Meet Olivia Kate

Here are some pictures of our sweet new baby girl, Olivia Kate, or Wiva Cake, as her big sissy calls her. I am hoping the name sticks, I think it's pretty cute. I call her Livvy Cakes!!!

Our sweet Livvy Cakes, my oh my, what a precious girl she is. I am the luckiest mommy in the whole world, at least it feels like it. I have the two most precious babies in the world!!!

Olivia is lovely!!! She is such a sweetheart! I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her these last  few weeks. She is so snuggly, she is a little piggy, she loves to be held. She started smiling those sweet little smiles and I have loved getting little glimpses of her personality. She loves to sleep, halleluiah!!

My new baby girl, our sweet second born baby girl!!! Introducing Olivia Kate Walden!!








Love this girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so in love with our sweet new Livvy Cakes!!

Pictures taken by the most talented Liana Randel Photography

Its that time again......

Time for swimsuits and sprinklers.......

Time for tank tops and shorts and sandals.....

Time for ice cream cones and long days and sunscreen.......

Time for cookouts with friends and ice cold lemonade......

Its that time again in Texas, where the days are long and the temperatures are sky high!!! Where you can hear kids out playing for hours at end. Time to put your long shirts and pants away in exchange for something cool!! Its time for swimming and air conditioning and lazy days!! Summer is about to meet us head on, its about that time again in Texas!!!

Easter 2011

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Now, if you ask me what my favorite holiday was, I would probably reply Thanksgiving or Christmas. But each time Easter comes around, I am reminded of so many reasons why I love Easter. Easter signifies hope and joy and promise. I love Easter sunday and hearing the never tired message of the death and resurrection of our Savior and what that means to a dead and hopeless world. I love seeing little girls in Easter dresses, I love Easter egg hunts and dying Easter eggs, and my all time favorite Easter candy Cadbury eggs!!! Easter is such a special and significant time, yet full of fun and fairy tales!

This year I really enjoyed picking out Reagan's Easter dress and getting her Easter basket together. We had so much fun dying Easter eggs for the first time, and hunting for Easter eggs. But more importantly, I enjoyed trying to impress upon Reagan what Easter is really about, the true meaning of Easter. She does not quite understand yet, but I will always try to instill in her heart the true meaning of the holidays we celebrate!

Reagan looked so pretty in her Easter dress! She had a ball hunting for her Easter eggs, although I do think she was a bit disappointed that the Easter bunny was not actually at our house waiting for her. I really think she expected some kind of bunny to be out front when we took her out to find her eggs. She got over it soon as she hunted and opened her eggs and found her Easter basket. The Easter bunny brought Reagan a new bible, which she was really excited about. He also brought a sprinkler, some new bracelets, the movie Tangled, new sunglasses, and some Disney princess figurines. I do believe Reagan's favorite gift that the Easter bunny brought was her 4 pieces of candy that she found in her Easter eggs. She is her mother's daughter!!!















Hope everyone had a blessed Easter!!!!

Family Pictures

We recently had some family pictures taken of our family of 3, before we become a family of 4!!!! I found Liana (Liana Randel Photography)while looking for someone to take newborn pictures of our sweet baby girl coming in June. Through talking with her, I liked her so much, I decided to go ahead and get some family pictures done as well. I am so glad that I did. They turned out wonderful, Liana was so great to work with. She has 2 little girls, so she was totally prepared to deal with Reagan being a 2 year old and not wanting her picture taken!! I am so blessed to have these memories to document this time in our lives!!!

Like a Sponge

I have to constantly remind myself these days that Reagan is soaking her world up like a sponge. She is taking it ALL in!!! Most of the time you see the Reagan running around like a chicken with her head cut off, but she also has a rather introspective side to her, where she will just sit back and take in the world around her!!! I have noticed on many occasions recently where she will, quite naturally, blurt out or act out some routine that I KNOW she has learned from me. It never ceases to amaze, surprise, catch me off guard, crack me up, and to be honest, scare the daylights out of me, when she comes back at me with the same things that I so often say to her!! Our pastor once quote this in a sermon, and it really impacted me in a big way. A very simple concept, but one that has such consequence if not taken and adopted into a way of life!! He said simply.....

"Your children are watching the song of your life, may it be one of praise to Christ the King!!" WOW! 

Here are a few examples of things that I have heard or witnessed Reagan do in the last few months that have reminded me that she is watching and soaking it all up! Makes me realize how important it is to live in a way, speak in a way, love in a way, worship in a way, treat others in a way, care in a way, and hope in a way that speaks to Reagan and teaches her how to be!! I want her to look at my life and it be one of praise to Christ the King, and through that, it be one of love and patience and kindness and peace!!!

Unfortunately, the following examples, at least some of them, are funny, but may not boast to the loving and patient side to my nature. Still, I am reminded to be careful and watchful of the way that I am!! Please do not judge, I am trying the best way that I know how to be a good example, but as you will see, we all fall short at times.

I am not sure how many times in the last few week Reagan has looked at me and said in a stern voice with her finger waving in my face "You stop that right now, Ya hear me!!" As serious as she can be. Its so hard to keep a straight face, because coming from her, it really is funny." I try not to encourage this type of talk from my 2 year old!!

Reagan will be doing something and then look at me and say "Ill be right back, ok?" I know I say this to her countless times a day.

Not one of my proudest moments, again reminding me that she is truly learning about the world around her through all areas, including the television. Reagan and I am Jeremy were watching tv one night, actually Reagan and I were playing and Jeremy was watching a movie. The movie happened to be the new karate kid movie. I did not  think that she was paying much attention to the movie, if she had been, I would have known to turn it off immediately because of the violence and fighting in the movie. It was not until my sweet 2 year old started kicking and karate chopping her toys, and then Jeremy and I that I realized  that she was paying more attention than I thought she had been of the movie, and learning not so nice ways to treat toys, and mommies and daddies!!

I have caught her several times recently spanking and putting her babies into time out. I must admit, this is one that caught me off guard. Again in her stern voice, she will tell them to "Sit down and stay right there!" I guess this is natural, but I have tried to talk to her and at least make sure she has a reason of why she was putting her babies into time out. 

I fix Reagan's hair every morning before she goes to school. Recently, she has started to want to "brush mommy's hair" too!! She will make me sit with my back to her, just like I do, and will brush my hair. If I turn my head at all while she is brushing my hair, she will put both hands of my head, one on each side, and physically turn my head back to where she wants it to be while saying simply "turn around." I can see myself doing this every morning, exactly the same way she does it!!

And, at least one example of maybe something that we are doing right!! Reagan loves to read, and every time she sees her daddy reading his bible, Reagan wants to get her "bible book" as she calls it and read her "bible book" like daddy is doing!! Its really sweet!!

Having kids, and raising them is truly one of the most rewarding and hard things in the world!!!

Here We Go Steelers......

Here we go Steelers.... Here we go..

Here we go Steelers.... Here we go..

Here we go Steelers... .Here we go..

PITTSBURGH'S' GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL

Here we go Steelers...............

GOOD LUCK STEELERS!!!!!

Snow Days, Snow Days

Like never before, or at least I have heard, North Texas was hit with a winter storm that left most of us huddling inside our homes for the good part of a week just trying to stay warm.  I personally, was fine with this and totally enjoyed our unexpected week at home. There is nothing like being "snowed in" for an entire week with a 2 year old to get your creative juices flowing.

We could not really go out and enjoy the weather, the first few days were bitterly cold and really icy outside, so I did not feel that it was in our best interest to venture outside. The last day of our snow vacation, it really did snow, 3-4 inches to be exact, so we did venture outside for about 10 minutes to enjoy some of the white stuff, but it didn't last long due to the freezing temperatures!!



Reagan and I had a really fun time this week with nothing else to do than snuggle and watch movies, take long warm baths and read tons and tons of books. But a week long unexpected vacation makes you come up with other things to do for pure entertainment and fun!!!

So, that is what we did.

We made ice paint, which was really fun and easy to do. We filled little silicone baking cups with half paint and half water and froze them. (You were really supposed to use an ice tray, but apparently, I don't own an ice tray, so we compromised). After the paint and water is frozen, you have what you call ice paint, and its really fun to paint with while exploring the sensation of "cold!!" That is what Reagan said the whole time "its cold, its cold!"





Then we made salt dough, which was an interesting experience. I just found a recipe online for it.You just mix a cup of salt (finely ground), and  a cup of flour together. I let Reagan mix them together and stir it up. Then you are SUPPOSED to add water, but for whatever reason, Reagan WOULD NOT LET ME add water to her flour and salt mixture. She enjoyed mixing it and playing in it. So, I made another batch, and added a half a cup of water to mine and kneaded it until it became a dough!! We rolled it out with a rolling pin and used a heart cookie cutter to cut out hearts in our dough. We then baked them and waited for them to cool.



We then painted them, and made them into pretty little Valentine ornaments for our family!!!



We really did have a wonderful time together at home.  What a unexpected blessing it was to literally not leave the house for 4 days straight with no agendas or things that had to be done. Life stood still for a few days and we could really enjoy just being lazy and all the snuggling that went with it!! Thank you Lord for the ice and snow!!!!!

Another GIRL, YIPEE!!!

 

 We had another sonogram today and we got to peek in at our sweet angel and see how she is doing!! Baby girl is wonderful, growing beautifully and all is well. All of her measurements were great, her head looked good, her brain development is great. We saw her sweet little heart with all of the chambers, beating away at 140 beats per minute. We got to see her sweet little legs and hands. We got to peek at her upper lip and make sure there was no cleft lip, and that looked great!!! And she is indeed still a GIRL!!!! Yay for baby girls!!! It was so nice to see her today and I will rest a little easier tonight knowing that she is developing normally and beautifully!!!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above... James 1:17

2010 IN REVIEW

As this year came to a close, I could not help but quietly sit and reflect on all of things that God has done for us this year. The lessons that were learned, the joys that were celebrated and the times that brought us to the only place we could find comfort, in the arms of our Lord and Savior.

We found out the wonderful news that our family is growing from 3 to 4 and we are having another girl!!!

Our sweet baby turned two this year!!!

We were blessed to be able to visit family and friends through the holidays and relish in the company that we so greatly miss in the everyday. Reagan go to be utterly spoiled by her nana's and papaw's. Reagan also got to visit with each of her three great grandmothers, which was a special time to all who witnessed it!!

Reagan grew from a sweet baby to a sweet little girl this year. We watched her personality bloom right before our eyes.

Reagan got to play in the sand and witness one of God's most amazing creations as we took a family vacation to the ocean.

Jeremy competed in his first tri-athalon this year and has finished 3 tri-athalons to date.

We have experienced the heartbreak of a miscarriage and the uncertainty and sorrow that accompanies, along with the hope of a healty sweet baby girl this coming year.

God has been ever faithful through the good, through the joy and through the heartbreak. He is ever so steady and strong and unyielding. God has continued to be so good, and we are changed because of it.

God is able to do abundantly, exceedingly, more than all you can ask or imagine.
Ephesians 3:20