Chloe Turns One

How this year has flown!  I can't believe that a year ago tomorrow (August 22) I became an Aunt for the first time!  How we love our little red-headed Chloe!  Today we celebrated her birthday and I thought I would share a few of my pictures.......

Sam came over yesterday so we could work on the cake.  I think she did a great job and I think the finished product turned out great!

Cute!!!!

Anne stayed close by and helped hand Chloe her presents.

Jarod helped with the garbage bag.  I liked this picture - can't believe he'll be 11 in a few weeks!  Seems like yesterday we were celebrating HIS first birthday!

Clapping!  Yea!!!  Thanks everyone for my presents.......

Having cake!  YUMMY!!!!

Thanks Mommy!  What a fun day!!!!

I love my Daddy!

Happy Birthday Chloe!!! You are loved......

First Day of School

As promised - Pictures from the first day of school.....

Jarod - 5th Grade, Anne - Kindergarten.  Who do you think is more excited?

Waiting to go in the classroom.

Getting settled at her desk.

I did fine - only a little blurry eyed when I left the room!  Anne is quiet independent and will do great.  Russ and I went to breakfast and now I am home.  Boy - need to get used to the silence.......

The End of Our Summer

I cannot believe our summer has come to an end!  I spent all last Spring anticipating it so that things would calm down - and they did.  But now it is over and the kids start school tomorrow.  My Anne girl will be in Kindergarten!  Jarod will begin 5th grade. Unbelievable! 

I surprised the kids last Tuesday and the 3 of us took off for Sasha's house in New Port Richey.  She and Jeff bought a new house last fall and it has a nice pool.  The kids were little fish!  On Thursday, they literally swam from 10 AM until 9 PM - only taking breaks to eat!  Crazy!  They had the best time and as usual protested when it was time to come home.

Anne's swimming has really improved this year and she is gaining confidence in the pool.  

Love the goggles!  

This is my favorite!  Thanks Sasha for having us for a few days!  We love you soooo much and are so thankful to have you in our lives.  You are awesome!

On a different note - we had a bit of good news this week!  God is just so good.  We had our taxes done professionally this year and found out in April that we were going to have to pay over $2000.  UGH!!!!  We filed an extension and began saving like crazy.  We called our CPA to work on getting our deductions changed so this would not happen again next year and as she was reviewing it, she discovered that the person had done them incorrectly.  They have been going over everything for a few weeks and we just found out that we no longer owe $2000 but we are getting a refund!!!!  How awesome is that?????  We are so thankful that we did not send that money in right away!  God worked everything out and we are so relieved!

Well, I'm off for now - but I'll be back tomorrow with First Day of School pictures.  I have mixed emotions about my Anne girl being in school full time now.  My days will be lonely - but I'm sure I'll find many things to fill my time.  I'm just thankful that I can do my church work from home now and I no longer have to commute to the beaches!  Again - God is good!!!!!

Anne of Green Gables

Since I had the fairy princess picture framed to hang in Anne's room - I finally dug out a print that I ordered when I was pregnant with her.  I figure it's about time to get it up on the wall.  Ha!

Anne is named after "Anne of Green Gables".  Russ took me to Prince Edward Island, Canada for our honeymoon and we decided then that if we ever had a little girl, we would name her Anne - with an "e".  So, when I found out I was having a little girl, I began ordering things for her room.  This got tucked away and sort of forgotten about because it would have to be custom framed.  Thank God for Hobby Lobby!!!!!  I picked this up today and I am soooo happy with it!  It is now on Anne's wall where it belongs and I can enjoy it each time I enter her room.