The latest news.. Swine Flu
Fort Worth ISD CLOSED

Here's what you need to know about the swine flu

Worst post ever? I know, just throwing those out there. Glad I live in Abilene right now with no confirmed cases!

Masterpieces

"I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God.

Never has there been and never again
Will there be another you
Fashioned by God's hand
And perfectly planned
To be just who you are
And what He's been creating
Since the first beat of your heart
Is a living breathing priceless work of art..."

I couldn't help but think about the Steven Curtis Chapman song Fingerprints of God as I created this post about my masterpieces creating their own priceless works of art. Precious children, I can see the fingerprints of God when I look at you..

Thank God for fingerpaints and creative children on rainy/cloudy days! :)

Ashley's baby shower & some randoms..

On Sunday, we had Ashley's baby shower (Jeff's cousin) at his grandma's house. It was such a good turn out. I believe Ashley now has everything she needs and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Addison Paige!

Look at all these girls (above)! In case you didn't know, there are only two boys in the family. Jeff has one uncle (who has a daughter lol) and then there is Jeff. I am currently the only girl married into this family LOL!

In other news..
Is it okay that this Swine Flu news is more than just barely bothering me? It's just plain scary! Last I heard was 40 people currently infected and 100 already dead. Many of these cases in Texas..

Back in my earlier blogging days, you might remember Top Five Fridays but somewhere along the line I got bored with it (and ran out of top things to share). Anyone have any other cute blogging ideas you would want me to share? If so, email me some tips at mommyloftin@yahoo.com I have a couple ideas in my head but nothing solid yet..

Have a blessed week..

March of Dimes Walk 4/25/09

We had a great time this morning. The weather was cloudy but not too hot at all.. it was perfect. Sam, Virginia, Jenn and I met up with all the kids and walked our three miles. The kids had a blast on the big bounce houses and it was definitely a good time. Our team raised $680 for March of Dimes and it was a great feeling. I think my parents would be proud of the work we did in my brother, Thomas' name, and for all the premature babies all over the world. What a blessing it is to have two healthy, full term babies who were blessed with a healthy birth. Those are small things we take for granted. If you are ever given the chance to do any work for March of Dimes, I would highly recommend the experience!

I did it all for this little guy.. Can't wait to meet you in Heaven, Brother!

Mommy Willis

My sister-in-law, Shanna, made a blog recently so go check hers out and follow her too! :)

Mommy Willis

Save an infants life..

Just wanted to sent out a message with a last minute reminder that tomorrow my team and I will be walking for March of Dimes here in Abilene. We are walking in honor of my brother, Thomas Lane Lochridge, who was a premature infant who did not survive.

March of Dimes is an organization that supports:

• Research into stress and other factors that may trigger preterm labor.
• Programs to educate pregnant women to recognize the warning signs of preterm labor.
• Tools to help health care providers find better ways to detect women who may be at risk for preterm labor.

Please come sponsor me in my walk for a great organization at
www.marchforbabies.org/cel02a
It is fast and easy to donate. You can use a credit/debit card online or even mail in a check or cash donation. Even $1 helps! If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to leave me a comment here or email me at mommyloftin@yahoo.com.
Thanks so much! Have a blessed weekend!

We have a WALKER!!

In case you missed it on my myspace bulletin, my twitter status, my facebook note or on the email I sent out..

I think we can finally say that Miss Happy is walking! The last two days have been more walking than crawling. It only took her 12 months to learn so we are pretty excited, haha! She loves walking, by the way, and probably could walk better if she would slow down but she would rather run! Here she is walking across our living room tonight...



Precious baby, you make Mommy so proud!

Those in need of prayer..

Please be praying for these two families. Strangers who are in need of prayer for their precious little ones.. Click on each picture to visit their blogs.

Happy Hot Humpday!

If you could see my face right now, you would see I am glowing.. which means it is going to be HOT here in West Texas today! I am obsessed (big time) with hot weather! The hotter, the better and my weather alert says the high is 99 degrees today! Hallelujah!

It took me two long evenings of working on the flowerbeds to get them to my standard. I am not a gardener in any way at all. I was almost clueless while I was working. Since we have lived here (two years in May) the flowerbed in front of our awesome front porch has been just full of grass and monkey grass. So, it took me a whole afternoon just to dig all the monkey grass out (left enough to make a cute border) and then the next day I got to actually plant the flowers. Gardening is so cheap.. why didn't someone tell me?! Anyways, I have plans to go back in a couple days and fill in different flowers (or maybe small plants) between these flowers but I am proud of my start on this project. We did our Earth day project a day early :)

I got an update from Colleen about little Ryder, who I asked prayers for earlier this week. Ryder's Cystic Fibrosis test came back clear which is great. So, they are actually on their way to Lubbock right now to a Gastrointestinal specialist to check for any blockages or anything like that. She did say that his first and second round of tests showed that his thyroid levels are high so it is possible he may be diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, which is controllable by meds. Hyperthyroidism would actually be one of the better diagnoses so continue to pray that the results show something as simple as that. I know Colleen appreciates the prayers and thoughts. Leave me a comment to say you are praying so she can see them when she checks my blog!

Go outside today and soak up some heat!

Prayer Request

One more thing for today..

I want to ask for you to pray for one of our family friends, Colleen, and her baby boy, Ryder. Colleen and her husband have two boys and their youngest, who is 2 months old, has recently had some questionable health problems. At Ryder's 2 month check up the doctors realized Ryder is not gaining weight and in fact, he is losing weight. They are doing many tests and blood tests to check for a potential cause (one of which is Cystic Fibrosis). I believe Colleen would tell you that the most worrisome part of all this is that in the time it takes to do all these tests (and for someone to actually call back with results) Ryder is losing even more weight and wanting to eat less. Please be in prayer for this family and little Ryder in this time of waiting filled with worry and stress. I will keep you all posted on any news as soon as I hear anything from Colleen.

Here is precious Ryder at Brylee's first birthday party.. He is so cute!This is his mommy, Colleen, and Ryder's big brother, Ricky. See Ryder and his daddy in the background? :)

Never been better!

If told you we had a great weekend.. would you be surprised? I think I say that every Monday. So here's the recap:

Saturday morning I woke up and decided it was time to spend some time on my long neglected flower beds so I raked them all out and made them look peachy again. Therefore, my goal for this week is plant flowers in them. If you are laughing right now it is because you know me and I know that I do not garden. Ever. Hopefully first time is a charm. I will post some pictures of my progress (or attempt) later this week. While I was working outside, I asked Jeff to put Braelyn's socks and shoes on so she could come out and play. This is what happened... He thought it was hilarious. Daddy's with daughters.. sometimes it's a scary thing! No, I do not normally let her wear "tall socks" and shorts :)

Saturday night, Jeff went to Lubbock with some "car friends" so I decided to take Braelyn to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. It was SO cute and Braelyn was the cutest kid in the theatre with her little 3D glasses on! It was a good movie and the 3D was cool. Braelyn was dodging asteroids from her chair but she was giggling :)
Brylee got to go play with her Jamom and Jampa during the movie.
Sunday morning we got up to early to all go with Jeff's parents to Fredericksburg. Jeff's dad has been rebuilding Volkswagen Bugs for years now and since there was a Volkswagen get together there that weekend, we decided to go along for the fun. There was lots of cars and junk and more cars but it was fun. Braelyn and Brylee enjoyed it all.

After lunch we ventured through the town which is absolutely adorable. It is a perfect little, gorgeous place. We went to the Wildseed Farms and saw millions of flowers. If you haven't heard of it.. click on the link and see their site. It is an awesome, huge store with restaurant, live bands, tons of flowers you can walk through and take pictures. It claims to be the world's largest wildflower farm and I believe it. It was so fun!

After there we went to the the local park and let the kids play and made one last stop at their toy store Spunky Monkey Toys before we headed back to Abilene. It was a good day and fun to get away to such a cute place.

Was that enough pictures for you? :) Hope you all have a blessed week.

On my blogging agenda this week: flowerbeds and recipes for kids/busy moms!

Parenting

Happy Friday! I wanted to share two websites that I found this week that I have really enjoyed.

The first is Productive Parenting. This is a great site to look at if you have small kids. I got the tip of off Kelly's Korner, who always has great links and ideas. Productive Parenting was designed by a mother and daughter team who did extensive research on child development and small activities to keep your children engaged and learning in the home before they enter school. It is so simple to use. You sign up and enter your kid(s) name and birthday and then they will send you an email everyday to do with your kid. You can also choose which days you want to receive suggestions through email. I chose Monday thru Friday for Braelyn and Brylee because ours weekends are always so non-routine. For example, today I got the email that says "Today's Productive Parenting activity for Brylee is Matching Shapes. To view this activity, click here" And the next said "Today's Productive Parenting activity for Braelyn is Pack Your Bag. To view this activity, click here" All of the activities are simple, learning tools to teaching kids the basics through play. I love it, so far, and the girls do too! The site has plans from newborn through age 4. To see the list of all activities by age, click here.
** Side note: you will probably have to go register and login for these links above to work and to be able to see all the activities in detail. **

My second favorite website of the week is Moms Who Think. This another awesome parenting site. Just go look at their homepage today for some great tips, articles and resources. There are tabs for health, recipes, celebrations, baby names, pregnancy, parenting (my favorite), and checklists. Click on all of them at least once cause there is so much great info on each tab. I actually found this site when I was googling for easy recipes (that post to come probably next week). The part I am most intrigued with right now is in the education section under the parenting tab. Braelyn and I are working on perfecting her colors, numbers and letters and they have sections that are great for toddlers with following links: Learning Colors, Preschool Games, Alphabet Letters, Learning Numbers, Playdough Recipe, Preschool Activities and Preschool Lesson Plans.

Mommies, be sure to check both of those websites out this weekend and have some activities ready for your little ones next week! :) Have a blessed weekend!

Brooke Ogilvie Photography Take 2

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