Happy Birthday Bekah! (one day late!)

Wow, I've really gotten out of the blog habit. I do want to get back into it, it just isn't high on my priority list right now... :)


My baby, Rebekah, turned seven years old yesterday! I can't believe she is that old. Guess that makes me even older! Ha ha... and Jon Paul turned the big 4-0 last week too. I have a couple of years before I hit that mark!

Happy Birthday Rebekah! I hope your day yesterday was great. We had your party on Saturday, the day before your birthday. You had 19 little girls come and celebrate your special day with you. You are blessed with such good friends.


I just wanted to say that Mommy is proud of you loves you very much. So, in keeping with tradition, here are seven things I LOVE ABOUT YOU!!


1. I love your meek spirit. You don't like to have all the attention on you and are content watching others in the lime light.


2. I love your servant's heart. You are quick to offer to help me in the kitchen and are observant to see a need and do it without me having to ask you to do it first.


3. I love your silly faces you make. You sure do like making us laugh!


4. I love it when I catch you walking on your tippy toes. You used to do it all the time when you were little. And you still do it every now and then. Maybe you will be a prima ballerina someday!!


5. I love seeing you get more and more brave about doing things in front of people. You are my shy little one, but you have come a long way. You even will get up on stage at church and help lead in worship!


6. I love that you love school. You have never complained once about having to go to school and I am so happy you are happy there. It also helps having AWESOME teachers - which you have been blessed with last year and this year.


7. I love that you love to be tickled. We have some of the best tickle sessions and I love hearing your laugh so hard you can't catch your breath!!


We are so proud of you and can't wait to see what your future holds. Enjoy being seven!!

Happy 6th Birthday Rebekah!

I can't believe that you are SIX years old today!

You woke up this morning still insisting you were five because you hadn't had your party yet. It was hard for you to understand that today was your birthday - and tomorrow is your party - but you still turn six today. I think you finally got it after talking a while and eating some breakfast. You couldn't wait to get to school because you were taking cupcakes for all your class to eat at snack time. You wanted chocolate cupcakes with white icing and pink and green flowers on them. They turned out beautiful!

 

Six Things I Love About You:

1. I love your silliness - as seen in the photos above. You are a natural in front of the lense.

2. I love hearing you read. You are learning so much now and it is so exciting watching you learn something new.

3. I love that you love to go to school. I pray that you never lose that desire to go and learn.

4. I love your tender and quiet heart. You are finding your voice and I'm proud of you for that.

5. I love the fact you are not a morning person. You are like your Momma and would prefer not to talk or anything soon after getting up. But once you have your breakfast, you are usually much perkier.

6. I love laugh, especially when we get into a good tickle fight. It melts my heart.

I hope you have a wonderful day today. Mommy and Daddy are taking you out tonight by yourself! Rachel will be at a sleepover, so you get us all to yourself. You have requested to ride go-carts - so that is what we are doing. Tomorrow afternoon is your gymnastics party. I know you can't wait!

I better go now - I have a date with you for lunch at school. I love you my sweet baby!!

Rebekah's Artwork Creativity

Rebekah colored this at Sparks this past Wednesday night. She was quick to inform us that the picture was originally a boy, but she wanted it to be a girl. So, she added a ponytail, bangs, glasses, makeup and earrings. I thought that was most clever for a five year old and also her design in the rug was nice!

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

Five years ago today, my baby girl was born. I can't believe how quickly time has passed. I also can't believe I haven't blogged since Christmas!! Well, yes, I can believe it. Things have been crazy around here! I hope to start back up again and catch you all up on what has been going on around here since Christmas. But, enough about all of that and on to the star of today: My Rebekah!!

Today is her birthday and she will be five years old. She cannot wait and said she wants to be five forever! So, in honor of your birthday, Rebekah, here are five things I love about you:

1. I love your meek and quiet spirit. You don't have to say anything. You are a bit shy, and it's okay.

2. I love your silliness. You have gotten into performing for me and wanting me to video you on my iPhone. So silly - maybe I'll have to share some with everyone on the blog!

3. I love it when you want to help me. You're a good helper, especially in the kitchen.

4. I love going to the grocery store with you. You talk to me and help me with our list. I love those times with you.

5. I love to watch you dance. You love to shake your booty!! It is really cute and even better when you don't know we're watching you.

We had Rebekah's party this past Saturday. I'll post pictures when I play catch up on the blog. This past Sunday was also Jon Paul's birthday. More on that later too. But for now, Happy Birthday Rebekah! I hope your day is a special as you.

First Fish

One Sunday afternoon in September, our power went off for some reason or another. It ended up being off for five or six hours. The girls wanted to ride their bikes, so we rode up to our neighbors house up the street - Mr. Doug and Mrs. Sandy's house! The girls love to go see them! Mr. Doug and Mrs. Sandy's house backs up to the "lake" and Mr. Doug fishes in it all the time. He invited the girls to go fishing with him and they were so excited. Mr. Doug guaranteed that they would catch a fish - and they did! Rachel was so excited and she couldn't wait to show us - until she saw it wiggle on the line and she jumped about three feet in the air! I got a few pictures on my iPhone. I think Rachel ended up catching five fish and Rebekah caught three.

Community Field Trip

On October 7th, Rebekah's class went on a Community Field Trip. This was Rebekah's first field trip and school bus ride. She was so excited to get to ride a school bus! I was able to ride on the bus with her and help chaperon the trip. The first stop was just down the street from the school - Knights Grocery Store. They were able to tour the store and learn more about our community helpers within the store. Rebekah's first stop was in the produce department. They got to see and name all the vegetables and even got to taste some grapes! The next stop on the tour was the bakery. We got to talk to some of the bakers and they had a table set up where everyone got to decorate their own cupcake and then eat it! The last stop was the floral department. Each student received a red carnation and made a card to attach to the flower. Here are some photos from the bus ride and Knights.

Here is Rebekah with one of her good friends, Jenna. We met Jenna this summer in gymnastics. They were so excited to be in the same pre-K class. I like it because I've made a great new friend and we've been able to help each other out several times this year! Don't they look happy?



After we left Knights, we headed over to one of the Cabot Fire Stations. The kids were so excited. First, every kid got a chance to spray the water hose like they were putting out a fire. Next, everyone piled on the firetruck for a class photo. After climbing all over it, everyone was able to sit in the drivers seat and pretend to race to a fire! After listening to the loud sirens, we took a VIP tour of the firehouse to see where the firemen eat, sleep, workout and shower! Lastly, the kids were able to practice what to do if there was fire in their own house - all in the Fire Safety House. We ended our time at the fire station with lunch and then headed back to school. What a fun trip and here are some pictures from the fire station.

Rebekah was first to spray the hose. I wasn't quite ready with the camera, so I missed the shot with the water spraying.


It's not easy to get 20 four and five year olds all posed for a picture!




I almost forgot. When we were done with the Fire Safety House and went back into the garage, we saw that an ambulance had arrived for the kids to tour. Our class then toured the ambulance and got to talk to the paramedics.

School Pictures...

Both girls had their school pictures made. I wanted pictures that would match, so I chose the same pose and background for each of them. Unfortunately, since they were taken at different schools and more than likely different photographers, their backgrounds ended up not being quite the same color. This is Rachel's second grade picture and Rebekah's pre-K picture. Yeah, I know...Rachel has on her "fake" smile! :) Gotta love school photos to document all those stages we go through!

Falling Asleep at the Table

Had to share some cute videos of the girls with you. In these videos, Rachel is a few months past her second birthday and Rebekah is about one month away from turning two. We think they are cute because they are our kids! But also think it is cute because they are sitting around the same table, sitting in the same booster chair, both around the same age, eating the same dinner (chicken nuggets!) and falling asleep. Hope you enjoy them!

Book Character Day

Both of the girls had Book Character Day at school. This is a way the school can allow the kids to "dress up" for Halloween, without calling it Halloween or costumes. Both of the girls decided they wanted to be the same character - Skippy Jon Jones! The girls love these books because they are funny, but more because that is their Daddy's name - Jon (Paul) Jones - and it is spelled like he spells his name! I made their costumes and here is how it turned out!







Rachel's school had a contest for the best costume, judged by the mayor of Cabot. Rachel won first place over all the second graders!!

Wordless Wednesday...

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Rebekah's Pre-K class was supposed to go to the pumpkin patch on 10/30. Because of all the rain we had, it had to be postponed to this past Wednesday. I was able to go and be a part of all the fun! Here are some photos from the day.

This is Rebekah's class and her teacher, Mrs. Spaulding on the far right and the teacher's assistant, Mrs. Hoover, on the far left.


When we first got there, the kids played on all the play equipment for a little while. Rebekah liked this slide because it was fast!


This is Rebekah with her friend Madison. Those are turkeys behind them!


Rebekah loved the goats. She wanted to pet them forever. This white one was so calm and loved to be petted.


Here is one of the smallest pigs I have ever seen.


After seeing the animals, we had a picnic lunch and then went on a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. They still had lots of pumpkins to pick. Each kid got to pick one pumpkin - but it had to be small enough for them to carry. The adults were on strict orders that we couldn't help them carry their pumpkins! Not to worry with Rebekah, she picked one of the smallest pumpkins out there!



It was a beautiful day and a fun trip!

Piggy Flu

September was a full month of just getting back into the swing of things and school. A few activities started this month and I'll break those out in separate posts later. But the month ended on an oink.

Rachel came down with a high fever and ended up testing positive for the swine flu. She missed three days of school, but bounced back pretty quick from it. Her only symptoms were the high fever and a cough. Rebekah started getting a bad cough right after Rachel came down with it. She ended up missing three days of school, but she didn't have the swine flu. Hers was just a bad sinus infection that settled in her chest. She never ran a fever.

This is why Rachel missed the party where Savvy Kids was taking pictures (see post below). She also missed school. So, now, she will not say the words "swine" or "flu" and said that that made her very, very sad.

Once the girls were healthy, we went and all got our seasonal flu vaccinations. The girls were so excited to be able to get the flu mist. Rachel hadn't been able to before because of her asthma. But since we haven't had any flair up in over three years, her doctor felt it was safe. Also, the last two years that she has received the shot, she spent that evening in bathroom throwing up all night. Made me wonder if there was something in the shot that didn't agree with her system. Jon Paul gets his flu shot at work and they didn't have the mist option. My doctor also didn't have the mist, so I got the shot. We are all vaccinated now!

After much thought, prayer and questioning, we decided not to get the H1N1 vaccination for any of us. I was really nervous since it is a NEW vaccine and I felt it was really rushed into production. Did they take the time or have the time to thoroughly test the side effects and everything? Are they going to come back in five years and talk about something bad in it? I don't know, it was just a personal family decision we made and I don't fault anyone for making the decision to give it to their children. Also, with Rachel already having had the virus, she should be immune. And, we were all exposed when she had it and no one else came down with it. So, we didn't take the shot.

Here are some photos I took with my iPhone of the girls at the doctors office. They went on separate days and they had to wear this mask if they were coughing and had flu like symptoms. Rachel was upset because her mask was messing up her view of her DS! :) I figured out a way to make it fit better when Rebekah was there.

Rebekah's in Savvy Kids

Rebekah's picture is in yet another magazine in her short four year life. This time, she is in Savvy Kids. This is a fairly new magazine that features kids and their birthday parties. Rebekah attended Madalynn's birthday party this past September and Savvy Kids was there taking pictures for the magazine. You can submit your birthday party information and they might come to your party and feature your kid! Here is her picture in the magazine:

A photo taken of Rebekah on her first birthday was featured as the cover for Little Rock's Kid's Directory. I took the photo and it was featured on the March cover one year later. Here is a screen shot of this cover for you to enjoy!


Rachel wasn't real happy that Bekah got to be in another magazine. She was supposed to go to the party, but was running a fever - so she had to stay at home. Maybe soon she will get her turn!

Catching up...

I am going to spend some of this time in November catching you up on what has been going on since I last was in the blogging habit! The last I really blogged was about the first day of school! We have now completed the first nine weeks of this school year!

So, let's begin at the end of August. School started and the routine was back. I love routine! Jon Paul and I attended a marriage conference, hosted by our church. It was a good time spent together and reminding us of things we need to be doing to keep our marriage alive.

Work for me was getting ready to take a big turn. With both girls in school full time, I decided to take on more responsibilities and hours. It was been great. I'm getting to work a new side of real estate and learn even more about this field. I enjoy the work and it is definitely keeping me busy! A cool perk that came with my new responsibilities was a new iPhone! I'm very grateful and appreciative to have been given this gift. It's been a lot of fun and I've fallen in love with texting! I did get a new cell phone number, so let me know if you need to update it!

The girls both love school and love their teachers. Rachel's teacher is young. This is her first year to teach, she just graduated this past May and was married over the summer. She is energetic and has a great first class. Rachel is in the highest reading group and was chosen to be in the Gifted and Talented class. GT is going to be really good for her - it is definitely challenging. Rebekah's teacher is a lot of fun and has excellent classroom management. Rebekah is always talking about her and has fun coming home to get us to play "school" or "centers" with her. Rebekah can tell you the names of all the trouble makers in her class and tell you exactly what they do! She is coming out of her shell and learning so much!

So, a little to catch you up. Sorry, no pictures - there will be more to come, along with more about September in the coming posts. Please come back!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. The girls decided to be insects this year. Thought it was cute that they kind of went together. We started out the evening going up to our church's Harvest Fest. Two hours of games, food, hayrides and puppets! I volunteered for the first hour, helping with registration. Jon Paul and Betty took the girls around to play and we all ate together once I was finished with registration.

We left the church and went home to put some layers on - it was getting a bit chilly! We decided to start in our neighborhood and then maybe go to another one up the road. My sister Michelle and her family came to trick-or-treat with us. As it turned out, we had a lot of homes in our neighborhood with their lights on and the girls quickly started to fill their buckets. By the time we were about done, Rebekah was saying her bucket was too heavy to carry and her legs were tired of walking! Cute! We decided to go to one last house closer to our home and see them, since we passed them by before. Boy, are we glad we stopped!

This family was handing out free hot dogs, punch and of course, candy! We visited with them for a little while since we are neighbors, introducing ourselves. The mom mentioned they had a little hayride going and our girls should take a ride. They were all for it, so when it came back they couldn't wait to get on it! As Rachel was walking towards the trailer, someone yelled her name. It was a girl from her class, Kailyn! They were so excited to see each other - and even more excited to discover they were neighbors!! The girls and Jon Paul went on the hayride and trick-or-treated some more while I stayed back getting to know the family better. It was a nice time and glad to get to know some more of our neighbors.

After the hayride, it was time to head home. We had more candy than we needed and the girls were sufficiently worn out! Home to take a quick bath and get to bed. Rebekah was asleep before Rachel was all ready for bed! Here are some pictures from the night for you to enjoy!





Like Rebekah's shoes? Yeah, she doesn't have any black shoes yet and I didn't have a chance to pick her up some. So, she went for comfort and wore her crocs!

This was at our sweet neighbor's house, The Eberharts. The girls love Mrs. Sandy and Mr. Doug and they are so sweet to them.