10 months!!

Reese hit double digits a few days ago. For this month's photo we felt this arrangement was in the best interest of everyone involved.


At least for a little while anyway. :)

three cheers

Reesie likes basketball. She prefers to stand as she cheers from the sideline. It makes her feel like the big girl she is and it positions her for the most accurate of post-game analysis. Or something like that.

"Alright girls, let's hustle now."


"Go Team!!"


*spirit fingers*


"Go!!!"


"Aw, come on ref. That call was garbage and you know it!"


*boo, hiss, grumble, spit*

We're going to have to work on that un-sportsman like conduct.

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Is anyone else watching American Idol? It's too soon for me to pick a favorite. I'm a fickle fan. But so far I'm liking Danny Gokey and Alexis Grace. I had to go to the website just to verify those names! Up until now, I've referred to them as "the worship leader guy" and "the tiny blond with pink hair." Isn't it weird to think that for now, they're a bunch of unknown people but in a few months some of them will be household names?

I'm thinking when American Idol Season 25 is on the air, it's a safe bet who one of the twelve finalists will be. :)

my valentines

My Valentines Day re-cap is nine days late, but here none the less! I don't have much time, but look what the hubs sent me! He was out of town and these were on the front door when Baby Girl and I returned from running errands.



For Reese's first Valentine, we gave her a balloon. (Thanks Natalie for the idea!)


This might be my shortest post to date.

But before you go bloggers...

almost midnight madness

Ok, so it's 11:18 at night. The baby's been passed out for hours, everyone is sound asleep, yet here I sit at the computer, busying myself with this. I found it on a blog I love to read.

Why do I do this to my tired self?

Because I got a 90% on the first try.

So how did you do? :)

the pop-tart wielding eagles have landed

We made it! We made it! There was a little drama along the way, but we made it!

Our flight was delayed in Memphis so we missed our connection. We ran through the airport Home Alone style just in time to see the plane pulling away from the gate. Fortunately, we were on the next flight out of Atlanta. Meanwhile I feasted on a slice of $7.00 pizza to replenish the strength I needed for baby entertaining duty.

It was a full time job. For three hours, it went something like this...

Arm rest up and down, up and down, up and down. Eat some puffs, eat some puffs, eat some puffs. Lap tray up and down, up and down, up and down. Eat some puffs, eat some puffs, eat some puffs. Overhead light on and off, on and off, on and off. Window shade up and down, up and down, up and down. Puffs, shade, tray, puffs, arm rest....

Did you know on Delta flights if you carry an infant on board, it says "Baby in Arms" on your ticket? For my ticket "Baby AT Arms" would have been more appropriate. That is, if you consider flying pop-tarts a weapon. The poor man sitting across the aisle will never look at breakfast pastries the same way again. Should I be concerned our nine month old daughter is already exerting her second amendment rights?

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Would you like to see one of my favorite videos I have? Baby Girl gets more and more funny every day! At one point, she nearly tips over from all the fun!

an airplane size prayer

Hello sweet bloggers! I was so proud of myself for my recent dedication to the blog. Last week I was on a posting roll! Apparently blog pride commeth before ye blog absence. Just as I was trotting around up there on my high horse named Blog, our trusty internet high tailed it to the border. I have so much to share with you, but for now will you please pray for us? I am coming off a mean case of food poisoning. On top of that Reese and I are flying home tomorrow. It's her first plane ride. Reesie, bless her heart, is busy and loud, not a great combo for sharing a confined space for several hours. Thank you for thinking of us. By this time tomorrow we'll be hanging out in the land of our forefathers. A land flowing with family, friends and wireless internet. Can I get a woohoo? :)

baby un-proofed

I announced about a week ago that Reese started crawling. Danny sent me a text message last Monday night while I was at Bible study. "She just crawled."

It was a little painful to watch when she was first getting the hang of it. She'd grunt along as she ambled over a little ways and then sit up to take a break from all the work. Crawling isn't for sissies. Especially when you're having to haul around 90th percentile weight on your measly 50th percentile frame. It's not the ideal equation for speed.

But oh the difference a week makes. She's improved exponentially. For the past several days Danny and I have been working tirelessly because as it turns out, our home is a very unsafe place for babies on the move.

Pre-crawling days if there was, say, a machete on the floor, eh, just move it to the other side of the room, no biggie. That open container of bleach? Just keep it out of her reach.

No more my friends. No more. She is on the prowl, in hot pursuit of anything and everything she can get her hands on. She's a jungle cat, eyes riveted on that unsuspecting cup of Gatorade. And just when you turn your head, she capitalizes on your ignorance, pouncing on that glass before you can say Resolve carpet cleaner.

This past week, my most repeated phrase has been, "Where's the BABY?!?" It's unnerving to leave her in one place, only to return a few seconds later and she's vanished! On that high point of parenting skills, I'll leave you with this video. I've got to make a call to her school and pull her out of History of Houdini class right now!

"No chain is strong enough, no choice is wrong enough
no mountain high enough, that He can't climb.
No shadow dark enough, no light is black enough,
no road is lost enough, that He can't find.
No pain is deep enough, no heart could bleed enough
nothing but Jesus' blood can make a way."
~ "Finally Free" by Nichole Nordeman ~

As I'm getting ready for Bible study tonight, this song started playing. The lyrics washed over me in a way that I just had to share them.

I also feel compelled to tell you that whatever force of hell the enemy has thrown your way, your Rescuer is waiting to unleash all power of heaven upon.

You can have victory. He's ready to give it to you.

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
John 8:36

she's the fairest of them all

I've decided this shall be a week in video. Only because there are some things Chica does where there are no words. Yesterday Baby Girl was a little high maintenance, and it was difficult to get anything done. There are two things I do when those unfortunate afternoons occur. I pray for the hands on the clock to travel at warp speed until Danny's arrival home and I entertain Reese with our bedroom mirror.



A couple of notes about this video:

1. I apologize for the shaky camera. We're calling in Steven Spielberg for our next shoot.
2. Apparently the other baby's name is DaBa which, coincidentally was number two on our baby name list.
3. At 34 seconds you get a little snippet of what I tried to describe here.
4. My favorite part is that (oh so brief!) silent moment when she's staring at herself.

You still do that to us too Baby Girl..leaving us spellbound and speechless at a mere glance of you.

not me monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday!
This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Two posts in one day is very uncharacteristic of me, however, I just had to join in on all the fun! MckMama's blog is a favorite of mine. She takes beautiful pictures of her kids and gives great tips on how she does it. She has four children under four (if that's not a Superwoman, I don't know what is!) Her youngest is a miracle baby, diagnosed prenatally with a deadly heart condition then born several months later with a perfect heart. Every Monday she posts embarrassing things she's done in the past week that are so embarrassing, she claims not to have done them. Then she invites all her readers to write a similar post, link it to hers and we can all laugh at/with each other.

In an effort not to take myself to seriously and to serve as a reminder that we all have to cut a few corners along the way, I present things I so did "not do" this week.

I so did not trim my front tree with my kitchen shears. I did not walk into the room the other day and find Reese reaching for a screw driver. Who keeps a screw driver where a child can get a hold of it anyways? Speaking of Reese, I so did not hand her over to her Daddy, knowing full well she was dirty, in hopes he would smell her and change it. Who does that to their husband?

I did not watch several hours of America's Next Top Model re-runs last night when I should have been sleeping. And most of all, I deny ever doing three days worth of Bible study homework in one day.

Not me.

And just so you know, as I sit here typing this post, I am not eating red and green M&M's from Christmas.

Anything you'd like to own up to "not doing?" :)

she huffed and she puffed, except without the huff

This past week was a pretty big deal in the life of Reese. She wore her first bow sans headband. She started crawling. (More to come on that later.) And, she was introduced to puffs. Recently Reese's friend Maddie was chowing down on some Cheerios. Maddie is a few months younger, however she has twice as many teeth as Reese does. I hesitated on introducing any type of small, crunchy food to my one-tooth wonder, so Maddie's mom advised to start Reese out with Puffs.

I immediately went to the store and bought a can of the quick dissolving crackers. Because what Reese lacks in the dental department, she makes up for in the saliva sector. Teeth she doesn't have. Drool, she does.



Lo and behold, Natalie was right. (She is so smart!) Baby Girl LOVES puffs.



A few notes about this video.

1. She feeds herself with her left hand. Interesting, no?
2. It's necessary to stick her entire fist in her mouth.
3. She doesn't appear to be fearful of chomping her own fingers. When I do mouth sweeps for foreign objects, I always say a little prayer before I go in. That one tooth is menacing.
4. She's in the puff zone until her mother starts laughing and shaking the camera.
5. The end is my favorite when she does a thorough scan of her tray, searching for a stray puff.

9 month stats

This is why Baby Girl cannot be left unattended for 30 seconds with a package of slightly sealed wipes.


I really hope she's not perfecting her T.P-ing/rolling skills. If you wake up tomorrow to a yard covered in diaper wipes, you'll know who did it.


In other news, we took Chica to the doctor today for her nine month visit. She's grown almost three inches in three months! She's in the 50th percentile for height and 90th percentile for weight. Her head circumference is also in the 90th percentile. Bless her heart! But she has to have sufficient space to hold all those brains she inherited from her parents. :)

In all seriousness, we thank God for our healthy baby. The fact that she's beautiful, sleeping through the night and about to go to four meals a day are just extra blessings and even more reasons to give Him some praise!

25 random things

Over on Facebook, there's a chain letter type thing going around. You're supposed to write twenty-five random things about yourself and then send it to twenty-five friends. Neither Danny or I have a Facebook account, but so many people sent it to our youth profile we decided to join in on all the fun. Because, well, all the other kids are doing it. :0)

By writing 25 things that could be about either of us, it added a little mystery. A "Who Done It?" situation, if you will. (Actually, neither of us had twenty-five interesting things, so it was much easier coming up with half.)

Here's what we sent to twenty five people. But, before you read it, do you promise to still be our friend afterward? If you choose never to associate with us again, then I must tell you they're all about Daniel. :)

25 Random Things
Can you guess which fact belongs to whom?
One of us (Danny or Rachel)...
1. Loves Tupac.
2. Is developing a new radio station: K-HATE (Negative, discouraging, less music, K-HATE)
3. Had their two front teeth knocked out on the playground.
4. Had a crush on Alex Mac and Patty Mayonnaise.
5. Wore tennis shoes the day of their wedding.
6. Knows all the words to Homeland, Psalm 51, If Music Be the Food of Love, Ngana, Weep O Mine Eyes, Shepherd's Pipe Carol and The Eyes of All.
7. Refuses to play games against the other one due to their over-competitive spirit.
8. Once owned a pet chicken.
9. Left the country without informing their mother.
10. Doesn't eat beans.
11. Wet their pants on stage.
12. Barfed at Junior Assembly.
13. Dated the same person 8 times in one year.
14. Drinks warm pop.
15. Can't sleep with socks on.
16. Lost 40 pounds in 3 months.
17. Insists on sleeping with the TV on.
18. Does not check voice mail for months on end.
19. Has appeared in court twice.
20. Drives like a Grandma.
21. Is scared of The Goonies.
22. Said "Who's your Daddy?" in a chapel talk at an all girls private school.
23. Has had 6 cavities.
24. Convulses violently when swallowing pills.
25. Is a convicted felon.

Because we're not that interesting, we threw in one that is a little untrue, just to add a little flair to our lives and to keep our friends on their toes. That's just the kind of friends we are. Truth bending over sharers.

Anybody available for a lunch date?

a hair raising milestone

Since Reese hit the nine month mark, she's reached a number of milestones. Not the least of which was achieved on Sunday. For nine months, if I've adorned a (mandatory!) bow atop Baby Girl's head it's been strapped to her head with a headband. See here and here. That was then...

And this is now!! Some one's hair is long enough for a bow! She wasn't as happy about it as I was.


Nothing a little cracker can't fix.


Oh yeah, that hits the spot.


And the bow hasn't budged!


No tape, no glue, nothing. That's hair holding that sucker in!


P.S. - In other milestone news, Reese crawled tonight for the first time. Is it bad that only the tress related events hog the blog glory?