PITIFUL!

Pitiful. I am a pitiful blogger! My camera is broken. I feel lost without it. Completely lost. They told me the average repair time on the camera is 6 weeks. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!? I feel so naked without it. I am having to make do with cell phone pictures, but it is just not the same.

John opened in "Fiddler on the Roof" last night. He is so great up there. Totally cracks me up! We are getting ready to start rehearsals for "Annie" on Tuesday. I still cannot believe that I am going to be on stage with John, Sophie, and Ella. We are so excited; we are hoping that Ryan will be able to work backstage for the show since she is not going to be in it.

I am still working on pictures from our trip to Jackson Hole. John and I had a wonderful time up there. It was gorgeous! After a hectic summer and beginning to the school year, it was wonderful to be able to just escape for a few days and focus on each other.

I am hoping to get the girls to the pumpkin patch soon. Not sure what I will do without my camera, though. :-(

Wordless Wednesday

Change

Please be praying for our sweet Sophie. Tomorrow will start the 4th week of the school year. She is doing so well in school but really seems to be having a hard time adjusting to being a "big girl" now. It is so hard as a mommy to watch her struggle and not be able to help her fix it. She loved school last year and was so excited to head back this year. But the tears came the minute we walked into her classroom. She told me that it made her sad that there were no toys in there (go figure!). I tell you what - it made ME sad that there were no toys in there, too. It just looked like such a grown up room!

In the past couple of weeks, it just seems like she has started really growing and maturing right before my eyes. I mean, I realize that she has been growing since the day she was born, but there is something different about her now. I cannot put my finger on exactly what it is, but I just feel like I do not even want to blink because I will miss something with her. She is growing and maturing into a very sweet and loving little girl. She loves to please. She will write out all of her spelling words for practice and then ask me to draw a smiley face on her paper if I like the way she wrote them.

My very favorite time of the day is when we are walking to school. She holds my hand, helps me push Ella in the stroller, and we pray together. She always asks me to pray for a certain little boy in her class who always has to move his clip. Apparently he has trouble keeping his little mouth closed. Most days she also wants to pray that she makes wise choices. And that SHE does not have to move her clip. She prays a lot about other kids in her class that she is worried about. It makes me so proud of her. She just is such a neat kid. I love it that the Lord puts others on her heart as much as He does. And that she is already willing to listen and act on that. Such a cool thing to witness as a parent!

So, for as well as she seems to be adjusting, we still have lots of fears and tears. Fears over things that are just becoming real to her ("What happens to us if you and Daddy die at the same time?" - yes, she asked me that out of the blue one night during bedtime prayers!). Tears over leaving friends and teachers behind. Everyone warned me that this was a big year of changes and adjusting, but I guess I just assumed Sophie would not struggle with it. Needless to say, I spend a lot of my day thinking about her and praying for her - that the Lord would give her peace and remind her that He is in control. That He would help her to make wise choices and that He would help me as a parent who is struggling to ease her fears.

I now know what people were talking about when they said that becoming a mommy meant you would learn what it was like to have your heart walking around outside of your body. Thank you for loving my little lamb and praying for her. We know that this too shall pass!

Last Hoorah of Summer

It will take a lifetime for me to get all of our Disney World pictures uploaded and organized, but I hope to get some on here soon.

Our last little "trip" of the summer was the big news at our house. Craig and I planned a huge surprise for our sweet Missy. Last Friday, the girls and I drove down to Oxford and showed up on their front porch. Missy had no idea we were coming and it was SO MUCH FUN being able to pull it off. My girls, of course, had known about the trip for a couple of weeks and were just counting down the days to "Missy's buhprise" (as Ella would say). They were all proud of themselves for making it happen without Missy finding out.

We had a wonderful day in Oxford. We ate lunch at an awesome little restaurant, had ice cream, played at a really neat park, and then hung out at Craig and Missy's house for a while. We came home around dinnertime and my girls were WORN OUT. It was such a sweet time with our Missy. The girls have really missed her since she moved, and I have a feeling she might have been missing them a little bit as well. :-)

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!