This was Noelle’s first school field trip!  Landry’s mom, Amber, and Mike (our ‘”official” chaperones) had Landry, Maysa, Noelle, and Khloe in our little group!  Noelle named the group Super Discover Girls, and we called them that all day!  They loved it! 

 

Anna Kate is pretty popular amongst the kindergarteners.  She’s like their little mascot!  Everyone loves Anna Kate (except boys in play lands, lol)!  This is Noelle and Emily.  They are such sweet little play mates.  Emily came over to play last week after school, and she is an angel!!!

More kindergarten friends!

 

Noelle was thrilled to run into the TCU horned frog!!!  Anna Kate was upset in this picture because all the big girls were looking at the flamingos, and she couldn’t see them.  She finally got up on the fence and yelled, “MY MINGOS!!!”  It was pretty funny!

Khloe, Landry, Ava, Emma, and Noelle

 

The bears would not wake up for anything.  The girls pounded their fists, they even kicked the glass, and then they finally gave up! 

Noelle bracing herself for a tiger attack!

So I’d say this is pretty cool!

*Tons more zoo pics headed your way this week!!!

Brylee had such a fun birthday party this weekend!  Her Mommy is so cool!

Happy 3rd birthday Brylee… you are one loved little girl!!!

And here’s my monkey having a blast!  If she doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will!

Noelle took this picture of Brylee and me playing together!  I love that sweet expression she has on her face!  Anna Kate was in the play land pretty much the whole time (beating up on the boys might I add, but that’s a whole other story for later).  I wish you could see all the decorations in person.  Tanna worked so hard to make it special for Brylee, and it was!  Happy b-day Brylee girl!

-Mike bought Radiohead tickets this week and can’t wait for March 5th to get here!!!  Merry Christmas…

-Speaking of Christmas, Anna Kate will not be sitting in Santa’s lap this year!  She is adamant about that, and we told her that she does not have to if she does not want to.  I’m sure she won’t change her mind, so that’s that.  She requested for Noelle to tell him what she wants for her, so that’s the way that will go down.

-I have carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand and can’t feel my fingers very well, so it’s impossible for me to text on a cell phone.  Mike sees me struggling to type on his phone and always takes over for me because writing one sentence takes me forever.  The good news is he set up the iPad for me so that I can text.  Since the screen is so much bigger than a cell phone, my fingers can find the keys a little bit more easily.  SO… if you have an iPhone, and you have run all the updates, you can text me, I’m not even kidding.  Text me through your text messaging app to my email address.  Yay!

-Noelle got her first sticker change from green to yellow this week!  Ah man!  She was SO sorry, and it’s just one of those things.  One of her friends told her to color green over the yellow dot so that I wouldn’t find out about it.  I saw a little green spot in the middle of the yellow dot, but she changed her mind and made a good choice about that.  I was really proud of her for being honest!

-Mike loves fashion blogs (he even won a $250 Visa gift card on one of them last year)!  He decided a couple of years ago that he wanted to be stylish and know what the trends are.  I didn’t know dressing in style is something you can learn, but he’s proof that it is.  I used to buy him all of his clothes but now I’m too intimidated.  It’s awesome… one less thing for me to do!  I even ask him fashion advice now because he totally knows what’s cool.  For instance, if skinny jeans can bunch up at the bottom a little if you wear flats or if they should just be straight with no extra bunching. 

-Speaking of fashion, the other day, Mike said, “I like your skinny jeans!”  As a joke, trying to sound up on my fashions, I said, “Um, they are totally not skinny jeans, they’re like jeggings!”  Then he pulled up a bit Conan did on his show where he wore jeggings, and it was SO funny!  Mike and I always have fun like that together.  He’s my BFF… totally!

-I heard a song on the way home from the doctor yesterday that said, “What if your blessings come through rain drops, what if your healing comes through tears?”  I like that a lot.  Wow, I just went from goofy to serious like that – bam!

-My dad (Poppa) had a parrot named Salvador after John went to college.  Then we found out people with TMJ/joint problems can’t be around birds, so he had to get rid of Salvador for me.  Then, God brought him Jax… and the rest is history!

-That girl Drew, on the X Factor, wow!  I’m impressed.  She’s 14, and I guarantee you right here and right now that she’s going to be around for a while.  Mark my words.  With that being said, I’m really behind on my X Factors, so she could already be kicked off at this point… but I’m telling you, she’s GREAT!

-Oh this is random, Mike times himself solving a Rubik’s Cube twice a week.  He says it keeps his mind active.  I’ll just find him randomly working one in the closet while he’s changing clothes or whatever.  My sweet computer programmer hubby!  He’s such a dork in the coolest ways!  And, he’s definitely the smartest person I’ve ever personally met, hands down.  Friends call him all the time to ask him random things they are too lazy to look up.  He always knows the answer to everything… I couldn’t even trip him up when I asked him what a tine is.  I really thought that would stump him, but oh no, he’s the king of defining the word tine!

-I LOVE the new song, Stereo Heart.  I wrote down the lyrics in the car on the way to the doctor so that I could buy it when I got home.  After I had lunch up at the school with Mike and the girls, I pulled out my little spiral notepad and said, “Oh Mike, I’ve got to tell you something!”  (I was about to sing him the lyrics to the song and ask him if he’d heard it)  Before I started, he said, “It would be really funny if you wrote down a song on the way to the doctor and just started busting out singing it to me right now!”  I just stared and him and started laughing so hard I started crying.  When he realized what was unfolding, he was like, “Oh, this is so good!  Now you have to sing it to me…” but I couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard.  He wouldn’t leave until I sang it to him.  I tried so hard, but I couldn’t make out a tune I was laughing/crying too hard.  I was so embarrassed in a dorky funny way.  He said, “T.W.I.L.Y.!” which we say when something the other one is doing reminds us of why we love them so much.  It stands for, “That’s why I love you!” but it’s not cute or romantic in any way because it reminds him of a man he knew in high school named “Twily Carl Twiley,” which makes it even that much more perfect for us.  Okay, so then he came to my side of the car, and we said good bye and kissed.  And then we wondered if we would get in trouble for PDA on school grounds, because we are dorky like that. 

-And I’ll leave you with the lyrics to Stereo Heart… try to sing this the next time you are laughing out loud – it’s hard: “My hearts a stereo, it beats for you so listen close.  Make me your radio, turn me up when you feel low.  This melody was meant for you, so sing along to my stereo!”  I have a feeling I am going to hate this song in a couple of weeks.  Please don’t wear it out pop radio stations (you ALWAYS do that to Maroon 5 songs).  It’s really cute and catchy… and sweet!

Told you this was going to be random!  Have a happy weekend! 

 

Brylee invited Anna Kate to go for a girls’ day to kick off her birthday week! 

 

It was a really special day!  Okay, let’s go back to the start…

The girls watched Barbie on the way to Sweet and Sassy!

 

They were so cute walking up together holding hands!!!

They started off painting fingernails!

Anna Kate was telling the girl all about her sister Noelle!  Lol!

I love this picture… these girls are two peas in a pod!

Next it was time for make-up!

…then it was on to hair!

  

 

 

Of course, they had so much fun walking the runway!

 

Tanna and I always have so much fun together… and we are crazy about our girls!!!

 

Part of Brylee’s birthday present from us was a doctor’s kit… the girls LOVE playing doctor, that’s for sure! 

Brylee gave Anna Kate a pretend hair cut – she was having fun with that!

 

Anna Kate has been throwing terrible 2s fits lately, but she finds a way to snap out of them pretty quickly… my sweet precious Anna Kate is not perfect after all! 

Brylee is so much like Noelle, it’s hilarious.  I think that’s why Anna Kate and Brylee get along so well, because their personalities compliment each other perfectly!

 

How adorable are these cuties!?!  Love.them.

The next pictures show what their friendship is like…

Fun, silly, and full of spunk!

 

Anna Kate, I hope you remember these special times since you are the middle child, and the road ahead will be somewhat complicated because of your birth order.  Just know that Mommy loves you very much and gives you special attention too!

So thankful for you, Brylee June!  You’re a fun awesome little girl, and Anna Kate is so blessed to be your friend!  Happy 3rd Birthday!!!

What do you do on Saturday for fun?  We shop at Costco!

Our kids were being so goofy and having a great time!

 

These were the last of the Halloween costume pics that I took of Anna Kate!  She and I have a little more time to goof off these days!

 

I’ll never forget how excited Anna Kate was to be a pumpkin this year!

Anna Kate is so easy to photograph because she is always so happy!

 

I love my little pumpkin head!

 

This last picture is my favorite because of the memory that goes with it.  Pumpkin fairy was holding her wings on her back and trying to fly.  It was hysterical!

One night not too long ago, Mike and Anna Kate went to pick up some sushi.  Anna Kate came home with a red lollipop the lady gave her at the restaurant.  As Mike and I were getting dinner ready, we heard the girls having this long conversation at the table about cavities.  I walked over to check out what they were doing… this is what I saw.  When I asked Noelle to explain it to me, she said, “I’m teaching Anna Kate about cavities.  This is Anna Kate.  She has a red lollipop.  If she eats it, then her teeth will get yucky, like they are in the picture.  Then, she will have to go to the dentist and get her teeth fixed, and it will hurt!”  Honest to goodness, Anna Kate brought us the lollipop and told us she didn’t want it.  That was easy!  I wish it were that simple for their Mommy!

(Noelle just recently changed the color she uses to color Anna Kate’s hair in pictures.  She used to color her hair brown, and now yellow, because Anna Kate’s hair has gotten so light.  She used to color Rose’s hair black, and now colors hers brown because it has lightened up too.  I wonder if Rose’s hair will stay brown?)

 

The Skittles had their award presentation/end of season party last week!

Carson, Anna Kate and Ava had so much fun hanging out together this fall!

                      

The Skittles were so excited to get their patches and trophies and celebrate the end to an awesome season!!!

Have a fun weekend!

My girls love for me to paint their toes!  I love spending time with them no matter what we are doing…

If the best case scenario for the day is an emergency root canal, you know it’s going to be a pretty bad day.  Welcome to my world.  I NEVER “go there” on the blog, because for the most part this has always been a scrapbook.  Simple as that.  Not a journal whatsoever.  We’ll see about changing it up a bit.  It’ll just take some experimenting and throwing things out there and seeing how it feels.  I may do more, I may do less.

So for today, here’s a little peak into my reality.  I have fibromyalgia.  I have TMJ.  I’ve had two reconstructive jaw surgeries.  Overall, I’m not a very healthy person.  Some days I can’t even get out of bed because of the muscle pain.  Other days I am fine.  I live on medication to have a quality of life.  I always word it like this, “I’d rather be sick and have a lot to live for than be healthy and have a messed up life!”  And that’s the truth.  I work very hard at never complaining or even talking about it.  That’s why in 5 years there has never been a mention on my blog, until now. 

We’re not perfect.  I’m not trying to portray my life as perfect on here.  But focusing on the good things helps me stay positive and distracted from the pain.  So I do it for all of us.  For the girls to look back and enjoy the fun things, and for me to escape how I feel and count my blessings.

On to today.  My teeth don’t touch anywhere when I bite down.  My jaw is always shifting and changing.  A lot of this has to do with my surgeries and how they negatively affected my bite.  So one by one, my teeth are abscessing from the trauma.  I had a fractured tooth today.  The endodontist didn’t know if a root canal would even work.  I am still up against an extraction and not out of the woods yet.  It is very concerning, but I’m not worried.  I know who holds tomorrow, and He was here with me all day in BIG ways.  Maybe I’ll build up some courage to tell you about that someday.  For now, I’ll hold it in my heart as a comfort that God is…