SWEET SIXTEEN !!

Lindsey, Mark's niece will turn 16 on the 19th. We had a family party on Sunday to celebrate. After church we went to Harding and had lunch, cake and presents. It was good to be together.

Pretty in Pink: Claire (8), Lindsey(16), Anna Kate(6) and Mia(1)

Lindsey is the oldest with a 7 1/2 year gap between her and Blake and Claire. So we will have to wait a while until the next 16th. Then it will be double! OUCH!!

A picture with the boys too: Blake, Claire, Lindsey, Anna Kate, Jackson and Mia

Pa & Grammy with the birthday girl.

Texas... Summer 2008 continued...

Okay sorry for the long first post. The next day we left with my parents and Cody, Larisa, Sydnie and Clay for a weekend in Dallas. We went to Six Flags and to the Ft. Worth Stockyards and Rodeo. It was alot of fun and the kids loved it. Here are the pictures of the week-end.

Nana and the grandkids at the entrance to Six Flags

Blake and Claire in the bumper cars

All five: Claire, Clay, Anna Kate, Sydnie & Blake (the one on the end is not ours) going up, up and away. This one was alot of fun for them. It's like the child's version of the Superman ride.

Sydnie and Anna Kate on Sydnie's first roller coaster. (and the chose the first car!)

There they go.

Cody and Clay in the last car. Look at little Clay's hands up in the air. I AM A BIG BOY, DAD!! (Clay is only 3)

Claire cooling off & taking a break

Claire and Daffy Duck

Anna Kate, Sydnie and Clay with Porky Pig

Grandaddy and Clay riding the Batwing.

Grandaddy and Clay at the rodeo. Clay is Grandaddy's boy

Grandaddy & Nana with the grandkids at the stockyards

This was an awesome spray park just down the road from Mom and Dad's neighborhood. It also has a regular park with it. How much fun!! We need one of these in Searcy.

After a fun weekend in Dallas, a day at the spray park and catching up with my grandparents and some aunts and uncles we came home. The return trip was less dramatic and uneventful thank goodness.

Texas... Summer 2008

Okay, so I had good intentions about updating the blog... but life happens and summers are so busy!! We had a very eventful trip to my parents house in Tyler this year. Mark could not go so it was just me and the kids. No big deal, I've been traveling by myself with the kids since Blake and Claire were about 8 months old (and that was from Memphis) anyway.... We left Searcy after lunch and were doing great, we stopped in Texarkana and got a snack and then about an hour later Claire starts this whimper... it only means one thing "I'm about to be sick!" So I pull over in an old parking lot and she throws up. Okay, get her cleaned up with the last big of a napkin and water that I have and on we go. 20 minutes later here she goes again... this time on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Okay, no napkins, no water "Blake take the pillow case of off her pillow", get her cleaned up and here we go. We stop in the next small town to go to bathroom and wash her face get a bottle of water so we can proceed. Only 45 minutes until we are at my mom's house. I'm feeling pretty good at this point, we come into the Tyler city limits, I'm can see light at the end of the tunnel and the whimper starts again. I pull over this time but there is no room for me to get out and go around on the other side of the car. The brush is too high. So being the good brother he his, Blake holds her hair as she stands on the running board and takes care of business. All better... I put the Suburban in gear and we go no where. Wait a minute, what is going on... I step on the gas and my wheels are turning and we are going no where. We are stuck! I'm so close, it's been a LONG... afternoon and we are stuck in mud???? I call my mom and ask her to call my brother, a DPS (state police) officer to come get me or my uncle (manages a body shop). Of course neither one of them answer the phone. Eventually with the help of 3 strangers and 20 minutes of the pushing we finally get out. Thank you , thank you , thank you... Now let's get to Nana's. It's 5 o'clock traffic time we are traveling around the loop in Tyler at a snail's pace but I'm only 10 minutes from Mom's house when, oh no... crash... yes we rear ended a van. Could this trip get any worse? It was a chain reaction with me being the last car. Myself and the car I hit were the only ones that stopped and pulled over and luckily there was no damage to her van. Thank you , Lord!! I don't think I could have taken much more. She didn't want to call the cops, said good-bye and we finally made it to Mom's. The rest of the trip in the next post.

Welcome to Summer!!

Our summer got off with a bang. School was out only two days before we headed to Branson with Mark's parents and sister's family. We spent an entire week shopping, swimming, eating and of course going to Silver Dollar City. My kids have never been to another amusement park so they are perfectly content with the rides at SDC and loved every minute of it. We were blessed enough to get season passes this year so they are already wanting to know when we are going back. With gas prices who knows??? We returned from Branson late on Saturday and bright and early Monday morning Blake and Claire went to Harding's Baseball and Basketball camps. (last week) So everyday last week Anna Kate and I dropped Blake and Claire off at Harding around 8:30, ran errands and picked them up by 12:00. We would come home exhausted, eat lunch and crash until Blake's baseball games at night. It was a crazy week. So this week we are chillin'!! We've stayed in pj's until noon 2 out of 3 days, had friends come over yesterday for a play date and are basically relaxing. I'm trying to catch up on blogging, scrapbooking and organizing my house. Since we moved in last summer right before I had surgery alot of things were never put in the right spot. So my mission this summer is to work on the house. Here are a few pictures from the month of May and the beginning of our summer. Now that I'm at home I'm hoping to post more often and keep in touch.

Blake before his first baseball gameClaire, Mia and Anna Kate at Mia's 1st birthday party

Anna Kate at her kindergarten end of school program

Blake, Anna Kate and Claire at the program. Blake had a ballgame before the program.

Claire, Anna Kate and Blake at the entrance of Silver Dollar City

Anna Kate, Jackson, Blake Mark & Claire waiting to go in to SDC

Mark and Claire: one of my favorite pictures!!

Mia ready to roll

Anna Kate and Jackson- AK is a mother hen when Jackson is around

Anna Kate and Claire on the flooded mine

Claire and Blake in a friendly game of checkers out the ice cream parlor at SDC

The last day of basketball and baseball camps.

WE ARE STILL HERE!!

Easter 2008

Playing in the Snow at Grammy's

Sorry for the long lapse in blogging. This has been a very hard winter and beginning of spring for me. Not for anyone else in the house but for the MOM. I have been sick since Christmas. I had a severe case of pink eye that last 10 days and turned into a sinus infection and ear infection, then a stomach virus, the flu, sinus stuff and then shingles. All the while trying to work, keep up with the kids and the house. I've been trying to chill out on things I can do nothing about and learn to live with whatever gets done. I'll try to fill you in on the 4-5 months.


Mark: Mark began working in Little Rock at Altell in December. He really likes the company and the people he works with but no so fond of the drive everyday. He is also selling insurance and loves helping people in this way.


Cristy: Besides being sick forEVER, I've been teaching school (ready for that to be over) and am looking for new opportunites for next fall. I have a couple of possiblities but am spending time praying that God leads me where he wants me. Other than work, I had a great spring EBay and consignment season. The best ever. If you know me very well you know how much I love when this time rolls around each spring and fall. I love making money on my kids clothes and being able to clothe them the way I like for much less. This year I made $1,000 between consigning and Ebay. I love it!! I will admit it is getting more expensive to buy their clothes since they are getting into bigger sizes.


Blake: Mark picked the kids up from school one day and Blake's teacher said he was having trouble seeing the board. I took him to the eye doctor, he put the letters up and asked him if he could see line 2 or 3, Blake hesitated for a while and then the Dr. asked if he could see the first letter, Blake exclaimed an E!! The poor boy has been blind. He is near-sighted and has an astigmatism (Anna Kate is far sighted with an astigmatism). Once we got his glasses, he just kept going on and on about how clear everything was and how he could read the signs on stores, poor baby. He is still doing great in school. He and Claire both LOVE to read. He is also playing baseball for the first time this spring. They have had 2 practices and games should start in a couple of weeks. He's excited and so are we. He has never shown any interest in sports so we are interested to see how he likes it.

Uncle Time and Blake four-wheelin' in the snow

Claire: Loving to read is an understatement for this child. Punishment for her is grounding her from her books. She loves the Beverly Cleary books, the Box Car Children, American Girl books, mysteries, just about anything. She also played basketball this winter and was really pretty good. She had never played before but picked it up pretty easily. In the last game she scored 12-14 points (1/2 of the team's total) and was really good on defense. We always felt sorry for the girl who she guarded because she stuck to them like glue and stayed in their face. She loves school and has a best little girl friend named Mezthely. They are so cute together. Mezthely is teaching Claire Spanish and they try to expand their English vocabulary with big words like famished and devour, etc... It so funny. Their teacher loves it. I hope they can stay good friends. Mezthely's mom does not speak English well and at times makes our communication kind of hard. But it is getting better and they are such sweet friends.

Scarlett Leckie, Claire, and Maggie Collins

(Maggie's mom Beth Howard Collins and I were good friends in college and she was even a bridesmaid in our wedding. How fun for our girls to play B-ball together)

Claire and Mezthely

While I was typing this blog I looked outside and was this: Claire sitting under her favorite tree drawing. I love living in the country and her love of the outdoors. She has always wanted to be outside exploring or just sitting under a tree.

Anna Kate: DRAMA QUEEN!!! Would anyone have guessed??? She doesn't stop talking unless she is asleep and everything is in extremes. She wears me out but is absolutely hysterical. Lots of tears can be shed in a day over such things as her wardrobe, her hair, not wanting to wear her glasses because she's not as cute... real important things. She is beginning to have a hard time being the one left behind. Blake and Claire are still really close and like to do 8 year old things and sometimes that doesn't include little sis. Up till this year, they all pretty much did the same stuff but we've seen a bigger divide this year. She is so ready to read. She gets Claire's books and pretends to read. Which drives Claire crazy. "Mom you know she's really NOT reading that!" Anna Kate rebuffs "Yes I am, you just can hear me, its all in my mind!" I'm sure it is. That is my goal this summer is to have her reading well. She's doing great on her sight words and can read simple sentences, just not what Blake and Clarie are reading. It's so hard being the baby. I keep telling her one day she'll be glad she's the youngest.. but for now it's no fun.

This shows you a little of her crazy personality. She and Blake are more alike than any other combination of the three. And boy do they fight. But they are also the funniest, the talkers and the dramatic. Claire's too self concious to be too crazy.

Hunting egss on Easter. She is really sweet and tenderhearted and still has to climb in my lap every night before bedtime and cuddle. Can't imagine life without her.

Consider yourself caught up for now. I'm sure with the end of school and baseball starting up there will be more activities and hopefully more time for mom to blog. Until then..... Have a great day from the Farley's!!

This week we have had many laughs at Anna Kate's expense. I just had to share. Anyone who knows her well knows she asks tons of questions. Well, this week she experienced her first funeral home experience. Actually, she's been a couple of times before, but she was under two both times so she doesn't remember. Anyway, one of Mark's uncles died on Sunday morning. We only went to visitation on Tuesday night, not to the funeral. So here it goes.

We got to the funeral home and all the little ones were hanging in a foyer with couches reading books and playing except Anna Kate. She kept looking into the chapel where most of the family was sitting around talking. She came up to me several times and told me she wanted to go in there and look around. I told her I would go with her in a minute. ( I was the bouncer for the little kids at the moment). So a few minutes later she couldn't wait any longer, I passed my duties off to the next aunt and proceeded to take her to the front. There was a small group of people I did not know standing in front of the casket so I asked Anna Kate if she would like to look at all the pretty flowers. "Sure," she said reluctantly. As I pointed out all the flowers she kept looking over her shoulder to the casket. Soon as the group left, I took a deep breath and took her to look. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "See he looks like he is sleeping. Has a soft blanket and pillow to lay on, but remember he's really not in there he's in heaven"
AK: "Yea," looking very intently. "Why are his hands like that?"
Me: "That's just where they laid them."
AK: "I don't like it when people die. It makes me sad"
Me: "I know but that is how God made us. . . to die and then we get to see Him. Isn't that cool?"
AK: "Yea, but I like him," (She's never even met him)
AK: "Why did they cut his legs off?" (Caskets are opened only from the waist up)
Me: "Oh, they didn't, his legs are under there."
AK: "So they only cut his feet off?"
Me: "No, no, his legs and feet are in there."
AK: As she looks under the casket, "This box isn't big enough for all of him."
Me: "Yes, it is, I promise."
Mark's aunt walked up about that time and was touching him. You know what's coming.
AK: "Why is she touching him?
Me: "Because she loves him"
AK: "Can I touch him?"
Me: "Not right now, let's go see what Dad's doing"

We walked away, I didn't want to offend the aunt and have a six year old touching her husband.
For the next twenty minutes she kept wanting to go back up. I told before we left that she could take one more look. We answered questions about how old he was (64), how old I was etc., and I kept reminding her my grandparents are much older than that and no one knows when they will die, but she shouldn't worry about it. He was very sick, and now he's not and feels much better.

That night when we put her to bed she still couldn't understand the leg thing. She just didn't think his legs were in that box. We assured her they were and showed her with the blanket how he was laying, etc.

Then last night she asked:

AK: Did daddy's uncle die in the morning?
Me: Yes.
AK: Before he went to church on Sunday?
Me: Yes.
AK: Do you faint when you die?
Me: If you standing up, I guess you fall down, but he was laying in bed.
AK: So he got up and got ready to go to church, then went back to bed?
Me: No, I'm sure he was in bed in his pajamas.
AK: Then how did he get his Sunday clothes on????

Of course, he was in his Sunday clothes in the casket, so he must've died getting dressed for church. That one about put me over the edge. I laughed so hard.

Mark's mom says we're in alot of trouble because AK will never leave a stone unturned. You've just got to love her.