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.

Learning Curve

School has started out well for Jeff, who only teaches 5 classes this year because he'll be coaching soccer. The soccer coaches made their first cuts on Friday to decrease the number of students in the class for the fall, but they will also be having open tryouts in December for those who aren't in the class or play other sports.

Growth can be a tricky thing. For children it's a necessary thing for their body to catch up to the size of their head and to allow greater stability to walk/run/play. It can also cause great pains when your bones decide to grow too fast. Well, in the case of Jeff's school, they are growing and doing construction, which is causing some pain and suffering. The athletic department is adding new locker rooms and storage closets, so all the equipment has been moved around quite a bit since before school started. The most recent move has been because the stuff was in a football storage closet and they were putting in new shelves, so all the stuff had to get moved yet again and they were only given a days notice. In a similar way, growth in our spiritual life can cause painful memories and realizations of our heart's motivation to be brought to mind so that we might cleanse ourselves and become more Christ-like. On the other side of dealing with spiritual issues there is great joy in living for God each and every day like we should.




On a personal note, getting back into a normal routine has been a two week process. We've also had some sniffly noses and no rain around here thanks to Gustav. Surely normal life will one day come back, or appear for the first time.

Lackadaisical Living

Okay, so it's been a while since our last post. We've been trying to enjoy each other's company before the dreaded day of August 18th came around and Jeff had to get back to real life. We've been around, but not really doing much. Well, I guess we have had our eyes glued to our makeshift television for as many hours of the Olympics that we can get our hands on! Monday, the 25th, will be a sad, sad day. Jeff sees his new kids for the first time, our sister is leaving for a land far, far away, and I will be home all alone, but with Rachel of course.

I must say, YEAH, the USA has won many medals, and May-Treanor-Walsh RULE! Okay, so we really like volleyball in our house and it's totally awesome to watch people moving around that fast.

Well, Jeff has taken the Assistant Soccer Coach position and for some reason I thought it wouldn't effect our lives that much until after school practice started. It seems that I was wrong. Jeff had 2 weeks of soccer camp this summer, 2 days of inservice for coaches, 2 days of working with the other coach on various aspects of the year, he'll be spending most of his Friday at school working on inventory, and there's a Meet the Jackets night on Saturday that he must attend. Let's not forget the other Jackets night on September 2nd, but that's still 11 days away! I'm not sure the stipend he's getting paid to be in this position will help our budget much, and the number of hours that will be put in since he took the job will be quite minuscule. I suppose the money in all of this wasn't really the point, but rather the impact he will hopefully have on the coaches and players he will come into contact with that he might not get to build a relationship with otherwise. We will be praying for Jeff and those people for much of the year.

YEAH RAIN!!!