Rachel's Debut

Rusty took the kids to a huge "yard sale" today to help support a friend from church that is participating in the "We Live Fit" Challenge here in Tallahassee. Rachel instantly became famous! Look at the article below from the Tallahassee Democrat:

Armed with newly purchased toys, Rachel Corley leads her family to their awaiting car. Last year, Florida Commerce created the WeLiveFIT! Challenge to help local residents become financially independent today. On Saturday, April 24, 2010, the WeLiveFIT! Challenge began with nine new families. To kick-off the challenge there was a yard sale contest to see which of the nine families competing could raise the most money.

Bear - The Other Little

Emmy has her things. She has her toys. She has her books. She has pretty much everything that she needs to be entertained. But, in order for Emmy to sleep, she MUST have Bear! I'm almost certain that Bear has become another Little in the Corley Clan due to the importance that Emmy places on him. Bear goes everywhere we do, if there is even the posiblilty of Emmy taking a nap. Every Wednesday, Bear travels to Grammy's house, he goes to Angelyn's house nearly every time we do, and any type of trip would not be possible without Bear!

Meet Bear Corley, everyone! He's an especially important addition to the Corley Clan - even if he has been placed in the washing machine on countless occasions!

A Little Arts & Crafts

Yesterday, Rusty and Sam painted his alligator that Angelyn gave him at the baby shower. He's very proud of his alligator. He now resides on the dresser in his bedroom!

Am I Giving Them Too Much...

I N T E L L I G E N C E?

I don't see how it's possible that these squirrels are THIS SMART!! Rusty set traps a couple of weeks ago to try to "catch" one or two of the little invaders in the act of DESTROYING our house. Since then, I have not "seen" a SINGLE SQUIRREL down there messing with the insulation! Are they really smart enough to know what we're up to or am I just losing it completely? Here they are -- again -- messing with me! How is it that this is even possible? I find myself standing underneath the house, staring up into the insulation with a somewhat craziness in my eye because of these little turds! What have I come to? I may just lose it soon!

Grunt, Grunt!

Rusty took the littles, along with Chris and Angelyn, to the Sopchoppy Worm Grunting Festival this weekend! Believe it or not, I really wanted to go, but apparently, there was a lot of walking, and being so very pregnant, it wasn't a great idea for me to travel all the way to Sopchoppy (a little over an hour away from any civilized hospital). There was a wooden squirrel in one of the craft booths that Ang swears up and down she had to talk Rusty out of getting me (I swear, I can't get rid of the squirrels). Angelyn took some pictures of the kids, so I will update this post further, but for now, you can get the idea of what they were getting in to.

Earlier in the week, I convinced Rachel that I had signed her up for the Worm Eating Contest! That was pretty fun -- she even practiced on spaghetti, and was pretty nervous until we let her in on the joke!

After the festival, Rusty took the kids to Dog Et All for a hot dog, and then to the "fair" at the mall. Sam rode the "frog ride" with Rachel. It turns out that Sam is extremely nervous about heights over 10 feet, but had a blast otherwise. Rusty said that he cackled every minute that he wasn't too high! Rachel got on the "Zipper" ride, and from what I understand, was heard screaming all over the mall! I believe it!

Let's Use Our Imaginations, Shall We?

The littles made a fort out of the coffee table today. Pillows from the couch, a blanket, and some very creative imaginations set them off on an hour long journey into the depths of the coffee table.

Hey, as long as they are getting along, and are having a good time, I'm totally ok with them destroying the couch for a little entertainment! Emmy is ready to be able to play with the "big kids", that's for sure!

Pretty Emmy's New (to her) Dress

Emmy LOVES LOVES LOVES to read. She can count (aaAAAaa, aaAAAaa, AAAaaaa), but if you put her in a new dress, she's like a completely different little. Angelyn got all of the kids some new outfits from Goodwill yesterday, and this little dress was one of them. I'm fairly certain that Emmy already knows how pretty she is! Rusty dressed her for church this morning, and all day long, she just had this "air" about her. She was struttin' her stuff all day! She knew she had it goin' on! Look out, Daddy!

My Two Arabian Princesses

Rachel and Emmy put on their "head dresses" and sat down to read a book together. They didn't know that I was taking this picture, but how funny is it that Emmy just let Rachel do this to her. Truly, they are two princesses that love each other so much! Don't ask me why Rachel had her scarves out the other day. I couldn't tell you that I understand any of what that little does, but this one has to be one of the things that made me smile the most!

Sickness Everywhere!

In the past week or so, the Corley Clan has been sick. Rachel started it, I swear. She came home with a cold, and then Sam, Emmy, and I caught her cold. Then, Emmy turned the cold into a bacterial infection, 2 ear infections,TONS of snot, and both eyes full of so much sleepy stuff, I thought that she had pink eye! She looked miserable! She also took her diaper off at some point, and peed on "Bear", so she was even more miserable while he was in the wash! Add in all of the pollen falling from the sky right now, and we should have invested in Puffs Plus w Lotion years ago! Emmy started antibiotics, Rachel, Sam, and I lived near a tissue box, and Rusty has somehow avoided the entire mess. Then, yesterday, Rachel woke up with a stomach bug! Really? I isolated her, bless her heart, just to keep the rest of us from catching that from her too! She's better today, and it doesn't seem that any of us caught her bug, so I'm grateful for that!

I'd be ok with Little Sarah waiting for at least another week or so to make her debut! I don't want a house full of sick to bring her home too!

Here Kitty, Kitty!

This made me laugh so hard, I ended up in tears. Emmy LOVES Grammy's kitty, Sandy. She likes to chase him around, and usually, when she gets close to him, she squeals. Well, she chased him into the guest bedroom, and finally found him hiding under the bed. The pictures explain it all, but you must know that I was cackling while this was going on...

Notice the blur of the cat in the last picture!

Easter, 2010

Our 2010 Easter was extremely busy. It started on Saturday. Beth and I took the kids (and Ang's littles, Kate & Laney) to an Easter egg hunt at our Awanas church. The kids had 25 eggs a piece before I could even park the car! Then, we headed to Ang's house where the littles swam while Emmy took a nap.

Sunday morning, we woke up not so bright and early to attend the 7:30am sunrise service. Beth came along, which was nice. In the middle of the worship music, Sarah decided to shift to my sciatic nerve which caused some severe pain to shoot up from my leg, through my back, and all the way into the base of my head. Off and on, all day, I battled with that irritation. After church, I went home and took a nice, two hour nap. While I was drooling on my pillow, Beth and the kids dyed eggs (Thanks, Boppy)!

After my nap, we loaded up the mini, and headed to Grammy's church for yet another Easter egg hunt and some rather tasty snacks. We've done this for the last several years. Then, we went back to Grammy's for some "Easter egg cake" -- Publix butter cream and pregnant Mommy go very well together, by the way -- and the kids played for a little bit. I wanted to do the egg decorating there at Grammy's, but with the pain I was going through, all I wanted to do was go home. We came back to the house to finish decorating eggs, I crashed on the couch, for the most part, and then Joey came over for dinner.

After Joey and Beth left, Grammy, Rusty, and I played Outburst to end the extremely busy weekend! I don't know that I've ever looked forward to bed than I did this weekend!

1cm and Counting

I am officially at Week 39 and up until today, the midwives weren't able to find my cervix because I wasn't even close to giving birth. At week 34 with Emmy's pregnancy, I was 1.5cm dialated and virtually stayed that way (depending on the midwife that checked me) until I went into labor. So, that would be 7 weeks (since Emmy was over a week late) of being dialated!

Today, 8 days before my 2nd due date of April 15th, I have officially dialated to 1cm! Two things come to mind here:

1. 
   
   I am officially in the very last stages of my very last pregnancy, and I'm freaking out more about this labor/delivery than I ever have before. I am completely unsure why, but I feel like I am about to play the violin, unprepared, in front of 3,000 people.
2. 
   
   This may be a very fast labor/delivery!

One way or another, nervous or not, longer than I'd like it to take or not, Little Sarah will be here in no time. I still find it hard to believe that there will be another baby in the house very soon, but I'm still excited to get to know her and watch her grow with the other littles!

Yes, We Live in Florida

It's Spring Break here in Tallahassee, and the kids went swimming twice this week. I love - love - love having friends that own pools! These were taken today at Angelyn's house, but they also went swimming over at Nella's house on Wednesday. Despite the water being pretty chilly, they still had a great time! Sam actually made it off of the steps a couple of times today, and Rachel is just like her Momma - she's a fish! I would have gone in too, but I don't think that Sarah would have appreciated the cold water too much, so Ang and I just lounged by the pool. It was a great way to spend a Friday!