haunted house fingerpainting

Yesterday we got adventurous and got out the fingerpaints to have a little art time. The girls were ecstatic. They love making art.

I gave them different shades of yellow, orange and purple to finger paint to make an eerie sky as the back drop to the "haunted house" I had cut out. I had to pry the fingerpaint from their hands to move on to the next stage of the picture. I then helped them to glue on the hill and the house and they added some stickers I had in my scrapbooking kit.







Ava's art


Emma's art

weekend with the pairs - part 2

Candice wanted to get some pictures of Presley with pumpkins for fall. Jason took some great shots of her. I forgot how easily this age photographs.

weekend with the pairs - part 1

We were so excited to have our friends, Candice and Clinton and their sweet little girl Presley, come spend the weekend with us. It's so nice to live close so our friends can come for a quick visit!

Friday night we cooked dinner and just hung out at the house. It was nice to spend an evening hanging out talking about everything from marriage to politics. We watched all the girls play way too late since when we having so much fun!

Sweet Presley... after a bath and warm pjs


I passed down some clothes and shoes to Presley and I was showing the clothes to Candice. They were all fascinated by the tiny shoes. Ava was determined to get them onto her feet.

mickey's christmas carol

Today I was in the other room changing Ava's diaper. Emma was in the playroom watching Mickey's Christmas Carol (that's right. we start celebrating Christmas early around here). Ava and I walked back into the playroom and Emma was sitting on the floor with tears in her eyes. I asked her what was wrong. She said in her saddest voice that Mickey was sad because Mr.Scrooge would not let him have Christmas off.

My heart broke. Partially because my child was crying and the other was because it was so sweet watching her heart break for Mickey:)

So I then started crying because the moment was just too precious. I just sat down with her and we both cried for awhile about Mickey's Christmas Carol.

emma's new big girl bed

Emma has been sleeping in a toddler bed ever since she got out of her crib at 17 months. My whole plan was to move her to my old daybed that I had when I was in my teenage years when she got a little older. The only problem was that the bed was a pine color.

I have been harassing Jason about painting the bed for several months now. And to my own admission, we have been sorta busy with the whole moving to another state thing.

So, I then got the idea as I was wandering around Lowe's that maybe we could spray paint the bed. He thought I was crazy. My thinking was spray paint costs $3 a can for primer and paint and if it doesn't work then we're only out a small amount. However, if I was right then it would be half the money and half the time.

And, oh was I right.

I have to give my husband props though. He did an amazing job!

Eat your heart out Pottery Barn...

tiny dancer

So after much consideration, we caved in and let Emma take a ballet class, or as the teacher calls it "creative movement". It's not that I have anything against ballet, I just hate the pressure of feeling like I am picking the activity that Emma is in. I want her to want to go and to not feel like I want it more than she does.

This will not be a problem though because she fell in love with the class!

Emma is tall and skinny so she looked precious in her leotard and tights and ballet slippers. She was slow to join in, but when she finally relaxed she had such a great time. She refused to take off her dance clothes all day. In fact, as soon as class was over she begged me to take her to Daddy's office to show him her new get-up. Thankfully, our church is just a couple of buildings down (oh, the beauty of living in smaller town).

I had my little camera in my purse so we got some shots of her in her "ballerina" outfit as she called it.

So precious...


Emma practicing her "creative movement"?

the odom family reunion

Saturday, we travelled to Aunt Eva's house for the Odom family reunion. This is my Nana's side of the family. We all had such a good time. Nana and Aunt Eva outdid themselves with the feast they laid out. It was all so good! It's nice living closer to home where we can go to things like this.







Mom and Me


Melanie and me



An actual picture of Jason and me...


After many, many attempts, this is the best family pic that we could get.


Uncle Bill and Ava


Playtime with Aunt Nanie

happy birthday, aunt nanie!

My baby sister Melanie, aka Aunt Nanie, is celebrating the big 21 today! Happy Birthday!

all settled in

So we moved to Tupelo a week ago today. We are just about settled in except for some boxes in the office. You know that stuff that you don't really need, but you can't quite bear to get rid of either?

Things have just really been good here. We have been so loved on. At first, I was having such a hard time letting go, but God just put people in my path here who have been so sweet and servant-hearted towards us. People have been delivering meals to us almost everyday. Praise God for some good southern cooking!

Jason's first Sunday went so well. It truly felt as if he had always been there. The people embraced him and the worship was fantastic. It was so good to hear Pastor Sam preach. He is such a gifted communicator with a precious heart. He started a series on Fireproofing Your Marriage and we look forward to hearing from God through Sam over the month.

The girls really seem to be adjusting well. They are so excited about their new church! Another great positive is that the girls were able to get in at the Mother's Day Out program at another local church. For once, they are actually attending and I am not teaching. I actually get to reap the benefits of a MDO program!

I had such an urge to nest once we got here. I guess that comes from being like a gypsy over the last 2 years in Dallas. We loaded up the girls to go to a local nursery where we stocked up on some hay, pumpkins and mums. The girls love the hay. I can't keep them out of it!

finally, our families can all visit!

This past Saturday Nana and Papa and MiMi came to visit. We were so excited that they got to come down and check out our new place. They fell in love with Tupelo just like we did! Nana brought down some flowers from her garden to plant into mine. So, besides doing a little planting we had a relaxing time just hanging out.

Papa did take the girls for a spin on his jazzy chair. They loved it!




On Sunday, the Stockdale clan came down to help celebrate our first Sunday service. It was so wonderful to have all the support there! After a lazy afternoon we headed over to check out the Tupelo "fair". We decided against going when we realized how expensive it was! Instead we headed over to the park and then a gourmet meal at Mickey D's.

Emma and Ella... cousins


Ava just being her happy self on the swings, her favorite place


Ella pushing Ava on the swings


Grammy and Ella


Pop-Pop and Rebekah (or otherwise known as Becky because Jason is adamant about having our children call Rebekah that)


Pop-Pop with his girls, Anna and Rebekah

our last days in dallas...

Our last days in Dallas were busy ones. It seemed as if our leaving just all of a sudden snuck up on us. We filled our days with all of our favorites. Good friends, good food and good fun.

My girls love to play outside, as you can tell from all the pictures we take. While the movers were packing us up, we headed out to play in the backyard.




Our last Sunday at Park Cities, the Wisners threw us a going-away party. It was so great to have everyone in the same room together. We didn't get all the pictures we would have liked to because we were so busy talking with one another, but we did manage to get a picture of the destruction that the kiddos did in Nash's room.



Sunday night the Roses had us over for dinner. We had our favorite Mexican dive, Fernando's. We just love the Roses. They have been so encouraging to us and have helped us out so much with our girls. I only wish we had gotten to know them sooner.