Fortner Family

Project 365-Week 3

2012-01-21T22:03:00.006-06:00

This week on project 365 is kinda sad...haha! I would go to bed a couple of nights this week and think, crud I forgot to take a picture today. Oh well!

For some reason this week Farrah has figured out that mommy and daddy's bed is better then her own bed. All I can say is that I agree..haha! This picture was earlier this week. Farrah had woken up way early and instead of fighting with her to stay in bed I just brought her to our bed, I guess you could say I started this (whoops).

We've had some really great weather her lately! When its nice outside I send the kids out to play while they can. I love this picture. You can just hear the giggles coming from Farrah!

We are planning a trip to Dallas and I hate the stroller I have for Farrah. It's this umbrella stroller that kills my back and with having shoulder surgery it was awful to push around so I went and bought a new one. Farrah insisted she be pushed around the house in her new stroller so we took a stroll.

We also had a first as a family which is always fun! James and I took Farrah to a movie. We saw Beauty and the Beast and Farrah loved it. I think I watched her watching the movie the I watched the movie. She was so fun to watch, at one point she was up dancing and singing....it was pretty sweet! James also bought her a kiddy pack of popcorn and that girl ate ALL of it by herself. She would not share with her mommy or daddy! (She is her daddy's child when it comes to popcorn!)

Project 365-Week 2

2012-01-15T20:25:00.010-06:00

This week has been a crazy week!

Monday, I got a call from Farrah's KDO saying that she was complaining of her ear hurting. So after I took her to the doctor she had a left ear infection. That evening we were at some friends house and before we left I had given Farrah her medicine thinking she would just eat there but she didn't. So while we were there Farrah started getting sick to her stomach and actually got sick there. The rest of the night she sat with her vomit bucket....it was the most pitiful thing I've ever seen!

Farrah has learned how to carry Roo around...poor Roo!!

We LOVE Japanese food!!

The other day I was reading this blog about lying to your children (making promises and not keeping your promises.) We were at the mall the other day and passed this little carousel. Farrah had asked to ride it and I told her she could on our way out. So we were leaving and we were suppose to meet some family for lunch and we were running late and Farrah looks at me and said "Mommy, the carousel." I wanted to tell her never mind and we were running late but I stopped and let her ride....it was only two minutes and she was so happy. It was worth being late to bless my little girl!

This girl LOVES her Oreos!!

Project 365-Week 1

2012-01-09T21:56:00.010-06:00

First week of January has been pretty slow but I've really enjoyed it!

I went to a gender reveal party for some friends of ours. They are pregnant with their second baby and they had a party to tell us if they were having a boy or girl and it's a girl!!! So happy for Josh, Paige, Selah and baby girl Allen.

Farrah has discovered her little step stool and I think this stool will be the death of me and her daddy!! Farrah is onto everything with this stool. She can reach things that we weren't worried about and turn things on that she has never done before. I think everyday we say we are going to throw the stools away. We try to hide these things but the little toot finds them! And she is so proud of herself when she does....haha!! One thing Farrah is saying right now is "Mom, if it's ok with you...."

Farrah got this doll from Uncle Jody and Aunt Beth for Christmas and Farrah loves it. This doll freaks us all out but Farrah thinks she's the greatest thing ever. Annika is scared to death of it which cracks me up! Farrah has started chasing Annika around the house with this doll and Annika runs and screams. Farrah thinks its a game and it is quite funny to watch Farrah torment Annika with it...haha!

We made it to Science Spectrum and had so much fun! They just updated the toddler section and it was so much better! There were a ton of kids and Farrah had a blast!

Farrah has been a wild sleeper here lately! When we go and check on her before we go to bed, we usually find her hanging off her bed. They funny part is that she has no idea!

Goodbye 2011....Hello 2012!

2012-01-01T17:21:00.002-06:00

This past year has been quite a year! It's been hard but great at the same time. James and I were talking about 2011 the other day and I think we are both happy for this year to be over with.

This year I've had three surgery's. One surgery for fertility reasons and two different shoulder surgery's. Our fertility surgery seems like it was so long ago that it's hard to believe it was even this year. After surgery we had three rounds of fertility treatments with no success. It was a rough year with this but James and I learned so much about each other and ourselves. We finally figured why we've had trouble having children of our own and that in itself was refreshing. We really have no control of this and it was such a blessing to finally understand why.

In August, I had my right shoulder operated on and did rehab and in October, I turned around and had surgery on the left shoulder. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone..haha!! I've had to learn to slow down and to ask for help which is very hard for me to do.

Farrah has grown a ton this year. Farrah is talking more and more everyday. Her vocabulary is surprising! Everyone she talks to thinks she's about four and she's only two. She has grown so tall, so tall that all her pants are a little short...haha! She has taught me so much this year. I love that I can learn so much from someone so little!

This has been a year of learning for me which has been hard. I'm trying to learn to be comfortable with who I am. It's hard for me because I'm such a people pleaser. I've been this way my whole life. I've always gone above and beyond for other people no matter the cost to myself. I hate to disappoint people and saying no is real hard for me. This year, I've discovered that not everyone else is that same way. I've had to put my family first and just say no, and I'm so glad I have. The three of us have become so much closer as a family and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

I'm looking forward for 2012. I'm excited to see what it has in store for my family. I know change is in the air and that excites me! Happy New Year from the Fortner's!!!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-31T21:41:00.011-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!! We are truly blessed and loved spending time with our families.

Christmas Eve we went to James' parents house and had a blast. I love seeing Farrah old enough to play with her cousins. She has grown and changed so much this year and she is so much fun! This year we decided to make it easier on ourselves and have a dinner that was easy to make and clean up. I'm pretty sure all us girls LOVED this...haha!

Every year Quinn and I pass out all the presents. We've done this for years and I love having this tradition with Quinn.

Farrah had a great time opening gifts. She kept saying "For me?!?!"

Christmas day we had Christmas just the three of us. We woke up early so we could open presents before church but then I realized we forgot to leave milk and cookies out for Santa. Ooops! This is the first year that we've actually done "Santa" and we totally forgot...haha! So, I'm running to the kitchen pouring a glass of milk and eating half a cookie so Farrah will see that Santa had been there. I promise we will do better next year...haha!!

Farrah's big Santa gift is still in the garage and when it gets warmer outside James will have fun putting together her trampoline!

This year, James was my hardest one to shop for! He had no idea what he wanted and I had no clue. I did get to surprise him which was fun! A couple of months ago he mentioned wanting a shot gun shell reloader so I found one and that's what he got. He was really surprised and very excited.

After presents we headed outside so Farrah could play in the snow. I LOVED having a white Christmas! Farrah loved every minute of playing in the snow and we had fun watching her.

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Monday. It was nice being able to spread Christmas out this year. We weren't running from one family to the other family.

Every year my Meme makes every great grandchild a blanket and we love these blankets! I just love that she still gives homemade gifts!!

We had a great Christmas and really enjoyed out families. We are truly blessed!

Project 365

2011-12-30T22:13:00.000-06:00

This week in photos....

I promise I did take a photo everyday this week. With Christmas I want to have a post with just that so here it goes.

We had a wonderful white Christmas!!

Farrah's new trick in the tub!

Farrah looking for sparkles. This girl and her sparkles!!

Farrah has discovered dress up and this just makes me smile. I remember spending hours in my mom's closet dressing in all her clothes and having a blast. I know this time is coming and I love having a daughter!!

Week in photos

2011-12-25T21:39:00.010-06:00

I'm a little behind in our daily photos so this will be short and sweet. I really want to remember this week so here it goes!

Farrah has really wanted to help me with daily chores so I thought this would be a great opportunity to teach her. This week she is learning to make her own bed. I must say she does really well for a two year old. She has also learned how to set the table with plates(paper) and forks. She gets so excited! She is also learning how to take her plate to the trash when she is finished.

Farrah had pajama day at her KDO. She wasn't sure what to think about this. We were leaving for KDO and she said "Mommy, I need clothes on for school not PJ's!"

Farrah has been very interested in taking pictures so here is her take on pictures...haha!!

I had a first for me. I LOVE peanut brittle and have always wanted to make it so I found a recipe and just did it. I was so glad that I did! It was so good and now I can't stop eating this stuff....haha!! I will give some advise, it takes two people to make this stuff. It goes buy so fast and when it's ready, its ready!

And lastly, who can resist a picture of a sleeping child? I know I can't!!

Christmas Fun!!

2011-12-18T16:39:00.012-06:00

This weekend has been so fun!! I can't believe this will be Farrah's third Christmas. Her first Christmas was so fun because we had a baby and this year will be just as fun. I've always loved the saying that says "Live your life through your child's eyes." I love watching life through Farrah! She takes everything in and it's so innocent and new.

On Wednesday, we make cookies and decorated them. I will be honest and say that it started out a nightmare but ended in so much fun. I made the cookies and when I was trying to roll the dough out it was just a big mess. It was so sticky that it was just not going to work. I brought James in on the cookie making and he was even better then me...haha. Let's just say we ended up just throwing it in the trash and I went to the store and bought the already made dough and rolled it out. It was much better!!!

After we got all the cookies cut out we baked them and I do have one question....How in the world do you bake cookies so that they will keep their shape? My snowmen looked like big blobs and my Santa hat looked like I don't know what! Oh well, we still decorated the cookies after we figured out the shapes..haha!

On Thursday we took the kids to look at Christmas light at the Vintage and around town. Farrah loved the Vintage Winter Wonderland! It has a big Santa sleigh and she was so excited to sit in Santa' sleigh. Her, Lucas and Annika ran wild through all the lit trees that were set to music. They played and danced and were just crazy.

Farrah is really noticing the Christmas lights everywhere. It felt like we went all over Lubbock to show her the lights. James was being "funny" and pointing at all the lights for example, He would point at the Waterburger sign and street lights and tell Farrah they were Christmas lights...so wrong!!!! Farrah was not ready to go home but after two hours of looking at lights it was time to stop.

On Saturday we took Farrah to see Santa. We are teaching Farrah the real reason about Christmas which is Jesus, but I don't see any harm it having some Christmas fun as well. The first two years of seeing Santa, Farrah was not impressed so we weren't sure what to expect this year. We took her to Holland Gardens to show her all the decorations and Santa. She LOVED all the trees and decorations. She also did pretty good with Santa. On a side note, mommy was NOT impressed with this Santa! He was s rude to me that it totally turned me off and so I let James finish Santa with Farrah. We did get a picture with Santa so it was all ok in the end.

Year one

Year two

This year

Photos 365

2011-12-16T09:13:00.012-06:00

My friend, Paige, is starting this fun idea of taking a photo everyday for a year. I love this idea because Farrah is growing so fast and changing everyday. At first this idea seemed a little stressful but I decided not to stress about this and make it a fun project. There will be days when we do a lot of things and days where we do nothing but I want to capture my day as best as possible. (Some photos will be from my phone so it won't be the best quality but I have a picture.)

So here's my first week in photos!

Farrah had fun "playing hair" as she calls it. LaJuana and Annika are such good sports!

Farrah and I had a picnic in the living room. We have not eaten a meal in front of the TV (I know shocker!!) so Farrah thought that was extra special. We had sandwiches and watched Frosty the Snowman.

Farrah's new game is playing Hide and Seek. She LOVES it!! So much that we are all tired of playing Hide and Seek.

Farrah's teacher at KDO asked for us to bring a family picture so they could make a family book. I looked back at this past year and I found TWO family pictures....TWO!! I have a ton of Farrah and a some of James and Farrah and me and Farrah but only two family pictures. So at breakfast before KDO started we took a family picture...haha!!

Farrah also learned how to play London Bridges this week. She had so much fun!

I have more photos but I want to write a post about each of those.

Christmas cards are impossible.....

2011-12-07T22:49:00.010-06:00

For the last two years I have LOVED our Christmas cards! This year I have a busy little girl who won't sit still for nothing. I finally threw my hands in the air and said "If you smile and look at mommy I'll give you some candy!!" Did it work? Well you be the judge...haha!!

These are just a few of the pictures I took. Will there be a Fortner Christmas card this year????? I just don't know...haha!!

Farrah you are one big mess right now but I LOVE every minute of it!! You are so much fun right now and you have a whole lot of sass! Dad and I are still trying to figure this one out! Love you so much sweet girl!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas.....

2011-12-05T21:44:00.011-06:00

I wanted to decorate for Christmas weeks ago, but since I was having Thanksgiving at my house I thought I should wait. So I waited til Thanksgiving night...haha! I also had to wait for James' help. With having both my shoulder's operated on I couldn't get all the things out of the attic and I couldn't lift anything heavy.

James was a good sport. He put together my new 9ft tree and I fluffed it (Thanks babe!) Last year I went to the after Christmas sales and got some really good stuff. The best thing was opening everything for the first time and seeing it all over again. I must say, I got some really good stuff last year!!

Last year I ordered these amazing stockings! I ordered them off of Ballard Design. I've been eyeing them for two years and I just finally bought them. I told James I wanted some stockings that I could keep forever and these are definitely them! I even ordered extra to match for our future kids.

This year for the big tree I went with the red and lime green and I LOVE it! It's so festive and fun! Farrah looks at it and says "Mommy, I like your Christmas!" My favorite purchase was my big tree topper. It a big top hat that lights up.

I've always had the dream of putting a Christmas tree in every room so this year Farrah has one in her room. I've used that tree for the last three years and its so fun that I just had to use it for Farrah. She's not really sure what to think about it in her room. The first night I left the lights on while she went to sleep and about five minutes later she was calling me in to turn them off...haha! She really does like it just not the lights.

Every year I buy Farrah a Christmas ornament and I found her a great one this year! This girl is so into Texas Tech football that when she see's a football game on TV she'll ask "Mommy, we go see the boys play today?" I keep Farrah's very first ornament on the main tree, and then the current ornament on the main tree and then it will go on her tree next year.

This years ornament

2010

Farrah's first Christmas 2009

I love this time of year! The promise of new life and promises. Families getting together and loving on each other. I love the cold and hoping for snow. Every year I so badly want a white Christmas and this year I will hope for the same.

Merry Christmas!!!

I want to remember this story from Farrah so this is just for me but you can enjoy it as well. Last week we came home and the neighbors across the street had their Christmas lights on and Farrah said "Mommy, I want sparkles on my house!" It made me laugh and then I told her she needed to tell her daddy! For 10 years James has told me that he would put Christmas lights on our house and still nothing...haha! James told Farrah for sure next year we would have Christmas lights...that a way Farrah!!

Thanksgiving!

2011-12-05T21:13:00.004-06:00

We had a great Thanksgiving is year. It was super busy but we enjoyed every minute of it. We started with lunch with James' family. We went to James' brother house and loved seeing his family. I love have such big families with little kids running around. Farrah was worn out, which I was thankful for...haha!

After lunch we came home and napped Farrah and ourselves before my families Thanksgiving. I love cooking for everyone and this year I made the homemade cornbread stuffing. Last year I wanted to learn how to make homemade pies, crust and all, and my 90 year old grandmother stood in my kitchen for three hours teaching me how to make pies. This year, I wanted to make the stuffing so my mom told me the recipe that has been used for many generations. I love family recipes!

This Thanksgiving was such a fun one for us but I can't help for being very thankful this year. I am so thankful for both our families but most of all for my little family. Farrah is growing so much and there is not a day that goes by that she just makes me smile and thank God for her! I'm incredibly blessed by a wonderful husband who always puts my needs before mine and Farrah's.

This has been a rough year but a great one at the same time. Thankful for so much!

When it rains....it pours!

2011-11-13T21:56:00.002-06:00

You know the saying when it rains it pours, well this statement always seems true for my family. Its nothing really bad but it just seems that just when I think I've got everything under control something changes.

After my therapy on Wednesday, I started having this spot on my back that was hurting. At first I thought it was from the heat pack they put on me after I'm done with my therapy. I had James check it and he couldn't see anything wrong. So everyday my skin just hurt but I just thought it was from dry skin or something.

Last night I noticed a small cluster of blisters on my back and the pain is getting worse so I went to a clinic today and I have.....Shingles!!! I can honestly say this is the worst pain I've ever felt.

What's so weird is that my back doesn't look bad at all! From what the doctor said was that the Shingles are attacking my nervous system and my nerves are going crazy in this area. But the nerve that is under attack is on the front right side of my chest and goes under my armpit all the way to my right shoulder blade. So this is a large area and one that is very deceiving. From what I've also learned is that Shingles are brought on by stress...haha!!

One challenge I'm having is the sleeping part. Since my double shoulder surgery I can't sleep on either one of my shoulders and my back and front hurt from the Shingles so this is going to get real interesting!!

I have to go back this week and get a shot so hopefully the Shingles won't return and yes that's a possibility....yikes! One last piece of info is that Shingles are not contagious!! Yes, they are in the family of Chicken Pox but there is no way you can get this from me so Farrah and James are totally safe and so are you..haha!!

(The only reason I'm blogging about this is because I want to remember this.)

Shoulder surgery #2!

2011-11-06T20:48:00.010-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I had my left shoulder surgery and I'm officially done with surgeries for a VERY long while! This shoulder surgery was so different then my right shoulder. There was more damage and the tear was worse but I've not had near the pain with this shoulder then I did my right.

From what James tells me (I don't remember anything about that day except for being VERY sick!) Farrah wouldn't leave my side. She was a great mommy sitter...haha! At one point she crawled in my bed and wouldn't leave.....sweet girl!!

Farrah has had a whole lot of fun while I've been down! One night James put his pop up deer blind and Farrah thought that was the greatest thing ever!! There has been lots of playing with Lucas and Annika and Uncle Lance and Aunt Juana too.

I'm very thankful of having a wonderful family that is so willing to help me with Farrah. I'm also very thankful to Kelsey, Abby Cherri and Andrea for bring us meals this past week! It was a huge help and such a blessing!!

Ms. Piggy!!

2011-11-02T17:53:00.014-05:00

This year for Halloween Farrah was a pink pig. I found this costume last year and wanted it so bad! She was the cutest pig I've ever seen! She loved dressing up and was extra excited about all the candy.

We started out Sunday night at my mom and dad's church. They had a trunk or treat and Farrah had a blast. Farrah was joined by all her cousins. This is the church I grew up with all my life and to bring my baby back to them was such a joy. Of course they all loved on Farrah and gave her extra candy! There were jumpers and slides and my favorite a cupcake walk. It took me forever to win some cupcakes but I did!!

On Monday we went to our church's Trunk or treat and then headed off to the Vintage for door to door Trick or Treating. Our church had some fun jumpers and a trunk or treat, and again Farrah was spoiled.

We met up with Lucas and Annika and went to the Vintage for Trick or Treating. That place was so packed but we had so much fun! Farrah was really into it too. She would go to the door and say "Trick or Treat." Farrah had so many comments that by the end of the night we were just laughing at all of them. She was a pretty cute pig if I say so myself...haha!!

Pumpkin Trail!

2011-10-23T17:35:00.018-05:00

This week we took Farrah, Lucas and Annika to the Pumpkin Trail. We missed it last year and I made sure not to miss it this year!

LaJuana took Lucas and Annika to a nursing home to carve pumpkins with some of the residence. We knew the pumpkins were suppose to be at the trail so our goal was to find these pumpkins and we did!!!

We were surprised to see the trail so packed! I think there were over 2,000 pumpkins this year. There were a few Texas Tech pumpkins and some kitten pumpkins but other then that they were all original!

Farrah had a blast and really loved being able to walk on her own. She was such a big girl and I was really surprised how she stayed with us and didn't run off.

Angry Birds...haha!!

Peter Pan and Tinker Bell....Farrah was super excited to see Tinker Bell!!

It's been awhile!

2011-10-02T17:34:00.009-05:00

It's been a crazy and busy month for the Fortner house. Farrah has been going to KDO two days a week, I'm having my shoulder therapy two days a week and my brother and his family have moved in with us until they can find a house of their own.

Farrah has been doing great at her "school." She comes home and talks about her friends and then tells me what she did that day. It's really becoming a reality how big she is getting. Her words are getting more and bigger everyday and she has started to use her imagination. This is so fun to watch! She loves to play in her kitchen and having dad be a dinosaur and chase her around the house.

The hardest part has not been able to play with Farrah since my shoulder surgery. It's getting better and I'm trying my hardest to play with her but getting off the floor is extremely hard. I can't use my right shoulder at all to lift myself off the floor and my left shoulder is just as bad and I can't use it either so it gets interesting...haha!

A couple of weeks ago I was feeling great and then I had an "accident" and re injured my right shoulder so that set be back a couple of weeks. I was sitting on a table and it was not sturdy and it fell from under me and I went tumbling to the ground. Thankfully I did not land on my shoulder/arm but I jerked it so hard that it was instant pain. I saw my physical therapist and he didn't think I did any damage but I have three anchors fused in my shoulder and he was afraid I could have hurt those so off to my doctor I went. I saw my surgeon and he was not happy with me so he put me back in my sling, and then I was not happy with him...haha! So being the good patient I am I have followed the doctor's orders. I go back in a couple of weeks and schedule my left shoulder for surgery if all is well with my right shoulder.

In the mean time my brother and his family have moved in with us and its been a huge blessing!! They have all been a huge help with Farrah. James went on a week long hunting trip to Colorado and I had so much help. Lucas and Annika have been the biggest help! They play with Farrah and keep her busy. They play and dance and sing. They are such good sports with her! I'm sure she is driving them crazy but they are so nice and do whatever she asks. I tell them all the time they can tell her no but they just smile and say "It's ok."

To tell you the truth I'm not in any hurry for them to move out but I'm sure they can't wait to get into their own home and routine. It's been nice having help with dinner and cleaning my house. I don't think Farrah has been the only one that's been spoiled but me as well!

Roomies!!

2011-09-24T21:14:00.001-05:00

My brother and his family moved back to Lubbock and are living with us. We have had so much fun with them here! Farrah has really enjoyed them being here! She wakes up everyday asking for Aunt Juana (LaJuana) and Lucas and Annika.

I think mommy and daddy have become chopped liver...haha!! We've had so much fun playing and just enjoying watching Lucas and Annika. We've gotten to see how much fun they are and have had some really good wrestling matches. Lucas and I have also had some really good laughing phases at the dinner table that get us both in trouble with spewing a drink cause we are laughing so hard at each other!

It's always fun to see my older brother and younger sister with their kids and know that their life is a lot like when we were kids. My brother, sister and I were always really close and I love that their kids are close to their siblings as well.

Ruidoso with the cousins!!

2011-09-05T20:51:00.000-05:00

For Labor Day my mom and dad took all the grandkids to Ruidoso for a little vacation and Shawna and I tag along..haha!! It was so nice and cool and we had a blast!! We did everything we could think of. We played outside, went and played at the putt putt course, did race cars, jumpers, fishing and we even went swimming.

We were so glad to get a break from the heat and it was about 70 degrees and rainy...it was perfect! I am so thankful that all the grandkids get a long so well and love playing with each other.

We even did an old western picture with the grandkids and it was so funny! Farrah was given a toy gun to play with and she was so funny to watch. She would stick the toy gun in her ear, her mouth and at Reagan and Annika. We had to tell her a few times to stop pointing the gun at everyone..haha!

I've also figured out that mom and dad have a lot of the pictures from the weekend..haha!

Thanks Nana and Dandy for the fun weekend and for letting me and Aunt Shawna tag along!!

First day of school...

2011-08-30T10:42:00.005-05:00

Farrah had her first day of school on Monday and she was very excited! Our church started a KDO (Kids Day Out) program this year. What I love about this program is that Farrah will get to learn so many things. Every month Farrah learns a new color, letters and a number. Farrah is a pro with her colors and knows her ABC's and how to count but we are working on how to recognize them on paper, so this program will be great for Farrah!

I took Farrah to her first day of school and she was so cute! She walked in carrying her sleep mat and ready and excited for her new adventure. Last year when we went to school she cried and and by the end of the year she was telling me "Bye mom...see you later!" This year there was no crying, Farrah is becoming such a big girl!!

When I went to pick Farrah up from school, I was told Farrah did great! I did find out that she was a little toot. This girl is so much like her daddy that it just cracks me up!

The fun part about this year is that James get to take Farrah to school! While Farrah is at school I'll be doing my shoulder rehab. I think James is kinda excited about this. I usually get to do everything with Farrah so this will be something for just James and Farrah to do.

Surgery...

2011-08-20T22:34:00.007-05:00

Last week I had my right shoulder surgery and it was a little more then I expected. I had a slap tear and then once my Dr. took a closer look at my shoulder, he realized that the actual ball was no longer in the socket. So after my surgery he told James that my rehab was going to be real fun...haha!

I've needed to have this surgery for a while and thankfully I love my Dr. He is so great that he will be doing surgery on my left shoulder in October...haha!! James and I talked about which shoulder to do first and thought it might be better to do my dominate arm first just in case I didn't want to get the other one done. I haven't had a lot of pain unless I move my shoulder in a way that I know I'm not suppose to, like trying to dress Farrah. My right shoulder is higher then my left and the movement feels so foreign to me. I had no idea my shoulder was out of its socket and it feels so unnatural for it to be in place.

When we got home I went to bed and crashed all day and then that evening we discovered that our AC went out at home. I was in such a fog that I really don't remember much but being loaded up by my brother and LaJuana, and headed to Levelland to my parents house. They were out of town that weekend so it worked out great. Lance and LaJuana were such a great help to me that night. Shawna helped with Farrah during the day. She took Farrah the night before and then took her swimming and then took her to the park. Farrah had so much fun that I don't think she was ready to come home.

Needless to say, this week has been very interesting. Having only one good arm with a VERY active two year old is a big challenge. The hardest part is not really being able to hold Farrah. Farrah has been such a trooper. She has truly blessed my heart this week. She has been the sweetest thing! She saw my staples for the first time and said "Oh mommy....I kiss you booboo!" I've been asking/telling her that she needs to be a helper. She has done great with helping me with a lot of different things this week. The biggest challenge this week has been her car seat!

Having only one arm this past week I have learned a few things about myself. I am learning patience, how to ask for help, and to slow down. I have always known that I'm not a patient person but this week its really been put to the test. Not with James or Farrah but with myself. I have always been a person who did the best I could. Not being able to do my best was been really frustrating for me. Not being able to cook, clean and bath my own child much less bath my own self was really hard.

So not being able to do things my self, I found myself having to ask for help. James has been amazing!! He has had to dress me, do my hair and help me even shower. It has brought a lot of laughter and some tears (when it comes to my hair). We've had some great friends and family really step up and help us by cooking us dinner and helping with Farrah. I've even had to call upon friends to straighten my hair...haha!!

The most important thing that I've needed to learn is to slow down. If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE being busy. This week has been such a busy week for us. I've had two funerals, doctor appointments, physical therapy and so many more things. By Friday, I was worn out and now I'm battling a summer cold......great!! I always know when I've done to much cause I usually end up getting sick. I'm excited about this week because I am choosing to slow down and play with Farrah before she starts school next week.

Thank you all who have helped me this past week! James is very glad he didn't have to cook any this week!

I found this picture that James took of me and Farrah....I have no idea when he took this.

Heavy Hearted....

2011-08-18T20:29:00.010-05:00

This week has been a pretty hard week! My hometown of Levelland lost three very special people this week. One was Christie Devitt, she and I went to high school together. I can honestly say I have never met anyone like Christie. She is so genuine and sweet.

So with the loss of Christie this week it had me thinking. I had surgery last week and was starting to get frustrated with life. Getting frustrated with having only one arm, not being able to hold Farrah, having to ask for help, having to slow down and feeling like I have been replaced in some friendships. If you know me at all, these things are important to me! My family and my friends. To top it all off, I also had to quit my new job this week before it even started due to my surgery. I'm so thankful that I don't have to work, but I was going to be a teacher for our KDO program at church. It was perfect because Farrah was going to be able to go with me and I was going to start being able to start saving some extra money for fertility. I know my plans aren't my own but it's still disappointing!

It kills me to tell Farrah "No, I can't hold you baby." But I have done lots of sitting and holding Farrah in my lap and that is truly wonderful! I have to slow down to sit and hold Farrah which does this mommy a lot of good. Farrah's little world has been turned upside down this week. We've had lots of family helping with her and she is so tired. So I am choosing to slow down and letting us both rest. Even if it means watching Toy Story 3 multiple times a day...haha!!

Asking for help is very hard for me to do as well. I am a VERY independent person and pretty much do everything on my own. My biggest challenge this week was figuring out how to keep my house clutter free. If my house is cluttered, I will not rest. The first thing I did was make my huge bed all by myself! I did it one handed and it was a challenge, but I did it! It didn't look great but I did it. After that I put dishes in the dishwasher one handed, and after that I was on a roll....well as much as one can do one handed. Haha!!

I have discovered this week, especially after Christie, what I need most is God and my family. My little family of three is the most important thing to me and as long as I have my husband and my daughter, then I am truly blessed! We all need friends but I have to remember, I married my best friend. James, you make me laugh everyday and make me proud to be your wife. You make me want to be a better person, wife and mother.

Water fun/Swimming lessons

2011-07-31T11:40:00.011-05:00

This last week and this week Farrah and I are doing mommy and me swim lessons. We did this last year and had so much fun! Farrah loves the water so I knew she would love it again.

She is learning to jump off the side of the pool, get out of the pool by herself (elbow, elbow, knee, knee), swimming under the water, blowing bubbles and kicking and scooping the water. She is so fun to watch, but there are days when she is done she's done. Poor thing, the water is freezing cold, and she just sits and shivers to death.

She has made a friend with a little girl named Abby and a little boy named Luke and this makes Farrah excited about going everyday. It's so much fun to watch Farrah interact with other children, I wish I had her courage to go and meet new people like she does..haha!!

Farrah has this water table that she LOVES to play with and we do this every night. She starts out real careful and by the end of the night she is soaked from head to toe. She has the biggest grin on her face so I know she is having a blast! She even sticks her head in the water and blows bubbles.

July 4th...whoops!

2011-07-29T23:40:00.009-05:00

So I was looking through my pictures and realized I never blogged about 4th of July and I want to remember Farrah at this age so here we go. Last 4th of July we were stuck inside because of all the rain we were getting, and this year we are inside because of the heat...haha!

My whole family was in town for 4th of July this year, and I couldn't tell you the last time this happened! So needless to say we were very excited. We started off with the parade on Broadway and had fun. This was the perfect day, and we had some great weather for once this year. It was an overcast morning which made it perfect for the parade.

Farrah was really into the parade this year, and it was really fun watching her. Just seeing new things through her eyes makes my heart happy! She really soaked up the sounds and sights of the parade, and waved her little heart out at everyone who walked by. At one point someone walked up to us and gave Farrah a flag, and she was so excited but the only bad part was that the flag became a weapon. So you had to really watch out when she started waving her flag (just makes me smile watching her).

After the parade we were off to a cookout and swimming at our house and we always love that! We would much rather have people at our home than wrestle Farrah for an hour at a restaurant...haha! After lunch we let the kids loose in the pool and it was crazy for awhile. It really amazes me with having older nieces and nephews on both sides of our family, and how they all really look out for Farrah. We are truly blessed with amazing nieces and nephews and Farrah is CRAZY about each and every one of them!

Another great July 4th! We are so proud to live in the US and are very thankful for each and every service man and woman!

Mini Vacation!

2011-07-04T22:04:00.008-05:00

Last week James was in Austin for a class so Farrah and I flew down on Thursday to join him for the weekend. Farrah had her very first airplane ride and that girl surprised me again...she LOVED it! She was so excited and loved every minute of it!

After James finished up his class we headed to San Antonio for a family weekend. We did some shopping, had dinner with some friends and visited the zoo. The zoo was so fun and so hot! We thought that we would try something on a smaller scale with Farrah instead of doing Sea World and I am so glad we did. Farrah loved the zoo but it was so hot and miserable that we were glad we didn't spend a ton of money and we only lasted a couple of hours.

We love family vacations but at this age with Farrah it's really hard to get to enjoy your vacation. She was tired and hot and didn't want to hold a hand or ride in a stroller so it made for an interesting trip..haha!!

Later that night we headed to the River Walk and talk about totally stressing out! Its a little nerve wracking walking next to the river but add a very active two year old and the stress is way high!

We had a great time but I think James and I both decided that next year we want to head somewhere a little cooler!

Critter Fest!!

2011-06-26T20:35:00.013-05:00

Saturday we took Farrah to Critter Fest at the Science Spectrum and my mom and Reagan and Brincent tagged along. I wasn't really sure how Farrah would do with all the animals but I must say she really surprised me! That girl had a blast!!

We went right when it opened at 10am and I am so glad we did. It wasn't near as hot as it would have been later that afternoon. Farrah started off with a pony ride and watched the elephants and camels. She even got to feed some goats and a small bull.

After that we headed inside and got to see so much more. Farrah petted a HUGE python and thought it was the greatest thing ever until we saw the alligators and crocodiles. She went crazy! She kept saying "mommy their so cute!" Then her little world go really exciting...she actually got to hold a small crocodile! She was all over that thing. I just knew she wouldn't like it and boy was I wrong!

After the crocodiles Farrah got to hold a baby duck, a bunny and she got to touch a really big tortoise. Farrah had such a blast and I know we will be going back next year!

Fertility update....

2011-06-13T22:19:00.004-05:00

Today James and I had a one on one meeting with our fertility doctor, Dr. Phy. I knew this day was coming but you're never really quite prepared for it. I love Dr. Phy and how she is just so honest with us and will not waste our time or our money.

Through out this entire process Dr. Phy has been amazing! She was always so encouraging and would never give up on us. Today, Dr. Phy said the words I was dreading the most...."I can't help you any longer." Our fertility case is a confusing one and takes more technology then Dr. Phy has available.

I knew going in there that we were headed toward IVF. It was a little overwhelming to hear but I already knew. I would love to write what I'm really feeling but today I am really raw to the news and still have to let it sink it.

I know this is not the end of the world but I know how much fertility treatments cost. The one we need is going to be a massive expense. We found this fertility clinic years ago in the Maryland area and it was funny because this is the clinic that Dr. Phy recommended. We have to go through a lot of testing and have a lot of decisions to make.

Tonight I'm sitting here and I am exhausted: emotionally, physically and spiritually. I know I will get past this but I never in my wildest dreams thought that having a baby of my own would be so hard. My heart breaks for James and Farrah. James is such a wonderful father and Farrah would be such a great big sister. So today, yes I'm hurt but tomorrow is a new day. The most important thing you can let us do is grieve. Just listen to us, we know you can't fix it and neither can we but it sure does help to be real with someone!

Thank you to all our family and friends who have covered us in prayers and encouraged us everyday. We don't know the next step but we know our fight for our children is not over!

Summer fun!!

2011-06-12T21:35:00.009-05:00

I can't believe its already as hot as it is and it's only June! We have been loving all the warmth and going to bed later. I think James and I have sat outside every night just enjoying the summer nights.

We've been busy but not crazy busy, well I haven't been crazy busy, James on the other hand is super busy at work so he comes home and crashes for the night...ha!

We bought Farrah a small swimming pool for the summer, ok it's really for me, but this thing is a nightmare! We live in a brand new subdivision so our backyard faces an open dirt field so you can imagine how much dirt is in the pool. We have cleaned that thing so many times and still wasn't able to get in the pool so we finally gave up and just have a dirty pool. The chemicals are good just dirt in the bottom but like my daddy always says, "Dirt never hurt anyone!"

We had a big milestone at the Fortner household this week, Farrah not longer sits in her highchair for meals. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal but it just makes me realize how fast Farrah is growing up. She loves it! She feels so independent and can climb in and out of her own chair. She is so fun to watch. My favorite part of dinner is the prayer before the meal and she prays for us, just melts this mommy's heart!

James had this digger thing for the church and is of course responsible for it so its at our house for the weekend and he wanted Farrah to ride on it. This girl cracks me up with her adventurous spirit....so much like her mamma!! I think this kinda freaks out James...ha! For over 18 years James has had to put up with my adventures like cliff diving to jumping off waterfalls and I think Farrah will be just like me. Anyways, back to the digger thingy, Farrah loved the idea of riding on it but when it came to being tied down she didn't like that (again like her mamma, hold me down and you will have a fight on your hands!) She warmed up to it and had fun but it took a minute.

I'm sure James loves me calling this digger thingy a digger thingy.....haha!!

Urgent prayer please!!!

2011-06-02T17:09:00.004-05:00

I have this friend from high school is who was diagnosed with cancer for the second time. Christie is the most precious lady you will ever meet and always goes out of her way for others. Christie has two small children, Conner who will be 5 this month and Laney and will be 3 this month.

Here is part of her story....she found out she was pregnant with Laney and then found out she had breast cancer. She battled breast cancer the entire nine months with chemo and when Laney was born she was able to finish with radiation and beat cancer!!

Christie has surgery in the morning so please keep her in your prayers! She is scared for her family as would I be. Please pray!!!!

Click on the link and read her story!http://www.carepages.com/carepages/ChristieDevitt/updates/3035891

After finding this out today my fertility problems don't seem so big now....

Please share this blog or this link and lets get the body of Christ fighting on her behalf!!

Lake fun!!!

2011-06-01T10:45:00.008-05:00

Memorial Day weekend we went to the lake with my family and had a blast! I was a little worried about how Farrah would be because it was going to be really hot but she did great!

Friday was a super busy day!! I have a little problem with the word "no" and this day was no different...haha!! Friday morning a very special lady, Tomi had a wonderful little girls tea for some really special girls! It was so fun and sweet of her. Tomi wanted to celebrate summer with the girls so she had donut holes and juice and read them a summer time fun book. The girls all played and then Tomi gave each one a present, a hooded beach towel with their name monogrammed on it. It is adorable!!! I had totally forgot my camera so I'll have to get some pictures from Paige and add later.

After the party Farrah stayed with my mom so she could nap and I went to hang out with the girls at the pool for a little while and then James and I went to help Jay and Amy at Quinn's pool party. Let me just say, having 25 8th graders was a little crazy. It was fun just watching them play and my job was trying to not let them hurt each other....that was a hard job!

After Farrah woke up from her nap we loaded up and headed to the lake! We were so excited to get there and play on the boat. Farrah LOVED her first boat ride! She was so fun to watch. She had the biggest smile I've ever seen on her face. The faster James would go the more she liked it. She kept saying "Mommy this is fun!"

Saturday we were up at the crack of dawn thanks to Reagan, Brincent and Katie! I though surly it was 8am but nope it was 6am!! We had some super excited kids so mom and dad took them fishing off the pier so they could get some energy out of their systems. They came back so we headed to the lake and played on the boat!

Farrah got on the tube with me and she loved it!!! I knew James wouldn't go fast with her so I knew it was safe. I love that Farrah is going to be a lake baby!! Now I just have to talk James into buying a bigger boat so we can all fit in it....haha!!

Saturday was so HOT!!! It got to 107 degrees and we were all feeling it. We had to run the propane on the trailer all day so we could cool off. This was the part I was worried about most with Farrah. I knew she wouldn't be able to handle the heat very well so after the boat ride I brought Farrah in out of the heat. This part was hard for me! I LOVE being on the lake and being in the sun but I knew Farrah's well being was way more important then me. There are still some things I'm learning about being a mom....haha!!

That evening we ran out of propane but we thought it would be fine cause it always get cooler at night right??? Well not this weekend! At 1am I was still awake cause it was so hot!! I got up and inside the trailer it was still 90 degrees! Mom was still awake because she was hot and couldn't sleep either so I walked out to James in his tent and he couldn't sleep cause it was so hot. He at lest had a breeze outside and we didn't even have that. So after we decided that everyone was miserable I went back and was watching Farrah sleep and she was pouring in sweat so I stripped her down trying to get her to cool off.

So around 2am I hear James start his truck and take off! He left his family in the HOT and went home to the A/C!!!! I called him and yes he left but he was going to find more propane to run the A/C...haha!! James moved inside the trailer and Farrah and I moved to the floor right under the A/C vent. It was wonderful!! I had to actually get a blanket!!!!

Sunday we got up early and packed everything up and we were on the road my 10:30am! We were all ready to get out of the heat and just shower..ha! We had a blast and I can't wait to take Farrah back. I will admit that the lake is really hard on the little ones and mommy so I know Farrah will have to be older to truly enjoy the lake/boat.

I love going to weekend getaways with my family!! There is always an adventure when we all get together. We've survived bad sunburns, a capsized boat, being stuck on a roller coaster and so much more!

Girls just want to have fun...

2011-05-25T17:04:00.016-05:00

Today I had the pleasure of keeping some of Farrah's girlfriends. Maci, Madison and Peyton came to play for most of the day while their mommies had things to do and I must say it was fun!

We started off our morning playing outside and by the time I put sunscreen on everyone and the older girls going to the restroom I was already worn out...haha!! Farrah got a new swing set from Uncle Lance and Aunt LaJuana and the girls were so excited to play on it. That was the first thing Madison said to me this morning, "Do we get to play on the new swing set?" I brought out the sidewalk chalk and we had a blast!!

After I got the girls all and all something to drink it was lunch time and I wasn't sure how I was going to do this. I made them all grilled cheeses and chips. It was funny to look at it all cause Madison didn't want the crust, Maci's was cut in fourths and Farrah's was cut in half. It just made me laugh how different they all are.

After lunch Peyton went down for a nap so the big girls played in Farrah's room with her kitchen. It was so fun watching them "cook" and play house. Madison was in charge!! After that we read some books and then we colored. I loved sitting in my kitchen floor watching and coloring with them. They were so proud of themselves and each other.

After coloring we only had about an hour left so I gave them each a snack, their blanket and we watched Toy Story. I was pretty surprised they all sat still on the couch and watched the movie!

I've always dreamed of what it would be like with more children and I will say....its very busy! My day flew by so fast. I told James if we have four kids then I may never leave the house and I may never get a shower til midnight...haha!!! The good news is, is that I know I can and want more children. My favorite part of the day was all the giggles going on in Farrah's room!

We had a blast and thank you Kelsey and Abby for sharing your girls with me today!!

Farrah's funny phrases...

2011-05-15T21:44:00.004-05:00

I read this on a blog and this mom wrote down some of her daughter's sayings and I think this is such a great idea. Farrah is saying some of the funniest things lately and I really want to remember them.

You walk around and say "I funny!" Even when you are getting into trouble you will look down and smile and say "mommy I funny" It's really hard not to laugh at you.

When we tickle you or chase you around the house your favorite thing to say is "stop it" I try not to tell you no all day so I say stop it and apparently you have picked up on this.

You love to sing!! You can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Jesus Loves Me, This Little Light of Mine, Deep and Wide, Jesus Loves the Little Children and the list goes on and on.

When you say purple it sound like your saying poopy so I usually just run you to the bathroom and you look at me like I'm crazy!

You are calling your daddy James or babe...it cracks me up!

You call Lula, Poppa and even when we correct you you will still call her Poppa.

When you want to sit in my lap you call it a yap.

You call your lovie a wobie.

When you wake up in the morning you have a roll call....You start by asking for your daddy then Nana, Dandy, Poppa, Nawna (Shawna), RaRa (Reagan), BB (Brincent), Lucas, Annika, Shoe (Roo), Kelsey, Madi, PeyPey, Heath, Abby, Maci, Quinny, Kate, Corey and Mamey (Amy). This happens EVERY morning! I love that you love all your friends and family!!

When I'm holding you, you say "I got you mommy!" Yes you do sweetheart!

I say I love you and you say "I to."

A funny this week is that you saw a statue of Uncle Sam and you called him Jesus.

There are so many more phrases and I will be adding more when I can remember them...ha!

Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T21:02:00.009-05:00

This is my third Mother's Day!! I am so honored to be a mommy and truly blessed that God entrusted ME with Farrah. Being a mommy is one of the best things I have ever done and all the prayers we prayed for this girl to come is a dream come true! Yes, being a mommy is hard and there are days that Farrah has figured me out but all in all I know I have a job to raise my daughter to be a wonderful mommy and wife.

There are things that my mom taught me that I want to teach Farrah...

Like taking care of your children and being a good mommy.

Washing the dishes.

Doing laundry for your family.

Cooking a good meal for your family.

Never being to busy to stop and hug your momma.

But the most important thing my mom taught me was you need to be in God's word!

I just want to say to my own mom that you so much for teaching me all these things! I can remember washing dishes and cooking and doing laundry with you. Yes, you were teaching me how to be on my own but most importantly you were teaching me how to become a good wife and mom. Thank you for investing in me all these years and I just hope I can be a great mom and wife like you are!!

Easter

2011-04-30T08:01:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful Easter weekend this year! It's so weird to think that last Easter Farrah wasn't even walking....oh how time flies! This year Farrah really got involved in the Easter hunts and it just really warmed my heart. Year after year after year we went to family Easter gatherings and would watch and smile at all of the nieces and nephews hunt eggs and I would always find myself asking God, why and when and last year was a dream come true and this year was no less!

This year Easter weekend was a little crazy...I had a baby shower and two family Easter cookouts and James worked all weekend and was actually apart of the Easter service at church (that is a whole other post in it self). The first cookout was with my family on Saturday and we had so much fun. I love spending time with our families!

Then Sunday we went to church and it was fun seeing James on stage. Farrah had a rough night of sleep so she decided to stay with me during church. She was so fun to watch. She noticed her daddy on stage and she got this real big smile on her face and pointed and announced to everyone around us that that was her daddy!! This girl LOVES her daddy!!

After church just the three of us went to lunch and then came home and crashed til we had to get ready for the second cookout. It was funny cause we were all so tired from the busy weekend that we slept through our alarm! I woke up at 4:45pm and the family was going to be here at 5pm. Let me just say I flew out of bed and kicked James out as well...haha!

The Fortner family came and we celebrated Easter and Jim's birthday and again had so much fun. After dinner the girls hunted eggs and then we had our annual confetti egg fight and let me say it was a full out war this year! I LOVE this tradition!

Easter Sunday

This picture cracks me up cause we spent a good 30minutes trying to get all the confetti out of hair and down our clothes. I don't think my backyard will ever be confetti and egg free...haha!!!

New Beginnings....

2011-04-27T21:03:00.005-05:00

This title cracks me up cause this journey is so not a new beginning but its more like a new attitude for me. Saying that, I've been sitting on this blog for a couple of weeks just because I was so hurt and looking for answers that I didn't have. I know there are so many couples going through fertility troubles so we just want to be an example and an open book for couples who are struggling with this as well.

A couple of weeks ago we had found out again that we weren't pregnant and yes we were disappointed but then we were ready to try again. We were scheduled to see my doctor for a sonogram to measure things to see if my body was ready for another round. When the nurse was taking pictures she started with my baseline and it was ok and then she checked my left ovary and it had two follicles ready and then she went to look at my right and she found a problem. With all the fertility drugs I'm on there is always a chance that I could develop difficulties and this month just happened to be ours.

When the nurse looked at my right ovary she discovered a blood cyst. This cyst is so big that she couldn't even find my ovary. It was explained to me that this can happen because of all the drugs but the bad news is that we had to stop all procedures immediately and shut down my system by being on birth control pills. The good news is that we found this early and it could have been really bad. So bad that the cyst could have burst and I would have lost my whole right side...ovary and fallopian tube, so for that I am thankful.

On the other hand I was so upset and mad! To have one more hurdle, one more month of no and one more month disappointment. We have been trying for 12 years, or 145 months, or 4,350 days!!! This is crazy to me!

For the past two weeks I have been all over the place. I've questioned God, I've wanted to give up, I've wanted to keep going and I've wanted to adopt again. Then one day I just gave it back to God. It was never my burden to carry and somewhere along the road I picked up this burden again and it was time for me to give this burden back. Yes, I'm hurt and yes, I'm disappointed but I will live!

Tonight at church we had a night of refreshing and I must say this is my favorite part of church. It's a time where we can gather as a church and just encourage each other and speak a blessing into each others lives. Last time I went expecting and I was encouraged but tonight was so different. I went tonight with the idea that I just wanted to be in His presence and didn't really anything. I needed a touch but I was still carrying my burden and wasn't ready to give it up but tonight I did. Pastor Jackie was praying for people who needed some breakthroughs and heeling's and curses broken off their life so thinking I didn't need any of that I didn't go forward. I've prayed all these prayers before and really didn't feel like I was struggling with any of these areas.

Then the thing I love most is that the Holy Spirit showed up and Pastor Jackie asked if there was anyone who was barren and wanting to have children. Of course I knew this was for me and James so we stood up and what I love most about our church is that people come and stand with us and pray and agree with us for children. I have no idea what Jackie said because I was weeping and broken again before my Healer and that's when I gave up my burden again.

Then there is a part of the service that Pastor Jackie lets the people pray and encourage each other and speak into each others lives. So after we were "released" to speak to others a guy named Casey was sitting next to us and he said that he knew he was going to give a word to someone about being barren and he didn't know who it was until we stood up and knew it was for us. He said that the scripture of Samuel was given for us and then he sat there and explained that in the Old Testament there are so many women who are barren but then later they all have children! Then later a mom brought her little girl up to me and was instructed to touch my stomach and pray for a baby. This little girl couldn't be older then three and she said "Jesus please give her a baby." That totally warmed my heart cause we all know Jesus hears the prayers of children! Then after church a lady came up to me and said that she was suppose to give me the scripture of Samuel and I just smiled and told her that she was the second one and it was confirmation for me tonight!

So tonight I went to a night of refreshing and left so refreshed! Will I have hard days yes, but I know that I have a God who chose ME to walk this journey. It's hard and I don't like this journey but I want to do nothing but give all the glory to Him while I walk this path!

Elmo's World!!

2011-04-09T22:01:00.008-05:00

Today James and I took Farrah to see Sesame Street Live. I love this age with Farrah! We were in the car and she had no idea what was about to happen and I loved seeing the innocence in her eyes.

We arrived and the first thing Farrah sees is the toy booth with all the Elmo toys and shirts and she had to have her picture taken with the Elmo. After we got her a toy we headed to our seats and the show began.

Farrah is so excited!!

When the show started Farrah's eyes lite up so big and she was clapping her hands and squealing with excitement. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen! I love living life through Farrah's eyes. Seeing things for the first time through a child's eyes is truly a blessing to me. They really enjoy the small things! Farrah realized the characters were real and turn to us and got a little scared and wanted to go but we reassured her and thank goodness they never came near us or she would have lost it....ha!

Half way through the show you could tell kids were getting restless and starting to cry and scream. I lost count how many times James go a sippy cup thrown at him from the little boy in front of us. James was such a good sport! I looked over at him and just started laughing cause he was so bored. I think we both watch Farrah more then we watched the show. Just when we thought it was almost over they had an intermission! James and I just started laughing..so we took Farrah for a walk to let her stretch her legs and run around and she sat through the second half with a great big smile on her face.

Thanks Nana and Dandy for the tickets! Farrah had a great time and mom and dad survived...haha!!

God's Promises

2011-04-07T21:23:00.003-05:00

Since January we've been going through fertility treatments starting with surgery for me and now we've gone through two rounds of IUI and now here we are.

With the surgery we had such a great support team and were supported by prayer and encouraging words. With the first IUI we shared the process with a lot of people and I'm glad we did but then it was sure hard having to tell everyone we weren't pregnant. With the second IUI we've been a little more quiet about it. If you've never been through this process then you won't understand why but we had to protect our family and ourselves this time. Don't get me wrong, if you ask us how things are going we will tell you the truth.

With all the hormones rushing through my body I've had some pretty high highs and some really low lows. Today James and I were having lunch and talking about this cycle and I just had to ask James about what he thought cause right now I just don't get it! I must say today was a low day for me....I've always been told and even read scripture that God knows the desires of your heart, but today I asked James to look it up and read it (I was driving) and it reads Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4. It doesn't say He knows the desires, it says He will GIVE you the desires of your heart. I had to sit and process this one for a little bit.

I dropped James off at work and I had some time before I had to pick up Farrah and I had some time to myself, which doesn't happen very often but it gave me time to think. Then I get a text from James and he had this scripture laid upon his heart and he said it was for me today and it's Psalms 21: 2-7. I read it and it just made me smile. When you go through this process of infertility you have lots of questions. The question I struggle with the most is am I trying to control trying to get pregnant. I serve a mighty God and He can do ALL things. This process is not a "natural" way and I'm injecting chemicals into my own body and trying to "make" it happen. After praying about this I do have a lot of peace or we wouldn't be doing this.

Tonight I was putting Farrah to bed and I read her a book and then a bible story and tonight's bible story was "A Baby for Sarah." The verse is Numbers 23:19 God said, "What God promises, He keeps." At the end of each story there are questions you can ask your child and the questions were What did God promise Abraham and Sarah? A baby! What did God say? What God promises, He keeps. Who keeps His promises to you? God!!

After I read this story to Farrah I had to chuckle because my God knows me so well! He knew I needed to be reminded of His promises....more children. I love how "easy" God's word is and I hate how hard I make it. Yes, today was a little rough but I have the promise of God! Is it hard? Yes! Am I going to fail? Yes! Will I have more children? I don't know but I do know I have the promise of God!

I am so thankful for the wonderful support of family and friends that we have. I will get past this all while serving a mighty God!

Oh Poo!

2011-04-03T22:15:00.004-05:00

Farrah has been giving us a run for our money lately!! She is so full of energy and she is into everything. My sister, Shawna came over the other day just to say hi and the first thing she said was "Wow...she is busy!" Yes, we know!

A couple of months ago I had to change Farrah's pj's to the kind that zips down the front from the two piece because she would wake up and the bottoms would be off and diaper off as well. I found the cutest little pj's and thought surly Farrah has passed that phase so I'll try it again. The first night no problems so I tried it again last night.

This morning Farrah woke up around 9am which is normal and she was just singing her heart out which is also normal and then she got quiet. I know when Farrah gets quiet its pretty much trouble and this morning was no different. She is potty trained but I still put a diaper on her at night and when I went into her room she announced to me that she was poopy....no big deal because she knows! I could smell it of course and said "Yes, your dirty" and then I turned on the light and saw what I had prayed would never happen! She had gotten her bottoms and diaper off and smeared poop all over her face and body!! There was poop all over her bed and carpet. I just stood there and started laughing and started yelling for James to come help. There was poop everywhere! She had it under her fingernails, all over her face, body and hair so needless to say she got a bath right away!

James came running into help and just started gagging. I asked him if he wanted to bathe Farrah or clean her bed and floor and he took Farrah's room which really surprised me. When I got Farrah in the tub I just started laughing and she was so proud of herself! She kept saying "Momma I poop!" I had to scrub her face so hard to get all the poop off and she was saying "Ouch mommy."

I can officially say we have reached two's and to be honest it scares me a little bit. She's already peed in a playground and smeared poop on her body and I have to ask myself what's next????

A first for mommy and Farrah.....

2011-04-01T22:56:00.004-05:00

We haven't really had much going on lately so I haven't blogged but today is a blog worthy day. I always loved growing up and my parents would tell us stories about how we would embarrass them in public and I would always wonder what my children would do to me.

I'm going to start off with one of my parents embarrassing stories with my brother, Lance. When he was about five years old he was having his picture taken. There was this little girl all dressed up and looking so pretty for her pictures when my parents turn around and discover that Lance had peed all over this little girl before her pictures had even been taken! Needless to say my parents were so embarrassed!

Today Farrah and I are having lunch with Kelsey, Madison and Peyton at Chick fil a and having a great time. I remember my parents hating the playgrounds at restaurants because we would rather play then eat...well today was no different for me. I think Farrah ate about half her meal and she and Madison went to go play. Kelsey and I were having a great conversation just enjoying our lunch when I start looking for Farrah. No big deal she is half way up the ladder and there is this halfway part that she can play and just hang out in. I'm watching her and I start to notice that she is just standing there frozen in place, so I go to see if she is ok and I discovered she is peeing everywhere!! Not just a little but a river of pee. I grab her and apologize to the mother that is trying to get her kid out.

I take her to Kelsey so I can go find someone to tell and Kelsey is cracking up so thankful it wasn't her kid! So I'm laughing and when I go find the girl who is in charge of the play area I tell her "some kid" just peed all over the place and she rolls her eyes and gives me a give huff! I didn't have the heart to tell her it was my kid so I just walk away and I get back to the table and just start busting out laughing! Farrah is announcing to the world "Mommy I tee tee!" Yes baby I know.

I tell Kelsey goodbye and rush Farrah to the car and I just can't believe what just happened! Right before this happened we were laughing at one of our friends Facebook status and it said that come kid and just peed in the balls at the McDonald's and Kelsey and I were just laughing and saying how we just couldn't believe it.

I get to the car and Kelsey sends me this text....They have evacuated the play area!! WHAT?!?! So I called her and she is laughing so hard and all I can hear is this kid screaming in the background and Kelsey tells me that this kid is on the floor throwing a fit because he had to leave the play area. Then she tells me she stayed a little longer and watched all the moms sterilize their children.....come on people, its pee!!

(How can you be upset with a face like that??)

Needless to say this was my first embarrassing public thing. I know this will not be the last but I must say I'm glad its over with!! I LOVE being a mommy and learning new things and discovering things I never knew about myself. As for being embarrassed I really thought it was more funny then anything. Come on give me a break, Farrah has only been potty trained for two weeks and she was busy playing! All children have accidents and I was not going to get on to her about something like that.....we have to learn to laugh! I'm not a serious person anyways so that makes it that much easier!

Potty Training....

2011-03-14T20:33:00.006-05:00

Since Farrah turned two I thought it would be time for her to be potty trained, no big deal right??? After a lot of research I decided to do the three day potty training that everyone swears by and I must say, potty training is a big commitment!! This sounds so stupid but we don't care....James and I prepped our carpet by covering it with drop clothes, Haha!! We have brand new carpet and I love my carpet so we just wanted to save it by covering it up and I must say this is the best thing we did!

Farrah and I are to stay home for three days straight and all she can wear is a t-shirt and panties. I decided that we would start on Sunday and go through Tuesday that way I could have a little help from James if I needed him. The instructions were to give Farrah a lot to drink and follow her around all day and say "Tell mommy when you need to go potty." Doesn't sound to hard does it? Can I say one thing....three days at home and Farrah and I both are going crazy!! Tonight Farrah was so wild that James looked at me and said "You need to take her for a walk or a ride tomorrow!"

Day one: I wake up Farrah and feed her breakfast and explain to her what we are about to do. Farrah puts on her big girl panties and is so excited to be wearing them! By the end of the day she had gone through 13 pairs of panties and this mommy was beginning to think this was a bad idea! I was worn out after day one and I still have two more days. I did find that Farrah is more excited about getting stickers for going potty then candy which really surprises me.

Day two: Day two was much better! Yes, Farrah has had some accidents but its starting to click. We've only gone through four pairs of panties!! I'm still saying "Tell mommy when you need to go potty" and by the end of today I'm tired of hearing this statement...ha! Farrah took one pretty good fall slipping on the tile after she had an accident and it was hard not to laugh. Farrah stood rubbing her hiney and saying ouch mommy! Then she started laughing and saying "whoa mommy."

Day three: I must say I am impressed!! Day three of potty training was a day of no accidents! Farrah is doing great and she is so proud of herself. It's so funny watching James take her to potty.....he doesn't know what to do with a girl! Farrah is VERY intersted in watching herself go potty and it cracks me up that she waves bye bye when she flushes. This girl is too much!!

I just can't believe my baby is no longer a baby...this just breaks my heart! Don't get me wrong, I love that Farrah is getting so big and strong. I have just really enjoyed every part of being a mommy and having this little angel has been amazing!

Farrah singing

2011-03-07T22:38:00.001-06:00

Farrah is learning so many new songs and the Itsy Bitsy Spider is her favorite and I just couldn't pass up the chance to record it. James is such a good daddy and it makes my heart so happy watching these two together!

I LOVE these two more then they will ever know!!!

One Great Cause...

2011-03-05T17:37:00.002-06:00

There is not a day that goes buy that I am not thankful for my precious daughter! Then one day God crossed your path with another precious gift and your heart melts the first time you see her...and her name is Brynne. I met Brynne two years ago through her Aunt Abby and I have been changed by her, her smile mostly!

I don't know all the "details" but I do know that Brynne is one precious girl. When Brynne was an infant she started having trouble keeping her baby formula down so her amazing mom, Maggie, did what any other mommy would do and took her to her doctor. After many months/years the doctors sent her to many different specialist. I do want to say that this is not my story to share so I will leave that for Maggie to share but I do want to share with you what Brynne has taught me.

Brynne has the greatest smile of anyone I've ever seen. She will melt your heart in an instant! She has taught me no matter how bad it gets or when your down you can still smile. Her smile brings so much healing to other people who are honored to have gotten to know her.

Brynne is one of the toughest girls I know! Her Aunt Abby has told me stories about how the doctors and nurses come in the hospital to take blood or give her medicine and she just sticks her little arm out and never flinches.

I look at Brynne and see a true picture of Christ...even at the age of two. No matter how bad it hurts or how much she doesn't want to do things that she knows she has to do, she does it because her "daddy" says its ok. Just like the picture of Christ on the cross...He didn't want to but it was for a better purpose then himself.

Maggie and Craig I have so much admiration for you and your family! There is not a day that goes buy that we don't pray for your family! You have no idea how precious you entire family is to us and thank you for sharing your Brynne with us!

There was a 5k run this weekend to honor and remember a fallen DPS Trooper from Post, TX and the benefits will go toward Brynne's medical treatments. I encourage you to donate and pray for Brynne and her family! http://brynnessmiles.blogspot.com

Birthday Party!!

2011-02-27T21:56:00.018-06:00

Today we had Farrah's 2nd birthday party and we had a blast. I must say Farrah is one blessed little girl to have so many family and friends come and celebrate her and we thank you for coming today. It is so hard to believe that Farrah is already two years old...these last two years have truly flown by.

I decided to have a Minnie Mouse theme party and Farrah loved it! She was so fun to watch. She loved every detail about her party and noticed everything and everyone. I had her cake as Minnie Mouse and it was adorable and so yummy!

Here are some pictures of the party!

The birthday girl!

Singing Happy Birthday

Welcome to black icing...haha!!

Thank you all so much for loving Farrah today and through the years! We are truly blessed and are so honored to have you all in our lives!

Farrah is 2!!

2011-02-25T22:51:00.009-06:00

Happy Birthday Farrah!! We love you so much and February 25th will be the day that our lives changed forever. We are so proud of you and love you more then you will ever know!

Thanks Paige Allen for capturing my sweet girl!

First and hopefully the last....

2011-02-22T21:33:00.004-06:00

Tonight I had the honor of taking my first fertility shot!! I have one more shot to go for this round and I really hope this is the last. I won't lie, it was kinda scary! It took some time to talk myself into doing this to my own body but I did it!

James is working tonight so I found myself thinking how in the world am I going to do this all by myself. It's a little weird thinking I'm about to shove a needle in my stomach. Thankfully I kept Kelsey's girls tonight so when she came to pick them up I begged her to stay for moral support.....so thankful for you Kelsey!! I couldn't have done it without you!

For the last week I have been taking a fertility drug that will make me super ovulate and I go Thursday for another sonogram to see if we are ready for the IUI. Before the IUI I have to take another shot but I don't think it will be as bad just because I got the first one over with. The only discomfort I'm feeling is I feel like my right side is about to explode...haha!! I'm excited to see what this next couple of weeks holds for us.

Thanks for all your support and prayers.....please keep them coming! I do have one prayer request that is affecting me. With all the fertility drugs I am taking I am having some MAJOR headaches and they last all day. By my doctor's request I can't take anything but Tylenol and it just isn't doing anything for me. Just pray that these headaches go away and fast. We truly feel that our family is being lifted up and that is what keeps us going!

Family Reunion

2011-02-21T11:03:00.015-06:00

This weekend we had a family reunion with my family and we had a blast! We went to Ruidoso, NM which is one of my families favorite place to go. We always love getting together and all the cousins just play and play and play!

A picture of the whole gang minus Lance and Katie....we missed you guys!!

We arrived Friday and started playing right away. We stay at the Innsbrook Country Club and there is a small golf course and our condo was on the green that was perfect for us. Since it was a little chilly there weren't many golfers so we all played outside. My dad even got a little fishing in until the grandkids figured out where he was and then he got their fishing poles set up. We fed the ducks and got attacked by geese. I will post about that later with the video. I laughed so hard at Reagan and Annika.

On Saturday we took the kids to the tubing park and they had a blast. There was even a little park for Farrah to go tubing and she LOVED it! It was the perfect size for her and I don't think her smile could have gotten any bigger! We were there for three hours so after about an hour Farrah was done so the girls went into town and went shopping and we left the guys with the big kids so they could get their three hours of tubing in.

That evening we stayed in and had a little birthday party for Farrah since my brother's family won't be able to come to Farrah's party. I made a cake and had a candle and Farrah was so excited but we had a little problem....we could not find a lighter to save our life! We tried everything. James tried lighting a toothpick off the grill and it worked but the the wind kept blowing the candle out. So then we tried to light a paper towel off the stove and couldn't get to light although it did make some great smoke and a wonderful burn smell. So then James tried the toothpicks again but this time instead of one toothpick he lit five and we finally had a burn enough to light Farrah's candle. We sang happy birthday and she was so funny to watch. She got the biggest smile and started to clap and then she got embarrassed but she understood what was going on. When it was time to blow the candle out she tried so hard and actually blew but just not hard enough so mommy helped a little. Lance and LaJuana and Lucas and Annika got Farrah a Barbie trike. She was so excited! Thanks Uncle Lance and Aunt LaJuana!

After dinner we played games with all the kids. The first night we played Pictureka and one night we played Apples to Apples. We really want our children to have a love of family games and we all had a blast. Farrah even joined in and played. Each night after the kids went to bed the adults all played a game together. One night we played poker and the other night we played pig (Pig is like spoons only quieter). I haven't laughed that hard in so long. James hates playing pig but he was such a good sport. He says he can't do that many things at once....looking for you cards, passing cards and trying to look for the "pig." I love it!!

We had so much fun this weekend and it was so much fun. We all loved loving on everyone's kids and playing with them. We were sad to leave each other but we all know we will do this again for sure!

Tea Party!

2011-02-10T22:03:00.009-06:00

The last couple of weeks its been really cold outside so we've spent a lot of time indoors. Keeping an almost two year old entertained can be interesting on its own so I've had to be creatitive the last couple of weeks.

We done everything from dancing to cooking and its been so much fun! Farrah has discovered her "tea set" and we have had LOTS of "tea." I love watching her pretend and using her imagination. As a little girl myself one of my favorite things was to have tea parties. My Meme had a wonderful glass tea set and Shawna and I would play with that for hours. We would "sip" our tea with our pinky in the air and have some great conversations about life (life of a five and four year old..ha!)

When Farrah got her first tea set I was so excited and couldn't wait to have a tea party with my girl. I even taught her to hold her pinky out!!! I love just watching her! I taught her how to "sip" her tea and how to place her tea cup on the saucer and how to make the pouring sound when she poors me more tea. Can I just say I LOVE having a daughter!! It didn't take long for dad to join in on the action...James is such a good daddy! He "sipped" his tea with his pinky up and we just had so much fun.

Having Farrah later in my life then I expected just makes me realize and enjoy her so much more. She is such a wonderful girl and it just makes my heart smile when she brings me her tea set and says..."Mommy tea??" How can you turn that down? I'm really enjoy this age with Farrah. She is so much fun and seeing her learn new things everyday and just seeing her heart makes me just fall that more in love with her. She loves life to the fulliest and I love learning from Farrah....I learn something new about myself everyday through Farrah.

Snow/Sick Day...

2011-02-02T13:50:00.006-06:00

The last three days have been quite interesting! Farrah started getting sick on Monday and Tuesday she was full out sick and today we are doing much better. It's always hard when your baby is sick. Not knowing what is really wrong and her not being able to tell me is so hard!

Farrah has had a horrible cough with fever, a running nose and sore throat, so sore that she has started loosing her voice. She has not been eating or drinking so I'm having to be innovative on how to get Farrah to drink. I'm so thankful that Farrah is a healthy girl but it is scary when your baby can't tell you what's wrong.

For the last two days we have had some CRAZY weather! We've had a little bit of snow but the worst part is the wind and cold. The Hugh's have been like 10 but with the wind chill it gets as cold as -15 at times. The weather man said today that we've not seen these lows since the 1980's. We woke up this morning and our pipes are frozen in my kitchen so that's made it even more interesting. Ha! Needless to say with Farrah being sick and as cold as it has been we've not gotten out of the house since Wednesday and I think Farrah and I are going stir crazy...ha! She and I are not home bodies in the least. I told James that we may have to go on a drive to get a hot chocolate just to get out of the house!

Yesterday Farrah kept going to the window looking at the snow and asking "What's that momma?" So I let her go outside for like two seconds and touch the snow and she loved it! It was very hard to get her to come back inside.

Yes Farrah is still in her pj's with a coat and hat on.

So it has been an interesting couple of days! I'm so ready for Farrah to be well again and for a little heat outside! Stay warm!!

Surgery Day!!

2011-01-31T20:26:00.002-06:00

Last week I had my surgery and might I say that was an experience! I had this surgery about four years ago and it was totally different. Having a two year old this time makes a huge difference...Ha!

I was told to arrive at 7:30am and typically that means you wait about two hours for your surgery and so that meant I would be home around lunch right???? Wrong!! We did arrive at 7:30 and had to wait for the O.R. to open and finally around 11am I was moved to the holding area before my surgery. We get there expecting to wait about ten minutes and were told we had to wait about an hour so thankfully I brought a wonderful book to read. After my third trip to the restroom I finally asked my nurse to turn down my IV. Being nervous on top of a fast dripping IV was killing me!!

After an hour they moved me into surgery and after that is a blur...Ha!! I was told the surgery went great! It took a total of three hours!! Dr. found the tumor and removed it and then she found that I had stage 3 of endometriosis and that my left fallopian tube was attached to my small intestine. Wow!! Oh and during surgery one of the machines that was used to remove the tumor had a shorted out and left a nice little burn (about four inches) on my right hip...ouch!

After surgery I was moved to the post-opt area and pretty much was sat straight up and moved to the restroom. I guess they wanted me to leave...Ha! Well that did not work out as we intended. I got so sick that they put me back to bed and gave me a shot of Phenergan...can you say See You Later!! That was the strangest feeling. I had my eyes closed and could not open them but I could hear everything that James was saying. After two hours I was finally able to go home and it was around 7pm. I had no idea it was that late in the day!!

Needless to say I came home and crashed for the night. The next day was a challenge. Having Farrah was tougher than I thought. Not being able to hold her or pick her up was so hard. Poor Farrah didn't understand either. She saw me trying to get in bed and was in pain and she just freaked out. She stared crying and just wanted her momma and I could not hold her so I told James to put her in bed with me and she settled down and kept asking "Momma K?" Such a sweetie!!

So I've had a couple of really good days and a couple of I've over done it days but for the most part I'm feeling really good! Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us and just encouraging us! We see my Dr. next week and we are expecting to be able to start fertility treatments very soon!! I can't wait to see what happens next!

Future Fortner's

2011-01-20T21:16:00.003-06:00

Today was an interesting and LONG day. We started out the day with two known appointments and ended the day with three appointments. First appointment was with my fertility doctor, Dr. Phy. I just want to say one thing....she is amazing and I just LOVE her! She went over all the pre-op stuff and did another sonogram and we could see the tumor. The good news is that the tumor hasn't grown or shrunk and she said that it is in the perfect spot for a total removal...Praise God!! She then told us about the surgery and it will take about two hours to remove everything so that's not to bad.

After the surgery I will have a healing time of about two weeks and then we jump right in to fertility treatments. She will have a new game plan for us and we are excited about this! Surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday!

After seeing Dr. Phy we were sent to the hospital to get registered for surgery and that was an experience in itself. I love how God places people in your path and I know its my job to just be a little ray of light. Our nurse who checked us in was Doris and she was the cutest little old lady. She was so friendly and so sweet. Then I met Ruben who did all my lab work and he was amazing! He asked about Dr. Phy and I told him just a little bit about her and then he told me about him and his wife and they are trying to adopt. I love how God uses our story to bless and encourage others.

Then we had an appointment with a genetic doctor. Dr. Phy had requested a full line up of blood work and last week we received a call from Dr. Phy saying that was a hiccup in James' genetic test. She asked us to see a genetic doctor so they could explain everything. This is the part that we have waited for a week for. I'll be honest we were scared and all we knew was that with a problem in genetic testing could mean that we would have a baby with handicaps. Handicaps like Downs Syndrome, missing limbs and severe health problems. So needless to say we had a lot on our mind!

We met with Dr. Trotter and Dr. Yoemans and they were both so great. It's hard to explaining all the genetic stuff anyways and they both were so encouraging. Long story short is that James' 13 and 14th chromosome are stacked together. We all have two set's of 46 chromosomes. So this means James has one 13 and one 14 chromosome and then the other 13 and 14 chromosome are stacked together. This pretty much means that James is a healthy person but when it comes to having children it raises factors in pregnancy. Factors like higher risk for miscarriages. Dr. said that we have a 15% chance of having a miscarriage due to genetic problems and 85% chance to have a normal healthy baby. There is a chance that if I get pregnant and the baby will become a carrier and when they want to have children they could have problems getting pregnant. The doctor did say that if anyone has to have this they would rather the man be the carrier over the lady.

Another thing is that if James only gave the 13th chromosome and I carried it full term that baby would only live a day or two at the most. This is usually why the pregnancy ends in miscarriage during the first trimester. This is only a fraction of the information they gave us. To tell you the truth we are still trying to process everything. We went to this appointment expecting the worse and left with being encouraged! The doctor said that the average of 1 in 10 pregnancies will end in miscarriage with us due to a genetic problem.

We are excited to see what is in store for us next. We have traveled this journey for over 10 years and we are not about to give up now! We serve a mighty big God and we know He is in control. Thank you for all your prayers and support! Please keep them coming!

Fun things with Farrah!

2011-01-08T10:53:00.003-06:00

Farrah is getting so big and I don't want to forget all the fun stuff Farrah is doing so this post is just for me.

Farrah, you have the most loving little heart and it just makes me smile when we see it in action. I love when we are with friends or family you will just go up to someone and give them a great big hug! It brings a great big smile to that person and I like to think that that was just what they needed that day was a Farrah hug....you give great hugs!

Every morning you get up and get dressed and your daddy sees you for the first time he always whistles at you and says "Hey Beautiful!" This morning I was putting your hair in pig tails and you looked in the mirror and did a "whistle" to yourself. It was the funniest thing to watch. I always hope you will see yourself that way!

We saw your Lula this week and when we were telling her bye she would say love you and you would say bye. You would never say love you only bye. Then we put you in the car and Lula would say love you and you would say bye...this happened like 20 times. We were driving down the street and you and Lula were doing your "thing" all the way down the street. It was so funny!

You love to dance! When a song comes on you always say Mom and start dancing. Then I have to join in the dancing. If daddy is in the car he has to dance as well. You won't let anyone not dance. LOVE IT!!

You are catching on to phrase we say. i guess I say "whew" a lot. I have caught myself saying it and that's where you got it.

At Christmas we drove to look at Christmas lights and daddy had a coke he was drinking. You would say momma coke and I said mommy doesn't have a coke. You sat there and thought for a minute and said daddy's coke! Of course your daddy couldn't turn that down so he gave you a drink and said...Aha I need coke! We laughed about that forever!

Farrah you are getting so big and are so much fun! I can't wait to see your next "Farrah sayings" are going to be!

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-02T22:39:00.003-06:00

I must say 2010 was great but I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for us as a family. I personally learned so much in 2010 about me, my family, my friends and life in general. I would have to say 2010 was hard but in a good way.

I have fallen flat on my face so many times but thankfully I have wonderful friends and family to pick me back up. I will also say this has been one of the most insecure years I've had as well. I have struggled from everything from my relationships with my friends and with my own self. Am I good enough? Have I done enough? Do I do the right thing? Am I a good mom, wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, aunt and friend? I wear a lot of hats....ha!!

Thankfully God has lead me to the truth, all of it and good, bad and ugly. So for 2011 I am looking for freedom! Back in 2009 I knew our family was about to change and I didn't know exactly how but I knew it was going to be big and oh my was it BIG. Farrah was just what we needed and I have the exact same feeling for this year so I know this year is leading to big things this year and I can't wait to see what it holds.

One of the things that will be big for us this year is we are trying for a baby again! The end of this month I will be having surgery for fertility reasons and I am so excited! After 10 years of no answers we finally have some answers and that brings me so much peace. My biggest prayer is of course complete healing for both me and James but a year of no worries. A year to understand and grasp that I am not in control and to truly give this all to God. I don't have all the answers but I can find peace with whatever this years holds for us.

And lastly in 2011 I want to be comfortable just being me. For so long I have listened to so many lies about who I was that I started to believe those lies and I feel like I am finally finding me. The girl my parents love. The girl that makes my husbands heart do flip flops. The sister and friend that my sister, sister-in-laws and girlfriends can totally trust. To encourage and compliment women. So many times I don't encourage or compliment my own friends or family and that has to stop!

This was not the blog I had intended...Ha! I was going to write about the amazing weekend I had with my husband for New Years so I guess that will come later. So for now Happy New Year and I hope 2011 is everything you hope for!

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-25T21:36:00.012-06:00

What a wonderful Christmas 2010 was! Farrah was so much fun this year. She had a little trouble opening all the gifts cause she wanted to play with everything but she did pretty good! Farrah got so many gifts from both our families and we loved giving our gifts to all of them.

We celebrated Christmas with both our families on Christmas Eve so we were pretty busy but had a wonderful time!

This year Lucas and Annika shared the Christmas story...they did a great job!!

Farrah opening presents!!

We had a wonderful day with family celebrating Christmas!

Today on Christmas day was so much fun. James (aka Santa) was so glad that Farrah slept til almost 10am today since we didn't get in bed til 2am. He had to put Farrah's kitchen together and let me tell you we had our first official dose of Santa's workshop and next year Mrs. Clause will do a better job of planning ahead...Sorry Santa ;-)

Farrah woke up to more presents and Santa gifts and I must say she was so funny to watch. She told her daddy hi and then passed by all her presents and went to play with her new dolls she got yesterday. After a little warming up she dove right in. After it was all said and done she ran up to me and gave me a big kiss and did the same for to her daddy....that makes it worth staying up til 2am..Ha!!

Still waking up.

Farrah's kitchen!! (Yes it matches her room...do you know me? Ha!)

Merry Christmas 2010!!

Santa!

2010-12-20T09:53:00.005-06:00

We took Farrah to see Santa and I must say she was NOT impressed! Poor Santa....he was so good with her. Farrah has actually seen Santa twice and both times she screamed her head off. The first time was at Kids Space and the second time was at the Vintage. I need to scan the first Santa picture but here is the second Santa picture. I really don't enjoy seeing my child scream at the top of her lungs...I promise!

I also got our Christmas cards in and I LOVE them! They are so fun! I made some cookies for Farrah to eat, hoping she would just eat one cookies and before I was finished with pictures she had inhaled three cookies! When I took the plate away she cried for cookies...it was the funniest thing I have ever seen.

I love this time of year! All the fun family traditions and getting to teach Farrah the real meaning of Christmas! I can't wait to see our families and taking part in all the different traditions. Have a Merry Christmas!

Making cookies!!

2010-12-19T11:09:00.008-06:00

All of my nieces and nephews were in town for the weekend. We thought it would be fun to make and decorate cookies for my two great aunts that are in assisted living facilities. These two women mean so much to me and I am so thankful Farrah gets to see her great great aunts.

We started off at mom and dad's house baking and decorating and I was pleasantly surprised that all the kids really enjoyed themselves. I think we ended up decorating about four dozen cookies! We had cookies coming out of our ears.

First we we to visit my Great Aunt Rob. It had been awhile since I've seen her and she looked so great and so happy. She was so excited to see all of our children and hugged them all like they were her own grand kids. I have so many special memories at my Aunt Rob and Uncle Son's house. Every year she would invite the entire family (around 75 people) over for a big Christmas celebration with food and music. We loved the food and visiting part but every grand kid was expected to play an instrument or sing a song for the entire group...I hated this part! When I look back at those days it was so special for all of them. We always ended the night with Silent Night and I would sit and watch my great aunts and uncles with tears in their eyes just being happy that we were all together...what a great memory! We haven't had a family Christmas since my grandmother passed away and I must say I really do miss it!

Then we went to see my Great Aunt Nita. Aunt Nita will always have a special place in my heart! When we were younger she lived next door to us and she was like another grandmother to us. We have so many special memories with Aunt Nita. It had been awhile since she had seen Farrah and she was so sweet with her. Farrah ran right up to her and gave her a big kiss...I guess Farrah knows Aunt Nita is pretty special!

We had so much fun seeing our great aunts and these are the last two aunts of this generation and that generation will be gone. It's sad to think that but each and everyone of my great aunts and great uncles have played such a special role in my life. I could write a novel about each and every one of them! I am so blessed to come from such a big and amazing family!

Christmas Play

2010-12-09T23:29:00.001-06:00

Farrah had her first Christmas play at her school today. I can't describe the feeling I had watching my baby up there. For so many years I had watched other kids and was hoping for the day mine would be up there and there she was! Very exciting!

James and I had a bet going on if Farrah would cry or not. I said she would and James said she wouldn't....I won!! It was the funnest thing ever. She walked upon stage and she was ok til she turned around and saw everyone staring at her and she lost it. I guess you could call it stage freight??? Ha!!

I'm told that the little boy in the red and white stripe shirt is Farrah's little boyfriend....not sure what to think about this!

21 months!!

2010-11-30T15:07:00.005-06:00

I'm a little behind and I totally missed 20 months...whoops!!

Farrah you are 21 months and oh my goodness you are one busy girl!

You add a new word or phrase everyday. You ask "What dat??" alot. I will say what it is and you repeat it and it sticks in your brain...it amazes me to watch you learn so much so fast. If you don't know the word you will come and get me and ask.

You are the sweetest thing ever! A couple of months ago you would kiss me or daddy with no problem and now we have to beg for a kiss...You like to tease us with your kisses. You are starting to give us a kiss when we ask again and we both love that.

Every morning you ask for everyone, daddy, nana, nanny (dandy), pappa, lulu (Lula), RaRa (Reagan), BB (Brincent), Meme, PeyPey (Peyton), shoe (Roo). It's the cutest thing ever!!

Your getting better about eating. Still pretty picky but getting better.

You are wearing size 18 months in most of your clothes. You can wear some 24 months but only in the tops.

You still wear a size 3 diapers. I think you have been in this size since you were 12months and I think you will be here til you start potty training.

I think you are getting close to start potty training. I'm not going to start this til after your 2nd birthday. You will walk in the bathroom and say "I teetee" so I know you getting close.

Your favorite time of the day is still bath time. When you hear the bath running you run into the bathroom and start taking your clothes off. You got in trouble with daddy the other night when you threw a cup of water all over him..he was not impressed, HA!!!

Your favorite TV shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny. You walk around saying Manny and Minny all day.

Farrah Nichole you are a true delight! There is not one day that goes by that we thank God for choosing us to be your mommy and daddy! You are amazing and we love you more then you will ever know!!

Love,
Mommy

Oh Christmas Treee....

2010-11-29T12:51:00.010-06:00

We are officially decorated and ready for Christmas well kinda. I should say the decorations are up but the presents have not been bought yet. I hope to get started very soon!

A funny story....James and I were putting the tree together and at our last house our tree seemed so big and at our new house our ceiling are so tall that our 7 1/2 foot tree looks pretty small. Jame and I both got a good laugh about this! I guess I will be buying a bigger and taller tree for next year!

Hope you like it.

My tree topper

Farrah's first Christmas ornament last year

And Farrah's ornament this year

This year I had my neice Annika write a letter for Farrah to Santa and I just love it!! It's apart of our Christmas card this year! (I love the "benn" part!)

Farrah of course LOVES the tree..I lose count on how many times I tell Farrah no touching...Ha!!

Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving!!

2010-11-28T17:05:00.007-06:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! We usually rush from one family to another and are so stuffed from the first one that we can't eat at the second one but not this year.

My brother was working this year on Thanksgiving so we had my family's Thanksgiving on Monday and we had a great time! Everyone came over for lunch and we just hung out and cooked and had dinner that evening. Later that night James said that was one of the most enjoyable Thanksgiving he had had with my family just for the fact we weren't rushed and stuffed...ha!

Farrah loved getting to play with all her cousins! She thought she was just as big as them. They would get her started on something and then go and hide from her and she would run and go find them and then give them the what for! It was pretty funny!

We did find out that she loves guns, not real one but the nurf guns. She carried the nurf shotgun around and would not let the boys play with it. Brincent would try to get the gun back but he had no luck.

In my family the tradition is usually after dinner we put on a Christmas movie and put up the Christmas tree. This year we did watch a movie but waited on the tree for the next day.

This was the first time we have ever hosted Thanksgiving at our home and I really enjoyed it. It was super easy for me this year. My kitchen is so much bigger then my last house and when it came to nap time we just put Farrah in her own bed. She sleeps so much better in her own bed instead of the pack-in-play.

On Thursday we headed to James' grandma's house for Thanksgiving lunch. We always love going there every year. James' dad is one of seven children and we all try to get together on Thanksgiving so I think this year we had five of the seven children and then their families. It is always a house full! The only thing I always forget is the dressing part. It was so cold here so I put us all in long sleeves and at the last minute James changed in a short sleeve shirt and I must say he was the smart one! I forgot grandma keeps her house at 80 degrees! So everyone was burning up but grandma was nice and comfy...it became the joke of the day. All the little kids were walking around with their cheeks red because they were all so warm.

I love sitting and visiting with all the cousins and aunts and uncles. I think the stories get bigger and better every year. (I forgot my camera this year so that's the reason for no pictures....so bummed!!)

All in all we had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Fortner Elfs

2010-11-24T18:31:00.000-06:00

Making Pies!!

2010-11-21T21:47:00.005-06:00

My Meme came into town today to stay with us and to teach me how to make homemade pies! I am so excited about this. It seems like baking from scratch is a lost art and I wanted to learn how to before I lost the chance to anymore. She is such a good sport!

She is 90 years old and we made pies for three hours!! My back is killing me and she never once complained about teaching me and standing for three hours...I LOVE this lady!!

Before she came she had already made two pies...Pineapple Dream and Cherry Cream pie and then we made Chocolate, Apple and Coconut Cream pies. Her pies are famous in Lamesa! She will make pies for her church as a fundraiser and her pies go for big bucks so I am honored to have her teach me.

Farrah was so excited to see Meme. Farrah put bows in Meme's hair (growing up we were NEVER able to even touch Meme's hair so Farrah must me extra special!) At one point she had climbed up on the couch and made herself at home in Meme's lap and I think Meme love it! I'm pretty sure I have heard Farrah say Meme like 1,000 today. We told Meme to just ignore her because Farrah would say Meme and she would come running. Needless to say I think Meme is worn out today!

Thanks Meme your the best!!!

My first homemade apple pie...crust and everything from scratch!

Giggles!!

2010-11-18T20:21:00.007-06:00

There is nothing better then the sound of a little girl giggle! Farrah has discovered all kinds of giggles. They all make me smile and they are all different. She has the laughing giggle, the mischievous giggle, the tickle giggle and the I'm happy giggle and I love them all!

Farrah is at such a fun age! Her personality is really starting to show and its a fun one. She loves to tease and play but at the same time she is so tender hearted. Today her teacher told me that Farrah is small but she sure does know how to take up for herself. It makes me laugh cause she is so much like me that's its almost scary...Ha!

Her newest thing is closing all the doors and clapping because she is so proud of herself. She has locked herself in her room and the laundry room a couple of times and will sit there for a minute and start saying Mommy???

Tonight our house is full of giggles. James and her are wrestling and playing with her puzzles so its my turn to join in in the fun!

Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Girls Night!!

2010-11-11T21:05:00.010-06:00

It's just me and Farrah for the next couple of days so we had our first official "Girls Night" tonight. We had so much fun! I can't tell you how long I have dreamt of this and we will be having more of these!

We started off the night with spaghetti for dinner, Farrah's favorite.

We watched Toy Story 3 and Farrah LOVED it! She has never really watched a movie and she sat through the entire thing.

Then we had dessert, a brownie of course.

What a wonderful night just me and my girl.

Meow...

2010-11-01T09:58:00.008-05:00

This year for Halloween Farrah was a kitty cat. She was the cutest thing ever! Last week when her costume came in I tried it on her and she FREAKED OUT...I mean bad!! I have never seen her so upset before in my life. I wasn't sure she would wear it for Halloween so I just left it hanging in her room all week so she could touch it and get use to it and I guess it worked cause she put it on. When I put on her nose and whiskers Farrah got the biggest smile ever! She loved it and kept going to the mirror to look at herself and would say nose.

We started out adventure off with Lula, aka James' mom, coming over and having some fun with her. Jean brought her all kinds of goodies like a big bag of jelly beans, Farrah's favorite, books and puzzles.

Then my mom and dad and sister and her kids came with us to go trick or treating at the Vintage and we had a blast. Farrah is so independent that it drives me crazy sometimes. She insisted she carry her own goodie bag and every time she got candy she would have to inspect it. So needless to say we were a little slow at this process. I don't know how many times she dropped her bag of candy but it was really fun watching her get so excited about all the candy.

Farrah is at the age where it is almost impossible to get a picture of her looking at you. I think this is the best I could do all night.

Walking with dad and Dandy

Trick or Treat!

We even ran into some friends...Farrah the kitty, Madison the bumble bee and Ava the princess. They were all so cute!

Last year Farrah was a bumble bee and she was the sweetest thing. I can't believe how big she has gotten!

Surprise 90th Birthday Party!

2010-10-16T22:09:00.012-05:00

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...

2010-10-14T21:59:00.007-05:00

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

2010-10-10T20:58:00.002-05:00

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

2010-10-09T22:15:00.008-05:00

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.....

2010-10-06T22:45:00.003-05:00

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...

2010-10-02T21:30:00.011-05:00

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!

Wordless Monday...well kinda

2010-09-27T22:05:00.007-05:00

Farrah has been up to so many fun things lately so I will show you in pictures.

Farrah went to her first Texas Tech game of the season and LOVED it!! She was so fun and was great the entire game.

Watching daddy mowing and wishing she was outside.

Farrah was my date to Homecoming in Levelland. Again she did great! She loves watching football. Yes my mom bought her a mum and Farrah thought that was the best thing ever. She found the bell and drove us all crazy with it...she was so fun to watch!

This picture cracks me up. Farrh always sleeps with her "lovie" and yesterday they were both in the washer when James put her to bed. She cried and cried and when it was finally dry enough she had fallen asleep. I went to give her her lovie and this is what I saw.....she had fallen asleep sitting up. This is a first!

PDO!

2010-09-06T20:48:00.005-05:00

A couple of weeks ago James and I decided to put Farrah in PDO (Parents Day Out). She is only going one day and on that one day I am helping James at church with filing or anything he needs me to do.

So this past week was Farrah first day at "school". I dropped her off thinking she would just run in and never look back but she surprised me by crying and not wanting to go. I gave her to her teacher and stood around the corner and she stopped crying in no time...thank goodness!

I headed to James' office and helped him all day and loved just being with him with no interruption. We had lunch and it was great. I forgot how it felt to eat a hot meal. Don't get me wrong I love having Farrah with us all the time but a little break was pretty nice.

The funny part of the day is that no one really told me what time to pick Farrah up at the end of the day...I thought I saw 2:45 so when I went to get her and I was 15 minutes late! Oops...I was suppose to be there at 2:30. I of course apologized and promised I would never be late again! Farrah had so much fun that day that she didn't want to leave which makes me feel great.

They send a note home saying how her day was and this is what it said...Nap time 45 minutes which doesn't surprise me, Lunch time-snacked some didn't eat much which again doesn't surprise me, Disposition-Cooperative, Busy and Quiet this one made me laugh cause there is not one thing about Farrah that is quiet except only when she is doing something she isn't suppose to. Then on the back the teacher writes a note and it says...We played in the water today Farrah had a wonderful 1st day. She is such a sweetheart. We are so happy that she is able to join us. She's an excellent addition. Farrah loved playing with the fish in the water. She even managed to sneak one back to the room . She had it in her had and we didn't see it. She truly is a sweetie.

We are so glad Farrah loved PDO!

Bags packed and ready to go!

Farrah wanted no help in carrying her backpack...I think it weighed more then her.

Tumbling Tumbleweed!!

2010-09-02T19:18:00.010-05:00

Sorry for the title but if you watch Handy Manny all day then you get this title, if not sorry you will just have to humor me...ha!

Farrah started her tumbling class this week and she LOVES it! We walked in and the first thing she said was "Oh wow". When I signed her up for this class I had no idea it was a parent and tot class so needless to say I get to "tumble" as well. I'm just hoping I don't pull or break something....its been a few years.

Our teacher is Ms. Megan and she is super sweet and Farrah really likes her. She was so patient with Farrah and pretty much let Farrah do what Farrah wanted to do so Farrah loved that. Farrah jumped on the trampoline, slid down into the foam pit, walked the balance beam and did a big swing. Farrah loved every bit of it!

Thank goodness this class is only 45 minutes long cause I'm not sure how more she could handle...I mean I could handle. :)

18 Months!

2010-08-25T22:55:00.005-05:00

Really?1?!?! I can't believe it! Ms. Farrah Nichole you are 18 months old and one BUSY girl!

You weigh 21 pounds (10th percentile)

You are 31 inches long (60th percentile)

You still wear 12 months clothes. I actually bought 18 months for fall and I'm thinking they aren't going to fit....great!!

Size 3 diapers (You have worn size 3 forever and I don't think you will go to a bigger size before we potty train.

You are one busy girl! I watch you everyday and I am amazed how you never sit down. You will sit down for me to read you a book. You LOVE books! We read all day long and every book you bring to me we read it at least four times before you find another book.

You have become a little picky on food.

You have so many words now. You can say....uh oh, no, bye, hi, momma, daddy, roo, pup (up), Nawna (Shawna), RaRa (Reagan), Nana, Papa, Naney (Dandy), BB (Brincent), Abby, Kate, jua (juice), shoes, toes, nose, eyes and so much more.

You have become quite the hand full. You have an opinion and you love to voice it.

My favorite thing you do is of course the wide open mouth but here for the past month when we go somewhere and you recognize someone you wave and say hi! I love your wave! You have no idea how many people you make smile by just waving to them and saying hi.

You love puzzles and want to do them all by yourself and you can do them all by yourself!

You LOVE being outside. You cry if we go outside without you even if its only for two seconds.

These past 18 months have flown by and I can't believe you are almost two!!! We are truly blessed to be your mommy and daddy and love you!!

A day with Farrah....

2010-08-18T21:45:00.009-05:00

Oh where to begin...Here lately Farrah has been sleeping til 10am and that is a great start to my day! Farrah is quite the busy body and by the end of the day we are all worn out!

Farrah's new trick is riding on her horse standing up! She is so funny to watch. I don't want to be one of those mom's that don't let their children try things and yes she may hurt herself but she has to learn. I think she gets the adventure high from me. I still want to try new things and test the boundaries where as James likes to play it safe. James is going to have his hands full with his adventurous girls! Haha!

Once James gets home its wrestle mania time. Poor James! I know he wants to come home and sit and relax but as soon as the garage door opens Farrah is running to it yelling DADDY!!! He can't even get in the door before getting attacked (I think he really likes this though). James spends pretty much all night wrestling with Farrah and giving horse back rides and Farrah is smiling from ear to ear.

We love just being home being a family that plays together. Farrah has done a new thing that James nor I know what to do with. She has refused to eat and it is stressing these parents out. She will eat breakfast but not lunch or dinner. What I mean by not eating is not wanting to eat her dinner but wants candy, cookies, chips....any kind of junk food. Its been a rough couple of weeks but I'm hoping this stage of refusing food passes quickly! Any ideas on how to get Farrah to eat? We have tried everything we can think of and nothing. Isn't it amazing how an 18 month old can out smart two grown educated adults??

Swimming Lessons!

2010-08-05T21:42:00.009-05:00

The past two weeks Farrah and I have been going to mommy and me classes. It has been so much fun!! It's only for 30 minutes and the time flies by. The first day we did some fun songs and got use to the water, the second day we went under the water and from there on she learned how to float on her back, swim under the water and how to climb out of the pool all by herself.

It's been a fun two weeks and I hate that its ending...the best part we got to spend the last two weeks with out best friends, Kelsey and Madison and Abby and Maci. Madison was so funny with all her jumping in. Then Maci just loved every bit of it. I don't think I saw her upset once. Farrah on the other hand had an opinion about doing things she didn't want to do like floating on her back. By the time we went around the pool once Farrah was telling me she was all done and bye bye.

Farrah and me right before swimming lessons.

Farrah climbing out of the pool all by herself.

Farrah jumping in!

Having fun with all our friends!

Wake up!!

2010-07-29T17:21:00.003-05:00

Do you ever have those days where you are just tired?? Maybe it's because I haven't gone to bed before midnight the last two weeks...I know it's all self induced. I've had that kind of week and to add Farrah on top of it means I'm just worn out! Farrah and I have been doing mommy and me swimming lessons (will post about that later)and it has worn us both out but we are having a blast! Don't get me wrong I love that Farrah has so much energy...I wish I could bottle her energy. Ha!

I've really enjoyed watching little Ms. here lately. She is everywhere...and I mean everywhere. I leave her in one room and come back to find her somewhere else...usually not where she is suppose to be. I think its about time to start putting on door locks on all our cabinets. I was doing laundry the other day and Farrah was to quiet so I found her in my bathroom and she had one of my brand new razors in her hand "shaving" her legs, talk about your heart dropping, thankfully I caught her in time.

Another thing Farrah is doing that cracks me up is saying no to everything. She will walk around and be playing and all of a sudden she will burst out with a no no!! She even points her finger while she says it. Do I do this??? It makes me laugh, I know I tell her no but she is very dramatic about it (I have no idea where she got that from...must be from her daddy :-)).

I am thankful for daddy today. James came home and picked Farrah up to go and run an errand together. I think James took one look at me and could tell I was worn out today.....Thankful for a wonderful husband and amazing daddy!

17 months!!

2010-07-24T21:45:00.005-05:00

Farrah you are 17 months!! Oh my goodness it is going by so fast! Lets see what you are up to these days....

You weigh around 20 pounds

You wear mostly 12 month clothes.

You are still in size 3 diapers....I think you will be in these til you potty train.

You are such a great sleeper. We went from two naps a day to one and you sleep for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. You go to bed around 9pm and wake up around 9:30-10:00....mommy is loving this!

You have eight teeth! The only way we can tell your teething is your running nose and then you usually get an ear infection to go with your teething.

You are talking up a storm, I still have no idea what you are trying to tell me most days but your vocabulary is growing every day. You can say, Uh Oh, no, juice, hi, bye, cat, momma, dada, nana, nawna (Shawna), RaRa (Reagan) and so much more! You are signing pretty good as well, you sign please, more, all done and thank you and we are working on more everyday.

You can count to three...which cracks me up cause you are so proud of yourself. You also try to sing your ABC's. Your favorite letters are A, Q, T and V.

You have figured how to pick up Roo. If you get her cornered you can grab her but if not she is to quick....poor Roo (we don't let you pick on Roo because she is just to little for you...four pounds but Roo does LOVE you!)

You have also discovered a love for my swimsuits. You know where to find them and carry them all over the house and you even like to try them on.

Sweet Farrah you are truly a blessing to us and we are so proud of you. You make us laugh and smile everyday. You bring our home so much joy and love!

Family Pictures!!

2010-07-15T11:21:00.005-05:00

As you can tell we had some new pictures taken! I love them all and I have no idea how I am going to choose! The photographer's name is Amanda McNeely and if you want to see more pictures her web site is www.amandamcneely.com

Please check them out and tell me what you think!

Happpy....wet...4th of July!!

2010-07-06T22:10:00.016-05:00

July 4th was an interesting weekend! We had so much rain that we didn't really get to do anything. We had planned on going to the parade on Saturday but it was pouring rain so we stayed inside instead. We did have my family over and my Papa and Uncle Ken came into town so that was super fun to see them! I haven't seen my uncle in probably six years!! It was fun hanging out with them! Later that afternoon we took all the kids to swim at Body Works since they have an indoor pool. They had been cooped up for to long so this was perfect for them and it was Reagan's birthday.

On July 4th our church had planned a big family day and it all got canceled and had to move inside. Later that day we ended up taking Farrah to a walk in clinic and she had a double ear infection and a throat infection so needless to say we stayed home Sunday. By that evening Farrah was going stir crazy and so was I! We did find one firework show at the Lubbock Country Club so we put Farrah in her PJ's and headed out...and it was a great show. We stayed in our car and let Farrah sit up front with us. When the fireworks would go off she would clap and say "Oh wow"!! It was so cute watching her and seeing fireworks through her eyes. Ok enough talking and here are pictures....just a warning there are a ton...sorry!

Every year for Reagan's birthday we get 4th July pedicures, this was Farrah's first of many more to come!!

Farrah's Lula got her this cute outfit. Can you figure out the details???

The date is her birthday February 25, 2009. The time is 5:23pm is the time she was born and the amount of postage $5.14 was her weight at her birth. I LOVE this!!! Thanks Jean!

All dressed up and no where to go!

Pool time! After Farrah's nap was when I figured she had an ear infection when she woke up screaming! I'm sure all the water in her ear's didn't help at all....such a great mommy :-(

July 4th and ready to go to church! All I wanted was one picture of us as a family and Farrah just would not have it so this is the best we could get. I think we tried like 5 times and then just finally gave up!

After many attempts of trying to get a picture this is what happens...

Yes that's Farrah throwing herself on the floor. I got so aggravated with her that I thought this was funny and one day she will need to see this!

I hope you all had a great 4th of July!!

Weekend Get A Way!!

2010-07-02T22:10:00.009-05:00

Last weekend we had a wonderful weekend in San Antonio. We went with some of our friends, the Watts and the Louders. And might I say we left all the kids at home. I will say it was nice but we sure missed our girls!!

The first day us girls went shopping at the outlet malls in San Marcos and we had a blast! Shopping with Abby and Kelsey is always so much fun! Even when they lie to you about an outfit that you try on and they tell you how great you look but you know they are lying!!! HAHA! These girls know how to shop and I love it!! Our husbands on the other hand....well they all three gave us a talking to before we went about encouraging each other...ha! The guys stayed back and went to Dave and Busters and watched the soccer game, USA against Ghana. Then they found this really cool wakeboarding place and Heath had to try it and James and Jantzen watched and then the next day James and Jantzen just had to try it. More on that later.

Next day we started off with breakfast at LuLu's. Kelsey saw this place on Man vs Food and they have these three pound cinnamon rolls. We had to try!! We ordered one and Kesley, Abby and I all split and then the guys ordered their famous chicken fried steaks. I will say none of us left disappointed! The cinnamon rolls were huge and good and the chicken fries were as big as a plate and they were amazing as well!

The three pound cinnamon roll!!

World famous chicken fried steak!

Then we went back to San Marcos to take a couple of things back and that was when we all went back to the wakeboarding place. That thing was so cool! James and Jantzen wanted to give it a try and Heath was so sore from the day before so he decided to watch the other guys and help them out. I know they both got some good tips from Heath. James did the beginner lake first to learn all the "how to's" and then he moved over to the big lake. He had so much fun! I think he might be hooked on a new sport! And us girls...we did what we do best...lay out!! The sun was great! The boys played and the girls relaxed in the sun...what a great day!

James wakeboarding!!

That night we went to the river walk and had some amazing Mexican food! We walked around and then we decided to go and see a movie. We saw Grownups. That was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a very long time!

Enjoying the River Walk!

On Monday we went to Sea World. James or Abby had never been so it was fun taking them. We of course saw Shamu and the ski show. The dolphins were closed cause one of the beluga whales had a baby and they were in the dolphin tank. It got so hot!! We stood in line for an hour for the rapids ride and it paid off. James and I got a little wet but Kelsey, Heath, Abby and Jantzen got soaked!! We rode the Great White roller coaster and laughed at Kelsey screaming the entire time and then we rode it again minus Kelsey and Heath and that's when I threw my neck out...great!!

After that we hit the water park and that was a life saver!! I don't know how long we stayed on the lazy river but I could have taken a nap on that thing...except the stupid water spraying in your face when you floated on by. We stayed out there til 7pm and then it started to rain so it was time to go.

Our before Sea World picture.

And bummer we forgot to take an after Sea World picture!! Haha! We all looked like drowned rats!

We were so ready to go back home to see our babies!! It was a long trip home but exciting. About an hour out of San Antonio Jantzen realized he didn't fill up with gas and his gas light was on and we were between no where and Junction. So after much prayer and coasting Jantzen coasted right up to a gas station out in the middle of no where. That was pretty funny!

Coming home was pretty sweet seeing Farrah. Five days was a little long but she gave us a great welcome home reception. She had the biggest smile on her face and kept saying mama and da dee.....what a wonderful sound!

We had a great time and made some great memories! We are so blessed with wonderful friends!!

Pool Party!

2010-06-30T21:42:00.007-05:00

Last week we had our playgroup and it was a pool party and we had so much fun! Here are just a few pictures of Farrah and some of her friends.

Farrah loved the pool!!

Ms. Maci was the funniest to watch. She really loved being in the water.

Playing in Madison's fun swing set.

Evyn loving the water too!

Summer Nights!!

2010-06-21T22:25:00.006-05:00

I love summer!! I have dreamt of taking the family and playing at the park and taking long walks and that's just what we did tonight.

We took Farrah to the park tonight and she has so much fun!

Sliding with mommy

Watching the ducks with daddy

Swinging with mommy

I could have swung all night holding Farrah. She doesn't sit very long these days and she just sat so still and just rested her little head on me....a little piece of heaven right there.

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T22:20:00.010-05:00

What a great Father's day weekend! We celebrated last night with my family and today with James' family. It's so wonderful to be surrounded by such wonderful godly men! James, my dad and my father-in-law are all wonderful men of God. And it doesn't stop there...all of our brothers are great fathers as well. It is so much fun to be apart of a wonderful family.

Farrah had a great weekend with her daddy. She is the apple of her daddies eye and I love it!!

James teaches Farrah so many things...
like how to dig paper out of the VCR/DVD player that she put in.

like drinking out of a straw in a big girl cup.

How to eat speghetti all by yourself.

How to drive a car one day

And how to play in the rain.

James we love you so much and are so glad to call you ours!!! You are a wonderful daddy and I love watching you be the father that I knew you wanted to be.

Working again

2010-06-14T21:21:00.003-05:00

What a day! For the last two weeks I have been helping at my brother-in-laws dental office. I haven't done this job in 15 months and I was a little nervous. Didn't know if I would remember all the tricks and scheduling and patients but it came back so fast...as if I never left. Before this time I was kinda starting to miss the outside world of work but after the last two weeks I really realized I LOVE being home with Farrah. At work I find myself wondering what Farrah is up to and that its nap time and did she have her snack?? I hate leaving her and when I do she just gets so upset. Every time the doorbell rings and its Allison, Farrah takes one look at her and starts crying. The crying doesn't last for long and Farrah plays with Allison all day...I have the greatest babysitter! This makes a mommy feel great!! But man when I come home Farrah is so happy to see me and she is on my hip pretty much the rest of the evening.

It's been good for me these last few weeks. I am really learning a lot about myself as a mother, wife and friend. It's been really hard but I always walk away and learn something. I have a whole new respect for working mothers. When I get home I am so tired and I still have to cook, clean, give Farrah a bath and then it's time for bed. My evenings really fly by. I for sure know now that I am called to stay home in this season of my life. I do miss working but I miss my little girl even more.

As a wife...I really appreciate James for working so hard for us. I don't tell you enough. Thank you for letting me live my dream of staying at home. Thank you for coming home and listening to me, it's pretty much the only adult conversation I've had all day and I talk your ear off.

As a friend...I have really struggled with this. I feel like I have lost touch with my closest friends and I hate it. I feel left out and then I realized that this is an attack and I am failing at this battle. I have also realized that I haven't check on a friend that has been on my heart for weeks and found out today that she had to leave her husband and go back home and I may never see her again. Yes, I will talk to her but I never called to check on her and she is going through the roughest time of her life and I wasn't there to encourage her or love on her.

Sorry...this is not what I intended this post to be about. But it's real and it's whats on my heart. Do me a favor....that friend you have been thinking about lately, give them a call. It's for a good reason. Don't miss out on an opportunity to shine some love on them.

15months!!

2010-05-30T11:43:00.006-05:00

I say it every time but my word where does the time go! Farrah you are 15 months and one busy little girl!

You have so many words that I can't remember them all. You love to say no! Ha! You are doing great with your baby sign language. You are learning more everyday.

You finally say mama, but now I can't get you to stop saying mama...hahaha and I love it!

Your are wearing mostly 12 month clothes all though you can still wear some 9 month clothes.

You are eating real food....well what you will taste anyways. This has come a big challenge but you are working at it.

You love to read and play. Your favorite toy is still a ball. I will lay out your toys and the first one you choose is a ball. This makes your daddy awfully proud.

You also love for us to chase you, tickle you and wrestle with you. You are at such a fun stage.

We do have our challenges....you have a mind of your own and once your mind is made up there is no changing it. We don't go to many restaurants. You will not sit still and when you get mad you start screaming so we get to sit in the car a lot. They tell me this will pass and this one thing I hope it passes soon!

Your 15month stats.....19 pounds and 30.5 inches long. Tall and skinny!!

And one year ago we made it official...You were adopted one year ago. How you have changed from one year ago to today. I will never forget that day as long as I live. You are the greatest blessing and gift that we could ever ask for. We are so proud to be your mommy and daddy. The thing you do amaze me and how smart and loving you are. You are so much like your mommy and daddy that it blows my mind! We love you with all our hearts!

To celebrate her adoption day we bought Farrah a Cabbage Patch Kid. Thought it was a great idea since Cabbage Patch Kids are adopted and so is Farrah. She picked out a girl and her name is Lilia. Farrah is already feeding her and throwing her on the ground. We have a little work to do on how to love and not throw the baby....haha!

For Uncle Lance!

2010-05-20T16:32:00.008-05:00

Ok Uncle Lance this post is for you. Sorry I've fallen behind on posting pictures of your niece so here are a few for you.

Playing outside! She was not wanting to come in after her car ride. She was so cute. She had her hands on the steering wheel and would honk the horn.

This is our cheese smile.

This is our get out of the way mom...I'm watching Handy Manny look.

Farrah getting her shades on.

Ok Uncle Lance this should give you a small fix of Farrah pics.

Moving!!

2010-05-06T10:17:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a great day! We signed our life away and couldn't be happier. It was 11 years ago when we bought our first house and man I forgot all the paperwork we had to sign. Does anyone really read all that paperwork? Just to fly through all that and just sign and not read any of it took us about an hour.

After we signed we watched a thank you video for buying one of their houses and at the end of the video the entire building stood up and gave us a standing ovation....I think James and I both jumped so high because our backs were facing them and we never saw it coming. It was really special. Then as a house warming gift they gave us a bible with Fortner Family engraved on it!! This is an amazing company and if you ever want to build a house I highly recommend Betenbough!

Now I'm trying to get a cute moving photo for our family moving card and this is what I'm getting so far.....

Stayed tuned!!!

It's been to long!!

2010-05-03T10:51:00.002-05:00

So sorry!! It has been a crazy two weeks!! We moved out of our old house and moved in with some friends for two weeks and close on our new house this Wednesday!! Praise the Lord! We are so ready for lots of room! We moved from a 900 square foot house into a house that is over 2,000 square foot house. We took Farrah over there the other night so we could see the progress and she just walked around forever. She laid on the carpet and was just the cutest thing! At our old house we had stained concrete floors and this house had carpet..the funny thing is is that Farrah just laid on the carpet forever. I think she is excited about having carpet.

Farrah started walking all over the place! Ever since Easter Farrah has taken off. We spent the majority of our weekend outside and I wouldn't let her crawl in the dirt or grass. She is getting better everyday! She is so funny when she tries to hurry cause she is still a little wobbly.

James and I celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary! I can't believe its gone by so fast! I was looking at our wedding pictures the other day and we were such babies. I can't imagine being married to a more godly man then James. James we have grown so much in twelve years. I wouldn't trade one minute of all the ups and downs we have shared. You are an amazing husband, father and provider and this family is truly blessed that you are leading it! Love you!

We will be moving in our new house this weekend and I will post more pictures soon. Sorry grandparents and aunts and uncles I don't have any pictures of little miss. I will take some soon I promise!

Moving on up...

2010-04-13T08:57:00.006-05:00

Eleven years ago James and I were blessed with our first home. I remember driving around and looking at different houses and we couldn't find anything we liked that wasn't run down or it was not in a great neighborhood. We prayed for God to lead us to the perfect house and he led us to the one we live in now and we have so many great memories! It's hard to believe that we were so young when we bought this house. James was 22 and I was 20! Like I said all the memories we have here are amazing. This is our last full week here and I'm having mixed emotions about leaving here. We have done alot of work on this house from tile, to staining the concrete to painting and painting and painting. I love to paint! There was a joke for a while that I painted at least one room different every year. James teases me that if he ever stripped the walls there would be five inches of different color of paint.

The hardest part is leaving all the memories behind. We have had so many parties, 4th of July, birthday parties, we have brought puppies to this home, we have buried loved pets in the backyard and the hardest part is we lost two babies in this home. We brought our baby girl home to this house. I know those memories will never go away but I won't be able to show Farrah this house and her room anymore. She learned so much in this house, she learned to roll and crawl and walk in this house. I know we will make more memories in our new home and we are excited about that.

Our current home is 930 square feet (perfect first home for two) and we are building a house that is over 2,000 square feet! We have so much room that we won't know what to do with all of it. We are leaving a two bedroom house and moving to a four bedroom house. We have truly been blessed and can't wait for the next chapter in life.

Here are some pictures of the new house!

Part of my kitchen. It is so much bigger then my current kitchen. I don't know what I'm going to do with all this space!

Living room.

When we are all settled in I will post more pics!

Farrah's 1st haircut!

2010-04-09T11:07:00.005-05:00

I have been talking to my hairdresser for a while about trimming Farrah's hair but wasn't really sure when to. Randy assured me that I needed to get it cut very soon that way all the baby fuzz would be gone and he promised it would grow thicker and longer way faster.

This morning I loaded Farrah in the car and we headed to see Randy. Once Farrah sat in the actual chair she lost it! She was crying so hard and had real tears but Randy worked his magic and she finally calmed down for him to cut her hair. He did such a great job with Farrah, we was gentle and very fast. She looks like a big girl with her first hair cut!

Randy made it all better! He gave her some candy and the tears stopped...she cracks me up.

Easter 2010

2010-04-06T09:25:00.013-05:00

It's hard to believe that last Easter Farrah was four weeks old. She was so tiny and we were so excited...this year was no different. Farrah was so much fun this year. She really got the hang of hunting eggs. We had a big cookout and egg hunt on Saturday with James' family. We had so much fun. Farrah walked everywhere! She is getting so good at walking! She's still kinda wobbly but she's getting better everyday. On Saturday the kids hunted their eggs and then the grownups had a confetti egg war. It got rough but we had so much fun! No one was off limits, except great-grandma.

Sunday we went to church and had an amazing service! Farrah looked pretty adorable if I must say so myself. We had to hunts that day thankfully both in Levelland. Enough talking so brace yourself with a ton of pictures...sorry!

All ready for church.

Lula bought all the little girls bunny ears and Farrah loved hers!

Every time Farrah would find an egg she did not want to put it in her basket. She would scream every time...it was pretty funny!

Farrah and her Lula

Four generations of Fortner's
Grandma Fortner, Papa Jim, James and Farrah

Needless to say Farrah had a blast and was spoiled by both grandparents but isn't that what grandparents are for?

Playgroup

2010-03-31T13:31:00.005-05:00

Farrah and I are apart of a playgroup that meets once a week and we love it! At first Farrah could barley sit up by herself and now she is playing and walking with the other kids. She even has a little boyfriend...Braidy, just don't tell her dad!

Today was so much fun, we had an Easter egg hunt for all of them today. They were so cute! They got some really good practice for this weekend. Farrah wasn't to sure what to do with the eggs. She would grab them and did not want to let go and when I finally got her to let go she would look at me like why are you taking my egg away?

Last year she was only a month old but this year we are pretty excited about Easter. We just want to make sure that Farrah knows the true meaning of Easter! It wasn't til after I had Farrah that I truly understood God's love for us as His children. As a mom to Farrah I would die for he in a heartbeat but I don't really think I could let my own daughter die for the sins of others. Thank you Lord for sending you Son to die for my sins.

Is it nap time yet??

2010-03-29T10:17:00.004-05:00

Have you ever had one of those days that you can't wait for nap time?? Today is one of those days for me and Farrah. We had an appointment this morning at 9am and by the time we left I had already lost count on how many times I had told Farrah no. No, leave your socks on, no, don't throw you food on the floor, no, don't stand on Crew, no, don't steal Crew's paci and blanket, no, keep your bow in. That was all before we got to our appointment! And I wonder why Farrah is saying no and shaking her head no. Ha!

It seems like over night she has become a little toot. I know it's an age thing and she is into EVERYTHING!! She is still so much fun and it's hard not to laugh at her when she is doing something she knows is wrong. The last couple of weeks she has started screaming in restaurants. We have had to leave a couple of times because she just won't stop. I think our restaurant places will be limited for a while. We try to eat at restaurants that are loud so they won't hear Farrah as much. I keep telling myself it's only a stage...we will out grow this too!

And then you look at that little face and she crinkles her nose and smiles and just melts your heart!! Who can stay upset with a face like that?

Just in time!

2010-03-25T09:50:00.003-05:00

I ordered Farrah an Easter basket awhile back and I kinda forgot about it until I say the Easter baskets at the store. The poor girl was waiting on me to decide what I wanted on her basket. I looked and just couldn't decide and so I finally told her an idea of colors and another basket she had done and this is how it turned out.

I love it! The little bunny eggs go all the way around the bucket. I chose the color that matched her room and I think it's pretty stinkin adorable!

I would love to put a link to he blog but I have no idea how to, so if you go to my side bar under the People I Enjoy Reading, her blog is under the Whimsy Tins.