Our Sweet Girl, Abigail

Our sweet girl Abigail...It is so hard to believe that she is 6 years old and a graduate of Kindergarten. The changes I have seen in her this year truly amaze me...that that much change happens in just one year! The day I dropped Abigail off into the hands of her teacher on the first day of school, I cried and cried in the car driving off. Thinking..."My baby will now be spending more time away from me than with me. I am going to miss her"....and I did. Aaron did. The only one not doing any 'missing' was Abigail. :) The minute her little beaming smiley face came out of that school after the bell rang, I knew she had fallen in love with school. She loved her teacher. She had made new friends. Throughout the year, Abigail showed me how strong and secure she really is. This year flew by and she has matured and grown so much. She has learned to read really well and write such cute stories. She loves math, art, but her favorite subject was P.E. (wonder who she gets that from...he he he) She has even survived a broken arm, which she got after trying and trying to go all the way across the monkey bars. She almost succeeded...got to the last rung and fell. She was a trooper through it all. Never complained about not being able to do things or that her arm itched or was uncomfortable. But, even more importantly than all of that, I have seen her become a good friend, a caring and helpful sister, and a respectful and loving daughter. The friends that she has made at school this year are all sweet kids. She has made good choices in who she decides to spend time with. And she cares about her friends. She really listens to them and can tell you all of their siblings names and how old their siblings are, what they like to do, what is going on at home, where they are going for the weekend, and she prays for them all the time....I mean she really listens. I believe she is the kind of friend who is selfless and that always has a listening ear. It is awesome and brings tears to my eyes to see qualities in my child that I want and desire and am working towards. She could teach me a thing or two about listening instead of always doing the talking. She is a caring and helpful sister to her brother and sister. I have seen her really be her brother's friend this year. They love playing together. They have been sleeping in the same room on bunk beds since Allison was born. At first, I felt bad that we needed to move her in there with him. But, looking back on it, it was the best thing! The two of them will whisper and talk about all sorts of things. They just enjoy that time together. Abigail will read to him with a flashlight. They, of course, act silly and crack each other up as well. They have really bonded and are best buds. But, she also knows now that she is older and the way she lovingly guides him and helps him makes me smile.

Below I have put some pictures to share with all of you Abigail's graduation from Kindergarten.

The little girl is Abigail's best friend, Jenna. There is also a picture of Abigail and her teacher. And Mimi and Great-Grandma came to see her graduation.

Dreams of Disney Dance in our Heads

Well, at least in Jason and my head...the kids don't know yet. But, we have a Disney World trip planned for them. We are going to surprise them and I can hardly stand it. I love surprises! I really really do!! I am not the best at keeping secrets because I have a hard time holding things in. I don't do it on purpose, but it just happens. Ask my friend Brooke. I was one of the first people she told she was pregnant and I was supposed to keep it a secret. I can't lie and I just get so excited. While I was talking to her in front of a group of our friends I said something about her morning sickness...it just slipped out. I love to give surprises and love to receive surprises. It is just so fun!!!

But, for this trip, I have done a really good job of keeping this top secret. It seems the closer it gets though, the more likely I might slip up. I was talking to my friend Jadie yesterday and pretty much just said it out loud in front of Abigail...thankfully she didn't catch on. I have been thinking and thinking of great ways to surprise them. I think I have an idea...I will show you all on a utube video after we return. Should be fun :)

Today, I thought it would be fun, okay, actually I thought it would be silly, funny and a tiny bit cruel thing to show their future wives/husbands...plus I just want to tell them about this trip so bad that I can hardly control myself. I definately have Mickey on the brain! I asked Abigail and Aaron if they wanted to play dress up with their Mickey Mouse and Minnie Costumes that they wore 2 1/2 years ago for Halloween! They literally squeezed into them. Funny thing, the child who you all would think would not have been into this because he is all boy...was all about it! So cute! In fact, he is trying his costume on again now for the fun of it. He plans to stay in it for the rest of the day :) He is kicked back in a chair watching a movie right now in his Mickey attire. Anyway, I had them dress up and then I put Allison in a Mickey costume, one that we already had from someone else. Once the costumes came on, they were dancing around, singing MICKEY, and I snapped some photos to share with you all! I wonder what they were thinking was "up" with mom. Especially Abigail. The look she gave me when I suggested we try them on was priceless.

Being a mom is so much fun :)!

To my Military Friends and Family

Memorial Day, a day of remembrance and honoring of those who have sacrificed their lives for our country, our freedom. I just want to take a moment to honor my friends and family who have served or our serving in the military and their amazing wives that hold the family together while they are gone.
I first got to hear my Grandpa Jessie's story when I was in 9th grade. My American history professor asked us to interview any family members that served in the military for one of our assignments. I didn't know that my Grandpa hadn't really talked about this to many people at the time. But, he wanted to share with me. Even though I know that it was very hard for him. I felt very honored and loved that he was willing to open up to me about something so traumatizing and horrific. My grandpa Jessie served in World War II. His plane was shot down by the Germans, my grandpa was the only survivor, and he landed by parachute in (thankfully) Dutch territory. A little Dutch girl found my grandpa passed out with many broken bones on their farm. She ran and told her family and that amazingly brave family took him in knowing that if the Germans discovered they were hiding an American they could be killed. He hid in their basement for months...eating tulip bulbs and anything else that he could find or that the family could spare. The Germans found him and he was captured and held as a prisoner of war. He is an American hero. I am proud that he is my Grandpa. He is selfless, genuine, and loving, and very funny. He takes such good care of my Grandma Jewel. Thank you Grandpa for serving our country and for being such a great grandpa!
My brother-in-law, Casey, is in Special Forces in the Army. He is a true soldier at heart. He is strong, brave, and born to protect our country's freedom. He is also a funny, wonderful, Christian man and has an amazing, strong wife to support him and keep the family going while he is gone, my sister Melody. They have a great marriage full of joy and laughter, four beautiful children and Melody is able to keep everything running when Casey is gone for months and months at a time. I know it is hard on her when he is gone. But, she always stays so positive. I know she has a peace that only the Lord can give her. Casey and Melody are American heroes.
I also have a friend, Diane, whose husband Nathan was serving oversees for such a long time leaving behind his wife and 2 precious children. Nathan made such a sacrifice for our country. Diane is sweet, genuine, loving, and kind....but yet so strong. Her faith is great and her light shines brightly to those around her. Thank you Nathan and Diane!
We are so blessed to live in this great country. God bless America!

So, here it goes.....

My grandma always told me growing up that I should be an author. She thought I had a gift with the written word. Of course, she also thinks I should model...he he he...so she might have been wrong about my "gift". I am not so sure I could write a book, but a blog...now that is probably more my speed! I always kept a journal growing up. It was a way for me to grow spiritually and emotionally. It was always fun to go back and read all the crazy things I wrote. From being mad at my parents for grounding me, to the caddy ya ya of girls being mean, to bad boyfriend breakups...drama, drama. I will probably do the same with this :), but with a lot less drama! I have been wanting to do this for awhile and when I realized it was free I had no reason not to start. I will be writing about my day to day life with my sweet husband, Jason and our 3 precious gifts from God, our children, Abigail (6), Aaron (4), and Allison (8 1/2 months). The only people who are going to read this, I am sure, are my family and my friends, so you all already know this...but if by chance someone else decides to read, my prayer is that by me sharing my daily life...thoughts and struggles, I might make you laugh, maybe cry, or at the very least say "I've been there!"
Today is Sunday. Everyone is asleep, but me. So it is very quiet...great time for me to put up my feet and write....Every Sunday our family is up and atem at 6:30 and to church by 8...well more like 8:15 because we are always running a bit behind. This morning I felt like we were moving in slow motion, but we actually made it to church on time. We have had a busy weekend so far. Friday morning, the weekend started off great! Jason got a new job with Dell that he has been wanting and thankfully we don't have to move. Praise God! He has been ready for a challenge with his job for awhile, but was waiting on the right move. He is now in outside sales, which means he will be traveling some, but I am just so proud of him and thankful for this answer to prayer. On Friday mid morning, I had a group of friends and their children over for a fun "kick off summer" party. Abigail and Aaron love to have their friends over and we planned a real 'redneck' celebration. From the plastic pools thrown all over the yard, the Cars slip and slide, beach umbrellas randomly scattered, and junk thrown all over the yard...my neighbors love me. The kids had a blast though. I had all these fun games I thought we could play, had blown up 100 water balloons (as you know this takes forever), and had everything sort of "planned" out. I should have known not to "plan" anything. The balloons starting popping one by one so by the time they got there we had about 10 left..and of course the kids didn't want to play the games that I came up with. So they just ran around like crazy wild monkeys and had a blast--The bottom of their cute, new, little swimsuits black...broken in already. It is great to make "plans" but remember it is okay to not do a single thing on the plan. To just go with it!! Then, Saturday, Abigail and Aaron were invited to a birthday party. The family had a huge blow up water slide thing. And for 2 hours straight, A and A went round and round and round and round it...I mean seriously, how many times can you go down a slide in 2 hours. They could have broken a record or something. And everytime, no really, I mean everytime, they got to the top they would yell down in their sweet little voices..."Mommy, watch this, watch this! Look what I can do" So I gave them my "really excited" face, you know the one, where you act like you have never seen anything anymore spectacular and amazing, even though they had just done the same thing 3 seconds ago, and I gave them a huge smile and said "I'm watching you...way to go buddy....good job sweet girl!(thumbs up sign)" They did not go down one single time without making sure my eyes were on them.
I love that! I pray my children always know that I am their daddies and their biggest cheerleader. And when the world tries to tell them they can't do something or that what they are doing isn't something amazing and wonderful and important, I pray that they look to their Heavenly Father, listen to His voice, seek His approval instead of their friends approval and know that they can do anything if they give it to the Lord because they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them and that they are amazing and wonderful because God created them unique and special and has His hand on them.