Scrapblog #3 from Sept. 2008

Scrapblog #2 from Sept. 2008

Scrapblog #1 from Sept. 2008

New Family Pics

Our First Family Four Pics

Mitzi's Farewell

Love

While getting ready to drop Rachel off at school, we sat on a bench and talked a bit. I asked if we could cuddle, since we'd rushed to get ready, eat and get going to school this morning. I didn't have a chance to really stop and love on her. When I asked, she said, "No, I wanna stay here looking out the window." I explained to her that I want to take every moment I can each day to snuggle with her since she's growing so fast and a new addition is coming into our lives soon. She suddenly slid to my side quickly and snuggled next to me. I wore a long necklace with beads, one of which is a heart, she took the heart and whispered, "I will never leave you." She then looked up at me and said that whenever I see A heart to remember her! Awwwww! That about melt my heart! :) I had to share because I am realizing that I am not making any notes of what's been happening in our little girl's life this 4th year!

Long time no post

Man, I've been super behind on blogging.

We are all doing very well and have just LOVED our past week of family, friends, fun and food for Thanksgiving. :) God has truly blessed our little family. :) We are so excited to be able to celebrate with our extended family too. Ben actually asked me if I was ever going to make Thanksgiving dinner... I told him ... "Ummmmmmmmm no! Mom and Dad are doing a great job!" :) If we have more room, possibly one day, we can have a Thanksgiving Dinner and host the family. :) Once again, Dad and Mom pulled off the perfect Thanksgiving feast and it was great to hang out with my grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends too!(Unofficial family pic for Thanksgiving 2009)
(Rachel took this pic of Ben and I... she's doing well.)

(We finished the day by watching the Aggie-TU game. )

Rachel is LOVING the holiday season, once again. It seems that when she turned 3, she was fascinated with all kinds of traditions that we do each year for the holidays. This year, as a 4 year old, is no different. I actually think that she understands more now and it's just so wonderful to see her eyes light up as the holidays come upon us. :) She had a Thanksgiving Feast at her preschool and she was thrilled about the whole thing. Her class was dressed up like Pilgrims and they looked super cute! :) I was able to take off that day to help out at the party. It was my first party as a parent helper! :) It was great! :)

Rachel enjoyed the break from school, but totally missed her friends and Mrs. Cuthbert. When I asked her last night (Sunday) if she was ready for school in the morning, she replied, "I can't wait!". She LOVES her school. This morning, she told me that she didn't forget how her friends look or Mrs. Cuthbert because she has her class picture on the refrigerator! ;) Too cute!

We are gearing up for the Christmas season too and have already put up our little tree. Rachel, once again, was so happy and skipping around the house on Sat. when we told her we'd be putting up the Christmas tree. She wouldn't let us back down on that one! ;) When I finally pulled out the tree from the box, she mentioned, "The tree is smaller!" ;) I laughed and told her that she's bigger and that's why it looks smaller! We put all kinds of ornaments from past years and added 2 new ones. We still need to buy a family one and one for Ben. *It's been a family tradition (that mom started) to get each other an ornament each year to add to the collection. Rachel LOVES looking at all the ornaments and even takes them off to play with them. She is taking way to many off this time around,so I'm having to limit her to 5 off at a time! (I used to play with my school made ornaments each year, so I know how much fun it is to do that!)

Random Pictures

My little singer... On this Thursday night we visited Lala and Papa while Ben was in class at UTSA. Lala took out Rachel's kareoke machine given to her a few Christmas' ago... she had a blast singing worship songs. :) We had a praise and worship service right in the middle of the living room, it was GREAT! :)

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"Daddy's HOME!" Since Ben's been super busy with work and night school (2 times/wk), Rachel is loving any moment he is home. Here she is with Daddy being silly as usual. :)

My CUTIE PIES! :)

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Rachel is enjoying her school tremendously. She keeps asking each morning if she has school for that day! ;) I'm so proud of her.

Before class... playtime in the indoor playground.

Mommy and Rachel time... we cuddle-bye when we get a chance before class. :)

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On Tuesdays, we have our bible study class and afterward, we're able to enjoy some lunch time with our friends at the church. Here are some of the kiddos that join us mommies...

BEST FRIENDS

Nicole and Jackson...Rachel and Payton... so cute! :)

Well, that's been some of the fun things we've been up to for the past few weeks. It's been busy, but enjoyable at the same time. :)

Catching up

Well, I've not blogged in awhile once again. :( I have not excuses, so I'll just start catching up now...

Rachel started Preschool at OHC. Ben and I stood in line early one February morning to register Rachel at our church's preschool. We were put on the waiting list and prayed that she'd get in. By May, we hadn't heard from the school, so I enrolled Rachel at Castle Hills MDO. I was working there one day per week and knew that she'd like it there and learn alot too. Summer came and we went on our 10 day vacation to VA and DC and returned safely. The week that we came back, we got the call that there was an opening at OHC (the 3 day 4 y.o. class). We were thrilled! Rachel was alittle nervous about the change of it all, but she was put at rest when we attended the "Meet the Teacher" information meeting. She is in the Froggy Friends Class with Mrs. Cuthbert. She loved getting to know her teacher and the classroom (centers). The day after, she asked me when she'd go back to school! :) I was so happy that she was so excited to go to school (that helps mommy be at peace too).
She's already missed one day of school for having bad allergies, but didn't like missing school at all. She still wakes up asking me if it's a school day. She just can't wait to see what adventure she'll go on with her teacher and classmates. Mrs. Cuthbert is so nice and has made Rachel feel so comfortable in her class. :) God is truly present in her classroom and the whole school.
Another bonus was to find out that Rachel and Payton were going to be in the same class. :) They have been in the same bible class on Tuesday mornings for 2 years now (including this year), so they've become good friends (and so have Ms. Emily and I). They are so sweet together... and both get so excited to see each other each morning. :) We are thankful to God for friends like that! :)
I have pictures of her first day, but don't have them on my netbook right now, so I'll add some other more recent pictures.
Last Friday, Rachel was picked to take home the ABC bag and keep "Freddy the Frog" for the weekend. :) She was so excited about taking the back home and playing with Freddy all weekend. I took some pictures of Rachel with Freddy and some of the things we did this weekend. We also looked for any "S" words to put in the bag to share with the class. :)

Rachel and Freddy on a walk.

Rachel giving Freddy juice.

Freddy and Rachel having a sleepover. :)

Rachel and I cut out pics of words that start with an "S" and glued them in the ABC journal. We also visited Lala and Papa on Saturday night and Rachel was able to find many little things that began with an "S" to show to the class on Monday. :) It was a fun learning weekend for us all. :)

A few weeks ago, Lee came home to visit family and friends. I didn't get may pics, but here are the few I took. :)

Rivals! :)

Gig 'em Aggies! :)

My cousin Richard took these pics of Lee, Rachel and Lee and I at a family gathering during Lee's visit.
Richard also took this pic of our family of four.

This and That

Hello...
Last week we enjoyed a pretty low-key week before all the frenzy starts up again as we ALL start school again. I was able to go help Ben set up his classroom 2 days last week (one of the days my parents joined me to move his stuff into his closet and they were such help-THANK YOU BOTH). : ) Ben was so happy too! He was in a meeting that whole morning and when he got back to class he was so excited, surprised and thankful that it was all put away nice and neat!:)
We had a pretty normal Wednesday and Thursday,I just worked for the morning and enjoyed the afternoon. :) Thursday's lunchtime was exciting for us because we had my Aunt Paz and her grand-daughter, Daisy, join us at my mom's house for a play date! :) It was so much fun to see them together again. :) They had met up earlier this summer and played then too. :) Here are some pics of that day.

Rachel and Daisy playing in front of the cottage. :)

Daisy and Rachel playing inside after lunch.

Thanks for the fun time Mom and Paz! :)


On Friday, Mom, Rachel and I headed to Boerne since we've not visited there this whole summer! :( We used to go all the time to walk around and shop and eat.
We went to a few shops, ate at the Hungry Horse and walked thru a few more shops before we went home. It's always nice to visit the "little town", eventhough, it's GROWN in these last few years. It's changed from when I was smaller and we'd go, but what in life doesn't change, right!?



Rachel took this picture of my mom and I, she's getting good! I think she's going to like photography like her daddy. :)
**One really gross thing that happened while in Boerne...
I wanted to take Rachel to the restroom, so we went to one of the stores that we like to visit that has a clean bathroom. I was about to put Rachel on the toilet, when I looked in and saw a MOUSE!!! YUCK! I didn't scream (thank goodness), but jumped away with Rachel in my arms. Pulled up her pants quickly, took one more look (to be sure my eyes weren't decieving me- they weren't) and left quickly. OMGoodness, that was totally gross. I told my mom who quickly grossed out and we told the lady at the counter. We left quickly, to say the least! ;) That was totally weird and YUCKY, but something to laugh about in the future! ;)

I don't mean to leave this post with such a gross ending, but there it is... sorry, mom!

Random pics

Look who's a big girl! :)

Silly faces:
(We now always have to make silly faces when we take pics... she LOVES it! Ben and I do too because we love the laugh that we have when we look at the picture!)

Rachel's has on the Full Armor of God on and she's ready to fight the good fight of faith! :)
We were so happy to be able to be in the Summer Bible Study at OHC again.
Rachel just LOVED her class (mostly because she had Ms. Suzi as her teacher again and she ADORES Ms. Suzi) and because she was able to learn about the Armor of God.
Rachel calls it the "Army of God"! :)

Here she is on the last day "sportin'" the FULL ARMOR OF GOD! :)

I just loved being the table leader for these lovely ladies!

We bonded so quickly and I pray that I will see them throughout the year. :)

On one of our trips to the mall, we stopped at the Disney Store to look at what's new... Rachel and I found this BOLT stuffed animal. She LOVES Bolt (the movie) and pretends that she's Penny all of the time! :)

Rachel and I in the OLD NAVY dressing room. We were trying on clothes for Rachel's b-day presents. She just loved hanging with Lala and I ("the girls") as we picked out clothes for her to try on. She actually liked it and wanted to go to more stores (after we'd been to already 3)! She's totally not like me! I couldn't stand going shopping and it's not my favorite thing now either! ;)

"Trying on shorts with Lala @ Old Navy."

Rachel wanted to get her hair "cut" (trimmed) at Kool Kuts 4 Kids, so for her b-day I took her to go get her salon experience for the year.
(She actually goes with Daddy to Sports Clips on a monthly basis and LOVES it, so she's not missing out when she doesn't go for her haircuts at a salon. They are just too expensive to do on a regular basis, so I usually cut it at home.)

Before....

After! :)

The kids salon must have made an impression from when I used to take her (up until the age of 2.5 or so) because she remembered everything about it before we went to get her haircut. She talked about playing with the train set while waiting to be called and also she remember about the movie during the haircut and the yellow car chair to sit in! ;)

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We've been super busy these last few months, but since we've been home from our vacation, we've been playing "catch up".
I had some pics that I forgot to upload these last few weeks, so here they are and it will tell (somewhat) of what we've been up to! :)

Ben's back to work this week, so we know that summer is officially over for us! We're trying to get into the swing of things and get ready for my school semester to start and Rachel's as well. :) Busy, busy, busy! :)
**Thank YOU FATHER, for truly blessing us with jobs that keep us busy and bring us blessings in the form of income.
Also, thanks for Rachel going to school to be able to learn new things and add to her experiences in life. :)

"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good,
For His loving-kindness is everlasting."
Psalm 118:1

Rachel turns 4!

Rachel about to blow her candles, Danielle, Daisy, Julia, Nathan are 4 of the 5 cousins that joined us that night. :)

Princess and Mommy

Papa and Lala with Rachel.

Rachel and Yaya

Danielle, Rachel, James and Julia posing with Chuck E.

We didn't plan a big event to celebrate Rachel's b-day this year, due to our family trip in early July. We decided to go to Chuck E. Cheese with the grandparents and uncle. I also called my aunt and asked her to invite her children and grandchildren for Rachel to play with. Even though it was totally a last minute thing, we all had a blast. Rachel was so excited to have her cousins there to help her celebrate. Ben and I were just overwhelmed by our family and their love for our daughter (and us too). :) God has truly blessed us tremendously.

Rachel,

God has truly blessed your Daddy and I with YOU. You are HIS child and we are eternally grateful that God has trusted us with caring for you.

You are our SUNSHINE and brighten our days with your sweet smile. Your positive attitude is so contagious. Your sweet spirit is such a breath of fresh air. :) I pray that God will bless you always. Your Daddy and I pray daily that you'd make the decision to ask Jesus into your heart and live for HIM always.

We love you so much BABY GIRL <--- and yes, you'll always be our baby AND we'll NEVER stop loving you! :)
Love always,
Mommy & Daddy