wishing you a very merry....

from our home to yours wishing you a very merry Christmas =)

thankful for....

....my jeffrey. for loving me more than i feel i deserve. for having hands strong enough to build our home yet gentle enough to button tiny buttons on our baby girls dresses. for being so patient and giving. for making so many sacrifices to allow me to be able to stay home with our girls. for being the kind of husband that makes it so easy to love him more and more everyday.




.....my emme grace. for your sweet tender-heart that makes you hug me tight as i am crying reading your little house on the prarie books with you ;) for your always positive sun-shiny attitude. and for your out-of-the-blue hugs and kisses that i hope never ever stop.

....my rayley beth. for always making me laugh. for your sweet sideways smiles that make my heart happy. for telling me when you think i look beautiful. for your funny little artwork that always makes me smile. and for adoring your sisters so much.

...for our magpie. for all of the magic that you and that extra chromosome have brought into our lives. for your thousands of kisses. for reminding us to celebrate every little thing. for all the clapping followed by your sweet little voice saying 'ayyyy' or 'bob bob'...translates to 'good job' :) for teaching our family so much more about true compassion. for your sweet sunshine smiles. and for bringing so much into our lives that we did not know we were missing.

and i am most thankful for HIM, who has given me so many blessings.

yes, i am so very thankful....

a girl, her man...and a house

i had to share some pics i took of miss maggie and her man zeke on a playdate we had a couple of weeks ago....

:: i mean seriously...could they be any cuter? i think not ;)

:: woo-hoo...look at us standing!

oh how i {heart} this little sweet angel-baby face :)

:: magpie's excited face that she does all the time {love}

:: giving mr. owl kisses,or as our sweet girl just started saying as she leans in to give you a big wet one 'tiss'....cutest thing ever! i didn't think her kisses could get any sweeter but being followed by her saying 'tiss'..oh my :)




i know this is nothing compared to all that cuteness you just took in...but i have been saying i would show some more recent pictures of the addition ;) it is coming along slow but steady....but the outside is finally getting CLOSE to being done! that was the goal anyway, and then we can work on the inside over the winter months.....

:: we finally have enough painting done that we rented a bobcat to move some dirt around the house...

:: even though we aren't using any of the new space i could not resist decorating the cute new portico once all the shingles were up....

:: i spent many a weekend mornings on ladders painting while everyone else was sleeping ;) this is the new master bath where an old clawfoot tub that we found in our barn will be refinished and sit....i can't wait to sit in that tub and soak, one day!

:: emme grace could not wait to help jeffrey drive the bobcat...our little worker :)

:: miss rayley was more interested in perfecting her cartwheel than driving the bobcat ;)


i also have some pics from our buddywalk....another beautiful day just like last year and this year we got to walk with lots of family and friends that were there to support our girl. but the bed is calling me since we have to be at school at 7:45 for a thanksgiving brunch and to watch miss emme grace in a play that she is very excited about ;) so i will be back to share those soon....


happy weekend :)

a cowgirl, a butterfly and one cute little stinker....

is it really november 2nd? i am not sure where the time goes. i know my poor little blog has been so neglected....but life seems to keep getting in the way ;) seems like we are always so busy between miss maggie's therapies, school and homework for emme grace and rayley beth and then trying to keep up with the everyday stuff.... then throw in trying to work on the addition. i have been falling asleep WAY to early and can't seem to work in enough time in front of my laptop!


so i am feeling really bad that i did not post more during october, which WAS (emphasis on was ;) down syndrome awareness month. and i definitely want to spread awareness of just how much miss maggie rae has blessed our lives. everytime i post i hope that our girl affects someone in a postive way....that it helps someone see all the 'wonderfullness' that comes with that magic chromosome :)


so i have lots to share...but i thought i would start with halloween pics. i would hate to be posting those after thanksgiving ;)

:: love. love. love.... this sweet girl even when she is a little stinker ;)

:: LOVE the white fur mohawk our little skunk was sporting ;)

:: our gorgeous cowgirl/horse-lover/want to be a veteranarian emme grace

:: our beautiful butterfly rayley beth

....oh how i {heart} these three baby girls

:: girl's cute halloween art that has already come down :(

:: this cute little girls reminds me of magpie's tiny little pigtails... and of how my big girls USED to have tiny little pigtails :(

:: this funny little witch that makes me smile has also gone away for another year....every time i would unlock the door i would picture her saying 'how bout a little smooch sweetie?' in a high-pitched witchy-like voice ....followed by a cackle, of course ;)

happy wednesday :)

beach baby

well we just got back from the beach...we enjoyed 7 beautiful sun-filled days just outside of seaside building sand sculptures, flying kites, riding bikes and enjoying an ocean so gorgeous it looked like we were on a tropical island . we usually don't stay a whole week and it was wonderful! we still weren't ready to come home.....but school and work awaited ;) so i just wanted to share a few pics, it will probably take a few posts to share everything i want or else this would be 'the post that never ends....the pics go on and on my friends!' i downloaded over 800 pictures that i have to go through :)

so on with our beach baby and her big sisters...

:: our miss maggie LOVES the beach ....can't you tell? she looks like a natural beach baby :)

:: love this picture...she just looks like a little cupie doll sitting on that blanket :)

:: our girl's new 'hoover postion' that our therapists are quite impressed with ;)

:: miss rayley beth who did not want to get in the water as much because of all the jellies... ( we heard some locals calling jellyfish 'jellies' and had to join in ;) ...one 'touched', not stung, just 'touched' her on the 4th day ;)

:: emme grace excited to get to the beach....the 'jellies' did not phase her ;)

:: our baby girl LOVED her daddy throwing her up and into the waves...magpie is quite the little dare devil ;)

:: this was the first time we have ever taken the bikes and miss maggie loved riding in her new seat...i mean like grinning from ear to ear the whole time loved it! and have you ever seen a cuter rider...i think not ;)

:: in seaside with baby sofia....my new niece a.k.a. the big girls new baby doll! maggie rae is finally getting over her big sisters giving another baby attention....pretty much ;)




so i will try and post more beach pics soon and share some recent pictures of the addition. it is coming along and our trip was just the break we needed to come back and get back to work on the house ;) we saw so many cute houses in seaside and rosemary to inspire us since we are going for that french-cottage-farmhouse-built-over-time-kinda-feel...can you picture it?

happy thursday :

miss maggie and her other man....

no, no...maggie and her man zeke are still going strong :) but other than zeke and her MAIN man (daddy of couse) the other man miss maggie loves is elmo! i'm telling you i believe she would watch sesame street ALL DAY long! she loves watching sesame street, all of it, but when elmo's world
comes on...her little face just lights up and her smile goes from ear to ear :)

i can't wait till she is a bit bigger and we will definitely be taking her to sesame street live in nashville...we took emme grace and rayley beth and they loved it, but i believe miss maggie is going to take the experience to a whole new level! i mean this girl LOVES elmo...cutest thing ever!

and i try not feel too bad letting her watch so much of her furry man, after all he IS a very good influence ;) he is always so happy and so polite and always has such a positive attitide. i remember when emme grace was 2-3 years old she would always refer to herself in 3rd person.... 'emme loves mommy' or ' emme is hungry'...it was so cute! and i think it was from watching elmo...because he always refers to himself in 3rd person...

'elmo loves you!' or 'elmo wants to know more about food!' or 'elmo will ask mr. noodle!'....

and my personal favorite... 'elmo has a question fooroorooroor you!'

so it will be so cute if magpie does the 3rd person thing just like emme grace....fingers crossed ;)

so i am STILL without a computer...but i wanted to share just a few pictures of miss maggie too cute not to share....


one afternoon miss maggie was wanting to go over and play with her big sisters in their room...which is a room all three girls share, and magpie thinks she is big stuff to play with her big sisters, but they had other plans ;)

they saw me bringing her over and all i heard was 'no mom! she'll mess everything up!' they were playing with teeny tiny playmobil, and yes, sometimes while maggie thinks she is just playing she is actually destroying everything her sisters have worked so hard to set up.

'put her in her crib mom!' ... so poor maggie got sentenced to her crib....and was quiet content for a while. playing with her sesame street legos that her sisters had so sweetly put together for her to just tear apart;) and then rayley beth would add random toys to try and keep maggie entertained...until she gets tired of everything and notices what her sisters are playing with looks way more interesting ;)

:: the sesame street gang proudly put together and displayed by the big sisters....in front of a really cool old window that looks out of the girls bedroom and into the stairwell, a really great find when i USED to go antique shopping ;)

:: magpie and her mouth full of pearly whites...our girl is cutting teeth #19 and #20! i mean seriously, is it possible to look at this picture and not smile :)

:: oh those painted piggies...which i have to do it while our girl is sleeping ;)

:: oh this sweet angel baby...how she has changed me in so many wonderful ways, magic i tell you. pure magic.

:: note how emme grace and rayley beth added what they thought each one needed...i mean who would make ernie without his ducky and bert without his pigeon? and like elmo goes anywhere without dorothy? oh how i smiled when i walked in and saw this....my oh-so-funny and very detail-oriented big girls;)

but no worries daddy and zeke...yes, your girl DOES love elmo, but you know you will always be maggie rae's favorite men of the non-furry variety ;)

:: happy wednesday :)