Thursday, September 25, 2014

Summer 2014

This was our first summer as a family of five. It was an amazing summer full of wonder, growth and love.  

We had new experiences



Learning to crawl


Eating solids for the first time


First time in ballet for Annabella-new ballet class for Madelynn


First day of preschool


Learning to stand


And there was that time that Noah learned to drive



Made more forts than we could count


Farmers Market Saturdays were the highlight of the weekend. Peddle corn!!







There were fights...



But we always made up


We conquered our fears and made mama proud


We went horseback riding


And to royal balls




We kissed boo-boos and dried tears



We went on adventures to foreign lands





There were so many smiles, so much love, and so many memories. We are so, very blessed.









































       

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Madsy Goes To School...

September 2, 2014 was Madelynn's first day of pre-k. We're sending her to Woodlake Baptist Church which is our home church and we are so blessed that they chose this year to be the first year that they started a preschool program. She is in the hands of adults that we know and trust and it eases the anxiety for me in ways that I can't even describe. She absolutely loves it and learns so much every single day. She's conquering fears, expanding her knowledge of Jesus, interacting with others, and learning so much! 



This is Madsy on her very first day.

On the way to school we were talking about how excited and nervous she was, so I had her pray to help ease some of her uncertainty. Her prayer was this: Dear God, I love you so much! Thank you for my school. Please help me be brave. I don't want to be scared of spiders anymore. Amen. 




It was such a precious little prayer and really made me feel better because even though she was a little nervous, she really wasn't scared to go to school at all. For the first two days she asked me to walk her in. On the third day, she was completely comfortable being dropped off in the carpool line and being a super big girl. 

                                 
                    
                             1st Day                                 2nd Day

I'm sure your wondering...Did Leslie cry?  Nope!  Not on the first day of school, that is. The night before I was on my computer and I decided to torture myself by looking at pictures of her from when she was a newborn and all through her baby months and toddler years. Jonathan can testify that one minute I was sitting on the couch perfectly content and the next I was sobbing uncontrollably. So badly that I couldn't breathe and he was completely unaware of what was going on in my mind. Once I was able to speak, he began to comfort me and within a few minutes, I felt a little better. By the time the morning came around, I was so "in the zone" trying to get the three of them ready and make sure she had everything she needed, that I was totally ok. She didn't shed a single tear. The girl is tough.  And now that she's at school half of the day, these two have a lot more time to bond and play together.  



Is he playing with dolls?  Yes. Do I care? Not a bit. :) Maybe he'll meet a real princess one day and none of us will ever have to work again...