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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.