Merry Christmas

Hi everyone. Sorry that I haven't updated my blog in awhile. I've been really busy getting ready for the holidays, and I've received a lot of interest for my wedding flower business. I just posted some fall family pics below this that Shelly took of us a couple of months ago. I have more pictures to post and more about our awesome parenting book that we are reading. Hopefully, things will calm down a little after the holidays.

Eric and I have our five year wedding anniversary coming up on the 27th. I can't believe how fast time goes. I'm very blessed to have such a wonderful husband and father to my children. With every year, I grow to love and appreciate him more and more. Happy Anniversary, babe. I love you!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you. We love you all very much!

Fall Family Pics

STUDMUFFINS

Shelly did another amazing job taking pictures of us a couple of months ago. It's always so much work taking family pictures when you have little ones. Shell is becoming a professional funny face maker, funny noise maker, and dancer :) Thanks again, Shell!!

Blake is a little over 19 months now and Layla is 3 1/2 months. Blake is really into cars, trains, and airplanes. Layla is smiling a lot at us now and even laughing a little. They are a lot of work, but such a blessing!

Glad You Made It

Glad you made it to our new family site. Feel free to check out my flower site also and leave me comments.

I'm kind of excited about starting this business. I just put an ad on craigslist, and I am getting about 2 or 3 contacts per day. I didn't really expect so many so quick, but it's great :) I'm looking at doing weddings up in Michigan and down here in Indy, so if you know anyone getting married, please pass on my information. You can give them my new email rebeccavalentine@live.com and my floral blog address www.rebeccavalentine.blogspot.com . Thanks. Love you all!

The Parent/Person You Want To Be

Becoming a parent has really made me reflect on who I am as a person and who I want to be. Ever since Blake was born, I have wanted to really sit down with Eric and get on the same page on our goals for parenting our kids. However, every time I thought about it, it was such an overwhelming task. There is so much to think about when it comes to parenting. Where do I start?

I wanted to find a book that dealt with parenting issues, so I went searching. A lot of parenting books are for parents of older children who are dealing more with discipline/teaching their children about God/etc. I'm starting to get to that point with Blake, but I'm not quite there yet.

Something God has taught both Eric and I by our parents and others is that who you are as a person has more of an impact on your kids than anything you verbally teach them (although that is important too). I ended up finding a great parenting book that has this message at the heart of it. It is called "The Parent You Want To Be," by Les and Leslie Parrott. I would add that it is really about the person I think everyone would want to be. The book has you look at your pasts individually and then has you and your spouse go through questions together. The authors' website has a link for you to do this activity in case any of you would like to. I thought I would include it. Hope you find this interesting :) We sure have :)

http://www.realrelationships1.com/downloads/parentingprofile.pdf

Happy Halloween

I love this picture. (eric took it)

What is this stuff?Oooo, candy is good :)

He was trying to fit his sucker and his binky in his mouth at the same time :)

We had fun trick or treating. We just went to a few houses around our neighborhood. Blake was still figuring this whole halloween thing out. He put all of his candy in his trunk instead of the halloween bucket I bought him. He sure liked eating a few pieces when he got home :)

The Big Hunt

These are a few pics of the bird hunting trip. Poor birdies :( We made pheasant casserole and it was good.

Night Before the Big Hunt

Jack, isn't he a cutie :)

Lilly and Layla. Lilly was being a little shy :) We got more really cute ones of them together with my mom's camera though.

Grandpa Perry and Layla

Like father like son :)

Jordan and JackGot the beanie at baby gap. I just love it :) We are practicing keeping it on :)

Eric and my brothers, Cory and Mike, went on a bird hunting trip to Pennslyvania. We all got together the night before. These are a few pics from that.