Happy Birthday Anniston!

Anniston turned 3 years old today! I can't believe how fast time has flown for us! She had a great birthday. She woke up to us bringing her heart-shaped pancakes in bed with 3 candles to blow out. We then moved to the kitchen and all ate together. After that, we got dressed and moving to start running errands. We got her balloons ordered, then went to Wal-Mart to pick out her birthday present--a BICYCLE!! She was so excited, and was riding around Wal-Mart (yeah, we were "those" people). Then we headed to the Farmer's Market in Fayetteville to pick up a birthday bouquet of flowers (all pink, of course) and play with the bubble machine (coming and going). We then came home to rest and set up for the party.
We saw Aunt Melissa, Uncle Todd, Michael, and Connor at the Farmer's market. They were buying blackberrys.

We turned our backyard into a "waterpark". We had a "slip-n-slide", a big blow up pool, a kiddie pool area, 2 sprinklers, and a very large blow up slide. The kids all had a blast! Anniston had so many presents....I think she was overwhelmed. We have such amazing friends who are so great to us and our children. I could probably take 1 new toy out every week and she'd still be getting new things well into November--NO LIE! She is sooooo very fortunate.

Here's a video of Anniston getting ready for cake, then everybody singing....as you can see, she started to pull the shy card.

Photo shoot

After Treyson went to bed this evening, Anniston and I played around with my new camera lens. It's tricky photographing a jumpy wiggle worm, but she'll calm down and act good if I tell her to "model" versus "smile for the camera".

These eyes just melt Jerry and I... one of my many favorite things about her!

In this picture, I told her to put her hands on her hips and "shake it". As you can tell, she has no problem with that! Such a little priss!
Treyson was asleep, so he missed out on all the fun tonight. I'm taking the kids to a portrait studio tomorrow for a brother/sister shot. My last one was from Christmas--YIKES! (bad Mommy).

Mommy, I'm a big girl. . .

Let me paint the scenario:

Anniston and I are in the shower. She watches me as I'm getting my shampoo all scrubbed in.

Anniston: "Mommy, I'm growing up like a big girl. My bobo's getting big just like yours Mommy!"

Then she procedes to turn around and touch her bobo (in case I'm an idiot and don't know where the bobo is at).

Mommy: silence...trying to digest this

Anniston: "Mommy, do you see my bobo. It's getting big like you because I'm such a big girl!"

Mommy: "Yes sweetie, you're such a big girl."

The sweet tender moments more than make up for this! ha

Sweet prayers and songs

After Anniston and I picked up Treyson from the babysitter today, we were driving and she said that she was going to pray. I told her that I thought that was a very great idea, since she had made a bad choice today (didn't nap at school). So she proceeded to fold her hands and say "Dear God, I love you, Amen." I said that was very nice, and I asked her to say another prayer with me. We said, "Dear God, Please help us make good choices so we can be good girls, Amen."

So then Anniston says, "Mommy, I want to sing a song to God". I told her that was a great idea, and she starts singing about how she loves God to the tune of "Skid-a-ma-rinky-dinky-dink". It was comical, but so sweet.

Then she sits there a minute and says, "Mommy, now I will sing a song to my Leah". (Of course, Leah being Jerry's sister who passed away almost 4 years ago. Any time we talk about God and heaven, Leah's name is mentioned). So I told her that her Leah would love that. She starts out, "Oh, we like to brush our teeth, if Mommy says it's ok. Oh Leah, how are you doing today? Very much good. I am so happy. Oh, Leah, how are you doing today? Very much good!" Then she smiles and says, "Mommy, did you hear me sing to my Leah?" Craziest song I've heard, but absolutely the most heart-warming.

Oh, we are so blessed to have a little girl who recognizes that she can pray and sing to God, Leah, PePaPa and anybody else in heaven that she wants to! I just love that sweet girl (especially when she naps!! haha)

Date Night

So, Jerry's sweet cousin Meredith emailed me last week to say that we needed a date because she wanted to come over and play with the kids. How can I say no to that?

So Jerry and I both decided we wanted Italian. The two restaurants that were close to our house and the theater were closed tonight...are you kidding me? So, we decided to hit Guido's and we could still get some pasta. It was so good, and they gave us a TON of spaghetti. I'm kind of a tough chick to please right now because I'm very limited on what I can eat. I decided (due to my anal-ness of teeth) that I would correct the 4 teeth that are slightly overlapping with braces. They were put on Friday, and I am slowly starting to get un-sore. Tonight's pasta was the first thing I've eaten comfortably (although I didn't really have to chew it). . .

So back to the date. We finished Guido's spaghetti (MaMa Z's or Joe's was sounding better) and headed to see the movie "The Hangover". We've heard great reviews from several sources, so we were very excited. Jerry was so excited because he heard that it was similar to Mark's bachelor party (. . . well mainly his friend Dan on that trip which was for Mark's bachelor party). So we get there....$8....for both of us! Seriously! We're going to have to go on Monday night dates more often! What you have to realize is that Jerry HATES to go to movies. He always says, "we can just wait 2 more months until it's released on DVD and then buy it to watch multiple times"--which we never do.

Jerry and I always laugh at ourselves at the movies because A) it reminds us of our dating during junior high, and B) we always pick movies that have 4 people in them. Tonight was one of those nights...Jerry and I were #5 and 6 in the theater tonight. Jerry's always a smart-booty and will sit for awhile when the credits roll and loudly say, "let's just wait out the crowd for awhile". How is it that in the past 2 years, we've seen probably 4 movies and watched them with a total of 12 people??? I'm not joking!

So the movie was funny, but not something I'd pay prime price for. It was more of a "renter" quality movie for us. Jerry said it was "Out Cold" meets "Dude, Where's my car?". I'm going to agree with him on this. Funny, but not "pay $8 per person to watch on a Friday night" funny.

It was so great to date my husband. Instead of loading babies into the car, he opened my door for me! I just love date night....I think we'll be doing this more (especially on $8/couple movie night!)

Thank you Meredith for watching our kids for us. I know they had a blast with you, and hopefully they didn't sucker you into too much crazy stuff!

Happy Birthday!

Our Nephew!

Isn't he just adorable? There are so many pictures of him that we've gotten, and I see so much of his big sister Kinley when I look at him. We are so excited for Mark, Tracey, and Kinley.

Will,

You keep getting strong buddy so that you can come home soon! We love you!

Uncle Jerry, Aunt Amy, and cousins Anniston and Treyson