4 years old!

My baby girl has turned 4! How in the world, has 4 years gone by since giving birth to my preemie of 5lbs 3 oz. no hair little girl. You never really truly understand when people say, enjoy them while there young, because they will grow up way too fast. And poof you have them and it really happens, way to fast!!!

She has really grown up this year and especially the last couple of months. She helps with laundry, she gets her stool and puts the clothes in the washer and dryer and then can't wait to help fold them and she does a really good job. I was getting ready for church a couple of weeks ago and she hollered in there... mom is it ok, if I go ahead and start folding these clothes in this basket? She loves to help me cook, she dresses her self and picks out her own clothes, and she loves to help with Brennan. She always picks out his towel and washcloth before baths, if you ask her for a favor, such as can you get me a burp cloth hun or a diaper...her reply... sure I can, mom!

My all time favorite thing, is the love she has for her little brother. You can see it all over her face when she talks about him or to him. She loves to hold him, sing to him, talk to him and if he is in the swing and the music stops, she automatically will stop what she is doing and say ok Brennan, I will turn your music on for you buddy. She talks baby talk to him and that is hilarious. When he cries, she is the first one to him. If he is screaming, she can always calm him down, by singing Twinkle, Twinkle to him. She is truly a wonderful Big Sister and a little Mama to him. And I know he is only 12wks old, but you can tell the love he has for her already. When she is talking, even if he is eating, he will jerk that head around and try to find her and she is already getting smiles from him! I pray the love between them only grows deeper, as time goes by!

She is a precious little girl and I am so blessed that the Lord saw fit to bless my life with her. I just pray that I am raising and leading her in the right directions. She is starting VPK this year and will go 2 days a week and the letting go part is really hitting home for ole mom (as I'm typing, yes I'm crying AGAIN) but I know she will love it and blossom even more from the experience and she is soooooo excited! And even though I can't be with her, when she is at school I know someone that IS and WILL be with her!

The whinyness has drastically reduced! If you tell her something and the answer is..no, she says ok and walks away. If she ask something, and the answer is no...same thing, ok and that's it!!

She is going to bed all by herself these days, I tuck her in and she says... please turn my light off and shut my door, so I can sleep better. She is using the potty, without her Dora cushion on it (and that is huge)! I tell ya, she has really grown up! And the questions, she asked...wow is all I can say! She is a very smart, sweet, and a hilarious girl who keeps us laughing all the time!

I asked her to answer a few questions for me, about her favorite things. Her answers are below:

favorite color: pink

favorite number: 4

favorite restaurant: Chuck E Cheese

favorite drink: coke, tea, and yoohoo

favorite food: chicken

favorite place to shop: WalMart

favorite place to go: Library

favorite friends to play with: Abby, Emma, Carrigan, Camdyn, Timothy, Boo, Katie, Kyrie, Caytlin and her list kept going.

favorite song: twinkle, twinkle and Giddy on up, Giddy on out (and yes she knows the words and sings loudly and wants to hear it over and over)

favorite church song: Holy, Holy, Holy

favorite princess: Belle

favorite TV show: Caillou and Max and Ruby

favorite movie: Toy Story 2

favorite thing to play with at home: Barbies

favorite animal: horses and butterflies

favorite candy: suckers

favorite flower: rose

favorite rose color: pink

favorite thing to wear: dresses

favorite thing to sleep in: night gowns

favorite things to sleep with: Handy Ba Dandy, Jesse, and Woody

favorite person: mom and of course Brennan (but after we read this to dad, she changed it to her whole family! I told ya, she was smart)

Happy 4th Birthday Jolee!

Mommy Love's You!

Baby Shower!

We finally got to have Brennan's Baby Shower, last Friday night! The poor ladies at the church had waited so long. They were planning it when I was pregnant, then I got put on bed rest, so we put it on hold (so I could actually attend MY Baby Shower). Then we spent 4 wks in the NICU, then we had to wait for him to get big enough to be out and around people, then we got hit with pneumonia. So with all those hurtles behind us, we finally got to get together and have a baby shower and celebrate and Thank God for our little boy!

The ladies, did an amazing job! It was a duck theme and the tables were all decorated like the picture above, sooooo cute!

The food, cake and punch were all delicious!

Me and Brennan at our shower!

Sister Nancy quilted him, a beautiful Alabama quilt! That matches his room to a "T"!

He is definitely, going to be the best dressed little boy around! He got a ton of cute, cute, cute, outfits!

Big Sister helped open the presents and ooohed and awwed over them all, as she opened each one and got it out and held it up, for everyone to see!

In this picture, I was super excited about our portable swing we received!

I can not thank the Ladies of the church enough, for such a wonderful shower! The food, the fellowship, the gifts, and the games we played, were all GREAT!

My Sunshine's

So the other day, I was singing the song "You are my sunshine, My only sunshine" to Brennan while I was getting him dressed. I did not even know, Jolee was listening or paying attention to me, she was in her room playing Barbies. She walked around the corner and entered Brennan's room, while I'm still singing and said in the sweetest most concerned little voice...

Mom, that isn't true.

I stopped singing and said, what's not true baby? She said Brennan is not your only sunshine, I am too, right Mom?

As I stood there, I could feel my heart breaking and quickly said...yes baby girl, I have 2 sunshine's...Jolee and Brennan! The biggest smile, came over her face!

So now, this is how I sing the Sunshine song.....

Ya'll are my sunshine's, my only sunshine's

Ya'll make me happy, when skies are grey

Ya'll will never know dear's, how much I love ya'll

Please don't take my sunshine's away!!

And everyone is happy! And the lesson I learned, they are always, always, always listening!

My little worker bee!

Silas has been working in our backyard, for a couple of weeks now and his little girl has been right there with him helping him and talking to him along the way. If you haven't been around Jolee lately, she will talk your ear off. Giving her opinions, asking questions, or just talking just to talk, sometimes I think!

She waited all day last Saturday to help her daddy lay the "new grass" as she calls it! Silas would get a piece of sod off the trailer, give it to her and she would drag it all the way to where it needed to go and then try to kick it in place, just like Daddy did!

She was so excited about the "new grass" and worked outside with her Daddy until 11pm that night! Her outfit was my favorite part, she picked her out a T-shirt, shorts, and her rain boots but that day she called them her working boots (love that girl)!

A picture of the dirty "new grass" laying team!

The end result of Jolee and her Daddy's backyard project!

And another view, and ok he is right, I do want to go sit out there more now that it looks so nice and presentable! Thanks Hun, for your hard work and more importantly for taking time and being so patient with Jolee as she helped you out in the backyard!

What a difference

After typing that title for this post, I am singing that song now, you know you are thinking it too.... What a difference you've made in my life, what a difference you've made in my life, your my sunshine day and night, what a difference you've made in my life. And now that we are all singing it, that song is not what my post is about today, although my little man has made a difference in my life!

I decided that I would take a picture of him, every month sitting beside his "Little AL" to measure and see how much he has grown and changed in that month! And the difference this month is HUGE, literally!!

1 month old

2 months old

Photo Shoot with Jesse!

Jolee who we have to call, Jesse the Yodeling Cowgirl now, is in love with Toy Story 2 these days. I'm talking she watches the movie over and over again and as I type this we are listening to the Woody's Roundup CD! We listen to it ALL the time, no matter if she is in Daddy's car or Mommy's car, she does not forget to take it with her. She knows every song and sings it to the top of her lungs, it's hilarious and cute! Although, I have caught Silas singing the songs off of the CD while working in the yard this past weekend and while showering and I have listened to it so much when I wake up in the middle of the night, I'm singing the Yodeling Song in my head...that aint right!

Her birthday theme this year, is no other than...Toy Story 2, it has to be 2 because that is the one that has Jesse in it! She has named her horse bullseye and she says...giddy up bullseye, to infinity and beyond! She plays out Toy Story 2 all the time, its cute and funny all at the same time!

She wanted a Jesse outfit so she could dress up for her Birthday party and has said she is going to be Jesse the Cowgirl for Halloween this year and she keeps changing her mind on what Brennan can be for... she has mentioned Slinky Dog, Rex, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Potato Head or Woody!
The day her outfit came in, we had to go outside and take pictures at her request of her and Bullseye!

Hospitals love us!

(The hospital gown of course swallowed him)

I thought we were through with hospitals (or for a while at least), but I was proven wrong this past week. I had been really concerned about Brennan's breathing lately, the more I watched him, the more I realized he was working harder than normal to breath. Let me back up a minute, he has been extremely chuggy sounding for a couple of weeks, which people through out it could be because it was allergy season, reflux, etc. He had no other symptoms, but this week something with his breathing started changing, his head would bob, he was retracting, his nose would flare sometimes and after a couple of comments from others (Sherri and Amber) I knew he needed to be seen immediately!

When the Dr. came in the room, she couldn't take her eyes off of him. She shared my concern about his breathing and sent us straight to the Children's hospital! Long story short we went, they did x-rays and blood work (which did not make him happy) the diagnosis was made that he had an infection in his right lung..pneumonia! I will spare you the details about the hospital and all that went on there, the important thing is... they finally diagnosed him and he is now on some antibiotics.

They say you always learn stuff through trials, here is just a few things, I have learned during this...always go with your gut (something was wrong with my son and I knew it), listen to your friends (which by the way, Amber should open up her own office, she diagnosed him way before the ER did), and in a scary situation remember who gives you PEACE and lean on HIM! In the hospital room as I sat there holding him, as I prayed and cried thinking about how scary of a situation we where in at the moment, and didn't know what was wrong that someone (you know who you are) goes through these trials and struggles daily with her son. I couldn't imagine!

So please be in prayer for Brennan as he recovers from pneumonia and be in prayer for the parents and children that go through scary and unknown trials on a daily basis!

4 or 14??

The past 3 nights, Jolee has gathered up her dolls (after changing them into pajama's) and said I'm going to crawl into my bed, gives us kisses and says goodnight I love you and off she goes! The key words in that sentence were my bed! The first night Silas and I just kinda both looked at each other and said, that's weird! The second night she did it, Silas asked if we where in a twilight zone? Last night when she did the same exact thing and then as I was leaving her room after tucking her in, she said Mom shut my door please! I turned and said what door? Expecting her to say her closet door, she says... my bed room door please! I immediately came down the hall, and asked Silas if our daughter was turning 4 or 14 this month, because she just asked me to shut her bedroom door.

So I know you are all thinking, what's the big deal? But here is the thing... Jolee hates to sleep and to sleep by herself these days forget it. So see why we are confused, grateful but confused! Maybe she is just tired of getting her sleep interrupted by her brother's need to cry and eat every 3-4 hours, so she has decided to go to her room, in her bed, and shut the door and sleep in peace. Who knows the reason, but what ever it is, we are going with it!

It's all good

If this isn't a picture of what chilled out and just a snoozing looks like, I don't know what is!
I had swaddled him (obviously not to good) and put him in the cradle, came back to check on him and this is what I found!

Look at those cheeks on my little man! Monday he was 9wks old and weighed 9lbs 6.3oz! He is definitely making up for only coming into this world weighing 4lbs 10oz!

Snow White Play

Last week Amanda and I took "our little Snow Whites" to see a Snow White Play at the local high school! It was so good! The acting and singing were amazing, I would have never guessed they were high school students...It was that good! The prince even rode in on a real horse, for Pete's sake!

Jolee and Carrigan loved it, I don't think they blinked the whole show. Well, except when the wicked witch came on stage and the lights dimmed and you could then see them slumping down in their chairs or if they where in our laps at the point pressing so hard against us, we couldn't breath!

The Snow White Triplets!

The girls where so excited that they go to meet Snow White and have their picture made with her on stage. Then they got Snow White's, Prince Charming, and the 7 Dwarfs autographs!

Hugs for Snow White!

Someone at church yesterday asked me, who played Snow White? Jolee over heard and said it was Snow White, so then the person caught on and stated...Oh the real Snow White, I can't believe you met the real Snow White, Jolee! Good Catch, don't ya think.

We 4 girls had such a great time that night!