Happy 3rd Birthday Alyssa!

Today is Alyssa's 3rd birthday!

I can't believe Alyssa is 3 already. How fast the time goes by! Alyssa is a funny, outgoing, sassy little girl. She talks so much and so grown up-ish that sometimes I forget I'm talking to a 3 year old. Alyssa loves to color and paint with watercolors. She loves to draw "happies" which are smiley faces with big eyes, donnies in their mouth and "strong legs" and arms. I have a huge stack of "happies" that Alyssa has made for me since school got out on May 27th!

Alyssa loves to watch Toy Story, Racing Stripes, Ice Age (1,2,3) and Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus. She loves to dance and sing. She loves to have her big sister Cassandra put lip gloss on her and "sparkles" on her cheecks. She LOVES to wear pajamas. All day long. We get dressed to go somewhere and as soon as we get home she says "I put jammies back on when we get home?" and I usually say yes ;) because I am a pushover for cuties with blue eyes and blonde curls.

Alyssa also likes to pretend she is the boss. Sometimes I even go along with it ;) She loves to be given choices (what to wear, what to eat, what to watch, what to read) and it's funny to watch her tap her finger against her lips as she says "hmmmmmmm, what do I want to wear?" (or eat, watch, whatever) She loves animals, dogs seem to be her favorite. She's a little leery of the smaller ones but no fear of the big ones (oddly enough). She will ride horses too and 4 wheelers. She likes to ride the lawn mower with Daddy when she gets the chance.

Alyssa is the unofficial PTO mascot at our school. The office staff calls her "Little Miss PTO" and she gets included on a lot of PTO perks ;) Everyone knows her and she knows most everyone there.


We had to postpone Alyssa's birthday party but her Mimi and Gumpy brought over her present so she'd have something on her actual bday....here it is

Happy Anniversary

June 6, 1998 was our wedding day.

Little did I know when we picked the date it was "D Day" in history. At the rehersal two days before the wedding, Shane finally let that tidbit out and I panicked for a moment. I wondered if I picked a cursed date? Thankfully, over the last 12 years we have proved that it was a wonderful date to have.

Shane and I met in August 1991 in Mr. Bushong's class at Gilbert High School. I was a senior, he was a junior. I knew from the first real converstaion we had that he was someone special. We dated from January 1992, got engaged in 1996, married in 1998. We survived seperate college, work, the regular ups and downs. Things that may have made other couples crumble only seemed to bring us closer.

It's not to say we are perfect but we are perfect for each other. We have made a great life, kept dear friends, survived some ups and downs and even when the road got steep we found that if we helped each other up the slope it was easier in the long run. Maybe we didn't always say the right things or we said the right things but the wrong way but we stuck together.

Last day of school

Griffin's Kinder class! We were doing freeze dance to Ms. Cummins' golden oldies!

Griffin and his buddies Christian and Shane

Ms. C and Griffin

Griffin and Ashton

Griffin and friend 

Grifffin, Madison and Ashli

Griffin and friends at lunch

Griffin and Alyssa enjoying lunch :)

Griffin and Mrs. Landon, music director

Griffin and Coach Stowers!

Griffin and Joe!

Savannah and friends 

My PTO BFF Angela and Mrs. Bernier

Cassandra's class, Mr. Kaesler

Griffin's Kinder Graduation Picture

Kinder Graduation!

Our totally cute crew! Outside the QC Performing Arts Center for Kinder Grad

Daddy and the kiddos

Me and my sweet loves

Typical Griffin

Daddy and Griffin...Alyssa crashed the pic LOL

Savannah

Cassandra

Griffin and his buddy Philip

The family there to see Griffin perform

Auntie

Ms. Cummins is the 3rd from your left

Griffin and Ms. Cummins

Mrs. Landon (music director) and Griffin

Griffin and Alyssa and his new XBOX Game

Griffin, Alyssa and his Cupcake Cake!

We had a wonderful time at Griffin's Kinder graduation! He performed beautiful songs and had a great time with his family partying at Serrano's afterwards! I am so proud of him and all is accomplishments!