Andrew is 5!!!

My sweet baby boy had a big day today - actually a big weekend! We've been celebrating big-time around here because our sweet Andrew is 5 today!! Five years ago today, on the 5th anniversary of 9/11, God reminded us how He is the Creator of new life, how all things are in His hands, and how a day of sadness can also be one of great joy!

He gave us our firstborn, Wilson Andrew Shirley, Jr!!

Andrew is such a dear and is just so proud and excited to be 5!! This 5th birthday seems like a big one to me... he's just growing up. I am so thankful and certainly feel blessed by our Heavenly Father to have Andrew as our son. I can't help but be a little sentimental about him turning 5 - but at the same time, I could not be more proud of the boy he is growing into. He has such a sweet heart and sensitive, thoughtful spirit - he loves his family so, so much. He is truly the sweetest big brother and just knows how to demonstrate how he loves us. We love you bunches, Andrew!!

A few pictures from our Saturday morning celebration at home...

I am five!!
Blowing out the 5 "sparkler candles" on his birthday breakfast of choice - beignets!!
Opening his presents after breakfast... notice that Forrest and Ann Evelyn are each opening gifts, too. Andrew let them help open his presents! He decided this all on his own, and of course, they were thrilled! What a sweet big brother!
So excited about his Battleship Game!

His big present was a new bike!! It even has brakes on the handlebars! What a big boy!

God made you special, Andrew, and you are so very special to us! Happy Birthday!!

Ann Evelyn at 2

Our sweet girl is full of personality. She brings so much joy to our house. She is quite a talker, and she loves to be around others. Her brothers are her best buds. She loves them so much! When she wakes in the morning, she'll say "I wanna check on my brudders." And the past few nights she has asked them if she can go to sleep in their beds with them. "Can I lay down with you?" To her dismay, the answer has been "no". There is plenty of sibling love in this house but at night everyone wants their bed to themselves. However, they don't mind sharing mom and dad's occasionally. :) She is really missing them when they go to preschool. Ever since they started, she has been telling me "I wanna go to preschool, too". Today she even packed her own lunchbox with a snack in it to take with us in the car while we ran errands while the boys were at school. Cutie! :) So she starts MMO one day a week this week. We went last week to meet the teachers and play... she loved it!

Besides playing with her brothers, she loves books and frequently is asking to be read to. A few recent favorites are Pinkalicious, her Eric Carle board books, her Little People School Bus book, Katy Duck, I Love You So, and her book of Nursery Rhymes. She loves nursery rhymes and knows quite a few by heart. She will be playing by herself and reciting nursery rhymes. :) She loves music - singing and dancing - and has begun to request songs to listen to in the car. She loves singing praise songs when Daddy plays his guitar at night and I love hearing her precious voice praise the Lord in song. She also always asks to pray when we finish our family devotions. How sweet to hear a 2 year old voice talking to our Lord!

Ann Evelyn also is loving puzzles these days and has enjoyed coloring and painting, too. She loves playing with her baby dolls, and I think this is so sweet to watch. It's so cute to see her pretend playing - feeding her babies, cuddling them and then putting them to sleep. So sweet. She loves to play dress up, and Forrest loves this, too. They have a lot of fun dressing up together. She has really enjoyed her rocking horse lately, too - especially when pretending to be Jessie the Cowgirl! Overall, if she has someone to play with she is tickled to play whatever - cars, construction, trains, etc!

She is still a big girl - 90th percentile in height and weight. She has been blessed with great health and she is a great sleeper! Praise the Lord!

What a blessing she is! We are so thankful the Lord gave our family Ann Evelyn!

A few recent pictures....

Happy times together for these 3!
Trains at the children's museum
Painting with Andrew
Forrest reading to Sissy (a little hard to see but he's pointing out the pictures in this "I Spy" book - a favorite we checked out from the library)
Loving on her baby doll - sorry it's a bit blurry
Reading one of her favorites - Nursery Rhymes!
Big girl! Ready to wear a helmet and ride a bike like her brothers!
Singing and dancing on the beach with Andrew
Science Museum trip with sweet buddies Meredith and Micah

Playing dress-up with sweet Julia - loving that belly :)

Ann Evelyn's 2nd Birthday

Our sweet baby girl is 2!! We love this little one so much! What fun to have a little girl in the house! :)

We started the morning with blueberry muffins. Andrew had to help out with the candles. :)

Then, it was time to get ready for her princess party!

She had the most fun with the balloons!

Andrew showing off the "drawbridge" that he and Daddy made to come into the house.

We needed some knights to defend the castle! Forrest was glad to suit up!

Forrest, Andrew and their friend, Julia all dressed up and ready to play!

When we began talking about Ann Evelyn's birthday a couple of months ago, she asked for a "princess" party. She is a tough cookie with her brothers, but she's also very girly... she loves dressing up and playing with her dolls. She loved seeing the princesses at Disney world and has talked about them ever since. I love seeing the differences in how God makes little girls and little boys. At 2, Andrew was into trains, Forrest was into tools, and Ann Evelyn... princesses! :)

Riding the horse outside with Izzy!

She was so tickled when everyone sang to her (she even sang along!) and she blew out the candles all by herself this time!

Meredith, Ann Evelyn and Micah eating cupcakes. Such sweet little friends! Her little friend Tate and cousin Owen also helped us celebrate!

When she opened the present from May-May and Bubby with the tiaras and dress-up shoes... she was sooo excited!! She didn't take them off for the entire party! And she tries to wear those purple heels everywhere we go. :) She loves her new princess tricycle from Ganny and Papaw.

We love you, Ann Evelyn! What a fun day we had celebrating the day that God gave us you!

Growing up!!

My little ones are growing up!

Our baby girl turned 2 on August 6th! What fun we had celebrating our little girl's big day! I'll post more later about the sweet princess party we had for her! :)

And then yesterday Andrew and Forrest went to meet their teacher for preschool!

My sweet, big boy! He will be in preschool 5 days a week this year! I am sad to see him growing up but also very excited for him. He loves his sweet preschool, and he loves to be busy and in a routine. Wilson and I think it will be a great year for him!

Andrew and his teacher, Mrs. Murphy - it seems like a really sweet class!

Forrest is excited to be going to preschool with Andrew this year! :) He is going 2 days a week and has Andrew's sweet teacher Mrs. Bates from last year!!! Andrew was a great big brother... walked Forrest in and showed him around. :) Forrest has 2 friends from church in his class, too, so he is super excited about that!

After looking around the classrooms, we went outside for juice and cookies and a little playtime. Guess who is ready to go to preschool with her big brothers???

Yep! Ann Evelyn was wanting to go this morning! There was much excitement in my boys' faces this morning. They were walking around the kitchen singing songs that they made-up about going to preschool! I can't wait to pick them up in a few minutes to hear how their day was!

4th of July 2011

We loved our trip to the beach for the 4th!

Working puzzles

Sweet brother and sister

The ice cream truck is a fun treat during our summer beach trips... yummy popsicle!

a trip to the bay to catch a crab dinner!

loving the water

Sissy took a ride in the kayak, too!

Daddy caught mullet... these weren't "keepers" just a little entertainment :) the children love watching them flip-flop back into the ocean and swim back out to sea

Forrest loved the water, too

she was content in the water just like this for about 10 minutes. she's a beach girl!

ready to celebrate the 4th!

watching fireworks under the cabin and i do believe that is a s'more in wilson's hand :)

loving sparklers!

mmm... i wish wilson could catch and cook me some of these right now!

love this of the boys in the kayak!

Mommy and her Baby Girl :)

Handsome boy

Cutie pies

another wonderful beach trip!!

Thankful

We are so thankful for our Forrest - especially tonight. While playing on the play set this afternoon, he had a big, scary fall. After falling from the slide, he blacked out for a moment and then jerked up and down. He was limp in Wilson's arms for several seconds. Needless to say, Wilson and I were so scared. We immediately put everyone in the car and headed to the ER.

Once in the car, he seemed to be fine... talking, answering questions, crying... Still, after all the many falls our children have had, we've never seen a reaction like his, and we decided it was best to get him checked out. After being examined and having a CT scan, everything came back clear.

Praise the LORD!! He is so good and gracious to us! He heard our prayers and protected our son and "thankful" just doesn't even seem to be the right word to capture the emotions of gratitude we are feeling. Thank you LORD!

Me and my sweet boy as we waited for our CT Scan. Precious boy.

Daddy

On this Father's Day, and every day, I am so thankful for the 2 wonderful men that God placed in my life... my husband and my father. Our family is blessed beyond measure to have these Godly men leading and loving us.

Daddy and Bubby, you are loved!!