Daddy's Girl

Bailey has Scott wrapped around her finger!  I guess most little girls do. I feel so blessed to have married a man that is such a good daddy.  He absolutely adores Bailey and she feels the same way towards him.  In fact, when he's home I might as well leave the house.  I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate that, but positive that Bailey would enjoy alone time with her daddy.  Everything he does now is for her and her future.  He's even already started her college fund.  Ha! She's a pretty lucky little girl!

I'm pretty lucky, too.  I'm not sure my household could run quite the same without him.  He gets up early to take Bailey to school, even though it's out of his way, and sometimes means a 2 hour commute to work for him.  But, he knows how much I appreciate that time in the morning to be able to get to work a little bit earlier.  I haven't taken my car to get the oil changed or tires rotated since I married Scott.  He always takes care of that for me on his day off.  And of course, let's not forget how he unclogs my shower drain when we all know it is not his hair that he's pulling out of those drains. There are, of course, a million other things that I couldn't do without him, but that's for another post. 
I'm not quite sure why he chose me and I've never quite felt like I deserved him, but man am I grateful that God brought him into my life and even more glad that he's the father of my amazing little girl.

Happy Mother's Day Mom

My mom with Bailey

My mother has taught me quite a bit in my almost 32 years on planet Earth.  Here are just a few...

Have faith in God
When she was 15 years old, her brother Preston passed away.  I can't even begin to imagine experiencing that kind of loss, especially at such a young age. Yet, her faith in God is incredibly strong.  I have never experienced that kind of loss, but I would like to think that when I do experience it, I will rely on God and trust that He is always in control.
 

Don't let your physical challenges keep you from doing something you love
My mother has lost quite a bit of her hearing during her adult years.  I know that this is tough for her, especially begin so gifted musically.  Yet, she continues to sing in the choir at our church and play the piano.  The biggest physical challenge that I have is exercise-induced asthma and the only time that becomes a problem is when I'm playing soccer.  Not such a huge problem now, but when I was younger it was pretty tough overcoming that and playing college soccer.  But I'd push through it just like my mom does every day because it was what I loved to do.


Share your faith with your family
I admire my mother so much for her faith and how she encourages others, including her family, on their faith journey.  As long as I can remember my mother would share the Bible with me and pray for me.  Now that I'm a mother I know how hard it actually is to find time in your day to do that with Bailey.  I'm so thankful that she took the time to mold my faith. 

Bailey calls her "Nana"

Support your child's dreams
My parents have always supported my dreams.  I wanted to play college soccer at a small, private (expensive) school that did not offer athletic scholarships.  They encouraged my 100% to pursue this dream and on top of that drove the long 4 hours to come see me play in Abilene.  Sometimes making that drive to Abilene and back in one day. I could probably only count on 2 hands how many games they missed in my whole 4 years playing for HSU.  Talk about dedicated fans! 

I consider myself incredibly lucky that I am now a mother and can use what I have learned to be this kind of mother to my sweet Bailey Laine.  Now I get to see the amazing grandmother that she is and continue to learn from her! 

Katie, my mom, and me at Katie's bridal luncheon

What's in a Name?

It took Scott and me forever to come up with a girl name we could both agree on.  Boy names were not a problem.  We had settled on Brady if Bailey had been a girl.  And as I had mentioned before I was positive I was going to have a boy.  But, God has a sense of humor!  I had really liked the name Bailey for a girl, but had friends that had dogs named Bailey, so I wasn't so sure about that.  But I kept going back to Bailey.  The other problem was that we could not agree on a middle name.  I had always liked the name Elaine because that is my sister's middle name.  I wanted some part of her name to be a family name.  But we didn't like how Bailey Elaine sounded.  So of course we went back and forth.  Well, it was finally the day of the ultrasound to see if we were having a boy or girl.  And again, I was totally convinced they would tell us it was a boy and completely ready to name him Brady.  Well, on the way to the doctor's office we drove past a street called Bailey Lane.  The doctor's office is actually on the corner of Bailey Lane.  No joke!  And there is a park right by the hospital where I delivered Bailey called Bailey Park.  So once I saw that I told Scott, "It's gonna be girl and we're gonna name her Bailey Laine."  Well, you know the rest of the story.  They told us we were having a girl and we named her Bailey Laine.  You know how some people are their name?  Well, Bailey is definitely a Bailey.  I can't imagine her having any other name!