We have tried many different hair products...and we may have finally found some that will straighten without making it a big frizz ball....it is still a little puffier than normal straight hair but she LOVES it. she can't wait to go to school tomorrow to see what all the kids say about her new hair. It seems funny to see her with straight hair. Maidson was so amazed by it she kept walking behind her saying "kayla's hair is like mine...Kayla;s hair is like Mommys" and she kept rubbing her hands on it...She was just as amazed with Kayla's hair as Kayla!! Of course it took me about a good 3o minutes....which I guess for us women is not so bad...but I told her that this is not an every day deal...I would have to get up at 5am to do her hair and my hair...and that just isn't going to happen!

the boys had to stop here and check out the "outdoor" stuff....

Cheeseburgers in Paradise...restaurant we ate at during our lovely rainstorm all day Saturday.

one of the things we did: Ripley's Aquarium I had to put pictures like this in the blog...because dummy me...forgot to put my SD card in my camera...so I couldn't take any pictures!

We had an awesome time away at Myrtle Beach with the girls and the Sullivans! Saturday it rained all day but we went in the indoor pool, out for lunch and RELAXED! That is what was so good about this trip...a lot of time to relax. Sunday we went to the Ripley's Aquarium and then watched the playoff games...and of course took the girls swimming again. The resort was beautiful. Tot and I went in the hot tub outside and got to look out over the ocean while we sat in 25degree weather (hottub was 104)!

As football season comes to an end....and playoffs are going on....Superbowl is about to take place...I would like to share with everyone the Heisman trophy that our son received...you can see it below or go to the website and read: http://www.nceyebank.org/html2004/eb_s.html

Derek John Sneed
On January 5, 2004, we lost our son, Derek John Sneed. Derek was 5 years old and in kindergarten when he was tragically killed by injuries sustained from a car accident.His favorite things were playing flag football, Power Rangers and soldier men. Derek was a sensitive, happy, loving, caring and wonderful son! Two weeks before he went to Jesus he told everyone at Christmas that “it didn’t matter how many presents you received, it was who you loved in your heart!”
Our son will never go on to play any sports but we received his Heisman trophy when we got our letter from The North Carolina Eye Bank stating that two other people can see now because of our son! It is a blessing knowing that the gift of his eyes will bring joy to others

Fairfield Resorts at Myrtle Beach South Carolina: https://www.fairfieldresorts.com/ffr/resort/details.do This week marks the downhill slope to my 40's! Yes this week I will be 35 years old! I remember when I was on a countdown to 21. The teasing of Tammi that she still had 4 LONG MONTHS to wait until she was able to join in on the "club" scene....namely the "Knight Club." Hard to believe that Jerry will be 40 this year. How did we get so old??? and so fast?? I know...some of you are saying that 35 is not old...but it's closer to 40 than it is to 30! =)

Anyway you may be wondering why the picture of the resort is up on this blog. On Friday my family along with the Sullivan family leave for Myrtle beach. We are going away on a 3 night stay to celebrate my birthday and Latasha's big 30! We have the same birthday. Every year we go somewhere (works out that MLK day falls around our birthday weekend so we get some extra time off of work...which we use our time share points to go away with). We have gone to the New Bern resort before and this year we decided to do something different and go to the beach....in JANUARY. Luckily the resort has some indoor pools. Now the funny thing with this is...on Jan. 11th we had a thunder storm here in NC and the old wives tale is 10 days after a thunder storm in winter you will have snow (that is how it worked with Madison...the snow she was born in was 10 days after a thunder storm). and 10 days from the 11th will be while we are away at the beach...how funny would that be...?!?!?!? Let's hope this time the old wives tales proves to be wrong.

I am back tracking some with this post. I thought I would post the girls Christmas/Santa pictures. We went with the Longs...and we have a nice one of them altogether but I haven't gotten it printed yet....so I thought I would just add the ones of each set of girls. I think this was the first year I didn't have to drag Kayla up to sit on Santa's lap. They both did a good job at telling him what they wanted. It was nice to have them both so into Santa this year. It was nice to be able to have Madison old enough to understand. Only 11 months to go until next Christmas!!

Thanks to their Uncle Rob the girls room is now COMPLETELY covered in stars!! And Rob no...we didn't put up any constellations, galaxies etc..... They are just randomly placed around the room. It does make a funny combination of fluffy pink princess stuff, Dora and Stars...but they love it. Here are some pics of them putting up the final touches. Rob we saved all the real little stars for you to put up for them on your next visit here!

I couldn't resist putting this picture up on the blog. My friend Joanne and I always laugh about this picture. DJ was born in April and her little girl Cassidy was born that following August. Somehow we were able to get them the same PJ's...and I almost think that I remember it wasn't planned....so of course we had to take pictures!! We sat DJ up and Savannah held Cassidy and then history was made! =) Boy is it funny to look at that picture...Savannah looks so little...Cassidy has Mr T's haircut and DJ looks like a rolly polly baldy, but I LOVE IT!!

It's hard to believe but it has been 4 years since we had Christmas with DJ. Every year something seems harder or easier to handle than the year before. For example in the past one of the hardest things to deal with was his stocking...do I put it up or not...etc.... This year it was Christmas cards. Do I send them without his name listed with the family...or do I do it...or the option I went with...just don't send any at all...

Anyway the video isn't that good...it is a video of a video...but I wanted to share with everyone. This was his last Christmas...it was 6 days before our accident. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I do...it is short but sweet. I love his expression when he sees that Santa found him at his MeeMaw's house. It is also funny to see how young Kayla was in the video. I have calculated and figured out that Kayla will be officially older than DJ on January 27th.

Here are the kids opening up Santa presents....they were so excited and it was so much fun this year because Madison was really into it...so we had two that were just over excited and just couldn't wait until Santa came!

Kayla excited and opening presents on Christmas morning
Madison showing off some gifts
Daniel opening up his gifts...the last gift he opened was the key to his own car...he is getting his license this week!
Madison showing off another gift
Kayla opening up another present

Of course we had to prepare for Santa's arrival...so we went outside and threw some reindeer food out for Rudolph and the bunch Butterbean had to try out the food for the deer...

Kayla throwing out food in our "Santa Land here" runway
Jerry and the girls getting cookies out for Santa...Jerry had them stop at 3 cookies each...he told them that Santa may not want that many ...=)

The girls decided that this year they wanted to make a Gingerbread house...wow...who knew it could be such a mess! But we gave it a shot. My mom came over to help out with the process... I read the directions and realized that we were suppose to attach everything and then wait a few hours for it to stick...the girls and I decided we were going to skip that part and just jump right into the fun part.



Here they are showing off the final results

Messy, Messy, Messy
But they enjoyed themselves...they asked if they could make another one!! I told them one a year is enough for Mommy!
Our final Gingerbread house!
As Mr. Food would say....OOOhhhh so good!

In North Carolina we see warm weather even on Christmas...if you notice some of the kids are out in shorts!! It was prob. mid to lower 60's that day...but the next day we were in the 70's! Needless to say we have not seen any good snowfall amounts since Madison's birth 12/20/2004. We had a 10 minute flurry last year...which didn't even stick...and the year before that we had a slight dusting which was gone within the hour that it fell... maybe this year we will get something...at least so the kids know what snow looks like!


here is Desoray, Rachel and Kayla outside with some Christmas toys











Madison outside playing with a truck! Yes she is our tomboy!















Trey, Madison, CJ and Casey outside playing















CJ riding his bike outside at Jerry's family Christmas party

We spent Saturday before Christmas at Jerrys sisters (Stacey) house. It was nice to get the family together. The kids had a blast as always when they see their cousins! Here are some pics of that day:

here is Daniel with Madison waiting to open presents...Jerry's mom (June) is also in the picture waiting...=)










here is Kayla opening a present
here is a picture of Jerry, CJ and Madison with presents (CJ was officially adopted this year by Stacey and Mark!)

A picture of Kayla and CJ opening presents...that is the gift we got CJ...a monster you can rip apart, take his insides out and write on him...yuck!














here is Trey, Madison and Jerry opening presents....Madison LOVES the tea set...she plays with this all the time!!

the same day that Madison had her Pageant Kayla had her parents day at gymnastics. Here are some pics of her showing off some moves!

Kayla and another girl in her class waiting onthe line to get started
Kayla on the big balance beam...they did different kinds of moves...backwards, sideways, sitting down and getting up and then of course dismounting
waiting to be put into her group
the picture is sideways but she is flipping over ...tilt your head to the left...=)
learning how to do a handstand It is great to see how much she has learned in the couple of years she has taken gymnastics...and I am so excited because starting the beginning of January Madison gets to join Kayla in a regular class...instead of a mommy and me! Now instead of traveling there, being there and traveling home spending a total of 3 hours on a saturday morning at Roses...now I only have to be there for 1hour!

This is Madison in her Sunday clothes outfit
This is Madison in her school spirit wear. Can you see the orb to the left of her? I think it was DJ! This is the outfit that she really started to show her true colors...waving...having fun...it was him giving her that extra confidence! =) Hey I can hope right?
This is her getting ready to come out in her Snow wear..
this was her formal wear
Madison and Mrs. Rebecca...she is the woman that runs the pageant.

Hello Everyone,

December has been a busy month for us...with Birthdays, Pageant and Christmas we have been nonstop...so of course I have fallen behind on my blog. Here are some pics to try and catch everyone up to date...

This is Madison's Wee Miss Grimesland beauty pageant...which she WON!! She is the official Wee Miss Grimesland!





This was her first outfit...the parade of contestants...they had to walk out and say their name and contestant number.
This is her getting her trophies, crown and sash.
This was her Christmas outfit that she wore
This was her hunting/western wear
another pick of her with her trophies!