Reason to Rejoice

We went to the mall yesterday for a day of shopping fun! This is the outfit that she wore (above)! No, we were not there to pick up any young babes! =) We found Rachel an Easter dress at Gymboree and of course, I spent way too much money on it, but it is precious! We got some smell good stuff for the house and then went and got tons of Easter decorations at Hobby Lobby! Rachel has been there more times than any place besides home. I am starting her off right! She was an angel all day long. She started getting fussy around lunch time so we stopped and we both ate and then she was talking to the sales people. It was a lot of fun! We also found a itty bitty swimsuit for Baby Miley. She will be born in June and will have to have a swimsuit. I am going to work tomorrow and Friday and Heather is keeping Rachel. It is going to be good practice for her when her baby is born. We are excited that she will have a little rugrat soon. YAY!! More babies! As we talked tonight at choir

This weekend felt like it was about 7 days long!! It started by Brice, Rachel, and I traveling, by car, to Little Rock. We left around 2:30 on Friday and arrived in The Rock right at 8:30. Rachel did well until about Texarkana and she had a dirty diaper and needed to eat. We stopped and ate and took care of her, put her back in the car and she slept the rest of the way to Brice's parents' house. When we got there, she of course, had to check everything out and was interested in her new surroundings (including the dog, Adolf). She ate and then finally went down for the night around 11:30. I was terrified that she would not want to sleep since she slept all the way there, and she did wake up around 3:30 and didn't want to go back to sleep until around 5:00. Needless to say, I was a little tired on Saturday. Saturday was the main reason for the traveling....it was Brice's Granny's 92nd birthday party!!! She is one of my most favorite people ever....so sweet!!

Well, this 14 lb, 15 oz baby was ready for cereal. We went back to the doctor yesterday for a follow-up from her illness last week and she said, "Give this baby some food!" Rachel was starting to eat every 2 hours and as I mentioned before, throwing a fit when it was time to eat. We tried cereal for the first time this morning and it was kinda funny. She couldn't decide whether or not she liked it. She didn't spit it out too bad but she did act like she was choking a couple of times. I think she just didn't know what to do because it was a different texture. Brice couldn't be here so we videoed it. We knew that thing would be good for something!!! All finished...that wasn't too bad! I think we'll do it again. ;)

Rachel got her 3 month professional pictures taken yesterday and I am so excited about seeing them! The lady that took our wedding pictures took them and she showed me a couple after she was finished - too cute!! Rachel was a big girl and only got fussy to eat and then she was ready to go again! We got some with just Rachel and Daddy, some with Rachel and Mommy, some of the three of us and then some of her by herself. She smiles all of the time and would barely smile yesterday for the pictures...isn't that the way it goes?! I think that the whole experience totally wore her out. She feel asleep in her Daddy's arms last night about 10:00 and then didn't wake up until 7:30 this morning! She usually sleeps through the night, but not 9 1/2 hours! She is back asleep now! We have started putting her in her bed for her to go to sleep on her own and it has worked out pretty well. We have only done it once and she only cried for 20 minutes! Last night, we were going to tr

We woke up in a good mood this morning! When I say we, I mean Rachel!!!! :) We went shopping and got her some new hairbows! This is one of the outfits that Mama-Nette got Rachel and it is TOO CUTE on her. We love purple! Well, Rachel has started this new thing she likes to do called throwing a fit!!! It is pitiful. When I am feeding her if I take the bottle out of her mouth to burp her or when the bottle is empty, she just goes nuts! She screams like I am torturing her and stiffens up so I can't do anything with her. Talk about trying someone's patience!!! The child acts like I am never going to feed her again and Lord knows she isn't starving! This too, shall pass, let's pray.

Well, didn't get this posted yesterday with Rachel being sick and fussy! Now, I am sick and I went to the doctor yesterday. I just have an upper respiratory infection...fun fun!! Z-pack should do the trick! Hopefully Brice will not get sick. Not the best time of the year for him to miss work. Here are pictures of Rachel in her Valentine's Day outfit. She, of course, spit up on it before I could get the pictures taken. Spit up and all, I still think she's pretty cute! Rachel got lots of stuff for Valentine's Day. Mommy and Daddy got her a pink giraffe with red hearts and Praise Baby DVD's. Now we have all of them!!! Daddy picked out a baby doll with butterflies on her dress just for his little girl. She also got sweet cards from her Mama-Nette and GP in Arkansas. Her 1st Valentine's Day was tons of fun! And she turned 3 months old today too!!

Just got back from the doctor and Rachel just has a cold. She did a flu test and it was negative. Her temperture was 100.5 and the doctor said that if it got above 103 or she was still running fever on Thursday, to give her a call back. I am giving her Tylenol and vapor baths for now. She weighed 14 pounds, 2 ounces!!! I asked about giving her something more than just her formula and she said no. She wants to hold her off at least 2 more weeks. She did say that I could give her about 2 ounces of water between feedings if I wanted. We'll try that! Our next appointment isn't until March 20th.

She was happy in the bath last night! She has done better since we have taken out the little sling that newborns use. I think this way she isn't as cold and that's what she used to get mad about. We are going to the doctor this afternoon because she is stuffy, coughing and running a temperature. Even though she hasn't been feeling well, look at that smile! Visit www.dropshots.com/rikkihester for more pictures!

This has been one of the hardest weeks in my life!! My Papa passed away from cancer on February 5th and the funeral was Wednesday. As I think about the past few months I recall wondering with fear what it would be like when Papa died. He was diagnosed with cancer when I was in the hospital about to have Rachel and the doctors gave him 3-6 months to live. Well, in my mostly optimistic mind, I was thinking, "Oh, he'll live another year at least." Then reality hit me as I thought about working at the hospital myself and knew that I was really going to have to face the death of a family member for the first time - and it was going to be sooner rather than later. He lived not even 3 months and his fight was over. Death symbolizes a lot of different things for a lot of people. It seems so final and yet for the Christian, it is just the beginning! The beginning of something GLORIOUS!!! While we cannot be sure whether or not someone who has passed truly knows Jesus Christ as thei

I have a blog on Myspace but you can't view it unless you have a Myspace account, so I decided to post here too! Wow!! Parenthood...are there words to describe it? I am having a hard time coming up with just a few! Amazing, wonderful, rewarding, time consuming, tiring, challenging, AND SO MUCH MORE!!!!! Rachel will be 3 months old on Wednesday and as I sit here with her in my lap sleeping, I look at her and wonder if what we have done so far is right, good, or at least halfway decent! My biggest goal in life for the past several months (while she was still in my tummy) has been to be the best mom that I know how...but sometimes I wonder if it is enough. Don't worry, I am not driving myself and everyone else crazy about it, but the thought does pop into my head occasionally. I know that my child will not, by far, be perfect, but I want to make sure that I teach her right - what God would want for her and to keep her safe. It's just amazing to me that God loved me enough to g