My sweet girl is 8!

My life changed 8 years ago today. My sweet Lydia was born. I was so scared but yet so ready to meet her.

She is THE sweetest little girl I know. I tell her all the time that she has the biggest heart. She gets that from her daddy and mawmaw.

She loves to cuddle. I think she would sit in my lap constantly (if I would let her). Eight years ago one night, Dave and I were trying to let her "cry it out" one night in her crib. After 2 hours of crying, Dave told me to go get her, that in 8 years she wouldn't want to sleep with us anymore - WRONG! She often comes up with the idea that we should sleep together!

She loves Jesus! This past year, she has sang a couple of solo's at church. She has a beautiful voice. This past Christmas as she was singing, I was tearing up, suddenly I thought to myself that I'd better get used to this because it is becoming a regular occurrence!

She is a mama's girl! I love being able to do "big girl things" with her. We talk a lot and share lots of secrets together!! One of my most favorite things is talking with her.

She loves arts & crafts and still plays with Barbie’s and Polly Pocket’s.

She loves her room and loves to be home.

Lydia has gone through one of the hardest times of her life the past year. She lost one of her best friends, her mawmaw. There have been so many times over the past year that we have had to sit and talk about mawmaw being sick and each time, she amazed me by her matureness. She has made me so proud, by holding her head up, choking back her emotions, and learning this emotional life lesson. We talk a lot about how things are now and she knows that mawmaw is in a better place. She has proven to me throughout this experience how mature she is and I am so proud of her for being such a strong little girl.

She has such a care free spirit.

This past year she started gymnastics and loves every minute of it. She does at least 500 cartwheels a day; at home, outside, in parking lots, church, etc… :)

She is a compassionate big sister. She takes control of things when I need her too and is a great help with her little sister.

Lydia,

I cannot believe that today you are turning 8, whoa! I am so proud of you for becoming the young lady you are. You are such a sweet girl, considerate and kind to others. I am amazed at how big your heart is, to be such a young person. It makes me happy that you and I are such good buddies and I love our special times together. I am so glad that God chose me to be your mama. Love you bunches, Sugarbear!

2nd grade awards

Lydia recently received 2 awards at the awards program. I am so proud that she is doing such a great job & tries her very best. Great job, Lydia!

"This is so bootiful!"

The girls got their faces painted the other day. Layton kept looking in the mirror saying, "this is so bootiful".

Halloween 2012

A few pics from Halloween 2012!

The Sweet things in life....

Last week before Dave & I went to bed, he went in to check on the girls & found this...

He ran to get me to come see them. As soon as I seen them I felt my heart melt. These days we have lots of dramatic events taking place because "she took my toy", "I had that first", "give me that back", etc... But this was the perfect picture of sisterhood to me.

Daddy lovin

These 2 are two peas in a pod!

Lydia starts 2nd grade

I cannot believe that Lydia is already in the 2nd grade. She was so anxious to start school this year. On the first day of school she asked me to walk her in. As we were walking in, she grabbed my hand & as we walked down the halls her hand squeezed my hand tighter. I have never, in 7 years, seen her nervous. I almost wanted to cry!!

After several days she told us that 2nd grade is just like 1st, except it's exhausting!!! She said she never gets a break, they go from one activity to the other - no breaks!

10 things about Layton!

Layton will tell you that she is "fixin a be free (three) in August, the 20th". She is so excited that her birthday is soon. She has already told me who she wants to invite and that everyone can swim and sleep at our house! She is growing so fast, I just wanted to write some things down to remember. Here are 10 words to best describe my baby girl right now:

1-Affectionate. She loves to kiss, hug and touch. She comes up several times a day wanting a kiss or hug. When she goes to sleep, she wants to hug someone’s arm. So many times at night, after I have put the girls to bed, I will hear her and Lydia fussing because Lydia won’t “give” Layton her arm!!



2-Animal Lover. No explanation is needed for this one, especially if you look at the picture above. There is NEVER a time that she walks by an animal and doesn’t stop and pet/talk/love on it.



3-Busy. She is busy from the time she wakes in the morning until the time she goes to bed. And even asleep, she is all over the bed. I often ask her to come sit in my lap and talk and talk to me, she always does but bless her, she isn't very still!



4-Daddy’s girl. If he’s at home, she’s with him. If he’s not home, she wants to know where he is and what he’s doing. She loves her daddy and last night in mid conversation (about something not related to her daddy) she told me she “oved him a whole bunch”.

5-Helpful. She loves to help me. She loves to help with laundry and recently she has started watching me cook. She constantly asks to help me with whatever it is that I am doing.



6-Inquisitive. I really do think she ends every statement in a question these days. She asks “cuz why” at least 50 times a day.

7-Singer. She loves music. In the car, she will ask me to turn the music up. At church on Sunday mornings, she sings loudy with the congregation.



8-Shy. As outgoing as she is, she is still shy around people that she doesn’t know very well.

9-Talker. I don’t think there is much she can’t say. I never have to wonder what she is thinking because she tells us exactly what is on her mind. She is NEVER quite! It is so fun listening to her tell stories, she has such an imagination.



10-Traveler. She recently has realized that she can spend the night away from home. There have been several times in the past 2 weeks that she has asked to go over someone’s house to spend the night and when I say no, she says I don’t want to be here!!!

I can't believe that she will be 3 soon. She is the energy in our house these days. I "ove" her so very much!

A walk in the woods

A walk in the woods = 5-10 minutes of fun, exploring times. No "she took my toy", "that is mine", "I had it first", no biting, no screaming, no crying, no pouting, just simple fun times! These pictures remind me that they actually DO LOVE EACH OTHER. Lydia said this was very dangerous! She normally isn't my dare devil, guess she's been watching her little sister!

We we've been up to...

Laundry disaster!

This is what happened last night when I told Lydia to go change over the laundry from the washer to the dryer! In my defense, I told her to get a stool but she said she didn't need one, that she was tall enough now! Apparently she didn't grow as much as she thought from Sunday night!! Before I helped her out, I had to snap a picture! One for proof that she does help with laundry and two because it was rather funny to me!!