yesterday...

I love days that I have bible study. I look forward to it. I love the girls in it, and the Lord has done so much in our group over the last few months. Last night I had bible study...Before I left, my little Annie Rice dressed up like she does everyday. She put on her bow, high heels, and walked around with her pocket book. It was so hard for me to leave after dinner to go to bible study because her and Kaz were snuggling in the bed watching Mickey Mouse. I wanted to do that too....BUT I'm so glad I went to bible study. We had such a good time together and one that I will never forget. Every week our husbands joke that we get home later and later, and that is true. We do. BUT last night, set the record. At about 9:40, we decided to have a girls night. We went and picked up our friend Monica, came back to my house, cooked brownies, watched a girly movie and talked until the wee hours of this morning. I got less than 5 hours of sleep:) BUT I needed that, even though it was at midnight. I think we all do at times. I felt like I was back in college. This morning, I met my friend Jennifer at the YMCA[she's in bible study also]. We decided to try a running group and ended up running almost 4 miles A LOT faster than I am used to! Somehow, I'm still going strong...I thought when Annie Rice went down for a nap, I would want one too as well, but I'm doing pretty good:)  Below are a few pictures from our day yesterday...I treasure my family and the amazing, Godly women the Lord has placed in my life. 

picture coasters...

I ordered a lot of my Instagram pictures and decided to make coasters out of some of them. I found a tutorial off of pinterest and it was supper easy and so cute! I loved the idea so much, I made some for my bible study girls:) I absolutely love them, and of course I love displaying pictures anyway I can:) It was so easy and only required tiles, pictures, mod podge, sealer and felt! Here are the finished products!

last week in pictures...

Last week was definitely a week! I'm thankful for a new Monday and a new week! Here's a few pictures from last week...

Annie Rice at gymnastics! She loves it and has really gotten so much stronger every week.

Last weekend, we had a friends birthday party. While we were there, Annie Rice went poo poo on the potty. Normally, I give her a sucker but I didn't have any with me, so I promised her she would get a BIG sucker when we got home. My parents brought this back to her from there cruise in July, and I've been waiting for the perfect time to give it to her. She LOVED it and if we asked her what she had, she kept saying BIG sucker mommy. There were a few tears when we took it away because it was right before dinner time, but she enjoyed it for a good solid hour. 

 She got this scratch during church..We aren't quite sure how, but she kept telling us face hurt mommy ball. It's almost completely healed but she still tells me what happened to her face:)

 This was at gymnastics again on Tuesday. She goes twice a week. Sweet girl is so funny. In therapy, we have been working on her walking with one foot in front of the other like she's on a balance beam. She's not there yet without us holding her hand, but since we started working on this about 3 months ago, we would ask her to count or say her ABCs while she walked on the line. Now, every time she walks the balance beam she counts or does her ABCs. She associates the 2. It's so funny. All the mom's ask me how I got her to do that:)

 Annie Rice asks to wear a bow in her hair everyday. I love it! This particular day she asked for the biggest bow she could find:)

 I love INSTAGRAM! I love it even more now that I can print my pictures and they look this cool from printstagram! I've been making some projects with the pictures that I printed out...can't wait to share those:)

 It's been awhile since I've posted any pictures of Miley...BUT this picture was her guilty look! Annie Rice was coloring a picture for Kaz while I was getting ready. Miley is a very picky eater as far as when she will eat. We have to tell her "OK" about 10 times before she thinks it's really okay for her to eat. I knew she still had food in her kennel so while I was getting ready in the bathroom, I heard her chomping down. I assumed it was just the food...a few minutes later I found little pieces of orange and red crayon all over the floor along with Annie Rice just looking at her coloring page. Yep, Miley ate 2 crayons! 

 After the week I had last week, this was my favorite part of the day on Thursday. When I put Annie Rice down for a nap, I curled up in my blanket and watched the hills for 3 hours:)

 This past weekend we went to my parents house. I had a wedding Saturday. The wedding was in Florence, which is about 45 minutes from my parents house. My sweet husband stayed in Florence until I got out of the wedding so I wouldn't have to drive back late on back roads to my parents house. This is what time we got home. Yesterday, when we got back to Summerville, all 3 of us took 4 hours naps:)

 Annie Rice does really good while we drive. We haven't had a dvd player in the car since last October and normally she finds ways to entertain herself or will play with the few toys we have in the car. I cleaned out the car the other day and forgot to put any of her toys back in the car except for 1. Yesterday coming back, I decided to give her this paint sample book I had gotten from Lowes[for free] to see what she thought of it. Much to our surprise, she played with it for 2.5 hours on the drive back! We couldn't believe it. When I finally took it away, she cried. It's amazing what will keep her attention!

trusting in HIM...

Do you ever have one of those days you wish you could just start over and maybe it would turn out better than it did?

Yesterday was that day for me. I started Hello Mornings recently. It’s been a great way for other women to hold each other accountable for getting up early, getting in the word, and exercising before our children get up. I’ve done pretty good so far. In the past, I would wake up when Annie Rice woke up, go the gym and then do bible study during her nap. Lately, I’ve been getting up earlier and doing all of that before she wakes up. 

On Tuesday night, I had bible study. It usually last pretty late and the only show I’ve been watching lately comes on Tuesday nights at 10, so I decided to stay up late and watch it and then just get up around 630 yesterday morning. Annie Rice wakes up between 745-830 so I knew I would still have plenty of time and then we could go to the YMCA later that day together. Over the last several days, Annie Rice has been going through something...I think it’s a combination of a cold, 2 year molar, etc but she hasn’t been herself at all. I got up at 630 yesterday morning and Annie Rice woke up at 645! Almost 2 hours earlier than normal. She was not in a good mood and cried pretty much all morning. She didn’t want to listen to anything I said. She has her moments like any child, but that is not her at all.  We got to the doctor’s office and she was a different child. She was her normal self again, just as happy as she could be, talking and laughing at everyone. 

When the doctor came in, he did the normal stuff for a yearly checkup and proceeded to tell me that her head circumference was way out of line with her weight and height. Basically they are at the bottom end of the scale and her head circumference is over the 100th percentile. He said he was really concerned about it. At first, I didn’t understand but then as he started talking it all made sense. When Annie Rice was born, she had torticollis and as a result developed plagiocephaly and had to wear a helmet. That’s really all we know from her past. His concern was that because her head circumference has grown so much in the last few months, and in comparison with her height and weight, he was cornered something was going on inside her head causing pressure and swelling. He said that may NOT be the case, but he wanted to keep a close watch on it and check back up in 2 months. To say I was in shock was an understatement. We have been thrown for a lot of loops with Annie Rice’s development and most of the times we’ve had bad news, I have been shocked, but I definitely didn’t expect to hear anything like this yesterday at her 2 year appointment. I held the tears back until I got in the car and called Kaz. We had lunch plans with some friends at Chick-fila, so we met them after the appointment. Annie Rice started back crying and fighting everything I said, so lunch wasn’t very easy. We were going to let the kids go play in the play area for a bit, so we put them down and started cleaning up. Without me seeing, she picked up a chicken nugget off the floor that she had thrown down earlier and ate it. If only I could have taken a picture of the people’s face beside us...They looked at me like I was the worst mom in the world. It was a look of utter disgust. That didn’t help the situation at all. I finally got home, put Annie Rice down for a much needed nap, and was able to really sit and pray about the whole situation. 

Today is much better than yesterday. I feel so much better and really am trusting the Lord has a perfect plan for Annie Rice. From the very first day we got the phone call about her, we were told the worst case scenario...That has continued to happen through her therapy and development, and in every case the Lord has always worked and that worst case scenario wasn’t even a thought anymore. I’m trusting this is another test of our faith and that HE is in complete control over her and her head/brain. That’s all I can do. I’m not going to worry about this for 2 months until our next checkup. 

When I finally closed my eyes last night, I was so tired and drained. I think we all need days like that to really put our focus on life back into perspective, and sometimes these things are more for my growth than Annie Rice. What so interesting and such a God thing, is the canvas that I just painted for our kitchen. We have been doing some redecorating and I’ve been making a little “art center” to display all of Annie Rice’s drawings. I found this canvas on pinterest that I loved...It was proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” I had so many other verses that I thought about putting on the canvas, but I decided to do that one instead because I loved the way it looked. I painted the canvas on Monday and Kaz hung it up that night. As I was sitting at the table yesterday, thinking and praying, I looked up and saw that canvas. What a great reminder that the Lord gave me in that time...One that I can look at everyday and cling to. It wasn't just a coincidence that I painted that canvas and that verse this week...it was truly a God thing. I am clinging to this verse and putting my complete trust in Him over Annie Rice’s life...

Will you join me in praying for this sweet little girl?

learning center and dress up closet...

We have been working on a lot of projects around our house lately! I can't wait to share some of the others with you!

 I made Annie Rice a little learning station in her room. It was so easy! I took clip boards and used the new "colorful" duck tape. They look awesome and go right along with her room:)

Kaz also made Annie Rice a dress up closet. He made it awhile back but I haven't been able to fully finish it until recently. I love the way it turned out:)