Lucky Me!

HAPPY

ST. PATRICK'S

DAY!!!

I am so lucky to have these three kiddos to hang out with every day!  They have been so much fun this spring break and although I am dreading going back to work on Monday, it makes me really look forward to summer in just a few short months.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I hope you feel lucky today too!

Mother/Daughter Pedicures

Four years ago, when I found out that we were expecting a little girl, thoughts of pink, bows, shopping for wedding dresses and getting mother/daughter pedicures immediately filled my mind.  I've been patiently waiting for Eden to be old enough to go with me to the nail salon, and yesterday my wait was finally over!

When I asked Eden if she wanted to go with me, she immediately said, "YES!".  And when I asked her in the car what color she wanted to paint her toes, she immediately said, "BLUE!".  This girl knows what she wants!!

When we got to the salon, she picked out her blue nail polish and climbed up into her chair.  I was a little nervous when the "lady" (that's what Eden called her) came over and asked her to scoot up to the edge of the chair.  Eden has a tendency to be very excited at first and then back out when it comes time to follow through with the task.  I was so proud of her when she followed the "lady's" request without even flinching.  Or maybe she just takes after her momma and did what the lady asked because she didn't really understand exactly what the lady was asking!

Eden was quiet, still and cooperative the entire time she got her toes painted.  She was so still that I'm not even sure she blinked!  When she was done, she kept asking me, "Where is my lady?".

Here is the final product! 

Because it was Eden's first pedicure, I splurged and let her get a flower on her big toes too!  She was so proud of her pedicure and could not wait to get home to show Daddy, Parker and Lily.  I can't wait until Lily is big enough to go with us but have quickly realized that this is going to get really expensive, really fast!  I still wouldn't trade the mother/daughter time together for anything! I love being a mom of girls!

Spring Break- Part 1

For some reason, the beginning of spring break scares me.  My parents always go to Florida for vacation, Cory works a lot because spring break is one of his busiest weeks of the year, and I'm left trying to figure out how to keep three kids busy and happy for an entire week.  I don't know why I find this daunting, but I do. 

We are now two days into our break and through the course of the past 48 hours, I've been reminded of two things: 1) I have three incredible kids and 2) I love hanging out with them!  They have been uncharacteristically perfect the past two days...obeying, playing well together, not arguing. I know I am probably jinxing everything I just said and that tomorrow they are going to make me want to hide in a closet, but so far we have had a great start to our spring break.

We started our weekend with a fun visit from Aunt MerMer.  You always know when Aunt MerMer comes to visit because the girls get her signature hairstyle- pigtails!  Even Lily got to have her first set of pigtails!  I'm not sure who was more surprised that Lily left them in all day.  She usually pulls them out minutes after they go in.  She must have known just how special it is to have your hair done by Aunt MerMer!!

It rained all day Saturday when MerMer was here, but by Sunday the clouds moved out and the beautiful weather moved in.  I was so thankful, especially after the hard drive on our satellite box crashed on Sunday night and left us with no TV/DVR until at least tomorrow.  Needless to say, we have spent the majority of the past three days outside.  Yesterday, after Cory left for work, the kids discovered a roly poly and had so much fun playing with it until Parker accidentally cut him in half.  (As Lily would now say, "Oops!")  Luckily, they found another one fairly quickly and did not have to mourn for very long!

Lily did a lot of stair climbing while Parker and Eden took turns riding their four wheeler.  I'm sure you've already noticed, but check out Parker's cool sunglasses.  He found an old pair of Cory's sunglasses this weekend and has not taken them off since.  Literally.  He wears them outside, in the car, at the park.  We think it's hilarious and can't wait to see how long this lasts.  He told me yesterday, "Mom, you can see so much better with sunglasses on!".

We made a tent and had a picnic under it.  The kids loved it and wanted to keep it up until today but the neat freak in me just could not stand it any more and took it down before bed last night. 

My mom sent the kids a few dollars for a special treat, and since it was Cory's late night at work, I decided to treat myself (and the kids, of course!) to dinner at McDonald's.  I let them stay and play for over an hour and then we headed home to sanitize ourselves from the thousands of germs I'm sure they got while there.  Thank you Ronald McDonald for entertaining my kids during the witching hours...it was worth every penny (and germ!).

Today we headed to Aledo for a play date with some good friends.  We had a picnic at the park and then let the kids play until I knew they were tired enough to fall asleep on the car ride home.  Just kidding...kind of! (Notice in the first picture that Parker can barely look at me because he had forgotten his sunglasses in the car.  He quickly went to find them and wore them the entire time he played.  I told you he hasn't taken them off!)

After we got home, Eden and I headed out for mother/daughter pedicures.  This was Eden's first time to go with me so it deserves an entire post that I will hopefully get around to writing tomorrow.  After dinner tonight, we treated the kids to ice cream at Braum's. 

Tomorrow is hump day and I am actually kind of sad that our week is almost halfway over.  We are headed to Midlothian for lunch with Daddy and then over to Mansfield to play with Addison, Aubrey and Ryan.  I hope that the near perfect kids that I've had so much fun with this week decide to show up again tomorrow.  They've made being a mother of three seem way too easy and have made me feel really guilty that I ever doubted what a great week we were going to have together.

Frenemies

Best friends + Worst enemies = Frenemies

Parker + Eden = Frenemies

Parker was only 19 months old when Eden was born so he does not remember life without her.  They have such a special relationship- you rarely find one without the other.  85% of the time they are best friends and get along perfectly.  They do have their normal brother/sister moments the other 15% of the time when I have to act as the referee due to the screaming, crying, and just being mean to each other behavior.  I think one of the reasons they are such wonderful friends is that their personalities compliment each other so perfectly.  Parker's strong will/bossy nature is a great balance to Eden's easy going nature. 

For the most part, they are inseparable.  They play together, eat together, watch TV together, chase each other around the house, take baths together, etc.  The one thing they have never done is sleep in the same room together. 

This past Sunday, they were playing in Parker's room before bed and they both started begging me to let Eden sleep in his room.  Since they have never done this before, I didn't want to start on a school night just in case it didn't go well.  I told them that they could have a sleep over in Parker's room on Friday night.  We created a chart so that they would know how many more days were left.  They asked me EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING. how many more days were left and could hardly contain themselves when they realized this morning that today was THE day!  They talked about it all day long and at bedtime, they were all smiles!  They hopped right in bed and, surprisingly, the talking/laughing/giggling only lasted a few minutes before they were sound asleep.  I am anxious to see how the rest of the night will go.  They have already told me that tomorrow night they are having another sleepover in Eden's room!

I am so thankful that Parker and Eden are so close.  I love watching their relationship grow and change as they get bigger.  I know that it will not always be perfect, but I hope that Parker will always protect and take care of Eden and that she will always depend on him as a big brother.  As sad as I am about Parker starting kindergarten next year, I think I am actually more sad for Eden.  She is going to be completely lost without him next year.  Thank goodness that she will still have Lily at home with her.



Beautiful Purple Flowers

We have been enjoying a very mild winter this year with unseasonable warm temperatures.  I am really hoping that an unseasonably warm winter means that we will have an unseasonably cool summer, but I'm not holding my breath on that one!

The warm temperatures have brought with them the early blooming of trees and flowers, or in our case, lots and lots of weeds.  Many of our weeds are in the form of purple flowers.  They have overtaken both our front and back yards and it is quite overwhelming thinking about trying to get a handle on them.  Cory started spraying last week and we are hoping to make a small dent in them before summer. 

Last week, the kids were out playing and I told Parker that we needed to get rid of these weeds.  He quickly protested, "Mommy, you can't get rid of these BEAUTIFUL purple flowers!".

Oh, to see things through the eyes of a child.  It sure would make life so much easier if we could take the weeds that God has given us and turn them into beautiful flowers.  I've really been struggling lately with taking my biggest weed (MS) and finding the beauty in it.  Everywhere I look it seems that this weed is taking over another area of my life.  It is so unpredictable and you just never know what the next day will bring. 

Cory and I are really trying to work together and figure out how to work with MS in our lives rather than fight it, but some days it is just so hard.  I want so badly to go back to the way things used to be, back when we took so many things for granted.  I'm grieving what we've lost, things that we will never get back, and trying to accept our new "normal" with a smile on my face.  I'm not always good at it- there have been many tears- but the one thing that I know will never change is that God will always be right there, fighting alongside with me, giving me strength when I truly feel I can not battle this one more day.

I still see MS as a weed, but I pray that in time, I will be able to see it as one of the beautiful purple flowers in my life.  Until then, I will face each new day with the hope that one day there will be a cure for all of those courageous men and women who are battling this life changing disease.  What a wonderful day that will be! 

Parker's First (Real) Play Date

Parker has been to lots of play dates with cousins and family friends, but today he had his first real play date at our house with Trip, his best friend from preschool.   He has already been to Trip's house to play three times and he has been begging me to let Trip come over and play at our house. 

I picked them up from preschool, we ate lunch, and then the fun started!  They played nonstop for 4 1/2 hours until Trip's mom came to pick him up.  They spent almost two hours building an elaborate fort for their army men and then went outside to swing and play in the sandbox. 

I was a little worried about how Eden was going to react today.  She has been just as excited about Trip coming over to play as Parker and I was worried that they would want a "boys only" play date.  Luckily, they were very sweet to her and included her in most of their activities. 

Trip has been such a wonderful friend for Parker this year.  He is a sweet little boy and has been a good influence for Parker.  I am sad that they won't be going to the same school next year.  I know Parker is really going to miss him.  I guess that just means we will have to have lots of play dates on the weekend once they start kindergarten.

(On a side note- Trip's dad is an architect and it was amazing to see how Trip already has a natural gift for design.  Parker has never made a tower this elaborate or symmetrical.  What a wonderful talent- it will be neat to see how it unfolds as Trip gets older.)

Happy 5th Birthday Jewell!

It is hard to believe that another year has come and gone and Jewell and Parker are now turning five years old.  When they were born, the thought of having a five year old was unimaginable.  It has flown by quicker than I could have ever dreamed, and we are now staring kindergarten registration right in the face.  All I can think about is if the first five years have gone this fast, how fast are the next five years going to go?  And the next five?  And the next five?  And then they will be headed to college and...oh, I just have to stop myself or I'll turn into a complete blubbering idiot.

We were so excited to get to celebrate Jewell's 5th birthday with her this weekend.  Her party was at a local gym that had several trampolines built into the floor.  I was a little worried about how quickly the kids would warm up, but within minutes they were running, jumping, falling, laughing and then getting right back up to jump some more.  By the end of the party, even the parents were out jumping on the trampolines with the kids.  I used muscles I didn't even know I had and I woke up quite sore the next morning. 

 As always, cake and ice cream were one of the kids favorite parts of the entire evening. 

Happy Birthday Jewell!  We hope you have a wonderful birthday and feel very special today!