I am the mother of a 9 year old!!

Wow, I can't believe that 9 years ago today Sydney Leigh came into our lives! She was a tiny thing 5 lbs and 8 oz and only a little over 17 inches long and she was perfection! Totally beautiful from head to toe! I could see glimpses of everyone I love in her little being and I was completely amazed and thankful that she made it here safely. I'm even more thankful now after the events of the past two weeks. I am completely amazed at how something can be so strong and resilient and fragile all at the same time. From the first minute we were head over heals in love with her as were her grandparents and sisters, aunts,uncles and she had 3 great grandparents living when she was born. I wouldn't trade one single second of it for anything!

We had a quiet celebration at home tonight and that was really nice not to go to Chuck E. Cheese or some other equally crazy place. Tomorrow we leave to go visit cousin Coco in the hill country of Texas and to Sea World with her little wierdos (her word, not mine). I will have pictures when we get back.

I found this picture and had to share it...totally captures the spirit of my daughter...just turned 2 and bursting on the fashion scene! Notice the onsie, high heals and corn dog! What a creation and quite confident I might add!

CHARLIE IS HOME!!!!

There are no words right now to express how happy I am that Jill has ALL of her family home in her nest. Thank you to all of my friends who have lifted Charlie up in prayer over the past 12 days. You can read the whole story here.

Good News for Charlie!!!

Charlie made great strides yesterday...check out his story here http://lifeasaboymomma.blogspot.com/

Pray for Baby Charlie

I will hopefully get to see baby Charlie this afternoon. I won't be able to hold him yet but there will be plenty of time for that once he gets home. Please continue to pray for his quick recovery and check Jill's blog for updates. Please pray for Jill to have strength and comfort during this difficult time. Don't forget she is also mother to Griffin and Carter too.

Pray for Jill and Jason's Baby.

Many of you know that one of my very best friends had her baby this week. He began having complications a few hours after a very uneventful birth. Here is a link to her blog where you can send well wishes and keep updated on baby's progress. She also has two older boys Griffin (7) and Carter (3) who are greatly impacted by all of this. Once he is out of the woods, I'm sure there will be plenty of beautiful family photos coming.

http://lifeasaboymomma.blogspot.com/

Cake Boss

My friend Robin and I were struggling for something fun for our girls to do on their play date yesterday when we decided to decorate cupcakes. That evolved into each girl having their own cake to bake and decorate. They were yummy and needed very little parental involvement.





How cute is this...teamwork!



Learning to use piping bags. Trust me, I have the BEST butter cream frosting recipe ever and we consumed frightening amounts of it.



Sydney's creation!


What beautiful girls...I hope they are friends forever. I hope I am friends with Robin forever! Love you guys!

Summer Perfection...

Sydney and I spent the afternoon with cousin Coco yesterday. We went to Purple Cow with a very tired 2 year old Tessie Mayes and a very excited 4 year old Bram. The food was great and the company was even better. After eating we headed out to Weatherford to swim at Gran T and Mikey's house. It was awesome mommy time! Tessie Mayes napped for 3 and a half hours while Sydney and Bram played in the pool together. Coco and I sat by the pool (in the shade) and drank enormous amounts of water and talked and watched the kids play. When the kids had enough we came in and consumed a ridiculous amount of Fritos and onion dip with Mikey. In the mean while we waited for Bryan and Sarah to arrive so we could head to Mary's for our summer dinner feast! Fun stuff took place during the time between swimming and leaving for dinner. If you follow Coco's blog you know that she has mentioned her almost 2 year old daughter Tessie Mayes is a make-up bandit and she has had to hide hers. She has also learned after Bram and the Sharpie on the wall incident that when Sydney says "Coco, I think you need to come in here, like right now" we run, not walk to the kids. Now my daughter doesn't ever have trouble tattling on her peers but she really struggles with ratting out little kids. It makes her feel strangely grown up and sad at the same time.!





No comment needed...





Yes you guessed it! Baby girl got into her grandmother's lipstick and it was all over her. This pictures really doesn't do it justice...she also looks happy here. Trust me, she was not! Lot's of screaming and crying ensued.

Gran-T to the rescue...

After the bath was over Sydney, Bram and Tessie Mayes settled in for Popsicles in front of the TV. I took this picture because Bram was in the middle but Tessie Mayes wanted to sit in between them so she wedged herself in.

We finally did make it to Mary's for dinner and a great time was had by all. The reason Bram is not pictured here is because he fell asleep on the couch so he stayed home with Mikey while we went to eat.

Busy life of an eight year old

Today we are heading to lunch at the Purple Cow with Coco and company. It's a total kid place with kind of a 50s diner flair. The specialty is purple Blue Bell vanilla ice cream...the kids love it! Then we are going to Coco's parents house for a swim and dinner at Mary's diner a family favorite. Their specialty is fried catfish...the burgers aren't bad either!

Here is a quick rundown of the past week or so...

Last week was Jam Camp at our church...they had a blast and in 4 days put together an amazing show.
Sydney is the one with the yellow bandanna on her head and her friend Alexa is the little blond girl next to her

We had back to back sleep overs with Angel at our house...Belle has to stay in the middle of everything

We spent the 4th of July at Alexa's home...there was lots of food, fireworks and frogs! Actually I think this is a toad, it's kind of brownish green and bumpy.

This is Carter, my favorite 3 year old from Life as a Boy Momma. Boy number three will be here on Monday and I will be holding him on Tuesday....can't wait. I'm sure he will melt my heart just like his brothers Griffin and Carter! The little guy has his work cut out for him already.

Sydney and Taryn at a swim meet at Summer Creek Ranch. Next Saturday is the championship meet and will last all day. Luckily it is indoors.

Happy Fourth!

These days we have been going at warp speed around here. I can't believe it's July 4th already. My mind is beginning to wander to curriculum and home school plans for the 09-10 school year. We have a busy, busy weekend planned. We are staying in town but today we go to my dad's house to celebrate my youngest brother Chase's birthday. He is 14! So hard to believe...when he was born you would think none of us had seen a baby before. Actually we hadn't in a very long time...like about 29 years.

Back to today's plans. After dads' we will head over to our friends house for swimming and fireworks and food, food, food. They live about 20 minutes from here and I hope to post pics of Roxanne's garden next week...if I remember to take my camera that is. We know them because this is the home of Sydney's friend Alexa. We met coming up the walk at Trinity Christian Academy the first day of kindergarten. Somewhere I have the cutest picture of them walking hand and hand with their Hello Kitty back packs...so sweet. They had never met before but Sydney asked Alexa "who is your teacher?" and she said Miss Smith...Sydney said "mine too" and they have been friends since. It is a typical girl friendship...you know they have their ups and down but Sydney is a truly loyal friend and that's something I admire about her. I hope she keeps these young friendships forever like my sister Cindy who has several friends from elementary school.

I spent yesterday baking and cooking. I made Chase's birthday cake...German Chocolate. I also made some lemon bars (from a box), peanut butter cookies that are staying home because Alexa is deathly allergic to peanuts. And a to die for sun dried tomato and basil pasta salad from Pioneer Woman. If you have never been to her sight go there now! She is hilarious and has amazing recipes.

I am looking forward to the festivities today. Last year I had a migraine and stayed in bed. Sydney wanted to see the fireworks but opted to stay home with me and instructed her daddy to go film the fireworks...which he did! If you know my husband then you now that isn't the least bit weird!