Wyndham's 3rd Birthday Letter

Full of Energy. Funny & Witty. Quick. Affectionate. Passionate. Tenacious. Strong willed. Wild. You are so many things Wyndham and I'm so happy that I am your mother and I get to watch all of these parts of your fun and sweet personality develop. To say you are 3 years old sounds so strange coming out of my mouth. I remember the day I found out I was pregnant, I remember the moment you were born, I remember the sound of your first cry and the way I felt when I held you the first time.

I laugh at you every day; you are so full of life and energy and love to make people laugh. You will do just about anything to see a smile on someone's face. You are friendly and outgoing (although a new thing you've started is to pretend you are shy and tell me "mommy I'm kinda shy"). You have an impeccable memory, you can remember things from over a year ago, it amazes me and daddy. You are so strong willed and I love that about you but I must be honest with you, it is often times hard to shape/push/mold that tenacity in the right direction. You understand so much for a 3 year old so it makes compromise much easier than one year ago. You truly understand so much, nothing get past
you! You remember so many little details and how thing are to be done, where they should go and who should do what- you have a lot of my personality in you, a little bit of a type A personality, intense
some might call it. You are going to do great things Wyndham!

You love deeply. I can barely type, much less talk about the way you love your sissy without crying… Niagara falls. You protect her and are protective of her, you cry when she cries, you try to sooth her when she's upset and get mad at me when I disciple her. Every night you tell her "I love you sissy, you my best friend". I constantly tell you that you are never going to have a better friend than you sissy,
not sure how much of that you understand, but I pray that that phrase sticks with you forever. When someone watches you and Paisley they always say how you take good care of her, if you get something to eat you make sure she has one too, if you have something you do a great job sharing (most of the time…)

Life is busy. You and Paisley are busy bodies. But every day no matter what is going on we make time for snuggles, our bedtime prayers, brushing your teeth (which you LOVE), and playing with momma's hair. Milestones. Some big milestones that have taken place since last year. You are potty trained, yay!!! Your comprehension is unbelievable. You love telling stories that usually consist of 3 stories mixed together in one long run on sentence. You can count to 15 and can recognize up to number 7. We are working on your letters. This past summer you became quite the water baby and will go under
water, maybe this summer you'll be swimming! You understand dressing up for Halloween, the Easter Bunny, Christmas (baby Jesus' Birthday and Santa Claus coming to town). You love to dance and we going to start lessons now that you are 3. You have completely aborted the idea that you need sleep- every nap and bed time is a battle , a BATTLE I TELL YOU!!! You think of any excuse you can think of to get out of bed, most of the stuff you come up with is totally off the wall and completely hysterical.

Be kind, be honest and make wise choices. I love you my sweet baby. I love you to my deepest core. I would you give you my last breath.

the girl update

CanNOT believe I have a 1 and a 2 1/2 year old... Paisley is walking  running and saying a handful of words. Her personality is really developing and LOVE to watch it unfold. She is timid yet tenacious.  She has these sweet little shy moments where she hides her dainty little face. Had her checkup yesterday... man I HATE those. I cry with them every time they gets shots. I'm a wuss. Along with a hanful of words, Paisley has learned no. Everything is no. She shakes her head for every question, pretty funny. Another funny, at the doctor's office yesterday, she was walking around to people saying "HEY". oh and, she is the messiest eater ever! EVER!
And Wyn... oh Wyn, she is a hot hot mess. Just this morning I rolled over because my alarm went off to see her staring at me. She said "Today it is my happy birthday, I am having a birthday cake, and I get my face dirty and I need a party dress". She is very into storytelling and long runon sentences. She has developed quite an imagination and she loves to tell us stories, along with telling us what to do. She told me this week "I am the momma, I am the boss"- verbatim... Another one of Wyndham's catch phrases is "I love you with Ice Cream" which cracks us up every time, and I don't know where she got that from or where she got the phrase "you don't be fresh" but she has coined both and they will forever be Wyndham-isms.  Oh... and she always says "Yes Ma'am" to dada, I die every time!

Favorite moment of the week: Wyndham came over and squeezed me and sissy around our necks for one of her "bear hugs" and said "Awww, I love you guys!"

1 year ago today

One of the three best moments of my life, all tied for first. The day I married my love, the day we welcomed sweet Wyndham and the day we became a family of four!

Paisley James 1st Birthday Letter

Sweet Paisley James! In a few short hours you turn one. When I was rocking you to sleep tonight with your sweet little head cradled in my left arm and your chubby little legs tucked around my torso I kept thinking to myself, where has the past year gone??? I have throat embers just thinking about how quickly the past year has gone. I remember one year ago from this night right here I was laying in bed praying for you to arrive, praying that I could just hold you in my arms, see your pretty face and look into those eyes... Just see this little being I'd been growing for the past 14 months (or so it felt)... Kinda thought that wasn't too much to ask considering my due date had come and gone and I was still pregnant.

To say that 'time flies' doesn't give justice to the speed that time has moved this past year. This year has been a crazy but magical year. From the moment we laid eyes on you we were all completely smitten. Safe to say you are dearly loved! Wyn has been a great big sister to you since you arrived; she is a bit rough at times... sorry she is still learning, but to be honest most of the time she is trying to help and keep you save. She loves to tell everyone "this is my sissy and her name is Paisy" and she has been known to get a bit protective of you on occasion. I just about die every night when she says to you "goodnight sissy, you my bess friend". You have a built in best friend. Having the two of you 18 months apart has been a touch crazy here and there but I wouldn't change it one bit!

You are a beauty queen on the outside and beyond amazing on the inside. You are a little timid at times and you like familiar-- so long as mommy, daddy, sissy or Lindsey are with you you're golden. You are a sensitive soul-- to put it lightly. If we tell you no, you cry as if someone stole your bones. You are strong- willed and tenacious; I wholeheartedly believe that those characteristics will serve you well and bring you far in life. You have an impectable memory. Most people say that you favor me, you have my blonde hair, my pointy chin, my brow and my eyes, but I see a lot of your father in there too. The way you hold your mouth- your smirk when you play, your frown when things go south. You have perfected the pouty lip and chin quiver. The way you watch things and your personality definitely favors Daddy.

I think that as you mature you will be very wise and objective. You already are observant and tender and a thinker. I love to watch you observe. You will watch someone do something with an intensity and then get up and mimic it almost exactly (well... almost... as much as can be expected with your newly found walking skills). You love to do anything Wyn does, you follow her around and you don't like her leaving you behind, not in the slightest. The current fav game between you and sis is the curtain game - which consists of the two of you crawling behind the curtain and sitting there laughing for 20 minutes at a time. I love being on the outside of your little jokes. And you are so tender and sweet, I love when you are playing and you will crawl over just to lay your head on me and give me a wet slobbery open mouth peck and then turn around and go about your business of play. And you are patient, Wyn has a little hair fetish, and you let sissy play with your hair, and pull you around like her live baby doll-- that is until you've had enough at which point you let everyone in a surrounding radius of a quarter mile know that you're done by letting out one of your famous high pitched, glass shattering squeals.

If we could describe in 10 words: tenacious, quiet, loving, sensitive, thinker, amusing, timid, mischievous, beautiful and expressive.


I love you to my deepest core my sweet little lamb. I would give you my last breath. I pray for you daily.

Happy Birthday Baby Claire

Oh baby Claire we love you already. Completely smitten! Wyndham insisted we bake you a 'happy birthday'; and so your mommy and daddy got some tasty sugar cookies frosted and sprinkled by Wyndham herself. You are gorgeous just like your momma! Enjoy these next 6 weeks with your momma! My girls are already missing and asking for her and they can not wait to get their hands on you! Wyn is already practicing "being soft" as she calls it. You are one blessed little girl baby Claire, not only are you beautiful and dearly loved, your parents rock! Excited and elated to see the nanny diaries continue!

A Rarity

Just moments before I snapped this I was having one of those moments where both kids were screaming. Paisley was beyond tired and Wyn was screaming that she didn’t want to go down for a “nappy” over and over and over… and on top my house is upside down… not to mention we are having company over shortly and I sure have not started a thing in regards to food… and the laundry piles.. oh me… and your mind drifts to all those other items on your never ending to do list of things you really want done but you just can’t get to…

I’m sure many of you know this feeling… And then...all of a sudden all goes quiet.  All is calm which is a true rarity in our house. That little head resting on your arm gets awfully heavy and their breathing gets heavier. And you whisper, oh praise Jesus!

And the feeling that follows is completely blissful, almost indescribable. There are few things greater in this world than this. holding your sleeping babies. their smell. their deep breaths. the way they curl into you and cling to you even in their sleep. the complete trust they have in you.

And you battle the ideas of whether you should stay there and just hold those sweet babies or whether to carefully move them to their beds so you can to the frantic, mad-dash scramble to get your house in some resemblance of order…

Few things in life are better than this moment right here.

Wyndham's 2nd Birthday Letter

Every year on our daughters birthdays we write a letter to them. Below  is the letter we wrote to Wyndham this past January, but I just realized I never posted as I originally intended - I'm going to blame it on "mommy brain"!


Dear Wyndham (or Wyn Wyn as you like to call yourself as of late),

Wow, here we are another year later. You just turned 2 and none of us can believe it! It is crazy and so bizarre how fast the past 2 years of gone! A lot has happen in the past 2 years; you have grown physically and are more so a little girl than a baby, your hair is getting long and you love to have it in braids and ponies. It is so sweet, your Daddy has learned to braid and you request for him to braid it every night after your tubby, and of course he does because his is wrapped around your pink. You have matured and developed in many ways from last year, your vocabulary amazes us every day, you continue to say new phrases and put things together, it's like we can actually see you putting things together. You watch and observe me and daddy and you want so badly to be like us, it is so flattering.  When you take your shoes off you want them to be lined up right next to mine, and when you see Daddy with a coffee cup you will ask for drink so that you can line yours right up next his. Really you are so smart, nothing gets by you.

Another big change in your life from your 1st birthday is you have become a big sister! You are already an amazing big sister; you love your 'sissy'! You call her 'sissy' and we love that, you even have the little neighbor girls calling Paisley 'sissy'! You love to hold her and kiss and you often do so without being provoked in any way. When you hurt yourself you love to have mommy and daddy kiss it and then you will say, "Sissy kiss too" and you will pull her pacifier out and then shove whatever appendage is injured into her both and then say "feel better". And you are already protective of her; you don't like people you don't know talking to her or touching her. At night
when I rock her to sleep, you love to sneak in and say "I rock sissy down too" and climb up in the rocker with us. When we go down the stairs you love for me to hold both of you and then you put your arm around Paisley and you say "I got you sissy".

You have an infatuation with the color yellow and all things girly. You love your (fake) lipstick, purses and you LOVE to play dress up. We got you new clothes and shoes for Christmas and you were so enthusiastic and delighted about it! We put your new outfit on and you came downstairs and I said "Poppy look at Wyndham's new outfit" and he responded with "What a pretty Jacket", you then kicked your foot out and said "Shoes too Poppy" which of course made all of us burst out laughing. You really are "God's gift to comedy" already- as your daddy would say.

A few words that I think would describe you well right now are: Funny, Fearless, Charismatic and lovable.  I'm not one to believe in Karma… but let's just say that me and Daddy are getting what we deserve with your tantrums. You are so strong willed and we are working with you to talk through your melt downs and insane tantrums. This strong will that is in you will be a great and amazing thing; it will be the driving force to accomplish so many great things in life! I assure you, you will be
successful at whatever you do! You are coordinated, beautiful, and smart and everyone you meet immediately loves you. You have yet to have a teacher or babysitter that has not told me that you are their favorite.

We love you big girl! Happy 2nd Birthday!

OBX, NC 2012

Here are some pictures for our 2012 Outer Banks Trip.  Had so much fun and we are already missing those beautiful beaches so much!!  This was Paisley's first trip to the beach so we may or may not have taken a few extra pictures of her : /  Not showing favoritism, just capturing a first :)

 Now see... This picture I almost didn't put it in b/c I look ROUGHHH but I couldn't not b/c Wyn's bedhead and Pais' sleep face were so cute.  We woke up before the sunrise and decided to do the rollout and drive down to the beach.  Us in the raw.  No make up, nothing. And bedhead all around.  Enjoy that little treat!

 We stayed in Outer Banks, NC, in the 4x4 area.  I highly suggest visiting if you have not yet done so!