Still Opening Christmas Presents

Allison received a Christmas present yesterday from her Godmother, Leah in Chicago. It was a Princess Calendar. Allison just loves calendars and writing school events, birthdays and other important dates on her calendar. She also loves to count down to special days on her calendar. She loves the pictures and was so excited to see that her absolute favorite princess, Cinderella was the princess for her birthday month - November!




One of the Christmas presents for Joslyn from my parents was a subscription to Stone Soup Magazine. Its a magazine by young writers and artists. Which is right down Joslyn's alley! She was soooo excited to receive the magazine! We came home from the post office and she began reading and flipping through the pages eagerly! So excited to show me pictures drawn by kids her age and read the stories. She loves this present! The camera just can't capture her all her excitment!

More snow falling!! Can't wait till Spring!

26 Weeks Pregnant

My belly is growing! So this is how I look at 26 weeks pregnant with my baby girl (we don't have a name for her yet, still working on it)!!

What a Day!

This morning the girls went back to school after a 2 week vacation. It was snowing this morning so I decided I would drive the girls to school instead of the girls riding their bikes to school. I then drove downtown (in the snow) for my my 25 week check-up. I was early to my appointment but had to wait an hour to see my doctor...I guess that never changes no matter what country your in! My doctor was able to get a pretty good picture of our baby girl, and really great video's of our baby moving around at 25 weeks. My doctor also noticed that my iron level is super low so on Wednesday I will start receiving iron injections through an IV twice a week for 4 weeks. This way the iron will get into my system immediately as opposed to waiting days for the iron pills to kick in. The baby is doing great, growing well and moving like crazy! She is just having a ball inside my tummy! However all my iron is going straight to her and I'm not getting much at all. I have been feeling very weak, but didn't realize it was this bad. I'm not too excited about going downtown twice a week and especially if its snowing. So keep me in your prayers. For this "South Texas", "Never driven in snow before" girl is scared to drive downtown!!

Just Blogging

Well we didn't go to church today. I woke up and felt soo weak. I have a Doctor's appointment tomorrow and I am going to ask if it would be okay if I start taking iron pills. The prenatal pills just aren't giving me enough iron.
I wasn't really looking forward to going to church anyway. It's sad to say (and I am praying about it) but the chapel on post isn't really helping me grow in my relationship with God. I continue to go because I want my girls to go to Sunday school and learn more about God. I sit in church, which has been difficult for me physically, especially these past few weeks (I hope once I can start taking the iron pills a lot will change and I will be more comfortable and have more energy). I pray the night before and ask God to draw me closer to Him through the words of the preacher on Sunday. The sermons just aren't uplifting to me. The songs we sing throughout the service give me more spiritual food for my soul than the sermon. I wish I had more options and I could try out another church. I will of course keep praying about this and I will keep attending the chapel services (when I'm not feeling so weak) I will also attended the weekly Bible Study at the chapel (it is led by the women of the chapel). Because I don't feel "spiritually fed", encouraged, or my relationship with God strengthened I have turned to other resources. I am doing a Beth Moore Bible Study online, I am reading a couple of books that are giving me more wisdom about God and His word. It is just frustrating because I really want to go to church every Sunday morning and walk out closer to God!! So please pray for me and for the Chaplin's and their messages!
On another note, it snowed last night so this afternoon the girls put on a couple layers of clothes, jackets, hats and gloves and headed outside to play in the snow before it melts. Tomorrow they go back to school. Its hard to belive but we made it through the first half of the school year. I have been counting down the months until Philip comes home and going back to the states(I'm still very homesick/ USA homesick) Anyway, I've been looking at 2009 like this, starting with this month...My birthday in January (hence my blog background), February- Valentines day, March- getting EVERYTHING ready for the baby that will be here in, April- My parents come for the month, our family grows from 4 to 5 and Philip should be home for a couple weeks, May-just one more month until, June-which is when I plan on flying back to the states for the summer(keeping my fingers crossed that our finances allow for 3 overseas plane tickets!)Come home in August-the girls start 3rd and 5th grade, and only 3 more months until Philip comes home in late November. Now of course these are my plans and may not be God's plans for us, so I'm praying about all this. You too can keep us in your prayers!!
Okay well here are some pictures of the girls playing in the snow today! It was too cold for me to go outside so I quickly took pictures from our balcony. For some reason they like to go straight to my car and draw in the snow on my car. They were outside for about 30 minutes and came back inside with little red, runny noses. I had them sit in a warm bath and made some hot chocolate for them to warm their insides! Well I'm off to do my evening routine... my bible study homework for today, cook dinner, make sure everything is ready for school tomorrow (watch Super Nanny and Wife Swap) have the girls take their baths, read their books to me, say prayers and go to bed!



Since Philip has been gone my bed has acquired 2 more bodies! Joslyn and Allison are now sleeping in my bed with me. It is very crowded and seems more and more uncomfortable as my belly grows and it seems as though the bed is shrinking. I have suggested that maybe they take turns sleeping in bed with me at night, but neither one of the girls are comfortable sleeping in their bed alone since they are in a routine of sleeping with me. Oh well, at least they are still at the ages that they like to sleep in bed with their momma and read books to me! So I will just treasure these times we share at night together!

Silliness and cuteness!

I really wanted to share this...I was talking on the phone with my best friend, I walked into the living room and saw this...



Daisey didn't seem the least bit phased by being pushed around in the stroller, what a trooper of a dog!

First Day of 2009!

Yesterday we slept in. When I say we slept in, we didn't wake up until 11:30am! We were TIRED! The girls and I had pancakes, sausage links and bacon for brunch. We took down ALL the Christmas decorations in the house and all the Christmas lights outside as well as the Christmas tree. I was ready to take it all down. I felt like the decorations were taking over the house. I finally have my house back! We stayed in our pj's all day! The girls and I were able to get on the web cam with my mom. We also watched the New Years day parade on TV. After dinner we pulled out the Monopoly game and played Monopoly for a couple hours and decided Joslyn had won. She had the most property and more money than Allison and I. I can't belive Christmas vacation is only 2 days away from being over. It really did fly by! I'm going to miss the girls when they go back to school. Well tomorrow is laundry day and depending on the weather we may or may not go bowling or we may wait until Sunday afternoon to go bowling.



Our house without the Christmas tree up...so much more room!
A little snow falling outside, it will probably melt by tomorrow morning or afternoon

Happy New Year!

The girls and I brought in the New Year at a neighbor's house.

FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS, WE WISH YOU MANY BLESSINGS AND A STRONGER RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR SAVIOR IN 2009!