I Love Dollar Tree!!

Poor Daddy had to go back to work today, so it was just us girls!

I hate it when he has to work when I'm off,

but sometimes it is fun to have time alone with my Lovey Girl!

We had a couple errands to run in town, so we decided to stop by the Dollar Tree!!

Now, it's always a crapshoot with this kid as to whether or not she will behave in the store...

Long gone are the days when she would sleep through a full-blown shopping trip to Wal-Mart.

But, I was feelin' lucky, so off we went!

And we hit the motherlode!!

They had a little bit of everything, as you well know, so we had to restrain ourselves!

Miss Priss is coloring in her big Princess coloring book!

We also got a Handy Manny one--she's definitely a Tomboy Princess!

We also found this Ladybug Dress-up outfit--which she HATES!!

Right after I snapped this pic, she turned and came after me with fire in her eyes!!

Enjoy the pic, 'cause I'm not sure she'll ever put it on again.

Look how big she is, coloring in her big-girl coloring book!!

Notice the camouflage crocs she's wearing. Those are courtesy of Mrs. Teri and Carter.

Carter outgrew them, and Mrs. Teri saved them for Abigail.

She even glued a "jewel" on them to make them more "princess-like"!!

She was so sweet and lovey today, giving me all sorts of kisses and "soft, soft" face rubs--

I even got some sugar on my shoulder--don't know why?!

After our LONG nap, we went to feed the chickens and collect the eggs.

Thank you, Jesus, the cows were all where they were supposed to be!!

(I know this because Abigail said "Hey!" and "Bye-Bye, Moo Cow" to each one individually before we could leave. She's so polite.)

All in all, it was another wonderful day here at the castle!

Now it's back to work tomorrow before our long weekend!

Life on the Farm...

It's always something...

We've been tending to things at Nana and PawPaw's house while they are gone to Colorado.

Since they left yesterday, and today is only Day 2, we thought we were doing pretty good.

Until we rolled past Uncle Dane's and saw a couple of cows in his front yard.

Turns out this was the culprit:

Thankfully, we were able to get it fixed pretty quickly, and with only minor injuries sustained.

Like to my new pants that I had on because we were on the way to church.

Needless to say, we were unable to make it to the AWANA Awards Ceremony tonight...

Thankfully, Mrs. Teri came and got Abigail so that we could fix the fence without any help!

She is a good helper, but all that barbed wire and those bulls made Momma a little nervous!!

Farmer Brown-I mean Slaydon-to the rescue!

Sadly, PawPaw's glove did not survive the repair...

The cows pretty much rounded themselves up, so once we got the fence back up, we were good to go. Hopefully, it'll last until they get home!!

Berry Picking Princess!

Once again, we lead off with a pic that has nothing to do with the title of this post!

Justin will kill me, but this was too funny!!

Yup, she's sucking on a pork chop bone.

She gets that honest.

I thought we were picking blackberries to make a cobbler.

Abigail thought we were just eating them as fast as Momma picked 'em!

Momma, I'm out!! I need "MO-WA"!

Abigail and her Daddy digging for potatoes! She got all into that little game!

She lost interest in the potatoes and just moved on to digging in the dirt!

Rough Week

Well, the mean ol' nasty stomach bug made an uninvited stop at our house this week.

Poor Abigail was sick during the night Monday night, and then Justin woke up with it on Tuesday morning. Wednesday everyone felt a little better, but apparently it was just the eye of the storm...Thursday morning at about 3 o'clock, I was camped out in the bathroom, and it just went downhill from there...

Since I'm pretty sure no one wants to see any pics of that whole debacle--not that any were taken, mind you--we have a few random pics from some time before the epidemic...

Here's Abigail and her Daddy in the tent they made:

What a sweet Daddy! Wish you could hear her giggling!!

Starting to feel a little better yesterday afternoon! Gotta check on the garden!

These are the beautiful flowers Justin picked for me while Ab and I were taking a nap!

He's been taking good care of his girls!

And a big Thank You! to Nana and PawPaw for the homemade soup on Thursday!

It was yummy!

Happy Birthday, MeMe!!

Today is MeMe's birthday, and she and Aunt Candice, Aryana, and Shannen came over for a little fish fry!

Abigail got a new little pool today, so it was time to break out the ladybug swimsuit!!

She's watching Aryana swim because the water was too cold!!

Finally got in (well, fell in, really!).

Blowing bubbles with MeMe!!

Sooo tired after playing so hard!!

Two little princesses watching The Princess and the Frog!

Outside!

Just a little progress report:

The shed is done--FINALLY!!

It was a bit of a booger, but we got it done!

Justin and Matthew did most of the work, but I was the brains behind the operation!

Our "little" garden! Anybody hungry?

You're not getting my peas!!

And, last but not least, look what Matthew brought over last night:

Really, Matt?

And the smaller one wasn't even dead!! He cut its head off right after I took the picture!

"Now, Amy, you know when we kill something around here we gotta bring it around and show it to everybody..."

REALLY??? 3 snakes in 1 week!!

Not cool, Matt.

Catching Up!

It's been pretty busy around the Slaydon Castle lately!

Here's just a few things that have been going on:

Miss Priss is no longer in need of her baby bed, 'cause she's a big girl now!!

She loves her new bed, and proudly shows it off to everybody who comes to visit!

She even kissed it today when she showed it to Granny!

Nothin' new there--just more sugar for Hopper!!

I swear she loves that stinkin' dog more than she loves her Momma and Daddy!

I'm so glad that he turned out to be such a sweet dog that loves her, too!!

Abigail's been helping us work on the new shed! She's a really big helper!!

She also likes to sing while she's working, which is very entertaining!!

This is the almost-finished product! Just a little trimwork and the doors to put in, then we'll build the ramp and be done!! Turned out to be a booger, but we've about got it whooped!!

Jasper Rodeo

After several years and a few failed attempts, I finally made it back to the ol' Jasper Lions Club Rodeo!! (We used to go every year, but it's been a long time since I've been able to go.) This time, we took Daddy, PawPaw Jerry, and MyMy, and what fun did we have!!

This year they had a petting zoo with all sorts of fun animals! Ab was not too sure about getting down and playing with them, but she sure liked looking at them and telling them, "Hey!"

She was okay until they got too close, then Momma had to pick her up and get outta the way!

There was even a big Hopper there--and as you can tell, Miss Priss prefers the regular Hopper!

I didn't realize til I'd uploaded the pics that her entire head is a blur.

That's from shaking it "NO!" furiously when asked if she wanted to go see Hopper!!

Not sure why, but she felt the need to honk PawPaw's nose!

And you know he just sat there and let her as long as she wanted to!

This next pic was towards the end of the evening--the Princess was getting a little delirious!!

We had a fun night for sure!! MyMy even saw a couple of cute cowboys!!

We will definitely have to make it back next year!!

New Project!

Here are a few pics of our latest project.

As you can see, the Princess is once again a big helper!!

I was commenting to Justin on how smart she is about construction work.

He agreed, and I thought he was going to say something like, "oh, she takes after her Daddy."

His reply: "It's all that Handy Manny she watches."

We're outgrowing our little shed out back, so it was time to make some more room!

And, if you wanna be in the "club" around here, you need at lease 3 or 4 sheds to fit in...

I told you she was a big help!

Almost finished for the day!

You put her in her swing for 2 seconds and turn your back, this is what you get!!

Oh, well, at least she has her legs crossed.

Granny would be so proud.

Almost done--just needs a roof!

And a lot of caulk. :-)