Surrounded

Everywhere I look I find something that makes me smile. Almost every room in our home is filled with some sort of carnival nonsense. It is such a happy time for us. We are counting down the days until our girl turns 6 years old. The celebration is being carefully planned and we are all taking part in the preparations for it. Some of my favorite memories of last week are from the all night painting "parties" we pulled off. Blake and I have laughed and visited and seen the sun come up together with paint brushes in hand. Its been so great. There is a light hearted atmosphere in our home this week and I know it stems from our Ashley's upcoming birthday. I hope as many friends and family as possible can join us for our best celebration yet. We are so excited about this birthday. So excited! Blake and one of his friends are even volunteering as clowns for her. Their costumes will be here later this week. I'm so excited about this but even better is that they are too:)

The invitations should finally arrive and go out this week. Its taken a little longer than expected for the artist to complete and print them, but they are finished and on there way to our mailbox. As soon as I receive them I will be sending them out to all of you.

Ashley's smile and laughter fills our home. She is the happiest little girl you've ever met. She giggles at most anything. Her days are happy. Her heart is light. You don't find a trace of worry or fear in her face. I'm trying so hard to take my cues from her. If she's not wasting a moment on what her future contains then I'm trying not too either. I just want so desperately to enjoy her. So I surround myself with all things happy. I keep my eyes focused on today and ignore the unknowns of tomorrow.

We have had two full nights sleep without the running of IV antibiotics. With all that extra sleep there is no limit to what we will accomplish this week. I love sleep. Really, its such a great part of life when Ash is well. She looks like she has made it through this last infection. We sent blood work off to the lab this morning.

Ash has had us all laughing hysterically lately. She has discovered YouTube on her Ipad. Don't ask me how she knows all that she does because I can't explain it, but this girl is funny. The other night Blake was laughing so hard at what he discovered her watching that he couldn't breathe! Her choices in video clips is vast and they include everything from real live streams of chickens pecking the ground and clucking(one of her favorites) to Al Jezeera TV! She doesn't speak Arabic and we have no interest in what is being spewed but she is hysterical as she giggles at the gibberish coming out of their mouths. Seriously, its so funny! Oh Ash, you are a funny, funny girl.

Ashley surrounds us with her love. She hugs us tightly repeatedly throughout our days. She smiles when we walk in the room. She reaches for us to hold her. She absolutely adores Blake and Allison. She is such a precious part of our family.

In other news our Allie made the soccer teams she was trying out for. Such a BIG deal at our house. We are SO proud of her. She also landed her first ever back tuck at cheer camp evaluations yesterday! Equally as proud of her for that. She was so thrilled and we even caught it on video:) Allie has a very big year ahead of her. She will be cheering, playing school volleyball, basketball, and pole vaulting. In addition she will be playing club soccer in Arlington every other weekend and club volleyball in Dallas. Her energy and drive makes me tired just watching, but I LOVE her love for her life. Blake has two baseball games this week and workouts every afternoon in Henderson. I'm super excited to watch him play. On Wednesday Ashley and I will spend the entire day at LSU and then Schumpert as we move through her appointments. Its going to be a long and draining day. Just the transferring of her from the car to her chair multiple times that day has me dreading it. Its getting so hard. Oh well, she loves to go, go, go and gets so little opportunity to be out and about she's actually going to enjoy it all. The car is one of her favorite places to be. Somewhere in all of this running I have got to fit in an eye exam for myself(I haven't gotten new glasses in 5 years, oops) and a hair appointment before the gray takes completely over!

In all seriousness I have got to do some laundry during all of this party planning. If I don't make myself then there will be none of the above taking place because none of us will have anything to wear! On that note I should be switching loads right now. Be looking for your invite in the mail because its coming and don't forget to save the date, Aug.6th at 6pm(by the way our midway looks FANTASTIC!) Love you guys, Trish