Happy 5th Birthday beautiful girl!

Today my tiny little baby is 5 years old. I do not understand how this happened! She was just a precious little gift straight from heaven, wrapped in pink and most of the time sporting an itty bitty bow on her precious full head of dark dark hair.

Then I blinked and she has become a witty, energetic, blonde as can be 5 year old.

The second I read that pregnancy test, I became a mother. We planned and dreamed and then before we knew it, at 11:31 on February 24th, 2006, I became a mommy.

Natalie Rae, you have brought endless joy to our lives. You have made me the happiest I have ever been. I am so grateful to God for giving us the blessing of you. I pray that as you continue to grow, you continue to learn. And in learning, I hope you see how much you are loved, not only by us, your family, but by the very One who created you. He has given you this one life and a purpose. I pray you will grow to love Him and seek the things He wants you to become. Do your best to follow His footsteps.

I pray for you always and am so deeply grateful to God for giving me you.

I love you, sweet birthday girl.

The kids are soooo ready for daddy to come home! Then it's just two days til we get to go on vacation! I am so looking forward to making family memories as we head out on our first REAL vacation!

Sweet sleep...

Last night was just lovely! I slept through the night and didn't wake up once! I always wake up several times in the night... Crying kids, barking dogs, weird noises...but last night was peaceful and quiet! Thanks to my mom for taking Nathan for a sleepover! Every time she comes for a visit and has to leave, he tries to go with her. We finally started letting him go on occasion, and he loves it! He usually doesn't want to come home!

I better take advantage of the next few hours, cuz when he gets home, that's it. It's all about Nathan!



Scrapping, here I come!!

tRUe LoVE....

is when your husband parks the car, gazes into your eyes, and sings Bruno Mars "Just the way you are" to you.

<3 I LOVE him! <3

Yard work. Yay.

Today we spent the afternoon trying to clean up the backyard.  I thought it would be a nice surprise for Gary.  Turns out, there were a LOT more leaves on the ground than I had anticipated.  :( Blah.

After getting them into two GIANT piles, I started sucking them up with the leaf blower only to discover that the waste barrel was over half full. I sucked away anyway and emptied the leaf blower bag 4 times until that barrel was full to the brim.  Guess when the city comes to empty the waste barrel? Next Friday.  Cause they came by this morning and I didn't have it out there.. So maybe I will try again in a week.  Or maybe not.  I love you babe, but yardwork sucks.