Its been OVER a Year!

Yes....it has been one year and a half since I have last blogged and a lot has happened. I'm sure you are not surprised about that news! I can't believe I actually got on blogspot to finally start doing this again BUT it has been something I have wanted to do for a long time. So where do I begin?? I apologize in advance that this will be a LONG one in order to get everyone up to date on The Rice Family! Okay- WHERE do I begin:

First of all, February 10, 2009 I found out that I was pregnant with our second baby! I was about 7 weeks along. The beginning of this pregnancy was a little rocky at the beginning BUT God had his hands on this baby from the start. The first week in March of 2009, Gary and Carolyn Rice took the entire Rice Family (which is the three of us, Jason, Heather and Luke) to Disney for an entire week. What a dream come true! Beau and Luke had a blast. While we were there, I started spotting (I know....TMI). I just knew that I was miscarrying because I had always heard that bleeding wasn't good. It was the very last day we were there and I really didn't want to go to a hospital being that I wasn't home with my doctor. I thought "what can they do anyway"! Well- I did quit spotting the next day when we were headed back home. Had a great Saturday and Sunday with no spotting. I called my doctor first thing on Monday morning and, of course, she wanted to see me immediately. Long story short- I had placenta previa. I had NEVER heard of this. It is where the placenta is attached under the baby and right on my cervix. Okay- so what now?? I just had to be EXTREMELY careful. I wasn't put on bedrest or anything, but just had certain things I could not do. The good news is that corrected itself and the placenta moved where it was suppose to around 20 weeks. We found out we were having a girl. BIG SHOCKER!! To be honest, I wanted another boy (I thought)! I just thought it would have been so much fun for Beau to have a brother to play with and grow up. Well- God had different plans for us!

So- now our BEAUTIFUL baby girl was born on September 16, 2009! Her name is Brighton Olivia Rice. She just is almost 11 months and has been A LOT of fun. She is so fun and I NEVER imagined the amount of joy she brings to us. She has done everything so much quicker than Beau so I wasn't prepared. Brighton was sitting up by about 5 months, crawling at 7 months and has been standing up/cruising around on furniture since she turned 8 months. Just recently, this week she started taking steps. I don't want her to grow up so fast!

Jeff's business continues to GROW like crazy. We are so blessed. He is staying extremely busy and I'm very proud of him. I work 3 days a week and stay home with the Beau and Brighton the other days. Life is VERY busy when you work and have kids. I never knew I could be so busy.

I have enjoyed a little bit of traveling. Jeff and I were able to go skiing over the winter with some friends while mom kept the kids. Jeff and I were able to get away and go to the Dominican Republic with some friends. We enjoyed getting away and it makes us better parents. My mom is wonderful and it makes it so easy to be able to leave the kids. I sometimes think she does a "better" job than me and the kids absolutely LOVE her. She is a lot of fun. We also were able to take the kids, my parents, my brother and his girlfriend to Panama City Beach, FL! It was fun to get the family together. We all (except Papaw and Brighton) went parasailing! That was the highlight of the trip.

Beau played his first organized sport over the spring! He played flag football and he endured it. He wanted us to sign him up again for the fall so we did. He also keeps telling us that he wants to play soccer. So- we are not sure if we will do both.

Beau will start a program called Transitional Kindergarten in the fall. I have an in-home childcare lady that keeps Brighton for me while I work. Now that Beau is not in school over the summer, I found a camp for him. He is loving it. They do field trips, splash days, and art days. He really likes it.

This should get you ALL caught up on the past year!!!! I will be posting a lot more!