Our Weekend in Pictures

Me, Allen, Ryan and Cate at the Rehearsal Dinner


The four of us saying hi to Baby Beckett


Taylor Joy's hair in curlers, getting ready for her big flower girl debut


Could anyone else look this cute in curlers???


A family pic...


Taylor Joy munching on animal crackers and offering me a rose petal



I don't remember, but I'm sure she's saying, "Tay" upon seeing herself in the reflection


The four of us...can't believe Ryan is actually married!


On Labor Day we took Taylor Joy to the zoo


She absolutely loved giving the animals "bites". She kept saying, "bite, bite" to give them more bites...



She had no fears when it came to feeding them. At some points we would see nothing but her wrist and the rest of her hand in its mouth...



You can see my belly in this picture!


Sorry there's SO many pictures, but I really did narrow it down. We had a wonderful weekend celebrating with friends and definitely wouldn't have been able to do it without Aunt B, who nannied Taylor the whole time. What a blessing you are, sister! I love you and Taylor Joy ADORES you!

I'd like to introduce you to...

Let the guessing cease...

I'm afraid no one fully guessed our little boy's name, but I must say you all DID come up with great names!

Congrats go to the Birkenfeld's who successfully guessed his middle name. You are most welcome to come hold our little one when he arrives.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...dum da dum...



Introducing...




As you can see, that baby boy will be called Beckett Cole.

He will be introduced into this world in 16 weeks.

Is it possible that I'm already in my 3rd trimester?

What's in a Name?

Our little fetus has a name now. He has a name that both Allen and I wholeheartedly agree on, which is a miracle in itself. Now, don't get me wrong, Allen and I agree on most things, but when it comes to naming our babies there are definitely moments when we have to agree to disagree and move on. I've told Allen this to his face (and since he doesn't read the blog it doesn't matter anyway), but he is so difficult to talk to about names. Something ALWAYS comes up about 2 minutes into our conversation...which, by the way was started because I brought it up for the umpteenth time. All that to say, we have a wonderful name for the precious baby boy in my tummy. I just hope it's really a boy now! I've definitely been working on the nursery!

Okay, now for some fun.

The initials are: (dum da dum....drumroll)

BCD

Would anyone like to take a guess as to the name we chose? And don't guess if you already know!

The winner gets to decide if he/she likes the name or if we should change it.

Just kidding.

The winner gets his/her choice of homemade yummy snickerdoodles, fresh baked bread or the pinning of a rose on your nose. ;)

Now...

Get to guessing!!!

A Little Pink Fishie

Hey readers...sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been a little busy clearing out the entire guest bedroom to make room for this little boy in my tummy. I really wanted to clean out that closet (and all the other closets in my house) as soon as I got pregnant...hmmm...must be a nesting thing.

It feels SO good to have that done with and finally feel more organized! Isn't getting rid of things great? Now I just have to take it all somewhere (Twin City Missions) and get rid of the good stuff I didn't throw away.

Anyhoo, here are some pictures to appease the Taylor Joy fans out there...all 32,000 of you. That's how many visitors we've had. My goodness! I had no idea!

We've been at the pool quite frequently and this was one day last week.

The Verdict is In...

That's right! We found out this morning that we are *most likely* having a....


BOY!





He's a lot like his sister in that he is stubborn...he was facing the wrong direction with his legs flat against the placenta so it made that "region" very hard to get a look at. Although, we (the doctor) saw something hanging so we are pretty sure there is a baby boy in there.

I really thought I would be surprised either way, but the past few weeks the Lord had been confirming with both Allen and me that there was a little boy in there.

We are SOOO excited!

Oh, and we also found out that he's an Aggie! There was a crystal clear shot of him giving the "gig'em" sign! It really was hilarious...and that little hand was SO cute! I can't believe he's learning the ropes already!

I will try very hard to get sonogram pics uploaded, but I'm afraid none of them turned out too great. He is a very big baby apparently and his body wouldn't fit in the screen so there are no cute profile pictures. I just have the aggie hand one and one of like the side of his head and spine (which is very dark).

Only 18 weeks until that little babe arrives! Yippee!

Stepping Heavenward

Oh, the suspense! Was anyone wondering what book I would recommend next? Here it is. It's the book I read during our lovely 10-day vacation entitled Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss.

It's the journey of a young girl as she grows into her faith, starting at age 16 and continuing through her later years. The book is actually her personal journal complete with refreshingly honest thoughts, a gripping storyline and faith that is challenged and strengthened through her experiences.

As a young girl she writes about her mother who went away daily to pray and seek the Lord for her children and family. She and her brother knew it was the time of day that their mother enjoyed more than anything. They actually felt the prayers of their mother in their lives and were thankful to receive them. At that point in her life she honestly recorded the reasons why she felt unable to pray, the distractions and difficulties surrounding prayer...reasoning I could definitely attest to. Later on in her life she had become like her mother, a woman of prayer. She couldn't get through one day with her prayer time with the Lord and her children felt the same way that she and her brother once felt about their mother. A place of spiritual maturity she felt she could never reach was finally in grasp.

I think this spoke to me because so often I desire to be all-wise, all-understanding, and all-Godly overnight. I pray for something one night that the Lord might help me change and then get frustrated when it isn't gone the next morning. I see older women in the church and wonder why I can't be as wise as them. I forget that these things take time. Most likely they are wiser because they are older and have been through many more experiences than I have. They have allowed the Lord to speak to them through their daily experiences and eventually those days turn into months and months into years. I trust that the Lord is maturing me, it's just harder to see when I'm with myself everyday and I see how often I fall short. Seeing her journey in the book allowed me to see what hopefully the Lord is doing in me now...refining me slowly but surely, in His timing.

I highly recommend this book and I also recommend keeping a journal so that you can go back and read each year how far you've come each year in your spiritual journey. In the past I wrote in my journal furiously...ripping through journals in a month. I'm going to try to be better about it this year so I'll be able to look back. One other thing I have been doing since Taylor Joy was born is writing in a journal for her...prayers, thoughts, memories of things that she did or said, encouragement and praise. I want her to be able to look back one day and know that the Lord's promises are true and that her life has been covered in prayer from day one. I believe it will be a treasure when she's older.

Enjoy the book while you are reading! Those 300 pages go very quickly!

Big Sister In Training!

Taylor Joy finally got her big sister t-shirt and she's training for the new baby's arrival. She LOVES babies (be-be) and is excited to be a big sister (ti-tuh). Not only does she give the baby lots of kisses and hugs, she rocks her in the rocking chair, changes her diapee (bi-pee) and pushes her around in the stroller. What a wonderful big sister Taylor will be!




Now if we could just find out if she's having a little brother or sister! More on that to come NEXT WEEK!

Hairspray Recap!

Last night was a ladies' night to remember forever! We got DECKED out, went to see Hairspray at the movie theater and then on to Cafe Eccell for dessert.

Oh, what a night!

Just seeing everyone dressed to the nines pretty much made my evening. Everyone looked SO good! WOW ladies!

Here is everyone in the theatre...people were looking at us like we were CRAZY, but I know they were wanting to hang with us too... ;)



Ashley and I went to the bathroom and we heard some people whisper, "Oh, how cute, they dressed like the movie!" Haha, yeah...we don't normally dress like this and I am glad! I don't think my hair was cut out for the ever popular "flip", it is just WAY too thick and fell after about 30 minutes.

I would like say that Chelsea Groves could go back to the sixties and fit RIGHT in. Did ya'll see her? She's in the lower left corner of the above picture. Doesn't she look like the perfect 60's girl?


Me and Cate...the soon to be bride!



Me and Kelli...This was her mother's old dress! Her and Erin looked "to die for" in them! So so CUTE!



The Hairspray girls! They brought some in case our 'dos fell...

We really should do this more often gals!

Summer Vacay Part II

We love Ruidoso. It's a small quaint town with lots of interesting things to do, but the thing we love most is sitting outside on the deck swing, reading, meditating, watching the hummingbirds and enjoying God's creation in 70 degree weather. If you're lucky you might even see some deer, which we did one night as we were eating dinner outside.

We went to the shops one day (we didn't buy a thing!). We like to save our money for things like expensive dinners instead. Which we did a couple of nights that we were there and then we cooked at the house or grilled out the rest of the time.

One night we went to this place called the Pasta Cafe, which was similar to an Olive Garden. Taylor started off the night being fussy, but when the food came I started giving her my noodles and she went to TOWN on them. She was slurping them into her mouth and it was one of the funniest things I've seen. She loved it and she was a MESS!



Another night we went to a Dinner theatre that was actually like dinner and a concert. They had a band there that was amazing. It was almost kinda like a comedy show as well. They were very entertaining. I can't say so much about the food and the experience with childcare, but I definitely could have watched that show again.

Here's a picture of the stage where they played. One of the guys in the band played ALL of these instruments. Can you imagine? He really was amazing. He was the guy who sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and he can make his voice go real high.



We spent a day at the horse races and thanks to Bobby and Caryl Merchant had wonderful box seats. In between races we entertained Taylor by putting on Baby Einstein in the box and during the races we took her down there to watch the horses and tractors. She loved the "awsies".





While the weather was wonderful most of the time we were there, wouldn't you know it the day we planned our picnic it rained in sheets??? We went to Bonita Lake for a scenic picnic and ended up eating in the car. It wasn't all bad though. Seeing it rain from inside the car and with the amazing view was quite beautiful. We rather enjoyed it and made the best of it.



Other than that we read a bunch and just enjoyed each other. It was such a lovely vacation. Later I will have to do a book review on one of the greatest books I've read. I blew through 300 pages while we were there. I think my life changed while reading it. But like I said, that's for later...

Summer Vacay Part 1

I wanted to start off with a picture from last year's vacation to Ruidoso taken in the same spot with the same baby, only this year she is ONE year older (as are we too, of course, but who likes to think about that).

This was our first family vacation with just the three of us. I guess we didn't really know what to expect. Our hopes were that she would nap a lot and keep herself entertained so we could do what we love to do on vacation...READ. We both had ordered books to bring and were very excited about reading them. Allen's book somehow didn't make it there...among that and other realizations of things that we had left and incidences at the airport, we didn't have great attitudes to begin with.

The flight with Taylor (the 3 of us being crammed into 2 seats, for cheapness sake) wasn't all that we hoped it would be. Taylor's greatest fear, I'm convinced is being pinned down, not able to move and go where she pleases. (This makes for lovely times at the doctor's office...) So this situation on the plane was not one that anyone envied. She wailed toward the end probably less than 5 minutes, but I guarantee you that was the longest 5 minutes of my life.

And I'd like to add that traveling with a baby is just very HARD. You are talking about toting along pack-n-plays, carseats, strollers and then during the check having to take off everyone's shoes. I mean, seriously, what could possibly be in that tiny baby shoe?

Anyhow, that will probably be the last time we travel with a toddler. When she was littler it was easier, but now it's a little too much to handle for both of us. Although she did do MUCH better on the way back with her own seat. Don't get me wrong, Allen and I were having to put on an entertaining show for her (books, songs, games, etc...people probably thought we were crazy singing, dancing, playing peek-a-boo), but she kept entertained.

So all in all the travels taught us a LOT about our own attitudes and how WRONG they were! I think our reactions to those hard situations are the Lord's way of showing us if we are really growing like He desires us to and how we think we are (in our own prideful eyes). Glad He brought us back to Him from the get go. That actually provided the best possible outlook we could have had for our little once-a-year getaway. It actually got things started off RIGHT! Praise God, He really knows what He's doing, huh?

I will leave you with some pictures and continue where I left off later, after the loads of laundry disappear, the emails are all deleted and the blogs have all been checked.

Grown a LOT in 2 weeks!

The picture on the left is the one I posted about 2 weeks ago and the one on the right was taken yesterday. I can REALLY tell the difference and just feel like I have totally pooched out in the past couple of weeks! There's no way anyone can say they can't see a pooch now!!! (Janette! Michelle! Yes you!)

I am so glad to finally be "showing" in a way that (hopefully and selfishly) strangers don't think it's leftover baby weight from Taylor Joy. I know that's dumb and I'm pretty much over caring what other people think of me at this point. I know that most of the time anyway I don't even get a second glance when I'm with Taylor, which is all the time. And that's FINE with me! I get all the glances I need from my hubby. He seriously LOVES the extra "thickness"(as he calls it) on my body. Yay for that!

I love that there is a little baby inside that we get to love on in less than 5 months.

I love that I can feel that babe kicking and moving around inside of me.

I love that Taylor Joy loves the baby and gives it kisses and raspberries.

I love that she really has no idea what kissing my belly means.

I love that a life is growing inside of me at every minute of the day, whether or not I am aware of it, no matter what I'm doing.

It reminds me that sometimes I have to stop, slow down and enjoy a little kick, give a little rub, read a book, or sing to that little one.

It reminds me that our Heavenly Father is constantly ready to meet with us. He never stops His work whether or not we are a part of it. He never stops growing or changing His people as long as we allow it. He's always available to us. The God of the Universe...available to US. Crazy. Our time given away to Him or His work is always a blessing to Him and blesses us in return.

A sweet little lesson from my sweet little fetus ALREADY! Wow! Children are a blessing in so many ways and they teach me so much about our Lord.

Our Little Flower Girl

Taylor Joy is set to be a flower girl in Ryan and Cate's wedding! We are so excited that our good friends are getting married and our little girl gets to be a part of it. Well, all of us really. Allen is the best man and I'll be helping Cate in the House Party.

As soon as we found out about Taylor being in the wedding I went shopping for little flower girl dresses and quickly found that there was none less than $100. There was NO WAY I was going to spend that much money on a tiny little fits-around-my-arm dress. There's just no way.

Anyhow, Cate and my wonderful husband convinced me that I could use my sewing abilities to sew Taylor a dress. I was leery at first. And all along the way, really. But, turns out that I may have a knack for this. Check out the dress I made! I really am very impressed with myself! ;) I think the total amount I spent was probably around $20. I spent more than that on her shoes!





I am really unsure of how Taylor will do at the actual ceremony. I will be praying that she just walks down the aisle normally and doesn't do anything embarrassing, but nonetheless, I know she will look adorable!

A Day at the Gym

Yes, Taylor Joy went to the gym. We figured she needed to work off those tiny little rolls on her tummy.

Just kidding!

We went to Dallas this weekend with the Youth Leaders for their camp and they had some team building exercises at a gymnastics place in Garland, so we joined them. Taylor really enjoyed herself there. Check out the pictures!

Taylor Joy and Daddy



Taylor Joy jumping on the tramp (which was really just bending her legs a little bit...just about the same thing as when she "dances")








Some sweet girls that I just wanted to slip in here...



The progression of slide events that went down...





This girl had such a long day...it was definitely time for a nap...

A Little Pooch

Here's my baby belly since people have been interested in seeing it. As you can see, it's HUGE! Haha! Just kidding. I was only sticking it out a little bit but not too much...not enough to make a difference. 16 (1/2) weeks down, 23 (1/2) to go! I can't believe I'm almost halfway there!