Meridith's Second Annual Scarf Swap.

I participated in Meridith's second annual scarf swap this year. This was my first year to swap and I can NOT wait till next year!!

I could not believe my eyes when I looked to see who my partner was in the swap, and saw that it was my husbands' first cousin Michelle. Michelle is an absolute blast to be around and her 2 precious little ones are too cute for words!! I really wish we lived closer!! I thank God every day for the AMAZING family God blessed me with when I married my husband Rocky!!

Here is the scarf that I sent her.

And here is the scarf I received. I absolutely LOVE the scarf and feel like Michelle could not have picked a better scarf for me. It was actually the original one I had picked out for her. I guess it's true what they all say..."Great minds think alike."

Sorry for the grainy iphone picture...That's all I have at the moment.

Happy Terrific Tuesday!!

Only 6 1/2 months late.

If you know me at all, you know that I am not crafty by any means. I really don't have the patience for sewing and I think I am too much of a perfectionist when it comes to DIY things.

After saying that...lately I have really been wanting to start doing little projects and DIY things for the girls and the house. I figured it would help keep me busy and give me something to take pride in! So I decided my first project would be to make Gracie wooden nursery letters to hang above her crib. Laney received several personalized things when she was born and since they are sharing a room, I wanted Gracie's half of the room to be personalized as well. I have been talking about doing this since she was born....well really since we found out she was a girl, so I am just 6 1/2 months late....shhhhh don't tell her!

Anyways, here it is....my first project...EVER! Just don't look too close!

After painting them black.

The first coat of color is on.

The final product!!!!! Not too bad! Remember, don't look too close!

THE day.

As most of you all know, Rocky left last week for Afghanistan. The girls and I went down a couple days before to spend some time with him...just us. We had a really good time and made some good memories. I am so lucky to be able to call him mine!!

By far the hardest day of my life!! Please keep him in your prayers as he is fighting for OUR FREEDOM!!!

Family

Rocky has been gone for a week. Sometimes if feels like 2 days, sometimes it feels like 2 years. The girls and I are trying to get into a routine and stay busy. The new house is starting to really take shape and starting to feel like a home.

The girls are growing up so much and I have been horrible at blogging the milestones. I just haven't felt like blogging with all of the pre-deployment stress, moving, getting settled again and caring for my family. You understand right?

Anyways on to what you really want to see.

A friend of my MIL's wanted to do family pictures for us before Rocky and Chad(he is going to Iraq in January) left. Here are a couple of my faves.

We did the girls picture last and as you can see Laney had about had it with pictures and was not cooperating. We got a huge kick out of this picture when we saw it because it is sooooo Laney. In fact, she reminds us all too often "I'm not a princess, I'm a diba(diva)"

See ya tomorrow for more pictures of our last weekend with our daddy/hubby.

Laney says the darndest things.

Laney has been quite the comedian lately. I was reminded by a friend of mine that I need to write it all down so I won't forget all of the funny things she is saying/doing these days. So I decided to just write a blog about it.

She has been very interested in body parts lately and I have been explaining to her in the best way possible what each body part is. She will point to a body part and say "whats this" and my response is, "that's your booty", or "those are mommies boobies...you have them too, they are right there"...so on and so forth.

This morning she was in the middle of the living room floor with her hands on her hips and was shaking back and forth. She looked very sassy might I add! I asked her what she was doing and she said "shaking my boobies". I am sure she was really trying to say booty and not boobies...either way it was hilarious!!

We were at the grocery store the other day and as we were walking down the aisle she would point at the bread for instance and say"bye bye bread...see ya mornin". She did this for just about everything she saw.

She is all about the word "like" lately and uses it all day long...for example...."Mommy, I wike doda(dora)" "Mommy, I wike Gacie(Gracie). Anything you can think of, she likes it and tells me about it ALL DAY LONG!

She can count to 10 in spanish(thanks to Dora). It sounds a little something like this. "Uno, dosh, tres, paco, cinco, sees, seta, ocho, nuebe, dieshhhhhhh. Soooo cute in her little voice.

She talks about what she sees and hears all day long...for example...if Gracie is crying she says "mommy, I hear Gacie" or if daddy pulls in the driveway "mommy, I hear daddy." When we are out walking she points at everything and says "I see trees" "I see green" "I see lello(yellow). She know most of her colors and points them out everywhere!!

She associates people with who they belong to...for instance, if I am talking about Kiki(my mom) she responds by saying "JJ(my dad), Gagi(Lexi), Jekas(jessica) and down the list she goes. If I am talking about grammie(Rocky's mom) she knows she belongs to papa(Rocky's dad).

She is also a man's girl. When we see Papa and Grammie, she always wants papa first and the same goes for JJ and Kiki. Its cute now but we might be in for it when she hits her dating years.

The other day we were in church and she told Rocky "color here daddy" he colored and she shouted "GOOD GIRL DADDY". We are still working on genders...lol.

While we are talking about church....she has spent a couple of weekends with Papa and Grammie and as some of you know Papa is a preacher. One Sunday morning after Papa finished his sermon she clapped and said "Yay Papa!!" She must have been really listening!

My parents have 4 horses. Becca is brown, Phillipe is tan, Sonny is brown, and Reese is paint colored. She LOVES going out and seeing the horses. She points to each one of them and says "becca, phipe, sonny, and COW!" Since Reese is a paint she looks like a cow to her even though she is a horse. She has recently started calling her Reese and now knows the difference between Reese and an actual cow, but I really wish she would keep calling her cow...its just too precious!!

I am sure there are many more but it is late and my brain is fried. Good night...see ya mornin!

Prayers

I know it has been forever since I have posted and I really have no other excuse other than when I realized I was behind it would have been harder for me to catch up. So then I just decided to take a break from blogging for a while. Well, I am back because I need you guys!!!!

I am calling all of you prayer warriors out there to lift my family up in your prayers. We are approaching our first deployment together. Rocky will be leaving for Afghanistan next month and will be gone for a year. I think I have cried all the tears I can cry. I knew that this would eventually happen and actually thought I was prepared for it! What I was not prepared for is, trying to explain to my now 2 YEAR OLD(WOW) why daddy is gone for a year. She is such a daddy's little girl and her whole face lights up when he is in the room. What is comforting to me is the fact that technology is so advanced these days that we will be able to talk to him via skype and the internet. So please, when saying your prayers, if you would send up a little prayer for Rocky's safety, my sweet girls, and me. We are so proud of our Soldier and are grateful for all the men and women that serve this country and sacrifice themselves FOR OUR FREEDOM!!!

Also, for those of you who don't know...we welcomed Gracie Beth Whitely into this world on February 8, 2010. She weighed 7 lbs 14 oz, 21" long, and had a full head of dark brown curly hair!! Pictures coming soon!!

Spring Outfits

Thanks to Whitney over at Treasures from our Family, I have found this amazing ebay store that I have started purchasing outfits for Laney for the spring and summer and was even able to get a matching outfit for baby girl when she is born. I never thought that I would be that mom that dressed her girls alike but I am now opening mouth and inserting foot! I can't wait to be that mom!!

These outfits are very much boutique looking but not boutique prices which is WONDERFUL! I have always LOVED the boutique outfits but could not bring myself to pay $50-$60 per outfit. OUCH. I was able to steal each of these outfits for less than $16.00 a piece!!! She also combines shipping within 7 days of purchases. Here are some of my finds for Laney...

And I was able to get this matching outfit for baby girl (yes, we do have a name picked out, and some of you know what it is but we are going to wait to announce it to the rest of you when we announce her arrival.)

So head on over to ebay and check out je*designs(sizes 2t-10) and kbmill2(sizes 3m-24m)...just make sure you are not bidding against me...hehe.

Laney at 20 months.

Well hello there! I admit, I am a terrible blogger and I am sorry to those readers that are still with me. I promise this year to be a better blogger. I have really wanted this to be a blog to keep up with what Laney is doing and be able to look back on it years from now and remember and reflect on these times. Now that a new baby girl is coming in less than a month, that gives me an even bigger reason to blog! So, if you are still with me...hang in there!

Laney has really grown and matured in the last several months since we have been in VA. She is non stop talking and actually carrying on full conversations with us! We took her to the doctor here for a 20 month check up and the doctor was blown away at her vocabulary and the way she interacted with her.

• She weighs 26.5 lbs and is wearing 2t clothes for the most part.
• She is in the 50th percentile across the board.
• Size 4 diapers.
• Size 6 shoe
• She is a really good eater and really eats anything we give her!!

She literally repeats every word we say...or at least tries to in her own way. Here are some of our favorite things she is saying/doing.

• She will point to her hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, fingers, elbow, tummy, knees, and toes and say the word for each body part.....be careful though, when she feels like it, you just might have a finger in the eye followed by her saying "eeeeeeyyyyeee"
• Like I said, she basically says everything we say but the words that she says in her own language that are only understood by a few are "pockey"(pacifier), "gagi"(lexi) don't ask me why she calls her that but when we asked her to say Lexi it came out "gagi" and just stuck. "boay"(boy), "i yu you"(i love you), "mam mam"(yes ma'am), "sir, sir"(yes sir), "pats on"(pants on) "mick mou" (mickey mouse) "titor" (tigger) "poo poo" (pooh bear), "yaney" (laney), "sickey" (sissy) "hot dog"(goofy) we are guessing she calls him hot dog because he does the hot dog dance on her favorite show Mickey Mouse Club House. "piper"(diaper) "haycaca" (helicopter) "pacheeee" (apache) "cacki"(cheerios) "wee wee"(shew wee) "joo"(juice) "mulk"(milk) I know I am missing some but I think I have hit the highlights. There are also many words that she says correctly that everyone understands.
• She knows what a puppy, dog, kitty cat, pig, monkey, elephant, duck, cow, fish, bird, and sheep says and has a book that is full of animals and will point to each animal, say the word, followed by their sound.
• She recognizes the color yellow and will say "lello" if she sees it
• Just this morning she was playing with her blocks on the floor and started counting them...it went something like this..."1,2,3,3,5" clapped and said "yay yaney". We will have to work on that one....speaking of, if she is getting in trouble and I am giving her a warning by counting and I say "1" it is always followed by "2,3" from her. I have since stopped doing that because I can't keep from laughing and mommy needs to be serious when disciplining.
• She knows how to put on her shoes, but not always on the right feet.
• She can put her pants on but not always the right way.
• She is working on putting her shirt on but usually gets frustrated when she can't do it and comes to me for help.
• She can use a spoon and fork and is actually really good at it!
• We are working on potty training and she has peed in the potty but no #2...although she does come and tell me that she has pooped in her diaper. She usually comes to me grabbing her diaper in between her legs and says "poopie" in a very concerned voice.
• She can throw a ball over handed but has not figured out how to catch yet.

I know I am missing something and will most likely be reminded of what I have missed by kiki(my mom) after reading this blog. ;-)

We are so lucky to have a happy, healthy little girl and could not imagine life without her! We are excited to see her take on the roll of big sister in a few short weeks.

On a different note...we leave VA on Thursday to head back to Texas! We will stop in Birmingham and Dothan, AL on our way and see friends from flight school and church. Rocky is currently looking for a job either in the Houston or Dallas area and has not found anything at this point...please keep that in your prayers!!! So we are not exactly sure where we are going to end up but will keep you all posted!

Until next time.