Madeline

The lastt picture is Livie loving on her sister at the hospital. She is an awesome big sister.

The second picture is Madeline coming home from the hospital. And yes, I make my child wear hats and headbands with huge flowers!!!

The first picture is of Maddie at 3 weeks old. She is so sweet.

Happy Belated 4th of July

We had a wonderful Independence Day. We went to the Jourdanton park and watched fireworks for free. Livie loves fireworks, but Maddie just slept through the whole thing. You can see Livie's splint in one picture.

Madeline Lily Rene

These beautiful photos were taken by an amazing photographer and my friend from church, Jamie T. She is so talented.

Here is an amazing photo of Madeline that my friend from church took. Jamie is an awesome photographer. Thank you.

4-D images of Madeline

We went to the doctor today and to my surprise we had a 4-D sonogram. I can't believe how amazing it was. I started crying when she opened her eyes. It was so cool. The sono tech says that she is measuring 3 weeks bigger than her gestational age. I'm not concerned at all. For some reason I know that everything is just fine with our little blessing.

I love being a mom

My family is awesome. Our mother's day did not go as planned, but my sweet husband, daughter and parents made it wonderful anyway. I am so blessed to have been given these amazing people as my family.

This pregnancy

I thought that my pregnancy with Olivia was rough, I was wrong. Yes, I did have carpel tunnel with Olivia, but it didn't start until month 9 and I could deal until after she was born. This time it started out in month 4. I slept all the time with Liv, now I would pay a dollar a minute for sleep. I actually complained that I just couldn't get enough sleep, now I can't get any sleep. I did have some major back problems before, now my sciatica is mind numbing at times. Mood swings are unbelievable, the morning sickness is wearing me down and the pimples have moved in to stay. I love being a mom, and I was so blessed with an amazingly easy birth, but I am not a good pregnant person. My body falls apart. I am not complaining. I love my kids, born or otherwise, and I would do it again for my girls, but this is my last baby. Obviously!!! I always wanted to have a housefull of babies, but that is not going to happen. That's ok. My life will be more than full enough with my two little princess'. Well, have to go for now, my hand is almost completely numb.

Christmas Pics

Here are some of the pictures from our Christmas card photo shoot. We went to Mission Espada here in San Antonio and had a wonderful day. It was cool but not cold and definitely not hot. We picked the perfect day and had a ton of fun.

Christmas Program

I know that Christmas is long past, but I just got around to getting the Christmas photos up. Here is Olivia as Mary. She was promoted this year. The last two years she has been an angel. She was so sweet and took her role very seriously. Not to mention she was sooooo cute. Not that I'm biased or anything.

baby pic

By now I'm sure that everyone knows that we are having a baby that is due in June. I just wanted to post the very first picture of our new little angel. At the end of January we will hopefully find out boy or girl.

Awesome Morning

This morning while we were standing in the driveway waiting for the bus we completed our usual morning routine: hugs and kisses for everyone and I always give a few words of encouragement for a wonderful day and a quick reminder to be a good girl and pay attention so she is ready to learn. Well the bus pulls up and Olivia climbs aboard, just then, the bus driver Miss Alice, whom Livie really likes waves me to the bus. This is rarely a good thing. In the few steps to the bus, my mind is racing with all the horrible things that my "spirited" child has been doing. Miss Alice smiles and says "What do you feed Olivia?" I'm thinking oh Lord what has she been doing? She continues. "Olivia is the best child on the bus, she is so well behaved. I don't know how you do it." I simply reply, "We take her to church and we just do our best." She then says "I wish all the kids on the bus acted like Olivia, she is an angel." I thanked her, pulled my mouth up off the ground and walked away. My heart swelled as I passed this wonderful info on to my parents and Rick.

As a parent you do your best. There are no books, no websites, and no television shows that can accurately tell you how to be a parent. They offer advice, which is nice, but their ideas don't always work with MY child. I try to be a good mom, I really do, and I want her to grow into a responsible Christian woman, but I always question myself. Am I too lenient? Am I too strict? How to you reach that perfect balance? If you know, tell me, because I sure don't.

It is nice however to get a small word of encouragement to let you know that what you are doing is not in vain. I HAVE A WELL BEHAVED CHILD ON THE BUS!!!!!!! That's right I'm yelling it out loud so all can hear. My child is doing what I taught her and it's awesome.

Dancer

This is Olivia's new baby. His name is Dancer. She loves him and he loves her. He is kind and gentle with her and loves it when she rides him, which is almost every night after school. Speaking of which, school is going very well, and Olivia loves everything about it.

I have been remiss

I know that I haven't blogged in a while, but I promise that I will try to cut a little time out to update a little more regularly. Things have been crazy. My Grandma passed not long after Mother's day, and of corse our family in Nebraska felt that they needed to make that experience just as painful and horrible as possible. That is all I'm going to say about that retched situation, except for the fact that we will not be going to Nebraska again to see any of them.

A lot has happened and I will do my best to fill you all in with pics of everything.

My Baby is Growing Up

In the period of 5 days, my baby got registered for school and lost her first two baby teeth. I don't know if my heart can take it. She isn't my little girl anymore. I know that technically she is still little, but soon she will be in school, and I will no longer have the control as to what she hears and is involved in. All I can do is be the best Christian mom I can be to her and spend a lot of time on my knees.

Introducing Moses

Moses is our new Guinea Pig. He is still a baby. He is about 2 months old in this pic, and is the size of your hand. He is now a little bigger at 3 months old. He is so sweet and just a ton of fun to play with.

Prayer Request

Sometimes I wonder if I could just go to sleep for about a week and hopefully when I wake up, everything will have fixed itself. Things for about the past 3 weeks have really sucked rocks. Between a sickness that has traveled the family and caused an emergency visit to Olivia's doctor with a double ear infection and a throat infection, to a refriderator on the fritz, to the death of my dog, to a grandma with serious health problems. Mix in with that tons of work, little sleep and a house that looks like a hurricane went through it. Nneedless to say, I'm exhaused and on the verge of tears most of the time. I know that eventually things will work out, but in this moment, it's hard to see light in all the darkness. In fact, I'm beating myself up right now, because I have so much to do, and should be up working and not taking a break at the computer.

Please, if you could remember us in your prayers it would be wonderful, I need some lifting up. I appreciate any good thoughts and prayers you could send our way.

Introducing Daisy

Well, we adopted a new puppy from a shelter, and her name is Daisy.  She is the exact opposite of what we were expecting.  She is a fireball.  She has attitude and even though she is only 2 months old she has lots of spunk.  She is also extremely sweet, smart and loves to play.  She will never replace Buck, but she has filled a hole in our hearts that we all needed and she is indeed a welcome and wonderful new member of our family.

McNay Art Museum

We recently went to the McNay Art Museum and I couldn't help but shoot a few pics.