Rewind, Recap, & Revive! - Part 1

Wow, I can't believe how much of a slacker I am. Wait. Maybe I can.

Anyway, I've been meaning to revive this blog for a while now, and as most of you already know, we have a lot happening for our family right now. So, this is my attempt to try to Rewind back to 2012 where I left off, Recap some of our highlights, and Revive this blog! I want this to be our family journal for us to look back on years from now and smile. I have a horrible memory, so documenting is something that I really need to focus on while my children are young and growing SO fast.

Amelie turned THREE!

Amazing photography by Michelle L Morris Photography

Here's Halloween and her 'Under the Sea' Party!

Here are some pictures from November/December 2012

Amelie Faith, just turned 3, Sweet as Pumpkin Pie!

Stacey & Frank's wedding on a cruise ship

Making her very first ginger bread house at Grammy's

Admiring Nana & Pop's beautiful Christmas tree

Waiting so patiently to open her gifts

Amelie the explorer

Daddy lovins

All dressed up for Christmas Dinner at Aunt Lucie & Uncle Tad's

Singing 'Happy Birthday' to Jesus with her cousins.

Sorry, Reagan, this was the best I got!

So, that was the remainder of 2012 in a nutshell. 

To be continued…

chatter box

We have a chatter box on our hands! Everywhere we go we get comments from strangers about how well Amelie talks for a (not even) 3 year old. I don't know if she's a genius (I would like to think so!) or if it's because we never baby-talked her, or if it's just a fluke and it's nothing we did at all, but she is talking like a 5 year old—going on 10! Every day she amazes us with her vocabulary, diction, pronunciation, memorization, and the context in which she puts certain words.

MOST of the time she gets words right, but in some cases she says things and it's just way too cute to correct! (Like when she used to say "oposis" instead of "octopus") For example:

Me: "Amelie, what is this?"
Amelie: "a count-a-lator




















Me: "Amelie, what is this thing called?"

   

Amelie: "a loop-a-loop"

I just think it's so cute. She's probably tired of me asking her to say both of those things, but I can't help it.

We are gearing up for Amelie's 3rd birthday party and we are so excited! Can't wait to share all the cute details :)

Charlotte explorations

We headed downtown to explore today and had a great time with Shawn and Addison.

We walked around and then had some pizza at an Italian restaurant and then checked out the kids museum/library, Imaginon (awesome place, would love to go explore more).

dancin'

fresh fish at a market

addison and amelie

amelie goofin'

loving the oversized bugs at the Imaginon Museum & Library

qwerty playground

always.

the light rail

Downtown Charlotte is really nice... Reminded me a lot of Orlando, just on a bigger scale and the weather was beautiful.

'Twas a good day :)

//These pics were taken on my phone and then edited in pixlr-o-matic app.//

20 months

(I was just going through my blogs and saw that this one was never published :( I have no idea how I missed that, but here it is… almost a year overdue!)

20 months already… holy moly! It makes me think about how Reagan used to tell everyone that she was "20 months old" when you asked her how old she was (she was actually 2 at the time)… so funny, that girl!

These past few months have been amazing! Ant finished his Spring quarter and we immediately headed out on our annual tour of FL.

We visited Ant's mom, Grammy in Spring Hill…

Then, I took a couple days to myself and headed to Orlando to see some friends…

This is Ms. Olivia Grace. She is precious and belongs to this pretty lady:

This is my sweet friend, Alicia. We met on our trip to Sierra Leone, Africa in 2006.

I also hung out with my friends Minh-thi (and her chunkers, Miles) and Hazel, but surprisingly, I didn't take any pictures :(

Then, we headed up to OP to stay with mom and dad for a while…

We had a fantastic time and didn't want to come home.

There are more pictures on our flickr if you want to see them… go HERE.

Amelie's 2nd Birthday - Part One

I know, I know… I'm almost a half a year late. OOPS. Better late than never, right?!

First of all, I want to thank the amazing Michelle for our fantastic pictures again this year. She knows how to make us look really good :) She blogged about our session HERE and you can watch a video slideshow that she created HERE. And as if that weren't enough, I'm going to post a few of my faves here anyway.

Her birthday theme was vintage circus and she was the cutest little ringmaster ever! I'm so happy with how her costume came out and she loved it.

That's it for part one… next up is the party!

32 Random Acts of Kindness

I blogged all about my day on my other blog, It's Hue I Love. Head on over and check it out to read about my awesome day :)

www.itshueilove.com

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

momo

i don't really know where to start on this post. i actually don't even want to write it. but i do. no, i don't. but i need to, so here we go…

on monday, august 15 when i blogged here about her health, we were hopeful that the medication would kick in and start to work. right before i wrote that blog, i sat down with her on the kitchen floor and tried to give her her medicine, but she refused everything i offered her. she even let a pill just sit in the back of her throat without trying to swallow it. i sat with her for a while and talked to her. i told her to tell me when enough is enough and that she needed to let me know when she was ready. i gave her a kiss, went into the living room and proceeded to write that blog. ironically, while i was blogging, or shortly after, she died. ant went into the kitchen and i asked him to check on her and he said she was gone. to say we were shocked doesn't really describe it. 3 hours earlier, the vet told us that she had high hopes for her recovery and that this was just a "hump" we had to get over. well, it was a different hump than we had expected, that's for sure.

momo, i miss you. you were the greatest dog a person could ask for. just ask anyone who ever met you. everyone wanted to take you home cause you were so awesome. one time at a garage sale some lady asked me if she could buy you. i laughed in her face and told her she would have to kill me first. she laughed, but i was serious.

i miss your stinky breath.
i miss giving you hair cuts (even though we both hated it).
i miss fighting with you to cut your nails.
i miss you pestering me every second of every day (and night) to throw your ball.
i miss telling you "i can't reach it" and watching you get so frustrated cause you knew i could.
i miss watching you play with amelie. you were so good to her, even though you never did care for kids too much. you knew she was special to us.
i miss cleaning your gross ears.
i miss yelling at you to stop licking your butt.
i miss your high pitch bark every time we clapped or vaccuumed.
i miss watching you chase your tail and laughing until it hurt.
i miss torturing you with moonboots and sweaters.
i miss your mohawk.
i miss taking you for walks.
i miss tripping over you.
i miss taking you outside.
i miss the bruises on my shins from your head cause you couldn't see me your last months here.
i miss the yelping.
i miss shoving you out of the way in bed cause i couldn't move my feet under the covers.
i miss tapping my foot on the floor to show you where food had fallen so you could get it.
i miss watching you run your heart out to catch your ball.
i miss forcing you to cuddle with me. you would lay your head on my shoulder for 10 seconds to appease me and then pop up to go find your ball.
i miss watching you box with yeager.
i miss watching you get so frustrated when tucker would pester you. i know you guys are playing together now.
i even miss stepping in poop outside.
and most of all, i just miss having you on the floor next to me. you always had to be in the same room.

you were exceptional. incredibly smart with so much energy. you could learn a new trick in a matter of minutes and remember it forever. you understood every word i said and i swore one day you were going to talk back to me. i like to think i was your best friend, but i know you liked your ball better than me. it's ok.

you were there with me through college, 9 jobs, 7 moves and 3 cities. you comforted me through break-ups and laid with me when i was sick. you were even by my side when i married the man who adopted you as his own (i even made him an adoption certificate to make it official). you went everywhere with me and you were always on your best behavior. we had a good 12 years together, i'd say.

i always knew you leaving would be hard, but i had no idea it would be this hard. i keep waiting for you to come around the corner or scratch on the door to come back in from outside. but, i know you aren't suffering anymore. i know you can see so clearly now. i know you'll never have another ear infection or itchy skin problem. and i know i'll see you again. and i can't wait.

love,
mama