Amazed!!

Wow, this is the last week of ballet for Phoebe and she stood on her sticker today and did all of her ballet moves. I was so shocked I think I was smiling bigger than I had ever smiled before-PROUD MOMMY MOMENT!!! All weekend I was having her do certain ballet moves and she would do them and she showed Daddy and then on Saturday when we were at Grammy's house she showed her her ballet moves. So I had been working with her a lot and telling her "this is the last week for ballet and you're going to dance for Miss Tonya, right?" And she'd say yes. So she did all the moves but then there's one part that the 4 other little girls go up to Miss Tonya and hold hands and walk around in a circle. She would always refuse to do that and would just come lay in my lap and say no. So today when they did it I said go up there Phoebe and dance with your friends and she got up and kind of hesitated but followed the other little girls and went up there and held their hands. OH MY GOSH, I was totally beside myself I couldn't believe it. My little shy girl is actually doing it, wow!! It was totally great!! It was pretty funny though because while she was walking up there she had her hand in her mouth, something she does I guess her way of fidgeting, and when she took her hand out and reached for the little girls hand next to her, the little girl threw her hand down and said Yuck, it's wet. And me, her mom and dad busted out laughing. Miss Tonya just said Ok, well you can just hold her wrist and puts her hand around Phoebe's wrist. Then in the middle of going around in a circle they all let go of each others hands to dance and the little girl goes on the other side of Phoebe so she doesn't have to hold her "wet" hand again, it was hilarious!! I was so proud of her!!

I never realized how much I say "can't" until Phoebe started repeating it and saying "I can't" do this or that. I guess that's another negative part of me coming out. But we'll be driving down the road and she'll say "get my phone, please mom" and I'll stop myself from saying I can't because I don't want her saying that. So I am trying to find other words to use besides I can't and now when she says that I make her try it and tell her she can do anything. It's hard to just totally get a word out of your vocabulary but when it comes to my daughter saying it, I will stop saying it!!

And Eliott's continuing to grow up so fast. He has such a funny little personality. He crawls everywhere and is even starting to do the "monkey crawl" with one foot on the ground like walking and the other leg with his knee on the ground crawling. He crawl over to something and stand up and let go he just hasn't taken that first step yet. It's so cute. Here he is pulling up on Glory and standing next to her. Here's another funny pic of him loving on her- AHHHH, how cute!!

What we've been up to-

Wow, things are busy around here but we've been doing great! Eliott's trying to walk and says "dada" now, he's so cute!

This is dad and Eliott at the Safari Sanctuary in BA. He loves being on his daddy's shoulders!

Phoebe's in ballet and a music class and both of them are fun! She's a little shy in the ballet class, actually I don't know if it's shy or just bored because she'll do all the moves the first 5-10 minutes of class but then stop and just sit there or lay in my lap. She's saying full sentences now. Four weeks ago she would say "I drew shirt" and just in the last week she now says "I drew on my shirt." It's so cute to hear her actually say all the words that go in the sentence!! And as she told me this morning about Glory, "This is her paw!" This is Phoebe giving Glory hugs in Phoebe's bed.

Here's a picture of her petting the kangaroo at the Safari Santuary.

Dale is doing great also! He's gotten one of his classes that he needed to do done and he's working on all his community service. He's been so great with the kids and helping out around here! Here's just a few pics of him...

Here he is powerwashing our fence, wow look at the difference!! Anyone interested in him doing it to your fence??Here he is on our back porch with Phoebe. We found out he is an artist and he drew this monkey off of her "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed" book. She was so excited to watch him draw it!!And here he is with Eliott at the Safari Sanctuary.

Phoebe & her ballet teacher, Ms. Tonya

Our little ballerina!!

What a week!!

Wow, we've had an interesting week! Monday, July 9th was Denzil's 30th birthday and I wanted to do something special for him. He already told me that he defintely did not want a surprise birthday party so I thought that I would call his mom and ask her to come up here and either offer to pay for the plane ticket or gas. She lives in Bon Wier, TX, which is on the LA line. We haven't seen her since Denzil's graduation in January of 2005, so she still hadn't met Phoebe or Eliott. She just couldn't ever get off work and we tried going down there but they are in the process of building a house of 55 acres and is just staying in a little trailor right now so there was no room for us. And there were no hotels around because they live in the middle of no where!! So anyways she said she would come up and so last week I was going crazy since I couldn't tell Denzil and I was being so sneaky. Plus I had to clean the house daily and make sure it was totally clean. And I had to get sheets, pillows and a matress pad for the sofa bed. So on Friday his mom and step dad drove up here and it totally shocked Denzil. He was very surprised and so we went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday. That was fun to get to see them and Phoebe & Eliott meet them. They left on Saturday and then on Sunday Denzil, Phoebe & Eliott and I got in the car and drove to Houston. Yeah, wow!! An 8 1/2 hour drive but we found out that the kids do great on road trips. We were really surprised how good they were, especially Eliott. Since he's still turned around in his seat and can't see us I figured he'd get grumpy fast but he did awesome! Then we drove back up here on Monday, so we weren't even in Houston for 24 hours. We drove for 17 hours between Sunday at 11 to Monday night at 2:00 am. The reason for all this was because Denzil's brother has gotten himself into some trouble and so we decided to go down there and offer some help. It turns out that he does want to turn his life around and so we offered him to come up here and stay with us until he can get back on his feet. So on Monday when we drove back I had to sit in between the 2 car seats and oh my gosh that was so uncomfortable and I'm still feeling it! So he's got to find a job but before he does that he's got to take some classes and do some community service. If you know of anywhere he could do community service, let me know. We're trying to find places now. But he's been a lot of help since he's been here. Denzil's had him do some stuff around the house..spray bug spray, change spark plugs, etc. Then Phoebe started ballet class and OH MY!!! How adorable!! But Uncle Dale watched Eliott in a little play room that they have so that was a huge help!! It's been cool having him here so far and it's so worth it to see him turning his life around. Denzil made a document in Word about 1 week, 2 week, 30 day, 90 day, 1 year, 5 year and 10 goals and gave it to him to fill out. He's been working on it. So just please pray that we give him the support he needs. Of course he'll be coming to church with us on Sunday and Denzil's been talking a little about the Saving Grace of Jesus.
Well got to go for now, just wanted to update everyone-
Rachel

Here's our Glory--