Another week... another blog

Friday Raegan and I met some friends at the splash park, we spent nearly 2 hours there and despite her 50spf sunscreen Raegan got her first suntan lines on her shoulders. Just a good base tan for our lake trip coming up, which I am super excited about!!! For dinner Friday night Philip cooked out chicken and corn on the cob, check out this picture of Raegan eating corn on the cob... She devoured it! I can't say I blame her though it was delicious!!!

After an early morning grocery trip Saturday, we went to our HOA meeting and the neighborhood BBQ that followed... Philip joined the Board of the HOA, because he wants to have a say in the parks & recreation committee and I joined my 2nd social committee of the week (I don't know what has come over me :) Also, Raegan met two little girls that are both very close to her age that live in our neighborhood. Its fun to see them interact together, they would be smiling and giggling at each other and then one would try to take the other's sippy cup and an outbreak of "mine" and "no, no" and swinging little arms would happen. Then we'd tell them to be nice and they'd give each other a hug ; ) Raegan is such a social butterfly!

Saturday afternoon I met a friend from church to attend "Shake for Jake," a Zumbathon to raise money to fight cancer. I realized while I was putting on my tennis shoes that I really hadn't "worked out" much at all since I found out I was pregnant with Raegan (that was like Sept 2008!) and even though I don't weigh anymore than I did when I used to work out, I am so not in shape! So this was my first time to try Zumba. For those of you out there you don't know what Zumba is, you should check it out... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumba

Benefits of my first ZUMBA experience:

• great workout
• good music
• fun
• for a good cause (to support Jake's fight against cancer)
• couple of hours of "me" time

This weekend I also thought of another benefit of Raegan attending daycare is she learns from many people. For example, I didn't know Raegan knew where her eyes were, until I asked her at dinner Sunday night if she wanted more "ice" and she pointed to her eyes, lol.
Another cute thing Raegan has recently started doing is pretending to blow her nose. She will take a tissue and cover her mouth and nose and then fake cough. She is trying to make the sound she hears when someone blows his/her nose, but she hasn't quite figured it out yet. She's a funny little girl. Anyways we are looking forward to a wonderful relaxing vacation at the lake. More stories to come soon!

Couple of videos from this week... Sorry for my horrible commenting (I didn't know Philip was recording with his new iphone)

Happy Father's Day weekend

Wow I love weekends... I mean weekdays aren't so bad, but all the extra 'free' time on the weekends sure is nice. Thursday (did I mention many weeks my 'weekend' starts Thursday evening ;) anyways, after I picked up Raegan from daycare we went to the farmer's market, a first for both of us. I really do try to buy healthy food for my family and I felt like I was helping people out by buying fresh fruits and veggies at the farmer's market. Raegan enjoyed it and pointed to things she thought she'd like and then showed me the sign for eat, so I would know that's what she wanted. She not talking a whole lot, but by her being able to use signs like more, eat, and milk we get by pretty well :) It was nice not having to pull stickers off of our produce from the market. Thursday evening we also went to small group, well Raegan and I did, Philip has been really busy umpiring little league games. This week was tournament week and the championship game is on Tuesday. He seems to really like it, he's a very fair person and get this the kids run on the field and when they see Philip they say, "Oh yeah, we got the good umpire!" How cool is that ;) Anyways at small group Raegan and the two other little ones played with toys and rocked in the recliner, while the adults of the group played Pictionary, women vs. men. Guess who won, the women, of course... lol, jk we don't usually win at these challenges.

Friday was a hard day. I took Raegan to daycare and then immediately called Philip to ask if he thought I was a bad mom for dropping her off so that I could straighten up the house and run some errands. He assured me that I wasn't and that I would be able to spend more undistracted time with her on Saturday if I got those things done on Friday. That and the fact that another mom had just dropped off her son and she was still in her pajamas made me feel a little better. So I came home did some laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc... and then went to my facial appointment that was at 10:30... this is only the 2nd real facial I've had and my goodness it was AMAZING! I would love to have one hhhhmmm everyday! I actually think it was better than a massage, because she did some massage work too. I wish I could just live at the salon, if I was good at something cosmetic/therapeutic related I could get a job there, but I don't think I am. I love that place, and I still have $ left on my gift card from Mother's Day so I will be going back, hopefully soon =) Ok so I started this paragraph saying Friday was hard and you're probably thinking getting a facial is hard, really Tara... keep reading.

So after the facial I went and picked up Chick-fil-A (I love that place, wink, wink ;) for myself and my friend Sarah and took it to her house. She is grieving, due to a loss caused by anencephaly, so I went to spend some time with her and take her a gift that our office had got for her. My heart aches so bad for her and her family. It is so hard to understand why these things happen. My good friend Jackie attends Hillside church and recommended I watch and recommend the "Call to Suffer" sermon from http://www.hillsidewired.com/ to Sarah. So I spent most of my time Friday thinking about Sarah, her loss, and this sermon and thanking God for Raegan. Raegan's favorite thing to do is nurse, she'd nurse all day if I let her; and Friday all I wanted to do was hold her. So when she crawled up in my lap, I wrapped both of my arms around her while she nursed herself to sleep and I sat there rocking her with my lips pursed against her forehead, tears running down my face, praying and thanking God for such a wonderful gift from above.

Man, makes me get all teary-eyed just writing about it...

Our new tree was also delivered and planted Friday. Here are before and after pictures.

So another highlight from this weekend was on Saturday night. Philip and I went to the YWCA's Purple Sash Dinner. We got to hear from a woman who survived domestic abuse, have dinner with some of my fellow co-workers, and bid in a silent auction. As I have very close women in my life who have been victims of domestic violence and have volunteered with Family Abuse Center in Waco and have seen/heard how terrifying it is, I believe it is a very worthy cause to support. You can visit their website at http://www.ywca.org/. So Philip and I liked a couple of the auction items, but the one we were most interested in was the Helicopter ride. Philip told me about a month ago that he wanted to get his helicopter pilot license (I guess to fly his imaginary helicopter) as you can imagine this didn't go over too well, but I did think that bidding on an auction item to support a great cause and get to ride in helicopter might suffice. Guess what we won it! Yes, we did go a little over the initial limit I had set for us, but when I thought about us flying in a helicopter together I was sold (or auctioned?). I mean this is stuff that you only see on the Bachelor/Bachelorette. I am super excited about it!!! =)

For Father's Day Raegan woke me up to make breakfast for Philip at 6am. I made Raegan breakfast and then made pancakes, eggs, and bacon, without burning anything! Impressed? lol! Then we went to church and Raegan did okay in Sunday school (well at least when we picked her up she was playing instead of crying, yea!) My parents had gone up to Kansas for the weekend and stopped by our house on their way home. Philip and I decided we'd cook out since they were coming to visit. We hadn't grilled outside in at least 2 weeks and when Philip removed the cover off the grill a spider at least 3 inches in diameter (legs included) and a little grey mouse were uncovered and landed within 5 inches of little Raegan. My first reaction was to jump up on a chair and scream and Philip's first reaction was to push Raegan out of the way. Raegan then started crying because she didn't understand what was going on and Philip was trying to strategically catch the mouse (we lost the spider), but he was so scared of the little mouse that he wasn't able to catch it, once I took Raegan inside to watch from the window, it was actually pretty amusing! Eventually the little mouse hopped across our yard and found a little hole in the fence to get back to the field behind our house. Philip and I found the spider much later that evening still on the porch and sprayed him down with Raid (it took almost a whole can!)

Anyways we had lunch with my parents and they got to play with Raegan for awhile before heading back home. It was great to see my dad on Father's Day since I don't get to see him very often anymore.

Sunday afternoon we watch Curly Sue (a great Father's Day movie) on Netflix through the Wii. This is my favorite quote from that movie:

Curly Sue: He must really love you

Grey: I hope so

Curly Sue: Well you know how you can tell

Grey: How?

Curly Sue: He lets you eat first.

*tear*

After the movie we went and got sno-cones, then to Penn Square mall, bought Raegan some new shoes, and then out for pizza! It was a great Father's Day!

I have hidden YOUR Word in my heart that I might not sin against YOU.

So believe it or not, Philip is the one who originally thought of the blogging idea, set up the blogspot site, and I believe even wrote the first or second post.  Since then I have polluted our blog with numerous photos with very few words, so here are some words for ya...

I am signed up with http://www.klove.com/ to receive a Bible verse in my email every morning. Most days I read the verse then I might think about it for a minute (maybe two) and even possibly forward it on to friends or family. Often I read it and think wow I really need to focus on that today, but than when I lay my head down to fall asleep and start thinking about the day I realize I didn’t focus on the verse I intended to at all. Instead I often go far astray from anything like it.

Here are a couple of verses from this week, that I've really been focusing on:

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. ~ Ephesians 4:2

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.~ Philippians 4:6

Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.~ Psalm 103:2-3

YUMMY!

Last night we went to YAMATO! Our chef was really great and funny! After watching others at our table eating with chop sticks, Raegan wanted to try them out. She did really well at stabbing her food with the chopsticks and eating it. She ate carrots, peas, zucchini, chicken, steak and shrimp! She may have ate more in one night than she had all week!

Tonight we ate dinner at home but then went up to Orange Leaf for some frozen yogurt! Raegan loved Philip's Cookies n' Cream/White Chocolate yogurt, but not my pineapple yogurt so much ; )

POLL

Here are pictures of Philip and I when we were about Raegan's age (that means these are from 1986!) Who do you think she looks more like?

A year of change

Above: Raegan and I one year ago at Dream Night at the Zoo

Below: Raegan and I on June 4th, 2010 at Dream Night at the Zoo

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent much of our Memorial Day weekend at the Big 12 baseball tournament here in OKC. Baylor made it to the championship game on Sunday against A&M. It was nice to get out and enjoy the games, but not easy with a very active 14 month old. Here are a couple of pics from the games this weekend... We also went to a get together at our friends' house. We visited in their backyard and Raegan played in the baby pool. We ate grilled steak and shrimp kabobs, potato salad, and then had homemade ice cream, cupcakes, and strawberry shortcakes for dessert!

Babies Don't Keep

"Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep."
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Impressed

So Raegan is getting at least 3 new molars in right now, and I'm thinking they must be her wisdom teeth, because this baby (14 month old) is smart! ;) After her bath Tuesday evening, we went to her room. I was picking out an outfit for her to wear to school the next day and had a pile of clean clothes and hangers sitting out to put them in her closet. I figured Raegan would keep busy playing with her toys. I turned around and she was putting this shirt on a hanger. Luckily I had my phone right by me and snapped these pictures, and then told her to "show mommy" and this is what she did...Then she picked up these pants (they happened to match her shirt) and wanted me to put them on her for bed. See the right picture where she's showing me how they go on. Geez who taught her all this?

Bath time

Just a couple of bath time pics...

Shoes!

Raegan's newest word "shoes!" She loves picking up shoes and then trying to find the person's feet they belong to. She'll carry them around saying. "shoes, shoes, shoes." She also likes putting them on. She amazes me everyday with how much she knows!