Mackenzi's first day of Kindergarten!

Mackenzi started Kindergarten yesterday. She was so excited! The night before she was jumping up and down telling me how excited she was! We had already met her teacher, Mrs. Forbes at DP Morris Elementary last week.

I think it is probably natural that as a parent, we want to protect our kids emotionally - working to keep them from being scared, or anxious, making sure that the other kids are nice to them - hoping they'll like their teacher and the other teachers they come in contact with. . .and unfortunately, it's just not something we can always control. What I've attempted to do as we've led up to Kinder is to be as positive about the experience as possible. Fortunately for me, I have a positive experience of my own kindergarten year. I remember the first day of school as my mom walked me to my class that there was another kid crying, and clinging to their parents. I remember asking my mom, "Doesn't he want to go to school?" I didn't understand why someone wouldn't want to go to school. Mackenzi has seemed to take to that attitude as well. . .today as I was walking to her school to pick her up, I was walking along another parent who lives on our street, his little boy is in Mackenzi's class as well. He told me that Mackenzi has been so sweet to his little boy. His little boy is one who was dragged out from under his bed to get ready for school. Just doesn't want to go - and doesn't understand why his parents are making him go. But, he said that Mackenzi has offered to hold his hand when he's scared, and even offered him some of her brownie today at lunch. How sweet is that? My little princess, whom I worry whether others are being nice to her - is the one who is taking over by being nice to them. . .helping them not miss their mom and dad so much.

And even with that statement, I guess I feel a little sad - who wants to not be missed? In fact, as Mackenzi and I walked through her school today on the way to her room, I held out my hand to her, and she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Mom, I'm walking right beside you." You're right, Mackenzi, you are walking beside me. She is a very independent little girl. . .and God has graced us with her. It's just the beginning of us helping to prepare her for this world. I pray that we make the right decisions in raising her. . .and continue to see her showing God's love to others when they need it - like she has been with the little boy in her class.

Women of Faith

This past weekend I had the joy of attending the Women of Faith conference in Dallas. Every year for the past 3 or so years, my mother-in-law, Phyllis, has bought tickets for us and also her sister, Aunt Gay, and Phillip's wife, Sara. It's a great weekend filled with lots of music, great speakers, and little sleep! This year we had other reasons behind why we didn't get much sleep - and that's because our precious little "tator tot" as Aunt Gay has coined him was with us. When I got pregnant with Levi, one of things Phyllis asked me was what would I do about the Women of Faith conference? And I answered emphatically, "I'm still going!" Now, of course as the weekend neared, and I began to consider how the semantics of going to the conference would work out with Levi, I began to hesitate - but not for long. . .and am so thankful I did. I had a great time, despite a virus I was fighting. Here's a picture of Aunt Gay outside of the American Airlines center making the same face as Levi. . .

And here is all five of us enjoying the conference. Thanks, Phyllis, for all you do to make this weekend happen for us with Levi sleeping happily!!

A little boy COOING

While we were in Spring visiting Nana and Papa, Levi decided to talk a little bit to his Nana. Here is the video with him telling her a bit of what he was thinking!!

Mackenzi's New Haircut

Mackenzi, Levi and I are in Spring visiting my parents this week. We wanted to come spend some time with Nana and Papa before Mackenzi started school and while I'm still off on maternity leave. Well, Mackenzi would also tell you we're here to see her cousins, Connor and Trevor (how could I forget that?). Mackenzi's getting ready to start Kindergarten and before we left Dallas, Daddy finally agreed to let Mackenzi get a new hairstyle! Once he agreed, Kenzi and I jumped on the idea of getting it taken care of before Daddy changed his mind, and figured we'd take her to where Nana gets her hair cut. Mackenzi has been wanting to get her hair cut for several months now, and Daddy has always refused to let her get it cut. Afterall, it took SO long for her to even get hair! We took several pictures during the haircutting process and then of course some after her hair was cut. Who knew she had so much hair? :) We even saved some of the hair for her baby book because this is the first "real" haircut that she's had. She's had plenty of trimming done, but not very much cut off at once. She is certainly ready for Kindergarten now!

GREAT FRIENDS and our kids!

Four of the funnest years of my life were spent at Dallas Baptist University. In the first of those four years, I met five of the greatest friends! We met our freshman year as either roommates, or neighbors, and have maintained our friendship for the past 13 years. Holly and I were roommates, Jami and Laurie were our next door neighbors, and then Monica and Angela lived just down the hallway. Out of the six of us, four of us have had little ones over the past five years. Mackenzi was born first, and then Jami had Maebry Grace 2 months later. Holly had Summer Elizabeth (in the stroller below) when Kenzi and Maebry were just two years old. Then after three girls, Laurie had the first little boy, Garin Lee in 2007. As we took the picture below, Garin was very interested in playing with his balloon! Following little Garin, we had our precious Levi. Of course Levi managed to sleep the entire birthday party and is snoozing in his car seat in the picture.

The girls had a great time at the party. You can hear how much fun Mackenzi had in this video of her swinging above the foam blocks! She kept asking the guy pushing her to push her HIGHER AND HIGHER!

First trip to Wylie

Levi had the opportunity to travel to Wylie for the first time last weekend. We met the family at El Fenix first and enjoyed some time with Uncle Phillip and Aunt Sara.

Then we headed on to the house and spent some time there, and Levi got to meet his great-grandmothers. Brian's mom's mother, Mamaw Edith, was very excited to see Levi. She came over and Kenzi met her at the door. We didn't know what had happened, but Memaw called out to Mamaw Edith to tell her we were just in the living room with the baby. Mamaw Edith called down from upstairs and said that Mackenzi had told her to come upstairs with her. She thought she was going upstairs to see baby Levi - only, Mackenzi was showing her upstairs where her Uncle Christopher was at! Here's a picture of Mamaw, Kenzi and Levi, and then a picture of Uncle Hilly holding Levi.

Brian's dad's mom, Mamaw Neva Lou, turned 97 this year. She was so excited to see Levi, and said she wished she could see him better so she could tell who he looked like. . .We assured her that after seeing Brian's baby book and a picture of him at 5 days old, that Levi looks exactly as Brian did as a baby!

Mackenzi stayed in Wylie while we came back home so she could spend some time with Memaw and Pepaw. It was interesting just having Levi here at the house during the day. All of the sudden, Newman took a special interest in having Levi around. With Mackenzi here, he has sniffed at him, on a few occasions, but for the most part hasn't had much to do with him. He's a good dog, and doesn't really get in the way either. He was great with Mackenzi when she was a baby too. Well, I had Levi down for a nap in his room, and just had the door slightly pulled closed. I walked through and saw Newman, aka the Guard dog, sitting outside of his room! This is not a place he normally lays down to rest, so it was obvious he was guarding our precious little boy. It was really sweet. What a good dog, Newman!