Happy 6th birthday Emery!!!

This year for Emery's birthday, I decided to go old school!  No fancy themes, no field trips, no craziness.  Just a simple party with her friends.  And this year was the first year that I did not get to invite MY friends.  This year, it was all her!  She knew each person she wanted there which basically ended up being all her friends from school.  But it was adorable how specific and excited she was!  We had them all over (14 in all with some siblings).  A few of the moms stayed and a couple dropped off.  But eventually we were all there at the end.  We had just as much fun as they did!  It was relaxed and fun to watch them play their own games.  I didn't have to come up with anything!  They played red light green light and hide and go seek.  Then it was pizza time and then presents and cake.  Very simple really.  But soooo much fun!  All my mom friends even thanked me for having it at home and keeping it simple.  You're welcome!! :)

And I must say.... having a party with all homeschool moms results in very fun gifts!  They were all educational, creative and productive vs toys.  She loved them all and so did I!!  Got some great gift ideas for the future!

I can't believe how quickly she is growing up!  I mean it seems just yesterday I was giving her a bottle in the middle of the night.  Where does the time go?  It's amazing that a short time ago she was only making sounds in an attempt to communicate.  Now she expresses her thoughts, feelings and ideas very clearly!  She knows what she wants and how she feels and knows how to communicate that with me.  We have an open communication that is beautiful and also frustrating at times.  Yes, she is very opinionated and stubborn.  But I love that God has made her that way!  It is His design and so my prayer, always, is to know how to nurture that into a positive part of her character and not label it as anything less. 

This 6 year old is feisty, courageous, excited, spirited but also very sensitive to the things of God.  She loves worshipping God.  She asks theological questions and expresses frustration with Him when He doesn't answer her prayers.  But, we tell her, that's perfectly okay.  Because He knows our hearts better than we do.  He is not afraid of our anger or disappointments.  He loves her always, no matter what.  She also loves to hear us pray in our spiritual language.  It started with Sean praying over her a couple of times when she was hurting or couldn't sleep.  And God's peace would come over her like never before.  She'll ask us to speak in our language.  And then she shows us how she has one.  She tells us how she talks to God in her language when she's alone in her room.  I don't think she's received hers yet, but it's beautiful, nonetheless, that she desires it.  It will come in time.  So exciting!! 

This little girl is not little anymore.  She is growing up.  And we are growing with her!  I will patiently wait to see how she will be in 2, 5, 8 years from now.  Actually, I'm in no hurry.  But I know God has wonderful things for her!!! 

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I cannot post pics right now, but hopefully will figure it out soon!  I'll post them later!

And as a side note... I needed to record what we did for her 5th birthday since I never did.  It was the first year we did not have a party. I was afraid she was going to be disappointed.  And she was at first, but in the end she had a great day!  We started it off by going to the kid salon, Pigtails and Crewcuts, and getting her first official hair cut (that I actually had to pay for!).  But just as mommy does, she wanted to stop by starbucks for "coffee", ie kids hot chocolate, on the way!  So we did.  The girl that did her hair spent 45 minutes cutting, curling and styling her hair!  It was beautiful!!  Then we headed over to pick up a couple friends, Meagan & Gavin, and Tyranie & Meagan & Hannah, and we headed to Arlington to go ice skating.  It was her first time!!  Gavin's too.  They had so much fun and she did so good!  We opened presents there and ate cupcakes.  Later that evening, Sean and I took her to Chuck E. Cheese.  Not our favorite but she LOVED it!!  As we left, she received a call on my phone from Gil from Bubble Guppies wishing her a happy birthday!  She was in shock!  haha  What a great way to end an amazing day!

Our first school field trip!

We had our first school field trip to Hennrietta Creek Orchard this past fall.  It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun!  The kids learned all about bees and pollination.  I learned so much.  Hate to say I had no idea the exact work and importance bees play in our fruits and veggies!   We also learned about bugs and their role and all the different kinds of plants and veggies.

We saw bunnies!

...and beautiful butterflies!

Listening all about the bees

Taking the tour

Checkin out the chickens

Learning how we plant our food

And at the end of the day we got as many 

fresh hand-picked apples as we wanted!  So yum!

 

Harvest Festival Gateway Church 2015

Just a quick post because these pictures are just too cute that they need their own post!

When I told my friend Meagan that I got Emery the Cinderella costume, she immediately got Gavin the Prince Charming one!  I know, we are just too much!  But they are so darn cute and they truly adore each other!!!  (this is her best friend who already gave her a "married ring" hehe)

The Prince and his Princess

I Tore my ACL!!! Whaaaaat???!!

So this is probably a weird blogpost, but I have never been athletic and have never injured myself before, so I'm a little abnormally proud of this! haha  Of course, I would have rather NOT injured myself, but at least I did it doing something that I've never been known to do naturally... playing some sport or activity, very aggressively and competitively.  

Back in June, I went out to bootcamp on a day that I normally would have worked.  Our trainer decided to play capture the flag and of course I was extremely motivated to get that flag!  The first couple runs I did really well passing a couple girls and even a guy who couldn't catch me in my sprint!  ha! (yes, I'm bragging....a little)  But then it happened.  I ran again and after I got past a couple people, I saw the girl up ahead of me and could tell she was going to block me.  So I sprinted straight for her as fast as I could and then did the quick cutting movement... to the left.... and then to the right... and then... What???!!!!!  Flat on the ground!!!!  As I cut from left back to right, it felt like everything in my knee blew up!!!  It was excruciating!!!  But as my trainer questioned me, he said he didn't think I tore my ACL.  Well a week later I had a bad feeling so I had one of our ortho doctors at work look at it and he gave me the bad news.  A friend recommended Dr. Bothwell and so I immediately called and made an appt.  The next week I had an Xray and then an MRI which confirmed that I did indeed tear my ACL!!  Well we set surgery for after our NC trip.  So on August 18th I had surgery at Harris Southwest in Fort Worth.  From beginning to end I had a great experience and I'm forever grateful to my friend who recommended Dr. Bothwell.  Every person who asked me who I was having do my surgery confirmed that he is the best!  Loved him and his staff!!

my beautiful knees via XR!  haha

Waiting for surgery....

So here is the set up I was in for about a month after surgery.  All wrapped up, a brace, an iceman (continual ice water flow to keep inflammation down.  Sean had to keep these Ice blocks changed out throughout the day) and the continual motion machine.  Fun fun!  

But this is what I would wake up to every morning! Not so bad!

She hung out with me a lot on the couch the first few days that I was not getting around much

I was so grateful to my friends who took time to come over and keep me and Emery company.  Emery loved it too since I was not much fun!

Starting to get up more on my crutches and knee immoblizer

First appt 3 days out to get my bandages changed.  First time seeing my leg.  EW!!!

Not too bad but it got worse as the days went on

My new leg with new wrap!

This was also the day of my first Physical Therapy appt.  It was mainly a consultation.  But I freaked out when the guy told me to lift my leg off the table and I couldn't even move!  Could not even lift my heel a millimeter off the table!  My mouth dropped to the floor!  In a way, I had to train my leg to walk again.  Like I said, I've never injured myself and definitely never had to rehab.  So crazy!

Meagan took Emery one day

Swimming and the park with Gavin!

Bruising getting worse

Look at the difference between my calves in only 1 week!!!!  It's so crazy!  I measured them and my left was 3/4" smaller than my right.  My thighs were the same way!

Emery liked to get in on the action too!!!  haha

I hated this in the beginning, but I soon developed a love/hate relationship with it.  It is the Extentionator!!!!  It hyperextended my knee as much as I could stand it (to the point of pain!) with ice for ten minutes at the end of every PT session.  I started out with PT twice a week for 2 months and then went to once a week for 4 months.

Healing very well and looks even better now!

I was so excited when Kylie (my Physical Therapist and now friend) started me on the bike!  I was sooooo slow but it felt SO good!!!

My new walking brace!  Yippee!! (yah that excitement didn't last long.  I wasn't very compliant with wearing this as it wasn't usually very comfortable.  My physical therapist said if they had it their way, they wouldn't require it, so I cheated most days.  But I was careful!) 

At first Emery never came with me to my 2 hour PT sessions.  But once Sean was working again I had no choice.  But she loved it and was always so good!  Sometimes she was content watching the ipad or playing games......

..... but other times she liked to be working out with me!  lol

She caught a picture of me on the slider.  I loved this thing!  Felt like I was speed skating!

It has been a journey and it definitely threw me for a loop, as I couldn't work out like I used to.  A week after surgery, I even found myself depressed and cried for two days.  But it made me realize once again that I can do anything!  God has made me strong in mind and body!  It has been an incredible experience to see the rehab in myself from surgery to fully recovered.  I love saying that I had an athletic injury!!!  Sounds silly, but I never did century bike rides, half marathon runs, bootcamps, mudruns and more in my teens and 20's.  So to accomplish these things now means so much to me!  You truly can do anything you put your mind to, even in your 40's!  A few months ago, I registered myself for the Dallas Hot Chocolate 5K run.  And on February 6th I did it with my best time yet!!  I'm stronger than ever! And so grateful for this challenge!

Dallas Hot Chocolate 5K 2016