Dear Henslee,

My sweet baby girl, you are three months old this week. You have been without question the most perfect addition to our family. You are the best baby, only crying when you are hungry. You sleep from your 8:30 feeding to anywhere between 4 and 6 am. And mommy could just kiss your face off for doing it!! You smile all the time and crinkle your nose when you smile big, just like your brothers. You have become very chatty with your noises and daddy gets you to talk the best. You love Kellen, always smiling big for him when he sits beside you and says 'baby girl'! You are a perfect little eater and mommy has loved every second of nursing you. You are still rotten for your mommy, immediately calming down when you see or hear me. Which just makes me feel so special. Sweetness just comes from every ounce of you and I am beginning to see the little person you will become. I can't wait to see how you change and develop over the next 9 months. As of now, you still look just like your daddy...blue eyes and all. And one day you may be a daddy's girl...but for now my sweetness, you are all mine. I knew even after your brothers were born that our family was not complete. My heart knew a little girl would be in this family. I didn't know how or when, but I knew it would be. And then God showed us the plan, no IVF, no fertility drugs, no doctors, just a miracle...and HE gave us a perfect little girl. I can't wait to do all the things mommys and their girls are meant to do with another, shop, manis and pedis, girl talk and so much more! You make me the happiest mommy in the world and I fall in love with you more everyday. I love you, Rotten. Mommy

9.11

Every year on 9.11 I take pause to remember where I was, what I was doing, the phone calls I made, the tears I cried.  Those moments feel so long ago but pieces feel like yesterday.  I was starting a graduate program I wouldn't finish, I was at orientation for a job at a local gym, I cried with my best friend and an ex boyfriend came back in the picture.  All of those things are a faded memory, except the best friend is the same :-).  Instead I have a husband I met years later, an MBA instead of a MPA and three amazing, beautiful children.  The world kept moving but I try to take pause and pray for the families that still grieve, the children that lost their parents, and the men and women in uniform that fight for our country every day.

My boys ran around and played with U.S. flags today, and I saw hope in their sweet, innocent faces.  Hope that tomorrow can be better and this awful tragedy will HOPEfully never happen again.  

On this 9.11 my sweet cheeks turns 11 weeks