Sisters

It's so interesting to me how many people will flat out ask me if I'm "hoping" for a boy this time around~ And everytime I almost wince when I remember that there was a time when I was pregnant for Sydney that I secretly hoped that she would be a boy so we could have the "perfect" family...

Although there are definitely moments when I am literally down on my knees begging the Lord to give me just one day of less screaming & girl-drama and wondering if a boy would really be 'easier' or somehow 'better'; then just as quickly there is a moment like you see above where Sydney crawls up on her sister's lap and says "Tuggle me, Raegan" and Raegan says "Aw...Syd" and squeezes her tightly while they lay there giggling. My heart then swells beyond measure at the sheer joy of seeing the sister bond that would never have been - had I gotten what I thought was my 'perfect' family.

So if you want to know the Honest, honest truth? 10 fingers, 10 toes, and a healthy baby - that's all I want. Because God definitely knows (better then I) what is best for our family.

~So bring on the drama! =)

Tulip Time 2009

My cousins Julie & Kelli came through with cute Dutch costumes again this year for the girls (left over from their childhoods) so we made what has become our now annual trip out to Holland for Tulip Time. Both girls actually really enjoyed it and got into it for different reasons which was fun.
Raegan for the flowers- she loved exclaiming over all the colors, and Syd for the attention- everyone wanted to take her picture since she was dancing around and thinking she was quite the "princess" in her Dutch digs. Typical Syd!
Brad even had a day off on the last weekend so he was able to enjoy watching the girls run through the tulips. Great family fun!
Of course we had to start out with a few poses with 'Birdie'

And then when we convinced Syd to give him up she had to find something else to do with her arms...so she did the "Yay Tulip Time!" cheer.

This was probably the 'best' pose I got

By now we had a small group of tourists who were watching & snapping pictures so of course Syd grabbed the opportunity to really ham it up.

And my precious shy girl was not so sure she liked all the attention

'Peeking' over the tulips

Me attempting to be 'artistic' with a point & shoot camera. =)

And finally this was actually on Saturday when Brad was with us. A band was playing in the park and Sydney was dancing and dancing...we literally had about 8-10 people gathering around her trying to snap photos. This guy went all out snapping pics from every angle with his video camera, camera phone, and regular camera. We joked that we might see pics of her on YouTube someday~ Yikes.

Raegan's last day of 3 year old Preschool

For her last day of 3 year old preschool, Raegan's teachers put on a mini carnival in the classroom~ Parents were encouraged to be there to help out and Reagan thought it was very fun to have me there. True to her personality though, when we got there it took her about 20 minutes to warm up to the 'new' environment (everything switched around and different looking), as well as the throngs of parents and kids. However, once we hung back and watched for awhile then she was eager to get into the fun and had a blast using her 'raffle' tickets to play all the games and 'win' lots of toys and candy. I was very proud of her as she cautiously tried each of the games and beamed with delight when she "won" something. It was definitely a very fun end to a great year!

And here were her three main teachers:

Miss Bonnie (my personal favorite of her teachers) ~ She refers to every single child as her "Treasure".

And Miss Donna~

And finally, Miss Rebecca

Annoyed

So I hope you faithful followers have not given up on me because I am truly trying to get back into the blogging routine again!! I have tons of cute pics and stories I want to share but both my computer and blogger.com seem to have a conspiracy against me lately. Maybe the pregnancy hormones are contributing to my lack of patience a bit but I just don't think it's too much to ask to be able to quickly download a few pics without getting an error message or getting completely booted off of a website! (and this is not just Blogger but Facebook, Craigslist, etc)
ARGH!
So...promises, promises, I WILL get this resolved if I have to beg, cry and plead. Right now I'm working on all 3 in hopes that I get a new laptop for Mother's Day but I'm guessing a pedicure gift certificate is probably a more realistic expectation.

Bear with me and keep checking in. I'll do what I can to get back in action again!