Boom..Boom..Boom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





This is my favorite picture of Farrah!



Farrah and Madison!



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



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

Get Real.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A day at the ranch...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Farrah showing daddy how to start the four wheeler.



The family



The Louders



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







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



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



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



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

Wordless Monday...well kinda

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!

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!!

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. :)