...2009!

God Bless your New Year!

Please pray!

http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

Please pray some special prayers for this family. The baby had serious heart issues before being born, they were told he wouldn't live to see the outside world, HE DID, and over Christmas he had another spell. He is currently in ICU and not doing great at all.

Lindsay

Our Christmas in Pictures!

And the Christmas festivities begin!

The cousins on Mark's side of the family:

(Madalyn, Carter, Paiton, Trista, Kiley, Sophie, and Loraly)

Madalyn with her new bunkbeds for her American Girls from Mark's mom and dad!

Loraly and her American Girl bunkbeds also from Mark's mom and dad!

My three girls in their Christmas pajamas that, by the way, I bought last March at Children's Place for only $.99 cents!

I love a bargain!

And I love Christmas pajamas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Girly Girls

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

TEETH

This is what the tooth looked like last night. She could bend it completely down to flat! GROSS!

As you can see in the picture below of Madalyn and Grace, she lost her 5th tooth this morning while brushing her teeth. The tooth fairy can't come tonight because Madalyn is at her very FIRST slumber party :(

He was told that she would be back tomorrow night though ;)

Not only did Madalyn loose a tooth, I found the verdict on while Sophie has been a little fussy. She has 2 bottom teeth that have recently broke through. So she now has a total of 8 teeth. WOW, that sounds like so many!

A few pics

Madalyn and her friend Grace

Madalyn and her friend, Abby

The girls and Santa---Sophie looks sweet looking up at Santa--really she was thinking "Who in the world is this, and why did Mommy put me in his lap!" and this picture was immediately followed by screaming!

this is a personalized candle I ordered of www.etsy.com for some friends Christmas present. Isn't it adorable!

Christmas Card 2008

The greatest Christmas gift of all was never placed beneath a tree, But lay within a manger, Beneath a star, for all to see. ---reads the outside of the card.

The inside says: "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

Praying you have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy new Year!

Love Mark, Lindsay, Madalyn, Loraly, and Sophie

Stats

Loraly's 5 year old stats: 40.5 pounds; 3 feet, 8 1/2 inches tall

Sophie's 1 year old stats: 29 inches tall (25th percentile); 19 pounds, 10 ounces (10th percentile)

Another Birthday...

Tomorrow is my 31st birthday...blah.

Anyway this is what Mark got me for my birthday:

YES A VACUUM!

A pink Dyson!

The girls think it is totally awesome because, of course, it is pink!

I have wanted one FOREVVVVVER!

I love it!

A friend told me how amazing they are and was she RIGHT! It is quiet...it cleans and vacuums up so much that you would not imagine!

PURE GENIUS!

Mark said as he was leaving the store with it, he felt like a horrible husband buying his wife a vacuum for her birthday...but he knew it was exactly what I wanted!

Thanks Mark! Love you...

Sophie's Party!

A week long birthday...

I took Sophie to Practically Picasso today to make a birthday plate for her. She was all for it the first 5 minutes but after that she was pretty much done.

And the Christmas decorations are one step closer to being put out...I moved them from the attic to the garage today!

A few pics of Sophie's big day!

December 2---( a day early)---HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY my sweet Sophie!

(written a day early)

I remember the first time I held you,

kissed your head, whispered your name.

You've changed our lives forever.

Our hearts will never be the same.

As a child you'll love this day,

for all the sweets and presents too.

As parents we'll love your day,

for the gift we got was you.

Each year we'll add another candle,

So proud to see you grow.

But always with the memory,

Of your first day long ago.

I remember this look just like it was yesterday. I absolutely fell in LOVE with this baby when she looked up at me with those beautiful blue eyes.

I held her that first moment one year ago, and I am still the one that she wants to be held by today!
She is the most precious soul, the sunshine in my day! I could not EVER live without this precious baby. She has completed me in every way! I thank my husband everyday for letting me stay home and be with her. And I thank God for choosing me as her earthly mother.

Sophie, you are the most beautiful baby, you make our family whole, proud, and exciting! We all love to come into your room when you awake. The smile on your face when you see us come through that door in PRICELESS! I adore you in every way possible and you are truly a gift from up above! I pray daily that I am the best mother that you deserve and can fulfill all your wishes. I pray that all your dreams come true.

I can't believe this day is already here, but I also can't wait to watch you grow into the woman that you will become!

Happy 1st Birthday Sophie Annabelle!

Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had lots to be thankful for this year~ Mark's new job! Sophie's tubes! And the thought of our future in Fort Worth! And of course more than anything our health and family!

And now on to Sophie's 1st Birthday and CHRISTMAS!

Squeakers!

Mom bought Sophie a pair of squeakers a while back. They are still too big but we couldn't resist trying them out. The video cut off too soon because she stopped walking, looked down, took a few more steps, and starting dancing! Too precious!

Mark also turned 33!

Mark and Madalyn

Mark and Loraly

Mark and Sophie

Unfortunately since I am so far behind on my posting for Loraly's birthday, I am going to have to cut Mark's short. My wonderful, sensitive, best father to our girls, most caring, and thoughtful man I know---HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I am lucky to have such a wonderful man as my husband and the father of my children!

Loraly's turned 5!

(one of my favorite pics of Loraly)

(unfortunately Mark was in charge of the camera and this was about as good of a shot as he got!)

Well, this last week has blown by...My sweet Loraly turned 5!

5-can you believe it?!

I can't believe that she will already be starting kindergarten in the fall. I still remember wanting to be pregnant with her, I still remember the day she was born, I still remember her first birthday and how she was sick on it, I still remember her second birthday and how that is when she began crying when we sang "Happy Birthday", I still remember her first ballet recital...

She is such a sweet, sweet girl who has a very strong willed personality. At first I wasn't crazy about this trait but it is very good that she is not scared to take up for herself, she is not scared to tell you NO (like me), she has such a strong spirited soul.

She loves to play, she loves to go to "school", she loves her daddy, she loves to come cuddle with me in the middle of the night, she loves to play puppy and owner with Madalyn, and she loves to "help" Sophie with anything.

AND MOST OF ALL SHE LOVES CHOCOLATE MILK!

I love you Loraly and I am oh so thankful this Thanksgiving that you are my daughter, I am oh so thankful that I get to stay home with you, and most of all I am thankful that God choose me to be your Mommy.

Picture Post

Madalyn FINALLY lost her 2nd front tooth! She (and we) are much happier!

This is a picture of my sick little baby this week. After it was all said and done, the entire family, yes all 5 of us, had this nasty stomach bug!

Cute sayings of my girls

We went out to lunch today when Mark got home from work. A few EMT's walked in and left their ambulance parked in the parking lot. Loraly said "Mommy, look at those Aliens. They left their alience outside."

Madalyn is devastated by the outcome of the election. Someone at school told her that Obama does not believe in God and that he will tell everyone that they cannot believe either...we will be working on this one with her.

God has led our country to Obama and we will believe.

We have been telling the girls that when Daddy got his first paycheck we would go to Build A Bear. A new one opened in our town this summer and they begged to go. So since he got his first paycheck yesterday, guess what we did tonight?! We went to Build A Bear. Loraly picked out their new Hannah Montana white and purple bear wearing a Disney princess shirt with a silver skirt! (along with one yellow bow in one ear, and a black bow in the other ear) Totally Loraly!

Madalyn picked out a cheetah from their WWF (world wildlife foundation) collection and dressed it in the same silver skirt along with a soft pink and silver striped top and of course pink bows in the ears! Adorable!

Fun but stressful--man that place is a lot of money--but worth it for the girls being so patient for the Daddy to get a job and then to wait for a check. It is just hard spending money like that on not needed things when you are so use to conserving...That is hard to understand for a little one but they were great about it!

She is so cute!

The girls turned on the music to "High School Musical 3" this afternoon. Sophie immediately stopped walking and started dancing! Then she clapped for herself!

FYI for myself

Sophie had two new teeth pop through today! No wonder she has been a little cranky and not sleeping as well.

My Baby is WALKING!

Happy 11 months Sophie!

Sophie has been taking 2-3 steps at a time for about a month now, but as of 10-30-2008, she has really been working hard. Yesterday at my parents friends house in Dallas, she really took off to chase their dog! Take a peek at my baby! She is getting so big!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (2 days late)

THE FAM

Loraly the "Good" witch


Madalyn, the black cat

Sophie, the sunshine of my life!

Trunk or Treat***********and Fancy Nancy!

(the real Fancy Nancy)

At Madalyn's school they have a contest where you take a pumpkin and make it into a story book character. We LOVE the Fancy Nancy Book's. So that is what we went for this year!

(the pumpkin Fancy Nancy)

Sophie decided at Trunk or Treat tonight to forget asking for it, I am just going to sit in the bowl and eat ALL OF IT! Not really...her Mommy won't let her!

My 3 trick or treaters

FYI

Mark starts his new job tomorrow...

Wish him luck.

High School Musical Phenomenon

So the girls and I hit the theater RIGHT after school (I mean 3:45) today to see "High School Musical 3". It was cute, funny, entertaining, and LOVED the music (like always). I was only disappointed with one part. There was a kiss! I know not a big deal to some but we don't care for our daughters to view too much of that. I don't recall the other HSM movies to have kisses in them except for one on the forehead, but this was an actual on the lips kiss! It didn't need to be...

Overall, the movie was great, the music was fun! We hit Walmart right afterward to buy the soundtrack (it was on sale for $9.00)! And where we saw gasoline for only $2.09!!! That is definitely something to be excited about!

Too much NOISE and the hole!

This has pretty much been Sophie's facial expressions this afternoon when she would hear a loud noise.
Madalyn's hole!

She is pretty excited as you can tell!

Napping...

We are home, have been home for quite some time. Thank you all for your sweet thoughts and prayers for my Sophie. She was a trooper.

I was told she couldn't have any food or drink of any sort after midnight. Sophie still wakes up some to nurse in the middle of the night. I was terrified of what I was going to do with a screaming baby if she did wake up. So OF COURSE come 4:30 this morning she woke up. I let her fuss for quite a while, I then went and got her, loved on her, brought her to our bed trying to make her think it was morning, hoping she wouldn't want to nurse. Boy was I wrong! So being the bad patient's mother I am, I gave in and let her but for only a very short period of time!

So we got to the surgery center at 6:20 for our appointment. They asked lots of questions including when was the last time she ate!!! (I planned on lying...see I told you--bad patient's mom) Mark said about an hour ago!!! They looked at us like we were crazy! So I explained to them what happened and they said that we would just have to let the other baby go ahead of us to make sure the milk was all digested.

Finally Sophie goes to sleep in my arms about the time for them to take her back. So they walked us to the waiting room; I played one game of solitaire and started another on my phone and the doctor was already in there. He said she had some fluid in there but didn't think it was infected, so he went ahead and did the tubes, drained the fluid, and gave me some antibiotic drops.

We all came home, slept until noon, and when we woke up we found out that Madalyn pulled one of her front teeth at school! I can't wait to see what she looks like when she gets home!

Again thanks for saying some extra prayers for Sophie today...

Surgery tomorrow...

We are heading to the surgery center tomorrow morning around 6:30 am to have Sophie's tubes put in her little ears.

Please be thinking about her...

Pumpkin Patch

A couple comments from Madalyn the last few days:
1: I asked her if she wanted to go to the museum here in town tomorrow because she is out of school. She said I want to go to the Dr. Pepper museum and taste the Dr. Pepper from the Old Testament days! She has been talking about going there alot and I told her that they make Dr. Pepper there like they did when it was created...
2: She went to a school sock-hop last weekend. After it was over, Mark and I were asking her what they did, her comment was that they got to do that dance with your hands from the 1860's! (the handjive, obviously not from the 1860's but more like the 1960's)

Continued...

Sorry to leave you hanging yesterday.

So a few weeks ago Mark received a call back interview. This was the one that he said he did horrible and he felt it was a huge waste of time. OBVIOUSLY NOT!

Supposedly the man that interviewed him had previously interviewed over 15 people and did not like anyone. The HR department were to say the least tired of him not hiring someone...that is until Mark. According to the HR lady, this man LOVED Mark and thought he was perfect for the job. The pay is pretty good, a lot more than what Mark made here. Vacation not so great, but sick time is AWESOME.

While at MDO today, Mark called and the company he interviewed with last week offered him a job also! The money was OK...but the drive would stink.

He is supposed to hear from the other company by Thursday, and he is going to go ahead and go to the last interview for the other company Tuesday. We will then put together the pros and cons of all the offers and see what we like.

I hope this makes since, lots going on, and lots to think about and decide.

Lots to talk about--so little time!

First of all:

Mark received a job offer as we were on our way home from a different job interview today!

Second of all:

Sophie took her first step this evening and of course, it was towards her Mommy!

She stands all the time, but has been too unsure to actually take a step.

Just wanted to let everyone aware of the job situation. I am heading to bed! I don't sleep well in a hotel first of all (at least not in Fort Worth)--the interstate, people in the hallways, etc.

Way too much noise!

The ups and downs

Sophie's top 2 teeth have BARELY popped through!

My baby is growing up so quickly...

:(

(she also got her first boo-boo today, or should I say first 3 boo-boo's) She is standing for a few seconds at a time and when she tries to move from one spot to another, especially on the tile, she usually falls. These certain 3 times were in the kitchen and the table got in her way! She has her first official goose egg on her beautiful, little forehead)

:(

Oh and by the way, Mark got another call back interview for the other big company he interviewed with a couple of weeks ago...

:)

Loraly said a prayer...

We were leaving Whataburger tonight when Loraly noticed a few kids hanging around a parked car. One was sitting on the hood and the others were standing around. She said "Mommy, God is not very happy with those boys sitting on the car. That is very rude. But it's ok, because God will forgive them." I was a happy Mommy with her comment and her response to her own comment. We moved on towards our vehicle. I get her in, start buckling her seat belt, and she starts with another comment..."Mommy, God told me in my prayer that he was going to give you a wish!" Ok, what could this mean... "He said he was going to put another baby in your tummy, and it will be a BOY baby."

Let me just tell you that if she were, for some crazy reason right, God and I would have some serious different plans right now!

(not that I would not be thrilled to death, a little scared, and a lot surprised, but happy)

Maybe just maybe she misunderstood him, and what he really meant was that he found a wonderful job for my husband...

Going crazy!

While browsing around Toys R Us last night, Madalyn advised Mark and I that we needed to buy "What to Expect the Toddler Years."

I guess she thinks we need help.

So we have figured out that Mark has had at least 2 interviews a week since we got home from Disney. Out of all the interviews, we have only received 3 negatives back from the companies. And one was from a friend that works there. We don't understand why the companies aren't calling back to give positive or negative feedback. We would like to hear SOMETHING just so we aren't wondering.
Mark has, once again, 2 more interviews this coming week.
He needs to get a job SOON because he is getting a little insane with his job choices. He is getting so desperate that he is even looking into contract jobs abroad!!! NO THANKS! I know the money is AWESOME but just the idea! Neither of us have ever been out of the United States, but he wants to move there! Are you kidding me?!
Anyway, so like I said he is getting a little stir crazy and needs to get something soon.

(just venting...)

Sophie and I had a photo shoot today!

I numbered the pictures. If you just scroll over the picture with your mouse, the number will show up.
Let me know what ones you like!