Oh What Fun...

First of all, let me show off my new friend Charlie!!! This was from last weekend at the shower for him and his Mommy, Amie. And, let's be honest, the party was probably also a little for his grandmothers! :) Anyways, he and I are SUCH good friends now! Although I am not sure what Reagan thinks of that. She walked up at church when I was holding him and giving him his bottle, and she FREAKED out! Yeah, she doesn't seem to like to share her Mommy too much! I told her to suck it up!

Oh, and you can also see my old friend (in terms of how long we have been friends), Tracy. Just wanted to give her a shout out since she is a faithful reader! And since she may be Reagan's MIL someday! :) Plus, Gay, if you are reading this, I still have and still LOVE the necklace you gave me years ago! Sported it that day. :)

Ok, on to what I was going to show you. Yesterday, Reagan was in rare form. We went out to check the mail like we always do, but I put her down to walk up to the porch and the door. Man, she thought that had to be the most fun EVER! So she insisted on doing it again, and again, and again. I sat in the grass and watched... and watched... and watched... then finally got the camera. Here she is walking back down the sidewalk to me.
And making a pit stop to feel the bark mulch of course.
Then taking a NOSE-DIVE into the grass beside me! We live on a HUGE hill, so the grass slopes immediately. She walked into the grass, then just bit it head first! She got over it really fast and thought it was funny. She had dirt in her mouth even!
Back up to the door. This step is big to a one year old! She found ways to work it...
Then back down...
... then over to pat Daddy's cool Longhorn rock in the flowerbed...
... then back up to the door...
... then back down... (get the picture? It was so funny!)

Close-up of the sweaty girl. I LOVE my camera zoom!
Super-smiley close up of the super-sweaty girl! This was hard work!
Of course we had to have some refreshment after that workout. (in this picture, her expression looks EXACTLY like her Daddy when he was little.)
Holding out her juice to share with Mommy. Obviously, I wasn't quite as tuckered from this as she was! But it was sweet to ask!
Ok, thanks for letting me share that. It may have been one of those "had to be there" moments, but I got a huge kick out of it!

Look what Reagan's Poppy bought her!!! Isn't she the cutest little cheerleader you've ever seen!?!?! (don't answer if it isn't 'yes')

When we were in Dallas last weekend for Charlie's party, she got to go over to Grammy and Poppy's and visit. Not only did they have new cool toys for her to play with AND a new cheerleader outfit, but a new DVD for her to watch too! This is a high chair that is SO cool that stays at their house. You can put it on the floor like a recliner. So she reclined and watched her new movie. She had SUCH a great day! Switch outfits, right back to the chair.
They too advantage of the hot day and went swimming. Reagan seemed to love this shady spot on the ledge to enjoy the water.
And laugh at Poppy who was SO funny!


The waterfall was way fun too.
JUMP!
So much fun with Grammy!!!

She loves this stool at their house. She goes RIGHT to it in their living room. It cracks me up.

She never got all the way to standing all by herself, but not for lack of trying!
Mostly ending up like this... with her belly hanging out! :)

Here she is playing with the new Little People Barn Poppy bought. She moo-ed at all the animals, not just the cows. Guess we'll have to work on some more barn animal sounds!
Thank you Jim for those pictures! I made a trip to Dallas without my camera! YUCK! So mad at myself. So Jim let me have pics off of his. I have no other evidence of our trip together. Wait, Amber gave me one! Next post.....

Ok, here are just some fun pics from our last week at home. A tupperware tub makes a great hat in case you ever need one!

Since she could still see out of it with it down over her eyes, she walked around like this for about an hour! She thought it was SOOOOO funny!!!

On to her new obsession.... Dora. This girl is in LOVE with Dora. She can say "Dora", and that is the first word I hear from her crib in the morning. She starts asking for Dora first thing! It is so funny to me that someone this little is so obsessed! I only let her watch it for a little bit everyday, and I swear it is her favorite part of the day! Here, she is literally clapping and dancing when I turned it on for her!
Watching her good pal Dora. The Backyardigans have gotten the boot!
This is the look I got when I turned Dora OFF!
And this pic I put in just because I thought she looked so pretty. Looks like she has on lipstick to me... if I do say so myself! :)
Daddy's hat is almost as fun as the plastic tub!! LOVE this face! Makes me laugh out loud right now while typing this!

We are learning a new skill... using a fork!! The girl is , thankfully, eating just about anything now that she has NINE teeth! NINE! I looked the other day and noticed a new one on bottom, then felt around and found 2 molars on top! Anyways, I am putting a fork in her hand now to get her at least trying, and with mac and cheese she does ok! Yay! Big girl!
See?!?! :)
These last two pics are just too sweet. This is how she seems to always sleep these days... with one foot between the bars. I find her like this every night almost, but last night I had to take a picture. She just looked so precious I wanted to SQUEEZE her!
And lastly, on Sunday after church and lunch, she was SO tired. Sundays are hard on little ones! Anyways, we got home and I took her dress off and thought she could just take a naked-nap. So we went through our ritual of rocking before bed, and she FELL ASLEEP IN MY ARMS! Y'all, it has been MONTHS since she has done this! I held on a little too long I bet, I just loved it so much. David came in and took a pic. Always my favorite part of the day, but this one was GREAT and photo worthy. (I look funny in it because I am still singing to her.)

More to come... I am way behind on pictures! Love to all!

9/11

Today, Oprah is having a special entitled "The Children of 9/11." I'm DVR-ing it and am going to force myself to watch it, although I may not make it through it. This day means something different to me now as a Mom. I'm pretty sure I know why, although I can't put it into words I don't think. But it is such a reminder of how fragile life is, and how important it is to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. Do you remember all the Flags that were on everyone's cars and lapels in those following weeks? How bonded everyone was? Wish it didn't take tragedy to do that...

Anyway, this 2007 morning I was remembering that morning 6 years ago. That's when I was sick, so I was up early for Daddy to take me to 2 different lab appointments for blood work and junk. I was watching the Today show live that morning, eating breakfast by myself, and was shocked with the rest of the world when the second plane hit. I'm sure we all remember where we were and what we felt. So surreal.

So, I looked at my cousin Julie's blog this morning and saw she was also remembering back. As I read her words and saw her pictures, I thought I would have to just paste in what she wrote. I loved reading her thoughts, and hope you might be blessed as I was.

"I Can Only Imagine..."

Today is a heavy topic. 9/11. September 11th. We can all remember exactly where we were, what we were doing, when we saw that attack 6 years ago. I was pregnant with Carter, watching Katie and Matt on the Today Show.

I have to say that I can't watch the replays of the events of that day. I can't look at pictures, or listen to the heart-ripping stories of people who lost their loved ones. So, over the last several years I have tried to find what this event means to me. How can I deal with it?

Many of you know that Rudy worked in Manhattan for over two years and was transferred just 12months before that attacks. But having worked in NYC, he had lots of friends there and I remember him frantically calling each of them to check on them. After several hours, all were accounted for except his friend Cheryl's fiance, Paul Eckna. Paul worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and was never heard from. He was among the murdered.
So... Over the years I know that the Lord has given me a clear picture of in my head of what I like to think happened. While the world might remember pictures of smoke pouring out of the buildings, I envision what was happening inside. And as I play this mental movie, I always hear that song "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me.

I picture a great coming to the Lord. I picture people knowing their fate and preaching the good news of Jesus. I picture hundreds seeing the truth and confessing their sins and giving their lives to Christ. Did you ever read the "Left Behind" series? You know where Chloe is about to die and an Angel of the Lord appears? The Angel's light was piercing white and it shielded the world from seeing the horror that was to happen to Chloe, but the light also enveloped Chloe with the peace and love of Jesus. That's what I think of when I think of 9/11. The angels were there sheilding some from seeing the horror, but bringing with them the grace of Jesus.

Was Jesus physically right there?

How many Angels were there?

Was did the witnessing sound like?

What praises were being shouted out to his name?

Was there singing?

How many saw the Truth?

Who was called to step up and lead others to Christ?I can't pretend that I know what happened. I can't even begin to imagine what those people went through in the Twin Towers, on the planes, and at the Pentagon. But I do know that Jesus was there! That's what I choose to concentrate on. I choose to think about how many eternal lives were saved that day.

Just my thoughts... I pray that no one was offended. This is the only way that I can cope with the magnitude of this tragedy.

"Surrounded by Your glory,what will my heart feel?

Will I dance for you Jesus

or in awe of you be still?

Will I stand in your presence

or to my knees will I fall?

Will I sing hallelujah,

will I be able to speak at all

I can only imagine"

Now, go hug your loved ones. Tell them today that you love them and just how precious they are to you!! I have to say...I can only imagine what I will do when I am in the presence of the Lord, but I think I fall in his presence and then dance and tumble and sing!! What will you do?

Thank you Julie for giving me a new picture in my head for this day. My heart feels better.

Prayer Reminder

If you all could remember to pray for baby Bennett... his sweet parents are still waiting for him to get well and come home, and are asking that we BOLDLY pray that the Great Physician heal the infections in his body. Thank you all!

Can't Think of a Title

I guess "Just a Bunch of Pictures of Reagan" would be the most appropriate title. Last week, she got a stomach bug for about 3 days... then like the precious giver that she is, she gave it to me. So she and I did a whole lot of laying around and chilling last week. But I still got out the camera a time or two, so here are Just a Bunch of Pictures of Reagan from the last week or so.

I love these pictures in her high chair because you can see how long her hair is getting! We can do several hair do's now, but at home it is mostly just normal. But it flips out like that by itself on the sides, and I LOVE it.

Pretty girl eating her cheese. "Chee" is one of her favorite words these days.
Breakfast one morning with a funny look on her face. Go figure. Nothing like some Honey Nut Cheerios, milk, and bananas for a healthy start to your day!
One of the many times she had no clothes on due to puking on her outfit. Here, hanging out with her babies. And Snugglie. Can't forget Snugglie.
She LOVES this toy, but can't work it that great yet. Her legs are still too short and barely touch the ground while sitting, but she tries to ride it anyways. Grammy and Pop gave this to her for her birthday, and it is a HUGE hit these days now that she has figured out how to get on and off the zebra by herself. You see in pictures later why this skill came in handy for her today.

What do you do when you're sick? We lay around and watch Noggin.
Or we work a few calculus problems on Mommy's TI83 Plus. I keep telling everyone she's a genius! She found my calculator and now wants it with her at all times. That's my girl... (Susan, I figured you especially would love this.)
Close up so you maybe could see the boo-boo on her forehead where she fell into the wall. It left quite a mark.
I love this look on her face, and this outfit. So here ya go.
Ditto here.
We had out several books for some light reading, then decided to do a dance on them.
Giving Gloria some lovin'. She now can say Gloria's name and calls her constantly. It comes out more like "Gore-YA!"

Some of my new favorite pictures of all time. She had a pretty bad fever this day, and woke up from her nap with her hair stuck flat down on her head. She looked so stinkin' funny!

He bed head is usually sticking out everywhere, but her fever made her sweat too much I guess! Doesn't she look just awful!
Lounging with Archibald Asparagus.


Kendra and Rach, I guess this outfit is officially too small! Look at the shirt!

What's better than carrying around your Snugglie all day? TWO Snugglies. When a girl is sick and wants both Snugglies all day, I give them to her. Can't help it. Here, in the bathroom...
... in the guestroom by the PacknPlay (she kept saying "Night-night" to the PacknPlay)...
... and rolling around on the floor. Still with a smile though!
Mom, look how good she did putting her animals in the train! She still loves her Christmas present!

Ok, this was today. Too funny! Again Gloria getting some hugs and kisses from Reagan...

... and Gloria giving kisses back! Too sweet! They are such good friends.
So Reagan thinks, "hey, if I can ride that horsey all by myself..."
"...let's take my friend Gloria for a ride!"
Gloria is so good. She just takes it.