life is beautiful

f i v e months

{photography}, sister

oh little miss  forgive me for all the pictures, but my goodness…

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five months looks cute on you….

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anna kate  you make everyone happy.   at five months we know you love to nurse.  you love to sleep near us.   you are still swaddled and i’m so scared it won’t even be for much longer.  {i love the swaddle stage}  you are laughing and singing a lot.  you always need a burp “blanket” with you because a cloth just isn’t gonna do the job.    you are rolling over from back to tummy just in this last week.  you are trying so hard to get to the things around you.   it was on our trip to chad and mendy’s that i realized how much you were reaching out and grabbing for toys!  you were the biggest blessing this last year.   we are so thankful for god’s perfect timing with you.   happy five months!

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we love you ak!

xxoo

just one more…

celebrations, cousins

a little meet up with the cousins never hurt anyone… 🙂   the sunday after christmas  the cold weather finally blew through.   we met up with holly and travis and the kids for mass and lunch.   it was so good to be able to see them one more time before they headed back home.

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xxoo

christmas day 2015

celebrations, kids

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what a treat christmas day was this year,  jack and samuel you had quite the surprise waiting for you under nana’s christmas tree

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we headed off to the park and spent the afternoon playing with your new toys!

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it was so crazy how warm the weather was this christmas.  jack you were a pro on your bike and loved going so fast!   samuel you were still a bit nervous and preferred racing daddy by foot.

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we headed back to the house and enjoyed a wonderful lunch together.

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anna kate you can really steal a show with your smiles…  nana made you your very own blanket for christmas.  you clearly loved it!

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it was good to be together again and we feel so blessed that albie’s job allowed him to be home for the holidays…

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of course this year was the first christmas with anna kate in our arms.  last year, the best christmas gift to me, was papaw  wiping a tear from his eye when we surprised them with the news of grand-baby number three for them.   i will never forget that.  this year was very hard without him there with us…   but we take comfort in knowing how proud he is of us for still getting together,  eating all the yummy treats, spoiling these little babies and honoring the ONE who has blessed us all and given us the graces to get through this year…

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xxoo

christmas 2015

celebrations, kids

it was a very warm christmas this year…  and of course very loud.   here’s our christmas, best told in pictures… and a few minor details 😉

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christmas eve afternoon we did some christmas carolin’ …

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after the food was all prepared we stopped to watch the kids perform the nativity…  this year all three kids were able to take part 🙂

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before everyone parted ways we gathered together to sing happy birthday to sweet baby jesus and each child said thank you to Him in their own special way…

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we look forward to it all year and it goes by so fast.   i am so thankful for the memories our babies are getting to make with their cousins.   we are already looking forward to next year’s christmas.

merry christmas

xxoo

 

 

 

 

love

celebrations, cousins

 cheers to forty-five years!

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it started out as a “this could be fun”  idea between us sisters…  gramps got a new shed this last year,  kindle got great party lights,  we started getting excited about being together and of course all the older kids just want a dance party…  so a surprise anniversary party was created.

it. was. so. perfect.

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we got better memories than photos…

 the memory i took with me is realizing this is what love is…

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we are truly blessed and we cannot thank these two love birds enough for their example they show us.   their great faith and love for christ, one another, and this family is unlike any other!

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may the lord bless you with many more years together!

xxoo

merry texas christmas you all :)

celebrations, cousins, firsts

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a little dinner and christmas lights with mama’s aunts and cousins…  i would love to do this again next year!

  i couldn’t help but think of how happy our gramps and granny would be to know that we can still get together like this to enjoy these little moments.

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{thank you to colleen for these pictures, especially for taking a picture of our little clan}

xxoo

 

7 years…

celebrations, dada

“and i love you more now than i did on that very first day….”

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this is what our 7th wedding anniversary night looked like…  i just couldn’t resist taking a picture.

i wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“to me you are perfect”

xxoo

a weekend get away

cousins, firsts, vacation

for the boys…

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and just for us girls…

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anna kate you don’t look that thrilled… but i think you were pretty happy to meet your aunt and two of your other cousins!

the flight there wasn’t as easy as when your big brothers were babies on flights.   i think it got to your ears a little bit more.   plus, i’m learning that you are just really a girl and you don’t want to miss a thing.

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people are so helpful and friendly when you have a baby in tow…

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we got to chad and mendy’s late that evening.  you had a great nights rest and were ready for a brand new day the next morning.  you enjoyed meeting some of your fur cousins and they wanted to get to know everything about you!  mainly your toys 🙂

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uncle chad’s let you sit on his bike… a real biker babe you are.

(thank goodness you did not spit up}

we had such a great time on this trip it was just the get away we needed.   a time to stop and enjoy some of our family that we miss so much and just regroup before the holidays.   dana and i wish so bad that we could make this a tradition.   we are so glad we got this chance!

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we enjoyed a day of shopping and meeting santa and a rather yummy southern dinner.

{grainy selfie to prove what a great party girl you are}

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later that evening we all watched elf together 🙂

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{happy sunday}

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  we enjoyed a “little”  bike ride and chad let me play photographer that day for his family.

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a big thank you to chad and mendy for being such great hosts, as always!  it was such a great visit.   of course it was so hard to leave their house not knowing the next time we will make it up there.  we are already looking forward to seeing them again during our summer vacation.     as for this little traveler…

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you are such a happy baby.   we all want pictures with you….

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but i think you enjoy them solo 🙂

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“ready for take off mama!”

xxoo

first time for everything..

firsts, phone pics, weekend in pictures

i find it strange that the more kids i have the harder it is to leave that baby.   sweet anna kate at four months i finally separated myself from you for more than an hour…

you were in great hands though 🙂

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what a fun weekend we had.   friday night granny and aunt colleen came up so daddy and i could sneak away to his christmas party…

{a grainy selfie will have to go as proof of our first date night away from three babies}

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the rest of the weekend we spent preparing the house a little more for christmas…

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and anna kate also had her first visit from st. nicholas!

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she was pretty thrilled st. nicholas skipped the chocolate coins and candy canes and went with a little toothbrush for those gums of hers…

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christmas is only a few weeks away.  we are making our list and checking it twice… 😉

xxoo

little happenings …

phone pics

 

just the day to day happenings in our week.   from dentist trips to gymnastics to playing around the house i still can’t figure out how our schedule fills up so fast…  we have been missing our library time so much, i can’t wait to get back into it…

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xxoo