A Story about a girl

My girl...

Her hair is officially long enough to be put in a ponytail. I need lots of practice but have assured her that by the time she starts school I will have it mastered.

She loves McDonald's

She is growing way to fast and more stubborn than her brothers ever thought about being.

She went for her first dental visit the other day and since I am the mother of the year I let her go WALKING to the back with her bottle hanging between her teeth while she was holding on for dear life to her lovie with both hands. The Dentist looked at me and let me know that she has security issues. I looked at him and said, "nope she's just the third child and security has nothing to do with it." He politely told me that she needed to loose the bottle and I assured him she wouldn't be taking it to Kindergarten. He then asked me if I let her take it to bed and I had decided that he had enough shock from me for one day so I said, "Of course not, I would never let her do that. We brush her teeth after her bath and then she goes to bed." Wonder if he believed me? Probably not!

My girl does not have security issues, she just knows what she likes and her lovie and her bottle are her two favorite things and right now I choose not to fix what isn't broken.

She isn't picky about when and where she sleeps. If under my desk on the hard floor is where she decides to crash, then so be it.

If the dining room floor works for her....Who am I to say No?

I did draw a line when she fell asleep at the bottom of the stairs so I picked her up put her in her bed, and shut the door.

Of course, she didn't stay asleep, got out of her bed, opened her door, slid down the stairs on her belly and decided she would try a different spot on the same hard tile floor.

So in front of the door to the garage is where she took her nap that day!

When you have a girl who climbed out of her crib and you had no choice but to move her to a big girl bed, and you have one who is tall enough to open her bedroom door, and she refuses to let you rock her to sleep, you just chalk it up to she is the 3rd child and move on.

Sometimes she is a little too big for her britches shoes but

someday soon enough she will be able to wear my shoes and it will happen faster than I can blink. Until then I will just let her wear her crooked ponytails, eat her McDonald's french fries, carry around her bottle between her teeth, her lovie in both hands, and let her sleep wherever she gosh darn pleases during nap time.

She is the third child, very independent, stubborn as a mule, adorable in every way, and spoiled beyond belief and I wouldn't have her any other way! She is perfect and wonderfully made and she is mine to love and raise!

I really am far from being the mother of the year and have never claimed to know all there is to know about being a mother. I do my best with a whole lot of praying and frustration and am very thankful that I am never given more than I can handle at any given moment.

This is the story of my girl and someday she will have her own story to write about raising children and my only hope is that she does it better than I did and that she will cry through the tough times, smile through all of the small things, laugh at herself when she is criticized, and love them enough that she would give her life for any of them.

This is the story of my girl and my life raising a girl!

A Risen Savior, family, and friends...

Makes for one of the best Easters ever!

The kids were super excited about the Easter Bunny and decided that 5:00 would be a great time to wake up after not going to bed until after midnight. Mom didn't think that was a good time, so I told them to go back to bed. After a visit to my room every 30 minutes until 7:00 I finally said, OK lets go see what he brought.

He didn't disappoint. They boys both got fancy new bat bags, Ellee got sand toys and bubbles, and he brought beach towels for our vacation this summer.

We went to church this morning, the boys played in the bell choir, we enjoyed a fabulous service, then it was off to Aunt Janet's for Brunch.

She fixed some amazing stuff, hid Easter eggs for several hunts and she doesn't mess around with making it simple to find eggs. She even had a golden egg with $10.00 in it. Who wouldn't love an Aunt like that?

I will be so sad when my oldest one finds hunting eggs to0 childish. I know it's coming faster than I want it to.
This one was extremly exhausted from too little sleep and found hunting easter eggs this year made you whine a lot when your brother found one and you didn't.

These amazing people joined us for Brunch. Jim and Cindy Leach are from Bird City too. Jim was best friends with Grandpa Bob his whole life and Cynthia is named after his lovely wife Cindy. They live here in Wichita and own Jim and Cindy's Tours and didn't waste any time at all spoiling my kids. They brought each one of them Easter baskets filled with fun candy, cookies, and rabbits and they certainly won my kids' hearts right away. Thanks Jim and Cindy! It was so nice to finally meet you and please don't be strangers!

We hope that you all had a very Happy Easter and made memories worth remembering with the ones that you love this Easter.

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

When the boys are coloring Easter eggs...

The baby will play....

In the POWDERED SUGAR she got out of the cabinet that she is not supposed to be in!

A face that a Mama can't help but love!

Sittin' On Top Of The World

Sometimes, I wish I could see the future. Will they be as tall as Daddy? Will they always have their fun personalities? Will Caden always look at sports the way he does today? Will Reece always be mechanically curious about everything? Will Ellee always be Daddy's little girl? Will the two boys always protect her? Will they always be as close as they are today?

Sometimes I wish I could see the future and other days I'm just glad I just get to experience it a little bit at a time.

I'm a big girl now!

Cribs are a thing of the past for me. I am moving on up and am now the proud owner of my very own full size bed.

Night number one was a little rough because it was new and a little scary.

By nap time today I had it all figured out!

I'm a "BIG" girl now and don't worry about my Mommy, she is ok with me making the move!

Proof that...

spring is knocking on the door




and at 3:30 today spring break begins and I couldn't be more excited about it! We don't have any huge plans but the weather is suppose to be remarkable and you can bet we will be out enjoying every minute we can get. Days spent with friends, days spent getting really dirty, sleep overs, picking kids up from sleep overs or dropping them off because the idea sounded fabulous until it was time to actually call it a night, trips to the park, the river...Oh it's gonna be a great week and I can't wait!

In the beginning Pa Created the Dinosaur

Caden's class has been studying dinosaurs and with this, they had to invent a dinosaur over the weekend.

We recruited Pa and the creation of one very fabulous Ski-Jump-asaurus was invented.

First a skeleton must be constructed.

His skin must then be applied.

We also had to recruit Iya for this project.

OH! and El too!

I think about now Pa was really wishing that he would have just colored a dinosaur!

Iya soon had to get her hands dirty too!

Then the dinosaur was tired of holding his neck up so we had to help him by tying him to the dining room light

He truly is an egg-head!

The tip of his tail is constructed out of a cake decorating tip!

All 84 Olympic countries are represented on the body of this dinosaur. Just don't ask us which flag is for which country.

Every Ski-Jump-asaurus must have a United States of America ski jumper.

This is a GOLD medal Dinosaur if ever there was one.

Thanks Pa and Iya for coming up this weekend and helping Caden with his project. You should have seen the look on his face when he walked into that room with the most awesome dinosaur on the planet.

Note: Pa is NOT for hire!