my daughter, published author

It's a thing of tradition at my kids' school that in early spring, the Pre-K students begin working on books with the hopes of being "published."

They take the time to painstakingly sound out each word and carefully illustrate each part of their story.  Once their books are officially ready to be published, they are awarded the honor of walking their precious pages down to the school office, where the director helps them to type out an official cover page. It's kind of a big deal.

The first one to be given that honor this year happens to live in my house.

My heart is full of pride for my happy, life loving girl, who just shines and sparkles. She has matured in so many ways this year.

At her conference last week, her teachers gave us a copy of her evaluation. In the comments section, they simply wrote "WOW!" 

My thoughts exactly.

merry christmas, friends!

We were so fortunate to spend all last week celebrating with family in Florida.... a wonderful trip that we managed to keep a surprise from the kids until 30 minutes before we left for the airport. SO FUN! Happy, happy memories. So thankful.

Tonight it's all about the children's pageant at church and celebrating with sweet friends. Life is full. Love is all around. Our children are healthy and happy. Blessings are endless.

Merry Christmas, everyone! We love you!

birthday eve

We celebrated our super girl a day early---

4 was such a good year. Can't wait for all the fun that 5 brings.

an american in dallas

When we first visited American Girl Place, 5 just seemed so far away.

But here we are in the last few days of 4, ya'll. Whew.

Lil and her Grammy had been planning this trip for months. The drive from Austin to Dallas was a loooong one. Such excitement... but can you blame her? Serious girl wonderland.

Her Just Like Me doll has been majorly loved. Note my hasty attempt to get her crazy hair fixed up into the only bow I had in my bag. That doll goes through at least 5 wardrobe and hair-do changes a day. An entire section of Lil's room has been devoted to all things American. I love that she's so into it.


She's so into it that her biggest fan happens to have a "boy baby" of his own, thanks to Grammy. My American Boy. His wife is going to thank us all one day. :)

Choosing that doll was a painstaking process. SO many to pick from. But when she came across this one, the decision was made.

And that sweet, happy smile on her face is exactly how I'll remember my girl at not-quite-5. Love you, Lil.

happy halloween

Such a fun Halloween spent with wonderful friends. Big smiles on the faces of our babies and oohs and ahhs over all things (sp)"oooooky!" 

Happy Halloween, friends!

finally fall...

...except that when we arrived at Sweet Berry Farms in Marble Falls, Mother Nature had apparently not gotten the memo that fall had officially arrived and it was 103 stinkin degrees.

Still, my babies share my love for fall and they were determined to make the best of it.

We packed as much as we could into a short visit-- sadly, the flowers and barrel train were a bust this year-- and the pumpkin ice cream has never tasted as good as it did on our way out.

In the end, we came home with our family of pumpkins. So it may still feel like summer outside, but fall has definitely arrived at our house, and that makes me one happy mama.

thomas

A highly anticipated day by a certain little boy.

("Mama, dat's THOMAS!")

I had been up north for a few days at a teaching conference, but there was no way that I was going to miss seeing my boy meet his favorite train.

I'm so glad I didn't have to. He was in wide-eyed, complete awe.

We took a short ride backwards (yikes) and then back to the station.

Someone was a bit put off by the obvious lack of little girls on that train but still enjoyed herself.

We left with a pledge to never wash the area where they'd been given temporary Thomas tattoos (ha), slightly annoying train whistles and a little boy with some serious choo choo fever. :)