A little note to my baby girl

Today is Avery's preschool graduation. I'm very excited about this for many reasons (summer, 2 kids at one school next year, etc.), but as with any change in life, it brings a time for reflection and appreciation. It's so easy to let the days turn to months and the months turn to years and before you realize it, you've lost the details of the days that you thought you would never forget. Today, I am celebrating Avery and the sweet young girl that she has grown up to be. And just get ready because tomorrow I'll be doing the same for Mackenzie who is finishing 2nd grade. A few days later Nathan will be next as we celebrate his 1st birthday. Sheesh, it's a milestone kind of mood around here!

Dear Avery,
Today I want to tell you how proud I am of all that you have accomplished this year. This has been a busy year for you. A year spent with good friends like Kindsey and Jordan.

A year spent with great teachers like Mrs. Donna and Mrs. Michell. A year spent on activities like gymnastics, soccer,

and dance.

A year spent learning how to be a big sister.

A year that ended with you in a cast with a broken arm.

As always, you were so excited to start school again in the fall.


You are such a social butterfly, that I never have to worry about you getting nervous or sad when I drop you off. This is the 4th year you have been at our church's preschool program (the pics are from 1st day @ age 2 and 1st day @ age 4), but this was the year you were top dog - the Pre-K year. We had to get serious about learning upper and lower case alphabet, counting, numbers, sorting, etc. I noticed right away that you are very different from Mackenzie when it comes to school work. You lack confidence in your abilities, but I never doubted that you could learn all that you needed to know by the end of the year. It brings me such joy now to hear you spelling rhyming words like cat, hat, sat, hit, sit, dad, sad, etc. I will continue to pray for your confidence to grow as you enter kindergarten and begin to explore reading. I laughed out loud last week when you told me that you couldn't wait to learn to read because you were going to read "Twilight" one day. Ha! Of course not everything this year was a positive. As you became more confident, you also became more bold and a little more, how shall I put this - SASSY! By the end of the year, you have been getting into trouble at school on a fairly regular basis, mostly because of your mouth and choice of words. We have had many discussions about how to talk to teachers and dare I say even a few spanking sessions and groundings. This will be a prayer for next year as well - that God would develop in you a more respectful spirit to those in authority.

You have always been my little shadow. When I would vacuum the house, you would pretend to vacuum beside me. When I cook, you want to cook. When I would nurse Nathan, you would get a baby doll and pretend to nurse. When I would do my "work" on the computer, you would do your "work" with a coloring book right beside me. You have spent your days off of school running with me to grocery stores, craft stores (not Hobby Lobby again!), dr's offices, beauty salons, and the dreaded elementary school pick-up line in addition to entertaining a little brother and doing the helpful chores like fetching diapers and wipes and burp cloths. Some of my favorite times were watching the Amazing Race with you every Monday and making Pinkalicious cupcakes to go with your favorite book.

I will miss my little shadow next year, but I know I have been blessed beyond measure to have had time at home with you while you were little. I don't take a single moment for granted and can't wait to see all that you accomplish next year!

Love always, Mom

Eight is Enough!

Ok, so a friend of mine did this on her blog yesterday and I am going to procrastinate right along with her and play along!

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. my daughter's preschool graduation next week
2. watching Mackenzie's hip hop recital this week
3. Nathan's 1st birthday party
4. letting the kids sleep past 7:00 the day school is out
5. fall - which means football, halloween, birthdays, new season of Glee, back to school, and New Moon
6. spending the summer going to the gym/pool with the kids and reading every day
7. our family vacation planned in St. Louis and visiting my parents
8. 4th of July at home with good friends
9. scrapbooking more often
10. a first kiss and hug this year from Nathan

8 things I did yesterday:

1. had lunch with a friend I had not talked with in almost 1 year
2. had steak and baked sweet potato for dinner. Yummy!
3. ironed
4. spent 2.5 hours on the soccer field (but great weather, so no complaints here!)
5. watched the finale of American Idol (go Kris, go!)
6. let Avery skip her bath last night even though she had played outside all night just because it was 9:00 and I didn't want to deal with wrapping up her arm and bathing her. A little dirt never hurt, right?
7. sliced strawberries and made whipped cream to have for dessert and then forgot so I ate all of them this morning for breakfast instead.
8. prayed for a friend.


8 things I wish I could do:

1. travel to Boston/New England for a week with Marty
2. travel to see my bff in Florida
3. take the kids on a Disney cruise (I am noticing a pattern here)
4. listen to all of the podcasts that are backlogged on my ipod.
5. stop getting junk emails
6. read a book a day
7. live closer to my parents
8. buy a Kindle

8 shows I watch:

1. Lost
2. Dancing with the "Stars"
3. American Idol
4. Ace of Cakes
5. Gilmore Girls
6. 24
7. Dexter
8. Real Housewives of NYC/New Jersey (can't help it, I've been sucking into the Housewives pit)

8 bloggers I'm tagging:

Well, you can see my list to the right of most of the blogs I read. However if you are reading this (all 2 of you), consider yourself tagged and play along! It's fun! (If you do, just leave a comment and I'll jump over and check out your 8 things too.) And just because I don't like to post without a picture - here's a cute shot of my girl that I took to use as a preschool graduation pic. Enjoy!

Full Steam Ahead!

Funny how my last post was about unproductivity, because that funk is definitely over! It has been full steam ahead around here, and not a moment too soon. The school year is quickly wrapping up and I am facing my busiest two weeks of the year. Soccer was postponed due to the monsoons that we have experienced and now the games are overlapping with end of school year activities and dance recitals. I think we are running around to activities every day this week between 4 and 8. 2 dance recitals and soccer games this weekend and we'll be ready to have a breather on Sunday and Monday before tackling the last 4 days of school. Those days will include (among soccer, thank you rain) 2 assemblies, field day and preschool graduation (sniff, sniff, more on that to come). Summer is knocking on the door and we are all excited about the upcoming break.

We have had a little hiccup in the midst of all this activity. My youngest girl, my spunkiest (is that a word?), most active, most easy going, fell off the balance beam at gymnastics. The manager told me it was probably sprained, my hubby said to just watch it a while. Well, 6 days later I finally took her in to have it checked out and sure enough - it was broken in 2 places. TERRIBLE MOM!!! Who lets their daughter play with a broken arm for 6 days?? I even sent her back to gymnastics where she proceeded to do cartweels, back bends and handstands. She barely even complained. Anyway, one green cast later and we are set for 1 month. She will look lovely at her dance recital. Don't worry I will post pics because I know this will be a recital that won't be forgotten! She has been so brave and it has barely slowed her down a stitch. We'll see how that translates once the opportunity to swim is denied. I am quite thankful it occured at the end of the year, not interfering with any of her school work or writing development. I am going to make her a little countdown calendar to June 16, when hopefully, she will have 2 working arms again!

I am want to be the Queen!

Maybe I can blame it on the weather. Maybe it's hormones. Maybe it's the 3 kids. Whatever the reason, I don't like it! I have officially become THE QUEEN OF UN-PRODUCTIVITY! (not sure if that's a real word, don't really care.) I can't get out of the funk. I have a ton of things to do, but I'm just completely unmotivated to get them done. Some of the to-do items are just a tad overwhelming, time consuming, or just plain boring. Want to spend a fun day purging files and doing backup on the computer? Nope, didn't think so. I need to start working on a 1st birthday video that I am putting together for Nathan and I am very late to start on a Mother's Day project. It is also time once again to purge through some clothes for the kids and do a Salvation Army run. Their closets are cluttered once again and should have some serious attention paid to them before summer hits. I am turning to the accountability of putting this stuff in writing in a desperate attempt to have something to show at the end of the week. I will check back in with you (all 3 people who read this stuff) on Friday and let you know what wonderful feats I have accomplished! I know that you will be sitting on the edge of your seats...

On a more random note, Happy Anniversary to my grandparents who have been married 60 years as of yesterday. Seriously, 60 years is a LONG time! They were married when they were 16 and 18 years old. Made it through 5 kids (one in prison! - yikes), bankruptcy and a heart attack. Know what the best thing about them is? They NEVER complain about anything and mention the Good Lord in EVERY conversation. Even my 5 year old that has only seen my grandfather about 6 times calls him "that grandpa that talks about Jesus". I love that. So, I did the fun thing and asked them both what was the key to the long successful marriage. Her response was "take it one day at a time and one day you'll realize it's been 60 great years". My grandfather's response? "Your grandmother is the queen and nobody messes with the queen". So, maybe there's my motivation. I don't want to be the queen of UN-PRODUCTIVITY. I just want to be the queen of a 60 year love filled marriage and a life well lived for the Lord. Just to make it a little fun, I want to hear from someone else. What do you think is the key to a long and successful marriage?