MUST STACK THE CARS...I have to share some funny things about my dealey man. He's a bit obsessive compulsive (I know you're all wondering where he gets that from :o) But he really does have some strange neurotic behaviors such as.

1. putting his cars in a neat nice row, but even more impressive arranging them according to size.

2. his cup must face a certain way and always be a certain distance from him when he's in his chair eating.

3. stacking the train cars, he does it with such carefulness and sometimes he even does it by car color. In this picture he was alternating colors.

There are more strange oddities but they just crack me up. It's nice because I can always count on him for a laugh or two everyday and some days it's much needed.

My sweet friend Christine (from NYC) gave birth to a beautiful baby girl Cora Rose on July 25! Congratulations Stephen & Christine! We love you guys!

Click on the image for a larger view of sweet Cora!

A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY: The last few weeks have been filled with so many ups and downs and today for me was such a milestone. To see this little baby kicking like crazy on screen. To hear the doctor say baby looks perfect in size and development. To see a strong beating heart. It made everything seem a bit more real. I feel like I can really get excited about this pregnancy now and start thinking about the future with my two beautiful children.

Last little hurdle to make it over is the surgery Monday but it's a pretty easy one and really the only major complication that could happen is if the dr. accidentally breaks my water but she's the best and she did amazing last time and she's knows I expect nothing less of perfection from her.

It looks like we'll be back at 18 weeks (August 20) for a check of the circlage and to find out the sex of the baby. However we're not going to actually find out that day we're going to have the dr. write it in a card and seal it up and I have a bakery that is going to bake us either a blue or pink cake both with white icing and we're going to have a little family get together and we'll cut the cake and all find out together what we're having! It's going be super fun.

I'll write a little update after the surgery Monday but I expect everything to be wonderful.

QUICK BABY UPDATE : We had our check up today I'm 13 weeks and 4 days and it was such a relief to hear the heartbeat. I don't feel completely calm yet about everything because it was between 14 and 15 weeks that we lost our little boy last time so a few more weeks and I'll be able to start enjoying this a bit more. We see the specialist next Thursday to check baby out and make sure everything is measuring correctly and is in the right place and ultimately to check my incompetent cervix and see what it's doing so far. They plan to put the circlage in Monday, July 27th and for me I think that will be a very defining day that this pregnancy is a go.

We're still supper excited and have big plans for how we're going to find out the sex of the baby (I'll tell you about that some other time) and we can't wait to call him or her by their name we have two girls names we love (and yes I'm hoping for a girl, some say I'm crazy, but I really feel like a girl would be an amazing treat for us) and we have one boy name that we love which was hard to come up with because there's so much behind Dealey's name we felt this one would need to be equally interesting (at least to us). So we wait we hope to find out towards the end of August what we're having!

Dealey goes in for his 2 year check up tomorrow so that should be exciting he still weighs 29 lbs according to my grandmother's scale which is what he weighed at 16 months so we'll see but I know he's taller. He's a crazy man and so freaking full of energy it's nuts. He can literally run around in circles forever and has at my parents house many times. He too is supper excited about baby as much as he understands. But he hugs and kisses my belly without direction almost every day and this morning he said good morning to the baby which was too sweet. So I'm excited to see how he does in the coming months as we start to prepare babies room and he can see some more physical change in his surroundings and in me.

For now that's all, I'll have more news and a new picture of baby next week!

Okay here's a quick baby update. I had a dr. appt this week and we got to see are little 2 cm baby happy as can be. I am anxiously awaiting the end of this trimester for reasons we all know so I have an appointment to check the heart beat on July 15 then the following we I see the specialist to check baby out in full, then the last week of July (I'll be about 15 weeks) I'll get the circlage put in and hopefully have a happy healthy pregnancy free of any bed rest from then on. That's my plan :o) We'll see how that goes. Oh and I'm do January 23rd but if happens as it did last time, the circlage will come out December 23rd and we could have our little one before the end of the year....For now, here's are little maple.....

Oh and just a little interesting side note. When I had this sono done, my doc. saw something weird. It's one of two things but the funny thing is, it's weird looking and if it's not what she thinks it is then it's something she's never seen before. It appears (from a different angle) that I either have two sacs meaning we might of had twins to begin with or it's just a freak thing. With my medical history I vote the specialist will confirm it's a freak thing but maybe not, maybe for a brief moment there were Maples twins....scary.....

Another Year Down & the Next One is Going to be CRAZY!!! Today our sweet Dealey turns 2! It's hard to believe it's been two years. He such a boy now not a baby anymore that's for sure. We have full on conversations sometimes about very weird things and he is constantly amazing us with how much he's learned. He can count to 13 really well and 15 on a good day. I hope that we can continue to enjoy every day with our little guy as we prepare to welcome another Maples into our family! So far Dealey doesn't seem to care too much but he likes to point at my stomach and say baby so I'm working with him when he does that to encourage him to kiss the baby and hug the baby. He's a very tender child and if he loves his little brother or sister as much as he loves on his cars and his bear then we'll be in good shape. I know it's going to be a big year in our house and I hope that Dealey will continue to feel loved and inspired as we welcome baby #2.

We had a party on Sunday for the D man and it was a blast it was so overwhelming and encouraging to see so many people gather to celebrate his life and say we love you. So a huge thanks to everyone for making time for our family. We had several people who traveled hours to spend time with us and we hope they know how loved that makes us feel and how much we appreciate them. I've never seen so many cars in my life. The original plan was to have a "Cars" party but when we were at the store Dealey wanted the Mickey stuff so it became a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party instead. He loved his presents and so far at each holiday he's seemed to have a favorite. Last year it was a walk and ride McQueen car and this year it was Mater the tow truck from the movie "Cars" it's all I can do to pry it away from him at night!

It's been a crazy month so far and I have so many post I need to write. Our Boston trip was amazing and of course Matt took some 500 pictures. So I promise to write soon about our trip and share a small sampling of what he took. Now if I can get through my birthday Saturday, yikes I'm turning 30, then I think we might make it through June! More baby post to come as well!

okay okay, so I haven't been a good blogger lately...it's been busy, juggling being a mom, wife, graphic designer and wine enthusiast! Sigh, but I think after some changes and a little perspective I've got it back to a manageable state. While selling wine is a fascinating industry and I love so many parts of it, the time demand on me was more than I could bare to give, my first 3 jobs keep me busy enough. So tomorrow is my last day in the engulfing world of wine but I've decided the only thing I'll really miss are the sweet people I got to work with.

Other than too much work, nothing much is going on in our world, Dealey just gets bigger by the day and amazes us with his intelligence and wit. He continues to be the light in a sometimes dark world and reminds us on a daily basis how fortunate we really are. I don't think it's to big of a secret to many of you that Matt and I have been in a dark, frustrating and sometimes dismal place in our marriage for some time but I'm optimistic yet guarded about deciding to be a part of an amazing ministry at our new church called RE:ENGAGE. It's a six month commitment we've made to help put in place the ground work that will help us reconnect, restore and reignite our marriage.

But enough of the crap part of life and back to Dealey. Here's some great pics of our sweet little guy over the past few months. I can't believe he'll be 2 so soon!

I'M FOR SALE!!!!!! ON ETSY!!!! I can't believe I actually did it, now hopefully I won't be completely disappointed by no bites, I'm looking forward to adding blocks though I have beautiful set I finished at home that just simply says imagine so we'll see what happens! Check me out on Etsy my username: AContemporaryWorld.

another new painting, and this one is for sale! I'm going to submit this painting as well as another one I'm working on to a place called art is art down on Henderson off 75. I'm really excited and can't wait to sale my first painting! I'll keep you posted.

more paintings! this is so fun.....

LOOK! I've been painting! I've found a new love and could spend almost every minute of every day painting. Here's a couple of recent creations they are unnamed at the moment but I'd like to take suggestions for names so if you have an idea when you view the painting leave me a comment!

Also, check out the blog entry below I've created a couple of online portfolios using blogspot, so if you've ever wondered what my work looks like check them out!

To view the paintings larger just click on the pic...

Hey guys, check out my new portfolio blog if you have a minute: Rachel Maples : Design Portfolio

also I just created a Freelance Portfolio if you have two minutes check them both out

This past week Matt and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary....We've spent the week thinking about all the wonderful, horrible, weird and wonderful things that have happened over the last 10 years. Here's a few things we've learned.

1. Life is never what we expect it to be, and that's okay.

2. Love can withstand the craziest of storms.

3. Children freaking change everything!

4. We're never quite prepared for the next phase.

5. Contentment is not in our vocabulary.

6. Friends will come and go but we have each other and that's all we really need.

and most important.

7. We love each other and always will.

We also spent a good part of the last week living it up. Celebrations started Wednesday evening with a yummy dinner, Sprinkles cupcakes and then hours spent sipping wine at a wonderful wine bar (Vino100) and talking about what the next 10 years might bring and what we'd like the next 10 years to bring. Then Friday my parents cooked dinner for us (really sweet) and Matt surprised us with Sprinkles cupcakes and we had cupcakes & champagne for dessert. Then to cap it all off, Saturday Matt's mom kindly took Dealey off our hands and we spent and evening in Ft. Worth eating amazing Italian food, drinking wine & cocktails and laughing our butts off while watching one of our favorite comedy troops Four Day Weekend. But really the sweetest part of the whole week was Matt's surprise of a night at the Worthington in Downtown Ft. Worth. What made it so special? It's where we spent our wedding night 10 years ago. It was an amazing week spent with an amazing man, my hero, my love, my Matt.

Here's a few pics, us in the hotel room before we went out & me getting a little goofy after a few glasses of wine and cocktails at the comedy club :o)

Christmas this year was an amazing and exhausting time of family. We hosted Matt's mom's family for Christmas Eve. The food was amazing and overflowing, the sweets to die for and mounds of presents that everyone enjoyed. Christmas day was equally as fun but with a smaller crowd, of just my family, which was just fine with us. All in all we had a very blessed Christmas and are looking for an even better New Years. Here's a few pics from our two days of Christmas fun.

• CHRISTMAS EVE •

• CHRISTMAS DAY •

wordless wednesday : oh! funny boy

saying goodbye...i had to say goodbye this morning to my dear friend Christine she's headed back to new york with her sweet little girl eva. we so enjoyed their company the last few days and i was very sad to say goodbye. i feel like though i have a new perspective on life after her short stay here and have learned some new thoughts to keep in mind while dealing with each day. first off whenever things aren't what i thought they would be i just need to say to myself "it is what it is" there's nothing i can do about D having a bad day or being sick i just need to find the best way to cope and work through it and not get so down about the fact that it's not the schedule or the norm. probably much easier said than done but i'm determined to make it a way of life, after all on the subject of life it is what it is and the only thing i can do is try to help the situations i can help realize that there are many many things out of our control and reach and those things will be what they are. again a tough concept to first embrace i think but i again am determined to make it a way of life and mind. so first things first i know my life isn't as happy as it could be, matt and i aren't as close as we could be and those things I can help. Matt and i have to find time to work on us and i need to take steps to correct what it is that makes me unhappy in life be it work or home and in actuality there are things in both of those areas i've got to deal with and regain some control of ultimately regaining control of happiness in my life. if you've read this far thanks for listening to me ramble on about my life maybe it struck a cord in you maybe like me you too like to control your life and need to realize that sometimes it just is what it is and it's not control you need you just need to cope and move on. so to those of you feeling my words, i raise my glass and say here's to dealing with what is and helping what can be helped. here's to happiness and the pursuit of it. I'll keep you posted on my endeavours.

wedding fun. we went to a wedding this last weekend and dealey and weddings has proved to be an odd mix and this one was no different my dad ended up spending the majority of the time in the lobby walking around with dealey. poor little guy just can't sit still to save his life or so we thought. He did sit still long enough this past Sunday to get his face painted at a festival our church put on but at the wedding it just wasn't happening. I do have to give props to the couple getting married they made it a very child friendly wedding more so than any other I've ever been to. They passed out coloring pictures and crayons in little baggies as we went into the worship center which was totally cool, he did color for all of 5 minutes maybe. Then at the reception they had chicken tenders and french fries for the kids to eat which was awesome! I don't know about you guys but I've never been to a wedding that had such accommodations for kids. Of course dealey was the cutest kid there in his brown cargo's and argyle sweater (thank you Rana). Here's a few pics of our sweet boy and we got a video of him dancing on the dance floor at the reception I'll try to get that posted later this week but if I don't just know it was too cute and pretty funny,

halloween...okay okay I know it's way past halloween time but it's been hard to find time to pull the pics off the camera so much so that now I have 3 post worth of pictures on there :o) Halloween was great D really got into it and carried his bucket the whole time and loved that when he went to someones house they gave him something. When we go for walks now he still expects it and trys to walk up to peoples house. We have the boy who fears nothing. So here are some fun pics from that night. Once we got home it was a fun game of dump the bucket over D's head and then pick it all up. We finally decided to let him have a little candy and he loved it, of course. Enjoy our little monkey, we sure do.