The Unexpected

I love that our God is a God of Unexpected Surprises!  We got to experience that first hand this week.  On Sunday, we were wearing flip flops and enjoying the 70 degree weather. I was thinking about pulling out some of our summer clothes. By Tuesday, we had four inches of snow on our ground. 

  I love that everyone in Austin was forced to stop and stay at home with our families.  All of our big plans for the day, all the things that seemed so pressing and important were cancelled.  I love a "forced" day of rest or in this case a forced day of fun.  

We enjoyed a good day of making snow angels,

building a snowman for the first time,

                      watching Annie chase snowflakes,

  drinking lots of hot chocolate and reading The Snowy Day for the 50th time. 

In the words of my sweet Kinley," This was a good day."

Thank you God for yet another unexpected gift.

Halloween 2009

This year for Halloween, the girls decided to be princesses. We thought about making Caden a knight but decided the court jester was more appropriate. The kids really got into character for the night of festivities.

Queen Madison

Queen Kinley

Our Royal Jester Caden

Aren't they lovely?

Isn't he amusing?

Entertaining the ladies with his silly antics

His reward

Granna, Grandaddy, Mimi, Big Daddy, Mike, and Allison joined us for a pot of stew. Then Granna, Grandaddy, Mimi, Rob, and I took the kids trick or treating. We know this was a real sacrifice with the UT game taking place at the same time. We had a great night. The kids love to visit Aunt Lisa and Penny's house along with Cari and Joel's place. Aunt Penny was dressed as a clown which made the kids' night. She also had her house decorated with cobwebs and caution tape. We went around Cari's neighborhood trick or treating. The kids had a blast. Then we game home for the ballgame and pumpkin carving and baked pumpkin seeds. Kinley and Cade both fell alseep on the couch.  Madison made sure to count all of her candy before bed.  I think she may be afraid someone might sneak a piece or two.  Hmmm.. does she know her mother well?

Local Superheroes

We all feel especially safe these days. Two local heroes have taken residence with us here at the Billingsley's.

They can leap over dollhouses, rescue barbies in distress, fly down our staircase and free you from having a boring day.

I introduce to you:

Captain Cade Man and Kin Kin Possible.

Class Clown

This gives a whole new meaning to the class clown, doesn't it?
Kinley and Cade love to do school work while I am schooling Maddie. Cade loves to "write his name".

The Perfect Pumpkin

When I had just Maddie we used to plan a big outing to the pumpkin patch. I'd pick the perfect outfit and we took tons of great shots.

With Kinley, it was the same. I have a ton of great photos from this day although this scanned picture does not do it justice.

Now that we have three little ones, our pictures look more like this......

The pictures are not quite the same but we do have a lot of fun and still search for the perfect pumpkin.

Cade chose a cute little pumpkin.

He wanted to make sure he chose the smallest one in the patch.

Maddie wanted a symmetrical one with no lumps or deformities. She thought it was funny to give her little jack a lantern smile in the pumpkins.

Kinley wanted a pumpkin that was almost as big as her.

We talked her out of this one.

Regardless the size or the bumps, the end result is always the same, a fun night of pumpkin carving and salty fried pumpkin seeds. We wouldn't trade that for anything.

One Hip Great Grandma

Mimi turned 76 years old this week. This is really hard for me to believe since I caught her chasing a cow that escaped from our pasture this week. She is truly an amazing woman. Living next door to Mimi and Granddaddy has been a tremendous blessing for our family in ways too numerous to count.

We had the pleasure of spending the day with Mimi on her actual birthday. We enjoyed a burger and fries at Mighty Fine and then enjoyed cupcakes from Hey Cupcake at our house. It was a treat for us all.

I can only pray that one day I will have half the energy, wisdom and influence that Mimi does as 76. She is truly an example for us all.


In Maddie's words "I forget Mimi is my great grandma because she is so great!"
Couldn't say it better myself.

Camp-out Party

For Maddie's Seventh birthday party, she decided on a camp-out theme. We invited her first grade class along with the family. We built a campfire in our backyard. We started the party with a nature scavenger hunt. This was Maddie's group.Pappy brought a tent and set it up. Caden enjoyed playing here most of the night.He also spent a lot of time getting the fire ready. He is quite the helper these days. The menu was easy!! Hot Dogs taste best roasted over a fire.

I had so much fun with the cake. The grass is dyed coconut, the tent is a chocolate pop tart, the sleeping bag is an iced graham cracker, the trees are iced sugar cones, the camp fire logs are pretzels, and for the fire, we used the actual candles.

I think the kids got a kick out of it.

April and Adelyn joined us for chocolate cake.

Nothing like sticky fingers from s'mores.

The glow sticks were our party favors and a huge hit.

One of Maddie's friends told me it was the "best night of her life" . What a great way to celebrate one of the best days of my life, the day God gave us my sweet Madison.

Maddie is Seven

Wow! Seven years ago today I gave birth to Miss Madison Lynn Billingsley. She is growing into an incredible young lady. She is so mature that sometimes I forget that she is only seven. I really do mot know what I would do without her.

Who would be able to find my keys for me in five seconds flat?

Who would empty my dishwasher?

Who would keep Kinley and Cade from skinny dipping in the pool?

Who would encourage me to pray when I am discouraged or pray for me on the spot?

Who would stand up for the underdog on the playground?

Who would change my attitude with the flash of a smile?

Who would point out the gorgeous sunset, giving praise to God for His Glory?

Who would remind me that Jesus was homeless so I should help every homeless person on the side of the road?

Who would sit and cry with me during a sappy movie, song, or commercial?

Who would let me know that my shirt was on inside out or help me with my wardrobe in general?

Yes, Maddie has changed my world these past seven years, all for the better.

Gobs of Fun

Having two days a week with just Kinley and Cade has been good for all of us. It is neat to watch their little friendship blossom.

Since Kinley is starting kinder next year, we try to spend some of our time schooling. It is funny because we are often playing an educational game and Kinley will stop and say "Are you trying to make me learn something?" You can't pull anything on this girl.

Today were working on the letter G so I decided to make it fun by baking gobs, some of my favorite desserts.

This is Kinley's kind of lesson- baking, some taste testing, and lots of

sugar.

After we came down from our sugar high, we had a lot of dishes to do. But one thing is for certain, G is Kinley's new favorite letter.

Giddy Up

Grandpa Ray and Lana came to visit this weekend. He is known as our family cowboy. So we had to get our "Cowgirl gear" ready.

Only in Texas would you wear boots and shorts and get away with it!

Grandpa surprised the kids by bringing "Bye Bye" one of his horses.

We all had to have a ride.

..even Mr.Cade. You can see his excitement:

He looked so big on the back of that horse.

The kids had a blast. Abbie came over to join in the fun but I did not get any pictures of my favorite blonde cowgirl. Kinley's favorite part was when the three girls fell off the horse. It was not a bad fall, Bye Bye just laid down and rolled them off.Kinley has decided this makes her an official cowgirl. I've heard that if you get a girl a horse, she will stay away from the boys. I am afraid we may need a whole herd with this little heart breaker.