House on the Market

We worked tirelessly for a week and a half to get our house ready to put on the market to sell. We would like to see if it is possible to move up to north Austin since that is where Aaron is working and where our church is located. We spent several days packing up stuff from every room in the house to "stage" it for buyers. I literally went through every closet and drawer in the house as well, so that if a potential buyer opened it, it would look nice. We then spent almost a week completing all of those home repairs and improvements we had always intended on getting to. Our house looks better than ever and it feels so good to look around and feel proud of where we call home. If you would like to see our for now flawless home for sell, you can go to http://www.austinhomesearch.com/Search/Details.aspx?li=48816&or=1&cp=1# and then click on the Virtual Tour icon to see pictures of every room in our house and also see panoramics of the front and back yard and living room. Please pray for us and the sell of our house.

The best part of baking

The kids always like to help me cook and bake. Well, bake better because it's always better than my cooking. :) They got to do a lot of it the weekend of Aaris's birthday because of all the cakes and cookies we made. Titus had never really enjoyed the fruits of labor (a.k.a. licking the bowl of extra batter) like Aaris has, but he decided he liked it right away. The only sad note in all of this is that I use to be able to enjoy the bowl all by myself and now I have to share the 'goods'.

Hospital Donations

On Thursday, May 29, Aaris (with the help of Titus) got to take all the donations brought to her party to the hospital. As you can tell from the first picture, everyone was very generous and brought many great gifts to donate to the kids at Dell Children's hospital. Aaris was very excited to take the gifts. She was also very excited to see the hospital again. She hadn't been back since we left from her surgery stay. She is still praying prayers of thanks at night for being able to take the gifts, so everyone really made her birthday special. And just think of how many kids and families at the hospital were all touched with the loving donations!

10 Years

Aaron and I were married on May 30, 1998, so today we are officially 10 years into our life long journey together. I would not want to walk hand and hand through this life with anyone but my loving husband and best friend, Aaron. I'm prouder than ever to be Mrs. Jessica Dennington

Family Party

Aaris's actual birthday was on Memorial Day this year. Since all of her grandparents were off from work, we were able to meet in the middle of the day for a family only birthday party for Aaris. We meet at Aaris's favorite place, Chuck E Cheese. Aaris wanted to dress like Cinderella again, so I got more practice at doing her "Libby Lu" hair. :) That morning Aaris and Titus helped me make Aaris's cookie cake. We all enjoyed cleaning up the bowl on that one. Once we got to Chuck E Cheese Aaris had 2 1/2 hours of games, games, games, food, some cookie cake, opening presents ,oh, and some more games. She really loved taking pictures in the game machine as well with all of us. She was in great spirits and so excited to be 4 years old. All I hear about every day now is how she can do this or that because she's 4, or how much taller and bigger she is because she's 4. I had to tell her today that she still had to wear some clothes that she wore when she was 3 because they still fit, but she wasn't happy because she's not 3 any more. :) Once again, I'm just happy that she is a very, very healthy 4 year old.

Cinderella Party

Aaris had her birthday party for her friends on Saturday. She was excited for days...even weeks. When she woke up, and before she came out of her room, she put on her pretty white church dress. She said that since she was going to be Cinderella for her party, she thought she would wear her Cinderella wedding dress. Well, we went ahead and let her open two presents before her party. One present was a big castle trunk full of princess ball gowns. The second present was shoes that looked exactly like glass slippers. She loved them and of course dressed up in them for her party. It was a Cinderella/Princess/Prince party. We had it in the morning, but it still was very hot and humid. Thank goodness most of the kids didn't seem to mind. We had some great friends that lent us their shade tents for some relief from the sun. Everyone entered on the long red carpet (we did pink though because it matched the party colors better) with bubbles floating everywhere. They were able to decorate crowns with jewels as we waited for everyone to show up. We then started a series of games and activities. We played musical glass slipper, pin the glass slipper on Cinderella, musical red carpet game, laundry pick up race, and of course we had to have a castle pinata. We even somehow managed to get a group picture of most of the kids. We then headed inside to get our food. The kids all had a special drinking cup with their goody bags that they used to drink out of for lunch. The girls had plastic champagne glasses and the boys had knights/prince goblets. The goody bags for the girls had a decorated ponytail holder, stick-on earrings, princess stickers, and a plastic bracelet and ring. The boys goody bags had a clear plastic castle and colored sand to do a sand art project. They also had a kaleidoscope (figured it looked like a telescope the prince would use to look for his princess). And all the bags had a magic star wand made out of rice krispie treats. After eating lunch we sang "Happy Birthday" to Aaris, watched her blow out her candles, and everyone had cake. (I made the cake using a fondant recipe from my friends blog, but I didn't enjoy the experience. So, even though I liked how it turned out, I will have to think twice before I use it again.) All the kids wanted a piece of cake that had part of the dress on it. Even after the party was over, Aaris continued to play and play until she was red in the face. No presents were asked of for Aaris. But, if anyone wanted to bring presents, they could bring items to donate to the kids at Dell Children's hospital. We got some great donations and will take them later this week. A few kids were extra sweet and did give Aaris some very princess-y presents. It was a wonderful party. My favorite thing was that Aaris not once mentioned that she was tired (something she use to always do). I have to admit that to me this was more than just a birthday party. It was a party to celebrate a successful recovery from her heart surgery. My little princess made it to her 4th birthday healthier than any other birthday before!! Praise God!

Joy for Generations

Recently we pulled out the big bike for bike rides again. Aaris has been riding with me for fun rides since she was one year old. Titus hadn't ridden with me yet. The really fun thing about this bike is that it was first Aaron's mom's bike. And, even better, Aaron's baby bike seat. Yes, Aaron (and his brothers) rode around in this seat, on this bike, with his mom when he was a kid. Now, Aaris and Titus are riding around with me on it. Aaris still truly loves it. She never wants to get off. Titus cried and cried for his turn, but then didn't show much excitement and was willing to get off when we stopped. I do think he liked it, he is just not one to wear his feelings on his sleeves. I look forward to more rides and memories with all our kids on a bike full of memories already.