Eating!!!

Okay - so I'm not much of a blogger -I'm a picture taker through and through and I love to share all the fun we have in/with our family that way...but I don't type much about all that's going on in our lives, but I feel compelled to share today...smiley face.

We pray with the girls every night - our blessings at mealtime (which both Hannah & Lexy both fight over who will go first - they love their blessings and belt them out in song each evening) as well as our bedtime prayers and yes - I know where our girls get their wordiness from - it's all me b/c even I sometimes fall asleep when I'm praying. I ask a lot of God in these prayers, but I also give Him lots of thanks for all we have in our lives. Our life is very full and rich and we feel forever blessed - smiley face. When I pray for the girls, I do so with them often and as of late one of my prayers for Hannah and Abby has been that they start to eat better. Hannah's diet consists of snacks, fruit and chick fil a...as well as most dairy products. Abby's diet is even less - just snacks, yogurt, macaroni and craisins (and oddly enough - Moe's burrittos) - it's been pathetic. However last week Abby ate some chicken from chick fil a - hooray. To make sure this wasn't a fluke, I had to go back (probably had to go back more to get my coke fix, but that's another story - smiley face). She ate it again - and again this week - yippee. She even ate chicken nuggets at McDs (no we do not normally eat this much fast food in a week - but we drove to/from FL last week so we had four meals on the road). I am back to my trying to give Abby everything I give everyone else at the table - she's not eating it, but at least she's not throwing the strawberries on the floor anymore - she'll leave them on her plate....and hopefully soon take a taste - smiley face.

Tonight at dinner, we had broccoli salad, as well as a new recipe a tomato basil frittata (sp?). Lexy, as our incredible people pleaser (something that scares me as she grows older - I hope she isn't going to do everything her friends want her to do someday - but that's a thought for another day/prayer for everyday! smiley face), tries everything and if she doesn't like it - she can spit it out. She tried the broccoli slaw and spit it out....but then Hannah tried it and liked it, so Lexy (the people pleaser - smiley face) tried it again and loved it ("yummy dressing mommy") - both girls ended up asking for seconds. Hannah ate broccoli and asked for seconds? Is this the Faklaris dinner table?! Wait...it gets better. Again, I tried a new receipe - I tried to sell it as cheese pie (but let Lexy who LOVES tomatos and basil know they were in it too - although you could TOTALLY see they were) - Lexy finally put some in her mouth - "but only with the tomato mommy" and loved it. Hannah took some coercing (and reminding that she could spit it out) but ate it all too. WOO HOO!

Dare I jinxx what has just happened - but our girls are eating - and something healthy. God is amazing and listens.....I love it. I'm not much of a country song person, but I do listen to some c. music - and I always think of Garth Brooks song about Unanswered Prayers and try to keep it in perspective - everything happens for a reason....good and bad...but this was/is definitely good! Thank you - super smiley face!!!

Now onto the speech, confidence, safety, healthy, school, love, friendships, fun and so much more...smiley face!

Abby's First Haircut

The girls aftewards in their crazy hairdoos (no I would never do their hair like this on my own -smiley face, but they thought it was so cool - smiley face) with jewels and sparkle dust...FUN!



Hannah had her hair cut too - all that chlorine from frequent pool trips this summer needed to be trimmed off - she still has some green hair, but it's fading - hee hee!
Lexy didn't get a haircut, but she did ask them to add some jewels and sparkle dust to her hair - such girls - smiley face!

The mullet is finally gone - and she still has some wave to her hair - could we really have a curly haired girl?! As with the other girls first haircuts, it was a long time coming, but I just loved those pigtails we couldn't cut it too soon....it's ADORABLE now and ready for bows...super smiley face!

Visit to Granny & Grandpas and a Visit from Faye too!

Family pictures on Granny's Birthday...
Making treats for Daddy (and everyone else - BROWNIES) and Lexy (and mommy - angel food cake) - YUM!!!!

Hannah doing her "shock you" pose - we have no idea where it came from or why she started it - but she now says it/does it all the time - smiley face - too funny!
Hurricane/Tropical Storm Faye hit our fourth day in St. Augustine...and at high tide the streets were flooded. Lexy thought it would be so cool to tell her friends she swam in the street during a hurricane. Luckily (?) the eye of the storm went through St. Augustine so it was mainly just high winds and lots of rain....wish some of it would have hit Atlanta...smiley face
An almost completed sand castle...I think Daddy had more fun creating it than anyone....smiley face
The girls and their daddy


Lexy & Grandpa
Hannah watching the kite fly high
Abby and Daddy creating work for Abby to stomp it down...if she saw a bucket in the process of turning over to start a sand castle - she was up in a flash ready to stomp on it - she LOVES stomping those sand castles down....it's hillarious!!!!
the girls and their daddy...smiley face

flying a kite...yes we were nearly close lined mulitple times - I don't think the girls got the concept that the string could get tangled up around you as you ran around with it - but it was fun to watch them have so much fun with it....


The real reason Chris loves the beach...creating masterpieces...smiley face (notice there are NO girls in this picture...hmmmm....)

Grandpa & Granny got bikes for the girls to keep at their house (thank you!) - notice Lexy's doesn't have training wheels. It's a bit bigger than hers at home but she did AWESOME. She was scared to death of falling though - so once she was on the straight road, if you distracted her, she would have fun - but turning around and stopping petrified her....more work once we got home, but she can really, truly ride a bike without training wheels - amazing! And Hannah was motoring around on her bike with training wheels....up hills (if you can call them that in Florida - smiley face) and all....impressive!

Time to clean up...the responsible Lexy helped Grandpa pick up while Hannah & Abby fussed and fussed until we cleaned all the sand off them and they sat down to watch....