As I talked about earlier, Emma is really changing and maturing. She has moved into Mary Catherine's room while her room is being worked on and she likes nothing more than for Mary Catherine to come to bed while she is still awake and they can lay there and talk. Last night Emma was determined to wait up for her and sat in the chair while MC finished homework, listening to the I-Pod.

The last two days she has come out ready for school wearing Mary Catherine's signature item....Converse. She assures me they are not too big....I am not so sure! Yesterday it was just the red ones........today....one red, one green!

She confidently got out of the car, because, after all, they are MC's shoes and if Mary Catherine wears them, then they must be cool! This was just after telling me that she is for sure the smartest in her class. Humble, too!

I sure love that girl!!

We have a bishop in the family. My brother-in-law, Ted, was set apart as bishop of the Natchitoches ward on Sunday. It was a great day with alot of our family there especially since we have 3 aunts in the ward. But Ted's family surprised us that morning when they walked into the chapel. We didn't think they were going to be able to make it. But in they walked....both his parents, his sister with her new baby, and his brother. They had come in from west Texas late the night before and had to leave by 3:00 that afternoon. It was so important for them to be there, though. I know it meant alot to Ted.

But by far the highlight of the trip was when these adorable babies arrived later. Julia and Jacques were the main attraction for my girls. They played and entertained. This was them going on a bug hunt. Love the hat, Julia.

Emma and Lily loved how Jacques could play now. They talked about how he laughed and laughed at what they were doing. So fun.

Congratulations Uncle Bishop!!

Mary Catherine....or Mary-Catherine, as she like to be known!!.....had a tournament in Crowley. With all the construction dust at our house I thought I needed a break and decided we would go to Lafayette to spend the night on Friday. I found this cool hotel at River Ranch. It was so cool. Kind of modern. We invited Lydia to come with us. The girls were so excited about the place. It was awesome.

Super cool bathroom. You can't see it but there is a cool glass vessel sink behind Sarah Beth.....or Sarah-Beth!!! HAHA

Cute girls. Lily sure loves those sisters.

We played a little dress up at the mall!

A little beauty shop at the tournament. Lydia taught Lily how to french braid and even let her practice on her hair.

Lily liked her french braid too.

We had a little brush with wild life in the town next to the frog capital of the WORLD! On a walk around the school I saw hundreds of these tiny frogs ALL over the outside of the school. I have never seen any thing like it. Truly a site to behold. I hope you can see them.

And we came in 2nd place. They players were not too happy with their performance in the last match so apparently Lily was the only one who wanted to hold the trophy. Since she IS the mascot and is now BFF's with all the players!

2 days away from home and

13 hours of volleyball and I was ready to go home......so was my backside!

Here we are!!!

So, here I am. Yes, I am still living. I don't really know what has kept me from blogging this last year. Just a series of events that left me feeling a little low and feeling like my focus should be somewhere else.

But, does that mean I am just now catching up on your blogs? Heck no!! I still have my little round of blogs that I look at everyday. I am really inspired by many of the things I read there. I kind of pretend that some of the ones I read belong to people I used to go to church with or was a neighbor of. Yes, I do know that is not true:) But, it is fun to pretend that I know them. They are an awesome group.

An update on our family~~~

Zack is in Biloxi, Mississippi where he has been for the past 5 months. He is working on the BP oil spill there. We were so lucky to get to visit him several times this summer. He has also had Taylor for 6 weeks working and now Alex who has been there about a month. He has been so grateful to have them there with him. He will come home Wednesday to prepare for surgery that he is having on Thursday. I am so excited to have him home. Even if that means I have to take care of him. We need him to be here.

Alex quit his job at Books-A-Million to go work in Biloxi. He was not happy with the changes that were happening at the store and realized that he needed to do something to make some more money for school. He thinks he will go back to school in January. We home that will happen. He wants to go to BYU-I. He misses being home, but I think has enjoyed being there with Zack.

Taylor is our college boy. He is in Idaho going to school. So far, he LOVES it. He loves his roommates, his classes aren't that bad, and lots of girls around. Can't get much better than that. He did so good this summer with making money and can just concentrate on his classes and fun. Hopefully with and emphasis on classes! This is the exchange with Gwen on Facebook that Taylor had recently. So cute and funny.

Gwen Dees Pogue September 12 at 11:26am

Something for the two Taylors to remember: Be on the lookout in your new wards.....your wife might be there! Don't fall asleep and snore or anything.

Taylor Zachary September 12 at 11:30am Reply

Well I am in church and I don't see her

Taylor Zachary September 12 at 11:52am Reply

Haha I will find her don't worry

=

Mary Catherine is deep into volleyball and getting ready for soccer season, too. She is playing on the varsity and junior varsity teams. She loves it but is super busy with that and some VERY difficult classes. She is determined though and hopefully she will be able to keep up her grades. Mary Catherine is also driving! She got her license after 2 attempts:) Just like her Mama, I must admit. We got her this little Kia to drive on one of our many trips to Biloxi. We arrived that night and just a few minutes after we got there we saw it posted on CraigsList and went the very next morning to look at it and bought it on the spot. Needless to say she is thrilled.

Sarah Beth is the other freshmen in our family. It is a rough adjustment, but she seems thrilled with 9th grade for the most part. She also has some really tough classes, is playing volleyball on the freshmen team, and has started seminary, and is on the yearbook staff. She is really blossoming and is such a funny, cute girl.

Emma is in her last year of elementary school....the 5th grade. How did this little girl get so grown? She has been one of our little girls and now she is so big. She is almost 5 feet tall and will be 11 in December. She is playing volleyball with SPAR and is just adorable. Her first game is tonight. She is also going to start her violin lessons again and get back to gymnastics. We sure do love this girl.

Lily is Lily. She is fiesty and loves to annoy Emma. She just gets such great pleasure out of that. More than anyone else. You can see where Emma has had to learn patience, then. But, she is so funny and the older kids still like to baby her. They think she is so cute and tell her so often. We are trying to get her to stop baby talking and I was telling her last night that I loved her when she was a baby, but I love her even more now because we can do things together and talk. She said she didn't understand that because she likes babies so much more than big kids! No wonder she thinks baby talk is the way to our hearts. I reassured her that we love HER!!

If you look closely you can see Lily running as fast as she can after the soccer ball. Flying Lily!!

And Andrea....me......I am just tired and ready to have my husband home!!