The Herko's

No Braces!!

2012-02-09T14:23:00.000-08:00

Karissa got her braces off on Jan 30. She was so excited that she hardly slept the night before. She now has retainers to wear which is the wire you see going across her top teeth. She also has a clear retainer that she can wear. The reason for this type of wire is because she was born without the two teeth that are on each side of her two front teeth. When she turns 18 she will have to have two implants. Right now she has to wear retainers with fake teeth on them.

Snow Day

2012-01-19T12:50:00.000-08:00

My girls love the snow!

Grammy comes to visit

2011-12-25T11:55:00.000-08:00

It was nice to have my mom here for a few days, we wish she could have stayed longer!!

Decorating the tree

2011-12-25T11:48:00.000-08:00

The Nutcracker

2011-12-25T11:46:00.000-08:00

This was the 3rd year she has been in the Nutcracker.

2011-12-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

Kendall wanted to ride with her baby doll and this was the only way she could do it with out the doll falling off!

Trick or Treat

2011-11-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

Our cute Minnie Mouse

Our UPS Driver

Our Dorothy

Mackenzie, our niece

Cumberland Falls

2011-10-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

We went to Cumberland Falls on Sat with our good friends and we had a blast. My girls loved going through the mini caves and climbing on the rocks. It was the perfect day.

Updates

2011-09-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

The girls are now taking private tumbling lessons and they love it. Katie is still taking ballet and Karissa is still playing the paino.
Jason's job was changed and now he is on call. He likes driving to different places every day so it works for him.
Krista, Jason's sister is teaching at the Village in Nicholasville and loves it. Joe will be moving here next week, they've been apart since the end of July and they are tired of living apart. He finally got a job transfer so he will be working at the At&T store in front of Target and he also got a part-time job working at the tennis club!! We are so excited that they are here and the girls love visiting them. Kendall and Mackenzie are so cute playing together. I know they will be best friends!!

Our Sweetie

2011-09-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

Middle school dance

2011-08-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

Karissa was so excited to be going to the first middle school dance of the year. Jillian, her best friend, got to with her. Jillian did her hair and they got ready at her house and then I picked up a carload of kids to take to the dance! It brought back memories of me and my best friend getting ready for the dances! I was so glad Jillian got to go because they do go to different schools. Of course unlike my 8th grade year when my dad forgot to pick me up from my dance, she did get a ride back home! It was just me and the principle standing outside and I had to call home to see what was up and dad thought I was in my room, I guess mom forgot to let him know and then she feel asleep! Memories!!

Its so hard to believe how grown up she is getting and we are so proud of her and the little lady she is becoming.

Our DC trip

2011-08-20T16:59:00.000-07:00

This is where the plane hit, (I was allowed to take a picture of this).

Let me just say that 9/11 has changed everything which I'm sure everyone knows. I had a hard time with how it changed the Pentagon. We couldn't even take a picture of it and this was a place where my dad worked for 10 years. My sister and I ran up and down the corridors by ourselves. Dad drove to work 2 hours each way for 7 years and if we had a doctors appointment we had to spend the day with him. If he had meetings to go to he would put us on a tour, I'm pretty sure that Chanda and I could give the tours by the time he retired!! I wanted the girls to go on a tour but found out that I was suppose to arrange it 9-21 days out from the date we were there.

We had a good time in DC. We walked from 9:30 in the morning until 9:30 that night. Karissa gets to go this year with her 8th grade class but she now says she doesn't want too. I guess we wore her out on the walking. It was good to go back since I hadn't been there in 11 years. Its still the same well with the exception of the reflecting pool being gone. I did find out that they are in the process of repairing a leak in it.

On the 2nd day there my sister, Jason and their kids and my mom came with us!

I am very proud of my dad and what all he accomplished. He was in the Air Force for 21 years.

First day of school

2011-08-20T16:45:00.001-07:00

First day of 2nd grade!

A Couple's Only vacation!

2011-07-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to go with Brooke and Wayne to Fort Meyers. At first I was excited then the closer it got I tried to get out of it, but Brooke and Jason wouldn't let me and I am forever grateful!

It was nice just focusing on mine and Jason's marriage. We kept calling it our second honeymoon! We did a lot of neat things and had a date night every night! We went on a dolphin cruise and an airboat ride and ate at some great places too!

My girls had a blast visiting their grandparents and aunt and uncle. They want to go again next year!

Summer is here

2011-06-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

I love summertime not because of the heat but because I get to spend time with my girls. We've been to the pool almost everyday since school let out.

The girls did great this year in school and now they are going into 8th grade (sigh..) and 2nd grade.

Karissa is doing Art camp again this year and Katie is going to Dance camp.

On another note Jason's hours changed, not something we wanted, so we are still trying to find a routine that works for us. The one good thing is that he now can eat supper with us.

May Happenings

2011-05-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

May in our family is a very busy month so Jason and I half joke when we say we dislike May and can't wait til the month is over!

It started out with Karissa turning 13 on May 7th. We are now parents of a teenager and it's like having a new baby again because there are no instructions! We have been "blessed" with the rolling of the eyes, attitudes and the looks that she gives us like we're speaking in another language. Don't get me wrong the eye rolling has been going on for a while but it's a new rolling. She is still a sweet child most of the time but a teenager has invaded her body.
Jason and I gave her a ring with 3 sapphires in it and we are using it as a true love waits ring. She is very proud of her ring!! We took her to Red Lobster and she ordered crab and lobster!

On May 14th we are celebrating, with his parents, 25 years of Herko Family Mission. There is a huge banquet on Saturday and Jason's grandmother and grandfather and sister and her little family are coming into town!! We haven't seen Mackenzie since she was a month old-she's 9 months now. It will be fun watching Kendall play with the baby! My girls are so excited that Uncle Joe and Aunt Kika are coming to visit. Then on Sunday Karissa has her piano recital.

On May 20th which is Katie's 7th birthday she has a ballet recital at 7:30. She is in 2 shows and has 2 dances to perform. She also has a show on Saturday so I'm not sure when we are going to celebrate with family. On Sunday I am having a birthday party for the girls at Champs. They both love to roller blade!!

Starting May 7th and ending June 3rd our girls birthdays are 2 weeks apart from each other. So we will end the madness with Kendall's 2nd birthday- wow where has the time gone?!

Happy Easter

2011-05-10T05:25:00.000-07:00

Photo shoot with Geri

2011-04-25T05:47:00.001-07:00

My good friend Geri is an on location photographer and she was great with the girls! They had a great time.

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T05:41:00.000-07:00

Karissa's new smile

2011-03-23T14:39:00.001-07:00

Before: Notice the gaps by her front teeth

We found out at the age of 4 that Karissa was missing 6 teeth ( the two in the front, 2 wisdom, and 2 12 year molars) and the most noticeable ones were the incisiors beside her 2 front teeth. Its hereitary so our other girls could possible have missing teeth too. I did find out yesterday that Katie isn't missing the 2 in front!!

When she gets her braces off they will put the teeth on a retainer and she will wear that until she is old enough for implants, which they say 18.

I feel so bad for her because she has a terrible fear of dentist and of course she is the one who needs the most done.

2011-03-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

BEFORE

AFTER: Upstairs

Downstairs

It's so nice to have a place of our own. All the kids toys are out of our living room and they also have more space in their bedrooms! Jason did a great job and I am very proud of what he accomplished

2011-02-26T07:58:00.000-08:00

This weekend is the end of our huge construction project!!! Jason finished painting the living room then he is going to paint Kendall's bedroom and the girls bathroom and we're finished!! The living room looks great and the girls love the loft. We had the carpet installed on Valentine's Day. I love it and it makes a huge difference in our heating and the noise isn't overbearing anymore. I love that the girls now play upstairs instead of our living room. I feel like we have a grown-up zone and some privacy.
I will post pictures of our living room after Jason gets our curtains up.

Kendall

2011-02-12T10:54:00.001-08:00

She got a new apron and she loves wearing it all the time and then yesterday she found her chef hat and put it on. She is 20 months now and she is the apple of her sisters eyes. She is so spoiled by them.

The loft from downstairs

2011-02-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

Our ceiling is done!!! It looks so good! If anyone needs a drywaller we have a great person. As you can see Jason has some painting still to do and my curtains haven't made it back on the windows either. I haven't taken any new pictures of the upstairs because it pretty much looks the same and we are just waiting on the carpet to come in.

The loft

2011-02-07T13:51:00.001-08:00

Just getting started 1/21/11

This is the view when you get to the top of the stairs. We had a cat walk that over looked the foyer and the living room and it connected the girls rooms and bathroom. Now we just have it over looking the foyer and the living room has a ceiling over it.

The girls love their new room. Kendall has already moved in.

2/7/11-The drywall was put up today and it makes our living room so much more inviting. Plus we're not freezing anymore because Jason moved our heat vents out of the vaulted ceiling and now they are in our new living room ceiling.

Karissa's latest creation

2011-01-28T07:06:00.000-08:00

We are so proud of her!

Introducing the next Cake Boss

2011-01-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

For Christmas Jason's parents got Karissa cake decorating classes at Michaels and she is loving it. This was her first cake she decorated and I think she did an awesome job. She now wants to make Kendall's cake for her birthday in June and she has already started drawing it out.
I love Karissa's artistic talent!!

Updates 2011

2011-01-21T16:23:00.000-08:00

On Jan 17th I had surgery and so far everything is going pretty well. My aunt and mom came to help me out for the week. Meanwhile Jason has started a construction project that we have talked about for a few years now. We have vaulted ceilings and in the winter we freeze and while they look nice they are wasted space. So now him and his dad are building us a loft. This would give us 250 extra sq ft!!! I'm excited because we don't have a basement and the girls play in our living room and we feel like we don't have space for ourselves. He has told me his part will be done in 2 weeks and then we will have to get a carpet person and an electrician to finish the rest. I hate the mess but I can't wait to see the end result.

Snow days with Daddy

2011-01-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

The girls were so excited to go sled riding with Jason. We hadn't seen much of him after Thanksgiving. He was working 6 days a week which equaled 72 hours a week up until Dec 23rd. It was crazy around here so it was nice when his work "slowed" down enough for him to play with the girls.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas this year. The girls were so excited and so fun to watch. We went to Jason's parents for lunch and Karissa read the Christmas story from the bible. It was bittersweet because Krista usually does it. Next Christmas were praying that they will be here permanently!! We've been very blessed this year and we can't wait to see what is in store for 2011.

Snow day

2010-12-20T17:29:00.000-08:00

Nutcracker 2010

2010-12-20T17:13:00.001-08:00

Katie did great in her dance.

Krista's Story

2010-11-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Krista's surgery

2010-11-23T07:19:00.000-08:00

Krista will be having major surgery this Wed. Jason's parents have already left to be with her, Joe and Mackenzie. Jason really wanted to be there but he won't get off work until Thanksgiving morning and then he starts working on Sundays this week. She is having 5 procedures done. They are going to remove her spleen because this is the last resort they can do to get her platelets up. They are also going to remove her gall bladder because she found out that it's dumping toxins into her body.
Please pray for her. The surgery is going to take 7 hours and its compilicated by the fact that she already has had a stroke.
Her church did a video of her story( which is not the entire journey)!

We love you Krista and the girls love their Aunt Kika

Thanksgiving

2010-11-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

For the first time in 14 years (since I got married and moved here) we will be having Thanksgiving with just the girls. My family wasn't able to make it and Jason's family will be in SC because Krista is having major surgery on Wed, Nov 24. I ordered a Thanksgiving meal from Kroger because I hate to cook and it would be hard to cook a turkey for just Jason and I (the girls don't like alot of meat). It will be very low key this year.
I'm hoping I can talk Jason into going shopping on Friday since I won't have my regular shoppers this year-we'll see!

Karissa

2010-11-17T05:51:00.000-08:00

This past Friday Jason's mom kept Katie and Kendall while I took Karissa Christmas shopping. It was so much fun once we got past the fact that she hates shopping, but I made it all about her. I've always made sure that Jason gets alone time with her, because she is growing up so fast but I can't seem to be alone with her. For the first 6 years of her life she was my little shadow, just her and I, then 2 other girls later and she is now sharing Jason and I. It's been hard on her for the past couple of years and then on top of that her behavior at home with ADHD hasn't been the best. I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, don't get me wrong we still have our moments.

Friday she got to talk without little voices interrupting her and it was great, she felt free to talk to me about whatever. I told Jason about our conversation and he just laughed, if you know her sometimes her questions are embarrassing for us, but innocent for her.

I know that people say that middle school is a tough time for their kids but so far it's been a great year and a half of growing. I am sad that she is in 7th grade and her middle school experience is half over and then we start high school. Time is going so fast.

We love you Riss and are soooo proud of you.

2010-11-16T06:35:00.000-08:00

After the game Josh asked them if the wanted to eat at Malone's! While walking outside Josh noticed that Karissa didn't have her coat so he gave her his to wear!!! She had a great night oh and so did Jason!!

Jason and a group of Josh's friends called the Wildcat over

Josh during practice. Jason said that while he was practicing he wave to Karissa!

Heading to the game

Surprise visit

2010-11-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday Karissa came home and told me that Josh Harrellson had come to her school that morning to see her! I was so shocked. She also thinks he brought Jon Hood too. She talked to him for a little while and then she had to go to class. Then today Josh had text Lisa (his girlfriend's mom) and told her that he had 2 tickets to give away and that he wanted Karissa to be one of them. So Jason and Karissa are headed to the game as soon as piano is over. She also gets to stay after the game and talk to him and see the other players. She is taking her small basketball!! I can't wait to hear about her night when she gets home!!

Happy Halloween

2010-11-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Katie;'s big award

2010-11-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

Katie won the Principal's award at Warner on Friday Oct 29th. We are so proud of her. Her teacher said that she is a joy to teach and brings a ray of sunshine to our class each day. She enters with a smile and is eager to listen and learn. She does not good, not better, but her best!

Pumpkin Patch and other happenings

2010-10-21T05:11:00.001-07:00

Mary and Dennis chaperoned Katie's field trip and me, Kami and Kendall came and spent the afternoon with them. All of the girls had a great time.

Karissa had another dental appointment and they adjusted her braces and she got pink and green rubber bands! She was so excited and she did great-no anxiety fits!!! They said that by her next appointment in December the gap in her front teeth should be closed or at least close to it and then she will get 2 fake teeth put in where she is missing teeth. I can't wait and I know she's ready for straight teeth!!

Jason's still working 60 hours a week and I'm still babysitting. I can't wait for my family to come visit for Thanksgiving!! I haven't even started Christmas shopping nor do I want too. I usually have most of it done by now because I have to have my family's done by Thanksgiving so they can take the gifts back to Virgina. I have no idea what to get everyone including my children.

Karissa's Horse

2010-09-08T06:10:00.001-07:00

Karissa's teacher had the class design their own horses and after seeing some on the ones downtown she could have actually designed one!

It's hard to see some of the details but on the Kingston side she has a steel drum, bag juice, and jerk chicken, a coconut, and bananas.

Running with the Horses

2010-09-08T06:08:00.001-07:00

Labor Day weekend 2010

2010-09-08T05:17:00.000-07:00

We were suppose to go to South Carolina to see Joe and Krista and meet Baby Mackenzie, but Katie got up 30 mins before our alarm clock and was throwing up so we didn't want to bring it to Krista.
By Sunday afternoon she was feeling better and Karissa was bored so we decided that we would drive to Fort Boonesboro and go sightseeing. Then we headed back to Lexington and went downtown to check out the horses.
The next morning we had decided that we would head to the Creation Museum. It was amazing. Jason and his parents have a family friend that is head of the Art department there and him and his wife did a lot of the models. We walked by one of the dinosaurs and Jason goes Doug did that one. I asked him how he knew and he goes I know his style-He was right! We were hoping to see them but they had the day off but he gave us his discount!!

First day of school

2010-08-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

Our beautiful 7th grader

Our cute 1st grader

New happenings

2010-08-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

Kendall started walking while we were in Jamaica!! I was so ready for her to walk

Karissa got braces and contacts all in the same day and she's doing great with both so far!
It's hard to believe that she starts 7th grade tomorrow and Katie starts 1st grade.

Jamaica

2010-08-10T13:36:00.001-07:00

Karissa and Jason on the jet ski that pawpaw rented for them! In this picture Karissa looks alot like Jason

Karissa and Krissy eating breakfast. All the kids loved her and they called her Clarissa. It was too cute to go to church and all the children were yelling her name. She had a great time and didn't want to come home. Thank you to everyone who contributed to her mission trip.

She's here!

2010-07-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

My friend Tara and her husband brought Kami home from Ethiopia on Father's Day. We got to meet her at the airport! She is so full of personality. She is a doll and I get the honor of watching her while her mother goes back to work when school starts. I'm so excited and Kendall will have a playmate.

Karissa's masterpiece

2010-07-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

Karissa and Jillian took an oil painting class this summer at Trinity and they had a great time and I got a great painting out of it!! She did a really good job and she's wanting to take it again next summer.

Karissa in Jamaica

2010-07-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

She is loving Jamaica and she's been able to call several times. Mawmaw says that she races to the phone so she can tell me what new thing she has done. The first Sunday there the Minister (who grew up with Jason and Krista) introduced her to the congregation as Krista, he said he knew it was wrong as soon as it came out of his mouth but looking out in the crowd he said he was looking at Krista!

In church and pretty much anywhere in public Karissa is very reserved, but that's not the case in Jamaica. Mary said that she is doing things she's never seen her do before such as getting on stage singing and dancing. VBS was a hit with the kids and Karissa had a great time with them. She and pawpaw painted together which her asking him meant alot to him.

She has made friends with Jerry's daughter (the minister) Caden, who doesn't take to anyone. The story is that her grandmother was there for 2 weeks and she wouldn't even go to her but she has attached herself to Karissa.

She got to climb Dunn's river Falls with the team and got to go shopping with them. She told me she bought a painting for her room. She called me today to tell me that they just got back from taking the team to the airport. She is staying in Mary and Dennis' apartment and tonight Mel is coming over to visit. Mel is 6 months older than Karissa. She stayed in the US with her parents for a month with Jason's parents back when they both were 2 so now they are rekindling their friendship!! LOVE IT!

Jamaica Bound

2010-07-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

Saying goodbye was hard and she said I was making her cry, but the best words from her father was that he was so proud of her and he loved her heart for people. I know Jason was really wanting to go with her too!

She was so excited this morning that she could hardly stand it. She's only a year older than her dad when he moved there in 87 and I'm excited for her because she gets to experience a little bit of where her dad lived. Karissa will be working on getting the church ready for dedication and the really neat part was that the last time she was there (she was 20 months old) we stood on the property when it was just a vision and now she is helping with the ending!

After the team leaves Karissa will stay with Dennis and Mary for the week and then Jason and I with the rest of the family will head there for 2 weeks. A grand total of a month in Jamaica for Karissa. Thank you to everyone that prayed and gave financially for her middle school trip-we are so grateful!

A week and a half to go

2010-06-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

In a week and a half we will be saying goodbye to Karissa as she heads out for Jamaica. She is excited and I'm nervous! She will be there for 2 weeks without us and then we will go for a 2 week vacation so in total she will be there a month. She is going on a mission trip with the middle school group from Southland and then the group will leave after a week and she will stay and get alot of one on one time with Mamaw and Papaw.
I choke up from time to time just thinking about it.

Kendall turns 1

2010-06-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

You know when it's your third child and you've had about all the birthdays you can handle. All 3 of my girls are 2 weeks apart which means we are celebrating someones birth every 2 weeks. We kept Kendall's low key, just us and Jason's parents. I went back and forth on whether or not to have a big party but she was fine with this and she got some cool toys!

She is now standing by herself and just crusing around. I'm praying that she walks before we leave for Jamaica!! I'm trying hard to get her to love her sippy cup because I'm done with bottles! She loves to throw her arms up in the air and have you scream YAY! She is a busy little lady. She loves her sisters and Karissa and her have a special bond which I love. She gets upset when you take her away from her. Katie still acts like she is a doll baby and can make her laugh with all of her goofy faces. She is daddy's girl and gets upset if I take her away from him. Her little face lights up when she sees him!

We love you Kendall

Mulitcultural night

2010-05-20T16:42:00.001-07:00

Katie's ballet recital

2010-05-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

Katie is 6

2010-05-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Katie had her birthday party today after school. We had pizza and cupcakes and then they wanted to dress up. Mary and I then took them to get their toes and fingers painted. They had a blast

Karissa turns 12

2010-05-07T10:04:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that 12 years ago today Karissa came into this world 5 weeks premature. She weighed 5 lbs 3 oz and was 17 inches long. She had a head full of dark hair and the nurses were arguing on what color it was!

That day started out with me just thinking I was going to just check my blood pressure and go home but it proved not to be so. Dr. Wheeler was very concerned and told us to go directly to the hospital, not to go and get my suitcase, I remember thinking I feel fine and I'm not even packed-we still have 5 weeks left to get the baby's room ready and to pack. I called my mom and Jason's mom crying-I was 23 years old and scared. Jason's mom packed for me and got the car seat out of the box for us!

Jason's parents sat at the hospital with us that day and the next! Jason never left my side which I was very grateful for because I had never been in a hospital and I don't particularly like Dr's or pain for that matter. My parents and sister drove up on May 7th and got here just in time to say hello to me. Karissa was born at 10:30 p.m. on May 7th.

I remember Chanda and Jason shopping for clothes for her because everything we had were too big. They only could find 3 outfits in a preemie size now I can walk into any store and see preemie clothes everywhere!

Happy 12th Birthday Karissa Lacey. We love you and are so proud of the young lady you are becoming. I know I will have a hard time letting you go when you go to Jamaica for 2 weeks but I'm very proud that you want to go on a mission trip and I know you will have a great time helping the people there.

Tea Luncheon for Tara and John's little girl

2010-04-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

Adoption has a very special place in my heart. I would love to adopt but since it's not possible I LOVE to help others. My friends, Carrie, Brooke, Jen (who couldn't be there) and I hosted a Mother/Daughter tea and we contributed $25.00 each for the cost of food for the tea party. We had 2 showings starting at 11-1 and then another at 2-4. We served 36 lovely ladies at the 1st and 27 at the 2nd. We charged $10.00 for the Ma'ams and 5.00 for the Misses and the total profit would go to Tara and John to help them bring Kami home from Ethiopia. We guessed by the amount of people that were coming she would make 500.00 and imagine our surprise when it was all said and done- we raised over $1300.00-Praise God!!!

We were asked by several people if they can hire us out and now it's a small dream to open up our own Tea shop in Nicholasville and Brooke came up with the name-4 friends 4 Tea. Carrie is the brains behind all of this and she is amazing. We all had a great time helping with it.

Karissa's piano recital

2010-04-28T05:25:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was Karissa's piano recital at Southland's Chapel. She played two pieces and one is Katie's all time favorite song-the Charlie Brown song, Linus and Lucy!
Karissa had it memorized and she did great. She is really enjoying playing which is a huge step because she goes through stages where she wants to quit, but she is too talented too and I won't let her. She takes lessons with Beth Mays, who is a very sweet lady and Karissa loves her.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

Deviled Eggs

2010-04-02T10:49:00.001-07:00

This may not be a big deal but this is the first time I've made deviled eggs. My dad and stepmom are coming here for Easter and I'm going to help make Easter dinner with Jeanne. Mary and Dennis are still in Jamaica so it's up to us-scary.

Last year I made beet eggs which is me and my dad's favorite and the only jar I had was a jar that my mom gave me for Christmas filled with spearmint lifesavers, but I washed it out and aired it out and it was good to go....or so I thought. My dad came and he was so excited about them and he ate a couple but didn't say anything then I went to eat one and it tasted minty. I asked him about it and he said it did taste like medicine but he wasn't going to complain. So now the joke is that I can make beet eggs that are yummy and you can have fresh breath after eating them. So now I'm paranoid about tempting new things.

I had a friend come over and go over my menu with me and give me recipes, but she couldn't give the measurements of the devil eggs, she said you just know. So she called her mom and she said the same thing. I also called Mary and got the same response.

So I made them and Jason was my guinea pig, he has had several and says they are pretty good. He's also told me that when he gets home from work (at 4 in the morning!)there will be no one to stop him from eating them! That is a good sign that I made them right!!

A day at the Park

2010-04-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I took the girls and several kids from our court to the park near our house. At first they played in the creek nearby and they they came up to play on the playground. Kendall got to swing for the first time and she loved it. It was such a beautiful day and the breeze felt so good.

A day in the life of our cats

2010-03-30T05:09:00.000-07:00

Someone just give me a drink of water

Here's wishing that someone would let me outside even though I don't have claws!

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-03-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

Kendall is 9 months old

2010-03-10T06:01:00.001-08:00

She is everywhere!

-We had to buy a baby gate because she is now climbing stairs
-She hates her pack-n-play because she doesn't want to be confined
-She had eggs for lunch on Monday and I think she liked them but wasn't too sure about it
-We introduced cheerios but she loves the puffs better
-She's wearing 9 month clothing now and she weighs 17.2 lbs
-Still only has 2 bottom teeth
-loves her sisters
-is pulling herself up and crawling everywhere
-she is a really good baby
-sleeps from 9-6:30 or 7, I wish she would sleep in a little longer though
-will shake her head no and clap
-babbles mama and dada and other weird sound

Karissa in the news

2010-02-21T05:06:00.000-08:00

Karissa was in the Jessamine Journal on Thursday. A picture of her and Josh Harrellson #55 on the UK basketball team was in it. After Josh came to the school to visit her I sent a very nice letter and a picture of the two of them to Coach Calipari. Jason thought I was crazy but I told him that I wanted the coach to know what a great thing Josh did, on his own, for Karissa. Too many people point out the bad in the players and I wanted to tell the positive. Well on Friday I recieved a letter from Coach Calipari telling me how he can't thank me enough for my letter and he even signed it (not a stamp of his signature!) I was excited to get a response. I don't really follow UK sports, or any college team for that matter, so it really impressed me about Coach Calipari.

Katie's big day

2010-02-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

Katie got her ears pierced today. We were at the mall and I always joke with her, "Hey Katie want to get your ears pierced" and this time she said yes. I tried to talk her out of it because I didn't want her to feel the pain of it. She was so brave she sat on my lap silently with tears coming down her face and I still told her that we could just go home, we don't need to do this today. She wanted it so bad that it didn't matter what I said. I actually started getting queasy when I was holding her.

She loves her earrings, she picked rubies, which is my birth stone. Both of my girls don't like their birth stone (emeralds) they always want to trade with me.

Kendall is 8 months old

2010-02-15T13:25:00.000-08:00

Kendall turned 8 months on the 3rd so I'm a little behind. She started crawling a week before she turned 8 months and she hasn't stopped moving yet. She babbles alot which sounds like she is saying dada so Jason is impressed. She is such a good baby and she goes with the flow. Kendall and I do alot of sitting through the other girls activities and she doesn't seem to mind. Her face lights up when she see her daddy and she is always trying to get Tigger's tail. She now has two bottom teeth and she is a drooling monster so I think more will follow soon.

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

I love Valentine's day and my girls do too. I make a fancy dinner and we eat at candle light and I decorate the table. Jason and I get the girls a small gift and chocolate and then he gets them flowers!

Father/daughter dance

2010-02-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

This is the 4th year of the father/daughter dance. Jason and Wayne are just so thrilled to go-NOT! This was the first year Katie got to go and she had a blast. She came home telling me she got to do the Cupid shuffle!! Jason said she sang every song that came on. Karissa and Jillian had a great time running around with each other!

hamburger fight

2010-02-05T05:05:00.000-08:00

Katie is my picky eater and so almost every night is a fight to get her to eat. Last night we had hamburgers on the grill. She started out really good then lost it. She was crying and not wanting to eat (I do feel bad for her because as a kid I didn't like meat and still don't care for it a whole lot now). Jason told her that she either needed to eat it now or tomorrow at lunch she will have to eat it and then if not then at supper. We're going to a friend's house tonight and Jason said that if she hasn't eaten it by then we will bring it and she gets to eat it while we eat pizza. She chose to eat it today.

Karissa and Katie got out of the bath and Karissa came up to me and said can I eat it for her right now. What you need to know is that we had a small battle with Karissa over hers-she didn't want to finish it either, she doesn't like hamburgers. Jason told her no, but I thought it was the sweetest thing. Why do they fight like cats and dogs and then have each others back the next? When I went to tuck her in that night she goes "If Katie doesn't eat it by the time I get home can I eat it?" I'm not going to let her eat it but it was a sweet thought. Not sure what I'm going to do because I'm sorry I can't even stand warmed up from the day before hamburgers.

Snow day

2010-02-02T04:36:00.000-08:00

Winter Formal

2010-01-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

I took Karissa and Irina to their winter formal tonight!

Karissa's big day

2010-01-15T12:57:00.000-08:00

Karissa had an assignment to write a business letter for her English class and it could be to anyone, so she chose her favorite UK player-Josh Harrellson #55. Mary has a connection(he is dating her friends daughter) and so we mailed his letter on Tuesday and as I put her on the bus I just prayed that he would just write her back-well he did better than that! He went to Mary's friend's house with the letter on Wed and he wrote her a response and told Lisa that he wanted to go to her school and surprise her with flowers and a balloon. So Friday morning she got to meet him-he walked into her class and asked for her and the look on her face was priceless. She turned so red (never have we seen that) and she had tears in her eyes. She couldn't talk for a while and she was shaking. Her teachers let her go to all the classrooms in her pod to introduce him and then she got to stay out with us for some photo moments. He also got her a UK2K shirt that he signed! She will never forget this day and neither will we. He is such a nice young man (weird that he's only 20!) and you could tell that he likes kids. He signed autographs for the kids and he told Lisa that he could have stayed all day at the school, that the kids were so sweet. He had basketball practice today and then he left at 2:00 for Auburn-so glad he took time out for a very sweet 11 year old girl!

catching up

2010-01-13T14:03:00.001-08:00

A birthday cake for Jesus on his birthday!

We had a great Christmas break and it was nice having Jason home for a few days. We hardly saw him over Dec. but it goes with the job!
Kendall is sitting up on her own and got her first tooth on Sunday Jan 10th. She loves her bath time and her face lights up when she sees her daddy. Karissa is a huge help with her and Katie loves to give a hand too.
Karissa had another great report card with 5 A's and 2 B's. She is really doing well in middle school. Katie had a great report card too and she is on the verge of reading. They both started basketball practice-the first time for Katie. They have their first games this Sat.

Karissa's first concert

2009-12-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

Karissa by her locker at school

I was shocked to hear how good she is getting with having only been playing since Oct. She did a great job.

Around the house

2009-12-19T14:39:00.000-08:00

Kendall sleeps on her belly. Neither one of the other girls did this as a baby!

The girls will be going barefoot to school tomorrow

2009-12-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

Katie decided at the last minute (the bus was already here) that her shoes, that she has been wearing since the beginning of school, were too big and she wanted another pair. Well it was too late to change and she had a huge fit over it and I had to put her on the bus upset.

Every morning Karissa has 30 minutes with me alone before her bus comes and so we usually talk about what interests an 11 year old. So during the conversation I looked down at her feet and she had one black shoe on and one brown shoe on. She had to race back home and change one of them while the bus was rounding the corner. From now on I'm going to have them pick out their shoes the night before or they will go barefoot to class!!

Decorating for Christmas

2009-12-07T06:31:00.000-08:00

Karissa put our tree together! She loves to assemble things-she is going to be her husband's dream (not that she wouldn't be anyway) she loves and understands basketball and football too! We are almost ready for Christmas.

Kendall is seeing the tree for the first time-she wanted to touch everything!

Princess is thinking- HELP ME!

The Nutcracker

2009-12-07T06:24:00.001-08:00

She had a great time and she looked great on stage. Katie is our little performer-she loves the stage!

2009-12-03T05:29:00.000-08:00

My girls love Kendall.

Karissa is a GREAT big help and anyone who needs a sitter in 6 months she will be happy to do it! She changes her diapers, she can make a bottle and of course entertain her. I love having a helper around the house especially since Jason isn't home on the weeknights.

Katie can make Kendall laugh and smile like no one else can. Jason says it's because of Katie's big eyes coming at her at full speed!

2009-12-03T05:27:00.000-08:00

Kendall ate mash potatoes for the first time on Thanksgiving day and she love them!

Kendall is 6 months old

2009-12-03T05:03:00.000-08:00

My mom bought this for Kendall for Christmas and she loves it! It's so hard coming up with gift ideas for her because she has her sisters' toys and she is just 6 months old.

2009-11-20T05:28:00.000-08:00

Katie and her best friend Brayden and their teacher

Kendall is 5 months old!

2009-11-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

The Haunted house

2009-10-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

Have you guessed who the scary people are?

Halloween party

2009-10-25T13:11:00.001-07:00

Our old neighbors have a halloween party every year and they even set up a haunted maze up in their back yard. They do a scary and a non-scary tour and the kids love it. I was laughing at Karissa and Jillian because when they won the bandstand babe award I had to explain what that was and then what a sock hop was.

Our bandstand babe

Our little ladybug

Our cute black kitten

My family

2009-10-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

Thank you Jason for working (driving) all day and then driving through the night so that we can go to my home in Va.

My mom and sister

Funny how Jason and I ended up with 5 kids in our car and my mom had Hannah and Chanda and Jason just had Madison!!

Nathan age 5 and Emily age 6

Madison age 2

Hannah (age 3) and Katie

My girls loved the country and they were so funny because I didn't realise how citified they were until we got to Chanda's.

My sister my best friend

2009-10-15T10:20:00.001-07:00

My sister is truly my best friend which is why I have to keep upgrading my cellphone minutes (thank you Jason for never getting upset for the amount I do use!) I talk to her just about everyday several times a day. I hate that she lives 8 hours away and my wish would be for her and her family to move here.

The Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-09T06:07:00.000-07:00

Katie was so excited that I got to go with her on her field trip to the pumpkin patch. She was counting down the days until we went. She has watched me go with Karissa on her field trips and now it was finally her turn. She is doing so well in school and she loves it and she loves her teacher. It's funny because both of my girls love riding the bus and I am so glad. Katie's bus driver plays childrens music on the bus and the kids have a blast! I will ask Karissa from time to time if she wants me to pick her up from school and she will reply no.

Kendall is 4 months old

2009-10-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

She had her Dr's apt today and got 3 shots. She weighed 12.9 (which she is smaller than Katie was at this age) and is 24 1/4 inches long. She is a pretty easy baby and I love to hear her laugh!

Swim meeting

2009-09-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had the East Middle swim meeting. I'm not sure what to do because the practices start at 8:50 at night and go til 9:50 and they are at Asbury College. I guess my problem would be that Karissa wouldn't even get home til 10:30 and then by the time she gets a bath/shower it will be 11:00 p.m and then the other problem is that Jason works nights so I would have to get Katie and Kendall out of bed in order to pick her up. She has practices 4 days a week. Now when Dennis and Mary move into our neighborhood in Jan they can help me out for the last 4 weeks. The practices go from Oct through the first week of Feb.

Karissa really wants to do this but I'm not sure I can do it all. I tried to talk her into some other activities, but she only wants to swim. I don't want to disappoint her and tell her no because of Jason's hours. I looked into maybe letting her swim at the Y but she would have to join and then we would have to pay 300.00. I'm not even sure if she would make the Y team.

Our Violinist

2009-09-29T05:31:00.000-07:00

The life of Katie

2009-09-29T04:44:00.000-07:00

Katie was waiting for me to read her a book in our bed when she fell asleep wearing her cat ears. It's part of her Halloween costume!

Bumbo time

2009-09-29T04:38:00.000-07:00

You can't tell it by her expression, but she loves her Bumbo chair. They didn't have this when Karissa and Katie were born.

Fall is in the air...

2009-09-28T04:55:00.000-07:00

at least for this week! My girls were so excited that they could finally wear some new clothes! Katie is all about clothes and shoes so today was her day. It is the end of Sept so it is time for the change of season. Katie's shorts were looking like daisy dukes and it's a good thing she is 5 because I wasn't going to buying her new shorts. Karissa's shorts were ok because bermuda shorts are the "in" thing so her long legs were covered!! Karissa looked so grown-up (or aleast like a 6th grader) in her long sleeve purple shirt, jeans and her UGG like boots that my girls call their fuzzy boots. I love those boots!!
Kendall is even in her fall clothes and she looks so cuddly. Kendall for the past 2 days has been wanting to go to bed around 9 and sleeping til 7:00. She is drinking 6oz now and is lasting longer between feedings. She really is a good baby and goes with the flow. All my girls were good babies, it's just when they hit 3 that they had "opinions".

Jason's work week this week will be a little less stressful on me. We at least know his hours and where he will be driving this week unlike being on call where he has an hour to get to work after they call and you have no idea when they will call. One day last week we had just went to bed and 5 mins later they called. I still don't like the hours this week but at least I know when he'll be gone and I can plan my days around it.

Dennis and Mary's house is going up pretty fast and we're excited. I could really use the help so I can't wait til they get here. The girls already have plans to ride their bikes or walk to their house and oddly enough eating breakfast there. I say oddly because neither one of my girls eat breakfast. I have tried everything in order to get them too. I will buy them whatever they want just so they will eat, but it doesn't work -so off they go to school without food in their bellies.

Midterm grades

2009-09-17T04:42:00.000-07:00

I know it's early but Karissa's midterm grades were awesome!! She has 7 A's! She is doing so good in school and I hope she keeps it up. We are so proud of her. My mom gives her money for every A she makes and Karissa is saving up for an IPOD Nano so she is excited! She's been saving for awhile. We give the girls allowance and they are great at saving. They even buy presents for everyone at Christmas. They get so excited shopping with their money and love watching everyone open their gifts.

After these 9 weeks pass her electives change and she has Math Lab which I'm worried about. She doesn't like math and I've heard it's hard.

Gatlinburg 2009

2009-09-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

We saw.........

2009-09-08T17:03:00.001-07:00

A mamma bear and two cubs in the tree at Cades cove!!

Kendall is 3 months old!!

2009-09-08T16:54:00.000-07:00