one

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Malcom's first birthday. Malcom is the most precious baby. He has always been so good and so calm and he is a blessing to all of us that get to watch him grow. Makinley is mildly obsessed with him and has named many a baby doll after him. He and his brother, Drew, go to Mrs. Barbara's with Makinley, so she gets plenty of time to love on him. He's walking now, and it is so cute!!! Leah did a great job with his party and we had so much time celebrating this sweet boy's life!

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blessed

On this Valentine's Day, I am thankful for mine. Joey and I have been together for almost 12 years. It's so hard to believe. But, I couldn't get through this thing called "life" without him.

Not only that, how could I not be thankful for a man that helped me to create these two beautiful children???

This is an old picture, but they are still just as beautiful! Haha!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

can you hear me now?

For a very long time, I've wanted an iPhone. However, to get one, I would need to switch over to AT&T and I didn't want to do that. We are Verizon customers and we've always been really satisfied with them, and I didn't want to change. Last summer, my phone broke, so I needed to go get another one. It was time for an upgrade anyway, so I got a Droid. For the most part, I was happy with my Droid. There were definitely a few kinks with it, but overall, it was fine. However, soon after I got my Droid, Verizon released that they would be coming out with the iphone in 2011. I was so upset! I knew I wouldn't be able to get one for awhile because I wouldn't be elligible for another upgrade for two years (or maybe one year, I don't know). Anyway, since then, I've been hinting at Joey about how much I want one. Wait a second. Who am I kidding? I didn't hint. I told. :-) Because we have three phone lines on our account (mine, Joey, and Linda's), I knew we could get one using Linda's number because she has been elligible for an upgrade for years. However, Joey quickly informed me that I would NOT be getting an iphone and I definitely believed him. So, imagine my surprise when my daughter brought a birthday bag to me yesterday with an iphone 4 tucked neatly inside?!?! I was SHOCKED. I thought she was bringing me something that she had picked out! My sweet husband got up one morning last week at 3 am to preorder me a phone online!!! I'm telling you that man loves me. Last night, he told me that I was spoiled rotten. I asked him whose fault that was and he said, "Your dad's!" Haha! In some ways, that may be true, but whatever spoiling my dad started, my husband has more than continued over the last 12 years. Thank you, babe!!! I love it, but I love you more!

all "smocked" up

At this age, and for several more years, I don't think there is anything much sweeter than a little girl in a smocked dress with a big bow in her hair. Yesterday, one of my students showed up with 14 smocked dresses that her mom wanted to sell. I gladly took 10 of them off of her hands. They are a little big for Makinley right now (most of them are size 6), but I think she will be able to wear them for two years. They were an AWESOME deal...for real. I couldn't pass them up. I actually held them up to Makinley last night, and some of them are several inches above her ankles. I thought they might be way past her feet, but that girl is tall. Aren't they beautiful?!

I can't wait. Now, I need to go make sure I have bows to match them all! Believe it or not, I know I need a red one!

a princess, her king, and her castle

This is how Makinley entertained herself last night at dinner.

She drew a princess, a king, a castle, a sun, a baby asleep in her crib and another princess. I'm sure you can also see her name in blue. Across the top, she attempted to write "princess". She has several letters backwards and a few letters that she doesn't really need. Under the baby, she labeled it, "Malcom" She put a lowercase "i" before the last "m"...but overall, you can see that it says his name. Joey and I were highly impressed by her artistic skills. This girl LOVES to "raw"....aka "draw".

olympian

Well, probably not, but Makinley did start gymnastics this week and she LOVED it. It was so much fun to get to watch her participate in something like this for the first time!

Now, I just need to get her some leotards and she'll be all set!

55

My dad celebrated his 55th birthday on January 21st. We headed to McDonough to go out to eat and spend the night so that we could be with him for his birthday. All week, I told Makinley that Poppa's birthday was coming and that we were going to his house for his birthday party. Well, I guess the whole time she thought he was going to have a party like she's used to. As soon as we walked in my parents house, she looked around and said, "Where are all the decorations? Poppa, you have to get the decorations if yous gonna have a birsday party!" She was so confused!
  To let my dad know how much we appreciate him, I made him a scrapbook of 55 reasons why we love him. My mom and brother contributed reasons and I compiled it all into a scrapbook. I haven't made a scrapbook since Tripp was a baby (that's why I have a blog), and I forgot how consuming it can be to have all that stuff spread out around you. Factor in two children that want to "help" and it was a little stressful! It paid off though. I love how it turned out and my dad really loved it too. I didn't take any pictures of it though! :-(

The family around the table. Trey and Jenn had company in town for the weekend, so they joined us too!

Listening intently to something!

Oh, our sweet newest addition. Who, by the way, can HEAR!!!!! I'm telling you, God is good!

The kids insisted on a candle on every cupcake.

About to sing to Poppa!

Helping him blow out his candles and make his wish for the upcoming year!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!! We love you!