Two Years Old

I thought this pic was hillarious.

My baby boy turned two on Saturday. We didn't really do much to celebrate because I had a wedding the day before and Eric was down in Indy. But, we had a little last minute cookie cake with just the grandparents. Then Eric and I took the kiddos to the zoo in Indy to celebrate his bday and mother's day on Sunday.

Blake is starting to talk a lot more. Most of his words are still one syllable and require translation, but he is starting to say some words with two syllables. Cars are still his favorite toys. He also likes trains, and he loves to read. A couple of weeks ago he started reading books to himself. He will sit there and babble for an hour to himself. He also loves being outside and would live out there if I let him.

Blake has also gotten a lot more lovie. For awhile there, he wouldn't give me kisses or hugs. But, in the last month, he started giving me kisses and big bear hugs around my neck that make me melt. He goes back and forth loving and fighting with Layla, but he is a good big brother.....taking her toys and her binky to her, giving her hugs and kisses, and trying to get her to crawl to him. Layla started crawling on Blake's bday. She has been scooting for a couple of weeks, but finally took off forward on Saturday.

Being a mother is such a blessing. I thank God and pray for them everyday. God Bless all you mothers out there!

He Has Risen!

First Easter Egg Hunt...kids were sooo adorable.

Layla had enough of the pictures :)

Happy Easter to everyone. We traveled to Florida for Eric's spring break to visit my grandparents, and we had a wonderful time. We had a crazy experience getting down there with canceled flights and more delayed flights with two children, but we had a great time once we got there. I'll be posting pictures soon.

After growing up in the church my whole life, being active in my youth group, attending a christian college, and going to chapel 3 days a week throughout college, I've heard a lot of sermons over the years. However, God never ceases to amaze me how I am always learning new things about him and different perspectives. In church on Sunday, I loved what the pastor said about Christ and the resurrection.

He described his loving relationship with his mother first. Then later said that you can't decide to believe in Christ and His resurrection anymore than you decided that your mother was your mother. The evidence for the resurrection is vast (please study up on this if you never have). Your mother simply was and is your mother. Christ simply was and is. The resurrection simply happened. The decision we all have to make is what you do with this information.

We can't simply say, ya I believe in God. If we truly believe and accept Christ, we must give our entire life to him, trust him, obey him, seek to learn more about him, grow in a daily relationship with him, stop living a selfish life and live for him instead.

Thank you, God, for sending your son for me. Your mercy and love is overwhelming!

Hot Cheetos

I walked in the living room a couple of days ago, and Blake was sitting on the chair eating Jalapeno Cheetos. He cracks me up. Since when does a 1 1/2 year old like hot spicy things. My son does.

Jack 2 Years Old

Lilly was mad that she didn't get sprinkles :) Sometimes I can't help but smile when kids pout :)

The kids playing ring around the rosie (sooo cute)!

Layla watching the kids play...lol.

My nephew, Jack, just turned 2 years old. Cory and Kim had a birthday party for him this past weekend. He is such a cutie pie, and I just love his personality! It was a lot of fun getting the kids together. Happy Birthday, Jack!

Family Pics

Here are some pics from first week in February. Liz, my cousin, had a baby shower. It was good to see the extended fam.

Blake 22 Months

Blake is 22 months old today. He is starting to talk more and more everyday, finally starting to try to repeat things we say.

Some of his words are: mama, dada, lalala (layla), pa (for gpa), ma (for gma), jor (jordan), je (jess), shh (shelly), bri (brian), all the names of his cars (from the cars movie), babu (vroom vroom), row row (row row row your boat), choo choo (train), brush, nana (banana), blue, red, boo (book), mi (milk), ju (juice), baple (apple), hiiii (hi), bye bye, ba (baxter), lots of animal noises.

His favorite things are cars. Lines them up, pushes them off things, sends them down the slide, sleeps with them, hides them, and takes them everywhere with him. He also likes trains, airplanes, books, playing outside, and his dada. He loves his mama too, but he is a daddy's boy. One of my favorite parts of the day is to see him run to eric when he comes home from work.

He warms up to Layla more as she is getting older. He can be mean to her too, but he really likes it when she laughs at him. I love my little guy so much and thank God everyday for blessing me with him!

Update on Me

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I've been really busy with my floral business that I started. After having kids, I realized how much I wanted to be able to stay home with them. But, I still wanted to be able to help out and bring in some extra money also.

I laugh at how many businesses I've tried to start over the past 3 years. None of them worked out very well. Looking back, I think that I was trying to create and force things to happen instead of letting God open doors by using some of the gifts He has given me.

Doing wedding flowers has been in the back of my mind this whole time, but I think that I just doubted myself that I could be successful at it. I finally decided to go for it and put at add on craigslist. I received an almost overwhelming response. I just had my first wedding on Valentine's day, two weeks ago had an event at the Art Museum in Indianapolis, and I have 6 more weddings booked for the rest of the year.

I also found an awesome person, Chelsea, who does blog designs to help me create a more professional blog. She is in the process of making it right now, but head over and check it out if you get a chance. I also have some new flower pictures on there. It is the www.rebeccavalentine.blogspot.com site . Chelsea is very reasonable in pricing if any of you are interested. She also has a lot of free backgrounds (like the one on this blog). Check her out at http://aquapoppydesigns2.blogspot.com/ . Love you all!