The Fish Tank

I love you SO much!

Jackson Thanksgiving 2006. Look at that bald head! Thanksgiving 2007...so cute! Thanksgiving 2008...making a "boat" out of cheese and olives. He's a little busier this year:)

1. God 2. My salvation 3. Prayer 4. My amazing wonderfully fantastic perfect husband 5. Jackson 6. Baby Fish and the miracle of life developing inside my belly:) Incredible! 7. The unconditional love from my family and friends 8. Having friends who are honest with me and support me no matter what! 9. My sister..she is just quite simply put...amazing 10. My parents...they love me so much and are always so encouraging 11. A warm home and a safe place to lay my head at night 12. Freedom...hey, there are many that aren't free 13. Peace...being at peace inside

I swear this kid never leaves me empty handed when it comes to stories. At least he's free entertainment. Scott and I were getting ready in our room while Jack was in the family room watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" for the billionth time. All was suspiciously quiet so Scott went out to check on Jackson. There he was all cozy sitting in Scott's "ugly chair" eating a push pop. Hmmmmm....a push pop at 10am. I asked him why he got it and his response was, "But I really wanted it." Welp, you can't argue with that I guess. By the way, he got the push pop out of the freezer by pulling on the door so hard that he broke the lock. Wonderful! The evidence...

I am not good at accepting gifts/blessings. I would much rather see other people get gifts and rejoice with them when they are blessed in their lives. I think part of my problem is that I feel undeserving. I just feel like I already have been blessed so richly that I do not deserve anything more. I also believe that I put up a "wall of protection" around my mind and myself not allowing myself to accept the precious gifts that come my way because I am waiting for the inevitable "bad" thing to happen. I guess I think I am preparing myself, in a way, making the "bad" stuff not seem so awful when it does come because I've "prepared" myself for it. I was reading a blog the other day and I was so touched. I have followed this blog since my first miscarriage sobbing uncontrollably and jumping in pure excitement for this family. They suffered two miscarriages and then, their third baby (they have one daughter who is 4), passed away with Trisomy 18 af...

Mmmmm...the scent of new clothes and all that is wonderful; my mecca...Nordstroms. I have a love for Nordies. My mom, sister, and I all worked there at one time. It is in our blood. I love that every Norstroms smells the same and that I can easily find my way around any of them no matter where they are. Just when I thought I couldn't fall more deeply in love with this infamous place, I did. Let me explain. I love the holiday season. I love Fall, the cooler weather, and celebrating each holiday individually . The season comes and passes so quickly! For this reason, I like to savor each moment, each holiday; especially now that I have a child. However, it seems that everywhere and everyone else wants to rush to Christmas. Nevermind Thanksgiving and turkey and being grateful. Oh no. It's all about how much we can get the consumer to spend on various Christmas items. Well, I have found that as many stores and families began preparing for Christmas back in August, Nordstroms was dif...

I notice/see a lot of birds here in Texas. Some are gorgeous while others are a little scary (like the black birds that migrate here in the fall/winter and you think they are going to attack you like the movie). It just seems that there are a lot more birds here and many like to annoy me. We had a family of birds move into our chimney last spring and they thought it would be fun to "tweet tweet" all day. Anyway, on to my story. We have a family of owls that lives across the street near the creek. They seem to migrate over to our side of the street at night and "who" on and off during the night. Well, one lovely owl decided to "who" outside of Jack's room last night at 5:15am. You would've sworn the bird was in his room it was so loud. Of course Jackson woke up. He didn't just wake up lately. Oh no. He screamed like a banchee scared too death! I run upstairs to get him and he is petrified of the stupid "who-ing" owl! We bring our scare...

13 Weeks and S'Mores 13 Weeks...and no,there are not two in there! I had just eaten a cheeseburger. Give me a break! Mmmmmmm...yummy s'mores!

We finally spilled the beans to Jackson and told him there is a baby on the way. He is excited. He looks at the sonogram picture calling it "my baby" and naming all the parts. The best part is when he wants to "see" baby. He asks me to show him my belly and then he goes at it...he digs in my belly button to get the baby out. He really wants this little bean to get out and to get out through my belly button! Jackson also has a baby in his belly (Scott just loves this) and asked me to kiss his belly yesterday. So funny! UPDATE: We had another sono today. All looked great. The baby had grown and was jumping around like crazy! It was difficult for the doctor to get a good pic because the baby was moving so much! We even saw little legs kicking. INCREDIBLE! I still have the tear so keep praying for healing. My doctor said it looks good, is far away from the baby, and will not hurt the baby. I still just have to take it easy not overdoing it.

I am not one to rest. I like to overexert myself to the point of exhaustion. I always carry too much in my hands, rush to get things done, work too hard, etc, etc. It's just my personality. Many times I don't know when or how to stop. Well, I have been stopped dead in my tracks forced to rest taking all my "control" away. I have to rest. If I don't, my body won't heal and I can do further damage to this little angel. Sometimes, though, I will sneak in a little "non-resting" activity. God knows me too well, however! He knows that I need a swift kick sometimes...most of the time. So, in order to force me to rest He has made me quite nauseous and extremely tired this pregnancy. I mean, I can wake up in the morning and go back to bed an hour later tired! My pregnancy with Jackson was a breeze! I joked that I would have a litter because I loved my pregnancy and delivery so much! Now I'm not so sure about that litter. I can look back, though, and see t...

Jackson has not taken off his spiderman hat or mittens. He took his nap and went to bed with them on! Nutty kid!

Jackson gets a spiderman beanie and crazy spiderman gloves. Lol!

Poor Jackson has been cooped up in the house for a week. I felt bad for him yesterday and tried to think of something fun for him to do that wouldn't require too much out of me since I'm supposed to be taking it easy. I remembered I bought two canvases and some paint for him a couple of weeks ago so I let him at it! He LOVED painting! He has so much fun using the different paint brushes and then his hands, of course. He painted this portrait especially for daddy! That same day Jack went to the bathroom. I don't know why all my stories about him are involving the bathroom but I digress. I went to check on him, opened the bathroom door, but did not see him. I heard him but couldn't see him. Well, it turns out he had climbed onto the toilette, then onto the tank, and then onto the window sill above the toilette. The ledge is about two feet or so above the toilette and only about three inches wide. There he was in all his glory naked from the waste down in the window. Nice....

"May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all of your requests." Psalm 20:4-5 We got our blood tests back and everything is great! The baby does not have Downs or Trisomy 13 or 18! Wahoo!!! Praise the Lord Almight!!! I think we can now breath a sigh of relief! Our God is good and shows Himself everyday! I am still healing from the placental tear but doing great! Looks as though everything is healing as it should be. They said I should be back to "normal" in about a week. I have another ultrasound next Tuesday. Thank you for all of your prayers, love, and support!!!! "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

I went in to help Jack go potty and this is what I found. Nice hat!

"He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted." Job 9:10 "You are the God who performs miracles; You will display Your power among the peoples." Psalm 77:14 Meet our miracle...and our secret. Yes, it is true. I am pregnant; about twelve weeks and a few days to be exact. We wanted to make sure this baby was healthy before announcing how great God has been to us! We have known about this precious little blessing for a little over two months and have eagerly awaited numerous sonogram and test results. We have witnessed God's mighty, yet gentle, hand every Tuesday for the past five weeks. This baby is a fighter. However, the road is not "clear" quite yet. We met with the pareanatoligist today to do a sonogram and blood test to determine if there are any chromosomal abnormalities; specifically Downs, and Trisomy 13 and 18. Although the sonogram looked great and the doctor said we were in the "safe zone," we are stil...

One of my dear sweet friends, Melanie, took some INCREDIBLE family pictures of us on Saturday. The woman is extremely talented and the pictures turned out AMAZING. Check out a sneak preview at her blog: www.selahportraits1.blogspot.com If you live in the North Texas area and need pictures done, I HIGHLY recommend her! This is her passion and that shows through in the pictures she takes. Thank you, Melanie! You are a blessing!

"The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. He is my God and I will praise Him, my father's God, and I will exalt Him." Exodus 15:2 "He is your praise; He is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes." Deut. 10:21 "I will proclaim the name of our Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our Lord." Deut. 32:3 "The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!" 2 Sam. 22:47 "Now, our God, we give You thanks, and praise Your glorious name." 1Chron. 29:13 "Praise be to the Lord, for He heard my cry for mercy." Psalm 28:6 "My tongue will speak of Your righteousness and Your praises all day long." Psalm 35:28 "Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me." Psalm 66:20 I can do this all day-look up verses on praising God. He has been, IS , so good to me. These verses get me excited. I want...

We have several houses being built around us. One house is being built across the street. Jackson LOVES it! He likes to watch the "peoples" work and see all the tractors and trucks. He enjoys looking out his window watching the guys at work. When you ask him what they are buiding, however, he will tell you that they are building a dog house. I have no idea where he got this but it is pretty funny. So, we have decided that Clifford must be moving in since it is a mighty big dog house!

I was vacuuming downstairs and took a break to check on Jackson who was playing upstairs. He was in the spare bedroom with the cd player on dancing to "Hot Dog." So cute. Anyway, I saw that he was okay and was about to go back to my chores. Blah! His favorite song came on, "I Like to Move It," and he asked me to dance. So,there we were, shaking our booties like rock stars cracking up. It was so much fun! WAAAAAAYYYY better than vacuuming!

We had such a great Halloween!!! Our day began with a little Halloween arts and crafts party. We painted spiders, made leaf collages, colored Halloween pages, made pumpkin cookies, and played forever! At night we went to Mike and Bre's for a little trick-or-treating. Jackson was OUT OF HIS BODY excited!!! He LOVED going door to door saying "trick-or-treat." I don't think he even cared about his candy. He just liked the experience. After trick-or-treating we sat in the front yard passing out candy and letting the kiddos play. What a wonderful day!!! Painting their spiders Concentrating so hard! Getting his hands dirty...usually not a big fan of that but had fun with it anyway! Emily, on the other hand, would have painted her whole body if we'd let her. She LOVED it! Eli LOVED getting his hands painted! He was right in on the action! I wish I could express to you how excited this kid was to go trick-or-treating. He was freaking out in the car on the way to Gavin...

I guess I have myself a little competition...Scott has started a blog. He has always wanted to write on here but I am a little controlling and I have given him the opportunity. The wonderful thing about Scott is that he has a FANTASTIC mind and an AMAZING way with words. So much so that I know he is going to blow me out of the water. However, I am excited to see what he has to say; what inspires him. So, without further ado, here is his blog link... www.thebigfish1.blogspot.com Enter at your own risk!