First day of school

Well, here we are a week into school and I'm now posting about it. Sophia is in kindergarten and Ellie in preschool. Soph loves school and wakes up excited to go! Ellie is a little on the fence about things. She loves being able to play, but she told me "I just wish you could come with me"! Oh, melt my heart! She's definitely a Momma's girl! I wouldn't have even put in her school, but she begged and begged to go last year when we would drop Soph off at preschool! We told her that she could go this year, and I hated to back out on my word. Even though I really, really want her home with me!

Soph went right into her class, sat at her desk and didn't even look back. I'm glad she didn't have any hesitation, but a little hug would've been nice, haha!

Both girls are having a bit of a hard time getting use to not taking naps. They're pretty cranky, honestly. They're in bed by 6 every night. Seriously. Which is awesome during the week but not so much on the weekends when they're up at 6:30.

Here's to a good first week! Hopefully the rest of the year is the same!

Ready or not here we go...to kindergarten and preschool!!

I wrote this last week and forgot to post it. Oops!...

Sophia Grace starts kindergarten tomorrow! Where has the time gone you ask? I have no clue! All I know is, like every older mother warned me about, she was a newborn, I blinked, and now she's starting kindergarten. It's really true. It went by so.fast. I've been a messy sap all day. This morning I sat down in the rocker with my cup of coffee and I immediately thought about all the times I rocked her as a tiny baby in that very seat. In those moments kindergarten seemed like an eternity away. Now it's here. I could go on and on about the anxiety I feel. The fear I have of sending one of the most important things in my life off for someone else to watch. For six hours a day. But we won't focus on that, haha! She is super excited!

Ellie starts pre-school on Wednesday. Yeah, it's going to be a doozy of a week for me! She's excited, but I can tell that there is some hesitation there as well. She told me that she is only going to school for the playground. Later that night when we were talking about her school Joe asked her if she was going to learn her numbers and letters. She told him, "no. that's the other class. I'm just going to play." She is definitely my daughter. I once told my grandfather not to be so serious when he was trying to teach me to count.

Here are a few pictures from the girls Open Houses. I am so thankful that we moved back home. If someone would have told me this time last year that we would be back in Florida I would've laughed at them. But we are and I am so thankful for it!! Having our friends and people we know go to school with the girls makes this transition so much easier!!

Girls trip

My sister recently moved from San Diego, CA to Charlottesville, VA. We are super close so this is like heaven for me! The girls, me and my aunt headed over last week for a couple of days. I love having my sister this close! In the next month I will have seen her more than I did in all of last year!

 

My sister has Emma that is only 9 months older than Sophie Grace. They just adore each other which makes my heart so happy! Even though they've lived on different coasts their entire lives they call each other best friends. Ah, I love it!

 

I thought I was going to have to cut my trip short because Elle only slept a couple hours the first two nights. It was miserable. She is always a poor sleeper when we travel, but this was a whole new level. She eventually gave her Momma a break and slept great the rest of the trip. Thank the Lord!

 

We went to Chuck E Cheeses one day. The girls were deliriously happy! My camera was messing up so I didn't get any pictures. Boo! Soph was really trying to act cool for her big cousin because she kept telling me to go away. It really took a lot for this Momma to walk away. So it begins...

 

We had such a great trip! We plan on making another trip next month, but this time Joe will come with us! Yay! Thankfully my Brother-in-law and husband get a long really well! It would be pretty unfortunate if they didn't because they would be forced to hang out a lot :).

 

From a Momma's Heart

I've taken a bit of a break this summer from most things including this blog. Anyone who is close to us knows that the past couple of years have been, well, crazy. We've had one hit after another. It was so bad that there were actually a couple of days where I was scared to go out of my house for fear of the sky falling on me. Because that was the kind of "freak" things that were happening. Not really freak, but frequent, I guess. With the grace of God I just kept rolling with these hits. However this last move did me in. I was exhausted. I was tired. I was not being the Momma that my heart longed to be to my babies. I was disappointed in myself which added to the frustration.

One day it hit me. Quit. Just quit and play with your babies. Don't worry if the house is clean. Don't worry if my hair is fixed. Don't worry about the laundry piling up. Just have fun with my girls. Take naps. Shut the door to the laundry room on our way out to the pool. Embrace my naturally curly tresses. Although, let's be honest, I'm way too much of a Southern Belle to not at least pull a curling iron through a couple pieces.

So, what was my schedule like this summer? Breakfast, Work out, Naps, Lunch, Pool, Dinner, Bed. Every.single.day.

And I loved it. I took more naps this summer than I have in my entire "Mommy hood".

And I got a pretty nice tan.

And made some fun memories.

But most of all I got rest. And time to reflect on the Momma, Wife, and person I want to be.

I got to reflect on the blessings in my life. Things that I am so thankful that God has given me.

About a month ago I was afraid that I would never get out of this funk I was in. But last week something clicked and I felt better.

Having down time showed me where I had become jaded by our circumstances the past five years. I had survived, but not very well.

Having down time also showed me that I'm a uptight. I'm so consumed with making sure that the girls are what people and society think they should be that I'm missing the joys of them. All I can do is love them. Trust God and the instincts He gave me to mother them. And teach them to treat others the way they want to be treated. Every thing will turn out ok.

I've learned to trust myself. I've learned that I'm never going to be perfect and that's ok. The people that I was trying so hard to be perfect for will always find something wrong so stop trying. It's not worth the hassle, stress, or heart ache.

I've seen how good God is. Not because there isn't pain, heart ache, and devastation, but because through these things He is constant.

**I also have to say a huge thank you to my husband for supporting me in my sabbatical from housework. He never complained and even pitched in on the weekends.

Water, Sun, and all that's fun

These sweet girls have been little fishes lately! I'm so thankful to have a fun place to take the girls so they can wear themselves out instead of me, ha! 

Saturday we took the girls to downtown Lexington to check out some of the historical sites. Joe and I have already done this, but thought it would be fun to do as a family. Our poor girls! Joe and I both love history so I see a lot of boring trips in their future.

Sweet Sophie! Look at her hilarious face!

How did I get so lucky to have such sweet babies?!



Life has settled down and for that I am so thankful! The girls are back into a "routine" and adjusted to sleeping in the same room. Every day I am discovering something new that I love about living in Lexington!

Soph is keeping us laughing! The stuff this girl comes up with is out of control! Who knows where she gets it from. I've got to "document" it or else I will totally forget!

1) The other day Soph was calling for Elle and said, "Come here you little meat ball"

2) She was trying to get some food from her plate onto her spoon and was having some difficulties and said "Get on there you lil' feller."

3) Today she locked herself in the bathroom. This is becoming a regular occurrence, but luckily she will unlock it when I ask her to. Well, this morning when she opened the door I saw that she was into my perfumes which she knows she can't do. When she saw the look on my face she immediately said "Excuse me. You're in my space." And tried to shut the door. Nice try, 3-going-on-16 yr old, but this Momma is gonna be in your space for the rest of your life!

I've already forgotten the rest. Boo!

New place, new memories

We're pretty much all settled in our new place! We have a few odds and ends to finish and then all the decorations to put up. But all boxes have been unpacked. Thank the Lord! I hate packing/unpacking.

The girls have been troopers! We have them sharing a room and it's been an adventure. Some nights I considered picking up drinking. We'll figure this thing out eventually. Lots of people do it, right? We'll survive. Right?

This move has made me realize that I'm a city girl. Well, Lexington city girl, not a Tampa type city girl. Lexington really is one of the most beautiful cities, ever. There are rolling hills, beautiful horse farms, and lots of shopping! We literally live with in walking distance to an amazing outside mall. We have everything we could possible need. Literally. It's amazing!

And you may ask what is the very best thing about our location? Easy. Chick Fil A and Target. I can hear the angels singing.