Just Because

I love Christmas… yes I DO. It’s honestly the most wonderful time of year. So, I changed my ringtone today to Jingle Bell Jingle Bell Rock. L already has the song memorized now and both girls just dance when my phone rings. I love it 🙂

Now that the election will be over, I look forward to seeing the Christmas commercials, Christmas shows and the Christmas songs on TV and radio.

How about you?

Yes, we celebrated Halloween all week long. I love this time of year and love to get out of the house just to have just good ole family fun. Relax and enjoy our little photo journey.

We started out the fun filled week with our annual festival in town. It was really really cold, but that’s not going to stop us ;).

M … I love her facial expression here in the dark house in town.

L enjoying one of the festival games. The pumpkin was big as her.

M coloring us a picture to put on our fridge.

The next day we enjoyed some time after church at the pumpkin patch.

L was having an absolute blast running through all the pumpkins.

Then I told them to pick out which pumpkin they wanted… I thought this would be easy haha. The looks on their faces and them trying to find the best one was just priceless.

After much thought into this pumpkin picking, they finally picked their prize pumpkins.

Phew… now on to carving them. What a hoot this was! We started out with templates from a book, but yea errrr… guess our carving skills were not up to date. Dang carving school kicked us out too early ;). We decided to do a little freehanding!

I think we did pretty good job! This led us to midweek at our library where we could brave the cold once more for the BOO Fest. We did us some walking, downing the apple cider, and left there with overflowing bags of goodies. The best part was the girls just having some good ole fun seeing everyone dressed up.

This was the day after it snowed… soo yes we were bundled up.

We finally reached the big day! Happy Halloween. Of course we did it family style with our good friends the McGuire’s.

Our town was so packed due to the big college football game (yes we live in a college town), but we managed to smooth our way through several activities. We went to a Church Festival, Mall Festival, Fire Dept Trunk or Treat, and then our own Church Trunk or Treat. The night was tipped off by a football celebration with the McGuire’s at their house to see our hometown team kick booty 70 to 24. What a game!!!!

Here is a couple picts of the Halloween finale!

We are on a high from the fun week and trying to bottle some that excitement as we go into the Month of November. I love Thanksgiving WOOT WOOT and the Christmas Music that has already started. Such wonderful music to my ears.

We just had Madisyn’s first ever parent teacher conference that they have throughout the year to see how well your student is doing. I really did not know what to expect going into this conference, but was anxious to hear how well my little girl was adjusting to school.

I knew in my eyes our little girl was a pretty smart one. She is like a little sponge and constantly wants to be learning something. We homeschooled a lot this last year just to keep her from being bored. I remember her preschool teacher here in NC from last year, told me that Madisyn could just skip kindergarten and go on to First Grade. I didn’t really want to do that though. I want her to just go through normally. They tried to get my parents to let me skip a grade, but mom wouldn’t agree to it either.

Anyways.. the last week or so Madisyn had been telling me school was boring, that she already knew everything. So I knew I was going to tell the teacher that anyways at the conference. We get sat down and the teacher starts off by saying Madisyn is such a wonderful child and is the mothering type. She loves to make the kids smile and brighten their day if they are down. I was just smiling ear to ear because that is so Madisyn. She always wants to see others smiling and not down. The teacher said you would never know we were going through a stressful time right now, because Madisyn just acts so happy all the time and no stress. That made my day. I always worry that she will hear to much what we are saying about things financially… but this assured me she is doing A-OK with that.

We go on to how well she is doing with learning. The teacher pulls out her report card and there was four columns (meaning one displaying for each 9 weeks). By the end of the nine weeks they want all of the fourth column filled with “s” all the way down. This means they can go on to the 1st grade and have completed all goals. Well…. my Madisyn has already completed all goals in the first nine weeks. That’s my girl. I was so darn tickled pink with her. But it was no wonder she was bored with class… as she already knows what there is to learn in Kindy! Soooo the teacher is going to be moving Madisyn onto bigger and more academically things that will help Madisyn continue to grow with her learning. I was so happy to hear the school was going to do this and not just let Madisyn sit there and be bored. They really see her strengths and the will that she has to learn all that she can. It warms my heart that the school will do this for students. I knew we had picked a great school.

They said she is such a social bug and just loves being around other kids. I really think this is why Madisyn hated me homeschooling her, because she thrives on being with other kids which is really good :).

Anyways… I just had to brag on my girl. I’m so darn proud of her and yes I will admit she takes after me ;). I always loved school and could never get enough of it either. So cute to see my daughter falling in my footsteps.

Madisyn… I’m so super proud of you girlie. You are so smart and full of wit. I love that you are always caring about others and always there to put a smile on everyone’s face. That’s my girl. LOVE YOU till the moon and back 🙂

As I am sitting here with the tears falling thinking back to 4 years exactly right now…I just cannot believe it has been 4 years. I was on my way to the hospital.

I remember hubbs telling me, just please let me sleep till midnight. HA.. you better believe when that clock hit 12am… I woke him up. I said hun, I am still having contractions pretty good and we should probably get to the hospital really soon since we are a bit away from it. I woke up my precious Madisyn who had no clue of what was going to about happen and then I woke up my step-daughter who said can I fix my hair. Ummm nope we have got to go. The contractions were coming so hard and painful… I was hitting my window all the way up the mountain to the hospital. It was soooo foggy too and hubbs was trying his best to get us there safely and fast.

I got to the ER and they were like, “Are you in labor?”. UMMMM YES…. that is why I am bent over like this. Ok let’s hurry and get you upstairs. They immediately wheeled me up. I said I don’t know if this is real labor (I was induced with Madisyn), but it sure hurts and I knew I should come to get check. I was two weeks early so I was like… I just don’t know. They said ok, let’s check you to see if we should keep you. I was thinking to myself Lord help us if this is not real. They got me settled in and checked me and OMG I was already dilated 7. I could not believe it. They said, oh yes you are definitely staying. They were hurrying around as fast as they could, because baby girl was coming out fast. They broke my water and I was to a 10 within just a short time… they were like please don’t push, the DR is on his way. Just hold on. Yea right… I can feel her she is coming. I bet I only let out two pushes and in walked the DR and she was out that fast.  I knew she had swallowed her meconium because they could tell when they broke my water. But I didn’t know the cord was around her neck twice. I couldn’t hear her cry and she was blue and I immediately lost it. I was crying so hard. The room was swarmed with all kinds of drs and they whisked her away from me. I was like Please Lord, let her be ok… Please! With what seemed forever, I heard her first cry and oh was that a joyous sound to my ears. The team of dr’s got her breathing so well and I already had Madisyn in bed with me so we were itching to hold our beautiful Lyndsee. Yes, Madisyn was in the room with me the whole time and watched her sister be born. I would not have had it any other way.

Here are some pictures of that wonderful October 15, 2004 morning that our baby girl Lyndsee made her big debut.

I was so amazed at all her black hair since when Madisyn was born she was bald hehe. OH gosh what a sweet morning that was. I can’t believe these 4 years have went so fast and she looks so much like a grown little girl. Here is a picture from each of her birthdays.

6 month birthday

1 year birthday

2 year birthday

3 year birthday

4 year birthday

Lyndsee is still very much my baby in so many ways. We are pretty much joined at the hip and I still carry her ALOT. She has to always have my hair throughout the day and while we are sleeping. It is like her own little attachment to me, where she always needs my hair in her hands. Even when we are driving down the road I have to lean back a lot so she can grab my hair. We still love co-sleeping and have no plans to stop anytime soon. I just can’t believe she is 4. I am having a very hard time with this…how did she get to 4 so fast?

She is super smart and we just love her sooooo much. Thank you so much Lyndsee for coming into our family and keeping us laughing at all your funny sounds, faces, silly sayings…. you know how to cheer anyone up. Happy Birthday our sweet sweet Lyndsee!