Saturday, February 16, 2013

Wesleigh's birthday

Wow.  Between Chinese New Year, Wesleigh's birthday and Valentine's Day, I feel like I haven't had time to breath!

I am going to give the girls a combined party with their friends in March, but we wanted to celebrate Wesleigh's special day with our family.

She was over the moon excited, and loved her Ariel cake.
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We let Gracie have a turn too.  On a sidenote...Let me say that blowing out candles is one of those things that totally grosses me out!!  Little kid germs spraying a cake before you eat it.  Yuck!
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You already saw the video of this but here's the pic :)
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I love Gracie's face here.  They really wanted Pocahontus dresses.  My mom decided to give both dresses at the same time.  It was a smart move because Gracie would have been so sad to not have one :(
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How cute are they??
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My parents
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Richard's dad and sister
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Can I just say that I'm feeling a little overwhelmed over here??  These next couple of months are shaping up to be insanely crazy,  and the kicker is me leaving to go to CHINA!  It's all good, and fun...I'm just hoping I can pull it all off!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!!

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valentine 2013 Wesleigh - Page 001

There is lots going on here for Valentine's Day. From high school boys with big teddy bears to preschoolers excited to bring valentines to their friends. Our celebration started yesterday when this was delivered to our door.

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 Richard is out of town today, so he made sure all his girls were taken care of :) The girls were thrilled to get their first delivery of flowers :) Feb2013-3363

Here's the highschooler leaving with his goodies for his valentine: Feb2013-3360

Poor Braden tried to wrap his valentine's gift, and was just fine with the way it turned out.  I'm prettty good about letting them do their own thing like this...but I couldn't let this one go...
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Here's the gift he brought this morning :)
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Piles of valentines for preschool :
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Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Lessez Les Bon Temp Rouler

Let the good times roll! One place that is always a good time is preschool :) I'm not a real lover of Mardi Gras, but this little preschool parade is the best!  The kids are out of school for Mardi Gras, but they had a big celebration before school let out Friday.

The 4 year olds got to start the parade dancing and playing instruments.  (There are videos at the bottom if you want to see)
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Then the chants of "Throw me somethin' mister"are followed by lots of beads.
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Then it was time for our very own "second line".  Everyone dances around waving their hankerchiefs.
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This bulletin board just made me happy :)
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Of course, the day would not be complete without enjoying some king cake :)
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You've just got to love Preschool :)
 All of these are super short, in case you want to see what the parade was really like :)









Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Down here in the south, most people are celebrating Mardi Gras today.  The kids are even out of school because of it.  But in this house, we are celebrating something much bigger and more exciting!!

Wesleigh Jane is FIVE!!

She has been waiting for this day, and even though we celebrated on Sunday, she knew she would not really be 5 until today.  Her daddy got up early and got donuts and a king cake for her :)

I have some party pics to share, but wanted to get these up this morning.  It's been raining all weekend so there weren't many opportunities to get any decent pics.  Who needs the sun when you live with this little ball of sunshine though!!


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This is the new face she gives me for every pic.  SO silly!
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This one just makes me laugh.  You can see the clouds in the background and the wind was blowing so hard.  Her piggies were going crazy.  I don't think she was amused :)
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Monday, February 11, 2013

...The Rest of the Story :)

We have had so much going on that I need to post...Mardi Gras parades, Wesleigh's birthday, and Chinese New Year!  I haven't even started going through all the pics :(

I did think though, since my last post left you with such a rosy, perfect view of the sisters in this house...I might give you another view :)

We had a small family celebration of Wesleigh's birthday last night.  Here is a different look at the "sisterhood"!  lol... this video isn't the greatest quality, but it's still funny!

Friday, February 8, 2013

Sisterhood

I never had a sister.  I always wanted one, but I just had 2 stinky brothers :)  I have only been able to observe the "sisterhood" from the outside in and wonder what it would be like.  Of course, I have some friends who I would call my sisters...but I'm sure it's not really the same.

It has been amazing to watch my girls become sisters.  Because I'm with them both everyday, I don't think I have really noticed how strong their bond has become.  When I took Gracie for 2 weeks to Cincinnati three months after she had come home, they loved to see each other on skype but there was no talk about missing each other.  This week was different!

Richard and I brought Wesleigh to see a new pediatric neurosurgeon in Birmingham.  We were only gone one night, but both my girls missed the other one greatly.  We decided to spoil Wesleigh the entire time and fill her up with all the love and attention we could, since she has to share it with 4 others at home!  She ate it up!

We took her to Build a Bear(which she never knew existed!).  She was in hog heaven!

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 Of course, she had to make one for her sister! photo (12)

She was in heaven "living" in the hotel and sleeping between the two of us. photo (10)

And we thoroughly enjoyed being able to spend some time with just her.  We were able to focus on everything she said fully.  She truly is the sweetest, cutest thing ever!  You can imagine the people who fawned over her everywhere we went :)
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But...even with all this excitement, there were still moments when her eyes would well up with those big crocodile tears and she said "I miss my sister". She fully enjoyed herself, but I don't think she felt complete without her sister.

 On the homefront, Gracie had no trouble going to school by herself and had a brother lay down with her to help her go to sleep at night, but she missed her sister too. She would utter the same words "I miss my sister".

Wesleigh was so excited as we were driving into the neighborhood. I couldn't wait to see what their reaction would be!
Here it is: (Listen closely to what Wesleigh says as she runs through the laundry room)

On the medical side, we found a doctor that we loved and fully trust with the decisions that will need to be made for Wesleigh in the future.  In case you're not aware, Wesleigh has spina bifida.  Because of this condition, her spinal cord is tethered.  She has a 50/50 chance that she will need a delicate surgery to de-tether her cord in the future.  It is a big decision and you definitely want a doctor that you trust to help you make it.  You might remember that our local doctor was a complete a$$ to us the last time we were there.  There was NO way I would darken that door again!

The good news is that he was completely smitten and impressed with our girl.  He said she was well above average on her function and he thought she was doing amazing.

Again, I marvel at the fact that God chose me to be her mom.  I can't get over the detail with which God presented her file to me in a way that I couldn't close the door at the words "spina bifida".  What a blessing this journey has been!  What a precious gem Wesleigh Jane is!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Yikes...has it been that long???

Sorry about disappearing like I have!  I could give you all sorts of good reasons (and they'd all be true), but the real story is that I've become addicted to Downton Abbey!!!  I had been hearing everyone talk about it, but really didn't think much of it until a good friend of mine told me I had to watch.  I will admit that I have been stuck to the ipad any minute I can watching the past seasons!  I'm going to be so sad when I'm catch up!!!

I have, of course, been busy with baseball, basketball, laundry, blah...blah....blah....  Cade is almost finished with basketball, and I'm so mad I didn't bring my camera to the game last week.  The 7th grade game was amazing and we won it in the last second of overtime!  The game was in this very old gym with windows and dark wood.  They would have been the only decent basketball pics I could have taken all year.  UGH!!

I have actually been blogging, just not here.  We have some friends who are in China now getting the most adorable little boy!  You can take a peek here if you'd like :)

So...if you know where I live, you know we're in the middle of Mardi Gras.  We did attend our local parade Saturday that Bryce marched in.

These pics look almost exactly like my Christmas parade pics :)  In fact, the weather was perfect, just like it was at the last one :) You would never guess it's February!

Here are a few:

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I love this one of Wesleigh and her daddy :)
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 Gotta love always having multiple teenage boys around :) Feb2013-3078
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