Pretty in a pink cast!

I already posted about how our Tilly girl broke her left wrist while we were on vacation in Branson last week.  Because she broke it while we were out of town and because we didn't get back to MS til Saturday, we had to wait until Monday to see an orthopedic doctor.  

Thankfully, after the first day, she really didn't seem too bothered by the splint, and she didn't seem to be in too much pain either.  We are so grateful!

Monday afternoon, David took her to the orthopedic doctor here in our town.  They confirmed once again that her wrist is definitely broken, ha!  And are we a bit surprised that our sweet thing chose PINK for her cast color?  

Well, no one ever accused us having dull moments at our house!  Tilly will dance in her ballet Christmas recital next weekend with her pretty pink cast.  After that, we will supply her with sharpies so all of her little friends can sign it!  

Happy birthday, Daddy!

Sunday was David's birthday.  And Gigi's birthday.  We celebrated Gigi in Arkansas before we left to come back home, but we saved Daddy's celebration for the actual day.  

Did I mention that the stomach bug hit our house with a vengeance Thanksgiving break, too?  Oh, yes! The broken arm was definitely not enough excitement.  Story got it the same night Tilly broke her arm. Carter got it the next day.  Summer, thankfully, waited until we got home to MS, and she got it Saturday night.  Tilly was the last kid to fall, and she did so Monday night.  Anyway, Summer and I stayed home Sunday from church.  We thought our friends might not want us to share this lovely gift we have!  Summer helped me make Daddy's brownie cake.  She insisted on wearing something "pretty" since she didn't get to wear her church dress.  Sweet thing.  

How much do you love this picture of the girls huddled around David while he is opening his gifts! 

Here's the brownie cake complete with sprinkles!

Happy birthday, David!

We are so thankful for you.  We are thankful that you literally hold our family together.  Thank you for washing dishes, cooking, killing roaches, cleaning up barf, sweeping, working hard to provide for our family, making us laugh so hard, reading books to us, praying for us, teaching us about God's Word, rocking out to country music with us, planning fun adventures for us, making sure we are safe, putting gas in the cars, grocery shopping, helping with doctor's appointments, taking Carter and Summer to school, watching girly shows on tv with me, cheering for the dawgs with us, loving us better than anyone, and for being our daddy, husband, best friend, and favorite!  We love you to the moon and back a whole bunch of times!

Thanksgiving in Branson.

Well, I have lots to catch up on.  We've had Thanksgiving, a broken bone, and two birthdays!  

Last Sunday after my photo shoot, we hit the road headed north to Papa and Gigi's house.  The children could not have been more excited.  They have been talking about this trip for weeks.  Even Story has been telling everyone, "We going to Branson!" 

And Branson was our Thanksgiving destination, but we opted to break up our trip a little with an overnighter at Papa and Gigi's.  Papa took Monday off to spend the day with our crew.  The children had so much fun riding his "tractor!" 

Even little bit got a turn!

When the riding was over, the big 3 weren't a bit deterred.  They continued to "ride" in the safety of the garage.  Tuesday, we got up and headed North once again to Branson, where we would spend the majority of Thanksgiving week.  

Tuesday night, we toured Winter Wonderland with our family.  

These two hit it off quickly and were inseparable most of the time we were together.  Such cuties!

Carter could not wait to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  

And Story could not wait to get as far away from Santa as possible, finding safety in the lap of Papa.  

Then, we lined up to ride the famous ducks.  During the day, they drive you around town on the land, and then you ride out into the water.  We opted for the nighttime ride, so we could look at Christmas lights instead.  It was so much fun!

Or can't you tell from the looks on these sweet faces how much fun we were having!

Tilly!

My SIL took this picture of Story and me.  Don't you love Story's cheese face?!  Wednesday, we didn't venture out too much.  We rode over the Landings and walked around a little.  We were holding out for the big entertainment of the night, The Dixie Stampede!  The children and I had never been, and we had such a great time!  You can't take pictures inside, but I should have gotten a picture of us before we went in.  I guess we were just way too excited.  Thursday, we had a delicious meal, thanks to Gigi.  The children watched movies and played while the adults visited.  Uncle Larry and Aunt Laura from Kansas joined us for the day.  It was such a nice day, until. . .

This was the beginning of the end.  David and I probably should have stopped this madness, but they were having so much fun.  

Never did we dream that one of our children would leap through the wall of pillows and face plant on the hardwood floors.  

Oh, but she did, breaking her glasses and her arm! Carter later told us that she sailed right over his head!  Yikes!

David, Tilly, and I spent a couple of hours in the Ricky Skaggs ER on Thanksgiving night with our sweet Tilly.  She was such a trooper.  

And the xrays confirmed what we already knew, she fractured her left wrist.  

Friday, Papa and Gigi bravely and graciously offered to take our four babes back to Arkansas with them, leaving David and I in Branson with a little time to ourselves.  We were able to do a little shopping and enjoy a quiet lunch at this cute little cafe at Big Cedar Lodge.  So fun! 

Friday night, I kept this little one close to me, and we had a much better night than the one before.  

Our party of six loaded up and headed home to MS Saturday morning.  Thank you, Papa and Gigi, for a fun and very memorable Thanksgiving week!  We love you!

Our brown-eyed girl.

I have always loved this song, so I think it to be lots of fun that we have not one, but two beautiful, brown-eyed girls in our house.  And a beautiful blue-eyed one, but we'll talk about her another time.  This post is all about Tilly!

In light of this being the week of Thanksgiving, I wanted to document that Tilly not only has beautiful brown eyes, but she also has healthy brown eyes!  Wahoo!  A couple of weeks ago, David took her for a check up.  We have been going every two months since her diagnosis.  I am so grateful to report that Tilly only has to wear her patch for two hours a day now, but most importantly, we have successfully avoided surgery!  That's a lot to be thankful for! 

I am so proud of Tilly for being such a trooper and faithfully wearing her patch each day without a lot of complaining.  This says so much about her little spirit.  We love you, our little brown-eyed girl!

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Princess Yellow Butterfly

The kindergartners each year put on a Thanksgiving program at PCS.  This was our very first school program to attend last year, after moving in October.  We were so impressed by the sweet program!  This year was Summer's turn, or should I say Princess Yellow Butterfly, as her Indian name would be for the day.  So cute!  She has been talking about her new name and her Indian costume for the last few weeks, so we were excited to finally see it!  

I think little sister was excited to see her big sister, too!  How sweet is this!

Daddy and his mini me after the program.  

My big girl and me!  I cannot believe she is in Kindergarten. 

Summer and one of her favorite friends at school.  I took some more pictures with my "real" camera, but I have not uploaded them yet.  One of these days, I will get to it, ha!  

Summer, we loved watching you sing songs and recite Bible verses with your classmates today!  Thank you for reminding us of all that we have to be thankful for!  We are so very thankful for YOU!

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Look who's two and a half!

How did this even happen?  How can you already be two and a half?  Story, the first two and a half years of your little life have been so much fun!  You bring so much joy and sweetness into our home, and the five of us couldn't love you more if we tried!

 Here's what you're up to at 2 1/2 besides being the cutest thing ever!

•  You wear size 2T in most things.  In dresses a 3 or 4T fits you better because you are tall.  
• You wear size 9 shoe.  And oh how you love shoes!  Your favorites are your rain boots from T! 
• Your favorite show on television is Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, and you ask for it regularly! It's a cute new show that's a spin-off of Mr. Rogers.  
• Your favorite toys are baby dolls, blocks, crayons, and books.  

•  You love to talk and talk and talk.  And you love to sing.  Some of your favorite songs are : Pete the Cat, Row Row Row Your Boat, Indescribable, Jesus Loves Me, Little Bunny Foo Foo, and whatever else we can come up with to sing.  
• We have had lots of fun watching you learn and grow.  You know your ABCs and can count up to 14.  

•  Your eyes are a beautiful blue, definitely a different blue than Carter's.  Your hair is sandy brown and has grown so much in the last few months.  You've only had one trim, and it's probably time for another!
• You are a good sleeper.  You take one nap, ranging between 1.5-3 hours.  You go to bed at 7 most nights and sleep until about 7 the next morning.  Occasionally, you wake up early in the morning and have to potty.  After that, you like to climb into bed with us, ha!  

•  You are very attached.  To me.  You love to be wherever I am.  And you love to help.  You love to help me with the dishes, the laundry, cooking, getting the mail, taking out the trash.  You're just my little shadow, and we go everywhere together.  I mean everywhere, ha!
• If I seem to be overly busy, you'll tell me:  "Mommy, sit so I can cuddle with you!" So sweet.  And convicting.   I love this about you!  David and I often say that we feel like we are really able to enjoy you and this age even more than we were able to with your older siblings because there was always another baby on the way!  We are just trying to relish each moment.  

•  You're potty trained!  Yay!  We are very proud of you for how well you have done.  October 1 was d-day, and we didn't look back.  You've done great.  We painted lots of little fingers and toes.  We sang lot of songs and read lots of books.  I won't go into details about all of it, ha!  We are just proud of you and thankful to be diaper and pull-up free after 6 years of changing little bottoms.  

•  This month, we began sending you to Mother's Day Out at our church just one day a week.  I told David the first day you came home, you looked so much bigger!  You've only been two days so far, but you have really seemed to enjoy "going to school!" 
• You continue to go with me to the gym most mornings each week.  We had a spell about a month ago when you didn't like for me to leave you.  There were a couple of times when I had to go get you and we just walked on the track, ha!  I think we are over that for now.  

•  You make the funniest faces and say the funniest things, mostly things you've heard your siblings say, or at least your own version of what you hear.  
• We just love your little personality!
• You are a pretty good eater.  I think you would prefer to snack, if we would let you.  Some of your favorites are french fries, ketchup, chicken nuggets, grapes, yogurt, eggs, pancakes, bacon, crackers, cookies, cheese, pbj, catfish.  You've even tried sushi!  

• You are quite independent.  You love to dress yourself in the mornings and most days you get it right!  I lay your clothes out the night before, and you dress  yourself.  
• You entertain yourself well, especially when you forget I'm around, ha! The other night the big 3 were playing, your daddy and I were watching TV, and you were sitting on top of the train table playing contentedly with your toys.  It was such a sweet sight.  

Story, Mommy, Daddy, Carter, Summer, & Tilly love you so very much.  We love your laugh, it's the cutest thing, ever.  We love your sweet smile and great hugs.  We love your on the mouth kisses and how you want to be tucked in just so at night.  We love how you complete our family.  We love you to the moon and back!

Wordless Wednesday.

What's on my nightstand lately.

 I haven't blogged about what I've been reading in a while, so I thought it was time!  I read as often as I'm able to, but lately I've just been reading one book, the Book.  I'm on day 76 of the read through the Bible in 90 days, so I have not had much time to read other things, and that's been fine.  I've enjoyed focusing on just one thing right now.  

Just as summertime was ending, I picked up and read this book.  It's a true story, which I don't usually read, but it came recommended by some of my friends at the gym, so I picked it up.  It was a great and easy read.  I am a sucker for a love story, and this book had it all.  Love.  Friendship.  Betrayal.  Hurt.  Redemption.  I loved it! 

Here she is.  This book has dominated my time over the last 76 days, and I cannot think of a better book to spend so much time reading.  This is my second time to go through the Bible in 90 days.  This time, I opted for the Chronological read through, and I've really loved it.  The flipping back and forth got a little crazy, so I downloaded this Bible onto my Kindle and decided to read it that way.  Much easier.  I really enjoyed reading the Psalms along with the life of King David, and I loved reading through the gospels of the life of Christ.  I'm in the middle of Acts now, and it's easily one of my favorite books of the New Testament.  Don't worry, I already have a couple of reads picked out for when I finish.  

A group of ladies in our church is getting together and doing a book club where we will read and meet once a month to discuss.  We are reading this book, and I'm definitely intrigued.  It's already downloaded on my Kindle, and I look forward to learning more about trafficking that seems to be more and more prevalent in many towns.  

When I found out Angie Smith had written and published a new book, I picked up a copy for myself and one for a friend.  I loved her last book, so I am sure this one will be a great read as well.  I love the truth that God can take us, messed and broken as we are and lovingly put us back together and make us whole.  He's good like that.  I'd love to hear what you're reading these days.  I am always looking for a new book to read. One of my favorite times to read these days is at the gym on the treadmill.  I love killing two birds with one stone, ha! I also love to read at night just before bed.  Occasionally, I am able to read at nap time, but not always.  I have the Kindle app on my phone, so my books are always with me.  When life is busy, it's nice to find a moment or two throughout the day to read a bit.  

Down, set, hut!

Today marked another first for our family.  Carter began his first flag football season, and he loved it!  This past Thursday, he had his first practice, and he came home so excited about it.  

 If you're not familiar with the Upward program, you should really check it out.  Quality.  See that yellow blow up tunnel at the top of the picture?  The little fellas run through it before the game starts, so fun!  

 Stretching and warming up before the big game.  

 Huddling up to pray before they start.  I love this!

 This makes me think of that Kenny Chesney song, "The Boys of Fall!" Ha! 

 Love these cuties sitting on the sidelines watching their big brother.  

 Look at his ups!  Carter got to play offense and defense, another great perk about Upward.  Everyone gets to play equal time and the boys get to play a variety of positions.  Not ideal forever, but great when they are just learning.  

 We love our #5!

 Look at those sweet faces.  

 There are few things sweeter than this.  And how BIG does Story look?  Goodness!

 Carter got to play QB for two downs.  He was 2-2 on completions!  Awesome!

 I wonder if these young coaches have any idea how much these little guys look up to them?  I doubt it!

Great first game, Carter!  We look forward to watching you all season long!  We love you, #5!