Richards' Reflections

Brynlee is 5 months

2011-12-20T18:35:00.004-06:00

Dearest Brynlee,
You are so sweet. You are the sweetest natured baby and I could just eat you up ALL. THE. TIME. You giggle and smile a lot; those giggles and smiles melt my heart. You are still sleeping in your craddle beside our bed. It's just easier that way since you are still nursing. That's my excuse anyway. I think it's a good one. You had RSV this month and that was not fun. You had to get your first breathing treatments and now you will be more likely to have asthma. I figured one of my kiddos would get it from me. I'm so sorry. All that coughing messed up your perfect sleeping pattern. Mommy has not had one full night of sleep since Thanksgiving. I'm not complaining. I'm just tired :). It is slowly getting closer to being back to normal. Let's just hope RSV stays away.

Because of you being sick we didn't get to have you 4 month check-up until a week ago. Your stats are:

height: 24 3/4 in (55%)
weight: 12lbs 5 ozs (13%)
head: 16 in (29%)

Dr. T says you are right on track! She said we could start one very small feeding of cereal a day but she would prefer you to stay on just breastmilk since you are on the smallish side. We shall see. If you start acting more interested in food we will give it a try.

You are still wearing your size 1 diapers and 3 month clothes. I don't mind. You can stay little forever if you would like.

You LOVE your mommy and I can not get enough of that. You have even started reaching for me in your own way. If we are in the same room and I am not holding you, you are giving me the stare down. I'm pretty sure you are talking to me with your eyes and saying, "Over here Mommy! Come get me!" It usually works because I can not resist you. Oh boy am I ever in trouble!

You have recently attempted rolling over. You have been hanging out in your bumbo chair and your excersaucer. You are changing so much everyday. Let's slow down a little, ok.

I love you to the moon and back! Love, Mommy

FCS Christmas Program

2011-12-15T18:32:00.001-06:00

Bella had her Christmas program at school. They did a sweet version of the nativity. Bella was a camel by her choice. This girl has no problem when it comes to performing. There are no nerves that we can tell. She is such a little ham! I love it!

Ryan didn't really see the need to stand up. He was cracking us up. He just sat there and chilled. Silly goose.

Away in a Manger

I must admit I started crying watching Bella sing this song. There is something quite endearing about watching your 3 year old sing the words to this song.

I love this picture of all the grandkids with Santa.

Isabella's 1st Holiday Dance Show

2011-12-10T18:31:00.003-06:00

Bella has been practicing very hard for her very first dance performance. She even had dress rehearsal. She has been so excited about about dance and seems to really enjoy it, especially ballet.

Don't you just love the new forced smile she is giving me. It cracks me up!

She got to watch all the older girls dance first.

When it came showtime she was ready to go. No nerves for this girl. She placed herself front and center and performed her little heart out. Yes, we were the first ones there and yes, we were sitting on the front row and yes, we both had cameras. This was a very exciting day for me and I may have gone a little overboard with excitement for a mall performance but oh what sweet memories we will be able to look back on. She did a great job and we were so proud of her!

My beautiful dancer!

Her fan club!

Her biggest fan!

Sitting with her dance friends before going on stage.

Front and center and ready to tap!

Yes, we even got her flowers!

More members of her fan club. Ryan looks very excited. HA!

and without further adieu.........
Bella's first performance!

RSV

2011-12-01T15:57:00.001-06:00

Brynlee started coughing when we were in Dallas and it got progressively worse. Terry took her to the doctor this week and we have been visited by the dreaded RSV. Breathing treatments every four hours, even through the night. YUCK! It looks like this could be my kiddo with respiratory problems. I am so sorry to be passing this on to her. Asthma plagued me as a child and I really hoped that my babies wouldn't have to deal with it. Doctor said she would be more likely to have asthma since she had RSV. The crazy thing is, besides her having a cough you would never know she was sick. She is so sweet natured. Hoping to get rid of this mess soon. She has also decided to quite sleeping through the night. Her coughing wakes her up and then she thinks she needs to nurse. I am one tired mama!

sweet girl with her daddy.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-27T18:30:00.001-06:00

I am thankful for:
my God that has allowed for this wonderful life
my two precious miracles that at one time in my life I never thought I would have
my doctor that was determined for me to have these little pieces of joy
a husband that could not have been or be more supportive to me, that loves me unconditionally
parents that have been my rock and support system my whole life
grandparents that have set an amazing example
a brother that could drive me crazy but that I know always had my back
a sister-in-law that makes my brother happy
a niece and nephew that I could eat up because I love them so much
aunts and uncles who I look up to
cousins that I can call best friends
a best friend that can make me laugh with ALL of her crazy antics
my coworkers that keep me on my toes but mostly in giggles all the time

I have so much to be thankful for. I have the best family anyone could ask for and I am most thankful that God chose me to be the mommy of these two beautiful little beings. I love them so much!

My very own lovies! My three very favorite people in this world!

So blessed!

Crazy cousin antics!! Happy Thanksmas!

Brynlee is 4 months

2011-11-20T18:30:00.001-06:00

Dear Brynlee,
You are smiling and giggling all the time. Your little smile lights up your whole face. You are so social and just smile and interact with everyone. You are still a little thing wearing size 1 diapers and 3 month clothes. You make my heart smile all the time. I miss you so much while I'm at work but I know Nana is taking really good care of you (and spoiling you a little bit too). You really love watching your sister and she is getting better with you every day. You enjoy laying on your back under your play mat and playing with your toys that hang down. You grab them and swat at them with both hands. You also chew on everything! You bring sunshine to our days little shugie and I love you so much! Mommy

Happy Halloween

2011-10-30T21:00:00.001-06:00

Isabella, Brynlee and I went to Friendswood to Stevenson Park to meet up with Kenzie, Laura, and Craig to do some early trick or treating in the park. Unfortunately, Terry was unable to go because on Saturday his grandmother (his mom's mother) passed away. Terry left Sunday morning to head to Corsicana to be with his family. I didn't want Isabella to miss out on trick or treating so the Brown family let us tag along with them and we were able to trick or treat on Sunday night since we were leaving Monday night to head to Corsicana for the funeral.

Isabella and Kenzie showing off their precious costumes.

Bella was a peacock this year and I (and she) thought she looked gorgeous. She got a ton of compliments on her costume.

Brynlee pretty much slept the whole time. She really wasn't in to the trick or treating. Oh well, maybe next year!

Mema and Papa come to visit

2011-10-30T18:26:00.001-06:00

Mema and Papa came for a visit. I am so thankful that my girls are getting the opportunity to spend time with them.

Brynlee's Quilt

2011-10-27T10:43:00.002-05:00

Brynlee is laying on the quilt my mom made for her room. I still haven't gotten everything on the walls in her room but as soon as I do, I will post pictures. We had a little photo shoot while big sister was taking a nap.

Big sister did wake up and join us and I'm so glad she did. I love the smiles I got from my two precious babies!

I'm starting to see some resemblances between these two!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-22T13:41:00.001-05:00

This year we went to a great pumpkin patch in Clear Lake at the Methodist church. Bella had a blast filling our wagon up with pumpkins. She was not picky, if she could pick it up, in the wagon it went. She liked the mini pumpkins the best. I remember liking all things mini when I was a little girl.

Brynlee was not quite as impressed with the pumpkin patch. I love the first picture of her crying and Bella smiling away. Bynlee got her paci and all was right in her world again!

Brynlee is 3 months

2011-10-21T22:08:00.003-05:00

Oh sweet baby girl, where have the last 3 months gone? You are so incredibly precious and sweet and of course beautiful. You have grown so much and you are changing everyday. I'm starting to think you are going to be my sensitive child. You have started getting upset when your big sister gets in trouble. A raised voice often sparks tears from you. Other than that you smile all the time and I keep waiting for a giggle any minute. You love kisses and keep your mouth wide open to receive as many as you can get. You are still in a size 1 diaper. You have moved up to some 3 months onsies but you are still wearing newborn size pants. You adore your big sister. Your face lights up when she gets near you. She is still getting use to you. Tonight we found her wrapping you up like a taco in your play mat. It's possible that she was squishing you a bit. Don't worry, Mommy saved you. You are an awesome sleeper (please don't make me eat my words!). You still love to be swaddled; that's how you sleep best. We don't give you your paci at night and you sleep just fine without it. You like your paci but don't seem to attached to it. You mostly like it after you nurse. You are still nursing like a champ. Mommy is so proud of you and herself for keeping you strictly breast fed. It appears you are a Momma's girl. Oh how I love that. I love the way you watch me as I move across the room and how you will play the staring game with me. I think you are talking to me with those sweet eyes. You have started grabbing toys on your playmat and can lay under it for quite some time (as long as sister isn't trying to wrap you up taco style). I love the way you wrap your little arms around my hand and hold it to your chest when I give you your paci. I love the way you have started hanging on to my fingers. I love the way you feel when you fall asleep on my chest. I tend to let you stay there for a long time. I can't help it. You are still spitting up quite a bit but it doesn't seem to bother you. Mommy is staying away from dairy, fried food, and Mexican food. I'm starving but it's worth it. I go back to work next Friday. I'm pretty sure it will be awful. I would love to be able to stay home with you forever but you will be getting lots of love with Nana.

I love you sweet Brynlee! I'm so happy you joined our family!

Petting Zoo at FCS

2011-10-21T13:41:00.001-05:00

I have LOVED playing the role of stay at home mom these last few months. I took advantage this last week and went to visit Bella at school. They have been studying about Noah and his Ark so they had an in house field trip from a petting zoo. Bella was beyond excited that I was there. She even got me a carpet square to sit on next to her. I really loved getting to see her in that environment. I feel like I miss so much being at work. She just wanted me to follow her around the whole time showing me the animals, her classroom, and the playground. I asked her if she wanted to leave with me or if she wanted to stay at school. She wanted me to stay at school with her. HA! She did finally leave with me. It made me so happy that she was so excited to have me and Brynlee at school with her!

Bella's teacher was not there so these are her aftercare teachers.

Fun with Lexi at the Zoo

2011-10-17T10:03:00.002-05:00

Our cousin Lexi got to spend the day AND night with us! Bella had such a great time having her with us. As soon as she got to our house Saturday morning we loaded up the car and all 5 of us went to the zoo. Terry pulled the big girls in our wagon and I pushed Brynlee in the stroller. We packed snacks and rolled right through the zoo. Actually I kinda felt like we ran. The zoo was pretty crowded and Terry was charging full speed ahead. There were several animals that the girls literally just got a glance at as we sped by. I still haven't figured out what the hurry was. Possibly the heat mixed with the crowds. Regardless, the big girls had a blast! We even rode on the carousel!

We did get to stop and get out in the children's zoo area.

I wasn't sure if we would ever get to leave the playground. The girls really loved that part.

We also stopped for a dance break. In case you were wondering, this is totally normal for the zoo. I'm pretty sure everyone takes a dance break.

Terry did let them look at the elephants. He was holding Lexi up as well but I snapped the picture to late. The elephants were doing tricks with pumpkins. Well they were smashing them, I guess that's a trick.

We took the opportunity on the way out to do a little picture taking. Bella doesn't cooperate with me very much.

These girls are pretty funny together!

I put the girls to bed Saturday night and a few minutes later I heard Lexi crying. I went upstairs to check on them and ended up getting in bed in between them (twin bed). We discussed our adventure of the day and went through all the animals we saw at the zoo. It was so sweet to lay there and rehash the day with them. After about 20 minutes or so I told them goodnight again and they went right to sleep. YAY!!

Sunday morning all three girls had on denim dresses for church. Brynlee didn't make any pictures. Bella loved having Lexi at church and in class with her. Hopefully we can have another sleepover with Lexi real soon!

A Day I Don't want to Forget

2011-10-10T13:40:00.002-05:00

Thank you Christopher Columbus with this beautiful day with my beautiful girls. Bella had the day off from school so the three of us girls have had a great day at home. Yesterday was rough so this day was even better. Bella has been back to her sweet, respectful, precious self today. We made mini muffins for breakfast this morning. Bella poured and stirred all the ingredients, then she helped me dip the batter into the muffin pan. After I put them into the oven she watched them "grow". The best part is that she actually ate the banana nut muffins! She has played and been so sweet to Brynlee. She even jumped down from the table at lunch to go get her paci for her. Terry brought us lunch and put Bella down for her nap. He told her that Mommy would be here when she woke up and that he would be gone. (She hollers for him EVERY time she wakes up.) I went to take a shower and when I got out I could hear her talking. She was hollering for Mommy! Of course I went in because that never happens. She was so sweet and asked me to lay down with her so I did. She scratched my face and my arms for me. She told me she really liked my hairstyle and that it was amazing and that I was a princess. (My hair was wet.) We counted our fingers and our eyebrows. We curled our tongues. She checked out my "toofeses". I finally decided that she needed to go to sleep so I told her I was going to go and let her go to sleep. That sweet little girl actually thanked me for laying in her bed with her.

Bella is a complete and total Daddy's girl. So much so that I often hear from her, "Weave me awone, Mommy." It makes me sad to hear those words from her but at the same time I love to watch the relationship she and her daddy share. So when she is extra sweet and lovey with me, I take full advantage!

There are no pictures of this day. It is simply seared into my memory.

Battle of the Piney Woods

2011-10-09T12:49:00.003-05:00

For the second year in a row we headed out to Reliant and met up with our fellow Lumberjacks to cheer on SFA in the Battle of the Piney Woods. We didn't get the win we were hoping for but we still had a great time haning out with our friends. We even took Brynlee to her very first SFA event. I'm pretty sure she loved it!

Bella stayed with her cousin Lexi but she still represented SFA in her purple dress!

I stole this picture from Crystal on FB! Sweet friends!

You can tell by the look on Brynlee's face that she already LOVES SFA!

Antiques Week

2011-10-03T22:10:00.002-05:00

Oh how I love Warrenton Antiques Week. I really loved it this year being able to go while I was still out on Maternity leave. Dad took Mom, Brynlee, and me up there and set us up in the trailer and we had a couple of days on our own because Dad had a meeting in San Antonio. It was unbelievably hot the first day we went out shopping. So hot that I had to give up for the day! Plus I was worried about Bryn. We ended up relaxing in the trailer and a nice little rain storm came through and brought the temperature WAY down and settled all the dust. We ended up going back out in the late afternoon and got started on our shopping. Friday morning we went back out and piddled around until Dad, Terry, and Isabella got there. We then had a great shopping day all day on Saturday. The girls did great and we had a fun time as usual. We of course hit up some of favorite places; junk gypsy for t-shirts and zapp hall for a biggo ice tea. It's going to be sad in the Spring when I don't get to spend 3 whole days shopping at my leisure.

2 months

2011-09-20T23:05:00.001-05:00

Oh Sweet Brynlee,
You have given us your first official smiles and you give them freely all the time. You are such a happy little piece of sunshine. You are sleeping and eating great. You watch us all intently as we cross the room but you definitely have eyes for your mama. I SOOOO love that! I can't seem to get enough of you. You will probably be spoiled rotten, but your big sister is too! I love you so much I feel like I might explode between you, Isabella and Daddy.

Your 2 month stats are:
Weight: 9lbs 13 ozs (13th%)
Length: 23 inches (59th%)
Head: 15 inches (19th%) that's a HUGE change from your sister.
These stats were taken on October 3, 2011

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2011-09-19T22:00:00.001-05:00

This year for Mom's birthday we all went down to Galveston to play. Mom and Dad set up the travel trailer right on the beach and we had a blast. Bella absolutely loves the beach. She built sandcastles, played in the water, ran up and down the beach, and waved to us as she flew by while Daddy pulled her on the skim board. Brynlee went down to the beach once. It was pretty windy so she enjoyed hanging out in the trailer. Ryan and Tim got to come down and play one afternoon too!

We had a lot of fun at the beach!

Our Dancer Dances!

2011-09-14T22:00:00.002-05:00

Happy 11th Anniversary

2011-09-02T21:09:00.005-05:00

My how life has changed in the last 11 years. We were once carefree and on the go. Now we are parents of 2 beautiful girls and that really changes just about everything. I know I say this every year on our anniversary blog but I truly couldn't ask for a better partner in this crazy race we call live. Terry is so supportive of me and our babies. He works hard to provide for our family and spoils all of us girls completely rotten. I admit, I don't tell him often enough how much I appreciate what he does for us. But there is no way I would ever want to do this without him. My dad recently reminded me of a conversation he and I had when Terry and I were dating. I was getting ready to head back to school from a weekend at home and Dad said, "I just want to know one thing. Will he make a good dad?" My answer, "Absolutely!". All those years ago I knew what he was capable of. The proof is in how much our oldest daughter adores him. Her world revolves around her daddy. I'm sure baby sister will follow in her big sister's footsteps. I love you, Terry! Thank you for all you do for us!

Isabella's 1st day of school

2011-08-22T17:44:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again....back to school! Bella headed back to Friendswood Christian School. She loves it there and so do I. FCS is such a blessing to us. This year she will be starting the year in the transitional 2's & 3's. We are still working on potty training. We had a bit of a setback with the arrival of Brynlee. We totally expected it but we are working through it. Isabella and Ryan are once again in the same class. Her good friend Maggie is in the Pre-K 3 class so that is tough but she will see her on the playground.

Bella loves her cousin!

Bella and Ryan with Ms. Ileana

Update:
After a week in school Bella was moved up to the Pre-K 3 class. She now has Mrs. Loraine as a teacher. I need to get a picture of her with Mrs. Loraine. It didn't seem to bother Bella at all to change classes. After a week of school Bella has taken off academically. She hadn't been very interested in academics. We have been working on name recognition all summer and now she not only recognizes it but she can spell it. She is also already recognizing some letters and numbers. And the potty training is getting back on track!!

Brynlee is 1 month

2011-08-20T16:29:00.000-05:00

Can we please stop time?!?!?! This is going by entirely to fast and I want it to slow down!! The past month has been great. We have settled into life as a family of 4 much easier than I anticipated. Isabella is still getting use to her sister but I'm sure that will get better with time. She definitely loves her baby sister she just doesn't always show it in the appropriate manner....she's 3.

Brynlee is still tiny. She still wears newborn diapers and most newborn clothes are still a bit big on her. Forget the 0-3 months; they swallow her! she is still eating like a champ and already mostly sleeping through the night! I'm completely amazed! She likes her paci but can also go without it. She is so sweet and I am soaking in my time with her.

This cracks me up. We really don't see her upset very much but she sure was while taking these pictures!!

My Very Own "Tiny Dancer"

2011-08-17T16:05:00.000-05:00

Tonight a dream came true for me, my big girl started dance. She is taking Ballet and Tap and the studio happens to be right here in our neighborhood. It is so convienient. The first class was pretty funny. Bella really only wanted to wear her Ballet shoes and was not to interested in Tap. She even started crying when class was over because she wanted to put her Ballet shoes back on and dance some more. She dances around the house all the time and I'm hopping that she loves class as much as she does dancing at home. I think it will take some time getting use to the structure of it all but I, of course, she major potential!

We will have videos to post soon!!

Just for fun!

2011-08-14T15:43:00.002-05:00

"A baby girl... one of the most beautiful miracles in life, one of the greatest joys we can ever know, and one of the reasons why there is a little extra sunshine, laughter and happiness in your world today."

Just a fun little photo shoot on Mommy and Daddy's bed!

2 week stats

2011-08-05T19:53:00.002-05:00

We took Brynlee to the doctor today for her 2 week check up. Here are her stats:

Weight: 6lbs 9ozs (7th %)
Height: 20 1/4 inches (46th%)
Head: 14 inches (38%)

She lost her cord yesterday. Kinda makes me sad actually. She is eating well and beginning to sleep for longer periods of time. When she is awake she is very alert and looking around at her surroundings. She loves to be held but seems to be content on her own as well. I must admit, I love to hold her. And I plan on doing a lot of that :).

My tiny lovebug and her daddy taking a nap!

Sisters

2011-08-04T19:13:00.000-05:00

This whole little sister thing has pretty much rocked Isabella's world. She is having a hard time adjusting, which was to be expected. Don't get me wrong, she loves her sister and loves to hold her and love on her. She is just use to our undivided attention, and she isn't getting as much of it so she is acting out. This is hard on us because she has always been so good and compliant. We rarely saw defiance in her but to say that now would not be the case. We know that she will calm down but turning 3 and getting a baby sister with in 2 months of each other is hard on a little girl. I know this to shall pass!

I was lucky enough to get some pictures of her being so sweet to Brynlee. These are the moments I'm so glad I have on camera.

There are some things that have blown Bella's mind, mostly breastfeeding and everything that goes with eat. The first time she saw me feed Brynlee, she watched for a minute, then said, "Mommy........ Is she eating your boob?". I died laughing, while I probably should have been explaining. She was quite concerned about what was going on.

The first time she saw me pumping, her poor little mind was blown. She had no idea what in the world was going on. She said, "Mommy....... Are you doing your boobs?". Yep, that's exactly what I'm doing. Everytime she would leave the room or the house and come back in, the first thing she would ask me was, "Mommy, are you going to do your boobs?". She has gotten more use to me feeding and pumping so it's not that crazy to her anymore but she still talks to me about it.

One time when I was feeding Brynlee, Bella brought her doll over to the couch and sat down beside me and announced she was going to feed her doll. She proceeded to lift up her shirt and "feed" her baby. I couldn't help but think it was cute!

This child is a beautiful, fun, hilarious, mess and I couldn't love her more!

2 week photo shoot

2011-08-03T22:12:00.002-05:00

I couldn't let to much time pass before I did a full on photo shoot of this little beauty. I have pictures of Bella on the front porch in a tutu so I decided I need the same for Brynlee.

Things are going very well. She is waking up once in the middle of the night to eat. I don't mind. I enjoy this special time with her. It's amazing what an easy transition this 1 to 2 children has been. I was quite afraid of it before it happened. I think we have done a good job if I do say so myself. It does take us a little longer to get out of the house but all in all I would say so far, so good! Plus I think Brynlee has made it really easy on us! Things could change, check back with me on that in a couple of months. HA!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2011-07-30T22:10:00.001-05:00

We celebrated Dad's birthday with a dinner. Yes, I took my 10 day old out to a restaurant. I gotta get out of the house! We went down to Clear Lake Shores to a place that serves some great hamburgers. Hurricane Ike blew down our favorite hamburger stand but a few weeks ago we discovered that they were serving the burgers at a restaurant just down the street from the old place. YIPPEE! We ate there three times in a matter of a couple of weeks. It had been so long we had to make up for lost time. HA! We had a great time. Tim, Alyssa, and Ryan met us for dinner as well.

I can tell you exactly what Dad is thinking here. "I can't believe you were frozen for 3 years!" He is completely amazed by that fact! HA!

I really love this little guy. He gives the best hugs of any kiddo I have ever known and I'm lucky enough to get an unsolicited one everytime I'm in his presence. The best part is every single one of them starts with his precious grin!

Tim and Alyssa

Yes Bella is blurry in this picture. She doesn't love to have her picture taken. It has to be her idea, which rarely happens!

My new normal! Love.

Happy Birthday Dad! We are so grateful for you! We love you!

1 week

2011-07-27T21:48:00.002-05:00

We are so in love with this precious baby girl. She is so sweet! We went to the doctor on Monday and she still only weighs 6lbs 5 ozs. She is just a tiny little thing. I just want to squeeze her and kiss her and stare at her all the time.

She is such a good baby. She is a completely different newborn than Bella was. She eats like a champ. This is such a different experience for me because Bella and I had such a hard time with breastfeeding. I now completely understand why breastfeeding moms are so gung ho about it. Brynlee has done such a good job and I absolutely love being able to provide her with her complete nutrition. I'm pretty sure it's going to break my heart when I have to go back to work and eventually have to stop. I'm going to at least try to keep going in the mornings and evenings. We will see how long my milk lasts. BUT for now I will continue to love feeding her.

She rarely fusses. And she sleeps very well too! When she is awake she is very alert to her surroundings and seems to be watching us. She is pretty noisy, but I love her sweet sounds. They are comforting at night. She sleeps in her cradle next to me. Most nights she is awake when I put her down and she coos until she falls asleep.

I'm completely amazed that I have yet another baby girl. I am doing everything I can to savor every moment of her infancy. I know it doesn't last long. So when she needs to be held, I sit and hold her, maybe even longer than she needs. I seriously can't get enough of her. My life is pretty much perfect.

Visitors

2011-07-25T20:28:00.001-05:00

We have had lots of visitors come see our new baby girl. We had several in the hospital and more when we got home. My grandparents made it into Houston in time for Brynlee to be born. They were finally able to get their hands on her on Thursday. Of course my parents were there as well but somehow I didn't get any pictures of that. I have no idea how that happened. Our friends Laura and Scott also stopped by on their way back to Austin. I didn't get pictures with them either. Niki also came up and so did Tim and Alyssa. I have got to get better at getting my camera out. I have gotten so bad about that. Of course I did have a little bit of an excuse. Just a little.

Mema and Papa with their newsest great grandgirl.

On Saturday Terry's sister, mom, grandmother, and niece came for a visit.

Aunt Angie getting some love.

Granny Gail getting her love.

Granny getting her love. Granny is where Brynlee gets her middle name. Annie Mae and Brynlee Mae.

And again there is no picture of Terry's niece Taylor holding Brynlee. And I confess these last three pictures Angie sent to me. Thank goodness she was taking pictures!

On Sunday, Mom, Dad, Tim, Alyssa, Courtney and Ryan came over for a visit. I DID get a picture of the grandparents with their 4 grandchildren.

Courtney is in LOVE with her baby cousin. She is so sweet and gentle with her. She says she wishes she would stay this small forever. I must admit, there is part of me that feels the same way. Just sayin'.

Going Home

2011-07-25T13:33:00.002-05:00

Friday morning Dr. Phillips came to see me and told me we were going home. YEA!! Pretty soon after that we got word that Brynlee was being released as well. YEA again!! I got up and started getting around. Terry and Bella came up to help me get ready. I showered and dressed. Obviously I chose to forgo make-up this whole summer so why start now. Plus I was just ready to go and didn't want to take the time.

Bella was extremely excited about us all going home together. So much so that she nearly gave me a nervous breakdown with all the squeals and running around she was doing. Silly doesn't even begin to describe how she was acting. I was slightly stressed.

She really loves her baby sister. I hope and pray that I do a good job of fostering their relationship into something that makes them best friends.

My beautiful first born that was slightly out of control. Understandably so!

Brynlee all dressed up with a very important place to go, HOME!

Baby girl was discharged weighing a whopping 6lbs 5ozs. She sure is a little thing! Apparently that's how I grow them!

We headed downstairs and to the car. We stopped off at the front desk for a pink cross. The same stop we had made just 3 years earlier with Bella. I must admit I got a little teary thinking back to that and thinking this will be the last time we make this trip. Hormones obviously played a part in that.

We got home and unloaded and our life as a family of 4 officially got under way! It's hard to believe this 2 perfect and beautiful girls are all ours and we get to keep them! My heart is so full.

Big Sister, Little Sister

2011-07-24T19:35:00.001-05:00

A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost. ~Marion C. Garretty

I had my perfect plan for how these two sisters were going to meet. Unfortunately it didn't quite happen the way I wanted it to happen. The first time Bella saw Brynlee was through the nursery window under an oxygen hood. Not in Mommy's arms like I had planned. Bella had already gone home by the time we got Brynlee in the room with us. So we had to modify my plans. Mom brought Bella up at around 10 am on Thursday. Bella was excited and a little apprehensive about meeting her baby sister.

But it was great and the important thing is that Bella did finally get to meet her! There were a lot of "AWWWWW's" from Bella.

There were a lot of "She's so cute!" from Bella.

Oh how sweet it is to be a mama of two precious, beautiful girls.

Bella loves to touch Brynlee's head. We have tried to make her be gentle. We'll let you know how that works out.

Bella got to hold her sister. She holds her often and loves it!

And then we were a family of 4!

A Birth Story

2011-07-23T23:05:00.000-05:00

On Monday July 18th I went to the doctor hoping for the news that baby sister was getting ready to be here. Instead I found out that I was still only 1 cm dilated and not effaced. Dr. Phillips mentioned checking at the hospital for availability for being induced. I seriously did not think that would happen because we tried with Bella but couldn't get a room at the hospital. I just figured that would probably be the case again and pretty much ignored the statement. I went home. I was feeling quite defeated. I was tired, uncomfortable, and ready to meet our newest baby girl. I even put a status update on facebook that said something along the lines of, "I think I'm going to be pregnant forever." Obviously I knew that wasn't true. Just feeling a little sorry for myself. It happens when you are 39 weeks pregnant.

So I went on about my business. I had a play date planned for Bella with her favorite friend Natalie, who was in town from Austin. Natalie came over on Tuesday and brought her mommy and sister. Bella and Natalie played there little hearts out and Laura and I talked (mostly about child birth, HA!). At about 4:00 pm I heard my phone ringing and saw that it was my doctor's office. Wondering what they were calling for, I answered the phone. Amy, the office manager, began giving me instructions for my induction that would begin at 7:30 that night. Wait, WHAT?!? is pretty much what I said. I asked Amy if she was serious, she said she didn't joke around about inductions. Then she asked me if I was going to cry, I told her no...... well maybe! So I had an hour to eat something then I was cut off with food and I needed to be at the hospital by 7:30. I sorta panicked but was SO excited! Laura helped me get the house picked up and I began trying to call Terry. Of course he was on a business call and wasn't answering my call. So I did the ole call and call and call trick to let him know that he NEEDED to call me back. It worked. I called Mom and Dad and they got over to our house at about 7. Dad stayed here with Bella and Mom headed to the hospital with us.

It's time to meet Baby Sister!!

Our last pictures as a family of 3! And we are off to the hospital!

We got to the hospital right at 7:30. They took me straight to my room and I got into the ever so beautiful hospital gown. I wasn't exactly sure how this was going to work. But, I soon found out! I met my first nurse. She checked me at about 8:15 and what do you know I was already dilated to 2-3 cm and 70 % effaced. Let's get this party started!! At about 8:20 I was given Cervidil to help ripen my cervix. I was having contractions and it didn't take long for them to start getting stronger. At about 11:15 I got an ambien to help me sleep. It did not work. I pretty much stayed awake all night. Terry slept and snored. Mom was awake all night too. At about 8:10 the next morning (July 20) the cervidil was removed but I was still only 2-3 cm and 70-80% effaced. Dr. Phillips came in and broke my water at about 8:30 am and the pitocin was started at about 8:40. Things get a little fuzzy for me after this point. I started hurting pretty bad, pretty fast. I was given stadol and phenergan sometime after that. That stuff makes me SLEEPY! About 10:00 I could not take the pain any longer and asked and received my epidural.

This was me from about 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Nice. Mom says she took this picture at about 3:00.

I literally slept all day. I tried real hard to wake up a few times but it was impossible. My mom and my nurse talked over me all day. Mom was on my right, Nurse Rosie on my left. I heard things about enchiladas and saw Mom showing Rosie my photography blog on her little computer. I knew people were in and out of my room but I was Out. Of. It. Apparently Terry sent out text updates all day. I believe alot of them had to do with me being completely out of it and the room being so cold (more on that later).

Terry keeping everyone updated!

At about 3:00 Rosie checked me to find that I was fully dilated. She had me try a practice push. I couldn't. There was no feeling and I couldn't make my body do what I wanted it to do. Scary feeling. So she sat my bed up so that the baby would come down and turned off my epidural in hopes that I would be able to push. Still couldn't feel to push. She called in a different anesthesiologist to assess the situation. I could tell everyone was nervous that I still couldn't feel anything. Meanwhile, Baby sister was descending on her own. The Doctor ended up pulling medicine straight from my line. He was using cold alcohol pads to see if I could feel. Luckily, I started waking up. All of me. So all through this Baby Sister was coming down and the top of her little head was actually exposed. I kept being told she had a lot of hair. Dr. Phillips was called and I could finally feel enough to push. At 5 pm I started pushing. 16 minutes and 5 pushes later...............

We welcomed Brynlee Mae Richards into this world. She weighed in at 6lbs 12 ozs and was 20 inches long.

I could not believe how easy it was to have her. Seriously. It was so quick when it came down to it. She sure is a beaut. I was beyond excited to greet her when she was put on the outside of my belly. I had gotten to know her quite well on the inside of my belly but was more than ready to get to know her on the outside. She did not disappoint. Although, she did give us a scare. I held her for a minute or so and the nurses took her to get measured and cleaned up. I started to be able to tell that something was not quite right. I heard something about her temperature and noticed that they took her temp several times. Her temp was 94 degrees. Not good. They wrapped her up very tightly and brought her to me to hold for a few minutes.

And then they wisked her away to the transitional nursery. And then I was completely alone. All by myself in my room that had just minutes before been filled with a doctor, nurses, Mom, Terry, and a sweet tiny baby. And then I was sick. The nausea set in and oh dear. I had not eaten in 26 hours and the epidural on top of that made me sick. Luckily my nurse came back in just in time to get me a barf bag. I had sent Terry with Brynlee to make sure she was ok. He came back to my room and I told him to send my mom back and he needed to get back to the nursery to make sure Brynlee was ok. Mom came back and sat with me while I shook violently and threw up a little more. Both things side effects of the epidural. Terry called me to tell me that they were doing and X-Ray on our new baby. I told him to find out what in the world was going on. Luckily our pediatrician showed up shortly after that. Come to find out not only was her temp really low but her oxygen was satting around 80%. Not good.

Sweet baby girl under the oxygen hood.

Dr. Quillin ordered a chest x-ray to make sure she didn't have an infection in her lungs. They were baffled as to why she seemed "sick" because I did not have anything wrong with me. She did have a small amount of fluid in her lungs but there was no sign of infection. Terry and Dr. Q came back to L&D to see me and give me an update. On the way back, Terry was telling Dr. Q that it was really cold in my room. Dr. Q came to the conclusion that she sat in the birth canal with her little head exposed for too long in a too cold room. He even told my doctor on the way to my room they needed to warm these rooms up for these newborns. So the conclusion was that her body temp was compromised by the temp in the room. Crazy. Needless to say, she had to stay in the transitional nursery for 5 hours to get her temp back up and get her oxygen back up. 5 long hours we had to wait to see her precious face again. Terry stalked the nursery and was a wreck worrying about her. He still had not gotten to hold her and he was anxious to do so. I got moved into post partum and continued to wait for Brynlee to come visit us. I did get wheeled by the nursery to get a pick at her from the other side of the glass. It wasn't enough but it had to do.

Terry had to run home to let the dog out and he wanted to take a shower (so not fair!). Dad sat with me while he was gone. Of course they brought Brynlee in while Terry was gone. Dad called Terry to come back and he was on his way in a hurry. I tried to nurse Brynlee but she wasn't having it. I let them take her back to the nursery to give a little bit of formula because they thought she was probably to tired and hungry to nurse and the bottle would be easier. I really did not want to do this but I knew she needed to eat so I allowed it. She was back with in 5 minutes or so. She had taken down her bottle and was ready to be back with us. Terry got there about the same time she got back. Dad was still there and actually got to hold Brynlee before Mom did.

Daddy FINALLY got his hands on his second baby girl!

I was finally able to nurse Brynlee at about 4:45 the next morning. She is such a sweet baby. I just can't hardly get enough of her! I just eat her up as much as possible because I know this will be the last time I get to experience this.

Next up - Big Sister finally gets to meet Baby Sister.

A Coming Home Dress

2011-07-16T18:38:00.004-05:00

What's a girl to wear home for the very first time? A precious white smocked dress, of course.
When it came time to start thinking about what I wanted Baby Sister to wear home from the hospital I knew I wanted a smocked dress. I didn't even look for anything else. When I found this dress I knew it was perfect!

I am so sure that Baby Sister will look so beautiful in her dress.

38 weeks

2011-07-13T18:06:00.001-05:00

How Far Along: 38 weeks

Size of baby: about 19.5 inches, should be about 6.5 lbs or so
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained about 29 lbs
Maternity Clothes: My fashion so far this summer has been non existent. My comfy cotton shorts that really don't touch me and tank tops are my favorite right now!
Gender: It's a GIRL!
Movement: She is still moving like crazy. She likes to stretch and it is wild to watch when she does that.
Sleep: I have the hardest time falling asleep now. I can not get comfortable for the life of me! Once I do get to sleep, I'm usually good, unless I have to get up to go to the bathroom.
What I miss: Sleeping on my back. Mexican food and milkshakes. Acid reflux is horrible!
Cravings: Chocolate Milkshakes and I can't even have them without paying for it big time!
Symptoms: I am dead tired!
Best Moment this week: I just love feeling her move! Even though she makes me uncomfortable sometimes, feeling her move never gets old.

You can see how tired I am in this picture!

My doctor's appointment this week revealed no change what so ever. BOO!!

Last week I was starting to get sad about not being pregnant anymore, this week I'm so ready to meet our newest girl! I will still miss feeling her move but I'm so ready to hold her and for her to meet her big sister and daddy!

Diaper Shower

2011-07-09T20:00:00.003-05:00

These sweet ladies from church threw me a diaper shower. We got SO MANY diapers! So awesome. Even better is that we got all different sizes. I should have taken a picture of them but I've already stored them in the nursery closet.

We also got some other gifts and gift cards. We have already put the gift cards to good use! We are so thankful to have people in our lives that care about us and are willing to give to us. The quilt under all the gifts is the one my mom made for the baby. I am absolutely in love with how the nursery is coming together. I still have work to do so no pictures yet!

My sweet precious first born has decided that smiling and looking at the camera with Mommy is not such a bad deal after all. I am loving her taking pictures with me. She is sitting in her favorite spot on top of her sister :).

3 generations all looking and smiling. That's actually a hard picture to get with the 3 of us!

I had a great church shower and really appreciate so much all the goodies that we came away with. So thankful to be a part of such a fantastic church family!

37 weeks

2011-07-06T17:17:00.004-05:00

How Far Along: 37 weeks

Size of baby: about 19 inches, should be about 6 lbs or so
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained about 27 lbs, lost 2 lbs this week.
Maternity Clothes: My fashion so far this summer has been non existent. My comfy cotton shorts that really don't touch me and tank tops are my favorite right now!
Gender: It's a GIRL!
Movement: She is still moving like crazy. She likes to stretch and it is wild to watch when she does that.
Sleep: I have some good nights and some not so good nights. Some nights I am still sleeping all the way throught the night. Others, the bladder gets the best of me.
What I miss: Sleeping on my back. Mexican food and milkshakes. Acid reflux is horrible!
Cravings: Chocolate Milkshakes and I can't even have them without paying for it big time!
Symptoms: I am dead tired!
Best Moment this week: I just love feeling her move! Even though she makes me uncomfortable sometimes, feeling her move never gets old.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and I am still only dilated 1 cm. But I am starting to efface. Doctor said it's very soft and mushy. Sounds gross but whatever.

Today I have been overwhelmingly tired. Bella and I laid down in my bed for a nap. Something I never let her do but she was scared of the thunder and quite frankly I just wanted to lay down with her. She fell asleep and I just laid there. I think I may have fallen asleep for a few minutes but just laying there with no TV, no phone, no computer, it was nice and refreshing. I have a "little" more energy this afternoon but no much. The doctor's office and a trip to Hobby Lobby can wear a girl out!

I am really starting to mourn pregnancy. I know that may sound totally weird. I just know that this is the last time I will look in the mirror and see life inside me. It's the last time I will FEEL life inside me. As miserable as I am. I will still miss this. Not at first of course because I will have my two girls to keep me busy. But I know it will happen, where I long to feel those feelings again. Life, inside me. It's not that I even want more than two kids. It's just that that choice has been taken away from me. No more embryos, no more babies. I am ever so thankful that I have been given the opportunity to have these 2 girls. The joy that Bella brings us is to much to even try to begin to express in writing. I can only imagine how we will feel with two precious babies. It's hard to fathom. I'm pretty sure it will be beautiful.

Several weeks ago we had Maternity/Family/Bella turns 3 pictures taken. Here is the sneak peek. I can't wait to see the rest!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-07-05T17:08:00.002-05:00

So, I'm 34. How. Did. That. Happen? I know there is no way I'm a day over 22. It's amazing how fast life passes you by. My mom always told me that the older you get the faster life (time) goes. It's certainly not that I didn't believe her. I just had no idea how fast it really went.

Today has been rather unproductive. Bela woke up at about 7:30. Luckily she stayed in bed with me and watched TV for a while. I was not ready to get up. I talked to Mema about 9 and then Bella and I headed downstairs to begin a day of movies and massive laziness. Thank goodness she allows that. She went down for her nap at about 1:30. I showered and then settled in for a nap at about 2. She woke up at 2:30. No nap for Mommy. She usually sleeps for about 2 to 2.5 hours. Not today. That would have been an awesome birthday present. Oh well. Terry came home early and then went to grab us dinner. I'm telling you, I've done little to nothing today and I am completely exhausted! I'll be 37 weeks pregnant tomorrow. I'm really hoping for some more progress. I forgot to mention in my last post that I was having pretty significant contractions yesterday from about 7:30 am til about 2ish. I was very close to calling the doctor but they ended up stopping and well I am still pregnant so it was obviously a false alarm. She sure is moving around alot though. I'm pretty sure she is trying her hardest to get out and come meet us. I know her big sister was really disappointed when she woke up from her nap yesterday and she wasn't here yet. It was actually kinda sad....

On Saturday night we went over to my parents for my birthday dinner. We had chicken strips, mashed potatoes, fried okra, and peas. Chicken strips are a big deal at Mom and Dad's. They soak in seasoned buttermilk for about 3 days. Yummy goodness! Tim, Alyssa, Courtney, and Ryan came as well. Bella was so excited about Mommy's birthday party. I'm pretty sure she walked away a little disappointed. No presents and no cake. Her two favorite birthday things. I got money instead of presents (to go toward our new awesomely big and very clear TV) and Dad made homeade ice cream instead of Mom making a cake. Let me be clear that these things were all fine by me. The little was just confused. When we left she very sweetly waved and said, "Happy Birfday, Everybody!" So sweet of her to include everyone in Mommy's birthday.

Before dinner the kiddos did a little swingin' in the backyard!

Needless to say today (my actual birthday) has been a little less productive. I'm not ashamed, afterall, I am growing a human on this my 34th birthday. :)

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T16:42:00.001-05:00

Our 4th of July was pretty low key this year. Mom and Dad came over and Terry cooked his awesomely tasty steaks. Bella played in her pool and we took a family trip (and by family I mean Mom, Dad, Terry, Bella and I) to Babies R Us. Dad was really excited :)! Don't worry, he had a chair, his iPhone, and facebook to keep him entertained! We also stopped at DQ and got some ice cream. Yes, I paid for that when it was bed time but it sure was good! Bella decided she wanted her picture taken. This is a strange concept to me because she likes to turn her back on me when I get out the camera. I'll take it while I can get it!

This is a a dress that Mom and I made. I picked out the fabric and design, Mom sewed, and I did the star applique. We have been very busy!

She even started posing. Who is this child?

Ok. This is her "pweeeeaaaaassseee" face. I have no idea where this came from but it is quite hard to resist. She pulls it out when she really wants something.

"Can I go swimming, pweeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaassseee, Daddy?"
"Can I have some chocolate milk, pweeeeeaaassseeee?"
"Can I watch a movie, pweeeeeeeeaaaassseeee?"

She is just too cute for words!

Mommy doesn't get in on many pictures so I took advantage of her cooperation. Please excuse the no make up and the rather large physique I am sporting at the moment. I'm almost 37 weeks pregnant. It happens.

Oh my goodness, I love this girl so much!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

36 weeks

2011-06-29T15:15:00.003-05:00

How Far Along: 36 weeks
Size of baby: about 18 inches, should be about 6 lbs or so
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained about 29 lbs (oh lordy!)
Maternity Clothes: I'm growing out of my maternity clothes. There have been tears.
Gender: It's a GIRL!
Movement: She is still moving like crazy. She likes to stretch and it is wild to watch when she does that.
Sleep: I sleep well except for when Bella wakes up in the middle of the night or I have an acid reflux attack. I do not like acid reflux!
What I miss: Sleeping on my back. Mexican food and milkshakes. Acid reflux is horrible!
Cravings: Chocolate Milkshakes and I can't even have them without paying for it big time!
Symptoms: I am dead tired!
Best Moment this week: I just love feeling her move!

Monday's doctor appointment revealed that I am 1cm dilated. I suppose we are getting this
party started!

I am starting to get really tired again. I am also getting nervous about getting everything ready for her to come into the this world and come home. I bought my first package of diapers today and got some other little things like pacis, wipes, new nipples for bottles. I can't wait to meet this new baby girl and her daddy and big sister are excited to meet her too. Bella likes to pull my shirt up and "get Baby out" and talk to her and pat her and rub her. She has been saying quite often, "I'm gonna be a big sister." I can't wait for Bella to meet her for the first time. I already feel like it will be pretty emotional for me. There was a time when I thought I would never be a mom and now I'm going to have two beautiful little girls. It's actually hard to wrap my head around but I am so excited!

Malone Family Reunion

2011-06-12T16:09:00.003-05:00

We had our Malone family reunion, which is my Dad's Mom's side of the family. We do this every 2 years and we all meet in Dallas. This year there were 119 people in attendance. My grandmother is 1 of 9 children. That brings about a pretty big family.

My Mema (far left) with her sister and all her brothers. They lost one sister many years ago in a car wreck. This group is very close to each other. Those great uncles of mine are all pretty funny too! I always enjoy getting to see everyone.

Generation number 2 consists of 28 first cousins. There are 21 in the picture. Not bad that only 7 of them missed the reunion. Alaska is kinda far away! My dad is one of the oldest (far right).

Generation number 3. This is where I fall. I know there were quite a bit of us missing because there are way more cousins than this. At one point I think there were about 64 of us. I have no idea what this number is now. Myself and all but one of my first cousins are on the far left side.

Generation number 4. It's hard to believe there are already that many (and more) great grandchildren. Our crew is once again on the left side. I'm not sure how that happened in all the generation pictures but we all ended up on the left side. I have no idea how many there are in this generation. I do know that 2 more are on the way!

We had a great time in Dallas. The trip was a little hard on my pregnant body but it was worth it. It will be 2 more years before we see all the extended family again!

4D

2011-06-01T19:32:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we had our 4D ultrasound. Mom, Dad, Bella, Terry and I all piled into the room to get our first real peek at what this girl looks like. She, of course, did not disapoint. She is just a gorgeous as her big sister and even did some of the same tricks her sister did during her 4D. I am so glad that we did this with both girls. It is so neat to see the similarities!

Baby sister is resting her hand on her knee.

Sweet face, that looks a lot like Bella!

Sucking on her hand.

She has her foot up to her mouth!

And now she is licking her foot! Bella did the same thing during her 4D!

Here is a comparison of both girls! So cool!

32 weeks

2011-06-01T19:10:00.003-05:00

How Far Along: 32 weeks
Size of baby: about 16 inches, 3lb 9ozs (as of two weeks ago)
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained about 24 lbs (oh lordy!)
Maternity Clothes: I'm growing out of some of my maternity clothes.
Gender: It's a GIRL!
Movement: She is a wiggle worm! I'm pretty sure she moves more than Bella did. We have been watching her move from the outside for a couple of weeks now!
Sleep: I sleep well except for when Bella wakes up in the middle of the night or I have an acid reflux attack. I do not like acid reflux!
What I miss: Sleeping on my back.
Cravings: Chocolate Milkshakes!
Symptoms: I am dead tired!
Best Moment this week: I just love feeling her move!

On May 20th I had an ultrasound to check my placenta previa and it has officially moved! YEA!! This means no scheduled C-Section for me. Baby Girl is growing and looking fantastic! I'll post her 4D pics soon!

Natalie moves away

2011-06-01T15:15:00.002-05:00

"Natawie" is one of Bella's favorite little girls on the planet. They have been at Friendswood Christian School together since they were 18 months old. Literally starting a month apart. I have heard Natalie's name lots of time over the last year and a half but only recently was able to meet her. Lucky for us we got to meet her parents too. We just met them officially at the family festival and had so much fun watching our girls play together. Since then we have gotten together several times for each of the girls birthday parties and sadly, a moving away dinner for Natalie and her family. They have moved to Austin. We were so sad to see them go. All of them. Laura and Scott are so much fun and our babies love each other so much. It's a great combination. To bad they up and left us ;). I'm still hoping they will move back some day! Hopefully we will get to see them again before the summer is over, or at least before I go back to work!

End of Year Program at FCS

2011-05-25T16:32:00.002-05:00

I can't believe the end of year is here! Bella has had a wonderful year at FCS. She loves school so much and I could not be happier that she has such a wonderful place to go to school. She loves her friends and her teacher a lot too!

She wasn't in much of a performing mood but that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy watching her little self up on that stage.

Eating cake with her sweet friend Natalie.

A couple of crazy daddies! Gotta love it!

The girls had a great time running up and down the hall. I'm pretty sure they were interrupting class but they were having fun!

Bella is looking forward to going back to FCS in the Fall!

Bella's 3rd Birthday Party!

2011-05-22T16:14:00.004-05:00

Bella had her 3rd birthday party and I will call it a success. I wanted to do low key this year but still wanted her to have a good party. We invited some of her favorite friends and put some water in the pool and let the kids play.

Natalie, Bella, and Kenzie playing in the water.
P.S. I love this pool!

Bella got some great presents from her friends. She was very excited to open presents. I think she will probably be asking to open more presents for a while. I'm pretty sure that might have been her favorite part of the party!

Precious Garrett! The most laid back easy going little boy I have ever met.

Bella wanted a princess cake so she got one. She actually watches youtube video's on how to make princess cakes. It cracks me up.

Our precious little family.

Natalie, Bella, and Avery

Eating some cake. Possibly the second favorite part of the party for Bella.

Bella with Aunt Angie and Granny.

Sweet Natalie

Terry got out the sidewalk chalk and the girls played with it on the deck for quite some time. They were covered in chalk. Oh well!

Bella and her "Natawie"

It's hard to believe she is 3.

Oh Bella....

2011-05-12T12:12:00.000-05:00

In a conversation with her daddy this morning, Bella informed him that she and her sister would be going to college to become princesses and Gabby (the dog) would be going to college to become a tiger. I. LOVE. IT.

Mommy's Day

2011-05-10T15:14:00.004-05:00

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mama, Mama, Mom!" - Isabella Grace Richards

I've had a lot of nicknames in my lifetime but" Mommy" is by far my favorite. I often hear mom's say, "I'm going to change my name if I hear Mommy one more time." If anyone ever hears me say this, please beat me with a stick! It is such an honor to carry that name and it is the sweetest sound to my ears. I waited for a long time to be called Mommy and I don't plan on changing my name anytime soon. I love to hear her call me no matter her mood because it simply means she needs me. Sure sometimes it isn't in the most pleasant way or she is in a bad mood, but what does that matter, I'm a mommy, that's my name, please wear it out!

This beautiful girl made me a mommy for the first time and I love her to pieces. She can make me smile so big and she can also push my buttons in the biggest way. She can make me so happy, but also has the ability to make me so mad. Luckily the happy far outweighs the mad. I love being her mommy more than I could ever express in words. She makes my mommy heart so happy and full and sometimes I'm pretty sure it's going to pop out of my chest.

I make sure I tell her I love her at least 652 times a day. Sometimes more, never less. I don't ever want her to feel anything less than as much love as possible.

I must say that waiting all those years for her was totally worth it. Going through it felt like a lifetime but in the end I couldn't be happier with the way God planned my "mommy ride". Now I have baby girl number 2 on her way and I'm pretty sure my mommy heart really will explode.
I love my big girl and her baby sister to be so much and I look forward to being their mommy for a very long time. So, Isabella Grace, you call me Mommy as often as you like. It's my favorite name because you gave it me.

Then there is this pretty lady. She is my mommy. She is also my best friend. I love her a lot too. I'm pretty sure she is my biggest fan and has always been there for me no matter what. That's what mommy's do and she is the epitome of a mommy. I know she is a nana now, a name which she carries quite proudly, but she was my mommy first. I love you, Mama! You are the best!

Family Festival

2011-04-30T15:14:00.003-05:00

We had our annual church/school Family Festival and it was a huge hit. We have the festival to raise money for the church and school. There are all kinds of activities for kiddos as well as a silent auction for the adults. There was even some entertainment! Bella had a blast!

She started out the day on the horses and moved on from there. Daddy helped alot with getting the moonwalks and other outside activities rented, paid for, and set up so Bella and I were on our own for a good part of the the morning.

But once Daddy got through with his job he needed to cool off. Seems he talked a couple of cute girls in to joining him.......

(all water pictures stolen from Natalie's mommy :))

Bella and her friend "Natawie" (as Bella calls her) were talked into getting wet with Daddy. The Friendswood Fire Department came out and hosed off and cooled down the kiddos (and the Daddy) at the Festival.

Once they got use to what was going on, the girls loved getting wet!

Bella's prissy run is killing me! HA! She is such a girl!
These two ended up being the last ones out there.

After they shut down the water, the girls changed clothes and kept right on playing.

Gotta love a boy that has moves at age 3.......or not! HAHA! These kids all love each other so much. I love that FCS fosters such sweet and loving relationships between the kiddos.

Our youth put together this really cool maze.

Bella got brave and wanted to try out the zip line!

We had a great time at the festival and can't wait for the fun next year!

Easter Weekend

2011-04-24T19:37:00.002-05:00

Our Easter weekend started out with an unexpected date night for Terry and me. This rarely happens and never unexpectedly. I had to work Good Friday, (yuck!) we had a make-up day from that terrible snow storm that hit back in February. HA! Terry had a meeting downtown and Mom and Dad are off touring the world so we asked my brother if he they could watch Bella for us Friday morning. Bella was beside herself with excitement to go spend the day with Ryan. Well that day with Ryan turned into a night! She was super excited when she got there to find that Courtney was there as well. When her Daddy got there to pick her up...... she didn't leave with him! Bella had her very first sleepover (besides Nana and Papa's). She ended up sleeping with Uncle Tim and Alyssa. I warned him! Needless to say she had a great time and Terry and I got to go on a date! We went to eat at this great restaurant out in San Leon. It was nice to just sit and talk.

We got up Saturday morning and hit the grocery store. We were finished by 10 am. WOW!! It's amazing how quickly you can get things done without a child that wants everything in sight! Yes, I know, we are about to have two and I couldn't be more excited about that! After the store we went to get Bella and came home and played out in the backyard all afternoon. Bella swam and slid and rode her bike (in her pool)........ She also dyed some Easter eggs with her Daddy. Daddy got pretty creative and made some multi color eggs. Bella loved watching the eggs change colors.

They dying of the eggs didn't take long so Bella was back into the pool! She could not wait for the Easter bunny to come and hide them. Even though she will tell anyone who will listen she is scared of the Easter Bunny.

This morning we got up and got ready for church. Terry and I had nursery duty so we pretty much missed the Easter service. Bella was so excited to come in the nursery with us this morning but then she didn't want to go to Children's Church. I had to peel her off of me which hasn't happened in a very long time. After church we headed home to finish up cooking lunch, hunt eggs, and wait for Tim (my brother) and his family to get here.

Bella was so excited to find that the Easter Bunny had brought her Merlia, a Barbie she had been wanting and some other fun stuff for her to play with. She hunted for eggs and then we waited for her cousins to get here so we could eat.

Our parents abandoned us on Easter. True Story. I had to cook. True Story. It happened. Ok, Terry and I cooked. That's probably a truer story. Anyway, my parents abandoned us on Easter. Mom says she is never going to do that again. Dad says I have to cook every Easter now. Abandoned. On Easter.

So Tim, Alyssa, Courtney, Ryan, Fred (dog), and Izzy (dog) got here and we ate lunch then we hunted for eggs again. Bella is really getting into this egg hunting!

We had a great time and I'm so glad that they were able to come join us. Bella loves hanging out with her cousins and she was even more excited that they were at her house.

HaPpY EaStEr from the Richards/Cox clan (and Fred)!

On a side note, tonight Bella announced she wants to go to Heaven. While that is of course what I want for her, no doubt. I'm not ready to even think about that. Bittersweet words out of her baby mouth. Made this Mommy tear up and almost start crying.

24 weeks

2011-04-07T18:24:00.003-05:00

How Far Along: 24 weeks
Size of baby: about 12 inches/size of an ear of corn, 1lb 6ozs
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained about 20 lbs (oh lordy!)
Maternity Clothes: I'm wearing mostly maternity clothes now.
Gender: It's a GIRL!
Movement: She is a wiggle worm! I'm pretty sure she moves more than Bella did. We have been watching her move from the outside for a couple of weeks now!
Sleep: Getting better. I know I shouldn't get use to it though
What I miss: Sleeping on my back.
Cravings: Chocolate Milkshakes!
Symptoms: I am dead tired!
Best Moment this week: I just love feeling her move!

I have had 2 doctors appointments this week. I had my monthly OB visit on Monday. Her heartbeat was 157. I'm pretty sure it was a little higher because she had just finished up with some jazzercise. HA!

Today I had an ultrasound to check the placenta previa. Because we had not been there in 6 weeks they did a full ultrasound. I certainly did not mind it at all. I love getting to see her precious little self again. Her measurements are averaging at 23 weeks and 5 days. It was also discovered that her second toe is longer than her big toe. Taking after Mommy and Daddy on that one. She looks great! The placenta has moved and will hopefully continue to move. It doesn't have that much further to go so I am hopeful that it will do what we need it to do.

Bella went with us again and was so sweet through the whole ultrasound. She whispered about things she was seeing and hearing. She was a little nervous but she held Mommy's hand for quite some time during the scan. She did announce at the end that she was "going to cowege and then going to get married". I really love that little little girl!

Antique Show

2011-04-03T13:05:00.000-05:00

My parents recently bought a new travel trailer. Lucky for us they let us stay with then in when we went to Warrenton for the Antiques show this Spring. Dad says we can borrow the trailer anytime, we just can't borrow his truck. I wonder what he will say about borrowing the trailer if we ever get a truck big enough to pull it? HA!

We had a great spot and thoroughly enjoyed our time at the antique show this time. It was so much more relaxed actually staying on the grounds. We shopped for a while, ate lunch, rested, and shopped some more. We also did some exploring this time. The area up there is beautiful! We have been making this trip for 2 years now and look forward to it so much. It looks like Baby Sister will be making her first trip up there in October for the next show.

During our exploring time we ran across this field of bluebonnets. You can't live in Texas and not take some bluebonnet pictures. It's just something that is expected! And of course we want to be good Texans!

I'm pretty sure she is the most gorgeous little girl I have ever seen! I love her so much!

This was what the front door of the trailer opened up too! We had our own little pond and a great breeze. Dad tried to reserve the same spot for October but had a hard time getting confirmation. I guess you have to share the spot with others. I say, you snooze, you lose!

We had another great trip to Warrenton and I'm excited about October!

Nacogdoches

2011-03-27T15:42:00.001-06:00

The last weekend of Spring Break we headed to our happy place, Nacogodoches. This time we took our favorite girl with us. Turns out she "wuvs macogdoches". This could not have made her mommy and daddy any happier. Since it was Spring Break we headed out early Friday morning so we could be there as long as possible. We got in town and checked into our favorite hotel, The Fredonia Hotel. Of course we hit up as many bookstores as possible. Baby sister and Bella got new SFA gear! We drove on to campus to show Bella where mommy and daddy went to college. She was very impressed, so much so that when we drove off she started crying and saying "I want to go to cowege!" Since then she has talked about going to "cowege" quite a bit!

We then made a stop by our favorite chicken place, Chicken Express, YUMMY! We took our food and headed out to Lake Nac. It is our dream to one day own property out there. We figure it's the best of alot of worlds... lake, East Texas, and obviously the close proximity to Nac. Bella loved it out there and we just soaked up the beautiful weather and enjoyed eating our chicken and looking at the water.

We stayed out there for awhile, drove around for quite awhile, and did a massive amount of dreaming!

Saturday morning we got up and got dressed and headed back out to explore and show Bella more of our favorite place. This time we started at the arboretum on campus and walked all through the azalea garden. Oh, the beauty that is East Texas! She had so much fun running around and looking at all the pretty flowers.

"The kiss of the sun for pardon
The song of the birds for mirth;
One is nearer God's hear in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth."

Azalea's in East Texas are like none other! And they weren't even in full bloom!

After we wandered around the garden we headed over to the Ag Pond and let Bela feed the ducks. I lived in dorms on both sides of the Ag Pond in college and always enjoyed sitting out there.

It's crazy to be sitting out there 11 years later with my 2 year old. Hopefully we will get the opportunity to sit out there with her as a student!

Later in the afternoon our friends Natalie and Gibio got in to town with their girls, Laney and Landry.

We did a little hanging out with "Surfin' Steve".

Later we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the reason we were in Nac. We had a wedding to attend! One of Terry's former soccer players brother was getting married. We have stayed close to the Goodrum family and were so excited to be there to celebrate with them!

Bella was a dancin' queen! She had a blast at the reception!

Terry with 3 of his former Nac soccer players. They are all in college now and JT (far right) is playing college soccer. We love our Nac soccer boys (and girls) are we are always so excited to see them or hear from them. They are very special to us!

On Sunday before we headed out of town we got to eat breakfast with Bill and Patti and their family. It was great to be able to spend extra time with them!

We had a great weekend in Nac and it was the best way to spend our last weekend of Spring Break!

....and they call the thing rodeo

2011-03-26T19:38:00.002-06:00

We had a wonderful Spring Break! We mostly relaxed but we did get out a little bit towards the end of the week. I love that Spring time in Houston also brings the rodeo. It's one of my favorite things about living in the Houston area. We had never been during the day during Spring Break and quite honestly I'm not sure we will do it again. The last two years we have just taken Bella during the week in the evening before Spring Break and it hasn't been to crowded. During Spring Break that place is CROWDED! I'm glad we got to go though. We met Mom, Dad, Mema, Papa, Courtney, and Ryan and headed in to pet some animals. Bella loves the animals...alot! She has no fear with them and makes herself right at home with the goats and pigs and llamas.

She also got to see the baby chicks. Tonight she was looking at these pictures, I asked her what she thought baby chicks ate, she said, "cookies". If I was a baby chick, that's what I would want!

Bella went home with Mom and Dad and Terry and I got to stay and meet up with our friends Lori and Adam for some Zac Brown Band. Terry and I sat outside and people watched for a while waiting on them. Interesting mix of people at the rodeo. We had already eaten but when they got there they both had food on a stick so naturally I needed some food on a stick. I got an awesome sausage on a stick. Terry wanted a bite and he DROPPED MY SAUSAGE ON THE GROUND! How are you going to take a pregnant woman's food on a stick and then drop it on the ground. Good thing I looked up and saw some homemade chocolate chip cookies (I would not share these with baby chicks). Oh My Goodness! Lori and I shared a "few" of them. They were hot and gooey and yummy goodness. I had chocolate all over my fingers including under my fingernails. You know those were some GOOD cookies. After I finished eating my "few" cookies we headed inside to listen to some loud and awesome music. Bella had fun spending time with her great and grand parents and cousins and we had fun getting to hang out with our friends!

20 weeks

2011-03-10T19:02:00.003-06:00

How Far Along: 20 weeks
Size of baby: about 6.5 inches/size of a banana
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained about 15 lbs (yikes!)
Maternity Clothes: I'm pretty much into maternity clothes now. Definitely in the pants area. Although my favorite pair of jeans still fit with the rubber band trick. I can still wear most of my regular tops but the belly is getting snug!
Gender: It's a GIRL!
Movement: I'm pretty sure this little girl is practicing her circus acts! She moves a lot but I love it.
Sleep: It comes and goes.
What I miss: Dr. Pepper.....
Cravings: I have discovered Frustista Feezes from Taco Bell. Oh my!! They are some yummy goodness!
Symptoms: I am dead tired!

Best Moment this week: Felling the baby move and getting to hear the heartbeat at the doctor's appointment on Monday. 146 beats per minute!

Don't be jealous of how awesome I look. HA!

Baby Sister is still Baby Sister

2011-02-24T17:36:00.004-06:00

Today we had our anatomy scan and got the results of our blood tests (we do blood tests for Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, etc). Thank you Lord that Baby Sister looks fabulous and all the tests run came back negative. We checked to make sure she was still a girl and sure enough she is! She is a wriggly little thing. She was moving all over the place. She was drinking the amniotic fluid and appeared to be rubbing her eye. Bella went with us and was quite nervous at first. She is not a fan of going to the doctor. She kept saying, "Baby Sister gonna be ok." "Mommy gonna be ok." She also thought I should take my clothes off and go weigh. That part was actually hilarious. Apparently she remembers that part of her own doctor's appointments.

The doctor that we go to for our ultrasounds is a high risk doctor. They have awesome equipment and you actually watch the ultrasound on a 37 inch flat screen TV. Bella pretty much talked through the whole thing. Mostly she just wanted to go back to the waiting room and look at the fish in the fish tank. She did get really excited a couple of times. At one point she said, "Baby Sister is coming!!". I think she got much more excited after seeing her on the TV today. The doctor even gave her her very own picture of her feet!

At this time I do have placenta previa. I will go back in 6 weeks to check on it. I have had this since the beginning and they thought it would move. It has not moved yet. If it doesn't move I will have to have a C-section. Not really sure how I feel about that!

She's a mover! I'm feeling her move ALOT and I LOVE it! By far my favorite part of being pregnant! This picture shows her heart rate which was at 150.

16 weeks

2011-02-09T17:18:00.004-06:00

How Far Along: 16 weeks
Size of baby: about 4.5 inches/size of an avocado
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained about 11 lbs (yeah, not good!)
Maternity Clothes: I'm pretty much into maternity clothes now. Definitely in the pans area. Although my favorite pair of jeans still fit with the rubber band trick. I can still wear most of my regular tops but the belly is getting snug!
Gender: It's a GIRL!
Movement: I'm feeling some movement. I really love that part.
Sleep: Getting better if I could just get rid of this cold and keep it gone.
What I miss: Dr. Pepper.....
Cravings: I'm hungry most of the time. I'm finding myself craving dairy. That is the same thing I craved with Bella.
Symptoms: I am dead tired!
Best Moment this week: Felling the baby move and getting to hear the heartbeat at the doctor's appointment on Monday. 154 beats per minute!

Oddly I think I looked bigger in my 12 week picture than I do in this one. Who knows. I must have eaten alot that day.

Think Pink

2011-01-23T18:15:00.002-06:00

On Friday we had our nuchal translucency screening. This is a screening done between 11 and 13 weeks to look for Down Syndrome. Everything looked great! At the end the sonographer asked us if we wanted to take a look at the gender. Of course we said yes! As soon as she started looking around the little turkey flipped over facing away from us. The sonographer was doing everything she could to get the baby to turn back into "easy access" position. She was shaking my stomach, making me cough, and turning me on each of my sides. After about a good 10-15 minutes little bit finally decided to show us HER stuff. That is right, another little girl is joining our household. Of course we were told this early it is only 80% accurate but I had a feeling it was a girl all along so we are going with it!

Our newest beauty!

We have been asking Bella if she is going to have a little sister. Her answer is "no". Oh dear! Mom and I went shopping Friday afternoon and bought both girls some clothes. I showed Bella her clothes and showed her baby sister's clothes. She said they were ALL Bella's clothes. Looks like we have some work to do to prepare our big for our little. I did ask her today were her baby sister was and she said, "In Mommy's belly."

Needless to say we are excited to be adding a little more pink to our household!

12 weeks

2011-01-12T18:08:00.002-06:00

Here we go....pregnancy posts!!

How Far Along: 12 weeks

Size of baby: about 2 inches/size of a lime

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained about 5 lbs

Maternity Clothes: I wear a couple of pairs of smaller maternity pants but everything else is regular.

Gender: I can't wait to find out! I'm happy with a boy or girl!

Movement: I'm not feeling anything yet but at our doctor's appointment we heard the baby kick the doppler when listening to it's heart beat.

Sleep: I wish!

What I miss: Dr. Pepper.....

Cravings: I'm hungry most of the time. I'm finding myself craving dairy. That is the same thing I craved with Bella.

Symptoms: I am dead tired! I was nauseated but that has pretty much gone away in the last week and a half. I'm also having heartburn....woohoo!

Best Moment this week: Hearing the heart beat and the little kick.

(I stole this from another blogger. I'm sure some of you recognize it :)

These pictures are not all that great. I waited to late so the light in the house was yucky and I had just gotten out of the shower. Oh well!

As I'm sure lots of you have already figured out I posted the time line of the beginning of this pregnancy in a link at the top of the page. It is under baby #2. We chose to keep this to ourselves this time because it relieved alot of the pressure we (or I) felt before. We are so thankful that everything worked out for the best and so far everything looks great. We went to the doctor on Monday and baby's heart rate was 155. It had dropped but she said that was no big deal and not to worry. We have an ultrasound scheduled for next Friday for the down syndrome test and several others. We are taking all precautions because we want to be prepared in case something comes up unexpected. We expect everything to be fine.

I am not sleeping very well at all and it is beginning to take a major toll on my already tired body and mind. Last night I was awake from 1-4. Yikes! Bella is sick so I kept hearing her whine plus I just cant get comfortable. Needless to say I finally fell back asleep and my alarm went off. I accidentally hit the off button instead of the snooze button and woke up at 7:25. That would be 5 minutes before I'm suppose to leave!! Good thing it was a jeans day!

I'M GONNA BE A.............

2011-01-08T17:31:00.001-06:00

Christmas Day

2010-12-27T17:03:00.001-06:00

On Christmas day we woke up and headed to Dallas. Our first stop was in Corsicana to have Christmas with Terry's family.

By this time Bella was really starting to get the hang of opening presents. It really didn't matter if it was hers or not.

Bella got to see all of her cousins. Again, I just didn't do a very good job of taking pictures this year. This is her cousin Stephanie.

Bella being silly with cousin Jordan. Our stop in Corsicana was quick because we were double booked on Christmas day. Thank goodness they were only a little over an hour apart!

We left Corsicana and headed further North up to Denton to spend Christmas with my dad's side of the family. More family time!

Bella was showing Papa her new book that he and Mema gave her.

The whole gang was there except my brother and his family. Normally we take TONS of pictures of each family. All the cousins. It irritates all the boys to death. This year we somehow did not take any of those pictures. I'm not sure how this happened. Kinda disappointing. I know all the boys were probably devastated.

I however HAD to have our picture. This was the only picture our little family took in front of the tree all season.

Sunday we all got up and went to church with Mema and Papa. We took up a whole pew and there were 11 of us missing. Our family just keeps growing!

Bella cooperated for a few pictures in front of the tree! I'm not real sure where the curtsy came from but it was too cute not to post.

And we snuck in a picture of Bella with her great grandparents.

We had a great holiday season. The tree is now put away but I can't wait to get it back our again next year!

Christmas

2010-12-24T20:37:00.002-06:00

This year we moved Christmas Eve and Christmas Day up by one day. We did our family gifts on the 23rd. I must admit I did not do good at all taking pictures of Christmas this year. I suppose I just wanted to actually be in the moment as opposed to worrying about preserving the memory on camera. We still got a couple of cute pictures.

Bella is VERY into My Little Pony right now. She also loves mermaids. These are My Little Pony Mermaids. They are also very small with lots of little pieces. I'm not sure WHAT we were thinking!!

She is also VERY into the Disney Princesses. She was beside herself that she has all of them now. They are constantly being undressed and redressed. They all share clothes but she knows which dress belongs on each doll. Smart girl!

Christmas Eve morning was our Christmas Day morning. Santa brought Bella a new kitchen and some new food. So fun. The night before we told her that Santa was coming and she was so excited. I got the feeling that she thought she was going to be able to see him. I gently told her he would be coming while she was asleep and she wouldn't get to see him. I broke my baby girls heart. Her whole face fell and big-o tears started streaming down her face in a silent cry before she fell into her daddy's chest. It was so sad but fortunately short lived.

Last year we started a tradition of my parents coming over Christmas morning and watching Bella get her Santa gifts, then cooking breakfast. They came again this year! Somehow I missed getting pictures of them being there.

What a MESS!! Oh well, At least she was having fun.

Christmas with the Coxes

2010-12-19T19:21:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas with my side of the family was very low key this year. It was nice to just hang out with the whole family. It's always fun to watch the kids open presents.

The boy with the droopy drawers. He is such a cutie!

Courtney

This is what Dad did the majority of the night. He filmed us all opening our gifts.

Bella got some new panties. That is a WHOLE other blog post. Needless to say, potty training at the Richards' house is interesting.

We had chili for dinner and chatted around the table after we opened presents. I didn't take many pictures this holiday season but I promise Mom, Terry, Tim, Alyssa, and I were all there!

Festival of Lights

2010-12-18T16:57:00.000-06:00

We met the Douglas clan in Galveston for the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens. Last year our little family of three did this by ourselves. It was fun to have the Douglas family with us this year. Of course Bella was in heaven with her BFF Avery. She actually loves every member of the Douglas family. We got there first and were waiting out front for them. Bella saw them walking up and and took off running towards Lori, jumped into her arms, and threw her arms around her. I'm not sure I've ever gotten a welcome like that from her. It was great! She was so excited to see them.

The girls were snuggled down in the wagon.

Bella got her first taste of funnel cake. As you can see, she liked it!

The wind was blowing so hard. If you look closely you can see the powdered sugar flying off the funnel cake. That did not stop Bella from enjoying it.

The Princesses

A great way to start the Christmas break!

Christmas Program

2010-12-15T10:29:00.000-06:00

This year Bella's Christmas program was the story of the birth of Jesus. All the kiddos in Bella's class were angels and they sang Away in a Manger. One of the perks of her attending a Christian school is getting to to things like this and sing songs about Jesus. We are so fortunate that she is able to attend such a wonderful school and that it just so happens to be at our church. She has grown and learned so much already this year. It's hard to imagine where she will be at the end of the year.

Ryan and his red boots. They usually seat Bella and Ryan next to each other but it didn't work out this time. I didn't get any pictures of the two of them together.

She looks like such a sweet angel!

This year Dad even got to perform. Our church praise team was there to sing and Dad lead the congregational singing at the end of the program. So this year it was Bella, Ryan, and Dad's Christmas progam!

We even got a a special visit from Santa Clause. Bella was very interested in him this year. She talked about him all the time. She was just a bit apprehensive when it came to actually sitting on his lap.

Yo Gabba Gabba

2010-12-11T14:16:00.000-06:00

Terry and I took Bella to see Yo Gabba Gabba live. To say she loved it would be a major understatement! Watching her was so much fun! I think I watched her and her reactions more than I did the show. The show was at the Hobby Center which is wear we go to see musicals. It was great to take her to the same theater.

I had a Foofa dress made for her to wear. She was so excited to wear it. I'm really not sure that she has a favorite character. She seems to love them all!

Bella and Daddy in their D.J. Lance glasses.

Oh dear! I love this girl!

Biz Markie showed up and I actually think he was Bella's favorite part of the show. He does "Biz's Beats" where he beatboxes. Bella always tries to beatbox along with Biz when she watches the show on TV. At the live show Biz actually sat down on the stage and invited kiddos up to beatbox with him. Bella wanted to go down there with him so bad she didn't know what to do. She kept saying, "It's my turn!". There was no way we could get down there so she never got her turn. We are pretty sure she was dreaming about it the next morning because she was saying, "It's my turn!" in her sleep. She really loves Biz!

We had such a good time at Yo Gabba Gabba!

First Haircut

2010-12-09T14:07:00.000-06:00

On December 9 Bella got her very first haircut. Lisa has been cutting my hair since Terry and I got married so it seemed fitting for her to give Bella her very first trim. Bella was a little apprehensive at first but ended up doing very well. She is such a good girl!

Thankful

2010-11-25T18:25:00.002-06:00

There are so many things that I have to be thankful for this year. I have a precious husband and daughter that I love more than life itself. I thank God every day that he chose me to be Terry's wife and Bella's mommy. I am thankful for a husband that goes above and beyond for me. I am thankful that he is such an incredible daddy to our girl. I am thankful for a little girl that never fails to entertain. I am thankful for the unsolicited hugs, kisses, and "I wud you, Mommy". I am thankful for our health. I am thankful for a roof over our head. I'm thankful for my parents that have helped us out in more ways than we can ever repay them. I am thankful for their unconditional love and support. I am thankful for a job that I enjoy and that reminds me daily how lucky I was growing up and am today. I am thankful for friends who love me as I am. I am thankful for tiny blessings. I am thankful for this life, which I wouldn't trade for anything.

We spent the day at my parents house and Mom definitely did not disappoint with the cookin'. YUM-O!!!! I've been looking forward to this meal for quite a while now and was very excited to finally eat it. I forgot my camera so I took all the pictures with my hipstamatic app on my iPhone.

I must admit that I not much of a dressin' kind of girl. I guess my taste buds changed this year because I ate it up this year. Drizzled in giblet gravy......goodness!

Then there are the ever famous egg noodles. These are a staple at Thanksgiving and Christmas and if I don't get to eat them....... well let's just say that is VERY sad. There have been fights over left over noodles. They are THAT good!

So much good food. Good thing I brought home lots of leftovers cause this is making me hungry!

The sweet potato casserole is awesome too. It makes me feel like I'm eating dessert while I'm eating my meal. Can't get better than that!

Oh the pie. Buttermilk. Pecan. Enough said.

I am so thankful for these to little girls. I am thankful for the little boy too. I am thankful that they all love each other. I am thankful to hear Bella say, "Wanna go see Ryan" "Wanna go see Courtney". She loves her cousins and I am thankful for that.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Hope you did too!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Richards'!

Halloween Part 3

2010-11-14T08:26:00.002-06:00

Halloween night we went over to Lori and Adam's house so the girl could "trick or treating" together. Lori asked Bella if she knew what she was suppose to say when she went to a door and Avery said, "You say "trick or treating!". So at every house the girls said "Trick or Treating!" Well, they WERE going trick or treating! Funny girls!

Girls in tutu's! You really can't get any better than that. I made both of them. Bella had worn her bumblbee costume twice already so I decided she needed to change it up. She added the crown and necklace all on her own. My girl really loves her accessories.

This is the lazy girl way to trick or treat. Many of their neighbors were sitting in their driveways so Terry just pulled them right up to the candy, they said "trick or treating", put their bags out for candy, and moved on to the next house.

They did walk up to a couple of houses because Terry wanted Bella to get that experience. Avery was a little more seasoned because she had done this last year. This was Bella's first year to go door to door and actually understand what was going on.

Adam with two happy girls!

This picture on the left is what we call Bella's crazy eyes. The best part is the chocolate all over her face and the m&m's in her hand. She had so much fun this Halloween. She got to spend lots of time with Avery and people gave her candy!!

Halloween Part 2

2010-11-13T14:47:00.000-06:00

Sunday morning of Halloween we had a fish fry and family fun day after church. We had a big slide, face painting, and fish. Bella had a good time because she loves slides!!

I LOVE smocked dresses. It could actually be a slight addiction as far as her clothes go. They are so sweet and dainty and girly. They are the ultimate girly dress as far as I'm concerned. I love this fall dress. She will be wearing it until Thanksgiving!

Bella's teacher, Mrs. Ami, painted her face. Poor baby looks unhappy here but she was tired. We didn't get to stay for very long because it was naptime.

I love this sweet little face.

Halloween Part 1

2010-11-12T17:21:00.000-06:00

Saturday Lori, Adam, Avery and Garrett came over to our house. We walked to our local cafe and had brunch together. The girls put on their Halloween costumes for our little outing.

We had a bumblebee and Minnie Mouse with us. They were so cute together. After we ate we walked to a cute little shopping center right by our house and went in and out of those shops then we headed back across the street to the park. The built a brand new playground called a boundless playground in our neighborhood park. It is the first of it's kind in Galveston County. It is great for children with special needs as kiddos with wheel chairs can take their chairs right up on to the play set. It is really neat and the girls had a blast playing.

Just look at these sweet faces.

Bella loves Avery, and I mean she LOVES her. Avery was so sweet with her at the park. Bella would put her hand up for Aves to help her up the stairs and she would wait very patiently and walk with her up the stairs. They are two very precious girls!

This just makes my heart smile....

OHHHHH!!! I could just eat them up!!

Bella had so much fun playing with Avery at the park!

Sweet Baby Garrett! Bella thinks all babies are Garrett. Every time we see a baby she says, "Baby Garrett". She really likes those Douglas kiddos! So do I.

So Bella was a bumblebee. She had to dress up as an animal for school because they were doing Noah's Ark. We went to the costume store to try on costumes. We picked up a Monkey, Elephant, Ladybug, and Bee. We went in try them on and we had a full on melt down because the monkey and elephant included pants. That's right our girly girl doesn't like pants so we let her choose between the bee and the ladybug and came home with a bumblebee. She would say, "Imma bumblebee, BUZZ BUZZ!!". She is very cute. True story.....

The Battle of the Piney Woods!

2010-11-11T16:11:00.001-06:00

The Battle of the Piney Woods is the SFA vs. Sam Houston game that is being played at Reliant Stadium for the next 4 years. We started out with a bang this year and beat those little bearkats. What is a bearkat anyway? We had so much fun at the game. It's always great to be surrounded by people in purple that love SFA and Nacogdoches as much as we do. We got there in time to eat some awesome free bar-b-que at the SFA tent. Then we headed back out into the parking lot for some tailgating. The guys all played washers and us girls got in some good chatting.

Meagan and Kiefer enjoying some free bar-b-que!!

While at the SFA tent I got to see my good friend, Melanie, from grad school. It was SO good to see her. We haven't seen each other since we graduated in '06. That was WAY to long. We had so much to catch up on. She is working on her PhD now, at SFA, of course!!

So glad to see Meagan sportin' an SFA shirt for this game!

I love these girls!!

We had such a great time and we can't wait for next year. There were over 24,000 people at the game. The whole bottom bowl of reliant was full. The attendance was a record for an SFA vs. Sam game. AXE 'EM Jacks!!

Why Dream Ordinary

2010-11-10T15:38:00.002-06:00

Last month Terry, Bella and I drove up to Round Top, Texas so that I could do a senior session with my assistant principal's daughter. We had such a fun time up there and I was able to sneak in a few shots of Bella while Maddie was changing.

My little munchkin is growing up so fast. Then sometimes I look at her and she is still a baby. I prefer her stay a baby for a little while longer :). Too bad for me, she will just keep growing up in front of my eyes. She is SO into princesses and SO girly. She loves to dance more and more. Her very favorite song is a hip hop song called "Down". She requests it on a regular basis and dances her little heart out when she hears it play over and over. The first time we realized she loved this song we were listening to music on the tv and this song started. Bella stopped dead in her tracks, drew in a deep breath, and said, "I WUD DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!!". And we "wud" you, baby girl!

I love to listen to her talk. She says the funniest things. There are things that she can say perfectly and others that she adds her 2 year old language too. The other day we had candles burning in the house and she said, "It smells A-MAZING!". She has been using the word "amazing" a lot lately which cracks me up. She has also been know to say to her daddy, "I want Starbucks, now!". Don't worry, he isn't getting her coffee. She has a friend that works there named Walter and he gives her stickers. The funniest part is, she prefers to go inside and will get upset with Daddy if he attempts to go through the drive-thru (Walter gives her stickers in the drive-thru too). On mornings that she isn't requesting Starbucks, she wants a "ko-wach-a-wee" otherwise known as a kolache. This is probably my favorite word that she mispronounces. It is hilarious to hear her request. Needless to say she isn't pronouncing her "L's". No biggie. It makes for some super cute pronunciations.

We found this saying on these steps when we were taking Maddie's pictures. I love it. I want Bella to know this saying and believe in it. Shoot for the stars baby girl!!

Homecoming

2010-10-27T18:11:00.001-05:00

We went to our second FHS game this season to cheer on the mighty mustangs. Kenzie's mama, Laura, got Bella and Kenzie their very own mums! They were so cute!! I had Bella a special FHS Mustangs dress made to wear to the games. I'm kinda obsessed with all things handmade and etsy.....

Bella was being SO silly! But she sure looked cute doing it.

Mama and Bella sportin' our FHS gear!

Cutie girls!

And the real reason we go see the mustangs play..... #55!!

Taking Bella and Kenzie's picture once we got in to the stadium was difficult they were way to busy watching and talking about the ........

WRANGLERETTES
That makes this former W-Gal happy every time! I SO hope she follows in my footsteps on this one.

Hairspray!

2010-10-26T12:27:00.002-05:00

Terry, Mom, Courtney, and I went to see Hairspray a few weeks back. It was so fun to watch how excited Courtney was to watch the show. I think her favorite characters were Amber and Penny. Penny was hilarious in the live show. I love her part in the movie but she was especially funny live! The whole cast was fabulous. This was a TUTS production and their were quite a few young kiddos in the show. I am always amazed at the talent of such young ones. I can't wait to start taking Bella to these shows. She loves dance and music and dressing up so I think she will really enjoy the theater when she gets a little older.

I am REALLY enjoying getting to go to the theater so much right now!! We were suppose to go see Shrek Sunday night but Terry gave me a stomach virus kinda like that nasty one that hit our house last February (he had it last week). PRAY that Bella doesn't get it!! Mema and Papa went to see Shrek our place and Papa said he was sorry I got sick but it sure did turn out to be a good time for me to get sick :). I think they really enjoyed the show!!

So You Think You Can Dance

2010-10-25T19:59:00.003-05:00

What better way to spend an evening than with your mama and your best friend!! In September (yes, I have MAJOR catching up to do) I gave Mom a ticket to SYTYCD for her birthday. She was very excited and so was I. We got Niki a ticket at the same time so the three of us had a fun girls night together!

We had such a fun night and I am so thankful that I have these two lovely ladies in my life!!

28 months

2010-09-20T20:23:00.003-05:00

My Sweet Precious Isabella,

My how you have grown over the last couple of months....well, not physically, but you are growing up and turning into a "big girl" right before our eyes. You are still tiny in stature but it certainly makes it easier for Mommy to carry you around.

You started back to school in August and are thriving and loving it. There have been no tears which has been awesome and amazing considering what we went though last year. You are learning so much. You can identify a triangle, circle, square, star, heart, and you call a crescent a moon (close enough). You can count to 11 even though you still need a little help. You know the color pink all the time and green seems to be your next favorite color. I often hear you singing songs from school but my favorite to catch you singing is Father Abraham. Your favorite part is "right foot, left foot" and stomp your feet.

You LOVE to sing and dance. You still mix several songs together at a time and I love it when you do that. You often ask Daddy or I to dance with you. You recently started attempting high kicks after watching the Wranglerettes dance at the football game. I hope more than anything to see you in that uniform one day, following in your mommy's footsteps.

We also gave up your paci for good this month. You were only using it at bedtime so we decided it was time for you to loose it for good. The paci fairy came and took your paci but left you two princesses to sleep with. You love Tiana and Aurora so much. They get to go lots of places with us. You were not happy with us at all the first night, you screamed for a little while but you finally went to sleep. The second night you cried for about 5 minutes but went on to sleep. The third night your prayer went like this, "Dear God, Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Paci......No paci, Dabby, Bewa. Amen." After that you dove into bed, cuddled up with your "babies" and went to sleep. Unfortunately the good sleeping hasn't lasted and you started waking up in the middle of the night again this past week. You did good all summer sleeping in your bed all night but the last week you have been trying to get back in our bed every night. It's hard for Mommy and Daddy to let you cry it out but we will get back on track very soon. I think you still need to get use to not having you paci. I must admit I was sad to see it go. Besides being potty trained it was kind of your last "baby" thing. Now we must tackle potty training and I am not looking forward to it. Even though you have tee teed several times on the potty!!

Obviously you were over having your picture taken!

You are talking up a storm and say some of the funniest things. Gabby got sick the other night and you said, "DABBY! Are you OK?". You were so concerned about you "Dabby". Your sentences are getting more and more complex and you are working really hard to pronounce your words correctly.

I love you so much, Isabella Grace!!

Go Big Blue!!

2010-09-19T17:29:00.003-05:00

Friday night we headed back to my old stompin' grounds to watch the Mighty Mustangs play some football. My "little" cousin Braunsen is a senior and playing for the big blue! This week was our first official home game because the stadium has been under construction. It is amazing to see so many people in the stands. I don't remember there being that much blue in the stands when I was dancing on that field. It makes me proud to see so many people.

Kenzie's mama, Laura, picked Bella up her very own Mustang bow. I've got to get her a mini Wranglerette uniform!!

I feel pretty sure these ladies were not real excited that Bella was sitting between them. She was pretty busy!

There he is!! #55 is in the middle of the field. That's our boy!

By the way.... we won!!! We are 4-0!!

Happy Birthday to Mom

2010-09-19T17:18:00.002-05:00

Tuesday night for Mom's birthday we went to eat at Lupe Tortilla. This is one of our favorite places to eat. Yummy fajitas!! This Tuesday night I am taking Mom to go see the live tour of "So You Think You Can Dance"!! We are very excited!!

The babies needed pictures taken with their grandparents for grandparents day at school so we took pictures with each of the kiddos!

First Day of Preschool

2010-08-28T17:13:00.003-05:00

Bella had her 2nd annual 1st day of school this week at Friendswood Christian School. This year she is in the Pre-K 2 class with Mrs. Ami. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful program locally that uses Christian principles and is part of the Texas School Ready! project. The school is also located at our church AND I am on the school board. I am so excited to see all the things that are in store for Friendswood Christian School, the staff, and the kiddos this year. There are great things coming and I am so proud to be involved and to have my own child enrolled. Bella was very excited to see her MDO teacher at orientation and insisted (and by insisted, I mean she grabbed Terry by the shorts and drug him) on going in to her room to see her. That kind of thing makes me feel even better as a parent and board member because I know how much the teachers love these kids and vice versa. She had a great first week and even tee-teed on the potty TWICE!! GO MRS. AMI and BELLA!! Now if we can just figure out how to keep that going at home. She did not cry AT ALL this week. That is huge for Bella and makes me feel even better about her being there. Well let's be honest, I totally feel like it's the best place in the area! We love FCS!

Bella with Mrs. Ami and of course Ryan!

Bella had a big day on Monday. First day of school and a new gymnastics class for the Fall. Terry and I still get to participate with her. But we have a new friend in class with us and she just happens to be our cousin. We are so excited that Lexi has joined us at gym. Now we have Kenzie and Lexi. If only Avery was in our class!! Avery is on an older class though.

After class we went out to eat at Pappasito's for Lesli's birthday. I didn't get any pictures of the birthday girl as the 2 little's at the end of the table were hogging the camera time. Go figure!
Anyway you can see these two are hams!!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy LESLI!!

A flower girl and a princess

2010-08-22T21:17:00.010-05:00

Bella has made her debut as a flower girl!! She did such a good job and we are so proud of her! When Erin and Tim asked Bella to be their flower girl, I must admit, I was a little nervous about how she would do. Luckily we have a little performer/entertainer on our hands and she did such a great job. I couldn't have been more proud of her......

We were all sitting in the church waiting to get things started and I still wasn't sure what she would do. It came time for her to take her basket and get into position and she went without any hesitation at all.

The ring"master" Garrett was so sweet with her and helped her up and down the stairs.

She stood up there like such a big girl on her sticker throughout the whole rehearsal.

She is turning into such a big girl right before my eyes!

When we got to the church on Saturday I took Bella in with Erin and the bridesmaids to get her dressed. When she first saw Erin in her beautiful dress she was in awe. When she finally found her words she quietly said, "Princess." She said this a few times then realized she was now wearing a "princess" dress and pulled out her dress and said, "Princess!".

She was completely enamoured with her very own "princess". She followed Erin all over the place and kept calling her "Princess!".

She waited very patiently in the auditorium while pictures were being taken.

And then it was time............And our little girl was gorgeous and perfect and oh so precious standing up on that stage!

When Erin and Tim went to do the sand ceremony, Bella wanted to go with them. She was stopped and stood right smack dab in the middle of the stage turned around watching.

This is just a little snipit of her antics. She is SUCH a performer!!

She got a little extra help from Erin's uncle down the stairs.

I love her face!!

Bella and her "princess"!

By the way Erin's dress was BEA-U-TIFUL!

Checking out the Fred Hartman Bridge in Baytown.
and then she spotted the "princess" and she wouldn't cooperate for any more pictures by the water.

With Tim and Erin. Tim is a good friend of ours from SFA. They had never met Bella in person when they asked her to be their flower girl. They got our Christmas card and decided she was their girl........ can you blame them???

Bella was worn out so Mom and Dad took her home so Terry and I could hang out with our friends for a little while longer.

Tim and Terry were trying to be serious. Terry was an usher in the wedding.

Me, Natalie, and Gretchen. We don't get to see them enough!

So Bella did a fantastic job and we are so proud of her. Thank you Tim and Erin for entrusting our baby girl with such a big job!!

Bella's last day of Summer Gymnastics

2010-08-22T18:45:00.006-05:00

Bella had her last gymnastics class of the summer last week! She has absolutely LOVED going to gym every week. She has progressed and learned so much. We have enjoyed so much watching her grow the last few months. She finally warmed up to her teachers but they are going to college in the fall so she will get new teachers. Hopefully she will warm up fast to her new teachers. Lexi will be joining us starting tomorrow so we are really excited about that too!! We took some video of her this week so be sure to watch!

She is becoming an expert at hanging!! She use to not hang on to the rings at all and sometimes wouldn't even try to get on them.

Miss Kari helped her with her opossum hang.

The kiddos sit and listen to the next set of instructions between activities.

The trapeze swing scared her to death at first. It took her a long time to try it and when she finally did she realized she did not like it. BUT this week she did it 3 times and was SO proud of herself....her parents were pretty proud too! Notice Kenzie in the background cheering her on. So cute!

She LOVES to jump.

This video cracks me up! Please ignore my fashion and my talking. Actually ignore my talking in all of these videos!!

Kenzie gets her medal!

Bella was waving to her fans!

This series of pictures makes me laugh so hard. They are gonna get in a lot of trouble together over the next (many) years!

Miss Chelsea and Miss Kari were awesome teachers!!

We are ready to get started with fall gymnastics!!!

Lexi turns 2!

2010-08-22T17:14:00.005-05:00

Our sweet cousin Lexi turned two at the begining of August. She had a fun birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese (where a kid can be a kid....and a daddy can be a kid too). Lexi is about 2 and a 1/2 months younger than Bella and will be in the same grade when they start school. How cool is it that she has two cousins that are all the same age as her?!

the birthday girl!

Terry and Bella playing a game. Remember it's a place where a daddy can be a kid too!

Just lookin' cute as always!

Ryan was there to celebrate!

While we were there, Bella had a conversation with Chuck E. I think she probably told him to Not come out and join the party. She liked him best on stage when he was mechanical.

Ryan talked his mama into riding a ride with him!

Bella even learned how to play skee ball!!

Happy Birthday, Lexi! We love you!!

Go Fish Guys

2010-07-27T10:53:00.002-05:00

This post relates to the one below but I couldn't get this video to go into the original post. You can read below first or listen now. But...Beware, if you have children in room, it is likely they will want to DANCE!

A Sleepover and The Go Fish Guys

2010-07-24T20:59:00.005-05:00

Bella and Courtney had a sleepover at our house. We had been over at Mom and Dad's and the girls had been playing all day. When we got ready to leave Bella went over and grabbed Courtney's arm and said "Come on!". She wasn't leaving without her. We called Tim and she got to come home with us. The girls had a blast together. Bella looks up to her SO MUCH!! The house was a wreck but I suppose the messier it is the more fun they had.

I was recently introduced to the Go Fish Guys. If you have kids and you haven't had a listen, they are a must. They are a great Christian kids group. I personally love them. They remind me so much of Acappella that I listened to all the time growing up.

Don't let the fancy hairdos get in the way of the awesome voices of these guys! The video above is the older stuff that I listened to ALOT! I saw them in concert MANY times in the 80's and 90's.

I couldn't get the Go Fish Guys video into this post so that is why it is in the post above.

Now back to the Go Fish Guys and the sleepover..... the girls danced around and sang until bedtime and then started over again the next morning.

Dancing around like crazy!

Precious girls!

They did take a break for a snack and watch The Tooth Fairy.

Here they are in action!

They had so much fun together and I'm so glad Bella has a big girl cousin to look up to!

Wicked = Awesome = Wicked Awesome

2010-07-21T20:23:00.004-05:00

My big birthday present from Terry was tickets to go see Wicked. I have been wanting to see Wicked for quite some time now. The verdict is in and it is was incredible! I loved it so very much. I love musicals very much. I have been lucky to see quite a few. When I was in high school and early college my grandparents had season tickets to Theater Under the Stars and when they couldn't go I was the lucky recipient several times. My first musical (real musical at the theater) experience was Annie when I was in about the first or second grade. I had seen it many times on TV but my love for musicals grew upon seeing one live. I also loved watching Oklahoma, Sound of Music, and of course Grease. My high school put on Oklahoma and Sound of Music which I of course went to see. I was actually in South Pacific my senior year. That was one of my favorite things I did in high school. It was so much fun. I was just in the chorus but it was a blast. "I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair"...... oh excuse me, I just took a trip back to 1995. I'm back now. So anyway I have had the pleasure of seeing 42nd Street, Victor Victoria, Les Miserables (LOVE), Cats (LOVE), Grease (how can you not LOVE), In the Heights (ok I love them ALL if you really want to know the truth), and now Wicked. I must say that before seeing Wicked, Les Mis was my favorite. The music is phenomenal. When I was in college at SFA I would listen to the CD every night before bed to drown out the noise from the porch. LOVE the music. Then there is Cats, great costumes and dancing. But now there is Wicked. I can't express how much I loved this show. I was prepared and downloaded the music beforehand so I already had a couple of favorite songs that I was looking forward to putting into context. I loved how towards the end you started to see how the Wizard of Oz and Dorthy fit into the story. It was pretty much brilliant. The music is so much fun and super catchy. I find myself singing it all the time. I could definitely see it again and not be bored at ALL! This season of TUTS is going to be great. I'm hoping to swing my own set of season tickets?????

Happy Birthday to ME!

2010-07-21T14:44:00.006-05:00

So I turned the big double 3. How does this even happen? I still think of myself as a twenty something so I hope that will keep me young. Today a man came to the door and asked me if my dad was home. HA!! Funny enough my mom was here. But I told him I was the owner and he was slightly confused. This thing use to make me mad because it happened all the time. People use to always tell me how much I would appreciate it one day. That would make me even madder. Well, that day has come. I appreciated him thinking I was WAY younger than I am. Of course he was an older gentleman and it's possible that his eyesight was lacking. I choose to believe it was 20/20 thank you very much!

So my birthday came and went. We were worn out after our day at the lake. Terry had the day off since the 4th fell on a Sunday. It's so nice that everybody gets the day off to celebrate my birthday when the 4th falls on a Sunday. I sure do appreciate that! Anyway, we ended up lazing (did I just make that word up?) all day. Quite frankly that is a great way to spend the day as far as I'm concerned.

Terry made plans for my mom to keep Bella the next Saturday night so we could go do something. I decided I would rather her keep her during the day because I really wanted to go shopping in the galleria area. After all we were celebrating MY birthday. This is where things began to get a little hairy. I took it upon myself to ask Mom if we could change the plans and did not like the answer she gave me very much. She said she would have to check with Dad. Really?!?! I didn't recall asking her to keep Bella once this summer so I was a little confused as to why she was putting me off. Needless to say by the time Terry got home I was pretty upset and he LAUGHED at me. I did not see the necessity of that at all. The more he tried to tell me to stay out of it the more suspicious I got. I let it go when once again we had to be at Mom and Dad's by 7:30-8. Why? We never have to be on a timeline schedule. Then I heard him on the phone to Niki and when I heard her ask him if he was on speaker I really knew something was up. Needless to say there had been a plan in place for about 3 months. Don't worry Mom, I get it. I'll let it slide this time :).

When we got back to Mom and Dad's to "pick" up Bella, my brother was there and I saw Niki's car parked down the street. We walked in and I expected to see them but was shocked when I saw my cousin Tiffany that lives in Dallas and our friends Laura and Craig. Niki had thrown me a "Glee" surprise party!

I did not do a good job of taking pictures but there were costumes involved in this. The following were in attendance: Puck, Coach Sylvester, Finn, Quinn, and Tina.

The sweet Douglas family showed up too! They are on my favorites list. Like at the top! This is baby Garrett. We have been saying lots of prayers for this little guy. He has Spina Bifida and that is a shunt you see on his head. He is doing AWESOME and his physical therapist says he is AHEAD developmentally. God sure is working miracles on this little guy. He is so precious and sweet and I sure did enjoy snuggling with him for awhile. You can read about his story here. Adam has done an awesome job of keeping everybody updated on their strong boy!

Tiffany came all the way from Dallas.
She is good like that!

Little man

Avery and Bella. Bella had seen Avery the night before because we had gone over to their house to hang out. She was SO excited to see Avery 2 nights in row. I was cracking up. Avery is Garrett's big sister and she is perfect in that role. Such a sweet girl!

Niki decorated my cake. Here she is dressed as Coach Sylvester! That silly BFF of mine did a great job and I'm so thankful to have her in my life. I'm even more thankful that she has moved back to our area and that she got a job in the same town as me! I love you, Inki!

The Douglas Family!

Quinn, Finn, Me, and Tina...... I mean Kenzie, Craig, Me, and Laura!
Sweet friends and I am so glad they came to celebrate with us. Laura and I have been friends since 8th grade. That's a long time. I'm so grateful she is still in my life. Love her!

My two precious friends!

Tiffany borrowed one of Tina's blue hair extensions!

Thanks for the surprise guys. Ya'll are awesome!

Disclaimer: before I get any phone calls, I am very aware that there were some friends left off the invite list. It is my understanding that my husband may have to take some of the blame for this. Apparently he was pretty busy at work (read: sarcasm). I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure this should lead to a night out with said people (read: very serious). Just sayin'.

4th of July

2010-07-21T11:28:00.006-05:00

We spent our 4th of July at Lake Livingston with the Driskill clan. We have been going up there since I was a little girl. Our family friend Nancy was there and we hadn't seen her in about 10 years or so. It was so awesome to be able to see her. Mom and Dad came up for the afternoon and one of Lesli's childhood best friends was there with her family. We had a great crowd. So great that it took two trips to get us all to the island on the boat.

I love that I have so many childhood memories with Lesli at the cabin and now our kids are building those memories there together as well. We are so lucky to be able to watch that!

Bella was sportin' her patriotic swim suit!

This picture make me laugh. This is over at the island. The water felt sooo good!!

The group minus me because I was behind the camera and Mom and Dad because they had not made it to Livingston yet.

My precious little family!

Mom and Nancy. She is such a special friend to us and we miss her!!

Bella had so much sunscreen in her hair she had a mohawk that actually stayed!

Getting some cousin love from Madi!

The daddies with their baby girls!

Me and Nancy!

We had a great 4th of July spent at the lake just like it is suppose to be!

26 Months

2010-07-20T14:39:00.002-05:00

So I missed Bella's 25th month post and I'm getting out of order with our life but I wanted to get her 26th month post on the correct date so here we go.

I have absolutely LOVED being home with the princess this summer. I absolutely do NOT want to go back to work in 2 weeks. She has grown up so much this summer and has been a joy to be with. She gets girlier everyday. I love it so much. She is really getting into playing dress up and her baby dolls. Sometimes we dress up her baby dolls.

We attempted potty training because I really thought she was ready but after she has screamed and cried on the potty I have given it a second thought. I have been told by so many to not push them because they push back even harder and it takes longer to train them, so we are taking it easy for the time being.

She sings her little heart out all the time and I simply can't get enough of it. Her sweet little voice just melts my hear. She likes to mix several different songs into one. Already an artist if you ask me. Her favorites are The ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and The B-I-B-L-E.

She is quite the little dancer as well. She quite a few moves in her repertoire. I can not wait to get her in dance class!

She is talking so much that I'm hearing new words and longer sentences everyday. The other day she told Terry to "go up the ramp" he was in fact getting ready to walk up a ramp onto a porch for a new house in our neighborhood. How in the world does she even know what a ramp is and where did she learn the word for it?

She can count to 10 but always leaves out the number 4. But really, who needs the number 4 anyway? It really isn't all that important when you are 2.

Every number she sees in print is the number 9 and every letter is A. At least she has the concept.

She is doing better and better in gymnastics and even swung on the trapeze bar out over the foam pit and dropped all by herself this week. I couldn't believe she did it but I was so proud of her!

I never reported her 2 year stats so here we go:
weight: 22 lbs - 3%
height: 33 1/2 - 46%
head: 19 3/4 - 97%

Her stats make her look totally out of proportion but I think she is perfect!

She is a bundle of joy and so precious and I just can't get enough of her. I want to squeeze her and kiss her and love her ALL the time!

Home Sweet Home

2010-07-17T10:39:00.001-05:00

Bella was mostly a great little airplane traveler. Yes, she has her paci. I must admit that we got rid of it for a few days back in February but then she got that nasty stomach virus and wanted it and how do you tell a baby that is throwing up that they can't have their paci. Don't judge. Needless to say I was worried about her ears and quite frankly the ears of the other passengers. SOOOO she got her paci on the plane. Just to clarify, when at home she only gets her paci at bedtime and I'm pretty sure we will NEVER get it away from her now. Like I said.....don't judge.

Anyway, we had a fabulous trip to Colorado and can't wait to get to go back. Thank you Aunt Marcia and Uncle Jerry for letting us bombard your beautiful place for a few days. We had a great time and greatly appreciate you sharing with us!! We love ya'll!!

The North Pole

2010-07-15T14:33:00.017-05:00

On Monday we go up and took the kiddos to the North Pole. It is the cutest amusement park ever! It is obviously Christmas themed. The neatest thing about this park was that Bella could ride all the rides. Some of them we had to get on with her but there were lots of rides the kids could get on by themselves. I adored this place! Mainly because Bella loved it so much. It is so awesome to relive some of your own childhood memories (I loved amusement parks) through your child. She loved it so much there were a couple of rides she had to ride twice because she didn't want to get off. The best part is that she could do that. There were NO lines so she could ride twice or we could just walk up and get on a ride. My kind of place! If you are ever in the Colorado Springs area and you have young children, I highly recommend this place. I would go back in a heartbeat.

The North Pole is located on the side of a mountain. I believe it is actually on the side of Pike's Peak. I know that it is the same road. I might be wrong about that but I'm pretty sure.

They have the tallest ferris wheel in the world at the North Pole. By tallest, it is at the highest elevation. Pretty cool. Of course it scared Terry to death. That actually might have been my favorite part of the day! He was quite nervous and I thought it was hilarious. Our 2 year old was just fine and he was not so much. Awesome!

He is totally faking this smile. He was scared to death up there. The view was amazing from up that high. I also must say that Ryan was a little nervous as well. When he and Tim would get to the top he would bury his face in his daddies side so he wouldn't have to look down. He was a trooper though.

They had this cute little train. We had to ride that because Bella loves "choo trains" so much. As it turns out I didn't even get a picture of her riding the "choo train". Go me!

The Cox family minus Courtney who was sitting with Tiffany.

"Choo Train"

Courtney got her face painted with a beautiful butterfly.

This girl loves to ride "horsies". Carousels have lots of "horsies".

WOOHOO!

Ryan and Alyssa

It appears I got some pictures out of order. Oh well. Courtney was excited about the ferris wheel. I'm not sure how excited Alyssa was....

Bella finally gets to ride by herself. I'm not sure she knew what to think at first but once she got use to it she LOVED it. This was the first ride she had to stay on and ride again.

Courtney

Ryan didn't really know what to think of it and he got a little nervous.

As you can see Bella was having a great time.

This was when it landed and we finally got a smile out of Ryan. I guess he was glad it was over. HA!

Bella's second go round. I have a feeling she will be riding roller coasters as soon as she is tall enough. I know I was!!

This ride was suppose to be just Courtney and I but while we were waiting Bella was throwing a fit to ride with us. I asked the guy if she could ride and he said "sure". I'm not sure it was my smartest parenting moment but we let her ride.

Yes, we put our 2 year old on this ride. She actually did pretty good on it. Her stomach was definitely dropping because she would hold her breath and and clench her stomach muscles. In the end......she wanted to ride again. We didn't.

Riding in the boats with her big cousin. She loves her big cousin!

Obviously another ride she rode twice. Ryan joined on the second round. He was leaning out with his hands in the water at one point. Silly boy.

I love the look on Bella's face here. She loved this so much!

Daddy threw Bella on this ride without watching it first. It actually went pretty fast and was the only ride she cried on. I think part of it was that she was by herself. It was one of the rides they wouldn't let us on with her and Courtney was riding something else. Poor thing didn't like this one too much.

Then all three of them got in the firetruck and everything was great again!

Bella is very serious about her driving!

It was almost time to go but we had to let Bella go down this slide. It was really tall and she loves slides!

WEEEEEEEE!

Last ride! Bella drove us around. I remember these cars at Six Flags when I was little. I loved them. I remember them actually letting you steer them and being able to pus the gas and brake. These went on their own but they were still fun.

Ryan got to drive his daddy!

So serious about her driving!

We had so much fun at the North Pole! I can't wait to go back.

House Church and Manitou Springs

2010-07-15T10:44:00.011-05:00

On Sunday morning we woke up and piddled around for a bit. They have races up Pike's Peak every year (scary) and we could see the cars with binoculars as they were going up to the top. Without binoculars you could catch light reflecting off of windshields to figure out where they were. It is scary to me just driving up there normally. I don't know how these people take those sharp turns so fast. I'm talking 70+ miles an hour. No thank you!

I also must mention that Bella woke us up at about 4:00 am throwing up. REALLY? This again! Not only is a toddler throwing up no fun at all, but a toddler throwing up in someone else's house is horrible. We woke just about everyone up. Tiffany and Mom both ended up getting up with us because we were making so much noise. But really, how do you make a sick toddler be quiet? She was screaming her head off. We put her in the tub to clean her up and got the sheets changed on our bed, yes she was sleeping with us (we have now broken her of that!). Every time she moved the rest of the night we were grabbing the trash can. She threw up quite a few more times before we got up for the day. After we got up she only threw up once (over the balcony) while we were watching the races. Must have just been some sort of quick bug.

We did take a break from the races and had church as a family in the house. Uncle Jerry did the lesson and I think Dad may have read scripture from his phone again but I can't remember exactly. We took communion and we ended by singing all the kids church songs that we could think off. I think that was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Especially watching Uncle Jerry have so much fun with them.

After church the guys went back to the races. And some of us played dress up. And by some of us I mean Bella.......
She has on all my bracelets, my dress and my necklace, and her headband. I think she looks absolutely marvelous.

She may have gotten Ryan in on the action. Looks like he has on a couple of my bracelets too. Oh well, I happen to know his big sister has practiced her make-up artistry on him. One thing is for sure though, that kid is ALL boy!

After lunch we headed to this great little town called Manitou Springs. It has all these natural springs and is the cutest little place.

Always have to visit a Christmas store when I find one!

My gorgeous girl lost in thought.

Mom and Dad with Courtney

Bella got a new hat. She loved it and kept in on the whole time.

We found this little pavilion that had a ton of these quarter rides. Bella didn't know what to think of them but Courtney took flight!

There were also lots of photo opps! Tiffany loves taking pictures with/on/in inanimate objects.....

........so we followed suit!

Courtney on a blue bird......

Mommy and Bella on a blue bird.....

Courtney and Bella on a turquoise bird.

Bella lovin' her hat!
When did my girl get so big?!

This girl LOVES to shop. She asks me multiple times a day if we can go shoppin'. Sometimes she specifically asks for Target. We (as in she and I) have a little shopping problem :).

This girl loves her some ice cream!

We ran across one of the cars that was in the race up Pike's Peak. No way would I fly up that mountain like they do in that little car with no roof!

This is a view down the street in Manitou Springs. So Beautiful!

Garden of the Gods and Pretty Views

2010-07-14T16:49:00.009-05:00

On Saturday everyone got up to go to Pike's Peak. Well everyone except some of us. Terry, Bella and I stayed behind to watch a big game on t.v. You know that little tournament that was going on. The World Cup! Our Nacogdoches boy, Clint Dempsey, and our USA Men's National team had a big game. Unfortunately that was the day and game we lost to get kicked out of the tournament. It was a sad day and I think I would have had a much better time on Pike's Peak. On a good note everytime Bella sees soccer she says "GOOOOOO SA!" She leaves out the "U" but we know what she means.

When everyone gathered back at the house we decided to go to Garden of the Gods. Bella was very impressed with the "biggo rocks". I was impressed as well. I had been there when I was in middle school but that was a LONG time ago.

Bella was sportin' her red, white, and blue in support of our boys in South Africa. She was also carrying her princess.

Apparently when you go to Garden of the Gods you have to take a picture holding up the rock. I thought Bella did an excellent job of playing the part! Obviously someone in the picture was not playing along. I wonder who that was.....

Mom and Dad. They look really excited. I promise they really were!

Sittin' on a biggo rock!

Back at the house my Aunt and Uncle had these wooden ducks sitting on the fireplace. Bella thought these were the BEST! She carried them around and played with them. Lined them up. Put the baby duck on the big ducks back. And gave out lots of kisses to the ducks. She really liked the ducks!

Beautiful view from the back door at sunset.

When we saw how beautiful the sun looked we decided to venture out to the "rocks" on the property. Mind you it was 9:00 p.m. and the sun was just setting and it was about 50 degrees. Did I mention the weather was glorious on this trip!

I love that we are wearing jackets in late June!

Tiffany and I out on the "rocks" with Pike's Peak right over my head.

Terry and I again.

Dad and I.

We got back to a fire in the fireplace.......in JUNE!

The wildlife out there is awesome. This little fox came right up on the porch and watched us. I'm pretty sure it felt like the paparazzi was after it because we all ran to the windows with our cameras and starting taking pictures. It just stood there and stared at us. Probably thinking food would be nice since he is standing there so nicely for us to take his picture.

The next morning I woke up and look who was sitting outside the back door. Cute little Mr. Fox.

Again he just sat there and let me take his picture. Oh and don't be fooled. I was not out there with him. I was standing on the inside of the glass door to get these shots.

One thing is for sure this is a beautiful place!

A Colorado Wedding

2010-07-02T15:47:00.021-05:00

On Friday of our Colorado trip we all got up and decided to go up Pike's Peak. I mean we had all been staring at it so we decided to take a trip up. Mema and Papa left to go to Red River and we sat around and talked for a minute then I decided I needed to get ready to go. I was minding my own business trying to get ready and was blow drying my hair when there was a knock on the door. It was my mom. Our conversation went a little something like this:

Mom: We've had a change of plans for today.
Me: What?
Mom: Tim and Alyssa are getting married.
Me: Huh?
Mom: Tim and Alyssa are getting married.
Me: What?
Mom: Tim and Alyssa are getting married.
Me: (Trying to put my mouth back in the closed position)
Me: Really? (I was VERY confused!)

Alyssa comes in the room:

Me: Are ya'll really getting married? (Still trying to put my mouth back in the closed position and still VERY confused, I mean what about Pike's Peak?!)
Alyssa: (Grinning bigger than I've ever seen her grin) YES!!
Me: How did this happen? When is this happening? Where is this happening? What are you going to wear? What about your family? Does Tim know?
Alyssa: (I'm sure she answered all of these questions but the only answer I heard was that she was going to wear JEANS------ NO WAY!)
Me: We have to go get a new dress! We need flowers and a cake! What is your favorite color? I have got to finish getting ready. We have lots to do!

Enter Tim:

Tim: Now we are not going to be making a big deal out of this.
Me: (Doing what I do best and totally ignoring THAT statement!)

So Tim and Alyssa went to get their marriage license. There is no waiting period in Colorado and you just have to have your driver's license and tell the lady that you aren't related. After they got all licensed up we met them and went to get rings and then we dropped off Tim because he didn't want to go shopping for a dress. We dropped him off and went to order Alyssa and Courtney bouquets. I had to make a conscious effort to not make all the decisions. I'm not sure I did a very good job especially when the florist suggested carnations for the bouquet. That was a big fat NO! Gerber daisies in assorted colors it was! I love Gerber daisies (I hope Alyssa does too!). So then we trekked into Colorado Springs and found a cute sundress and were headed back to the house to get ready.

Funny side story: Alyssa picked out a chocolate cake at Wal-Mart and we asked them to put a few pink flowers but no writing and we would be back later to pick it up. We asked my dad and Uncle Jerry to go by and pick it up. When they got there they had not decorated it yet so they decided to make the decorating decisions. Apparently they asked for more flowers and thought that Alyssa and Tim's names should be on the cake. I don't know why but I thought it was hilarious that they made the cake decorating decisions.

And now onto pictures!

Uncle Jerry married them on the deck!

Dad read scripture. It's a good thing they have an app for the Bible on his phone!

You may kiss your bride!

This picture cracks me up! She was VERY excited to be signing that marriage certificate!

Cutting the beautiful cake!

It was a very sweet wedding and we were honored to be a part of it. They were both so very happy and smiley! Welcome to the family Alyssa. I hope we don't drive you too crazy!!

Colorado Day 1

2010-07-01T20:52:00.008-05:00

Last week we, as in me, Terry, Bella, my brother Tim, Alyssa, Ryan, Courtney, Mom and Dad, all hopped on an "airpwane" and flew to Colorado. The kids did great on the flight. Ryan's face was hilarious during takeoff. Bella just wanted to "go fast!".

Bella didn't love the seatbelt and kept wanting to see Papa and Nana so she would have an excuse to get out of it. She wiggled herself out at one point. She is such a silly goose! We kept her busy with movies, coloring books, sickers, and her baby.

We had the pleasure of visiting my aunt and uncle's vacation home in Colorado. The views are nothing less than stunning and we sure did soak it up, along with the wonderful weather.

Mema and Papa were there for the first full day.

I'm pretty sure Papa stayed right here the majority of the time they were there. If he is not outside he is sitting on the couch in the living room that will give him the same view.

Tiffany and Bella sporting their matching hats!

Terry took the opportunity to read a little. I actually did too!!

Like I said the views are stunning. The flat peak on the far left of the picture is Pikes peak. There is a view of Pikes Peak from every room in the house! Beautiful!

Looks that the kiddos got ahold of the matching hats :)!

This was right outside our bedroom. We stayed in the basement. Don't be fooled by the word "basement". It was great! We had our own living room and bathroom! AND THE VIEW! These little chipmunks were everywhere. Bella got a huge kick out of them. Her whole body would tense up and she would squeal and laugh at them. My brother chased them around the entire time trying to get a close up shot. It never happened.

Outside the basement.

We walked a little ways around the property and discovered these rocks. We climbed out on them. OH DEAR!! It was gorgeous out there!!

We had some exciting things happen on this trip but that gets a blog post all to itself!