Sweet Adoption Moment

When Caroline was 4 1/2 we had a sweet night planned with all of her favorite things.  We read her "God Found Us You."  We talked about her adoption and what it meant.  It paved the way for any questions that she may have had over the last 6 plus years. 

We wanted to do the same for Maggie but sadly it just never happened.  This morning was a slow morning, we were making cinnamon rolls, which are her favorite.  The idea came to me to use this morning as her day.  So we read the same book to her.  (Thanks to Mr. Chris, Mrs. Charissa and Catherine, each girl has her own personalized copy of this book!)  I was overcome with tears and Caroline finished the book.  It is such a sweet and precious book!

After reading the book, we looked at her hospital and shower albums.  Caroline brought out her album for us to look at as well.  It was a sweet morning and I'm so thankful for each of our girls and their story!  I pray that they will ALWAYS know what a precious gift they are to us!!!!

Friday Night Fun

Last night Caroline got together with her friends Kylie and McCall to hang out...I guess that is what 11 year olds do right?  Kylie's mom ordered Pizza, cheese bread and cinnamon sticks for a yummy Friday night meal.  The girls ate, played and laughed a lot.  You can tell our world is changing because we had to stay up past our regular bedtime to wait for Caroline to get home! :-)

Of course, Maggie felt that we needed to have a date night since Caroline wasn't home.  When we asked her where she wanted to go, she said "the 55 place."  After dinner, we went to Party City to look around.  It was a random date but she was so excited and happy.  We came home and watched a movie before bed.

It was a sweet Friday for everyone!!

Afternoon Carline

The sun was shinning, a gentle breeze was blowing, Maggie was napping and I was reading a book!  It as a perfect afternoon in carline!!!

Maggie's Play date with Meir Ruth

In the last 2 weeks, Caroline has had 3 "play dates" according to Maggie and she hasn't had ANY!  So she wanted to know when she was going to have a play date with a friend.  So we made plans to hang out with our friend Meir Ruth.  MR goes to school with us so it was easy. I packed a picnic lunch for us to enjoy after school on the playground.  We ran a few quick errands, picked Caroline up from school and played at our house a little while before taking her home. The girls had a blast and Maggie was super thankful for her play date.  Now she is trying to figure out when we can have another friend come over.

Annual Birthday Oyster Roast

This is one of my absolute favorite things my family does each year.  It started about 10 years ago and has become an annual tradition.  We are together at Christmas, we find a date that works for everyone.  We all celebrate our birthday's with oysters, catfish and crab balls galore.  It is a yummy, delicious treat!   We eat, we laugh, we eat some more!  I am so thankful for my Momma who works so hard to prepare all of this for us.  I'm thankful for Daniel and Claire who always host.  This year was a little extra special as we celebrated Claire, who is a leap year baby, whose 40th birthday is right around the corner!  So much fun!! 

 The kids working on their campfire...

 According to Maggie 'Jake is axing some wood while I hold it.'

Daddy Daughter Dance

 These girls absolutely LOVE this night.  They love getting dressed up, they love having Daddy all to themselves and they love dancing with friends. This is the first year that we have had to shop for dresses for the dance.  Typically they have a dress in their closet that they can wear.  We were lucky to find these dresses on clearance at Target a few weeks ago.

We spent the afternoon getting dressed, fixing hair and adding a little makeup.  As a momma it was so much fun to help them.  Maggie was so excited about every little braid and every single curl I gave her.  Caroline was a little more independent but she still wanted me to fix her braided bun.  She did her own make up. :-)  Before going to the dance, they met Mr. Tim, Kaitlyn and Emma Grace at iHop for dinner.  They were pretty excited about pancakes and bacon for dinner!

They were so excited for Daddy to see them one at a time.  The first picture is his reaction to Caroline and the second is his reaction to Maggie.  Y'all they were all 3 BEAMING! :0)  It was such a sweet moment!

 Maggie wanted her flower bracelet FIRST!  Imagine that!

 Take a picture of my bow.

 Every girl needs a dress that can twirl!

 I'm still trying to decide who is the lucky one...daddy with 2 beautiful girls or 2 beautiful girls with a pretty awesome daddy???

 Walking to the truck Maggie said "Let me hold your arm like a wife, please."

I enjoyed a quiet evening to myself...goat cheese pizza, a wedge salad and the first two episodes of "Downton Abby."  I prayed for their time in between.  Maggie was bouncing off the walls with excitement!!!  It was precious!

They all came home smiling which was a good thing.  Andy was exhausted and a wee bit overwhelmed but he said they had a wonderful time!!  It took Maggie about 2 minutes to fall asleep!  Caroline wasn't too far behind.

Girl I am SO tired!

We were discussing Maggie's 'lack of desire" to help with evening cleaning.

Maggie:  "Girl!  I couldn't help it...I mean I was so tired...have you EVER been SO TIRED that you just COULDN'T make yourself pick up another thing???"

Me:  "Yes my child I have...Not get to WORK!"

STEM Night

We had STEM night at Caroline's school tonight.  Some of the activities were geared toward older kids while some were appropriate for all ages.  The girls had a great time!

Fun with Aunt Jill

In honor of President's Day, we were all home!  We didn't have big plans for today but we did want to do something fun.  Well that all changed last night around 8 when Maggie started running fever.  We were thankful to have a quiet day to allow her to rest.  She slept well last night and woke up feeling great.  We took a walk outside as a family and Andy pulled her in the wagon while she colored.  She was definitely living her best life.  

When we came back, I realized that I had 3 missed calls and 2 text messages from my friend Jill.  She wanted to kidnap Caroline for some fun at our local trampoline park.  Caroline was thrilled, Mags was in tears.  Well Daddy saved the day and told Maggie he would take her to do something fun.  (But there weren't too many options considering she was not truly well.)  I offered to join the fun but she insisted that it was just her and daddy!  They took off to ride the tractors aka lawn mowers at Lowe's which she loves! (open air, shouldn't spread anything to anybody)

Caroline had a blast and thought it was awesome to get to go to the trampoline park without us!  Aunt Jill is always more fun than Momma!  AND to make the experience better, Aunt Jill bought everyone a drink once they were finished...Caroline got a Pepsi, not water or Sprite, which we would typically allow!  :-)  She was THRILLED! :-)

I'm extremely thankful that so far, Maggie has been fever free today.  Praying that it continues so that we can go back to school on Wednesday.  We have been extremely blessed that this is our first round of sickness this winter. I pray that this will be it. :-)

Eden Caroline's Birthday

Maggie's little friends birthday party was rescheduled for today.  It was a gorgeous day!  Maggie was super excited to see Eden Caroline.  They were in preschool together since fun ones.  They haven't seen each other since Maggie's birthday party in July.  It was a sweet day to celebrate Eden Caroline especially with JoJo Siwa as a special guest! :-)

Just what I needed...

I spent some time this morning cleaning, which seems like it never ends.  The girls are great helpers yet it just doesn't ever seem to be enough to actually stay clean.  So I decided to take break.  I steeped some hot tea and sat down to read an article Maggie's teacher sent home for us.  It was an article on 5 prayers we can pray over our children.  As I was sitting down to read it, Maggie brought me her Friday note from school.  The sweet note from Mrs. Baker was a breath of fresh air for this tired Momma.  Every child needs a teacher like Mrs. Baker...she makes learning fun while making childhood great.  Every momma needs the wise words of Mrs. Baker. to remind us what is important and that the Lord truly walks with us during this journey!!  This lady is real treasure in our family!!!

Valentine's Dinner

The girls asked what our plans were for Valentine's Day.  I told them I wasn't really sure.  They said "well we always have pancakes and sprinkles for dinner."  Well I guess we do...hadn't really realized that was our tradition.  So I made our annual heart shaped cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  For dinner, we all worked in the kitchen to fry bacon and create heart shaped pancakes.  The girls got to chose their toppings.  Both girls chose chocolate chips and sprinkles with whip cream on top.  I had chocolate chip pancakes with bananas and whip cream.  Delicious!  Then we watched "The Little Mermaid" on Disney+.  Thankful for a sweet day!

Preschool Valentine's Day Celebration

Maggie and her friends preformed the sweetest little Valentine's songs for us today.  Then they gave us our gifts...a beautiful Valentine and a delicious heart shaped cookie that they decorated for us.  After a special snack, we sat down and read her Valentine's.  It was so sweet.  Somebody mentioned it was our last preschool Valentine's celebration and then the lump formed in my throat and tears came to my eyes...shew!

Hoecakes, grits and missing Mema

We are slowly finishing the winter months and I realized we hadn't had Mema's hoecakes yet.  Well we couldn't let that happen so we made sure to add it to this week's menu.  Tonight as I told Maggie about Mema's hoecakes and how she always made them for me, I got so sad.  I miss her so much!  She was a precious lady.  I told Maggie how Mema didn't 'like' for me to stay by myself when Andy traveled places overnight.  (I think she knew I didn't like staying by myself so if she offered I didn't have to ask!)  She would always invite me to come over and would make a delicious meal for me to enjoy.  Almost every morning, she would prepare something hot for breakfast for me to take to work...what I wouldn't give for a bacon sandwich these days! -)

Maggie's Major Playground Accomplishment

I happened to walk outside and Maggie started screaming for me to watch.  Apparently she has never been able to climb this part of the playground equipment.  She was SO proud of herself and made sure to show all the teachers she could do it! :-)

Carline Sweetness

These days are numbered and I want to soak up and savor every single one of them...well at least the sweet ones!! :-)

A sweet and thoughtful gift

Typically Andy and I don't exchange gifts for Valentine's.  It's usually just a box of our favorite candy and a card.  A few weeks ago, Andy said he had found the perfect gift...that I would use it everyday and I would LOVE it!  Well I couldn't think of what it would be.  Yesterday while we were out, we got notification that the package was at the FedEx office and Andy wanted to pick it up.  After we got it, he said he wanted to get a cup of coffee before I opened it.  After getting coffee, he poured it inside and slowly I saw the sweetest picture of me and my Daddy on our wedding day!  I had big ole peccadillo tears in my eyes...so so sweet and thoughtful!  He definitely wins the award this year!!