Happy 8th birthday Janna

8 years ago, after 27 hours of labor my sweet baby girl was born. 7 pounds 5 ounces Janna Lynn had finally arrived. I love you more than I can adequately express my sweet miracle child. You were worth any and everything it took to get you here. I love watching you grow and am still amazed and in awe of you.

You're in 2nd grade now. You love your family and are an amazing big sister. You still enjoy Taekwondo and have done two tournaments by now. You are a natural at your guitar lessons and you love horses. Your sisters annoy you by following you around everywhere, yet you try your best to be patient, kind and loving to them. What a wonderful girl you are.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

Listen to ME!!!

Kennedy comes walking in the living room, hand on her hip with a sassy sway saying, "mom, Courtney needs to sit in the corner!" When I asked why she replied, "because she won't listen to me."

Cousin sleep over

Philip and Thomas are spending the night during Spring Break. This morning as the kids are sitting around the table eating waffles they start talking. Kennedy is telling Philip how she was playing in the shower. Philip tells her about the time he lost his first tooth while in the shower. Kennedy is listening to him then asks, "do you want one of mine?"

My girls LOVE their cousins!!

Spring break - Galveston

The day didn't turn out how we planned but we still had a wonderful time. The day was foggy and overcast in the morning and the water was cold!! We had a great lunch and went for a ride on the ferry. We saw two dolphins playing in the water on the way back from Bollivar Island.

All in all it was a great day.

The Giving Tree

The weather has turned beautiful here in Houston. Spring is around the corner and the wet cold days we consider winter are behind us. We have spent as much time outside as possible to thoroughly enjoy Spring while it lasts.

With dinner and homework complete the girls and I took turns choosing animals we wanted to be. We pretended to be jelly fish, dinosaurs, horses, kittens and for some reason a tumble weed. The tumble weed was the biggest success as we rolled across the floor collapsing into one big pile at the end. The knees and kicks to the back were a small price to pay for the joy we found in simply playing together.

After baths we sat together for an hour reading books and enjoying the feeling of family. As I announced it was time for prayers and lights out Janna asked me to wait. She brings a book from her room saying there was one more for us to read. It was my favorite childrens book, Shel Silversteins The Giving Tree. I couldn't help the tears as I watched my two youngest children snuggle into my oldest child as she read to them. To hear her voice pronounce the words I had read to her so many times filled my heart. At the last page Janna's eyes met mine over her sisters head. At first she looked questioningly at my tears, then she simply smiled and finished the story. She closed the book, kissed Courtney & Kennedy and walked to me. She gave me a tight hug and told me she loved me.

Now here I sit and think of my many blessings. What I have written can't convey the emotions that are swirling in my heart. I am grateful. I am humbled. I a am mother.

Happy Valentine's Day

We made M&M cookies for Valentine's Day. Once they were out of the oven the girls asked for one. Kennedy takes a bite and realizes there are M&M's inside the cookies. She spends a few seconds pulling out all M&M's and finally says, "these cookies are tricky." I laughed and asked her why and she replied, "because the candy is hiding in them."

Janna attended her first instructor meeting tonight. There is a boy named Logan in class who has had a crush on her for a while. I was sitting nearby but wasn't paying as much attention to them since I was listening to the lead instructor. After the meeting Mr. Shanafelt comes up and says, "Just FYI Janna and Logan were holding hands at the end of the meeting." I asked her about it but she was evasive. She told me, "my hand was near his and then it was just twitching on his."

When David heard he said, "so tell me about Logan." She said, "He's really nice to girls and doesn't kick below the belt." He asked her to describe him and she admitted that he had brown hair, green eyes and is a bit shorter than her even though he's nine. What was David's comment to all this? "And it starts."

Thinking about....

As we're getting ready for bed tonight Courtney says, "hold on mom, I gotta go tell daddy what I'm thinking about" and runs out of the room. Kennedy turns towards the door and says, "me too, I gotta tell daddy what I'm thinking about." So I asked Kennedy, "what are you thinking about baby?" She replies, "I'm thinking about loving my family. I just really love my family."