Haven Hope turns 12!

Today was a fulfilled day! It started off with meeting Papa Bear at Cracker Barrel and heading to church together. The lesson was about JOY and it was just very fit for my personal struggles! I love when the lesson at church hits the nail on the head for me! Afterward, the girls rode with Preslee, Gaga and Amani to our house. Me and Papa Bear headed to Publix to pick up hamburgers and hotdogs for a surprise birthday party for the one and only Haven Hope! When we got to the house, mama, Preslee & girls were already decorating outside, streamer and "Happy Birthday" banner were set up. I made a banner and we waited for what seemed like FOR.EV.ER for the birthday girl to arrive!! It was fun getting to surprise and spoil Haven today. She really is growing into such a sweet young lady. Here are the pictures from today!

Kinsley's 1st Year Of Soccer

Kinsley has been wanting to play on a soccer team for over a year now, so when the fall sign ups were happening in the summer, we went straight to the rec center and signed her up! Her first time truly kicking a ball was during the soccer evaluations. Josh & I were so proud of her for being so brave and going out there and trying in front of all of the soccer coaches and players! If you asked me to do that, I wouldn't have.. Fast forward two months, and she's on the Purple Swarm team with the best, most patient and kind coach we could have ever hoped for, Coach Mark. They have played 4 games so far & have won ALL of them! Kinsley has done really well for her first year of soccer, and I am not just saying that! The coaches have told her, the team and even me. Proud mama! Here are some pictures that I've taken, so far :) GO #3!!!!

(These last 2 are from her soccer evaluations. No idea where her headband went..)

Happy 12 Years To Us!

This weekend, September 24 was mine and Josh's 12 year dating anniversary!! Back when we were 16 year old babies, Josh came over after his football game and "FINALLY" asked me to be his girlfriend! We spent the day like a normal day, we didn't go on a date or anything but it was still a special day! That night, I had preexisting plans to eat dinner with my friends (Blake,Makenze,Katherine,Kristal) since we never get to hang out, just us and oh! Because we are moving to Florida (Lord willing!). So Joshs' sweet little self took the girls and Gunner & Lydia to Shakalaka and Chick-fil-a while I went with friends. He is seriously an amazing daddy (& uncle!). I'm so grateful that God's plan for my life has meant for Josh & I to make it through tough times so that we can truly enjoy and know happiness together. WE ARE SOOOO.HAPPY!

-Chynna

Happy Friday!!

Once again, Kinsley is sitting right beside me as I type =) (She just asked me what that was, pointing to the smiley face. I said tilt your head, it's a smiley face! She looked at me like I was crazy. I told her it was like :) that one except has long eyes. LOL) Josh had me believing that he was taking the girls to get a puppy this evening. A puppy that I did NOT want! The girls were even in on it, I was standing in the kitchen when Josh walked in and he was telling the girls to hurry up and Abrielle said "the puppy peed on my shoe!" and he said "what?! the puppy peed? Come inside and let mama clean it up" So I angrily go  around the corner to look at the unwanted puppy's pee only to see Josh handing me a new MacBook Air!!! =) They are sneaky little things!! I'm so excited to have this!! I turned it on and Kinsley has helped me navigate it so far, I've never had one, I'm used to Windows not Mac. Good thing she has one at school so she knows just what to do! Josh is rocking Abrielle to sleep on the couch, we just looked over at them and he's holding his phone up and nodding off sleeping! He caught us... Oh man! We're just so excited to have this laptop!! Now I have no excuse to not keep up with this blog. Kinsley makes fun of me for having a blog but I think one day when she's older and can read back on this, she will be thankful. Kinsley, if you are reading this, you are welcome =)

Nighty night,
Chynna

Just found this picture somehow. It's definitely from at least 2 years ago!

Elbow Space

... I'm currently lacking all elbow space thanks to you, Kinsley. There's a handful of different places you can sit in the living room as we watch Wreck it Ralph, but you decided to come squish beside me and share a blanket. Well, technically it was my blanket but whats mine is yours?? You have this fancy MacBook Air that your school loaned you for class work, so that's actually what I am using to write my blog. It's okay though, it's allowed. We just aren't allowed to look at anything inappropriate, which is NOT a problem! In fact, you have been extremely cautious with your laptop and never take any chances of getting on line. I'm so proud of you :) Some boy in your class looked at something inappropriate and now he isn't allowed to take his laptop home anymore. I think his mistake may have encouraged you be extra careful.

Abrielle, you just got finished showing me your "report card" (one graded paper) and you made a 100!! You made sure that me and Daddy sniffed the sticker your teacher (Mrs Vining) placed next to the 100. MMMM! Oranges!! You read the 4 sentences correctly and then a few more letters. So smart!! Then you showed me your coloring sheets, there were so many. Some you had colored and then cut and glued. You were so proud and so was I :) You keep talking about the excitement of the '100th day of school' coming up. Your class is doing a fun activity where you'll bring in 100 pieces of something in a zip loc bag. You told me that Daddy said we should get some candy for it. Sounds good to me!

Tonight Daddy & Kinsley went to Papa Johns and brought us home some yum yummmm pizza! We usually get Dominos and after tonight, I'm not sure we can ever not choose Papa Johns again! We really, really liked it. Tomorrow you two have a cheerleading game. You're cheerleaders for basketball, and oh my goodness I just beam with pride watching yall cheer. You two pretend to be shy and quiet, but I know the truth. I'm really proud (and a little surprised!) that you cheer loudly and go out in the middle of the court and cheer!! Of course, the other girls are louder than yall but I am proud of how far you've come and don't mind that yall aren't obnoxiously loud. Yall are brave and I am super proud of yall. I work every Saturday but Gran Gran is in Dothan visiting Aunt Andrea for her birthday, so I somehow got out of having to go in tomorrow. Blessed with the best job! So now I get to take you to your game. I'm sure we will get nachos afterwards, as usual. Kinsley, I think you could live off of chips and cheese. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree....

-CSG

Bringing the blog back to life

I'm bringing a new approach to my blogs until I come up with a more interesting way to make my posts worth thousands of dollars. And after that, I'll share my fortune with my original followers. Because you started at the bottom with me. You're welcome.

Alright, so my plan is to write directly to my daughters Kinsley & Abrielle. Share stories and photos with them about their everyday lives. I'm hoping when they're older they'll enjoy reading back on this and realize how lucky they are to have such a cool mom. 😆

Til next time,

CSG