The Dinner Bell - Cooking with Evie and Kallie

Evie dreams of her own Food Network show. She loves to watch Food Network and her favorite cooks are Ina Garten, Racheal Ray, and Paula Deen. She practices talking to the "camera guys" while she helps me cook dinner at night. She even has named her show, "The Dinner Bell". Actually, she's really good at talking to the "camera" and explaining how to cut, dice, chop, fold ingredients, etc. For her birthday I bought her her own recipe box that I found at Home a la Mode.



She loves the box and tried out one of the recipies - Deviled Eggs. Evie and Kallie worked together (I helped a little) and the eggs turned out great!



Who knows, maybe my little chef will get her own cooking show one day!

Hometown Tour

Val and Rachel over at Alabama Bloggers asked me to write a piece about Ragland for the weekly Hometown Tour segment. It's posted today and you can read it here
Thanks to the folks at Alabama Bloggers for the opportunity!

Surprise!!

This is 'Surprise'. He was born yesterday. I went out to water the animals and found him in the pasture. We didn't even know his momma was pregnant. Evie and Kallie feel very pleased that they can share their birthday with him.

We had a family meeting last night and voted that his name should be 'Surprise'. That name barely won out over 'Boba Fett'. Ah, such is life...

Seeing Double

Six years ago I was relieved, happy, and terrified all at once. I'd just given birth to two of the tiniest things I'd ever seen before! Granted, they weren't that small, 4'4oz and 4'13oz. But they seemed so small and fragile and they were too early, by 8 weeks! Evie came first, before poor Krager even made it inside from the parking deck at UAB. Kallie came second, just as he screeched through the delivery room door.
We weren't together, you see, because I'd made the trip to the hospital via ambulance. I'd gone into labor early on Monday morning and Krager had taken me to the small hospital where my doctor practiced. He tried to stop the labor but couldn't and there was no neo-natal ICU there. I had to be transported to UAB hospital by ambulance and Krager couldn't ride with me. I was so scared but my sweet friend Andrea, a delivery nurse who worked at the little hospital was just getting off her shift and agreed to ride with me. I'm eternally grateful to her for that.
The girls came just about 15 miutes after I arrived at UAB. Evie at 7:40a and Kallie at 7:45a.
Although early, those girls were healthy and as a nurse said, "They just weren't finished cooking." So cook they did for 2 more weeks in the ICU. I visited them everyday and cried for myself, them, and all the actually sick babies and their families. There were so many who'd been there for months and wouldn't go home. It humbled me. I came to see how blessed I truly was/am that my babies are strong, healthy and with me.
I love you girls! These past 6 years have been hard, fun, and magical - I wouldn't change a thing! HAPPY BIRTHDAY

School days, school days...

Today is the first day of school! Holdyn is going into 3rd grade while the girls will be in 1st grade this year. We are all so excited and look forward to the year. Kallie had her bag all ready to go this morning. Evie, of course, has had her outfit planned for about a week. Holdyn is a little nervous but is excited that he gets his own locker this year.