blessed...

one month pics...

2011-07-02T07:05:00.000-07:00

these were taken when crosby was almost a month old....i know, they're late, of course!

one month old!

2011-05-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

crosby turned one month old on friday! unbelievable!

we are so in love with him! he gets bigger and bigger every day and he is starting to smile at us and really focus on our faces. he has also seemed to get more fussy than he was in the first couple of weeks, but we are trying to work through that. :) it's hard not knowing what makes him cry.

one night he slept 7 1/2 hours! that hasn't happened since, but he will usually sleep close to 5 before i need to wake up to feed him. i think he sleeps pretty good. unless i eat something that hurts his tummy...then he does not sleep well at all! poor guy! :(

we went to church for the first time tonight, but only made it through about 10 minutes of the sermon. he liked the music, but he started crying once it got quiet, of course! but we walked around and visited some friends, so that's OK. hopefully we will get back into the church routine soon...mommy misses church!

here are some recent pics...enjoy!

crosby loves his granny!

travis and rebecca had a "reveal" party to tell us what they're having. crosby and i wore pink because we thouht it was a girl...and we were right! we can't wait to meet mackenzie harper snedecor in september! (don't worry, he had boy clothes on under the pink onsie!) :)

nana came to visit and i took a cute picture!

hanging out with his pal, abigail!

crosby tate lee...

2011-05-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

finally! i am officially announcing the birth of our wonderful son, crosby tate. he is already 3 1/2 weeks old, which is unbelievable, and updating my blog has just not made it on the to-do list around here. life is wonderful with our newest addition, but it's also super busy, overwhelming, and seems to fly by each day! i can't say i wasn't warned! :)

crosby was born on april 20, 2011 at 10:00 PM after about 31 hours of labor! yikes! he weighed 7 lb. 6oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long. at his two week doctor visit he weighed 8 lb. 4 oz. so he's growing fast! we can't decide who he looks like. i think he looks mostly like josh, but some people think he looks like me. we shall see.

ok enough chatting...i'll post pictures now!

he's finally here! he came out face up...which means he had a really really funny shaped head! :) but that went away by the next day. we were so in love with him from the second we saw him.

he showed us his awesome set of lungs...he gets those from granny. :)

granny and papa

nana and papa

finally...time to go home. there were some small complications at the hospital so we had to stay from wednesday to saturday. we were really ready to get out of there!

barely made it in time for his first easter!

we are wanting to take his picture by this giraffe every month. it was hard to get a good picture with him being so little, but it will be interesting to see how much he grows each month.

first sponge bath at home...can't you tell he loved it?!

josh's sister and her family came in from fort worth to meet crsoby...kaylei really liked holding her little cousin :)

autumn and garrett are great big cousins!

Jesus loves crosby!

one day we drove to needville for crosby to meet his grandparents. this is his great great grandma tate...from whom he gets his middle name :)

he got to meet his great grandpa too...my pappaw

one of my favorites

don't let this fool you...he hates tummy time!

will post more later! i hope! :)

maternity pics...

2011-04-11T19:21:00.001-07:00

we did maternity pics last weekend. lauren did them, and she did an excellent job! we went to downtown conroe and found some pretty cool spots. lauren is becoming quite the photographer. check out her website at www.osulunaphotography.blogspot.com. i'm really proud of her, and i love our maternity pics! they are so cute! check 'em out...

incredible reading list...

2011-03-29T18:14:00.001-07:00

the last 3 books i read for class were all excellent reads...

the surrender tree by margarita engle
this is an awesome book of poetry about the cuban wars for independence, first from Spain, then from us. this is the second time i've read this book, and i loved it even more then the first time. for history buffs...i highly recommend this. for poetry lovers...also highly recommend it! there are multiple narrators and it's just great!

the wall: growing up behind the iron curtain by peter sis
this is an autobiography by a man who grew up on the east berlin side of the wall. he struggled under the control of the soviet union. the book contains many drawings and simple narrations, but the concepts discussed are pretty deep. probably for older readers than it appears. but it really was a good read and i learned a lot about the cold war that i never knew...from someone who lived it first hand.

the arrival by shaun tan
AMAZING! if you are into graphic novels, this book is a must! the artwork is incredible. seriously. there are no words in this book...none at all. but it is easy to forget that you are reading pictures. the story line puts the reader in the shoes of an immigrant moving to a foreign land to provide for his family. he goes to a whimsical land with intriguing creatures, new language, new weather, new foods, new everything. very eye opening for someone who has never dealt first hand with immigration. seriously good book and even better art.

from 16 - 36 weeks...

2011-03-28T18:24:00.001-07:00

i thought it would be fun to post all of the belly pics from the beginning until now to see how much crosby has grown! i cannot believe that we are three weeks from his due date. april 18 has seemed so far away for so long, and now it is just around the corner. unbelievable! well, here goes...

16 weeks...really? was i ever really this little?

20 weeks

24 weeks...

28 weeks...

32 weeks...

36 weeks (this was last week)

i guess the next pic will be when we leave for the hospital...and i am almost positive that i will not try the black tank top again...it needs a break! :) hahaha...this was fun.

ok...crosby, we're ready to meet you now. :)

showered with blessings...

2011-03-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

i had two amazing showers in march! they were both so much fun and such blessings. josh and i received so many gifts that we will use once crosby gets here. it is incredible to see God provide for us and for our new baby. it makes me wonder how people afford to have kids who do not have such an abundance of friends and family to support and help them. i have felt truly blessed by all of the love and generosity that people have shown! amazing!

the first shower was given by several of my friends. they rented out the auburn lakes club house and went all out decorating, planning, cooking, and everything else. it was seriously awesome!

here's a pic of the room once they got it all decorated...it was giraffe theme, of course, and it was so incredibly cute!

me and all of the hostesses. these girls all worked so hard to make this day happen for me. i appreciate them all so much!

i opened lots of presents and got lots of things that we really really needed!

autumn with her great great grandma...i am so happy that grandma was able to make it to the shower. i love her.

this was the corsage i wore...lauren took a cool pic of it with my ring. yes, my fingers are officially too fat to wear my wedding ring, so i have gotten creative! :)

lauren made yummy cupcakes and cake balls. there were also adorable giraffe cookies that rebecca and ashley made...everything was sooooo good!

courtney and niki, who both worked soooooo hard on this shower, gave me an amazing gift. everything had crosby's name on it...onsies, bibs, burp cloths, this cute bucket, a quilt, and more!

me and mommy (or granny)

this was the table when you walked in. those blocks are now in his room and look so cute! i also put the cute little piggy bank in his room. love it all! everyone got to guess crosby's birthdate, weight, and length too. josh and i had a lot of fun going through the guesses. we shall see who was closest! :)

dana coordinated a game with crosby's name...each bag had a baby item that started with each letter of his name. the bags were so cute!

such an amazing day! thanks so much to everyone who helped!

the next shower was on wednesday during lunch. all of the ladies at work got together and threw me an incredible shower. we had so much fun escaping the office for a couple of hours and hanging out at mrs. judy's house. they did such a great job planning this shower!

i had to wear these cute giraffe ears while i opened presents. it was fun! there was a tail too, but since i wore a dress, i messed that up. hahaha...i love this picture!

my co-workers got together and got us the car seat and pack and play! this was such a blessing. these things are pricy and very very necessary. josh put the car seat in the car on saturday. i'm not gonna lie...it's strange to look in my mirror and see a car seat. exciting!

the cake was sooooo cute! it was giraffe themed too! :) i never knew how much i loved giraffes until i chose that as crosby's nursery theme. now i just love it!

we played the crosby bag game at this shower too. it was cool to see the different items that they used for each letter. very very creative! :)

lots of adorable clothes, books, toys, and so much more. again, blessed!

these showers were awesome and i cannot believe all of the gifts that we got for crosby. with three weeks left until the due date (crazy!) i can truly say that i am ready for him to get here and i have everything i need for his arrival. i can only thank my amazing friends for that! now...time to write lots of thank you cards! :)

family baby shower

2011-03-06T18:12:00.000-08:00

so, like i said before, last saturday was our family baby shower. it was downtown at megan and jeff's amazingly beautiful condo in houston. they threw such a beautiful shower. jeff, megan's hubby, is a chef at the houstonian downtown, and he is seriously an amazing cook! they came up with a fancy menu for the shower, and all the food was delicious! we had open faced sandwiches...chicken salad, lamb, and ham. all good! we also had bacon wrapped green beans and potato hashbrown things which were soooo good. for dessert we had yummy cupcakes and homemade strawberry iceream. it was seriously all so good!

a lot of people were able to come into town from josh's family, and it was great to see everyone. from my family we had people drive in from trinity, humble, needville, and pearland. we really appreciated everyone making such a huge effort to be there for us! the only hiccup was that josh had to carry my grandma up the stairs to the second floor where the main living area is, but she was a trooper and it went really well. i was worried about that part, but there was no need to worry. josh was our hero! :)

here are some cute pics from the day...

nana and granny feeling crosby kick

yummy food...

josh's family, sans josh :)

love this one :)

we got lots of amazing gifts!

niki was getting creative with her photography :)

josh and i with our mommies

yummy desserts...

michele and jeff working hard in the kitchen...jeff even wore his official chef shirt. :)

i loved this..."mommy's new man!"

my beautiful host...megan! she and i met on the first day of school in kindergarten, and have been friends ever since. i love this girl!

my great grandma...i am so glad she was able to make it

my mom knit this little hat for crosby...so cute! and very sweet of her i might add :)

me and my mommy

josh was such a trooper...he was there with all these ladies, ooohhhing and awwwwing over baby stuff. he opened gifts, smiled, and seemed to have fun! :)

what a wonderful day! it is such a blessing to have such loving families who care about us enough to travel to houston for a baby shower, bring us amazing gifts, and love on us like this. thanks for everything!

current reads...

2011-03-05T11:33:00.001-08:00

books i've been reading

looking for alaska by john green:
great book! super sad. also very inappropriate for young readers at times, but still very good. pudge, the main character, leaves home to go to a prep school, and he learns a lot about life. he deals with love, death, and growing up. good read.

the chocolate war by robert cormier:
i'm listening to this now on CD when i drive to work and back every day. it's an old book, but i had never heard of it. it's very interesting, and i think young male readers would especially like it. the voice on the CD really helps to develop characters and add emphasis. i can't wait to see, or rather hear, how it ends! :)

athletic shorts: 6 short stories by chris crutcher:
so far i have read the first two stories, and they are both great. they deal with teens, so far all boys, and their struggle through relationships...with girls, parents, and friends. i am looking forward to reading the rest of the stories.

more nursery and belly pics...

2011-03-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

i haven't been blogging well lately...things have just been super busy. we had our family baby shower last weekend, and it was amazing! megan and jeff did such a great job with the shower, and we had a blast seeing everyone. i will post pictures of that soon...although there are a ton on facebook! :) we have also been taking classes at the hospital to get ready for crosby's arrival. so with all of that, plus school and crazy busyness at work...things have just been flying by!

about two weeks ago i took my 32 week belly pic, and i never posted it. oops! :) here you go...

haha...i don't know how much longer i can wear that tank top! :)

josh and i have also been working on putting crosby's room together and all of his fun things for him to play with/in. in fact, as i type, my wonderful husband is working on putting together an adorable giraffe musical bouncer. so cute! here are some pics of the nursery with his bedding and stuff in it...

i love it!!!

i will post more soon....love you all!

nursery extravaganza

2011-02-19T06:24:00.000-08:00

i'm finally ready to post the progress pics from the nursery week! i just want to say that i LOVE crsoby's room, and i think it will be so cute once all of his bedding and stuff is in there. i am so happy with how it turned out. :)

Step #1: measure and plan...

step #2: paint the top half of the room this crazy bright red color :)
(papa galen painted crosby's name on the wall!)

step #3: put up wainscoting on bottom half of the room...

wainscoting finished! this step took the longest.
step #4: time to start on the chair rail...
step #5: tedious cutting in around the edges of the trim and wainscoting...

step #6: painting the wainscoting tan

final touches....daddy wanted everything to look perfect!
step #who knows: put the furniture together and try to figure out how to make it all fit!

this project was so much fun. both of our families came to help, and we all had a good time. our dads brought all of their tools and got busy! my mom and i got to go shopping for paint and supplies. kyle came and helped josh go pick up all this heavy furniture in sugarland. everyone grabbed paint brushes and jumped right in. they wouldn't let me in the room very often with all the paint fumes and stuff, but i got to help a little bit and i watched lots of good movies! :) i also made sure everyone was well fed. hahaha. good times. my dad and brother even came into town this past thursday to finish cutting trim and galen came over yesterday to help josh put the furniture together...these guys must really love us! :)

now we just need to figure out how to make that HUGE chair fit in there without looking strange. suggestions?

thanks to everyone who helped...we appreciate it and i know crosby will too!

so, thank you:
papa vance
granny
papa galen
nana
uncle travis
aunt rebecca
kyle
and niki

you guys are the best! we love you so much!

please pray...

2011-02-16T19:32:00.000-08:00

hey everyone! please be praying for my pappaw. he has been dealing with leukemia and lymphoma for years now. his chemo pills that he is currently taking has gotten the leukemia under control. praise God! the lymphoma, which had been centralized in his arms for years, has been kind of dormant recently, which doctors think is strange. well, they found it again...this time in his eyes. he has been to the doctor a ton the last couple of weeks, and he was told today that chemo is ineffective in the eyes. he is seeing a specialist this week to see what other treatment options are available. please pray for comfort for him and peace during this stressful time. poor guy has really dealt with a lot lately. he is an amazing man of God with strong faith, but discouragement still tends to creep in when sickness is involved. please pray that God will continuously remind him that He loves him and is in control. thanks so much!

more books...

2011-02-15T17:51:00.000-08:00

Just finished two more books for school...

"Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson:
A book about rape...very sad, but very good.

"Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging" by Louise Rennison:
Hilarious! This is a diary of a young teen girl in England, and she could not be more funny. I listened to this on CD in my car, and I caught myself laughing out loud at red lights several times! Hahaha.... I will warn that there are some inappropriate entries, but they are all funny and honestly portray the thought process of teens. Loved it!

Next on the list..."Looking for Alaska" by John Green. Hope it's good! :)

my valentine

2011-02-15T17:20:00.000-08:00

i just want everyone to know that i have the most incredible husband EVER! i seriously love him so much and i am so thankful for him. he is so patient with me and my crazy emotions. :) seriously, he puts up with a lot from me, especially lately. he has grown into such an amazing man of God, and i love that i can have confidence in the fact that he is constantly seeking God's will for us and our family. i think he is going to be the best daddy ever, and i can't wait to see him in action. i hope crosby looks just like him too...so handsome.

joshua, i love you more than i could ever say! thank you for being wonderful. i look forward to many more years together. also, thank you for my FLIP CAM! :)

my 1st shower

2011-02-12T06:09:00.000-08:00

this past sunday, we had a fun little shower with our 8th grade girls. kimberly, one of my best friends, teaches this sunday school class with me, and she is 6 weeks further along than i am in her pregnancy. (meaning she is almost there!!!) one of the moms and my friend cindy got together and planned a little party for the girls to celebrate our babies with us. it was a blast. we played a couple of CUTE games and had donuts and juice. fun times! i am so glad that we were able to celebrate with these girls...they are a huge blessing to me. :) check out some pics...

they decorated the room so cute

this game was fun for the girls...they got clues and had to guess which candy bar answered the question: for example, twins = m&m's or 10 lb. baby = whoppers. cute idea!

cool action shot! cindy dumped these baby socks in the middle of 4 girls and they had to compete to match the most pair...they got a little crazy! :) there was only one casualty, and fortunately it was a baby boy sock! :)
we waited too long to take a picture, so a lot of the girls had to leave before this, but at least we got some of them! :) i love these girls.
me and kimberly...she is so beautiful!
kimberly and abigail with their baby girl gifts...
me and crosby with our baby boy gifts...
it was so fun to open presents together...we had all matching gifts. the girls were so sweet to do this for us!

thank you sandy and cindy for this shower! it was tons of fun and truly a blessing. love y'all!

kyle

2011-02-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

kyle moved out today. :( i know that this should be exciting, because that means that nursery extravaganza begins...but i'm sad. we will miss kyle. and i'm a little worried we will never really see him. i hope not. anyways, he was a great roomie, and he lived in this house almost as long as josh and i have, so it will be weird without him.

kyle...thanks for being a great friend. we'll miss you being around here every day, and you better not become a stranger! love ya!

2011-02-03T18:50:00.000-08:00

so...does anyone else think it's very strange that EVERYTHING IS CLOSED around here for the possibility of snow?! i just don't get it.

however, we did leave work early today and aren't going tomorrow...so i'm ok with that. :)

back to reading...Nation by Terry Pratchett. Check it out:

truly truly blessed

2011-01-30T18:55:00.000-08:00

this week was a great one...although throughout the week i had my doubts, the Lord truly shone through any stress that was there and showed us how truly blessed we are.

i was supposed to have my 28 week ultrasound on tuesday, but the office called and told me that the ultrasound tech was sick. this normally wouldn't be a huge deal, although i was anxious to hear the results on crosby, but i was really upset because my mom had driven into town and stayed the night with us to go with us to the ultrasound. so she didn't get to, which i hated. but my mom and i went to ihop and then she went with me to visit a lady who i am considering to watch crosby when i go back to work. this was blessing #1: this girl was great! i am really excited about having found someone to watch our baby...for those of you that are parents, you know this is a huge decision. she as wonderful and i think a great fit for our family. and i was super excited that my mom was able to go with me to meet her.

then came blessing #2: our appointment was rescheduled for wednesday morning, and josh's mom was still able to go with us, and we found out that CROSBY'S CYST IS GONE! we were so so so exited to hear this news. after 8 weeks of prayer and waiting, it is such a relief to know that his little brain is healthy and he's growing big and strong. in fact, he already weighed 2 lb. 10 oz., which i think sounds really big, considering i stilled have 11 weeks or more to go! he was being really shy and was sleeping for the ultrasound, but he was still so cute. he had his little hand up by his face and seemed really annoyed that we chose his nap time to bother him with picture taking. hahaha. love him!

then came thursday...bad day. i had to be downtown at UH to take the TExEs test. i had to get a passing grade on this test in order to start my alternative certification to get certified to teach. i have been studying really hard for this test, and i took two practice tests, so i went in feeling pretty confident. until about question #3 of 140. the test was completely different from the practice ones i took and i felt like each question could be narrowed down to two good answers, but then i was stuck...on almost every question. so then i spent the rest of the day convincing myself that i had wasted $120 and lots of time and effort. i doubt myself often on grades, but i have never been so sure that i failed something. i was supposed to have to wait until monday for the results, but friday night i checked my email and it said my results were ready...i literally felt sick before i looked them up. then came blessing #3: i passed the test with a 246! (you have to have a 240 to pass). therefore, josh figured out that i passed by 2 or 3 questions. but i don't care...i passed! woo hoo!

all this to say that God is so good to me, and He continually shows me that all i need to do is to relax is wait for Him to show me His plan. He always has a plan...not that it always makes since to me, but He has a plan none the less. and His plan is always better than anything i could ever come up with. so i just wanted to share with my very few blog readers how truly blessed we are and how grateful i am for His blessings!

thanks for reading! :)

now for pics of crosby at 28 weeks....

his little face. the oval thing is his little fist up next to his face. i'm not gonna lie, these face shots kinda creep me out. sorry!

this is how most of our pics looked...crosby holding his little arm up by his face as if saying, "really?! now is not a good time for me. go away!"

3d pic of his chubby little foot :)

i love love love this baby!

28 week belly pic...

2011-01-25T16:26:00.000-08:00

getting bigger!

we have our ultrasound tomorrow. it was supposed to be this morning, but the ultrasound technician was sick so we had to reschedule. hopefully she will be better tomorrow. i felt so bad because my mom came in town for the ultrasound, and she can't come back tomorrow. boo! (sorry mom!) i wish she could go with us.

anyways, pray hard, because tomorrow should be the day we find out if crosby's cyst has gotten smaller. hopefully it is gone completely!

can't wait to see my little crosby tomorrow!

viva las vegas!

2011-01-25T15:46:00.000-08:00

josh and i went to vegas for new years with his parents, and of course, i never posted the pics. it was a blast! the weather was freezing, but other than that it was great. we saw KA, the cirque de soleil show, and the lion king. we also went on the vegas version on the price is right, which was great! it wasn't televised or anything, but it was a lot of fun. none of us got to play though. :( we also walked around A LOT and looked at all the hotels. we took a tour bus to the hoover dam one day and had an excellent tour guide. we also ate lots of food! good food too! here are some pics to highlight the trip....enjoy!

josh and i in front of the MGM lion in the lobby...the first day we got there to check in this area was insanely packed because some of the UFC fighters were there doing a press conference. it was cool!

galen and kaye with $1,000,000 at binions...this is on freemont street in old downtown

awesome view of the strip from the top of the eiffel tower

the christmas displays in the hotels were amazing! this was in the bellagio...

cool pic of our hotel

caesar's palace was my favorite :)

the weather looks amazing...but it was cold! it snowed the last day we were there!

this was the guy handing out programs at the entrance to KA. that play was amazing. the theatre was crazy fancy, with speakers in the headrest of each seat. the set was awesome and the stage moved all over the place...rotated, flipped, disappeared, stood upright...insane!

josh and i spent new years at the coyote ugly. not quite our style, but it was still fun!

at midnight we walked out onto the strip. they had all the roads blocked off from traffic and thousands of people were just crowded everywhere! it reminded me of the pics of NYC on new years. at midnight they had a count down and lots and lots of fireworks. it was the best new years we've ever had!

the price is right! they used the old set pieces from the TV version. it was neat!

the bridge at the hoover dam...finally finished! it's cool, because if you look back at my blog of my vegas trip with the youth choir, there is probably a pic of this bridge before it is complete. it's a really neat bridge, and of course, josh loved this part of the trip. :) what an engineer!
that's it! hope you liked the pics!

belly pics

2010-12-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

i am 24 weeks now! time flies!

i went to the doctor today to do the glucose test to test for gestational diabetes. hopefully that will go well. i also got to hear crosby's heartbeat...loved that!

i will go back in 4 weeks to do the ultrasound to measure his cyst...keep praying!

here are belly pics...i forgot to post the 20 week ones before...

20 weeks...

24 weeks...

and here are some pics that lauren garcia took of josh and i for our christmas cards... she did an amazing job!
love this one!

that's it for now. hopefully i will find time later to post christmas pics. we leave in the morning for new years in vegas!!! so you will definitely be seeing pics of that.

it's a boy!

2010-12-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

yay! we found out at our 20-week ultrasound (over 2 weeks ago :/) that we are having little boy!!! it was so fun to see him moving around inside me...i am ready to start feeling him move, but i am trying to be patient. :)

baby lee was growing and doing great at the ultrasound, but there was one concern that i would love for my prayer warrior friends to be praying about. there is a cyst on his little brain...called a choroid plexus cyst. the doctor said they are fairly common and that more than likely the cyst will shrink and go away...that is our prayer. if that does not happen, then complications will come up. we are praying that when we go at 28 weeks for another ultrasound, that the cyst will be rapidly disappearing. please pray that with us when you think about us.

we have decided on a name for a new little baby boy...crosby. i know...you may be thinking, crosby?! but we love it. so when you see us, just smile and nod and say you love it too!

crosby tate lee...we love him! :)

here is our little guy at the last ultrasound...

say hi crosby!

long legs...like daddy! they are already 4 inches long!

spine and awesome 3D picture of his whole body...so cute!

there he is...the new love of our lives.

big news

2010-11-21T19:57:00.000-08:00

sooo...surprise, surprise, i haven't posted in forever! story of my blogging life! facebook just makes it so hard! :)

the big news that i have somehow managed to forget to post on my blog is that
WE'RE HAVING A BABY! :)

i will be 19 weeks along tomorrow, so i am almost half way! i can't believe that. i wish i could say that it's been an easy last few months, but i have been pretty sick. but all the headaches and sickness are sooooooooooo worth it in the end...i totally know that! and josh has been such a blessing helping me to see the big picture every time we have to pull the car over for me to throw up or get prescriptions filled or any of that stuff. he's wonderful! :)

we find out next tuesday what we will be having...hopefully. we both kind of think it's a boy, but who knows?! we are super pumped to find out though.

once i finish finals for this semester, we will go register and start thinking about a nursery and all that fun stuff. i am excited to get started on making a place for baby lee when he/she arrives. i know, i know, everyone says they will be in our room all the time at first anyways, but i still want to have a great little nursery ready for a newest addition.

i will hopefully remember to post more, like what we're having and names and all that fun stuff. maybe after school is done, i will be able to get on here more. i miss reading all of my friends blogs!

here are some pics for now...

baby lee at 6 weeks

baby lee at 12 weeks

my 16 week belly....barely there

hi!

2010-09-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

it's been over a month. but i have nothing to write about! :( so i just wanted to say hi!

favorites of london...

2010-08-24T19:52:00.001-07:00

backwards again....sorry!

7 of us went to see chicago on broadway on our last night in england. it was excellent!

the view from inside the london eye...a huge ferris wheel in london

the tower of london...an old castle where they kept prisoners for years

group picture in the london eye. this is how big each section of the ferris wheel was. you could fit like 20-30 people in each cart.

this is the memorial at the tower of london where henry viii had two of his wives beheaded. crazy!

we watched every part of the changing of the guards ceremony

getting ready for a FULL day of a bus tour...

the first night in london, don took several of us around to look at monuments at night. they were all so much more beautiful at night. this is albert's memorial.

big ben and parliament at night on the thames river

big ben was my favorite thing!

mark in front of westminster abbey

we ate at the texas embassy catina...it represented the embassy that texas had in london when we were our own country! and they had good fajitas! :)

josh in front of buckingham palace. we got to tour the palace because the queen was at her summer home. it was incredible!

the gardens at buckingham palace

josh and i in front of a statue of eros at picadilly circus

london was unbelievable. i hope we get to go back some day!

durham and roseberry topping...

2010-08-24T15:41:00.001-07:00

roseberry topping...our friends tried to convince us all day to climb this "hill" with them...so we did! when we got there....after getting lost...they realized that they had never climbed this one. they had it confused with an easier "hill." i definitely consider this a small mountain! :)

roseberry topping from the road...once we found it

the path down...three of us got lost...this was NOT the path you are supposed to take down! :)

view from the top...gorgeous!

josh pretending to rule the kingdom i guess

the path up...much more climber friendly!

pastor mark in durham...we got stickers for climbing the 300 stair tower to the top of the cathedral. josh changed his sticker to say "i tried to climb..." funny!

view from the top of durham cathedral

john climbing the tower...i was proud of him!

josh climbing the tower...it got really narrow!

jordan...a fellow texas who interned for headland baptist all summer

these phone boths were everywhere in england!

will post london pics later tonight....almost done!

hartlepool pics...

2010-08-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

these are backwards of course, because that's what blogger does...and i'm too lazy to fix it this time! :)

our last picture in hartlepool...at the train station. all of the signs were special for the tall ships festival.

our entire group...we worked in 3 different groups while in hartlepool, so we didn't get to see all of these faces most of the week. it was good to be together again.

some of our english friends...seeing us off at the station

my group for quiz night: "too big to lose!" we thought if we had lots of team members we would win, but we lost terribly. quiz nights are really popular there and they are just fun nights of trivia games with prizes. super neat idea!

pastor mark kissing a bobbie

john working at westview baptist. we had a team here all week working on their yard and painting the building. the yard was so overgrown and neighbors had dumped trash in it. seriously, under the brush we found rusty tools, a mattress, syringes, etc. ick!

the ships were beautiful!

chloe...a did her nails at the nail bar...it was kind of like we would do face painting here. the little girls loved it!

every morning we walked the streets and beaches picking up litter

headland baptist church

josh and i saw a baby seal on the beach walking from our host home to the church!

josh and i at the festival on sunday

our friends on the top of roseberry topping! it was a long hike...

group picture at durham

josh and don barbequed for the texas night

now i will post some pics from durham and then london!

long awaited...

2010-08-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

well, of course we are back from the UK and have been for like a week and a half, but i was too overwhelmed to post right away. #1 because i have like 1000 pictures to try to narrow down. #2 because it took me a solid week to get back on the right sleep schedule! :)

we had a blast! we spent most of our time in hartlepool, england. there was a HUGE festival there this year called the tall ships festival. huge wooden mast ships sailed in a race that ended in the small town of hartlepool. the ships were from all countries, and hundreds of thousands of people came to watch them! it was awesome!

the group i was in helped a small church called headland baptist church. we met the most amazing people at this church. they were small in number but big in spirit and truly taught our group of 10 so much about prayer and seeking God whole-heartedly. for the most part, we helped them run a cafe during the festival. this was a place where visitors could stop in and go to the restroom, eat, drink tea/coffee, get their nails painted :), shop, and other stuff. we spent a lot of time just talking to people and welcoming them into the church. we also did a lot of street walking. we went through the streets of hartlepool and invited people to the cafe. if they were from the town and probably wouldn't be stopping by, we invited them to the african childrens choir concert that is this week! we also did video interviews in the festival, asking people big questions, like "do you believe in God?", "where do you think people go when they die?", "what do you think God is like?", etc. it was SUPER sad! about 95% of people we talked to did not believe in God or religion and had no desire to learn more. sadly, they are about 2 generations ahead of us in this realm...so the USA is right on their heels. church had become so much about songs, and organs, and chants, and stuff, that the new generations had no idea why they even really went to church, so they just stopped going, and stopped taking their children. Now the church is dead...literally. There are "churches" everywhere, dating back to the 900's, 1200's, etc. but the church family is small and unconcerned with reaching others. this is mainly in the church of england and roman catholic church. they have mostly become museums of old buildings to bring the town money. so sad!

anyways! one day we went and helped mark harrison's group. they were doing HARD labor at a church down the road. they cleaned up their yard which was BAD...i can't even begin to describe it!

in the evenings, we had a barbeque one night, a "bring-and-share" (potluck) one night, and a quiz night one night. we invited the community to these events as well. they were all fun!

our host homes took us to durham on our last day in hartlepool to see an awesome old cathedral. it was beautiful. then josh and i went with some of our new english friends to climb a small mountain called roseberry topping. so pretty!

our last two days were in london. we got to sight see and just hang out as a big group and share all of our stories. london was beautiful and i took lots of pics! the trip was AMAZING and God showed me so much. i learned to get over my fears of talking to people about Christ and i realized the importance of telling others about Him, before its too late. i am so thankful for this trip and for the wonderful people that i met and got to know better.

pictures on the next post...

Prayer and discipleship conference

2010-08-03T07:51:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here in the church listening to Dr. T.W. Hunt talking about the trinity. It is so exciting to listen to someone with such Biblical knowledge. I can learn so much from him! And to know that he prays for Josh and I every day by name...what a blessing!

The conference started yesterday. This is the busiest time of my year, but it is so exciting. To see people come together from all over the country to learn more about God...it's amazing. I am super excited about all of the speakers.

Today I will go to the following sessions by Dr. Richard Ross:
Linking teenagers and senior adults in transforming prayer relationships
And
Creating a prayer-saturated student ministry.

I pray that i will learn a lot about how to teach my middle school girls about prayer and guide them to develop prayer/mentor relationships with wise people at our church. Exciting stuff!

I will try to post again tomorrow, but in case I can't...we leave Thursday for the UK!!!

Check out our prayer and discipleship conference and make plans to come next year. You will be blessed!
Www.prayerconference.org

beautiful bride #2 = ERIKA

2010-07-27T19:32:00.001-07:00

erika was seriously such a beautiful bride! we had such an awesome day! i am so so so happy for her and matt, and i just can't wait to see how God blesses their new marriage. love you both!

the beautiful bride at the salon...

i loved her hair!

sisters!

i seriously LOVE these girls!
bridesmaids...
she was so pretty and i just loved her dress...
the happy couple at the reception...
me and my honey...
cindi and logan...
best friends!
cindi and logan again...

such a fun time! i am so happy for erika and matt and so glad that we had this night to spend together! :)

beautiful bride #1 = DANA

2010-07-22T19:15:00.001-07:00

rehearsal...

saturday morning...at the salon
sisters!

time to get ready....such a pretty dress!
i love this family...and miss them very much
she is sooooo happy :)
bub and lauren
the happy couple at the reception
proud parents...
niki and dana...i love these girls with all my heart
(niki caught the bouquet!)
pure bliss...
the flower girl and her sister...
they are hawaiian and soooo beautiful!
me and jen....it was a fun night

i am so so so happy for dana and cliff, and i could not have picked someone more perfect for dana. i am proud of you guys and will be praying for you as you begin your marriage!

beautiful bride #2...coming soon!!!

good friends...good times

2010-07-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

we had some wonderful friends in town this weekend for dana's wedding. it was so good to see them and hang out with them. i wish we would have had more time to visit, but wedding weekends are always hectic, so we did what we could. check out this awesome fam with their adorable kiddos...

they have got to be the cutest family ever...seriously!

this lady is one of my greatest friends! we may not see each other EVER or talk very often, but i truly admire her and love her so much! she is the best mother ever, a great wife, and a wonderful friend. plus, she's beautiful! thanks for being such a great mentor and friend to me...love ya!

the happy couple! josh and i look up to these two so much. their marriage shows us what we want in our marriage. they are so happy and treat each other with such love and respect.

mommy/daughter time at the salon...R did so great and had a blast.

little J loved josh! he said his name like every time he walked into our house. and according to his older brother, he called him "oh my josh." Hahaha...love this kid!

brothers getting crazy with some pizza dough...!

beautiful girl....looks just like her mommy!

getting down at the wedding...
C is used to being the center of attention...but not so much for his little sis. this was a new experience for her! :)

what an awesome weekend! i already can't wait until we can see these friends again...hopefully sooner than later.

colorado

2010-07-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

i had no idea how to pick 10-15 pictures from our mission trip to colorado out of the 600 that i took! :) you can look through way more pics on facebook, but i posted some of my favorites. colorado was awesome, and watching the kids of our youth group step out of their comfort zones and minister to the kids in montrose and olathe was worth all of the drama and complications that this trip entailed. it was a blessing for sure!

this is a view from the bus window making our way to colorado...beautiful!

on the way to colorado, the kids sang at the palo duro canyon in amarillo. they did such a great job! we had a good time watching the texas play and eating a steak dinner. it was a nice break in the long drive.

once we got to colorado we were split into three groups. the largest group stayed in montrose and did vbs at rosemont baptist church. that church was amazing. they fed us all week, and were the most wonderful hosts ever. another group went to a trailer park, also in montrose, and did a vbs outdoors for the children there. i was able to meet some of those kiddos when we distributed flyers in the neighborhood before the week began...they were adorable. the third group, my group, went about 10 miles north to a small town called olathe to do a sports camp. we planned to have cheerleading, basketball, and soccer. the first day we arrived it had been raining a lot so the soccer fields were soaked and the basketball courts were non-existent, so we did cheerleading for the 4 girls that came. the others in our group helped around the little church doing yard work, cleaning, painting, etc. it was not what we expected or planned for, but it was fun and a lot of work. here is a picture of most of the olathe group on the first day, including our guests, breanna, angel, hope, and paige. love those girls!

one of the projects we did while in montrose was working at the salvation army. it was overwhelming, but a lot of fun! here is a picture of some of our guys on the top of a HUGE pile of clothes bags...

one night, for fun, we went to a nearby reservoir to have dinner, play, swim (in 40 degree water), and just hang out. i took this picture from the playground, just looking over at the mountains. could you imagine seeing these views every day of your life?!

here is a picture of the little church in olathe where our sports camps was. as you can see, day 2 was much more sunny!

we were able to play soccer, which made me happy! :) i am not much of a cheerleader. haha!

this is one of my best buds, kristen, with a girl from olathe, summer. these girls loved our youth and enjoyed hanging out with them so much! it was a blessing to see kristen really open up and minister to them. she did a great job, as did all of the kids. we ended up having about 9 kids/teens showing up throughout the week at olathe, still a very small group, but it was such a blessing. these kids dealt with so much, including poverty, homosexual parents, disabled parents, suicide, prison, all kinds of things that many of our kids could never imagine dealing with. they all learned so much from each other!

one night we went to the trailer park where one of the vbs camps was and the students did their concert. some of our youth performed their drama that is soooooo good. it deals with a young girls who struggles with sex, popularity, self esteem, money, drinking, and suicide. it is very emotional every time i see Jesus pull her through that mess and bring her to His arms. they did a great job!

this is paige, one of the two girls that accepted Christ into their lives at olathe! she was so excited and we partied with her and breanna after their big decision. kristen and taylor were able to talk with paige and the Holy Spirit used them to lead her to Christ. such a great experience for them!

another project we did during the week was picking up trash on some main roads in montrose. we did these projects split up middle school and high school. when the high school did their project, we went white water rafting. so fun! and then we switched the next day. the middle schoolers collected about 450 lbs. of trash!!! we were proud of them.

the last night of the trip, all of the three groups got together at rosemont baptist for a block party and end of the week celebration. all of our friends from olathe got rides to the church, and we were so glad they made it!

the students all took turns working the inflatables, face painting, food booths, petting zoo, etc. the kids had fun and the students worked really hard!

brett and haley hanging out with one of the students. our buses had gone to the trailer park and picked up the 50+ kids that had attended all week and brought them and their families to the block party. it was so much fun!

this is a picture of what it looked like the night we all said goodbye. this little girl was from olathe and she really attached herself to jenna. she did not want to say goodbye. jenna gave her her sunglasses to remember her! :) all our of students had found at least one kids that they really connected with, and there were lots of tears on both ends when it was time to leave. lots of them exchanged numbers and addresses to keep in touch. there was more of a connection than i have ever seen on past trips like these. they affected our students as much as our students affected them. such a blessing to see!
i hope we get to go back to montrose some time soon. i will miss my friends in olathe and i love every time one of them texts me...it makes me feel like God has used me to impact lives more than i ever thought possible. amazing what we can do if we surrender to Him!

testing

2010-06-10T18:05:00.001-07:00

So I am trying this out. I added this app to my phone so I can post while I'm on the trip. Hope it works! :)

i'm alive!!!

2010-06-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

yes....it's true! i'm alive.

it has been soooooooooo long. and so much has happened! i want to start blogging again, but there's no way i can catch up, so i will hit some highlights:

- i started my master's program in library science (i'm going to be a librarian!) and i love it! i am 1/3 of the way through the program.

- my daddy is doing great and has had no complications since his stroke. praise God!

- i lost 30 pounds, and it was hard!

- i seriously almost live at the church, because josh and i are here nearly every night doing something with the youth, but we love love love it!

- in august, josh and i are going to the UK on a mission trip with 15 other adults from the church...will write more about that later.

- i leave friday for montrose, colorado for a mission trip with a youth choir...can't wait!

- hmmmm...everyone and their dog is having babies! seriously, amanda, rebekah, kelly, brittany, lindsay, samantha, and the list could go on and on. it has been fun having little ones to hold a lot lately. and three of them are my cousins, so our family is growing! :)

that's all i can think of now...but i'm sure i will think of more. i will post prayer requests for our colorado trip, and hopefully i will figure out an easy way to blog from my new iphone, so that i can update you on the trip.

thanks for being patient with me, and gently reminding me that i haven't updated in over 6 months! :) i appreciate those of you who care enough to read about my life...i'll try not to let you down again! hahah! bye!

seriously blessed

2009-10-12T18:24:00.001-07:00

ok....so again, i'm a horrible blogger, but i just wanted to share a blessing with you all.

last friday, my daddy had 2 strokes. he was home by himself and called my mom, who could not understand anything he was saying. 5 minutes later when she and my sister got there, he was beginning to recover. he had lost the ability to speak and lost movement on his right side...arm, leg, face...the whole she-bang. by the time to ambulance got there, he was getting better, and then he had the second stroke. he was very blessed that the EMT guys were there and could control his movements and reactions. they rushed him to a stroke center in rosenburg, about 15 minutes away, and took care of him right away. josh and i and trav and rebecca were there about an hour later, and we got to see him in the ER right away. by the time we got there, he was laughing, cutting up, and seemed normal to me...as normal as my daddy can be! :) it was such a blessing for me not to have to see him the way my sister and my mom had to. i am too easily stressed out!

they put him in a room and about 20 different doctors came in and out for 2 days making him tug their hands, touch his nose, smile, blah blah blah. i'm sure he got so sick of doing all of these things over and over every hour, but the blessing was that he could do them all each time. each doctor and nurse seemed amazed that he had had a stroke that morning, much less two strokes! he has no permanant damage or lasting after effects from his strokes. God is so good!

please keep praying for my daddy though. his blood pressure is very high now, and he is having to take meds, which i don't think he likes doing. he also is supposed to be on a low sodium diet now...ugh. but he is doing great and seriously has no problems after the strokes. hearing so many horror stories of strokes, i was so scared, and also so relieved and excited when God protected my dad from these things.

i just wanted to share this blessing with you all and encourage you to recognize all of the blessings that God brings to your lives. also, thanks so much for all of your prayers and phone calls and everything last weekend...i have wonderful friends and family. love you all!

:(

2009-08-27T17:42:00.001-07:00

i'm a horrible blogger...just wanted to throw that out there!!!

other randomness...

2009-07-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

for my graduation gift, josh had the flower bed done in front of the house and it looks so good! plus he got a crate murtle tree to fill in the huge whole in the flower bed where a huge oak used to stand.

here's another angle...

and for our anniversary we got rocking chairs! i have already been told that we're like a couple of old people, but we love them. since it was our cotton anniversary, i had to buy chair pads to make it anniversary appropriate! but i love them...if you're jealous and want some, go to rockingchairs.com, they have a ton!

viva las vegas!

2009-07-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

ok so now that our vegas trip was like a month ago...i thought i would share! no seriously, i got to travel to las vegas with our student choir in june, and it was amazing. we drove, which took two days each way, so all and all i was away from josh for 9 days! that part of the trip was horrible! but we had a great time. we did vbs/sports camps for 4 different churches, we prayer walked, canvased neighborhoods, the kids sang a lot, and we did a block party at one church when we first arrived. it was such a blessing to see the kids minister to others all week long and watch them come out of their shells to do what the Lord asked them to. our fun day was on thursday before we headed home on friday. we went to see the hoover dam (boring), went to the stratosphere, and went to see blue man group that night. the latter two things were amazing, and we had such a fun day. here are a ton of pictures. believe me, it was hard enough to narrow it down to this many from the original 550 or so!!! i know, i'm rediculous!

the happiest day of jenna's life...personally, i found the blue men very freaky. but the show was amazing, and i would definitely recommend it to everyone!

4 crazy sponsors! although most people seemed to forget that jenna and i were sponsors.

the hoover dam...although it was boring, it was very pretty

Jenna, Ashley, and Jenna Ashley...isn't that cute?
two of my favorite girls...

this is the group that i worked with all week at a park for renaissance church. we did soccer, basketball, crafts, and music. we met a ton of cute kiddos and had a blast playing with them each night.

the kids sang at a library one day, and the kids that watched them were part of a music/liberal arts camp. they were amazingly talented and we were able to see them preform as well. definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me.

i feel like i spent most of my trip with these girls. love them!

my room! i had such a great group of girls in my room. they made my first year as a sponsor very easy and fun!

kevin, julie, caleb, and daniel doing the Bible story...they did a great job

we played the silly face game a lot, and daniel (on the right) always won the award for the greatest faces!

the kids singing at the block party at nellis baptist. we met such great kids that night and had a blast. our kids played, served cotton candy, popcorn, burgers, face painted, and just really made the event fun for the church and guests.

this is the stratosphere. there are 3 roller coasters on top of it, and i rode them all! they were so fun! the needle on the top is kind of like the dungeon drop from astroworld, but it's 125 stories in the air! awesome!

my beautiful girls! i will miss them so much when they promote up to 8th grade in the fall! :(

the first and last night we went up on a hill that overlooked the city. the preacher of one of the churches explaineed to us the importance of seeing all of the millions of lights surrounding the city, and not focusing on the 5 miles strip of lights that make up the strip. when we got to vegas, the strip was the only idea that we had of the city, but when we left we had stories to remind us of all of the other lights that represent families and people that need the love of Jesus!

this is where we stayed...university of las vegas

that's it! hope you liked them!

oklahoma

2009-05-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

we had an amazing weekend. we drove up to oklahoma to see our very good friends, the kersh's and the hollis'. we got there late friday night and stayed the night at the hollis'. saturday morning we headed over to micah and sunny's. it was so good to see them. we had not seen them since last summer at jeremiah's wedding, and had not seen the kiddos since our wedding, two years ago. creed and rinn had grown up so much and were so fun to hang out with. jude, the newest member of the fam, was sick most of the weekend, but was adorable none the less. they adopted him from korea this year, and he is the sweetest, cutest little guy ever! even though sunny was 100% convinced that i came there to tell her i was pregnant and i had to let her down ...craziness...i think the weekend was perfect! we hung out there all day saturday, and had fun just playing with the kids and chatting. we did get to experience orange tree...a yummy frozen yogurt place in town, and it was delicous! sunday we went to church with the hollis' and got to see micah lead worship! he is by far one of my favorite worship leaders, and it was good to hear him sing again...so talented! that afternoon, after some yummy hideaway pizza, josh and sunny and i went to see a movie. that night micah went with us and the hollis' to red rock, where wade waits tables. it was so good and a beautiful place. yesterday we shared a yummy breakfast with the hollis' and wade's girlfriend, and of course, dana! all the way from russia! i love her so much and it was a blessing to get to hang out with her on skype and talk a little. she will be home soon, and i can't wait! here are some pics from the weekend...enjoy!

josh and i listening to creed and rinn read freckleface strawberry. before that we got to hear rinn recite hiccupotamus...cutest thing i've ever heard!

beautiful rinn

jude...with his huge smile. we got to see this quite a lot the last day we were there. i was very glad for that, and i know sunny was too!

mommy and jude

me and rinny

all three kiddos. crazy talented energetic creed. sweet loving smiley rinn. and drugged out jude! haha...just kidding, poor guy!

creed and rinn did many creative shows for josh and i. this is charlotte's web. rinn was the goose!

rinn in her adorable ballet outfit

josh and creed with their card creation

cutest boys ever!

thursday night, before we left for oklahoma, travis and rebecca took us to an astro's game. although they lost, our seats were sweet and it was fun to hang out with them. pray for them. they just bought a house and should be moving in july! yay!

our seats were right behind home plate on the 2nd deck. i'm pretty sure we almost got hit by a ball like 3 times. close enough for me to hide anyways!

trav and rebecca

great great weekend! can't wait to see my friends in oklahoma again soon. thank you wade and marlene for letting us stay there. your house looks amazing and it was wonderful to spend time with ya'll. micah and sunny, love you so much...always a blessing.

good night!

i finally did it!

2009-05-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

well, i finally graduated! it was a really really long time coming, and it feels great to be finished. i graduated friday from university of houston with a degree in english literature. after seven years of college and four schools later, it is hard to believe i am finished...well, with that part anyways. i have applied to sam houston state university to get my master's in library science, but i have not heard from them yet. anyways, here are some pictures of graduation weekend. the pictures from inside the pavilion were all very dark, so i left those out. i also didn't have any pictures on my camera from my party on saturday, but niki posted them on facebook, so check those out.

me and my oh so supportive hubby...he's the one that convinced me to walk!

my best friend, so glad she came. niki and her mom and sis all came to cheer me on. i thought that was so so so sweet.

josh and i at my parents house that evening.

my great grandma. she wasn't able to make it to the long boring ceremony, but she was there to congratulate me that evening at my small family party. love her! :)

my amazing parents

my wonderful parents-in-law :) they also came to cheer me on, along with my sis-in-law nikki and vicki and jeff...thanks you guys for all the support!

my favorite 2 little grads! this is the only picture i got from my party on saturday...but it's a good one!

saturday night and sunday josh and i redid our little half bath. we painted and got a new mirror, picture, light fixture, and some other little stuff. i think it turned out great!

before...

after...yes, it's purple!

that's it! oh, please keep praying for my pappaw. he is back in the hospital. he has an infection in his spleen and is in lots of pain. and also pray for the desouza family. maura, their daughter, passed away with cancer on tuesday. she was only 22 years old and had an awesome heart. praise God she is in heaven today, but pray for her family as they heal. thanks so much!

catch up...again!

2009-05-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

ok, so i haven't posted in forever, AGAIN! i have had finals and i still have one more before graduation next friday! agh!!! it's so close! so here are some quick picture updates...enjoy.

parker's 2nd birthday party...seriously, the cutest little boy EVER.
courtney did a fireman theme party at her dad's station. everything was so cute.

parker with his daddy...daniel and courtney did a great job with his party!

we got him a bubble blower mower...hope he likes it!

last weekend, carlie, cindi and logan's littel girl, had her 1st birthday party. it was out at tranquility ranch in magnolia, where logan's parents live. they live on a ton of acres with ponds, trees, horses, an awesome house, and probably lots more. the weather was perfect and it was so good to see the ingrams!

pretty picture of the ranch

cindi helping carlie with her presents

she started out timid with cake...she wasn't feeling very well :(

but then she got into it...literally! hahaha!

one weekend josh and i went downtown to see megan and jeff and we went to a jimmy lafave concert. it was a rainy night, but the concert was amazing and it was so great to hang out with them.

the fuse girls ministry had an 80's self defense night. the girls did a great job dressing up. harvey taught them some neat self defense tricks and they got to practice them on each other. it was hilarious to watch. don't worry, no one was injured!

tammy, renee, and donna

abby and shelby pretending to fight...nerds!

welp, that's it. sorry, kinda boring. i will post again soon, i hope!

oh yeah, pray for shelby, in the picture above. her aunt had open heart surgery on monday and really needs miraculous healing right now. pray for the family too as they deal with this and try to be the strength behind her in this weak time. thanks so much!

please pray

2009-04-15T19:32:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,

please be praying for my brother, travis. if you read this very often, you know that he just graduated from the fire academy about a month ago. well, this past saturday he and his station were called as a rescue team to a fire, and when they got there they had to go in and pull two firefighters out that had passed away while fighting the fire. my brother pulled one guy out, and it ended up being one of the rookies that he had just graduated with. he spent this last year in the academy with him and knew him pretty well. he was very shaken up about all of this, and all week has been crazy for them. he had to go through debriefings, ceremonies, and now the memorial service is tomorrow. please pray for the families of this rookie, and the captain that passed away along with him. pray for peace and strength and understanding in this time that could easily bring anger and bitterness. pray that my brother will be able to fight fires without fear and for healing as he deals with this tragedy. also pray for rebecca, his wife, because i think this reality his really shown them the fact that travis will be facing danger regularly, and will need God's protection every day!

thanks for your prayers!

easter saturday

2009-04-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

this is possibly my favorite day of the year...i seriously love my family's easter celebration. we get together the saturday before every easter and we play games, eat lots of food, hang out, and just have a great time! check out some great pictures...

my adorable garrett...

after the kids' egg hunt, we let them hide some eggs for us,
and josh won with 9 eggs!

many generations...my beautiful grandma with her great granddaughter and her great great granddaughter...isn't autumn gorgeous in this picture?!

my pappaw...pray for him, his chemo is making him very sick right now :(

me and my sis...a rare but sweet picture!

christy came in second to josh with 8 eggs

this year we had way less kids hunting eggs than usual, but they enjoyed having all the eggs to themselves! and then there's my silly husband...

my mommy...the one i hear daily that i look like! :)

brandi and brittany...i love these girls

me and my daddy

what a fun day! can't wait til next easter...even though we will celebrate like 10 other holidays together between now and then! i love you all!

ruidoso spring break trip

2009-03-31T20:12:00.000-07:00

if i wait until i have time to tell about the trip...i'll never get to it. so here is a picture update. enjoy!

we played cards a lot

where the guys were most nights
the three amigos...josh, sarah, colden

john and sarah

colden and danlee

the whole hang

the cabin where we stayed...it was danlee's family's...so nice

sarah just "hanging" out

the guys were able to play golf 2 days in a row!

beautiful mountains

after day 2 of skiing...nice outfit danlee! :)

i love this dude

can't go without a close-up

ski day number 1

after skiing his first tough slope...he was awesome, i might add

congrats bro!

2009-03-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

my brother finally graduated from the houston fire academy last week. we are so proud of him, and it was really fun to watch him be all serious in his uniform. it was downtown at the wortham center...very pretty. there were some...interesting...folks in his class, but they provided entertainment for the evening. anyways, i am extremely proud of my big brother, and i can't wait to hear all of his crazy stories from work. i just pray that the Lord keeps him safe and that he and rebecca are able to stay strong in thir marriage through all of the difficulties that come with being married to a firefighter. i know they'll be great!

they are such a cute couple!

when she was pinning his badge on him, the captain asked if she wanted a stool! so funny!

andy boyd graduated with my brother as well. jackie pinned his badge on. they get married this summer...so exciting!

kaylei's 3!!!

2009-03-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

many of you already know this...but our precious niece, kaylei, was born on my birthday, march 9, 3 years ago! it is insane that it has been three years...i seriously can't believe it. she is more and more beautiful every time we see her, and she is such a joy to be around. she is a lot like me in that she has a very strong personality...i think that is another reason i love her so much. she knows what she wants (and usually gets it ), she is so loving and sweet, super smart, and just down right great! last weekend we went up to dallas to see kaylei and her mommies and go to her birthday party at boomerangs...it's kind of like pump it up or one of those places...it's just jam packed with bouncy things for thekids to exhaust themselves on. all of our other cousins came too, so we got to see josh's aunt vicki and uncle jeff. polly and jason and their clan were there and micah and ramon and their kiddos. we didn't get to see the dobbs, which was sad, but know that you were missed! :) here are some pics from the day...

kaylei and campbell sharing icecream at dinner after the party

strawberry shortcake...yes, she's still around!

ellie hanging out in jumpy pool...isn't she so cute?

guess who?

josh and liam...these boys seriously love josh!

kaylei was all smiles all day

josh wrestling with liam and aidan

kaylei and campbell again

weeeee!

cool kaylei

it was such a fun day! thanks for the memories.

oh yeah, everyone pray for ellie! she is only 21 months old and she has had some medical issues. they just found out that her spleen is about 4 times the correct size, so they have some decisions to make. pray that everything goes smoothly. thanks!

transformed

2009-03-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

i have a ton to post about, of course, but a couple of weeks ago we had disciple now at our church, and i never posted about it. it was a great weekend! i taught 11th and 12th grade girls...although technically no 11th graders came. we stayed at the bruce's house, same as last year, and it was so much fun. although i was a little disappointed at first, because only 5 girls signed up to come, and only 3 showed up, it ended up being perfect. we were able to discuss some things in small group and some decisions were made that i know would not have been if it were the typical 10 or so girls there. the weekend was about transforming our lives to represent Christ and the theme was transformers. it was a cool idea. we had many students commit to leadership, tons give up sin in their life or commit to work on getting rid of it, and the speaker taught to kids easy ways to stay in His word. it was a great weekend. josh had 11th and 12th grade boys, and he had 13 dudes at his house! dang! it was so crazy he even accidentally left one of them at the house during the day on saturday...hahaha! here are some pics from the weekend...

me and julie!

julie and jenna...probably related to the stupid dart game! :)

shelby and abby...2 of my beautiful 7th grade girls!

michael...cool hair

marissa playing the hula hoop game

one more thing before i go to bed...i turned 25 today! i can't believe i am half way to 50...it's ridiculous. seriously! but we had a great weekend. we went to dallas for kaylei's birthday party (will post more on this tomorrow) and then came home for church sunday. today my family took me out to lunch...mom, dad, heather, the kiddos, trav, rebecca, and niki. it was great! tonight after work josh took me to eat sushi. yummy! it was a great birthday! here is the present i picked out myself and got 2 weeks ago! :) it's a corner shelf in the dining room for all my willow tree!

oh yeah...and here is the finished product of our fence. we get grass planted tomorrow!

ok goodnight!

sorry again...

2009-02-21T12:57:00.000-08:00

so i have decided that i am just not as good at this blog thing than some of my more committed friends! but i am ok with that. :)

the wisdom teeth surgery went pretty well...i ended up getting 2 dry sockets, which was horrible, but after about a week and a half i was able to go without any packing or medication. now i just can't wait for the holes in the back of my mouth to go away!!!

last weekend we celebrated nikki's 28th birthday at olive garden...josh's sister nikki, in case anyone was confused. and then we just hung out on valentine's day and had a nice relaxing time. well, actually, i worked on school for hours on saturday, but between my work we went to lunch, exchanged gifts, josh cooked steaks for dinner...it was fun!

nikki and josh

this week we have had guys at our house all week working in the yard. they are bringing in dirt, filling and leveling, then tomrorow they will start putting in a sprinkler system. we are excited to get grass and finally have a great looking yard! having land is great, but it will be much better once it's pretty and more useable! so that has been fun watching the progress throughout the week.

this weekend has been the greatest! last night we went to the chris tomlin concert at the berry center, and it was amazing. before tomlin, israel houghton and newbreed performed, and they were so great. they were super fun and had lots of energy. plus there was one chick with a frohawk that was so cool! yesterday was also my mommy's birthday so she and my dad met us for the concert and we ate at texas roadhouse before hand. they made her ride the saddle which was hilarious! she was a great sport!

this is the name of the concert tour...

hilarious!!!

today was hannah's wedding!!! she looked absolutely beautiful and the wedding was fantastic. it was at ashton gardens, which i had never been to, and it was so pretty there! it was a morning wedding, and the weather was great! i am so happy for hannah and jason, and i cannot wait to see how the Lord uses them. jason's daughter hannah was super cute too! rachel made us all cry when she did her maid of honor speech, and i know she is so sad to see hannah move to virginia. but she will be happy there, and i know hannah will keep in touch with her family a lot. no worries rachel! :)

mr. and mrs. jason patrick

awkward pic...but i love it!
cool cake idea...we each got to take one home in a to-go box,
they were the favors!
julie and i...i love this girl!

all the girls...jen ken, niki, hannah, heather, ashley, and ashley!

doesn't she look so happy?!niki and lelandme and nikiheather and markashley and shooter

well, i hope you enjoyed another long make-up post, and keep looking forward to the next one! :)

wisdomless

2009-01-24T11:25:00.001-08:00

well, i officially had all 4 wisdom teeth out yesterday. please pray that i will feel better soon. it hurts worse than i expected it to, but i know by tomorrow i should be well rested and able to go back to work on monday...i hope so anyway. just wanted everyone to know that i am recovering well, and josh is taking great care of me. hopefully i'll write again soon.

random

2009-01-19T20:30:00.000-08:00

for those of you that haven't seen me in a while...my hair is getting so long!!! i just wanted to share since niki was so kind to take a picture of my hair! :)

camping!

2009-01-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

this weekend was amazing! twice a year we go camping with my favorite group of friends...and this weekend was the "winter trip." each winter we go up to elkhart to daniel's tree farm and camp in the freezing weather. we just hang out, ride four wheelers, shoot guns, eat a lot, and walk in the woods a lot. it's great times! this year we had a few new people come, and it was such a blessing to have them. our roomie, kyle, came. niki's boyfriend leland came for the first time. and tim, our long lost friend from high school, came and brought his wife meagan. it was so good to see him again and get to know meagan. they are such a great couple. everyone else that came were regulars. unfortunately ashley nelson and her new bo, shooter, were not able to come because she was sick. :( we missed you ashley!!! anyways, i took over 100 pictures of the trip...i know, it's rediculous...but i narrowed it down to my favs. enjoy!

group pic

my absolute favorite picture of kyle...this could be in a magazine! i love it!

daniel and courtney - the one's that make this happen.
thanks so much for everything!

jenn beating brian...
fyi, her new HUGE engagement ring is absolutely gorgeous!

josh and i

tim and meagan

me and my bestest friend

josh and kyle...no comment

niki and leland

lauren and brent

kyle climbed this huge tree! it was insane, and very unsafe
(from the safety coordinator!)

it looks like josh is leaning on a small tree, but no, this was his walking stick.
i love this nerd!

jenn not beating brian

i love these people and the trip was great. beside the almost horrible ending caused by my dramaticness, it was perfect. thanks for the memories and i can't wait until the summer trip!!!

oh yeah...bread!

2009-01-16T21:02:00.000-08:00

a few weeks ago, my great grandma taught rebecca and i how to bake bread from scratch...no bread maker, no cheating, and very messy. well, this week i attempted to make my own and it turned out so yummy! i should have taken pictures while i was making it...but i was busy! so here is the end product...

for some reason the pictures won't flip...annoying. oh well, you get the point.

last weekend

2009-01-16T20:38:00.000-08:00

last weekend was a fun one. friday night josh took me downtown on a fancy date! he even wore a suit! we went to hard rock for dinner and then went to the hobby center to see a broadway show. it was super fun, and we really needed a night for ourselves.

saturday my parents came over so that my dad could help josh install recessed lighting in our bedroom. the lighting in a bedroom is very very dark and shadowy, so we really needed brighter lighting. they did a great job, even though it took forever! :)

it was hard to get a good picture of the lights

attempt #2
this is the cool light switch my daddy installed. it fades the fan, light, and recessed lights to like 7 different stages...pretty cool!

but my mom and i watched tv with travis and rebecca, and it was a relaxing day. my parents brought their new puppy, ruby, who is so adorable, and it took all i had not to hide her so that she had to stay...josh would have killed me!

ruby with her parents...

sleepy ruby

that night my parents came back over after going to see heather and the kids, and josh cooked the 4 of us steaks on our new grill that we got for Christmas. they were yummy!

sunday evening we went out to lupe tortillas for hannah's birthday. she and jeremiah turned 25!!! we're getting so much older! it was fun, because we don't get to see her often. she is about to move to virginia so we will see her much less after her wedding in february. i am so excited for her and can't wait to see how her new life with jason goes in a far away land! :)

mark and heather

hannah and her best friend jessica
niki and leland

all in all it was a great weekend...now onto another very fun and much anticipated weekend. will post on that later.

oh yeah...pray for micah and sunny. they are currently in korea loving on their new baby boy, jude. they will be bringing him to the states on the 22, so pray that he adjusts well and realizes how much so many people here love him.

good night...

tag, you're it

2009-01-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

i've been tagged by shelah! i am supposed to post the 4th picture from the 4th album on my computer. here goes...

this is our niece, kaylei, opening her Christmas present from the coolest aunt and uncle ever! we got her a cute little soccer goal thingy!

ok...i too have very few blogger friends, so have fun ashley, dana, sunny, and bekah!

september - december: in a nutshell

2009-01-02T10:39:00.000-08:00

2008 tailgating was a blast...i will have to dedicate a blog to this later! :)

my great grandma turned 94!!! isn't she so cute! i am so proud of her. and she taught me to bake bread last week...even though i know mine will never be as good as hers. :)

we had a house warming party in october...josh's parents got us a chiminaya, or however you spell it. the day was fun, and lots of people came to see the house. it was fun having everyone over!

kimberly and i threw jenn a baby shower at my house in october. she had jaxon in december, and he's so precious!

josh's college buddy chris got married in amarillo. we met our other friends in dallas and all rode together in the pathfinder. it was a tight squeeze, but we had fun hanging out, and the wedding was so pretty!

the kids on halloween...we went to church's festival and they had a great time!

niki on her 24th birthday...this is her new boyfriend leland. love him!

josh and i....thanksgiving!

our sunday school class planned a 5K run that started and ended at the klein campus. there was a great showing and it was lots of fun. we raised a lot of money and canned foods for the spring assistance ministry too. it took a lot of planning, but it was a great day.

a group of us went to the renaissance festival this year...it was so fun, and the weather was perfect!

our christmas tree broke last year, so this is our new one...it's prelit, thank goodness! and we stuck with the cowboy/country theme again this year.

i started teaching 7th grade girls sunday school...i love these girls!

the girls again at the christmas sleepover at my house. we had so much fun!

josh and i at the texans game...it was seriously freezing!!!

ok...i think i'm all caught up. i will do better from now on...i promise!

and the award goes to...

2009-01-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

ok ok ok...i know i am now the worst blogger ever! i knew that when my semester got tough i would probably blog less often, but this was out of control! sorry readers! i hope you will come back to read more. :)

this semester really did kick my butt. i am not sure my classes were any harder, but i am definitely getting to the point that i just want to graduate and i am easily overwhelmed! plus, i had a professor this semester that i literally wanted to hit every time i saw her. seriously, i had to pray every time i went to class so that i would keep me attitude in check...which sometimes worked. since i had an attitude problem toward her horrible teaching skills and insulting political views, she returned the feelings unfortunately. i somehow managed to get a B in her class, and i now never have to see her again. thank the Lord. i got A's in my other two classes and now i only have to take 3 classes in the spring, and i graduate in may!!! yay! i can't wait.

christmas was fun, and i have had a blast relaxing. i have been off work since christmas eve and i go back on monday...it's been a terrific break. although i feel like we celebrated christmas a million times over, it was all fun. after christmas pageant and a ton on christmas parties, we started the family events. the weekend before christmas i had all of my 7th grade girls sunday school class spend the night (wow...was that exhausting and so fun!), then jessica and melanie and kaylei were in town so we did christmas at the lee's. kaye and galen redid their house and it looks so good. new wood floors, paint, light fixtures, curtains, the whole shebang. looks great! that sunday we went to trinity to my aunt's house to do a smaller family christmas with my fam. christmas eve we celebrated with the garcia's, christmas day we went to needville to my aunt lenor's, and then the weekend after christmas we went to mineola to celebrate with josh's whole family. then on new year's eve we went back to the garcia's which was a blast, and new year's day my entire family came to our house for black eyed peas, cabbage, and much more delicious sides! i made my first ham, which was fun! so needless to say, although everything was a blast, it was exhausting.

some fun things we did...we went to see body worlds 2 at the museum with my parents. it was so neat and very interesting and just a little bit disgusting! if the rooms hadn't been so hot, i think it would have been better. my favorite part was the development of babies. i just had to keep reminding myself that it was all fake, and that no one had to die in order for them to make the exhibit.

we also went to a texan's game with niki's dad and her boyfriend leland. we had fun, and it was the first time i was the only girl in a long time. it was fun! we won the game, so that made it even better.

josh got me great gifts for christmas...even though he went over budget! :) i got tickets to a broadway play, spring awakening, which we will go to next weekend. he also got me an ipod shuffle (i finally can say i've used an ipod!), a watch for running, season 4 of friends, a new book, some wall hangings, and i think that's it. sorry if i forgot something josh! his parents gave us great gifts too...including money to get a grill for our back deck. we got it this past week, and i am so excited to grill out first burgers. kaye got me a ticket to the rockette's to go with her and nikki and the other ladies in her sunday school class and their daughters. it will be so much fun and we're going in 2 days! can't wait! niki got me the first twilight book, which i loved! they are addicting books, and i can't wait to start the second one.

i have been reading a lot lately. i read twilight last week, the choice by nicholas sparks this week, and now i started a series that i've been wanting to read called the mitford series. it's good so far. i'm trying to read as much as possible before school starts back in about 2 weeks.

this semester...my last semester...i will be taking intro to religious studies, the Bible and modern science, and some other random class, i think it's called media and society. should be an easier semester without any english classes, but we'll see. i always say that, and regret it later.

well enough rambling for now...i will go through my recent pictures and try to recap my semester...i'll be brief! :) sorry again for being such a horrible blogger!

now for some good news...

2008-09-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

well, this may not sound like good news at first, but it has a happy ending. last monday i took the cavalier in to the shop because it had been acting really funny. i knew something was wrong with the transmission, but little did i know i would need a transmission overhaul. pretty much a new transmission. this could cost anywhere from $1000 to $1900 depending who i had do it and what kind of a guarantee i wanted. josh and i talked it over that evening after leadership night, and we decided it would be better to spend that money on a down payment on a new car, then on fixing the red beast that had over 100,000 miles on it! so...i got a new car. we went tuesday evening and ended up getting the first car we found. we had shopped around a lot in the area online, so we pretty much knew we wanted it before we got there! :) sorry clonts'...we copied ya'll! we got a nissan pathfinder. it's a 2008 black suv, and i love it. it has lots of cool perks that i'm not used to like a dvd player in the back, a sun roof, a screen with a back up camera so i don't hit things, etc! it also has lots of perks that most people would be used to but i have never had, like cruise control, automatic locks and windows, working cd player, etc. love it! here are some pics!

thanks ike...

2008-09-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

well...we're ok, and i just wanted to let everyone know that. we are still without power and water (thanks to living in the country). fortunately, we have not stayed at our house since sunday. we spent a couple of days with my folks in needville, and then josh's parents got power in spring so we are now living with them...again. entergy suffered some major damage and will not be back up and running for a while. today i heard on the news that conroe should be 100% restored to power by sept. 29. i pray that this is true. entergy had told us it could take 4 weeks or more, so 2 weeks would be amazing! our new home was safe through the storm. before we moved in we had the lot cleared and picked out the favorite trees that we wanted to stay in the yard...well those are all gone now. somehow josh and i slept through them all falling, but they did. completely uprooted. i'll post some pics here in a minute. josh's job is being ridiculous throughout this whole process, but he has gotten to go back to work, so we won't be completely broke! he is working out of the houston office, and having to work long hours, so he's exhausted. this is not the best situation since the mayor is telling people not to drive unless in an emergency, because quite honestly gas is near impossible to find. we found some tonight at kroger and the line wasn't too bad...thank goodness. the church finally got power back tonight, but i think we will not work the rest of the week...most likely because most of the employees have kids that are still not in school. we'll see about that. as for my family...everyone is ok. my parents never even lost electricity...what a blessing! heather and jason got electricity back yesterday. travis and rebecca are still without, like us, but they are staying in needville. we all suffered some damage, but were very blessed all in all. for some reason my school (uh) decided to reopen tuesday. they were the only university opening. i went to classes last night...simply because i was bored. i was one of about 5 people in each class, and they will reteach everything next week, so i will possibly not go tomorrow. we'll see. please be in prayer for people here. things are insane and a lot of my friends are struggling. our neighbors and their girls are staying at their house with no power or water and the kids are exhausted, bored, and irritable. pray for people in these situations that they will find relief, peace, and patience. here are some pics...enjoy.

our yard...from the street in front

one pine tree snapped and is still dangling above the house...we'll have to fix that soon

another one from the street

this is our neighbor's house...they were the only one's one the street with major damage to the house. this branch punctured the roof above their master bedroom and their carpet is now wet and yucky...with no electricity to air it out = stinky!!!

uh campus...it was a mess!

huge root systems, now sticking up in our yard

from the front porch

the tree right in front of the house...it was actually in our flower bed

amazing

oh yeah...my amazing friend michael came over to our house monday and he and josh and some other guys spent the day cleaning up our yard. they had a couple of chainsaws and lots of help, so we now have firewood until we die! crazy amounts of wood! i am so thankful for michael's help and when we get back in the house it will be one less thing to worry about. yay! hope you liked the post...i've got good news too, i'll post tomorrow! if you're from this area...let us know if you are ok!

aggie football begins...

2008-08-31T17:26:00.001-07:00

well, yesterday was the first aggie football game. unfortunately, we lost to arkansas state 18 to 14. it was a horrible game! but the day was fun. we got to campus around 7:30 am and tailgated all day until the game started at 6 pm. we love the friends that we have season tickets with this year, so we are so excited about the season. although it may be a rough season for the team, our tailgate should be a blast! here are some pics...

here comes the team...

kimberly's adorable nephew...he's so cute!

kimberly

oh yes...this is an 8 foot reveille

kyle field...as you can see

our spot...

we were so pumped...

the student section was packed!

best daddy ever!!!

2008-08-31T17:05:00.001-07:00

well, i am finally fully recovered and feeling way better. i would never ever recommend a tonsillectomy to anyone unless absolutely necessary...it was horrible. however, my parents are amazing, and stayed with me for over a week and made sure i was completely spoiled! :) while my mom made sure i was doing ok at all times, my daddy worked on building josh and i a deck in the back of our new house. i was so excited about this, and it turned out so great! it took him most of the week because it rained every single day, but josh was able to help him the last couple of days and they got it all done. here are some pictures of the finished (but not yet stained) amazing deck!!!

before...

silly daddy...

half way through...

after #1...

after #2...

yikes!

2008-08-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

getting my tonsils out at 9:30 tomorrow morning. please pray! i am a little nervous...not gonna lie. if any of you have had yours out, please leave me some advise! :) i hope to update on some recent fun when i get a chance...i have a feeling i will have much down time coming up here pretty soon. i'll post as soon as i get a chance. good night.

2008 prayer and discipleship conference

2008-08-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

it's here!!! i can't believe it! my life has been so hectic the last few weeks with moving in the house and getting ready for this conference. when my boss presented it to me over a year ago, i remember how ridiculous i thought it was to be thinking so far ahead. but now the conference is monday and i feel so unprepared. we have about 420 registered and will probably have quite a lot register on the day of. please just be in prayer that everything comes together....speakers and attendees getting to and from hotels, church, and airports...that we have plenty of volunteers to greet, direct the parking lot, serve food, handle registration, drive attendees wherever needed, etc...that the sermons and breakout speakers will have a unity in their messages that can come from nowhere else but straight from God...that people will realize the importance of prayer and discipleship ministries in order to see revival in our nation. all of these things are so important. also pray for our speakers...mark estep, hayes wicker, jimmy draper, frank page, t.w. hunt, frank turek, jay johnston, jim kinnebrew, glenna heidt, elaine helms, tracy jaggers, mark harrison, steve baird, audrey pratt, andy harrison...i think that's everyone. thanks so much, and i will try to blog more once my life settles down.

one year, really?

2008-07-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

josh and i recently celebrated our first wedding anniversary!!! i can't believe that it's already been a year! it has flown by and has been the greatest year of my life. so much has happened in just a year. i can't wait to see what the Lord has planned for this next year. we are officially moved into the house and we love it! i will try to post pictures as soon as possible. but this post is to show you pictures of our wonderful 1st anniversary. since it was our "paper anniversary" we spent the weekend doing lots of fun things. josh kicked it off by getting me tickets to a super chick flick that i had been dying to see. what a sport, huh? it was fun. these first pics are of us eating our wedding cake...i'm not gonna lie, it was not all that great! :)

then on friday night we went to an astro's game, and we won! every friday game they do an awesome firework display, so we stayed to enjoy that.

then we just walked across the brand new park in down town houston and stayed in an amazing room at the hilton. the hotel was so nice and we had an awesome view of minute maid park. it was such a great night to just get away, just the two of us.

saturday morning we headed back to spring to a going away party for are friends michael and shelah. they moved to colorado, and we miss them a lot. but the evening was fun hanging out and saying good bye. then we got to go meet baby carly for the first time since cindi and logan came home from arkansas. then after church on sunday i gave josh my gift. since it was our paper anniversary i wanted to surprise him with tickets to a dynamo game. but, being the little punk that he is, josh asked lots of questions throughout the week before, and he totally knew what we were doing. he didn't tell me what it was, because he felt bad for ruining the surprise, but i made him act surprised!

we were only 8 rows from the field, so it was stinkin great! it was a totally different atmosphere that i expected. the fans are crazy and they play music and scream the whole 2 hours! and when dynamo scored there was confetti and streamers everywhere. it gets all over the field and then they just keep playing with the field a mess. it was insane. and we won that game too! we were good luck that weekend! we had so much fun, and really enjoyed just hanging out together. we stay so busy lately, we don't get to do that a whole lot.

well, i will post about the new casa soon. be praying for josh's grandma. she has been in the hospital for weeks now. she fells and broke 6 ribs and punctured a lung, so they have her on breathing machines now. she has parkinson's as well, and she has gotten pretty sick. she's running fever and all that stuff. pray that God will bring her comfort, because she really hasn't felt comfortable in a while. i will update soon on that as well.

if you are reading the blog, leave a comment so that i know you're there. a lot of you have told me that you're reading, but i haven't heard from you yet. let me know you're here so i know i'm not writing this blog to myself! :) thanks! have a great week!

my silly garrett

2008-07-02T19:02:00.001-07:00

memorial day weekend

2008-07-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

wow, so i know this is over a month old, but i am now going to attempt to post about the month that i lost while in summer school! memorial day weekend was a blast! this awesome couple from our sunday school class, drew and tara, invited the whole gang up to their parent's cabin in huntsville to fish and hang out. so josh and i expected a tiny little cabin in the woods, but no, this was an amazing house that was so beautifully decorated inside. i loved it. it sat on hundreds of acres and had a fishing pond on the property. we had so much fun! we fished, played frisbee golf, made hamburgers, the girls killed the guys in a game of scene it. it was great! the most important thing we all learned from the weekend...texas DOES have a state rock, and it IS petrified wood! palm wood to be exact. (sorry guys, i had to throw that in there!) ha! here are some pics of the day...

josh caught a fish!

drew being crazy

hank and kelly

isaac and kimberly

the guys played horseshoes, and it was quite hilarious!

this day was actually a couple of days before memorial day, so on memorial day we went to my parents house in needville and had a family get together. not only did we celebrate memorial day, but we gave trav and rebecca a long overdue wedding party! also, my cousin stephen is leaving for the military, actually he left yesterday, so it was good to see him before he took off for bootcamp. here's some more pics...

my great grandma...love her!!!

travis and rebecca...embarrased that we are throwing them a "shower"
10 months after the wedding...you know we love you!

my dad built a new deck...it looks awesome!

we swam a lot, but that many people
in a small pool = not a good idea!

great weekend! i will post again soon.

ok...good news first!

2008-07-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

we are officially homeowners!!! i cannot believe it. this whole process seemed to have flown by. we closed on monday, after much difficulty, but we got it done. the builder is still working on some last minute things, but he has promised to get them all done, and we trust him...something about that strange aggie bond! saturday is move in day, crazy! i haven't been able to get too terribly excited about it yet, but my last final is tomorrow, and then i will be on cloud 9! summer school was a killer, but it was worth it in the end. plus, my christianty and ethics class brought up some tough questions and i was able to figure out exactly what i believed in regards to those things. so that was awesome. anyways, i feel like i haven't taken pictures of the house in forever, but it definitely looks way different than my last post about it, so here are some more pics...

the kitchen is my favorite room! here's the cabinet color and granite...

now with the backsplash and black appliances...

here's our front porch (before it was painted)

this color is throughout the whole house, except our bedroom.

here is the tile that is in the entry, bathrooms, kitchen, etc.

this is after they poured our driveway and sidewalk...
the porch was primed, but still not painted
here's the little but of landscaping we get...we get the
privilege of sodding the whole acre ourselves! woopie!

here's a little example of the color/look or our fixtures.
we love our dining room! if only we had furniture to put in it! :)

ok...that's it. as you can see i did not take pictures for last couple of weeks. so we now have carpet, ac, electricity, shutters, etc. we can move in! thanks so much for all of your prayers. this has been such an adventure, and we look forward to see how God will use us in our new neighborhood. I hope you all can come visit very soon!

sorry!

2008-06-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

ok...so I obviously haven't posted in forever! the reason is, because josh and i moved in with his parents. i want to put pictures up with every post, but i have not been able to get on my laptop, which is where i put all my pictures. i could hook up my laptop to one of their computers to get internet access, but i have not taken to time to do that! mainly because i started summer school. is that a good enough excuse?

i am taking two classes right now, and today is the halfway point for them! i can't believe that. i also can't believe that i thought i could take 2 5week summer classes and keep my sanity. i am taking 1) modern american drama and i love it! 2) christianity and ethics and it is fairly interesting. in my drama class we are reading unbelievable plays, most of which i have read already, and then i go to class from 6-10 pm on tuesdays and thursdays and we watch a movie of each of the plays. we have seen some interesting movies for sure. last night we watched "a long day's journey into night" starring katherine hepburn. very interesting! my christianity and ethics class has been interesting as well. it is amazing how little most of us know about the religion that we claim, and we feel comfortable there. i am happy to be learning about my religion and why we hold many of the ethical standards that we do. my professor is really into this subject, so that makes it good.

ok...so since i've posted last, josh and i have had an awesome memorial day weekend, moved into the in-laws house, celebrated our 1st anniversary, seen our long-lost russian explorer who we missed so much (dana!), and so much has happened to the house. hopefully i will do posts about all of these things very soon. we are supposed to close on the house on the 30th...unbelievable! stay posted...and i promise i'll be better! :) i hope the Lord has been blessing all of you tremendously! see you soon.

my little darlings

2008-05-24T05:44:00.000-07:00

i just wanted to post about my favorite little nieces and nephews in the world! a lot of you haven't seen them in a while, and they are getting so big!

zachary is growing up fast. he loves sports and jason coaches his tee ball team. his mom is coming home soon...so we are wondering what will be happening with our little dude. but he is excited to see her, and i know he has missed her a lot.

autumn is still a crazy girl, and as beautiful as ever. she will be in 2nd grade next year. she can talk your ear off, but her stories are very animated...she has an incredible imagination. i guess she would be my sister's "sizzlebop," sunny. :)

in fact, she very well may have two of those. garrett is a handful and a half. he is in pre-k right now and cannot wait to start kindergarten next year. he is constantly getting bruises and scrapes, and heather can barely keep up with him. he keeps her on her toes for sure!

and then there's kaylei. she is our only niece on josh's side of the family so far. she was adopted 2 years ago and she was born on my birthday! kaylei has such an adorable personality and the biggest most beautiful brown eyes in the world. she just turned two and she is brilliant! she has memorized like a million flashcards and her vocabulary is almost as big as uncle josh's already!

i love all four of these kiddos and it is incredible how fast they have all grown up! their parents are amazing, and because of them i am not AS scared to be a parent one day!!! :)

fun in the sun...

2008-05-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

this weekend was so great! i got to go to lake somerville with my amazing friends! i love this group of friends because we all grew up in church together, and we have all stayed so close. we don't get to hang out really often, but every time we do it is an absolute blast! we try to go camping twice a year all together, and it's always such a great time...this time was no exception. daniel and courtney's family has a boat, so we were able to spend saturday skiing on the lake and getting really really sunburnt! (that part hasn't been so fun) we were blessed with perfect weather though.

craziest story of the weekend...niki and i were sitting in the pitch black in the middle of a little field by our camp sight, and a wild hog (little did we know it was a baby) came up to us and i just about died! it snorted, and at first i thought it was a dog, but then i realized it was a black pig and i took off running lake a crazy lady! (sorry niki) she was left to grab the lantern and explain my freak out to the rest of the group. the guys eventually chased the little hog to another camp sight and i survived. we had good laughs...mostly at my expense...and only one other wildlife encounter with a hungry raccoon.

here's some pics...

my favorite one of brian...doesn't it look professional?!

i love this man

the girls...tanning, of course!

reenacting the "there's a pig" face!

niki and ashley

wow josh, really?

courtney is the pro skiier

the couple that makes this all happen...ya'll are amazing!

niki tried to slolum (however you spell that), she did good but was worn out

ha! sorry daniel! i had to! no, he's not naked, but this is hilarious!

the only downer to the weekend...while we were driving to our camp sight after skiing all day, we got a message that our good friend kyle was in a motor cycle accident. he is ok now, but has a lot of healing to do. God definitely watched out for him. it could have been much much worse. but he did dislocate his shoulder and collar bone, had surgery on his foot, and lost a lot of the skin off his back, arms, and legs. please pray for him as he recovers. his family is in iowa, so we are his family right now. pray that he can go back to work soon and get back to life as usual. thank you Lord for your protection.

that's it! thanks for a great weekend guys! i love you all so much!

home sweet home

2008-05-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

okie dokie...here it is! our first home. it is on one acre in conroe, and we are so excited to get it finished and move in. we really weren't looking to move out of our apartment for another year, but the Lord truly placed this opportunity in front of us and we just could not pass it up! enjoy the journey through building...

the first step...

a little more...

a slab!

the framing begins...

it looks like a house!

another angle...

shingles!

we got the yard cleared, but still lots of cleaning up to do...

you can finally see it from the street!

they forgot our fireplace...but we got it fixed!

finally...bricks!

almost ready for sheetrock...

ok...that's it so far. i'm sure i will post more soon. but like i said we are getting super excited! please pray for beautiful weather so that we can get in there soon. although, we are looking forward to our time we are going to live with josh's parents. they are so sweet and supportive to let us crash their peaceful home! :) they must love us!

my first blog...

2008-05-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

so...this is my first blog! i hope that this will be a great way for me to keep everyone updated on ours lives and keep in touch with more of you.

josh and i have been so blessed during our first year of marriage, and God continues to work in our lives daily. i just finished school for the semester and we are currently packing up our apartment...our first home...and moving in with the in-laws until our first house is ready! we are so excited and we know God is working wonders for us! i will post soon about our new home, with pictures!

i just wanted to say hi to everyone and welcome you all to my new blog. enjoy!