Lol!  Noelle hid behind my leg for the first 10 minutes she saw this silly cut-out!  A lady that worked there saw Noelle freaking out and told her she should take her picture with him.  She begged me to go to the car to get my camera and this is what happened next…

These are the last of our summer dance pictures… love my little ballerinas!

A huge thank you to Cousin Linda for our awesome tutu prizes from Easter!

Anna Kate and our neighbor Julia showing us their moves!

We had a blast watching the girls learn more ballet this summer!

Thanks for having us over for story time Aunt Sharon!

Your making a liar out of me girl!  I just told them you were chill!

Brylee and Anna Kate were too fast for pictures today, but we had a lot of fun decorating crowns and playing in big sissy’s room while she was gone (shh… don’t tell)!

If fact, she gets happier…

and happier…

and happier!!!

What’s up with my kids and their fingers… the pacis I bought her are super cute!  (but you’ll never know – lol!)

Once upon a time, not too long ago, I had a really really hard time.  I experienced post partum depression after Anna Kate was born (you’d never know it from the blog, huh).  It was an awful experience, and I’m still left scratching my head about it and wondering, “What was that all about?” (in so many words, lol)  My friend Cindy kept telling me during our phone calls to breathe, just take deep breaths and breathe.  When Curt got diagnosed with ALS, it was time for both of us to practice breathing.  So she mailed me this beautiful ring as a reminder to 1. breathe and 2. pray for each other and especially Curt!  I wear it every day.  It really gives me comfort.  And I think about my friends and all the breathing we’ve done since I first started wearing it.

But, today as I was hanging some pictures, I needed to adjust a nail, and when I took it out of the wall, the hammer put pressure on my ring and it seriously cracked in half.  Now, granted, the nail was stuck inside of a stud, but really?  This stuff just happens to me… I’m not surprised.  I was like, “Squished metal ring on the finger?  Standard!” 

We call my mom “Random Rosie” because you can’t imagine the random things that come out of her mouth.  Well, just call me “Random Mo-sie” because of all the random things that happen to me.  Ask Mike. It’s a joke to tell him about my day at the end of it because they’re always, well, random.  He never knows what kind of crazy story he’s gonna get!  (and he keeps coming back for more, oh yeah)

Anyway, enough randomness, I got my pictures hung!  I was very nervous to put an 8X10 on the wall of me pregnant with Rose, or in any condition for that matter, but it didn’t take me very long to get over it.  I bought it to give to Rose someday because I thought it would be so cool for her to have – I would love to have a picture of my mom pregnant with me – that would be so special!  I thought, “If I don’t have the confidence to do this in my own house, then how can I teach my girls to value themselves and the way God wonderfully made them?”  I can’t have a double standard going on around here!  But, in my mind, I have to be intentional about it… it’s a process, for sure!

These are some of the other pictures Janice took of us back in the fall.  She did such an amazing job, and I’ll seriously treasure them for the rest of my life!

Although the ring and my finger were today’s casualties, it was a productive day!  And I’m ordering a new ring, no questions asked.  Because I have to have it.  We all need to be reminded to take some deep breaths throughout the day and breathe. 

People ask me this question about Noelle all the time!  The answer is, “No!”  Her hair was actually brown with red highlights.  Also, she was bald on top and had a brown she-mullet on bottom.  Oh yes she did… you can see for yourself.  See?  We thought she was precious!

All’s well that ends well!  Lol!  Missing my girl!

Anna Kate’s elephant (grey on blue paper) and Noelle’s elephant (watercolor)

Noelle told us that she believes in Jesus’ redemptive story and that she wants to live like he did all of the days of her life.  She prayed all about it on the potty (literally) in Fazoli’s in Waco, Tx on our way home from the lake on July 5, 2011.  She was smiling the biggest smile I had ever seen in my life with giggles in between.  It was a beautiful moment in her journey as a Christ follower.

She is so pure of heart, and her relationship with God is so natural.  We do most of the listening when it comes to her spirituality because we believe being in tune with the creator is innate.  And once she was told about Jesus and who he was, it was like she had known him all along.  Mike and I are practicing Christianity in a way that is intellectually honest to ourselves based on as much truth and evidence as we can find.  It looks a little differently than they way we both grew up, but it is full of peace and hope in the one true God, maker of heaven and earth.

Seriously… how much cuter can she get!?!

Noelle remembers when I took a picture of her and Anna Kate’s hands together and asked me to take one of the three girls now that Rose is here.  Funny the things that make an impression on them.  Anyway, when she really wants me to do something, she will say, “I will beg of you!”  So her way of asking me was, “Mom, please take a picture of our hands.  I will beg of you!”