She is growing up too fast!

So as most of you know, Kylee is trying to skip crawling and go straight into walking. She gets up on all fours and sticks her butt in the air and tries to stand up. Its quite funny to watch. She has started pulling up in the bathroom when she is ready to get out, she has no fear. Tonight when we put her to bed, she fought it. She cried and cried so Jonathan went in to see what was going on. He found her standing up in the crib! She isn't even 7 months yet. So this weekend Jonathan will have to lower the bed and we will have to baby proof quickly!

Yummy!

Kylee has been doing well eating solids. If she really likes the food, she tries to help you feed her. If she doesn't really like it, she plays while she eats. But I am thankful that she is pretty easy going about it. One night she decided to chow down on my hair! Enjoy the pictures!

Catching up

I got to go down to Austin earlier this week and catch up with some old friends. My mom and mother-in-law both wanted to spend some extra time with Kylee so we stayed down there most of the week. We missed Daddy, but somehow he made it. I got to see my old co-worker and her husband, Charlotte and joe/. She made us yummy veggie quasadillas and Kylee enjoyed her squash. Charlotte just got a job teaching music in AISD so we were chatting about that and it turns out that one of her schools is my old elementary, Wooten! What a small world. So we took a drive down there and I showed her a back way to go in case of traffic. It brought back a lot of old memories!

Then Tuesday I got to see one of my old high school friends, Amanda. She has two little boys. I saw her oldest one when he was first born and I had never met her youngest. Here are Zander (2 1/2) and Dalton (1 1/2). She has her hands full, don't you agree. It was so good to see her and her boys!!





On Wednesday Kylee and I headed over to another HS friend's house, Karianne. She has a precious house in Pfluggerville and she has a little girl (Kaeta, almost 3) and a little boy (Jonah-8 months). It was so good to meet them. It's weird we have talked on email and I have kept up with her blog over the years so I felt like I knew her kids even though I had never met them.




All of this visiting made me realize that I need to do a better job keeping in touch with my friends. Our HS is not having a reunion (bummer) so we are going to have a little get-together with our closest friends. That's who we want to see anyway, right?

And here is a picture of Kylee watching Baby Einstein, isn't she cute?

My friend Amanda put this on her blog and tagged me to do the same. Enjoy!

ABC’s

A. Attached or Single? Attached

B. Best Friend? My hubbie Jonathan

C. Cake or Pie? both, cake-definitely chocolate, pie-always apple

D. Day of choice? Friday b/c I know that we will get to be with Jonathan

E. Essential item? laptop

F. Favorite color? Purple

G. Gummy bears or worms? Neither unless they have the sour patch coating

H. Home town? Austin, TX, but Belton has grown on me

I. Favorite indulgence? Movie popcorn with lots of butter. Sometimes I just buy it even if we aren't going to the movies.

J. January or July? January-its not so hot

K. Kids? 1 sweet girl and 1 sweet boy

L. Life isn’t complete without? family

M. Marriage date? December 18, 2000

N. Number of brothers and sisters? 3 sisters

O. Oranges or Apples? Apples, but I'd rather have a bannana

P. Phobias? Being in small spaces and mice

Q. Quotes? "Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away"

R. Reasons to smile? My beautiful daughter's face anytime I get her out of her crib, my relationship with Jesus

S. Season of choice? Winter, there's something special about bundling up and seeing your breath in the cold

T. Tag 4 people: Chris, Karianne, Karen, Ruth Ann

U. Unknown fact about me? I am incredibly uncomfortable in big groups of people

V. Vegetable? green beans, but only Del Monte

W. Worst habit? Letting my house get messy and then being frustrated b/c it is

X. Xray or ultrasound? Ultrasound - its the moment when you know there really is a life inside of you

Y. Your favorite food? Waffles/pancakes

Z. Zodiac sign - Scorpio, I had to look it up :)

Beneath the snot

Kylee is battling her first cold. I took her to the doctor to make sure it wasn't an ear infection and while she did have a little fluid in her ears, it did not appear to be anything more than a cold. The first night we were up from 12:20-3:00 AM. Somehow I made it through the following day. I put her in her swing with her blankie and an episode of Baby Einstein so I could squeeze in a nap.

She has been a little cranky, clingy and I can just tell she doesn't feel well. But beneath all of the snot, I have found a blessing. I get to hold my squirmy, otherwise very busy girl in a snuggly position. She cried for me in the middle of the night and reached out her arms when Daddy was holding her. She slept in bed with me briefly so I could get her back to sleep (I miss those days from when she was a newborn). I am trying to learn to treasure every moment that I get to snuggle with my sweetie. I know she will grow up all too quickly.

Party weekend

Last weekend we had my parent's 50th anniversary party. It was a very busy weekend, but it was a big hit. My sisters and I made up a song in tribute to their marriage. I have it on video, but I'm not sure how to upload it. Maybe I will figure it out soon.

After the party we headed over to Jonathan's parent's house and met up with some of our cousins. They have a little boy that is exactly a month younger than Kylee. His name is Jackson and he is a sweetie. I quickly figured out that he was a cuddler and I enjoyed that since Kylee never wants to cuddle. Here are a couple of picture of them together.





Sunday night two of my sisters and their kiddos came up to have a slumber party. The three little ones enjoyed a bath together, aren't they cute?



And one last picture: Kylee was done eating her sweet potatoes so I let her play with her sweet potatoes. She had fun!

Happy Anniversary

Today is my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. Congratulations Mom and Dad! Thank you for showing us how to love and what real commitment is.

Random pictures

Kylee really wanted to play Daddy's video game last night so we gave her a controller.

Here are some pictures from our sleepover with my sister's fam.

Unexpected time off

Jonathan left for work Monday morning and then returned about 30 minutes later announcing that he had the day off. He said that there was a fire in the shop over the weekend and they were cleaning up and no one could go inside. Luckily everyone was okay. Apparently someone used the blowtorch and the embers landed in a container of transmission fluid. So we took a couple of naps and played with Kylee and ended the day making dinner together.

Yesterday they were still not done cleaning so he was off again. I was happy because Kylee was scheduled to get her 6 month shots and I would rather not do that alone. So Daddy got to go with us. She cried more this time than the past two appointments, but I nursed her and she recovered quickly. She is hovering over the computer trying\
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That was her message :)

She is in the 70th percentile for her weight and 10th for her height. Poor girl, she inherited our height. She weighed in at 16 lbs, 13 oz. The doctor said she looked great and can even start eating meat. We are still working on cereal and fruit so it will probably be a while before we add meat.

Here are some pictures from the 4th of July that I am just now getting to post.

Mimi

We headed out to East Texas on Friday to visit Jonathan's grandmother. She fell about two weeks ago and broke her shoulder. She is 89 years young and recovery has been hard. They transfered her to a nursing home right next to the hospital, but now she is back in the hospital because of complications with dehydration.

Saturday morning was Kylee's first experience with rice cereal. I fed her bannanas and cereal and she loved every bit. About an hour later she threw all of it up. We thought maybe she had just eaten too much. But then she kept throwing up. I called our nurse advisory line and she was concerned by how many times she had thrown up in such a short amount of time. She said to keep an eye on her and to take her in if she showed any decrease in activity etc. When I got off the phone I found her laying in bed with Daddy and she was totally still. That is not like her at all. She was still throwing up and it was yellow now so we decided to go on to the ER.

We were in Woodville, TX and it has a cute little hospital. They were all very nice and took great care of us. The doctor said that he didn't see anything of real concern and to give her pedialyte and not feed her for a while. I was worried about my milk supply, but my mom assured me that it would be okay, and it was. She took a long nap when we got back home and then she held the pedialyte down and finally some milk. She loves the pedialyte we call it baby cool-aid. She even reaches for it when she sees it.

Mimi couldn't see her on Saturday because we didn't want to take any chances on her getting sick so she saw her threw the window. Then we took her back on Sunday after she was all better. I'm glad her first sickness is over, and I'm glad we were with family when it happened.

Who else?

Well this is another post about Kylee. She has become quite mobile and she really will not sit still. She thinks that she can sit up and walk and gets very agitated when she discovers that her body is not as ready as she thinks it is. She had some peas and loved them. She still cries when it is all gone, or she might be crying because she is such a mess. We try to keep her hands away from the spoon, but then she sticks them in her mouth and then there is no hope!


I put her in the laundry basket the other day. It is perfect. She can sit up and play without me sitting behind her and she can still reach her toys. I have also started putting her in the sink while I get ready in the mornings. She loves it because she can grab everything on the counter and sit up like a big girl.

Bryan is home

Bryan is home for a week. We have had a great time. We went to see Wallee on Saturday and we all loved it. It was very creative and had a powerful message. Sunday we went to church and then the Locklin kids came over. They played ALL day! Jonathan and I tag teamed so that we could both take a nap. Then we headed over to their house for lifegroup that night. This was the first night that we had ventured out with Kylee past the 6:00 hour. She did very well and I think it helped that she had lots of people to hold her.

Bryan was very dissapointed in me when he found out I quit my job. He said, "Becca why did you do that? You should get your job back." On Sunday we went out to lunch with some friends and we told Bryan that he needed to order off the kids menu and not get the pizza. So when we got there he saw another kid order the pizza and he told his friends that he wanted some. They said well order some. He told them that "Becca quit her job and now we don't have any money. Jonathan has to work all the time!" We had to have a talk about money and explain that we still have money, we are just living on a budget. He still thinks that I need to get my job back.

Monday we hung around the house for the morning and then went to playgroup at church. Bryan had fun pushing the little kids around. Then that afternoon we made some edible play dough. It wasn't as good as I remembered it from nursery school. But I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I was three the last time I tried it. We put blue food coloring in it, but it turned out green!





Tuesday we went swimming and had fun. Kylee got a little frustrated b/c she couldn't reach the water while she was in her float. She was find while I was holding her because she could splash! She lasted about an hour and then we had to leave so she could take a nap.

Yesterday we made monkey munch. I have become a huge fan of Jon and Kate plus 8 (TLC). Kate makes monkey munch on the show and always talks about how much her kids like it. So I looked up the recipe and Bryan and I tried it out. It is fantastic! I call it fat in a bag. It has p.b., butter, chocolate chips, powdered sugar, pretzels, corn chex and it called for m & m's but we didn't have any. Here are some pictures!





We are leaving tonight to go down to Austin for the 4th of July! We will be swimming and grilling out. Bryan will get to see all of the family except Karen and Scott :( We have to take him back on Sunday and I am not looking forward to that day.

He has made remarkable progress in the two months he has been in Stephenville. He is speaking with better grammar, interacting with peers in a kind way, and is even able to take criticism. As one of my friends said, it is good to know that we did the right thing.

She bit me!

Last night I was feeding Kylee at the dinner table while I was eating and I guess she didn't feel that I was giving her enough attention b/c she bit me! I screeched and said "Ow!" She thought that was funny b/c she looked at me and smiled. I gave her one more chance and she did it again so I decided that the feeding was over.

That night I was nursing her to sleep and she bit me one more time. I gave her the benefit of nighttime and let her finish her feeding. Thank goodness she doesn't have any teeth :)

Plumpynut

I was just watching 60 minutes trying to distract myself from Kylee's cries. They were doing a story about all of the babies in Africa that are dying from malnutrition. Every year 5 million children die from malnutrition, that's one child every six seconds. The mothers are malnourished and cannot produce enough milk for their babies. They don't have enough money to buy milk, and even if they had it, there is no electricity to store it. Powdered milk is no good because there is no clean water. So millions of babies are dying.

A group of doctors came up with a life changing "medicine" for them, plumpynut. It is vitamin concoction that can cure a kid in three weeks. It contains powdered milk, powdered sugar, peanut butter and essential vitamins. They are using it in a country called Nigere (spelling?) Most mothers there have watched at least one of their children die. They travel hours to get a week's ration. It breaks my heart to see all of those babies.

It makes me want to go and hug my Kylee's "thunder thighs" and find a way to donate to this worthwhile cause that has such awesome results.

What a sweet hubby

Jonathan and I have begun sleep training as they call it. Jennifer J. recommended a book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." It had some really good research on sleep training so we started last night. We have been letting Kylee "cry it out" for about a month but this is how it goes. Night routine: bath, stories, feed, songs, put to bed. After 15 minutes of crying we go in and check on her. Then we let her cry for about 20 more minutes hoping that she will go to sleep. She usually doesn't so we go back in and I let her nurse and then she finally falls asleep. Our little angel will not take a pacifier and will not be rocked to sleep. If you even try to rock her she stands up and arches her back, trying her hardest to leap out of your arms. So nursing is the only time I ever get to cuddle with her.

But back to my sweet hubby. Last night Kylee cried for an hour and 15 minutes. The new method we are trying is to teach her to fall asleep without our help. Which means that we have to let her cry for as long as it takes (our limit is a little over an hour). So last night after about 45 minutes I was really having a hard time not checking on her. Jonathan thought of an errand-he needed gas for the lawn mower. So I left and when I got back she was asleep. Tonight it happened again, he sent me for super glue. I was glad to leave.

Monday he came home from work with a bag for me. It was new pajamas. He bought them for no reason at all-what a sweetie. I am always hinting that I would love for him to surprise me with something and he finally got it. My love language is acts of service, I don't really care what he gets me, or if he gets me anything at all. It is the act of thinking of me that I treasure :)

Firsts

So here are some firsts that have happened around here:

• Kylee had her first baby food. I pureed some bananas and she loved them. She got mad when they stopped coming and tried to lick them off of her bib when she was done.

• Kylee rolled over for the first time from her back to her tummy. Now she can go both ways. She seems to think that she can do anything now. She tried to take a nose dive off the couch yesterday so that she could reach the red carpet below. I call her my strong monkey. We had Lexie over the other day (she is 9) and she asked if Kylee was part Hulk? I think that describes her very well :)
  
• Kylee is now taking her medicine straight with no milk to change the taste. What a big girl.
  
• Kylee likes to type on the computer and yesterday she crawled (scooted) all the way across the bed so that she could reach my computer!
• I got my hair cut and highlighted. I was a little scared b/c I have never had any coloring at all, but I really like it. Jonathan wasn't sure if he liked it at first, but he has come around.

That is about it for what has been going on around here. Here are some random pictures of sweet Kylee.

Oh here is something very random. The doorbell just rang. It was our mail carrier. He had an envelope for Bryan from the church. They hadn't paid enough postage so I had to give him 41 cents. Weird!

Father's Day

Happy Father's day to all of you Fathers out there. Jonathan and I went down to Austin to spend Father's day with our dads. Kylee got to go swimming for the first time with Papa. Here are some pictures!




She really loved the water. She was so laid back and relaxed. I thought she might cry b/c the water was cold, but I think she was in there for like 45 minutes. Don't worry she had a had and I bathed her in sunscreen. He had seemed very big and kept covering up her face, but that made it cute.

For girls eyes only

So I know this might be a little weird to blog about, but here goes. My legs are cramping and I know that it is about to be that time of the month. I have lived without that time for over a year now so I am dreading its return. I just shared this with Jonathan and told him that he might need to run out and get me some tampons. To his credit, he has bought them before. In fact he would rather buy those than shaving gel for some reason. But anyhoo back to this story. So he said that he really doesn't feel like going to the store b/c it is so late and all.

He is madly going through the house from top to bottom to see if there are any tampons anywhere. He started in the bathroom, logical right. Then he looked through all of my purses. He moved on to my backpack and other various bags that he found. Now I just heard him go into the garage to have a look. Why would I keep tampons out there? So he has spent about fifteen minutes searching the house, about the same time that it would have taken him to just run up to Walgreens.....men.

She came out of the closet!

Last night we decided to let Kylee come out of the closet :) Since I have been working, we have been letting her sleep in our closet. It is very convenient since she has still been eating in the middle of the night. Now that I am not working, we decided to put her all the way across the house (remember that we have a huge house-1250 whole sq. feet). So we did our night routine with her: bath, eat, 2 stories and laid her down about 7:40. She cried for about 30 minutes and was still not asleep. So I picked her up and held her for a minute and then was ready to lay her back down. We realized that she was looking all around the room and it seemed to be keeping her up. So we hung a blanket over her windows and she laid her head down and went right to sleep! She was used to sleeping in the very dark closet.

After she had fallen asleep we heard her cd acting weird. The music was going really fast like someone was pushing the fast forward button. It was very strange. This morning we figured out what happened. Kylee scooted all the way across the bed and was pushing the buttons on the cd player with her head (Daddy had placed it in the crib with her). What a silly girl!!!

She slept all the way from 8:30-5:45! I actually got 7 hours of sleep in a row. It was great. Then I fed her and laid her back down at 6:20 and she slept until 9:00! It was a good night. Now I need to find some blackout curtains for her room.

Pictures

Here are some cute pics that Karen took while we visiting them a couple of weekends ago :)

It's official

Well today was my last day at Timber Ridge! I will definitely miss my job and the people that I worked with, but I will also love being home with Kylee. I am planning to teach music at our church's preschool this fall. So that will give me some adult interaction :)

I am looking forward to doing some organizing, but I know that Kylee might not allow that to happen as much as I'd hoped.

Bryan is here!

We went to pick up Bryan last night. We also got his sister to come home for the weekend. When we got there he ran out to the car and gave us a big hug and said that he missed us so much!! It was so good to see him again.

On our way home we passed the drive-in in Gatesville and decided to stop. We got to see Indiana Jones. Bryan thought it was really neat that the sound comes in your radio. We had a great time and it was perfect weather. We got home around 11:30. When he got here he had to run all over the house and make sure that everything was the same. He asked if Kylee was walking yet (she was asleep when we got home). We said no but that she could yell and make razoos.

Bryan gets to stay until Tuesday. I didn't realize how much I missed him until I saw him again. Now he gets to start coming home once a month and since it is summer he can stay for a week next time. I'm not looking forward to Tuesday when he has to go back, but I know that is the right thing to do.

I will try to post some pictures next week!

God provides!

As most of you know Kylee had a nine day stay in the NICU when she was born. We were sweating the medical bills, but we had more important things on our mind. I quickly added her to my insurance so I knew that she would be covered no matter what happened. We got her bill in the mail. Ten pages later we found the total, over $37,000! It said everything was still pending with insurance. We got a bill this month for $1,000. I called S&W and asked them if that was the total that we owed. They said that it was our copay. I thought not bad for such a big bill. Then today we got a refund check from our tax appraisal that will cover a third of it. God always provides!

Way to go Daddy!

Jonathan works at John Deere and they have to be open year round. When there is a holiday, half the staff gets the holiday off and the other half gets the day before off. So Jonathan had today off and I have Monday off. So my mom left last night and Jonathan kept Kylee all day by himself. I was worried that he might be nervous, but he seemed fine. He called while I was still at school to ask when I would be home. I asked what was wrong and he said that he was ready to take a nap. Ha! Shouldn't I get to be the one who takes the nap?

He said that Kylee had only slept for 30 minutes at a time and he never got to take a nap. I understood that. I asked how many bottles she had and he said 4. 4! That's a lot since she usually only has 3. But at least she was well taken care of. Besides, she's got to keep her rolls up.

Jonathan is still looking for a job so please keep us in your prayers. He has gotten a few calls back, but they are either paying too little or they want someone with more experience. He might just have to continue in the parts department for a while longer. He is really liking his new shift, 6:30-4:00. He gets home at the same time I do and we actually get to spend some time together with Kylee.

Not much else is going on with us. We are still trying to find a weekend that Bryan can come home. They are going to a lot of camps so it is hard to find a free weekend. I am hoping that maybe next weekend will work out. We sure do miss him.

School is winding down. I took a few things off my wall yesterday. It is kind of sad that I am leaving b/c I really do like my job. But I am looking forward to staying home with my sweet Kylee. I've heard it is the greatest job in the world and I can't wait to start.

I hope all of you are doing well :)

Lots of Stuff

Sorry it has been so long since I updated, here are some snippets of what has been going on....

• We are in Dallas with Karen and Scott this weekend and we are having a blast. If we do have to move for a job, I hope it is here!
• Kylee got her shots on Friday and did very well. Daddy got there right before she was about to get them so that was nice to not have to do it by myself again. Kylee is up to 15 lbs! No wonder my back hurts :)
  
• Kylee also went to the doctor on Tuesday and was diagnosed with acid reflux. They started her on Zantac and she has been a new baby. She was a very fussy baby before (because she was in pain) and now she smiles a lot more and spits up a lot less. We actually enjoy our evenings with her more
• My friend Kristi kept Kylee the past two weeks (bless her). We found out that Kylee is pretty sensitive and lets just say it...picky! I had to take one of my sheets and one of my shirts to help her sleep. Kristi was an angel and took great care of her. It was also nice to have her across the street from work. Thanks so much Kristi!! My mom is coming back this week to keep her.
  
• I have to officially turn in my resignation this week. I have mixed feelings, but it is a little scary to think about the lack of income. I know somehow it will all work out and at least Kylee and I still have ins. through KISD until the end of the summer. Then we will have to switch to J's
• Because of my resignation and the fact that I will no longer have a computer, we went to the Apple store yesterday and got me my own laptop. I love it!! The switch over was amazing. As soon as I turned it on it asked me if I had an old mac to transfer, I said yes and it did it for me! It only took two hours and everything looked exactly like my old mac; right down to the stickies!
• Bryan is doing better. I talked to his house mom yesterday and she said that he is having the same issues he had with us. The main one is social. He has no problem making friends, but always seems to sabitoge them. She said that he will have to learn those skills this summer b/c he will be in such close quarters. She said to be prepared that this summer will be hard for him. Kids can be cruel, but in this situation they are the best teachers!
• Well I know lots of other stuff has happened, but that's all I can think of for now. I hope all of you are doing well.
  

Bryan

We have really been missing Bryan this week. Last night Jonathan and I were watching a TV show and we were missing Bryan "flying" through the house like he always does. It used to get on our nerves, but now we miss it. I was doing laundry today and I felt like I didn't have enough to do.

We have talked to him twice. He does miss us a lot which honestly surprised me. So that reassures us that he did bond with us on some level. We can bring him home with us in six weeks and I can't wait!! Here is a conversation from the other night (abbreviated of course)

Becca: "Hi Bryan are looking forward to your weekend?"
Bryan: "Yes and Becca I don't have to go to school on Monday!"
Becca: "That's great!"
Bryan: "Its a bad weather day and I think its coming your way so you better stay in doors that day."
Becca: "That is sweet of you to think about us we will be sure to stay safe."
Becca: "Are you looking forward to your camping trip this weekend?"
Bryan: "Yes but they said that you couldn't come. I asked them if you could and they said no."
Becca: "I'm sorry that we can't come maybe we can camp out on the trampoline when you come home."
Bryan: "I have to go the bell is ringing" (I think this signifies its time for a devo)
Becca: "Okay I love you and miss you a lot!"
Bryan: "I love you so much, I love you more than the world."

Crying it out

For those of you who have met her, you know that Kylee is a strong willed child. I always thought that I would have a cuddly baby, but I soon realized that she would only be cuddly until she was strong enough to fight it. Now she always wants to be sitting up and looking around. Which is great, I'm glad that she is actively curious. But sometimes I just wish I could snuggle with her like I did when she was tiny. I secretly look forward to the feedings in the early morning because it is dark and she is sleepy so I actually get to snuggle with her.

Kylee has been a typical baby in every way. The downside was that we didn't know what typical was :) She had been staying up late at night and going to sleep somewhere around 10:30. Well that was better than midnight, but it left no time for Jonathan and I to even have a conversation. So Monday night we started letting her cry it out. It was very painful and I cried too, but after 30 minutes she was asleep. And not only was she asleep, but she slept for 10 hours!! I woke up at 4:00 panicked b/c she hadn't gotten up all night.

We do go in after 15 minutes and if she isn't asleep one of us picks her up and tells her that we love her. She holds on so tightly that I have a hard time putting her down. My sister RA told me that tip to reassure her that we were still around. Last night was one of the hardest nights because after the second cycle of 15 minutes she was still not asleep. Jonathan went in the first time and I went in the second time. But after about 35 minutes she was out. It seems to only take her 10-15 during the day for her naps, but the night time is the hardest. I think that she knows it is time to sleep and she is afraid she will miss something.

Thanks to everyone's advice that has really helped me. I knew that I would eventually have to let her cry it out, but I just wasn't ready yet. I think we waited the right amount of time and I am going to write it in her baby book so I can remember for the next baby.

Update on Bryan

Thank you for all of your prayers we could really feel them on Friday. Jonathan and I decided to take Thursday off and spend a "fun day" with Bryan before we took him to Stephenville on Friday. We got up and had donuts for breakfast. Then we went to Killeen to go bowling and have lunch. We ended the day by playing at the arcade at the mall and watching "Nim's Island." We did have a lot of fun.

When we got home we spent most of the evening packing and we had lots of hugs and we explained to him again how much we love him. Friday morning we got up and packed a few more things and headed out to Stephenville. He seemed like he was in good spirits and when we got there he was very excited to show off his toys. We talked to the houseparents about some of the concerns that we had and they seemed to be very familiar with all of them. When it was time for us to go we wanted to take him on a walk and talk to him one more time, but he didn't want to. He wanted to say a quick good-bye and go back to playing the x-box. I'm glad that he wasn't sad, but Jonathan and I were very upset. I hid it until I got to the car so that he wouldn't see.

We both miss him a lot and the house it quiet without him. I can't wait to see him again. But I know that the home will a place where he can learn some of the social skills that he desperately needs. Please continue to keep all of us in your prayers.

Just for a Little While

January 30, 2006:
We have been blessed with a guest in our home. Our seven year old nephew is going to stay with us for a little while. We are excited about him coming. We have started our prepartions: new room decor that does not have pink flowers, new bathroom toiletries that won't burn the eyes, an evening schedule that might be more for us than him, but most of all prayer that this will be the best place for him even if it is just for a little while.

April 25, 2008:
Our prayers have been answered, Bryan has been a huge blessing in our household. He has brought us so much joy and taught us many lessons that only kids can teach. I am watching him play lego starwars right now and I am thinking back to the weekend when we first got him. Jonathan and I were sitting on our couch biting our nails, not sure what we were going to do with a seven year old. Would he like us, could we help him, were we too young, were we ready to be parents?

I know now that we did make the right decision. He has come a long way. He smiles and has learned how to give great big hugs. He says "I love you" for no reason and sometimes he just can't stop talking. He is very different from 2 years ago. I am crying now thinking about tomorrow. Bryan is going to Foster's Children's Home in Stephenville tomorrow. I have been dreading this day since the day that I decided that I couldn't handle it all anymore. I have to turn it over to God. We are only two people and we can't do everything.

Jonathan and I were willingly thrown into the world of parenting, but we had no idea what lay ahead of us. Bryan has some emotional problems that we were not prepared to deal with. We hope that in time we will get to an emotional place where we can give Bryan everything that he needs, but we are unable to at this time. Please pray for him as he is anxious about tomorrow and I am dreading 4:00 when we will have to leave him in the hands of other parents, knowing that no one will love him like we do.

First week back

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers on my first day back. I only had a two day week and Friday was a half day because Fort Hood had some sort of celebration. I made a dvd of Kylee for my kids to watch because I knew that they would all want to see her.Tthat made for a really easy way to get back into teaching.

My kids were all very excited to see me, I got lots of hugs. The principal acted like he didn't recognize me :)

It was very hard to leave Kylee :( But luckily Jonathan's sister came down to watch her, so I knew she was in good hands (Thanks Shara). The first morning she cried for 30 minutes when she realized that Shara wasn't me. When I got home she nursed pretty much all evening (I think it was a lot of just sucking). Today she wouldn't take her bottle, but gladly nursed when I got home. I don't want her to miserable, but it felt good that she missed me.

Next week is only a four day week. It was hard to leave her, but it was great to see her when I got home!

Work

I'm back at work and pumping. I already miss her. Pray that this day will go by quickly!