Sister Time

 It has been a blessing over the past few months, and especially the past few weeks, to watch how these two sweet sisters are learning to play together. In fact, Rachel looked at me earlier this week and asked me "what does BFF mean, Mommy? When I explained to her that it means Best Friends Forever, she promptly looked at her sister and said,
"You are my BFF, Bekah"
That will surely make a mom smile!

Playing at church together

Coloring in Daddy's office together

 Believe me, it certainly goes both ways. Rebekah may not have the words to say so yet, but she definitely has the smiles to let us know she loves her sister. She grins when her sister walks in the room, smiles at her from the crib at night and laughs at all her sister's funny faces and moves.

 Over the past few weeks, I have caught the girls interacting several different times, where they were actually playing together. It is great to see them enjoying spending time together. We hope they will always remember that some of your best friends will be your siblings!

Big sister helping little sister

Playing with the craft supplies at Bekah's party together

Sand box time together

Playing ball together (Rebekah needed a little help from Dad to play)

Enjoying a break along the hike together

Playing tools together

Lots of sweet hugs together!

 So from these two sisters who love each other and we pray will learn to always appreciate the blessing God has given them in each other, we say Happy Siblings Day! We thank God for the blessing of these two wonderful girls with their unique and special personalities and the opportunity to raise them to love each other, their parents, family and most of all, Jesus!

                                   "How good and pleasant it is when God's people
                                                        live together in unity!"
                                                              Psalm 133:1

Happy Birthday, Rebekah Faith!

Our little butterfly, Rebekah Faith

Today is our precious Rebekah's first birthday! We thank God for bringing her into our family one year ago today. We thank God for how He has blessed us through her already and for all we know He is going to do in her life!

Clapping along with the birthday song as we sang to Rebekah at church

Rebekah and Rachel sitting on the craft table

 We celebrated Rebekah's birthday with our church family on Sunday. We made butterflies with our handprints, coffee filters and clothespin caterpillars for the big kids. Rebekah sat on the craft table supervising the big kids and chewing markers.
Thank you to our church family that celebrated with us. Thank you too to all our family and friends for your sweet birthday wishes to Rebekah today.

Playing peekabo under the cake table

Rebekah's first birthday cake

 We had a delicious strawberry birthday cake handmade especially for Rebekah by Mrs. Karen Goodbar. It was so fun to watch Rebekah enjoy this cake. Our firstborn would barely touch cake-we had to break her cake into pieces and hand them to her. Not so with Rebekah! I sat her behind the cake to get a picture and she reached out and picked out a butterfly and began to enjoy her cake! I finally had to move her so we could cut the cake and she could have some cake with her icing and butterflies. She ate an entire full sized piece of cake by herself! She wore the cake in her hair, on her eyelids besides along her mouth and chin.

Handmade by Mrs. Karen

Rebekah enjoying the first bites of birthday cake

Polishing off an entire full sized piece of birthday cake

Wearing her butterfly wings

Little butterfly crawling away

 Today on Rebekah's birthday, we spent some time playing at home, followed by a trip to the park for Brent and the girls. I was able to join them after work this afternoon. Besides, the park, they had Oreo ice cream and doughnuts for a treat. Rebekah got to try both for her first birthday! Of course, she liked both very much. After we finished at the park, we headed home for birthday lasagna. It is tradition in Brent's family to have lasagna on special days and today was definitely a special day!

9:15 am, Rebekah is officially 1!

Playing in her room this morning

Sharing doughnut with Dad on her first birthday

Also enjoying Oreo ice cream as a birthday treat!

At the park with Dad

Loving the swings

Family tire swing

                        Rebekah and Mommy                       

      

 

 

Getting ready for birthday lasagna

Throughly enjoying birthday lasagna!

                                                     " I am a promise, I am a possibility,
                                                       I am a promise with a capital "P"
                                                   I am a great big bundle of potentiality,
                                                  and I am learning to hear God's voice,
                                                 And I am trying to make the right choice,
                                                          I am a promise to be...
                                                   Anything God wants me to be"
                                                         -song by G. Gaither

Happy Birthday, to our little butterfly. We Love You!

                                                  "For You formed my inward parts;
                                              You covered me in my mother’s womb.
                                            I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
                                                   Marvelous are Your works,
                                                And that my soul knows very well."
                                                              Psalm 139:13-14

Par For the Course

Saturday was a better day, thankfully, than Friday! To those of you who saw our facebook post and prayed for us, thank you!  Our family devotion on Saturday was even on trusting God when you have troubles. We thank God for His protection on Friday and His continuing provision for us.
After our tough day on Friday, we just stayed home to rest and have some family time together. It began with block building in the morning

 This is Rachel and her Daddy's masterpiece this morning. This is the hotel and it even had cars and a garage and she even made sure there was room for Baby Jesus (her figurine from her nativity set) in her hotel.

 This is the hotel just after her little sister got to it. Thankfully she thought it was funny to see Rebekah knock the hotel down and she was not upset about it!
After lunch and the girls' naps, we decided to go outside for a bit. Brent's dad had an extra set of golf clubs that he sent back with him a few weeks ago. Rachel has been really interested in putt putt since we watched people playing at the beach this summer. So she was really excited that Brent was going to go out in the field and hit a few golf balls.

Rachel getting ready to put

Rachel making sure her tee is in just the right spot

Rachel holding the largest golf club

Rebekah and her Dad

Rebekah holding her golf club, just looks more like the "Touchdown"sign in football to me

Giving Dad a kiss on the cheek

Rachel helping collect all the golf balls Brent hit

She found another one!

Rebekah using the golf balls as rattles and noise makers

Thanking the Lord for some rest and family time. Thanking Him for being with us in the hard days and for the blessing of good days. Thanking Him, most of all, for who He is!

                                        "Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
                                           Because His compassions fail not.
                                                        They are new every morning;
                                           Great is Your faithfulness."
                                              Lamentations  3:22-23

Milestones

 It has been an eventful first year for Rebekah Faith! Here are a few of Rebekah's milestones:

First Bath

                          First trip to church                         First trip to Lexington and the mountains

Moving time

First trip to the zoo

First Wildcat football game                           First Thanksgiving

First Christmas Parade

"Mary" and her baby

First visit to a manger

First Christmas

Happy New Year, 2012!!

First "Ski" Trip

First Carolina Basketball game

First baby food

  Rebekah's first big snow and first day hike to Cole Mountain 

First nap in our new home

Happy Easter 2012

First trip to see the butterflies

                                                                                                   

First campfire

Baby Dedication

First trip to the pool

First time feeding the giraffes

First trip to Roan

First Vacation Bible School, FMBC

Happy Fourth of July!

Lexington Fourth of July Children's Parade

         First Youth Camp, Liberty University                                       First Carousel Ride                              First Haircut                                                  First Trip to the Beach, Surf City, NC                                                   

Learning to crawl

Pulling up

First trip to swim in the river

First Ice Cream!