We are so thankful for Mrs. Peggy and her story time for all the toddlers in our community!  She’s the best, and last week we got to celebrate her on her birthday!

Rose was so cute doing the hokey pokey… she was really getting into it!

This was the “turn yourself around” part!

Here’s a picture of Rose and Lucy sharing snacks, and Mrs. Peggy reading a story about bears.

Each story time, the kids get a snack during the reading portion, and today’s snack was ice cream!  Rose gave up her spoon and ate it with her fingers… whatever floats her boat!

This is Mrs. Peggy with her Mom and a dear family friend that were our special guests at story time.  I love this picture of them!  We don’t get to go to story time with Rose as much as I did with Anna Kate, but it is wonderful each time we go, and we love it so much!  Happy Birthday, Mrs Peggy!  We love you!

Spring break is on!

These are just a few of the faces we get to enjoy every single day of our lives with Rose.  Loving every minute with this sweet little spunky, wonderful baby girl!!!

Thank you Mollie Grace, for inviting us to the most relaxing birthday party ever!!!  The PondFam5 had SO much fun at your swim party… I think we spent the majority of our time in the hot tub, which was perfect! 

This is a special little group of girls!  Anna Kate and Noelle are mine (of course), Mollie Grace and Maggie are my high school friend, Mark, and Meredith’s little girls, and Gracie and Addy are my high school friend, Greg (Mark’s brother), and his wife Stacey’s little girls.  These little girls parents have pictures together as friends at this age!  It was a hard photo to get (thank you for rounding everyone up, Grandpa Tim) but having this picture is priceless! (Mark and Greg have three children too, they have little boys, and our baby Rose, were all out of pocket, lol)

Rose was ready for a good time!

Noelle went to the top of the slide, chickened out, came back down, gained some more courage, went up to try again, followed through with it, and LOVED it.  From there, she went down it about 50 times!

Love seeing them so happy! 

Noelle and Maggie were the big girls today!  Yes, we let Noelle wear lipstick to a Saturday birthday party.  Lipstick comes off and she has fun expressing herself, which is all that matters to us.  There is a time and place for everything, and we are excited that she is having fun and feels confident enough to be different within the parameters we give her.  And baby Rose… well, she’s just so happy to be here!

Here’s Anna Kate with Mollie Grace, the birthday girl!  They were really anxious to get back to playing!  Mike took Rose down the slide, and she loved it once she realized how much fun it was!

Silly faces… this was the best Saturday we’ve had in a really long time!!!  Thanks for inviting us to celebrate Mollie Grace and play with you guys!  Wish we all lived closer but will treasure the times we can get together, be goofy and have fun!

Lisa, Mrs. Arnold, to the girls, has blessed our lives more than words.  She came over the night before her party to open her present from the girls.  Noelle had picked out several jewelry sets for her because they both have the diva thing going on.  Mrs. Arnold is Noelle’s mentor at school, and Noelle felt so proud to give her something to say thanks!  

Mike and I have been looking forward to Lisa’s party for a while now; a great night out celebrating our friend!  As we drove into Dallas, I got so excited!  I love it here in the big city!

Lisa, Rara and I worked so hard on the table decorations.  Mom tied the bows while she was in town at some point (it’s all running together now), and Lisa and I did the rest.  The room was so classy/fancy in person.  It was a magical night!  I was impressed/proud that we pulled it off!  There was a warm fire going in the middle of this patio room, her beautiful cake, two huge arrangements on the bar, as well as an incredible buffet.  We had so much fun celebrating and dancing… it was the perfect night out!

The cake was more neon than this… we just didn’t get a good picture.  It was beautiful as you can see.  Everything coordinated perfectly!  Lisa is a wonderful friend, and I am thankful for her straight-forward thinking, her honesty and her unconditional love.  She’s so very special to the PondFam5.  Today, when Lisa brought back the vases, and Rose was saying bye, she ran over and hugged her leg and said, “Bye Arnold!”  Lisa’s spunk and energy for life is contagious, and we love her to pieces.  Happy Birthday, friend!!!

These are Lisa’s fun party pics!  Best night out! 

Diva in training!!!

Ava, Noelle, Brylee, Anna Kate, Rose Cerly (and Audree) having fun one day after school last week!

Had a blast with all these pretty girls getting our yogurt fix!

Noelle took this picture of me in the middle of our neighborhood creek clean-up! I manned the sign-in table for most of the afternoon but found 2 Sonic cups that I had to fish out of the creek… Noelle was freaking out because we are such girly girls. It was a fun memory! Wish I could’ve worked harder, but if everyone does a little, it will go a long way!

Here’s Noelle and our neighbor Jackson having fun keeping everyone entertained!

Jackson was so proud he found his way into the dumpster, lol!

Pretty Noelle always enjoys being outside on sunny days!

The creek looks a lot cleaner than when we got here, so that’s rewarding.  We love our beautiful neighborhood so much and are honored to help take care of it!  Noelle is a reading machine these days.  The girl always has a book in her hands… so proud!

Check out how beautifully this moth is camouflaged in the leaves!

I love Anna Kate’s inquisitive face!  This is her grossed out but still interested face!

Noelle’s first grade project… she cut out every single orange shape and glued every white dot on her monarch butterfly, which took forever!  She was a trooper though and it was worth it!  She turned in her project today and was beaming with pride on her way to school!

Keeping Anna Kate busy, or rather, she’s been keeping me busy, ha!  Love her creative little ideas.  She used Noelle’s Barbie stencil tray as an x-ray machine last week to play doctor.  She’s awesome!  

Buying/selling the girls spring clothes!  I bought all you see in the above pic plus two big bags full of Christmas presents and a cute vanity, all for $230.  I hate to spoil the surprises because you will see all these clothes and shoes this summer, but I want to encourage all of you moms to think about consigning, not at stores, but at the big events where you make 70% of your items and get to pick your price.  Also, the shopping is so great… I mean, look at all I got!  You will see the rest at Christmas.  I made twice as much as I spent and have all this new fun stuff for the summer!  It’s a big job and a huge commitment, but the pay-off is the above pic and money in the bank!  Noelle asked me if it was Christmas, and I said, “No, you guys just helped me clean out your closets and old toys, so here’s your reward!”

Going to lots of doctor’s appointments, crossing things off this list and finding answers with others!  We’re getting serious about figuring out how to get me healthy and functioning without fatigue and muscle/nerve pain (fibromyalgia… whatever you want to call it; I’ve been miserable for the last decade, and the pain and tears are enough).  We found out I’m highly allergic to many things that could be contributing to my chronic fatigue.  Answers are good; we can make things better if we know what’s wrong.  I’ll never give up trying to get healthy so that I can better help my family and friends and be more fully alive, no matter how difficult it is both physically and emotionally. 

Everyone has their struggles.  If yours is not physical, thank God for your health today!  It’s such an incredible gift that can be taken for granted because it is so automatic.  We are all fearfully and wonderfully made… miracles to behold.  Treasure yourself as such.  Breathe in the abilities you have to even be able to face your struggles.  That is a gift too, whether we acknowledge it or not.  Today, I’m thankful for provision to seek the help I need.  I’m hopeful for this to all go away and be better, but for now, in my weakness, I believe I am being made strong.  My compassion has grown, and my spirit has been humbled, and I believe I’m more understanding and wise for it.  God bless you wherever you are in your story, that God will give you peace and comfort right now.  You are not alone.