Baby's First Haircut!

Vivi had her first haircut today at a place called Hair Diddle Diddle!
Before shots!

We chose an adorable pink airplane for her to ride in.

She was very still for a one year old.

She wanted to shop after her haircut.

After! The lady put gel in and gave her a little curly style.
They gave us her hair in a little baggy.

After her haircut we took her to Bennigan's for their $4.99 lunch special (including drink!) We always love a good deal! Isaac was at preschool so it was fun for Vivi to have Mommy and Daddy all to herself.

Make Everything a Memory

I love this picture of Isaac at the wedding watching Jen and Jay dance. He was our little man that weekend and Oh so cute! We loved traveling with him, he did so well in the car. Lately he has been asking me what time it is-having no concept of time as it is! He often asks "what's for supper?" even at 7 in the morning. He says "Mom, are you happy or are you sad?" which makes me reflect on how important my role as mother is. I set the tone for the family, good or bad. If I am happy it gives everyone else the freedom and encouragement to be joyful as well. If I am sad or grouchy, I rob my family of their freedom to laugh and play carefree-because everyone is worried about what's up with Mom. It is a difficult role to maintain, but an important one for sure. I said on one of my last posts that I would talk about my motherhood moto of Making everything a Memory. Billy and I reflected on our drive back from Houston this weekend for his sister's graduation, about how the little things in life make a huge difference for kids. When we are spontaneous like the night we shouted "Icecream" after we were all in our pj's and drove out to Braums. Or when Billy crawls under the baby's crib and gets stuck just to make the kids laugh. Isaac remembers the quarters he got from Daddy at Cici's to play an arcade game. And somehow I have to believe Vivi will remember the mornings we cuddle in bed as she drinks her milk. These are the things that are so small and mundane but HUGE when it comes to making time with your kids count. And don't say your children are too young to remember. They might not remember what color their party plates were but they will remember the feeling of safety and love that surrounded them in that moment. They will carry it with them and dip back in it when life gets tough or sad or scary. Vivi loves to wear bracelets and hats, any accessory. And everytime she puts one on I say "pretty girl!". The other day she put sunglasses on, looked in the mirror, smiled a smile that showed all 12 teeth, and said "pretty".

Billy said it is interesting that something as simple as me tying ribbons around candles at a party will get noticed. People notice when they are treated special-it makes them want to come back for more-and it leaves a lasting memory.

Oh My Goodness

I had the following email forwarded to me from my friend who heads up our adoption ministry. To put it mildly, we are outraged that this is going on. Read the following and then click on the video.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to let you know about an amazing miracle that is happening in a church in Southlake. They have offered an infertile couple here in the Metroplex 'The Gift Of Life'. The Eleven7Church in Southlake, Pastor Keith Lutrell (http://www.eleven7.org/) and his congregation are wanting to bless an infertile couple with the Gift Of Life - paid infertility treatment up to one IVF cycle with ICSI if needed. Please click on this link below to see news footage of this wonderful opportunity.

http://cw33.trb.com/video/?clipId=2463858&topVideoCatNo=75285&c=&autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=
The Eleven7Church have teamed up with The Center for Assisted Reproduction and the North Texas Urology Associates to offer this gift and make it a reality.Interested candidates (you think that's us?) can goto the website at http://web.mac.com/eleven7church/Eleven7/Gift_of_Life_files/application.pdf and apply by completing the application online. The selected couple will be named on Father's Day!I am so grateful that God has burdened this church and it's congregation to award such a gift. I am so grateful to each and everyone of you to be able to apply.If there is anything that I can do to help you with this, please let me know!I love you all very much and am very excited for this opportunity, and Thanking God for the couple that is selected and this family and church who has so graciously offered this gift!

Lorraine Thomas,

FounderFertility Challenges Support

lorraine@fcsupport.org

http://www.fcsupport.org/

First of all, the church cannot guarantee this procedure will result in a pregancy and live birth however they so flippantly use the title "the gift of life." Then-according to the application- each couple has to pay $25 to apply-yet it is being promoted as a gift from the church. You get 1000 applicants and you have $25,000 right there! So how is that a gift? It is more like a lottery pool. Then they are choosing 10 couples out of the saddest stories and parading them in front of the concregation on Sunday June 6th, only to bring them back up there the following Sunday on Father's Day to have a "random" drawing where one lucky couple will win. What about the other 9 couples who have already experienced so much loss and dissapointment-now they have to suffer publicly? Is the church going to set up some counseling for them? My friend and I were exclaiming what kind of church does this sort of thing and I said it must be one of those Prosperity churches that believe if you have enough faith God will bless you. And she said this all sounded too much like a publicity stunt to get people to come to their church- which I agree!

The bottom line is if a church wants to give the "gift of life" to one "lucky couple"- why not pay for an adoption? That is a life God has already brought about and a child who needs a home-paired with a couple who are desperate to be parents, not just to be pregant.

Where in the Bible does it tell people that God will bless you with biological children? Nowhere. But there is a lot mentioned about caring for the orphaned. Let's not bring our medical technology (IVF by the way is very controversial among Christians) into Church. Church is a place we should feel safe and supported no matter where life takes us- not some magic pill that will make all our "dreams come true." Sheesh.

Sick Dog

Lucy (on the left) spent all afternoon yesterday at the animal hospital. She has an upper respiratory infection that we believe she must have gotten from the kennel we had her at this past weekend. Guess we won't be going back there. They put her on anti virals and said it was a good thing we brought her in early for treatment before the infection went into her blood stream. So she is on 3 different meds and has to stay home when we go to Houston tomorrow for Billy's sister's graduation. Lucy came home wearing a hospital bracelet collar, it was kind of cute! She has never been sick before so it is hard to see her coughing and gagging and wheezing. Her activity level is down and she lays around most of the day. As long as she is resting, she doesn't cough much. The vet said if Oscar is not showing symptoms yet then he is probably fine.

Chatty

I realized that I forgot to tell you all that Vivi started to say Mama. She has been saying it for a couple weeks now...thank the Lord! It was about dog gone time. So I thought at the ripe age of 14 months old, I would list the words she says constantly in order of importance to her:
"Eat" or more like "Eaaaatttt"
"Mickey" (her favorite toy is a talking/singing Mickey Mouse doll)
"Puppy"
"Mama"
"Daddy"
"Isaac" or "Iseeec"
"Baby"
"Cup"
"Bbbbb" (book or ball)
"Hi" (with her hand up to her face like a telephone)
"Bye-Bye"
"vroom"
"paci"

I think that is about it. She will repeat things we say with a parrot-like clarity. But then we can't get her to repeat it at parties when we are trying to show her off. So we have quit trying. Eating and carrying that darned Mickey doll are truly her favorite pastimes. She hates going to bed and can throw her pacifiers out with an arm like a pro-pitcher. I'm surprised they haven't hit Isaac upside the head yet!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

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