Christmas with the Dow's

We had our first of three Christmases this past weekend. We spent the weekend in Southlake with Stacy's family. It was very short because we also spent time getting more stuff out of our Fort Worth house. For those that don't know... our house is finally selling. I have to be honest; I am a bit sad. I loved building and being able to pick out every part of your house. It really makes it what you want, but hopefully we will be able to do it again soon. It was also nice having a house to stay at everytime we were in the DFW area. We are planning to build again outside of Abilene after we recover from having bills on two houses for the past 14 months. It is definitely a blessing in that area. Our funds have been wearing thin because of that. Anyway, back to Christmas. We were with Stacy's parents Fri. night and all day Sat. We just hung out and ate way to much. We opened gifts and watched to much Sesame Street (why we don't get that in Abilene is beyond me). We had a great time... now on to the few pics we did take.

This is a lizard we found living in our garage in Ft. Worth. Stacy caught it and put it in my crystal punch bowl... boys!!

Faith loves playing Mimi's piano. She got this huge penguin as one of her many gifts.

Sophia in her Christmas hat.

The girls together. It is so hard getting these pics of them together. I know I have said that before, but it is!!!

Just a few pics

We took Faith's 2 yr. pics during the holiday. Here are 2 of them and I still need to scan the others. They were real cute. The last one is just a random pic I took. I don't get many pics of them together especially both looking at the camera.

Homecoming and Trunk or Treat

We have had a busy past few weeks. But here are the important things we have done. First was ACU homecoming, which I always look forward to since friends come in town. We had a fun few days doing the carnival, parade and football game. It was so nice to see Shannon, Mallory and Morgan and Brooke, Michael and Audrey. Faith loved the animals at the carnival and we got to meet up with Shannon for a short time, but saw many other friends while there. It was great!! Then Shannon and the girls came over Sat. morning and we walked to the parade. Mallory, Faith and Morgan seemed to really enjoy the parade and of course the candy. Then Shannon came over for a while and the girls played and then we went to lunch. Then we went to the big football game with my mom, brother, Julie, Chloe, Lily and Emma. It was so fun. I really miss seeing football games. Faith loved it even though she had not had a nap. She actually loves watching football on t.v. too. It is funny. We meet up with Brooke and fam. there and chatted for a bit, then went to eat dinner with them and Shannon and the girls. (I think Brooke got the pic of us at dinner - email it to me Brooke) (We missed you Meredith!) It was so fun getting all together again and talking our heads off. It is always like we have been together this whole time when we get back together. Love you girls.

Sophia at the carnival

Faith with the animals

Faith holding a baby chick. She loved this.

Cheering on the Wildcats.

Sophia not really liking the game so much. She went to sleep right after this pic. for the rest of the game.

Next comes Halloween. Faith really enjoyed dressing up. She is getting to that age that dressing up is the thing to do. She was Little Red Riding hood. Sophia wore a cat shirt, but that is all I made her do this year. We had a blast going to the Hillcrest and Southern Hills Trunk or Treats with some friends and family. Faith also had a costume parade at school this year. The kids were so cute.

My cutie posing for a pic.

My other cutie posing for a pic.

Costume parade at school

Emma at the costume parade at school.

Ok this is two of my friends at school. They looked so funny I had to have a pic. I didn't even recognize April till she said something to me. It was great!!

Lily at the costume parade.

Hillcrest trunk or treat!! Thanks Ms. Sandra for my candy.

Julie, Chloe, Lily and Emma at the Southern Hills trunk or treat.

We also went to Fort Worth for a quick trip, but got to see tons of friends. I got to see Maren and sweet Carson (no pics of that, don't know why). I also got to visit the school I used to teach at and saw so many great friends that I miss dearly. I love you guys!!!

Mostly pictures...

Finally some pics of Sophia and also some of Faith's party last Sat.



Elizabeth and Zoe
Kris, Julie, Emma and Sophia
Brad and Annalyse Rogers
Finger painting and coloring Faith's birthday poster.

I thought this pic was so cute with Lily and Chloe's faces in each corner. It wasn't taken that way on purpose, but it's cute.
Blowing out the candles.
Present time with Lily's help.
Here is Sophia!!! Last doc. appt. for 2 months, she weighed 12.2 pounds (75%) and 23 inches (75%). Just like Faith... my little chunky monkey!!

Just some before church on Sun. She was wiggling all over so her bow ended up on top of her head instead of a little to the side.

2 years old... how can it be??

My little sunshine is 2 years old. I can't believe it has been 2 years. We love Faith so much and enjoy every moment with her. She is growing up to fast, but I must say I am loving this age. She is so funny and makes us laugh daily. She is so sweet to Sophia and can't stop kissing her. She is so ready for Sophia to be big enough to play with her. She always wants to hold her, help change her (although she always says yuck and stops helping once the diaper is opened), and plays peek-a-boo with her. It is so sweet to see them interact. Sophia will smile and laugh at Sophia more than anyone else, I think.
A few of Faith's favorites:

She loves music and dancing. She will dance even without music, so funny, but girls got moves!!! She will sing songs all day long and she knows all the words to 2 of her CDs.

She loves exploring. If she could walk around outside and pick things up and talk about what she sees all day, she would be in heaven.

She loves shoes, purses, and ... MONEY! When we are in a store we have to watch her cuz she will go straight to the shoes or purses. AND When a wallet opens, no matter whose it is (embarrassing at times), she holds out her hand and says "money, please"!

She loves jumping. Jumping up and down, jumping off stairs, jumping off the couch, anything she can climb on.

She loves her family. She talks about her cousins all the time and can't wait to see them. They play together all the time and I think she would live with them if she could. Same for her Nana and Papa.

She loves being independent. She will NOT let us help her put her shoes on, go up and down stairs, get things she wants out, pretty much anything. She loves the freedom of walking around at the store, which she is really good about staying with us now (update on past post).

She loves to read books, color, do puzzles, little people, her dolls and leopards, and Dora and Elmo anything.

~We love you Faith and enjoy watching you grow each and everyday. You bring so much joy to our life. It took us so long to get pregnant all those years ago and that is why you were named Faith, to remind us to have Faith in God daily and to thank him daily for blessing us with the amazing gift of YOU!!~


This is Faith days after birth. Notice the glowing blue light behind her. That was because her jaundice was so high. We had to have the light on her 24/7 except when changing her diaper (not easy to nurse while holding a light on her). We also had home care nurses take blood a few times a day. She got used to the needles and wouldn't even cry after that first day, poor baby.


Faith's first of three parties, the one at school. She loves school. When I take her she runs to the door, looks back and says "bye mom, see you in a minute" (everything is a minute). She loves her teachers Mrs. Amber and Mrs. Jana and all her little friends.

I know, I know... post pics of Sophia. I am working on it. That girl is hard to photography. She has her hands over her face in almost all the pics we take. We are taking pics on Monday of both girls, so I will post them then.

Busy Weekend

The past few days have been very busy with Dittos for Kiddos. I made pretty good money and can't wait for the next sell in Feb. I hope to put more in that sell, so hopefully I will make more money. We will see. I bought some great stuff too. I love shopping there because you can find name brand clothes with tags still on them for under $8. You can't beat that. I bought several Ralph Lauren outfits for Sophia like that and I got Faith the cutest Baby LuLu jacket. I also got a Baby Einstein activity center for Sophia for $25. Nice!!! Anyway, my parents were also here this weekend. Julie had a huge garage sell and my brother is over seas, so my parents had the girls. We also celebrated Julie's birthday... so all around it was a good but busy weekend.

Little update - We have had some potty training success. Faith went "wet" in the potty as she calls it a few times. I have decided it is going to take a break from her school to fully potty train though. The days she is in school, she of course has to use diapers, so we basically get off track every other day... not easy for potty training. So I think during Thanksgiving or Christmas we are going to hit it hard. Until then I will just let her get used to it, but she has done great so far. Sophia is growing like a weed as many mommies know. She got her 2 month shots and check up. She is almost 12 pounds already and 22 inches long. She is following in Faith's footsteps as being a chunk of a baby. My doc. says I have high calorie milk, so all my babies will be chunky!!! I have been asked by many for a pic. and I don't have a very good one, but here is the latest one. Notice the double chin and cheeks!!! Love her!! We will be taking Faith's 2 yr. pics and Sophia's 2 month pics so I will post them after we do that. Next weekend is another busy one with Faith's big birthday party and family in town again. I will post those pics also after the weekend.


Sophia at 2 months... she is very laid back and only cries when she needs something (or has an ear infection). She smiles at everyone, but mostly mom and sister. She now loves watching her toys and smiles at them too. She talks and makes cute noises all the time now. She is getting stronger and stronger every day and holds her head up well now. She sleeps 4.5 to 5 hours at night and still sleeps with mommy and daddy. She is so precious and I can't wait to see all the changes to come. We think she looks more like me now, so it will be interesting to see what she looks like the older she gets since Faith looked so much like Stacy at that age.

And so it begins...

Many of you know the problems we had with Faith's ears which ended up with tubes. Well I took Sophia to the doc. today. She has been throwing up everyday for the past four days. Well guess what... you know it. She has her first ear infection at 7 weeks. I hope that is not a sign, but I am just going to assume we will end up the same way we did with Faith. The tubes were great for Faith, she hasn't really been sick since. Anyway, we will see what happens with Sophia once she starts at mothers day out. That may lead to many more ear infections. I also found out she has a sensitive gag reflex. I had never heard of this, but the doctor's youngest had it worse than Sophia. Basically when I put the pacifier in Sophia's mouth, she almost always gags the first time. She also gags when we give her her meds. and such. So that is part of the reason she is throwing up and the other part is she has reflux like Faith did. I may have already mentioned that; I don't remember. Anyway, the doc. said she would grow out of all of it sometime between 9 and 12 months. That seems like a long time, but we will make it. It is really hard watching her throw up all the time. Her poor little body starts shaking and stuff just like if you had a bad stomach bug. Anyway, that is my little update.

Potty Training HELP!!!

Ok I am asking for some advice... Faith has been showing a lot of the signs for being ready to potty train, and I think I have it together enough now with Sophia to start. Faith always wants to sit on the potty when I go or even just randomly during the day. She always tells me when she is wet or dirty and that she needs to be changed. I'd say she is ready. Here is my biggest question... right now she will sit on the potty, ask for toilet paper, wipe and wash her hands, BUT the key is she isn't actually going. She tells me she is done and is ready to put her diaper back on, and I have noticed she will go to the bathroom in her diaper almost immediately or at least real soon after the diaper is back on. So she is connecting going to the bathroom with her diaper and not the potty. SO advice on how to get her to understand the change???? I have tried to explain it to her in different ways, but it just hasn't connected with her yet. So if any of you mom's that are potty training or those that have (which is most of you) let me know the secret... if there is one. I am so ready to only have one kid in diapers!!!! I need to count how many diapers I change in a day... it has to be a lot. ha ha!! Thanks for any help you can give!!!

Dittos for Kiddos

Well if you live in Abilene and have kids you probably know about Dittos for Kiddos. Well I decided to be a consignor this year. I am so excited, but a little stressed. I am trying to gather either toys that Faith hasn't really played with or clothes that we never used. I am trying to make sure to not sell the stuff that we can still use with Sophia, but it is so tempting to get rid of lots of stuff. Once we are done with kids, I will have a ton of things to sell. We have recently made a trip to get more stuff from our house in Fort Worth and that makes me want to get rid of more stuff. I always think if we haven't needed it so far we don't need it at all. Anyway, right now that is all that is on my mind... ironing, cleaning, hanging and tagging clothes, toys, books, etc. I only have about 50 items compared to some peoples 200 and something, so I will probably not make that much money, but I like doing this over a garage sell. You can usually price items higher at Dittos and you don't have to do the selling. Anyway, just a little update on what I have been doing the past few weeks (along with the kid thing of course). If you live in Abilene make sure you plan on going to shop at Dittos. It's only one weekend, so call me if you want to go. It really is awesome. I buy tons of stuff... that is probably where all the money I make will go. Oh well, it is fun.

One Month Old

My sweet one month old. She is now wearing newborn clothes instead of preemies.




My favorite way to sleep!!!!!!

First bath a while back. She is not a fan yet.

Ok I know a month isn't that long, but I still can't believe it has been a month. She is already growing up to fast. We went to the doctor today and she is going to follow in her sister's footsteps and have reflux. We hope the meds. will help her have some comfort. She weighs 9 pounds already, so she has already gained a little over 2 pounds. She is 20 1/2 inches long now so she has grown 1 1/4 inches. It is crazy how much they change so soon. I can just imagine the growing pains they have getting big so fast in that first year. Well we have our good and bad nights. Good nights is 4 hrs of sleep, bad nights are filled with colicky screams (poor thing and poor me - ha ha). Faith is totally in love with her. I can't keep her from smothering her in kisses all day. It is sweet, but sometimes overwhelming for Sophia. We are having fun, but never know what each day may bring.

Short story

So we were out walking around ACU like we do every morning and I realized how smart Faith is getting. It was bright and sunny today and most of the water has dried up since the rain. Well while walking we came across this huge puddle that we had to go through (must have been a broke sprinkler cuz the whole area around there was flooded). She was so interested in it. She kept saying water, water. Well a few silent seconds later she looked at me, shrugged her shoulders and said " no rain, why water?" I couldn't believe it. You could just see her little brain trying to figure out why there was a puddle if there isn't rain. Well I tried to explain that the sprinklers were probably broken (we have played in the sprinklers so she knows what they are) and that is probably why it was flooded right there. Well we quickly went back to the "2's" phase because she looked me right in the eyes and said "no, mom", which is how she responds to most things these days. Anyway, I was just so surprised and excited that she is beginning to put things like that together even when it isn't right in front of her or told to her first. She is getting so smart and it makes me realize how big she is (tear - ha ha).

update on life with 2

Well, things are still crazy. We are still trying to get used to having a tiny baby around. The biggest problem we have right now (which I have told some of you) is that every time Sophia wakes up crying at night, Faith wakes up and cries too. So we have to get her back down then I have to try to keep Sophia from crying while changing and feeding her. If we could get Faith to sleep through the crying that would help a lot. Other than that they have both had a cold that has not helped matters. Every time I would lay Sophia down on her back she would start coughing and gagging from the drainage... poor thing. Faith didn't get sick until she was 1 yrs. old... literally!!! I feel so bad that Sophia is already sick. I guess that comes with a big sister that is into everything.

Faith has done amazing with Sophia. I have been so blessed to not have to deal with a lot of jealousy. The only thing I have seen is that when it is time for Faith to go to bed, she wants whoever is holding Sophia to rock her. It was funny when I finally figured it out and then we tested it and it was true. She has always wanted me to put her down, but if Stacy has Sophia she wants him to do it. BUT I can deal with that over some of the jealous stories I've heard. Faith already asks for her every morning and wants to hold and kiss her first thing. SO SWEET!!! (Faith is just now calling her Sophia; it was baby up until now.)We are slowly figuring out a schedule although sleep isn't in it yet, but that will come I'm sure. Other than that, we have this new challenge... Faith has NEVER taken a pacifier. Well now that Sophia has one, she thinks she needs one. I walked into the room the other day and saw this... (sorry the first pic is sideways I forgot to rotate it)







She kept it in her mouth ALL day. Only taking it out to eat. Let's hope this doesn't continue!!!


I promise more pics to come of Sophia, but she just woke up and wants to eat. So got to run!!!