Reason to Rejoice

I haven't taken a lot of pictures lately...only some Thanksgiving ones that I have included. Rachel is growing up so incredibly fast. She can now point to herself if you ask her "Where's Rachel?" or "Where's Mommy's baby?" She can do the sign for please now too. She just started that today. It seems like we can't keep the poor child well. She is just finishing antibiotics from an ear infection. The fevers with that were scary...topped out at 103.8! She does the sound for a cow and a chicken (the chicken is very comical). She points to Daddy when you ask her where he is. She says juice, drink, tree, duck, milk and is trying to audibly say please and more. She and Daddy were able to spend some quality time together this past weekend. I worked two 12 hour shifts Saturday and Sunday from 11-11. That was my last weekend to work at Baylor and I am glad to be moving on. I have had interviews for other jobs at other places...some of which ...

Well, things have been moving way too fast for this Momma of a 1 year old!!! Rachel has been under the weather (I feel like I type this line about once ever other post!!!) She has had a runny nose forever and running fever. She had to go to the ER last week with what they thought was a urinary tract infection. Anyway, she seems to be feeling better. She had her birthday party last weekend and then another one yesterday. We have such a big family, it was hard to do just one party. She got so many gifts and books and clothes. She doesn't even need Christmas!! She got about 3 Little People playsets which she loves! She had her 1 year check up last Thursday and...SHE IS BIG! She was 26 lbs, 6 oz and 30 inches long....100th percentile for weight and 90th for length...she does have her mother's legs though...short and chubby, but for some reason, it is a lot cuter on her! ☺ I have created a slideshow of her first year. For pictures from the birthday party, go to www.drop...

This is our last of the "firsts!" That is a hard realization for Mommy to come to! My baby is growing big. It is hard to believe, as big as Rachel is, that this is her first Halloween! A friend of mine who just had a baby and I were talking today about how neat it is that our children both share the same first Halloween...the only difference is that Rachel is 2 weeks shy of a year old and Josiah is 3 weeks old. I do remember how miserable I was last Halloween though...who would have known at the time that I would have given birth only 2 weeks later!! Rachel was Eeyore for Halloween this year. It was a no brainer, really. I received an 18 month size Eeyore costume at one of my baby showers so we always knew that she would be Eeyore for her first Halloween...glad she is a big girl or else it would have fallen off of her!!! She wasn't a happy little trick or treater tonight...she was cranky from the time she woke up from her afternoon nap until she got her first suck...

Wow...is this statement ever understated! Our little girl is growing up WAY too fast for her momma! 11 months old...can you believe it??? It is just amazing all of the new things that she says and does from the time she was born. Everyone always told me that she would grow up really fast, but this fast???!!! It's insane! I can see daily how she is becoming a little girl and less a baby. She is more independent and growing more and more so everyday. Soon she won't need Mommy anymore, though I would hope that she would need me always...for something. Rachel is doing so good right now. It seemed that the entire 10th month was filled with some type of illness, but we started 11 months off pretty well. She had a little tummy troubles this past week but nothing major. She is just as happy and healthy as we could ask for. Praise God! Mommy and Daddy are doing well! Daddy is still working and Mommy just quit her job! The decision to quit was based on several factors and h...

Well, we took a little trip to Arkansas the latter part of this last week and weekend. We had such a good time!!! We are tired and I know that Rachel needs to get back into her routine....she already has...taking a nap as I type this! We got to visit with The Riddles and with Lori on Thursday...that's always a lot of fun. We also got to see Meeemee for just a minute then we went on to GP and Mama Nette's house in Little Rock. We stayed there for a few days and visited people in Little Rock and North Little Rock. We got to visit with Great Granny for a little bit and loved that...especially her big panda bear!!! We even took time out for some pictures in our Razorback stuff! GO HOGS!! GP and Mama Nette loved on Rachel like they always do and she had fun with them and with Adolf. He still isn't too sure about her yet! We went back to Hope on Saturday and got to see more family and spent the night and went to Unity Baptist Church yesterday morning. Rachel got to vis...

All right, so it was a little longer than I said, but it works! Rachel turned 10 months old last Friday and was a sick little girl. Mommy got sick Saturday and now we are both getting better....not 100% yet but definitely better. When we went to the doctor last week, Rachel weighed 22 lbs, 13 oz...WOWZERS! She's a biggun! She continues to talk more and more and interacts well with other kiddos. She and Chelsea have a big time together. Parent's Day Out is going well and she seems to enjoy playing with the kids but it melts my heart everytime I go to pick her up and she looks at me, smiles really big, and claps saying, "Momma." I love that little girl! She is really testing her boundaries with trying to walk. She will let go of whatever she is holding on to but only for a second. I think it will still be a couple more months before she is walking but that's fine with me!!! My very first college roommate is coming to visit us today and I am so excited! W...

Okay, I realize I am behind..I need to post Rachel's 10 month stuff and I promise I will do it tomorrow or Wednesday but I have to post what happened to us tonight. It was very scary...I am very thankful it wasn't any worse. I still am feeling bad about it..... Okay, so I had a softball game tonight and was running a little late. I finally got the park with Rachel since Brice is out of town. The game didn't start until 8:15, so I had Rachel out a little later than usual but she was great! Got the softball fields, I got out of the car and pushed the little unlock button on the remote to the car and went to the trunk to get the stroller out for Rachel. Well, I threw the keys in the trunk and got out the stroller, got my cleats on, got my bat and my gloves and closed the trunk. I went to get Rachel out of the car and the door was locked. Once you hit the unlock button on the remote if you do not open the door within 30 seconds the doors automatically relock, BUT it eve...

Okay, so we are back and trying to get back into our routine. Disney World was VERY hot but loads of fun. I cannot brag on our little Princess enough and how good she was the entire trip. Her first plane ride was good, she slept through the entire 2nd leg of the flight (New Orleans to Orlando). We spent a total of 6 days in the parks at Disney and she was near perfect everyday. We stayed out until 9 and 10:00 almost every night and she rolled right along with us without too much fuss. She slept very well in the hotel bed and enjoyed seeing all of the beauty that Disney has to offer…she even liked the characters! We had a good time with our friend, Alicia, with us. She was able to pitch in and help with Rachel when we needed and I think she even got to do some things that she enjoyed while we were there….or at least I hope she did. I know that we wore her out but I would hope it was all worth it!!! Brice is back at work today and I am back cleaning the house and washing the ma...

For some reason the 'sick bug' has bitten our family once again...starting with me, yet again!! I came down with a cold at the beginning of the week and Little Miss Rachel caught it. I am better, just have a leftover cough and Rachel is getting better. We went to the doctor today to make sure that it was just a cold (at the nurse's request) and she weighed 21 lbs, 9 oz....an entire pound more than she weighed 2 weeks ago! Rachel has gained 2 new friends....2 top teeth!!! She now has 4 - 2 on top and 2 on bottom!! She's ready for a ribeye!! She has actually started eating chicken and french fries off Mom's plate....I think she's gonna like Chick fil A as much as I do!!! She also LOVES yogurt...I buy her the kids stuff and she eats an entire container of it. She is pulling up to a standing position now and is getting braver everyday. That's about it...more updates as needed!!!

Okay, so she LOVED lasagna (baby food) but we only gave her 1/2 the jar and she spit all of it...not exaggerating...back up!! It was awful. Needless to say we will not be giving her lasagna or spaghetti again until we can figure out if her tummy is going to improve. That's too bad because she really liked it.

I have been told by a good friend that I need to update...chill, I was going to anyway! Rachel is 9 months old and the most precious thing around as far as we're concerned! She is growing just like she is supposed to weighing 20 lbs, 9 oz in the 90th percentile and almost 28 inches long in the 75th percentile. She is crawling all over the place and pulling up on furniture. What a big girl she is getting to be! She got her first baby doll from Ms. Anita at church. It is a Cabbage Patch and she thinks Baby Maddie (the doll's name) is pretty special! She kisses her and gives her the bottle...after she takes a drink or two! ha! I am starting to plan for her 1st birthday party which seems like it should be so far away but it's not...only 3 months!!! I bought her a special dress and it is being shipped as I type this. Brice and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by staying at home and eating Chinese and watching a Netflix movie after Rachel went to bed. It was nice...

Okay, I KNOW...I am terrible at keeping up with this thing. When you have Dropshots and myspace and facebook and oh yeah, FAMILY it is kinda hard to keep up! We have been doing very well but it does seem as though tragedy of all sorts has struck those closest to us. Brice's grandmother broke her arm and was out of commission living with Brice's mom for a couple of weeks. Good news is that she is on the mend and back to her apartment. Our neighbor across the street had a sudden brain aneurism and is in pretty bad shape. A family in our Sunday school class had a sudden death of a family member who was 25 years old. She had heart arythmia (not sure how that is spelled) and died suddenly. And one of my best friends, Krista's daughter, Chelsea had to be admitted to the hospital for a stomach virus and dehydration this past week. She is doing better and is getting back to her old self. It just seems like that old cliche' was brought to life - when it rains, it pours!...

As my child gets more and more active I post less and less...wonder why!!? She is continuing to grow like a little weed. She is just a joy to have around the house...keeps us laughing! Let's see what has happened since we wrote last....we went swimming at Chelsea's house and she loved it. It was a little chilly outside still...this June is nothing like last. Last year nearly everyday in June was above 100 degrees, this year it is one of the wetest in history. We are quite water-logged now too with all of the rain and storms we have had for the past 3 days. There are many people around us that have gotten flooded out. We are very fortunate. I have several friends who are about to or have had their babies over the past couple of weeks. I am not sure if there is an increased number of people right now that are pregnant or if all of my friends are just at that age, but it is so neat to see all of the little additions to the world! I love babies! The latest are Max Blackw...

Okay, so Rachel and I were bored today so we decided to do a 7 month photo shoot. So maybe I was a little more excited about it than she was...o'well...she's so much fun!!! Here are some of them that we took....by the way, I took the annoying music off of the slide show I did not too long ago!!!

So much has happened since my last blog. My friend, Christy had Adison on June 5th at 2:04 in the morning and we were there to see her right after she was born! She is a cutie!!!! Christy was having issues with headaches and ended up having really high blood pressure and had to be put on medication yesterday but is feeling much better and I am so glad! Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos Today, Rachel is 7 months old!!!! I know I say this every time I post something about her turning another month old, but it just doesn't seem real that she is 7 months old!!! I just can't get over how fast time has gone by. I love that little girl more than life itself and she just gets more fun by the day. She is still a very happy baby and seems to be enjoying life. She has found her voice and is very vocal. She is spitting now, fun fun and squeels with excitement ALL OF THE TIME!!! She really likes to do this in restaurants! Photo Sharing - Upload Video...

Here are pictures from Rachel's 6 month photo session! Okay, funny story!!! Last night we were trying to give Rachel a bath and before we went she was pretty fussy. Her bath always makes her happy! Daddy went and got the tub filled while I took her clothes off her, got towels...you know, the usual. Anyway, Rachel was splashing and taking a bath and Brice and I were having a discussion about how he felt that I should just get Rachel in the tub and out instead of letting her play (he was joking, by the way). Then we had a debate about whether or not he played in the tub as a child....HE DID...got that confirmed by his mom! :) Anyway, about that time, Rachel decides to poop in the tub!!! So, I was like, well, I haven't even started bathing her yet, so we have to clean that out. So, I picked up Rachel (remember she is all wet) and was holding her kinda funny (bottom up in the air). While Daddy was cleaning out the tub (while telling me his reasoning for getting Rachel in...

I don't know how she does it. It absolutely looks like she just sat up, reached for her blanket, and spread it out over her. Funniest thing ever! I guess she likes to be covered up! Well, I tried something today. I put a ponytail holder (one of those little bitty clear ouchless ones) in Rachel's hair on top of her head. It looked a little silly but I thought she was precious with it in!!! Can you tell it is rainy and stormy outside and we are bored????!!! Going to get Sears 6 month pictures this afternoon, so be looking for those!!!

We went to the doctor on Monday and all is well. Rachel weighed 17 lbs, 14 oz and was 26 1/2 inches long. She is still in the 90th percentile for height and weight. Her head was 17 inches, which is still only 75th percentile. She has a little head and little feet!!! She actually lost an ounce from her last month appointment. She only has gained 10 ounces since her 4 month appointment. Dr. Hull said that it wasn't a big deal since she is still very healthy and she is slimming probably because she is becoming more active. She is also only taking 3 bottles a day now. She told me that we can start giving her 2nd foods and even meats!!! We have tried macaroni and cheese, turkey dinner, and sweet potatoes with corn! She seems to like them all okay. We have also been giving her some finger foods. There are some little fruit puffs that dissolve in her mouth and some veggie things that look like cheetos. She loves them!!! She is sitting up pretty well now and is really starti...

My, what an unfaithful blogger I am!!! So much has happened since wrote last. The three of us took a much needed trip to Arkansas to visit with family and friends. Rachel was able to see many people that she doesn’t get to see very often and Mommy and Daddy always love showing her off! I hosted a baby shower for Christy on April 28th in Hope and we had a blast! She got so many nice things and seemed to really enjoy herself. Adison Reece will be here before long. Christy is 36 weeks along today and doing good!!! Then we went to Little Rock to visit family and friends there. Here are some pictures from that trip. Oh, and while we were gone Rachel got familiar with her toes and is now very fond of them!!! She loves flowers!! Here is Rachel with Maddie and Caleb I know that there were more pictures with family that I cannot find on my computer. When I locate them I will put them on here because we got some good ones with Great-Granny. When we returned we were surprised to find t...