My Husband is Awesome

Ya wanna know why? Here are some answers for you (not the complete listing, but just some :)

1. Right now, at 8:47pm on a Monday night after he has worked a 12 hour busy shift where he has to dress up and wear nice shoes my husband is spraying our yard for fleas. Why so late? Because we just discovered that our dog has FLEAS! and I wanted him to spray the yard before we put the flea medicine on him tonight.

2. He went to the grocery store for me yesterday (on a SUNDAY!) with Reece and got everything on my list and was $20.00 under budget!

3. He CLEANED OUT THE REFRIGERATOR last night! I mean, wiped all the shelves and everything!

4. He gives me foot massages without me asking even AND if I haven't given him one in a long time.

5. Sometimes, he'll wake up early and turn the monitor off without me knowing and he'll get Reece up so that I can sleep in even though he usually has to wake up TWO HOURS earlier than me.

6. He doesn't get too mad at me when I leave my apple cores in the car :(

7. He will buy me pantene pro-v shampoo and conditioner because he knows I won't buy it for myself because it's too expensive.

8. He does things that I HATE doing without even complaining (like taking the dog to the vet and doing the taxes!)

9. He doesn't mind that I hog the bed.

10. If I'm having a "cookie craving," (whether I'm pregnant or not!) he'll go out and get me some even if it's late at night.

I wish I could tell you all the other reasons why my husband is awesome. But, he's almost done with the yard, so now it's hubby time! :)

News, News, News

Okay, so it's only really one piece of news, but it's BIG! I mean REALLY big!
...Actually, hopefully it won't be that big. Hopefully it will only be about seven pounds or so...

That's right! I'm pregnant!!!! We are VERY excited!!

I finally get to tell all my blogging friends. I feel like I've been lying to you guys for so long. Although, most of the people who read this already knew (b/c I don't really think a whole lot of people read this) now I can come clean and tell everyone!

A fun fact: My due date is November 6. Reece's second birthday is November 12. If I can hold out for six days, they'll have the same birthday!! (My brother and I also have the same birthday!)

Yea! Another baby on the way!

Crazy Week

We have had the craziest week around here. It started with Reece being diagnosed with bronchiolitis on Monday. She had been sick all weekend, but I didn't realize how bad she really was until I took her into the doctor. They gave her a steroid shot and put her on breathing treatments every four hours around the clock. As you can imagine, she hated the breathing treatments, and the only way to get her to hold still was to put on the Wiggles. (I'm really sick of the Wiggles right now!! Watching them every four hours is WAY too much!) We had to go back to the doctor on Tuesday and Friday. Dr. Ramsey thinks she probably has RSV, so we are banned from being around any other babies for about two weeks. She said on Friday that she still hears a little bit of wheezing, so we're still on breathing treatments. But, Reece seems much better. She's eating and sleeping again, and she's back to giving kisses :)

The week continued with my best friend giving birth on Wednesday!! She had Abigail at about 1:10 pm and I got to be there for the whole thing!! It was amazing! After she delivered Abigail and everything was okay, I got in my car to go back to work and the song "There is a God" was playing. I just cried and cried because if there was ever any doubt that there is a God, it was just completely wiped away by witnessing the miracle of birth!! I'm not sure how many details Amanda want so give out, but I'll just say that she was an excellent pusher and Adam was a really great coach. I'm SO glad Abigail is finally here.

Then... after the chaos of the beginning of the week, I got to go out on the town with my parents and sister. We went to a fancy restaurant downtown and then to a play at Theater Under the Stars called The Spelling Bee (very cute and funny). While eating dinner at a seafood restaurant, my sister, who is deathly allergic to shrimp, mentioned that her tongue was starting to swell. Hmmm....not good, I thought. Thankfully, where I was sitting was a window where I could see a sign for a hotel. Since she didn't have her EpiPen with her (a big no-no!!) we rushed over to the hotel gift-shop, got some benadryl, crushed it up and she took it. Everything seemed to be getting better, and then half way through the play, she had to excuse herself because her nose closed up and she was having a coughing attack. Also, her face, neck and chest became really red with a rash. Hmmm...not good at all. But, after a few minutes in the bathroom, she insisted she was okay and stayed through the rest of the play. She's okay now. Too bad she didn't have her Epi Pen. I was ready to stab her with it!! :)

Luckily, Thursday and Friday weren't too bad, and today we are just relaxing, taking naps, and enjoying the nice weather!

Another random thought... Daniel and I really want to go to the Weekend to Remember marriage conference in May. Did you know that for both of us to go, it would cost about $250??!! And then, you are supposed to stay in a hotel for a better experience, so tack over $100 a night for a hotel for two nights! That is out of the budget for us. Does anyone know a cheaper way to do it??

I don't really have any good pics of Abigail, but I'm sure Amanda will post some just as soon as she gets some free time (ha ha :)

My poor, sick child!!

March Update

We went camping! We had a lot of fun hiking and eating and enjoying the beautiful weather. Until...the night in the tent came. It was REALLY cold!! Reece ended up IN my sleeping bag. But, I'm not sure I had it the worst because I think Culby was in Daniel's sleeping bag!!

We were really ready to go home in the morning. We just couldn't warm up. Plus, it was the morning of the time change, and no one slept well that night, so we were pooped.

We went to San Antonio! My Mom, sister and her three kids and Reece and I spent two days and one night in San Antonio. We went to a wildlife park, the Alamo and to the Spanish Market. The weather was beautiful and it was a really fun trip.

"I wonder what's in there??"

Reece was a little wacky that whole trip because nap time didn't really exist except in the car with six other people and in the stroller among the huge crowds of spring-breakers.

Reece petting a goat (I think pregnant!) at the wild-life petting zoo. She loves animals!

Reece showing off all the souvenirs she got from the Spanish market in San Antonio. She's so girly!!

HAPPY EASTER!!

Okay, so this is a pathetic family picture. Not easy to do with the ten second timer on the camera and a toddler!
Daddy and Reece. SOO cute!
Reece got a tea set in her Easter basket. We had a tea party with all our animal friends.

Okay...so Reece is going through an "I-hate-church-nursery" phase. She just cries and screams the whole time! She never used to do that!! We even went to the really early service on Easter Sunday so it wouldn't be her nap time, and she still screamed!! The nursery coordinator and several of the workers have talked to me about what we can do with Reece. They've put her in the "quiet room," (I'm not even sure what that is) they've taken her outside and even given her snack after snack, and nothing has worked. I just don't know what to do... Maybe I'll just keep her in the quiet room until the phase passes.


Cute girls in their hats. Reece, Jade and Caroline at our Sunday school Easter egg hunt.

Mommy and Reece on the wild-life tour. Reece got to sit in my lap in the front seat because we were going about 1 mile per hour!

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope everyone had a nice Valentines Day!! We didn't do anything special that day, but the next day we had family fun day! We started by going jogging together (one of my favorite things to do!) Then, we went out to lunch at Red Robin's. Then, we went to the mall! WooHoo! Daniel got much needed new jeans, and I got sunglasses!! I have a nasty habit of loosing my sunglasses. I promise, I really try to keep track of them, but I just don't know what happens to them. It's like they go into the same black hole as baby socks and tupperware lids.

Anyway, I was really excited about my new purchase, but since it's been bad weather all week, I haven't gotten to use them yet!

Then, we ended the day by going to the Missions Dessert Night. We put Reece in the nursery, and I went to check on her at about 8:00 to see how she was doing since she had been going to bed around 7:00 all week. She was more upset than I've ever seen her!! She was doing that cry where you do that sucking in breathing thing in in between wails. So sad! Her eyes were all red and puffy. Lesson learned: no more late nights at church!

New developments in Reece's World this week:
1. Learned how to say "no" and "yucky"
2. Is in love with this dog where you can push his body parts and he sings and says different words...quiet annoying :)
3. More teething! She's had fever almost every night this week! Boo!
4. Is feeding herself yogurt, applesauce and cottage cheese with a spoon, a little messy, though
5. Wore size 4 diapers today! They are really big, though :)

Fun at the Park

Does it get any cutier than this?? Because if it does, my heart might explode!!

Reece can climb up the steps to the slide all by herself!

WHEEEEEEE!!

We saw an airplane! Maybe it was Daddy!

Precious girl!

I love how she's holding onto the swing in this picture. She looks like such a big girl!I was trying to get her to blow, but I think it just ended up in her mouth!

I'm in love with this face!!

Ups and Downs

It is only mid February, and we have already had some ups and downs this year. One up was that we finally sent off our application to MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) which is the organization Daniel and I would like to go with to be able to be a missionary pilot family. We have wanted to do this for so long, but it always seemed like there were obstacles. Finances have always been our roadblock, but we have had a good budget and plan to pay off some debt, so we decided to go for it. Just a few days after we sent it, we got a really good response from the recruiter at MAF. It was looking like we would be able to do the first phase of the process, the "TE" (technical evaluation- where they fly with Daniel for a week and see if they want to accept us) in early summer. Then we would have the rest of the year to get our finances in order and be ready for the few-month long training in Janurary.

We were so excited and encouraged by these possibilities! We would finally be on track to the mission field! But, just today we have had some set-backs to our plans. These set backs caused us much frustration and caused us to become very discouraged. After a few hours of freaking out, worrying, and trying to figure out how we were going to fix the problems on our OWN, we realized what was going on. God has big plans for us to use our talents and resources to change lives for Him, but there is one who wants to do whatever he can to prevent us and discourage us from going. We are already feeling the attacks of the devil, and we just sent our application in one week ago!!

If you are reading this, would you please pray for us? Our biggest struggle right now is entirely financial, and we know in our hearts that God is bigger than money!! Please pray for protection from the devil's schemes in our hearts and lives. And please pray for wisdom for us in the changes we need to make in our lives. Also, please pray that we would look to Jesus only for our strength and guidance.

"Therefore, holy bretheren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus..." Hebrews 3:1

PS When I started typing this post, I didn't expect it to be this long! Thanks for sticking it out to the end!

Reece watching the Wiggles after her afternoon nap. This is her favorite chair that Grandmama gave her for her early Valentines Day gift. Too cute!!