THE NEW 2010 MISS JIM BOWIE QUEEN!!!

Well, she DID IT!!! She finally got her crown!!! After three failed attempts; we were so THRILLED!!! And the little girls came home with rabbits from the rodeo too, so they couldn't be happier either!!!

Miss Jim Bowie Queen Competition '10

I took a vacation day yesterday, and I went to be pampered...I had my very first professional pedicure in about ten years, it was LOVELY!!! Then I went to watch Madison give her speech for the 2010 Miss Jim Bowie Queen's contest. Afterwards, it was time for the parade, but we had a HUGE lightning storm, and horses and lightning don't really mix, so they had to cancel it. The rodeo started at 7:30, and they announced the contestants. Tonight they pick the winner!!! This is Madi's 4th time to enter this contest, but she did that at the age of 10, 11, and 12. Keep your fingers CROSSED!!! I don't care what happens, she is already my rodeo queen!!! I am so PROUD of her!!!

Weekend Update...

Friday I took a vacation day, thank goodness, because I ended up having to go to church camp to pick up Madi & her friend, Tori; 6.5 hours in the car!!! UGH! It was fun though; then Friday night, Sofie and Victoria both had play-off games; VERY exciting and nerve-wracking... Sofie's team got 2nd place, and V's team got 3rd; Victoria was up to bat, and the ball (coming out of the pitching machine) hit her thumb and SMASHED it, blood was seeping out of all sides of her fingernail...she tried really hard to finish her batting, but just couldn't...so we had to take an out... Saturday I cooked on the grill (all by myself), it's usually Mark's job, I made steaks and corn-on-the-cob, and garlic/cheese smashed potatoes; we invited Mamu over, and it was a GIRL'S NIGHT!!! I sent that pic of the food on the grill to Mark (he was at work), and said 'wish you were here', he got offended we were having fun without him, but my PLAN was to make that dinner so he could have a steak dinner for Father's Day when he got home at 6:30 A.M. Sunday... poor thang... he enjoyed it, along with 3 hand-made Father's Day cards from his girls; after dinner Madi wanted to have a guitar lesson, so I LET her play mine, and I taught her 4 chords, and she ROCKED them!!! She learned how to play 'Jesus Loves the Little Children', and now she's HOOKED!! Sunday after the girls came back from Brad's, we went to PawPaw's house for swimming!!!
Oh yea, and Paige came back to Bowie, just not in our house anymore...

Our new pitcher!!!

A song for Step-Daddy...

This a song that Victoria wrote for me, Mark. It really moved me in a way that is hard to describe. I wanted to share it with all of you. If you can see in the pic, there is a line about 1/3 down the page. The writing above the line was her brainstorming ideas for her song. The portion below the line is the actual song. I will write on here what is on the paper for easier reading.

Above the line(brainstorming):
HE GOT ME INTO SINGING
FUNNY
I LOVE HIM
Below the line(the actual song):
YOU'RE THE ONE THAT GOT ME INTO SINGING AND HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY THAT I LOVE YOU AND YOU'RE THE FUNNIEST "SMILEY FACE"(think she meant man or guy or person) THAT I EVER KNEW AND YOU MAKE ME FEEL THAT I'M ALWAYS IN YOUR DREAMS AND YOU'RE ALWAYS IN MY HEART. THAT'S WHY I LOVE YOU SO AND YOU'RE THE ONLY REASON WHY.

I just can't put into words how deeply this touched me. It is one of my most prized possessions! Thank you V.

p.s. Awhile back Sofie wrote a note to me and I will quote that now also:

I am so glad that God put you on this earth and that you're married to my mom. I love you so much. Love, Sofie Butler

Have you ever heard of such pure sweetness from two little angels like that before?

PEACE, LOVE AND HAPPINESS
MARK

Cutie-pies!!

My mom was kind enough to keep my little ones today while I'm at work and Mark is asleep... Madi's home, but they can't be quiet enough, I'm afraid...so I asked Mamu to watch them. She just sent me this picture of them; she just did styled their hair; they look like they like each other in this pic don't they?!?!

Summer crafts...

This was our entertainment last night...I found some easy instructions for clay art,(FamilyFun.com), and the girls were surprisingly very good at it; meaning (I didn't have to do it for them)!!! Victoria's piggie is adorable, look closely at the tail...when they dry, we will add paint!!

Madi's 1st fondant cake...

While I was working yesterday, I was texting back and forth with Madi,; she was attempting to bake a cake for her friend, and it wasn't going so smoothly... the first two she made tore up when she tried to flip them onto the cooling racks; she greased the pans, but forgot to dust them with flour; so her second attempt at making chocolate cake (from scratch), same thing happened...she was so frustrated, she was about to throw the cakes away. I told her to just wait until I got home, and I would help her. So, when I got there, they weren't completely wrecked; I showed her how to make frosting, chocolate, and we 'glued' all the cake pieces together, and I frosted the two layers, and then we began rolling out the fondant. She dyed some of it red, stained her hands in the process, and I rolled out the white and covered the cakes. She cut out the white trim and helped with the letters, but HER cake, ended up taking ME until nine o'clock last night to finish!! By the way CCR stands for Cross Canadian Ragweed, the friend's favorite band. Oh the joys of parenthood... Madi's friend, Tori, came over to stay the night, and Sofie's friend, Allissa, came over too...and Mark felt sorry for Victoria being all alone, so he invited her to sleep with us...but I was the only one having to get up to come to work this morning, so I told him only one of them could sleep with me; we have a full-sized bed, not enough room for THREE!!! So poor Mark slept on the couch all alone :(

Paige is moving....again...

Well it's been about a year since Paige moved back in with us. In this passed year she's learned how to play guitar, helped ALOT around the house, been Aunt Paige to the kids, she had a full-time job at Ace Hardware, saved up some money, got enrolled in NCTC College here in Bowie for the fall, and we thought she was going to live with us for at least another year, or two, while she went to school... but, this Saturday, she is moving out, and moving to Bandera, Texas, to be a ranch-hand... she says it's her dream job, and she is thrilled... so please keep Paige in your prayers as she moves away from everyone she knows...pray for her to thrive, and be happy, and LOVE this new place she is moving to... and pray for us to not worry ourselves sick about her... I am beside myself... as hard as it was having a grown woman live in our already full-house, ...I still wanted her to be successful; wanted to help her grow up, and have a good start; wanted to help support her while she figured out what she wanted to do; but as I said, she is grown (20-yrs-old), and has to make her own decisions... it's just so hard watching someone who has the world at her fingertips, be happy to give all that up... I love her, and don't want to see her come back in a few months regretting what she has chosen; not to mention how bad we will all miss her...
so, I'm letting her go, trying hard not to tell her what I REALLY THINK...

Fun without Mom...

I just got this pic from Mark, he is home with ALL the girls, while I'm at work...they LOVE having him all alone (he spoils them)... Madi's in the kitchen making her first fondant cake!!!! So excited...we are chatting right now, she has lots of questions!

The CAKE!!

Here are a few pictures of Jon's cake I took with my phone, I knew Andrea would take some PRO pics when she got it home, so I didn't get any at my house... each tier was three layers; coconut cream, with pineapple layer in between, and in between each layer was pineapple-buttercream filling. I have never used filling before, and I put WAY too much in the top tier, and the tier started to slide, I put several dowel rods in it, and covered it with the fondant, but in the morning, the whole cake looked like it was falling over!!! But it was sturdy, and looked kinda cute leaning over, like a topsy-turvy cake...so it was going to have to do... I'm no professional, and Andrea knew that going in (~wink~wink~)... The fondant was made from marshmallows, the old crow was made from rice crispie treats, covered in fondant with gum-paste feet and beak. The bicycle was made from gum-paste, and I couldn't get it to stay together, so that's where the idea to crash the bike and crow came from; my Mom's idea, actually!!! The only HORRIBLE part of making this cake ALL FROM SCRATCH, was we didn't get to taste it... :(
NOPE, we didn't, this was the first time I used Paula Dean's coconut cake recipe, and it smelled DIVINE!!! I'll just have to make another, just for US!!!

Our Memorial Day...

It's been very, very busy in our household the last few weeks; softball season is here, and we've had as many as four games in one week. Mark worked ten 12-hour shifts straight, from 5pm, until 5am, so I've had to get used to being there alone at night. Then he was off for a day, and he slept, then he got called in for a morning shift, then off the next day, then called back in; so it was a VERY nice weekend to have him all to myself Friday through today!!! Thank goodness he was home Friday night, because I was making the biggest cake I've ever made and he was my assistant. We finally finished it around 10:30, and needed to un-wind, so we took our guitars out back, lit the tiki torches and sang and played. Then around midnight, we fired up the 4-wheelers and drove around in the dark; that was FUN, but I was going down fast, needed my bed, so in we went. The next morning we met my cousin Andrea in Decatur with THE CAKE, holding our breath with every little bump we hit!!! It was her husband's 40th birthday cake, and I was thrilled to get to make it. Andrea was too kind, and she PAID me for the cake (I just wanted to give it to her, she IS family!!!) so, we took the money and went to lunch and to buy new shoes!!! YAY ME!!! NEW SHOES!!! (Thank you Andrea!!) We were invited to our friends Kolby & Laura's for dinner and the UFC fight on Pay-Per-View (I LOVE UFC, by the way), they served brisket and all the fixins, which were all very very yummy!! We stayed the night there, played with their English Bulldogs, snuck out in the morning, and came home to pack for our lake trip. We were invited by my friend, Jessica, to go to Lake Arrowhead for the day. So we packed up our guitars and sunscreen and headed that way with our other friend, Todd. Got to swim with a snake, play a little guitar, but our fun was cut short by some un-planned monthly medical condition, that keeps getting WORSE & WORSE!!! So we went home so I could lie down...YUCK! Our friend Todd, invited his friend and her 2-yr-old, sweet, adorable, cute cute cute little boy over, and we played with him, Mark gave him a 4-wheeler ride, he gave me lots of hugs and kisses, and he didn't want to go home when it was his bedtime, and we didn't want him to leave!!!
Monday, the girls came home, and we took them to Amon Carter Lake here in Bowie; I was still a little gun-shy from the snake incident, so I stayed in knee-deep water, and just soaked up the sun... it was a nice weekend...an I am so happy summer is here!!! It's when I'm my happiest!