I love you more than...

That was the "battle of words" that Sammie and I had out last night. 


I started with: "Sammie, I love you more than all of the trees in the whole world."


Sammie: "is that a lot? because I love you more than Disney."


Me: "oh thank goodness!"


Sammie: "Mommy, I love you more than my tv."


If you know my child, you know that she considers that a big deal.


I am so thankful that my little girl is exactly that...my little girl.  She is absolutely precious and steals my heart all over again every day. 


And even though I'm supposed to be teaching her things, she is actually teaching me a very important lesson...


how to love myself...


I've been working really hard lately to get myself in shape and down to a certain weight that I see as "skinny enough" or "good enough" for a bikini or just to look at myself and be satisfied.  I've been on a fairly strict 1200 calorie diet during the week, have given up caffeine completely, working out everyday for 30-35 minutes on my lunch break and on Saturday mornings, and doing the 30 Day Shred every evening.  I am certainly seeing the results I want...slowly....but certainly.  I am enjoying myself and am very proud of myself for the hardwork I'm putting in to it. 


But more importantly, I am beginning to love myself.  And my body.  Which for a woman, is BIG news. 


You may be asking yourself how Sammie teaching me things has anything to do with this, but bare with me.


Sammie has her daddy's freckles.  Not quite as many as he does, but his nonetheless. They are under her eyes and across her nose.  She has always complained about her freckles.  She's always (since she's understood things) said that she hated them and wished she didn't have them.  I've noticed, however, that as she's getting older, she's beginning to love them....


Me: "I love you more than the amount of freckles on your face." 


*I immediately cringed in fear about what her response would be*


Sammie: "aww, I love my freckles, mommy."

*huge sigh*

I love you Samantha Grace.  You'll understand how much one day.

5 years ago..

today my beautiful red headed, blue eyed, freckle faced little Samantha Grace was born. She was born at 1:10 in the afternoon at Jacksonville Medical Center weighing in at 6lbs 9.5oz and 19 1/2 inches long.

I have so many thoughts going through my head about this precious little girl that I want to write here, but here lately, I'm really struggling with exhaustion and can't seem to focus the way I want to, so bare with me if these thoughts are scattered and quite possibly bulleted. :)

• I get so much joy from Sammie Grace.

• I love how she loves unconditionally.

• I love the silly ways she tells me how much she loves me. Here lately, it's been armpit licking..silly girl

• Even though I know it means she's growing up, I enjoy her independence.

• she's the best big sister in the world and she loves taking care of Mahlon.

• she's the best drama queen there ever was...i.e. her Christmas play last night...oh lawdy, that girl

• I love how when she gets shy, she throws up her binoculars (with her hands)

• I love how much she loves the Lord and wants to learn about Him.

• I love the fact that she told everybody at her birthday party yesterday about Jesus' blood and that He died on the cross for our sins. So proud of my baby girl!

• she's my "1st day of Christmas" present..no partridge in a pear tree for this momma!

• I love that she tells me every morning once I get dressed that she thinks I'm beautiful

• I love that she loves her mommy and daddy the way she does.

• I love that she has no idea that she's getting more presents when she gets home from school today!

Tonight, we will continue our family tradition that we started on her first birthday (even though then she was too young to care) and go through town and look at Christmas lights and go "out and eat" as she says. Her pick and we'll take as long as she wants..after all, it is HER day.

I love you, Samantha Grace Myers!

Once again, I apologize for the rather, unconventional post, but you get what you got. :)

Disney on Ice

Sammie and I took our 2nd annual girls trip a couple of weeks ago. We went to see our very first (mine too!) Disney On Ice! It was the Princess Wishes show so we couldn't miss it!

Sammie just had to have one of those $15 cups with the snow cone inside and I just had to buy it for her:). Guess who ended up having to eat the snow cone.......yep, me. It wasn't that tasty, but it made my baby girl happy.

I desperately need a good camera, but I am willing to wait. So you'll have to be satisfied with the low quality of my blackberry indoor nighttime pictures. ha!

This was MY favorite part. They had a huge dragon chasing one of the characters and it set the ice on fire!

Sammie's favorite "princess"...Ariel (wonder why...)

This was the end when all of the prince and princesses came out together and lifted Tinkerbell up in the carriage. They shot fireworks out of the top of the carriage too!

I'm pretty sure that Sammie had a blast and I know that I loved it!

Here's to our 3rd annual trip!! I love you, Sammie Grace and I'm so glad we get these opportunites!

Camping and a Sturgeon

Friday night Matt and I decided to take the kids "camping". We put the tent up on the point at Nana and PawPaw's house and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows with Nana, PawPaw Bill, and Ms. Bobby.

Believe it or not, it was very relaxing.. Before we got around to the roasting, Matt took Sammie and Mason down to the pier to do a little fishing. Usually Sammie will just cast her Hannah Montana pole and reel it back in. Never really expecting to catch anything. Apparently, Matt baited it this time and got lucky. Mason came running back up to the house saying, "I gotta get the net, Daddy's got a huge fish"...we all know that means 'grab your camera and run', so I did. I got halfway to him before I saw panic/excitement/anxiety all over his face. He looked up and me and said "hurry up and get your down here with your camera, it's a sturgeon!" Needless to say, I picked up the pace. :) This is what Sammie caught...

I love his face in that picture!

It's a creepy looking fish!

Matt was so excited because he had never seen one of these before and our 4 year old had just caught it!

Sammie was terrified of it. It was jumping, flopping, and wiggling too much for her liking. This was when Matt was trying to convince her that she REALLY DID want her picture taken with it. She was dead set that she REALLY DIDN'T. :)

As Matt put it, not only does Sammie not realize how rare of a fish she caught, but she doesn't realize that she just caught a 7lbs 2oz, 36 1/4" fish!

After a little research, we found out that the Georgia DNR (Department of Natural Resources) has been restocking these fish. Apparently, this was the first one of its kind to be caught and reported in our area! Woohoo!

Watermelon

My kids love watermelon. Clearly..

By the way mom, these are those shorts I sent that were "Mahlon's" :)

"I don't need no stinkin' spoon, I'm a boy"

Sammie started with a white t-shirt on..thankfully her daddy saved it :)

He was saying "Mmmm"

I'm not sure if Sammie's spoon ever touched the watermelon...

The watermelon was their "surprise" for the day and they were so excited when daddy told them to go sit at table outside. Mahlon was skipping and Sammie was jumping up and down singing "watermelon, watermelon, hey".

Silly kids..

My precious husband let me sleep late every morning this past weekend...Thank you!

When I woke up Sunday, I heard little screams and laughter out my bedroom window. After stumbling through the house to the back door, I discovered Sammie, Mahlon, and Savannah in the porch swing while Grammie (my mom) would pull them up really high and let them go. They were having a blast! I wish I had gotten a picture of it. Mom, I know you did! You'll have to email them to me!

Josh and Matt went and got breakfast for everyone and of course, Mahlon ate his jelly biscuit with ketchup...

and Savybaby didn't want you to see her biscuit...

Sammie's was gone before I got a picture. :(

After breakfast, we let the kids go swimming for a little while. Uncle Josh was crazy enough to actually get in the water with them! I put my swimsuit on and just laid around trying to get up the courage to jump in. That courage never came :).

Then it was off to Granny PattPatt's for some wonderful homecooking! We had beef roast, rice, gravy, mac and cheese, green beans, and biscuits. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I was just enoying the day and the company.

Meltdownless

This morning was one of the first in a LONG time that one of my kids didn't have a complete meltdown! Praise the Lord!!

Even still, it took me at least 20 minutes to get Sammie out of the bed (yes, mother, I understand where she gets that from:). Mahlon's not so much a problem as he wakes up at the crack of dawn!

Sammie got something from Nana over the weekend that has become attached to her almost like glue. As soon as she wakes up, she wants them on and she doesn't want to take them off until she's climbing in the bed. So in an effort to make things go smoothly this morning, I tried to plan her outfit around them.....here's my mini Taylor...(Swift)...

Mahlon, he doesn't care what he wears...he would rather go naked if I would let him. He looks rather handsome though, don't you think? We took these kids to LaCosta for dinner last night (upon Sammie's request) and as usual, they were a mess. Fairly well behaved for the first 5 or 10 minutes, but as soon as they spotted the McLain's, it was over! Mahlon insisted that he scream and shout and sit behind Andrew. Bless his heart, after Mahlon got ketchup all over Matt's shirt, Andrew was on the edge of his seat trying to avoid it! Sammie wasn't going to be out done by Mahlon, so she talked loudly and laughed at EVERYTHING! They're such hams! I did send Mrs. Jaime (as Sammie calls her) an email this morning and apologize for them! They wouldn't let them eat their dinner in peace! :) As we were leaving Sammie looked up at me and said "Momma, can I go tell Mrs. Jaime, PawPaw Paul (yep, she said it), and Brandon's brother bye?" After a snicker or two, I told her of course...but once she got over there, she chickened out! She had me tell them bye...only I forgot to tell Paul what she called him!! Hopefully I'll remember next time! :)

It's finally College Football week!!! I'm being the wonderful little sister that I am and sucking it up and ordering the Alabama game on PPV for my wonderfully awesome brother that is coming to town! Stay tuned for pictures and no doubt great stories!

When daddy's away..

..we have to find ways to entertain ourselves!

Me and the kiddos broke out the camera and started goofing off. Hope you enjoy our pictures!

Silly Sammie

I love this girl! He was telling her all about his truck

Kisses!! *Look at Mahlon's face*

So precious!

And of course, the camera couldn't come out without a concert from Sammie Alabama!

Grabbing the fans hands! =)

Isn't she beautiful!?

We had a blast, but we did miss Daddy!

Anheiser

Welp, folks, I did it...I completely caved!

I told Matt that he couldn't have another animal until Mahlon was at least 3 years old. Everytime we get a dog, we have it for a couple of months and then he decides to get rid of it. Or in Coot and Snickers case, they figure out how to jump the fence and never come back. (If we could have Snickers back, we would never have another dog!)

So, for the past 3 or 4 weeks he's been pestering the crap out of me. I was able to put my foot down to him, but the man played my kids on me. He had Sammie asking for a puppy and even taught Mahlon to say "puppy dog". So, I caved. ugh! I hate when I do that!!! I told him that he could have his choice of puppy, but I got to choose the color.

We ended up with a brindle Pitbull. He's 6 weeks old and a chunk! The whole drive home, I kept thinking, "my goodness, this dog has GOT to be older than 6 weeks!" Once we got home and I put him on the ground, you could clearly tell he wasn't any older. He's a little chunk. And I guess I have to admit...he's precious.

I think he's still unsure of where he is and is a little traumatized, but hopefully he'll come around!

Needless to say, my husband and my kids are overly excited with our new and FINAL family member.

Meet Anheiser....