Reason to Rejoice

I feel like I don't post enough about my First Born!! The only thing I usually post about her is how bad she is. Honestly, I am hoping that it is the age. Two is just hard. I hear that three is even worse but I refuse to believe that!!! Rachel is not a bad kiddo. She is just challenging at times. She is loving and very sweet. She loves her baby sister and is very very smart!!! She must have gotten that from her daddy! =) She has trouble sharing sometimes but plays well with others for the most part. She is my first born baby and I love her with all my heart...and MORE!!! Here are some pictures I took of her yesterday.

Today is a special day to me. Why? Because today is my birthday. I am not having a party and no one is giving me gifts. I got the most incredible gift of all on this birthday. Fourteen years. WOW!! It actually seems like so long ago and I can't remember my life before I was "born." Today is my spiritual birthday. Fourteen years ago today I was "born" into Christ's family. He saved me! ME!! A soul that is not worthy but oh so very thankful. I had not really grown up in church. I had been here and there and went to GAs when I was little but never consistent and I never really knew what it meant to be "saved." When I moved to Arkansas in 1994, I started going to church with some friends on Wednesday nights. I went pretty regularly until the summer and I stopped going. One of my friends came to me at the end of the summer and said that there was a back to school party and invited me to church, a youth rally, church that evening, and th...

So we are back in the routine after Rachel was the center of attention of her grandparents for a week. Things around our house this morning have been anything but pleasant! It's a daily struggle with her. DAILY! Let's see...this morning, we have struggled about: *Her wanting to take a shower with me and me saying "NO" *Putting her tights on for dance class *Putting her skirt on for dance class *Putting her shoes on for dance class *Brushing her hair *Putting her hair in a ponytail *Which bow to wear *Wanting some ball in the car that I could not reach *She tee-teed during dance class (not too much of a big deal to me...I talked to her about it but it was a new atmosphere and she didn't know the lady so she didn't get in trouble) *She tee-teed again in the playroom. Ran down her legs and made a puddle in the floor. Me=NOT HAPPY!!!! *What she wanted to eat for lunch *What she wanted to watch on TV *She didn't want me to feed Lauren *She went to the bat...

Well, I don't have anything real monumental to post about. My family is all back under one roof. It was a nice break but it is nice to get back into the routine of things as well. Rachel spent this past week with her grandparents in Little Rock and she had a blast. I know how challenging she is so I commend the grandparents for an entire week! =) She is home and ornery as ever but I just love the mess out of her!!! =) She starts dance class tomorrow which I am SUPER excited about!! She has her little tap shoes and ballet shoes! How cute is she going to be??! Brice is back home from the U.K. and seems to be sporting a bit of an accent..okay, not really but I wouldn't mind at all! I LOVE British accents! Is that weird? He took some video of some things over there and I could listen to the people talk all day long. He had a good trip and adjusted to the time difference quite well. Lauren is getting bigger....well, she is definitely getting fatter! She is so round! I...

Okay, so at Kelly's Korner she has been doing a series each Friday for months now and I have wanted to join in but didn't really know how. Well, I still really don't but want to try it out. This week the theme is baby showers. I have helped with a few in the past few years especially since nearly every lady in our Sunday school class has had a baby in the last year and a half! We do all of our showers at the church. When I started going to this church the norm was to have a big shower for 1st babies and then a diapers/wipes shower for babies thereafter but we have recently started doing baby showers for all babies. Not sure if this will continue if we will start a new tradition soon after all of the "current" babies are born. Here are pictures from showers that I have attended/hosted: This one is actually not one from our church. It was my cousin's and there wasn't really a theme but this cake was adorable. I ordered it from a bakery that I love...

I know I have blogged about this so many times in the past but it seems as though I gravitate towards tragedy in the blog world. Not just any tragedy but the loss of babies. I don't understand what God is trying to say to me. I am not sure what I am supposed to learn but He is yelling at me very loudly. I am so thankful for my babies and my family. I don't deserve the blessings that God gives me but sometimes the only thing that comes to my mind is "Why?" I think God can handle our "Whys." I just don't understand why babies have to die. Perfect. Innocent. Blameless. Precious. Why? My heart is heavy for the Rowe family as their infant daughter died 2 days after birth. I don't know all of the circumstances surrounding it but she never was able to breathe on her own and she had no brain function from the time she was born. She was full term and beautiful. Read about her life here. Lord, thank you for my children and their health. May I NE...

Nostalgic...is that right word??? Maybe just mushy or maybe just a proud momma...not sure... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OKAY, BEFORE YOU FREAK OUT IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SEEN THE ULTRASOUND IMAGE BELOW.....NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!!!!! READ ON!!!!! A blogger friend of mine posted that she found out a year ago yesterday that her (now 7 month old) daughter was a girl!! Well, it got me thinking and I believe that August 18th (yesterday) was the day we had our first sonogram and saw our little baby #2(who is now Lauren)!! Okay, I just looked at the picture before I posted this and sure enough...August 18, 2008 we saw our precious little baby for the first time!! She is such a joy!! Here she was:

So, I went to Frisco this morning with a friend to go to Stonebriar Centre...I love that mall. It is so far away from where I live so I only go maybe once a year or so. I only spent $15.85!!!!!! We walked the entire mall! I was so proud of myself! I got Lauren a pair of pants, a long sleeve shirt and matching hat at Children's Place! I was impressed! So, that's my happy news for the day. Brice will be so proud!

So many people tell me on a daily basis how much my two girls look alike. I thought I would post some pictures of Rachel when she was 5 months old.... Rachel Lauren Rachel Lauren And...here is my picture....I was a little older but look how much we look alike!!! Here's Brice....the girls look like him, too! What do you all think???!!!

If you go to my blog and it looks different every time it is because it is Under Construction! I did a header for a friend of mine and I am inspired to make my blog look better...it has been boring long enough!!

Well, basically in this post, I am going to try to cover everything I need to cover from the past few weeks! So...it will be long. CHELSEA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY! Rachel's best little friend is now 3 years old!! Chelsea had the best little birthday party at a small toddler-sized water park in Arlington. It was so cute and Rachel had a blast going under the water...her new favorite thing! She went down the slides by herself and everything. Chelsea's party was Ariel-themed and she had cute little cupcakes for the kids and cake for the adults. We got her a pretty little black/white dress with matching bow, a cup with her name on it, and some princess books. A good time was had by all!! Happy Birthday to Chelsea Joy! UPTOWN VILLAGE I have discovered a city nearby...well, I have known it was there for a long time but I just now discovered all of the cool things that they have there!!! So...a friend told me about a little splash area for kiddos that is free so we decided to ch...

So, I have several days and things to catch up on from blogging. On that list is: Chelsea's birthday party, playing at Uptown Village, Rachel's (and Lauren's) first movie experience, and Lauren's 5 month pictures but there is something that I must blog about first. Rachel. Strong-willed (the nice word for HARD HEADED!) Frustration. So, it is no surprise that my 2 year old is a little challenging...she is 2 and as some would say, she IS my child! All joking aside, I feel like her behavior problems are really becoming a problem. What do you do when your friends try to have play group and you are afraid to take your child because you are afraid that she will hurt one of the other ones or get so out of control that I will not be able to handle her and my infant at the same time???!! It is frustrating! It has really gotten to the point that I don't like taking her to church. A couple of weeks ago, she got a bloody nose (the other boy had a knot on his head) I am ...

So...last.....Tuesday (a week ago) we had a playdate to Sandy Lake Park or what my friend refers to as SLAP! I think that's funny! Anyway, we had a good turnout and the kids did exceptionally well. I got a monster sunburn that is no resulting in what looks like a snake shedding it's skin on my back!! YUK! Anyway, here are some pictures....I so did not get any pictures of Rheta and her girls....bummer!!! We had a total of 14 there (kids outnumbered the adults!!)