Happy Holidays

I have been such a SLACKER with this blog!!!! One of my New Year's Resolutions is going to be to keep up with this better! We have been so busy around here, it's just crazy! Manze started preschool this year (K3). She goes ALL DAY and wears a uniform! She has to be at school by 7:45 and she is done at 2:00. She goes to after school until I get off work and pick her up! She has gotten so big and independent! I'm so excited for her but sad at the same time! My baby is growing up! She LOVES her teacher Mrs. Montgomery and we love her too! I went to New York over Thanksgiving with some girlfriends and had a blast (pics to come)! I'm still monogramming away and really loving it! Tommy got a new job at UMC. He is over the Pharmacy and is in charge of buying the drugs for the pharmacy. We are so excited to be on Christmas break and to finally have some time to relax! We had a little elf come visit us for the first time this year and Manze is just enamored with him! She named him Drew Brees...can you tell we are Saints fans at our house! My goal is to catch up with blogging and clean house these two weeks! Here are a few

pictures to start with!

Manze on her first day of Preschool in August!

Teresa and I in Times Square in NEW YORK CITY Thanksgiving week!

Sports

Top Row: MSU shirt; Paw Print with Cougars monogrammed across, Megaphone
Middle Row: Eagles applique in USM colors; Jersey shirt for a mom to wear with her son's football number appliqued on it; shirt with son's number and school name
Bottom Row: shirt with son's number and school name; MSU Football shirts

Christmas in July Shopping Event

Click on the picture to make it larger! I hope you can join us and bring a friend!! Copy the picture and post it on your blogs my blogging friends! :o)

Back to blogging

This summer has already been so busy! After school got out I taught camp invention for a week at my school. Manze started science camp and Mothers Morning Out (MMO). She will be doing cheer camp later this month, then we will be going to the beach next month! I've been a major blogger slacker! I found out at the end of the school year that my teaching license expired in June! I was freaking out! I thought I was okay and that my National Boards would carry me for another 5 years! I was so wrong! So, I've been taking an online class and computer classes offered by my school district! Plus, I'm monogramming away and trying to clean up and organize my house (those of you who know me are laughing at me right now and wondering if I even know how to organize...ha, ha). We've made it out to my parent's house to swim and we've just relaxed! It's been a nice summer so far! Next chance I get I will post pictures of Science Camp and Manze's hair cut (you can tell in the first picture that I had it cut off...to her shoulders).

Manze's first day at MMO with her friends Richard, Wes, and Emma! They all ended up in the same class!

Manze and her teacher Mrs. Julie! Julie teaches with me and I was so excited to hear Manze was going to be in her class this summer!

Here are some misc. pictures! Manze got into my purse (she loves to do that...I really need to hide it) and put on my lip gloss!

Manze and her daddy made me a cake for Mother's Day!

Dance Recital

Manze took dance for the first time at Miss Rhonda's and had a great time. She had her recital a couple of weeks ago and it was intersting. During rehersals she danced away. In the audience before she went on stage, she danced away. On stage, she STOOD STILL!!!! After the recital in the parking lot, she danced away! Go figure! Tommy and I were very proud of her and she looked precius in her "Sleeping Beauty" tutu!

Manze and Emma dancing in the audience

She was not happy that I had to leave her backstage before she went on, so I told her if she stayed back stage like a good girl I would get her ice cream after her recital! See next picture for results!
Happy face now that she gets ice cream!

Here she is on stage doing the one thing she did (sleeping like sleeping beauty)

Poppy brought her roses

Mommy, Daddy, and Manze

Dancing in the parking lot

showing off her trophy and roses

Eating her ice cream that was promised!

Swim Lessons

Manze took swim lessons with Miss Lou again this year and had a blast! My parents built a pool at their house last Spring so we have been swimming a lot since last summer! I was so proud of Manze and how well she was swimming...she was a certified fish!

Manze and Emma

Minnie had to come to swim lessons and watch Manze!

Giveaway

I'm having a giveaway at my monogramming site, Ballpoint Designs! If you would like to win an appliqued/monogrammed shirt or tank go to my site and enter to win! The winner will be announced Friday! Here are some pictures of things I have done recently!

Prom 2009

Here is my niece Alexa and her date at prom this year! She is a Senior and is graduating next Saturday! I can't believe it!!!! She has grown up so fast and is so beautiful! She will be going to Western Kentucky (WKU) in the fall and is so excited!!!!

Catching up...

It has been very busy at the Ball household! School is winding down, YAY, Manze is finishing up dance, and the weather is beautiful! My niece, Alexa, graduates from High School on May 16th and Manze has her dance recital on May 17th where they will be dancing Sleeping Beauty! We have a lot to look forward to! I tried to catch up a little, but I still have more to add eventually! I hope everyone is doing well...only 23 1/2 days until school is out! YES, I'm counting down! I can't wait until summer when I can relax, sleep in, and play with Manze!

Roller Skating

Manze went roller skating for the first time and LOVED it! I had to carry her out of the skating rink kicking and screaming and crying! Her friend Neely turned 10 and had a skating party! Neely and her friends were so sweet and took Manze out skating holding on to her hands! Poor thing, she would skate a little, fall to her knees, skate a little, fall to her knees, and so on! It was so cute and hilarious! I was laughing so hard I was crying!! I thought she would be tired of it but she LOVED it! I loved how cute her little skates were! We'll definitely be going back!

Easter

Great friends! Here are Claire, Manze, and Emma in their matching bunny shirts I made at the babysitter! I have som great Easter pictures on my mom's camera! When I get a hold of those, I will post them! Manze started off the Easter holiday at an Easter egg hunt at Claire's house, then we headed to Oxford to spend the holiday with family!

Spring Break 2009

For Spring Break we went with our good friends Jason and Teresa and their son Caden to Mexico Beach, Florida! We took along our awesome babysitter Lexi and had a blast relaxing. The weather was gorgeous and the water was so clear and blue! One day while we were sitting on the beach, a bunch of dolphins started jumping out of the water! It was like they were giving us our own personal show! One got so close to us, we couldn't believe it! Of course, Teresa, Lexi, and I are huge Twilight fans so we bought the movie in Florida the day it came out and watched it that night! It was a perfect ending to a perfect vacation!

Manze is ready for the beach!

Sunbathing

She LOVED to play in the water!

Here we are at Margaritaville in Panama City

me and Teresa

Tommy, me, Teresa, and Jason

Manze "bungee jumping"

Manze is ready to go crabbing!

St. Patrick's Day at Mrs. Beth's house

The kids had a blast at Mrs. Beth's house celebrating St. Patrick's Day early. They ate greem cinnamon rolls and I made the kids matching shamrock shirts! They are so cute!!

Happy Anniversary

Seven years ago today Tommy and I were married! Now, we have a beautiful little family! Its been a great 7 years...I can't wait for 7 more!

A picture is worth 1000 words...

The other night after I got Manze out of the tub, she ran off streaking through the house! A few minutes later Tommy brought her to me looking like this! She had taken her potty seat and put it over her head and couldn't get it off! LOL! It was hard to get off too!!

GIVEAWAY

I'm having a giveaway on my monogramming blog! Check it out...go to Ballpoint Designs and sign up right away! Here is an example of what you could win:

What really happened on the Hudson...

Friends

Here is a group picture of the kids at Mrs. Beth's on Valentine's Day! I LOVE how they are all holding hands! They have been together for 2 years now and are all the same age (they all have birthdays very close to each other). They have become such good friends and will all be heading to K3 preschool together next year!

L to R: Manze, Emma, Claire, Wes, and Richard