TEAM

Sophie left this morning for her JV Volleyball State Championship game. I'm missing it. And that makes me a little sad. She's the captain of the team this year and has been a wonderful leader. I am so proud of her and of the team. 

Go Lady Knights!! 

15

Where has the time gone. My sweet Sophie Sunshine is 15! Sophie, you are the light of our lives. I'm so proud of who you are becoming. God is growing you in Him and it is an awesome thing to witness. It has been a great year for you. You were baptized this year. You were made new!! You bring us so much joy ever day and you'll never know how proud we are of you. You are loved! Now, if you'd just get to studying you can get that permit!! :)
We love you Sophie!
Mom, Dad, GG and Shep

My September Girls

I forgot. I forgot to do a post celebrating my most favorite girls on their birthdays. 

I didn't forget their birthdays though. We had a wonderful get together with some family and a few of Sophie's friends over. It was a nice day.

My sweet Sophie turned 14. Can't believe she's 14! She has such a sweet spirit. She's a good mix of sporty and girly. She's always been like that. She has a "boy"friend now. It's a new experience for all of us. She's handling things in a good way though. She has a heart for the Lord and I am so proud of that. I'm just proud of her. She will always be our Sophie Sunshine. 

And our little G-nut Peanut turned 4. She thinks it feels GREAT to be 4! She is my girly girl through and through. She loves her Barbies and she loves fairies and she loves to dress up. She wants to be a rainbow dolphin trainer when she grows up. She is very aware if you are laughing at her right now and sometimes she says the cutest things and we laugh and she thinks we're laughing at her and she gets upset. She wants to be taken seriously. She can be very high maintenance sometimes and, in all honesty, I'm still learning a lot about her. How I handle certain situations with her or discipline her changes a lot. I'm learning what works best. She loves her sister and brother and mommy and daddy. My favorite thing right now is how she looks at herself in the full length mirror while reciting Barbie movie lines or singing songs. Maybe Broadway is in her future :).

So Happy Birthday to my girls. Life is so good because of you two. 

And I love you both like a rock!

Every little sister needs a Sophie...

Over the past week or so Sophie has given approximately 376 makeovers and 298 costume changes to her little sister GG. Making masks so she can be a muskateer, painting nails, applying eye shadow and countless other girlie things.

I hope that GG will one day realize how blessed she is to have Sophie.

Even with their age difference, I hope that one day they will be the best of friends. 

I don't think that's too much for a momma to hope for. 

The post wherein I whine about where my baby went

Wasn't she JUST my sweet little cuddly baby?

It seems like yesterday.

And now.

Now, she's a young woman.

Beautiful, inside and out.

these moments...

i never want to forget.

like when your 5'9, 13 year old daughter wants to cuddle up before going to sleep

she breathes a heavy sigh

like it's all that she's needed all day

and i didn't even know it

but it was all that i needed

in that quiet moment

i'll never forget

A Mom and Her Firstborn

a conversation between sisters

A Momma and Her Girls

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Because of these blessed little turkeys... we are.

Even in the midst of a very hard move,

even though the dryer went out and we can't afford another one,

even though times might be tough... we have each other.

And thank the Lord, we have them.

And HIM.

So yes, we are having a Merry Christmas.

Hope you are too!!

All For One and One For All!

GG's favorite movie right now is Barbie and the Three Musketeers. Now she wants to be a musketeer and spends her days running and jumping around the house and quoting movie lines.

Such as " All for One and One for All!" and "Don't mess with the dress!" and she is very into sword fighting.

So Sophie decided to make her a musketeer costume complete with cape and feather. She found my great-grandfathers old hat and fashioned it with a feather. Genius. Oh my goodness, this child was so proud of her outfit.

All I have to say is everyone deserves a big sister like Sophie.

wow... life...

That's it. Life has been crazy lately. In some aspects, literally crazy. I have felt a bit down and when I feel down I really have nothing much to say. Other than getting my girls a birthday post up, I haven't had much else to do with this space. It's been a tough month. We are still in limbo as far as moving. My sweet husband travels back and forth every week for his job. We've only shown our house 4 times. We are just about completely out of money. I don't even like answering the phone anymore. Bill collectors are not nice people. So, that's enough about that.

On a brighter note... Sophie did wonderful in her first volleyball season. Her team won third place in our county tournament. Awesome. She kept all A's as well while practicing every single stinkin' day until 5:30 pm. She is such a sweet, well rounded girl. I love her.

GG is just being as busy and funny and high maintenance as a three year old can be. Thanks to Grandma and Grampy Whiting, she is attending Mother's Day Out three times a week. She LOVES it. And I admit, I love it too. She loves being with her friends. She's a very social little girl. And still a princess. Although right now, she loves Olivia. The tv show and the books. So last night she told me that she was Olivia and I could be the momma pig. Ok, thanks! Because most days I feel like that anyway :).

Shep is just a snuggly, busy, temper tantrum throwing, car obsessed, ball throwing, talking little one year old. He can tell you what a snake, cow, tiger, dog, cat, sheep and frog all sound like. He loves to tell you how a train goes. He says " I get it" and "What's that?" and "Where'd it go?" in his sweet little voice. He loves to dance and he sings the Barney " I love you " song complete with sweet little kisses. Still very much a Daddy's boy and I love that. There is nothing like seeing my two favorite guys spending time together.

So those three people are what keep me going. They do. I look at them and know it's all going to be ok. We'll get through this season.

And today is Thursday. That means my man will be home tonight. I'm telling you one thing, absence makes the heart grow fonder. For sure. I can't wait.

13

She's a teenager. Thirteen years ago today at 1:23 pm she came into this world. Changed my life forever. How does this time pass so quickly. It just seems like yesterday she was asking me "Wanna play forgefer?"

And I know no matter what, no matter how many years pass, she'll always be our 

Sophie Sunshine.

I love the independence she's getting. I love listening to her thoughts on things. Her name means "wisdom". And this fits her perfectly. She is an old soul and I love that about her. 

Sophie,

Happy Birthday today sweet girl. We love you with all of our hearts and are so proud of who you are becoming. Congratulations on being a TEENAGER! I know you're excited. Just don't give us to hard a time, okay? :)

With lots and lots of love,

Mommy and Daddy

and GG and Shep

For Her Daddy

Because your away and couldn't see our beautiful first born on her first day of school.

Here she is...

We officially have a 7th grader.

Love you!

Her Mommy

about the kiddos

I thought maybe it was time to post a little update about the children. How they're doing and all. We are going through a big transition right now. Another move. It's a good thing for our family but really hard to leave our community and friends and the schools we love. But no more travel for Daddy and we are very happy about that. It is taking it's toll on Josh and me though. Trying to sell this house and buy another one in a new city we don't know that much about. Just a lot of coordinating and organizing and ugh... all the things I feel like I'm not good at. But I'm sure we'll make it through. 

So that's all I have to say about that.

The kids are just growing and changing and doing really well.

Shep is almost 14 months old. He is all boy. Everything gets thrown. Food, cups, plates, all kinds of toys, you get the idea. He is a squirmy worm. Doesn't want to be held much. He wants to get down and run and play. There are moments that he is a cuddler though. We stopped nursing after our Disney World trip about a month ago. It makes me a little sad, but it's good that we quit. He says daddy, mama, gg, sissy, ball,thank you, thanks, wow, yay, puppy, birds and he sings " up above the world so high" from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and he sings " i love you you love me" from the Barney song. Now the words aren't exactly understandable but the tune is dead on. He loves to sing and dance. Anytime there is music on he is just bopping around. He gives good kisses still, when he has the time. When I pick him up he pats my back or my shoulder. He does really well sleeping all through the night. He still takes a bottle of milk a couple of times a day. He has pretty much mastered the stairs. He crawls down backwards on his belly. He's also good at getting down off the couch and beds now by sliding down backwards. He loves to climb on the coffee table and sit there. He's kind of being picky about his food right now. I don't think I could name a favorite food at this moment. I guess he's partial to spaghetti and pizza. He can throw a really good temper tantrum. He runs away, throws himself on the ground, cries, yells and sometimes rolls around. It's very dramatic.

GG. Oh my little GG. She is now almost 3 years old. 34 months to be exact. She is turning into a little ham. If you come to our house, she will tell you she's a princess or a mermaid and she'll dance for you and spin around and tell you " look at me, look at me" or "watch this".  Sophie's friend Kylie spent the night with us the other night. A couple of days ago GG was walking around with a purse and some beads on and came up to us and said" Hi, I'm Kyrie. I got my purse." So now you never know if she's going to turn into a princess or a mermaid or Kylie! She has such an imagination and I absolutely love it. Sophie plays with her a lot and taught her how to play restaurant one day. So now GG likes to put on her apron ( that Grammy Salen made and sent to her) and ask you what you want to eat today. She'll make it and bring it to you.  She loved Disney World and the best thing was seeing her face when she saw Cinderella's Castle for the first time. Priceless.  She can count almost to 20. She knows all her colors and shapes. She's doing well with potty training. Got the potty part down pat but the other is taking a little longer. It's ok, I know she'll get it eventually. She loves her brother and sister so much. She's so good with all her little friends. She loves to play and run and is pretty good with sharing. Most of the time. She has had a sassy little mouth lately with us and spends a good amount of time in time out. She likes to make it well known that she is " MAD BECAUSE SHE'S VERY ANGRY!".She also said one day " It's not fair, cause I"M THE PRINCESS!". Yikes. I have very dramatic children.  She is also a very picky eater right now and it is driving me a little crazy. She just wants hot dogs and mac and cheese. But, she does love apples. So that's good. 

She is growing up so fast and I just adore her. Drama and all :). 

And Sophie. Sophie is almost 13. (gulp). I can't believe that. She is growing into the most beautiful young woman. Inside and out. I just marvel sometimes at her wisdom and maturity. I have been most heartbroken over this move for her. She is handling it ok though. She just made the volleyball team at school this year and it was a big deal. I had to pull her out because of the move. That broke my heart. I know she is sad about it, but she understands why we have to move. She said she knows in her mind it's the right thing but she does feel sad. She is so good with her brother and sister. Even though I know sometimes they are the last thing in the world she wants to deal with. She still helps. She finally decided that she would watch the Harry Potter movies with her Daddy. And she loved them and now they are planning their date for the new movie when it comes out. She had a lot of fun in Disney World and I was so happy we got to spend some alone time with her and ride the big rides. It made her vacation a lot more fun I think. I am very proud of the person she is becoming and I don't know what I would do without her. She's my Sophie Sunshine!

sisters

 

 

A smattering....

just for the Angel Babies Daddy, who is away and needs his fix.

And also little glimpses into our Spring Break in Georgia.

where's Shep?

where is he?

there he is!

big boy sitting on the fireplace hearth

g.g.'s beautiful profile

Sophie, loving being a country girl

gardening at Grandma Whitings house

and playing in the dirt

Sophie and G.G. loving the country

and then the beach

sandcastle building

Shep didn't quite know what to think of the sand

being a city girl in downtown Savannah, Georgia