Girl Trip 2011

Since our trip in 2009 Krimson has been asking for another "Girl Trip"...Well, this weekend we got to go!! Marcie came down to Monroe and joined us since with a house full of boys she doesn't get to go on a lot of girl trips! Krimson and Eden LOVE Marcie and they could not wait for her to get here!!

We spend our fun weekend in Shreveport, LA at the Boardwalk!!! It was a BEAUTIFUL weekend weather wise and we had fun checking out all the shops!! Right when we got there we got a Pretzel to start our day!!

The girls spotted Build-a-Bear immediately and when I told them they could get one thing this weekend they quickly decided that it need to be a new build-a-bear! It made the rest of the weekend pretty easy cause if they asked for something they quickly remembered, "Oh yeah, I got a build-a-bear!" Here the girls are at one of their favorite spots at a fountain on the boardwalk!
Krimson posing with "Dress-up"!
Eden posing with "Lamb"!

These girls went everywhere with us the first day at the Boardwalk!
Of coarse ice cream was on the "to-do list" this weekend!! The girls and I enjoyed Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream with a chocolate dipped waffle bowl! You can tell by Krimson's face that we ENJOYED it!!
That night we went to HOP on it's opening day and the girls LOVED it!! Krimson laughed and repeated funny lines the whole movie. Eden enjoyed the popcorn :)
That night Krimson choose to sleep with Marcie and had her read the book of choice Silverlicious!!!
Eden then wanted Marcie to read it to her too, so before sleep both girls got to have Marcie read them this special book.
After our baths we all painted our toe nails and the girls painted their fingernails too. I gave all the girls a new Princess toe ring and they looked so cute on!!!
In the morning the girls enjoyed starting their day with Pop tarts and Sunny D!!!
We checked out BassPro first thing and the girls loved the big fish!
Eden was NOT so sure about this bear...:)
Marcie took the girls back to Clair's where she got them these "girls" that they had their eye on!! They had fun with them all day!! Thank you Marcie!!
Here is Krimson with She-da!
Here is Eden with Ga Ga!
Me (wearing my new hat) and the girls with their girls on the Boardwalk bench!
We ate at Joe's Crab Shack before we headed home. The girls enjoyed their food and the playground while we ate!!

This was my view a lot of the weekend. The sweet view of my girls LOVING on Marcie on this beautiful weekend! Fun memories to treasure and get us excited about our next GIRLS TRIP!!

The Backyard....DAY 8

We now officially have a DIRT backyard!! Our goal this week is to spread some seed out! The yard looks so much flatter. The guys brought in more dirt and really leveled it off for us. They have pieced most of the fence back together and are building a new section on another part. We are waiting for a few things to be made, but for the most part they are done.

Looks great compared to last week :)!!! More shots of the finished fence, and cleaned up yard!!

The backyard....DAY 7

Wow....I guess I always hear, "It took longer than expected." But I was really hoping it wouldn't and here we are in day 7. They poured concrete and flattened out our dirt more, but now we are waiting again. Hopefully NEXT week it will be done. I'm reminding myself that it is a MAJOR blessing that we can get this done and I know the Lord is watching over it all no matter how long it takes!!

Happy Birthday Jude!

Here's my sweet Jude at 2 years old!! You can see why I call him SWEET!!!! He has always had the most beautiful smile and cutest laugh!!

Now at 7 and all boy I know he wouldn't want me to tell him he is sweet and cute, but a tough and cool boy! BUT seriously....look at this face!! What a fun 3 days we have had celebrating Jude!! Happy Birthday and our family is so blessed that Jesus sent you to US!!! I love you!!

The backyard....DAY 3,4, 5, & 6

On day three of the work in the backyard they finished taking the culverts out and dug out more of the ditch. They also had to drill to get the culverts off of the catch basins.

The guys worked on day 4 moving sand and dirt, but could do much because the guys delivering the culverts never showed. At least while they were there...This big truck showed up about 3:30 pm to deliver the culverts!
This was the only spot to put the culverts since there were trailers in our front yard and the backyard....well you know why they couldn't go there. Needless to say we had to park at the neighbors this night.


On the fifth day they got most of the culverts in and covered with dirt.


On the sixth day they put all, but a couple of feet of the culverts in and packed the dirt in. They flattened it all out and now we hardly have any grass :)
You can see all our toys shoved to the corner back of the yard while they worked today!

The other side of the fence had to come down today while they connected our culverts to the catch basin. We're getting closer!!!

The backyard....DAY 2

These first few pictures are actually from the first day....I forgot to upload them, but Adam really wanted me to take pictures of him out on the culverts.

Jude just wanted to be sure he could still get his daily dose of the trampoline!!!
Adam told me we need to have a party and invite all our friends over so they could see our "COOL" backyard!!

Now to start day 2!!! The guys got to work early pulling the culverts out!! I could even feel the ground shaking from inside the house as they pulled them out! I took the first few pictures from inside the house cause I didn't want to get in the way.





Our fence had to be taken apart because it's support was being rip out, so our backyard was available for all to see as they drove by. We brought lots of entertainment for our neighbors today!!




There was a catch basin here, but they guys had to bust it out! It was totally useless and actually sending water back into our yard...nice :)


All of this water was flowing UNDER our culverts making it's own path. Tomorrow they will have to pump this water out and make it flow a different way till they can get the new culverts in and make it go just throw the culverts. I'm glad someone else is doing this and know what they are doing cause the person who put these in DID NOT.
This is where we leave off today....





Tomorrow the plan is to get all the old culverts gone and get ready for the new culverts!