My Dream Home!

We are finally moved! We are settled! We are giddy with excitement! This move was QUICK! We've never moved all of our stuff in ONE day. ONE day! We got up early on Thursday morning and we were 100% completely moved into our new home by about 1:00 the next morning. So, I guess technically speaking, we moved in one day and 1 hour. What a LONG, LONG day. I almost had a major breakdown when I left my "old" house for the last time. Almost. Except that I was too tired. Thankfully, I was too tired because it could've gotten ugly. It wasn't the fact that I was leaving our old home for a new home. It was the memories that we made in that home. Both of our kids took their first steps in that home. My sweet baby boy came home from the hospital in that home. We've made some of the greatest memories of my life in that home. I walked into Sawyer's room at one point and I smelled "his smell". All of you mom's out there know exactly what I'm talking about. It's that delicious smell that only your kids have. It's a familiar smell. That smell you LOVE and just want to taste sometimes. That smell was what about caused my breakdown. I had to just leave the room and move on. His sweet little smell will move with us.
We love our "new" house, which is definitely not "new". It's OLD. I actually think it might be older than me. But, it's exactly what we wanted. I told Dennis last night that although I know it sounds a bit corny, I feel like I'm living in my dream home. This house reminds me a lot of my own that I grew up in. It's got the big porch, big trees, big yard, etc. But the house itself is nothing big. It's precious and we love it, but it's not the house itself that makes the home. I knew it was home when I saw the kids toys sprawled out all over the floor and there were sticky spots on the kitchen floor from spilled juice and I could hear the laughter of them playing up in the play room. It's home. It's our new home and I absolutely cannot wait to make lots of memories here. And, it doesn't hurt that we can be much more financially stable in this home too!!!! :)
We had so much help while we were moving. Grammy and Captain kept the kids for us for a few days so that we could get moved in. My mom came over and "helped" which mainly meant sharing lots of meaningful conversations, keeping me fed, laughing and maybe unpacking a box or two....oh, and she helped me clean my old house after the movers got out. I love you mom!!!! We had FUN!
My dad was with us for about 48 hours straight! He helped move TONS of loads of stuff from one house to the other. He built storage shelves for me in the garage. He hooked up my washer and dryer, and so on and so on and so on! We couldn't have done it without him. He was Dennis' right hand man all day on moving day and he didn't leave us until late Thursday night and he STILL had a huge smile on his face. He came right back over on Friday EARLY morning and he stayed all day again to help me while Dennis had to work. Oh yeah, AND he cooked all day on Saturday and brought us dinner too. Wow. Machine.
The kids love the new house. Sadie squealed with excitement when she saw her room. Sawyer is so proud of his. They love having a playroom with ALL of their toys. God picked this house out for us a long time ago. He knew the desires of our hearts and he satisfied every stinkin' one. WAIT ON THE LORD! He never ceases to amaze me! Thank you God for picking this house out for us. We love it!

Long Time, No See...

It's been a very busy past 2 months! Sadie absolutely loves school! She loves it 10 times more than I ever thought she would. She has learned so much over these past 2 months. I am amazed at how quickly she has learned certain things. I am extremely impressed with the teachers and the preschool that she is attending. I am very thankful that God led us there. I can't wait for Sawyer to start next year. He is going to love it. He already runs into Sadie's classroom every day and wants to be a part of it so I know he will fit right in and love every minute of it!
We recently got back from the best vacation EVER! We never thought anything could ever top last year's Hilton Head trip, but this year's DID! God blessed us so much with wonderful weather every day again this year. The kids were so awesome. They were both so much more independent this year. Dennis and I actually got to relax quite a bit and it was wonderful. We made so many memories and shared so many special moments. I literally already can't wait to go back next year. Sadie also gave up "Big Orange" on this trip which was a huge milestone! Praise the Lord for that one!!!
We also recently sold our house and bought a new one all in the past month. Thankfully, we sold our house in about 3 months, which was much sooner that I had ever anticipated. What a blessing!!! Then, we stumbled upon the exact house that we've been searching for! We wanted an older, one-level home with a bonus room and we found just that! We move next week and we are super excited to have a smaller space. We never built this house that we are in now with the intentions of wanting a huge house. We built it with the intention to sell it and make enough money to pay cash for something and be debt free! Obviously, our plans fell through when the economy when PLOP!!!! So, we had to sit down a few months ago and see what was best for us and that's when God laid it on both of our hearts to downsize BIGTIME! Our church has recently gone through the Crazy Love Campaign and we both felt led to try and get rid of our big house, which comes with BIG bills and get into something more comfortable so that we have the opportunity to help others more. We are excited to see what God has in store for us next. I truly feel that God is about to do something big in our little family. He keeps dangling things here and there in front of our face to show us clearly that He is at work in our family and He definitely hasn't forgotten about us!!! So many times over the past few months, I ask Him..."God, what do you want us to do about this (or that)"...He just keeps saying to me "Baby girl, I'm right here and if you let me, I will lead you down the right path. Just keep your focus on Me and I will take care of the rest". So, that's what I'm trying to do on a daily basis!
So, that should catch everyone up to what has been going on in the Phillips household.
Sadie is just precious. She is growing up so fast into an amazing young lady. She is super protective of Sawyer, but loves to pick on him too!!!! She has started to have a huge opinion on what she wears and it drives me crazy. So, I try to give her choices of what she can wear each day. I never thought she would care what she wore at 3 years old. She also has started to have real "fears". She wants her door cracked when she goes to bed and she wants the light on in the laundry room so that there's some light in her room. I never want her to be scared of anything, but she's definitely become somewhat of a scaredy cat. It breaks my heart. She's still just like me in the fact that she's super shy around people when she first meets them. She is full of love and energy and she has a huge heart and I love her more than life itself.
Sawyer...oh, Sawyer. My little man. Full of more energy than any boy I've ever seen. We've started to nickname him "Taz" because he reminds us a bit of the Tazmanian Devil!!!! ha ha He still loves his momma more than anything and would be perfectly content if I sat and held him all day long. He is so precious. His goofy little smile and big brown eyes absolutely melt my heart. He's super smart and talks really well for his age. He absolutely adores the ground that Sadie walks on. He wants to do every single thing she does. He is definitely her little shadow. They are so much alike, yet so different. I'm so thankful for their closeness in age because they seem to really like a lot of the same things. Sadie has taught him everything she has learned in school. He's just edible. I love that little guy.
That's about all for now. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to document what's been going on for the past few months. I had planned on posting a bunch of pictures, but I'm having computer issues, so I'll have to come back and do it later on.

Preschool!

My baby girl started preschool last Friday. The days leading up to this day were not fun for mommy. I cried several HARD cries and had several random breakdowns. The worst being while I was at the grocery store one day buying snacks for her lunch. It hit me what I was doing and it broke my heart. I boo hoo'd the whole way home.
She seemed so excited about going though so I knew I was doing the right thing. When Friday morning, August 6th rolled around, I felt knots in my stomach and lumps in my throat bigger than I thought existed!!!! We had gone and met her teachers, Ms. Pam and Ms. Shannon, the day before and she couldn't wait to go for her 1st day!
Daddy even stayed and went with us that morning to take her.







She seemed great all the way up until we put her lunchbox down and I started to walk out. Then, the tears started. And, they weren't just tears. The tears came with holding my leg, screaming for me not to leave her and sobbing. I was trying to be strong, so I took her out of the classroom, (well, actually, I think she was running out after me at this point) and sat her down and told her that she was going to be fine and that she would have so much fun and that I would be back to get her very shortly.
This didn't work...at all.
She was still sobbing, yelling, flailing, etc. Yes, I had "the kid" that everyone was staring at!!!!
So, Ms. Shannon saw what was happening and came and just took her. She told her that she would take her to see Ella Claire and Greyson right down the hall. She was still screaming as I walked out the door and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I had to leave. I knew it was best for her.
I cried for a while, but then realized she was okay. Rachel Fontenot checked on her and said she was already okay and it'd been less than 5 minutes.
Since then, she has loved every single minute of it. She gets so excited about going and hardly wants to leave when I pick her up, although she gets REAL excited when she sees me at the door.
I love this time in her life. I want her to remember it forever. The hardest part is seeing her grow up so quickly right in front of me. Every time I pick her up from school, I feel like she's grown even more. She seems smarter, more independent, etc.
I want her to learn and have so much fun, but it's hard to let her go!
I thank God every day for being with her and giving her excitement that I was afraid would take a lot longer to come. She's such a big girl and I fall more in love with her every day.

Best Week Ever!

Last Tuesday, Dennis and I left for a much needed getaway. We decided to celebrate our birthdays and anniversary a few weeks early since the month of July gets rather crazy in our house. BOTH of my kids got sick 2 days before we were to leave...of course! But, I knew that they were on medication and I knew that they would be in the best of care with Grammy and Captain. So, we went on and left for our trip on Tuesday afternoon. I am soooooooo thankful that we went. It was the most wonderful getaway. Bryan and Cayce had been trying to convince us to go for a while and so we owe them a lot for recommending this place. It's called Ross Bridge Renaissance Marriot Resort in Hoover, AL, which is basically Birmingham.
We got there pretty late on Tuesday night because we decided to take a detour on the way and we stopped at Dreamland BBQ in Huntsville. It was okay. We've heard it's the best around, but I still don't think it's any better than my dad's and Dennis'!!!!
We walked around the resort and checked out the luxury that we would be staying at for the next 3 nights. There was also a Porsche conference there all week, so we enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful cars!


We got up Wednesday morning and played golf at their premier golf course. Wow! It was the first golf course I'd ever been on and it was fantastic. Breathtakingly beautiful. Dennis assured me that not all courses look this way. We were treated like royalty. It was a beautiful day. I enjoyed getting to watch Dennis play. I was rather impressed with his golf game!




That night, we drove over to the Summit and we shopped around for a while. They have all of the best stores there!! We went to eat dinner at the Tavern on the Summit (we thought it was the "Village Tavern", but later found out we were in the wrong place), but ended up walking out after waiting for 45 minutes and getting sat at a table right in the middle of the bar that was so loud we couldn't hear each other talk. No thanks! So, we ended up at this local joint that was pretty disgusting...but, we were starving!
The next morning we got up and ate a great breakfast and went down the pool all day long. It was probably the most relaxing day of my life! We just played in the pool and on the slides and had a wonderful lunch on the patio.





That afternoon, we went and played golf again. I just drove the cart again, which was perfectly fine with me. I just enjoyed looking at all of the wonderful scenery. The resort also has a bagpiper that plays the bagpipes every afternoon to "call" the golfers in off the golfcourse. Fascinating!



That night, we got dressed up and went to the Village Tavern, which was also located at the Summit. It was DELICIOUS!! Again, we were treated like royalty. Not sure why...but, it was soooooooo nice! The manager even ended up giving us 2 free appetizers because he found out that we had tried to come the night before and ended up in the wrong place. We also found out he was from Centerville, TN. Small world, huh?


We went by the Cheesecake Factory to get dessert to go and we came back and enjoyed our dessert in our PJ's.
Friday morning, we got up and headed home. Boo!!!!!!! I was actually a little depressed when we were leaving because I wanted to stay so bad!!! But, I missed my babies and it was time for reality again!
I was soooooooo excited to see them when we picked them up from Grammy's. Sawyer just climbed in my arms and layed his head down on my shoulder for the longest time. It was precious. I think he thought I had left him forever. ha ha
Saturday morning, we got up and started getting ready for our "Fireworks Party" as Sadie called it. We had lots of family and a few friends over for some delicious BBQ, lots of desserts, and a HUGE fireworks show. Dennis cooked 4 boston butts. The most he's ever done and it was the best by far! We ended up having over 30 people here to eat and watch the fireworks! My dad bought tons of fireworks over the past year and we so appreciate him putting the show on for all of us. It was awesome!!! Sawyer loved it. Sadie had to sit inside the whole time and was scared to death. Thanks to Grammy for sitting inside and missing the show to sit with Sadie. A few others came in to join her during the show too that got a little scared.





Sunday night, we had dinner at Aunt Pam and Uncle Corky's house, but we left before the fireworks started that night.
Monday, we got up and went to the farm for the day. It was a wonderful day! It was a last minute decision to go, so we had to pack up quickly and get down there, but it was well worth it all. We played all day and stayed until after 9:00 that night! It was so much fun though. What I will remember the most about that day was after the sun started to go down, we all 4 jumped on the Kubota and headed down into the woods for a drive. The lightning bugs were AMAZING. You just had to be there, but it was gorgeous! Sadie thought it was so neat. The one picture below of Sadie's leg and hands was the most precious story! The story behind that is that we told the kids to "hang on" while we rode on the Kubota and Sawyer reached over and put his hand on Sadie's leg the whole time and I almost cried. It was so sweet!!! Just one of those "mommy" moments, I guess.





So, I said ALL of that to say that me and Dennis both thought that week was the most perfect week. We got to not only enjoy quality time together, but we got to spend lots of time with our family, friends, etc. It was wonderful!!!!