My precious Grandmother and all 5 of her great grandkids. There are no words. Wonderful woman, wonderful weekend visit. I thank Jesus that I was blessed with such a woman in my life.

I love you, Gma!

 

Psalms 100:5   For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations



Big Boy Bed

 

So...our wild little man started climbing out of his crib!!! I tried EVERYTHING I could think of to keep my little man in that thing...at last I was out of tricks and we had to cave and get the big boy bed!! More to come as I finish up with his bedding but here are a few pics of his excitement ;)

Oh my goodness I love him SO much!!

 

 

P.S. He came with me to the store and looked at all the big boy sheets...I mean they had sooo many choices!! He kept pointing and yelling "FIRETRUCKS" "FOOTBALLS" so we got one set of each! :) Man he is already like his dad...trucks and football ;)

 





Psalms 86:15   But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

3rd Annual Watermelon Feed for the Graybeal Family! I love this tradition at the girls school! Whitney has been attending the last 2 years but this was her first one as an official student! Just look at miss kindergartner!!! :)

 

 

 

Just love this pic of Whit and her new friends Ellie and Autumn!

 



Mal and Charlie!

 



My pal Mal and I...bummed Whit wasn't in the photo...kinder went in before the big kids came out.

 



Cute little kindergartner loose on the playground ;)

 



Psalms 63:3   Because your love is better than life, My lips will glorify you.

Okay...So I am sure y'all are like...what is up with the headless mermaid!? Well my sweet Whitney is OBSESSED with this Aerial doll...for real!! She takes it everywhere and dances and sings all day! I truly mean everywhere, Target, the park, Mallory's softball game, the walk to school and so on...well the other night she slipped and tumbled down the stairs...scared me to death!! Ahhh...I feel sick just thinking about it now. Anyway, she was totally fine but Aerial didn't survive the fall and my girl is totally heartbroken! Mimi happened to call when it happened and ran out with Papi to find a replacement and brought it right over....are my parents AWESOME or what???



Whitney Grace loves her new Aerial....for the bath tub. She wants to take hour long baths like all. day. long....but she is still very upset about "THE AERIAL DOLL" and has had me searching on ebay...wish me luck friends! xoxoxo


Psalms 59:16   But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.

 My Sweet Whitney,

My best buddy, I love you so much! Sending you off to Kindergarten was so hard for me! Ahhh...my mommy heart! :( I am so thankful that we have a half day option in our school district. You are going to afternoon kinder so we get to hang out all morning. I am already loving our mornings at the park! You love your scooter right now! :)

Back to first day of kinder...just look at you! This sums it all up!! :)

You were SO excited daddy was home to come with us! You also loved that you got to stay home with him in the morning while I walked Mal to school! You LOVE board games and you are thrilled to have time with mom or dad without Bentley to play ;)

You picked all these pictures poses yourself!! You are such a cutie! You kept saying...take one over here...take one of me leaning like this...and my favorite was how after each picture you would say...How cute was that? hahah :) oh my goodness!! Love you!!

Your shoe choice this year...sparkly Hello Kitty :) I can not even began to say how totally YOU this!!! :) The second I saw them I knew you were going to pick them!! Your eyes lit up!! :)

It was a hard decision for me to send you to kinder this year. I really wanted to delay a year but you were so excited about being at the same school with Mal. You love how the teacher calls it "big school" You are off to a great start!! :) I know you are going to be great!! You have such a sweet disposition and such a joyful spirit. You are so smart and determined. You are a little shy and I can't wait to see you become more confident each day! You make my heart so happy!

You LOVE your pink back pack you picked out! You spent forever going through the font book and finally picked to have your name in swirly letters!! :) Again...SO YOU!! :)

This is a picture at the end of the driveway as we were about to start the walk to school. I can see the nerves kicking in looking at your sweet smile. You did GREAT!!! :)

Here you are at your desk with your name necklace. You were so excited about your seat and the little girls sitting next to you. Your teacher made you special name tags and special first day of school water bottles. It was a great day!

My girl and I ....I love you so much sweet Whitney Grace! I love this smile on your face! Daddy was giving me a hard time because I was staying forever ;) Of course I peeked from the hallway and kept not leaving...tears of course. But you already knew that...and you love to tease me! "Mommy are you going to cry again this year? Daddy get her picture!" hahahah You never cease to make me smile!!! I LOVE YOU PRECIOUS GIRL!!! XOXOXO Mommy

You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16: 11

Precious Mallory,

You started second grade today!! I truly can NOT believe it! You were SO excited!! You insisted on taking a picture in front of the 2 at sneak a peek and again this morning ;)

You have such a happy spirit and such a love for school! I see so much of myself in you when it comes to that ;) You already have a classroom in our playroom and plan on being  a teacher!! :)



I am going to miss you so much when you are at school! I so enjoy all of our conversations...I really love you reading to me. You get so excited to share what is happening in the story. At the moment you are loving the Judy Moody series. I love the way it makes you giggle out loud. I will miss your giggling all day. But I pray you are getting in lots of giggles and reading at school :)



Daddy took off the day to be with you on your first day! We loved taking you to your first day as a family! We loved our traditional lunch after school at the place of your choice! This year you chose Mi Ranchito! :) Not for the Mexican...for the mac and cheese and ice cream;) haha!



You LOVE your hairbow that says "School Rocks" you are hoping it matches a lot of your outfits this year ;)



I want to remember this face just as it is today...so carefree, so happy, so excited! :)



Every year since 3 year old preschool you have chosen Twinkle Toe tennis shoes...this year you branced out and chose light up "Glitzy Pets" ;) I adore how you have your own style!!



You pleaded with me to let you choose your own backpack this year...it was really hard for me to not pick out the PBK one I liked but I want to encourage your individuality:) You chose purple, of course! And you chose this design with your name...you were SO excited when it arrived in the mail!! :)



I love having lots of first day of school pictures. I like to look back at each year on the first day of school and see how much you have changed. Its going so fast...I am so glad I have taken so many pictures of you! I really love this years mini session :)



I had to take a picture of you at your desk! I had such a hard time leaving you there today. But I knew how excited you were and I know it is going to be a great year for you. I am so proud of you my little Pally Mally. You have such a heart full of love and are just delightful. You make me so happy.

The favorite part of today for me was having an afternoon at the pool with you. Bentley was napping and Whitney wanted to stay home and play with daddy. So just you and I floated, played, and talked all afternoon. It brought my heart so much joy. I love you Mallory. I will always be your number one fan. xoxoxo Mommy



Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7

Last night we headed out to Sneak A Peek at school! What is that you ask? Such a cool idea that I totally love...you get to take your supplies, tour your classroom, and meet your teacher the night before school starts!! Genuis! It really helps with first day jitters! And as a former teacher I know it helps with the teachers chaos the first morning as well ;)

We are blessed to live two blocks from our school so we loaded up the troops and walked over to school last night!

One excited kindergartner!!

Super excited 2nd grader!!



My girlies ready to meet their teachers!!



Ahhh melt my heart...my girls! :)



I LOVE that they had Whitney make a self portrait at Kinder round up in the Spring and had her sign it...then they laminated it and its already hanging outside her classroom!! She was so super excited to find her portrait!!! :)



Cutie headed down the second grade hall!!! Not possible!!! :)



I am praying for our precious daughters to have an amazing school year. Heavenly Father, please be with them each and every day. Please lead them to make good choices. Please help them to always treat others with kindess and compassion. Lord, be with their teachers and let our girls feel loved, supported and encouraged each and every day.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

These pictures are the perfect compliment to my recent sister post!! Mallory was out spending the day with my my mom (she takes each of the girls on a Mimi Date for back to school) Mal spotted these shirts that say " My Sister is my BFF" and she was so sweet and excited about them! Mom just had to get them for her and Whit!!! :) They are so proud of them! On our way to take their pictures they kept pretending to be famous rockstar twins...I was their "limo driver" ;) LOVE IT!!!!

I can not even put into words how much I love our girls!! This last picture sums up their personalities SO much! Mal picked this pose and Whit had to "rock it out!" hahahah! My heart is SO full!!! :)



You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

—Psalm 16:11



Random Thoughts...

I love organization...not as much as a good craft project but I do love it...I was inspired by Pinterest the other day and created this dry erase weekly calendar for the girls...

It will be nice to have a quick glance to see what each of the girls have going on that day...if they need tennis shoes for PE etc...



I added some clips for art work and a little basket for my dry erase marker and eraser...its on the back of the basement door located right next to where we walk out the garage door in the morning...I choose that location for accessibility. :) I heart Pinterest!



I am loving having all day everyday with this precious girl...shown here decorating her birthday cake for Jenna :) Love her!!



And of course I just talked about how much I love this girl...:) Seen her finishing up her cookies for Jenna's birthday!



And here is my crazy toddler man who keeps me on my toes and makes me the happiest mama around!  Love him!!