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.