Christmas Day

On Christmas morning Carlee woke up at 7:30 and came to our bedroom in total excitement. She knew exactly what the day held because all week long she had been opening one piece to her manger scene and she had only one gift left, baby Jesus. As we came into the living room she was surprised to see a basketball goal for her and Zachary and many other gifts. In this picture Carlee is sporting her new robe, her fuzzy purple socks and her princess backpack.
We also got her this Leapfrog spelling magnet that goes on the fridge since she is into spelling and reading.
Zachary loved his first golf club. Zachary is teething like crazy if you can't tell. He got his first two bottom teeth for Christmas.
Christmas evening was spent at my Miemaw and Pawpaw's house with my aunts, uncles and cousins. This was a very special Christmas and possibly the last Christmas at they're house. Here is my Pawpaw taking care of Zachary while everyone else is eating dinner together. He told me he had been waiting all day for this time. It just makes me cry thinking about it. This is the way he got all of us to sleep. I love my grandparents so much and wish they could be around forever.
My Miemaw blessed all the grand kids with a framed collage of special pictures of certain times in our lives. This was such a special gift because it is something that she did and spent many hours doing and it has been hanging on her walls for so long. Miemaw said some very special words to all of us that brought warmth and love. She spent lots of timing preparing for this day by making cookies and dessert that we all love. There is nothing like her chocolate chip cookies or her cherry cheesecake. What a wonderful day with family!! All of this because Christ was born! I thank God for such a special Christmas together.

Christmas Eve

Zachary and daddy with his stocking at Grammy and Paw-paw's house
Zachary and mommy waiting to open presents.
Zachary's favorite thing was the tissue paper. He would grab a hold and not turn loose.
Zachary received a fun ride on toy from his grandparents.

Obviously Zac is a little too young to fully understand Christmas, but big sister had no problem helping him out. She would open some of his gifts and show him how to use each toy. One crazy thing is that a lot of the toys he recieved said from age 6 to 36 months and so technically Carlee really could play and enjoy his toys just as much as he .... and that she did.

On and side note, Zachary is feeling better. He is getting over his cough and his runny nose is clearing up. Thanks for your prayers!!

Early Christmas

We celebrated with Greg's family on Christmas Eve this year. Our plan was to open gifts before they had to sing at their Christmas Eve service at church, but little did we realize how long the gift opening would take. It happened two hours before they left and then another hour after they got home. Carlee was a little overwhelmed by all the gifts and needed to take breaks in order to enjoy each gift to it's fullest.
This photo says it all. Carlee thoroughly enjoyed Christmas. One thing she did with all the wrapping was toss it in the air while screaming, "WhaWhoo." It was hilarious! This is a picture of her doing just that.
Carlee received a radio flyer scooter from Grammy and Paw-paw. This will definitely be used by both her and Zachary. One funny thing Carlee did was put on everything she got as she opened it. So here she is with her pink boots and her ear muffs.
Change number two into pink kitty cat velour jumpsuit and pink snow hat.
Final change of the night, into her purple princess dress. This dress was actually worn home along with her purple dress-up shoes. What a fun day!! Thanks Grammy and Paw-paw!

Pray for Zachary

Friends and family please lift up Zachary in your prayers. We just came back from the doctor's office and found out that Zachary has RSV. This is a relatively serious virus for an infant which causes him to cough a lot and have a hard time catching his breath. In order to keep him out of the Emergency room on Christmas day (doctor's words), we are having to do breathing treatments with him. They also put him on a steroid, which could cause some restlessness. Even though this is hard news, we are trusting God to take care of our child. We hope this is only temporary and pray he gets well soon. I'm sure he caught this from Carlee, who has been sick since last week. It's just a little harder for infants to get over because of thier small air passages. Thank you for your prayers! We love you and wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Growing Up

I turned 29 on Monday, the 17th. In some ways I wish I were older, so that I could have the maturity and wisdom that comes with age. I have noticed a few grey hairs lately, but that's not the kind of thing I am talking about. Carlee was sick on my birthday and my day seemed to have its ups and downs. I was hoping for a magical kind of day. I don't know why I place so much emphasis on my birthday- it's like I expect things to just go my way (kind of like a fairy tale). However, I do this kind of thing a lot and don't leave room for reality to happen. This is apart of growing up and maturing for me. I wish I were different, but I'm still learning and trying to be flexible. Responsibility is hard, being a parent is hard, growing up is hard.....

May this year be a year of growth for me and year that I choose to rest and know that God is good and He has the best in mind for me. He knows what I need and when I need it. May I trust Him through it all and look back and say He was with me through it all and I am more mature because of what I went through.

I did have a wonderful time celebrating my birthday with family. I am so thankful I got to go to lunch with my family on Sunday. I really enjoyed our time together. My dad and mom gave me a T3 professional hairdryer, which I totally love. I can literally dry my hair in half the time (4 minutes). I am all about efficiency. Thank you mom and dad!! I also loved my gift from my in-loves (laws). They gave me a beautiful silver and gold cross necklace from the Holy Land (Israel) and some Ahava lotion and mud from the dead sea. Yea, for good skin! Thanks Ed and Randle!

Greg took the day off work on Monday and let me shop for a while. My sister met up with me at the mall to help me with my sweater delimma. It was so much fun shopping with her. She blessed me with some jewelry (as seen in the picture) to match my new sweaters. Thanks sis (and John)!

Greg took me to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday dinner while my mom watched the kids. Thanks mom! We had a lovely evening despite our salmon being undercooked because of this, they took care of our whole bill. What a blessing in disguise! We both had cheesecake. I had the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake and Greg had the Adam's Peanut Butter Cheesecake. Yummy!! Thankfully we had leftovers to bring home.

Well I think I'll stick to the ups for my birthday and forget about the downs. I need to get better about doing this anyway. Maybe this year I can become a little less pessimistic.

My Super Reader

Here is Carlee saying the "Pledge of Allegiance," while turning pages in her book. This is how they taught her at church and she insist on saying the pledge this way. She really does know the whole thing word for word. Can you say, "teacher in the making."
One of the best times of the day for us is reading to Carlee before she goes to bed. She loves books. We normally read to her at least 15 minutes if not more. We try to read different books, but Carlee likes her favorites like "Clifford's Circus," "ABC's" by Dr. Seuss and "The Foot Book." She has all of these memorized word for word. If I mess up a word, she will correct me. I am amazed by her skills. The other day she came home singing a song about an orange and she knew how to spell the word orange. I was very impressed and thought to myself that she is going to want to start spelling soon.

Playing Together

I believe Carlee is definitely getting used to having a little brother. She has been playing with him more and more lately. I will catch her playing Pat-E-Cake with him like in this picture or rolling him around on the floor. On a side note- Carlee has wanted to leave her hair down lately and this makes things a little messy. However, I adore her style no matter what. She is the only one I know who wants to wear all miss matched clothes and think she is a beauty queen. I hope she never looses her self-esteem.

New Tricks

After jumping at JW Tumblers in their bounce swing, I thought I should get Zachary's out for him to jump at home. He loved it and stayed quit content.
He also loved his walker. I think he was glad to be in a whole new location of the house like big sister's room. Carlee also thought it was fun pushing him around.

Christmas Tree Fun

This year, Carlee and daddy went to Home Depot to buy the tree. Zachary and I stayed home and prayed for a successful trip. Fortunately, they got the first tree they found and packed it in the car. This is a picture of Carlee with the Christmas tree. The odd thing is that she is in shorts and a t-shirt where as last year she was bundled in her winter coat, hat, gloves and long pants. Gotta love this Houston weather!!
This years decorating was a whole new story- Carlee was hands on in this process. This was a little scary for us, but she did well and nothing broke. However, she still loves taking the ornaments on and off the tree even the breakable ones. Talk about a whole new set of "No's." Here is a picture of her with the star ornament she decorated at church. I love these little crafts that you can have throughout the years.
Zachary just hung out and played on the floor while this all went on. He definitely loves looking at the tree and notices it every time we're in the living room. Here he is with his daddy being all bashful. This year, Greg and I decorated the tree separately taking turns helping Carlee with ornaments and holding Zac. I love decorating the tree and remembering each trip we took(we always got an ornament from each vacation spot) or memory from seasons of life. We eventually finished the decorating, but it was over the coarse of a 24 hour period.

6 Months

Zachary is 6 months old today. I've been dreaming of this age and here we are. I think I do better with older infants, but we'll see. He is 16.9 lbs. and 27 in. long. Zac is sitting up by himself with just a little help from mommy. He is one happy baby full of smiles and giggles. He has definitely discovered his voice. He is so loud these days. I think he is trying to match the noise level of the places we go. It's pretty funny b/c people are always asking me if he is ok and I say, "yes those are just the noises he makes." Thankfully, he is not crying or fussing. He is still teething, but there are no signs of teeth yet. Zachary has started to refuse diaper changes. He will literally be so active by trying to roll over and kick his feet that it makes this once so easy job very hard and unmanageable. He is really enjoying being on the floor these days. He will just roll and roll trying to get to his destination. I have to watch him close though because he is fast. Carlee is enjoying him being so accessible, however, she has now tried to pick him up without asking. One day, I had turned my back and before I knew it Zachary was halfway off the ground. It was a little scary. We have slowly started rice cereal and a little banana. So far so good. I'm a little worried about starting solid food because of the amount of time it takes and because of his digestion, but I'm sure we will make it through this stage just like we have made it through all the other ones. God has been so faithful to see us through.