Maddie's Baptism

Last week Maddie got baptized. I can't tell you the words that express the emotions that I felt. Here are a few pictures. I haven't downloaded all of them just yet. We had family and friends present to celebrate the occassion. I was so glad that our pastor baptized Maddie because he has known Maddie her enitre life. It was such a beautiful thing. It is so exciting to have Maddie make this decision and I pray that one day Mollie too will also make this decision.

A Day of Firsts...

I have to be honest I probably would not be posting this if it wasn't for our surprise day off of school. This morning I got a text from my principal that school was cancelled for the day because there was a water main break. So I am trying to make the most of our day off and catch up on some blogging.

Last week was our first week back at school. Maddie started Kindergarten and is doing wonderful. She loves going to school, loves her teacher, and loves seeing friends everyday. She is doing so well. She even was disappointed when I told her we didn't have to go to school today. I would say the only thing she has trouble with is the fact that we have to wake up early. Let's be honest though...I have trouble with that part too! Anyways, she has a great teacher that really cares about her and is just right for her personality. I prayed for a long time that she would get just the right teacher and God totally answered that prayer. I am looking forward to see all the different ways that she is going to grow this year. In fact she is coming home and already asking about spelling words and reading more. She is just a little sponge!

My first week went really well too. I can't complain. I think it will take me a few weeks to find my groove and get the rhythm of our room down but all in all it is going well.

Mollie is doing so much better than I thought she would. She only cried one day when we dropped her off and she is being so big about it all. She is even starting to talk more...just like the doctor said she might. She is around a little guy that is close to her age and I think it is actually helping her language development. I love when I get there to pick her up and she comes running into my arms full of smiles and hugs. God has blessed us in our situation!

2 Year Well-Check

I have been terrible at keeping up with my blog lately but we have just been on a fast track lately. With our vacation to San Diego then getting back and having just a few days before going back to work there hasn't been much extra time to sit down and write. Hope to have more time to write after we get settled into a routine. There is definitely plenty to write about:
Maddie starting Kindergarten
My Classroom
Trey's Sweet Gesture
The Lakehouse


I will eventually get caught up!

Mollie had her 2 year well check today and it went very well. Luckily she only had to get one shot and she did great. She cried for about a minute and then was over it. She is passing all the proper milestones except for speech but I knew that was going to happen. I talked to the doctor about if the six months of illness that she experienced with non tuberculosis mycobacterium could be the reason for the delay in speech? She thought that it was more than likely that case. With our life fixing to completely turn upside down in the next couple of days the doctor said that all the change and having her in a different setting every day could be good for her speech. She just asked us to keep a close eye on it for the next three months and if it didn't get better by then we would probably see a speech therapist to try to help jump start it. I am perfectly fine with this and feel that after all the other stuff we have gone through a little speech set back is something we can deal with. I am just glad to have her happy and healthy! Her stats are:
height - 34 inches
weight - 26 lbs.

It was cool to see these stats because at her last well check it was during all the sickness stuff and her growth curve was actually going down. Now it is all back on track and she is making up for lost time. She actually grew 2 whole inches and gained over 4 pounds! I was so impressed. It is amazing to look back at everything she went through for such a young age and how it affected every part of her. I am thankful to Jesus for protecting her and guiding us through it. It is only by His grace.

Shared photo book from Jennifer

Click here to view this photo book larger

Announcement!

Okay, I know I left yall in suspense from the last post but I wanted to be positive before I told you what was going on. So the exciting news is......................

We are buying a lakehouse! I know most of you were thinking we were pregnant but I am sorry to disappoint you.

Trey's late Grandmother lived on Lake Palestine for a number of years and we have the opportunity to buy her house. It has beautiful waterfront, tons of space, and it is in a great location. We are so excited. There is some work to be done like painting and such but we are thrilled to have the opportunity to raise our kids on the lake. It is only about 15 minutes away from where we live so we can just spend weekends out there or run out for the evening. It is going to be so fun. Not to mention we can have parties, get togethers, reunions, ect. because now we have a place for people to stay when they come visit. It is 3/2.5/2 with an office and two living areas. I don't have any pictures right now but as we begin the face lift on this baby I will post them. Our official closing date is Sept. 8 but we are hoping we will close a little earlier we will just see. Now we just have to see about furnishing another house. Fun times ahead!

Oh how we love the lake!

Last weekend we got to go out to the lake for some good ol' relaxing. It was so nice even though the water was more like bath water. As the temperature around here keeps rising it is a great way to beat the heat. Trey's Aunt and Uncle have a great place on the lake that is very kid friendly and they recently got a new jet ski that seats 5 adults. Isn't that crazy I have honestly never seen a jet ski that is so big. Well of course we loaded it up with kids and I think at one time there were 6 kids and Trey all on it at once. Let me tell you even with all the people on there it goes really fast. It was lots of fun and the kids loved it. Mollie loves jet skis as long as you don't stop. She starts hollering as soon as you stop because she wants to keep going and she likes to go fast too. I think she might be our adrenaline junkie. However, this past weekend she didn't get her nap and when she rode the jet ski with Trey she fell straight asleep in like three minutes. It was hilarious seeing her slumped over passed out. He drove by the dock and dropped her off. You can kind of see it from the pictures. We really had a great time with family and being out in the water. I left my camera up at the house and go up to get it until the end of the day so I don't have many pictures.




We also have some exciting news to share soon so stay tuned.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Mollie!

Yesterday was Mollie's 2nd Birthday. I can hardly believe that she is two. It seems like the time has truely flown by. This year has been full of lots of changes and growth. I am glad we were able to celebrate her birthday with a clean bill of health which by far is the greatest blessing being that this year has been filled with health challenges.

We started the day off at 4:30am...I guess she was just so excited she couldn't sleep. Oh well! It did make for a long day but we all slept great last night. We got her a Kid Kraft table. It has a train track, roads, building, people, cars, all kinds of things to manipulate and move around. She loves it. She plays with it a little and then leaves it. She goes back and forth. I think the size of it is a little overwhelming to her but she is enjoying it nonetheless. We then spent the morning playing at home and having fun singing the birthday song. After a three hour nap. We decorated, welcomed family and ate pizza. Then we had a huge birthday party. We had an ice cream themed party so Marble Slab catered the event, we pulled out the bounce house, had a baby pool, swung at a pinata, and ate lots of cake. It was so wonderful. The weather was great, there was lots of laughter and fun. I had a great time watching all the smiles and happiness. Mollie really enjoyed it as well. She even took some swings at the pinata too. We had so much fun we didn't even open birthday presents until today. I am so glad everyone was able to come and celebrate with us.

Dear Mollie,
I must tell you first and foremost that I love you so much. Before you were born I was worried about were I would get more love for another baby. I love Maddie so much and I didn't know how that would work. However, the moment they layed you on me my heart grew so much and the love I was afraid of not having enough of was pouring out all over you. You brought a completeness to our family that I did not even know was missing. You are very different from your sister and you have your own personality. I am so glad that you are your own person and know what you want. We do have a temper and sometimes we clash in personalities but I know as you grow older you will be able to stand strong on your two feet and have opinions and leadership skills that will be rock solid. You are a child of few words right now, but I am sure that will change soon. Your laugh is the deepest belly laugh and I just love it when you get tickled. One thing that is my favorite is the amount of love you show us. You love to crawl up in our laps and wrap those arms around us. When you hug us the love you radiate is so pure and precious it penetrates right to my soul. It is a reminder to me of God's love and that every affection I show should be like yours. Your little kisses are so sweet. They are numerous and I also love that! You are the best at sharing hugs and kisses with us and I just love you cuddle bug! Thank you for being our daughter, a little sister, and God's child. We love you and look forward to what this next year will bring. Happy Birthday, Mollie!

Love,
Mommy