Fun fun fun!

Another one of Beckham's favorite things to do is to take as many DVD's off the shelf as possible in one sitting. Yesterday he did a pretty good job. I just let him do it. Even though he has every toy a little 1 year old boy could ever want that he could be playing with, I figure he's not hurting anything, so what the heck. Pick your battles, right?

On a less happy note, Beckham had his first "real" sickness this week. The dreaded HAND FOOT AND MOUTH. Poor guy. Thursday he ran a fever all day, his first fever ever, and stayed in my lap pretty much all day. He took 3 LONG naps and still went to bed fairly early. Friday I took him to the Dr. and he said there's really nothing you do for it, just let it run it's coarse. As the Dr. said, it's a right of passage. Pretty much every little one gets it eventually. By Friday morning he was pretty much back to feeling better. Today he ran a little fever, but it hasn't slowed him down a bit. Eating is a little challenging. He has little blisters in his mouth so cool, soft things are best. I am sure he will back to normal by the middle of the week.

We have TOYS R' US in our Living room!

Being that Beckham was born just 4 days after Christmas, we were double whammied with gifts this year during the holidays. We are SO thankful to all of our families for giving our son something to do in his spare time. I think he likes them! How about you? Last Monday morning I stepped out of the living room for a couple of minutes, and this is what I came back to. As you can see, he had pretty much taken every toy out of every bin! He was having a blast, so we didn't bother cleaning it all up until nap time.

Random Thoughts...And praises!

First and foremost, I must praise our LORD and FATHER for the wonderful news the Kerley's got today about Baby Eli. All is well, and I join many friends in the real and blog worlds celebrating their joy!!

Next... American Idol. I say every year I am not going to watch and every year I am sucked in by the, pardon the expression, WEIRDOS, who end up auditioning!! Enough said.

Last, I went to Target tonight to pick up a few things, and as usual, a few became many. But, if you haven't been to Target this week, it's a great time to go. Especially if you need baby stuff. It seems like everyone I know is pregnant right now!! (It is SO fun to have a whole new crop of babies!!) Baby wipes are on sale 2 for $10, and there are LOTS of baby gear items on sale. I saw the same exersaucers (yes, we have 2. I don't know why.) we have on clearance for really good prices. Lots of little items like diaper bags, bottles, bibs, blankets, pj's, socks, and clothes are all on clearance. SO if you or someone you know is having or has a baby, get to Target soon!

PROUD WIFE!!

This year at The Branch (our church) the men are taking on the feat of reading the Bible in 90 days. Yep, that's right 90 DAYS cover to cover!!! There is actually a Bible laid out in this format. Basically it breaks down to 12 pages a day. Well, Josh decided to participate in this, and I have been SO proud of him for doing it. Reading the Bible cover to cover in any time frame is hard, but 90 days takes a commitment. Now, he's a few days behind, but he's really trying.

My favorite part is the conversations that we have after he's been reading. There is NOTHING more attractive to me than to hear my husband talk about he LORD and His Word! I love it! And it is challenging me to dig out some cob webs in my own head about what he's reading.

So I just wanted to say how proud I am of my sweet husband, for many things, but especially for this. I love you, Josh!!!

1st Birthday Video!!

Don't worry, it's the 2 minute short version. I can't believe he's ONE!!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Happy New Year!!

Well, I can't believe the holidays have come and gone so quickly! It seems I say that every year. I had a patient tell me once that getting old is like a roll a of toilet paper...the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes! She's in her 80's and it made me laugh, but I can see her point. The older I get, the faster the years seem to go by. Especially 2007! Watching Beckham this year has been amazing! What a precious blessing for Josh and I.

Our holidays were just as hectic as everyone's, but they were WONDERFUL! My sister and her family were in town from Tennessee, so that alone made it a blast. We were able to spend a lot of time with them, but of coarse, it wasn't enough. Christmas Eve was spent at my sister's house in Dallas. We had the usual mass chaos of opening gifts. When you have 10 kids opening presents ALL AT ONCE, it can get really LOUD!! But, as always we had fun. Beckham really didn't get any of it. He wasn't even interested in tearing any paper. Next year I am sure will be a different story. Christmas morning we went to my in-laws house. Santa left Beckham's gifts there this year. My mom and step-dad came over to see the Santa festivities. We all had a yummy breakfast together, opened presents, and the rest of the day was spent watching Beckham play with all of his new stuff. FUN!! Josh and I both had to work on Wed. Then on Friday we had a birthday party for all of the Dec/Jan birthdays in my family. For some reason it seems we like to have babies this time of year. Here's the list...Dec 29-Beckham, Dec 30-Darrell (brother), Jan 3-Marin and Cameryn (nieces), Jan 20-Kylie (niece), Jan 21-Zachary (nephew), Jan 22-Shelby (niece). CRAZY! So my sister rented a bounce house, a cotton candy machine, and a sno cone machine for the day. The kids had a great time. Then Sat was Beckham's real birthday and we had everyone over to our house for the party. It was TOO CUTE! He loved his cake and having all of his family at his house.

All in all we had a wonderful time. We were definetly ready for a few days of relaxation! New Year's Eve, Josh went to his brother's house for a party, while I stayed home with Beckham. And New Year's day was reserved for what else...football!

Here's a slide show of a few pics from Christmas with my family and Beckham's birthday. I didn't take a single picture on Christmas morning with my camera, so I need to get them from my family. Later for those.

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He's getting TOO big!!

Well, we are 26 days and counting until Beckham's first birthday. Can you believe it!?!?!?!? I can hardly believe my sweet baby boy is going to be 1 year old! The year has gone by WAY too fast! Everyone told me it would, but you really can't understand it until you are in the middle of it.

So currently, Beckham is standing a few seconds on his own, and each time gets longer and longer. He will take a couple of steps on his own with our encouragement, but he still thinks crawling is way faster. Which is totally ok with me. He's mobile enough on his knees! I am pretty sure he's about to cut a whole slew of teeth. He hasn't had any since he was 7 months old, so it wouldn't surprise me. Plus he's drooling all the time! We haven't weighed him lately, but at last check he was 20 lbs. But he was 20 lbs at his 9 month ck up too. He's getting taller too. He can reach so many things he couldn't just a couple of weeks ago. He jibber jabbers all the time and will say "ba ba" for ball, book and Buddy. And he says MAMA all the time! I love it! He throws a DADA in there too every now and then.

We are SO looking forward to Christmas. We know he has no idea of who Santa is, or what a gift is, but we can't wait to see him play with all the wrapping paper and bows rather than the toys Santa brought him. Someone said the other day that they were planning on getting their child a bunch of bags with tissue paper because they knew they would like it better than the actual gifts. It kinda sounds like a good idea, huh?

Well, here are a few new pics. As you can see, he sticks his tongue out alot these days too.

The news isn't good...

One reason why I love the "blog world" is that I can count on at least one or two people reading the nonsense I post, and hopefully taking something away from it, even if it's just saying my son is cute or something. And I also love it because I know my friends and family who read it are also mighty prayer warriors, and I can ask them to pray, and they will. I ask that favor of you again.

For those of you who don't know, Dr. Ogle, my boss, his son has a rare form of cancer he has been battling for 10+ years. His name is Kyle and many of you have joined so many others in prayer for Kyle over the years. Well, he had surgery today, and it wasn't promising. Just a little reminder, in addition to chemo, Kyle has had NUMEROUS surgeries, one even being to remove his shoulder and arm. Today's surgery was to remove some tumors that had grown during the past few months while he was on an experimental chemo. They were able to remove one tumor that was near his heart, part of his diaphragm, and his spleen. Unfortunately, there is another good size tumor they were not able to get because they will need to remove some ribs to get to it, and they just didn't think he was up to it today. As far as they know right now, all chemo options have been exhausted. From what I know, the plan is to let him recover from today's surgery, and then go back in in a few weeks to attack again.

Kyle is an AMAZING man. And he has an AMAZING family and an unwavering faith in the LORD. To read the full story about this amazing man, you can click on his link on the right side of my blog. But I wanted to include his latest post here...


SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 04, 2007 11:37 PM, CST
Kyle posting here.

What do you say at a time like this? You hug your kids extra tight while tucking them in, and make sure they are looking in your eyes when you say I love you. Then you tell them again, just in case.

You wonder is the last time I will see them? Do they know how much I love them? Could they ever know? Have I left things “in order”?

So many things run through your mind. It is a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions.

Have I made a difference? Did I run the race well? If things don’t go as planned, who will be late to my funeral?

So what do you do?

You hold tight to His promises. You cling to your salvation. You take a deep breath, relax, and remind yourself that this is just temporary. One day (hopefully later than sooner) there will be no more pain, no more tears, and no more fear. That some day you will stand in His presence, that you will actually sing and no one will turn around and stare because you won’t be tone deaf anymore. You will talk to King David, hug your grandparents, and even fly (hopefully some of us will get an arm back so we don’t go in circles).

You remind yourself that your kids and wife are not really yours. They belong to Him. He just left them in your keeping to love and care for. He knows what is best.

So you head in to battle, steadfast, unwavering. You kiss your wife good-bye. Tell her you will see her in recovery. And like John Wayne in True Grit, Put the reins in your teeth, guns in both hands (ok, so one hand), spur your horse, and charge those cancer cells screaming “Fill your hands you son-of-a-#{%@#!”

SO I AM CALLING ALL PRAYER WARRIORS.....

The GREAT STATE FAIR OF TEXAS!!!

Ok, I know I am like a month behind for this post, but better late than never! We decided to go to the Fair the last weekend it was open. We got there when the gates opened and we were gone by 1:30. Neither of us are really "ride" people, so the fair loses some of it's appeal on us. I did ride one ride and promptly realized I am WAY TOO OLD to be doing that!! Especially since everyone else in my car was not above the age of 15!! Our first stop was at the root beer stand. You know the one with the fresh, ice cold REAL root beer. YUMMY!!! Then our next stop was, of course, the corny dog stand. I know it was 10:00am, but state fair corny dogs know no time boundaries! But sadly while Josh was getting our corny dogs, I was "attacked" by a bunch of bees after my root beer!! Some nice guy stopped and helped me try to shew them away with his ball cap, but to no avail. The root beer was thrown away, and bye bye bees!

We walked around a little more, wasted some $ on a game or 2, then went to the one attraction EVERYONE loves....THE CARS!!!! The fair is a great place to look at cars because every make and model is available to peruse. BUT, one word of caution....it will give you the bug to buy a new car. And that's exactly what we did. (Not at the fair, of course) We went straight to the Honda dealership and traded in our Jetta for a shiny, new Honda CRV! It just made more sense than the Jetta for our growing family. (No, we aren't growing currently, but we like to plan ahead.)

So all in all, the fair was FUN!! Beckham loved looking around and seeing all the sights. He even enjoyed some of our corny dogs. Here are a few pics...

Me and Beckham at the front gate

Josh and Beckham at the Midway

Josh and "Bumble Bee" from TRANSFORMERS

Beckham sleeping thru the LOUDEST place on earth!!

THE BIG RIDE...

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let everyone know what my brother, Darrell, is going to be doing for the next 9 days. He and 4 other guys are riding bikes ACROSS TEXAS! Yes, that's right. They are riding from the Rio Grande to the Red River starting tomorrow. It is to benefit a village in Sri Lanka effected by the tsunami a few years ago. They are riding to help send bikes to the village.

I am SO very proud of my brother. I have felt for my whole life he is an incredible guy, but watching him be a husband and father, and seeeing his heart for others just confirms that even more. So, PLEASE say a prayer for strength and endurance for these guys over the next few days. My sister n law is planning on documenting the ride on her blog. You can go here to get the updates.

Darrell, we are praying for you and WE LOVE YOU!!!

HAPPY 3RD ANNIVERSARY!!

Josh and I will be married 3 years on Tuesday. We celebrated this weekend and had an AMAZING time! Beckham spent the night with his Grandma and Grandpa, the the whole day and night was ours! It was Beckham's first night to spend away from us. It felt pretty strange not having him around.

So the day started off with me dropping Beckham off and going to the spa. (See the previous post for all the fun details!) I then came home to a CLEAN house! And better yet, a CLEAN closet!! Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am not the tidiest person to live with. And anyone who knows Josh knows that it drives him NUTS!! Our closet has been a source of contention for pretty much all 3 years of our marriage, admittedly my fault. So when I got home, I had a clean and organized closet! Yea JOSH! I also had this sweet little "love note" on the bed, too. We went to dinner that night at the SILVER FOX. It was absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! If you are a steak lover and willing to dish out a little $, I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this place!! We treated ourselves to steak and lobster tail and wine and chocolate cake! YUMMY!! Then we came home and wrapped up the night with a movie at home. A PERFECT day! Thank you to my precious husband who always makes me feel special and loved!

Love note on the bed. For those of you who don't know, Josh did something similar to this when he proposed and on our wedding day.

MY CLEAN CLOSET!!!!

Australian Lobster Tail

Happy Anniversary! It's been a blessed 3 years. I can't wait for a lifetime more!

SPA DAY!!!!

For my birthday/anniversary, Josh bought me a spa package!! What an AMAZING husband I have!!! He knows how I LOVE to get massages, so he just ran with it and gave me the works!! I had a 1 hour relaxation massage, a 1 hour facial, a 1 hour manicure and 1 hour pedicure. It was SO fun and relaxing! I felt like a noodle when I left the spa. I have never had a day at a spa before, so you know me, I took my camera to document the occasion.

This is me after my massage with the massage therapist. Sorry, no makeup!

This is during the pedicure. They soaked my feet in a rose petal bath.

This is one of the hot rocks used to massage my hands, and an empty glass that once held a yummy mimosa!

These are my feet with a "cooling mint mask" on them.

Needless to say, I had a great time. It was SO thoughtful of Josh. I love him!

Random Thoughts...

Ya know, the "blogging world" is truely a strange place. I have so loved having a blog for the past year and some odd months. I love that friends and family from all over can peek into my life a little and keep up with me and my family. I get to share my greatest joys, my husband and son, my passion for photography, my daily insand outs of life, and even random thoughts that may or may not interest a single person. But it is an outlet to express myself in a way I haven't before. I also love that several of my friends have blogs too, so when we don't see eachother very often, I can keep up with them and their families and their random thoughts. But my favorite part about blogging is the people I get to "meet" in the cyber world of blogging. Probably people I never would have any contact with if Blogger didn't exist. I usually "meet" these people thru posts or comments on other people's blogs.

Last night I read the most heart-wrench, touching, and glorifying of the LORD blog I think I have found yet. A family in Nashville has recently sent their precious newborn daughter to be with Jesus. They found out during the pregnancy that Copeland was sick and wouldn't be with them for long. I was so incredibly touched at how this mother and father poured their hearts out for all of cyberspace to read, and every word not only expressed their grief and their questioning, but also their AMAZING faith that carried them, literally, thru this unbearably sad time. They lived their lives for all to read about, so transparent. You can read about them here. ( I recommend reading from the very first post. You will be in awe of the LORD'S love, grace and mercy.)

I have kept up with the Powell family who I posted about in my last post. Their amazing testimony during this journey is an insperation. They are like cheerleaders for GOD. Read their blog and you will know what I mean.

I have loved reading the joy of a family I don't even know having quadruplets! Again, they have shared their experience and given GOD all the glory along the way. You can read about them here.

I have loved seeing my friends children grow up "before my eyes" and learn new things about them with every post. All of them make me laugh, make me cry, and make me thankful that I have friends who are willing to share their lives.

So all of that to say, I love the blogging world. I know...random, right?

ETHAN POWELL UPDATE...

Several months ago I posted about a Ethan. He's a little boy at St. Jude in Memphis who is a month older than Beckham. At 2 months old, he was diagnosed with leukemia and it has been a fight ever since. Several weeks ago Ethan went thru a stem cell transplant with stem cells donated by his Daddy. Evidentally, it's a pretty rough thing for donor and recipient to go thru. Well, for a while now, we thought Ethan was thru the worst part, but the latest update on his blog is not good news. Here it is...

It's official, the "abnormal" cells are leukemia cells. We expected that to be the case. It's the same kind of leukemia he had when he was diagnosed, so it has not mutated into something different. Ben went and donated his cells today. They are waiting for Ben's blood tests to come back to make sure all is clear before they give Ethan the infusion. PLEASE PRAY for Ben's blood tests to be okay so that they can give Ethan the cells. If there is a problem on his tests, they would probably start preparing Ethan for another transplant.
So if they give Ethan the cells tomorrow, we'll wait a couple of weeks and have another bone marrow asperate done (unless they started seeing blasts aka leukemia cells in the blood before then.) If the leukemia cells go down or stay the same, they would probably continue to give him a boost of Ben's cells every so often until the leukemia cells are gone. If the leukemia cells increase, we would be forced to start chemo and preparing for another transplant. If they did another one, they would probably use me. We DO NOT want it to come to another transplant. PLEASE PRAY harder than you've ever prayed, that Ethan will be able to receive the cells tomorrow and that those cells will go destroy the leukemia cells!! I wish this wasn't so critical, but it is. We desperately need your prayers. KEEP PRAYING! BELIEVE! PRAYER WORKS!!

It's time to fire up the prayers again! PLEASE pray for this family. You can visit his blog here.

New Pictures...
I realized I didn't have any of Daddy and Son together since Beckham was 3 months old. These are just a few I snapped in the front yard. Aren't my boys handsome?

8 MONTHS OLD AND CRAWLING!!!

Yes, we are off and going these days. Beckham has been "army crawling" for a few weeks now, but this weekend he took off in a full fledge crawl. And he discovered there are other rooms in the house besides the living room, and wants to explore them all! This is often how I find him, down the hall ready to go into another room. He's a quick little booger! When I call his name (and by the way, I have mysteriously somehow turned into my mother....I am using his full name! BECKHAM JEFFREY!) He looks back at me like "what, Mom, I'm busy." And he finds all sorts of things to get into. Looks like we have a little baby-proofing to do.

MORE BATHTIME WITH BECKHAM!

These were just too cute no to share. The first one you can really see why I say he looks like The Count from Sesame Street!

MONDAY, MOLARS, MELTDOWNS, AND A MIGRAINE

That pretty much explains our day today. As you can tell, Beckham was not his usual happy self. In fact, he's been a little cranky for the past couple of days. I couldn't figure out why until I felt in the back of his mouth, and sure enough, he's getting his 1st year molars in. Poor baby. So the Tylenol will be our best friend until they decide to poke all thru all the way.

If you look way in the back on the left, you can see that little molar trying to poke thru.

After all the fussing he would do, he would flash me one of these sweet faces, and all was forgotten. Well not really, but could you stay mad at that face?

And as luck would have it, I ended up with a migraine at the end of the day. Can't imagine why, right? So Josh came home and took over for me, and let me rest. Praise the Lord for my wonderful husband!

8 Random Things...



Ok, I've been tagged. Here it goes....



Here are the rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.

2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (if you don’t have a blog, email me)

4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.


1. I hate green food! That includes avacado/guacamole, lima beans, peas, canned green beans, green jello, pistachio anything, and all green colored drinks. It does not include green leafy things like lettuce and broccoli. I just think green colored food it gross looking! I have never tasted an avacado, but I am certain it is totally digusting just by it's appearance.


2. Until I was well into junior high, I thought when people talked about our "forefathers" that they were talking about the 4 men whose faces are on Mount Rushmore. That's a little embarassing to admit!


3. I LOVE teeny bopper reality TV. Mostly the trashy MTV shows like REALWORLD, THE HILLS, and LAGUNA BEACH. But also Big Brother, Survivor, American Idol, and many more. I'm an addict!


4. I only wash my hair once, maybe twice, a week. Unless I am working out, which is not often these days. (SADLY) I know a bunch of you are saying EW GROSS, but my hair doesn't get oily, doesn't get stanky, and you can rarely tell whether it's day 1 or day 4. I have VERY thick hair and it takes FOREVER for it dry! Plus I wear my hair up in a pony tail everyday for work, so I see no point to going thru a bunch of trouble for a ponytail. If I had a job that I didn't have to wear a pony tail, I would defintely wash it more.

5. My best friend of more than 10 years have never had an argument. And that's even when at one point when we were in college we lived together, we worked together, we went to church together, we had most of our classes together, etc.... we were pretty much together 24/7. But I really feel the Lord use all that time to strengthen our friendship. Even now, we can be completely open and honest with eachother, and say the really tough things, and know the other will not get mad.

6. I am pretty much the most disorganized person you'll ever meet, and the messiest too. My husband, and anyone else who has ever lived with me will agree. BUT there is one place in my house that is always organized. THE TOWEL CLOSET! I am very anal about the way my towels are folded and placed on the shelves. If they aren't exactly right, it totally bugs me! My husband wishes this would carry over into other parts of my life, but so far, no such luck. Sorry, babe!

7. I have never seen Star Wars. Yes, I know, how un-American, right? Well, I have never seen 5 of the 6 episodes. The only one I have ever seen in it's entirety is the last one, oops, I mean the 3rd one. Crap, I can't keep them straight. I've seen the 3rd one of the newest ones. The one where Aniken turns into DarthVader. And that was enough. I don't feel the need to ever see any of the others.

8. I love to play SCENE IT! Actually , I just love playing games, but SCENE IT is my fav. I love movie SCENE IT, tv SCENE IT, and even have "FRIENDS" SCENE IT, and love playing them all!

Ok, I am not going to tag anyone. I know this totally breaks the rules that started this whole random post, but I hope some of you do it anyway. It's pretty fun to read everyone's quirky things.