Fall 2014 Update

Wow, I think I completely forgot I even have a blog for about the past 2 months!  Everything has been so busy lately I haven't had much time to even take pictures, much less blog about them.  I just realized that it's been over a month since I last posted, so I figured it was time for an update.  I think this is the least amount of pictures I've ever had in a post...I've got to start somewhere though!

This Fall I was asked to help with PTO at Jayda's school and gladly took on teacher appreciation.  This means that every month I coordinate something nice to be done for the all (75) of the teachers and staff.  So, as you can imagine it has been quite the job!  The first month I got custom drink orders from Sonic for the staff, then last month I set up a big breakfast for everyone complete with donuts (thanks to Brookshire Brothers) and tons of other goodies!  Next month I'm planning a catered lunch for the teachers from Olive Garden, yum!  Anyhow, PTO has been keeping this Momma busy!  Jacob and I are also leading a sharegroup at our church with Gonzalo and Andrea that meets every Sunday evening at 5:00.  That has also been taking up some of our time and keeping us busy, but it's been really nice.  Jacob has been working a ton, as usual, but its a good thing.  He really likes his new job and is doing very well at the firm.  We are so thankful that everything has worked out with our move to Huntsville and Jacob's new job...now for our new house!  We are in the process of building a house, yay!!  We have done the survey, soil test, been approved by the city, and pretty much figured out the floorplan.  There are a few more preliminary things we have to do before we start, but hopefully we'll be able to start building in the next month or two.  I can not wait!!

Jayda and Sydney both started tumbling at Iron Works last month and seemed to really be liking it.  Unfortunately, after the first month Sydney decided it wasn't for her.  After pushing her to finish softball last spring, and swim team last summer, we decided to let her stop tumbling if she wasn't interested in it.  Jayda is still in tumbling and loves it.  She can do her bridges really well now, as well as cartwheels and roundoffs.  She can't wait until she can do a back handspring!  I was really hoping Jayda would want to dance again this year, but she didn't want to.  We are going to let her try out different activities and see what she likes best.  A few weeks ago she started playing basketball outside at the house and really likes that too.  We may sign her up for a youth co-ed basketball league...we will see.  Both girls are doing great in school and love their teachers.  Jayda is reading very well and has started reading chapter books, yay!  She actually just finished her first one yesterday.  We were so proud!  Sydney loves school and can't wait until its her turn to go!  She has lots of fun at school and loves playing with her best friend Sara.  Sydney gets to take naps at school so she thinks that is pretty neat.  Most days when I pick her up she is just waking up from her nap.

I took pictures for PTO at the Grandparent's Day photo booth.
Isn't this just so cute?!

The girls wanted to play in the photo booth after I was finished.

Sweet little sisters!

Love our three girls!

Avery is such a little handful these days!  We like to call her the little tornado, because that is what she is like.  She runs around the house and pulls things out, throws stuff down, rips through her sisters dressers and shoes, pulls kitchen towels out of the cabinets, and lots of other fun stuff!  She has started talking a lot and puts 2 and 3 words together a lot.  I'm sure she will be talking in full sentences soon.  She loves to play with shoes and has to put some on as soon as she gets up in the morning and after nap time.  She loves to play with dress ups shoes, but anyone's shoes will pretty much do.  If she gets into her sisters room she will immediately start pulling out all of  their shoes and trying them on.  She is so silly.

  

Climbing on sisters bunk bed and pulling out her shoes...a usual occurrence!

"Toos, toos, toos!" (shoes)

Sweet miss Avery Mae!

Such a little ham.

Avery loves to be outside!  She says "side, side" all the time and pulls your hand so that you will take her outside.  She cries every single time she has to come back in the house.  She'd love to stay outside all day if she could.  Some of her favorite things to do outside are ride on the kiddie roller coaster (by herself-nobody can help her), ride in her little pink car, draw with sidewalk chalk, jump on the trampoline and play in big sister's jeep.  She is so funny and keeps us on our toes all the time!

Playing outside...her favorite place to be!

Chasing Daisy into the pasture.  She LOVES Daisy so much!

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!

July 2014!

Wow! I can not believe that July is almost over, and that tomorrow-July 31st, 2014-is our 10 year anniversary!  Jacob and I have been blessed with a wonderful marriage and three beautiful girls.  I could not ask for more and am so thankful for all that God has given our family! 

 

July has been super busy for us with lots of birthdays, travels, anniversaries, day trips, and of course pool time.  With all three girls home this summer I haven't had much time to blog, but I do want to post several pictures from this past month.  I'm looking forward to school starting back so I can have more time to post!

 

These sweet girls rescued a baby mockingbird that fell out of it's nest.

Jacob and I went for a long weekend to visit our good friends Lauren

and Greg in Seattle, and to meet their new baby!

 

Xander is so precious and such a good baby!

 

We also got to meet Abby, Wes and Kyle's baby girl! 

 

We got back in town from Seattle on Father's Day, so we celebrated the next weekend with my Dad!

Happy Father's Day Dad!  We love you!

 

Jayda qualified for the Trinity Inviational and did great at the meet!

 

Jayda with her friend, and teammate Heidi.

 

Sweet girl ready to swim.

 

Mommy and Daddy are her biggest fans!

 

On the ready bench...she ended up getting 7th overall in freestyle out of over 100 girls that qualified!  Way to go Jayda!

 

 

We were finally able to take our boat out for the first time this summer after Jayda's last swim meet!

A few days before July the 4th, we went to visit the Blue Bell Factory. 

I took some really sweet pictures of the girls before our tour.  This was my favorite one!

 

Thought this was so cute of Jayda twirling around in her dress.

Sweet Sydney in the tree.

Looking at sisters in the tree, just wishing she could get up there too.

Pretty girl.

Love these sisters.

Little patriot!

 

In front of the famous Blue Bell truck!

 

Silly little girls jumping all around.

Sweet girl.

Little miss priss!

 

Love these pictures of the girls in the tree!

 

Pretty sisters.

July 4th babe.

Happy girls!

Lil' Blue Bell girls. 

 

Run, run, as fast as you can!

 

The best part of the tour was getting all the yummy ice cream afterwards!

 

 

Ice cream lover!!! 

July 4th, 2014-Hooray!

Little bit learned how to do the roller coaster all by herself, and she loves it!

 

She just can't leave a bow in her hair!

 

Karen had a full lap at the 4th of July fireworks show!

We took the girls to the Sam Houston homes to take a few pictures of them in their Hawaiian outfits from Nana and Pawpaw.

 

Since we never got any 6 year pics of Jayda (and she was almost 7)

we went ahead and took a few of her while she was still 6! 

 

Such a pretty girl!

I absolutely love this picture of all of them in their Hawaiian clothes!

These baby cousins are the cutest ever!

 

Miss Avery Mae.

One of my favorite pictures ever of the girls! :) 

Sweet cousin Ty giving Avery a leaf.

 

Cousin love. 

 

Avery at 1 year.

 

Sister hugs!

Dancing along the rock wall.  Fearless little thing.

 

We took the girls and Ty to splashtown one day and they had a blast.  This picture was taken on the way out, and Avery wanted to lay in Ty's lap.  Ty was not very happy about that. ;) 

 

Jacob's 31st bday was July 6th!  Pretty cake from Oma!

Jayda and Daddy.

 

Happy birthday Jacob!

Helping blow out the candles.

Swim team awards.  Jayda got the high point award for her age group!  Good work girl!

 

So proud of Sydney for doing swim team all summer and sticking with it! 

Playing with Daddy one evening after work.  These girls love their Daddy so much! 

Found this little pumpkin sitting in the corner with a cookie.  She is truly a little cookie monster!

  

We went to Great Wolf Lodge for Jayda's 7th birthday! 

The girls got manicures in the kid spa and loved it so much!

 

All done with their day at the spa.  Lol!

 

They loved the bunk beds in our room! 

 

 

Cutest little wolf pup ever! 

Popsicles in the summertime are a must!

 

Water baby.

No fear at all!

 

The cookie monster loves chocolate chip cookies!

 

Oupa showing the girls his new Froggy book. :)

Jayda's bday celebration at Oma and Oupa's hosue.  She couldn't wait to open presents!

Yummy cookie cake! 

 

Jayda requested breakfast in bed for her bday, like Daddy got.

 

 

And, we had to celebrate one more time the next night when Daddy got back in town! 

Can't believe our big girl is 7 years old now!! 

 

Make a wish Jayda!  We love you sweet girl!