Happy Fall Y'all!!!

Happy Birthday Rodney, Ruthie & Tracie

October is a busy month for birthdays in our family. Rodney and Ruthie share a birthday and mine is a week later. Chelsea and Alex are the odd balls with a April and December birthday. Rodney is 40, Ruthie 3 and I am 39.

Ruthie's Spot

Lately, the most frequently visited spot in our house for Ruthie is the Time Out Spot, otherwise known as Ruthie's Spot. I know I know, all those who know Ruthie are shocked to hear she misbehaves and has to go to time out. :)

Ruthie's First Day of Preschool!!!

Wednesday 8:40 am This is Ruthie at the house before leaving for first day of preschool.

Wednesday 9:00 am Ruthie arriving at preschool ready to play with new friends.

Wednesday 9:30am Ruthie getting back in the car after I got a call saying she had thrown up in the trash can. I guess we'll try again next week.

Visit from Forbess's

We have had pleasure of having some friends into town, they are serving our Lord in Cochabamba, Bolivia as missionaries. They have one daughter Jubliee and one on the way. Ruthie and Jubi (this is what Ruthie calls her) had a great time playing. They have been here in town for two weeks and will be leaving to visit family. God Bless you Jeff, Katie, Jubliee & future little Forbess.

Happy Father's Day Daddy!!!

This picture was Cheslea and Ruthie's father's day present to Rodney.
Alex is represented in it too. The flowers to the right and left are from his services.
Needless to say Rodney was very pleased with his present.

Oklahoma!!!

Rodney and I got the pleasure of going to Oklahoma to watch the Softball College World Series. We only got to watch 17 games and almost 40 hours of softball. We had this trip planned for a year before we found out the Fightin Texas Aggies Woman Softball made to the series. This made the trip even sweeter. Even though they played their two games and went home we stayed and enjoyed the rest of a wonderful week of softball.

We ran into some softball celebrity like Jessica Mendoza who plays for the USA Gold Medal team. And as were we leaving the field one night we ran into a cast member from the show The Apprentice. Ok Ok I realize you may be thing we are reality tv junkies, yes we are but only with the quality shows!!! HA HA! Anyway we ran into Angela, the USA Hockey Gold medalist from this past season. We got to talk with her for about 2o minutes, it was so cool. Also remember in March we got Pres. George Sr autograph so we are collecting them left and right. There are so many wonderful pictures we can show you but I won't bore you with those. The one I chose is Rodney and I in the stands watching a game. We sat right next to the tv crew and never had a good picture of us on tv. You could see Rodney's hat or half my head.

We would have never been able to go it My Dad, Mom, Sister and Josh ( my nephew) didn't help with watching Ruthie. She is very active and they didn't complain once. She had the best time ever in Cuero.

Chelsea was in Las Vegas, New Mexico at a wonderful church camp. I am hoping to get some pics of her time at camp on the blog as soon as I can get them from her.

Relay for Life

My mom and another cancer survivor Debbie got a team together of family and friends and walked all night to raise money for a cure for cancer. If you can not tell our theme was "Rockin& Rollin for a Cure" We dressed up 50" style and won most of the team awards. My mom and my cousin Teresa offered their haircutting services for anyone who would like to donate to Locks of Love, an organization that make wig for those who lost their hair during treatment. As you can tell above many were moved to do this. After the group picture was taken many others came forward too. Some and just lost loved ones to cancer.

I would have to say Josh won the prize for best dressed, being Elvis. Kenzie and Ruthie were the cutest in their poodle skirts but definitely were the first to go home. The rest of us stuck it out and walked all night.

We had a great time and our team also won most laps walked.

Remembering Alex May 4th 2007

It's been a while for me to post. Since the last time we have gone through May 4th which means one more year without Alex. One more without his smile, getting to watch him pitch in baseball his energy around us, his loving caring personality, and especially one more year without him being with his parents, sisters, cousins and grandparents. Really the only thing I have to say is hug your babies tighter whether they are 2, 12, 15 or 50, and make sure the people you love know it. Sometimes we chose to fight battles that are not important or even our battle to fight. Also remember God is Good!!!! and "Everything will be OK even if it's not!" one of my new favorite things to say.

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I learned this from a scripture in

Isaiah 43: 2 "When you pass through the waters;

I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you,

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

What this scripture is saying to me is that God doesn't promise that we won't go through trials, sometimes these trials seem that nothing good and come out it. What he is saying to ME is"Tracie everything is going to be OK, even if it's not. because I will carry you. Even if you lose your son Tracie, you won't be alone and it will be OK. Excuse me for preaching.

I was recently asked to speak along with a small group of family and friends family gathering after one of Alex's closes friends Katy Jacobs was Baptized into our Lord and Saviour. Her mom Kerri, has chosen a wonderful way to help her children start their new life with Christ. We celebrate their "Zero" birthday. No sins. Family and friends gathered to say wonderful things about Katy, and everyone of them true. I wanted to convey to her that although being a Christian is the most wonderful thing in the world it's not easy. I pray I did this with encourgement and did not discourage. I bascially told her what I believe above about Isaiah 43:2

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I chose these pictures of Alex because in all his determination shows. He was this way all the time whether he was praying, playing or doing homework and especially if he had done something wrong and was trying to weasel his way out. These were taken at his Kindergarten Fun Day, where each class competed against each with different obstacles. He along with his friends were proud to bring the Kindergarten Fun Day title to Mrs. Curtis's class that year.

I think I have learned from his determination and a pressing through this life without him. I am happy even though I don't have him on this earth. I have a wonderful husband, two wonderful daughters and a loving supportive family and friends. This is all from God because he is GOOD!!!!

Chelsea turns 15!!!!!!

Can you believe this little girl is 15. Time sure does fly by fast. We celebrated by going out to eat where Chelsea wanted, McDonald's. She is a cheap birthday date. After we ate we went to the mall and she got to spend her birthday money. When we got home we ate some homemade cheesecake that I made. She received happy birthday calls from family and friends I think she had a great birthday.

Gig 'em...Aggies

In March we went to an A&M softball game. Ruthie is in the Junior Double Play Club, so she got to get the team's autographs after the game. The girl to your right is the catcher and on the left is one of the pitchers. The Aggies won both games Saturday and Sunday against Iowa State. Also while we were there during the game, former President George Bush Sr. showed up, we got his autograph too. COOL Huh!!! I thought it was. I took Ruthie over and asked him if he would sign her softball cap, surely he would do it for such a cute little girl. He said, " She probably doesn't want me to mess up her cap. It was a fun experience or sad that I used my cute little girl to get what I wanted, whichever, doesn't matter I got the autograph.

One of Ruthie's friends was having a birthday party with the Old MacDonald theme so Ruthie went dressed as Aggie farmer. She got to ride a horse, it was a great party. These are pics I got before we left. Notice her hand with the Gig 'em sign and her little eyeball peeking from under her hat?

Growing Up too fast!!!

Ruthie is growing so fast, before the holidays she weighed 26- 28 lbs and now she weighs 36 lbs. I can hardly hold her for more than five minutes and I have to lift with the legs to pick her up. :) She will come up to me a say "mommy I very hungry", she eats constantly.

She is a little sponge, she absorbs everything around her (of course that would mean she was a 3M Scotch sponge in order to be that good, right Rodney?) She is singing all kinds of songs. Her new favorite one is "What I wanna be when I grow up to be big me." When you ask what she want's to be she say a "cristin" I think she thinks she is going to grow up to be my friend Christin. :) Ruthie and I have been going for walks since the weather has been so nice. She thinks she is a big girl because she doesn't have get in the stroller. But she says, "i not big girl" when I say she doesn't need her pappy (pacifier) or that she needs to poo poo on the potty, which we have taken a break from. If anyone would like to hear some disgusting stories about Ruthie's potty training experience, just email. It's not appropiate to post on the blog. :)

Speaking of growing up too fast Chelsea is going to be 15 in a couple of months. Wow!!! She is busy with track at at school, LTC practices and homelife. Soon we will start practicing for getting her drivers permit. We sometimes let her drive on this backroad we cal Peacock road. She is good but has a way to go.

She was home sick with the Flu for a week and was very weak for awhile. She is much better but it's hard to get going again after being in bed for a week. She does not enjoying taking pictures so as soon as I can get her to take one I will post it. It is amazing how fast she is maturing in her looks, she is so beautiful.

A new sister in Christ!!!!!

We are so happy to let everyone know that Chelsea is now our sister in Christ. We are so proud of her, she came to this decision all by herself. Of course Rodney and talked with her and showed her some scripture. We guided without her knowing we were guiding her. Thank you for your prayers.

Before & After!!!

Chelsea finally got her braces off. She is so beautiful!!!

No school!!

We didn't have a white Christmas, but Brownwood, Early was white today. We woke up this morning to find out we had snow and no school. Ruthie didn't know how to act, it seemed like our whole neighborhood was one big yard and she didn't know where to go first. Of course Chelsea was glad to be out of school. We went out three times today to play in the snow. Not being experienced with snow it took us until this evening to get the snowman made and our neighbors had to help with it.

Happy 2007!!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!! We pray that your 2007 is great. Here are some pictures of our family during December. Rodney, Chelsea and Ruthie opened presents from each other Christmas Eve and then Santa came Christmas morning. Chelsea's big present was test messaging and her fingers haven't stopped yet. Ruthie got a Dora sit & spin.

We had family come and visit us. Rodney's Mom and friend Humberto came Christmas Eve and my Mom, Dad, Sister & her family came New Year's weekend. We had nice visit with everyone. We shopped, guys played paintball, opened presents and of course I beat my sister in ping pong.

We have been blessed with a wonderful family.

Happy 2007 and God Bless you!!!