A call from afar

I had a major surprise today...my brother who is an Air Force Para Jumper stationed in Afghanistan right now called out of the blue to wish me an early birthday. He's been overseas away from his family for a couple of months now and it's been so hard on all of them to be apart. I have so much respect for him and other servicemen & women who sacrifice to maintain our freedoms. What a blessing that I have such an amazing brother who not only serves this country but serves his family as well. I can only hope and pray that his time in Afghanistan will pass by quickly and safely so that he might return to his family, as well as all of the other soldiers who are stationed overseas. Thanks for the great birthday surprise Anthony and keep up the good work. Love you lots.

Family Time

We had a great weekend as a family... Playing with the dogs in the backyard. Daddy and Savannah did some wading & swimming in our neighborhood pool. They started in the kiddie pool and then moved on into the big pool. As you can see Savannah is getting more comfortable with the water. AND, we played ball in the backyard. Oh yeah and Savannah is pretty good at kicking already.

Savannah's First Pool Party

Last week Savannah's good friend, Becca, got a fun little wading pool and invited us over to test it out. It was Savannah's first experience in a pool and it took some time for her to be okay with sticking just her feet in. (I initially put her right into the water with a very happy Becca splashing her but quickly had to pull her out because she was vocalizing her dissatisfaction of the experience and I had no interest in traumatizing her. ) We'll be easing into more pool experiences this summer, especially with these warm summer months already peaking.

Showers of Love

What a joy to be surrounded by so many great friends who are as excited to welcome baby girl #2 as we are! I've been pampered and we've been showered with diapers. :) A couple of weeks ago my wonderful visiting teachers put together a "Pamper Mom" baby shower where friends brought great gifts of Bath&Body works lotions, body sprays, bubble bath, room sprays, candles, and chocolate. It was a fun night visiting with my great sisters of the Brushy Creek Ward and so nice to take home all of the delightful gifts. Today was a wonderful time with friends at our home as a "Diaper Shower" was thrown in honor of our new bundle soon to arrive. Special thanks to Dani (& Jeff) and Netsanet for organizing and putting together a wonderful event. We really enjoyed everything about the day. It was great food, great company, and great fun. Thanks for all of the little "extra's" too. And thanks to all of those who joined us and brought gifts. We're definitely set on diapers for a little while. :) I'm still working on thank-you notes for both showers so they'll be in the mail soon!

Fun moments on film....enjoy!

Washing hands at the sink. Jabbering her language and once in awhile a little English as well. Abusing her beloved dog, Tootsie and showing her climbing moves.

Busted....

I'm sure that this won't be the only time we catch our sweet daughter getting into mischief! She's discovered how to open the doors now so in her new found freedom she's finding all sorts of things to play with. Lucky for us, she hasn't tried playing in the toilet bowl yet. :)

Babysitting Exchange

We are so lucky to have such great friends here in central Texas. We've been blessed with great acquaintances from church, work, and even neighbors. Savannah has quite a few little people her age to play with on a regular basis. At least once a week, on Thursday mornings, Savannah is able to have playtime with girls her age from church as we participate in a babysitting/playgroup exchange. This has been a major benefit to me lately as I go to the OB every two weeks and it's much easier not hauling Savannah along. There are three of us that do this exchange so it's very manageable to host and keeps the kids entertained as they watch and interact with each other. Here is a picture of Savannah with her friends from church. The first time we hosted was interesting because Savannah was having to share not only my attention but her toys as well with her friends. But each of the girls have gone through this and every time it gets easier... So about the time that we get this all figured out, our new baby will come and throw us off schedule :-) . This past Thursday was my turn to host the playgroup while their moms had some time to themselves. Only one of our little friends joined us for the 1.5 hr, so we missed our other friend but we really had a good time. I am so grateful to our friends for spearheading this genius plan and for being so supportive and loving to us all. It's been a great blessing and a lot of fun for Savannah to be able to continue to interact with kids her age since leaving school.