All about my 5 year old Princess!

Anniston,

I cannot believe that you are now 5 years old. You are such a smart and beautiful girl. Dadoo and I are so incredibly blessed to have you in our lives. You are such a loving little girl, and we still cherish every moment of "snuggles" that you give us.
You have now finished your preschool at our church. We have moved you over to a private school for Pre-K this year, and you are SO EXCTED! You giggle with excitement every time we mention Pre-K! You are going to amaze them with how smart of a little girl you are, and I know that you will be such a great leader in your pre-k class.
A few things about you!

• You love your brother so much. You are rubbing his back if he falls down, giving him "high 5's" when he does something great. You also remind him to use his manners. You are such a little Mommy to him....sometimes too much! You are always looking out for him, and it makes us so proud to watch that!
• You are such a rule follower. I normally have to tell you something 1 time and it's a done deal. It is very rare that I have to get onto you. Everybody told us that it was so rare to have a child who was so good and obedient, and we are learning that there are other personalities out there via your baby brother! HA!
• You will randomly hold your arms open wide and want hugs from us (wal-mart, dinner table, church, school, water park). You are such a lover!!
• You are always saying the funniest things, and you crack yourself up alot.
• You are very curious. Always asking questions, and you remember EVERYTHING we say to you (you have your Dadoo's memory, thank goodness!)
• You love to wear dresses, wear nail polish, have a cute headband or bow, and now we're delving into accessorizing....such a girly girl--I love it!
• You love to play sports outside with Treyson. You are great at hitting the ball (no tee needed....we toss it to you), kicking the soccer ball, and playing catch. We start ballet this week, and I know you'll love getting back into dancing again.
• You always remember to say your prayers, and if Mommy or Dadoo tucks you in alone upstairs, you ALWAYS say, "Mommy, please tell Dadoo that Anniston says to come upstairs for hugs and kisses (or vice versa)." It's the cutest thing, and of course we always do!
• You make your bed, brush your teeth, brush your hair, and dress yourself upstairs EVERY DAY before you come downstairs for me to fix your hair. So independent, and you are very proud of your new big girl room upstairs!

Anniston, I could go on and on about how proud of you that we are. We are so excited what your 5th year holds for you! I know it will be amazing. We love you with all of our hearts!
Love, Mommy and Dadoo

Anniston's Birthday "Girls Day"

Anniston's birthday was on a Monday, and Mommy had the day off--YAY!! We invited Nanny and MaMa up for the day to play! First, Anniston wanted to wear make-up (can you see the BLUE eye shadow?!!) Then Nanny and MaMa brought up a couple of presents for her to open!All dolled up and ready for the day!
Anniston getting her mani/pedi!
MaMa and Nanny getting their toes all fancy!
The girls at Noodles (Italian restaurant in Fayetteville)
The awesome sparkler that they bring out with the birthday dessert!

Mmmmm....so good!

Then we went and bought Anniston everything she needed for ballet. She will start next week!
We then went to Build-a-bear and she picked out "Smurfette". That's the first time I've been to build-a-bear....what a cute (and costly) store!


Of course we took Smurfette and the birthday girl to the ice cream store!
Then went across the street and played in the ball. Anniston did this in Florida and LOVED it! The guy didn't charge me since it was her birthday--so sweet!

Happy Birthday sweet Anniston. I can't believe you're 5! Mommy and Dadoo love you so much!

The Lord's Prayer by Treyson

Treyson, you are such a sweet little boy. Just like Anniston, you love to say your prayers at night. We get our jammies on and usually all congregate on Treyson's bed to say our prayers. We fold our hands to say "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep", then we all hold hands to say "The Lord's Prayer". Mommy wanted to catch you saying it alone so that I can remember how precious it is to hear your sweet voice saying such a big, long prayer.

We love you buddy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJOkV-YIzoo

8 years ago....

8 years ago today.....

• I snagged the love of my life



• I committed before God, my family, and our friends to love, honor, and comfort this man for the rest of my life



• I was so excited for our future that was waiting to be written

Fast forward to today.....

• I know in my heart that I married my soul mate



• Jerry is my absolute best friend; the person who I can tell anything to, without feeling judged



• I cannot imagine walking throughout life without my hand in his



• Jerry is the most AMAZING, hands on father. I grow more in love with him every day watching him interact with our sweet little miracles



• We do have our times when we disagree, but I love how we talk and get everything figured out without holding grudges or getting to a point where we regret saying or doing something



• There is nobody that I'd rather do "nothing" with. I never get bored of Jerry.



• Whenever I see Jerry walking towards me (like far enough away that you're not really within talking distance), I absolutely cannot NOT smile. My mouth cracks every.single.time into a huge grin.



• Jerry continues to be a gentleman to me on a daily basis. He opens car doors every time (unless he's loading a kid on the other side-ha!), he pushes my chair in at the table, and holds doors. The other day Treyson held out his hand for my mom as she got out of the car. Absolutely melted my heart because I know that Jerry's influencing him to be a wonderful man.



• I'm still head-over-heels in love with this man. I love him so much.
  

I love you Jerry. Happy Anniversary! ;)

Anniston's 5th Birthday Weekend at the Lake!!!

We headed to Lake Ouachita for the weekend to have a "pre-birthday celebration"! We actually headed out friday afternoon (dadoo took 1/2 day off) and got to the lake in time to boat over to Crystal Springs for pizza, then have an evening swim. It was so much fun!
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Here are the kiddos with PaPa MaMa and Treyson:

MaMa and Anniston:

We found the coolest spot to park at, and there was a walkway of rocks about 18 inches deep that connected an island to the mainland, and there were shells in between. So, of course we were hunting for seashells!

Heading in for the morning! We went out from 9-1 then went in for lunch and naps, then headed back out around 5:30 so that we could beat the heat. It was, by far, the smartest thing we did all weekend!

We went back out in the evening for birthday cake and home made ice cream (thank you Dadoo). Nanny, PawPaw R, Emmy, and Matt met us there too!

Hoping all of her sweet 5 year old wishes come true!!

Eating her cake :)

Enjoying birthday cake and homemade ice cream with the bubste

Treyson getting tickled by his PawPaw R:

Silly kids!

Anniston doing her crazy jumps off of PaPa's boat:

Some little girl was WORN OUT after celebrating her birthday!

Treyson and all of his "friends" that he sleeps with! :)

Mommy and Anniston tubing!

Anniston is so silly!

......this is right before Mommy fell off!! Guess who hung on though!? That's right, Anniston made it out still hanging on!!

My 2 favorite boys!

Dadoo and Anniston

Big bump!!Hi Dadoo!!!Look Dadoo....I'm silly :)Anniston was being a dolphin (party silly, part disgusting!)
Happy Birthday sweet Anniston! We hope you had SO MUCH FUN at the lake! Thank you MaMa and PaPa for always making us feel welcome to come stay at your lake house with you! We love you!

r

!

Let the Birthday Festivities Begin!

Anniston had her birthday party at her school on Friday afternoon. Dadoo and Mommy took up a cookie cake (made to Anniston's specifications), ice cream, and capri suns. She was apparently giddy ALL DAY LONG for her party. I love this girl so much it hurts!! This is all her idea. Before we even got to the Cookie Company, she announced that she wanted a pink, purple and white cookie cake that had a tiara and said Princess.

Mmmmmm.......

Celebrating with all of her friends!

Happy Birthday sweet Anniston!!

Heaven is for Real

I love to read books during my lunch hour and at night after the kids are in bed (especially during spring and summer when there's no good TV shows!). My mom and I seemed to have gone through all of the Nicholas Sparks books, and a few of the girls at my office have been trading Jodi Picoult books (love!). I was having alot of trouble really getting into "Marley and Me" when my mom left this book for me.
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I had heard about it before, but never at the right place to go buy it. I started reading it during my lunch break on Tuesday, read a little bit Tuesday evening, then finished it up Wednesday during lunch. Such an easy read, and so amazing.
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Everybody has lost somebody that they love, and they know their faith will bring them together once again with their loved ones when God calls us to heaven. But I'm not even going to lie when I tell you that I was amazed by the details in this book. . . I don't want to spoil it, but it doesn't make me nervous to go to heaven!
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My mind keeps taking me back to my Grandpa F that died when my dad was younger. With my understanding from this book, he will recognize me in heaven even though we've never met! I will get to see Grandpa T and his wide grin again. I know he'll still be singing his little jingles that he learned in the Navy that Grandma always thought weren't appropriate for us to hear! I have no doubt that Leah will be heard over them all though, with her bright voice and laughter that can take over a room! And, most recently, my sweet nephew Teddy will be up there playing and getting dirty the way that boys are supposed to!
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The other morning I went in to wake up Treyson. Whenever I wake him, I'll lay down and rub his back as he's waking, and then I'll ask him if he had sweet dreams. He'll always answer, 'Yes" and then I'll ask him if he dreamed about Mommy....he'll always say yes (he's so sweet when he's barely awake--HA....just kidding!). Well, on this particular day (which was Thursday morning--remember I finished the book Wed during lunch), he said, "Mommy I dreamed about Jesus". I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but it was a calm and comforting feeling to me.

After reading this book, it is a wake-up call to me that heaven will be oh, so sweet, and we should not be "afraid" or "nervous" to leave this life here on earth for heaven. God is waiting for us, and all of our family is missing us just as much as we're missing them.