Birthday post!

We had fun celebrating Kaitlyn's birthday party at the "water park" in Eastland with a few families from church. She has been talking for a long time about having her party here. I hated asking friends to drive an hour (especially with gas being ridiculously high) - but we ended up having a great turn out and I think everyone had a fun time!

Enjoying some birthday pancakes when she woke up...

At swimming lessons her sweet teachers led the class in "Happy Birthday"... under water!

Kaitlyn,

It is so hard to put into words how special you are. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was rocking you to sleep to Nora Jones. All those old ladies are right...time does go way too fast. You bring such an enormous amount of joy into our lives, and to the lives of so many others. You are so smart and beautiful and funny and just a BLAST to be around. You make me smile on the hardest of days. The love you show to your sisters is a beautiful thing to watch. They already look up to you. It's so fun to see Cora try to do the things you do. Watching the two of you sing and have dance parties, enjoy tea parties in your room, play under the covers on your bed, chase each other around the house... you are such a great big sister. You love to be a little momma to sweet Claire. She laughs and smiles at you every time she sees you. You love to cuddle with her and hold her and keep her safe.

We pray for you every day. We pray that you will always be just you. We pray God's protection over you as you start Kindergarten in the fall. We pray that you stay healthy and grow strong both physically, and in your love for the Lord. We pray that He is always a part (the biggest part) of your life.

We are so humbled and proud to be your Momma and Daddy.

Happy Birthday sweet Kaitlyn

I can't believe you're five.

More to come on yesterday's celebrations!

Sea World!

We got back Sunday afternoon from a fun, family weekend trip to Sea World in San Antonio. We left baby Claire with my parents and just took Kaitlyn and Cora. We had a blast! This was our first time to go and the kids loved it. We were there during two very hot days, but the girls did great. I'll just let the pictures tell the story. By the way, I'm pretty sure this is the most pictures I've ever posted in a blog.

James and Kaitlyn checking in. They upgraded us to season passes! James was super excited. Next time we have $700 in gas money though, we'll let ya know.

Happy Birthday!

Cora loved the huge foam pit she had all to herself. She visited this spot on more than one occasion.

Ready to start a fun day!


The first show we went to was the water ski show. Kaitlyn really liked this girl the best. She was so excited to have her picture made with her at the end. She also made it very clear that she wanted NO boy skiers in the picture. Check, and check.

One of the first rides.


The Beluga whale show...




Feeding the dolphins. This was probably her favorite thing while we were there.

My favorite thing was watching their faces as they watched the shows.




Oops.. this one got out of order. More dolphins...

This was called the Atlantis. She couldn't wait to ride it, and ended it up riding it 4 times. She would ride anything that she was tall enough too. The girl still has no fear. She and James were riding it here... (at the very top about to go down)


Big Splash!

All Smiles...


Getting a hair wrap thing. They just took a few strands of hair and wrapped colorful yarn around it. She's very proud of it and can't wait to have it in Neil and Brittany's wedding. We made it VERY clear that would not be happening.


Shamu show! Confession: I totally cried my eyes out watching this. Anything put to music gets me every time. It really was cool, but again - the coolest thing is watching Kaitlyn's face see something like this for the first time.


Friday night we went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. Nothing like eating fish after looking at them all day!

Kaitlyn tried crab for the first time and seemed to like it.


Cora wasn't too sure about the crab, but REALLY liked the margaritas.



They also had very different views of the Sea Lion show.





But, both enjoyed the water park!

Fun in the hotel room!

Cora loves her Shamu - or "moo" as she calls it.


Feeding the Sea Lions was also fun! Cora wasn't too sure of the loud noises they make though.

Saturday night we went to the Riverwalk for dinner. We were going to eat at The Rainforest Cafe, but there was a 3 hour wait. No thank you.

But, we did walk around to watch other people eat and we just took pictures!

3 of my favorites..


Kaitlyn getting a quick history lesson at the Alamo...

Happy Fathers Day James! Thank you continental breakfast for making breakfast in bed for James really easy!

The sleeping (or not so much sleeping) quarters for the girls. We did not get much rest while we were there. But Kaitlyn had a blast making her couch down into a bed each night!

Yes, Cora still drinks milk from a bottle. I'm still not ready to fight that battle.

Worn out from a fun weekend!



We sure were excited to see this precious face on Sunday! Thanks Mamaw and Pappy for taking such great care of her!

Just a Random Blog...

~ Two weekends ago we took our huddle group to Hurricane Harbor. It was SO FUN to go to a water park without our own kids. Is that bad? However - staying up all night + eating junk for 2 days + riding in the church vans listening to the guys sing 100 bottles of beer on the wall (the entire way through) + getting home extremely late = a LONG recovery. Seriously. It took me a few days to bounce back. But I wouldn't have traded it. It was a great end to our second year with them. I can't believe they will be juniors!

~ This past weekend we went to McKinney/Allen/Dallas to visit James's side of the family and to check out my brothers new place. Also a very fun trip, but lots of time in the car. We went to celebrate James' step-dad's 60th birthday. His mom planned a really fun surprise dinner for him. We really had a lot of fun! We got to spend a lot of time up in McKinney as well. I'm pretty sure we were in the pool 90% of the time we were there. The kids loved it - and we did too! Thanks to all the grandparents for being so hospitable!

~ While we were in Allen, one of James's family members was outside smoking. Out of nowhere Kaitlyn just walks up to her and says, "You need to go to smokefree.com" That girl does not hold back.

~ Cora is as cute as ever, but the girl can throw some fits. She is very into saying "NO", and she all of a sudden decided to start being jealous of my time. If I am holding Claire or playing a game with Kaitlyn, she gets pretty upset. And by upset I mean biting and hitting. She has done so good for so long - but I guess the "middle child" is starting to show up a bit. I'm slowly figuring out how to handle her. Other things she likes... brushing her teeth, putting lotion on, putting on chapstick or lipgloss, carrying around bags or purses, putting the Connect Four pieces in their slots, looking at books, looking at herself in the mirror....

~ Kaitlyn also seems to be needing more attention lately. She rarely plays by herself. The two things I hear her say the most are: "I'm starving!" and "I'm bored." I try really hard to give her things to do, but I don't have all the time in the world. Any suggestions for this one would be greatly appreciated. She loves to write and try to spell words on her own. I love watching her do this. She is so smart. She really tries to read more and more as well. She is very proud of the gap in her mouth where she lost her tooth and will show anyone that will look. She starts swim lessons on Monday and is SO excited to do this again. This will probably be her last time for swim lessons - she is really becoming a good swimmer. Just growing up so fast!

~ Claire is about one week shy of 5 months old! That is crazy to me. She rolls and scoots everywhere. She spits up constantly - in large amounts. This is really getting annoying to me. I really wish we could make it stop. Kaitlyn or Cora never did this as much. She loves to kick her legs around in her bouncer. Actually, she only kicks her left leg - it's pretty funny to watch. She is starting to babble and talk a little bit more - saying da-da, na-na over and over. She smiles more, but is still the most serious of the three girls. She will almost always smile at her sisters though.

Okay, now for my part of the blog. Disclaimer: I am about to let it all out. This is not a cry for help with my kids, myself, a job, or anything else. I am not looking for comments. I'm just simply venting because I want to and this is my blog. Hopefully, I'll just look back on this time as a hard season of my life and later reflect on how I made it through.

I've just been in a rut! Every day seems longer than the one before it. Not quite sure why God chose me for the job. An almost 5 year old, 17 month old and 5 month old is harder now than I ever could have imagined. I know I could be such a better mom than I have been. I'm gaining weight by the day and I have no motivation to exercise or eat right. My face is completely broken out. I need some kind of a job, but don't know what and how I would even justify it. A part time job would be ideal, except for my check would go to daycare. Call me selfish, but I don't want to work full-time. We didn't have good experiences with Kaitlyn in full-time daycare, and I just don't want to walk down that road again. I'm not being a very good wife to James...bless his heart he has no idea what to make of me right now. My time spent with God is pretty much nonexistent - it sure hasn't been a priority. I do have long fingernails finally...but I'm only using them to pick at the zits on my face.

Okay...rant is over!

I'll leave you with a few happy pictures.....