Dancing Days

I'll start by saying- we have had a WONDERFUL first week of summer!!!! Now to recap the last couple of weeks- May 19th was Annistyn first dance recital! She did so great! I didn't know what to expect- she is pretty unpredictable, but she couldn't have done better! Here she is dressed as a little lamb:

And here she is afterwards with the roses she got from her Daddy...

The week after the recital was our last week of school. I have enjoyed this past week so much! We have spent a lot of time in Mimi's pool. Wednesday we took a day trip to the beach. This is what Annistyn did the whole time:

Yes- she is doing a passe' on the beach. She danced the WHOLE time. She pretty much dances all the time anyway. She loves to do back flip overs off the loveseat. She says she has to "practice". Here are a couple more pictures from the beach day...

She is such a mess! Yesterday, she walked in my room and said, "Mommy, are you going to get on Medicare?" I guess she had been watching the news. Ha!!! Every day this week she has worn her high heels most of the day. She puts them on as soon as she gets up, so usually when I see her in the mornings she has on her pajamas and plastic heels. She is still a little nerd and told me that I have to be her teacher because she can't read and she needs to know how. Every day she wants to have school. She is really into beginning sounds and adding things right now. She is constantly saying things like, "Mommy! I have a napkin. N-N-Napkin. Napkin starts with 'n'!" As far as her adding- she likes to make up word problems like- I have 2 bunnies and 2 more bunnies hop up. How many now? Let's count them! She uses her fingers on both hands. I am not sure what inspired her to do this or why she is remotely interested in it right now. As for me- I got up 2 mornings this week for sunrise jogs. There is noting prettier than watching the sun come up! The other 2 mornings I went to a spinning class. It starts at 5:30 a.m. so I have just enough time to get home before Michael leaves. It is SUCH a good workout!!! I have never done a spinning class before- but I have really enjoyed it. Last night I snapped a couple of pictures of Annistyn and Michael. They turned out really sweet!

Well, that's all for now! Since Annistyn was wanting to do school, I have been doing a little daily letter theme with her. It has been fun and I will post some photos from that later. :) And don't worry about Finley Dog- he is already getting used to the summer break...

I'm Back! And I'm Ready to Rock and Roll!

I think I am finally ready to get back on the blog wagon! It has been 9 months since I last posted and probably about a year or more since I actually posted regularly. I really miss writing and I know that I will regret not keeping up with this over the past year. It was my journal for so long- before I fell off the face of the earth. :) With a 12 week- YES 12 week!!!- summer approaching I hope that I will be able to jump back into this. I will try to go back on occasion and fill in the gaps that I left off between then and now. Tonight I am going to start off simple and not too lengthy. Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I tend to get pretty emotional. On past Mother's Days, I have shared the poem I wrote for my mother. Last Mother's Day, I got really emotional and told my own Mother's Day story. I am going to try to steer away from too many heavy emotions tonight. We watched Toy Story 3 last night and is it just me or does that ending get anyone else?? Annistyn could not figure out why I was boo-hooing on the couch for the last 10 minutes of the movie. So- in order to keep things light tonight (and not get myself started with the waterworks) I am going to start by sharing some of my favorite mommy picture memories.

Okay- I lied. As I was gathering these pictures I definitely shed a couple of tears. It never ceases to amaze me how I can look into the same green eyes everyday and not realize how fast she is growing until I look through old pictures. I definitely lost my "baby" a long time ago. She told me recently that she wasn't "three" she was "TWENTY-three". She doesn't let me do much for her anymore- that's for sure. Wednesday will conclude her first year of pre-school at Little Friends. Saturday is her first dance recital. She is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes on (I know I am a little partial) and she is as WILD as the day is long. She causes me to have to take deep breaths and definitely tests the outer limits of my patience. I love her more than any words can describe and I thank God every day for giving me the chance to be her mom.

Puppy Party & Hummingbird Horrors

July 31 was Finley Dog's 3rd birthday! We celebrated by having his friend, Jazzie over and having a puppy party. The first time we had Jazzie over, Annistyn was a lot younger and kept calling them the "two Pi-pi dogs" (because she was still calling Finley "Pi-Pi Dog" then). So here are the two Pi-Pi Dogs:





We had cupcake shaped doggie treats:




Jazzie has a litte brother named Carson that she brought to the party. I took this picture of him and Annistyn. Don't they look cute??



Annistyn has had QUITE the imagination lately. She woke up crying recently telling me there was a hummingbird outside her window that was going to get her. I know it really isn't funny, but it did crack me up. The next morning, she said, "It was a nice hummingbird! It didn't get me."

She also told me yesterday out of the blue that she was going to be a princess when she grows up!

She watched a Strawberry Shortcake movie about friends, and now everyone it her BEST friend. It's so cute!!!

Annistyn is still working on her writing. I use that term loosely- she is playing with bath crayons, not writing sentences on handwriting paper!!!

Here is her capital 'A' again..



I was wondering why she kept drawing that little zig-zag after it- so I asked her. And she said- "A-N-N-I-S-T-Y-N! Annistyn is my name!!!!" with an attitude like I was supposed to know it already. So then I realized that she was making her version of two little "n's".

So I started helping her with "n". Here is her lowercase 'n'..



Here is a face...



Here is a cat...



She likes for me to draw circles and let her fill in the faces. On that one, I wrote the word cat and she had to read it first to know what to draw. I know it sounds dorky- but I am a total nerd and Annistyn really likes things like that! I promise it isn't as scholastic as it seems. It's actually quite fun and she requests for me to do it. I don't want to sound over-bearing. But she does knows quite a bit a words from recognition and she can spell them out loud as well.

Thursday I was SO excited because it was her very first day of dance. A day every mother of a daughter dreams about! I had tights, a leotard, ballet shoes, and a ballet bow. The only thing I didn't have... a cooperative toddler.



Annistyn has been SOOOO pumped about dance. She dances ALL over the house and rolls all over the den. But on Thursday, mom had to wake her up from her nap to take her to dance, so she wasn't in a very good mood.



She clapped for the girls and told them, "Good job!"



The teacher asked if she wanted to do her roll. She said, "No. I don't think I have to."



They are doing a 1:00 class on Mondays and we are going to try that next week instead. HOPEFULLY that will work better with her schedule. She said she was going to dance on Monday. So... I will keep you updated!




In other news, I survived my first week back at school (with kids)! Hooray! The first of the year is always exciting, but at the end of the week- I always feel like I have been hit by a truck!!!!

Here is my wall and door this year:




I think it turned out really cute!!!

Annistyn also started Mother's Day Out this week, but those pictures are on mom's camera. I will have to post them later.

Have a great weekend!