Laundry treasures

As a mom of 3 girls, I do laundry A LOT. I'm not good about checking each and every pocket before I put the clothes in the washing machine and I've ended up washing endless amounts of tissue, tanbark, and even my husband's wallet (surprisingly all the bills came out squeaky clean without a tear!). This week, I've been finding little trinkets at the bottom of the washing machine every time I did the laundry. I knew instantly that these must be K's as she has repeatedly told me that she "loves jewels and anything sparkly." I've been setting them aside and today I realized that I have a nice little collection. As soon as I brought them downstairs to photograph, my little K screamed, "those are mine! I put them in my pocket!" She let me take a picture and then proceeded to glue and tape each piece together. Being 4 and finding such great joy in the little things is precious. I hope we can all take the time to find a bit of happiness in the small details around us.

Edited to add: Ok, my husband read this and laughed hysterically at how corny I was being but it's true! Seriously- shouldn't we all take the time to appreciate the small stuff? ok, now he's really going to gag.

Blessed

Just one word for this post. Blessed.

Ok, I lied. I can't just leave it at that.  But it'll be short! Really!

Took these pics of the kids today. I opened up all the shutters  and let the natural light flood into the house. Ok, not really since it's been raining all day and it's really gloomy outside but there was enough light to make me happy. E was watching her favorite show so I just captured her sitting on the couch. I didn't go all crazy trying to make her look at me - instead I just watched her. Sometimes, these moments are the best. And I realized I'm blessed to have a baby that thinks it's completely normal to have a mom that covers her face with a huge camera all the time. When the kids came home from school, I realized that the lighting in the house was still great so I asked...ok, I told A and K that I wanted a quick picture of each of them. A literally gave me 1 quick picture before she ran off to play on the iPad. And I realized I'm blessed to have a big girl who holds me accountable for every word I say.  K was busy eating a banana and she refused to put it down. She let me take a picture but told me to make sure the banana wasn't in the picture. And I realized I'm blessed to have a little girl who pauses her life to let me in for a quick moment. I'm blessed.

First Dance

A brought home this invitation for the dance and couldn't wait to give it to daddy.
She made the blue swirlies to "fancy up" the card.  A's first corsage made of mini roses.

Of course, I made them pose for a father/daughter portrait before they left. 

A special necklace to wear to the dance.

Walking hand in hand to the dance.

Picture taken when A was 17 months old - walking hand in hand with daddy.

I know there are going to be so many special "Firsts" coming down the line and I can't document every single little moment, but I'm sure going to try! A had her first Father/daughter dance at school last week and she was so excited about getting "fancied up" with her daddy. She chose the dress she wanted to wear (a blue bubble dress from 2 Christmases ago and it fit!) and she told me how she wanted her hair done (absolutely no curls - just up).  I went and got her a small corsage and she also got a necklace to wear for the special night.  As she walked away from the house with her small hand enclosed in daddy's hand, I couldn't hep but wish she could just stay little. How am I going to feel when she goes to her first dance with a BOY! Danny has already said that he's going to chaperone every single dance our 3 princesses go to, so I guess I don't have anything to worry about!