"pedal, pedal, pedal"

Rebekah pedalled her tricycle yesterday! She usually pushes it along with her feet, but now she can pedal. She was so proud that she had to call her grandparents and YELL into the phone, "I pedalled my bicycle all by myself!" (She doesn't say tricycle--everything from a big wheel to a motorcycle is a bicycle.) And thanks to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she says, "Pedal, pedal, pedal. Pedal, pedal pedal." (Those of you with preschoolers addicted to Playhouse Disney know what I'm talking about.)

She's starting to talk about her baby sister more and more, usually in a good way. One day last week, she hid behind the Christmas tree and said, "I don't want a new baby to come to my house anymore" (also suspiciously similar to something she saw on Disney). But in the same week she climbed on my lap, hugged my big belly (oh, yes, it is getting big) and said, "I love you, baby. I love you, Annabelle." I have explained to her that the baby is hers, too, not just Mommy's and Daddy's. She'll be making a lot of adjustments, especially since the girls will share a room, but hopefully she will be enjoy being a big sister. Until Annabelle gets big enough to steal her toys!

P.S. I love saying "the girls"--such a happy idea to have two little girls in our home soon. And it also reminds me of our family trips to the Shepherd of the Hills in Branson--"What would Sarah and the girls say?" Remember that, anybody?

"I don't cry at church"

Rebekah has finally decided that church is a pretty fun place to be. While we were getting ready this week, she said "I paint at church! I jump and bounce at church! I don't cry at church!" Of course, for most people, church is not the place for painting and jumping and bouncing (and I often end up crying at church myself, especially since I've been pregnant), but for a two-year-old, that's what happens, and she's pretty happy about it.

I've also gotten a little more involved by working in the nursery. This week I took care of the babies for an hour and then went to Sunday School. Actually doing some work there makes me feel more like I belong. And of course I love babies, so how could I refuse?

Weekend visit

Rebekah and I had a nice weekend visiting in Paris (Texas, that is). Thanks to her little pink DVD player and some kid songs CDs between movies, she was very good on the ride up there and back--five hours each way, just the two of us. Shannon doesn't tolerate the kid songs very well, but Rebekah and I had fun singing together to pass the time on the road. She loves the old song "My Grandfather's Clock" and always sings the "tick-tock, tick-tock" parts. That was one of my favorite songs, too, so I am happy to sing it to her.

In Paris Rebekah enjoyed seeing her Granmommy and Papaw, and on Friday night Rebekah and her cousin James, who is only five months older, slept together on the floor in their room. They were so cute together. They go several months between visits, but when they are together, they are best friends. We did have to hang up a second swing on the swing set to keep the peace, though. We also enjoyed spending time with Chris and Donna and baby Lily. Rebekah has a doll named Lily, so she is not very happy that her baby cousin is also Lily--that seems to be a situation that she cannot wrap her mind around. Just wait until she figures out that she has an Uncle Chris on both sides of the family!

I think that Rebekah has gotten it into her head in the last two months that cousins are really fun because tonight she asked to go play with Kade. But unfortunately Kade is in Arkansas, so she had to settle for a phone call. If anyone ever misses Rebekah, give her a call because she'll talk your ear off on the telephone.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's just the three of us enjoying our feast together this year (but Rebekah and I will visit Papaw and Granmommy this weekend). We've got the whole traditional dinner (with a 3-pound turkey breast instead of the whole bird) culminating in


Looks good, huh? And this year I went with a super easy but fun and festive centerpiece. It's simple, but I think it looks nice and will make our house feel like the holidays all season.


We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and we look forward to seeing many of you over Christmas.

Love, Sarah, Shannon, and Rebekah (and baby Annabelle, too--she'll be getting plenty of Thankgiving goodies today herself!)

Potty trained!

She's been out of Pull-Ups for two weeks, so I think it's safe to say that Rebekah is officially potty trained! That's good news for us because soon we'll be buying lots of diapers for Annabelle. For anyone in the midst of this process, Rebekah likes to play this Elmo game online--we're not sure if Elmo really helped to potty train her, but it couldn't have hurt!

We're having a girl!

I already have visions of the sisters in matching dresses :) Her new due date is April 12. The original due date was April 10, but early on she measured about a week and a half small. Now she just measures two days small--18 weeks and 4 days--so she's catching up. Rebekah was born a week early, so there's a good chance this one could be an Easter baby. The baby weighs 10 oz. today. We have named her Annabelle--middle name is still pending. We have a list of potential middle names, but we are open for suggestions if you have any!

Here are the ultrasound pictures:


Head and face profile--see the little nose?


Profile with arm and fist


Long legs--feet are on the left

New poncho

Rebekah was so happy to get a new Pooh and Piglet poncho from her G.G. Look how cute she is!

Rebekah's Texas drawl

Rebekah has learned to say "Texas A&M," which takes a long time because she says it with a true Texas drawl--her "M" sounds like "eee-um." She's been telling everyone she sees, "My mommy goes to school at Texas A&M." But don't worry, all you Arkansans. She learned how to call the Hogs a year ago.

When it rains, it pours

We've just had one of those weeks--and the problems are leaking into this week!

I had a ton of work to do, and of course, that's when Rebekah gets sick. Shannon was able to take her to the doctor, who told us, as usual, that she has a cold and there's nothing we can do but wait it out. So when I went to pick up some medicine for her, my car broke down in the pharmacy parking lot. We had it towed to a shop, but when it got there it worked. They changed the fuel filter and we took it home.

During all of this, I caught Rebekah's cold, which then turned into full-blown bronchitis. Shannon had to work on Saturday, so Rebekah went with me to the urgent care clinic. After that, at the pharmacy again, the OTHER car broke down! Fortunately, our friends Courtney and Tom took care of Rebekah and me while we waited for Shannon. But he didn't show up--because the car that was just in the shop wouldn't start! Both cars broken on the same day! And of course, this is complicated by the fact that we were in College Station and Shannon was in Navasota, twenty miles away. Tom took me to TWO Walmarts to find the right battery for the Trailblazer, and fortunately, we had diagnosed the problem correctly and it started up as soon as we got the new battery in. So what started as a quick trip to the doctor ended up being an all-day ordeal, but at least we had a nice visit with our friends, and Rebekah had someone to play with instead of just watching us fix the car.

This week, we're still down to one car, and I still have bronchitis. Hopefully both of those problems will be resolved shortly. My next post will be much happier because we will report the sex of our baby!

Posted by Sarah

Zoo Pictures

Here are some pictures from our weekend trip to the Ft. Worth Zoo. Rebekah and Kade (our nephew) got to feed the parrots.

Ultrasound photos

Aunt Martha requested ultrasound photos, so here are what we have so far.


This is Little Bit at about 6 weeks gestation. See the big dark spot? Now look for the little smudge in the the dark spot. That's the baby.



This is Little Bit at 11 weeks. Now, it looks like a baby (sort of). L.B. is lying on its back at the bottom of the dark spot. The head is on the right, and there is a faint image of arms and legs. When I had this done, the baby looked like it was running, pumping its little feet and hands as fast as it could. The doctor had trouble getting the measurements because we were both laughing so much.

On November 13 we have another ultrasound at which we will hopefully learn the sex of the baby. Check us out here for an announcement!

Listening to the baby

We rented a baby doppler that allows us to hear the baby's heartbeat, and we've used it every day since it came in. We let Rebekah hear the baby, and she thought it was really funny. Then she wanted us to listen to her belly--since we told her that Mommy has a baby in her belly, she has insisted that she, too, has a baby in her belly. She says you can see it if you look in her "button." Of course, there was no sound in her belly, but we moved it to her heart, and she was amazed when she heard it beating. This is a wonderful way for us to all share the experience of the new baby long before I can even feel it moving. I can't wait until Rebekah can put her hand on my belly and feel her little sibling kick!

Posted by Sarah

So what is going on with us?

This past summer we moved to Navasota, Texas, a small town about half an hour from Texas A&M. We both grew up in small towns, so you would think it wouldn't be much of an adjustment, but we had gotten spoiled in College Station with shopping and restaurants right down the street. We're pretty much settled in now, though. We're still going to our church in College Station, and I still work at the university, so we're back and forth quite a bit.

Rebekah is going to a new preschool, and she loves it. She tells us every day about all the fun she has playing outside with her friends. She talks all the time, and she is always making funny observations. Yesterday she climbed into my desk chair and said, "Mommy, I need to check my email!" She also has gotten a little sneaky. We lost her toothbrush last week, and after looking all over the house, Shannon finally took her to the store so she could pick out a new one. As soon as she got home with her new Care Bears toothbrush, she went straight to the entertaiment center and pulled out her "lost" My Little Pony toothbrush, held them both up, and said "Now I have all of them!" She knew where it was all along!

Shannon is managing Pizza Hut here in Navasota and training managers for the Houston area. Soon he will be responsible for opening a brand new Pizza Hut in a nearby town, but we're not sure when (you know how those things go...first it was set for January, now they say May).

I am teaching Technical Writing online this semester. The totally online class has been an adjustment for me and my students, but we all seem to be surviving. I have different plans for next semester...more on that later. I passed my preliminary exams this summer, which means that all I have left to finish my degree is my dissertation. But don't get excited...that will take a while, especially with two kids. That's right--two kids! We're expecting our second baby in April.

That's enough for now. We'll be updating this regularly, so keep checking in.

posted by Sarah

Starting the family blog

Our original family website is still up here. But I haven't been very diligent in keeping it updated in, well, the past year. So after using Blogger for several months in a different capacity, I thought this might be a nice place keep the family updated as we change and grow and, yes, expand! Updating this is much quicker than keeping up with our website, and it's free, which is even nicer. This post is just a placeholder until I can show the blog to Shannon for his input. And it can hold our dandy little tickers until I put them officially into the template.

Edited: I moved the tickers to the top so you can see them every time you log on.