To my Lorelai...

Wow. I just can't even believe that you are turning three years old today. You started out in this world a tiny, sweet, chubby little baby and have totally rocked our world. I have learned so many things from you and just being your mommy, and here are just a few:

-I have learned to love completely and unselfishly. It doesn't matter what I want or what I'm doing- your needs are always my first priority and this was quite an adjustment! I learned just how selfish I have been all of my life and have had to give up so much of that. In a good way.

-I have had such a realization of how precious life truly is. This has so strengthened my walk with Christ and my resolution for you to know Him fully, no matter the cost or going against what society insists is the norm.

-Endurance. Doesn't matter if I've had the longest day of my life, 7 months pregnant. If you wake up in the middle of the night with a fever, I will be your slave until you fall asleep again. And I'm okay with that, because I'd rather it be me (or daddy) than anyone else in the world.

-I have learned that pregnancy is so much easier when someone is as excited as you are to meet the new baby! You love Charlotte so completely and I know you will be a selfless big sister.

That being said- here are a few things I love about you:

(as if I could name ALL of them):

-You started out in this life SO sassy and- though you are still SO full of drama- you have turned into this tender-hearted, loving girl. You are so empathetic and compassionate towards anyone who is hurting. I love that you are so full of love.

-When you do throw a fit, you have about a 5 minute turnaround. You go to your room, cry, and come back to me to say "I'm sorry, momma" and smile. You are so quick to repentance and forgiveness when it is asked of you.

-You love Jesus. You love songs about Jesus, you love to pray to Jesus throughout the day, and you love going to church to learn about Him.

-You are FUNNY. I never thought I would let my little girl be into "princesses", but you refer to yourself as a princess constantly and how could I possibly disagree? When I told you today that princesses wear bows in their hair, you replied "but I have to wear my crown!"

-As mentioned above, you love your little sister. You love to rub my stomach and say "Charley, Charley, Charley! You're SO cute!" (note: Charley is pronounced "Sharley")

-You love your Daddy SO much. You can often be found throughout the day carrying around his picture and saying "I miss him sooooo much! I loooooooove him." When asked where he is, you will reply "He's earning the bacon!" (I taught you that :)

-You begin almost every sentence with "Soooo...." (as in "Soooooo, what's your favorite color?") and you want the most detailed response about everything. I say "I'm putting on my shoes," you ask "what kind of shoes?" I say "my flats," you say "what kind of flats?" I say "my brown flats," you say "what kind of brown flats?" This usually ends with me saying "I don't know how to be more specific than that."

I can't imagine my life without you and know that God must have some amazing things for your life with such a big, overflowing heart.

I love everything about you...

Your momma

From this....

To this... (sorry for the video quality...)

and, just for funsies, an outtake...

The Princess and the Pumpkin...

Sooooooo...my little girl has turned into what every little girl eventually becomes.

Princess Obsessed.

I'm finding it is innate in all little girls as there is no good explanation for the princess obsession that has seemed to occur in Lorelai and all of her friends!

I broke down and bought her a princess dress for Halloween, and ohmygoodness is she SO precious. And ohmygoodness does she play the part.

We went to a local pumpkin patch the other day and snapped some pictures...

For this picture, I actually told her to give me her best "princess face," and this is what I got!!

Here's one more to tide you over...I took a million more pictures, but I'm going to use one of them for her birthday invites, so you'll have to wait for the rest...

Labor Day Weekend!

We had a great first 2 days of our Labor Day Weekend! The weather was beautiful Friday and Saturday while we were in Galveston with our friends Nathan, Diane and Ashton. Friday we got to Galveston and just hung out at the beach house, but Saturday- we went to Moody Gardens! It was a BLAST. Lorelai enjoyed every second of it, she seems to be the perfect age to soak it all in and be excited about everything.

Lorelai and Ashton waiting to go inside...

Smashed Penny! Always a great past-time.

In the shark cage! Ahhhhh!
Watching the fish swim above them at the Aquarium...
Don't feed me to the shark, Daddy!

My little butterfly...

Lorelai even got to hold a butterfly! She was mesmorized by it...just let it crawl all over her hand.

Sunday Diane and I took the kids back to Moody Gardens to play and swim at Palm Beach. Once again, they loved it and we got home and took nice long naps.

Which is a good thing, because the rest of the weekend was spent passing a stomach virus from person to person. My little Typhoid Mary once again spread a horrible virus. It kicked off with Lorelai Sunday afternoon, followed by me Sunday night, followed by Ashton early Monday morning, followed by Diane, finished off by Shawn. Thankfully Nathan was able to avoid it.

It was quite the nightmare for everyone, being sick and not being in your own home, and not being able to be away from the toilet long enough to get home. And, in my case, being 17 weeks pregnant and dehydrated. I am so thankful that the virus was pretty short lived and over now!

Go Texans!

A couple of weekends ago we were able to take Lorelai to her first Texans game, courtesy of Big Poppy! I have to be honest, I wasn't at all nervous about how the experience would go. This girl LOVES sports. She will watch the Astros or Texans on tv any day and loves going to Astros games. For the most part, she sits still (or goes from my lap to Shawn's) and watches the game pretty much the whole time (as long as she has plenty of snacks!)

We got to the game early for some tailgating:

Schaub jersey: check!

Sparkly pink tennis shoes: check!

Big Poppy stuffed her little pockets full of peanuts for the game!

Onto the game....while we were walking, we turned a corner and saw the stadium, and Lorelai raised her arms and yelled out "GO TEXANS!" It was so funny!

That's good enough for a Houston Texans "FIRST DOWN!"

Snuggle break!

Fishing those peanuts out of her pocket...

After the game, we went back to the truck to eat a little more and recover from the excitement:

We had a great time!

An update...or something like it!

I realized the other day that I wanted to switch out the pictures that have been hanging (or not hanging, since they still haven't been put back up since our house was painted in FEBRUARY) up for the past year or so. Lorelai has grown SO much and I was itching for some change. And then I realized- I have NO recent photos of my girl! My handy little point and shoot has had a dead battery for quite a few months and heaven knows I'm not going to carry around my Cannon. So, I charged that battery up, loaded an empty memory card, and have been trying to catch my beautiful little gal in action!

These are from her first day of Mother's Day Out this year. She is attending Shadycrest Baptist and already loves it. She walked right into her classroom and started playing...I kissed her on the head and walked out. She didn't even notice. We've been two peas in a pod all summer, and not a tear was shed. By her. :) I had to run by the school office and looked in her classroom on the way out, and there was my tender-hearted little girl, comforting a crying boy. Patting his back and most likely saying "shhhhh, shhhh" sweetly like I've taught her to do for crying babies. She is going to ROCK as an older sister.

Here she is with her teacher, Miss Erin, who we already love!

Today, we went and played at the park with our friends Diane and Ashton, and caught this little moment...

Followed shortly thereafter by this little moment...

Sleeping Beauty.

Philippians

I just wanted to share some things we have been learning in our small group lately. First off, I cannot say how much we love having a bible study at our house with some friends who we have really enjoyed growing closer to. God has brought some great people into our lives to challenge and teach us.

Lately we have been working on a study of Philippians with Matt Chandler. If you don't know anything about Matt Chandler, google him. He is awesome. I know everyone draws different things from different studies, so I wanted to share what I've been learning.

Fear.

The good kind, that comes from the "...fear of the Lord..."(Prov 1:7). And the bad kind, which is clearly from satan.

Philippians 2:12 is what we focused on, which says to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling". This verse really gets to me. This world is so quick to say the opposite. In God, there is only happy, nice feelings. Fear and trembling? Must be a typo. God doesn't believe in fear. Fear is bad, happiness is good. Oh the lies that satan tells us to make us complacent and to keep us stuck in our sin.

Am I saying to be scared of God? A little healthy fear never hurt anyone. It keeps us walking a straighter line and brings the reality and consequences of sin into full weight.

"But I will show you whom you should fear:Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." Luke 12:5

Or what about those of us who have been going to church all of our life? Who consider ourselves to be "religious", or claim to know this God? There's a verse for us, too.

"Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!'" (Matthew 7:22)

If that verse doesn't make you want to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, I don't know what will. One of God's blessings to me (and sometimes a curse) is a deep sense of empathy. When I read that verse, I see these people I know. People I love, people I have brushed elbows with. People whom I have seen speaking of God and reading their bibles, crying out and begging my Jesus. Hearing the words, "I never knew you."

That has really gotten to me lately. It makes me make SURE that I know Him. That I read his word so that I know what He loves.

The point of our study on Philippians 2:12 was to reveal to us that if we know God, we are to LOVE what He loves, and to HATE what He hates. If we know Jesus, if we have worked out our salvation with fear and trembling, and if we fear the one who has the power to throw us into hell, then we are to run passionately after Him, throwing off what He hates, and clinging to what he loves. And if we don't want to do these things, to take a serious look at our hearts.

I'm not going to lie. I reeeeeeally want to go see Sex and the City 2.

As I watched the preview for it last night, I came to the realization that I couldn't go see it, and I became saddened by the fact that I couldn't go see it.

Then i remembered satan. I remembered how the other night I was plagued by anxiety after feeling free of it for so long, and remembered how much I hate satan with all that is within me for making me feel that way. The next morning I vowed to hate what God hates, because we now, more clearly than ever, have a common enemy.

And guess what. I don't feel so bad about not being able to see the movie.

I hate that movie because it glorifies what satan looooooooves.

I'm kind-of all over the place with this blog post. That's how my mind works, sorry. Let me see if I can sum it up?

Fear God-> don't assume....read the bible and KNOW that you KNOW God->Follow His word->love Him passionately->realize through this how much you hate satan->begin to hate what God hates->follow through with it.

Did you follow that? Hope so. This is just a glimpse at what God has been teaching me.

What has God been teaching you?

Backyard Fun!

So I've spent more time outside in my backyard this past month than I have probably in the past two years! Lorelai truly loves to be outside every moment of the day. She's figured out how to unlock the doors and has taken to running outside (in the backyard) without asking (which was QUICKLY corrected). Most mornings I usually let her run around the backyard while I stay at our breakfast table, backdoor open so I can see/hear her, but she doesn't need me out there to entertain her. That's what "Berkie" (Lance Berkdog) and "Clenentime" (Clementine) are there for. Those dogs have more patience in them than any dog I have ever known. This video is just a sample of what goes on here every day.

We planted a small vegetable garden this year and just this past week have gotten to eat some tomatoes from it. Here's the first tomato:

I love it when she comes in from playing outside. All sweaty, curls everywhere, usually covered in dirt that she's been trying to force-feed the dogs. What a life. :)

On a different note, last Thursday was Lorelai's last day of Mother's Day Out. We will miss her friends and her teachers, but I'm excited to have my girl every day all day. I really enjoyed my Tuesday/Thursday freedom, but I usually ended up spending money and picking up a very grumpy 2 1/2 year old who hadn't napped. We'd end up going home and putting her down for a nap and then that's almost a whole day I hadn't spent good time with her. I really enjoy spending time with her and while some days I am thoroughly exhausted....I think that's just the life of a mommy. At this point, I don't plan on putting her back in. I foresee this being very difficult since my photography business is really starting to take off, but I'm going to try really hard to manage my schedule. And if all else fails, I can always put her back in next year :)

That's all for now!

Rodeo Time!

This year we made two day trips to the rodeo for Lorelai to get to see all of the animals and attempt to ride the ponies. She, as usual, had a blast- this gal LOVES animals. After 2 1/2 years of being able to torture Lance and Clementine and only be attacked in return with kisses, she thinks every animal is just as loving as those crazy dogs. (Yes I realize this isn't always a good thing!) Now I am just going to bombard you with pictures of the festivities. Enjoy!

Trip #1:

She wasn't too excited at first to ride the pony.....

But after they started moving....
She was much better!
And had some fun!
Wouldn't be a trip to the Petting Zoo without something trying to eat her clothing...
Petting the baby...
Watching Muttin Bustin with Auntie...

Trip#2

Petting the bunnies...

She LOVED the fact that there was hand sanitizer everywhere!
So silly!

Next post soon to follow!