Maternity shoot for my sis

My lil sis is expecting a baby boy May 2014! I took these photos for her on Christmas Day.

Dora the Elf 2013

I just learned how to posts blogs from my phone!  So glad my husband is such a techie!  Be expecting many more posts and photos now :) 

Here are just a couple of photos of Dora the Elf 2013!

 Roasting marshmallows 

Chillin'

Drinking pancake syrup

Our decorator with our first family of four pic with Santa

Cameron's Late Birthday/late 13 month blog post

We celebrated Cameron's 1st birthday on 11-16-13 before the Baylor v. Texas Tech football game with family and friends at our new home.  We had a football theme party which included blow up 12" footballs, chocolate cupcakes I frosted to look like footballs, and lots of green and gold balloons and decorations. 

Stats
Weight: 20lbs 9 oz

Height: 28 1/2 inches
Clothes size: 12-18 months
Diaper size: 3

Words used in right context: Dada, Momma, more, byebye, dogdog, Dora (this was the name of our Elf on the Shelf), something that sounds similar to deer, and also something that sounds similar to Thank you
Favorite things to do: Get into things, laugh, dance, wrestle, play with remotes or iphones, snuggle, and play peek-a-boo

New Experiences:

• started walking everywhere on his 1st birthday, 11/16/13
• starting to drink some cow's milk
• signs milk when he wants to nurse
• learned the motion for 'stomp your feet' portion of "If you're happy and you know it"
• takes steps backwards to scoot into someone's lap if they are sitting on the floor
• drives Duck Dynasty 4 wheeler he got from Nana for his 1st birthday
• turns and slides feet first on his own to get off a couch or bed



Happy Birthday Cameron!

Aunt Jackie has moved to Heaven

My Aunt Jackie has moved to Heaven,

 

We will miss her humor, 

 

 

We will miss her encouraging spirit,

We will miss her touch,

We will miss her joy and undeniable love,

We will miss her open arms,

We will know that she is watching over us now.

How old is Cameron....

I'm really awful at blogging! Truth is I want to keep record and cherish these memories I really do, but when I finally get a second to sit and jot down a few thoughts I get distracted by emails, facebook, or other people's blogs instead!

Anyways its October 7th and in 9 days my baby will be 11 months old and I haven't posted his 9 or 10 month updates : /  so lets give this a shot...

On Aug 16th we went to the dr for his 9 month check up and shots.  He weighed 20 lbs 6.5 ounces (64 percentile) and was 28 inches long (88th percentile).  Shots haven't ever seemed to bother him much at all.  I don't even give him tylenol and he doesn't even seem to get a fever. 

Cameron's favorite game is peek-a-boo! He's super ticklish and has the greatest belly laugh of all time!  He gives hugs and kisses and is still the world's best cuddler, just ask the ladies in the church nursery!

On September 29th he took his first steps all by himself. Daddy hooked up some new speakers in the living room and Raegan and Cameron both love to turn up Pandora and throw a dance party. He's learned how to clap and cheered Baylor on to victory at his first BU footgame on October 5th.

He can climb the stairs! He absolutely loves crawling into the pantry.  He's into EVERYTHING! I can't take my eyes off the kid for a second without finding him licking a usb cord, or trying to unplug something from the wall, or pulling everything out of the kitchen cabinets.  He's truly a handful, but always has such a great attitude even when I don't let him do these things.  He's sleeping much much better than before, from 8pm to about 5am most every night.  He still takes two naps a day and nurses frequently.  He adores his big sister and squeals with joy when she gets home from school!  She likes to play school upstairs and writes his name in the 'hot box' when he's not being a good student, but this doesn't seem to bother him ; )

I've just started thinking of ideas for his first birthday, can't believe it will be here so soon!

Kitchen cabinets and walls painted

The picture above is our kitchen before any paint, the painters were doing their prep work when I took this picture. The cabinets had a faux finish oil based stain on them and looked a tan/beige color.

This picture is after the cabinets were painted antique white, so much brighter.

 

This is what the kitchen looked like when we selected essential gray as the wall color.  It looked lavendar, so we went back to Sherwin Williams to try again.

This color is Earl Gray and we like it much better, it looks a little darker in this picture than it really is now that it is dry.

The island is now stained Ebony, but this was a picture I took while the work was in process.

 

I wish we could say we had a lot of time and talent to do this ourselves, but we didn't.  We've been lucky to find a lot of great contractors to come out and help us.  More home project posts to come.

Isn't it beautiful when we fall apart

On the long drive from Raegan's 1st day of school back to our home God spoke to me with this song: "We Fall Apart" The worlds on fire but we're all smiling Though it's all our fault But life is short so we resort to laughing through it all It's the battle within the good and the sin With both sides standing strong It's the permanent scars How broken we are It's the things that hurt us all But isn't it beautiful The way we fall apart It's magical and tragic all the ways we break our hearts So unpredictable We're comfortably miserable We think we're invincible Completely unbreakable And maybe we are Isn't it beautiful The way we all fall apart You're a liar but I'm a coward so I can't throw a stone We're so imperfect but so worth it because we're not alone It's the wars that we wage, the lives that we take For better or for worse It's the lion we cage, the love and the rage That keeps us wanting more But isn't it beautiful The way we fall apart It's magical and tragic all the ways we break our hearts So unpredictable We're comfortably miserable We think we're invincible Completely unbreakable And maybe we are But isn't it beautiful The way we all fall apart The world is dark but all it takes your love to spark To set my heart on fire once again But isn't it beautiful The way we fall apart Isn't it beautiful oh, isn't it wonderful The way we fall apart It's magical and tragic all the ways we break our hearts So unpredictable We're comfortably miserable We think we're invincible Completely unbreakable And maybe we are But isn't it beautiful The way we all fall apart Isn't it beautiful The way we fall apart And I just started to realize that we always try to "get all settled in" or "put everything in order." We think that we are capable and in control of piecing together our lives. We left our home state of Texas and ventured out on our own to Oklahoma soon after we got married. We lived in Moore for 5 years during this short time we began our careers, purchased our first home, joined a church & small group, brought a beautiful baby girl into this world (3-24-09), made new friends, served our community through volunteering, enjoyed festivals & all the benefits of living near a big city, and we brought a wonderful baby boy into this world (11-16-12). We were very busy, but also so very blessed. We had the BEST neighbors anyone could ever ask for. A wonderful church with great events and activities. Great workplaces with people we could trust and enjoyed working with. Life was grand! That was until May 20, 2013, a day I'll never ever forget and one that even nearly 100 days later still brings me to tears to think of. On that day our pretty little puzzle was torn to pieces. We were very fortunate not to lose any family or close friends or even significant possessions, but the emotional toll and fear it caused is still unexplainable. We had concerned loved ones, friends, church members, and coworkers reaching out to help us during that time. After staying the night with strangers the night of 5/20, we made it to our home the next morning to pack a few diapers and snacks and Philip dropped the kids and I off at our dear friends' home in Norman. They had a generator and that way we wouldn't have to spend the day alone in our hot home without power and so that Philip could take the only car we had at the time to work. Laura was so welcoming and kind to us. Her home got power just as we pulled in the driveway (isn't God awesome). She fed Raegan and I took a hot shower as I still had mud caked onto my legs from the day before. We sat snacking on dark chocolate for breakfast and nursing our baby boys while we watched Mickey Mouse and Bubble Guppies because the news was too terrifying for Raegan (4) and Mason(2)to see. While I was there Philip called to check on us and to tell me that we were moving to Texas. Philip had applied to become the Operator of the Chick-fil-A in Weatherford, TX on October 25, 2012 and we had been waiting to hear if he had been selected, but knew we might not know until July 1. However this wasn't the first thought that crossed my mind. I thought he didn't want to ever have to go through what we went through the day before and he had come up with some solution to just move to Texas. Then I think he said, yes Tony just called... I knew then it was for real and Philip had been selected as the Operator for the Chick-fil-A in Weatherford and we were going to move to Texas just like we had been praying for! Laura said congratulations and gave me a hug and I was happy for a breif moment. Then I looked around at how we were living out of a recyclable grocery bag with diapers, wipes, a change of clothes, rice cakes and a jar of peanut butter and thought how am I suppose to move right now. What about my pieces here, what about my friends, what about grief and mourning, how do I answer all of Raegan's questions, what about work, all these questions swirled around in my head and I was confused. Philip called back later that day to ask me about making a offer on a home in Weatherford and I told him I didn't know, whatever he wanted to do was fine. I look back and feel bad for placing so much responsibility on Philip's shoulders during that next month. I was too confused to make decisions, all I cared about was that my babies were with me and that we were safe. For the next two weeks I worked on cleaning our house and starting to pack during the day and then went to the Hilgenfeld's to sleep at night in their finished attic. I always kept a very close watch on the weather and weather forecasts. Mike and Susan have a large underground storm shelter and Susan was always so kind to warn me of any hint of severe weather and invite us over, I always accepted. So I turned to survival mode and making decisions for that day, one day at a time. Its all I could handle. People would ask me what are you going to do when you move to Weatherford? When are you going back to work? Are you going to send Raegan to a new daycare? Do you want to bring Raegan to work? Do you want to work in Fort Worth? What kind of carpet do you want to put in your home in Moore? What do you want to pack first? What roofer should we use? on and on so many decisions I didn't want to have to make and didn't, I let Philip make all the decisions and just told him I didn't know. He took care of everything, carpet installers, roofers, fence repair, making offers on new homes, bringing home meals, ordering a pod, scheduling a uhaul, finding a storage building, everything...all while still running a business in Norman and I just held my babies and tried not to cry too much, because then Raegan would ask why I was crying. Anyways, our sweet little puzzle had fallen apart and I couldn't put it back together. What I couldn't see yet was that on 5/21/13, the Lord reached down and said to us, here's a new puzzle, take my hand and I will help you put it together. Oh what mercy and grace He has given us! So today we are living in Weatherford, TX, perhaps the friendliest place on Earth, even if the city is "stuck back in time." Raegan started pre-K and we joined a church. I joined MOPS and have already met some new moms who happen to have recently moved from Oklahoma too! Philip brought a few employees with him from Norman, but the existing team here is terrific! Philip has new challenges at work and the resources he needs to solve them. I've been able to work from home part time and still enjoy spending time with the kids. We still keep in touch with our friends in Oklahoma and hope to go back and visit them soon. We try to get out and swim in the backyard every evening and get done just in time to watch the deer come out to graze in our front yard at sunset. We have a long list of home improvement projects and to-do lists, but are letting God help us put our lives back together instead of trying to do it all ourselves. I think this puzzle is going to turn out beautiful!