Mother's Day

We dedicated The Lynn this morning at husband's parents church. It was really sweet that Pappy dedicated our baby girl to the Lord. We went to my mom's after church for lunch. It was a great Mother's day. Oh and I got a new Coach bag too! Here are some pictures from the day.

Elvis has left the building

The May said the funniest thing yesterday. First let me give you a little background in case you don't live in our part of the world. There is a restaurant downtown that uses a triple decker green bus for advertisement. They have an Elvis mannequin that sits in the driver seat. He used to have a mechanical arm that waved but I guess over the years it broke. They dress him up on holiday's and my girls get a kick out of it. So there is the background to catch you up.

My parents are on vacation this week. They were in Memphis yesterday and went to Graceland. (I got a virtual minute to minute tour via our blackberries.)Here is how the conversation between Molly and I went:

Me: Nana and Papa went to see Elvis' house today.

Molly: They went to heaven?

Me: No they went to his house he lived in before he died.

Molly: Oh you mean they went to the big green bus?

That girl is some kind of funny.

Catching Up!

I am so behind on blogging. I was reading some of my old blogs today (thanks Aunt Emily for the reminder) and had completely forgotten about things that happened in the past couple of years. I am so glad I documented these events becasue otherwise I would have no memory of it and if I don't get back to blogging I am going to kick myself for not doing it. So here we go. So much has happened in the past couple of months! We moved, The Belle turned 5, the big girls got their ears pierced, Easter, the big girls got a pedi and mani, The Belle was accepted into a wonderful Christian school for kindergarten, Husband and I competed in a team triathlon with Uncle John, Aunt Emily, Uncle Josh, and Aunt Sarah, my husband got a cell phone (for the first time EVER), and The Lynn just about scared me to death with an eye injury. I know that's alot of information to digest at one sitting so I will be covering these topics one post at a time. Today will be a fun one: the girls getting their ears pierced!

Several months ago Grandmama found a school picture of Aunt Sarah when she was 6 years old. The very first thing The Belle noticed about the picture was that she had earrings. Grandmama told her that Aunt Sarah got her ears pierced for her 5th birthday. Well, that was all it took. The Belle was determined that she too would get her ears pierced for her 5th birthday. So, for several months ALL we heard about was how she was going to get earrings and roller skates for her birthday. At some point Margo and The May also decided that they too wanted their ears pierced. We had lots of discussions about how they pierce your ears, that it may be painful, that you would have to keep them in for 6 weeks, and that we would have to clean them frequently. I have always been very strict about birthday presents. I do not like giving presents to everyone for one girls birthday. For example, if it is The Belle's birthday then only The Belle gets presents (there are some people who give presents to all of their children when it is only one child's birthday). I did however make an exception this one time. The Belle and Margo are 13 days apart so we thought it would be best for the girls to get their ears pierced at the same time (misery loves company.....right?). But, The May wanted her ears pierced also. I knew The May would be so sad to see her big sister and big cousin (who she adores) get earrings and she not get to be apart of it. But, it was The May I was also most worried about (she does NOT handle pain well at ALL)! When we arrived at the mall the girls had decided to let The Belle go first since it was her actual birthday. Well, as the preparations began The Belle very graciously allowed Margo to go first (she had to see it happen before she could do it). Margo chose her earrings first and both of my girls chose the same (thank goodness Margo is not undecisive; we would have been there all day looking at earrings). Margo was very brave and didn't shed a tear. So, up next was The May who shed lots of tears (we were worried we were going to leave there with just one earring). Matter of fact it was so bad she wouldn't let us look at it or even talk about it for several hours. Then next was The Belle who also did wonderful. The worst one of all was Husband and Uncle Josh! Those poor guys were literally feeling faint. It was really sweet of them to be so worried about their girls. Honestly though my Husband was just as nervous if not more than when I was in labor with those children. So here are some pictures from the big event!

Good gracious I can not believe it has been a month since I have blogged. So much has happened since my last post. The most recent event was The Belle's 5th birthday. Seriously, my baby girl is 5. I can literally remember everything about the day she was born (including the clothes I was wearing when I went into labor). Time really does go by way too fast. These are just a few pictures from her party.

Dear Belle,
I can not believe I am writing you a happy 5th birthday letter. 5 is such a big milestone age and yet in so many ways you are still a little girl. But, I think you will always be a little girl to me. You have changed in so many ways. You can do almost everything independently; dress yourself, buckle yourself, clean up, prepare your own peanut butter crackers, bathe yourself, read, write a letter, and so much more. As I watched you fall asleep (with your newly pierced ears) the night of your birthday I couldn't help but wipe away the tears. So quickly, you have grown into a beautiful girl and it scares me to think how quickly the next 5 years will go by. When I found out I was pregnant with you all I knew was that I wanted a baby. I never dreamed I would have been given all the joy you have brought into my life. You are such a sweet little lady and I love you more than you will ever know. Happy Birthday! Momma

Tubes and a Bottle

One week ago The Lynn got tubes. The 2 of us got up at the crack of dawn and headed to the hospital.*Thanks to Grandmama and Pappy for letting The Belle and The May spend the night with them!* Thankfully she was the first surgery so it went pretty quickly. Since we had been through this with The Belle I knew what to expect. But still, when I changed her into that little blue hospital gown it was hard to fight back the tears. I think the worst part for me was just knowing she would be put to sleep and I wouldn't be there with her. She didn't mind the gown. Matter of fact it was easy access for her to pull her diaper off in the pediatric waiting area. Once the nurse came in and gave her some "princess juice" she was good to go. It took about 5 minutes for the loopiness to begin (she couldn't even hold her paci in her mouth). She would just look at me and smile. Notice the difference in the pictures (pre princess juice and post)you can really tell in her eyes. Her Dr. came in to talk to me (wearing a Mike Zowoski hat from Monsters Inc) about the procedure and The Lynn was talking to his hat the entire time. I'm assuming he wore the hat during surgery becasue when he came out to tell me how it went it was still on his head. When the anesthia team came into get her she went right to them with no problem (which made it easy for me). The procedure took less than 10 minutes. I quickly went back to see her (I actually heard her before I saw her). It isso sad when a baby is coming out of anesthia becasue they have no clue what is going on. The nurse told me that she was upset because there was no formula in her bottle. I told her um she hasn't been on a bottle in several months. She added some apple juice (which I have given to her just a few times with mostly water)to her "bottle" and it didn't take long for her to remember what to do with it. She sucked it down like a little piggie. The nurse gave us 4 bottles of apple juice to take home. When I loaded her into the van she was very happily showing me her bottle and I let her know that as soon as we got home those were going in the trash. I took a few pictures of her excitedly holding her "bottle". She napped very well when we got home and was happy when Nana brought her sisters home. I haven't seen a big difference in her speech yet but I feel like within the next few weeks I will. Thanks to all of you who prayed for her it was so comforting to know that you were praying for my baby girl.

Details are important

Most of you probably already know about this but I thought it needed to be documented somewhere. So, Uncle John(aka Shoe Lace Hero; see older posts) is in the Navy and was abruptly sent to Cuba at the beginning of February to assist with Haiti relief. He really had no idea how long he would be gone. Aunt Emily asked all her friends and family to begin praying for John to return home by March 6th. Now I am a firm believer in asking God for specific details that are in His will. Several friends and family members prayed for The Lynn to arrive on her birth date. Anyways, it looked as if Uncle John would be flying in on Saturday March 6th.....awesome right? Well guess who called us last night from HOME?!? I'm telling you our God is amazing. He cares about every detail in our life! This was just too good not to tell about.

*other good news: The Lynn got her tubes yesterday and is doing great. I will post all the details soon.

flying solo

For the first time in almost 7 years Husband and I spent the night apart. He left early yesterday morning for a work conference. I can't wait for him to get home tonight. I have a new appreciation for couples who spend lengthy times apart and especially those with children. I have only been "alone" for 28 hours and it has been tough. I'm usually not a happy camper when one of the girls get in bed with us in the middle of the night but I was so happy when The May snuggled up with me at 3:00 am. I slept like a log from that point on. I wouldn't make it as a military wife. Thanks to all of you wives who have spent many sleepless nights way from your husbands.