Dear Preslei

As I sit here typing this, you and Daddy are in your room talking about your big day tomorrow. He is telling you that you are his princess. You keep saying, "Happy Birthday to me" and I sit here with tears in my eyes.  I simply cannot fathom that 3 years have passed so quickly.  You are the absolute best thing that has ever happened to me and your Daddy.  You have the ability to make the worst day turn into a good day just by smiling at me and saying, "I love you Momma".  Your bubbly, energetic and sometimes "diva" personality makes everyone around you fall in love with you.  You will never ever know how proud I am of you already and how proud I am to be your Mom.  God blessed us immensely the day you were born.  You and I have so many special "Mommy and Me" things like the "Guess What" game, "Mommy & Preslei" days, baking sessions and so many more that I hope continue until we are both old and grey.  I still have those moments when you do something funny or sweet, when I just look at you and cry.  I never in my entire life knew I could love someone as much as I love you.  I always dreamed of having a daughter and I must have done something right because God granted me my dream.  You are for the most part a very calm and content little girl and you have the biggest heart.  You love everyone and you are so good at sharing.  The funniest thing is when you do something you're not supposed to do and you know you are in trouble, you say, "See Mommy, I happy now, I'm not sad.  Are you happy too?"  I think you know how cute it is and you can make me smile.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl.  We love you to the moon and back.

Love always,

Mommy & Daddy

Once a year

As Preslei's birthday is fast approaching, as much fun as it is planning and hosting her parties, I can't help but get sad because it means she is turning into a little girl and not my baby. Of course, she will be 20 and still be my little baby but you know what I'm saying. Today, 3 years ago, was my actual due date. I went in for my doctor's appointment and I told Dr. M, "can we PLEASE induce soon?!" and so he told we could induce the next day. I was told to call the hospital at 5am to see if they had any beds open. I couldn't sleep, I was SO excited! So, I called at 5am on March 13th and there were no beds available. I was SO disappointed. I just cried and cried. They don't induce on Fridays so I had to wait until Monday, March 17th. Funny thing, I didn't realize until I was in the operating room that it was St. Patty's Day! HA! I will never in my entire life forget that feeling of her being pulled from my stomach. As uncomfortable as it was, it was the best feeling in the world.

I am excited about Preslei's 3rd birthday party. It is a "movie premiere" party! We rented the local movie theater and it is a very retro theater (small town life, HA!) and I've asked all the kids to come dressed as their favorite movie character and I have a red carpet, we are doing handprints like they do on the Hollywood walk of fame! My brother is going to be the paparazzi so I just can't wait! People keep telling me her party is the "talk of the town" so we'll see. I do find it funny that I have had a lot of people tell me they are going to stop by just to see it. But I mean, HELLO....that's a lot of pressure to make it an AMAZING party!!! I feel like I get all these grand ideas in my head of what I want to do and then the closer it gets, I feel like it won't turn out as cute as I think it will. My Mom is always saying, "Amanda, it is just a child's party!!!" I guess I just always want Preslei to look back and say, "Wow, Momma and Daddy always made sure to make my birthdays extra special."

Her birthday gift from me and Keith is.......DISNEY WORLD!!! I seriously think I am more excited than she is (and she is pretty darn excited herself!). Since we only live 4 hours away and she is only three, we are just doing Magic Kingdom for a day and staying the night and coming home the next day. I toyed with the idea of doing a long weekend and staying at one of the resorts inside Disney but I just didn't want to spend an arm and a leg for something I'm not even sure she would like because she is SO young. Preslei gets nervous and scared riding a carousel and freaks out when those life size Easter Bunnies or Santa come up to her so we are saving the money and playing it safe. If she LOVES Disney, then we are planning on going back for longer after Christmas. Preslei and I have this little "game" that we play. I'll say, "Preslei, guess what" and she says, "What" and I reply, "I love you" and we always go back and forth. So cute. Well, since we've told her we are going to "Cinderella's Castle" when she says, "Guess what" her response is "WE GOING TO CINDERWELLA'S CASTLE" and she gasps. So freakin' cute. (I need to get that on video)

Preslei goes to school (our church's 2 yr old preschool) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we are having her school party on her actual birthday. We are doing a zebra print theme for there. It won't be anything special, we are just doing chocolate cupcakes with red and white icing. She has a red and zebra pettiskirt and super cute shirt that says "Wild about Three" that we borrowed from our amazing blogger friend Jenny in Texas (I seriously think the absolute WORLD of her and hopefully will one day get the chance to meet her).  Saturday, March 19th is her BIG party and then the next day, we are having a family party at my parents' house.  The family party's theme is "disney princesses" and we are just having cake and ice cream at 3pm.

I have a LONG week of getting last minute things done but I wouldn't have it any other way!  Once March is over, maybe my boss will start seeing the organized and stress free Amanda again! :o)

Kelly's Korner SUYL Family Edition

I don't post in a lot of SUYL topics but I wanted to participate in this one.  (I read a lot of them, just don't post)  Anywho, this week is a Show Us Your Family.  As my quote for my blog says, "The love of a family is life's greatest blessing" and I wouldn't be the person I am today without my family.  I live in a very small, rural South Georgia town, Cairo, and have lived here my entire life.  If the name Cairo, Georgia sounds familiar, we have a couple of well known people from here.  For starters, this is the birthplace of Jackie Robinson, the first african american baseball player; Teresa Edwards, you can look at her here.  We also have Mickey Thomas, Starship, singer.  They sang, "We built this city".  You can look at him here.  Willie C. Harris, made the winning point scored the winning run.....(just for you James, I edited it!) for the 2005 World Series.  Jake Bundrick, a vocalist and drummer for the rock band, Mayday Parade.  Mayday Parade is doing amazing well right now and I am SOOOO proud of Jake! AND.....our high school football team was voted ESPN's most unique mascot in 2009, I think.  We are the Cairo Syrupmakers!! Our mascot is a syrup pitcher, HAHAHA! You can read the history here.  My best friend, Brian Mason, whom I have talked about on my blog before will definitely be a name you will recognize soon.  He is amazingly talented and was a principal dancer in the remake of "Footloose" starring Julianne Hough, Andi McDowell and Dennis Quaid.  (He met all 3!) and has appeared in several commercials and judged dance competitions with Tyce Diorio from So You Think You Can Dance!

My dad, Rick, is the Electrical Superintendent for the City of Cairo, and he and I are like two peas in a pod.  He is loud, opinionated, friendly, funny, caring and would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.  He is a hard working man that has always provided an amazing life for our family. 

My Mom, Debbie, is the Clerk of Court of Grady County.  She is my rock.  My mom is this dainty, petite little woman that couldn't raise her voice in anger if she wanted.  I always remember her reprimanding me in her cute little sweet voice, "Now Amanda, don't do that, that isn't very lady-like".  Bless her.  My Mom is seriously one of my very best friends.  I know a lot of people say that but I would rather hang out with my mom than any of my friends.  As I have gotten older, we have gotten so much closer.  We can share secrets, cry together, laugh together and have our own little inside jokes.  Funny thing about my parents is they are TOTAL opposites.  My dad is about 6'0 and a BIG guy while my mom is a tiny little thing.  We like to call them the number 10 b/c my mom looks like a "1" and my dad looks like the "0".  HAHAHA. 

I have an older brother, Chris, who is 3 1/2 years older than I am.  I don't think I've ever in my life met two people that are as opposite as we are.  My brother is very reserved, an introvert, very OCD about things but I wouldn't change ANYTHING in the world about him because it makes him Chris.  Growing up, we never got along.  Like, EVER.  We fought all the time (ha).  He was the more quiet person in school and I was the girl that was friends with everyone.  After he graduated, he went to police academy and started his career in law enforcement.  About 5-6 years ago, he wanted a change and became a code enforcement officer for Grady County and is currently there.  Chris got married to an EMT (at the time) Cori, who is now a RN, and they have the most precious little boy ever, Caden, who turned 2 on Feb. 25.  My brother and I have gotten so close over the years and actually lives across the road from us! We always say we just need to get my parents to move out near us! Mom and Dad live about 20 minutes from us, which isn't bad at all.

My favorite family memory growing up was our summer vacations.  I swear, I always compare them to the "National Lampoons Summer Vacation" because my Mom's parents, Mam-Maw and Pop-Pop (Pop-Pop passed away in '95 from Leukemia and Mam-Maw celebrated her 90th birthday on Jan. 13) would always travel with us.  Now, we wouldn't just go the beach or anything, we would pack up our car and drive hours upon hours to different places all over the US.  I've been up north to NYC, Canada, out west to Las Vegas, Texas, etc.  We always went to the big tourist places like the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, Gettysburg, Grand Canyon, NOLA, Washington D.C., Niagra Falls, etc.  It was AMAZING.  I had the best childhood. 

I have always said that I wanted to be able to provide for Preslei and show her the kind of love that I received growing up.  We started the tradition of every year taking a family vacation to the mountains ALL of us.  I absolutely LOVE it.  We stay in the same cabin every year and Preslei calls it "the mountain house".  Last year, she cried because she kept saying she didn't want to the leave the mountain house.  Bless her heart.  We started the tradition in 2009, and hopefully will keep doing it.  I am beginning to think we just need to buy a vacation house up there since we plan on going every year!!!

Hope you all enjoyed reading about mi familia :o)

Maybe baby.....

It's that time of the year again. The time of the year of Preslei's birthday. The time when people realize she is turning another year older and I don't have a bun in the oven.  I get the constant questions of "aren't y'all ready for another one?" or other questions to that extent.  I never know what to tell people.  Should I just say, "oh we are just enjoying Preslei right now" or "well, if it happens, it happens".  I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO SAY!!!  All the girls that have gone thru what I have in trying to get pregnant, completely understand where I am coming from.  I am SCARED TO DEATH to go thru what I went thru trying to get pregnant with Preslei again.  I know without a shadow of a doubt that my family isn't "complete" with just one child but I am so scared to get back on fertility meds.  The reality of the situation is this:  We aren't doing anything to prevent pregnancy but at the same time, we aren't doing temps, meds or ovulation kits.  I want to pray to God and leave it in His hands.  If by the time we are ready to do temps and ovulation kits and nothing is happening, then we will resort to Clomid again.  Do I know when that time will be? No idea.  I feel like God will let me know when I'm ready to go that route.  Not only do the side effects of Clomid scare me (I use the word "scare" in a different way, more like intimidate) but it takes the element of surprise out of pregnancy.  I so badly want to be a few days late and be like, "oh wow, I just realized I haven't started yet" and take a pregnancy test and get positive results and have all those jittery emotions.  When you are so desperately trying to get pregnant and month after month getting negative test results or every single day charting your temps, it is so heartbreaking and while yes, you are elated that FINALLY you are pregnant, you don't have that same initial shock.  I want that.  I YEARN for that.  I want morning sickness and all that.  I didn't have it with Preslei, which yes is a blessing, but I want to be late and not realize I'm late but yet I get nauseous and bam, I realize I could be pregnant.  While I do want to be pregnant, I'm content right now.  We are leaving everything in His hands and know that in time, He will bless us with another baby.  Until then, we are enjoying every single second of having Preslei has an only child.  She needs this one on one time with Mommy and Daddy.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Phil. 4:6 NIV