Happy Birthday Karen!

Ella's Favorite things about Mema: 

1. Ella loves to swing with her in her backyard in Tulsa. 

2. Ella loves to eat popsicles with Mema. 

3. Ella loves to read books with her. 

4. Ella says her most favorite thing about her is, "Because I love her"

My Favorite Things about Karen are:

1. She always thinks of others before herself. 

2. She has loved me and included me in her family. 

3. She is a great person to spend quality time with! I love to have coffee with her!

4. We can talk about anything for hours - actually we haven't ever run out of things to talk about. 

5. I am always amazed at what Kevin talks her into doing - one of my favorites is when he talks her into being in his movies. Favorite scenes: Her playing the harmonica and sings "red river valley" which is from his Tombstone remake. Also, when her and her sister Diane played a scene where they were fighting. Hilarious  

6. She has good taste when it comes to food!!! We love to eat at El Chico! mmmm... I miss good mexican!

7. Her patience and mercy for her son and grandkids ENDURES FOREVER! (the rest of us can't handle all the balls being thrown, wrestling, and running around the couch all at the same time)

8. She is a lovely woman and has a great smile :) 

9. She loves God and is a great example of His kindness to anyone who meets her. 

10. I actually saved the best for last. I can never thank her enough for the time she came to Charleston for the birth of Olivia. Kevin had sprained his ankle or according to Ella his "wrankle" and I had been put on bed rest and was about 6 weeks from my due date. Ella was basically taking care of us getting us drinks and helping with things like the phone and the remote. She was only 2 1/2 at the time but we were in bad shape. My parents couldn't come yet because they were planning on coming for a month when Liv was born so they needed to wait as long as they could. After about 3 days of us being in really bad shape Karen jumped on a plane and came here to help us. She was a great help to us and entertained ella for the first 5 days and she planned to go home on Thursday night so she could go to War Eagle with her sister and daughters but that night I had an overwhelming feeling that she shouldn't leave. Immediately when I began to tell her this she felt it too and changed her ticket to the next Wednesday. It was that Saturday morning when I woke up I knew that something wasn't right. Later that day we went to the hospital and Sunday morning we had Liv. Thank God she was here!!! Through everything I didn't even worry one minute about Ella and we could focus on Liv and everything she was going through!!! So #10 is Thank you Karen for being there for me when I really needed you the most!!! You are the best!!!!

Princess?

So Sunday night Ella begged us to go eat at Moe's. We have been eating at home so much lately to save money and its much easier with the kids. But she was relentless. So we did just for her. Afterwards we went by Blockbuster and rented a movie. We let her pick one and she chose Cinderella III. She watched it a few times now and has been asking me to watch it with her and so finally last night I sat down with her and watched it. Half way through she leaned over to me and said, "Mom, you know I am a princess" I said, "Yeah, I know". She said, "But Mom I have been trying to make friends with the birds and they just run away from me. You know mom princesses can talk to the birds." I didn't know what to say and I was kind of laughing and then she looked at me and said, "Mom, who's going to be my bird?"

So I kind of told her that the movies were pretend but she didn't really buy it. I immediately called her Aunt Karey who loves Cinderella movies too!  

I love Ella's imagination. You never know what she is going to say next!