Thank you Trish, Amy and Rachel for hosting the most beautiful baby shower ever! The “Southern Gentleman” theme was so cute and such a fun surprise! It was so sweet you wouldn’t take no for an answer, and I’m so glad you didn’t. It was an awesome afternoon filled with so much love!

 

 

It feels so good to be home and sharing our lives with such amazing family and friends!

 

The girls won big on their Reflections projects this year! We were super excited and proud of them!

 

Rose and Lucy planned their matching dresses without the moms knowing. They just both knew they had the same dress and planned a day to wear them together! Rose is blessed with such awesome friends! Here are a few of her letter pages she had for homework this year! She worked very hard on picking out the pictures and cutting them out. They made a cute little book out of them, and I’m glad she has it to read this summer!

 

Noelle’s mastered the pin curl! She’s pretty impressive with her hair styling skills! I could never do this!

 

Noelle’s had lots of fun sleepovers and birthday parties this spring! Anna Kate invented a cleaning station and has put it to good use! The front bin is for trash and the rest of the areas are so functional. Super proud of our Creative Kate!

 

 

Noelle had a super exciting field trip to a local nature park this spring! Isn’t Texas beautiful!?! 

Her group spotted a Copperhead in a tree! They are poisonous and dangerous but after a couple of pictures, they were outta there. This was one of the only field trips parents weren’t allowed to go on. Go figure this is what I’d see on her iPad from the one time I’m not with her!

 

She took the pictures of the Copperhead because she needed a picture of a consumer for a nature scavenger hunt they were doing.

Weeko has been such a sweet friend to Noelle this year!

 

This picture pretty much sums up lunch with Anna Kate and Malia!

 

Oh yeah!

 

Lots of trips to Dallas for modeling this spring, and a stop at American Girl is always fun at the end of the day!

 

Words of wisdom and Rose’s awesome art! Here’s a picture she drew of herself and Lucy to cheer Lucy up after she broke her elbow.

  

Rose is the best errand runner, even when we have to do boring stuff like car maintenance and allergy shots.

 

Jon and Anna Kate 2010 & 2016. I captioned this photo: Some friendships grow stronger with time, lol!

I can’t believe our baby girl will go to kindergarten next year. So proud and excited for her!

 

Anna Kate and Rose at Sharron’s Pump It Up pajama party!

 

Rose’s pre-k friend, Will, choking himself because his mom made him take a picture with princess Rose. Perfectly sums up their relationship, lol! The girls and I love a little late night shopping—they are the perfect ages to run errands and just hang out! So.much.fun!

 

Ella & Bella bonding!

 

Fun Run 2016!

 

Found the animals upstairs learning all about Black History Month (in February). I love that my girls don’t see color and truly understand that we were all created equal!

 

The Preston family took Noelle to Scarborough Fair medieval festival one Saturday when she was bored, and I was struggling. So thankful for friends who fill in the gaps and warm our hearts!

 

The girls had a blast and learned a lot too!

 

 

Anna Kate makes me smile! She’s always into something when we are shopping, and she always cracks me up! I love my dates with Anna Kate! She’s such a middle child and needs very special extra attention, which try our best to always give her! Rose draws the coolest characters at 5 years old! I wish I could freeze time for our baby girl!

 

Ellie! We have been looking forward to the Ellie concert since the Taylor concert! In her song, “Codes,” the lyrics are, “So, tell me black and white, why I’m here tonight? I can read the sign! Stop, stop talking in code!” Jon designed this sign, and I made it for him to go with the words to his favorite song. Part II of our concert gear is an inside joke. So, we showed Noelle this sign with the lyrics playing in the background, and she said, “It sounds like she’s singing, ‘Stop talking to goats!’ instead of ‘Stop talking in code!’” We told Jon because we thought it was so funny, and he was so mad because after we told him, he couldn’t stop hearing it that way and that was his favorite song. He said, we ruined his favorite song… so Trish and I thought it would be funny to make shirts with the lyrics sung our way. We had fun goofing off about that and surprising Jon with our shirts!

 

Of course, it was all in good fun, and he thought it was funny! Jon has the most fun!

 

Waiting for the concert to start and taking goofy selfies!

 

Ellie is Jon’s absolute favorite!!! She really is amazing, but I had just as much fun watching him enjoy the show!

 

Everyone asked Jon to take pictures for them, because being 6’7”, he towers over the rest of the crowd!

 

My favorite moment all spring! I was yelling, “Read the sign! Read the sign!” We were having so much fun!

 

Jon’s light up shoes were rocking!

 

I don’t know how I made it through the opening acts and concert standing in the pit 7 months pregnant, but I was determined! Leaning on Mike helped a bunch, and the fact that I was on Cloud 9 and have a pretty high tolerance for pain. My ankles have been swollen/sore ever since, but it was worth every minute, and I’d do it again in a heart beat!

 

Bebe Rexha was one of Ellie’s opening acts. She sings “Me, Myself, and I” which is a really popular song right now and “That’s Not Fair.” She just did a collab with Nicki Minaj and is doing her thing. Since she writes her own music and has a great voice, I think she may stick around for a while! When she found out I was pregnant, she took and put the left picture on her snapchat! That was a fun bonus to the night!

Ellie’s bass player tweeted this to Jon. He loved our sign! Cool! Jon was super chill, more chill than he usually is about Ellie tonight. I think her dancers threw him off, as in, were a little over the top.

 

This is what you see when you stay out too late! What in the world? I texted this picture to a police friend and was like, “Is this legal?” He said that, sadly, it is! Crazy! I’m so confused.

 

More adorable Rose art! At the Pet-A-Palooza, the littles got their faces painted like Sugar Skulls. The LOVED it!

 

 

Most Saturdays that Noelle doesn’t have plans, you can find her in her room curling/styling/practicing on her hair. She’s great at it, but you have probably gathered that by now! In the picture on the right, Anna Kate didn’t want Rose that close to her, lol! She keeps talking about needing her “personal space” so we are having fun with that!

 

Rose is probably the happiest person in the world right now. She’s truly enjoying her little life, and her joy is contagious! 5 years old suits her so well!

 

We’re crazy about our littles, who will soon be our middles!

 

Sugar skulls and Brevy Mans cuddling in the grass with Cutie Kate!

 

Our friends hosted the most perfect baby shower for Jessen! I’ll be working on those pictures next, but here’s a few I posted on my Instagram account.

Eden and Rose had a blast taking their first ice skating lessons this spring. Rose is begging to keep taking, but we’ve got to get this baby here first. Bending over to put on ice skates is no joke!

 

 

Rose and I visited Mike at his office one day after school, and while Mike and I were talking, she drew the friends in her class with their “husbands” on his dry erase board. She is so cute! Jax loved the Pet-A-Palooza, and I’m in love with this picture of him and Noelle in the kissing booth!

Mike and Noelle got to go to Austin on a field trip with Noelle’s 4th grade class. They had the best day ever and learned a lot too!

 

 

Rose living it up on the soccer field and a very special G word she had to add to her G page the morning it was due: Greg Bob! She even drew him on his walker next to Clarissa. We are so excited he is out of a wheel chair and re-learning to walk!

Rose heading into the cheering section tunnel for high fives. Every single time she had her tongue out this season. She loved it!

Laken, Harper and Rose with Harper’s silly big bro, Hudson! What an awesome game these three played with no subs! Rose’s little Ladybugs team is so great! Season 2 of soccer for Rose is in the books! She LOVES soccer, and it’s such a joy to watch her learn how to play!

 

Rose, forever our entertainment! 

 

I love this Instagram account. It’s one of my very favorites! I remember growing up, my cousins who lived in Santa Fe, always talking about the Albuquerque hot air balloon festival. I would love to visit the Louvre in Paris someday!

 

Noelle has had a blast in club choir this year. They even got to sing the national anthem for a local college baseball team!

The Banks/Pond crew! With all of these babies belonging to two Mamas, you’d think hanging out would be mass chaos, but it’s actually super chill every time! Love our all our friends!

View on Flipagram

 

 

A day at the science museum is the perfect field trip for Anna Kate! She came here almost every other week with Mrs. Paula in pre-k, so she had a blast showing me around her old stomping ground!

She knew all the fun things to do at each station. I had a blast watching her use all the learning tools correctly.

 

Anna Kate loves having Mike and me around! She’s actually a stick-tight and always has been. I hope it never changes, but I’m enjoying it while it lasts, just in case.

 

The dinosaur puzzle on the computer and interactive movie about the history of the earth were two of her favorite things!

 

And everything else! She’s our invention girl, our discovery girl, and I would be very surprised if she’s not some kind of builder/inventor/engineer in the future.

A trip to the grocery store is always a fun time (at the museum)! Anna Kate and Lila have been in the same class together for two years now, and they have a blast together!

 

I love watching the wheels turn in Anna Kate’s head. She catches on to everything super fast and her concentration is so sharp. The day we got home from the museum, she made a 3D character from a character she made up in a story she and her friends wrote on the bus. She found dice and made them into feet so it would stand up, which was so clever. But it’s not just this one burst of creativity. She’s making something super awesome every week for sure, sometimes more often. I’m continually blown away by her “inventions.” The recycle bin in our pantry is her favorite toy, along with Jon’s invention kit. I love when I see her digging through them, because I know she’s about to make something so cool! I’ll try to take more pictures, there’s just so many. Right now we have a covered wagon with a horse in our kitchen, an apple cleaning station for grocery stores to check, clean and place apples, a model of the Titanic made out of card board and toilet paper rolls—seriously you name it, Anna Kate can build it.

Love your unique creativity, Anna Kate! Keep doing your thing. No one does it better! Love you!

 

 

The girls had a blast at their school’s Fun Run this year! I think it was the best one yet! Anna Kate was so proud to have Rose running with her. I love how the girls take care of each other when it counts!

Check out this serious competitor! Love her fierce determination!

Rose and I have had to compromise on her attire. For school and special occasions, I pick. For the rest of the time, we call it “dress yourself” days. It’s awesome because all of our friends know when Rose is having a “dress yourself day,” and it’s so cute seeing what she comes up with… crazy, but so cute! Her signature is matching colors from head to toe. She’ll pick all pink (like today), all white, all black… she is coming into her own so beautifully, and we love her to pieces!

 

Oh, tucking in shirts is a must on “dress yourself days!”

She was determined to be faster than all of the 1st graders, and she was convinced that she was!

Noelle had a great time during the 4th grade run! She tries her best at everything she does and is a fast little runner too—her endurance is impressive!

 

Go Ladybugs and spring shopping with Rose!

Noelle’s leadership board at school!

I had a blast tutoring in Anna Kate’s class this year!

 

Noelle made King Arthur’s bread for school to donate to St. Jude Catholic Church’s food pantry. #learnbakeshare

 

Anna Kate loving to read!

Noelle playing dress-up like Jenna from the Seven Super Girls YouTube channel. We love Jenna!

The only cop I like to see at our driver’s side window!

 

Rose, Harper and Lucy after pajama day at the nail salon! Jax loves to cuddle with each and every one of us! Sweet boy!

 

Some action shots Mrs. Johnson took at the talent show. Go Noelle!

 

Cool kids.

 

The scenes I find cleaning our house continually crack me up!

 

 

So Anna Kate was sick one day, and I let her get a slush with nerds, but good grief, you couldn’t even taste the slush because of all the nerds, I’m talking the entire way down the cup. Gross!

 

Loved reading this explanation by Anna Kate about proof that monsters are fantasy.

We’re getting there… Hello Spring!

 

Emma-P and Ellie!

Rainy day neighborhood pick-up!

 

Thank you, Grand Papa and Kay Kay, for coming to Grandparents’ Day at school. The girls loved having you!

  

 

Sutton had such a fun baking party!

Our buddies, Logan and Landon!

The BAE’s BAEs celebrating Ty’s birthday—always more fun than we should be allowed to have!

Sunday brunch is the coolest thing ever!

Anna Kate and Jax have the sweetest bond!

 

Shopping!

 

Birthday flowers and donuts for Anna Kate!

 

Rose really took to the ice and is now LOVING ice skating lessons. Happy birthday, Cutie Kate!

Malia and Braxton – it’s cake time!

 

Ice skating at Anna Kate’s party and saying “Hi!” to the Easter bunny on our way out.

 

Mike makes the absolute best homemade Caesar salad, yum! Anna Kate had fun making a cake with Mommy, although something was off. Daddy said he’d help her next time. Can’t say I’m not trying!

 

Beautiful baby Rose fast asleep while Noelle was curling her hair for school. She’s rad.

 

Can she get any cuter? This was the first day back to school after her top tooth fell out. She was so excited to show everyone and equally excited to come home and cuddle with Jax.

 

Noelle curled her entire hair with a pencil and straightener. It turned out super cool. Her patience and talent with her hairstyles amazes me. Lovin’ me some Cutie Kate!

 

We needed to go shoe shopping for Noelle for Easter, and these are the shoes she picked out. How is she my child? Good thing they don’t have heels that high in her size, or we’d have to have a tough conversation, lol! She made this cute bunny creation at Crafty Club.

Road trippin’ to Poppa and Rara’s!

Nothing beats a sunset in the country!

On our way out of town, we stopped by to see the Westbrook family. I would never have guessed by best friend from high school would one day own cows, but it’s so cool!

 

City girl got stuck in the pasture with no shoes on, so Destiny had to carry her out. That’s what best friends are for!

 

I never would’ve guessed she would have a cute little red head, either! She has 3 boys as well, but they were way too fast for a picture! So fun catching up on their awesome country life. As always, the girls crashed on the way home from Easter!

Mike and I had a blast buying and selling antiques one fine spring day this March! I’ve been doing that a lot lately, and it’s been great!

 

I also set up shop at our house one week before my big consignment event for my friends to come buy the girls out-grown clothes at great prices. Win/win, and I always get to catch up with everyone, so it’s super fun!

 

I read the entire Twilight series (or listened to it rather) in 2 1/2 weeks. I’ve never even thought about picking them up before because the movie posters looked so cheesy and vampires seemed so uninteresting, but I have to say, I loved this series. Definitely young adult, but entertaining! I was sad when the last book came to an end.

 

When Trent has to coach in his work clothes, it makes me feel bad, but he rocks it out! Remember these pictures of Rose at Mrs. Paula’s? I’ll forever cherish these pictures. She’s hilarious, dramatic, precious, sensitive and sweet. Everyone loves Rosey Posey!

 

Vote Clump! This picture makes me laugh so hard! Anna Kate loves tumbling and had a blast at Presley’s birthday!

That’s a wrap for my March iphone pictures! YOLO~

The middle child stuck in the middle!

And then there were 6, and it’s all A okay!

Real life!

Our baby girls!

 

 

Oh these little farmers. I told the story on Instagram, but it bears repeating here, just for memories sake. This day was just plain awful. The day before these pictures were taken, I was at a field day type situation that entire day, almost 8 months pregnant. No other word but exhausted could describe me at the end of that day. Fast forward to this day, no school! Yay! Or so I thought. I fell back asleep after breakfast involuntarily, until I heard the girls in the back yard. Jolted up, found the littles playing “farmer” in the back yard with brooms, rakes, shovels, water buckets, boots, you name it! I took this picture for Mike to see because, although I had my work cut out for me to help them clean up, it was still cute! Then, I went back inside and found the kitchen, and the bathroom, and all the other rooms except the dining room destroyed! Cranberry juice dripping down cabinets, apple cut in a million tiny pieces to extract seeds for this new garden idea (the big apple is pictured below, the pieces were on another cabinet), syrup in little cups all over the table for the messiest tea party of all time, refrigerator wide open and at room temperature inside, cut apart box with duct tape and items I can’t say all over the living room, face masks cut open and all over cabinets in bathroom (the cucumber sticky kind) with sticky towels everywhere, I’m telling you… it goes on and on! No one is perfect, including me and my kids! First time I can recall EVER calling Mike to come home from work because I.just.can’t.

This face is up to no good. This fence is being replaced as I type this. Yay!

 

There goes our grapes for this season. The girls pulled them off their vines in order to plant them in the ground. In theory, I guess it’s not a bad idea.  

Extracted seeds now in the ground for safe keeping until an apple tree appears… or not.

Disclaimer: Noelle was locked in her room doing her hair the entire time the Pond house demolition was taking place. She was the missing key and the reason I felt safe to snooze with a 5 and 7 year old around. She’s my right-hand but deserved a morning off too after an extremely hard week losing a modeling job and being made fun of for having a huge sty in her eye at school. I just didn’t know we’d both be off our game. Some days just go down like this. Just boo!

   

 

 

 

 

These are a few of my favorite photographs from Noelle’s modeling portfolio. She has worked so hard all year long behind the scenes to work towards her dreams, and they are big. She is larger than life! Everything else from here on out is just a bonus. She spent almost every Saturday this year in modeling and acting classes, preparing for auditions and hopefully signing with an agency. Her first success, was auditioning for the most prestigious art school in DFW, and getting in!!! She auditioned in the subjects of visual art and theater. Mike and I thought it would be good practice for her to experience an audition with no pressure or job on the line, so we signed her up to audition. But when the acceptance letter came with the first words being, “Congratulations!” we could not believe what we were seeing! We hadn’t really even looked into the school other than knowing it has an awesome reputation, because it just seemed way too competitive for even a shot, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. Noelle is a go getter! Then, was her audition for her modeling agency. They absolutely loved her, and she’s about to sign with them and get started officially with her little career! That’s the update on her extra-curricular activities this year!

She still loves art and drawing, but her medium now is hair and make-up. She can now officially style, braid and curl hair better than her Mama. Although the end goal is to teach your kids how to be self-sufficient and possess skills they will use and enjoy later in life, I didn’t think it would happen this quickly! I redid a braid on Anna Kate 5 times last week and finally I said, “Noelle, could you do this braid for me?” She whipped it up the first try, pancaked it and it looked awesome and stayed in all day. Although my pride was a little wounded, I’m beyond proud of her! She did my make-up for my baby shower because I just do not understand contouring. She teaches me new things every day. They even have a make-up department in her new school! I have a sneaking suspicion every kid will be made over in that school by Noelle before she graduates! One more thing, back to hair. Everyone always compliments her on her hair styles out in public. She just smiles and politely says, “Thank you!” But I always interject, “She did it all by herself!” Then they always ask how old she is. This happens almost every time we run errands together. It’s hard because you don’t get an end of season ribbon, trophy or team high five being good at styling hair at age 9 (now 10), so I want her to get all the credit she deserves!

I’ve realized something being a mom of little girls for a decade. No matter how smart, talented or beautiful a girl is, they cannot be told that enough, especially by their mom and dad. It was my greatest fear Noelle would be arrogant a few years ago when I realized she was truly beautiful on the outside, not just to me, but in a different way, in a gorgeous way. So I withdrew my compliments, not really intentionally, just every time someone would tell her she was pretty, I would say, “You should see the inside!” or “Pretty is as pretty does.” I would never let her just say, “Thank you!” and take it in. I thought that would be her fall. But I was so wrong (yet again). Maybe it’s because she is a gentle, tender, sensitive soul, and compliments like that would mess up another little girl, but she needed those praises. She should be allowed to love herself and her beauty and just feel thankful and blessed that that is something she can use in life to spread love and kindness to others, and defend the underdog if need be. Her self esteem dropped during the ages of 7-8. It was a very hard, tearful time of struggling to fit in and find her place. I’m sure we will have more of that as the teenage years approach. We have ALL gone through those times in some form or fashion, but I’m going to be right here encouraging her and lifting her up with exactly how I feel about her beauty, both inside and out, because both are special and should be valued.

We are a little less than half-way done with our time with Noelle living in our home with us, raising her the best way we can. I think the most important thing is to keep talking and living the things that are important to us (not preaching to you guys on the outside, but living it personally on the inside), to instill values in her that will last a lifetime. Showing her through our actions what defending yourself and setting boundaries looks like, what giving back is all about, caring about yourself as much as you do about others, having a total blast and not caring what others around us think in regard to judgment, how to show empathy and compassion to those in our path, those in world at large and to the world itself—big lessons for little minds.

Noelle is unique, creative, kind, good, happy, loving, inspiring… fill in the blank with any word that is a synonym for awesome! Noelle is destined to work hard and be great at whatever she loves and wants to do in life, but the thing that matters most to us is who Noelle is, and although she will make mistakes and slip up along the way, Noelle is a wonderful human being. And she has richly blessed our life for over 10 years now, and we will never be the same.

Thank you, Bella, for being your unique self, for helping and giving unconditionally, and pouring your love into our family! We’re excited about all your future holds, because you are you, and you do it so well. Crowns off to you, kid! xoxo, Mommy and Daddy

As you’ll see in the pictures below, my girls aren’t competitive at all!

Oh, too slow on that one, Cutie Kate! Love that little smile, it’s like she’s saying, “Missed it!” to herself.

 

Cousin Melissa and Noelle are the oldest ones in the younger division, and they are both so smart and competitive! They both brought a change of shoes even, their idea! I just see them over in the corner changing into flats and tennis shoes and laugh out loud. There’s a coveted golden egg each year that has $25 gold dollars inside, so that’s always what they’re after! Noelle found it this year and last year. She goes all out, 100% brains, strategy and determination. And yes, I am just talking about Easter egg hunting here, lol!

 

Sweet, happy, content bunny Rose!

Anna Kate’s my most laid back when it comes to competition. She’s more a pokey Joe, take time to smell the roses kind of girl. After all, she is an Anna! 

Back to the no-time-to-waste, find that golden egg and find it now, hunter! I love Noelle! She’s the reason they came up with the phrase, you can’t read a book by its cover! Fierce and strong, make-up and curls, not scared of anything, cute and petite. The girliest of girls but will attempt things that terrify tough little boys. Just go girl! Keep doing your thing.

 

This.is.the.life. Nothing compares to watching our girls be wild and free!

Poppa and Rose got a head start on opening her eggs. She just couldn’t stand the anticipation any longer! Such a sweet afternoon in the country!