little miss {three}

My precious daughter... you are THREE years old.  And you are beautiful.  Smart.  Strong-willed.  Sassy.  And you are my dream come true.

Ever since I can remember, I dreamed of the day I would have a real-live little girl to dress up.  To fix her hair.  To accessorize.

I got that little girl.  And you are even more than I could have dreamed of or imagined.

My favorite part is that you just love everything about it.  You are such a girly girl and you love when you can wear a "pretty outfit" and match it with a bow and necklace!

We recently started doing your hair with sponge rollers and it is so darling!  You will sleep with them in at night and love to wake up with curls!  You are finally at the age where you enjoy doing girly things with mommy, and I am loving it.  You have had a pedicure, gone to your first musical (The Little Mermaid), and a princess tea party with real princesses!

You and your bubba are two peas in a pod.  This is where your moody side comes out, because sometimes you love him and want to cuddle him, and other times you don't want him anywhere near you.  

He has trouble figuring you out sometimes... I guess he's getting his first lesson in women!  Ha!

This is a behind the scenes picture of our photo shoot.  Ha!  

You are so grumpy with him sometimes, which he thinks is so funny!

And the next minute you both could just not be more precious!

At your 3 year check up you weighed 30lb 6oz, and you are 37 1/4" tall.  You had to have labs drawn and you didn't even cry!  I was so proud of how brave you were!  You are finally potty trained after we worked on it for most of the year.  A couple of months ago you decided you were ready to wear your Sofia the First underwear.  And you just went 2 weeks straight with no accidents so I knew it was time.  You wear mostly 3T clothes but I am buying 4T and most of those fit you too.  You wear a size 8 shoe.  

This has been a summer of firsts for you!  You were so excited to turn three so you can be signed up for classes and more activities now.  You had your first real dentist check up and did awesome!

I signed you up for a gymnastics camp a couple of days after your birthday (because you had to be 3 to be in the class!) so you were one of the youngest ones and you had so much fun!

You also could not wait for swimming lessons.  Since you had been going to watch Andrew all spring, you wanted to do it so badly that I signed you up for that too!  And you are loving them!

I thought you might be shy at first but you just jump right in, and you tell your teacher you want to be "first!" for everything!  It is fun for me to see your spunk when you are around others because a lot of times you act really shy.  You are starting to open up more and more and show more of your personality in a crowd.

I took you for your first big girl hair cut.  You have had a trim before, but this was the first time we cut off about 3 inches.  You looked so grown up I almost cried.  

But the two things you are looking forward to the most are preschool and dance class.  I cannot believe it is time for preschool already.  We weren't going to send you this year, mainly because we love your day care and you are so smart we didn't think you needed it.  But Ashley is taking her daughter and a couple other girls at your day care, and she offered to provide transportation for you, too.  I knew you wouldn't want to be left behind, so we signed you up!  And you can't wait.

I remember when Andrew turned 3 and thinking that 3 is way worse than 2!  I think the saying is true for you also.  I think they should call it "terrible 3's!"  Wow!  You can be so sweet and precious one minute, and the next minute you are in a full on tantrum!  You are pretty demanding and you definitely know what you want and you are not afraid to voice it... loudly!  Ha!

You give the word independent a whole new meaning!  You go as far as repeating several things that have already been done, just because you want to do them yourself.  I have to start getting you ready long before we need to leave, because you insist on dressing yourself, putting on your own shoes, brushing your own teeth and hair, etc.  If I do these things for you, you will actually take off your clothes and put them on again.  If I lay you down in bed, you will get back up because you want to get in "all by yourself."

Yet, as independent as you are, you are still my little shadow.  I am noticing it more at this age than I ever have.  You literally follow me everywhere.  You rarely let me out of your sight, and if you can't find me you just yell for me at the top of your lungs.  Over and over again.  I can't go to the bathroom alone, get dressed or take a shower alone without you being right there in the bathroom with me.  You love to watch me put on make up, and you ask me all kinds of questions about everything I am doing.  If I am putting a load of laundry in, or making my bed, you are right there helping me.  If I have to run out to the mailbox, or put something in or out of the car in the garage, you follow me.  I am not exaggerating.  You do this all.day.long.  You will play by yourself on occasion, but it almost always has to be in the same room I am in.  I love you girl, but I haven't had alone time in a LONG time!  Ha!  

I think preschool will be so good for you.  You will get to be without me for a while, and we will miss each other, but I think you will grow so much.  I think this is just a big "growing up" time for you.  You are transitioning out of the baby phase, into a little girl.  And deep down I am happy you still want your mama.

Kerigan, I just know year three is going to be amazing.  I love watching you grow and mature.  I can't wait to watch you do the things you love this year.  I can't wait to see you perform in your very first dance recital.  Go to school for the first time.  This is also going to be your "princess" year.  It's the time I've dreamed of since the day you were born.  It's time to take you to meet the princesses that you love, while you are still young enough to believe in the "magic!"  And I can't wait to watch it unfold.

You are MY little princess, and you have blessed us more than you will ever know.  And even though it's time for you to start growing up... you will always be my baby girl.  I love you more than words.  All the way to the moon... and back.

Love, Mama

south carolina road trip

Nothing like a last minute road trip/vacation, right?!  My sweet niece Mary, had just had a baby.  She lives in South Carolina.  Somewhere I'd always wanted to go, and we were just dying to meet precious little Nash.  Craig had a full week of working days and evenings, so my mom and I decided to hop in the car and take the kids on a road trip!

We were about 20 minutes down the road when I realized I had forgotten Andrew's "comfy" blanket.  He was not happy.  So he used Kerigan's pink bunny one!  Ha ha.

At about that same time, this little one decided to pull out all the stuffing in her travel pillow.  Nice, right?  We had only just begun!

I didn't take many pictures of the actual road trip, because... let's face it.  Illinois and Indiana are slightly boring states to drive through (no offense to those who live there!  Iowa is boring too!)  We only made a couple of stops to eat, and settled on a hotel just past Lexington, Kentucky.  We wanted to get as far as we could, and still have time for dinner and some swimming.  We were so tired of being in the car, we ordered pizza at the hotel and the kids had a blast in the pool.

The next day we started out early after breakfast and made it to Charleston by early evening.  I love, love, love this picture of Andrew's face meeting Nash for the first time.

Mary took us to this cool restaurant for pizza!  I loved the inside!

Love this morning snuggle picture!  My mom and I tried to take Nash after Mary fed him in the mornings so she could get some more rest.  He was always in such a sweet mood and so alert!  A good time for the kids to pass him around and love on him!

Once we got up and had breakfast we packed for a day at the beach!

It had been a long time since we'd seen the ocean, and we all enjoyed it so much!

Sweet girl, she was just a baby (11 months) when we were on the other side of the U.S. in San Diego and saw the ocean.

Andrew was just fearless this time, and wanted to run way out by the big waves!  This made mommy a little nervous, but we had fun and I stayed close to him!

I was exactly Andrew's age (7) when Mary was born.  We grew up like sisters and best friends.  I used to dress HER up, just like I do Kerigan now!  As we got older and I was in middle school and high school, I enjoyed hanging out with Mary just as much as my own friends.  She often came along with me to events and I just loved being with her.  That has not changed!  She is Andrew's godmother, and the sweetest person I know.

They had fun digging in the sand!

Love this girl!

Andrew collected all these shells and buried them in the sand.

On the way home we stopped at this little beachy restaurant along the water.  It was so yummy!

We quickly discovered we love Charleston!

Mary's neighborhood has a pool, which we got good use out of!  Ha!  I think we went swimming every day and/or evening.  It was just beautiful weather and the kids just turned into fish!

Mom watched Nash while we all went swimming and it was so nice out they even came down to the pool one evening!

My sweet boy!

That night the kids wanted to have a popcorn party with Nash!  Ha ha!  We got their sleeping bags and watched a movie.  They had so much fun!

Yes, this is how she sleeps.  Mom and I on each end.  Ha!

The next morning we had some special plans to meet some blogging friends!  This is how she looked at me when I told her I hadn't brought a necklace for her.  I had put one on, and she was not happy she didn't have one!  Ha!

This picture is just so amazing to me.  These our are heart friends Ethan and Derek, and Derek's sister Jenny Kate.  They all live within 2-4 hours of Charleston, and we had always talked about wanting to meet in person!  We all met at a restaurant for the very first time!

We all talked about how it felt like we just had always known each other.  Joye and Shannon had met a few times before, since they live a little closer.  All three of our boys have had open heart surgeries and are just miracles!  Jenny Kate and Kerigan are about 2 months apart.  I have followed these families since the boys were all babies!

I just know the three of us would be the best of friends if we were all neighbors!  I wish!  These are a couple of amazing heart mamas!

Andrew, Derek and Ethan.  Ethan just had a heart surgery about a week ago and is doing fantastic!  He rocked his surgery!

After lunch we came back to Mary's pool to swim!

Such sweet girls!  We had an amazing day with our heart friends!  Joye and Shannon, thank you so much for driving so far just to meet us!  It was a day we'll always remember!

Kerigan just loved Mary!

Sweet picture of mama and Nash

These pajamas were Andrew's!  They were always my favorite ones because they are tighter fitting and just look adorable!  I loved seeing Nash in them!  It was hard to imagine Andrew ever being that little!

This picture cracks.me.up.  Kerigan HATED this cat!  She pretty much hates all cats and dogs.  She would scream and run from this cat every time it came near her.  I about died when she was sleeping and he jumped up on the bed by her!!  She had no idea!

I just have to talk about how sweet Andrew was with Nash this whole time.  I expected Kerigan to be the one that was like a little mother and loving on him the whole time, and Andrew to be disinterested and more into his iPad, etc while we took care of Nash.  It was the opposite.  Both kids loved Nash, but Andrew especially did.  He was so gentle, and careful and sweet.  He wanted to help with everything and was interested in everything we did with Nash.  It was so sweet to watch.  It was ALMOST enough for me to want to have another baby just to give him another baby sibling!  (Don't worry, it's not gonna happen!)  He wasn't quite like that with Kerigan- now he's the perfect age.  

The last night these two wanted to fall asleep together while Mary, mom and I watched a movie.  When I came in to check on them, they were like this.  SO sweet!  

Our last day happened to be July 4.  We had wanted to either be home on the 4th or stay until after the 4th, but it just worked out for us to leave this morning.  We sort of played things by ear and it was just time to head out.  It was so hard not being with Craig and up at the lake on this day.  We were sad to leave Mary and Nash, and we were also sad not to be home with the rest of our family.  Driving all day was not exactly the way we wanted to spend the 4th.

We tried to make the best of it!  We got to somewhere in Indiana in time for dinner again, so we grabbed a pizza and drove to a field to watch the fireworks and eat.  It was definitely an adventure!  And the fireworks were so far away we couldn't even see them.  It was a far cry from the amazing fireworks display over Clear Lake.

We decided to leave after about 5 minutes of watching them and head back to the pool so the kids could swim again.

Selfie on the way home the next day!  We were about 3 hours from home in this picture and were sick.of.driving!  Mom and I commented that the kids could not have been any better.  Thank goodness for the DVD players and iPads.  They saved us!  Overall, they were good little travelers and I would do it all over again if we had the chance!

And when we got home... daddy surprised Kerigan with an early birthday present... a room makeover! He worked so hard while we were gone!  It looks so amazing.  We just have to add the chair rail (where the pink and green meet), and get things hung up, but otherwise it's done!  Kerigan was so excited!  Thank you, daddy!  And thank you, Mary, for an awesome vacation!