I only got to see Hope for 3 days but it was nice to see her.

The first week she was on vacation, the 3rd week she had volleyball practice every day and she lives in a different town.  So, we had some time the 2nd week we were there.

It didn't go well as I had hoped it would so I only got to see her for 3 days.

That's the part of my trip I wish I could change..

The first picture is of Madi Grace not feeling very well.

She and Hannah Joy had to go in the hospital.

Madi had a bad cough and fever.

Hannah Joy was vomiting and had fever and was dehydrated.

Madi was easily treated.  Hannah ended up having blood sugar problems.

They were going to send her to Little Rock Children's Hospital but they finally got her blood sugar up.

At first test her blood sugar was a 42.

They gave her 3 boluses of sugar and waited then tested again.

It had gone down to 35.

So they were going to ship her if they couldn't get it up.

Praise GOD they got it up!  We got to go home that night.

We stayed the next several days with my friend, Leslie.

On one of the days we had Hope, we went to our favorite place, On the Border!

It's always nice to have all my girls together. 

I wish I had gotten a picture of the 4 all together at once.

After the 3rd day when I knew she wasn't going to be spending more time with us, I took a quick snap of her with Hannah Joy in the back so I would have her picture with Hannah too.

.............................

I sure miss my baby, Hope.

I love to go to the rodeos with my Mom when I can.

She's an incredible barrel racer and my Dad (bonus) is an awesome trainer.

We had the best time.  I admit it is an adrenaline rush!

I wish I could go with her more!

Spending time with her was a blessing and I loved sharing in doing something she loves!

Mom took this picture of me before we left..

Me with Rowlan, one of Mom's barrel horses.

Isn't Mom gorgeous!  She is so precious to me!!!!!!!

Here she's all dressed and ready to go, now to get her horse ready..

She's so quick and efficient at all she does!

Ready to go!

Mommy & Me

Warming Up...

Here she comes for that first barrel!

I was screaming, GO GO GO!!!!!!!!

She's amazing to watch!

...rounding that 3rd barrel....

Taking it home!!!!

I was screaming so loudly the people beside me asked if we were related.

They couldn't believe she is my MOM!

She looks too young!

What an exciting rodeo!

I stayed for the bull riding while she cooled down her horse.

My mother is an incredible blessing!

Thank you, Jesus, for my mother!

My beautiful, first cousin, Brandi came to visit us and brought her brand new baby Palyn.

She is an absolute doll.  Brandi is my Mom's twin sister's daughter.

She is very special to me... and now, so is her daughter!

Here I am very proudly holding my sweet baby cousin!

(yes I look aweful and have on no makeup!)

Palyn looks beautiful though!!!

..then Brandi let Madi Grace hold her and snuggle for awhile!

It's been a while since we had a tiny baby in our house!

...then Sarah Faith's turn.  She wishes we'd have more babies!

Sarah Faith fed her.  (Brandi offered, a new mom, and she's so relaxed!)

Brandi is a wonderful mother and I'm so proud of her.

Sarah Faith did a great job feeding the baby.

Then I asked Brandi to lean in for a picture.

Isn't she beautiful!?  I sure love her!!!

..more to come..

It will take many posts to journal our trip back home to Texas.  We had a wonderful three weeks there.  The time went by so quickly!  This is only the first post.  I hope you enjoy as I post about our trip.  To my precious girls, I hope this journal will help keep your memories of our trip home fresh and that you will each enjoy looking at the pictures and remembering.

Our family and friends were such a blessing to share time with!!!!

We miss home again already but we are thankful to be back home with Daddy.

It will be nice when the time comes, in GOD's timing, when we live closer again.

Here we are at the airport getting ready to board our plane.

It was sad to say Goodbye to Daddy..

Hannah Joy immediately went to our dog, Tink, when she got to Mom's.

We stayed at my Mom and bonus Dad's while we were home.

(My bonus Dad raised me and this is the house I lived in for years growing up)

One evening, my wonderful in laws invited us to go eat as a family.

If Aunt Darcy and Uncle Craig and their kids had been there it would have been a full family dinner except without Kenny.  It was still wonderful though.  We were able to get Grandpa from the nursing home and have him enjoy dinner with us.

We had such a wonderful time!

Here's my bonus dad, PaPa, teaching the girls to jump rope!

He's trying hard to help Sarah Faith jump over that rope!

Little Hannah Joy wanted a turn, of course!  She was laughing so hard.

I think we all were!

Look at all the laughs in this picture.  Madi was laughing so hard she couldn't jump.  She eventually got it though.  So did Sarah Faith.

Daddy was so wonderful doing things like this with us girls when we were growing up.  It blessed me to see him do these fun things with my girls now.

Sarah Faith on the bouncy horse that one of the girls got for Christmas one year and we said it needed to stay at GiGi and PaPa's because it took up so much room!  LOL!

Sarah Faith and Hannah Joy playing a game together in the living room.

Sweet Sisters...

Daddy and Me after a long day!

We were both exhausted!  I look aweful but the picture is precious to me!

Sarah Faith slept in her "own" room with Tink most every night.

Here they are cuddled up together.

Mom and Dad love Tink so they are keeping her permanently but the girls will always call her "their dog"... which works well for us since we travel and works great for Tink.  Mom and Dad spoil her rotten.  She has gotten SOOOOOO fat it's unreal!!!   LoL!

there will be more to come, much, much more.....

http://notquitejunecleaver.com/

Here are just a few pictures I wanted to add here.

Hannah Joy fell asleep in "her" recliner on her puppy!

Awwwwe, my sweet baby girl...

Tonight Sarah Faith put together this 50 piece puzzle in no time!

She loved doing it.  She did it twice, in fact! 

Madi Grace put together this 100 piece puzzle in no time!

She loved doing it as well.

They both want a new puzzle to make tomorrow!

I was so proud of their hard work!

This is a picture their Daddy emailed us showing us his computer at work.

He wanted us to see the pictures taped to the side of the monitor.

He keeps asking me to go print off a picture of me to add.

I need to remember to do that for him.

He's so good to us!

..:~*~:..:~*~:..:~*~:..:~*~:..:~*~:..:~*~:..:~*~:..:~*~:..

Life is going well here.

Our visit home is coming up very quickly!

My precious sister, Nicole, had her baby today!

I can't wait to meet her!!!!!

Florida is HOT HOT HOT!  Even with the AC going nonstop!

I am participating in a Secret Sisters group and am hosting 2 swaps in another group.  I am really enjoying that.  It gives me something to do for "me"..

I hope you and your families are very blessed,

Cassidy

I love the "new look" to my blog!

I owe it all to my friend, Kathryn!  She stayed up very late with me redoing my look for me.  I just really think it fits me now and is so pretty!!!

Thank you SOOOOOOOOOO much Kathryn!

You are always SO good to me!  I'm so blessed to have you as my friend!

Kathryn has a wonderful blog!

Please visit her blog at:

http://protectingtheseeds.blogspot.com/

Sarah Faith's birthday is tomorrow, July 5th, but since her Daddy was off work today we decided to have her party a day early!

She surely didn't complain

Happy Birthday, Sarah Faith!!!

Her theme was "PRINCESS" and she had all the things that said PRINCESS on them! 

This is her being embarrassed as we sang to her! 

Getting ready to blow out the candle!

Wooooo Hoooooo!!!!!

She's laughing because her Daddy is trying to talk her into taking a big bite out of the cake like little ones do.  He's bribing her with a $5 bill to do it!  She's too embarrassed... but she later changes her mind as you will see!

Lots of presents to open!

A princess container to hold special things.

...ripping off the paper...

It was FUNNY because she was opening it from the back and had no idea what she was opening until I told her to turn it around!  LOL!

OHHHHHH THE SMILE!  It's a "Baby Alive" doll!

She was thrilled.  It eats, drinks, pee pees and well umm, poops.

Lovely, eh?

Pajamas as she had asked for!

She wanted some new jammies.. and especially to have some new ones for when she has another sleep over here at home with friends.

From GiGi and PaPa!

SHE LOVED the Barbie furniture!

They got her 3 different sets!

She has plenty of furniture for her barbies now.

Here's baby food for her new baby.

..and of course, DIAPERS for her new baby!

... clothes for her new baby...

OH WOW!  A purse with Alex on it!

She loves Alex.  She has colored six pictures of her and they are taped on her bedroom wall!  She was tickled about this purse!

Hannah Joy is getting in on the pictures, she loves taking pics!

....juice for her baby...

How beautiful!  A precious floral sheer dress from Nanny!!!!

..and she liked this one best!..

A beautiful silky dress from Nanny!

The stones around the neck add such a cute touch!

..and in Nanny's card were some beautiful butterfly stickers!...

All 3 little ones waiting for cake & ice cream!

The birthday girl enjoying the first piece!

Madi Grace having some yummy cake and ice cream too!

and Hannah Joy getting some yummies too!!

and lo and behold SHE DID IT!

She bit into her cake with just her mouth for her Daddy's $5 bribe.

He gets such a kick out of silly things like this.  It's cute.

Last year, he had her karate chop her cake as it was Kung Fu Panda.

The messy mouth it created, LOL

Dad paying her the money he promised!  Smiles!

Sarah Faith with her baby.

She named her ELLA.

She's been feeding her, giving her a bottle, changing diapers, etc... all afternoon enjoying her new baby, ELLA.

Upclose of her tiara PRINCESS balloon!

It's really pretty in person!

..and while Madi and Sarah were playing with the new baby in their bedroom, Hannah Joy decided to drive her car around!

I loved this picture with her smiling and waving.

WHAT A LOVELY BIRTHDAY PARTY WE HAD!

I hope Sarah Faith has fond memories of this day always.

One Happy Mama!  Cass

Another little touch I added today.

This is a reprint of a painting from the 1800's.

It's made onto a little board.

I just absolutely love it!

The girls made animals tonight out of pipe cleaners.

These are the horses!

Didn't they do such a good job?!

They had fun doing it.

I love them spending time together bonding as sisters doing something they are both enjoying.  This little kit was so adorable.  I got it for $1 on sale tonight at wal mart.  (normally $9.96)  Good deal, huh?  I was thrilled the kids liked it so well!

Sarah Faith made this one.

Madi Grace made this one.

Then, they made another style of animals.

I thought they turned out so sweet and cute!

These are the two Madi Grace made.

They are so adorable in person.

This is all four of the ones they made.

Sarah Faith made these two!

Good job!

This picture is SOOOOO precious to me.

Daddy is reading to Hannah Joy.

They sat and read books over and over.

He's such a good daddy and husband.

I sure do love him!

After all the animal making they decided to play "nurses and doctors"

So they put on hospital gowns I had worn home from the hospital.

They used a little bottle thingie to give shots.  It was so cute!

Then, they went to bed with a movie.

We let them stay up extra late tonight since tomorrow is Saturday and we have no school!

We all had a wonderful night.

Hannah Joy sleeps in our room so we do not put her in her bed until we go to bed so she will not be afraid.  She's slept in our room since she was born.

So, when it's bedtime I fix her up in "her" recliner here in the living room with us.

She's so adorable!

Her little foot was hanging out from the covers and was so sweet I had to take a picture of it before I covered it up.  Her toe nails are still painted light green from when I painted them a few nights ago.  She loves them painted.  She just smiles so big!

... and here she is sound asleep like a beautiful, peaceful angel...

I am so blessed!  SO SO blessed!

Praise God for His blessing us with these girls and Hope!

A Thankful Mommy, Cassidy

I added just a few touches around our apartment to make it feel more like ours.

I didn't add much because we do not know how much longer we'll be here.

The more I put out, the more I have to pack away again.

So, I pulled out my bin and got a few little things out.

I had a set of wall stickers that the girls loved.

Each girl has the exact same set hanging above their headboard.

I think they're cute too!

I also hung some little pink pretty stickers in the room.

They are wall stickers so they will come off real easily.

Then, I hung this on my stove.  It's something I cherish as a special friend made it for me.

Lastly, I put this little doilie down with a white ceramic dressy container holding the head of a hydrangea.

I put this in our bathroom as a little touch to make it more inviting.

More little things will be put out soon.  I'm just doing a tiny bit at a time.

I love living in this small apartment because it is SO EASY to clean that it's never a mess.

It's the first place I've lived other than an apartment once back home that was so easy to keep.

I guess the main reason is there is no clutter.  That makes a huge difference!

Smiling, Cass