HBE Sweetheart Ball...

Last night Anna Lauren and Matt went to the Highland Bluff Elementary Sweetheart Ball...

I think she wanted to go to the dance, but she was most excited about going to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner afterwards...that is more her idea of "fun"...

Hard to believe she is almost 10...she is growing up quicker than we realize.  I pray for her all the time that she will be as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside...it's a work in progress, but for the most part, she does pretty good! 

This is "real" life with these two...

Not sure why it is so hard to just take a "normal" picture but with them...it is!

At the ball...

Matt sent me this picture and said, "this is what it really looks like...girls hanging out and dads talking"...

They were all smiles when they came home and seemed to have had a good time!  Thankful she has the best Daddy who will do anything with her and make sure they are having fun at the same time!

Life Lately...

January has been AWESOME!  It has been so calm, much slower paced, and the weather has been warm for the most part.  None of us are complaining either...we have loved it!!!  

This is proof that in Mississippi the roads are iced over one weekend and you swim the next weekend.  Sidenote:  Matt agreed to this, and I told him that if they got sick he had take off work and take them to the doctor/stay home with them.  Thankfully neither of them got sick...

One of our favorites got in the 1,000 point club...

They were home two weekends in a row so that means we've been watching a good bit of basketball...

Always fun when your favorite softball player walks in from practice just when the basketball game ends, and you get to see her too...

We were all super proud of Kala...1,000 points such a huge accomplishment!

Cooper's best attempt to look like a 100 year old on his 100th day of school.  He had his own ideas about his hair and shoes...I tried!

So this is an athletic trainer and softball coach at Millsaps...Cooper loves them both.  However, he cannot tell them apart so you never know what name he is going to call them...

And when you are cute and everyone loves you, you pretty much get whatever...like your ankles taped and ice for your ankle like the big girls.

We have had so much fun watching these girls play the past 3 years...oh my how we are going to miss them next year.

Anna Lauren and Matt are going to the sweetheart ball at her school...dress shopping was involved.  Hmm...which dress she picked will be revealed soon.

Like I said earlier, the weather has been so warm.  Which means...Mr. Matt takes the neighborhood kiddos to the park for the afternoon and Dairy Queen for ice cream.  

On a Sunday afternoon, Cooper sat right here and played from 
4 PM until he went to bed at 10 PM.  

When Daddy picks you up from school, you get to play on the playground before coming home.  So...this is why he cries when I pick him up, and I'm like, come on...let's go!  Daddy is for sure the fun one!  

If you look real hard, you can see Anna Lauren in the bottom right. She/her team from last year made the Cheersport advertisement. When we showed her, she kind of shrugged her shoulders...this kind of thing NOT a big deal to her.  However, Matt and I thought it was pretty cool...

That is life lately...like I said, it has been so nice, and we have loved every minute of the "calmness".  It's all coming to end, but we are going to enjoy it a few more days.

Cooper's Favorite...

We were at Millsaps last night watching the girls play basketball when we looked up and saw one of Cooper's most favorites...Marc!!!  Once Cooper spotted him, he ran as fast as he could to see him.  Just as always, Marc was so sweet and just talked to him and listened to all his wild and crazy stories!!!  

Kind of hard to see, but look behind the players and you can see Marc in the white shirt talking to Cooper... 

Love Cooper's little hands... 

And then Marc gets down to his level...I'm telling you, he is the sweetest!!!

As I say over and over, relationships like these are what make my job the best job ever!!!

Sam's Visit...

Most of the pictures from Sam's visit or in other posts, but I found a few randoms that I wanted to be sure to blog...

The 2nd week Sam was here, Matt and I had to work.  But...I couldn't stand it so I worked 1/2 day Monday through Thursday and took off Friday.  My boss let me work 7-11 so I had all afternoon with the kiddos.  This particular afternoon we hit up Fat Cat...

Woah...can we say masterpiece (wink, wink)...

Painting is obviously exhausting...sound asleep in the buggy at Wal-Mart...

This particular day Cooper was Batman...we had lunch with Batman at Chick-fil-A, and he went to the park as Batman.

Makes it way more fun when someone will "fight" with you...

Morning snuggles with Sam while Mommy was at work...

He got so off schedule during the break...some days it's hard being a little guy.

One day Mommy was his horse...

A lazy day when you just stay inside because there is ice everywhere...and it is freezing cold...

And they finally got to play virtual golf the night before she left...

When I look back through the pictures, I realize just how much fun we have when all five us are together.  We love having Sam "home" and are always thankful she wants to come and spend time with us!

3rd Cheer Competition ~ ECC Big Bid in Birmingham...

We had big plans to all go to Anna Lauren's cheer competition in Birmingham last Saturday.  Matt, Anna Lauren, and I would do cheer while Sam and Cooper would go to the science museum.  We were all excited...it was going to be a super fun day.  

The weather/ice continued to get worse and when we got up Saturday we thought there was no way we would get to Birmingham.  Both Mississippi and Alabama were advising everyone to stay off the roads...they were covered in ice.

Sadly, the cheer competition didn't get cancelled, and we felt great pressure from our gym to travel to Birmingham.  Matt and I made a super hard call as our gut was saying...do not do this!!!  He and Anna Lauren loaded up and left for Birmingham while Sam, Cooper, and I stayed home.  I cried as they drove away...worried about their safety, were we making the right decision, etc.

Matt said getting out of the subdivision was by far the worse.  Once they got to the interstate, it was good.  We were hearing of all kinds of delays but thankfully they only had one hour delay where they just sat still on the interstate.  They actually made it in 5 hours, which was way better than some of our other teammates.  Think them waiting and leaving a little later helped...

I put her pony tail in before she left, and she did the rest in the car. She never complained once about me not going...she just wanted to get there/compete.  I was so proud of her attitude in the "stressful" situation.  Matt literally threw her out of the car to a mom who was waiting on the corner for her at 3:15, and she was to warm-up at 3:36...

All of her squad made it to Birmingham and were obviously not as rattled as their parents...they hit their routine and got zero deductions.

They walked away with 2nd out of six teams...

Bree's mom sent me this picture.  They were so impressed how well Matt handled cheer without me.  What they don't know is he can roll with whatever and handle it all like a champ!!!  He's the BEST!!!

And when momma isn't there to say, no you don't need that, you get something you normally wouldn't get at a cheer competition.

Matt said if they made it there Saturday, they were not coming home until it warmed up Sunday.  They spent Saturday night in Birmingham and came home Sunday afternoon.  As always, the two of them were just fine by themselves and had the best time! The kids will quickly tell you Daddy is WAY more fun the Mommy...