Another milestone

Sydney turned 7 on July 30th. She had a mask making art party at the Y with friends, grandparents, (excluding Papa, Sydney really caused a problem being born during the week of the fair) even Uncle Travis and Cara got to come and make some masks. The big event happened that evening though, when her good girlfriends from 1st grade got to come over for Sydney's first sleepover. We had pizza, watched the Hannah Montana 3D concert and had peppermint pedicures...and that was just what mom got to participate in. The girls had lots of fun playing in the basement too from the squeals and laughs Corey and I heard upstairs.

What a wonderful little young lady she is growing up to be. Just tonight I came across an assignment she had completed at the beginning of the year during Martin Luther King Jr week at school. The top of the paper reads Dr King had a dream. My dream is... Sydney wrote: I have a dream that evrey wun will be nis to echuther. The end. What a wonderful world it would be if we could all just be nice to each other.

Finally! Some vacation pictures...

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to Destin this past June. It's hard to believe Sydney missed her very last day of school so we could hit the road and start our vacation and now summer is over and she is already 2 weeks into the 2nd grade. Is it just me or is it the older you get the faster life goes by. The first picture here is the first official picture of vacation. The car and girls were all loaded up and I took this as we were leaving our house. The first line of Sydney's journal she's holding reads, "We are getting set". I wish we had been better about helping her keep that up, but you know how it gets when you're on vacation, too much going on, too much fun and if you do stop to slow down, you'll probably fall asleep, it's hard to find the time to write. She did manage to log our first evening when we stopped in Hattiesburg, MS for the night about Hannah throwing up in the car in Arkansas. Note to self: A full sippy of milk, followed by a 1/2 sippy of chocolate milk, followed by curvy Arkansas roads leads to at least 4 sippy cups worth of curdled milk all over Hannah and her car seat. Luckily that was the worst thing that happened the entire trip so we couldn't complain.

Yes! It's an update!

Ok, I realize I have been horrible about keeping this updated and I hate for my first post in months to be picture less but I wanted to post a quick funny story from the other day while it was on my mind.

The other night Corey was carrying Hannah to bed and he took her hair tie out that was holding the top part of her hair out of her eyes right on top of her head. The hair pretty much stayed in place and just fanned out a little bit over her head. Sydney was looking at her while this was going on and said, "Ha! Hannah has 80's hair!". Corey and I both cracked up. How did she even know what 80's hair was, but sure enough that's how I would have described it too if I was picking a decade. Apparently Hannah Montana has been to an 80's party on the show...

Who is this girl?

Do you recognize her? It's Sydney! She had a couple of changes to her appearance this weekend. First the summer cut. Cousin Jenn cut off about 6 inches of hair on Saturday, at Sydney's request. She wanted it to her chin. I think it makes her look older which is very sad for Mom, but it looks so cute on her and she loves it. Plus, no more fighting with horrible tangles after showers and in the morning before school. It will be perfect for summer.

Then Sunday night after we got home from bible study, Corey pulled Sydney's third tooth. The first of the upper front teeth. By the way, Sydney requested Daddy wear the purple glove from the dentist's office. She didn't want to go to bed without pulling it out but as you can see from the video, I think it was a little more "stuck" than she thought. But now she's excited because it's out and the tooth fairy is coming tonight. Although she may be disappointed in the morning, someone at school got a Polly Pocket for their last tooth and Syd's tooth fairy doesn't bring gifts, only a $1 bill...that won't cover a Polly Pocket either.

Happy Easter!

Here are some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses. I think one of my favorites is Hannah with her legs propped up and crossed on her sister's Dora couch. She got up and sat like that all on her own. She just loves that couch. She likes to walk, yes walk finally, into Sydney's room, pull the books off of her bottom shelf and climb up into that couch. I have my good friend Amanda to thank for her adorable dress. You did find the perfect Easter dress for Hannah! Thank you so much! And then my mom found Sydney's matching polka dots when we were all out shopping together with my grandma and aunts.

The Easter Bunny brought both of the girls sunglasses and as you can see they both thought that was very cool.

Hannah has a short attention span for pictures. We like to say that when Hannah is sweet, she is very very sweet and when she is mad, she is very very mad.

Hannah's Makeover

Hannah received a makeover 2 weekends ago! She will no longer answer to "Shaggy Dog". Her bangs were so long and we kept thinking that the longer they get the easier it will be to put her hair back with a little barrett or pony tail. The only problem is Hannah will pull out anything that's in her hair within about 20 minutes regardless of how tight the barrett is (I mean it had to hurt when she was ripping those things out sometimes with stands of hair left in them) and regardless of whether or not her hands were covered in mac and cheese or any other food group that she would then rub all in her hair.

So when I was at my cousin Jenn's salon on Saturday for a haircut we stuck Hannah in the chair first for a mini-makeover. As you can see, she left the curls in the back. :)

God is so good!

I have great news for those who haven't heard! I'm transfering to a department in Springfield with the company I work for sometime in March. I'm so excited that I will no longer have to make the commute from Springfield to Monett everyday with Hannah. I know Hannah will be glad too.

As with several events in my life, God made it so clear that this is exactly what He had planned for me. I would like to share this journey. I originally applied for this positon back in October. I wanted it so bad, I was starting to completly stress myself out about it. On the afternoon when I knew the decision was going to be made and it was down to me and one other person, I was a nervous reck. I didn't know what I was going to do if I didn't get it, but at the same time knew that may be the outcome...it may not be mine this time. I went into the bathroom at work (oh yes, the bathroom) and prayed. I told God that I knew He knew how much I wanted this right now but I also knew that this may not be the plan He has for me. I asked Him to take the burden of me worrying about this job because I couldn't handle it anymore. It is just amazing what God will show you when you just ask Him. I had this picture in my mind of me lifting my hands and another hand reaching down and taking what I was holding in my hands. The hand then came back down and scooped up what was on my shoulders. It was as though God was telling me "I'm going to take all this worry and fear that you just had in your hands to give me but I'm also going to take these worries that you don't even know you have or that you think you can handle but I know you can't." It was an incredible picture, it was overwhelmnig for me. When I got back to my desk, I had a message, the job was not mine this time, but I was okay with that and I was 100% certain that this was part of His plan for me right now.

Fast forward about 3 months to January. I was having a bad week at work and I really didn't think I could take anymore. I had walked down to the cafeteria to bring something back for lunch. On the walk back I was by myself and I prayed. I told God that I know He says He will never give us any more than we can handle and He may think I'm stronger than I feel I am, but this was all I could handle. I told Him I could not take anymore. I knew He had a plan for me but this can't be it. I had not even been at my desk for 5 minutes when I got a note from the supervisor I had interviewed with back in October asking if I was still interested...he had another opening. When I saw that message I immediatly thought, God is good! I knew that this was not a guarantee that I had a new job and I had to go through the interview process again but the fact that God gave me a clear and almost immediate sign that He was by my side. I will never forget it.