Looking for a new home?

Wow! How time flies. It's hard to believe that we're about 6 weeks away from having another baby in the house. Well, in preparation for that, we've been cleaning, cooking, getting things done for when the baby arrives. We finally got the rest of our Christmas stuff put away in the attic and pulled all of our baby items out. My parents were in town over the weekend, so they helped us do all of that. We are very thankful they were able to help. We even cut the angle for the lid to our toy box. Now all we need to do is stain it and attach it.

Rachel will be moving into a new room and my parents brought the twin bed that she will be sleeping on. Thank you for the bed!! Mom also made her a quilt that looks amazing and matches the room beautifully!! She absolutely loves her bed. If you ask her where her new bed is or if you want her to show you her new bed, she runs into her room and throws herself onto the bed. Keep in mind it's just the mattress sitting on the floor. We haven't had her sleep in it yet, because we are trying to clean out that closet for her to use.

I'm quite proud of myself for already working on getting a few meals into the freezer for after the baby is born. I'm trying to double recipes occassionally so that I can put the other half away for later. Now if I can only keep up with the rest of the housework in the middle of all the rearranging and organizing, then we'll really have progress.

Rearranging a closet takes a lot of energy. You have to decide if you really need to keep the items being stored in there, and if not are you going to throw them away or give them away. Well, I am glad to say that we got rid of a lot of things over the weekend. My parents took 4 boxes of stuff from our house to give to The Blessing Box, and we realized the next day that we had other things lying around that needed to go with them as well. Maybe we'll get together another box and they can take it with them next time they're in town. FYI- The Blessing Box is a small town church's version of Goodwill.

What a Lovely painting!

We are so excited!! Over the Christmas holidays Jeff and I painted our office 2 shades of purple for Miss Rachel's new room. She will be moving into this room so that the baby can sleep in the nursery.

Since the room was tan and navy, we decided she needed something a little more girly!

Jeff is also in full swing coaching soccer. The JV has played 1 tournament already and plays its last tournament this weekend in Allen. Rachel and I have enjoyed watching soccer and Rachel especially loves watching all the boys kick the ball!! She even tries to tell them to Go Go Go!! She's rather cute and has been a trooper at the games, even when it's a little cold.

Over the break, we also gave Rachel her first haircut. Her bangs were getting a little long, so we cut them. I was very excited to be able to cut her hair for the 1st time. We even saved as much as we could in an envelope, but there's not much there.

We started the process of transitioning Rachel into her new room yesterday. We don't have her twin bed yet, so I tried to put a pallet on the floor for her. I'm very proud to say that she stayed on the pallet the WHOLE hour she spent in her new room, but didn't sleep. I tried again today to put her in her room, only this time I put her crib mattress on the floor. She screamed at me for a couple minutes, but I left her in there anyway. I checked on her a little while later and discovered this....

Isn't that the greatest thing you've ever seen? I'm so proud of my little girl. Lots of her upbringing has been so easy because she's such a good kid and has nothing to do with what Jeff and I have done. We are so blessed to have her. Of course many people are rather concerned because they think this next baby will cause us lots more grief and agony because the first child is, for all intents and purposes, an easy baby. I hope you are having a wonderful inauguration day!

Lazy days are here again

Okay, so maybe the days aren't so lazy, but we have completed our stay at the Lehmann's home and our holiday travels. We had several Christmases to attend and enjoyed ourselves at all of them. We had Christmas with the Lehmanns on Christmas Eve morning, where we hosted the first Christmas not in the Lehmann house. It was great to have everyone home from New Zealand, except for the New Zealand residents. We also enjoyed having Jeff's brother Drew here and hope to see him more often now that he's home from his enlistment in the Air Force. Rachel was lots of fun this year and tried to help everyone open their gift whether it was paper wrapped or in a gift bag! She likes doing it all! We are also VERY excited that one of our gifts this year is a cousin that will join the family sometime in July 2009!

We did Christmas morning here at our house before going to my parents' house in Winnsboro. Rachel got her first baby doll and stroller, and just loves pushing her around and giving the baby kisses! On Saturday after Christmas we went to Athens to spend time with my extended family and had lots of fun, got a few exciting gifts, and again Rachel really enjoyed opening presents!

After Christmas, Rachel got to spend a few days with Nana and Papa without Mommy and Daddy. We think she enjoyed herself, but she started getting sick before she left and she's now quite congested and has a cough. We think she's on the way up, but if her illness is anything like the illness Jeff and I had over the break, she'll be like this for several more days. Jeff has already started back coaching and goes to school tomorrow, so our holiday will soon be gone. I guess now is probably the best time to take down those Christmas decorations that we erected oh so early this year! I hope everyone is having a wonderful beginning to 2009.

Am I lucid?

Okay, so I have finally finished breakfast. Right now that involves feeding myself, then feeding Rachel, then the dog, and finally Grandpa. The breakfast routine usually lasts about 1 1/2 hours or so. It's actually quite interesting. After 1 1/2 weeks here I have a real routine.

Well, I guess we've been bad about posting pictures and blogging regularly. I'm sure there's a lot we could put in and forget to write about. Rachel keeps us really busy. Jeff's schedule keeps him at school longer than we're used to, so he only gets to see Rachel for a couple hours each day. It's crazy how time flys! It's hard to believe I'm already in my 3rd trimester and with soccer season coming up, March will be here before I know it.

We are looking forward to staying in our own home soon, even if it is only for a few nights before we're on the road again and living out of another suitcase. Christmas is going to be crazy, but hopefully we'll enjoy it and not get stressed out by it.

Since we live in Texas, schools like to call an ice day on days where the roads aren't very icy. Tuesday was one of those days. Jeff was able to stay home from school and spend the day with us. We took turns being at home so we could do some Christmas shopping for each other.

Thanksgiving went well and we ate too much. We had a block party for our neighbors and had a wonderful time. It was a small turn out, but for the first year, we're happy with how things went. I made WAY too much food, but I was able to return some of the extra that I bought. That week was very stressful because it was our first week at Jeff's parents and I got sick on Tuesday, so I wasn't able to do anything to prepare for the party that day. I did TONS of cooking on Wednesday and Thursday, so there were a lot of dishes. Thankfully, the family who came to watch Grandpa for us during the evening did ALL the dishes for me!! I am VERY thankful, because I think I would still be doing them if they hadn't done them. I think that's all the excitement going on around here. I hope everyone is done with their Christmas shopping, or at least almost done, and getting ready to have a few days off next week. Enjoy your Christmas!

Long-Lasting Silence

Okay, so we're really bad about posting on our blog. I don't think either of us are great writers, so coming up with something to say usually takes some effort. Rachel is a handful. She walks/runs everywhere and talks all day long, but most of it is unintelligible, so we'll just have to keep guessing about what she's saying. We've been fairly busy, but it's mostly busyness preparing for the upcoming busyness of the holiday season. We have house-sitting, parties, soccer practice, Thanksgiving, teaching Sunday School, Bible study, and probably a few other things going on. We are actually hosting a couple of parties, so we have some added responsibility on our end. In anticipation of these many things (of which we are very happy to be doing), we have begun our Christmasing early. I know for many people it drives them crazy when homeowners and retailers put out Christmas decorations the day after Halloween. Well, we weren't quite that early, but we did put the tree up almost 2 weeks ago, and some of the house lights are already finished. We will be adding to them in the next week, so for all intents and purposes we are ready for Christmas! I have even been really good with our resources and have gifts for SEVERAL family members already. This feat has NEVER occurred before, and may never happen again, so I am relishing the moment.

Please excuse the blurryness. I will take another picture and might replace it, but for now here is the tree. Now if I can only get on top of the gift wrapping process and figure out whether or not my 1 year old will completely rip into them once they are placed under the tree, we will be doing even better. I think we are starting to count down the days we have to finish all of the things we need to accomplish before we start house-sitting. Time is going by really fast, which I am anticipating this to be a good thing, because I'd like to be able to hold Rachel again, and have this little baby kicking at blankets and toys instead of my stomach. Have a fun-filled weekend before Thanksgiving.

Lavish Celebrations!!

SHE IS 1 YEAR OLD!!!!

We had lots of fun at her birthday party. This is probably the messiest face we got of her eating her cake. We also had fruit which she preferred over the cake! She refused to walk for our guests. We are sorry about that but thought we would share a video of her walking a few days before her party.

Here are just a few pictures over the last few weeks.

Helping Daddy open presents at his birthday

Getting into the fridge

Opening presents

She loved her own chair and the cool Veggie Tales CD from Uncle Drew, Aunt Jill, and Aunt Megan! Thanks!!

Rachel with Great Grandpa Lehmann

One more video

LEAPIN' LIZARDS!!

Ok, well, we don't exactly have any leaping lizards around the house, but Jeff did find a little gecko the other day. So, what we do have is a WALKING baby!!! Well, she's not exactly a baby anymore and we're not sure she likes the idea of walking, but yesterday she took not 1, not 2, but 3 steps by herself!!! We are so ecstatic. We did get her this great walking toy that she went crazy over from the moment she tried it. She's getting better at turning it around herself, or she just walks around to the front and pushes it backwards.

Our child is one that tries something once, doesn't necessarily think it's great and then waits another month or 3 to do it again. We couldn't for the life of us make Rachel roll over. She did it a few times when almost forced, and then didn't do it again until she was crawling, because she would want off her back to go crawl. She is now a tummy sleeper despite the fact that we put her in bed on her back.

My (Teri) parents celebrated Labor Day with us. Rachel had a lot of fun playing inside and out.

Rockwall had its homecoming last weekend and Jeff was in the parade so Rachel and I went to watch the excitement!

Wednesday was also Jeff's birthday! Happy belated-Birthday! We opened presents, had a nice breakfast, and spent the rest of the day at the State Fair out on a date without Rachel. It was nice and enjoyable.