Just look at me now

Well, they are still working on the bottom teeth, but for now we have ourselves a beautiful braces free smile. The orthodontist took the top braces off and took out the expander. I had one happy little girl this afternoon...until the pain from the tightening on the bottom teeth took over anyway!!!

To Oklahoma we go

With a little girl who is playing soccer all the time and two big girls really into softball it makes it hard to find a time when we can all get together. The stars finally aligned this weekend though as Logan and Rikki had a free Saturday and Jaden's soccer game got cancelled. So we loaded up and headed to Oklahoma to get these sisters some time together!!!



There was plenty of catching up by the girls...I think J had a smile on her face the whole day, and also a lot of goofing around as you can see in these pictures.



J wishes she could take this one back, she says her eyes are bugging out too much!!!

Since I put that one of her up, she forced me to put this one on here as well.

And of course the big girls got into the act too.

Jaden thinks she's such a little comedian and Rikki doesn't notice the bunny ears.

She is teaching them some sort of weird finger game she learned at daycare.

And of course we need a picture of her with everyone who was in attendance this weekend...

Jaden and Bobbi...

Jaden and Poppy Joe...

Jaden and MeMaw...

and last but not least, Jaden and her sisters. Thanks to everyone for a great day and for putting this nonstop smile on my little girl's face!!!

It's raining clothes

Tony and Sam took J shopping for back to school stuff the other day and got her all these new tops plus some awesome high tops in her favorite style, a back pack, lunch box and a couple of other things. They are such great friends and always up to spoiling a certain little girl I know!!! Just wanted to say thank you so much. Everything is so cute and she had a blast shopping with you.

Two of her tops came with these sleeves that go on your arms looped around your thumb. She has decided that it "looks really cool if you just wear one." Here's what Joey says when he sees her wearing them, "Oh look, you're wearing your arm sock today. Do you have one arm that is really cold or what?" Then he gets the "Dad, you don't know what cool is look" and she's back about her business.

Below is the only indoor soccer picture you will be seeing from me this season because, well indoor soccer pictures are really hard to take. The lighting is really bad, and my camera doesn't like it at all. We are separated from the field by Plexiglas and a huge net...not good for picture taking. And finally, these girls move way too fast for me!!! It's fun to watch though, so if you want to see what's going on, just come on down for a visit!!!

And finally, in yet another unrelated category, Jaden wanted all her swim suits to get equal time on this here blog, and since none of the pictures I posted the other day have this swim suit in them...you get to see more swimming pictures. At least I know I have one loyal follower, and that J is getting in a little bit of reading this summer...she has to check this out just to make sure there is nothing on here too embarrassing about her!!!

A little break

Finally a little break in the action. I feel like I have been on the go all summer...and it's just halfway over. We are having a great time this summer, but I am so glad to have a night with nothing that I HAVE to do. So I decided that it would be a great time to grab a glass of wine and try to get the pictures I have been taking downloaded. I haven't actually taken as many pictures as I would like so far this summer...I seem to always be in a hurry and forget my camera half the time. My camera has not made it to one of J's indoor soccer games or practices so far...I have another chance tomorrow though, so cross your fingers. Unless you are tired of seeing soccer pictures, in that case you have my permission to uncross them now. Most of my pictures are of swimming so far. Of course that is what we seem to be doing the most of. Guess that's what happens when you think you are having a little girl and you wind up with a fish instead. Anyway, thought tonight I'd just post some of my favorites from this summer so far...

Oops guess I do have a few soccer pictures to share...thanks to Cody and Caden for helping me out here!!!

This is an example of how most of my pictures of J's dives turn out...

Still haven't gotten one in the air, but this was at least close...come on give me credit for it.

And finally a couple of random nonswimming picts.

Help...it's too soon

Jaden has played around with makeup forever, but last night truly scared me with visions of the future. I guess I haven't really paid attention for a while, and in the past it was always just gobbed on and never looked real, so it didn't bother me. Last night when I looked at her though, she did not look like my cute little 8-year-old...she looked way too grown up, and I am definitely not ready for that!!!





Here she is with a friend getting all dolled up. They already look like pros, please help me now!!!

Here's an after shot. Thankfully her daddy was already asleep so he didn't have to have a heart attack. This is his baby after all people.

At least after they were finished it was on to nice kid friendly games...remember Guess Who everyone? Thankfully there was no talk of dating or boys or any of that other nonsense, at least not while Mom was listening!!!

I can only imagine

Jaden has seen bits and pieces of the media coverage of Michael Jackson, really how can you not see some of it somewhere if you turn on your TV or get on the internet? I can only imagine most of what she is thinking as a child who didn't watch him gradually evolve from the child star to the Thriller version to what the final result was. She has asked some questions about some of the stuff...like when she saw him as a child and early on and I told her that was Michael Jackson, she said to me "No, he's black." So then I had to explain that he was indeed a black man and that he had changed himself. Her next question was, "What was wrong with being black?" I really had no definitive answer for her on this one...so we just decided to move on. I also saw her watching his final rehearsal on the internet one day and then overheard her telling one of her friends, "I watched his last video on the internet, and let me tell you something...that guy can't sing." She asked me the other day after she heard one of the news people referring to him as the king of pop, "I thought that was Elvis?" I guess this means at least she had heard of Elvis!!! Hopefully everything should be getting back to normal pretty soon, and we can move on to more pressing matters...like who Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers are dating!!!

Our 4th

We had a new 4th of July experience this year. Normally we go back home and Jaden and her cousins (plus some uncles who haven't quite grown all the way up) shoot off their own fireworks out at the farm, where shootin off your own fireworks is legal. This year we weren't able to make the trip since we had just been up there two weeks ago, so we had to find something to keep J from concentrating too much on all the fun she would be missing. Luckily some friends invited us to hang out at the lake with them, so we did indeed have a busy fun filled day!!!



Here's Jaden showing me you can make your own rocks from the clay at the bottom of the lake.

Waiting for an adult to take her for another spin on the jet ski.

Being goofy with some friends. They were actually able to paddle themselves around on the lake in this thing!!!

It was even kind of like visiting an aquarium...swam with some ducks...saw a turtle or two...plenty of fish to look at. All in all we had a great day out on the lake. At the end of the night we went out on the boat and watched the big fireworks show over our heads, plus were able to see about ten other shows going on in all the towns around the lake.

After we got home we did let the kids do some small stuff in the backyard, mainly sparklers and smoke bombs. This morning she told me that she thought the shows were pretty good, but she would rather do her own show next year...guess the doing is more fun than the watching!!!

Bowls...we don't need no stinkin bowls

In these hard economic times isn't it better to just cut out the middle man (aka the bowl) and go straight to the source...saves mom a little washing too!!!

Apparently there was more after I left involving drinking anything that might possibly be left out of the carton. Cups...we don't need no stinking cups either I guess.

Thanks MeMaw!!!

Today Jaden's favorite man in the little brown truck showed up (aka the UPS man) with a bag full of goodies from MeMaw. Jaden couldn't wait to put all her outfits together and see how they looked on her...maybe that story she told me about not being a girly girl was a little exaggerated because what I saw in front of me going through this stuff was pure 100% girl!!!

All dressed up an ready for the 4th.

A little sweaty, but you can't have the 4th of July without a little sweat (at least not around our area, I think I got heat stroke just taking these pictures)!!!

Great for some frisbee in the backyard.

Or the perfect lake outfit...she thinks she'll try it out this weekend on the jet ski!!!

And of course what's summer without a new tankini with a little skirt to cover up the bottom... good thinking MeMaw!!! Thanks a bunch, she loves all her new outfits!!!