Starting Early

Saraya loves to do things that I do. She has always loved playing salon... fixing hair and playing with her pretend makeup. Well, as I cleaned out cabinets for the garage sale, I found some cream eye shadow and Saraya very quickly exclaimed, "is that mine??!!!?" Now that she's staked her claim on her very own makeup, she loves to put it on herself. The first thing out of her mouth almost every morning is, "mommy, are you ready to put on our makeup together?".

Pillow Pile

Grandma left for Searcy yesterday to spend the week with her friends. Saraya took this opportunity to play in Grandma's chair. As we watched football yesterday afternoon (where I watched my team - the Giants - win!!) Saraya gathered all the pillows in our whole house and brought them in the living room. She very quickly thought of the best plan ever. To pile them up in Grandma's chair and then climb on top for a birds eye view. This didn't last longer than 10 minutes and then the pillows became a path around the house and she jumped from one to the other.

Case of the Mystery Costume

Tonight was a big night. We went to Target to check out the freshly stocked aisle of halloween costumes. I would've loved to pick her costume again this year. But one thing Saraya doesn't lack in, is having her own opinion. Plus, part of me thought it would be really fun to look up and down the aisles with her and watch her be amazed by all the possibilities. That is exactly what happened. She was hilarious. She loved so many of them. But the time came for us to narrow it down and choose "the one". It was completely up to her.... and I loved her decision. As soon as we got home she wanted to try it on. In full costume she looks at me and says, "Can you take my picture in my costume??" Truly my child!! Of course I did take pictures, but as you can see there are none attached to this blog. That's because I can't give it away a month early!!! You'll just have to come back on the 31st to find out the answer to this mystery.

The Perfect Face

Saraya is at work with me today. I enjoy when she's at work with me. We watch movies, color, play ball and just about anything her little head thinks of. One of her favorite passtimes is drawing. She has now perfected her "face" drawing. And of course, me being the mommy, I think it's the best face a 3 year old has ever drawn. :-)

First: draw a large circle for the head

Second: draw two small sticks at the bottom for the feet

Third: draw a squiggle line on top of the circle for the hair

Fourth: draw three circles for the eyes and nose

Fifth: draw a line for the mouth

Sixth: draw a line on each side of the circle for the arms

Seventh: draw two circles for the ears

And there you have the perfect face.....

Sad Good-byes...

September 4th, 2007 - The day I've been dreading for seven years is now here. We always knew that Joe and Laura wouldn't stay in Jonesboro, but somewhere in the back of my head I think I hoped they'd change their minds. They came to Jonesboro eight years ago so Joe could train at Bell Athletics for the Olympics. Little did we know that our paths would cross and a lifelong friendship would be born. We've been through so much with Joe and Laura since they've lived here. We've gone from friends to family.

We lived together for 6 months... before kids, we ate dinner together once a week, played a game called Catan, and watched Survivor... after the kids, we usually just eat together, but it's still once a week... Laura was with me in the delivery room when I had Saraya, and I was with her when she had Rowan... they introduced me to avacados, artichokes and indian food...

I still can't imagine living here and not being able to drop by their house, have dinner together, celebrate birthdays, watch Rowan (and future kids) grow up. Joe, Laura and Rowan are part of the ins and outs of our weeks. Not having them here will leave a void.

Our last night with them felt very normal. Lots of talking, tons of laughter. Then it turned to tears. To say our good-byes felt very weird... knowing that this time, the good-bye hug was the last for quite some time. Things will be very different now. We must rely on emails, phone calls and blogs to keep up with each other. Something I know I will be very willing to do.....

Our Pedicures!

August 30th, 2007 - Today Saraya went shopping with her Grandma and Aunt Sammi and they bought her a pedicure set! So when we got home, we tried it out together. She was so excited!

Step 1: foot scrub
Step 2: scrub brush
Step 3: wash feet off
Step 4: rub on lotion
Step 5: file nails
Step 6: put toes in spacers
Step 7: paint toenails

Precious Girl

As each season winds down, I always think of several outfits that I want to document Saraya wearing that never got in pictures. How does this always happen? As many pictures as I take, you'd think I would catch her in every outfit she owns more than once! That is never the case. Of course, I also buy scrapbook paper just so I can do a page with certain outfits. I'm crazy... I know. I have the perfect pink and brown mushroom print paper that is really retro looking and I thought it would be perfect for all of Saraya's brown outfits that she's had this summer. I've loved that brown is the "in" color this year.... because it's one of my favorites. And it looks so good on her! All that to say, the past two weeks I've been trying to get pictures of her that fit in both of those catagories. These will always be two of my favorite pictures of her!!!!!

Big Girl Bed

August 19th, 2007 - James got up and changed Saraya's crib into a daybed today! We kept talking about it as a "big girl bed" and once it was done, Saraya was overjoyed. She loves the fact that she can get in and out of it on her own. It's nice that she can come downstairs on her own instead of us having to go up and get her out. But of course, the first few nights, she woke us up 2 hours early just cause she was so excited to come downstairs on her own. I think she's figured out now that she can still come downstairs on her own even when she sleeps til her normal time! Thank goodness!

Ro & Ray

August 11th, 2007 - We picked up Rowan for half the day and treated the girls to some fun. First we started at Chuck E. Cheese.... then we ate lunch and played at Chic-fil-a.... then we had ice cream at Baskin Robbins! Saraya and Rowan are so good together. They love to make each other laugh. Man, I love these girls!!!

3 1/2 Years Old

August 4th, 2007 - We went to the Nature Center in town to take one year old pictures of our friend Carter. While we were out there, I ended up snapping a couple of Saraya. A natural at posing as you can see, I got a couple good ones!!

Tumbling Class

August 2007 - Saraya's uncle Jason works at Arkansas Cheer Company as a cheer coach. He told us that if we wanted to we could bring her to a class for free and so we decided to take him up on it. Saraya loves this kind of stuff and we thought it would be some great interaction with other kids her age. She was a little shy at first, because she didn't know what she was doing. She didn't even know how to get in line for the water fountain! But she has been having a blast.

Girls Stick Together!

August 2007 - This month I wanted to teach Saraya "our own" thing.... so I came up with "Girls Stick Together" as we hit fists. It's so cute because she has really latched onto it. She constantly does it with all the girls in her life. I hope this is around for a long time....

Pros vs. Joes

Summer 2007 - We had a sermon series this summer titled "Is He In You?" based on the Gaterade slogan. So along with the sports type theme, we had Pros vs. Joes challenges throughout. The Pros were the six leadership team guys, which are Mike, James, Tommy, Phillip, Chris and Steve. They picked different challenges and competed against the Joes which were guys in the church. It was a lot of fun! One week we did the Pro-ettes vs. the Joe-ettes which was the leadership team wives. The gals played laser tag and we smoked 'em! The only event that the guys lost was tug-of-war. So once it was all over, the Pros won 7 and the Joes won 1!!!

David's Graduation

July 20th, 2007 - David has lived in Nashville since January 2006 while he attended AIDT Graphic Design School. It was a year round school and he finished this summer. We spent the weekend in Nashville celebrating David's graduation ceremony! It was a fun weekend. The ceremony was at an old church downtown. We followed that up with a graduation party at my aunt's house. Now David has moved back to Jonesboro and is employed at True Visionary Marketing.

VBS

July 16th-20th, 2007 - Vacation Bible School week!! What a week. Lots of work, lots of organization, but lots of fun. Saraya really knew what was going on this year and she loved every minute of it. She loves music and that was her favorite part. She caught on to the words and motions to the songs.... and was so fun to watch! These are pictures of some of her friends. The top left is Kendall and Abbie. The bottom left is Mia and the bottom right is Ali. I was in charge of the food and the top right picture is my food crew, Misty, me, Kelly, Cristi and Barb. We had so much fun together! It was a great week!!

4th of July

July 4th, 2007 - We had a low key 4th of July which was nice. We just lazed around and then went swimming at mom and dads.

Just the 3 of us

June 2007 - We love to take pictures around our house. Since I'm a scrapbooker, I'm constantly looking to document things. I realized that we haven't taken a picture of the three of us in awhile so we tried to be creative. This one was my favorite! And the one of Saraya by herself is one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken of her. So sweet!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

May 25th-29th, 2007 - Well, we spent Memorial Day weekend in Nashville celebrating my cousin Rebekah graduating from high school. It was a fun weekend with all the family around. It's been awhile since we've all been together. But the best part was the fact that Ashley was in town from Florida!! After graduation and the party, Scott, Ashley and I drove 2.5 hours to Pigeon Forge. It was supposed to be them and me, James and Saraya but since she got sick, they had to stay home. So Scott, Ashley and me ventured it alone. We stayed in mom and dads time share condo and did a lot of shopping and eating!!! It was so great to be able to hang out and relax with my Ash!!!!!

Look Who's Forty!!

May 21st, 2007 - Happy 40th Birthday James!!! We had a great weekend! On Sunday night, we threw a big party at the church. The party was for James and Jon (a guy at our church that was also turning 40) and it was a blast. We had karaoke, which was a blast! We also played Friends Scene It, ping pong and the Wii. Then on Monday night, which was actually his birthday, we went out to eat with the family and Joe, Laura and Rowan at Mongolian Grill. And followed it up with Baskin Robbins ice cream cake at our house. Unfortunatly, Saraya contracted salmonella at Mongolian Grill which made for a horrible few weeks following his birthday.

SHE Retreat

April 27th-28th, 2007 - The SHE Retreat!!!! What a great weekend. And what a great group! The theme was SHE Theatre with the whole movies theme. It was so fun. We had all kinds of movie food... hot dogs, big pickles, nachos, sodas, and even a candy bin full of m&m's, reese's, hot tamales & mike n ikes! I can't even explain how great this women's group is! I love them all!!!

Easter Weekend

April 8th, 2007 - Happy Easter! We had a great Easter weekend. We spent Saturday afternoon at my parents house. We did an easter egg hunt for Saraya which she loved. Then Sunday we went to church, after the service we have a tradition of eating a potluck meal together followed by a huge egg hunt! We buy huge prizes for the kids. It's so fun!! I've given up on getting the traditional easter dress for Saraya. It's been cold here the past few years so I'd much rather be practical. I know the shirt is sleeveless but she wore a jacket!!

Go Lakers!!!

March 23rd, 2007 - What a night!!! We went to the Lakers vs. the Memphis Grizzlies game with Tommy and Misty. It was so fun! Of course, anytime I get to watch live basketball it's fun.... especially when it's the Lakers!! All the guys were playing, which was good. Luke Walton is in the bottom picture and of course the man, the legend, Kobe Bryant is in the top picture. They're my two favorite guys. Not only did we get the "W", we witnessed history as this was one of Kobe's 60+ point games!!!!!!

JT Concert

March 17th, 2007 - What a whirlwind weekend but it was so worth it!!! Jana (David's girlfriend)and I left on a Thursday afternoon and drove to Nashville. Then Friday night we went to the Justin Timberlake concert!!! The gang consisted of David, Jana, me and my cousin Rebekah. We had sooooo much fun. P!nk opened the show up, and she was great. But the real show was JT! Quite possibly the best concert I've ever been to.

Saraya's Three!!!

Feburary 1st, 2007 - Happy 3rd Birthday Saraya!!! James and I took the day off so that we could spend all day with her. We made pizzas for lunch then ventured out in the snow and went to the mall. We had ice cream and played in the playground. I can't believe she's already three. Time flies so fast. She gets more fun everyday.... every stage is wonderful but I truly love this stage. Such a great personality, loves to laugh, and can tell you about anything from her perspective. Truly a wonderful daughter!!!

January 31st - I love snow. It's my favorite part about winter. I'm always sad when a winter passes without a good snow. Much to my happiness, we got one this winter... a day before Saraya's birthday!! This is make her birthday that much more memorable. We got a few inches, which isn't that much but it's enough to play in... which we did for awhile. But of course, one of my favorite things to do in the snow is taking pictures as the snow falls. They make for such great photos. These will always be some of my favorite pictures ever.....