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