Red Ribbon Week

Back in October, Brenna's school had Red Ribbon Week. They had a theme for each day to dress up. She was super excited, and in the beginning, I was excited too. That was before I embarked on the "Scarecrow" outfit. It was a test of my patience for sure! My Mama was always great about making sure that I was dressed up for any special occasion, and I was determined to give Brenna that same opportunity. But the first day was rough, to say the least. the scarecrow was harder than I imagined. But after some trial and error, a lot of super glue, and some not so pretty hand stitching, I made it work! :)

Monday: Scare Drugs Away (Scarecrow Day)

I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

Tuesday:Have a Bright Future-Say No To Drugs (Neon Day)

Macie insisted on joining in on the picture taking. :)

And just in case you aren't sure if that shirt was NEON or not.....Do you spot her in this picture?? ha!

Wednesday: Plan For Your Future-Make Good Choices (College Shirt Day)

Since Brenna didn't own any Tarleton stuff, we used some strategically placed ribbon and hair ties to make one of my shirts work!

....because Macie didn't want to be left out of the action.

Thursday: Be a Hero- Don't Do Drugs (Super Hero Day)

The Amazing Alice Birkhimer made her cape! And we added to it by wearing her shirt that says "I wear pink for my HERO, my Grandma!" :)

Friday: Join the Fight Against Drugs (Camo Day)

It was a fun week! Even though the first day was a little hectic trying to get the scarecrow all fixed up, we enjoyed each and every day!

Circus-Take 2!

Since Pops didn't ride his carvette (or "little yellow barbie car" as Brenna calls it) in the family night performance, I decided to take the girls back that Sunday to see him. Josh was at work, so I talked MeMawMom and Graddy into going with us. It was so much fun! The girls enjoyed it just as much the second time as they did the first time. They really enjoyed getting to go down on the circus floor and seeing Pops and sitting in his car.

Brenna and the Little Yellow Barbie Car

Macie wasn't AS sure about it as Brenna, but she didn't want to miss out

Pops and his fan club! The elephants were starting to walk by us, and Macie was keeping a CLOSE eye on them to make sure they didn't get TOO close.

The show was just as good the second time around! I absolutely LOVE the Shrine Circus. And I think the girls enjoyed getting to share the experience with MeMawMom and Graddy. There was lots of popcorn and cotton candy consumed that afternoon by two happy little girls.

Graddy and Shortcake in deep conversation

These girls sure do love their MeMawMom

Best Friends

I know that most people don't get to go to the circus even once, and we were lucky enough to get to go twice in ONE WEEK. We are blessed.
And on the long hike back to the car, little Shortcake legs don't move as fast as big ones, so they sometimes get a lift.

Shrine Circus 2012- Family Night

Since Pops is a Shriner, we now get to take advantage of going to the Shrine Circus Family Night. Last year was the first year we have done this, and it was a BLAST! So this year's circus has been on my calendar for months. :) But as luck would have it, Josh was at work. However, Taron, Grayson, and Aunt Bit were in town visiting, so we snagged Taron to go with us. She was a BIG help.

Taron snapped this picture of my little Diva on the way to the circus. Sunshades, headphones in her lap and ready to go, and phone in hand- this girl lives a rough life!

Brenna insisted on doing everything with her "cousin Taron" because they are "best friends". She wouldn't even hold my hand to walk in.

 

The best part about family night at the circus is that all of the rides are free! Macie had been talking about riding an elephant for days. But when we got there, they had bounce houses set up at the entrance and she FREAKED out. That girl is scared to death of bouncy houses. In fact her words exactly are "Me no like bouncy houses. Me scared!" Poor baby. I finally got her to calm down and agree to ride a pony. She still wanted to cry every time she saw the bounce house, and refused to look at the camera, but at least she wasn't shaking.

Brenna loved the pony!

Next up was the elephant. Brenna was SO excited! But Macie would have NOTHING to do with the elephants. I guess they were a little too close to the bounce houses for her. She wouldn't even let me ride with Brenna. But it was all ok, because Brenna didn't want me to ride with her anyway- only Taron would do. They both enjoyed it!

The last animal ride for the evening was the camel. Taron said that riding a camel had always been on her bucket list, so I was glad I could help her cross something off! haha! Brenna informed me that she was riding with Taron (go figure), and Macie decided she would ride with me. At least one of my girls still thinks I am important! ha! The line was extremely long, so we kept ourselves busy with taking pictures.

We were excited to be hanging out with Pops! And were super excited when Wyatt got there to hang out with us too!!

I could not have done it without Taron's help! I was so glad she got to go!!

Brenna and her Best Friend for the evening, Taron!

The camel ride was....interesting to say the least. As we got up to the front of the line, I noticed that the workers were riding one of the camels. Then I realized they were trying to calm it down. It was making lots of strange noises and trying to pull away from them. EEK! Kinda scary. There were 2 camels that they were giving rides on, and Taron and Brenna were up next. They got on their camel and were riding. Brenna was loving it, and so was Taron.

I expected to take our turn on that camel after they got off. But just as they got on their ride, the workers brought camel #2 back and motioned to ME that it was our turn.... on the crazy camel! "uh-oh" was the G rated version of what was going through my brain! So, I reluctantly got on the crazy camel with Macie and we took our turn. The camel tried a few times to act up, but we survived. I was a nervous wreck tad bit anxious, and was glad when it was over. I think Macie's face in this picture says it all......

After the animal rides, we got our cotton candy and found some great seats to enjoy the show. They say that the Ringling Bro's circus is the greatest show on earth, but I disagree. I think the Shrine Circus is the best! The seats were great, the show was great, and all of the proceeds go to the Shrine Hospital.
We had a great evening, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching my babies enjoy themselves (minus Macie's bouncy house melt down). I love doing anything that involves getting to watch my girls have fun. It was a late night and it made for a very long morning the next day, but it was completely worth it! Thanks Pops!
I can't believe how big these two girls are getting!!

What a difference a year makes...



I don't think we're in Kansas anymore....

I am loving all of the random conversations that Brenna and I are having these days. She has grown and matured in what seems like overnight. While it does make me sad at times that my baby is growing up, I am loving each and every new stage that I get to experience. Well, ok....I don't love EVERY stage, but I do love most of them!
Out of the blue this morning while we were driving to school, the following conversation took place...
Brenna: "Mom, I want to fly on an airplane."
Me: "Ok. Where do you want to go? Maybe to see Taron and Grayson?"
Brenna: "No. I want to fly to Kansas."
Me: "Kansas? Why Kansas?"
Brenna: (very honestly and matter-of-factly) "Because I want to go there and visit Dorothy."
Me: (while trying to hide my chuckles) "Oh really?"
Brenna: "Yes. And I am going to take my Dorothy dress with me and put it on when I get off the plane and wear it to meet Dorothy. And she will think there are TWO Dorothy's! And then she will say "Hi Tooter!". And I will say "Dorothy, my real name is Brenna, and my nick name is Tooter!"
Me: "Oh." (because, honestly, what else do you say after this conversation??) hahaha!!!

For this story to make complete sense, you should probably know the background on it. Graddy drives through Kansas every time he travels up north. And he always calls and tells Brenna that he went through Kansas and told Dorothy that Tooter says "Hi"! And they have this ensuing conversation that involves Brenna trying to convince her Graddy that her name is NOT Tooter, it is Brenna!

I love this little girl.

Memories

When we first started talking about putting our house on the market, I was super excited. The thought of having more room for the girls' stuff made me grin from ear to ear. All I could envision was huge closets and cabinets on every wall...oh yeah, and NO TOYS in my living room!! Then we started showing our house, and each and every lead fell through and I got frustrated with the whole thing. I quit planning for the new house and started to believe we would be in that house forever. Then....we got a call. A call from one of the very first people that had looked at our house back in March (this was in August). She wanted to buy our house! I was excited, and a little nervous about packing up in 30 days all the stuff that had taken us 9 years to accumulate. But alas, I started to pack. Then it hit me....the house that we had spent the last 8 years building memories in, was no longer going to be ours. The house that I had driven "home" to for 8 years, was going to be someone else's home. It was sad to leave the house where we brought Brenna Grace home and walked in the door for the very first time as PARENTS (and were scared out of our minds!!)...

The house where we planned our first daughter's nursery so very carefully and decorated and RE decorated at least a dozen times before she arrived...

The house where Josh assembled the furniture that he built himself for our child(ren)...

The house where we brought our Macie Claire home and entered the world of Parents of TWO (and weren't as scared, but soon realized we should have been! haha!)...

But then I realized that the memories we made there were ours to keep. They didn't belong to the "house". They were in our hearts. It didn't matter where we lived, we still had the memories of bringing our girls home and of watching them grow. We still have the memories of every single room.
The memories of.....
...decorating Macie's nursery in my beloved Zebra print. :)

...my Dad putting the crib together while Josh sat in the recliner with his broken arm propped on pillows shouting out the instructions.

 ...trying to change a screaming newborn's diaper as quickly as possible with only the light of a small lamp-so that she wouldn't wake her sleeping big sister.

...sitting outside of Brenna's bedroom when she was 6 months old and sobbing into a blanket while she cried herself to sleep. (NOT because I wanted to, but because I knew it was best for her)
...curling up on this bed and listening to Brenna say the sweet words "Now I lay me down to sleep...." every single night.

...sitting on this floor each night and listening to the giggles of my girls while they were playing in the bath tub.

...opening up this front door because Nina, or Pops, or Memaw, or MeMawMom, or Aunt Emily, or Aunt Kim had stopped by just to see the girls and get a hug on their way home from work.

...standing at this bar mixing up a cake with Brenna standing on her step stool asking if it was time to lick the batter yet.

...searching high and low to find this table and chairs to match our cabinets.
...stepping completely out of my comfort zone and painting the kitchen green. (which I LOVED after it was done).

...sleeping on that couch for a solid 3 months while Macie Claire slept in the swing.
...sitting on the floor watching Brenna open up Birthday and Christmas presents.

...walking into the living room on the day we bought this house and seeing dirty brown carpet and wood paneling or wall paper on every wall, and wondering what in the heck we had gotten ourselves into.

...laying in our bed with the monitor glued to my ear to make sure I could still hear Brenna breathing in her crib. And then convincing myself that I couldn't and rushing to her room every 20 minutes to stare at her chest and make sure it was moving.



...sitting on the back porch (more hours than I can count) visiting with friends and family.

...laughing at John and Josh while they sat around the fire pit and attempted to solve all the problems of the world.

...inviting about 30 people to our house for a craw fish boil and watching as rain turned our back yard into a lake.

...pulling into this driveway every afternoon and looking around thinking how lucky and blessed we were to live here.

I am thankful every day for these memories and so many more. God is so good, and we have been so blessed. While it was sad to walk out of this house the last time and see it completely empty, I am grateful for the memories we made there and excited to make new ones on our next adventure!

The Schoolhouse

This may come as a surprise to some, but I am not good at dealing with change. :) I know it is inevitable, but the thought of it makes me physically ill. I should also add that the issue of securing child care has always been on the top of my list of "Things Jennifer over-stresses about".
When Brenna was born, I had it in my head that a certain person was going to keep her. I never doubted it, and surprisingly enough never worried about it. After I found out that this person decided she couldn't keep her after all, I was introduced to a whole new level of stress. I was completely against day care. Not that day care is bad, because many of our friends use day care and love it. But I just didn't feel like it was right for us. After a few weeks of stressing (and crying), we found Wayne and Vada. They were an answer to prayer. They were older, friends of Nina's, and only kept 2 other little girls at their house part time (as Brenna would be). They loved our baby like we did, and took care of her in a way that only a grandparent would. (i.e. bacon and eggs for breakfast, chicken fried steak for lunch, and rocking her to sleep every day). I felt like she would spend 3 days a week with them until she started Kindergarten. But when Brenna was 18 months old and Vada broke the news to me that with her mom's deteriorating health she just couldn't do it anymore, I was crushed. I totally understood her situation and reasons, but the selfish part of me was devastated. I wondered how I could ever find another person to take care of my baby the way Vada did. How could I ever find another person that I felt comfortable trusting with my child? I was facing the "C" word again!
Once again, God's plan was better than mine. After 2 days of crying and wondering how someone could ever take the place of Wayne and Vada, I had Nikki's name and number in my hand. I knew how much Amber loved her and what great care she gave Hartleigh (because Amber talked about it all the time!), so I had hope again. After a few phone conversations and visits, I was confident that we had found our new "angel". It was the perfect place for us. Brenna LOVED her Nikki. For the first two years, I stressed that Nikki might choose to not keep kids the next year, but let's face it-I apparently love to stress over things that I have no control over and no reason to stress about! ha! But my fears were unwarranted and Brenna returned each August for 3 years. And for that 3rd year, she returned with her baby sister! :) It felt so good to know that for a year, my girls were together every day. They were able to form a bond that some siblings don't get. Brenna also made a BFF. She and Tia were connected at the hip for 3 years. They were constant companions who started out as babies who played together and became two peas in a pod. They were so much alike, you would have thought (other than their hair and skin colors) that they were sisters!  :)
So when I realized during that third year that Tia would be starting Kindergarten in August, a year ahead of Brenna, I got concerned. OK- so before I got concerned, I MAY have begged Nikki to hold her back a year for my own personal selfish reasons! haha! The last thing in the world I wanted to do was move Brenna somewhere other than Nikki's, but I also knew that things would never be the same for her there with Tia being at school every day. I knew that Brenna would be lost without her BFF. Much to my liking, I knew that it was time to put on my big girl panties and accept the fact that CHANGE was inevitable.
I started asking around about preschools (gotta love Facebook!) and narrowed it down to two- Weatherford Christian and The Schoolhouse. We finally decided on The Schoolhouse because their hours were going to work better for us, and they were open during inservice days. I was also super excited that they were literally right down the street from our house. (Little did I know that we would sell our house and move two months later! ha!)
Brenna's last day at Nikki's was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I did my best to keep from thinking about not dropping her off there anymore. It also helped that I knew we would still see each other often to re-unite these two hams who had grown to love each other like sisters. Above all, I was comforted knowing that Macie would be returning to Nikki in August. But it was still hard. A stage in Brenna's life was ending, and she was growing up. I was sad, scared and excited all at the same time.
When August rolled around, we had Brenna's uniform shirts, shorts, nap mat, lunch box and backpack all ready to go! I took great pride in picking out her nap mat and backpack and making sure they were, in true Southern Mom fashion, monogrammed!

She was super excited to go to "school", and I was thrilled to see the eagerness in her eyes. For the first few weeks, she didn't have to wear uniforms, which was nice for this fashion oriented mom! haha! But she still had to wear tennis shoes, which got old really quick. I am NOT a jeans and tennis shoes type of gal. I am pretty sure Brenna was 3 before I bought her a pair of jeans. (I only wish I was kidding here).
She got up on cloud 9 that first day! She was ready to go, but kept asking questions about if she would have any friends at her school. It broke my heart to think of her feeling all alone in that big classroom, even though I knew her personality well and knew she would have a friend in a matter of seconds!

My two babies-ready to face a whole new school year.

Showing off her backpack and nap mat



At The Schoolhouse, with her lunch box in one hand and her breakfast in the other.

How on earth did she get to be this old??

She was a big ball of energy, and went right in and sat down to eat her breakfast with the other kids. She was happy to be there, and only had a slight hesitation when she walked into the room. I smiled like a proud Mommy, hugged her goodbye, and held back the tears.....until I got to the car. All bets are off when you are alone in the car, right?! I knew she would have a good day, but I also knew that my reassurance of that would be from her at the end of the day instead of from the numerous text messages and pictures I was used to getting of my happy girl throughout the day.
By the end of my work day, I had so many butterflies in my stomach. I couldn't stand it! I was so ready to pick her up and hear all about her day, and as I expected- it was a great one! She told me all about it and was excited for day #2. I felt great relief and a lot of excitement knowing how much this experience was going to help prepare her for Kindergarten.
On the first day of actual classes, she had to start wearing her uniform. As much as I said I would hate uniforms, I have really grown to love them. They are easy, cheap, and she looks pretty darn cute in them!

Showing off her name tag that she had to have for class.

"Hurry up Mom! I might be missing something!!"

So far, Brenna has had a great experience at The Schoolhouse. She has done "programs" and parties that the family has been invited to. Her first one was a Fall Program. I was scared that I couldn't make it up there, so I lined up Daddy, MeMawMom, Memaw, and Nina to take my place. I thought I was ok with missing her first program, and knew that she was going to be in great hands with all of these people she loved, but at the last minute I realized that I was NOT ok with missing it, and started to search high and low until I found someone to cover my class while I went! I was so glad I did. She was adorable singing her songs and looking at all of us who were there for her with such pride.

She went on a field trip to Casa Manana to see Santa Claus the musical. MeMawMom got to be her guest for that one, and I think they both had a blast!

Nina was the chosen guest for her Thanksgiving feast and program. I think they both really liked that! I didn't expect to get any pictures of that one, but Nina surprised me and emailed me pictures that she took with the office camera! Yep- she took pictures AND emailed them! In my 32 years, the only camera I have ever seen her use was a Polaroid!

Performing their Thanksgiving songs

Brenna and Nina

My sweet little Indian.

Aunt Emily was her chosen guest for her Valentines party. I am not sure who was more excited about this- Brenna or Aunt Emily!

WHO KNOWS on this one! Just being Brenna Grace.

My sweet girl saying her prayer.

Game time!

LOVE LOVE that face!!!!

Brenna has learned more at The Schoolhouse than I ever expected. I honestly feel that we made the right decision on this one, and that this experience will be very beneficial to her next year. She has made many new friends that she talks about all the time. (Although none of them will ever take the place of her beloved Tia) She has learned to adapt to a classroom environment and structure. And she has grown and matured in more ways than I can count. this experience has also forced me, as a mommy, to grow. I have had to let go a lot more than I was ready to do, and it has made me a stronger person. I had to realize that her growing up is inevitable. I didn't say I had to LIKE it, I only have to REALIZE it! :) It has helped me to see that she is going to be ok without me knowing and having control of every detail about her day. It has been a great experience, and even though I didn't WANT to make this change, I am glad it worked out so well.