New Skirts

 

I noticed last Sunday that almost all of Maryn and Brynna's Sunday dresses were getting just a little bit too short. These girls just keep on growing! So yesterday when I was at Target, Maryn and I picked out some new skirts for them. It was fun picking out something that was kind of a miniature version of something I would wear myself, rather than something more juvenile. As I was getting them ready and doing their hair this morning I just kept thinking about how grown up they are getting. It weirds me out a little, but at the same time I really love this age they are at. They aren't so old that they don't want to hear anything I have to say, but old enough to share my accessories with, talk about lip gloss and nail polish and still think their momma is okay. I kind of wish I could freeze them actually.

Project 365 {2013} - Day 198

I just love this face and I just love this kid!

Project 365 {2013} - Day 197

Today we went to the school store to buy Lauryn her new school uniforms! She was so excited! I can hardly believe she is going to be a Kindergartner!!

Project 365 {2013} - Day 180

I swear Brynna is going to be 6 feet tall someday! Today the girls and I went to Target to see what some options were for school shoes. (I can hardly believe the summer is already halfway over!) As we were heading to the back of the shoe section, we passed through a clearance rack of ladies high heels. The girls, just wanting to have fun, pulled some on to teeter around in. Brynna pulled down a ladies size 7, slipped them on and they fit her just right....a ladies size 7 at 8 years old! I am a full grown adult with larger than average feet at size 9 1/2! My 8 year old is only two and a half sizes smaller than me! It was so crazy to me how fast these daughters of mine are growing up!

Maryn immediately started razzing Brynnie about how she had gigantic feet. You better believe that I nipped that in the bud pretty dang fast right then and there. I told Maryn sisters don't ever talk down to one another like that. That if sisters do anything, it is build each other up. That her sister's feet are the perfect size for her and that she can walk proud in them and in who she is.

Brynna grinned and took a couple laps around the aisle. She said "I like being tall because then I can always reach high things!" I hope Brynna, and all my girls for that matter, always feel comfortable and confident, despite what sets them apart or makes them different, in who they are. That they will always humbly know how beautiful and smart and capable they are and never let anyone diminish that. That God made them perfect just as they are.

Bath Buddies

 Lauryn and Devyn being bath buddies!

Monday, Mondays....I started working one or two days a week back at Dr. Taylor's office about a month ago. I started with Dr. Taylor, who is a pediatric dentist who also does orthodontics, when Justin and I first moved to Georgia back in 2000. When Maryn was born in 2003, as much as I loved everyone there, I quit to stay at home with her. Now nine years and three more babies later I am back! It's been a nice, little outlet for me and keeps my brain cells firing. But waking up at 5:00 a.m. and not getting home until about 6:45 p.m. on Mondays makes for a long day.

So I was grateful to be able to come home and give my Littles their bath before bed tonight and watch them play. It's so strange, it doesn't seem like that long ago that it was Maryn and Brynna singing and playing in the tub. Now they can run their long-legged selves to the shower and do their own thing. But my Littles, they still love a good hair-washing from Momma and relished giggling as they saw how ticked off they could get me with their splashing. I am ready to freeze these two. Because if the passage of time with their sisters has taught me anything, it's that these little, squeezable years fly by way too quickly.

Growing up...

When Maryn and Brynna were little we used to watch "America's Funniest Videos" almost every night together as a family. We loved it, but then the routine got dropped for some reason. A few nights ago we re-discovered it on Netflix. This time though with two more kids who are now the same ages Maryn and Brynna were when we were last regulars to the show. It was so cute seeing my Little Women lined up on the couch; snuggling, laughing, yelling at the screen and when it was all done re-enacting their favorite clips.

Devyn has officially become one of the big girls. Which really blows my mind because it seems like even in the last week she has grown leaps and bounds. It makes me wonder what one more week might bring! She got the jokes, jumped in on the wrestling match and huskily marched around the room yelling, laughing at everything and pulling crazy, cute grins. Tonight we asked Brynna to call Maryn and Lauryn down for dinner. Instead Devyn marched to the bottom of the stairs and hollered "Maaaaayn, Yahhhh, iiiinnnn!!" ("Maryn, Lauryn dinner!") with perfect inflection. Justin and I traded glances as if to say "When the heck did she start talking?!"

It's so weird how our family is growing up. When you are in the thick of your labor-intensive years of raising small children you think it is never going to end. You think it will last forever. But lately I have seen small glimpses of new phases on the horizon. It's exciting and sad at the same time. Maryn told me the other day "Mom, I don't really want to grow up....but I do feel like I am becoming a young lady." I had to stifle a chuckle at her choice of words because she was so serious. But hey, if they have to grow up I'll accept their goal of becoming young ladies!

I know I can't stop the steady hand of time, ever progressing forward. Some days it makes me a little sad to know that our time as parents of young children won't be around forever. But seeing how the girls have grown already, and seeing how proud they make me to be their mom, I find peace in knowing that whatever phase of life we are in, it will be fulfilling as long as we are all together.