First Haircut

It was time for haircuts...Emma's bangs are at the point where you either have to cut or just let them keep growing out...we are letting them grow, but we got about 5 inches cut off and got layers put in to thin it out (I hope!). It looks really cute!!

Dayna has never had her hair cut, but I wanted to just have it evened out at the bottom. She looks so tiny getting her hair washed and then sitting in the chair. Emma was a statue and Dayna was a wiggle worm!!

She was too short to sit in the chair and get it cut, so she ended up having to stand. We tried really hard to get her to stand like a statue...challenge!!!

Catching Up!

Hello all! It has been a while since the last post and so much has happened in Raganville. Emma was baptized on Easter Sunday. She was so excited!

Emma earned 2 awards for her K-5 year...A Honor roll and Academic Excellence! Great Job!!

Emma graduated from K-5 this year as well. Here are a few pictures before my camera slid off my lap and broke....sad!

Check out Dayna...she just couldn't help not being in the picture!

On Father's Day weekend, Branson and I went to Charlotte (with my new camera :o) for Heroes Convention! It was a great weekend away getting to see all the artists and the sites of Charlotte! Check out the temperature...yikes!!

Here is a picture of downtown before getting to our hotel. I love downtown Charlotte!!

Waiting in line to get into the convention.

Just like a kid in a candy store :o)

Birthday at Build a Bear!

Emma's 6th birthday was this week! I can't believe how quickly the time goes by. I decided to pick her up from school, take her to lunch, and then go to Build a Bear. I told her she was going to have a surprise and had to close her eyes until I told her to open them.

She was sooo surprised!!!

She chose a dog with cute bent ears. Here she is rubbing its heart and making a wish for her new friend! She just thought that was the best!

After the dog was stuffed and sewn up, she gave it a bath before picking out a cute outfit, complete with hairbows and red patent shoes.

Since we went in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, there was no one else there. She just had the best time and it was awesome to be able to take her and make her day special!! Can't wait for her K-5 graduation and then her birthday party later this week!!

I love my girls!!

Aren't they cutie pies!!

Rag Curls for my Raggamuffins!!

I have decided to have more fun with my girlies...I taught Emma how to play War today and then whooped her....but she had fun :o) Another thing we did after church tonight was to try rag curls. Now I am not exactly sure when this whole process was first used, but I have never done it with the girls before. They just looked so precious!! I will post again tomorrow and show off the results!

Fun and Flirty at 30!!

.....well maybe not the flirty part :o) I turned 30 on Feb. 26th and my bff's planned an amazing surprise party for me!! They started planning a couple months ago and invited my family from Cali that I haven't seen in a couple years. I was completely surprised!! I can't believe so many people took time out of their week to celebrate with me...I am still overwhelmed with gratitude!! This is the only pic I got from the party because I was just too busy having fun!! The theme was Paris...for those of you who don't know, my heart's desire all my life is just to go to Europe and trapse around for a while :o) Here is the cake...just amazing! Everything was perfect!!! Thank you again to my girls!!!!

I had my family at my house for the weekend...my nephews (8 and 6) started building this tree fort...took them hours and it turned out great!

This is my great aunt, whom I love dearly, with the kids! They were watching some cartoons before bed!

Dear Uncle Branson with the boys putting together Legos. All those little pieces...

Eating dinner with my great aunt and my uncle.

My aunt brought cupcake goodies and Dayna was my little helper!!

I love winter and while the fam was here, we had a snow day!! They were supposed to fly out to CA on Sunday and their flight was cancelled due to the weather...they stayed with us for another 2 days...the boys loved the snow!! First time they had seen it!!

Here is my sister with my nephews!!

Random pic---we had a part of the tree out front crash down barely missing our car...that was bizarre!!

Snow Day!!

We haven't had a snow day, with a decent accumulation, in such a long time!! I was so excited for the kiddos that we were able to go out and play in it!! Usually when the news says it will snow, it doesn't so I wasn't holding my breath when the news was predicting it last night. Sure enough, we woke up to it and saw that school was closed. After a big breakfast, we braved the winter weather. We stayed out for about an hour, even dad got in on it for a few minutes. Oh so much fun!!


My 2 snow princesses!!

I love, love, love this picture of the girls with their daddy!!

How cute are they?!!

Update in Ragan(crazy)ville!

I know it has been a while since I have updated the blog. I feel like life has been a bit of a blur for the past 2 weeks!! Thank you for all your prayers. Branson is doing well. Still very tired and very sore. We met with the radiologist late last week and they are going to start treatments probably on Feb. 2. He will have 6 weeks of treatments, 5 days a week. Wow! So many things we are thankful for though-family and friends who are always there to love and pray for us, a church family that is amazingly supportive and there for us, employers that are understanding and compassionate, and we live in the city where these amazing doctors are so that we don't have to travel for surgery and treatments. The doctors always ask where we are from and are amazed that we are local folks. Apparently people from all over the world come here for medical care. I am overwhelmed with God's goodness to us. Life is crazy here with work, school, and appointments, and we are in constant need of your prayers.

Home from the Hospital

Hello all!
Branson came home from the hosptial on Wednesday! He is doing very well, just very tired and managing his pain. He is sleeping a lot, which is what he needs to be doing. He will be going back to see the surgeon in a couple of weeks to have the staples removed and to set up the radiation treatment plan. Thank you all for continuing to pray for Branson and for our family. I really believe that is why he is doing so well!

God is Faithful, God is Good, and God Loves Us Very Much

Hello all! The surgery went well. They couldn't remove the entire tumor since it is attached to the optic nerve and would've caused more damage to do so. Right now he is out of ICU and in a regular bed. They say he might go home tomorrow! He is still in pain and is very tired, but certainly more alert and able to remember things. Radiation to follow in a few weeks to kill the rest of the tumor. Even if things weren't going so well, God has taught me so much about His faithfulness, goodness, and love just by giving us the strength to get this far. Still a long road ahead. Thank you for all your prayers!

Surgery Tomorrow

Hello all! I have no pictures today, but wanted to just post that Branson is in the hospital awaiting tomorrow's big day. The surgery is going to be mid-morning and we are much more at ease about it this time around. Please continue to pray for him and the doctors.

We told Emma about it and I had her recite "God is Faithful, God is Good, and God loves us very much." She had a hard time with it, but I think she has some peace of mind now. It is hard to explain to a 5 1/2 year old that people get sick and that sometimes bad things happen to good people. I'm afraid it is just life. It isn't always fair, the good guy doesn't always win, and sometimes it just stinks, but God is Faithful, God is Good, and God loves us very much!!

Merry Christmas from the Ragans!!

Is it too early to plan the Christmas card picture for next year??? Because this would be it, for sure!! I always look forward to Christmas, but this year was extra special to me. The girls are still excited with the magic of Santa and we had so much fun with it this year! We decided just to make everything so special...time with family and friends, making cookies for Santa, baking a birthday cake for Jesus. It was a wonderful time at the Ragan house!! Hope your Christmas was just as magical and special!!

The girls with Uncle Jonathan at Nana's house :o)

Under the tree!

Be Ye Thankful

My pastor challenged our church to list 25 things that we are thankful for...these are a few of my choices in no particular order.
1. I am thankful for siblings...without which we would be alone in our agony!

2. I am thankful for my aunt and uncle...without whom I would not be who I am today.

3. I am thankful for my great aunt...who is one of my best friends.

4. I am thankful for my sister...without whom I wouldn't have made it through.

5. I am thankful for my brother and sister-in-law...we are so glad that they are closer to us now!

6. I am thankful for my mother-in-law...who is the greatest Nana to my kids!

7. I am thankful for my husband...my bestest of all friends!

8. I am thankful for my crazy little girls...without whom I wouldn't be a mother.

9. I am thankful for my best friends-you know who you are...without whom I would be lost.
10. I am thankful for Jesus...without whom I wouldn't be a child of God.
Thank you to everyone who is a part of our lives....we are and will always be grateful for you!

Singing in Church

Anytime you get this many 4, 5, and 6 year olds together on stage...you just never know what could happen! They did such a great job! See Emma?? She is the only one holding her "Bible." She was so funny! She did all the motions that Mrs. Kelly did to help the kids remember the words but that they didn't necessarily have to do themselves. She kept cutting her eyes at me and smiling for the camera. She is my drama queen for sure!

Monkey Bread

I love easy recipes!! Among those is the one for Monkey Bread...which my kiddos love!! Who can go wrong with cinnamon, sugar, and butter??

Here are the ingredients...1 stick of butter, cinnamon, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 tubes of biscuits.

1. Over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, and 1 T. cinnamon. Doesn't it look yummy already?

2. Melt butter, sugar, and cinnamon until it looks like this then remove from heat. It will get very thick fast so you may just need to turn it very low until you are ready to pour it.

3. In another container, combine the sugar and cinnamon.

4. Tear the biscuits apart and coat with cinnamon sugar mixture. Don't be afraid to really give them a good coating.

5. Grease a bundt pan. I have a silicone one and I still haven't decided if I like it better than metal. I think it cleans easier because it is so flexible, but any will do.

I used butter to grease, but you could probably use non-stick spray, margarine, or Crisco. It has to be good and greased though!

6. After coating the biscuit pieces, place in the bundt pan.

7. Doesn't this look yummy?!? Pour wonderful gooey brown sugar and butter goodness over the pan...coat well!

8. Bake on 350 F for 35 minutes.

After it has a chance to cool just a bit, place a plate on top and flip the pan over. At this point you could top with powdered sugar or icing. You could be like me and eat it straight out of the pan too...can you see the dent towards the bottom front?? That was my "making sure it is done" piece! Enjoy!!