Blue Tooth

I know this picture is a little scary but it is also so funny! Halle's two front teeth have been loose for some time. When Halle went to school the other day, I thought to myself that we were going to have to pull one when she got home. Well when I picked her up from school, her tooth was blue! It was so loose that the tooth had lost the blood supply to it and basically died!

I was like o my we have to pull that tooth, no choice! It took her about two tries and it was out.

That same night we went to my brother's house in Texarkana to help him landscape his backyard. Halle had to use the bathroom in all places, Wilton! Of course we had to buy some candy and while we were in the check out we were talking about Halle's blue tooth. Well the poor little girl checking us out I think thought that we were talking about her. Bless her heart she had the worst teeth! They were all decayed in the front. So they were of course all black and blue. Well when I realized what she thought I quickly began saying that yes HALLE your tooth was blue and yes HALLE we did pull YOUR blue tooth.

I felt so bad when we got in the car. I told Halle that we probably should not have been talking about her blue tooth in front of that poor little lady. Halle agreed and said that it looked liked that lady's teeth had been set on fire. I couldn't help but laugh but was so thankful she didn't say it in front of the lady! Looking at decayed teeth all day I had never thought of decay in this way..... leave it to kids to speak honestly!

Since the picture she has pulled the front two upper centrals. I will try to get a good picture of this. She looks so different that I'm still not use to it. The good thing about her waiting so long to pull the two teeth is that I can already see her permanent teeth poking through!

The tooth fairy brought her $6 for the two teeth plus her daddy gave her $5 for pulling the first one. She was ready to go shopping!

Sweet Rylee

Sunday night and most of Monday I kept my best friend from high school little girl, Rylee. She is 19 months and my girls loved her! She was the best little thing. We even took her to Halle's softball game. She just sat in her chair and enjoyed the game. She loves to brush her teeth which I, of course, thought was awesome.

Halle and Syd both pushed her around in the little car, swang her in the babies' swing, and played in the toy room with her. She just smiled and did whatever the girls wanted her to do.

When her mom picked her up on Monday night she cried wanting to stay with the big girls. Rylee, you will definately have to come back to visit and play with the girls again! We enjoyed her so much!

Please pray for the McRae family during their difficult time!

Softball Games

Halle still has been playing softball games. She has a couple of games left. She really enjoys playing and has had a great time playing with her friends.

Last night she hit her first homerun! She hit the ball really hard and made it all the way home. She was so excited!

She has been doing well at shortstop as well. She threw a few players out last night. I love this age! They don't really care who wins or loses. They just enjoy the game.

Syd thinks she is just as big as the big girls. She enjoys sitting with them in the dugout. Carlee and Kalee as always go with the flow. As long as someone is holding them, they are troopers!

Girls Night

I met up with a couple of my friends from hygiene school Friday night. Courtney and Casey are two of my closest friends from college. We have kept in touch and try to talk on phone every other week or so. Our blogs are also a way we communicate.

I haven't seen either since Courtney's wedding about 4 years ago which is hard to believe! I was so excited to see them and loved getting the chance to meet Courtney's little boy, Parr. He is so cute!! We had such a great time catching up. We stayed up until about 3 in the morning which I probably have not done since college! LOL

Courtney and Casey are the greatest friends who I have so much in common with. I feel truly blessed to call them my friends! We all promised that we were going to make this a yearly outing. Love you guys!!

New "Jump"

The girls were so proud to have their "jump" back. Syd calls it a jump. It really is a better one than our last one. The netting fits inside the springs instead of outside like the other one. I think their is no way they could fall out of this one.

Thanks Gran and Nana for buying the new "jump".

Look Who's Pulling Up

Yesterday I was sitting in a chair holding Carlee when Kalee crawled over to us and pulled up on the chair. I was so excited but didn't have my camera at that moment. I captured the moment today at Nana's house. Nana said she pulled up to everything all day. I'm sure Carlee will not be too far behind.

Both of them are going from crawling to sitting up by themselves this week. It was one of those things where I was like, "have they been doing that?" It is really great because when they get tired of being on their belly I don't have to go over and sit them up, they just do it.

My little babies are getting so big..... kind of makes me sad.

Beautiful Week

What a beautiful week it has been so far! The girls have loved playing outside in the afternoons. Carlee has her eyes closed in every picture I took, I guess the sun was bothering her. O how they love to swing.

Syd loves to show them how high she can swing. She fell playing yesterday and she ran over to me and said, "look momma, my skin fell off." I told her that I have never heard it put quite that way but that I was sorry that her skin fell off. LOL She quickly recovered and went back to playing.

Halle is in the background working on putting her playhouse back together with Papa.

Now Carlee...

Yesterday Carlee started running fever exactly one week after we took Kalee to the doctor. Jeffrey took her to the doctor this morning. Dr Green said as of now it was just a good old fashioned cold not pneumonia yet. He gave us a prescription for an antibiotic just in case her breathing became worse but for now we are just giving her a decongestant and cough medicine. She weighed 19lbs 7 ozs. As you may remember Kalee weighed 19lbs 14 ozs, close as always.

Hopefully this medicine will do the trick and we will be sick free for awhile!! Also Carlee has another tooth. This makes two now. They are the lower centrals. My dad found it yesterday when she was biting his finger!!

Hide And Go Seek

Sydney and Halle were playing hide and go seek with me the other day. This is where I found Syd after Halle told me where she was. She is in her armoir between the shelves. Halle had shut the doors to it and Syd was being quite as a mouse. I would have never have found her if Halle hadn't told me where she was.

I made time to take a quick picture and then I informed them not to ever hide in there again!

Boil Order

Just in case anyone was wondering why Dierks was still under a boil order... I took picture of the firehose that is supplying the town's water from Nashville Rural Water. It literally is a firehose on top of the ground.

As far as I know the portable water treatment plants have been installed but aren't up and running yet because the water is still being tested.

Halle went a full day to school yesterday for the first time since the tornado hit. She was exhausted last night and was asleep by 8:30.

Hannah Montana Movie

Today I took Halle and Sydney to see the Hannah Montana movie. The girls really enjoyed it. They really were surprised to see Taylor Swift singing in the movie. They both love her as well. Even Rascal Flatts sang a couple of their songs in the movie. It was a great day for a movie because it has come a flood here today.

Rebuilding

Yesterday after the workers left from the water plant and cleaning the debris, Jeffrey and I drove a couple of our friends over to see the destruction from the tornado. I hadn't been since the Friday after it hit. In some ways it looks worse than it did that day. They have cut and piled some of the trees so in a few areas you can really tell how bad it was.

A crew came in and framed up the top of the water plant to house the two portable water treatment plants. I snapped a picture of the old controls sitting out in front of the water plant.

While we were out there we met a corp worker coming out going home. A couple of days ago a few of the corp workers flew over the areas where the tornado hit. They made a video and took several photos. He told us that in a couple of locations it appeared like the tornado actually split into two tornados and then came back together to form a larger tornado. He told us that he would let us see the video and give us some pictures of our houses from the sky. Evertime I ride up there I realize how lucky and blessed we were.

Poor Syd is having some post traumatic stress issues. Yesterday when it was storming a little it began to thunder. She started screaming and crying that the tornado was coming again and that it was going to hit our house. Everytime it thundered she cried. I tried to assure her that it was going to fine and that the thunder was not going to hurt us. She is going to be scared of storms from now on....poor thing!

1st Softball Game Of Season

Halle played her 1st softball game of the season on Thursday. Her games are scheduled for Fridays but due to the weather we moved the games to Thursday this week.

Our league has 3 teams with about 7 on each team. We had team pictures so I was able to get a cute picture of all the girls on our team. Their ages range from 4 to 7.

Halle hit the ball on the first pitch all three times she batted. The first one was her best hit. She popped it up between the short stop and third baseman. She is better at hitting than playing first base, I must admit. She played one inning at first base then her dad moved her to short stop. She fields the ball better than she catches it at first base anyway. She played well at short stop for the remainder two innings.

We don't keep score but all the players had a great time and decided that it ended in a tie.

Carlee and Kalee enjoyed being outside, and Syd ran around entertaining everyone. Halle had several family members there watching her. Thanks to everyone who came to cheer her on!

Wherever You Go I Go

Wherever one of the girls go the other one is not far behind. As I've mentioned I always find them in the strangest places. Today I couldn't find them and they were behind a chair playing.

I also find them lately in the position of the second picture. It is always Kalee on top with Carlee crying under her. They love to crawl under the bar stools for some reason. That is where they were in the picture.

Both of them now have a tooth a piece. As much as they are drooling, more are soon to follow.

Also I forgot to mention that when I took Kalee to the doctor, she weighed 19lbs 14 ozs! Those infant car seats are soon to be a thing of the past! I can't wait.... they are so heavy!

Tornado Update

Even though the tornado has long been gone, Dierks is still picking up from its destruction. Our town has made the news several days and we were the lead story for a couple of those days.
The town is still conserving water. Two portable water treatment facilities brought in by the National Guard are now in place and helping some with the amount of water being supplied to the town. The town is still hooked up to Nashville's Rural Water as well via a fire hose. Which is why we are still under a boil order.
Wal-Mart and a food bank in Texarkana have supplied bottled water to the school and town for drinking purposes. My brother is on the board of the food bank so he helped get the kids that water.
School started back on Wednesday but the kids are only going until 1:00 for the remainder of the week due to the water situation. Portable bathrooms were set up at the high school. School officials decided the elementary kids weren't ready for these. LOL I can only imagine how that would have gone over..... Halle said they told her class not to flush the potty if they pee peed but only to flush if they "really used the bathroom bad." Some teachers said that wasn't much different than a usual day at the elementary! I so could not be a teacher.
Since we have a well, Halle has not had to worry with any of this so she was really talking about what all was going on at school. She said she told her teacher about her experience with the tornado.
I can only imagine how the town of Mena is coping. Our town is dealing with several issues but atleast our town is still standing!

Easter 2009

The girls enjoyed Easter this year even though it was raining. They got to hunt eggs inside at my Aunt Jan's house with my mom's family and then they hunted eggs at Nana's house with her family. Halle and Sydney found more eggs than Carlee and Kalee but they all found prize eggs with money in them.

Today I was cleaning out their Easter baskets getting candy and money out of the plastic eggs and I found a surprise myself. Halle and Syd had put real eggs inside the plastic ones without me knowing it!! You all can imagine how well they smelled!!! Not to mention the eggs we boiled were already ruined due to our electricity being out the other day. As Syd put it, "the tornado ruined our eggs!"

Twins Update

Carlee and Kalee ended up not having to have an April RSV shot. Our insurance would only pay for 6 injections so no April shot. Their nurse informed me that they had not seen any cases of RSV in several weeks so I was fine with them not getting the shot. I was glad that they didn't have to get another shot poor things.

However, I had to take Kalee to the doctor yesterday because she had been running a temp since Friday. She also stopped wanting to drink all her milk Sunday night and Monday morning. Our doctor was a vacation so I saw another doctor in the office. She was very thorough and had us do blood work and chest xrays.

I know all you parents have seen the horrible contraption that they put little kids in for xrays! Honestly she looked just pitiful in that thing all confined, holding her arms up. I informed them that they needed digital xrays because they ended up having to redo one pose. After they had already gotten her out and she had calmed down, they made her get back in that thing to take one more xray! I think as much money as I have given Collom and Carney alone, they could afford digital xrays! :)

She ended up having pneumonia in the right lung. She is taking antibiotics for 10 days to clear up the infection. The doctor didn't think the others would get it... let's all pray. She does seem better today and she hasn't had fever since last night.

They will be 10 months Friday. That is very hard to believe! Still just crawling everywhere... Kalee is trying to pull up but hasn't quite done it yet. They are eating a little more table food, so far their favorite is potatoes.

They love their older sisters and crawl to where they are all the time. Sydney is so good at making sure all her little toys are picked up when they go in the toy room with her. Halle is very protective of them as well...two little mother hens!

Church Easter Egg Hunt

Our church has a Easter egg hunt every year. The girls always enjoy it. The twins didn't know what was happening but they enjoyed chewing on the plastic eggs. Sydney had fun hunting the eggs with her friends. One of her friends dropped some of her eggs out of her basket. She picked them up and hollowed at her to come back and get them. I thought that was so sweet of her. Halle would have put them in her own basket. LOL Sydney also helped a little girl who just turned 1 find an egg. She can be so sweet!

Halle found the silver egg which had money in it. She was content and wanted to go to the dollar store immediately. Both of them found eggs with numbers on them so we came home with several prizes.

It was a fun day with more to come tomorrow.

Surviving The Tornado

Thursday night we survived a tornado. We knew severe storms were predicted so we were keeping watch on the clouds and channel 7 news. My brother called around 7:30 and said sirens were going off in Texarkana so I was watching that storm, keeping in contact with him and my dad who was fishing on DeQueen lake. We saw where channel 7 predicted the tornado at Mena and then it started focusing on the storm that was coming for Dierks.

We built a safe room in our house so I began to stock it with diapers, formula, toys, pillows, blankets, snacks, and drinks. I made the girls come in our bedroom because it was close to the safe room and a tv. Channel 7 was showing rotation close to our house and predicted it would hit Dierks at 8:32. Jeffrey looked at the screen and pointed to our house on the map which appeared to be right in the path. At that time the girls and I got in the safe room.

The phone lines were going crazy but I was able to talk to my dad who had found shelter at a neighbors house in town and my brother who was at this point clear from his storm.

Jeffrey was outside watching the clouds from our porch when he heard the tornado coming. He ran to the safe room and told me that I had to hear this. He lifted the window up in our bedroom and I could here it coming. It really does sound like the roar of a train! We both ran to the safe room because we really thought it was coming straight for our house. I told the girls to start praying. I called my brother and was able to get through at 8:36 and talked to him for 1 minute and 51 seconds. That was how long it lasted. I was crying telling him that it was coming for our house and that we could hear it. It sounded like hail was hitting our house at the time but it turned out to be debris from the tornado. The girls were scared to death poor things. Even the twins sensed that something was terribly wrong.

I knew at any moment I was going to hear the sound of glass breaking however thankfully it ended and I felt that my house had survived. My mom was able to get through at that time and let us know that we were in the clear because obviously we had lost power and were unable to get radio or tv.

We all walked outside to take a look around. About that time Jeffrey's parents drove up. They had been in DeQueen eating and had to stay in the bathroom at the restaurant. When they got to the house they were scared to death because they drove over a tree to get to us. They didn't know if it had hit our houses or not or if we were safe. I think they were never so glad to see us!

My dad and one of his friends drove up shortly after. They had driven over power lines to get to us.

We were all safe but the towns water supply building had been destroyed. It was a two story building and the top of the building had been blown away. It also hit the core office. All of this is about a 1/3 of a mile from our house! Several trees were blown down along with several power line poles.

Our trampoline didn't make it and one of the girls play house got blown up into the swing set. Amazingly our house was fine. Not a shingle was blown off. The girls and I decided that our prayers were answered!

My phone began to blow up. Several of my friends received word that the tornado had hit by our house and they were all checking to make sure we were safe. Thanks to everyone who thought of us and were concerned!

The town has now hooked into Nashville's rural water. Everyone is conserving water and praying that this lasts until something permanent can be done with the town's supply. We got our electricity back on last night and our well is working so our household is back to normal.

The schools were out Friday and they are going to be out Monday as well due to the water situation. Hopefully the kids can get back in school soon so they won't have to go into the summer.

Our town is extremely blessed that the tornado missed the town. It hit all around and was rated a F3 tornado. I honestly have never been so scared in my life.....

Silly Girls

The girls love to pose on the rocks outside of Chili's restaurant. I figure people think we are tourists snapping pictures of the girls. :) Halle bought her some "attitude" glasses. They have no strength, she just likes wearing them. If she had to wear glasses it would be a fight getting her to wear them! LOL Sydney entertained the lunch crowd with her dancing. Everyone thought they were all just precious but no one believes that are 4 are mine.....