Five Years of Marital Bliss

Today Brent and I celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary. We have been together for over 10 years now. I can't believe it! A chance meeting in Hall A at LD Bell High School has led to an amazing journey and life together.

It all started when we were 16-years-old and Brent helped one of my friends decorate my mom's yard with 10 trash bags of shredded paper to celebrate my birthday. Nice, huh? In High School that's what we did. It was an all out war.

Brent Fisher and Bret West started hanging out with a group of my friends from junior high in the summer of our Junior year. At first, I wasn't too sure about the 2 new people joining our group but Brent quickly won me over. It started in Hall A when he "accidentally" bumped me into my locker and started chatting. Next thing you know we are on our first date to see The Rainmaker with Matt Damon. At the movie theater we saw his older brother Brad on a date too. Being the goofy kids we are we sat at separate ends of the theater. Next we were going to Bennigan's but saw Brad's truck so we settled for Cheddar's.

We continue our puppy love relationship on and off in High School and all throughout college. We did not get serious until our sophomore year of college and started thinking . . . could this be the "real" deal? Fast forward and other year-and-half and I am ready for my "MRS" degree from TCU.

Brent proposed February 14, 2004 at Texas de Brazil. He had saved all my notes from high school, movie stubs, baseball tickets and any other little memento from the previous 5 years. It was all in a box and waiting at the bottom - a ring box. We were excited and could not wait so we planned a big wedding in 9 months.

The wedding was perfect. I had my bride melt-down at the rehearsal :) and spent the wedding day relaxed and surrounded by friends and family that loved us. It was like a movie. The girls spent the day prepping and being pampering. Brent on the other hand, did not have as much preparation so he watched Groundhog Day and moved stuff to the apartment. The night was magical and everyone had a great time laughing, dancing and living in the moment.



Don't we look like babies? We were barely 23 years old.



So over the last five years we have traveled to Mexico several times, Austin, Las Vegas, and Hawaii, moved 3 times, bought 2 homes, bought/leased 4 cars, changed jobs and most importantly added to our family! I have enjoyed every day of our marriage -- I really have. I know the secret to our success is a Christ-centered marriage and being surrounded by family and friends that pray, love and support us.

Yard Work -- A Family Affair

Whew. . . is all I have to say. Yard work is going to be difficult! Fall has arrived and the leaves are falling. Brent and I decided instead of waiting until all the leaves fall we will do a little bit every week. Well, factor in our newest family member and things get tricky.

12 lawn bags, 3 hours of raking and bagging, and 1 mini-nap by Eli later our backyard is leave-free for the next 10 minutes or so. It's discouraging because when we walk out tomorrow morning it will look exactly the same as it did this morning.

Ready to start raking! Brent had the hard job of bagging everything and cleaning the pool! He also did not get to quit when Eli decided inside on the activity mat was much more fun than yard work.

One of the many piles by Team Rachel and Eli

The finished product


The front yard will have to wait for another day!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween, but next year will be even better with Eli!

We started Saturday with lunch with our good friends from college. Like always, Eli slept through it.

Later in the day, we volunteered to pass out candy at Trunkfest at First Baptist Church of Euless. Eli stayed at Papaw and Grandma's house. The estimates are 10,000 people crossed through our parking lot! Needless to say there were a lot of kids on sugar highs in HEB.

He didn't make it out of the house in his costume.

Us at Trunkfest. Our theme was "Hollywood".

Then we went back to Papaw and Grandma's house to play with Colton. He is already 3 weeks old! My mom, aunt, uncle and baby cousin also came over. We had 3 babies under 2, 2 dogs, and 9 adults in the living room. It is so fun to see our families growing!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch last weekend with the Stovalls. It was really fun, crowded, crazy and we avoided the bounce house of Swine Flu. Here are a few of the 200 photos taken. Yes, we really have 200 photos of the day! I couldn't get the slideshow to work, so if someone wants to email me how that would be awesome!


The Family


This could be fun

Oh ya, I remember I hate tummy time!

Trying to stand with little help

Ricky Bobby pose of the day "I don't know what to do with my hands"

Still having fun

Why am I still sitting here with all these pumpkins?

With Mommy and Daddy

Starting to get very sleepy

Holding hands with his friend Audrey

Last picture of the day -- Please stop torturing us with hay, pumpkins, flashes and loud rattles!

3 Months Already!

I can't believe Eli turns 3 months today. Time has flown by so quickly and I have a feeling it will only go faster.

So far with a little living underneath his belt he loves playing on the activity mat, is mesmerized by Baby Einstein videos, hates tummy time and no longer wants to be held like a baby. He is much more interested in sitting up or facing out when carried. He wants to see his surroundings.

He likes walks to look up at the trees and sky. He has discovered his hands and likes to put his fingers in his mouth. We have long conversation back and forth, read books, blogs and facebook updates :). He sleeps in his own bed upstairs and greets me with a big smile in the morning. He is still our little spider monkey because his favorite sleeping position is on your chest with his long arms and legs sprawled out.

It is so amazing to watch him grow, develop and learn. You can see it in his face studying an object, figuring out his motor skills or when he recognizes you. He is truly the joy of our life and I can't imagine our family without him!

3 Months today!


This only lasted for about 1 minute before he started crying!

Could This Be True?

Could it be true that babies can sleep longer than 3-4 hours without eating! I have heard of this phenomenon but did not believe it. I am experiencing this new thing. . . it's called "sleep". Have you heard of it before? For the last few month I would classify our sleep progression as none, short naps, longer naps and the last 2 weeks at least one REM cycle.

It all started last week when Eli slept one night for 6 straight hours -- too bad it was from 8:00pm - 2:00am. Nevertheless, it gave Brent and I hope that better nights were coming! We made the decision before Eli was born that as soon as he started sleeping longer periods of time we would move him upstairs. It sounded so easy before he was here!

So, Sunday (10/11) he slept upstairs in his crib. I was more sad than Eli. I like having him in our room, but know it's better to do it now before he has too much of an opinion. Yet another big transition!

The first night he was asleep when we moved him up there at 10:00pm. He slept until 6:00am! I was the one up in the night listening to the monitor and checking randomly that he was still breathing.

A few days later we put him in his crib, sleepy, but still awake. He wiggled and cooed, but put himself to sleep. What an AWESOME baby. So far, we have not had to let him "cry it out" and I am praying that we don't have to!

The pack and play is now out of our room and we have taken another huge step in parenthood. He is growing up too fast!

I'm asleep

I'm awake


Have a good stretch

Ready to start the day!

Look Who's Talking