Reason to Rejoice

Gosh, I don't know how many times I have apologized for not being a very good blogger, but here I go again!! Time just gets away from me! We are doing fabulous!! A new year and new fun times to be had! We hope that your 2008 is the best ever!!! Well, what have we been doing??? What HAVEN'T we been doing! We celebrated Christmas.....which was TONS of fun!! Here is our Christmas slideshow... Rachel is almost 14 months so she has turned another month old since I posted last. She is really becoming such a big girl. She is talking up a storm...stuff you can actually understand. She is comprehending a lot more that Mommy and Daddy say too. She truly is the best little girl and we are so proud of her! Here is a slideshow of some miscellaneous pictures since the last post.... I have had another birthday! Yep...one more year. Brice and I went and tried fondue for the first time....not the biggest fan...maybe next time we will be more impressed but I did have a wonderful bir...

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...