can you believe this?

Can you believe this is what we did today at the end of September???

The girls and I headed to the local spray park after school. We met some of our friends there and hung out all afternoon!

wild wild west fest & beyond

So, we were supposed to head out of town this weekend for a little Rockwood adventure, but it turns out that will need to be pushed back until next weekend. No biggie - as today we hit up the local Wild Wild West Festival. What a hoot! The girls each competed in a rodeo. Kaitlyn and Addison were chosen to race the horse barrels...Addison went around with Daddy (who did OK - we need to cut him some slack he is getting up there in years) and then Kaitlyn won her age category with 11.08 seconds! They had bouncy houses and crafts, it was really nice.

On a complete side note, I need to make a shout out here to one amazing man who has been going above and beyond these last few weeks for my benefit. Brent I don't even know if you read this blog, but I want to and need to verbalize how much I appreciate and love everything you have done and continue to do not only for me personally but for our family. Even after, oh geese what is it now 10 almost 11 years together you still inspire and amaze me.

You hold your emotions in at times to allow me the opportunity to spill out all of mine (believe me there are tons of emotions in here). You constantly rearrange your schedule so you can be here to hold our hands in the challenges we each face. You take the bull by the horns (Texas analogy) and make stuff happen both at home and beyond. You simply love with all you have and whether we tell you everyday or not, we feel that. I want you to know how incredibly blessed Kaitlyn, Addison and I feel to have you by our sides.

We love you tons! - your three little penguins.....

princesses in action

Today we appear to want to be princesses all day long. I told the girls we need to head to the grocery store to pick up a few necessary items for dinner tonight and they both informed me that they will gladly follow me to the car in their full out princess costumes - Kaitlyn is Cinderella, Addison is Belle. Kaitlyn also reminded me that Halloween is coming up and they need practice walking around in their costumes. Maybe I need to get out of the house more, but I actually could see Kaitlyn's point this morning. So we headed to the grocery store all decked out. Albertson's loved it - where was my camera then....sorry guys!
We hosted a game night last night with our bible study group. Brent and I can't remember the last time we have laughed that hard. It was fabulous to spend quality time with individuals you truly respect, admire, and love being with. Some of the funniest moments were probably an interpretative dance of how Moses parted the Red Sea (Sarah thanks for that!), a new prophet by the name of Joseph Prophett (I meant Joseph Smith, but my Mommy brain was not working!), Mamma Mia & Missy Elliot (Tim we will leave all musical theatre to you), purple stars and silver moon with the Lucky Charms Leprechaun (Kevin, need I say more). I am sure there were a bunch more moments that I am forgetting and will add to later. We missed our friends the Brewers as they rocked at this game (curse the miles between us!) However, it was just fantastic for the soul - praise God for reminding us to not take ourselves so seriously and to laugh even when it rains!

just another frantic wednesday

So what can I tell you? Today was busy, although we did not really get much accomplished. The girls both had school and I had yet another Dr's appt. I did though find time to stop by TJMaxx and pick up some "must haves" for the upcoming season as for some reason shopping is doing wonders for my spirits! (not great for the wallet, but what can you do?) Nothing new to report on my front - same story, although after one more round of tests we will get the go ahead to start trying again. However, I think after this meeting with the Doctor and several phone conversations later, I am more hesitant. If we want to have a baby on our own this is the only way - the Doctor made that very clear today - I guess the risks are higher than I or Brent thought. You know it is so hard when you want something more than you can put into words, yet you also need to consider those who need and want you. AGGHHHHH...enough about that for tonight....on to more upbeat topics!

Oh, the girls tonight were taking a long time to eat dinner - so after a while I got up from the table and starting cleaning the dishes, etc. I can hear them laughing and playing well with each other so I don't really get too involved and just let them have fun. Well, a couple minutes later I look over to hear some hysterical laughing. Kaitlyn was teaching Addison how to hide unwanted food under the table....I had no idea this occurred, I think it is even safe to say that Brent had no idea this was happening. Needless to say, there were no story books tonight before bed and we all scrubbed nice and hard underneath the kitchen table....GROSS!!!!!

our first family run

What fun!!! Last night we all competed in what I am sure is to be the first of many family races. Kaitlyn and Addison ran a 1-mile race - Kaitlyn ran the whole thing, bless her heart, and Addison ran a good portion of it. You should have seen it at the end when the crowd was cheering on the sidelines - they both took off for the finish line like lightening. Kaitlyn wanted to know why people didn't cheer throughout the whole race as she admitted to running faster when people were clapping her on. It was so cute. After their race, we popped them in the stroller and took off for the Mom and Dad portion of the race. It was just a really nice time! Of course, we stopped and picked up ice-cream on the way home....but come on we earned it!

We did something pretty interesting today - we took food to some of the individuals who because of Hurricane Ike were in a shelter in Fort Worth. We brought them tons of pizza and cookies and the girls gave them some of their old stuffed animals. We did not know what to expect, but it turned out to be a great lesson in humility. Sometimes in the everyday craziness of life, we forget to be thankful for all the little blessings we have been given - I think all of us realized how blessed we were today just to have each other.

Just thought I would throw a picture in here as I know I have been slacking lately. This is Addy and I at the pool this past Tuesday while Kaitlyn was in school. She is my warm weather baby - she loves the pool and being barefoot. We are really enjoying our one on one time!

runner's world here we come

So today the Rockwood family went for an all-family jog...it was fabulous! Addy loved it and actually has probably one of the cutest jogs you have ever seen - it always seems as if she should fall over cause her little legs can't go as fast as the rest of her body! Kaitlyn is getting so fast, really Brent had to go ahead with her as I truly could not keep up. No great plans for the weekend, I guess the adventure that I crave will just have to wait for another day. Oh wait, the summer camp that the girls and I attended is putting on a revival on Sunday and we are going to head to that. It should be fabulous as the girls adored the music and I will get to reunite with some of the kids I worked with and see where they stand after a few months have passed - hopefully nearer to God as they say you never really stand still in your journey with Christ you can only move forward or regress. God Bless and thanks all for your thoughts and prayers - truly they are helping!

another day down

Well, that broken spirit is slowly rising again with the help of my amazing family. Kaitlyn and Addison have been wonderful this week - we missed gymnastics today (oops Mom) but we all cleaned the house. The girls are great dusters, they love the pledge, and they are great moppers (they love spilling the water all over the floor). We laughed and had a great day, which was just what anyone could have ordered. Tomorrow we are headed to the Pediatrician for Kaitlyn, just a routine check up, and then to Costco...one of our favorite places to mull around in and eat the samples. (actually it is Addy's favorite thing to do these days) I think we are ready for a little adventure though so I am trying to talk Brent into a night away this weekend or even just a day. We shall see -

a hard day

Let me start by saying that Brent and the girls are simply fabulous and I realize how fortunate I am to have these amazing creatures in my life. However, today was an extremely hard day for me personally. To fill you in on what has been happening recently, we experienced our second miscarriage on July 22 of this year: 8 weeks and 4 days into the pregnancy. It is funny too - I think Brent and I were more excited about this pregnancy than any of the others. Probably because this time we had really prayed about whether it was in God's plan for us to have more children and had come to conclusion that yes it was the right thing to do. Needless to say, not only was the emotional toll of losing the baby difficult, but the physical aspect has been still working it self out. No D&C needed as I apparently passed everything on my own in the middle of Brent's family reunion before returning home. Now after coming home I have been poked and prodded for roughly 6 weeks to only hear today that I have some gene mutation that is causing me to lose the babies. Oh, silver lining you say - I could try for more children the doctor did not want to close that door completely but I would need to inject myself with a shot every 12 hours throughout the entire pregnancy. I did not think my heart could go any lower - truly I did not, yet here I sit, tears in my eyes just confused and hurt as to what has just happened. Brent has asked me to talk all day and I simply have nothing to say - my spirit is broken, my energy is gone, and my faith is struggling.

blessed day

So we are now officially in the swing of things. School has been going good for both girls - in fact we could not be more pleased. Brent was actually able to take and pick up the girls from school today, they loved it and so did he!