not breakfast), but I crave it!

Just some spring mix, croutons, chopped bell pepper and the best part...Ginger dressing. It has a very strong taste but OH SO GOOD!  The bad part...bad aftertaste!  Sorry honey!

        

Pardon me...I think I will go eat some....salad!

Lucy is into everything!

  This morning in a matter of minutes I found Lucy into all these things...      

        

I am afraid she is going to be a hand full!

We survived the storm....

It was a wonderful weekend with my family but not exactly how I wanted to spend Friday and Saturday...glued to the news.  If you were following me on Twitter or Facebook you know that I was FREAKING OUT during the storms this weekend.  I despise storms with all that is in me don't care for storms/tornadoes and go into panic mode when there is a serious threat.  Jay was gone all night Friday night and all day Saturday so I was here alone, scared to death, with 3 kids.  Of course, I didn't let them know I was afraid.  They never knew anything was different except that I had completely prepared a closest with pillows, blankets, water, shoes for everyone, and Lucy's bag.  Yes, I went there and Jay laughed hysterically when he saw it!  Hey a girl's gotta be prepared!  I know I am not alone...there are some more scaredy cats out there!   I will say I am NOT afraid of very much at all, but have been afraid of storms since I was little and it has not gotten better with age.  I know....I need to put my big girl panties on!  It's just one of those things!

But we survived and never even had to get in the closet.  But needless to say...I didn't get anything else done except glue myself to the news.  But after it was all said and done, I finally started getting back on track and got a few things accomplished.  

Karis had been randomly complaining of a sore throat for a few days but it never seemed too bad and she never ran fever.  But after waking up several times in the night Friday night crying because of it, I decided to take her in Saturday afternoon, after the storms had passed of course.  It was too late to go to her regular pediatrician and I would have had to pay a $45 weekend fee AND drive 45 minutes to the weekend clinic, so I decided to try and see if there was another option.  My mom had said she had been to the Kroger walk-in clinic before so I thought I would try that.  I decided to try a Walgreens clinic instead and I was VERY pleased with the results.  It was fairly close by, only cost me a copay, was very clean, I didn't have to wait but about 3 minutes and the doctor was SOOO nice.  Karis did have STREP though...yuck!  She never ran fever though...weird?!?!  And since it was a Walgreens, I got my prescription filled right there and it was ready in about 10 minutes!  And another part that was wonderful....the doctor that saw Karis called me the next day to check on her!!!!  I have never had a doctor do that before!  I highly recommend going to a  Walgreens walk-in clinic!  I think most of them are even open until 8:00 at night and no appointment necessary.  It was almost MORE convenient than my normal doctor!

Sunday we went to church and came home for lunch.  While the kids played outside and napped, I cleaned house and tried to catch up on laundry and my house.  Sunday night we went to a picnic with our small group and it was a blast.  I didn't get many pictures but this is one of Karis and some of her buddies that I wanted to share.  

Karis with her friends Mari-Morgan and Libby

This morning we have kept it low-key other than some laundry.  Here are some pics I took of my kiddos while playing.  

Lucy is soooo close to walking...but not yet.

Look at those teeth!

Little Miss Priss....
        

"Look Mom...I can stand all by myself!"

(She does this all the time but won't take more than one step.)

Brayden being silly!

Being sweet...

       

Playing ball...

My beautiful oldest...

And she is collecting these things (silly bands)!  Are your kids wearing these also???  I mean...shouldn't there be a limit on these things!  Pretty soon she will have them up to her elbow!

At her art desk...she spends alot of time here!

I have told you that Karis spends most of her time upside down...well, here is PROOF!

The girl loves her gymnastics what can I say?!

Happy Monday everyone!

Bottom's up!

Lately, Lucy has learned to climb things....stairs, chairs, on top of toys, etc.  The other night the kids brought their portable beds in the living room for a movie and we thought their snacks/drinks would be safe from Lucy.  Much to our surprise, she immediately climbed up on them and was crawling everywhere, grinning from ear to ear, proud of herself!        

       

Up and down, up and down, up and down....

And she constantly climbs in and out of the baby seat...

Then shows off...

She wanted to climb in here, so she investigated the situation...

Tried climbing in leg first....

That didn't work, so she tried head first ha!  That didn't seem to work either!

I love all the cutesy sundresses but she has some trouble crawling in them.  BUT, those dresses don't stop her.  She just crawls like this....BOTTOMS UP!

Our week...a true southern chick!

It's been one of those weeks....busy, sickness, lots to do, lack of sleep, yet lots of good memories.  I have just been trying to catch up, keep up and not get behind...hard to do sometimes.  The weather has been gorgeous, I have wanted to spend my days outside although impossible most of the time.  It's been a busy week for my hubby, therefore busy week for momma, especially when you have kids under the weather or fussy. 

Monday night Brayden had his game...fun times as always.  Then, when I got the call that my brother had some free club tickets to the Redbirds game, me and the big kids were "outta here!" and headed straight over. We had a blast and didn't leave the game until almost 10:00!  I paid for it the next day!

       

This week, Karis spent lots of time dabbling in her art collection and making more art with playdoh...

We had a little visitor in our garage that was kinda cute...only because he was so little (was like an inch long).  The only thing not so cute about it was that I knew he had a momma and a daddy close by.  YUCK!  We hope we don't see them!

Lucy has had another rough week.  She was teething last week and was really clingy and 2 teeth came in.  This week I think she is working on some more or they are really sensitive because three different times this week she has hit her mouth or bit something and her teeth have bled!  She has also a few infected spots on her hand and I have had to drain them and medicate them.  I know they were painful.  Then, she had an allergic reaction and I don't know what from!  This is a bad picture because I had to take it myself while holding her, but she was itching all over.  She had a red rash and blotches all over her body.  She had nothing new and didn't get into anything unfamiliar.  I gave her some benadryl, it didn't touch it, and I had to give her another dose.  After that, it cleared up and she was fine.  I can not figure out what caused it...and that bothers me!

I cropped this picture so you can see Lucy's new tooth that came in last week (top right).  You remember....the one she worked on for 3 LONG weeks?

After a couple of days of fussy Lucy again, the last few days she has been an angel...and OH SO MUCH FUN!  She is doing new things and performing for us constantly!  She is such a ham and a cuddle bug!  She is doing and saying "yah" while clapping her hands, dancing away when she hears music, giving lots of kisses, giving "love-love" where she cuddles into your neck, fake laughing when she hears someone else laughing, screaming at the top of her lungs just for a reaction, and when she is into something she is not suppose to be, I will call her name..."Lucyyyyyy..."  and she takes off as fast as she can while laughing!  So glad she is feeling better!

Last night Jay had a meeting so I packed up the troops and we went grocery shopping (Aldis and Walmart).  The kids were great but you moms know what grocery shopping with 3 kids is like.  When we got home I had baths to give, hungry kids and lots of groceries to unload.  So I let Lucy entertain herself with something she is normally not aloud to have.  Ya know...you do what you gotta do!  She loves to get in the refrigerator and tries to pull things out.  So I let her and this is what she pulled out.  She has great taste I must add and a TRUE SOUTHERN GIRL!

Butter flavored Syrup!

No, the top never opened although I am sure she wishes it did!

Check out that look!

Oh and there was a "sugar free" syrup in there, but notice she didn't choose that one!  Ha!  The girl's got taste!

Love this one....you can see that tooth again!

This is a video of Lucy taking a bath (one of her favorite things) and she was giving her bath baby "love love."  It was so cute!

Lucy giving Love-Love from Amanda Lemonds on Vimeo.

Do yall watch SURVIVOR?  It was SOOOOO good last night!  I have watched since Season 2 and last night's episode was probably the best one yet!  I don't know how Russell does it and amazing move by Parvati!  WOW what a shocker!

I am TERRIFIED of storms and have been since I was a kid.  I am freaking out about the big storms coming through tonight and tomorrow!  I think I can...I think I can...I think I can....be strong and brave for my kids! I gotta go....I am going to get my closet ready!!!!!!!!