3 Year Old Works Mama

Today when I picked Suzy up from school the Gingko tree was looking so beautiful. I try to take her pictures with the tree every year, because us Senatobians look forward to the tree changing colors each fall. I had to find a way to get Suzy dressed and pumped about pictures.......She is not a fan of taking pictures. I think we (Gigi) ruined it for her when she was younger! She was so dang cute that it was hard not to overtake pictures, in my opinion!

Mimi ran by Special Daze today and picked up some dresses I purchased on Facebook this week. It just so happens that one of them was perfect for a potential Christmas Card! I told Sue her that I wanted to take her picture this afternoon wearing her pretty new twirly dress. She agreed, but on a few conditions.... She said she would take pictures IF I would take her to Wal Mart to buy some Shopkins and a Blind Bag.... Thanks to Harper, she is now obsessed. I caved, and she won.

If only I could figure out how to edit pictures well enough to open those eyes...

Here's her loot she won for taking a few sub-par photos!

This is the little creature that was in her "Blind Bag"

look at that concentration...

She's quite pleased with herself, isn't she?

These little minis are the Shopkins! She worked me over big time today! 

Trick or Treat!

I made a very large mistake and told Suzy that FBC was having their Trunk or Treat event Friday night. I found out that I was terribly wrong Friday around lunch. I texted Ms. April and asked her to tell Suzy that I was wrong. As a reward, she requested her Pops pick her up for Coleman's BBQ. Pops quickly headed to save the day. One of her favorite restaurants is Coleman's because they make sausage patties for her anytime of day.

When Suzy woke up Saturday it was raining. It continued to until late afternoon. The weather finally cleared up around 4/5pm. Mimi went to Gigi's house to scoop her up, and I met them at Mimi's house with her costume and such. Suzy was devastated that it was raining and asked, "Why would Jesus let it rain today". The pure innocence of her question just melted my heart. I mean, what do you say to that?! We promised her a trip to see Oakey and KK if it was raining, and that perked her right up.
After getting Suzy dressed we headed over to Mimi's neighbors' house, Jon and Lakay Moore. It's a tradition to take pictures by their pretty mums every year, but the weather made it nearly impossible this year. I'll get Suzy to dress up again and take pictures one day soon, though. I hate to break the tradition. They are fun comparison pics. Jon and Lakay always have a fun, special treat for Suzy. We headed to Papa and Memaw's house next. They loved seeing their little mermaid!

Headed to Jon and Kay Moore's door... She was pumped.

She loves her Jon and Kay Moore... And, yes she calls them "Jon Moore" and "Kay Moore". LaKay is actually "Kay Moore's" name.

FBC was next on our agenda. We literally got there like 5 minutes early, and were the fifth or sixth group in line. By the time we finished our rounds there was a line a mile long. We definitely got there at the perfect time. Becker had Suzy a very special treat, as well. She did a great job saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You" to the adults/groups giving out candy. Last year she was too shy to say anything to the people she didn't know.

Suzy and her friend from school, Kaitlin.

Daddy's first Halloween to ever be home. So proud!! 

Why can't the child look at the camera?! And, gracious, I just realized she was "letting it all hang out" up top! :) 

Becker had to have a special photo after giving Suzy her special prize. 

This little gumball machine stole my heart. Ava Beth is a Drew and April's baby and I could just eat her up! 

Even though the rain had cleared, Suzy still demanded we go see Oakey and KK. Oakey is Suzy's boyfriend. She is literally obsessed with him. I think he's probably a bit obsessed with his Sue Baby too! KK has been around so long that Suzy doesn't know life without her. After scoring another special treat from them, we went over to Richie and Mary Ayers' house. They were having a soup dinner and group trick or treat social. We hadn't planned on staying, but I am so glad we did. Suzy had a blast. The big girls (Lilly and Kate) took over Suzy and helped her to the houses for candy. They made her night! This was the first year that Suzy actually seemed to enjoy/understand the holiday. It was a great night!!! So great that we ended up leaving Mary's house with hand me down clothes because Suzy was demolishing her costume playing with the kiddos. For those of you that know our Suzy.... you know she has come a long way with the whole "being social" thing. To see her play and laugh with other kiddos is such a relief. We worked really, really, really hard to get her more comfortable around other kiddos over the summer. So far things are much better! Small victories :)

Such a great pic! 

The big girls were really helping Suzy get in the spirit of Trick or Treating! 

We may need to get another cart next year! 

Kate and Suzy tackling another house.

So lucky to have Kate :) 

I think they were all on sugar highs. They ate their candy as we ventured through the neighborhood.

Lilly and Kate saved the night! Suzy thinks they are absolutely awesome! I need them to live with me.

When we got home, Suzy crashed five minutes into her nightly show. She was beyond worn out! A great night with great friends!

Gosh, time flies by too fast! I can't believe we just had our 4th Halloween with our Sue Baby.

Suzy's Wish!

 We always tried to refer to the baby as a brother in hopes that it would talk Suzy into the idea. Most of the time we were immediately corrected and reminded that it was a sister... not a brother. To our surprise, we were discussing the baby one night and Suzy agreed that it was probably an ole stinky boy. We both looked at each other with a completely shocked expression, and moved right along with the conversation. She said, "well,  it's going to be a stinky ole brother.... that is solved." Where she gets her language and vocabulary from baffles me. What does she know about anything being "solved"?! I was talking to Mimi about the revelation the following day, and she informed me that Suzy had told her the same thing! Finally, we had talked her into a sibling other than a sister.

Here's the crew for Suzy's gender reveal that Laurie and JoAnne did for us! 

Scott and I struggled with the option of taking/not taking Suzy to the gender appointment last week. We went back and forth weighing our options, but finally decided that we would take her with us. I wanted her to see the baby on the screen, so she would understand more of what was going on with this ever growing belly of mine. We were very hesitant about taking her, because she had been so headstrong about it not being a boy. We figured that she would have a complete meltdown in the ultrasound room if Julie told us it was indeed a boy. 

Scott and I took off work last Wednesday, and Suzy stayed home from school. We slept a little later than usual, and got ready to head to Oxford to find out if we were actually having a Sally or not. On the way to Oxford I drank some orange juice, because Suzy didn't want to cooperate when we went to find out her gender. I thought I would make sure that this baby was not sleeping when we tried to find out if it was a he/she. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait a long time to see Julie (ultrasound girl), so Suzy was pleased. As soon as she started the ultrasound she said, "do y'all want to know the gender today?"... OF COURSE WE DO! The baby's booty was straight up and flashing all it's glory for the world to see. As soon as I saw it I told Suzy that I thought she was going to be a very happy girl. A few seconds later Julie confirmed... It's definitely a GIRL! Suzy's wish came true! Suzy and I were thrilled. I asked Scott what he thought, and he informed me that he had known it was a girl all along. After finding out the gender Suzy was done with the dark, quiet room. Scott took her to Rebel Rags to find himself a new hat while I completed the appointment. We left the doctor's appointment absolutely thrilled!! While we were having lunch, Papaw called to see if we had any news yet. I told him that we did know, and then he started asking questions. I wouldn't answer any of them, so he asked to talk to Suzy. She was so good about keeping it a secret, too! Scott was next in line. Papaw didn't get any information out of us, so he would have to wait along with everyone else!

It seems like it was just yesterday that we found out Suzy was a girl! This was September 2011. 

We decided that we didn't want to have a big gender reveal party or anything this time. We wanted to experience the news together and have time as a family to let it sink in. I am so glad we did. We were on cloud nine all day long! I had our family come over that night for pizza and we told them at the same time. I didn't want anyone to have their feelings hurt if they simply got a text or found out a few minutes later than another person, so the only way I knew to solve that would be to tell them as a group. 

We took pictures of Suzy and had them printed as quickly as possible. I framed the print for the family. They would find out the gender by Suzy's picture.... It was a very casual get together. Pizza, cupcakes, and a picture! I wouldn't have changed it for anything. I am so glad I got to see their faces and hear their comments about the news! I think everyone was pretty surprised except Kalon and Lauren. They told me they could tell through my texts that I was too excited about everything, so they knew it was a girl..... UGH, I seriously didn't think I was giving anything away!

We cannot wait to get our hands on Sally Scott Smith!! Hurry up April!

Suzy didn't want pink and blue items, so she picked out red and purple instead! Hers and Papaw's favortie colors....

She may or may not have eaten some red icing... 

Look at their faces!! Laurie and Mimi look a little excited! Papa and Memaw may still be trying to see the picture... I just noticed Memaw didn't have her glasses on. KK looks like she is laughing at Laurie! 

Laurie was wishing for another girl too!