Stephanie's beach photos

Here are a couple individual photos of Steph while at the beach this year.

Catch Up Time

Time has gotten away from me again so here's a few things of importance that has happened since last post. Chris tested for a Corporal position way back I think Oct of 2012. Things do not move fast in law enforcement :) There was one position open at that time & after the test portion Chris was in first place. He scored highest on test. However after the interview portion he fell to second place & therefore was placed first on the "waiting list". I don't know the correct terms they use. The "waiting list" is used for one year so he knew he would become a Corporal in that time frame. So in about I believe it was Feb of this year he was asked if he'd be willing to go to patrol & be an acting Corporal because they were short handed. So he agreed. May of this year they finally had the promotion ceremony & family was invited. Stephanie got to attend since she was exempt from end of year semester testing so that was nice. His parents & I attended also. One of the first weeks back in patrol he helped save a lady from a burning mobile home with another officer so it's been exciting to say to the least.

Stephanie graduated high school & we are proud of her!!

Cake from her party using one of her senior photos.

Logan had a little 8th grade graduation & since it was a couple days to the end of school I wasn't able to take off & I can't remember why, but Chris couldn't get off either so we had Stephanie & Retha go & get us photos.

For Fathers Day I took a photo of the kids holding a banner that said I "heart" Dad because & then each of them came up with their own saying as to why they love him. It's funny they both involve playing.

Stephanie's Senior Prom

Tonight is the Prom & it's been really fun making Stephanie look like the girl she is. This was taken in Retha & Wallaces backyard. It was so funny when we walked into the house because Cali didn't know who Steph was & started growling/barking at her. LOL She met up with a group of friends, about 20 in all, at one of the girls house & the dad has a bunch of old model cars. He let them all pose around the cars, it was nice. These are just a few of my faves of her. I didn't include any group shots because I don't have permission from the girls. This one I really like, because it's a good smile & her eyes are really open good. The sun was causing problems in a lot of them.

Stephanie is 18

We had the family over for Steph's birthday & I forgot to take any photos of cake or the birthday girl with the cake. I just started cutting cake. After about 5 pieces she asks "Aren't you gonna sing Happy Birthday?" awwww I totally forgot that too. So not going to win Mom of the Year this year :)
Then we have a few friends over the evening after her birthday for a sleepover & I redeem myself. I remembered to get photos of cake, her with cake, & we sung Happy Birthday (before the cake was cut).

Photos on my iPhone again. I'm tellin' ya I take almost ALL photos with my phone.

And just like that

Flash back to Spring of 2000, I entered a building I hadn't entered in many years. Granted I'd driven by many times & had fond memories of the place. I was sitting in this building & looking around. Honestly I don't remember my exact thoughts at that time. Fast forward a few months of the same year. I had entered the same building & this time I remember EXACTLY what I was thinking as I looked around. I looked down at my little girl & saw blue eyes that were not quite sure what to do. I wasn't quite sure either. But I knew I had to leave her there with total strangers, which goes against everything you want to do as a mother. As I walked out of the building I could feel the tears building. I raced to my car & let the dam burst. I don't know how I managed to drive to work that morning. I walked in & a co-worker asked me what was wrong. I'm sure my red swollen eyes & tears still streaming down my face made her think the worse. I answered "I had to leave her." Of course she asked who I had to leave & where. My answer was "Stephanie. At school". You see this building was Lowell Elementary & the room I left her in was the cafeteria. I had taken her to her first day of kindergarten & walked her to the breakfast line. And just like that it's now 2013 & in just a few months my little kindergartener will be a high school graduate.

Birthdays

September is a busy month for birthdays around this house. We never let the kids take the day off school for their birthday, but ever so often Logan's will fall on Labor Day. This was one of those years. We enjoyed all the family over the Sunday before (Chris had to work Monday). Then out to eat on his actual birthday. Chris' birthday was Tuesday & we celebrated with dinner out once again. Then on Friday I surprised Stephanie with a half cake for her half birthday. I saw this idea on Pinterest & it sounded like fun. Plus another reason to eat cake ;)

Spiderman & Spridergirl

Here are a couple photos of my Spiderman & Spridergirl from the rock climbing party. I tell you what, Steph flew up that wall the first time. I was cutting cake & just about missed the whole thing. Didn't have time to get my camera out, so this is her doing the harder climb. She did make it to the top & rang the bell.


Logan is giving it his all. Even with a short break to let his arms rest he just didn't make it to the bell. I was proud though because he tried, which is more than I can say for myself. Fun was had by all & they should sleep good tonight (Steph said).

Steph's 17th Birthday

Seriously I can not believe it's been 17 years since I had that tiny little 6 pound 2 ounce baby girl, but believe it or not, she is & this is how we celebrated this year.

Steph making an odd face blowing out all those candles at the family party


Steph decided she wanted to do rock climbing for a few friends

I decided to make pudding cups (aka dirt cups with flowers). Since it was rock climbing & that's typically outdoors why not spruce the table up with something that makes it pretty & plays a trick on the kids? I told them to dig into the cake & the flowers & you could hear a pin drop for a few seconds. I think they thought I was insane. They all had thought the flowers were real. LOL Of course Steph & Logan knew what they were & Logan grabbed his spoon & dug right in. Then the girls thought he was the crazy one. Click photos to view larger.

Hat

Stephanie went shopping with me to get the food for her family party. She has been complaining about her wallet for a long time (doesn't like it). While in the aisle that had wallets (she got to pick a new one) we discovered these cute little hats. This was the last one & it was on clearance to boot.

First Solo Drive...kind of

Can't believe I bypassed blogging this. I noticed the photos today when I was uploading some new photos that will be blogged about soon since it's something that happened to my kids today that they will remember being the first time they did forever. Now onto "old news".

This is Stephanie taking her first solo her brother was with her drive after she got her license. They went to the park & was only gone maybe 15 minutes. The soccer goals weren't down & she let Logan play a few minutes then they came home.
She is backing out of the driveway so that is why she is sort of crooked. We back into the yard because our street is busy & at certain times it's next to impossible to back out into the street.

Drivers Licenses & Makeup

Steph passed her drivers test this morning & so we head to the Revenue Office to get her "offical". Of course I had to stop by the house & scan the permit for scrapbooking first. We get to there & take our #. It wasn't to bad of a wait since they were on 96 & we had pulled 99. 98 wasn't there so we go up to lady in a rude, hateful mood friendly clerk 1. I tell her we are there because Steph passed her drivers test. Not so friendly clerk 1 asks for birth certificate, which I hand her. She then asks for another form of id. I hand her Steph's social securtiy card. She then asks for another form of id w/ her name printed on it, like a health insurance card. I know that the health insurance card is at home, because I'd pulled it out this week to make a copy of & hadn't put it back into my wallet. I am thinking maybe I can find something else w/ her name printed on it. I find the dental insurance card which is the same comp. as the health ins. & also has her name/b-day printed on it. She takes it & looks at it for a while then hands it back to me & in a rude voice that I can not possibly type & you understand says "I need a health ins. card, that is why it's called health." I take all the papers back & tell her that I'd be back in a few min's. We drive back to Lowell from downtown Rogers & I'm thinking all the way home that the health card might have her social on it. NOPE it doesn't! It has the EXACT same printed info of name/b-day that the dental card has. We didn't have to pull a # the second trip in & we ended up w/ truly friendly person, not that anyone could possibly have been more rude & hateful than clerk 1 friendly clerk 2. I state why we are there & she gives Steph a big ol smile & says "Congratulations". And we leave about 10 min's later w/ a girl that can now drive all on her own. Scary!!!! :)

Steph & I were invited to a Mary Kay party makeover tonight & Steph wasn't to keen on this idea, but I made her go. She applied her makeup w/out to many complaints. And wow does that girl have eyelashes. We were all amazed once she got her mascara on.

Sweet 16 Party

Here is a closeup photo of the cake we got from Rick's Bakery in Fayetteville. I wouldn't think to put those colors together, but Steph picked it from their website & I think it turned out good.

Here is the Sweet 16 sign I made from paper mache letters. I spray painted white & glued them together. Everyone signed in colors matching cake & it became a cool keepsake for her. The photo on the left is the very first studio photo of her, the one on right is the most recent studio photo of her. I think this turned out really nice.

She is blowing out those massive sparkler candles. Finally she got them all out.

She couldn't believe she got an iphone. She pulled out the little bag (phone wrapped & tucked in bag) & says "Is there something in this, it's heavy". She pulls out the phone (in box, after she unwrapped it) & asks "Is this for real". She about cried.

Steph is such a great big sister. On the way home from school on Friday she told Logan she would go skate some, then help him, & then skate w/ her friends more & come back & help him. She even pinky promised this to him. She kept the pinky promise too. She helped him & then would go around for a couple laps, slow down by a friend, then help Logan again once she caught up to him. This process was repeated until Logan decided he'd had enough "skating" & exited the ice to remove his skates. She offered this on her own, although it didn't surprise me, because she has always been willing to help out w/ her little brother. Even when she is w/ her friends & at her 16th birthday party.

Zoom Zoom

My my, how times have changed. Gosh I sure sound old huh? Anyways........."way back when I did my learner's permit testing" it was called the written test & it actually used a pencil. :) Now it's done on the computer & is called the Learner's Permit test. I guess that makes sense because you have your Learners Permit once you pass the test.

So now we have a teen driver (only w/ an adult over the age of 21 who has had a license over one year) in our household. Can you tell I've also been reading the drivers manual? She has one year to do the practial test (aka Drivers Test). The earliest is 30 days. Even if she did her driving part test in 30 days it's no different than the piece of paper she has now. Meaning she still has to have someone 21 in the car also. So no rush.

Congrats Steph!!

First day of school 2010

6th & 10th are the grades. Kirksey Middle School & Rogers High School are the schools.

Chris got the honors of making the first day of school drop offs this year. I forgot my cell phone at home & first break ran home to grab it & call him for a Logan drop off update. When I asked him how Logan did this morning he asked me "Why? Did they call you?" He said Logan was twisting his fingers up like he does when nervous. Got out of car & walked really slow. Turned around & gave a little smile & it broke Chris's heart. He said it was like he was yelling "Help".

Stephanie had a good day she said. She took her map from last year & had to use it once she said. She doesn't really like her Spanish teacher because she only spoke in Spanish. I told her after two years of Spanish you'd think you could understand part of it. Chris asked her if others in the class were like "What?" She said no one could understand her. He told her that she'd get more out of that class that the whole last two years of Spanish classes.

Logan told me he had a good day. What he told Chris was anything but good. He said he got lost twice, but did ask for help. Which is major for Logan. Talking is something he LOVES to do, but talking to people he doesn't know is one of those social type things that really is hard for him. Once he stayed at his locker trying to get it open & that hours teacher came out in the hall to get him. Not sure if that was just luck on the teachers part or somebody else in the class told the teacher Logan was out in the hall. He didn't want to go back to school today he told Chris. We explained that wasn't an option, so I hope today was a much easier & better day for him.

Lazy Days of Summer

Here is Steph taking a mid afternoon nap yesterday. Gonna be rough not being able to nap at 2:30 when school starts in about a week & half huh?

One month

Wow, Can you believe it's been a month since my last post? We've been pretty busy in the Craig household lately. Girl Scout cookies, Stampin' Up! workshops, Stephanie & Deena's birthdays have kept us pretty busy.



Friends came up from down south (Little Rock & the surrounding areas) to Retha's Stampin' Up! workshop & afterwards we went to Maria's for lunch & did a little shopping. Of course we had to stop at Signed, Sealed, & Delivered (scrapbook store). The layout was really odd I'll say. Gordmans, & Target made the list of shopping stops also.

Steph w/ her ice cream cake! Just where does the time go? Doesn't seem possible she is turning 15 & her choice of friend party is taking a couple friends to the movies. Seems like only yesterday I was buying pink utencils for a Pooh themed party & she was standing in the cart telling me (with hand on her little hip) that she didn't want pink. Boy, much hasn't changed though from since she was 3. She still doesn't enjoy the color pink. She's pure tomboy through & through.

Snow Days & Airport Issues

One snow day down, one more tomorrow........they've already called school off which is nice because we can turn the alarms off. The kids are happy, probably won't be when they are making days up on June 1st & 2nd.

The pool covered with ice & then a layer of snow. I think it looks really cool (no pun intended).

Never to cold for a time to play on the swing set while outside.

Steph riding her new bike thru the snow. You can also see how much snow we got on the top of Chris's car.

Steph throwing a snow ball at Logan.

Logan's favorite thing to do while outside is to knock snow off dad's car. I remember having fun doing that when a kid too. Not sure why it's so much fun, but I'll bet Chris appreciates it when he gets home.

Chris had to fly to South Carolina for work & Mother Nature decided we needed snow filled roadsa pretty drive to XNA airport. We left 2 hours before his 10am flight. On a good day the drive only takes 20 min's. Of course he has to be there at least an hour early. There are two corners right before the entrance to the airport & a car had slid off the road & the wrecker was blocking both lanes so we had to wait about 30 min's for that. I made it back home all in one piece thank goodness. He waited on the runway for 2 hours because they were de-icing planes. He missed his connecting flight in Atlanta, Georgia because of that. He went for work, a training, not to look for work :) He'll be back home Saturday about noon. I saw on the news tonight that the low on Saturday morning is -6 YIKES!! Fridays low w/ wind chill is supose to be -25. I've already told Logan that he isn't doing car rider duty if we have school.

Zack & Cody

Cole (left) & Dylan (right) Sprouse were promoting Danimals Crushable Yogurt Cups today in Bentonville.


I took the kids to the Bentonville Walmart today so they could meet Cole & Dylan Sprouse from The Suite Life on Deck. The Disney show used to be called The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. They were there from 10:30am - 12:30pm & arrived in style. Limo w/ a police escort. We got there about 10am. So 2 hours waiting in line. But it'll be good memories for the kids. Stephanie didn't want to go because she wouldn't have anyone to talk to in line. Hello what about her brother & me? I asked them on the way home if they had fun. Logan said yes. Although her answer to that question was "kindof", in teen talk that is a "yes, great time" lol. She informed me once we got home that I couldn't wash her shirt because Cole touched her shoulder. Every once in awhile that girl hiding inside her sneaks out.



About noon they decided to start doing 6-8 people in a picture to try to get everyone in line through. They had already cut the line off earlier in the day. So many people showed up. The 2 boys in line behind us were in the picture too. I had Logan move over once but he didn't move far enough & the way they were rushing us I had just one chance & getting the picture.

Here's a couple more

First Day of School

First day of 5th grade for Logan.

First day of 9th grade & high school for Stephanie.

Logan had a good day he said.

Stephanie didn't get lost even once so she was happy. The pep rallies was very peppy. And apparently their lemonaide & I quote is the best ever.

My first day back to work with kids at school was today. We had a new lunch schedule & it was hetic. Normal deposits are about $100.00 & todays was just over $2900.00. Not to mention a new computer system that wasn't working right this morning. We all survived though :)

Last summer activity before school starts

Logan earned 2 free tickets to a Naturals baseball game on Sunday afternoon. He had to be one of the first 100 kids to read at least 20 hours & he did it. He was really looking forward to going & so I took him even though I'm not a sports fan. Stephanie enjoyed it also since the teen section didn't give out very good prizes this year. Other than sitting in the last row & not in the front row where they had a chance to get a ball or a t-shirt they had fun. We sit beside a couple Girl Scouts from our troop that were there & they had already choosen seats. I didn't take my camera becasue according to the radar it looked like we might get rained on. These pictures aren't good quality because I use mine & Steph's cell phones for them, lol. Better than nothing I guess.