Late Night & Rachel's Birthday

Well, the night before Rachel's birthday I was up pretty late decorating Rachel's cupcake cake. We had care group on Saturday and I wasn't able to get started on it as early as I had hoped.

Either way, I made it to bed, and church the next morning, and the party was fun. I feel a little out of my league, because I've never done a birthday party for kids. What kind of games can you play with 2 year olds. Thanks to Rachel's grandparents though, we had stuff for the kids to make/decorate cards.

Rachel got some really cool big toy items, like a play house, a kitchen, and the all important wagon. We also got puzzles, flash cards, clothes, and other toys.

Lovely Lady~!

By: Jeff

So Teri always does the posts on our blog, but I thought I would write at least one. Right now Teri is at church helping with ESL and that just got me thinking about how many things Teri does and how great she is. :) Yes, I am biased. :) Not only does she take care of both of our children that are 2 and about 8mo old, she also leads a ladies Bible study on Tuesday mornings, Helps with the Jr. High at our church, Helps with our home team that meats every 1st and 3rd Saturday, takes meals to people who have had babies, eats lunch with other ladies that are going through the same time of life as she does, cooks Great food for us at home, takes care of other household things, and it makes me tired just typing all of it. Oh, did I mention Yoga, and following me around to various school and soccer activities. She truly is amazing. I don't think I would last much more than a week if that at home with both of the girls trying to get to the grocery store, oh there's another one, and maybe getting a shower once and a while. Somehow she manages to get all of this done and still manage to spend some time with me. This Friday is her Birthday and so I thought she deserved this and so much more, so I wanted to share this small glimpse of her with you. Feel free to wish her a Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday Dear~! I Love You~! :)

Lack of Energy

Well, these days we seem to stay busy as always, but for some reason I feel tired a lot. I'd like to say my iron is low or I'm not getting enough sleep, but I don't know any of it is true. It doesn't help that household chores aren't my favorite. Recently it seems that lots of our friends and family members are announcing pregnancies. While we understand the need for sanity and a strong relationship with each other before we have a third child, my body can't help but feel the desire to be pregnant.

DISCLAIMER: We are NOT pregnant, and have NO intentions of trying to get pregnant.

The girls are getting so big! Rachel will be 2 in 12 days!!! It's so sad to think of how she's already 2! It might be even stranger when Rebekah turns 1, but I still have a few months before I have to think about that. I'm very excited about Rachel's butterfly birthday party that we'll have on her birthday. Although, I think I've resolved that we'll always have family birthday parties.

Well, we're almost a week into October, and it seems we're flying through the month despite the large number of activities and birthdays. Jeff's birthday was a low key affair, but we went out to eat for his birthday and his parents came over the day after to have steaks we cooked on the grill. We had fun. Next up is the state fair tomorrow, if the rain will manage to hold off long enough for us to enjoy the sites. Hang on to your hats, it's going to be a wild one.

Loco in La Cabeza

Well, apparently I'm a pretty busy woman as some of you noticed in Lots to Do, but I'm gearing up for a very big weekend as the Junior High as part of the rest of the church serves and prepares for our HUGE outreach event called Chili Con Carnival. This is the 4th time we've held this event and we're expecting it to be bigger than it was 2 years ago. The last time it took place there were at least 1200 people and we're expecting approximately 1500 this year! I know it seems crazy, but it's the biggest way our church has chosen to say thank you to the community for being so gracious to us over the years.

I'm in charge of the Junior High's Serve and Play Day (SPD) and am thrilled about getting 6th-8th graders ecxited to serve others. Some of the things I have planned I hope they will remember. Jeff tells me to not get my hopes too high, because more than likely I'll remember the day more than they will because of all the work I've put into it. I did discover that one of the games I want to play will take more planning and extra work up at church on Friday in order to be ready by Saturday morning. I guess we'll be driving to Plano almost every day this week!

The weather has been nice and cool, though it rained almost every day for more than a week and it made most of us a little stir crazy and needed to do something to get the energy out. I've had today to do some of my chores and enjoy a day without the girls, but I'll be picking them up soon. I hope they've had fun because it hardly feels like I've had any time to get things done.

Can you believe Rachel will be 2 in 27 days? The time has flown by and we look forward to having many more years with her. She's got big shoes (and socks) to fill! :)

Licking your face

Isn't that what dogs do when they are happy to see you and to show that they love you?

Jeff and I have talked occasionally about getting a dog over the past few years. I came really close to getting him a dog for his birthday the year we were married, but before I did it, I asked him what he would think if someone got him a dog and he went on and on about how he'd like to pick out his own dog. Needless to say, I had to start over on ideas of what to get him.

We got pregnant not long after we were married and were living in an apartment, so we've been put off getting a dog. We have had 2 children since we've been married, so life has been a little too busy to get a dog, but I'm hoping to get one sometime soon. We are making some changes to our budget and I'm hoping to convince Jeff that he really wants a dog, so that we can get one soon! I'm sure the answer is still NO, but I look forward to the day that I get to come home to a dog/puppy who's happy to see me! :)

ISN'T HE CUTE???

Loads of Laundry

Do you know how when laundry day comes there's this looming feeling that things are about to get really messy and take over your house? Well, if you do laundry like I do, you understand. I'm not really feeling like laundry is a daunting task, even though I dislike doing it each week.

I will say, that I'm glad I managed to do some laundry (some is still washing), folded it, did most of the dishes, made dinner, fed my children, exercised (it was only walking, but at least we got out in this rainy weather), gave the girls a bath, and managed to get in a LITTLE me time.

What I'm really talking about are all the items on my "To Do" list. I've been put in charge of a Junior High activity, that I didn't realize I was in charge of until Saturday night when I couldn't sleep. Instead of organizing just part of said activity, I'm also in charge of the other 2/3 of it. By the way, I am a little excited about one of the games I have started planning!

Just to give you an idea of what's on our schedule for the next little while, the following are on the list:

(for those of you that work and do these sorts of things on a daily basis I praise you, but I'm not one to function well on a busy schedule, and also feel as if time is flying by and will be in need of some oxygen sometime in the near future)

Every Tues: Bible Study (I lead the group)
Every Wed: JRH
Sat: Work day at church, small group
Sun: Teach 3-4 yr olds w/ JRH girls, leader's mtg, parent meeting
Sat: JRH activity, prep work for church carnival
Sun: church, carnival prep, more carnival prep, organize JRH kids during said carnival, clean up carnival (do you get the picture?)
Mon: Jeff open house (no Dad all day), father-in-law's birthday (Happy Birthday by the way)
Thurs: Jeff Birthday
October: several birthday's occur
Rachel's 2nd birthday in about 1 month!
Sat: more church stuff, small group
Sun: more church stuff
Next wknd: men's retreat
Next wknd: small group
Next weekend: JRH activity
Next weekend: The return of the long lost (sort of) brother and sister-in-law and MY NEPHEW!

If any of our devoted readers would like to come hang out with us, Friday night is probably the most available day of the week, and since we're football fans, you may need to check to see if we'll be at the Rockwall football game.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel really busy, and that we are heavily involved in what's going on at the church, which is causing some anxiety. I must find a way to care for my home, children, husband, and fulfill all of my responsibilities. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if/when I actually get to start working 1 or 2 days a week. I guess we're leading a busy life and we only have 2 toddlers. I can't imagine what life will be like when they start doing school activites!

Late Afternoon Ritual

In the afternoon, both of the girls tend to wake up at the same time, so I go get Rebekah out of her bed and take her into Rachel's room. As soon as I open the door, Rebekah has a huge smile on her face and Rachel is asking me to put her down on her bed so they can play. I didn't think to take pictures in the process, but I got a few of them being happy, even if they are grumpy the rest of the day.

Oh, and by the way, for those 1st born children out there...Rachel doesn't need to be taught anything. She frequently tells Rebekah "no" when she's playing with something or doing something she shouldn't be doing. Who knew you'd have to be teaching a girl under the age of 2 that it's mommy's job to tell the children "no"?

On another note...

Rebekah reached her 1/2 birthday on Labor Day (isn't that convenient) while we were picking the girls up from my parents house. We are very excited to have reached this momentous occasion and her birthday is quickly approaching, but we must pass through the busy month of October before I start to make plans for Rebekah's 1st birthday party.