July fun!

We have had a very busy July. Both Maddy and Lucy have celebrated birthdays since I last posted an entry. Maddy is five now and Lucy is three!

The Pauls have moved into their new home. Getting settled is going slowly because they do not have enough furniture to fill the place. At least, the kitchen is fully operational - or is if their new refrigerator has been delivered! We had high hopes that the previous family would find a home with a refrigerator but that didn't not happen; that means that Jenny and Eric have been making do with a dorm fridge. It is obvious below that the frustrations of settling in have not bothered Lucy or Hattie.





I absolutely love this picture of Lanie! Tom and I stayed with the Fussell girls while their parents went to Heber Springs for a weekend with friends. (We had DanMan too 'cause his parents went to Eureka Springs.) After Lanie's shower on Friday night, she popped around the corner and asked, "Do I remind you of anyone?" Well, she certainly did! The resemblance to her mother is always very noticeable but in this "get-up" she looked more like her than ever! Jill in her turbi-twist, warm-up pants, and T-shirt is such a typical sight and here was Lanie in the same gear - with the same cute face and scrawny body!!! Just precious!!!

Here is Lanie clowning again! Can't believe she even has her tongue hanging out like a hound dog!

Maddy had two birthday parties. One with (it seemed like) hundreds of little kids running around and playing in the Bravo Dance Center activity room and one at Applebee's with her family that lives in El Dorado. Here Papa is letting her suck the frosting off of a candle, a pretty traditional party activity!

My book club takes a field trip every year. This year we went to Texarkana. Only five of the eleven were able to go; here we are at the Akansas/Texas border - each with one foot in Arkansas and one in Texas!

I am getting excited about my daddy coming to town. He has been on the mainland since July 22. He is visiting a grandson in Eugene, Oregon now. Then he will go to his brother and sister-in-law's home in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The three of them will drive to Branson, Missouri, where Daddy will attend a WWII reunion. Then they will drive to Little Rock, arriving on August 8. I am hoping that Bill and Marge will be able to come on down to El Dorado but, if not, at least I'll get to see them in LR. Bill is my dad's youngest brother and I have always thought Unca Bill was pretty special! (Marge too!)

Henry and Mudge

The librarian Nannah had to include this picture of DanMan and Lucy reading Henry and Mudge!

Jimmy's birthday

Here is Maddy refreshed and ready to go pick up her mommy at Baptist Hospital!

I love this shot of Maddy following her daddy down the long hall at the motel, anxious to see her mother! Look at those curls!

Here is the birthday boy with his youngest niece!

Kate Kate loves her some Uncle Bo and wanted to be right there when he blew out his candle!

Worn out!

I am getting frustrated! This sweet picture of an exhausted Maddy was supposed to be at the end of my last post about the busy day! I don't know why I am having to create so many different posts. Picassa won't put photos from different days in the same post - and I guess it is limiting me to four per post. I'll get this figured out yet!

Friday was a busy day!

Tommy has always been a great baby snuggler! He and Hattie both look content with each other's company.

On Friday evening most of us ate dinner at the Buffalo Grill. Julie and John Paul were missing because Julie had undergone lapband surgery earlier in the day. Eric's parents, Mike and Diana Paul, joined us; they are ALMOST as excited as we are to have Jenny, Eric, and those precious baby girls back in Arkansas! We were given a room to ourselves at the restaurant and it worked out perfectly! The kids loved the distortion mirror!

Kate was fascinated by her baby cousin and finally got up enough nerve to hold Baby Hattie.

Moving Day!

For months Lucy has been subtracting a link from a paper chain daily to indicate how many more days she had left until it was time to move to Arkansas. In the photo below, the last link has been broken and it is moving day! I didn't realize that I was including Jenny, who is also documenting this momentous occasion on her phone's camera, in this picture! Very appropriate!

Here three of Lucy's cousins, already Arkansans, welcome her to Little Rock!

District Champs!!!

The El Dorado ten-year-old All Stars became the District 2 Cal Ripken Champions by defeating Crosset twice, Magnolia once, and Camden once! DanMan was mentioned several times in an article about the tournament, most often because of his hitting. One quote, though, mentioned his job as catcher: "Daniel Johnson was the 'Iron Man' as he watched almost 90% of the tournament from behind home plate as El Dorado's catcher."