Little Bear Bear

Our beautiful Niece Clare turns two today! Born and unbelievable ten days apart, she is definitely Curtis's best buddy.

I love that she is obsessed with Little People. She knows all of their names and can pick them out among a thousand other toys.

I love that silly "Bear climbs over the mountain" song she sings anytime she sees a bear or hears the word bear.

I love that she inherited a huge sweet tooth. She can spot chocolate from a mile away!

I love that she truly loves Jesus, Mary, Joseph, The Holy Church, and is always actively involved in daily Mass.

I love that she calls herself BearBear about a thousand times a day.

I love that she is such a gentle soul. She loves babies and anything related to babies. She is going to be an amazing big sister in March!

I love that she is scared of lightning and sometimes airplanes.

I love that she is always super excited to see Gracie and then remembers that she doesn't really like her THAT much.

I love that she is a silly little person with a huge imagination. She is always coming up with new dances and wants to sing songs all day long.

I love that she admires the goat at the zoo that is always on the highest little hill at the petting zoo and that she attempts to imitate his feats whenever possible.

I love that she knows the name of everyone in her family and can recite them when asked.

I love the way she says "Hobby Lobby" or "dobby lobby" is her GiGi's favorite store!

I could go on for days! Most of all I LOVE that we are close enough to know all of things about her! I love that we are able to see her almost daily and that we are able to see her grow and change and blossom into a little lady.

We love you dearly Clare. You bring so much joy and love into our lives. We are blessed to have you as our niece. Happy Birthday BearBear!

Thankful

Sometimes having a two year old can be...well...overwhelming. They are full of fun, energy, opinions, words, and will. At times this energy and willfulness can be channeled into inappropriate outlets. This provides a great opportunity as a mother to attempt to refocus this energy into a more positive expression. Sometimes at the end of the day I find myself begging, pleading, bargaining, with God for more patience. Then I realize that having a two year old means that God has given me approximately ten thousand opportunities to practice patience already today and it is not even lunch time yet! It can be easy to overlook these opportunities to practice patience and turn to anger and frustration which I am often guilty of but what would that accomplish? May I see each and every opportunity that is thrown at me as a chance to practice the patience I so desperately need! May Mary be my guide as I parent with intention, patience, and attentiveness. Thank you God for the lessons being sent my way daily!

Snow Day

What a wonderful time we had playing in the snow today!!! I know you guyses up north probably laugh at our "snow" but we had a great time! Tons more pictures on our picassa site.

Photo shoot with the families

Over the past month we have had two huge photo shoots with the Counts family and the Schwartz family. Be sure to check out all of the out takes on our Picasa site. There are some absolutely gorgeous pictures and some pretty hilarious ones also. Curtis is trying to find his smile for the photographer and mostly looks like he is grimacing. Made for some pretty funny pictures! There are a few shots of Kaylee sitting in a chair holding on with both hands and Curtis grimacing in the background while holding her chair. It looks like he is about to dump her out of the chair at any minute! No one was harmed in the making of these pictures!

This is my absolute favorite shot of the bunch. It is just a perfect picture of childhood innocence. I love that they both have a hand in the shot too. It is SUPER cute zoomed in a little more and in black and white also! We are so blessed to have such awesome families!

Stolen Time

Blogging on some stolen time here. Curtis has been asleep way longer than normal for his naps. Its funny to feel like I have gotten away with something by having all this extra time! We had a wonderful trip to Illinois for Thanksgiving. Tons of pictures on Picasa. Curtis is growing like a weed and has really picked up the pace on his talking lately. Mostly he is really trying to put sentences together like, a tummy a full, or a man a walkin, I LOVE this age!

stolen time over...more later!

Happy Birthday Anna Banana!! Our little "niece" turned two yesterday! We love you!

Perspective

I remember growing up and my parents always telling me they thought I would be REALLY big when I was as tall as the TV. It is funny what we base our perspective on, grocery carts, gym equipment, anything we see them around often. This week I realized that my perspective had to do with his baby tub. When I saw him looking like this in it...

The tears started. I know I post about this almost weekly but seriously I can not believe how big he is!!! Happy weekend

Catching Up

Wow, these past few weeks have been a whirl wind! We headed to Florida two weeks ago to attend Grandma's funeral. We had a really nice few days with Grandpa and the rest of our family. The funeral was beautiful and was a great way to remember the beautiful woman my grandmother was.

Curtis was an absolute dream the entire week. He rode in the car without a fuss the entire way to Florida and then played nicely, slept great, and had wonderful manners while were were there. Upon returning to Texas I said numerous times that I truly do not deserve him, he is such a blessing!!! Here is an adorable picture of him in Florida playing on the beach, his eyelashes go on for days! And another picture of him trick or treating in the Destin shopping arena:

When we returned home Curtis had a really rough week. He is finally getting his two year molars in and man do they hurt! I can not imagine what it would feel like to have such a huge tooth tear its way out of my gums! Poor guy! We had a pretty trying week, especially when it came to going to daily mass and confession. He was just miserable and was not able to suppress his emotions for five seconds, no less an hour during mass. Mass is where i rejuvenate. The body and blood of Christ give me the strength to parent without reserve. Because of the sacrifice Christ gave for me, I am able to sacrifice for my family. When I am unable to receive Him my well runs dry. It was a very trying week. Thankfully, mass on Saturday morning was amazing. I am humbled when I think about how blessed I am to have a child in which not being able to sit through mass is the exception! The intention of the mass on Saturday was the soul of our precious Gabriel. It was a healing mass in more ways than one. I am so thankful to the Church for providing such concrete ways to remember and bless our precious babies. Sunday mass was more of the same beautiful child of God that I know and love. Curtis bows to the alter, genuflects, signs himself with the cross, repeats the amen, alleluia, and Jesus, kneels during the consecration, all of this and he is not even two! God is so good!

Can you tell my mind is swarming from the weeks previous? I hope to blog more soon, nap time is over.