The other 1/2 of the family...

There's Soxy, of course...she's camera shy...

Then there's Goldie...she was a "goodie bag" gift from Alex & Max's first birthday...so cute, but we should have named her Miss Piggy. If you stick your finger in the water she will suck on your finger like it's food. She's almost 4 inches long... This is our newest edition, Miss Emily. She was a birthday present from the Brown's. She's a yellow belly slider. They went to Florida over the summer and brought this hatchling back for her. They can't be purchased in GA but you can own them. We had named her Emmitt before we found out she was a girl. She got a terrible eye infection right after we got her and we thought we'd lost it but one day I was feeding her and noticed that I could see her eyeball again. It had swollen shut and trippled in size basically so when I saw that I knew she was better, but it took a long time for it to heal and we were giving her eye drops twice a day for almost 2 months I think, maybe longer...

She is also a piggy. The Brown's also got one for themselves but they got a boy. It's still about 1.5 inches in lenght while Emily is about 3 almost 3.5 inches long. We got her some live goldfish the other day to see if she was ready to eat them. We gave her 5 of them, they were each about an inch long. She chased them all around it was so cool to watch. It took her about an hour to chase them all down and eat them. She's in a 10 gallon tank with about 4-5 inches of water with a heat lamp and a UV light on her. She eats shrimp, blood worms and turtle stix which have the nutrients that hatchlings need. The shrimp, blood worms and live gold fish are more treats right now. Eventually we should be able to have a deeper tank and just have the fish living in there with her and she'll self feed. so cool!

This is Fred #2. We had another beta for about 2 years and he had to go swim with Nemo in the ocean if you know what I mean :) So we got another one and Izabella wanted to name it Fred again so we did...why not? He's funny...one day Izabella and I were eating at the table and he just jumped right out of his bowl in front of Izabella's plate and we scrambled to get him back in, all while laughing so hard we had tears streaming down our faces. I just LOVE it when I hear Izabella laugh like that. So funny!

Halloween recap...

I am a little behind but at least it's getting done. We had a WET Halloween here in the peach state, we thought we had gotten by without it but right as we're walking out the door it started raining. We waited for a bit and then me and the 2 dads (James & Tim) walked around with the kids while Sandra and Kerry hung back at our house, handed out candy and prepared dinner. We had mummy dogs and french fries. They were delicious! We didn't have many trick or treators at all so we were left with a kettle FULL of candy. We poured it out on the floor and divided it up between all 4 kiddos - my god, they'll have candy till they are 18! Then we sorted through all of it and made our usual trades. Reagan and Alex both have peanut allergies so they make trades to get rid of it all.

Remember, back in our day, when we had haunted houses that made you feel things with your hands, like eyeballs, brains and fingers?! Well we did what we could and made the brains and eyeballs. Silly me wanted to video that but was just too involed in grossing the girls out. We blind folded all of them and made them feel everything. Lots of giggles and screaming. I think we had the Nightmare before Christmas on at some point, but a good time was had by all....

p.s. the next day we found out that poor Reagan, Alex AND Aidan all had strep, RVP and signs of pneumonia. We were on lock down on the block for a week until everyone got better. Sheesh!

1st day of school....

So, I finally gave in and this year Izabella will be riding the bus to school. BIG step for me...I know I'm being silly, but... The bus stop is at Ms. Jackie's house, the house directly behind us, so it's not too bad. Me & Ms. Sandra parked and watched the kids get on the bus the first day and then I did by myself for about a week. Now, we spend most mornings yelling for her to get there on time. She's got the weird thing with sock seams and if they aren't just right then it can literally take 20 minutes to get them on....ridicuulous! I don't remember being this difficult at her age :)

All the kids on our block are growing up way to fast!

Time for more catch up!

So...now that I have my computer back I can upload new photos, etc. These are from our trip home to Lubbock in July. We had such a great time and it's always hard to leave. Enjoy!!

Busy.....Busy......

We are SO busy this weekend! 2 birthday parties on Saturday and a Fall Festival at the school. Remember those? I remember being in elementary school at Stewart Elementary and fixing the whole school up as a giant haunted house. It was always so much fun. I loved that school, I hope Izabella loves her elementary as much!

FUN..FUN!!

P.S. First report cards for the year came out last Friday and Izabella got all O's and S's. That's O for Outstanding and S for Satisfactory. What happened to A's, B's & C's? Or maybe I like the O/S way of things?! can't decide. The note from her teacher on her report card said, and I quote, "Izabella is AWESOME!!". I promptly wrote back in the note field for parents, and I quote :), "She takes after her Mother!"

Cookies anyone??

We had our annual Autumn Fest at the park 2 weekends ago (before everyone got sick!!) Izabella spent the WHOLE day there while I had our garage sale. I only got to go for about an hour while Steve and a neighbor gave me a -much needed- break. She got to help out the local Brownie troop sell brownies to raise $$. She didn't want to wear this at first but then she got into it. The leader told me she was great and helped sell ALL of the brownies they made. I know she's wearing a cookie, but I don't think they make brownie costumes and I'm not sure that would be a good idea anyway :) This is the Brownie troop that she would have been with had we signed her up after she was in the Daisy's. I have all kinds of pressure to do it now, which I think we will since she really seems to love it. + it's all the same girls from last year.

The day after this picture was taken she woke up with the 105 fever and ended up out of school the whole next week. I don't know about you but she doesn't look too bad here!? Go figure! She's always been the kind of kid that didn't show any symptoms which can be tough sometimes.

Flu.......ugh!!

So, we've been hit with the flu bug in our house. We had a GREAT weekend until Izabella woke up Sunday with 105 fever!! Took her to the Dr. on Monday and sure enough, the flu got her. She's been out of school all week and her fever finally broke yesterday so it's back to school Thursday! YAY! she's excited about going back and seeing all of her friends. BTW-Christina and 2 others on the block got it also. The downfall of having lots of kids on the same block!