Rebekah May 3 months

Telling me a story
Melting my heart with those big blue eyes.
Smiling at me and she might have said, "Thank you for feeding me!"
Waking up from her morning nap. She really was happy but hates the flash!


Our "Sugar Plum" is 3 months old. She is so beautiful!! She still seems so small I guess because for the first time I didn't bring a baby home to a house full of babies. She now pushes up on her arms in her crib and can roll from her tummy to her back. This can sometimes lead to problems during nap time. She is still nursing great, she eats about every 3 1/2-4 hours. She sleeps all night, from about 8pm to 9am. Oh my goodness, I LOVE her SO MUCH!! The others are fond of her too.

Some examples of lately:

• We all listened as Daddy sang and rocked her at dinner last night.
• Abigail always wants to know where she is.
• Hannah is there to sooth her when she cries and loves to talk to her.
  
• Samuel gives her kisses and ran to get her a pacifier the other day when she was crying
  

And me well I love her so much that sometimes I feel like waking her up just so i can see her sweet smiling face. Don't worry I am smarter than that!

Sorry my pictures aren't the greatest. I use the camera on my cell most of the time because lets face, it I don't know where the "real" camera is half the time. She really doesn't like the flash and I don't know how to turn it off :)

Little man of few words.

Me: "Samuel are you playing in the mud?" Samuel: "Yes!" Me: "Is that fun?" Samuel: "Yes!" and those of you who know Samuel well know that his "Yes" is adorable. I am still not used to this man of few words thing. Although I will say, his few words have LOTS of meaning and emotion. He definitely gets his point across.

This is just another way the Lord has shown me how wonderful and different He has made each of my children. Abigail's response would have been very matter of fact but she would have told me what she was doing with the mud. Hannah's response would have been a "story" about what she was doing with the mud and would have without a doubt included her imaginary Grandma, that we now know lives in Germany. Also her hands would be used at all times to tell the story and there may or may not have been some dancing involved.

Wow, Kids are great! Well I guess I should not speak for everyone... WOW, MY KIDS ARE GREAT!!!

p.s. If you dont think your kids are great, contact me. I would love to help you make your kids great.

Kittens

So it turns out that this is what our female cat "Fuzzy" was busy doing the day that Samuel was bitten by the snake. I decided I better cut her a little slack. The day after "the attack" the girls came running into me saying "Mommy we have kittens, we have kittens" I thought they were just pretending. Well when I went outside sure enough there was Mama cat with her little 2 little kittens by the steps of the porch. She was very protective at first but it was supposed to rain that night so I decided that I better try and bring them in. I know what your thinking one more thing to take care of. Well it is 3 more things to take care of and they are sure making a BIG mess in my bathroom. And I don't even like cats!! I know I am really nice. Thankfully I think that I can kick them out pretty soon :)

Our little House

It's official our little house is on the market. Our first home, the place we brought 3 of our 4 babies home to, the place they took their first steps and the place where birthdays were celebrated. This house is FULL to the brim of our wonderful memories. It was my first nest.

Trey has been working so hard to get it ready and all by himself I might add. I am not much help while nursing a newborn and trying to keep an eye on 3 other kiddos. It will be sad to watch it go but also exciting to move onto something bigger and better. We are ready to see what the LORD has in store.

Snake bite

Samuel had his first, I would say and last but I am also realistic, ER visit. On Monday July 19th mid morning he came running to the house screaming. I ran out to him and immediately saw the marks on his arm. I was not sure but did think...SNAKE! So, I called Trey at the office and thankfully he, well he and a man we will affectionately call "Nice Olde Timmer" was able to come straight over. Samuel doesn't always verbalize very clearly but Both Trey and Nice old Timmer identified it as a bite. Trey rushed him off to the ER. Have I mentioned that I was terrified but trying to stay calm so the girls did not freak out. I quickly became very aware of my words as I saw panic in their little eyes when hospital was mentioned. I guess, understandably, after all that went on with Rebekah, they are not very fond of people they know and love going to the hospital. The 3 of us prayed for brother and I used the word "doctor" for the rest of the day.

Trey and Samuel spent the the day in the ER waiting on test results but thankfully everything turned out fine. Appears to have been a dry bite. Praise the LORD our Big Boy is okay but not so sure this Mama is cut out for county life after all.

4th of July Weekend

My Apples of Gold Bible study planned a picnic for Saturday the 3rd. So despite the bad weather forecast we loaded up the clan and headed to Huntsville. The rain stayed away just long enough for the kids to have a great time playing and for us all to get sweaty worn out. Here are some pics from the pic.






After the picnic we headed home for showers and some quick rest time before we headed back to Huntsville for dinner at "Cowboy Mark's" house. The rain kept us from visiting the cows this time but we had a delicious BBQ dinner, the girls played with Mark and Leslie's daughter and Samuel helped entertain the crowd between rounds. Yes, it was a fight night. Rebekah is such an easy sweet baby. she was just happy being passed around and then finally passed out on the quest bed. So, I was actually able to stay awhile and enjoy the festivities. It was a nice treat considering I thought that I would be taking the kids home shortly after "normal" bedtime.

Sunday after our normal nap routine Trey grilled a delicious dinner and then we headed into New Waverly for the firework show. Rebekah was a little worn out from our Saturday night party so I held her in the car while she tried to sleep. The show was impressive considering, well considering that this is just New Waverly, TX. We had a FUN filled exhausting weekend.

Breakfast is ready!

At the beginning of the year I set a goal to make breakfast for my family more often. I have been doing good or great in my opinion. It has been a process but I am now making a hot breakfast of some sort for the kids almost every morning. Trey doesn't get to partake yet because I haven't been waking up that early due to our newborn. Now that Rebekah is sleeping consistently, about 8 hours at night, I plan to start waking up and making the meal earlier so that Trey can eat with us. I thought that I would share some photos of some of the things that i have been making.



Apple cinnamon pancakes


Chocolate Chip pancakes




Homemade whole wheat buttermilk biscuits with homemade cream gravy. I was very excited that they gravy turned out yummy, I have tried in the past and failed desperately! Biscuits and gravy is one of my favorite breakfast treats. Even though it is not something that we will eat often, it is nice to know I can pull it off for a special occasion.


I also like to keep several batches of "breakfast bread", it is easier than muffins for me, in the freezer for an easy hot breakfast. I put it in the fridge the night before and then warm it in the oven before serving.


Here is a list of some other things that i make that I have not taken pictures of:

Kolaches
Banana waffles
Banana bread
Cinnamon Apple bread
Chocolate Apple bread
Strawberry Oat bread

Most of my recipes are adapted from allrecipes.com. Don't worry they are not all unhealthy I use whole wheat flour and Oats for extra fiber. I also hope to start using Agave nectar in place of sugar and flax seed for even extra fiber in the near future. And of course we use real Maple syrup when needed not the high fructose corn syrup stuff. No prepacked or frozen breakfast around here. My goal is hot and healthy whole foods. I will try and post some more of my yummy breakfast creations soon.