Animal Sitting

I have to admit since we sold poor Lucky Leah has been animal deprived. She jumps at any chance to play with anything that has 4 legs. She spent the afternoon yesterday delivering notes to our neighbors. She wrote this herself I just typed.

Leah's animal watching. Available everyday starting June 5th. Any type of animal. Call 801-544-9942 ask for Leah Ratchford. Charge is 25 cents per animal to get watched.

Thank You,
Leah

SWAGGER WAGON

You know we are all so cool in our minivans thought you would all enjoy this. If you need a good laugh this morning watch.

Mothers Day Festivities

Leah's teacher hosted a Mom's and Muffins on Friday. They had made us the cute flower pot Leah is holding, a necklace. Also a darling book about why mom is special. Titled my mom is special because....Leah said, "She plays Wii with me, she teaches me how to color, she makes money for me, she takes me to swim, she show me how to swim, she loves it when I do her work." I loved being with Leah and having her read the books she had picked out for us.

Eva's preschool teacher hosted a mini singing program for us. The kids served us lunch. Then they sang some of the songs they have been working on in class. She had designed a flower pot for me too. I am well on my way to a garden with all the flowers.

Also one last thing I wanted to share. Leah wrote me a song she sang to me when I woke up on Sunday. I just wanted to write down the lyrics for you all to enjoy.

The best mom in the world

To Rachel

From Leah - It's a song.

My mom Rachel is good and kind to others

O Rachel O Rachel you are sweet like sugar

She is nice and beatiful she loves me and you

Rachel it Mothers Day this is your present

I made you this because I love you

Dance Photos

We had a great photographer come do our dance photos. I am excited with how they turned out. I decided to buy them since this may be the last year of dance for awhile. Unfortunately they are not dancing queens and complain about going every time I take them. In Leah's words, " I am just more of a sporty girl. And when I get older and go to dance when a boy asks me I already know some moves I can do." Funny that is what she remembers about our talk of why she should take dance. I didn't dance when I was little and always felt so embarrassed with my lack of coordination. At high school dances, when I was in our "glee club", and in musical. Anyway I always wished I had taken dance. So I tried with the girls. This is Leah's 2nd year and still she is not a fan. We are going to try something different next year. We will see with Eva I can't tell if she is following big sisters lead or if she really doesn't like it. I am kinda thinking it is the first. But it is documented here for when the girls are in high school and complaining that I didn't put them in dance classes.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day Rachel! We waked up early this morning and recorded this masterpiece. This was our 7th take. I was producer, Leah was director, Eva was the Set Coordinator and Ronan was the Grip.

You are the best mom ever. All the kids were excited and fought over the nice things they were going to say about you. Hope you have a great day. French toast will be delivered shortly to your bed along with some fresh fruit.

You are wonderful and thanks for all you do. You keep everything together in our crazy lives. We are so blessed to have Rachel Ratchford as our mom.

Leah mad at mom

Transcript of what you are hearing after Leah stole Rachels iPhone and recorded her disgust with Rachel, no food and Eva hitting her with a leash.

Leah: Hello this is Leah. Now you can see the rudest mom of all. Now, her name is Rachel, she's my mom, Rachel Ratchford... and she won't let me eat anything. And now to see the rudest sister in the world. She hit me...with a leash.

Rachel: Don't go to sleep yet Eva

Leah: And that is Eva...The Terrorist

Home Remodels

So I haven't taken the time to post the projects we have finished around the house in the past few months. We have a few family and friends out of state that have requested pictures. For those of you that live close by sorry. Also I wanted to say how handy and awesome my husband is. We love doing projects together and aside from a few disagreements on paint color these were so fun to do. Besides these pictures Dave has been working on putting together a shed in the backyard. So maybe sometime soon my garage wont look like a train wreck and we may be able to park in there. I am not sure how he finds the energy to work 50+ hours a week, attend to his church responsibilities, keep me and the kids happy, plus do all these extras. We definitely would do more projects if we could find the time. We are kinda home improvement junkies. I still have some finishing touches to do here and there. But we love how it turned out.

Our family room

The living room

The chair that started the whole living room remodel. We found it and loved it. Loving it required painting the red in the living room and kitchen to a nice green. But we are happy with the result.

Dave put the bead board on the entry wall. And we finally found an entry bench. It opens up to store all the kids shoes that used to be thrown all over the floor.

Weekend Happenings

Ronan ran away... to the front porch.

Eva's self portrait. Pretty cute.

Leah was not entered in a child pageant. We had a dance competition on Saturday. She and I got to spend the day together. Leah loved our mommy daughter date time.

Her team did a jazz routine to Me and My Shadow. It was quite darling. They were wonderful .