Jungle Birthday Bash

Dannika was SUPER excited to be having her birthday party this year in Texas!

Instead of me pulling my hair out and planning a party at my parent's house, I decided to book a party at the Rainforest Cafe here in Houston in the Galleria Mall. 

Dannika fell in love with the restaurant (after being scared to go in at first), and I knew it was perfect.

It was SO easy, and SO nice to have someone else do most of the planning and details for me.

All of her new best friends from my parent's church and my "baby" cousins came to celebrate!

It was a perfect mix of friends, family, great food, great atmosphere, and loads of fun!

My best friend in Cali sent Dannika her own Hello Kitty edible arrangement!

Her party dress was ordered off HootyCutie on Etsy to go with her "jungle/rainforest" theme.

Dannika has had Sprinkles cupcakes for every single birthday since she was born!

It's become a tradition for her to have a red velvet cupcake from there every year.

I was sad when we moved to Boston because there were no Sprinkles up in New England, but it worked out for us this year because there is one in Houston!

I handmade, hand cut, and hand glued all the cupcake toppers using scrapbook paper, cardboard, and jungle themed scrapbooking stickers....all 36 of them.

My Birthday Girl!

The older kids were not all that thrilled to be included in the photo...if you can't tell...lol.

Overall, the party was a success, and we all had a TON of fun!

I'm still a little sad that my "baby" is now 4, but I'm so proud of who she is becoming!

Most importantly, I am SO thankful that my hubby got to spend this birthday with us as a family!

The Big 4

I get just a little bit sad every year around Dannika's birthday.

It's just a yearly reminder to me on just how fast she is growing up, and how fast time is flying by.

I say it every year, but "Where does the time go?!?

This year, I'm a little more sad than other years.

Something about 4 seems so much more "grown up" than ages 1 through 3.

I feel like at ages 1through 3, she was still a toddler.

But this year, it feels like she grows out of toddlerhood.

Please stop growing so fast, little one...

Mama's not ready.

Dearest Dannika Jane,

Has it been another year already? So soon? I feel like this has been our craziest year of your short little life thus far. Between mommy and daddy being stationed on separate coasts of the U.S. (which entailed a long separation from daddy), to mommy getting out of the Marine Corps and moving us to Massachusetts from your birthplace of California, this year truly feels like it's just flown by. 

You're growing entirely too fast for me to even keep up with your milestones. I know every parent says how smart their child is, but little one...you truly are a genius. You love to learn new things, and as annoying as it can be sometimes, your constant and inquisitive, "why?" questions make me smile because I know you're just curious about the world around you and want the answers to everything. People could not believe that you were only 3 years old after interacting with you. I've been told more than once how mature you were for a 3 year old and how smart you were. In fact, the staff at vacation bible school told your Gigi (on the down low) that you were their favorite student and that YOU were the smartest. You were in a class above your peer level with the 4 and 5 year olds since you were "almost 4", and you exceeded everyone's expectations. That's how brilliant you are, and you make us so proud. 

You've graduated from your love of Dora the Explorer and Peppa Pig to more "sophisticated" cartoons like Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Sophia the First. 

I no longer have to decipher or translate to strangers what you are saying, because you speak so eloquently and clearly. You're honest to a fault, and your love of God and faith in Him is something that even your 50 something year old Gigi admires. My favorite thing about you is how you close your dinnertime prayers. You always say, "In Your name we pray, Amen. And as for me and my house, [I] will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)." 

It's hard to believe that this will be your last birthday as an "only child". Next year, you'll have an almost 1 year old little brother around, and I know for a fact that you're going to make a fabulous big sister. No worries though, little one, you'll always be our first love, and you'll always be our "little princess". I can't wait to see what kind of big sister you're going to be. I know you weren't too thrilled about having a little brother around at first (and you let us know!), but it's amazing how much you have grown to love the little guy in my tummy, and he's not even here yet! He's going to be one lucky brother to have you as his sister.

This year, you'll have many changes (as we do every year). You'll start real pre-school. You'll meet new friends. You'll be a big sister. You'll amaze us. You'll make us laugh. You'll make us smile. You'll make us proud. 

We are so privileged that God chose us to be your parents and raise you in all His glory. We hope we are making Him proud, because you sure as heck make us proud every single day.

Happy 4th Birthday, little one. 

Slow down a little, ok?

We love you to the moon and back...and back and forth again...

Mama and Daddy

P.S. Your birthday party tomorrow is going to be AWESOME!!!! We can't wait to celebrate!!!!

Swimming & Vacation Bible School Fun

We have been ridiculously busy these last few weeks here in Houston!

Between swimming lessons and vacation bible school, I'm not sure who's more tired, Dannika or me!?

She graduated from her first swim class, and is now ready for the next class (which we will start when we return to Boston).

It's so crazy how far she's come along in the pool!

When we first started the class, she refused to put her face in the water, was scared to jump into the 2 feet deep baby pool, and she refused to get into the regular swimming pool even with floaties on!

She now swims UNDERWATER by herself without any assistance or floating devices, can float on her back, and can swim on her back unassisted.

I was thoroughly impressed with how quickly she got over her fear of water, and how quickly she learned how to swim!

And as a "proud mama moment"....

She was the youngest kid in her class!!!!

All the other kids were 4 1/2 years old to 5 1/2 years old, and she kept up with all of them and at times did better than them!

My mom's been volunteering at VBS for the children's lunch prep, so I've been sticking around all day just hanging out at church, and taking a toooon of pics of Dannika.

My parents attend a Korean church, so the VBS is 50% spoken in Korean and 50% spoken in English.

It's amazing how fast she has been picking up on Korean.

I don't speak Korean to D a lot at home because I'm married to a plain old English speaking white boy from Alabama, so it's nice to have her exposed to it here in Houston.

My mom and grandparents speak Korean to her, and she's been eager to learn!

This is her VBS class photo.

Splash day.

On the last day of VBS, they had a HUGE foam party!

Such a cool idea!

Dannika's been absolutely spoiled and has been having a blast!

I know she'll be sad that today is the last day of VBS, but I'm exhausted, and am glad it's finally over!

I hope everyone had a great week!

My hubby will be here in one more sleep and a wake up!!!!!!!

We are soooo excited!!!

Just Something to Think About

I thought long and hard about posting this.

I TRY and keep my blog away from politics and controversial issues.

My blog is really more to chronicle my day to day life as a wife of a Marine, a mother, and a former active duty Marine.

But this is something I'm passionate about, and something that I feel that God is pulling at my heart to go into ministry...

I could say so much about this from personal experiences, but I'll just share this one....

A year ago, I got to know the adopted sister of man from my church who was expecting a child.

I'll tell you her story in a few sentences...

She was the product of a brutal rape.

Her biological mother was raped at the age of 14 by a 30 year old "family friend".

At 14 years old, her biological mother and her biological grandmother made the decision to continue the pregnancy.

Because of the painful memories attached to the pregnancy, they decided together to put the baby up for adoption.

She was adopted by a loving and warm family who embraced her as their own.

Today, this woman is a beautiful, Jesus loving wife and mother of 2 beautiful children.

She leads an amazing life devoted to serving others.

Can you imagine how grateful she is that her biological mother decided to bring her into this world to do wonderful things, and raise a beautiful family?

Can you imagine how grateful she is that her biological mother had that much compassion in her heart, regardless of the horrifying circumstances, at the age of 14 to give her a chance at a life on earth?

This is just something I wanted to share.

Not meant to start a political debate.

Not meant for hateful comments.

You can disagree with me if you want...

Just let us agree to disagree...

Just Keep Swimming

As I mentioned in my last post, D is huge scaredy cat.

I was a big scaredy cat as a child, and it seems that she has adopted my fear of everything!

She's afraid of loud noises, she's afraid of heights, she's afraid to fall down, she's afraid of the big slide at the playground, she's afraid of large puppets....the list goes on.

The one thing that I do not want her to be afraid of is swimming pools, and guess what?

She's afraid of swimming pools.

She loves the kiddie pools and splash pads because there's a level of "safe" that she feels.

She normally refuses to go into a normal pool (even with a million floaties dangling off of her body).

The first thing I did when we got here to Houston was enroll her in swimming lessons.

I at least wanted her to feel comfortable in water, and not be so afraid of it.

Monday was her first official swim lesson.

She was so worried that she would have to go into the "big pool", and I had to reassure her that her teacher would be right there with her.

D is extremely social, so the fact that there were lots of new friends in swim class helped calm her nerves.

I was so nervous at first when I let her go off with her teacher.

I didn't want her to be "that kid"....

You know...

The kid crying and screaming while refusing to stick their toes into the water.

Thank God she's not!!

She ended up doing awesome on her first day, and she even had a blast!

She couldn't stop talking about all the cool things she learned that day!

She even promised to teach daddy how to swim since she found out daddy never took official swimming lessons as a kid.