NINE

I carried you next to my heart for 9 months. 39 weeks and 5 days to be exact (that picture was taken the day before your birth). When you were born, the entire solar system shifted (at least it seemed to).💫

And then....I remember the day you turned 9 months old and I put your sticker on and watched you laugh while I held a pink squishy ball in the air trying to get your attention, and I thought “the world has officially had her in it longer than I held her inside of me. 9 months in, 9 months out.” I felt somber at the thought that half of your life had suddenly been lived on the outside of me.🤱🏻

And now you’re 9 years old and I realized that in 9 short years, you’ll be moving into the next phase of your life. In 9 years, you’ll be 18. You’ll be an “adult” and probably leave to do great things. But it’s only 9 years away; we are halfway there. It’s a tough pill to swallow. I’ve held your hand for half of the years you’ll be safe at home with me and I know that *just like that* you’ll be walking out the door... only a short 9 years from now. I cant believe it. I can NOT believe it.... But, with all that being said.... happy 9️⃣th birthday my Lucy Lu💛 I hope it’s one you’ll never forget.

Her 9th birthday in a nutshell 🥜

*My breakfast in bed tray is packed so her “tray” is actually a cardboard box🤪

*Her bedframe has also been taken apart and her mattress is on the floor.

*She helped me make her cake and wanted 9 layers for 9 years. The design was ALL her idea.... I’ll let her take all the credit on that spectacle...(also packed- my cute cake trays. Her cake is on a cutting board covered in brown kraft paper 😩).  It was a pattern of chocolate/vanilla/chocolate/vanilla, etc. I can't believe I forgot to cut a big slice out to show how cool it looked inside! :(

*Social Distancing rules are groups/gatherings of 10 and under, however, no one cared today- we are all over it✊🏼

*Cotton Candy machines are a HIT at birthday parties.

*Pinatas are still fun!

*Sully tried really hard to fit in with the girls all night 🤣

*The ice cream truck was NOT supposed to come today- Friday is the day!!!! But noooo. It decided to come during a party with little girls who run all around the neighborhood chasing it.🍦 (Let me just add.... Lucy took some of her birthday money and paid for all of her friends treats.  I said "are you sad you spent your money on popsicles for them?" And she said "no, it made me happy to see them happy." It brought tears to my eyes!)

*Schools’ out early so party can be any day of the week and she wanted it ON her actual birthday for the first time in years!

And, even though this isn't about Lucy... our house was FINALLY finished being painted! It looks sooo pretty! It's such a great before and after! The exterior paint and hardwood floors were finished on Lu's birthday (and are curing nicely). The blinds were *finally* installed. Being new construction means there were quite a few things we had to wait on to get finished.... and now it all is- wish us luck as we move on with the next phase of life! 🙏🏼🤞🏼

I can't wait to LIVE here!!!!! 

Good night world!

Mother's Day 2020

We didn’t really celebrate Mother’s Day this year. It was a little melancholy, but I also understand. My girls just had surgery and they were in SO. MUCH. PAIN that day. An hour after the “magic medicine” that they get once a day kicked in (hydrocodone😆), I got a solid hour of smiles out of them. We spent that hour making huge bubbles and although they absolutely couldn’t squeal or scream (let alone talk) because of the pain, it was the first time I had seen them smile all day- even smiling hurts. It was a little strange to have silence during bubble blowing. They’d smile and get excited, but didn’t make a sound😪 Anyway, I made it a point to take a few selfies with each one. First, my Lucy Lu- the one that showed me what real, true, unapologetic love looks and feels like. The one that separated my life into a before, and after💗. Second, the “Pi Baby”- the one that taught me that my heart can, indeed, burst with fiery love ALL over again and it’s completely possible to love a second child as much as the first- it’s just double the love💜. And 3rd, my Sully man. The little boy that has us all wrapped around his fingers, no matter how ornery, stubborn and wild he is. He has a sweet side, he just doesn’t show it as often as his sisters do☺️ He did, however, let me sing to him while I rocked him to sleep that night, even though it’s been at least a year since that happened. That’s my baby and he always will be💙. Anyway. It might’ve been a very uneventful day, but at least I’ll remember it! 

The girls are still in intense pain- Piper more so than Lucy. Yesterday and today have been the worst for her. Hoping tomorrow gets better because she’s had 5 really painful days in a row now. It’s so hard to watch them suffer. I had no idea a tonsillectomy would be THIS painful. Praying for some relief for them both! 

If you’ve made it this far, Happy *late* Mother’s Day to all the Mama’s out there. Each and every one of you💗

Updates!

Alright! So, Quarantine hasn't slowed us down! It has been hectic as ever- actually- MORE so! So nows the time for some updates! (I feel like I'm a newscaster right now, haha!). New house, surgeries, home improvement projects, endless phone calls with this house business, kids home 24/7, I'm suddenly a 1st and 3rd grade teacher and a tap/ballet teacher, and.... Shawn had some exciting news! Read caption below...

Starting a new career with a different company (after being with the same company for 6+ years) is so unnerving. Starting a career with said company during a pandemic is even MORE scary. But a company sought Shawn out awhile back and offered him a new job. After a lot of back and forth and “should-we/shouldn’t-we”(and prayers!) we decided to accept. He’s been hard-core training and studying for quite some time, and on Monday April 27th, he finally certified👏🏼I’m so proud of him. So thankful that he chooses to do hard things in order to provide for our family. So glad he is brave and willing to make a lot of sacrifices for us and so thankful he is mine❤️ We can’t go out for a celebratory dinner tonight, but we’ll come up with something fun- we always do.🥰 I love this man!

Next up... We broke quarantine rules (🙈) and trekked up to the Berlien’s house (some of our neighbor friends) to watch the Parade of Teachers. It was SO SWEET to see them all!!! (I was so annoying with all my screams the whole time; I just couldn't contain myself!!😩) But seriously, we have the best teachers. It was good for my soul to see everyone!❤️❤️

Along with just staying busy, we've also entered our Storm Season! If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE Oklahoma storms.  There is NOTHING like them.  I swear that's a huge reason why I love living here.  The thunder storms are amazing. Anyway, we had a super cool storm the other night and when it cleared up we had THE coolest clouds I've ever seen.  EVER. Also, when there is no lightning out, my kids love playing outside in the warm Summer rain :)

The calm before the storm.....

 No filter on the sky. This is the craziest sky I’ve ever seen...Ever! Oklahoma, you’ve done it again!😍☁️☁️

We've done some art projects, science experiments and LOTS of school work... Tomorrow is our LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!! It's been a LONG 8 weeks....

We've gone on walks.  Piper learned to ride a bike without training wheels! and Sully learned to ride a big-boy bike (instead of his tricycle) with training wheels. 

 

My kids will miss this play set SO MUCH in the new house! And they’re sold out everywhere so who knows if we will be able to get our hands on another one. All I know, is that this structure has been well-loved and lived in for 4 years now. I’m sad to leave it behind! 15 more days...

Another thing I busied myself with this week was some dance pictures of the Pi Baby.  I wrote this a few days ago, before I had to break some news to her.  I'll copy and paste from Facebook here so that I don't have to re-write it. This was Sunday May 3rd.

 "Since studio dance pictures didn’t get to happen this year, I took it upon myself to take pictures of her. But- I haven’t told her that her big annual recital is cancelled yet.... I keep planning to, but she’s so excited about it. I just can’t break it to her. She chooses to do 9 months of dance each year JUST for the recitals. When I was doing her hair and makeup for these pictures she kept saying over and over how excited for the recital she was. I hinted that it was cancelled by saying “but what if it can’t happen this year because of Corona?” And she said “oh, they’ll reschedule it. It’s the best day of the year! They CAN’T cancel it.” I didn’t want to make her sad before pics so I just left it alone. But it’s written in big bold letters on my calendar (when I filled it out months ago) so I know I need to tell her like, now. I cannot tell you how hard this virus has been for this girl. She struggles with anxiety big time and all these changes have caused so much emotional turmoil for her. I know it’s hard for everyone, but she hasn’t coped well and there’s nothing I can do to fix it😥 Anyway, she was going to dance to Frozen 2 songs (one tap, one ballet). If I can get her to perform them just for me, I’ll have to share them. I’ve watched her practicing them up in her room since mid-March and they’re so adorable! I’m proud of her either way."

The next day I told her.  It was horrible.  I cried harder than she did.  So hard, in fact, that SHE came up to comfort ME.  I couldn't help myself.  I LOVE watching her perform and my heart breaks that I don't get to see it this year.  I'm so angry that this is happening.  That she has worked so hard on her dances for nothing.  I'm mad at her dance studio for not even thinking about rescheduling and instead just ending it this way.  I'm HATEFUL at the Virus.  I'm suspicious that there is something fishy going on behind the scenes of our government, and I'm sad about everything :(  Sorry for the rant.  It's just really not fair.... But she looked so beautiful in her pictures.  And by the way, all of her poses were HER idea.  She was doing a million poses.  I had to delete most of them, haha! She is so cute. 

And in case you didn't think we were busy enough... I just got back from the dentist where I got the titanium part of my tooth implant put in.  The dentist said I'm going to be extremely sore.  It's stitched together right now so I haven't really been able to get a good look at it, but I'm not looking forward to the next few days :( They drilled it into my jawbone and it will take about 4 months to fuse to the bone, and then at that point I will get the crown put on it (the actual fake tooth).  For now I just have a metal stick sticking out of my gums.  It's crazy (but awesome!) how much dentists can do! 

Annnnnd, last but not least- we only have 14 more days in this house! I can't believe it!!!