7 Wonderful Years!!!

Cory and I celebrated 7 wonderful years of marriage today. We did nothing special today, but this past Saturday I surprised him with tickets to see Willie Nelson, John Melloncamp and Bob Dylan. The girls spent the night with Doakie and Gramps and we had a date.

I wish I had a scanner at home and could post a pic from our wedding day, but I don't so you will just have to imagine what we looked like 7 years ago today.

We have had some rough and tough times but in the end we have always come out stronger and loving stronger. I have nothing poetic to say except that I LOVE YOU and Thanks for making my world a better place. I cant imagine growing old with anybody else. I cant imagine raising my beautiful girls with anybody else. I cant imagine disagreeing over the little things with anybody else. I cant imagine laughing at the little things with anybody else.

Thanks for all you do to make my life and the girls life wonderful! I love you more now than I did 7 years ago. I look forward to many many many years with you. There is nobody else I would want to grow old with but you, Cory!

Thanks for 7 marvelous years!

Taryn is 3 and Doakie is 50!!!!

Taryn turned 3 this past Monday (the 3rd). We had her princess birthday party on Saturday afternoon. What a fun day we had! Taryn requested doughnuts for her breakfast so her daddy went and got her doughnuts. Then I got Taryn and I both dress and we headed to get her a mini pedicure and manicure. She had to go in her princess dress so she but on quite a show while getting pampered. She picked pink polish that matched her skirt then the guy put black polka dots. They were really cute and she was very proud of them. She was also super excited to tell everyone that it was her birthday.

Here is my little princess in her way cute tutu dress. Doakie found this skirt in Ruidoso and Taryn is in love with it. She slept in it! After Taryn's birthday we headed to Lubbock for a surprise birthday supper for my mom. She turned 50 on August 5th. We all went to Logans for dinner, cake and gifts. It was a great time with family. Happy Birthday Doakie!

Here is Doakie with Taryn and Sydni blowing out the candles on her birthday cake.

Rhealee licking the butter off of Aunt Kami's finger. She kind of liked it!

Here is mom's birthday cake. It is supposed to read "Donna here lies your youth" but the icing melted while it was hidden in my Aunt Tammie's truck during Taryn's birthday party. ooops! it still tasted great! Thanks Aunt Tammie for making such wonderful cakes. You have an amazing talent!

Doakie and Gramps got Taryn a sandbox for her birthday. It was actually delivered on Friday but there was no sand. So she was very excited to get to put sand in there on Saturday and play. I think we have played in the sandbox every night since then.

This is Taryn playing with Gabe (Ashlee's boyfriend). Gabe is so good with kids I think he may have enjoyed playing in the sand as much as Taryn did. This week she has told me several times that I'm not doing something right while playing with her. I ask how I should do it and she lets me know I need to do it like "abe!" Gee don't you know mom!

Ashlee is such a great friend to our family. I think we have adopted her and she is part of our family. Taryn loves her Ash and wanted to make sure I told Ashlee about her party. So of course Ashlee came to Taryn's party.

Taryn was so excited to get to eat cake. She kept asking over and over if it was time. Then she was ready for us to light the candles. She picked out "rainbow" ice cream (aka rainbow sherbet) for her ice cream. Aunt Tammie made her 2 cakes. This is her white cake with white icing and then she made a lemon cake. They were both so yumm-o!

Taryn enjoying the attention of us singing "Happy Birthday" to her! She may play shy but she secretly enjoys all the attention.

For her big gift from Cory and I we got her an electric pink Mini Cooper. Man was that thing a pain to put together. There were a hundred different little stickers that had to go in just the right place. We waited til she was in bed on Friday night to put it together and it took us about an hour to get everything just right!

She was very excited to get this! She is not a very good driver and tends to spend more time getting unstuck than actually driving. It will take practice but until then we will just enjoy the laughter it brings us watching her! Thanks for the laughs you bring to our world everyday. You make each day a joy!

Taryn has such a sweet little soul. She loves to tell people thanks and give hugs. She is probably one of the most polite 3yr old you will ever meet. It is something we are teaching her, but she has always been like this. Always wanting to make people happy!

Here she is giving Aunt Tammie a hug for her gift. She had to do this for almost every gift she opened. It took a bit to get them all open cause she wanted to give everyone a hug and tell them "thanks".

Cousin Kagen came to the party. His mom and dad were busy moving out of their house they got sold last week. So we sad that they couldn't be with us, but excited that Kagen got come and enjoy the fun. Poor guy is surrounded by nothing but girls.

I don't know what she is opening, but she is really excited about whatever it is! She is a blessed little girl that is loved by many. She got many gifts and was truly excited about each one! I love to watch her get excited about something new. She thinks each gift is the best thing ever! I just have a hard time looking and seeing how big she is getting.

The beautiful "princess" cake that Aunt Tammie made for Taryn's party. It was a yumm-o cake, lemon with Tammie icing. Oh I made myself sick eating so much!
Cousin Sydni and her princess crown. Taryn wanted to make sure all her friends had a crown. Sydni was very excited to wear he crown. These two girls are going to grow up little princesses! Taryn and her princess crown! She was so excited about her party. She couldn't wait to open her presents and eat cake.
My little girl is growing up. She is turning into a toddler/little lady. I know that Cory and I are blessed to have her in our lives. She makes us laugh and smile everyday. There is not many dull moments when she is around. She is truly a special child. Her gift for understanding emotions blows my mind. I know one day soon she will be grown up and I will be looking back on these days wondering where they went. I try to stop and take in as much of this as I can each day cause it is truly a blessing in my life. Thank you Taryn for all the joy you bring to our lives and to the lives of all those around you. We love you and look forward to watching you grow into an amazing child!

Just Having Fun...

After our relaxing trip to Austin, Cory and I went to Austin for Coaching School for 4 days. The morning we left I got a stomach bug. On the way down there Cory got the stomach bug. We thought we had food poisoning. It was pretty bad. I was better by the following afternoon but it took Cory about 8 days. He was so sick in Austin he finally asked me to take him to the ER. That was really an interesting experience to sit in the ER of a very large hospital. I wish I would have taken my camera and captured some of the characters that were there. I would have also had a really neat picture of the state capital.

After getting home from Austin, Cory started coaching work. So we are in the full swing of coaching now!

Summer is quickly coming to an end and the girls and I have been having fun and enjoying the last few days together. Here are some pics of the girls.

We cooked cupcakes one day complete with colored frosting. Taryn didn't want to share so we made some special deliveries to share what we had made.

Here she is with her box of goodies to go and deliver to Paige and Ganky. (notice the frosting on her face!)

Taryn showing off her cupcakes. She did a really good job helping me make them and then put the frosting on them. She didn't understand that we had to wait for them to cool before icing them though.

Rhealee is starting to eat "big" girl food. She has not figured out how to use her tongue yet and get everything to go down, so we wear most of the food. It is a learning experience.
I love to watch the girls sleep. They are truly innocent and at peace when they are sleeping. They look my own little angels. I could just stand and watch them all night.

My sleeping beauties!!!

One Sunday evening on the way home from the grocery store I asked Taryn what she wanted to do for supper and she informed me that she wanted to have a picnic. Well we had just bought her a lunchable, so I said "why not?" So we drug a blanket to the backyard and enjoyed a picnic just the 2 of us. Rhealee was already asleep and Cory was not feeling very good. It was so nice and we had fun playing just the 2 of us. I truly cherish these moments!

Taryn showing me how old she is fixing to be in just a couple of days!I truly fall in love with this child all over again everyday. She makes us laugh and is always making us smile. We are so lucky to have her as our own.