Bluebonnet Pictures

As promised....here are the pics....

Ladybug on a bluebonnet

My teen beauty

My preschool beauty

My girls

(who didn't really want to take pictures together)

End of March?? WHAT????

Yes, I am whoa fully behind on blog posts...I have a whole list of things (in my head) that I need to post, but I never have the time (or the energy) do so. The girls are growing like crazy. I have some cute pics that I want to post, maybe I can get that done in the next few days. Besides, the bluebonnets are really beautiful right now, I'm hoping we can get our first ones with both girls in the bluebonnets in this weekend. I will post those--in a timely fashion, I PROMISE!

At any rate, we are selling the house...or attempting to, anyways. Long story...for another post. We hope to move closer to DH's work, to a larger school district where Rachel can see more kids "like her" in her classes and in the halls. So, because people apparently do not like the wallpaper in the kitchen, we decided it had to go if we really wanted to move the house for the price we wanted. We worked on that over Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday and finished up Friday. We have NEVER done anything like this...so we were really branching out here! The finished project is far from perfect. And we both say there are thing we would have done differently, but overall, we feel like it turned out pretty well. Here are a few pics from the progress:

Beginning the progress

What a disaster!!!

HUGE MESS!!!

Progress at the end of Tuesday night

Progress at the end of Wednesday night

Window are after paper removed and been textured

Paint morning...everything has been textured

Finished project

Its going to have to grow on us...and hopefully it won't take long to sell, but none of us really LOVE it. It does make the kitchen look HUGE (which it is), but its not near as homey as it was. And we all seem to think it looks awfully plain and boring.

In other news today marks FOUR YEARS since we got Megan! Its hard to believe that 4 years ago today we were handed this tiny, scared little baby girl. Man has time flown by. We hope to celebrate with some ice cream today!

Christmas

Christmas was so HUGE that we had to open presents in 3 different "sessions". First, Megan is horribly slow. Second, it was just too much for Rachel to take in the way it was, so we wanted to break it up for her as well. Here are some of the highlights:

Megan with her 2 pillow pets

Megan with one of her watches

Rachel with one of the picture frames she got

She also got a lot of clothes...you can kind of see her pile next to her

Megan reading one of her many books...she's such a book worm

The favorite gifts...the pillow pets!

Santa brought Megan a "tie bow" as she calls it...just like the Cat in the Hat

While Rachel got an apron to help cook, something she really enjoys doing!

Megan's Preschool Program

Megan's Thanksgiving Program was last night. Here is her class' performance of "Feather bed". They did an AWESOME job. And she LOVES her teacher, Ms. Debbie
Her classmates lined up are Abi, Megan, Mia, Ethan, Jaidyn, Saelah, Dylan

Her bestest friend in her class is Dylan (and he is a cutie!)

Happy Halloween

The church where Megan's school is had a Trunk or Treat so we took the girls up there last night...

our sweet innocent "witch"

Haha! Fool you...

Our sweet prom princess

who has sass...

And the two together!

Pumpkin Patch Pics

A local church has a pumpkin patch that we stopped at last weekend...

Oh my girls....

Dad & Rachel

Megan & Mom

The whole family

SD Trip

The trip to SD went well. The girls did FANTASTIC in the car--which is 100% a miracle considering the day after we got back they couldn't even make it the 5 minute drive home from Rachel's school without a tiff. Ah, back to "real life".

Glow sticks made the last hour of the trip just FLY by. It was the best $1 investment I made for the ENTIRE trip!

Rachel & Ashley had a fashion show for us

More fashions...
And "where was Megan while the "big" girls had the fashion show?" you may be asking.

Well, outside playing football with Uncle Keith & Brady, of course!!!
My little football player girl...

And the fashion show continues...

A cousin picture: Brady, Megan, Rachel, Ashley
We were unable to get ALL the SD cousins together on this trip with the short notice.

Papaw and Grandma drove to come see us at Nana's as well.

The "girls"
Megan, Rachel, Brooklyn & Baby Brea (the newest cousin)

The return trip went well. We did have a HUGE miracle (besides the girls not fighting the entire way home, that is). I ended up with a flat 2 days after we got back. Come to find out I needed all new tires. It was only by God's grace and protection it didn't happen on the trip. I thank and praise God it did not!!!

Quick trip

Well...I'm crazy. We decided to pull Rachel out of school for 2 days this week and drive up to South Dakota to introduce her to the family. I'm driving with the girls by myself (I am a glutton for punishment). If we come to mind on Thursday or on Monday, PLEASE say a prayer for us as we will be driving....and driving...and driving. Rachel is really not very good in the car (God help me!), but Megan is a trooper. I've got a HUGE pile of movies so I guess they will get to veg out on movies. I also got some different prizes for them to open at various points on the drive. But no matter how you cut it...this is NOT going to be fun. Prayers are VERY needed.

I'll post pics as soon as we get back!!!

Rachel is 14!!!

Rachel's birthday was Sunday. So she & I met her friend Hope (and her mom, Elissa) for an overnight birthday bash. Here are a few pictures...

My little model...we went into a little shop...she had to try on several masks. I see a trip to New Orleans in our future!

We surprised the girls with some "Qu-ah" dresses (as Rachel calls them). Both girls love to dress up, they were really excited and surprised with the dresses.

This one looks like they are waiting for their rides to pick them up.

What a princess.

Such precious BFFs

This was a favorite of both girls!

Rachel also got her ears pierced, something she's wanted to get done since shortly after she got home. In fact, the girls got them done together (although I think Hope wished she didn't because it hurt so badly!).

My little missy...

...has gotten glasses! The day she's been looking forward to for a very LONG time! She technically only needs to wear them when she is reading and only for about an hour a day at this point in the game, but she has them! They are purple (of course!)...and she LOVES THEM!

She's VERY INTO making funny faces for the camera..
like this...

And this...

and then this adorable one...
what a beauty!

Shaving Cream fun!

This morning Megan asked if she could play with shaving cream, so we got it out and Rachel decided she wanted to try it out, too. Needless to say, they BOTH made a huge mess...but had tons of fun that lasted about 30 minutes. I don't know why they felt it needed to paint it all over their faces, but thankfully they did NOT get it in their eyes.

Saying Goodbye

We had to say Goodbye to our precious Dakota this weekend. She had a couple of seizures at the beginning of August that led us to believe she probably had a brain tumor. While (thankfully) she never had another one, she continued to decline in other areas and we felt like we wanted to put her down while she still had dignity and before the girls saw her at her worst. And believe me, we wanted to spare the girls the experience of seeing her in the confused state she was in after the seizure. It was very traumatic for her and for us. It was a very difficult decision for us and has been difficult for us and especially for Irish as he is missing Dakota. We've had Dakota since she was just 8 weeks old. She was over 13 years old and lived a long life.

This is Megan's attempt to take a picture of us with Dakota.

Dakota & Megan

Best buds...Dakota & Irish
taken just before we left with Dakota

God in his amazingness assured me that Dakota is in heaven when I was reading the Walking with God by John Eldredge. If you have not read his book, I HIGHLY encourage you do to so. It will literally CHANGE your life! His Golden was also very sick. I read that particular part of the book just days after her seizures. It was confirmation that we were very close to the end for Dakota and that it was going to be okay. It has been a hard few days and I find myself at various times thinking "where's Kota?" to only catch myself. And Irish is a bit depressed, but he has had moments where is more lively. She has a great dog and she was my baby (even though she was supposed to be DH's dog!).

Rachel's First Day of School

Here is Rachel on her first day of American school. I had her dress in a little warmer clothes because she tends to always be cold and I was afraid she'd have enough distraction that I didn't want her to be cold, too. She came home telling me that her arms were hot, but her legs were cold. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but that's what she said. She's been wearing jeans but with short sleeved shirts. Overall, school is going well. The teachers have been fantastic. I've met with most of her teachers and all have worked with her (and me) to help us with her assignments and know what's going on. She doesn't know enough English to write down what the teachers say, but she will copy the assignments that the teachers write on the board. We spend anywhere from 2-3 hours a night on homework (UGH!), but we're managing. I'm hoping to meet with the ESL teacher this week to get some idea on what kind of modifications are supposed to be completed for her since she does not understand what she reads. Overall, though school is going well. We do have major hurdles let to overcome, however. And she's figuring out how to use the handheld translator in class with her assignments/tests. We're all navigating new territory and the learning curve is HUGE!