Lucy's Toothbrushes

Lucy is our child who does not like to give or throw anything away. If a toy is broken she does not want to throw it away. Most everything seems to have sentimental value to her. She doesn't even want to give away baby toys. She does not like change, even when it comes to her toothbrushes. She has several toothbrushes and when we ask her about throwing a few away (since she has so many) it's often a conversation that ends in tears. Right now she has the six toothbrushes below that are in the girls' upstairs bathroom, and she also has two toothbrushes in the downstairs bathroom that she uses in the morning to brush her teeth. Lucy.................... :)

Daddy Daughter Dance

The PTA at Lucy's school held a Daddy Daughter Dance a few weeks ago and I helped with the decorations. The theme was "Magical Masquerade," which I didn't really like at first, but it turned out so neat! The PTA president made all of the masks in the pictures below out of cardboard and then painted and decorated them. I was so impressed with her vision and art abilities! I made the sign you see in the first picture below (which was the photo backdrop) and the sign in the last picture, all using my Silhouette cutting machine. I was very proud of these signs - they took a long time to make! I also helped make the centerpieces. I really enjoyed helping with it and thought it all came together very nicely. I'm so glad our PTA puts this on. Lucy loved going and had such a wonderful time!

Valentine's Day 2019

We had a nice Valentine's Day 2019. We had a candlelight dinner in our dining room on the 13, and even used our china plates to eat on. The girls thought this was pretty neat! We ate in there on the 13 because on the 14 we ate at Popeye's...which has been our tradition since 2012. Ross brought home some flowers for the girls and we gave them each an LOL doll and a whoopie cushion! They thought the whoopie cushions were great and so funny! We had a fun time playing with them. Ross gave me some of my favorite chocolates and a very nice card. It was a fun day!

Ross And The Girls

The picture below is from KPM's (Ross' work) Facebook page. The company provided lunch for everyone one day and as you can see below Ross sat at the girl's table. I laughed when I saw this picture on Facebook and sent it to my friends, Pam and Natalie. For the past ten years we have had a joke between Pam, Natalie, Ross, and I about "Ross and the Girls." It always seemed to work out that it would be the three girls and Ross going out to eat, hanging out, or doing whatever. It's just a funny little memory we have made me chuckle to see it continuing on here at work. :)

My Mom's Birthday Cards

My Mom started a tradition (I don't know how long ago) of giving special "picture" birthday cards to the grandkids on their birthdays. She goes through all the pictures she's accumulated from the year, prints them out, then cuts them up to put in the birthday card. This is a lot of work and the cards always turn out looking so good! It's a fun way to have a little memory book right in the palm of your hands! All the pictures look really cute cut out, too. She definitely has a knack for putting the extra/finishing touch on things.

Birthday Signs

My very best friend from growing up and probably of all time, Kara, turned 40 this past December. Her sister had a surprise party for her a few weeks before her birthday at at that party we were reminiscing about her past birthdays. She reminded me of a birthday where I had put signs around town and along her driveway saying "Happy Birthday Kara." I had completely forgotten about that and we had a good laugh about it. I'm glad we had that conversation because it gave me the idea to do signs about for her 40th birthday!

It worked out perfectly, too. Her birthday is December 23, which was a Sunday last year. We were planning on having our Ward/Herndon/Wiseman Christmas party at my parents' house in Ash Gove on the 22. I told my dad what I was planning on doing and he helped me go out after sunset that night to put "Happy Birthday Kara" signs near her house. It was the best time! We put up six signs - all in places that I knew she would be traveling the next day.

I got a text from her the morning of her birthday with a picture of one of the signs asking if I knew anything about it and saying it had "Ward" written all over it. This made me laugh so much! It was a fun way to

VIP Volunteer

I am now a VIP volunteer at Lucy's school! Every time you go to her school you have to sign in and out and wear a sticker that says "Horace Mann Visitor." I didn't think anything of the signing in and out; I just figured it was for safety concerns, etc. Well, right before Christmas I learned that they track the time you spend volunteering and once you reach 20 volunteer hours you become a VIP volunteer! With this grand distinction comes your very own ID card that you get to wear when at the school instead of the sticker. I had seen a few people with name tags like this, but they were PTA officers, so figured it just came with the PTA territory, so to say. I was secretly thrilled and excited to learn about this and receive my very own VIP badge! I do wear it proudly every time I go to Lucy's school! :)

Lucy's Artwork

We think Lucy is such a talented artist! She's always drawing pictures and we love seeing what she comes up with. She drew these pictures in art class at school. She was looking at something and then drawing it. The second picture is a piece of pizza with glasses on. :)

Christmas Eve Tradition

On Christmas Eve 2016, we went to a candlelight service at our church. Like most Christmas Eve services, we sang Silent Night at the end by candlelight. We were supposed to turn in our candles after the service, but I kept all of ours (six because Ross' parents were with us) and took them home. That night before we opened a few presents we turned off all the lights and light our church candles. Ross read the Christmas story and then we sang a song...all by candlelight. It was just the nicest time and has since become our Christmas Eve tradition. Wanda and Larry were with us again this year and she took these pictures while Ross was reading. I hope the girls always remember this and always look forward to it each year!