The Gaines Family

House sold

2008-05-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well, Our house went on the market on Wednesday last week and by Friday we had 3 offers and a bidding war. Our house is now sold. We close May 26th and we got $101 more than our asking price. We're very pleased and shocked that it went so fast!!
Oh, and I have strep throat. Yuck.

COZUMEL CRUISE!!!!

2008-04-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

My roses from Daniel!

There might have been a lot of kissin'! :)

lighthouse in Cozumel

waves crashing on the rocks in Cozumel

Dan and I sitting in a porthole on the ship

A beautiful Cozumel sunset in the Gulf

I love Daniel!

the beach in Cozumel

Myan ruin (weather predicting temple)

view of beach from lagoon tower

Dan and I on the Rhino :)

view of the lagoon on one side and beach on the other from the lighthouse

The Carnival Fantasy docked in Cozumel

Dressed for the Captain's Gala!

leaving all our cares behind!

view from ship leaving New Orleans

Well, our cruise was the bestest 5 days EVER!! We had a wonderful time. Every aspect was perfect... especially Daniel! :) When we arrived in our stateroom he had arranged for anniversary decorations and a dozen roses for me. It was a fantabulous surprise! The weekend was filled with tanning, relaxing, great meals and dress up dinners, good shows and a fantastic time in Cozumel! Cozumel was beautiful! We snorkeled and rode a souped up Rhino 4 wheeler. It was soooo much fun! The days at sea were relaxing and we were so sad to leave, but happy to see sweet Abby again!!

K-2 Puppet Team

2008-03-30T18:45:00.000-07:00

I loved my K-2 puppet team this year.

I had 14 wonderful children. We had a great time and they did a fantastic job.

Lads to Leaders and Leaderettes at the Opryland Hotel

2008-03-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

We went to the Opryland Hotel again this year for the Lads to Leaders Convention. Abby did a K-2 speech. She did a wonderful job and I was more than proud of her! Grandmama and Aunt Bambi came to listen. She sat all alone on the front row with her build a bear dinosaur wearing camo. She got to go onstage in the big ceremony and had a great time! I addes some pics of Abby dancing around in the Delta... So precious.

Church Easter Egg Hunt

2008-03-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

We had our annual church easter egg hunt at Earth Park in Hartselle. We had a great turn out. It was cold, but the kids had a lot of fun! I'll miss hunting eggs here each year, but I look forward to the future egg hunts as well!! Aunt Bambi was there for the special even. Grandma was too, but she was viewing from the car. :)

Milk Jug Igloo

2008-03-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

We have been saving jugs since November and Daniel has glued them together and made an igloo in my classroom at school. The kids love it and always want to get a book and read so they can go in the milk jug igloo! I took a pic of my girls in it today. So cute! Dan's a pretty good architect!

Egg Hunt at school

2008-03-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we dyed Easter Eggs. Abby had a lot of fun mixing colors. We hid them and she hunted for them. Today we had an egg hunt at school. We couldn't go outside b/c it was raining so we hid them in Mrs. Cowart's room. The kids still had fun and we had a visit from the Easter Bunny himself!!

Cheer performance

2008-03-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

Abby went to cheer camp all last week and learned cheers and a dance routine. They got to perform for the school today and she was so cute! She did a great job!

Family Party!!

2008-03-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

After the big Hannah bash with the girls on Friday night we had a big family party at our house. We had a BBQ feast followed by an IPOD cake!! The kids played WII and sprayed silly string. Abby got a green machine from Mommy and Daddy and lots of stuff from her family! :)

Hannah Montana Party!

2008-03-11T18:16:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics from the Hannah bash on Friday night! I think the girls all had a lot of fun and they are all still talking about it! They loved the appearance from Hannah and Lola! We had so much fun singing karaoke, playing balloon games, musical shares, and hunting for "rocks"! A special thanks to Sac and Bam b/c I couldn't have done it without them!! And to Dan for helping me to set everything up! We had 14 girls come and my 2 nephews! They were a lot of help in the entertainment area with the girls! :)

Talent Show!

2008-03-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

Abby was in the school talent show on Friday. She sang the song "When there was me and you" from High School Musical. She was so cute in her Hello Kitty outfit that Grandmama bought her. She looked so little out in the middle of that gym floor by herself. She sang her little heart out and did a wonderful job! Everyone applauded and cheered for her when she finished and a lot of bigger kids (jr. high) came and asked for her autograph after the show. I was soooo proud of her! I'm trying to download her video, but it's too big so I have to figure out how to make it smaller or split it. Here's a pic for now! :)

My Baby is 6!!

2008-03-10T18:21:00.000-07:00

Abby is 6 years old. I can't believe it. When she woke up on her 6th birthday we had balloons and streamers in her room. She was so excited!

We skipped school (gasp!) and went to Waffle House for breakfast. Abby enjoyed a waffle with coffee and loved it!

We also went to visit her new school for the 2008-2009 school year. (Mars Hill Bible School) and ate lunch at Chic-Fil-A. We LOVED the school! The people were so nice. Everything was Bible related. I feel like she will be so safe and learn so much! I can't wait!

Then we went to UNA to see the lions. Their names are Una and Leo. Abby was really excited and loved looking at them. They mostly slept, but it was amazing to be that close to them.

We ended the afternoon by going to a park and just playing! We all had a blast sliding and swinging. This park was in Killen, AL.

Abby had cheer camp after that. Then we went to puppet practice and the kids sang to Abby using their puppets. She loved it!

We bought Abby a surprise birthday cake just for the three of us. It had trick candles and she loved it!! It was fun! We ended the night by playing with the balloons in her room and reading stories and taking family shots with the camera for fun. A perfect birthday!

Abby just told God on me

2008-03-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

Well. I've had it. I was just in the floor rolling around and tickling Abby. She yelled, "I'm gonna tell Daddy on you!!" While laughing. I quickly retorted, "You can't. He's at Wal-Mart!" and I continued to tickle. She stopped suddenly and sat up, folded her hands and said, "Dear God my mommy is tickling me and I'm about to tee tee in my pants. Please reach down with your 'ginormous' hand and give her a spank. In Jesus Name, Amen." Needless to say, I stopped. She meant business.

Soooo silly!

2008-03-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

My 3 girls play great just like sisters. But, they also bicker like sisters as well. This morning Abby and Quinn were disagreeing about something trivial. After about 5 minutes of the usual back and forth bashing between them, Abby piped up and said, "I really want to say something cool that Miley Cyrus says, .....but it just won't fit in!" And that was the end of the argument. 5 year olds are silly! ;)

Playground!

2008-03-03T21:25:00.000-08:00

It was pretty enough to play outside today. The kiddos were pumped. I feel very fortunate to get to be so close to Abby everyday! I love watching her play with her friends on the playground. I know that other mothers just wish they could see the constant interaction of their children with other children. We have an "old school" playground right outside of our classroom door. The kids LOVE the old monkey bars!! It's a lost art!

Funny Faces

2008-03-03T21:08:00.001-08:00

Sometimes people ask me how I manage 3 kindergarteners from 7am until 5pm. It's really a lot more fun than you realize when your heart is in it! I love my sweet girls!

Floam

2008-03-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

Abby has been experimenting with her floam. She first rolled it into balls and put it in the freezer in hopes that it would harden and bounce. No luck. It didn't even get cold. I guess styrofoam doesn't retain cold air in any way...

Next she decided to dress up using it. She walked in and said, "Hey Mommy look! I'm Abraham Lincoln!" Tee hee hee

Valentine's Day

2008-02-15T07:41:00.000-08:00

Abby woke up to a trail of hearts leading to her "goodies" this morning. She is still not feeling well, but wanted to go to school. She ended up coming home at 8:20 with fever and Daniel brought her back for the party at 1:50. (Benefit of being the teacher's child I guess.) She had fun at the party and made her own ice cream sundae and ate cupcakes (with icing! She finally decided she likes icing after almost 6 years of scraping it off!!) You can tell in the group pic that she's not feeling up to par... When we got home we had a heart shaped pizza from Dominos and watched a little Hannah Montana. She is still not feeling well, we were up all night dry heaving until she finally threw up a little around 3:30, but she's still watching Hannah!!

Abby's speech

2008-02-11T16:14:00.001-08:00

Abby will be participating in Lads to Leaders again this year. This is her 4th year speaking and she is only 5 years old! The first year (1year old) she quoted 3 different verses. The second year (2) she quoted 3 more verses. The third year (3) she quoted the 23 Psalm. The fourth year (4) she quoted the Beattitudes. This year she is doing a speech about Jesus and His love. I am so proud of her. She loves saying her speech to the ladies in different congregations in the area. She will go to several different congregations before convention.

(I tried and tried to rotate the video so it would show correctly, but no luck. Enjoy the crick in your neck! :)

The Real Meez

2008-02-06T20:31:00.001-08:00

I miss Daniel

2008-02-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

Daniel is at the Freed lectures this week and I miss him. Here is a happy picture to show how I would feel if he were here. But he's not so I'm sad. Sniff, sniff. I miss Daniel.

Hannah Montana movie/concert

2008-02-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

We took Abby to see the Hannah Montana movie. Needless to say, there was already a line a quarter of a mile long an hour before the movie started. We joined the masses in the line and happily awaited the moment of glory as the doors opened to the greatest show in teenie bopper history (or in our case kindergarten bopper)... Abby was thrilled the entire time. She vacated her seat immediately to sit between Dan and me (the arm rests lift up at the RAVE). She sang every song and by the end of the movie was dancing in the aisle (stadium seating, so it didn't affect anyone's view) and reaching for Hannah! She was so sweet! At the very end of the movie confetti exploded in 3D into the audience and Abby was jumping and grabbing for the nonexistent confetti. She was a joy to watch and it was worth every penny to see how much fun she had. All in all it was a great family night!! :) I relish every moment with her and how she LOVES to be with her family. I know that all too soon we will be replaced with friends and (gasp) boys (my tummy just did a flip) so I soak up all of the hugs and "hold me's" that I can!

Guitar Heroes!

2008-01-31T16:39:00.000-08:00

Daniel got a guitar for Christmas and has worked diligently each night at playing scales, learning new chords, and just general tinkering around to learn songs. I am so proud of his effort to learn to play! Abby has renewed her interest as well and now attends the Daddy Guitar School. It is fun to watch them plucking together! She's a regular Hannah Montana and he's a natural George Strait!

Thought Bubbles

2008-01-31T14:02:00.000-08:00

Last night I walked out of the bathroom to find Abby staring intently into the mirror in my bedroom. She would furrow her eyebrows then look in the mirror above her head. I asked her, "What are you doing Angel?" She said, "Why don't I have a thought bubble? I'm thinking really hard and I don't see a thought bubble." I explained that they use those in books so we can see what the character is thinking. She stared back in the mirror. I'm not sure I convinced her.
Tee hee hee. I love 5 year olds!

There's nothing sweeter than a sleeping child!

2008-01-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

Recently Abby and Boo were sleeping on the couch. They were both snuggled up under the blanket and both snoring soundly and happily. So sweet! I couldn't resist!

Skiing at Ski Beech

2008-01-30T18:08:00.000-08:00

Dan and I went skiing with the Hartselle youth group over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. We had so much fun but it was soooooo cold!! We had to have every inch of our bodies covered. Lots of hats, masks, socks, gloves, goggles, etc. I loved the long slopes and all of the beautiful snow! I didn't get beat up too awfully bad! Dan and I ski very opposite from each other. I tend to start slowly and go from side to side to keep as much control as possible. Daniel takes off like a banshee and doesn't stop until he reaches bottom. The snow is often melted in a trail behind him from the extreme speed.

I am including a little video of Daniel skiing. It was not easy to take pics/video with the gloves on so I had to take them off and my fingers froze!!!

Snowball fight at school

2008-01-30T17:51:00.000-08:00

We had a snowball fight in kindergarten recently when I had both classes in my room. We wadded up pieces of white craft tissue paper and put them in a basket and had a snowball fight! Well, eventually they turned on me. You can see the mischevious grin on Abby's face! :) I am so blessed to be able to be so close to her everyday and even have her in my room sometimes. I look forward to being able to stay home one day and be a full time mom. Wahoo!

New house and lots of changes

2008-01-30T17:12:00.000-08:00

We have had a great 5 years in Hartselle! We have made many wonderful friends and had a lot of happy times. We are now accepting a job with the Pleasant Valley church of Christ in Centre Star, AL. (near Florence) We are very excited about so many opportunities there. Abby will be able to attend Mars Hill Bible School and hopefully God will bless us with a new addition to our family. Daniel will be preaching full time. We will be living in a church owned home again and we have already checked it out. It is so cute and cozy. I'm excited about returning to a simpler lifestyle. I feel like I've been in a marathon for 5 years. My legs are tired.

Abby was thrilled to find that there is a storm shelter outside. I think she is already beginning to pray for bad weather daily so she can go to the "secret hideout!" She is very excited about the move as well. She will miss her friends, church, and school, but she has a wonderful attitude about the entire move. We allowed her to choose her room first. (There are 2 bedrooms and they are approximately the same size) She chose well. She has lots of windows letting in the sunshine as bright as she is. We are blessed with a wonderful little girl!