Five Fingers

I don't know about you, but I think turning five is a big deal. Not just for the child, but for the parents as well. Don't get me wrong, every year that our precious pretties are with us needs to be celebrated, but birthday #5 is like a right of passage of some sort. When a child turns five, they are finally able to proudly hold up all the fingers on one hand to display their age. That's a big deal for them! Five is typically when children start learning how to spell, read, do basic math, learn how to ride a bike without training wheels, & master the art of tying their shoes. Not only does each finger on that high five represent every year that precious & pretty year that the child has unknowingly blessed us with, but they also represent some of the big milestones that child will accomplish this upcoming year. The five fingers are also a big deal for the parents, especially if the child that is turning five is your first-born. Each finger represents the yearly anniversary of being a parent. I look at those fingers on Kate's hands and wonder if I have been the best mom to her. If I have taught her enough about our Christian faith, love, kindness, generosity, and forgiveness.....

Those five fingers also represent everything our children have taught us. Since becoming a mom, I have learned to be more selfless & less selfish. Patience was not a virtue I was blessed with in my younger years, but I possess it now. I have learned to forgive & forget. Have you ever noticed how quickly a child does that? I have learned to embrace the little things & I honestly try not to take anything for granted. LOVE. My heart swells with so much love for my two precious pretties that sometimes I think it is going to burst. Yet I am humbly reminded that all the love I have for my husband, my children, my family & friends is nothing in comparison to the love that God & His only Son has for all of us.
Kate was excited, yet nervous, about turning five yesterday. I had to go to a fundraiser at her school Saturday night, and before I left she asked me if she was going to feel anything when she turned five. I guess my Precious Pretty #1 thought she was going to feel something like a pinch or a tickle when the clock struck midnight on November 21st. She, of course, was sound asleep and didn't feel anything at that hour. I felt a lot though, of course, & was overcome with emotion all weekend. I found myself sneaking off from the girls & shedding a few tears (of joy) when they were busy playing and I didn't want them to think mommy was sad. My phone was "blowing up" from my precious family & friends calling & texting Kate to wish her Happy Birthday. It got to the point that when the phone would ring Kate would smile & ask if it was for her again. ;)
We went shopping yesterday morning & then spent the afternoon getting ready for her art party. A fun time was had by all!!


















Kate & friends getting ready to paint!





Some of her friends from St. Mary's.





Bailey admiring the art gallery we made on the sidewalk to allow the paintings to dry. I made a personalized sketch book (made out of a composition notebook, a couple of post cards & a gluestick) and coupled it with watercolors & crayons. I put the gift bags above the paintings on the sidewalk so we would know who the artist was for each painting.







having fun afterwards at dinner with the Boatners!

I hope Kate felt all of the love, kindness, & generosity that was running ranpid around us yesterday. I sure did. Thank you, Ann Katherine (& Mary Clare), for being my precious pretties. You two are a constant reminder of how precious & how pretty life is. Mommy loves you to outerspace & back.

blessings,
sf

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Greatness

This past weekend in WF was just pure greatness. Kate was able to see one of her BFF's Presley, and I had a long overdue visit with her mom, whom I adore! Friday night I was able to get away for a night out with some of my BFFs thanks to my amazing MIL who watched the girls for me. Lauren & I hit up How Great Thou Art & painted. Of course the night wouldn't have been complete without dinner at Pasqual with Lauren & Sarah.




Saturday I was able to see my "third daughter" Kateri & the girls were ecstatic to see her. We played all morning, and after lunch I took the girls to Holiday Hangar where Kateri's mom was helping in a booth. The girls LOVED shopping & looking at all of the jets & planes! MC was having so much fun she passed out!




We booked it back home Saturday evening, so Tim & I could go to OKC Sunday. Tim got four AWESOME tickets (think 5th row courtside) from a guy he trades with, and we were able to watch Greatness. By Greatness I mean Tim Duncan & the San Antonio Spurs. Of course, when I refer to the Spurs & greatness, I am also referring to my awesome BIL Nixon who works for the Spurs & who we never get to see because he is busy working....for the Spurs.



This coming weekend Kate turns 5. That's huge. I hope I handle it ok. I cried like a baby when I ordered her birthday invites. Self-control, Stephanie. Self-control.

Xoxo
sf
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Kind of busy

I know I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks. I've been busy. I know I was busy before but this is a different kind of busy. A kind of busy to where sometimes I wish I had my old life back. My tightly over scheduled life. But I'll take this kind of busy life anyday. It suits me better.

My mind is racing trying to remember everything we have done these past few weeks.

The precious pretties both recieved their first blue ribbons ever at gymnastics a few weeks ago for successfully completing the first round of core exercises. It wasn't an official first place blue ribbon, but it was first place to them!!






One of our favorite things to do is go to the animal shelter and loving on the dogs up for adoption. It makes me really sad knowing that these animals are euthanized if they haven't been adopted in seven days.......




We celebrated Halloween...




And we celebrated All Saints Day at Kate's school. She was St. Anne, the Virgin Mary's mother (or Jesus' Grammy if you ask Kate)




Hard to believe precious pretty #1 will be five in one week. Or that Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away. Let's just go ahead and mention Christmas is 41 days away. So no matter what kind of busy you are, as the splendor of the season is approaching, let us remember Him who is worthy of all our praise.

Xoxo
SF

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Memory Makin' Mondays

Ooey Gooey Fun

Precious Pretty #2 is not thrilled with PP #1 right now

Showing little sister how it's done

Getting her own ooey gooey prize....

and not really impressed with it.

But she is still a happy-cheetos-face girl!

I really look forward to Mondays.  Not as much as I look forward to Sundays, but Mondays are now one of my favorite days.  I couldn't have said that when I was working, but now that I am "retired", Mondays are pretty great.  It usually starts up with me rounding up the girls and heading out to their preschools.  After the double dropoff, I grab a coffee and either balance our bank account, or have some bible/Jesus time.  Then it's off to the gym to meet up with some new gym buddies and go to some classes.  I have enough time to squeeze in a quick shower or and couple of errands before it's time to pick up Precious Pretty #2.

During her nap, I usually eat lunch, fold laundry (story of my life!), make an after school snack for Precious Pretty #1, before it is time to go get her.  We come home & eat snacks, and then we pick something to do together.  Two weeks ago, we went to the pumpkin patch and carved a pumpkin when we returned home as documented in the pictures above.  Last Monday, we baked and decorated Halloween cupcakes which are still sitting in our kitchen.  I refuse to eat them because I am trying to keep my Eye on the Prize (which I wrote about in my last post), and Kate refuses to eat them because they have orange icing.  Why is orange icing so bad?  Because it is the color of the Texas Longhorns, and Kate is an Aggie.  I am not kidding.  Kate wore her orange Halloween shirt once for me this month and is adamant that she will not wear it again.  Since Mary Clare prefers to eat nothing but apples, the cupcakes are going to waste.  It was fun nonetheless.

This week our Memory Makin' Monday will consist of gathering leaves from our backyard and using them to make a family tree.  I have brown construction paper to make the trunk of the tree, and I plan on going to Hobby Lobby tomorrow to get some large sheets of scrapbook pages to use for the background and to mat the leaves on.  Should be fun.  I hope to post pictures of our tree this week.

I will leave you with a quote I heard on my favorite show.  It's not verbatim, but it's close enough.
"Being a great parent is the best gift you could ever give."  - Nora Walker
With God's guidance, it is what I strive to be every day.

blessings,
sf

Eye on the prize

I have a huge problem with staying focused, especially focused on one specific goal.  I let too many things get in my way.  Call it ADD - call it life - call it what you would like.  But the bottom line is at least I am admitting that I have a "problem".  

 Since moving to a new town a couple of months ago where I really don't know anyone, I have made an effort to go to the gym more.  I've met some other mommies to meet up with there at the different classes, and you can ssssllloooowwwllllyyyy but surely see the poundage coming off.  That's great, right?!?!?!

My problem is, despite the lack of focus, is that I can't seem to have any self control when it comes to the consumption of food part.  Since moving here I have lost 7 pounds, which needs to be celebrated, I know.  However, I can't help to think how much more I coulda/shoulda/woulda lost if I had been more diligent with my workouts, eating habits, and especially keeping track of everything that goes into my mouth. I'm bored with the things that I cook ALL. THE. TIME.  I took up watching the Food Network to help revive my cooking creativity but that doesn't help either, because I get online and print off the sugary, buttery, and salty recipes.  I guess I need to watch Rachael Ray and cook her healthy stuff.  She does have healthy food, right?

It's time for me to do this.....Again!  As of today, I am grabbing on to the reins of the food log again.  And I'm keeping my eye on the prize which is that I hope to lose another 15 pounds before my sister in law's wedding in January.  Did I mention the wedding in is the Big E-to-the-Z?  I need to lose this weight because I will more than likely gain half of it back during my trip there!  I know I can do it!  I'll keep ya posted.

blessings, 

SF

Entertaining ourselves

 Those of you reading this more than likely know that I went to Boston, Massachusetts, last Thursday for my cousin Laurie's wedding.  She actually lives in Leicester, Mass., and we stayed in Auburn, Mass.  We were all over that state!!!  The gorgeous brunette who joined me on this trip was my cousin Carolyn, and we were so excited about this trip that we maybe got three hours of sleep the night before.  You would have thought that we would have slept on our flight that departed at 6:35 am, but we didn't because we were too FIRED UP.  Plain and simple.  I attempted to do a couple of pages of my bible study that I wrote about on my previous blog, and Carolyn didn't have anything to read/do so I gave her my MacBook to entertain herself.  She discovered some bells and whistles on bad boy Mac that I had no idea he had!  She took a picture of us to document our trip, and then that is when the giggling began.....

 She would take a picture of herself and try to stifle her giggle.  

This picture brought her to tears she was laughing so hard.  I finally had to join in on the fun!

Camel!!!!!!

Our seats were in the very back of the plane (2nd to last row to be exact).  Every time some one would go to the restroom or an attendant would walk back there, they would stop to look and see what we were doing and laugh with us.

Once we made it to BAH-ston, we showed our family all of the fun we had on the plane. (we took over 100 pics!)

They wanted a piece of the fun too!

This picture is kind of scary, but it makes me laugh.  I LOVE mi familia!

90 (89) days

I. Am. Truly. Blessed.  Really!

Woke up this morning to two, healthy, sweet, beautiful precious pretties.  Got Kate off to school and Mary Clare and I headed to Target to purchase some airplane friendly toiletries for my trip Thursday (I'm going to Boston, baby!!).  We then headed to LifeWay Christian Book Store because I wanted to get the new Mary Beth Chapman book, Choosing to See, and my beloved Target didn't have it.  Mary Beth is married to the world-renowned Christian music artist Stephen Curtis Chapman, and her book is about her struggle through the loss of her daughter, and how hope is carrying her through it.  (Their daughter was playing on the driveway and their son didn't see her and backed over her with his car.)  I snagged the picture of the book from Amazon.com, and I should have bought the book from Amazon as well, but my impatience cost me six extra bucks.  Oh well, at least I'll have something to read on the plane.  I'll give my opinion of the book when I finish reading it and let me know if you would like to read it when I am done.  I'll be more than happy to mail it to you!

When I moved to Sherman, I looked for a women's/moms group at a church to join but to no avail.  I want to join a bible study group, but can't seem to find a meeting time that works with my schedule.  So, I called my sister in law Carlye, and asked her about a particular bible study she just finished.  She asked me what I was doing, and once I told her, she recommended the Beth Moore 90 Day Bible Study with Jesus the One and Only.  I actually had the Beth Moore's 90 Days with Paul study in my hand, but I thought I would go with her recommendation first.  (again I snagged the picture from Amazon)  I realized once I got in my car that it is 89 days until Christmas, so if I doubled up on days 1&2 of the study, then I would finish the bible study on Christmas Day!  90 Days (well 89) to becoming closer to the One and Only, and the last day of the study is on the day we celebrate His birth.

After our shopping excursions Mary Clare and I went over to the AWESOME park down the street from our house and walked 3 1/2 miles on the walking trail.  Ended our morning of fun at Chick-Fil-A.  Today was just wwwwooonnnnnnddddeerrrfffuuullllllllllllll.

The only way the morning could have been any better is if Tim and Kate could have been with us.  Tim, of course, is worked hard to provide for the pretties and I.  My precious pretty #1, on the other hand, has been having some trouble adjusting to our new life in Sherman.  She had a set schedule for four and a half years, and out of no where, mommy & daddy up and move her to a new town, house, school, etc.  I knew it would be an adjustment, a difficult one at that, but I didn't think it would take this long for her to get the hang of things.  Kids are resilient right?  She definitely is, however, it has been rather hard for her, and she has some anxiety issues.  After a long, heart felt discussion with her pediatrician, we decided to see if how she would respond if we put her back on a similar schedule that she had in WF (school everyday from 8-3), to see if her behavior at home and school starts to improve.  Once we have things under control with her then I will slowly start to decrease her time at school.

Life is good.  G-Double-Oh-D.  Good.  And that's all I have to say about that.