My Sweet 6 year old!

6 years ago, I was blessed with the title of Mommy.  My life changed forever and I couldn't have predicted how much I would love this little girl!  I am so proud of the person you are.  You are full of spunk, spirit and sweetness.  You are an out-of-the-box thinker and love creating things, figuring out how things work, and are very self-motiviated.  You have learned to love your sleep (if only we could get your brother on this same page:) and as a result, mornings can be a challenge to get you up and out the door.  You LOVE learning and learned how to read this summer.  You are quite the writer and write as well already as some of the kids I teach. You love Kindergarten and made new friends instantly. You adore playing outside with the neighborhood kids and are a natural athlete.  You can smash a softball that Daddy pitches to you, can run faster than most of the neighborhood boys, and are constantly tumbling in the house (and off the furniture).  You are still our healthy eater and love fruit more than anything.  You still ask when we are going to go back to Disney (and Daddy and I can't wait to surprise you in a few weeks with a trip)! 

I am so blessed to be your Mommy and am excited to see what this next year has in store for you!  I love you sweet girl!

                                                   Excited for her party at Buckeye Bounce!

 The kids had a ball!

Foam pit fun!

Hangin' with her party peeps!

And then we headed back home for some fun with the cousins....

and some Twister, of course!  Right hand on blue!

and throw in a sleepover to cap off the perfect night!

Modeling their home-made headbands they made!

Cousin love!

Happy Birthday to our little rock star! (She picked out her own theme this year, and it was definitely fitting)!

My little Kindergartener

Even titling this post makes me want to shed a little tear.  How is my baby old enough to venture off to Kindergarten? How is it possible that my tiny girl will ride a big school bus to and from school each day? How can it be that I am no longer her biggest influence in life?  I know she's ready for all of this, but her Momma is still struggling with reality. 

Today marked her very first day of Kindergarten.  We went to open house yesterday and met her teacher, Mr. Landon.  He is a perfect fit for Mackenzie.  She especially loves that all of her neighborhood friend's have had him and now she does.  We had heard raving reviews all Summer about him and had our fingers crossed. Daddy especially loves that he is a Buckeye ANDBrown's fanatic! 

Although last night & this morning she was quite nervous, she did great!  Since it was my first day of school too, I made special arrangements with my wonderful principal and was able to leave my meeting to take her to schoool.  Nana accompanied Mommy, Daddy and Caleb as we set off to take our sweet Kenzie to school.  She walked right into school and within 5 minutes had already asked a little girl in her class if she would play with her outside if they got to go out to recess.  I was so proud of her to initiate conversation! When we left, she gave us a quick kiss and to my surprise didn't mind us leaving.  I couldn't have asked for a better 1st day!

Heading to school for her big day! (Thank you Nana for filling the photographer role).

Walking hand in hand with brother to school.

Waiting for the school bell to ring!

Trying to catch a glimpse of what's in store. :)

Excited to show off her new school to Nana!

Anxiously walking down to her classroom...

waiting for her turn to enter the classroom...

Being greeted by sweet Mr. Landon!  She was all smiles from this point on.

...and right after Mackenzie took her picture, Caleb started sobbing.  I asked him why he was crying and he said "I want to take a picture with that guy."  So....here ya have it. 

                                                    Finding her name tag and table.

Reading books with her new friends (and Caleb, who minutes later threw a fit when the little boy whose seat that really belonged to arrived.  We're pretty sure Caleb thought that he too was going to be joining Kenzie for Kindergarten:).

One last picture with Mom and Dad before we left.  When I left, I told her that Nana would pick her up in the carpool line soon and she replied "I don't want her to pick me up soon, I want to stay here a long time."  Melt my heart!

Can't wait to see what this year has in store for you!  We are so proud of you sweet girl!

Anniversary, Part 2

Jeremy was out of town for 5 days the week of our Anniversary.  We had decided to celebrate when he returned, but that was upsetting to my sweet girl, who knows how much we like to celebrate special events.  On the day of our Anniversary, she asked me if I was sad that I couldn't celebrate with Daddy.  I told her I wished that he was here, but that I was excited for a date night when he got back home.  Minutes later, she ran out of my room and told me not to come down stairs while she worked on a project.

About 20 minutes later  she said "Mom, look at your bed.  I think Daddy left you something for your special day."  Bless her sweet heart, she had made a homemade card with a picture of me and Jeremy with a  heart above us, and then signed his name in childlike writing.  She also wrapped up things from around our house for me to open.  Melt my heart!

The cover of her card. I love her spelling (Happy Anniversary, From Jeremy).

And the inside, complete with balloons, Daddy's spikey hair and Mommy's cute skirt. :)

And as if that wasn't enough, she told me later in the day that she wanted to take me out to anniversary dinner at Chuck E. Cheese.  Which, of course we did.  How did she guess where I was hoping to go?  :)  Now I guess Jeremy and I will have to go out to a fancy dinner, oh darn!  :) 

And, to cap off the perfect night, she brought all of her stuffed animals to my bed and slept with me, so I wouldn't be lonely.

The Story of Us....

                                                                  How it all began...

about a decade ago, an apartment fire "sparked" new love...

however, it took an afternoon at this pool, before we both officially fell for each other.

                              And then we were inseparable...young and in love.  Our whole lives ahead of us. 

A year later,we made it official and got married in a church,

and merged our lives together for ever, for better or worse.

We began our new lives together in our first home, on Tuswell Drive.

Home Sweet Home.  A place we will always hold close in our hearts.  Some of my favorite memories ever!

And a year after moving into that house, we learned we that we were pregnant & our family expanded with the addition of our daughter, Mackenzie  Rae.  We learned to love each other in a whole new way, as we took on the challenges and role of parents.

                  

And 3 years later, we were thrilled to announce the addition of a little boy, Caleb Andrew.  We adored watching our daughter take on the big role of "big sister" and adding another little member to our family.  We learned about all things blue, things with wheels, things that bounced and zoomed.

After completing our family, we moved into our dream house, a few streets away from our first house.

We are truly living the dream...

...who would've thought back then, that this would be our story?

Thank you for asking me 8 years ago to share my life with you.  I love you and couldn't ask for anything more!  Through the "for better and for worse" we have stood by each other's side, remained best friends, challenged each other, believed in each other and created a wonderful life together.  I love you forever and always!

Happy Anniversary!

My Little Swimmer

My sweet girl has ALWAYS loved the water.  Up until this year, she still needed the assistance of floaties to swim.  This week, we started swim lessons.  After only 3 lessons, she is DONE with floaties!  I cannot believe my little 5 year old is a swimmer!

Her teacher Kate is amazing and instills lots of confidence in them.  On the first day of lessons she wanted them to all try swimming without floaties for the entire class. I  was a bit nervous, but Mackenzie was ecstatic.  She really wanted to ditch those old floaties!  On day 2, she had them go off the diving board without a floatie and swim to the side.  I was nervously holding my breath but Mackenzie jumped right off and swam to the side like she has done it a million times!  Her face was priceless when she climbed out of the water.  I think she suprised herself that she could do that! On day 3, she had them DIVE into the water and swim across the entire lenght of the diving bay.  I could not believe that she could swim that distance without the help of a floatie or adult.  Since that day, she is hard to get out of the water.  She even told me on the car ride home today that she might want to be on swim team next Summer, if she's old enough.  Melt my heart!  Congratulations sweet girl.  You are not even in Kindergarten yet and you continue to amaze us with new things each day! 

4th of July

Each year, a group of my girlfriend's from high school (and our kid's) get together for the 4th of July parade and fireworks show.  We meet up in the morning at my friend Beth's house for bagels and donuts.  Then we walk to the parade, although this year with the heat index we opted to drive.  My sweet husband set up camp early (and by camp, I do mean a huge shaded tent)!  As always it is so much fun to see our kid's running around together, and we love sitting around giggling like we're still in high school.  The kid's had a blast at the parade and loved collecting candy!

We meet back up around dinner time to feast on pizza and a buffet of appetizers and desserts.  While the kids run wild, we reminisce and enjoying having adult time while the kid's entertain each other! Then we pack up and head to the high school for the big show.  It is always a lot of fun and a tradition I hope we continue for years to come!

Happy 4th!