Bath Time and The Fourth of July

Our Fourth of July was very laid back this year, we really did nothing which was kind of nice. We did miss being with family and friends, eating yummy grilled food, and seeing fireworks but the fact that there was rain made me feel not as bad as if we weren't missing out on too much. It's just too early for Ella to be out although we will be venturing out to Frisco this Thursday and Friday with her for Lauren's wedding. Below I have some pics of Grayson and Ella in their Fourth of July outfits...I wish I could have gotten them together but Grayson is still adjusting to being "calm" around Ella.

Ella ready to go.....well we just went to the store and only I went in....

Me and my kiddos (that's so neat!)...Joey is always taking the pictures, hopefully I can get him in some...


Tonight, I gave Ella her first bath and Grayson just his nightly bath. Ella did not seem to enjoy it as much as Grayson but she did pass out once I got her dressed and cozy! Maybe that will be the trick to get her to sleep at night. Now, Grayson on the other hand gets energetic but it may be the ice cream I gave him before his bath.......

Ella Grace is here!!!

I have been meaning to post sooner but things have been a bit crazy with bringing a newborn home when you have an energetic almost 3 year old! Ella Grace was born June 24th (our anniversary) at 8:02 a.m. She weighed 10lbs and 5 oz and 21 inches long. She is just wonderful and we love her. She looks a lot like Grayson to me! She is precious and Grayson loves being a big brother to her. She is definitely reminding us what it's like to have a newborn again with the sleepless nights but we are so thankful for the blessing of an addition to our family! We just love her! Here are some pics from the hospital and a comparison of Grayson and Ella around the same age!

Happy Anniversary and Maybe a Birthday!

Tonight I will be going in to the hospital to be induced and we are so excited! But since I will be in the hospital, I wanted to post this today! Tomorrow, June 24th, will be our 4th wedding anniversary. I can't believe 4 years of marriage have already passed by. They have been amazing. I think I am a bit emotional over this anniversary for a couple of reasons. #1 I am pregnant...enough said! :) and #2 My sister in law will be getting married in less than 3 weeks. I will miss her since she is moving a while away but I am more emotional/excited about the journey her and Dusty will be embarking on. It's not only that I think they are a sweet couple but it makes me think of when Joey and I started out 4 years ago. I remember being so nervous and scared yet excited going away on a honeymoon just me and him and then moving into OUR house just me and him. It was surreal. I remember it being tough because I was starting my first year teaching, starting grad school, getting our new house together, and he was in college full time. (and 6 months later we got pregnant with Grayson!) It was a whirlwind experience but it is amazing to see how much we have grown and how strong our marriage has become. I am excited for Dusty and Lauren to experience that.
But these 4 years have been THE MOST AMAZING 4 years of my life. (Of course, I am going to start crying now...lol!) Joey is an absolute answer to all my prayers of what I had wanted in a guy. I had a prayer journal through high school ( I still have it to this day) and inside I was writing about what kind of guy I wanted, here were the top qualities I prayed for:
1. A Guy Who Loves The Lord
2. Dimples
3. A Musician
4. Classic Style

As humorous as it may seem, God blessed with all of that and more in Joey. He is loving, caring, sweet, thoughtful, and always makes me feel safe. I can talk to him about anything and knows he understands and listens. I am never afraid to speak my mind in fear of what he will think. He is an amazing leader for our family and brings us closer to God each day. He is a wonderful father to Grayson and I know he will be the same to Ella. So HAPPY 4th ANNIVERSARY, Joey. I love you so much and thank you for being my rock and still remembering to do the little sweet things. I look forward to may more years to come!

Oh and I will definitely blog when we get that baby Ella home! I am so excited to see her face and even more excited to see how our sweet Grayson will react!

Whoa....2 Kids?!?!?

As my stomach gets even bigger and my nights are becoming sleepless, it is becoming more and more real to me that Joey and I will be parents of 2 kids...wow...with an s at the end. It is crazy! I talk about Ella each day but it still hasn't truly hit me or Joey either. I am not sure if that's how it is with your 2nd or what. We are so excited about welcoming our little girl into the world and Grayson is so excited to be a big brother. He always brings toys to my stomach and says, "Her you go, Ella!" What a sweet big brother already, now let's hope it stays that way when she comes out!

Tomorrow will be my last dr.'s appointment...Yipppeee! I am so excited that I won't be traveling to downtown Dallas every week anymore! Next week will be my last trip to Dallas (Baylor) when I am induced IF she doe not come earlier. But the way things are....I bet I will have to wait until the 24th. It's only a week and 2 days away so its not too bad, I am just tired of people asking if I am having twins! :(

This is Joey and Grayson's official 2nd week of summer break and my first. I was actually supposed to work this week (it would have been my last) but my doctor put me on bed rest at last week's visit due to excessive swelling. My legs and feet looked like an elephant's. I don't remember my pregnancy with Grayson being like this! Well back to summer break.....it has been so neat to see all the activities Joey has done with Grayson like joining the Rockwall Reading Club and building a Lego land with him. It's so neat to see how much their relationship is growing. I see how amazing of a father Joey is! I am truly blessed to have such a caring and sweet husband that loves being a Daddy!


Below are some pics of Grayson on Summer Break and a couple of Ella's room!

I hope the next time I blog, I will already be a mother of 2!!!


 We finally found a use for our formal living room!

Grayson said he wanted to go to school!

Big Summer Happenings!!

I can't believe how fast summer has gotten here! Tomorrow will be Joey's last day of work until August 16th and Grayson's last day of daycare. Unfortunately, I have to work until June 18th so they will have two weeks on me! Joey jokes that they are going to swim and party everyday! Ha! Ha!

Well I have had a wonderful year as a counselor. But with a lot of thought, I have decided to go back to teaching until an elementary counseling position in FORNEY opens up. I had some leads in Mesquite and a school interested but I have decided that I want to be where Joey and our kids will be. Plus, I know so many people in Forney and just love it. It is one of the best school districts I have ever seen. I had already signed my counseling contract for next year but fortunately they let me get out of it to sign a teaching contract at RHEA ELEMENTARY! I am so excited and I will be teaching 1st grade dual language and the best part is....Joey is the PE teacher there. It is such an amazing blessing to be able to work around the corner with my sweet hubby! I will continue to work on my LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor to have my own practice) next year so teaching will be a better fit for allowing me time to do that and be with my family, which is my number one goal.

Grayson has been doing great. We are struggling a bit with potty training but he is getting better. He will be 3 in September but I think the biggest problem for us has been that we are gone so much. Hopefully, since we have the summer together we can really hit that hard.*Mommies out there, if you have any tips, please leave them in the comment area! We would love to hear any ideas that worked for you. We would love to NOT have 2 in diapers! :)

Speaking of two, Ella will make her scheduled arrival June 24th, which is me and Joey's 4th wedding anniversary. She could come earlier but that is the date that I will be induced if not. They are estimating she will be 8 or 9 pounds. Grayson was 9lbs 2 oz, so I am used to big babies! I am really excited and I can't wait to see how Grayson will react to her. He has been practicing with stuffed animals and has done great! And I can't wait to see if she will look like me or like Joey! I was shocked to have a blonde hair, blue eyed baby being half asian.

I will post pics of Grayson from a couple of weeks ago and of Ella's room as soon as I can, so be on the lookout for those! :)

Sickness, A Mini Trip, and a Career Switch!

This week has been a little tough! I have bronchitis and then Grayson got sick as well. We have been resting and I have honestly done a whole bunch of nothing. I am feeling much better today and Grayson seems better and has missed school so we went ahead and sent him. I am praying he does okay and has a good day!
We enjoyed a nice little get-a-way to Grapevine last weekend to The Gaylord and had a blast. I had to take a lot of breaks walking and use my heart monitor but other than that it was great. It was amazing to see how much fun Grayson had and it was heart warming to see the joy on his face with some of the activities we did. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe which scared him a little because we were sitting near a huge gorilla but other than that he has never sat so still and focused during a meal! We were surprised at how great the food was, too! He then rode a train, went to toy stores, and rode the carousel. It was a nice, relaxing evening and the perfect little get-a-way for our family. The Gaylord was beautiful, it was not as family friendly as Great Wolf but it did have trains and that was more than enough to make Grayson happy.

Another big thing happening for our family is a possible career switch for me! Joey really wants me to be a stay at home mom and although it's tempting, I really LOVE working. So I have been thinking about making a career move that will be better for a mother of 2 than counseling. I absolutely love counseling and it is so me but at the middle school level it is very intense and time consuming. I really wanted to move to the elementary level but there are no positions. There is a lead in Mesquite ISD but I really want to stay in Forney. So I am thinking about going back to teaching for a year or two while I have little ones. I always got to leave around 3:30 and I enjoyed the constant interaction with kids. I feel it may be the best decision for our family. I am only 27 and have had a blessing of year as a counselor and I have the degree and certification so I am not stepping down, I am just stepping back to do what is best for my family right now.

I will keep you posted on how that goes! Until then, here are some pics of Grayson and I at the Gaylord.....a very pregnant me. Unfortunatley, Joey was taking the pics but I will have to find some with him in them!

He was overwhelmed and didn't know where to start!!!

My Sweet Husband

This 2nd pregnancy has been a bit more difficult than it was with Grayson. I am not sure if the 2nd is just harder or if it's because she's a girl and she's already being a little stinker. Through this tough time though I have realized one thing even more than I ever have and that is how wonderful Joey is. He truly makes me feel treasured by him. He's honest and always puts our family at the top (under God, of course) of his priorities.
I felt compelled to blog about him today because I have just been thinking about how caring and sweet he is to me. He is loving, a strong leader for our family not only as a husband and father but as a spiritual leader, as well. He is always affectionate and makes me feel special. We have our times when we're stressed and not the usual lovebirds but we have seen those times become more and more rare as our marriage and family move even closer to the Lord. I feel like as my relationship with God has grown and my eyes have been opened to so much more.....I appreciate my husband and love him even more.
I used to think it needed to be 50/50 and I do feel that in a sense still. I think things should be discussed together and a decision should be made together but when it comes to effort....it shouldn't be 50/50...it should be 100% from both ends. My friend Amanda put it into that term while I was talking to her the other day....that's exactly how I feel and I am so thankful that God has given me a husband as wonderful as Joey. It's not our anniversary or anything like that but I have just observed him over the past few weeks and I've seen how he takes care of Grayson and me and he does it lovingly and not forced. Here are some verses I found on marriage:

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

—Colossians 3:18-19

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one gflesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

—Ephesians 5:22-33

I know Joey and I have not been married for 20 years, its barely 4, but I think the time you're married doesn't make it valuable, its the substance of a marriage. And our substance is Christ and his word.

So, I guess my point of this blog wasn't just to profess my love for Joey (well maybe part of it was...:) but it is to share how important making God the center of a marriage is. No marriage is perfect and there will be some rough patches but having Him as the stronghold makes it all have more meaning, it makes the hard times easier to get through and really follwoing God's word on marriage adds so much more meaning and joy to a husband's and wife's relationship.

So...thank you Lord, first of all for guiding us and...thank you, Joey, for being the sweetest husband! I never would have imagined that when we got engaged 6 years ago that we would be so blessed.....