A small glimpse

This evening we took the girls and my sister to a girls volleyball game at North Texas. It has been a long time since I attended a volleyball game and I forgot how much I enjoyed them! The girls really seemed to enjoy it too and while they were able to watch (the guys in front of us decided it would be a good idea to stand the ENTIRE time, so we couldn't see some of the action) they really got into it and asked a bunch of questions. Greg has been "bumping" the ball with them a lot and Trinity and Emory have both gotten really good at it recently!

So while I was sitting (or standing) in the stands I felt like I was looking into a crystal ball and seeing my future...cheering on a girls volleyball team! I do enjoy it, so if I were to pick a sport for my daughters to play, this one would definitely top the list! Lord knows they'll have the height for it, now the skills and desire are yet to be determined.

BTW, North Texas lost, we played Tech. Oh well, fun game anyway!

Bittersweet

Today we officially sold our old house. I am thrilled to not have the responsibility, stress and expense of it, but I am also very sad to not have it anymore. I haven't been back over there since last Tuesday, when we packed the truck and ran out in a rush to get to Ft. Worth and start unloading. I assumed I'd be back over to help finish gathering stuff and cleaning, but lucky for me I have an amazing husband, father and Mother-in-law who handled all of that for me. I feel like I didn't get to say good-bye to it though and to all of our memories there. I know it's just a house and the memories are in my heart and head, not in the house, but it's still a very special place to me and I feel like it deserved more from me than what it got. Oh well, it's done the way it's done and that's that. I just hope and pray the new owners are good to it and build wonderful memories of their own there.

Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled beyond belief with our decision to move and with the house we chose, they are all perfect, but closing an old chapter is always a little bittersweet.

Good bye house, thanks for welcoming our baby girls with open arms and for protecting us from the world! We hope your future is as wonderful as ours!

Whew...

We finally have internet at home! I was going through serious withdraw not being able to get online for a whole week! We're still without cable, but at least I have some form of communication with the outside world while I wait.

We are in the process of getting setlled in our wonderful, new house, although we still have a LONG ways to go! We still have tons of boxes in storage and at my parents' house, but we'll get to them...eventually. I started working on Trinity's and Emory's room the day after we moved in, and I'm still working on it. Since they have a massive (but really cool) castle bunk bed it is not movable once it is assembled, so we have to get it all finished before we move them in. This means all three girls have been sleeping in the same room for a week and I think all five of us are ready for that to come to an end. All of Trinity's and Emory's furniture (except their mattresses) are in the formal living room and it's pretty disastorous. We hope to make major leaps in our progress and get them moved in by the end of the day on Monday...say a prayer please!

Even more importantly Trinity is getting settled in her new school. We attended a fun kindergarten activity on Saturday, called Popsicles in the Park where all the incoming Kindergarteners and their parents hang out in the park across the street from the school and eat popsicles and visit. We really enjoyed getting to meet some of the other parents and children. I think there are between 80 and 90 kids in kindergartn this year, so it was quite a crowd! Trinity really likes her teacher, actually she has a sub through Thanksgiving because her teacher just had a baby. Greg and I really enjoyed our time with the sub though and know she is going to do a great job with our princess! Trinity isn't dreading going to school at all, in fact I think she secretly enjoys it and is trying to hide that enthusiasm for the sake of attention. I will get pics of her first day of school as soon as I get my camera stuff hooked up to the computer.

Oh, speaking of computers, my awesome Daddy got us a new one as a house warming gift and IT ROCKS! Thanks Daddy!

Emory got to go up to her new school today and take lunch to all the teachers and got to meet her teacher and play in her classroom. I think she is going to have a really fun year this year. There are 9 girls in her class out of 14 children, so she will have plenty of people to play babies and house with!

I am thrilled with our decision to move to Fort Worth and all of the wonderful things that are coming out of our move. This is going to be a wonderful home for us, both the house and the community!

I promise to post pictures in the near future. Till then...

Bye Dallas

So, we're actually moving! I've been thinking about the goods and bads about leaving my home of the past 7 years, Dallas, TX. In my thinking I've come up with a list of top 10 things I'll miss and the top 10 things I won't. So here goes:



Top 10 things I'll miss about living in Dallas:

1. LPG- our neighborhood parents group. When I found this group we went from living in a house to living in an amazing nieghborhood. Although I haven't been a very active participant in the activities they have been an amazing support group and ALWAYS there when we need them! I don't know if I will every find another group so great!

2. ZION LUTHERAN SCHOOL Our home away from home and our extended family for the past four years.

3. WHITE ROCK LAKE- such a beautiful place to go on walks with amazing wildlife all around it. The amount of "park land" and wildlife sanctuary land around it is such a wonderful blessing to this city and has been a great place for us to capture some family time along with great science lessons

4. BEING CLOSE TO MY IN-LAWS- Greg's mom is about 5 miles from us and his dad is about 15. This is the area where both of them grew up and it is the only "home" Greg has known. It has been very kind to us!

5. MY YARD. This place is amazing! We have just under 1/2 acre and it's like a park attached to our house! Greg has always given it extensive amounts of love and attention. I hope the future owners of the house enjoy it as much as we have and take good care of it too!

6. FRIENDS- we have had some amazing friends here! Some of them have been Greg's friends since he was a small child, going through all the highs and lows of life together, others we have known for a very short time, but all of them we will truly miss!

7. PARKS- There are at least five parks just in our neighborhood! We have wonderful memories at each and every one of them!

8. CREEKS- for some reason this area of the city has a million creeks! It makes for amazing greenbelts in the neighborhoods!

9. WILDLIFE- I have seriously walked out my door at 7 or 8 in the morning and seen red foxes jogging down the sidewalk! How incredible! Not to mention all the birds (we have a cardinal couple, a woodpecker, several bluejays and a woods owl that all live in OUR trees!)

10. last but most certinitally not least: OUR HOUSE! This is our first "home". Sure, we had a couple of apartments before we bought this house, but we never considered any of them to be home. This place was the welcoming place to all three of our precious daughters when they were born and these walls have witnessed them all as they have grown into the incredible little girls they are today! It has seen the hard times and the most amazing times we have experienced over the past 6 1/2 years. It has always been a source of comfort and will always be a huge part of who we are as a family! We are so blessed to have these memories and this beautiful place to have held them.


Top 10 things I won't miss about living in Dallas:

1. MATERIALISM- This is truly a big city and so many of the people (especially in this area) and incredibly materialistic and judgemental of other's material belongings.

2. COST OF LIVING/HOUSING- I know it's not the most exepensive in the country by any means, but it is seriously high!

3. TRAFFIC- I swear it takes me 20 mintues just to go down the street to the grocery store!

4. BEING FAR AWAY FROM MY FAMILY- It takes just over an hour to get from our house to my parents' and that is about 55 minutes too long, but fortunatley we have not allowed that to come between us!

5. PROXIMITY TO THE GHETTO- just two blocks away is an incredibly undesirable neighborhood, but one block from us in the other direction is REALLY nice homes with REALLY nice price tags!

6. PUBLIC SCHOOLS- this is a huge part of the reason we're moving...no details required.

7. FAST PACE- everyone is always in hurry, running late, running into traffic...just too stressful for me

8. OUR HOUSE- although it has been such a blessing to us, it has also been a constant struggle and project, not to mention a little cramped.

9. CRIME- I always feel like I have to look over my shoulder and never feel like I should trust anyone because of what they might do. Of course I'm sure this has nothing to do with me watching the news:)

10. LACK OF FRIENDLINESS- where I'm from everyone says hi to everyone, you never meet a stranger, and everyone is your neighbor. I know Dallas isn't as bad as say...NY, after all it is still in TX, but compared to my wonderful home town this place is awful! In fact when Greg and I were at lunch just before looking at houses he commented on how "weird" the people in the restaurant were to be having extremly polite conversations with complete strangers; then the other day a stranger offered to help me carry my food to the table since it was obvious it was going to take me more than one trip, and it took me a minute to realize I wasn't in Dallas and accept his kind offer.

All in all I am grateful for the time I have had in Dallas and all I have learned and experienced here, but at the same time I am so ready to move on to our next chapter!
Thanks for everything Big D, I look forward to visiting you regularly!

We won't be bored!

Even though almost every single thing we own is in a box or bag and ready to move the girls have still been able to find ways of entertaining themselves. Trinity and Addison made themselves at home under our little bitty nesting tables

Greg thought Addison looked adorable in her sister's Jr. Mean Green shirt

We found Trinity sitting on the sofa, all dressed up

Snagletooth strikes again!

Trinity FINALLY lost her second tooth last night! It has been loose since the last week of school (almost three months ago!) and it finally decided to part with her beautiful mouth last night, after quite a bit of coaxing from all of us. Her new tooth broke the surface behind her old tooth about a week ago so it is already very obvious. Here's a picture of her new, growing-up mouth:

I see braces in our future!

There's Greg doing his best to convince the tooth to go it's separate way.

Addison's 18 month stats

I can't believe how old my baby girl is getting! She's already 19 months old! I just got her in for her 18 month check-up tonight and thought I'd share her stats with you:

Height: 32" (60th percentile)
Weight: 25 lbs (70th percentile)
Head: 19" (90th percentile)

and for the sake of comparison, here are her sisters' 18 month stats:
Trinity
Height: 33" (85th percentile)
Weight: 24 lbs (50th percentile)
Head: 19 3/8" (>95th percentile...as in off the chart)
Emory
Height: 33" (85th percentile)
Weight: 24 lbs (48th percentile- notice a difference in %'s from Trinity's...bizarre)
Head: 19" (90th percentile)

Addison is showing off her new skills every single day! We are beginning to understand more and more of what she's saying and her sisters are teaching her something new every day (not always a good thing). She LOVES to scream...and I mean ear piercing scream! She is pretty adventurous these days too. She is doing her best to keep up with Trinity and Emory and will only do things if they are "big girl" things. She has refused to sit in her high chair at home for the past month, she has to sit in a big girl chair, just like her sisters! She is a total creature of habit, if something is done one time, it should always be done exactly the same way in the future. She is quite bossy (maybe I should say assertive), but she is also an excellent follower if someone wants to lead her. She is still talking up a storm, especially if I'm talking to someone else, but most of the time her monologues are gibberish. She has started making faces at people and loves to "raspberry" at her Daddy! I'm afraid she is going to be a night owl too, this causes huge problems for me, I LOVE to sleep!

Addison is an amazing little girl and we are all so blessed to have her as a part of our family!

Junior Mean Green night

Greg took Trinity and Emory for a special daddy-daughter night last night. They had dinner at Pancho's (I've sworn that place off, but they all three LOVE it!) and went to a special night for the members of the Junior Mean Green club at North Texas. They got autographs with almost all the players and had a great time visiting with them too! Greg was incredibly impressed with the way the players greeted and talked to the girls. He said each one of the guys would ask the girls their names and talk to them very sweetly and kindly. The guys seemed truly grateful to have everyone there and to have even the littlest of fans!




Before they left, I gave Greg one responsibility...ONLY ONE! I asked him to take a bunch of pictures. I had spent the day charging the camera and made sure he had it before they left. Let me show you what he came back with:

Yes, both of these are of the sign as they were LEAVING the place! I guess next time I'll have to be a bit more specific with my list of responsibilities. Maye I should have defined "lots" and maybe I should have been specific as to who/what I wanted him to take pictures of.

I'm so glad they got to go to this together and they all had such a great time! Thanks honey for being the most amazing Daddy on the face of the Earth!

Girls will be girls

I hate to say it, but the end of summer is almost here. Since we will be spending the next few days doing our final moving preps and next week moving I figured today was our last real day of summer. To celebrate the great times the girls and I have had together this past few months I decided to take them to Libby Lu. The girls were so excited when they finally figured out their surprise they could hardly stand it! They ran through the house screaming and yelling and kept telling me that I was the greatest Mom in the world (duh...like I didn't know that already, but I do enjoy hearing it:) Okay, I'm just kidding, I hear just the opposite quite regularly these days). I figured I had made the right decision of how to celebrate and that made me very happy! I took a few pictures of the two big girls getting all glammed up. Trinity chose to have a "Royal" hairdo and a tiara, Emory chose a "Sassy" hairdo and a sparkly headband (go figure...if it sparkles, she HAS to have it!).

Trinity getting her make-up

Emory getting her hair fixed

Little Miss Sass all done!

After the hair, make-up, nail polish and sparkles they got to "build a pooch" as the last part of their "makeovers". Emory chose the cutest puppy and named him Henry Tyler Hinckley and Trinity chose a purple pegasus and named her Glow. So cute!

Getting all glammed up (or watching people do it, in Addison's case) works up quite an appetite for us, so we stopped by the food court for a quick snack.

I'm not sure what Addison's deal was, but she kept making this face (I think her Nini had something to do with it), so I had to snap a picture. Sorry for the "see-food" shot!

Addison loved the ginormous cup we got, I swear it was almost as big as her!

Here's Trinity, pretending to be a walrus

All three of my beauties! This picture really warms my heart. They are all so happy and you can see it, not only in their smiles but also in their eyes!

Thanks girls for making this such an awesome summer! I hope you've enjoyed it too! I love you with all my heart!

It's officially ours!

We closed on our new house yesterday! We are so excited about it and the memories we will be building there! We move next Tuesday, that part I'm not so excited about- lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots....of work to do!