Surprise 90th Birthday Party!

Today we celebrated my Meme's 90th Birthday! My Meme is truly one of the most amazing women I know and I am so honored to be apart of her!

I started planning this party about a month ago and have been so excited the entire time. My mom flew in my Great Aunt Ruth for my Meme's birthday. Ruth is the only living sibling my Meme has left. They haven't seen each other in 12 years!! We were so excited to have Ruth be apart of this celebration.

We had a pretty good turn out. My two Aunts and mom were there of the kids. My uncle is in the middle of ginning season in East Texas and just could not get away. It's funny cause I think he called like 10 times. I could tell he really wanted to be there! We had 6 of the 11 Grandchildren there and 15 of 25 the Great Grandchildren here.

Enough talking and here are the pictures!

Meme realizing the party was for her...I love her face expression!



Meme seeing Aunt Ruth.



My Aunt Glee and Aunt Gayla





Farrah was trying to throw a fit and it fizzled out with Missy took pictures of it. She did that a couple of times and Missy would start taking pictures and she would stop...so funny!

Farrah showing Brooke her toys. She loved Brooke and I think Brooke liked her too.





The amazing birthday cake...it matched the invites we had for her party.



The whole gang...well kinda.



Some of the grand kids.



Some of the great grand kids.



We had a great time today! We are blessed by such a wonderful grandmother and I loved being able to surprise her and just love on her. Happy 90th Birthday Meme...We love you tons!!

A week in review...

Farrah had a visitor in bed. I don't know who was more excited, Farrah or Roo! HA! (My mother will not like this picture)



One night Farrah woke up and couldn't go back to sleep so I put her in the guest bed with me and all I can say is NOT FUN!! Farrah has never slept in the same bed with us because that totally freaks me out. I have heard so many horrible stories of parents rolling on top of their kids and suffocating them so that has never been an option but when your desperate for sleep you will do anything. Farrah is a wild sleeper and I know she went to sleep but I sure didn't!



We visited a pumpkin patch over the weekend and Farrah was cracking us up. She thought all the pumpkins were balls and would pick one up and throw it. We were afraid she was going to destroy them so we didn't stay long.





Farrah has discovered coloring! She LOVES it and thankfully I'm still a little smarter then her, for now, so she can only color in her highchair.

Boom..Boom..Boom

When I'm in the car with Farrah I always have the radio on. It can be Christian to Rock to pretty much any thing beside Country. Farrah loooooves music! A song can come on and she will just start dancing and clapping. This just makes my whole day!!

We have a daily dance session every morning and this is my favorite part of the day. She just makes me laugh so hard. At the moment I have her in tumbling and I'm thinking about taking her out of that and putting her in a music class. The music academy has a mommy and me class that has music and dancing and I know she will just love that so much more!!

Farrah's favorite song is Boom Boom Boom by the Black Eyed Peas. She gets so excited every time this song comes on. So tonight I downloaded it off iTunes and let her dance her little heart out.

You will have to excuse James and me laughing at Farrah! She just makes my heart happy!

P.U.M.P.K.I.N.S

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend with some friends and had so much fun. Actually we went to the Corn Maize in Shallowater. We started out with pictures of course and then we went through the maze.

I will say this, my husband is a cheater!! The fun part is getting lost in the maze and he wouldn't have any of that so he found a map....can you say boring!! James' type of fun is seeing you take the wrong turn while he holds the map, this is not fun for anyone but him. He has a twisted sense of humor (that's one of the things I like most about him). When you start the maze you have helpful hints. And depending on how you answer the question determines which way you turn on the next path...right or left. I have to say we got hint right!!

We were suppose to go on a hay ride but the wait was a little longer then we wanted wait and we had no jackets and it was cooler then we thought it would be. Then with three little ones hungry it was just time to go. We will go back before it closes and have some more fun.





This is my favorite picture of Farrah!



Farrah and Madison!



Getting lost in the maze! (Well kinda....aka James).



This is the maze we went through. And we walked the whole thing. You don't even know you have walked for ever til you see yourself on the very tip of the corn field. It took us about an hour to walk through the whole thing.

Get Real.....

I read this blog today about a a girl who is struggling with infertility and needed some encouragement. She wanted to hear other stories of women in waiting...waiting for a husband or waiting for a baby, so here is our story.

I married my high school sweetheart James. We have been together for a total of 17 years! James was 16 and I was 14. I truly married the man of my dreams!! He is everything I could have ever hoped for. I remember my dad coming to my bedside praying for us girls while we were asleep. Praying for our future husbands. Thanks dad!

James and I had been married for two years and we wanted to start trying for a baby. After we tried for a year we talked to our doctor and she ordered some test for both James and me. James and I both have fertility issues. We did figure out that James' fertility issue was hereditary through the men of his family.

James needed surgery. So after much prayer and research he had the surgery. All I can say is this was one of the worst thing we ever did. The doctor told James that the success rate was great and there was like a 10% chance that his surgery would go wrong. Well for some reason James' surgery went bad and he fell into that 10%. To say the least we were both devastated! We were worse off then when we started our journey.

So after another year of trying my doctor decided I needed surgery. So again after much prayer and research I had surgery. We did find out that I had endometriosis. The doctor "cleaned" out all the endometriosis and did a dye test. After the surgery I had a HORRIBLE reaction to iodine and that was a nightmare! After that was all cleared up we started our fertility treatments. We did three round of fertility treatments and none of it worked. We were both devastated and brokenhearted!

After much prayer we decided to take a break from treatments. We tried for a total of 10 years!!! We have felt every emotion possible...from heartache to joy.

A couple of years ago our church asked us to lead a mission trip to Croatia and we have such a big heart for missions and were so happy to go. On that trip we truly heard God. The entire trip James and I both felt like this trip was to be a trip of rest and restoration. It was a life changing trip for both of us. The pastor we were working with asked us if he and his wife could pray for us a baby and we of course said yes!! What an amazing prayer. To listen to someone pray in they native language begging God for us a baby...I can't even describe it. Long story short we came back from that trip pregnant!!!! It was August 2007.

At first we could not believe it! I called my doctor and went in for blood work and realized we were in the middle of a miscarriage. Our hearts broke! I remember sitting in the doctor's office having a sonogram and hearing my doctor tell me....I'm surprised you even got pregnant because I thought you would never get pregnant on your own. I remember looking at James and telling my doctor that this pregnancy was a gift from God and he gave me the blankest look. Needless to say we changed doctors after that. I remember just not being able to function. We had FINALLY had our dream come true and it was stolen from us. That night we had a missions report at our church and I couldn't even think about talking in front of our church when I lost the baby that same day. Through God's grace and strength I was able to share about our wonderful time in Croatia....minus the baby stuff.

After months of healing we went to a different doctor. A doctor that was a believer! He was amazing and so helpful. I was due the first time in March 2008 and after a month of treatments and intense prayer we found out again that I was pregnant again!! How amazing was it that I was pregnant exactly nine months later when I was due the first time. It was right before Easter 2008 and then Easter weekend we lost another baby! Again heartbroken! I can't even describe the pain we were going through.

We knew God had a big plan for us. We didn't understand His plan but we trusted it, no matter what the plan was. Again, we took another break from treatments and needed time to heal. That's when we found our closest friends and family stepping up and just let us be real....real ugly and real raw. We so needed it. No one to judge us on how we felt. No one to tell us it would work out. No one to tell us it's in His timing...I can't tell you how much I hated that statement. It's all in God's timing. When you are going through the darkest time of your life and you have heard that statement for 10 years you really don't want to hear that! I know it's all in God's timing but I didn't need to hear it.

Then in February 2009 we got a call from a friend that works at a hospital and she told us that a girl walked in and had a baby but couldn't keep her. She asked us if we wanted the baby......YES!!! We became instant parents to our wonderful Farrah. It has been one amazing journey and now I see His plan.

Now that Farrah is almost two it's time for another baby. We are about to start all the treatments again and I so badly don't want to get wrapped up in treatments but this is what we feel like we are suppose to do at the moment. Is this the right way I don't know but if we don't try then we won't know. If it's the wrong way then we believe God will shut this door and open another.

There is so much more to the story and I hope that one day that I will be able to write a book and share our story. If you have any questions or want to ask me anything please do. We believe this journey is not only ours but so many others as well.

A day at the ranch...

Oh what a lovely day! We had an invitation to spend a day and night at the ranch in Dickens, TX. This is the first time I had ever been there and we had so much fun! We went with our good friends the Watts and the Louders and all of our girls so that added up to 10 of us. The girls played and the husbands went for a late night hunt and the moms vegged in front of the TV ...do you know how rare that is??

Friday night was a little rough for this family. We finally got in bed around midnight and then Farrah woke up at 2am ready to play. If we had been home Farrah would have gotten to put herself back to sleep but since we weren't wanting to wake the entire house James and I did everything we could do to put her back to sleep. The only problem is Farrah wanted nothing to do with sleep. I took the first two hours and gave up so James gave to the rescue and took the last two hours....You read it right, Farrah was up from 2am-6am. The guys were planning a morning hunt so James' alarm went off at 7:45am and you guessed it Farrah woke up! Talk about frustrated! This mama needs sleep and a lot of it.

So the guys went hunting and we made breakfast and got the girls ready for the day. After breakfast the guys wanted to take us around the ranch. We hopped on four wheelers and were off! Farrah LOVED it. I think all the girls loved it. Peyton slept the entire time and by the time we got back to the house Maci was out and Madison and Farrah were ready for a nap.

We only had one injury and that would have been poor Madison. We were driving through trees and the Louders and us were on the four wheelers so we were able to go around most of the brush but the Watts were riding on the Rover and a tree branch would not budge and went through the front and hit Madison in the eye and whacked Kelsey in the head. It was pretty scary for a second but both of them were fine.

Once we got back to the house it was nap time for the girls. The girls napped and then the adults went outside to shoot targets. We had so much fun shooting the new "toys".

We had such a fun weekend! We are truly blessed with such great friends!

On a side note I was having a tough time being a mommy this weekend on top of pure exhaustion. Farrah has entered the stage of hitting and throwing fits and I'm totally new at this and I have no idea how to handle this. Here Farrah is hitting and I don't want to spank her for hitting cause it seems like I'm hitting her for hitting. Does that make sense?? Anyways on the way back home I was talking to James and feeling like I have failed Farrah. I just really felt like God was telling me to just enjoy Farrah at every age even the hard ages. She won't be this age for very long and I want to make sure Farrah has wonderful memories, not memories of mommy being so wound tight. So today I choose to let Farrah be a 19 month old. Yes she will mess up and yes I will correct her but we are going to have some fun playing and laughing.

Tonight when I was getting Farrah ready for bed we played in the bath and played before bed. She got so tickled and had the biggest belly laughs and that is what parenting is all about! I needed some healing tonight and just by hearing my Farrah laugh and love and tease me was just what my heart needed!

Farrah showing daddy how to start the four wheeler.



The family



The Louders



The Watts (You might me a redneck if you strap you baby's carseat into a Rover!) Ha!







Maci, Farrah and Madison (I promise Peyton was with us she was just asleep)



I LOVE this picture of James with Farrah and Madison! I can't wait to see James with more children...he is such a great dad!



Be careful we all know how to shoot!! I promise all the guns were NOT loaded while taking this picture and all the little girls were inside sleeping!!



Thanks Watts and Louders for a great time! We ALWAYS have such a great time with you guys and your families mean the world to us!