Friday, March 28, 2008

Perfect

For those that know Rachel best, you know this shirt was made for her! Thanks Granna for getting it for her. Now she thinks it's so funny and tells us ALL the time, "I do NOT have an off button. I like to talk and I will talk all the time!"



Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Sign of Spring

Ahh....a sign of spring...daffodils!
They have been blooming since late February.
We waited until Spring Break to make our trip to Wye Mountain.
We have gone in 2004, 2006 and now in 2008!
I must give you the run down on our trips there.
Let's just say they have been very interesting.


2004
Rachel was about 20 months old and I could not wait to take her.
I envisioned breathtaking pictures of Rachel with the gorgeous flowers.
I had scrapbook pages already laid out in my head.
What I could not have predicted was this:



Rachel was TERRIFIED of the daffodils!
The longer we were there, the more upset she became.
I guess she thought they were going to get her,
because every time the wind blew the flowers, she would cry harder.
So, in true scrapbooker form, I went ahead and took her picture.
Priceless!
And, yes, the trip is documented in her scrapbook on a page entitled,
"Daffodil Fears, Daffodil Tears!"

This was the prettiest year of the three we have been.
The daffodils were absolutely gorgeous and
all you saw was fields of yellow.
Here are two photos I took that year:




2006
Rachel is now almost four years old and Rebekah has just turned one.
Surely Rachel is no longer afraid of the flowers!
Let's try the trip again!
Can you guess what happened this time?
Here it is:



Yep. That's right.
Rebekah is now TERRIFIED of the daffodils!
Just like her sissy and in true form, she cried whenever
the flowers moved and did NOT want to be near them.
Well, I just had to laugh and since I had photos of Rachel screaming
in the daffodil field, I had to have one of Rebekah too!
The flowers were still pretty,
but if you got real close, you could tell a lot were really wilted.
But the trip was not a total waste,
I did manage to get one great photo of Rachel.
She wanted to just run and run in the fields and
wasn't interested at all in me taking her picture.
So, to get this one was a true challenge.
Here it is:



2008
This year the flowers were the worst I have seen.
I am guessing that our late season snow on March 7th didn't help them.
Most all of the flowers were really wilted and
when you looked across the fields,
you didn't see all the yellow like in years past.
See what I mean!?!?



The girls were excited about going when
I talked about all the pretty yellow flowers.
Rebekah couldn't wait to pick her some.
I am happy to say that neither girl was afraid of them.
The only other problem this year besides wilted flowers was the wind.
It about blew us over!
We didn't stay long at all and I only took a few pictures.
Rebekah wasn't interested in sitting by Rachel for pictures.
Here are some for you to enjoy:




Rebekah is going through a phase where
she doesn't like to have her picture taken.
The one above was all I could get out of her.
She wouldn't sit amongst all the flowers,
this was where SHE wanted to sit and
I had to bribe her to even get this one!
So, on a funny note, here are two more pictures taken of her.
One is from 2006 and one is from 2008...and both are of her behind!


Happy Spring Everyone!




Sunday, March 23, 2008

300,000 Hours...

300,000 hours...that is how old I am today. Just thought I would share that with everyone. To see your major anniversaries, follow this link!

Some other interesting facts I learned:

1. I have blinked about 180 million times in my lifetime!
2. If it could live that long, a human sperm could swim about 3.4 miles!

3. In my lifetime, light would have traveled about 201.21 million million miles. Light travels at 186,298 miles per second!
4. Also in my lifetime, there have been about 4,536 million people born. There have also been about 1,944 million deaths, an overall increase in world population of about 2,613 people.
5. And last, but not least: If left uncut (or bitten!), my fingernails would have grown about 34 inches! They grow about an inch a year, four times faster than toenails.

So, when is your next anniversary?

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter. We started celebrating yesterday. Some friends of ours hosted their annual Easter Egg Hunt. They hid approximately 1,300 eggs for kids of all ages to find. It was really amazing. This was our second year to attend and it was even more fun this year. Rebekah was more into it and of course, Rachel was super excited. The eggs all contain either candy, toys and some even have money. And the coveted Golden Egg has a Five Dollar bill in it. All morning long before the hunt, she kept telling us, "I'm going to find the Golden Egg!" Well, to our surprise, SHE DID!! Here are some photos from the big hunt.




After the Egg Hunt, we headed over to my parents house for another egg hunt and dinner. Both the girls got WAY too much candy, some toys and about $16 in money for their piggy banks. This morning we made it to church. Rebekah was not happy about going to her class, so she went to big church with all of us for the first time. She did really well. She was quiet, colored and very well behaved. I was so proud of her. Here are some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses, along with their baby dolls in matching dresses!




And a funny Easter revisited. On Easter in 2004, Jon Paul's parents came up for a visit. We had Easter dinner over at my parents house. Rachel was about 21 months old. She loved (and still loves!) to play with my mom's large Easter eggs. We were trying to get some family photos taken and she thought it would be funny to put one on Nana's nose. Here is the photo:

Rachel remembered doing this to Nana. This year she came running out with the egg and said to Nana, "I need to put this on your nose!" So, in true scrapbooker and blogger form, I grabbed the camera and told her to go for it! Here is the revisit:
Hope you all had a great Easter! Until next time...




Friday, March 21, 2008

I'm Back!!!

My life has been a whirlwind. So much has happened, so I guess I will fill you in on everything! I did make it to Springdale for Brian's visitation. It was good to see Kristina and show her our support. She was surrounded my hundreds of family and friends. She is doing good. Keep her in your prayers as she tries to get back to some normalcy in her life.

We have officially sold our home! We closed on our house on Friday, March 14th. And on Saturday, March 15th, we had the movers come and move us into our apartment. My sister, Michelle, Betty and I started moving some stuff into the apartment on the Monday before. We were able to move all the stuff in all closets and most all that was left for the movers was the furniture. It actually went really smooth and was worth every penny to have them help. We were all moved except for the kitchen and garage by Saturday night. Sunday we finished up the kitchen and garage and turned over the keys! It was a little sad to say goodbye to our first home. The home we brought both our babies home too. But more excited to know we are one step closer to getting into our new home!

We are in an apartment that is about 300 square feet smaller than our old house. It's definitely different, smaller, older....but it's temporary and doable. And it will make us appreciate our nice, brand new, BIG home even better! And, speaking of our new home, here is a slide show of our progress:

I will leave you with a few more pictures of a fun time before the move...playing in an empty closet.




Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

My baby is three years old! I can't believe it's been three years since I gave birth to my sweet baby, Rebekah Shelaine. She has had so much fun with this birthday. She really gets it now.

We had her party this past Saturday at Mega Gymnastics. A lot of her friends came and had so much fun running, jumping, climbing, etc. And, per her request, we had a Rocket Cake. She was determined to have Rocket from the Little Einsteins on her cake and with the help of a friend, her wish came true. Today, she has a small celebration at her school with her friends and then tonight we took her to eat pizza, again her request.

To honor her, I will list 3 things I love about her...

1. I love her love and gentleness for animals. She has a special connection with out cat, Kathy. She loves Kathy and Kathy comes running when Bekah gets up the morning or comes home from school. They are the best of friends. She also loves ponies, puppies and penguins (a.k.a. Pablos - what she calls them!).

2. I love her sense of humor. She has the best laugh. It melts my heart.

3. I love her blue eyes. She gets them from her Daddy. Every time I look into her eyes, I see her Daddy. And I love her and her Daddy with all my heart!

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Happy Birthday to Jon Paul...One Day Late!!

Yesterday was Jon Paul's 36th birthday. Happy Birthday to the best husband, daddy and friend in the whole wide world. Babe, I love you...AAF!

It's been a while since I last posted. Things have been crazy, be watching for more posts to catch you up!!