Happy, happy birthday!

Our sweet little Sophie turns six years old today. It seems like just yesterday that she was born, but it seems like she has been with us for so much longer at the same time. We are celebrating later this week with a party at Build-a-Bear. She is having a blast with the performances of "Joseph", and has had so many sweet people come out to watch her and her daddy and sister in the show. She told me just yesterday that she is excited and ready to be a 1st grader. Made me cry, of course, just thinking about her already being in 1st grade! We are having a playdate with her best friend, Meg, today. Life could not be better in her world! :-)

This Little Lamb.....

 

This little lamb is awfully close to being 6 years old.

This little lamb is holding her own on stage with kids much bigger than her.

This little lamb has a heart for those who are sad or hurting. 

This little lamb is opinionated, strong-willed, and somewhat stubborn. At the same time, this little lamb is loving, giving, and compassionate.

This little lamb is an author, making it her daily practice to write and illustrate books about butterflies, ladybugs, princesses, and all things that sparkle.

This little lamb loves to be in the kitchen baking with her mommy. Or anywhere that her daddy is.

This little lamb has already lost two teeth. Her mommy thinks she now has four other loose teeth waiting in the wings.

This little lamb tells me often (almost daily) how much she misses her Aunt Erin.

This little lamb will never know how much the Lord is using her to heal my heart. Or that she reminds me of her Aunt Erin so often and it is like a Band-Aid for my wounded heart. 

This little lamb wanted to have a birthday party at the pet store, but changed her mind when she realized she did not get to end the day by bringing a new pet home with her.

This little lamb thinks the gold sparkly eye shadow she gets to wear on stage is the best part of the whole stage experience.

This little lamb loves to draw pictures and hand them out to any cast member that will take them.

This little lamb is growing every day, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

This little lamb is a gift.

Where does the time go????

The end of school brought a whirlwind of activity to our house. We started off with a really quick trip to Arkansas to see my granddad. My mom and stepdad were visiting him from Cincinnati, so we met them there for a couple of days. The girls had a blast and came home sufficiently spoiled!

 

Mimi and Ella

 

Papap getting some of that good sugar from Ella

 

Ice cream at Papap's house tastes good.....

 

Tastes really, really, really good!

John and Ryan were auditioning for the local community theatre summer show just before we left for Arkansas. We actually got the call while we were there that they had both been called back for "round two". They BOTH got great parts in the show. Just as exciting as that, Sophie also got cast in the children's chorus, so the three of them are getting to do the show together. I think they are having a blast!

Ryan went to Gulf Shores with the Sr. High at church and had a wonderful time. She came home telling me that it was the best church trip she has ever been on. We were glad she had fun, but it was so good to have her home again.

Both of the little girls did swimming lessons last week and really enjoyed that. I can tell a huge difference in Sophie compared to her willingness to swim last year. She really did so much better this year and I was so proud to see her out there truly swimming!

We had a visit from John's sister and her family last week as well. Our niece, Caraline, got the "all clear" scans from St. Jude. This summer makes TEN YEARS that she has been cancer free. Praise the Lord! 

A nasty storm rolled through this past Friday and left us without power for about 24 hours. It was a storm that reminded us all of "Hurricane Elvis", the inland hurricane that rolled through here the day Sophie was born. There was lots of damage and there are people in Memphis who still have no power. We were lucky to have no damage to our house - just loss of power until Saturday night and phones/internet out until last night. 

This week both little girls have "Fairy Ballet Princess" camp at a local theatre. Today was their first day and they just loved it. We are used to seeing Sophie decked out in ballet garb, but it was so cute to see our little Ella Bella dressed up in it as well. 

I am hopeful that I can use some of the camp time this week to get some more pictures up on the blog. During all of this commotion that we call summer, we also had to take our laptop in for a minor repair. Not having it here for a few days really threw me off! 

I would like to close my eyes and freeze time. I feel like I am going to blink and summer will be long gone!

We have a 1st grader now!

Sophie had her Kindergarten Program this morning. It was ABSOLUTELY precious. Her daddy and I both cried, though her daddy might not admit it! She is growing up right in front of us but it's times like these that make it smack you rig

ht in the face! Her teacher was the most terrific teacher in the world. We truly are so thankful to God for hand-picking her for Sophie. We could not have been more blessed by her than we were. She showed day in and day out how much she loved our little one and was excited to help her grow. 

 

Our Big Little Girl

Sophie lost her first tooth yesterday. It was sad and exciting all at the same time. She really did not know what to think about the whole thing. She cried at first and said she wanted me to put it back in. I finally got out of her that she thought the Tooth Fairy was going to come last night and take ALL of her teeth!!! Bless her little heart, she is so literal!

We treated her to a trip to the ice cream store (Ben and Jerry's, of course - for Aunt Erin!), so that made her relax quite a bit. This morning, once she was able to see the gift from the (overly sentimental and completely still in shock that their baby is growing up so they make a huge production out of tooth #1 and way overpay)  tooth fairies, it clicked. Now she cannot wait for the one beside it to come out. Mommy, on the other hand, is freezing time right now!!!!

 

 

 

 

Ella and the Teapots

Rehearsing.....

Ella sings in her Spring Music Program for preschool tonight. We practiced a little bit this afternoon. :-)

*Remember that you have to pause the music on my blog before hitting play!*