A Night at Home with the Durham's

This is just a glimpse into life at our house. The girls are growing up so fast. We have been so blessed just to be their parents. We love taking video's of them doing momentus stuff but sometimes it's good to see the basic's too. Tonight after the girls had their bath, we all sat around in Aubrie's nursery and watched her walk around. I got out the camera to video her newest accomplishment but she didn't exactly cooperate. What you see is what happened for a couple of minutes at the house. How awesome is God that He lets us have these precious little gifts to remind us that there is glory even in the littlest things...little dances, little words, big sisters and little sisters. What a great God we serve!

Abbie's Barrel Cart Ride

Aubrie Faith's First Hair Cut

Aubrie's Hair Pre-Cut

Taking some snips off

Getting it even

The final product

Well, I finally did it. Tonight we cut Aubrie's baby hair. I struggled with this decison, just like I did with Abbie Grace but she was sort of sporting a baby mullet so it was time to get a little trim. We brought in the bumbo as our seat and started to cut. She did a great job staying still for me and I think it's reasonably straight. I only did the back because the front is still a little too thin to trim. I had a wonderful assistant helping me with the photo's that you see here. The first picture of the pre-cut hair was taken by Phillip but the rest are all taken by Miss Abbie Grace. I think she's showing some talent. Thanks Abbie for taking great pictures of Aubrie's first little hair cut. Aubrie, you look beautiful!

Pumpkin Patch 2008

Aubrie and Mom in the Corn Box

Daddy and Abbie picking out the "Perfect Pumpkin"

Abbie Grace in her Tractor Train Car

Searching for the Perfect Pumpkin...she said she didn't want one with any dirt and it had to be perfectly round... hard to come by but she found one that would work.

Aubrie inspecting the goods

My little baby WALKING around the farm

Aubrie the fearless in the Hay Bale Tunnel

Abbie Grace in the Hay Bale Tunnel

Checking out the critters

Look at the Goat!!

Today we went to the Schaffer-Collin's Pumpkin Patch in Mayflower. We had a great time playing there and exploring all of the fun stuff that was set up this year. When we got there the place was empty which meant that we had free reign over all the stuff that was there. We took the opportunity to hit the hay tunnels first. Abbie Grace went right in this year, no hesitation whatsoever...the scary part was that her baby sister who is only 15 months old went right in after her. There was no way we were going to keep her from doing what big sis was up to. Since she is only 15 months, Mom had to go in after her and help her climb the hill to the top of the tunnel. I don't mind telling you that it was creepy as all get out in there...way to small a space for this Mommy. Anyway, we made it up nonetheless and then proceeded to play on all the equipment. They have added a lot of playground stuff since we were there a couple of years ago. The great part was that there was a whole section of stuff that was baby friendly. Aubrie got to swing and climb and slide and have a great time. Abbie was climbing on hay bales and swinging on rope swings like she was born and raised in the country. I'm secretly very proud of the fact that my suburb born baby can do that!! Anyway...we also got to see all kinds of baby animals in the petting zoo. Abbie loved the baby goats and pigs, Aubrie loved the baby pony and the ducks. Neither one of them liked the goose much...too loud. Everyone liked the really LOUD donkey (or mule...I never can remember which is which...what more can you expect from a full blown Suburb kid turned Suburb adult) who made his presence known in more than one way. After we picked out the "perfect pumpkin" and the "perfect mini-pumpkin" we walked across to the Tractor train ride. Abbie rode in a cart/barrel all by herself! We were so proud and a little dismayed as it lurched to a start and started off on the bumby road into the corn maze. Phillip and I looked at each other and both said we couldn't believe we had just sent our baby out there without either one of us. She's getting so big. Aubrie and I decided to take the time then to play in the "corn box." She loved taking the dried corn kernals and putting them in the sifter. It made her super happy. All in all, we had a wonderful time together at the Pumpkin Patch!

Halloween Street

The Durham Dames at Halloween Street

Watching the Taekwondo Demonstration

Sisters~in~law and Heart

Brie and Mommy

Hitting up the locals for candy

My little Halloweeners

AJ and Abbie

The Durham-Peerson Family

My Sweet Little Sunflower

My Busy Buzzing Bumble Bee

This past weekend we did some early trick-or-treating at Lakewood Village's Halloween Street. It was so much fun!! Shana and AJ were in town for the festivities and the kids had a blast. AJ is Dale Earnhart Jr, Abbie is a bumble bee (complete with stinger made from a 99 cent funnel, thank you Home Depot...) and Breezie is a flower as is our tradition. We scored an incredible amount of candy...and not just the junk stuff (thank goodness). We saw some crazy costumes...Abbie saw what she called a "red bat girl"... it was a shockingly revealing costume with red bat wings... Anyway, the rest of the stuff was pretty tame but very entertaining. We also did Boo at the Zoo and that was great fun too. It's so fun to watch the kids getting big. Can't believe Abbie is almost 5...where does the time go? It seems like yesterday she was the baby in the flower costume, now it's Aubrie and I know I'll be wondering what happened to my littlest baby soon. She started walking all by herself this weekend. She's been trying to get her courage up for a few weeks now but it finally happened and she is so happy! Guess it's time to RUN!! What a blessing...

Abbie's Questions

Have you ever had your child ask you a question that you were so glad to hear? Last night Abbie Grace asked me how to get to heaven. I told her that Jesus was the only way to get to heaven and she followed up with lots of questions that have led us to believe that she is truely curious about the Lord. At the end of our conversation, I was teary eyed and she said, Mommy, are you gonna cry again? I just laughed and said, Yep, get used to it, your mommy is probably going to be crying happy tears off and on for the rest of your life. ~~What a blessing to have so many people building into her spirituality...From Mr. Patrick, Mrs. Annabelle, Mrs. Sherry and all the AWANA folks, to Mr. Brad and Mrs. Leslie at Fellowship and all the wonderful Godly families we have the privilege of knowing (and you know who you are!!), we are so grateful to all of you for how you are touching our children. In THAT DAY, we will be rejoicing with you and JESUS about the woman of faith that I'm praying she will grow up to be. Thanks to all of you~ Tracie and Phillip

Heber Springs with the Simons

Hanging out at the house

Monster Faces Mom's and Kiddo's At the Waterfall
Abbie, Kaden and Elaina (and Brie...sort of)
Hanging on to my girls...Brie 15 months, Abbie 4.75 (according to her estimate)

What a fun weekend we had in Heber Springs with the Simon's! We took enough food to feed and army and we ate almost all of it. From the Pumpkin Cake to the Chili, we ate like crazy and did a whole lot of sitting around watching the kids play. It was so much fun! We did actually venture out to the Dam Site waterfall which has another name that I cannot recall for the life of me, but that's where the pictures are from. It's over by the fish hatchery and the campgrounds down from the base of the Dam. It's just beautiful and the kids had a great time splashing around in the ICE COLD water. We went from there down a nature trail and then had to hike back to the car...well, that's not totally true, by the time we did the trail and walked through the camp site, the kids and mom's were flat worn out and it was a short uphill hike back to the cars and so we sent the Dad's to retrieve the vehicles and pick up us and the kids. We had a blast being there with Ken, Becky, Kaden and Elaina. It was a wonderful trip!

Hokey Pokey Homeschooling

This is video from our last homeschool Friday. We had such a great time at Ms. Becky's house. It was awesome! She did a great job. This was one of my favorite parts...the hokey pokey with a Christian twist! Thanks for blessing the kids Beck!

Texas Getaway

Not to make anyone jealous but it's possible that I am married to the most wonderful man in the world. That's right...IN THE WORLD! My sweet boy treated me to a flight down to Texas...by myself (yes, the time in the airport was sweet and wonderful...no kids, no one touching me or requesting anything...awesome!). Then we stayed on base in San Angelo and took a fantastic ride the next day to Dallas, TX where we stayed at the Gaylord Texan. It was incredible...in fact, incredible doesn't even begin to describe this place. It was unbelieveable. Phillip had arranged for us to have massages, which were awesome and then we had dinner followed by wine tasting and dessert (double chocolate cheesecake with chocolate ganache...yeah, it was tasty!!). The best part was being together and hanging out in the car together. Phillip drove the 1997 Honda Civic down there...it's quite a sweet ride...don't be a hater, the Civic rocks. In fact it was so cool that when we pulled up right next to a brand new Porche Carrera, I was SO not ashamed. We'll maybe the crack in the windshield was sort of embarassing but whatever, we held our heads up, handed the valet the keys and acted like we owned the place. All in all, it was such a wonderful weekend and one that we will not soon forget. We have decided that we are in need for that to be a more regular experience...the getting away part. It was a blessing to be together!

Homeschooling

This year we are participating in a super-duper homeschooling project...we are doing pre-school with some of our friends every other Friday and we are loving it. In these pictures you can see the kids doing non-standard measurements (apples) and some other projects with apples. Tracy Watkins hosted this first day and she did such a good job! I was totally impressed and sort of overwhelmed with thinking about what we will do when it's our turn...that's not until December and let's face it...the theme is going to be Christmas...doesn't get much easier for themes than that! So my little elves and I will be working toward that and in the meantime I'll be taking notes and sort of "idea plagerizing" for our turn. That said, Abbie is loving doing some school work (bodes well for next year) and Aubrie has done well too. No major meltdowns and that counts as a big bonus for us during what I am affectionately calling her "screaming" phase.