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!!

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.

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!