Nora's Birthdays ;)

Welllllll, I'll be the first to admit that I have not kept my blog up lately. It truly makes me so sad and weighs on my heart. I want to document all of our memories for my girls so they can keep them forever. This past year has been absolutely NUTS....in a good way!! But I have never experienced "busy" until now, and the blog just kinda got placed on the backburner.

BUT, I'm back at it!! My goal is to resume and "get caught up" as I go! So, here we go! 

The most recent milestone we had was Nora's 13th birthday....oh my gosh! A TEENAGER!! That makes my head spin!!

 We began the big birthday weekend with "friend party" at our neighborhood beach. Josh and I kept saying we felt like we were on the set of Teen Beach Movie! ;)

 After watching Ella sing at the courthouse (post to come), we also had a family birthday dinner at Blue Agave.

 We ended the weekend with a trip to Six Flags' Fright Fest! It's all fun and games until you get STUCK on the Goliath!!!

 It was such a wonderful weekend with our sweet TEENAGER!!

And while I'm at it, I'm also going to post about her 12th birthday from last (ya know, because it never got posted....#momfail)

Celebrating with the family at the marina:

.....and back home for cake!!!

....and of course a little swimming!!

Also, her 12th birthday was the very first time we met her "other half," Broc (Lil' Broccy) - he's been a part of our lives ever since!!!

Broc surprised Nora with a trip to Jump-N-Joy....

.....and a sweet bracelet for her birthday. And he's been surprising her for over a year now ;)

I'll end with Lea's annual birthday picture!! Lea likes to take a picture of her holding Nora just like she did when she was born. We joke that we can't wait to do that when Nora is 80 and Lea is 90!!

My Nora-Bean - the one that made me a Mama.....there are simply no words to express how much I love you, how proud I am of you, and how much you amaze me. There is simply nothing, NOTHING, that you cannot achieve. You are stunning from the inside out. God has amazing things in store for you.....keep following HIM!! I love you to the moon.

Cheers to my TEENAGER!

Murff's Manor

Wellllllll, it's been almost a year since I have posted a blog!! Let me just say that I really don't know how that happened......except for this has been the craziest and QUICKEST year of my whole life, and time has truly gotten away from me! My summer goal is to get caught up on all of life's endeavors and document them for my kids. While it's been a crazy year, it has been an AMAZING one!!

One of the biggest changes that have taken place is that Mama (Grandmama) now lives with us! She has been the biggest blessing to us!! Like, take yesterday, I came home to a mowed lawn, clean dishes, clean laundry, and a made bed!! But even without all that, her company is such a joy.

We added on to our house with an "apartment" for Grandmama that we call "Murff's Manor" :)

Here's the before pics:

Closing day on mom's house was a very bittersweet day: 17 years of memories - some beautiful, some very painful, but it was all a part of our journey:

Grandmama moved into our basement for a few months while Murff's Manor was being built. These two are always getting into something:

The process.....

We were finally able to move Grandmama in on Christmas Eve EVE 2017!! Right in time for Santa to come!!

My housewarming present to Grandmama - no truer words!!!

And as if all that construction wasn't enough, we decided to put in a pool right after we wrapped up Murff's Manor!! From one hot mess to another.....

We decided to tackle the fence ourselves - family affair!!!

FINALLLLLLYYYY able to put some water in that bad-boy!!!

Grandmama and I spent a whole day laying sod - it only survived for about a week, but it was fun while it lasted :)

I'll end with this picture - one of my very favorites of my precious mama and her little "manor." Having her here with us has been one of the biggest blessings of our lives. So many memories already made, and so many more to come!!

Cheers to "Murff's Manor!"