Lillie's 4th Birthday

I still can't believe my baby girl turned 4 yesterday!  The past year has flown by.  I am so thankful for her life and all the Lord has done for her.  She is a precious blessing to our family and we thank God that He created her!

She was very excited to be turning 4! She did wake up with a little sniffle but was so happy about her big day ahead! 

Then as you can see in the above picture she quickly started feeling bad.  She ended up having a terrible cold for her party and laid around a lot.  We all felt so bad for her.  Thankfully it was just family here!  This was her with her new doll Emily! 

Lillie's cake!  She said "I like animals, so I want a ladybug cake.  but I want my ladybug to be pink and green".  Not sure how all that connected in her little mind but she got what she asked for!  She was so happy when she saw it!  

Lillie with her sweet big sister and the gift she picked out for her all by herself (and wrapped too)  she was very proud!

Lillie with her new sandbox (she crashed right after this pic!  poor thing)

Lillie's trip to American Girl

We took Lillie to the American Girl Doll Store/Bistro for her birthday.  The girls had lunch there with their dolls and then afterwards our gift to her was that she got to pick out a doll.  We decided we would not make her wait until she was five like Addie Lane b/c she has been wanting one so that she and "sissy" could "play American Girl dolls" together! :-)  She was very excited but needless to say it was a very big decision for her.  We were in there for 2 hours trying to decide on the doll for her!  Daddy was such a trooper and we were thankful to have him there with us!  

they even had little menus and booster seats for the dolls in the restaurant!

They brought Lillie a sundae and sang to her!  

Lillie with her "first choice"  (yep, I said FIRST choice. she found out that Kirsten's hair could not come out of braids so we had to put her back and pick a new one.  she finally decided on Emily.  That's Molly's best friend for those of you moms whose girls are in to this)

Then we got to have dinner with 2 of my college roommates and their families.  We  had a great time and it was so great to get to spend time together with children and hubbies!  Thanks Dani for hosting!  

little ballerina girl

I was able to go in and watch Lillie's little ballet class on Friday and it was just too sweet!  I just loved watching her dance around the room full of pure joy!  I was overwhelmed with gratefulness over the Lord's healing! Thank you Father!

Lillie adores her sweet teacher, Mrs Julia!  This is also the same teacher Addie Lane has had since she was two.  

They were doing "leaps" across the floor!

a little update

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated our blog.  For some reason life has seemed really busy lately.  It has been too busy in my opinion.  I feel like I am running all over the place most days trying to just "stay afloat".  I have to battle the balance of doing fun things together but yet not doing so much that we loose the joy in it.  We are doing well and loving home school (most days).  I am so thankful to have these time with the girls and would not trade it for anything in the world.  I thought I would post a few pictures from our last few weeks. 

Here is a picture of the girls with a little "art project" they did for "school".  They made paper mache "puppet heads.  They had a wonderful time doing this.  Lillie said hers was "mommy with pop's beard" (not sure what mommy thinks of that) and Addie Lane said hers was just "silly".  I think they favorite part of the whole thing was going out side and jumping on them to pop the balloon inside (not too sure what this says about their artistic interests)  :-)

Here they are painting them after the paper mache dried.  I remembered doing this as a child and thought it was so fun.

Here is a picture of Addie Lane and Lexi Brown at Lexi's 6th birthday part.  Addie Lane and Lexi are "womb buddies".  It has been sweet to watch these girls grow up together.  They are growing too fast but are such sweet girls and I am so thankful!

Some of the sweet little princesses at the tea party!

last month Addie Lane lost her first tooth!  She was SO proud!  She has 2 big holes at the bottom now!  Such a big girl!

adoption

Makes me proud to be a bulldog!

So thankful for men like Mark Richt and the stand he takes for Christ!

I love the sweet story of adoption and how it is such an example of Christ with us!

the "tree house"

Brad and his Dad just finished building Part 1 of the play set for the girls!  They are so excited and call it their "tree house"!  I think they did a wonderful job and thought it was really sweet of Brad that he wanted them to have a play set their Daddy built!

My father in law also fixed this swing up for the girls.  It was mine when I was little!  My papa bought it for me when I was two!  It is so sweet to look out and see my girls enjoying it!  My papa would love to see that!  :-)

Sweet little ballerina!

Today I had one of those sweet little memories I will never forget.  

Lillie had her first day of ballet today.  

Lillie has longed for this day and it was finally here for her and she was ecstatic!

She has watched her big sister take ballet now for 2 years and she has been begging to "be a ballerina".  My dad and step mother gave her this for Christmas and she has talked about it non-stop!

  As I stood at the window watching her my eyes teared up as I thought about how far she has come and how hard she has worked in her little life.  I remember the day when I didn't know if I would ever get to see her do something like this.  I watched her sweet little even legs running and jumping and bending and it was just amazing.  I was so proud!  

I will never forget the look of pure joy on her face as she danced around the room today.  We are so proud of her and we are so grateful for the Lord's goodness in how he has grown her and healed her!  Thank you Father for our sweet little ballerina girl!