Is there anything she can't do???

On Saturday, we loaded up the kiddos and headed for Bailey's first cheerleading competition. The regionals were held in Jackson, TN. Honestly, I was a little worried for her. Whenever she would practice at home she didn't really put all she had into it. She kept telling me it was because she was nervous to do it in front of us. I told her there would be a lot more people at the competition. If she couldn't do it for us, how was she going to be able to do it there? She just kept saying "Trust me, I'll be fine."

Anyway, we arrived at the arena where her coach covered her in glitter from head to toe. (Nice, if you know me then you know that glitter is the bane of my existence!) The wore these neon feather things in there hair and funky knee socks with skulls and hearts. They also had neon orange shoelaces. The coach says they do that to stand out. It worked. :)

We left Bay with her coach and went to find our seats. We sat there FOREVER watching other teams perform and finally it was Bay's turn. When she got out on that floor my little girl transformed into this fierce performer! She was AWESOME! Her coach even came up to me afterwards and was shocked by how she did! She definitely had her game face on! Anyway long story short, her team won first place in their division!! WOOOOOO HOOOOOO! I ended up losing my voice that night from screaming for her! I didn't think we would ever get her calmed down. Even after we got home and got her in bed she was laying flat in her bed doing the cheer with her arms. :) So cute!

We'll be heading to state competition in Nashville in January! Wish her luck!!

(Bay and Coach Jen)

My First Craft Show

A couple of weeks ago I entered my first craft show. After weeks of prep, I woke up ridiculously early and headed for Arlington. My first stop was to pick up Bre, who had generously offered to help. The show was held in the Arlington town square. The building used to be a barn, so there was no heat and the doors were wide open. Needless to say, it was FREEZING! They did have two propane heaters set up but you couldn't feel the heat unless you were standing right underneath them! It was kind of hilarious how bundled up we were. I wanted to bring a floor heater but they wouldn't let us due to fire hazard. So Bre suggested we bring heating pads. Whenever we got the chance we would sit on them. Well, at least our butts were warm!
There was actually a pretty good turnout considering how cold it was outside. I made a lot more money than I thought I would. It also gave me the courage to enter another show. My next one is this week at Collierville Elementary School. It's Tuesday, Dec. 15 from 4:30-8:30. Come by and say hi if you get a chance!
My generous step mom embroidered our aprons for us. Thanks Trish!!

Here's our set up. I think it turned out pretty good! Bry made the sign for me and Bre helped arrange (and rearrange) everything. I couldn't have done it without everyone's help!

A Baker? A jewelry designer?

Bailey never ceases to amaze me. She is so talented and creative. I took some pictures of her latest creations and wanted to share them.

We have been watching a lot of "cake" shows lately. We really love Cake Boss. Anyway, Bailey was saying how she would really love to be able to do that. I told her that I thought she would be great at it. We decided to let her start out by making a birthday cake for me, Bry and Mom. She was so excited! She sat down and made a drawing of how she wanted the cake to look. I was there beside her to help if she needed it, but she really didn't need me much. She did an awesome job!! I was so proud of the cake and of her!!

I spent most of this past weekend at the Arlington Craft Market. Bailey was really missing me so I promised her that on Sunday we would spend lots of time together. She decided that she wanted us to make jewelry together. So, we went to Michael's and she picked out some beads and things. She designed her necklace in her head and this is what she came up with...
I was so impressed! I thought it turned out beautifully! The girl can do anything she puts her mind to!! :)

Arlington Craft Show

I have been neglecting my blogs lately. My sister encouraged me to enter some of my stuff into a craft show, so I have been super busy trying to get ready for that. I am really nervous and excited at the same time. I never realized how much goes into putting a booth together! Not only do you have to work on your craft but you have to come up with a design for how the booth will look, make signs, collect tablecloths, props, price everything, make a display for your items, make business cards, order forms... it's really exhausting. And my house is suffering for it! I don't think it has ever been this dirty! I live in fear of surprise guests who will see the mess we have been living in. :)
Anyway, the show will be in the Arlington town square on Friday and Saturday from 9-4. Come by and see me if you decide to get out and do a little shopping! Oh, and say a prayer for me if you think about it. It would be great if I could contribute a little to the family finances!

Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet...

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love to see how the kids are going to express themselves through costume. I love how excited they get when it's time to go trick or treating. I love how neighbors come out of their homes and speak to each other. I love to "check" the candy when we get home. (Parent speak for picking out their favorite candy before the kids get to it.) I just love all of it!
In the past we have trick or treated with Bre and Bubs but it's getting harder to do that. So this year we all went to a fall festival at Bre's church. The kids had a great time playing games and getting lots of candy! Afterwards, we took the kids home, fed them dinner and headed out to see how much candy we could find. :)
My kiddos LOVE to trick or treat! Bailey is always the shy one but she is such a great help with the babies. Presley is totally the opposite of her big sis. She has actually tried to walk into people's houses. She also has no problem telling the people that she doesn't like that candy and looking in the bowl for a better selection. Kind of embarrassing for me. :) Luke talks their ears off! He wants to tell them his life story. We love to watch them having so much fun! I didn't get as many pics as I would have liked but I did get a few...

The 80's Rocker! Bailey and I made this costume for her. She LOVED her costume...I did too. :)

Luke Skywalker! It was either going to be this or a policeman. He decided to stick to his "true" self. :)

My little mermaid! Presley LOVES Ariel so when she saw this costume she was sold. It was hilarious watching her try to walk in this thing!

Such Cuteness! (Austin was shading his eyes and I think Presley thought he was saluting so she proudly saluted...I have no idea what, the camera I guess.)

Sweet Lily was asleep when we took the group shot so I had to get a pic of her once she woke up. She is so precious! I could just squish her!

Batman and Robin! My fat boys looked adorable in their costumes!

Happy Birthday to Meeee!!!

For my birthday, Bre and Peyton treated Bry and I to dinner. We went to Chili's and had such a good time. I don't know if the four of us have ever been out together without any kids. If we have it has been at least 4 or 5 years. Afterwards we went to a haunted house. The three of them weren't scared at all, but they did enjoy laughing at me. I'll admit it. I'm a scaredy cat. And because I was dumb enough to show fear, the freaks at the haunted house picked on me...A LOT! One freak in particular followed me (very closely) throughout the entire thing blowing in my hair. Ugh!

When we left the haunted house we decided to stop in Party City to look at some costumes. The place was packed. Bry has an application on his phone called Ifart. We entertained ourselves by walking up behind people and pressing the "ifart" buttons. :) Mature right?

Bry and I needed to pick up a few groceries so we all went to Walmart. We had some fun trying on masks while we were there. It was a really great night. Bre and Peyton are two of my favorite people in the world. We could have fun with them anywhere! Thanks guys for making us feel special and giving us an awesome birthday dinner!

Give me a B!!

When I was younger I secretly wanted to be a cheerleader. Unfortunately, I have a horrible fear of performing, speaking, doing pretty much anything in front of a lot of people. When I had a little girl of my own I had big dreams of her doing all of the things I never did. But I swore I wouldn't force her or even push her into anything she didn't want to do. So I have sat on the sidelines of her soccer games for the past 5 years and cheered her on. Not exactly what I had in mind but she loved it and was awesome at it!
Not long after she started school this year she brought home a sign up sheet for Young Champions Cheerleading. I almost trashed it because I really didn't think she would want to do it. I asked her and she said she really wanted to give it a try. I tried really hard not to show my excitement or get my hopes up. Well, she came home from the first class and she looked like she was lit from the inside! She was so excited! She LOVED it! Her first competition is in December and I can't wait to see what she has learned!
They gave out uniforms the other day and Bailey looks adorable in it! I know I say it all the time but I can't believe how grown up she is!

Comic Relief

One of the things that I love most about my sister and her family is their ability to make me laugh until I wet myself! After the week I just had I was in much need of some comic relief! As usual, they came through for me BIG TIME!
Enjoy... and try not to wet yourself! :)

With a little help from my friends....

There are days when I really want to just hide in a corner and cry. Even with the enormous faith I have in God the past few months have been extremely tough. I honestly don't know how people get through any part of life, much less the tough parts, without God.

I also don't know how I would survive without the love, support and generosity of my family and friends. We have received more encouraging words than I even have time to tell you about. We have had a ton of leads on jobs due to people keeping their ears open for opportunities. I just can't tell you how this warms my heart and keeps me from feeling defeated.

Right after we found out that Bry lost his job, I received a call from my Mom. She told me that she didn't have a lot of money (duh), but that she wanted to help. She came up with this idea to have a huge garage sale. If you know my Mom, you know that she is the garage sale queen. Seriously, she would see the chair right out from beneath you if you're not careful! :) She wanted to tell all of her friends and co-workers about the sale and if they had anything that they wanted to get rid of, she would come haul it away for them. I have to admit, when she first told me I was a little uncomfortable with the whole thing. I mean, times are tough for EVERYONE! I really hated asking for anyone to give away their stuff. Mom reminded me that one, I wasn't asking and two, it's not like we were asking for money, just junk. :)

It took a little convincing but I finally swallowed my pride and decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. So, Mom spread the word and D told his co-workers, Jo told some people from church, Bre pitched in and it just kind of spread! I was amazed at the stuff that showed up in my garage everyday! D dropped things off by the truckload! Friends, Family and Strangers sent clothes, electronics, furniture and everything in between. By the day before the sale my garage was completely full and I had things stacked all over my house. I couldn't get over the generosity that was shown to my family! After a ton of work, pricing, and organizing, the day of the sale was here. Mom, D and Bre came over to help. There were so many people there that all of us stayed busy from 7 am until 1 pm on Friday and Saturday! My neighbors told me later that they had trouble getting through the street because there were so many cars out there!

We ended up making a crazy amount of money for a yard sale and still had a ton of stuff left over! But what meant so much more to me than the money was how everyone was so generous with their belongings and their time. I have been completely humbled by the entire experience.

We still don't know how we are going to dig our way out of this mess. But I do know that we will be ok. How could we not be? We have so many people who love us that everything else is just gravy. Whenever I think about it I still can't get over the generosity of my family, friends and even total strangers.

I had to show off a few pics of our sale and some of the things that were donated...

Coming up for air...

For the past 3 months I feel like I have been running around in circles. I'm not sure if life has been as busy as it seems or if I have purposely made myself busy so I don't have to think about "the hard stuff". The hard stuff being...how are we going to pay the mortgage while Bry is out of a job? Where will we go if we can't pay the mortgage? What are we going to do about medical insurance? Are we going to lose our cars? How will I feed my kids? And so many other things that we never had to worry about before. Even though we still don't have the answer to those questions, I feel like I am, temporarily at least, coming up for air. (Probably because I finally got the garage sale behind me!)
I will blog more later on what we've been up to, what's going on with the job hunt, our ginormous garage sale and other things that happen in our crazy house. But for tonight, I wanted to show off one of the things that I've been doing to try to help make a little money for my family. I am really excited about it, especially after the encouragement I've received from my family and friends. I have a new blog where I am going to try to show off and sell things that I make. Check it out here and spread the word if you like what you see!!

Bama and the Wiggs

My favorite part of football season is having our friends, Zach & Liz, come over to watch a few games with us. This is also the kids favorite part. They adore Zach and Liz!! When I told them that the Wiggs would be joining us, they were all so excited. Presley's response was "I like Zach! Him's soooo cute!"

Last Saturday, Bry grilled up some food and we all settled in to watch Bama do their thing. My kiddos kept me entertained all evening. Luke snuggled himself in next to Liz and did a lot of flirting. He would give me a thumbs up and quickly put it down when Liz would look at him. Presley stayed glued to Zach almost the entire night. The poor guy has the patience of Job. She climbed all over him, put her feet in his face, squished his cheeks, and then decided to give him a scalp massage. She commented to Zach, during his "scalp massage", "You head is like a ball." The girl is a goof! Bailey did a great job of capturing Presley and Zach on film. I cracked up when I saw them!
Liz is pregnant with their first child. I can't help but think how lucky this little man is to be blessed with these two as parents. Liz is so sweet and laid back. She has this child-like quality to her that is so magnetic. I already knew Zach was a great Dad from watching him with his daughter, Sydney. After watching him put up with my crazy girl for over 3 hours while he was TRYING to watch his team play, I'm pretty sure he can handle whatever their little guy can throw at him!

Beauty and the Brat

I don't think it's hard to figure out who I'm talking about when I say beauty and the brat!

I had a very busy Saturday! First, Bay and I had the honor of joining Liz and Sydney at Sweet and Sassy to celebrate Sydney's 7th birthday. The girls were treated to up-dos, manicures, makeup, some bling, tons of glitter and a walk down the runway. I got the chance to sit and talk to Liz for a few minutes which is something I never get enough time to do! Bay and I totally enjoyed our very girly morning with these two awesome ladies!

Saturday afternoon the fam all piled into my house for yet another birthday party. This one was in honor of one of my favorite people. My baby sister, Bre. She also happens to be my favorite person to aggravate and pick on. :) I got lots of pics that I'm sure she will be so happy about me posting! :) We had a fun, loud, crazy, messy, yummy food and kid-filled night! Happy Birthday Nerd!!