Change is inevitable....

But that does not mean it is always easy. I always say that change is so much easier for the person doing the changing than the people who are affected by the change. For me change is really exciting...when I am the one whose life is being taken on the adventure. I don't always love change when its forced upon me because of someone else's adventure! 
Today two sweet families that we love very much are moving!! How are they moving on the same day?!? The first family, the Harrisons are made up of mom, Mamie, dad, Pete, their 4 beautiful girls and 1 little boy. The children range in age from college to kindergarten and they live in our cul-de-sac with us. Over the time they have lived in our little community Mamie's older daughters have both baby sat for our girls and were some of their very first babysitters! Mamie and I served on the women's conference, RefresHer team and grew to be very close. And her younger 3 children and Clare have a very sweet bond. I've posted before about Clare's cul-de-sac friends...and they are sweet. They are older than her, but treat her so kindly and always invite her into their imaginative games.

The Harrisons are not moving far, only about 10 minutes from our house. I'm sure we will stay in touch, but it will change our relationship so much as Mamie and I have gotten used to kid swapping, picking up needed ingredients at each others house for dinner or just helping each other out.

Clare is REALLY going to miss "her friends!" Whenever we get home from an errand she asks if she can see if "her friends" are home and knocks on their back door hoping and hoping someone will answer. If they do, Clare usually waves to me and runs inside to join the family with 5 children! I usually will pick her up an hour or so later and she will be fully dressed up in dress up clothes sitting at the kitchen table coloring while the kids do homework. Since the weather has been nice, almost every afternoon Mamie and I sit outside while all the kiddos play in the cul-de-sac making imaginary houses with chalk and riding bikes. 

This is Audrey, the second to oldest...Clare's first babysitter!  Clare was only about 14 months

This is one of my favorite pictures of the summer.  The middle little girl in blue is Rebecca, the middle of the younger children.

One of their favorite summer acitivies...restaurant.  Emily, the older of the younger siblings is in blue and was giving me a detailed account of all they had made.

We had the Harrison family over for a pizza and movie night. David, their son is in orange.

No one could agree on a movie, so the boys watched The Incredibles while the girls watched Cinderella.  But as you can tell the girls really couldn't pick....

The newest cul-de-sac fad is chalk houses.  This is Emily and Clare's bedroom...they were sleeping..comfy huh?

Emily and Clare are best buds right now!

I'm telling you they are super creative.  This is the restaurant.  All of their cul de sac towns are complete with a Bi-Lo, church, school and mall.  Where else do kids go???

This is the cul-de-sac crew!!

No, no, we are not losing them forever...and yes, I know this probably seems so trivial. But I promise this is going to change especially mine and Clare's daily life! Thank you sweet Harrisons for being friends and neighbors we can count on! We love you all :)

The second family deserve their own post....more about them later~

Halloween Festivities!

We love Halloween being close to the weekend.  It gives us an entire 3 days to celebrate!  On Saturday our friend Henri came over to play for the evening so it was a great time to carve pumpkins. 

For whatever reason it has become a "tradition" that mommy cleans out the pumpkins and then daddy does the carving.  Clare is still very unsure of the pumpkin goo...so Henri and I worked on it by ourselves....with Elle constantly attempting to eat seeds of course!

Then we gave poor LD and difficult task....carving Cinderella!

I was incredibly impressed by his carving skills.  Clare said "Hm...I think something is missing."  I think she had a hard time seeing her face.  We should have taken a picture right away, but we forgot and put it outside. So this picture was night two and it was already a little warped.

Then Sunday we headed to church and Elle wore this incredibly cute and sweet dress.  I have a confession to make...I am a good will shopper.  And I will make a bold statement that I think we have THE best Good Will at the end of our street,  a mile from our house.  This sweet little dress came from Good Will for a total of $3.79!!

Then Monday we got to dress up and go trick-or-treating!!  And my girls looked so cute in their sweet Michigan cheerleading outfits!

We headed to our great friends, the Aquaros house, which was so fun to have older kids to trick-or-treat with!

I must admit, while we were out one family said "Look they dressed up like Yankees" :)  It was fun and LD was thrilled with our "costumes".

Clare was hilarious and really got into it.  The first 3 houses she was hesitant and then she was all for it.  She would knock and yell "trick or treatin" every time.  Then she would say "ok, lets go to the next asile"  Any spooky houses she opted out for and asked the big kids to get her some candy. 

Elle loved riding along and stayed cozy in her stroller! 

It was a very fun evening with her two little cheerleaders!!

Elle's big celebration!!

I'm sure by now anyone who has read our blog has realized we celebrate birthdays by the week instead of the day!  If family is coming down...there is definetely going to be a celebration.  And we were so excited that Grandma and Grandpa Jackson came to be a part of Elle's first birthday celebration!!

And of course she had super fun pajamas for the girls as well!!

After celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa, there was a big party planned with Elle's many friends!

I saw this sweet idea on Pinterest and LOVED it!!

Our whole family was ready for FUN!!!

And Elle looked cute as a button in her little shirt made by our friend Teresa!!

There were 4 babies under 1 and 3 children under 3.  It was crazy!!  And so much fun!

It was so fun tearing through presents!

And Elle loved her cake!!

I mean REALLY loved her cake!!

And then decided to give her cake a hug :)

Dear Sweet Elle - It has been such a joy to be your mommy during this last year.  We started your life off a little rough with all sorts of medical glitches and sicknesses...but you pulled through like a trooper.  I loved seeing your first smile, your first laugh, your first kisses and your first steps.  You are a little firecracker as a friend mentioned the other day and that is a perfect word for you.  You have no fear and are CONSTANTLY on the go.  You love to give your sister a run for her money already and are so determined to keep up with her.  You have an infectious smile and love getting attention from everyone we come in contact with from the grocery store to a restaurant.  You LOVE playing with other children and are Miss Independent, not often needing your mommy or daddy around.  I am so excited to watch yours and Clare's relationship continue to grow...though I have no doubt we will have our battles in the future with the two of you.  I cannot wait to teach you how much Jesus loves you and see the plan he has for your little life unfold. Thank you for being such a sweet little girl and adding pure JOY and laughter to our home.  I love you sweet girl!!  Happy First Birthday!!

Myrtle Beach in the fall!

We were offered an incredible blessing last week!  Our church staff was invited to Myrtle Beach for some R&R and even our families were invited to attend!  We have never been to the beach in the fall and I had a hard time packing or knowing what to expect....but it was perfect!!!

This was our beautiful view from our room.  The girls loved standing on the balcony and watching the ocean!!

Elle found lots to play with and "help out" in our hotel room!

A big highlight for Clare was sleeping in this huge bed!

The mornings and evenings were so beautiful!  I am just in awe of the beauty God allows me to experience!

The best part was that it was 80 degrees while we were there and we actually got to swim in the pools...they were a little warmer than the ocean.  I couldn't believe mid October we were in our bathing suits on the beach!! 

You can't tell from this picture (which I totally love!) but Elle really loved the ocean.  Clare was incredibly apprehensive.  Clare really liked finding seashells, but she wanted nothing to do with the waves.  Elle on the other hand crawled straight for them!

It was so fun playing on the beach with very few people around.

And I could get so used to doing this every afternoon!  It was such a great time to spend with family.  But I have to admit....there is no such thing as VACATION with kids!!  We were all sleepy by time we got home!

Pink tutu's everywhere!!

Two weeks ago Clare had her very first ballet recital.  I have to admit I was not expecting much.  I tried to prepare her for all the people that would be watching her as she showed us everything she learned.  I also kept encouraging her not to cry or daddy may not let us do this again..haha.  No pressure right??  I didn't care if she danced, I just didn't want a melt down ;)  The fun part was that some family was in town for a women's conference that my sister, Vanessa was doing....

Grammie was here for the big performance...

And so were Aunt Cissy and Kristen!!

Here is Clare's little class with her teacher Miss Nicolette before they started.

Truth be told I am incredibly proud of this picture.  I promise you Clare is doing exactly what the teacher is doing....and no one else is..haha.  Clare definetely had her days in class that she was not into it, but when it counted she was ready to perform!!

And she danced her little heart out!

Even Elle enjoyed the show.

This is Clare and her sweet friend Sophie that she met in class.  They were best buds on Fridays!

And then sweet Ayden walked in looking so handsome and brought flowers for Clare! 

It was seriously one of THE cutest things I have ever seen!!!

I mean seriously, how can you not melt when you see this????

They are one cute pair that is for sure :)  Sweet sweet friends!!!

5K for Isabella Santos

This blog post is extremely overdue, but we had a broken computer last month so I was unable to download these pictures. 
LD recently ran in a 5K for a sweet little girl who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma (a type of cancer that affects mostly toddlers and babies). In the last 4 years we have learned more about neuroblastoma than we would have ever liked to know as it hit close to home when dear friends of ours, the Aquaro's little boy Joey was diagnosed at the age of 2. I have blogged in the past about Joey Aquaro and his battle with this awful disease and as we have walked with our sweet friends Matt and Maggie. Isabella is a friend of Joey's and LD was happy to be able to run in this 5K for her.

LD has not ran in a timed race since college so after 3 weeks of prep he felt pretty good about. I was extremely proud of hm as he crossed the finish line in 25 min and 8 sec! Great job babe!

Here is daddy and Clare before the race

And they were off....

Clare and Joey patiently waiting!!

Clare sporting a special tshirt for daddy!

They were such great cheerleaders!

And then LD came!

During the run since Matt, Maggie and their girls Annie and Olivia were running, Joey, Clare and I hung out together.  Joey is incredibly sweet to Clare and she just adores him.  They were cute climbing trees and playing silly games while we waited.  It was a sweet time together!