I Can't Believe It!

When I started this blog, little Snapper was 5 years old. It was the summer between kindergarten and 1st grade.

In the blink of an eye, it seems, we have fast-forwarded right on through her childhood. My sweet Snapper stands on the threshold of womanhood. She is 13 1/2 and about to graduate from middle school. With honors. A precious young lady who loves God, loves her family, and selflessly gives and serves.

This morning we had a showing of our house, plus an open house in the afternoon. We have two more showings tomorrow morning. We also had a professional stager come in and evaluate our house. She came today to check the work we had done, and to bring in a few things that she very generously gave to help us out with getting the house just right. All those things meant a TON of work for Matt and me this week. Sweet, selfless Snapper worked tirelessly with me. Yesterday she folded six loads of laundry. She put away all the towels, changed sheets on four bed, and put away a sister's laundry. She made dinner and babysat her younger siblings for an hour until Daddy was available so I could go out to dinner with a friend. Today she vacuumed the whole house (that's 3600 square feet of vacuuming). She mopped all the tile (easily 1500 square feet). She cleaned the sliding glass doors. She unloaded and loaded the dishwasher. She vacuumed the area rugs in the patio. She cleaned two bathrooms. She swept the front porch. She emptied all the trash cans in the house. She helped Matt and me paint the playroom. She cleaned her own room thoroughly. She is AMAZING!

We went up to the mall while the open house was going on. I was so delighted to be able to get some special things to "beautify" her for her 8th grade dance tonight. Special makeup. A fancy headband. Nail polish to match her dress. She bubbled over with gratitude for these small things. She's just priceless.

Tonight Matt got showered, shaved, and fancied up to take her to her dance. She is such a beautiful girl...it takes my breath away. Even more importantly, though, Snapper is even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside. Here are a few pics of my grown-up girl. Oh, how I love her!

Sweet Pea is 2!

This sweet girl turned 2 recently. I can't wrap my mind around it. Time flies. Period.

Update: The Move

It is April 1. March 27th has come and gone. Thanks, Jules, for your kind comment. No, we're not under contract. We've still had no offers on our house. We're getting amazing feedback, though. Everyone who comes to see it loves it. It's beautiful. It shows well. Just no one has bit yet. The reasons we've been given are things we can't help. The floor plan isn't what they're looking for (though I happen to think it is a marvelously practical floor plan). It's too much house (3600 sq ft is big). It's too close to the house behind it. It's too far from work. All stuff I can't change.

All we can think is that God is crafting the timing of our move. So we're waiting. Cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. And waiting. I'm growing weary of waiting, and I'm definitely growing weary of cleaning. Despite the cleaning and the tiredness that comes from waiting, Matt and I are trusting God. I could write a book about how waiting on God's timing has been a theme of our 15 years of marriage. This waiting thing is nothing new, and it always turns out better than we could have planned.

I'll change gears entirely and post a few photos of the kids whose photos I can safely post. Back before we moved to Florida, I was a children's and family portrait photographer. I still love capturing photos of my kids. Every Spring Break I do their hair and makeup and take glam shots. I also look for pretty settings in which to take other photos. This year we visited friends in Arkansas for the break and I did some wonderful photos there. Plus, Easter just passed. I have a whole file of fun new pics. I'll share a few with you.

Snapper (13 1/2)

Sweet Pea (almost 2)

I took photos of Snapper in the daffodils when she was 7. Look how much she has changed!

My handsome hubby with our littlest girl

Sweet Pea was born very close to Easter, so I took a photo of her wearing bunny ears in a basket of eggs when she was teeny tiny. I duplicate the photo each year. 

Pepper (9 1/2) is a walking thesaurus. He loves words, reads the dictionary for entertainment, and enjoys using a large vocabulary. On Easter afternoon, he insisted on wearing his tie-dyed shirt because "it would be a travesty to not color coordinate with my eggs."

Florida doesn't understand the seasons. At this time of year, it can never decide whether to be Spring or Winter. This year, Florida decided Easter would be Summer, so we went swimming after dinner. Here's gymnast Bubbles doing a back layout into the pool.

Sunny's attempt at a swan dive gone horribly wrong. It was gorgeous in the air and made an epic belly flop!

And Snapper's jump for the win in the "Ugly Jump or Dive" round of the jumping contest.