Our Angel

Last week at Mother's Day Out we had our Christmas Program.  Raleigh and all of the babies were angels.  She made it out on the stage before she started crying, along with all of the other babies.  I teach the Pre-K program, so I was trying to direct my kids who were singing and not make eye contact with Raleigh, so she wouldn't cry.  I was just fooling myself.  Raleigh was crying, the wise men had their crowns over their eyes...pure chaos!  So, I let the wise men do their thing, and held my crying angel for the rest of the time.

Once she was held she began to smile at the audience and was totally fine.

Our sweet little Angel!

The 120 dollar mistake

We did something very stupid last week.  Let me change that, I did something very stupid last week.  Raleigh was getting a little bit fussy, so we decided to go for a walk.  It is quite the preparation to get everything ready. You need to make sure that you have the following: jogging stroller, stroller toys, blanket  just in case it gets cold, garage door opener, Titus, cell phones, Titus' leash, Raleigh, and of course the most important thing....KEYS!!  Normally, the OCD person that I am, has 20 different ways to get into our house and stashes of keys in different places for the "just in case" moments. Well, I locked the keys in the house...mistake #1.  I locked the keys in the house before we had put the cell phones in the stroller...mistake#2.  Because we have just recently moved into this house (and I am trying to be more relaxed about things) we haven't organized the garage.  So when we went to get all of the hidden keys, they belonged to our old house!...mistake #3.  We ended up going next door and spending some quality time with our neighbor while we waited for a locksmith.  She is awesome...even down to her false eyelashes!  It took the locksmith about 15 seconds to get into our house.  The whole time he told Clint how many different ways he could break into our house and how no one would know (thank goodness for the alarm!).  Then he asked for 120 dollars in cash and suggested we keep a spare key somewhere in our garage!  Are you kidding me?!?  On the bright side, we got to really visit with our neighbors, but sadly it cost us money to do it.

Thanksgiving

I know, I know, we should be talking about Christmas not about Thanksgiving....but that is the last place that we left off.  Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We saw ALL of our family!!  It was pretty crazy traveling everywhere, but Raleigh is an awesome car companion.

Here Raleigh is hanging out with her cousin Karly and Grammy.

There are always big smiles with Uncle Keenan around!

Playing in her cousins' new playground...yes she is wearing a RUN DMC onesie!

Hanging out with Logan and Kar.

Having a great time with Mamaw and Pop...looks can be deceiving at times!

Two things that make me sad!

These two pictures truly make me want to cry. What they are forcing me to see is that we don't have a baby anymore, but our sweet little girl is growing up so fast. Almost nine months! Where in the world did the time go? We are excited about the future, but sad to be reminded of how fast time is going by. Sad, Sad, and more Sad at this house!

Raleigh is such a big girl sitting in her highchair eating a snack...check out that sippie cup!

I know this is weird, but the baby on her diapers is not a baby anymore, but a toddler!

A Weekend with Grammy and Pappy

The last weekend in October...Grammy and Pappy came to visit! It was so fun! Our plans of going to the zoo were cancelled due to the crazy Texas weather, but we had a great time anyway. Raleigh was a big fan of Grammy, but an even bigger fan of Pappy...it kind of surprised us all! It is always great to see family. Raleigh is still looking up the stairs when we sit on the couch (waiting and looking for Grammy and Pappy to come down the stairs and play with her). We can't wait to see you guys soon.

Raleigh's pretty new clothes from Grammy and Pappy

She really enjoyed the bag it came in just as much as the clothes!

She has officially abandoned all of her toys to play with the gift bag!

Our cute little bumble bee!!

This Halloween Raleigh was a bumble bee...and quite a cute one!  We now have trouble getting her to smile at the camera, she is actually quite confused by what in the world a camera is.  The only time she would smile was when she got a chance to eat the baby pumpkins...what a handful she truly is!

All she wanted to do was eat those baby pumpkins!

Tasty pumpkins!

Pigs?!?

Raleigh has always had a "buddy" that she has stuck to like glue.  She has always been very tactile and feels everything with her hands, feet and tongue.  Since touch and feel has always been important, the first buddy she had was the Lamb in her baby bed, then she quickly moved on to Lion who had a funny feeling mane.  She has stuck with Lion for a long time until she met her new B.F.F at Kohl's.  We walked in to do a little shopping and she spotted pig.  At that time she proceeded to toss Lion across the store and scream in excitement over pig!  Poor Lion!  Pig belongs to part of the books with "If you give a mouse a cookie" series.  I bought the pig and the book that went with it to try to justify buying a stuffed pig that is the size of my child.  Since that wonderful day, it has been a match made in heaven!  Raleigh loves pig...it has truly been a lifesaver some days.  To this day she still gets excited when she looks at pig...we don't take it personally around here.  I have since gone and bought several "backups" just in case pig gets lost or destroyed.  I never thought I would say this, but around here...WE LOVE PIGS!

Dear Logan and Karly,

Thank you so much for coming to Houston to see me and spend time with me.  Logan, I had so much fun sliding down the slide with you...even though it was a little bit scary because it was my first time!  Karly, I had so much fun playing with you.  You always make me smile.  I also had an awesome time going to the movies with my big cousins...I don't remember much because I was sleeping, but the 3D glasses are really cool!  I can't wait to see you guys soon!

Love,

Raleigh

The Deck

Since moving into our new home, we have yet to be able to get a car into the garage.  The other day Clint said that he wanted to get a ping pong table (for the small village of high school kids that come to our house weekly, of course) for the garage.  At this point we still had all of our outside furniture, grill, etc. in the garage because we hadn't decided what to do with our backyard.  The decision was made that no ping pong table would enter our garage unless some other items left.  So Clint and his brother got to work.  They designed a deck that I approved and their dad would be proud of.  A couple of weekends ago, Keenan and his family came down to help build the deck.  In ONE weekend, those boys built an amazing deck!!  Thank you Keenan for all of your hard work.  Thank you Anne for giving up your husband and weekend for us!  You should see this thing...it just might make you pee in your pants!  Check out the slideshow.

Sick of being sick!

We are sick again!!  Good grief!  Over the past couple of months we have all been sick, especially Raleigh.  Poor baby Raleigh, but we think we are on the road to recovery.  Over the past two months she has had; a virus, a cold, an ear infection, bronchitis, a bacteria infection in her blood ( which put her in the hospital), and now an upper respiratory infection.  We are sick of being sick!  We know that the company boogie wipes will miss our money, but we are ready to get better in this house!  

Look at those sad sick eyes!

We are alive!!

For those of you who have stopped checking our blogspot, I totally understand.  To squelch all of the rumors out there...we have not joined the witness protection program, life has been super crazy.  Since our last post we have: sold a house, bought a new house, been to the emergency room and hospital 3 times, decorated a new house, built a massive deck, quit a teaching job, started a new job, and slept a couple of hours here and there.  We love our new house and can't wait to have more of you guys over.  We are alive and apologize for the lack of information on our part, but we are ready and have a little bit more time to communicate now!

Check out what our new house looks like!  We would love to give you our new address, but don't really want to post it...so feel free to text our email us!

 

A Day at the Aquarium

On Monday, (Clint's day off) we spent the day at the aquarium.  So fun!!  For several weeks now Clint has been mentioning how he would really like to take Raleigh to the aquarium....I of course, made fun of him with the reasoning that she would be too small to enjoy the aquarium.  I WAS WRONG!!!  She absolutely loved it!!!  She talked to the fish, but got a little bit frustrated when she tried to grab the fish and she couldn't touch them through that silly glass.  We had a great day and can't wait to do it again soon!  

Raleigh drove the whole way to the aquarium...she is a crazy driver!!  Not really.  We were giving her a bottle before we went into the aquarium in hopes of her taking the whole thing and not being distracted....it looks like our strategy is working well, or not at all.

Don't ask me why there was a white tiger exhibit at an aquarium, but there was!  RaRa loved the tiger and was not afraid of it at all.  You can see how close she got to the tiger and gave it the evil eye.

Daddy and Raleigh together.  Do you see the baby alligator in the background?

Raleigh trying to catch those crazy fish!  She was unsuccessful, due to the glass.

The look of amazement on the faces of both of them...priceless!

Baby Houdini Strikes Again!!

We don't know how she keeps doing crazy things like this, but it continues to happen.   Many new parents would say, "Our child is so advanced."  We on the other hand would say, "Our child is a sneaky sneak. (don't worry, we do think that she is advanced)."  Raleigh already has a very quiet way of sneaking into the oddest situations.  Take the latest situation for example:

This is the way that Raleigh normally sleeps.  She likes to be cozy.  She sleeps half swaddled in her wedge with two blankets tucked in around her.

This is how we found her the other day after her nap.  During her nap she was silent.  No crying, not a peep.  How does she do this?  What a cute little sneaky sneak!!!

FREEBIRDS!!!!

Finally the Woodlands has put in a Freebirds.  One would think that a community that was founded by an Aggie would have such an establishment much earlier,  but this month we finally got one.  Of course, we had to go on opening day to show our support and love for the burrito.  There were TONS of people there!!!!  They gave away free burritos for a year to the first 35 people...several people slept in tents days before the opening.  It was pure madness!!  We had a super great time eating lunch with our friends and enjoying past memories of A&M.  If anytime you feel the need for a Freebirds burrito, the Ivy's are there!! 

RaRa wearing her maroon tutu....very tired after stuffing her face with a burrito!

She loves her Rice...

Rice cereal that is (ok, she loves the Rice family just as much)!  Recently, Raleigh has fallen in love with Rice Cereal.  The first couple of rounds were a little bit messy, but we pretty much have it down now.  Her first experience with cereal was pretty funny.  There was cereal everywhere!  Our sweet little girl is growing up so fast!

SOLD!!!

We have officially sold our house!!  Before you panic...we are only relocating to the Tomball area to be closer to where we have been traveling for the past eight months for the Northwest Satellite.  With the help of our dear friend, we had people competing on offers for our house.  We are so grateful to be able to sell our house so quickly, considering the market.  We are looking at a house and have made an offer on it.  If all goes well, we will close on both homes on July 30th or before.  We would love for you to pray that everything will go smoothly and we can quickly make the transition to the Northwest Houston area.

My Daddy is Awesome

Happy First Father's Day Daddy!!

You are the best dad in the whole world.  Thank you so much for spending time with me.  I love the way you make me feel special and I will always remember you reading stories to me at night.  I can't help but smile and giggle when we hang out together.  I love you so much.

Love,

Raleigh

It's ALIVE!!!!

As most of you know, before sweet Raleigh came into the picture, I convinced that we needed to buy a super nice camera...it took me a while to persuade him, but in January, we finally bought one.  It was awesome.  A camera that serious photographers have dreams about.  We absolutely loved our new Nikon camera.... until it fell in the Frio River.  That's right, IT FELL IN THE FRIO RIVER!!!  We thought the days of pretending we knew what we were doing when we were taking pictures were over.  The beautiful Nikon would not turn on.  It was looking like we were going to have an expensive paperweight on our hands.  When we got back from Leakey, we took it in to the camera store.  We were just hoping there was something they could do to save it.  She took the camera and turned it on and started taking pictures and then commented, "Hmm, there doesn't seem to be a problem... it is working just fine for me."  Our mouths dropped open.  The Nikon had come back to life!!!  Yipppeee!!   We were amazed and astonished...the people in the camera store thought we were idiots.  Maybe we are, but we have a camera that works baby!!

Lovin' Leakey

Every year my immediate family heads down to the river near Leakey...and every year WE LOVE IT!!  This year was no exception.

Here are our Top  7  Favorite Things about Leaky Vacation:

1. No cell phone reception...that means no email, text messages, or voicemail for Clint or my Dad!

2. Nap times.  This year I was so excited to get to take a nap longer than an hour (if your lucky with Raleigh, you might get a nap during the day, but never more than an hour).

3. Floating the river...that cold water has a way of relaxing you.

4. Coldwater Catfish Restaurant....we eat there every year going to the Frio.....it is awesome!

5. Mason talking trash playing the Wii...seriously, he could destroy anyone out there.

6. Dominoes, Cards, Boche Ball, Washers...all of the games you never play at home.

7. First times.  The first time Raleigh and Ellie sat in the river and played together, the first time Mason fixed so many smores we all wanted to vomit.

PS-  sorry about the words scattered about...for some reason I can't get it to cooperate with me.

High School Camp

Every year the day after the kids get out of school, we leave to go to High School Camp in Panama City, Florida.  It is a little bit of a crazy rush to get everything ready to go, but once you are there it is soooo worth it.  It is always amazing to me to sit back and watch how God shows up in huge ways in our lives that week.  This year was a little bit different because we were taking Raleigh (last year we took Raleigh as well, but that was before she made her grand entrance into the world).  With the help of Mimi in tow, we made the 12 hour trip (16 hours for us) to beautiful Panama City.  Raleigh did awesome in the car, she was a trooper.  We had a great week full of tons of memories that we will carry with us forever.  Raleigh was not a big fan of the bright sunshine and cold ocean water, but quickly became a fan of her fashionable lady bug sunglasses.  We arrived home safely with tons of laundry to do, blessed hearts, and a love for Panama City...we can't wait for next year!

Taking it back in time...

I know, I know, you haven't heard from us in a long while.  There really is no good excuse, except for the fact that we have been so crazy busy!!  So bear with us as we go back in time a little bit to keep you informed of what is going on with this family of three.

Over the last couple of months, I went back to work to finish out the school year.  This by far has been my favorite year of teaching.  The teachers, the kids, it has all been awesome.  It was very hard to go back and leave RaRa, but being able to be paid through the summer was a financial move that we felt our family needed to make.  It was a long month, we made it and thankfully it is summer time!!

A little bit ambitious....

Ok, so maybe we jumped the gun just a little bit.  The other day we were up in the game room and Raleigh was feeling no love for being in her swing.  There is also her bouncy chair toy...that is waiting in the game room for her to grow into.  We had a feeling that she wouldn't fit, but we decided to give it a whirl.  She was not even close to fitting, (which was quite funny) but she loved it!!  It may have to wait a while, but it looks like we have a toy that she is going to love. 

Look at her legs and her arm hanging out...so funny!

The many faces of Raleigh

Since the beginning, Raleigh has shown many emotions.  Some might call her a "drama queen."  She has begun to smile, talk, laugh and coo.  She also is very good at sticking out her bottom lip and pouting.  Recently, we went in for her 2 month doctor's appointment, and we saw many of Raleigh's faces in a short amount of time.  I had finished feeding her and she and I were sitting waiting for the nurse to come in a give her 5 shots.  She was smiling and talking to me 

and the nurse.  The nurse began to give her shots...and her face quickly changed.  It was really hard to watch Raleigh turn that shade of purplish-red and scream, but it was over soon.  To the nurse's defense, she worked very quickly and did a great job.  To Raleigh's defense, as soon as the shots were over and I was able to pick her up, she stopped crying and she was asleep by the time I got her to the car.  In the pictures you can see how her precious legs were covered in band-aids and how extremely tired she was (with a little bit of help from a friend named tylenol).  It was a dramatic day for our sweet "drama queen."