Saturday, July 30, 2011

6 month old toes....


I just can't seem to get over your little toes, Ileigh Grace.
Every single thing about you is amazing...even down to those adorable little toes.
We are so thankful to have you as our daughter...I can't wait to see you in 6 more months, in 6 years and then 16. This is already going by too fast.
Love you, and your little piggies too...


As soon as your back hits the floor you roll over to your tummy. Sometimes you automatically roll back over, but most of the time you get stuck and frustrated. You do a great job of holding yourself up off the floor- what a strong little one you are.
Your favorite person is still your big brother. Every single time you see him you get a huge smile on your face...someday soon the two of you will be getting into all kinds of trouble together. You love to sing and coo and have the best tooth-less smiles.

Can't wait to see how much you grow over this coming month...watching you grow is nothing short of amazing.
Mommy

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Dang you, VBS...

Not really.
But really come on.
Just like last year I saw these little scrapbooks and bawled like my 6 month old...
This is all just going by too fast...
I mean look at Eli in that picture; he isn't a baby anymore! :(

I also took a few pictures of this little one on the last day of VBS...I just love her outfit so much!

She is just so big. And cute. That too. 


Of course, that big smile on her face isn't for me, it is for her big brother. 

Friday, July 22, 2011

Tutu Cute

We had big plans to take the kiddos for pictures while we were in Dallas. Sunday morning when we woke up, I knew that it would be a fight to get pictures; a fight I didn't want to fight! Eli was sooo tired and by the time he woke up and got moving, it was well on its way to being too hot to even try to get pictures outside.
We settled on taking a few pictures of Ileigh in the hotel.







Ahhh! She is just the sweetest little thing! :)

I just wanna dance...

Last weekend we made a quick trip to Dallas to get out of town.
We were supposed to be going to pick up Eli's big boy bed from IKEA, but after seeing the prices and the quality we decided to do something else and picked Eli up a table and some chairs instead. It was just nice to get out of town for a little bit.
The kiddos did pretty great with the long car drive and we even got to see some of our friends! It was a great trip...
Eli thought so too...
Here he is showing off his moves in our hotel room...on his "stage".





Oh, yeah, break it down, E!

I also got to finally start Eli's sprinkle shirt that I have wanted to do forever!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Eli, 2.5

Eli,

I don’t even know where to start. No list of adjectives can fully convey the likeness of you.

You, our precious first-born

You, our ornery little (big) boy with the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen and a huge cowlick I can never comb down

You, who can stop my heart and steal my breath

You, who I can’t remember life before or imagine life without

You, whose laugh is contagious

You, our little Eli



Your cognition and speaking skills blow me away. It is amazing to watch the growth of a child from infant to now. To go from total dependence to where you are now is nothing short of amazing.

You love to be outside, working on your trucks with your tools. You love to sit and listen to music. You are really “into” firemen, tractors, guitars and cowboys. You won’t take your boots off without a fight.

You are potty-trained! We are so proud of you.

You are very good with Ileigh and LOVE to help me take care of her or the puppies. When baby sister is crying in the car, you automatically start singing “Jesus Loves Me” so that she will stop. You also like to sing “Jesus Loves the Little Children”, “Twinkle, Twinkle”, “Mary had a Little Lamb”, “Sweetly Sings the Donkey” along with many, many more.

Your favorite song right now is “Fiddle-dee-dee”; you love to be tickled.

You are a huge fan of daddy. You love to “go up high”. You also love it when daddy gives you baths and swings you high in your towel. And even when I ask you what song you want me to sing you before you go to sleep you say “Daddy’s song” (Freedom, by Run Kid Run) instead of Mommy’s song (Find your Wings, by Mark Harris) or Eli’s song (Safe and Sound, by Matthew West).
In this picture, I think you look just like your daddy..

You can spell your name, count to 20, and you know where you live, your grandparents live and even cousin Emma. You can almost name all of the days of the week, but don't have a grasp of time yet. You have also just started having bad dreams. Most of the time they are of dinosaurs coming through the cracks or lions that bite your toes. I have no idea where in the world that came from, but it makes me sad to think that you are afraid.

Eli, I am so proud of you. I hope you always know just how loved you are. You are one special little boy. If I got to pick my son out of all the little boys in the world, I would pick you. Thank you for being who you are…Eli.

Just for fun, here are a few pictures of Chris and I. We weren't 2.5, but maybe you can tell who he looks more like...


































Monday, July 11, 2011

Cowboy Eli...

One little guy is all decked out and ready for the big rodeo in a few weeks!
Oh, he just melts my heart! :)


And tomorrow he will be 2 1/2...where in the world has the time gone?
I am sure we will be celebrating with a little ice cream. :)

Friday, July 08, 2011

Here I raise my Ebenezer...

Ebenezer:
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and named it Ebenezer; for he said, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel; the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The towns that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites. (1 Samuel 7:12-14 NRSV)


The word "Ebenezer" comes from Hebrew and is actually two words pronounced together: Even Haazer. It is usually transliterated as a proper name by dropping the definite article (Ha) from the Hebrew word for "help" (Ezer) and putting it together with the Hebrew word for "stone" (Even) to create: "Ebenezer." The etymological roots of the word, thus defined, should demonstrate that an "Ebenezer" is, literally, a "Stone of Help."
Source


Background:
I have been in somewhat of a struggle with God these last few months. Don't misunderstand. I am firm in my faith, but I felt a little let down by God (crazy in retrospect of everything He has done for me, but He knows my heart, and I am being honest). I desired a natural birth with Ileigh. I knew it was unlikely, but I knew that if God wanted it to happen, it would. It wasn't until I was in the hospital being hooked up to IVs for a C-section that the reality of what was about to happen hit.

I had prepared myself for the C-section, and it went well and Ileigh is just perfect. In the weeks to come I felt selfish and ungrateful for not being satisfied with this beautiful gift of a child that God had- I wanted more. I wanted that natural birth experience. Something that I can't even bring myself to say out loud that I may never have. Honestly, I don't know why it is such a big deal to me...I mean, really? Come on, Tif, get your priorities straight. I should be overjoyed to have two beautiful, healthy children.

Most days I have peace, but every once in a while I would find myself questioning God. Really, thousands of natural births happen every day- why couldn't I be one of them? Didn't God understand how much this meant to me?

Anyway, I struggled. I saw God working through my friends; the little ways that God shows you, you matter. I saw nothing. I felt forgotten.

Main Story:
Sorry, that was a long explanation of where I was but I think that it is important to see what/where I was coming from.

A few weeks ago, Chris was rear-ended coming home from lunch. He was fine; a few chiropractic treatments and he was good to go. (Thank you, Lord)
His car was not. They deemed it totaled and actually gave us a pretty good deal to hand it over to them.

We had started saving for Chris a new car in December. We were halfway there. I was so excited to walk in, buy a car with cash and not have a car payment. There was no way that would happen after this wreck.

We started the search for a low-mile, used car. We spent many nights searching the internet until midnight...nothing.
Finally I told Chris that I was expecting God to do something; to show us exactly which car to buy. Buying a car was a huge deal for us- that is a lot of money, people! Finding a good car that would last for a long time was very important.

The next week, we were told about a new Ford Fusion that was in our budget range. We were totally against buying new, but there was NOTHING out there that didn't have too many miles or didn't get horrific gas mileage. (I think that could have something to do with the economy- no one is trading in their cars at the moment). Cool, we thought that we had found the car. Chris had also gone to a new dealership here in town and found a Nissan a little out of our range, but that he loved. Of course after test-drives and comparing the cars online and reading reviews, because of our "Ramsey" ways, we went with what we could afford. Friday, everything was set in stone, a dealer in Oklahoma was going to get this Ford in Dallas and we would meet that next Thursday to pick it up. Done deal.

While we were happy that we had found a car, I was still frustrated. I even told Chris I was disapointed in God. We had prayed and I had total faith that He was going to show us a car- and give us some sort of sign. I didn't pray for a specific car-that part didn't really matter to me; I prayed for a sign to show us which one to get. I wanted some sort of confirmation. We had none.

Long story even longer, tiny detail after tiny detail kept delaying the Ford from being picked up. Finally, after many phone calls, Thursday (the day we were suppose to be getting the car) the dealer in Oklahoma called to say that the car in Dallas had sold. Well, that was all the sign I needed- as soon as Chris said that I told him to call the Nissan place here in town and see if the car he was looking at was still there.

Chris called back and was elated. The car was there, and since it was the last day of their current special and the first day of their new special, the Ford and the Nissan ended up being the same price...but only on that day, for two more hours.

Ah! There was the sign- how crazy?! The timing was absolutely perfect. Chris called them back and told them to start the paper work. We set out on a celebration dinner to McAlisters--

After a happy dinner we pulled up to the Nissan dealership and immediately the salesman that we were working with and the district manager met us at the car. Five minutes he had hung up the phone with Chris, another salesman had sold the car. It had been sitting there for months. And sold 5 minutes after Chris got off the phone to start the paperwork...on a Thursday night. Who buys cars on Thursdays?

The district manager out of Lubbock was unbelievably gracious and offered us the same exact car, except a 2012, for the same price. It had just been unloaded off the truck 2 days before. He gave us an incredible deal, losing money because of what he considered his worker's mistakes. He didn't have to do that.

Now, that is what I am talking about! There was a sign.

Thank you, Jesus for your faithfulness...even in my lack thereof.

I know that in retrospect, this is just a small thing. Sometimes, all I need is a small glimpse of His love.

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Daddy's Gotta New Set of Wheels...

Many of you don't know, but Chris' car was totaled a few weeks ago when a woman rear-ended him at a red light...

Chris was fine after a few chiropractic treatments (shout out to Dr. Kaci Cooper here in Amarillo!).

The woman's insurance company gave us more to hand the car over to them than we could have gotten for a trade-in, so we just let them come pick it up.


Of course, we are total dorks, so we had to take pictures before it was gone. Do you see our little budding photographer? :)


This has been such a great car for us. Chris got it right out of his undergrad and we paid it off before we moved for law school. It has made countess trips to Kansas and Oklahoma for us. It holds a ton of memories...

And this is all it took for it to be "totaled". The damage is a little worse than what it appears in the photo, but really, we didn't think it would be totaled. 

Here they are taking it away. It looks more like it is being repossessed. Chris was sure to tell the neighbors what was going on... 

After a week of being a single car family, Chris found a car! Hooray!
And I only forgot to pick him up from work once!

I don't have a picture of him and his new car, but this is what it looks like! It is exactly what he wanted; actually, it was even more than what he wanted and we are thrilled with it.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Fun Fourth...


I just happen to think that these two were the cutest little things in red, white and blue yesterday...

We have had the same 4th of July routine for years: Pancake Breakfast, Canyon Parade, Fair on the Square and then a cookout and fireworks in WD. This year we have a burn ban in place because of the drought; it was the first year I can remember where we didn't buy fireworks. But, it was still fun...and with a two year old and a five month old, it was probably for the best!

Eli LOVED seeing the fire trucks in Canyon while we waiting in line for breakfast...

Gosh. I just love that kiddo.

Speaking of love, I LOVE this little happy girl too...

Every year Chris' parents join us...or we join them really. They are the ones that started the tradition.

Miss Ileigh and Mema...

Oh, Ileigh's first pancake breakfast!

Here is Eli at his first pancake breakfast...

And his third yesterday...he LOVED the parade!



Ileigh slept through the parade in Mema's air conditioned car. Chris and I switched off sitting with her and sitting with Eli in the back of my car...

After the parade, we sat on the grass in the square. Ileigh practiced sitting up and Eli ran around in the grass making new friends...

Total Daddy's girl...


That is okay, we might have a Momma's boy on our hands...:)

After all the fun on the square, we had lunch and got ready for our parents to come over for dinner. We ended up making our own fireworks when we caught the grill on fire. :) Ha! Fun times!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July!