First Days of School~2014!

Jayda and Sydney had their first days of school this past week!  Jayda started 2nd grade on Monday and Sydney started Pre-K on Tuesday!  I can't believe how big our sweet girls are getting!  They were both excited to start school, and have wonderful teachers this year!  I am really looking forward to watching them grow and progress this year!

 

Jayda's first day of 2nd grade. Monday, August 25, 2014.

 

Emma Lou is going to miss Jayda too now that she's back in school! 
She has really enjoyed all of the carrots and apples Jayda gave her this summer! :)

Jayda has two teachers this year.  This is her homeroom teacher, Mrs. Merchant!

Sydney's first day of Pre-K!  Tuesday, August 26, 2014.

 

Greeting Mrs. Anitra on the way in to class!

Painting on her first morning back to school!

Big girls heading out the door to school on their first Thursday back!

Now, to rewind a little bit back into the summer.  I skipped over a few things to get to the girls first days of school!



Little sweet pea loves to play on the slide outside of the church on Sunday mornings.

On one of the last days of summer I took the girls and Caitlyn to the Downtown Aquarium!  They had SO much fun looking at all of the neat animals and going on the rides!  They were especially glad to have cousin Caitlyn with them!

Pretty girls in front of the Downtown Aquarium.

Think this was the favorite part of their visit!  They pet the sting rays for at least 30 minutes!

Having fun on the froggy ride!

Avery was excited about the shark train ride...until it got moving!

Shark ride, woo-hoo!!

We pulled out the girls dress up stuff for the first time the other day and we discovered that Avery loves to dress up! She put all kinds of outfits, jewelry, and shoes on  and had so much fun!

 

I got my hair cut short a while back and when I came home, Jayda said she wanted to get the same haircut as me! So, I set up a hair appointment for the girls and she got her hair done the same way! 

 

Hew new cut turned out so cute!  I love the back of her hair!

 

On July 31, 2014 Jacob and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary!!! 
I am so thankful to have such a hardworking, loving and caring husband!

 

Jacob was so super sweet and planned a surprise trip to Las Vegas for our 10 year anniversary!  He even got us tickets to 2 cirque du soliel shows!!  The first night we went to see the O show.  It was absolutely amazing-best show ever!!

I took this picture for the girls. :)

In sadder news, we had to put our sweet Nina Bear to sleep last week. :(  Her arthritis has been getting worse over the years, but in the past few months it has gotten a lot worse.  She stopped eating her dog food about a month ago and would only eat scraps that we would hand feed her.  We weren't sure why she wasn't eating her food, but eventually figured out it was because it hurt too much to stand there and eat.  She also couldn't get around very well anymore, and it became very hard for her to get up.  When she would get up and walk, she would only make it 4-5 steps then have to lay back down again.  Sometimes she would bump into me and fall straight down to the ground while I was out feeding her scraps.  I felt so awful and help her back up, it was just so hard to see her like that. It was so sad and we knew she wouldn't be able to make it much longer.  We were really hoping to not have to put her down though.  One evening last week we went out to check on her and give her the scraps.  She was laying down and had gone to the bathroom on herself.  In that moment we both knew what we had to do, and I just cried and cried.  It was the most awful thing in the world to know what we were going to have to  do the next morning.  Jacob picked her up and carried her to the back porch.  I cleaned her all off and put the water bowl right in front of her since she'd obviously not been able to get any in the last few hours.  I tried to feed her the scraps and she wouldn't even eat them.  Usually she gobbled all the food up that I would give her because she was hungry, but that night all I could get in her was a tiny piece of sausage. :(  She tried to get up from the porch, but she couldn't so Jacob picked her up and put her in the grass.  She preferred the grass because it was softer and didn't hurt as much to lay on.  We stayed out there with her for at least 2 hours and just pet her and loved on her because we knew we'd have to take her to the vet in the morning.  We couldn't let her go on suffering anymore the way she was.  It was so sad and heartbreaking!  The next morning we got up and let the girls say their goodbyes to her.  The girls gave her big hugs and kisses and told her goodbye.  It was so incredibly sad, but I was glad they at least had a chance to tell her bye.  Luckily Mammaw and my dad came over to watch the girls while Jacob and I headed off to the vet.  It was the worst drive of my life!!!  We were both so upset, sad and distraught and felt so awful!  We knew there was no other option, but it was so hard.  We stopped by Home Depot because we were planning to bring her home and bury her outside under the tree.  Jacob wanted to get some stones to put over her grave.  I can't even explain the deep pain and sadness I experienced for that 20 minutes while I sat in the back of the truck with her.  I just kept petting her and talking to her, even took a little video of her.  Oh my goodness, it was SO sad!!  Once we got to the vet the staff were all so sweet and kind to us, and Nina.  I knew Nina was thirsty so I asked them for some water so she could get one last drink.  Jacob carried her into the clinic and they soon gave her a tranquilizer shot.  At that point she was pretty out of it and I was very thankful because they poked her several times looking for a good vein.  Unfortunately they couldn't find a good vein for the euthinization, so Dr. Moore asked us to go out.  I gave Nina one last kiss and went out of the room.  I don't even know what the doctor did, nor do I really want to know.  I was just so sad that I couldn't be in there with her.  She had been with us for 10 years, and I didn't want to walk out on her in the end.  I felt horrible.  Nina was such a sweet and laid back dog.  She didn't have a mean bone in her body and never whined about anything!  We loved her so much, and Harley sure had a good buddy for 10 years! I'm so glad that we moved back out to the country last summer and that she spent her last year very happy.  We miss you Nina and love you always! XOXO

  Nina's last day. :(

Avery telling Nina bye.

The big girls giving Nina one last hug and telling her goodbye.  So sad!