Thursday, May 19, 2011

Miss Congeniality

I cannot believe that my baby, my first born, is one week away from being done with Kindergarten. I say it all the time and I it is why I blog, but time goes too fast and I don't want to miss super special moments that will be years behind us in no time.

Anyway, this morning, I attended Ava Grace's Kindergarten awards ceremony. All of the kids are awarded multiple awards for the year, like best smile, eager reader, citizenship, etc. I heard these several times for all of the sweet kindergarteners, but there is one that was only used once (I think - my attention was averted some for AB and AM) and it was Miss Congeniality. Guess to whom it went?


You got it, my precious Ava Grace! We have known for almost 6 years that she is not lacking in personality and it obviously stuck around through her first year of school. I pray she always has that sweet spirit that shines through in everything she does and that anyone that gets to share a day with her in school or in play has a brighter day just because of her. I know that we all do.

We are so proud of you Ava Grace. You have worked so hard this year to learn to read and write and it has been so fun to watch the light bulb come on as you have discovered that you know something new everyday.
Me and AG after the assembly. I am one proud Mama!

You also were awarded:
Bold Bowie Brave - You were selected as a Bold Bowie Brave every six weeks since school started so you received a certificate saying, "You are the cream of the crop!"
Awesome Writer Award - For being an AMAZING & TALENTED writer!!

WAY TO GO AVA GRACE!!! One school year down, 12 more to go!!! 



Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A Day to Celebrate 7 Years

Sunday was our 7 year anniversary!!! 7 years ago, I married this handsome man in my parents backyard. And other than the birth of our three beautiful girls, it was the greatest day of my life.

These are just a few of my favorite pictures from that amazing day...

To celebrate, I decided that I was going to make our plans. I always put an undo amount of pressure on my husband to deliver on big occasions, like this one. Though he always comes through and even surprises me, now and then, I thought I would take the reins on this one.

I have had a gift card to Woodhouse Spa for over 5 months that I have been dying to use. WE put it to use on Saturday. I treated my husband to his first massage and our first "Duet Massage". It was fabulous!! Neno felt a little awkward at first but by the time we were done, he thought it was awesome. I definitely think we will be doing that again!!

And since my wonderful bro-in-law and sis-in-law had taken our kiddos for the night - yes, you read that correctly - we took advantage of a quiet house, had our favorite pizza from Orlando's and watched a movie. It was perfect!! No crying, no kids getting out of bed, no worrying that they were watching the movie through the play room window (Ava Grace and Avatar - that should have been another post) and just plan peace and quiet. Thanks J & B!!! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as the girls did! They weren't ready to come home yesterday.

It was perfect! It was exactly what I wanted, without the pressure on Neno and I know he loved it too. It was his kind of romantic evening.

I love you, babe. Thank you for 7 amazing years of marriage and for 11 years of being my Prince Charming. I don't know where I would be without you!! 

Friday, May 6, 2011

Packing Up


















I have packed our first box!!

We SOLD our house! We went under contract over Easter and our 10 day option period ended yesterday. We will close on June 3rd and then we are going country!!

I am so excited! God was involved in this plan, every step of the way! I wanted it to sell quickly, but I also wanted to wait until Ava Grace was out of school to have to move. We sold after about a month on the market and Ava Grace is out of school by May 27th. He is so good!

Now, I need to get back to it. I only have about 100 more boxes to go. In almost six years of living in this house we have accumulated a lot of stuff, not to mention that we have added two kiddos to our clan. This should be fun (Can you sense the sarcasm in my writing?).

Monday, May 2, 2011

Best of Easter 2011

So I am a little late (surprise, surprise) in getting Easter pictures up but these are worth the wait...

Adalyn: I don't think I like this Easter business

MAKE HER LET GO AND GET ME OUT OF HERE!

 These are definitely framers. Wouldn't you agree?

Friday, April 22, 2011

11 Months Old - Happy Easter


Our Adalyn Mae is 11 Months old today. I cannot believe it. I sat down with my fabulous friend Monica today to start working on her invitations for her 1st birthday.

As of today:

  • You still smile a lot
  • You adore your sisters, except for when Beastie (Annabelle) makes you cry (she is still a little rough)
  • You are trying to stand up on your own. You have done it at least three times for about 2 seconds - I think it counts
  • You weigh 17 lbs 5 oz - you are tall but itty bitty
  • You love to be outside but bear crawl because you don't like the grass or rocks on your knees
  • You are still the most cuddly of the three Falls girls. You will just put your head on our shoulders and it just makes us melt


We love you Adalyn Mae and though we celebrate you being in our lives everyday, we can't wait to celebrate your birthday. My, oh my, how the year did fly!

Happy 11 month birthday - Adalyn Mae and Happy Easter to everyone!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Don't worry about me

So this morning everyone was eating breakfast and I got yogurt out of the fridge for Adalyn. The conversation that took place between Annabelle and Ava Grace after I did that was priceless...

Annabelle: "Adalyn Mae eat O-gurt, Momma?"
Ava Grace: "Annabelle, it is YO-gurt"
Annabelle: "Don't worry about me, Ava!"

Neno and I started laughing immediately. We couldn't believe those words came out of Annabelle's mouth.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Spring Break

Since Ava Grace is in Kindergarten, this was our first official Spring Break and I was determined to make the most of it. We packed our week full of friends, family and fun!!



Monday- Science Spectrum with the Gray's. I joined Groupon and they had a 6 month membership for $25 so I bought it. If we go one more time (which we will) it more than paid for itself. Anyway, this kids played, saw fish and snakes, climbed a rock wall and wore themselves out.



Tuesday- We went and played with some of our favorite boys, John, Braidy and Quin. We love the Curry boys and all of the kiddos play very well together. Adalyn and Quin are still too little but one day very soon, they will be right there with the rest of them.

Wednesday- We loaded up and went to play with Uncle MiMi and Aunt Bess. When we got to their house, it was cool outside so we hungout and waited for it to warm up before we went to check for baby calves on the Ranger. It was still pretty cool when we decided to head out so we put on jackets and took blankets. Adalyn stayed cuddled up with me the whole time and even fell asleep during the ride. I must say that I loved it! As for the bigger girls, they loved getting to look for new babies and watch Uncle MiMi work. Annabelle even got out to pet a calf.

After naps and packing, Neno got home and we headed to Granna and Grand Pappy's house. We have started traveling at night so that Neno can put in a full day of work and the girls will sleep most of the trip. On our way, we stopped in Dickens to cake cows and nearly got the van stuck trying to get out. My husband was so calm and talked me through getting unstuck. He then proceded to drive really fast up a steep cliffside so that it wouldn't happen again. We were out and on our way. I don't usually panic, but I must say that I did have a moment when I thought we were spending the night in the car. Ava Grace told Neno that he needed to call Uncle MiMi because he could get us out. Thank goodness neither of us were right! We finally arrived at 12:30 a.m.


Thursday- I woke up sick. I blame the Taco Bell from the night before, but whatever it was, it was miserable. Neno cancelled his plans to play golf so that he could take care of Adalyn and his mom set off on her own with four grandkids to the Discovery Gardens in Dallas. They had plans for the aquarium, but didn't quite make it. They did a craft, saw butterflies, had a picnic and played hard!! They had a full day and were super tired when they got home. I am pretty sure this is the night that Annabelle put herself to bed. She said, "By Caris (her cousin), my go nigh-nigh," and off she went.

Friday- I was recovered and we were off to the Dallas Zoo - along with everyone else on Spring Break. We didn't want to wait in line with cranky kids so we fed them a picnic lunch in the "overflow" parking lot. Once we got to the gate, there was no line. Our plan worked! The kids were so cute with there maps and where they wanted to go. We saw some really cool animals and had so much fun. I have to say that my kids are troopers. Annabelle crawled in and out of a stroller all day long so that she could get closer to animals. She wore me out just watching, but she didn't want any help - of course. Adalyn even went to the zoo with us so that Neno could play golf. She had about a 30 minute nap on the way there and not another one until 5 when we were headed home. She was happy the whole time! She even made a new friend. She really liked her Aunt CJ's boyfriend Taylor. I think he kind of liked her too!
The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out at Granna and Grand Pappy's. Ava Grace was even brave enough to get in the pool on Saturday. Burrrr!!!! On our way home on Sunday, everyone crashed. They had played so hard the whole time that we were there and they are already asking when they get to go back to Granna's. This is just a glimpse of how worn out they were.