Halloween 2009

And for this year..Brylee was Hannah Montanna!!!

She bought this costume a couple of months ago, and was in love with it..even until Halloween, but for some reason the wig was bothering her..so for the most part of the day, she just wore the outfit. We had a great Halloween. Her preschool party was that morning..it was a lot of fun..with games, food and a hayride. It was scheduled for a field, but due to rain and pretty cold temperatures, it was relocated in the gym of the methodist church. It turned out great..here are a few pics...











After that, we were supposed to go to our church festival, but Brylee started not feeling so well, sneezing, coughing, runny nose..even her eyes looked weak, so, she took a much needed nap, and slept right through it. By nightfall, we prepared for our trick or treaters, and she enjoyed opening the door and passing out candy. After about 5 times, she decided she wanted to go herself..it was freezing outside..but she really wanted to go. Kenny bundled up and took her up and down the streets of our neighborhood..since it was so cold, she wore her LSU cheer dress (which she already had on as we were cheering the tigers on), black pants, LSU jacket, hoodie and gloves and headed out as a cheerleader, I guess. She had a blast!




I, on the other hand, enjoyed greeting the goblins, angels, super heros and ladybugs of the night. I have always liked giving out the candy and once again was a hit this year..A couple of kids ran away saying.."Wow, she gives out so much candy!". Our first year in Daphne, I ran out of candy and had to give out the next best thing..freezer pops..kids were yelling.."That is a cool house..they give out freezer pops!"...I love it..hope you all had a great Halloween!

Halloween Memories

Halloween Memories

While I don't have alot of memories, I do have a few..I remember times where I was dressed up as a pumpkin, a Barbie bride, farm girl with pig tails, in pajamas as Pippy Longstocking, camo girl, and this....


I have NO clue what I was supposed to be..I think we just created some kind of character with what we had..This was probably by far the worst costume I ever had. I remember having "Halloween Parties" at church..I know now they are called Fall Festivals..and I do think that is more appropriate, but back then, no one seemed to mind that it was the Halloween party that we did load up on a hayride and tour the local cemetary! LOL...we also did fun carnival games with apple bobbing, fishing for prizes, chili meals and all the fun involved in carnival games! It was always fun and I enjoyed trick or treating with the local children in the neighborhood!

Now, Brylee has about 3 or 4 carnivals with church and school and we usually trunk or treat at one of them. A very neat concept where the kids walk around to different cars and get candy instead of going to houses on Halloween night. We still, out of tradition, hit the neighbors up that we know around here. It is so much fun. I am sure that one day when Brylee writes her own blog, she will decide that her Momma choosing for her to be a corncob was the worst costume ever! Pretty cute if you ask me..b/c her Poppa was a farmer and she was his "crop"..get it! LOL


She has also been a dragonfly...


a set of grapes....

a pirate and a butterfly..she was going through an indescive stage...


AND THIS YEAR WE WILL BE ________________________________. I will post pictures after Halloween! Be Safe!

Brylee is in Preschool

I am finally getting around to writing a blog post about Brylee's first day of preschool. We have a great little preschool here in town ran by a couple of ladies. The actual preschool has been around since the 1930's if I am not mistaken. It is called Miss Eloise's and is ran by her daughter now I think. We have a few preschools here and were told as soon as we got here to get Brylee on a list. Ya'll when I say this, I am not kidding..babies are put on these lists as soon as they are conceived. When mommy is making the phone calls to the relatives to tell them she is pregnant, she also calls one of the preschools that are so good around here. I waited until last October to call and put Brylee on the lists. We actually have a half and half program as well..which is half children with disabilities and half general ed population. Actually before all was said and done Brylee was in all of the programs but due to scheduling and the fact we were in this one..we decided to stick with Miss Eloise. After being with Ms. Gwen for a year, Brylee is well developed in the areas of colors, shapes, letters, numbers etc. So I feel like she started preschool with a little advantage..we are so grateful for that! Maybe just maybe she will continue to learn and be more advanced for kindergarten than usual. She loves coming home and telling us all she does..one night we listened to her play school and she was the teacher..they open the day with "This is the Day", pledge, weather, calendar etc. She got her first report card and had earned 10 stars. In her category of things to work on was "listening to teacher"..and "taking responsibility of her own actions"..not surprised at all! Brylee loves it and gets picked up by Ms. Becky or Ms. Ashley and heads to see her other friends at Freckles and Curls. She gets the best of both worlds! I wanted to share a few pics from her first day!

Our Miss Kim

I wouldn't even know where to begin telling you all about Miss Kim..she came into our lives when we first moved here and has played a major part of it since then. She works at Brylee's daycare and Brylee has adored her since the beginning. When you move to a new place and know no one..it is hard. If you haven't ever did that..trust me, it is hard. I have often talked about how with each move we have made, God has always provided. In every are of our life. He truly knows our fears, our wants, our worries and our desires. Not once, have I ever worried about childcare. It has always seem to fall in place and I have no doubt that Brylee has received amazing childcare in our moves. She continues to receive it and loves all her teachers, but we are saying goodbye to one of them. Miss Kim has decided to move to California. Today was her last day and Brylee's BFF Jake's mom and I gave her a little going away party. It was so cute, b/c most of the kids really didn't realize it was a going away party and sang Happy Birthday the whole time! Brylee and Jake (who have been with her the longest) understood she was leaving..especially Jake..he didn't take it well at all..he wouldn't have anything to do with her..and Brylee just loved on her. It's amazing how children are so resilient and I am sure they will both be just fine in the long run..but you can tell they both just love her!

Kim has been a vital asset in our family since moving here. She has been our babysitter, house cleaner, transportation and just there when you needed her for whatever reason! She probably knows Brylee just about as well as we do if not better sometimes! I remember one morning that we all woke up late, and were of course panicing..Called her and she got up, came and got Brylee ready and took her to school for us. She has been called spur of the moment many times and is always willing to help. When we put Brylee at Miss Eloise's for preschool, we knew we needed someone to be able to pick her up and take her to daycare for the afternoon..she so graciously agreed to do that everyday. Brylee loved having her to run out to and tell all about her day. She is a very special person and I know she will do great things in her life. We are behind her 100% and hope she knows that if it doesn't work out..we will be here if she comes back..and we do hope that we will get to see her again real soon! (so plan a visit Miss Kim) I know that wherever she goes or whatever she does, she will be a bright spot in some other child's life..I just hope she doesn't forget us because I know we will never forget her!

"How lucky I am to have known someone who was so hard to say goodbye to."

What a Weekend

What a weekend we have had..didn't do a whole lot, but sure did enjoy having my parents around for a great weekend of football and relaxing. They arrived Friday night and Brylee was truly excited! She just loves when they come because she knows it will be a great weekend and she can "almost" get away with anything. ...and she knows her Poppa is sooooo silly! We got up and got ready for her commercial at church. Our church is doing a Christmas commercial and Brylee was one of 20 children picked to audition..she did exactly what we expected she would do..clam up...and act shy. She usually does that at first, but once she is warmed up, you can't hush her! Oh well, if she makes it she makes it, if she doesn't she doesn't, no biggie! After that, we all had breakfast at Waffle House and then a trip to the pet store. Poppa was attacked by the bunny rabbits, and Brylee hated to leave..all enjoyed it! The rest of the day consisted of football..although our tigers didn't win..they played better than I had expected against Florida. Of course, at church, Bro. Dewayne got in his "Go Gators" and looked right at us..that was a low punch from a pastor! LOL It is all fun and we enjoyed the game either way! We got up on Sunday and had a great service and lunch! Here is a picture of my wonderful parents and Brylee...I think she loves them as much as I do! On Friday, Brylee's preschool went to the park to see the firetruck and get a lesson on fire safety..I was amazed at what all Brylee told me..she told me about the fire detectors, if a door is hot, go another way..don't go back in for your sisters or brothers, call a fireman, crawl out if there is smoke..etc..I am surprised at how much she paid attention to them! Here she is the morning of the trip. I do want to leave with a video of our precious baby girl singing!

 

Our niece Adria is the new Homecoming Queen for Scottsboro High School. We are so proud of her and honestly, I knew from the jump she would get it. She just has the best personality and is beautiful at that. I hate we didn't get to go in, but Kenny went for the ballgame and to see her. I know he was really upset we were at home when we found out she won, but I am glad he got to go on. So CONGRATULATIONS ADRIA!!!! You really deserve this honor!

My Mawmaw

Here is a picture from our recent trip home..I can't even begin to describe how sad this picture makes me at first. This was one of the last times my Mawmaw was super healthy when we were at home. She was admitted to the hospital on Friday of last week and by Saturday evening the doctor told the family she wouldn't make it very long and that if I wanted to see her, I needed to come up then. I went into immediate panic mode. Kenny was in Troy working concessions for the basketball team and I didn't know when he would be back, so I called him and told him the situation. He was transferring money and would call me right back. He called and we talked about the best situation for us and Brylee. I had since then talked to mom and they had placed Mawmaw on a ventilator and she was stable. We decided it would be best if I just went on up and seen her and if something happened, they would come later. While I waited on him so I could leave, I called our good friend Karen to come wait with Brylee until he could get here, b/c I was just wasting precious time..She was so gracious...dropped everything and came..we are so blessed to have friends as this! I left about 6 and was there in a few short hours. I walked into the hospital and tons of people were there..which made me think of how bad she must be. The nurses let me go back even though it was past visiting hours since I had just got there. She was asleep ventilator breathing, tons of cords and swollen pretty bad. Went home to mom and dad's for the night..couldn't sleep at all..woke up on the hour every hour..so much on my mind...how a pretty much healthy lady last time I saw her could get to that state so fast. Sunday was pretty much the same, but on Sunday evening when my cousin went in and came out crying really got me...he saw her awake..and it was a bit much. I, too saw her awake and told her she would be fine, and she just shook her head no and tears were just falling. I left the hospital that day knowing I would probably never see her again alive and well. That ride home was so long and I just cried, screamed, prayed and begged God to just not let her suffer. I know without a shadow of a doubt that her next step beyond this earth would be Heaven..She is a saint of God...and the ones that would hurt would be us left behind...but I didn't dare beg God to keep her in the state she was in..I gave it to Him..it was all in His hands! When I hit Troy turning on 167, Daddy called and wanted to tell me good news.."Mawmaw pulled her ventilator out"...and I am thinking what kind of good news is that??? She was talking, vital signs good and doctors said she was just one step ahead of him. Ya'll, her hands were tied down!!! It is still unknown to us how she even grasped to pull it, but she did..my uncle's status stated there are angels among us..and I truly believe there are! That is all it could of been...she spent a couple of days in ICU after that and has moved to a regular room and will hopefully go home in a few. She is back to her funny self..she is funny I tell you! I am just truly in awe of Gods' Amazing Grace that He once again has shown in a miracle in my life. He wasn't ready for my Grandma..and He healed her!!! NO DOUBT about it! So many people were praying and prayers were being answered one by one..literally..I can think of several specific prayers and they were answered just like that! So, here is a picture of my sweet Mawmaw and Brylee last time we were out there picking tomatoes! Can't wait for Christmas..Mawmaw's favorite time of the year!