Kids in New Orleans and having them home

The kids had a great time in New Orleans with their Grandparents. They went to many places and did lots of fun things, Kiarra even learned to sew on her sewing machine. She made Jeff and I each a pillow and did a fantastic job. She recently sewed Tamia a purse for her birthday and did a great job on it as well. I would take pictures to post, but unfortunately there will be no pictures for a while. Kiarra had our only camera with her in New Orleans and accidentally left it in her pocket. Well, it got washed – the memory card is still good, but the camera is toast.
Although Taryn enjoyed her alone time with Mommy and Daddy she was so excited to see Kiarra and Jayden. I thought she was going to wet herself when the door bell rang and she saw them standing at the door. She shrieked and ran to the door so fast, seriously – lightning speed. She had tears when hugging them! It was oh so precious.
We had a great weekend with Shirley and Perry when they brought the kids home. Jeff’s brother Cory and his wife Joy came over for dinner one night and we all hung out. It was really nice to see them and spend time together as a family. Cory and Joy are moving to Katy within the next few weeks so we are looking forward to spending even more time with them. Now if we can just get Perry and Shirley to move out here.
The kids haven’t been involved in sports or many extra-curricular activities outside of church and we don’t mind the non-busy schedule that most parents pull their hair out trying to accommodate one kid going this way and another kid going that way. Recently Kiarra has found an interest in volleyball so we figure she is going into Jr. High, a little volleyball won’t hurt anything. It happened to fall the first week she got back from New Orleans and she did really well considering she’s never really played before. She had a great time, met new friends and learned the powerful overhand serve. At the end of the week, she was accepted in their fall power league. We are really proud of her. She did a great job. Will all this sports talk, it has of course peeked Jayden’s interest and now he wants to play football, baseball and basketball! YIKES – what have we started? Guess it’s time to look into something for him as well.
It’s hard to believe the kids only have 3 weeks of summer vacation left. 3 weeks and Kiarra will be in Jr. High!! I think I’ve blogged before about how upset Jayden is that they won’t be in the same school. He literally breaks down crying when he thinks about it and each time we discuss it. He loves his sister so much and that makes me so happy. He pointed out that they won’t be in school together again for 7 years, when Kiarra is a senior and Jayden is a freshman. Gosh, that seems like so far away but I know it will be here before we know it.
Jeff really likes his job and even though it’s a bit demanding at times he has learned a great deal about managing and I’ve seen a change in the way he runs our home – a good change! He has to deal with some serious stuff and some funny stuff as well (he had to help one of his employees chase a dog to get it back in the fence the other day and as you all know – Jeff is NOT a fan of dogs). Too funny!
As for me, working for BP hasn’t been easy these past few months. The media has slaughtered us and if you’ve heard me say it once, you’ve heard it a million times –don’t believe everything you hear on the news…heck, you can’t even believe the weather guy half the time! I continue to be proud to work for BP and hope that one day; everyone will see we are doing our best to fix this.

New Orleans and one-on-one time with Taryn

Each summer, the older kids spend a week in New Orleans with Jeff’s parents. This year Tamia suggested they spend 2 weeks there and that was ok with everyone so we agreed on that. Friday, June 2nd we packed up and headed for New Orleans to spend the weekend and to leave the older kids there with Shirley and Perry. It was a nice relaxing weekend, we did absolutely nothing and it was wonderful. Jeff and I have been working really hard and traveling quite a bit so a little R&R was exactly what we needed. We did get a chance to visit with his Grandmother who recently relocated there from Atlanta, Jeff’s best friend and of course we couldn’t be in NOLA without a visit with our great friends John and Penny. For the first time in 7 years we didn't have a 4th of July party. I almost didn't know what to do with myself. Monday came all too quick and it was time for us to head home. We’d prepared Taryn by telling her often that she’d be coming home with us and the older kids would be staying. I was afraid of a meltdown but she did great. A few weeks prior to the trip, Tamia’s Mom decided she couldn’t stay in New Orleans so we brought her home with us as well (I think that helped Taryn too). It had been a few months since we had baby mama drama so we should have expected this! Regardless, it was hard for Tamia – she was so excited about getting to stay with them 2 weeks and now she didn’t get to stay at all.
I miss Kiarra and Jayden a lot, but this one-on-one time with Taryn has been a blast. She has an amazing personality and is so energetic – her mouth never stops, she even talks in her sleep! Everyday when we get home she walks in the house and says “kids, I’m home – KIIIDS, I’mmmmm HOOOOOME.” It is so cute. She’s been a huge help too, I took clothes out of the dryer threw them on my bed and went in to throw in another load, when I came back she had already started folding the clothes! Is she awesome or what? With the kids being gone, Jeff thought she should sleep on the couch so she isn’t upstairs by herself during the night (and he says he’s not wrapped around her little finger – HA!)… So each night, she lays in bed with me until she falls asleep then Jeff puts her on the couch. This is priceless time, we watch tv, play games and giggle until we get in trouble. I’m having so much fun with her. It takes me back to when Kiarra was this age and Jayden a tiny baby [tears…] – priceless memories. Taryn even went to her first sleep over during this time. She’s never spent the night with anyone except my Mom and she did really well. I’m not sure if she’s ready to be gone a whole week, that will have to wait a few more years, but she is good with one night here or there. Some of her new sayings are:
“You crack me up”
“Mommy, I AM old enough now”
“Ummm, ummm” (as she smacks her teeth with her tongue)
“When I get married….”
“Mommy, the baby in my tummy…”
I couldn’t understand why she was so fixated on getting married and having babies. For a few months she has been talking everyday about “getting a baby in her tummy.” Well FINALLY, it all makes sense. Her teacher at school is expecting her first baby and has been talking to them about it. Whew, at least I know where that is coming from. She loves to listen to music and as I think I’ve posed before, we always have music on and dance around the house like crazy fools. She knows all the words to Jesus Take the Wheel and if she wasn’t so shy, I’d stick her in a pageant to perform it. One of these days I’ll get it on video and will post it for all to see. Even right now, we are sitting in my bed, she is fixing my hair and every minute she throws her arms around me (choking me) and hugs me, kisses my cheek and neck and says to me “I lub you sooo much Mommieeee”. She is one awesome kid!Kiarra and Jayden come home in 2 days and I can’t wait to see them! I am so grateful to my in-laws for keeping them for 2 weeks (the kids better of behaved so they can go back next year). J Its memories like this that will stick with them their entire life and I’m so glad they have Grandparents to make memories with.

Sorry, no pics this week. The kids have the camera in New Orleans.

Fathers Day, Jayden’s Birthday and 2nd trip of 2010 to Iowa

This year was the first Fathers Day since Dad passed away that we were planning to be in Iowa. I was dreading it from the day we planned the trip several months back. Jeff always seems to get ripped off on Fathers Day because I simply don’t like Fathers Day anymore. Trying to buy him a card is pure torture. I try to “remember the good times” and “not think about it” but seriously? Is it that easy? So this year, the kids and I planned to surprise Jeff celebrate Fathers Day a week early. Our plan was a success and we all had a great day.
2 weeks before going to Iowa we invited a few boys over and had a little b-day party sleepover for Jayden. 5 boys came, we went bowling, played limbo, musical chairs and they spent hours building things with legos. They all had a great time.
Our trip to Iowa began on Friday, June 18th we drove straight through and after 17 amazing, wonderful, terrific, fantastic hours in the car with 6 other people, we arrived to our destination. Jayden was so excited that we were going to be in Iowa for his birthday that we decided to throw him a surprise party – on Fathers Day. My aunt Marcia was a HUGE help in making this happen. She did all the shopping for us, made potato salad and cut up tons of fruit. Having the party on Fathers Day was great because all day we kept referring to the “Fathers Day picnic” that was taking place in the afternoon which was actually his party. He and the other kids filled 300 water balloons! We started the day giving Jeff his Fathers Day gifts and sharing our gratitude to him. We spent the day getting some things ready for the party; I had to take my niece to get a bathing suit and a few last minute food items.
Jeff and my cousin Jeremy took the kids to the park so we could finish preparing food and get the cake from Aunt Marcia’s house. Family started to arrive and I was ecstatic. At 4:00 Jeff brought all the kids back from the park and we all yelled “surprise” to Jayden! He was so confused and didn’t understand what was going on. I had to explain to him that this wasn’t a “Fathers Day picnic” but his birthday party instead. He was surprised and so happy. We had a slip-n-slide for the kids and of course the 300 water balloons that I think the adults had more fun with than the kids. Within an hour everyone was there and we had dinner – or supper as they call it – water balloon fight, followed by cake and gifts, more water balloon fight, basketball and of course the good ol’ slip-n-slide that the kids played on the entire time. The kids had a blast playing with all their cousins.
We spent the rest of the week chilling, going to my nephew’s baseball games and my nieces softball games, swimming and hanging out with family.
Saturday, the 26th was Brent and Kellie’s wedding and it was beautiful. The ceremony had me in tears, the speeches at the reception had me in tears and seeing the other side of my family had me in tears. My Dads cousins were there and it was so great to see them and hug their necks! We all danced the night away, ok ok the kids danced WAY more than I did but we all had a really good time. Congratulations Brent and Kellie!!
Sunday, we got up, packed up and headed for home. We packed as if we would stop and get a room along the way because we were all exhausted but ended up driving straight through again. I drove the first 15 hours and Jeff drove the last few. Although I love my family and love spending time in Iowa, there’s nothing like crawling into your own bed! We got to the house around 5 am and crashed. All in all we had a great trip. See my facebook page for tons more pictures.

Beach, Beach and B-Day

Last Sunday, Jeff was working so Mom, the 4 kids and I headed to Stewart Beach in Galveston to soak up a little sun. We had a great time building sand castles, playing in the water, watching the jet skiers and of course eating our yummy watermelon and strawberries. Ok, let me set something straight…the KIDS and Mom had a great time building sand castles and playing in the water…I can’t stand to touch the sand or get in the water. Nasty! I like the beach for one thing - the sun! Today, we planned to go to the beach again however Kiarra had other plans. She came down with strep throat (Taryn was diagnosed with it last week). Now, I’m not 100% positive Kiarra has strep but I’m 99.95% sure, especially since they have the exact symptoms. After she woke up with a fever, body aches and major head ache, I realized our Memorial Day/my b-day beach trip was in jeopardy and that we would stay home – watching movies and well, do NOTHING. I was more than ok with this idea, but Taryn on the other hand was so upset. She’d been looking forward to this trip since we were on our way home from Galveston a week ago. Well, the best husband in the world came to our rescue and volunteered to stay home with Kiarra so Mom, Jayden, Taryn and I could go. Jeff doesn’t really like the beach anyway, well not as much as Mom and I, so after they argued about who would stay home with her, we went ahead and took off (Jeff won the argument and stayed home). We left an hour later than planned and WOW – never again will I leave on a holiday weekend after 9 am. We got to the beach around 11:30 and it was packed, we had to drive over a mile on the slippery sand to find a spot we could set up shop. Last weekend we rented an umbrella and chairs but this weekend we decided to buy a canopy and chairs to take it with us. We thought this would be great because we can use it over and over and not have to waste our money on the teeny, tiny umbrella….but, not so great when we didn’t have Jeff there to help us put it up. You should have seen us!! I’m getting a good laugh just thinking about it. The family beside us must have felt bad for us; they ended up helping after we tried for 30 minutes, looking like fools. Thank GOD for nice people!! Other than the difficulty with the canopy and the dried seaweed, the beach was great this weekend as well. Taryn looked so adorable in her new bathing suite. At one point, she realized she had sand in her water shoe (because we weren’t at the beach or anything) and was freaking out. These are pictures of Jayden helping her rinse her shoe in the sandy water and get it back on.












Every 6 years, my birthday falls on Memorial Day and this year is the lucky year we get to celebrate it along with our fallen soldiers and loved ones who have made their way to sit at the right foot of Jesus. Memorial Day means more to me now than ever. I’m looking forward to my b-day pedicure at a local spa in the morning, and then spending the day with my family and friends remembering loved ones while enjoying nothing other than CRAWFISH! YUMMY. Let’s hope Kiarra doesn’t find an ant pile this year. Last year she got over 200 bites after falling out of a kiddy pool onto a tiny pile of fire ants.

We snapped a few cute pictures at Rainforest Café Friday night during dinner. Taryn is still scared of that place as you can see from her facial expression.

The kids only have 3 days of school left. I can’t believe these are Kiarra’s final days of elementary! It seems like yesterday we were walking her into her first day of Kindergarten. She is growing up to a beautiful young lady.

Mothers Day

I love Mothers Day. I totally get spoiled by my husband and kids. Since I can’t eat early in the morning, the “breakfast in bed” on Mother’s Day stopped a few years back. After church, we took Mom to Olive Garden for lunch. Kiarra has been excited about this lunch for weeks. You'd think this was the only Italian food in TX. Don't get me wrong, I like Olive Garden, but geez - it's not that great. I thought she was having an attack of some sort on the way there - she was so excited!! After lunch we headed to the premium outlets to do a little shopping (Coach was having a HUGE sale).

Every year, Jeff and the kids make me cards and this year was no different. My card from Jeff was full of sweet words and lady bugs that he hand cut and glued on (I love lady bugs). Kiarra wrote me the most amazing poem and made several flowers out of coffee filters. Jayden’s card was very sweet and creative and my sweet little Taryn made me an awesome card at daycare using her finger prints as flowers. I loved everything - the gifts, candy and especially the hand made cards they all spent so much time working on.

To my Mother – You are the most amazing, most supportive Mother anyone could ask for. I appreciate everything you do for me (and all 6 of us) and can’t wait to spend many more Mother’s Days together. As I grow older I have more and more respect for you. I realize the crap I put you through as a teen (I’m sorry) and thank you so much for never giving up on me. Happy Mothers Day!

To my Mother-in-Law – You are the best Mother-in-Law a girl could ask for. You welcomed me to the family and treated me like your own. You are a beautiful woman, inside and out. Thank you for always being so kind and warm hearted. Happy Mothers Day!

To all my “Mom” friends and relatives – You inspire me is so many ways. Keep up the hard work ladies. Motherhood is not always easy but it’s totally worth it. Happy Mothers Day!

To all my friends that one day will be Moms – Enjoy your life now, once you have kids – it’s over…just kidding! When you do have children, enjoy every minute of their lives because they grow up too fast. I can’t believe I celebrated my 11th Mother’s Day today.

To my husband and children - Thank you for supporting me through these years. It hasn't always been easy but you've been there by my side through the good times and the bad. I will forever be grateful to you for loving me the way you do. Thank you for the great gifts and letting me pick out my purse, perfume and shoes, the beautiful cards, flowers, chocolates and most of all love. You made my day very special and I love and appreciate each one of you for it. You are the best!

And it wouldn't be a day in the Dailey home without a little music...

April trip to Iowa – Andrea and Lucas Wedding

My cousin Andrea got married this past weekend and as always, we decided to drive to Iowa – in the new car. Kiarra and Jayden have always traveled well, even when (8+ years ago) we didn’t have a TV in the vehicle. They would color, Jayden would play with cars and Kiarra would play with babies. They would take a ton of books and sit and listen so patiently to each other read them (this was before they could read but had the books memorized) or Jeff, Mom or I would read to them. Well all those wonderful years of spending 18 hours in the car (one way) to and from Iowa have come to an end…at least for a while anyway. Taryn doesn’t do so well in the car – she hates it actually. We were not even out of Moms sub-division and she was asking if we were going to Grandpa’s house. She must have asked 300 times…before getting to Dallas!!! “Mommyyyyy, are we going to Grandpa’s house?” She didn’t understand why we had to stop for gas and why it was taking so long to get there. In her sassy high pitched but questioning voice she would ask/say “Mommy…. ughhh – what is taking so LONG?” Needless to say, the trip seems to get longer and longer. In the 40+ trips we’ve made to/from Iowa, we had never gotten a speeding ticket – until this trip. I wasn’t speeding by much; actually I wouldn’t and still don’t consider it speeding but he wrote me a ticket anyway – Jerk!
We arrived on Thursday around 3:30 pm and were quite exhausted. After getting settled; Jeff sat outside in the peace and quiet, listening to the birds while the kids played with their cousins and I ironed our clothes that got wet from the rain we endured on the way - ugh! Jeff wanted a good steak (corn fed beef) so we went up the street for dinner. Grandpa, Marcia, Kay, Teige, Kathy, Logan, Morgan, Talan and Molly joined us. It was YUMMY. We went back to Grandpa’s and crashed for the evening.
Friday morning I helped Andrea decorate for the reception. You should have seen us ladies trying to arrange tables for all their guests. Talk about funny! We thought we had it figured out several times to find out we were 40 chairs short or more! We had rehearsal that evening and Taryn decided she wanted to be shy…so shy that she wouldn’t walk down the isle when it was time to practice. I knew we had some major convincing to do to get her down the isle during the wedding ceremony. We had a great dinner that evening in Decatur and got to catch up with the family. I can’t believe how grown up my nephews and niece are getting!
The big day arrived. I could tell Taryn was scared of walking down the isle. We talked about it a lot, trying to get her to loosen up and get excited but she was super shy with everyone and was not having anything to do with being the flower girl. The time for pictures came and she was scared, I mean really scared. I’ve never seen her like that. She normally loves the camera and poses and says “take my picture mommy”. There was NONE of that, she cried and cried. She sobbed on Andrea’s shoulder saying “I want my Daddy.” Of course I called immediately and told him and Mom to hurry and come because she was acting a hot mess. The photographer is going to have to crop me out of half the pictures because I’m in them trying to get Taryn to chill out. It took another hour but she finally loosened up and stood pretty for a few pictures. All the guests arrived and time was ticking. Jayden handed out programs and Kiarra lit the candles with Morgan. They did so awesome! The music started and all 8 bridesmaids/groomsmen walked down the isle…this meant it was time for Taryn to make her grand entrance along with the other flower girl, Kailee and the ring bearer, Max. After finding and chasing down Max I said, “ok guys, it’s your turn – go ahead.” And they all looked at the hundreds of people staring at them in the church and looked up at me like I was crazy. I said again, “go ahead.” Nothing…none of them moved…you could have heard a pin drop. I’m looking around for Logan because the back up plan was for him (since he was an usher) to escort them down the isle if they wouldn’t go on their own. All of a sudden Max sees Lucas, the groom, and off he goes. I nudge the girls, “go ahead girls – walk down the isle – follow Max” I said. Again, nothing… I turn to Andrea with a questioning look asking if it’s ok for Jayden to walk them down. She agrees so I have Taryn take Jayden’s hand and said “go ahead – walk with Jayden”… They were having nothing to do with that. Taryn was saying “no mommy, I don’t want to.” I kept saying, “Walk to Daddy Taryn.” I look back at Andrea again and next thing I know, Kailee is gone. I don’t know where she is but she is gone. Come to find out, she RAN down the isle to her Grandma when I turned to Andrea. Andrea said to me “you take her down”… “Me,” I said, “yeah, you walk her down” Andrea said again. So with a deep breath, off we went down the isle. Thank God it was a short isle, I was crazy embarrassed and not at all prepared for that. All that happened in like 30 seconds! Taryn was so scared to walk down that isle by herself but after getting to the front she stood there with her new friend, Gretchen, the Maid of Honor. She was so good during the ceremony. I was very proud of her.

Andrea was stunning beautiful, the wedding was beautiful, from the gorgeous bride, bridesmaids, the flowers, music and guests. Everything was beautiful.
We had a great time at the reception. Food was awesome, cake and mints even better and the dance was a great time too. I’m so glad we got to be part of Andrea and Lucas’ special day.

We got up Sunday morning, packed and loaded up the car and headed to Logan to have breakfast with Teige and Talan (and their families). We didn’t get on the road until 1:30 pm so by the time we got home, at 5:30 am Monday, there was no way Jeff or I were going to work and I couldn’t make the kids go to school. We all slept a few hours and enjoyed the beautiful day at the park, washing the car and unpacking.

We’ll make this trip again in June so stay tuned to see if Taryn rides any better this next time around.
Congratulations Andrea and Lucas!

EASTER

Spring is my favorite time of year. We have amazing weather, flowers are blooming everywhere, the kids are almost finished with school (which means no more homework for a few months), but most importantly we celebrate Easter. We all love Easter. We’ve gone out of town the last few years on Easter but this year we stayed home and celebrated in our new church home with my Mom and our long time friends. We had a little egg hunt in the front yard and the kids had a blast…the adults did too, confetti eggs – need I say more? Taryn was so excited this year; it was so cute to see her spend hours playing with empty eggs. She would separate them by color, mix them back up, and divide them up into baskets. We even colored eggs this year, which is something we have not done in a while due to going out of town. When I was a kid, we had 5 colors to color our eggs. Blue, red, green, yellow and we would mix the red and yellow to make orange. Now, they have all these colors plus more, fancy glitter eggs, camouflage eggs, and there are fancy ways to color the eggs. We all had a great time putting our own spin on the eggs.

Jeff is a few weeks into his new job and he no longer thinks its going to be easy. He’s been learning how to run his crew, learning all the programs they use and is starting to get used to sitting in an office. He’s been a traveling man the past 1o years driving job to job so having an office and using 2 monitors is new to him. He is like a kid in a candy store; he is so excited to go to work every day and talks about all the new things going on non-stop. It is great to see him happy again.

I’m not sure when my new job will officially go into effect. I guess it already has but I haven’t transitioned my old duties just yet so I’m still wearing 3 hats. I’m enjoying traveling to campus’ again this spring for our annual recruiting events.
I’ve been to Texas A&M and will go University of Texas this week, Oklahoma University next week and then Texas Southern University sometime after that. This is for sure the most fun I have in my job and I get to keep this responsibility in my new role so I’m happy about that. I’ll hit up another 3-4 schools in the fall. I still love my new car and can’t wait to take it on the first road trip in a few weeks. I’m even more excited about seeing all the family at my baby cousins wedding!

Jeff’s Grandmother is out of the hospital and will be moving to an assisted living facility in New Orleans this month. She wasn’t very happy about leaving Columbus Georgia, where she has lived her whole life, but I think she is starting to warm up it. Please keep her in your prayers. Jeff’s mother Shirley has been there with Benny, taking good care of her and is getting her prepared to move.

Taryn started dance last week and she is too cute. She told me “Mommy, you forgot to buy me dance clothes”… oopsie, I guess I need to do that. She is going to have a recital later on. I can’t wait. They are so cute at this age. She’s already learned a lot and she can even stand on her toes. Amazing!

Kiarra and Jayden brought home their progress report for these 6 weeks and they are both getting A’s and B’s. Kiarra is really excited for Jr. High; I’m not so sure I’m excited for that yet. Kiarra on the bus with 8th grade boys…… hmmm, NO. Definitely not ready for that yet. I just realized that Kiarra will be finished with Jr. High before Jayden gets there. He’ll be in 5th grade when Taryn goes to Kindergarten and a freshman with Kiarra is a senior. I’m torturing myself thinking of all this. Why can’t they just stay in elementary?