I got this from Brenda, it really puts perspective on things.



NEED WASHING?A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in Target. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Target.We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing as carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in "Mom let's run through the rain," she said."What?” Mom asked."Let's run through the rain!” She repeated."No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit," Mom replied.This young child waited about another minute and repeated: "Mom, let's run through the rain,""We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said."No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm.This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?"Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!"The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes.Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith."Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD lets us get wet, well, maybe we just needed washing," Mom said.Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling, and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars.And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories...So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday. To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.I HOPE YOU STILL TAKE THE TIME TO RUN THROUGH THE RAIN.

Happy Birthday Halia!! family style

Hope everyone is doing good. We had a great weekend in fort smith. Saturday night we did Halia's birthday and bbq and cake. She absolutely loved the cake. She was a little unsure at first, but once she got a taste of it, she loved it and ate about 3/4 of a small cake. Haha, it was so cute though. It was great to see the family and be able to share her first bday with family. She learned how to clap this weekend and now thats all she wants to do.



I got daddy!!!

Off to the bath!

I can't believe I ate that much, I am so full!!

Happy Birthday to me!!


Why are you interupting to take a picture?


I can't believe I get all this

Such a sweet girl!

Pretty Princess

Ft. Smith

We are going to ft smith tonight to celebrate Halia's birthday with the family tomorrow and have cake and ice cream and bbq, swim in the pool. I can hardly believe it has been a year. She is so smart and so much fun! She wants more then anything to walk. She knows several words now, but makes them her own, mama, dada, wow, oh, uhoh. She is so sweet and gives kisses.
I went to her dr appointment the other day to have her routine eye check for preemies, and all checked out well, we don't have to go back for a year now! Every time that we have gone, it is typically the day that they see all the preemies. While we were there, there was this little baby about the size of a newborn, walking holding mama's hands. Come to find out, this little girl was 10 months old and was born 3 months early. She only weighed like 1 lb 8oz when she was born. Imagine that, how these tiny babies could survive. She has only gained a lb a month, and weighs only 10lbs now. Wow! God is amazing. This little girl truly was perfect except for her small size. We are so incredibly blessed with Halia, and that with all she started her life with, she has done so well since. Just was thinking about how much God has blessed out lives with our sweet little girl, and wanted everyone to know how thankful we are.

Another week!

Well I havent posted in a bit, and just wanted to say hi to everyone. I hope you are all having a good week. Today is midweek, so the weekend is near:) We had a good weekend, just busy as usual these days. We went to a pig n pool party on saturday, bbq and swimming. We had a lot of fun. They had a bbq to welcome the new commander and his family and to welcome home some of the boys that came home last month. Jake and Halia swam forever,Halia stayed in the water with daddy for about an hour and had a blast. We went on a hayride around their land that night which everyone enjoyed until the truck broke down when it got dark and we had to hike back to the house. Yesterday was Jake and my anniversary and we went on a date, we went to dinner then bowling. It was nice to get out and actually the first time we had a sitter at the house aside from grandparents. This next weekend we are going to Ft. SMith to do Halia's family party. I figure she will enjoy the swimming and cake. :) I will post pics either tonight or tomorrow night.

Hope everyone had a good weekend! We had a pretty good one. Amanda(Jake's sister) came down and stayed with us, and saturday night we just hung out, ordered some take out mexican and watched some movies. Sunday we went to Twila(the old daycare director) little boy turned 1 so we went to his birthday party and had a good time despite the heat. Halia's first day of daycare at Children's was yesterday. She seemed to do ok. I went to check on her at lunch and she was asleep. You could just tell she seemed to be taking it all in, because she kept just watching everything and was real quiet. This morning I dropped her off and she cried, it about broke my heart. She normally never cries when I leave her with someone so it made me sad. I think she will do good at this daycare and get good care, I just don't think she will get as much snuggling and one on one as she did before. Hope you all have a good week!

Long week!

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July. As for us, it was ok, our plans got changed though with our little one being sick. They called my Tuesday from daycare saying she had fever again. I assumed it was her ears again, but took her to the dr. By the time we got to the dr her temp was 102.4 and her ears were clear. Dr said it is a bug and gave me antibiotic and told us just to watch her. Her fever tues night stayed around 102, wed she woke up at 5am with a 102.7, and all day it didn't really break. Last night she took a bath, and the fever seemed to go down for awhile. We bbq then did some of our own fireworks in the backyard. Halia didn't know what to think. She would look at the firework, then look at me and scream, then look back. As cute as it was, I think they just scared her. We also could see the fireworks from ward, so she enjoyed those because they were a lot of colors far away. This morning she woke up again with fever of 103. Ahhh, she is so pitiful. She is staying home with daddy today, and the dr said to just keep an eye on her another 24hrs, that the antibiotic should kick it out of her, and she called in a steroid. Overall we had a nice day, just wish she felt better. Pray that these meds will work and our little normally happy baby will be herself again. Hope you all had a fun and safe forth!

we went to the zoo

We went to the zoo saturday and Halia had a good time. she feel asleep through part of it. It was so hot out, we only stayed about three hours. That was plenty of time to see most the animals and get a snowcone. Sorry about the pics, I think I put too many and couldnt delete them.

Getting Sleepy









So Pretty

Big grins!!

Baby goat that liked Halia's toes :)