WORLD DOWN SYNDROME DAY!

My Beautiful Daughter Sophia Joy!

I remember being a little scared right at first, what was down syndrome? Well Sophia being taken away down to the NICU was more of a concern for us then her having down syndrome. We just wanted our sweet little girl home with us! I didn't fully realize it then, but Sophia Joy was a wonderful gift from God! She laughs easier, forgives easier, and enjoys life fuller! She is a wonderful addition to our little family, and I if I could go back and choose to have her with down syndrome or not, I would fully take her just the way she is!

Down Syndrome kids are a blessing and I pray all who have been blessed with a child with down syndrome would realize that!

New Camera!

So David spoiled me with a new camera!
Its super nice, and it cost a good penny too, its a Nikon D3100! We are thinking about trying to get a small business going, not just pictures of nature but taking family photos, baby photos, ect... It would be a lot of hard work, but I only know of 1 other photographer down here in Williams. Now I now Williams isn't huge but I think there is plenty of room for two photographers! Well there is our idea and now I will share a few pics, some of the kiddos and some not. I really do need to remember to take more pictures of my kiddos lately...

My FAVORITE picture David took coming home from Flag the other day!

Charles deciding if he wants to climb the rock at Buffalo Park. 

Beautiful Clouds!

Charles intently watching tv!

Sophia actually smiling for a photo! (lately she hates pictures!)

My cute Kiddos

Flowers in our front yard blooming! Spring must be here! Right!?

Crocodile bark tree

Another great pic of the Peaks!

 HUGS

Sophia praying for her brother before bed. (don't mind Sophia messy hair!)

Sophia giving her brother a good night kiss! (she is SOOO sweet!)

MORE HUGS! (Charles is a camera HOG, and a little HAM!)

Sick again...

So I have a terrible sore throat again, I am hoping it isn't strep, but if it is i'll have had strep 3 times in the last 4 months! Terrible I know, but it hurts worse then when I had strep and I don't have white spots? So i'm a little confused as to what it is! It just kind of happened over night, and I can't talk, not only because it hurts, but because I just don't have a voice. My poor kiddos seem to be sick too but don't know if it is the same thing or not. David is the only Healthy one, well at them moment anyway... and he use to be the one that was always sick! Until he started talking Vitamin D 3, coincidence? Not sure, but the last 2 times I have gotten sick David hasn't...

Well other then that everything here is good! Life is busy, Kiddos are getting bigger taller, Sophia is saying more words. Such as: good job, all right, and all done; are just a few examples that come to mind. Charles the other day after Supper got down from his chair and said thank-you mommy. awww how sweet! Or he will come up if I get hurt and ask if I got hurt then ask if I need a kiss and give me a kiss to make me feel better! What sweet kiddos! Or when we put Charles to bed, he goes down first (just our routine) and Sophia comes along prays for him on her knees by his bed then gets up kisses him on the forehead tells him good-night and leaves his room! Its the sweetest thing I have ever seen!

So enough rambling i'll end with a few random pictures of Sophia and Charles helping me cook last week.(before we all got sick!)

Oh and these flowers were a fun surprise that just appeared in our front yard after the snow melted!

Happy Valentin'es Day! :)

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! I thought about taking off the RA photography for this blog, but was too lazy this morning to reopen my Photoshop! I know I know... talk about lazy.... ! Well my kiddos slept in this morning and are just starting to stir... so I guess its more a rush then lazyness... maybe. Well enough about that, I hope you all enjoy another day the Lord has blessed you with and enjoy whoever it is you love today! Whether it be your husband, your family, or friends!

Potty

Charles I would say has finally mastered going potty! Not only that going potty by himself... for the longest time he would want me to go with him and hold his hand... literally!!! haha well... thats finally over with.. he will go by himself.. he naps in his underwear.. the only time he is still in a diaper is when he goes down at night. He might be able to hold it all night, but in the morning he wakes up quietly and plays. Not sure what time he wakes up.. but he doesn't leave his room until we open the door for him. Which is nice.. but at the same time if he has to go he would go in his underwear instead of leave his room.. probably while crying the whole time! So that we will work on soon! Sophia on the other hand is getting more interested since Charles has been going on his own.. she'll go in on her own too! Although she wont every time she has to go potty.. just once maybe twice a day. The first time she did it, hmm well I was doing something and heard her go in the bathroom, finished up what I was doing then went to get after her (usually she just makes messes out of the drawers and what not) so I go in find her clothes thrown around the bathroom floor and her diaper, i'm about to tell her to get out of the bathroom when I realize she is sitting on the toilet going potty!  Well I was super excited! She didn't want her diaper back on after that.. so I let her put underwear only to have her pee on the ground about 15 minutes later! Well lessened learned right! but still, i'm pretty excited she's finally interested! Even if it is once a day... ! :)

Although a random side note... Sophia has to be the worlds best hugger!

A New Adventure

So I just recently started an ETSY shop... It takes a lot more time then you would think to first set up your account add items to  sell, then next marketing! With out marketing you probably will never sell anything... yet time and energy to market is more then I realized.. especially with my two cute kiddos wanting my attention while I sit at the computer. Can't complain too much about that... it still doesn't get old hearing there little voices saying mommy mommy.. although Charles still throws in a Rachel every now and then. Well so I have started the shop and i'm selling my photographs. So that takes even more time on the computer to use Photoshop to make sure the pictures look exactly how I want them. I have taken photos for years! Lately mostly of the kiddos.. but still doesn't change that I like photos! Photoshop you can always add fun touches to a photo too  to hopefully help it stand out from the other million or so photos of a mountain that others are selling! Its pretty amazing how many people are so GOOD at photography! Some probably have degrees and what not for the perfect lighting... but that's ok! So if your bored and have the time and want to check out my shop... or i'll just post some of them here for you guys and let me know if its something you would pay for... or if I should give it up now! :)

These two amazing photographs taken in Sedona, AZ were actually taken by David! There two of my favorite photographs!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RachelAndphotography

Thanks for looking!

Not really an update...

Well a lot has happened since I posted last but I don't want to type it all now or search for all the pictures! HA, so i'm just going to fill in a few cute random things that have happened recently.

I bought Charles new underwear "cars", because for whatever reason he seems to have lost all of his other pairs! I don't know what that child does when he is "suppose to be napping!" So yesterday I buy him cars underwear from family dollar, 3 pairs for $7! Which I find ridiculous but that is besides the point, so he can't decide if he wants the green yellow or and I had to say black for him he concentrates and says bla... haha so next thing I know he's wearing ALL THREE PAIRS! What a goofy boy, and this morning he does that same thing and ends up with all three again! I guess i'll have to hide all but 1 tomorrow! Charles also has become very helpful, he loves to feed the fish and fill up snickers bowls with food and water. He sometimes spills water on himself or spills snickers food but he always cleans it up. Charles has become a little talker, sometimes I still wonder what he is saying and then you'll understand something like oofta or werido! haha He also loves his cars and trains, he has built a garage under his bed for all his cars! I have been putting them away in his toy box since Christmas only to wake him up the next morning to have them back under his bed, I have finally given up and decided too that is where they belong, the only ones that make me nervous are the trains because they stick out! Although Charles has slept in his toddler bed for sometime now we still hear someone fall off at night, and I don't want him falling onto his toys!

Sophia has transitioned into a toddler bed! Now those of you who don't know Sophia very well, she has a really hard time with change!!! Like last week daddy had issues at work and had to leave right around the time I was getting them ready for bed, so during bible story time daddy wasn't there, and Sophia was beside herself upset because daddy is suppose to be there, daddy's suppose to be reading and she's suppose to be on daddy's lap!!! Well since daddy was gone she didn't know where to sit, she wanted the story but yeah so that was fun! Anyways, so you can see from just that she has a hard time with change. Well one morning we go into her room and find her crib broken! The front that's suppose to go up and down completely broke! So we tried a few different things that night like turning the bed around, and Sophia because it was changed wanted the bed turned around! So I turn it around and she decides to point at the piece that broke off, and I tried explaining it was broke and couldn't go back on. So she went to bed that night surprisingly very easy considering! The next day I hide that extra piece in her closet to try and get her to forget about it, I don't know if Charles having a toddler bed is what got her to except it so easy, but non the less the loves it! It is now part of her routine!

Well i'm done for now and here are a few random pictures.

Sophia loves to color, but for whatever reason this is usually what happens toward the end, or she decides to lick her paper!

A random day of dancing and resting on the fire place. 

Charles proud of his handiwork on mommy's day or realizing that is where they will always be! After I snapped this picture Sophia took the keys which are towards the bottom of the picture and all I heard from Charles was keys keys keys mommy! Then he got them back 5 mins later when they were in the living room and all he did with them was run them back and throw them back under his bed!

I have realized that Sophia isn't the only one that copies! They copy each other, and since Sissy wears headbands so does Charles... and he tries to put her skirts on but we usually stop him! Also Charles calls Sophia, Sissy, Sophia and Sophia Joy! 

This was after he ate tabasco sauce, hot hot hot!

Sophia's lovely hair after she styled it with Aquaphor!

random picture of them coloring, and fighting at the bottom.

Sophia still doesn't talk much, but she seems a lot better at letting us know what she wants. 

OOOH yeah, and I ruined all Davids clothes by washing and drying them with a crayon! So if you know any tricks I would love to hear them, I have tried Resolve All Stains spray and wash, a youtube video showed it working... but it doesn't! We also tried a stain remover from Davids work... it smelled like WD40, and Oxiclean!!! The stain remover or maybe Oxiclean got it out a little bit, but its still pretty obvious! I am at a loss... and since there all ruined we will need to buy some new ones to last until if we can or can't finally get it out! The sad part of it is I am the one who had the crayon in my pocket! haha, I never wash anything else with Davids work clothes in case something like this were to happen, but I went against my own rule and this is what happened!!!