JUST HAD TO SHARE THESE...

Emma had a fun lunch today...
DRINKING her Spaghettios!

Oh yeah! Who needs spoons?!?

What?!?!

Must get last one...

Hmmm....yep, it's been a while. Sorry 'bout that! :o)

Brett's last post says it all...we are so grateful for our new home!!!! God is so amazing! After nearly a month of being in our new home, we still are so amazed and grateful that this is the house God gave us.
I want to share some pics of our new home, but I'm only going to do a little at a time. Unpacking and getting settled in is such a long process, so I'll only show pictures of rooms that are completed (with the exception of the wallpaper...every single wall upstairs is covered in wallpaper, which we will eventually paint. So just TRY to ignore all the wallpaper in the pics).

HOUSE PICTURES:
(P.S. You can see a whole lot more detail if you click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Move-in day!! There was lots of snow that day (between 6-8 inches, I think), but thankfully we had lots of help so it went fairly fast. (It's hard to get a good shot of the house b/c of that huge tree.)

Our kitchen!! I LOVE IT!! It had a new sink & faucet, new stove top/oven, new dishwasher, and new countertops. I also now have a PANTRY!! Woohoo!!! And the most exciting part...all of my "kitchen stuff" actually fits IN the kitchen!!! Cool, huh?!? Now I don't have to store half my stuff in closets. I am loving cooking in my new kitchen! The wallpaper border around the top will be painted a real pretty green color, and then I plan on painting a scripture in a chocolate brown color all the way around. I can't wait!

Here's our bedroom. It will be painted someday too, instead of wallpaper (pale yellow with white trim). For now, we're just thankful to be in our own bed again! And we have a master bathroom too! We went from a 1 bathroom house to a 2 1/2 bathroom house (and we have long-term plans of turning the 1/2 bath, which is down in the basement, into a full bath). SOMEDAY!! When we have time & money! You understand, right?! :o)

CHRISTMAS PICTURES:

Aunt Carrie gave Emma the cutest tutu. She LOVES it!!!

Emma loves wearing Uncle Sloan's cowboy hat!


Emma loves her Nana!!



One last picture for today. Here's our little snow bunny. This was taken in Colorado Springs after Christmas. Brett & Kyle had to go to a conference in Denver, so Carly, Zoe, Emma, and I hung out together at the Walter's home. It was lots of fun!

More soon!

homeowner's!

Julz really will post soon and do a much better job than I will (inlcuding pics I am sure), but we DO have a home! We moved in during a blizzard, which is an adventure I will choose to never attempt again, saturday and slept there that night! Because of the issues with the original house we began to look around again. We looked at one home that had come on the market while we were tied up with the other one. We saw it, loved it and stopped looking immediately. We put a contract on it that day and it was accepted later the same day. It was less money than the original house, a better floor plan, larger square footage, in much MUCH better condition (move-in ready and vacant), we were able to close on it about two weeks earlier than the other house, and our interest rate went down! Needless to say God loved on us, protected us, and provided for us! Once again, I am thankful that God knows more about what is going on around us than I do.
On Monday I had my first "normal" work day routine in several weeks and I am feeling like a different man. It took me less than 6 minutes to get to work, and earlier that morning I was able to make my own coffee and spend time with the Lord in a chair that I put together in my own living room! I was smiling all day long and am truly thankful. There were so many of you that walked really closely alongside us in this whole process. Thank you!
Await with anticipation the upcoming post from Julz!

Well, I'm sorry to say, but it looks as if we don't have a house after all. The inspection was done on Monday and some fairly big problems were discovered (primarily, the need for a new roof). As we found out in the negotiating process, the owners just won't budge much on the price. They need to come down several thousand in order for us to be able to do the repairs and still be able to afford it. It just doesn't look like it's going to happen. Soooooo, here we are...back at square 1.

To say that we're not super disappointed and discouraged would be lying. We are. But at the same time, we are completely trusting that God is in control. More than wanting a house, we want His protection. We fully expect to look back at this whole situation someday and say "Ohhhhh....so that's why that all happened like that!"

Ummm...so, yeah, the last month has been pretty rough. Things just haven't happened quite like we had expected. Yet, at the same time, God has continued to confirm His calling--we know that we know that we know that we're supposed to be here...and we're so grateful for that continued assurance!

There's definitely been days that I haven't lived like I know this, but I was reminded the other day that our JOY is NOT dependent on our circumstances. JOY is a gift of the Holy Spirit and is completely detached from whatever is going on in our lives. So as a follower of Jesus, we can still be JOYFUL even when life is not much fun! What a timely and much-needed reminder! :o)

We are continuing with the house hunt, but with less urgency now. At this point, with Christmas break and a conference in Colorado immediately after Christmas, it's not possible for us to get into a house before January. The family we're living with is still planning on leaving January 7th, although we've been told things could very possibly change again to a later date. We are thinking we'll just stay there until we find a house, possibly as late as May (which is when the family will return from the Netherlands).

Anyway, that's the scoop on our lives right now. Someday (hopefully soon) I'll post again to say that we've found a house for real! Maybe next time I should wait until AFTER the inspection, huh? :o) It's definitely been an emotional roller coaster for us....maybe you got a little piece of the ride with us. Thanks for being excited for us and with us. We'll keep you posted...

We love you all!! :o) Please keep in touch!! You may know what it's like to be in a new place...It always brings a smile to our face when we hear from an old friend.

WOOHOO!!! Just letting you know that we got the house!!! :o) Our closing date is December 12th, and possession date is the 14th!! We're super excited and once again are so grateful for the Lord's provision in our lives! Because of Brett's Papa, we have a great downpayment, thus making our monthly payments very realistic for us. Thanks for all the prayers! We love you all!

Hey there everyone! Well, we're here! The past 2 weeks here in Wichita have been SUPER BUSY for us...and the 2 weeks (or month) before that were even CRAZIER!! I feel like the last 2 months have been so full, emotional, and hectic that they're almost a BLUR! Moving is NOT fun and NOT easy!!!

I wish that I could report that we are all settled in and calling Wichita home already, but not so much! The day before we left Waco, Brett found out that plans had changed (again) for the family that we were supposed to house-sit for. Now, they will not be leaving for the Netherlands until January. We decided that an overlap of 2 months with this family, plus the 4 months of house-sitting (total of 6 months in someone else's house), was a bit too long for us. We believe God has asked us to be here for now, and we are ready to start being able to call this home. The sooner we get into our own place, the sooner we'll be able to feel like this is home (hopefully). So we immediately began house-hunting once we got here. We have found a house that we're super excited about. We've made an offer and then they counter-offered (it's gone back and forth so far about 4 times). We're hoping to have a closing date of December 15 or sooner. We're desperately wanting to see a light at the end of the tunnel (which probably won't come until after Christmas). So far, there's been ZERO routines or "NORMAL DAYS." And believe me, we're really ready for that!

Emma sure is having fun playing with all the kiddos around her! The family we're living with has 3 kids (2 boys and a girl). We've also spent lots of time with some of our friend's children...Hudson and Hannah (twin 3 year olds), and Zoe (about 2 months old). Plus she gets to play in the nursery at church and at the Y. It's been fun for her!

Here's a few random things I wanted to share:

• We'll be sending out a newsletter after Thanksgiving with more details about our time in Wichita so far (and I'll hopefully be able to include our new address in it so that we won't have to use someone else's address for Christmas cards!!)
• For now, we've decided to stay with AT&T and keep our same phone numbers (at some point our #s will change, but not as soon as we expected). Also, we have no intentions of ever changing our email addresses, so hopefully that will always be a good way to contact us...of course, Brett's better at checking email than me :o)
• The camera dock got put in storage so this blog (and probably any posts thru December) will not have pictures. It stinks because I have several that I'd like to share! Oh well!

I'll try to blog again sometime in the next month, but no promises! With the holidays approaching, life can only get crazier, right? :o)

Update on the move

PACKING, Packing, packing!!!!! 32 boxes and counting! When I look at all the boxes, I think "WOW!! I think we're doing alright!!" Then I step outside "the box room" and see everything else that still needs to be packed. We did clear out quite a bit of stuff at our garage sale this last weekend, but there's still so much STUFF left to pack!! Overwhelming! That's the only word to describe this thing called "moving."

Our "Box Room"


As with so many other things (blogging, chores around the house, checking email/facebook, etc.), I only have a certain amount of time each day that I can spend packing (namely Emma's nap time, when she's at PDO, or after she's in bed for the night). It will all get done, I know. I'm just trying to stay on top of things so that we can actually get some sleep the night before we hit the road.
By the way, we'll be leaving 7am (ish) on Friday, November 2nd. We're hoping to have EVERYTHING packed in the moving van by Thursday night. We'll be sleeping in our sleeping bags in Emma's room (the only carpeted room in our house), and Emma will be in the pack'n'play in our room. The next morning we'll load up and head to Wichita...hoping to grab one last authentic breakfast taco from our favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant before starting the 6+ hour drive....we're already missing Mexican food!!!

This next week will be our last Sunday at Brazos Meadows (as members, anyway). We're so sad!! I had no idea how hard this would be. We've both shed a lot of tears already. This Sunday will be especially emotional, I'm sure. Not only is it our last Sunday, but we will see our family for the last time on Sunday. They're all coming in town that night because Brett will be getting ordained that evening. Then the church will be having a farewell reception for us. It will be an emotional kind of day, I'm sure!

COOL STORY:
Okay, so some of you already know about this, but here's the story for those of you we have not had a chance to tell...
Common question people are asking us right now..."Do y'all have a place to stay once you get up there?" YES!! We have been offered the opportunity to house-sit for a family that will be in the Netherlands for 4 months. We're so excited and grateful!! We really see this as a blessing, the Lord's provision, and confirmation. This will give us 4 months to find the right house and learn what part of the city we want to live in. Plus, the family we're house-sitting for is not even allowing us to pay any bills while we stay there! What a blessing to be able to save up a little bit as we enter into this support-raise position!! We totally see this as a gift from Him!

The tricky part....
1.) packing/labeling some things in such a way that we won't see them again until we get into our own house in 4 months
AND
2.) trying to think ahead and pack separately all the things we DO need for the next 4 months.

I'm wondering if I'm going to be tempted to have another garage sale as soon as we move into our new place....opening up all these boxes and thinking...."hmmm, I haven't seen all these things in 4 months, and I didn't even really miss them or remember them."
At the same time, I can really picture how good it will feel to unpack all of our stuff after not seeing it for so long.....I bet it will really make us feel more "at home," if that make any sense.
I guess we'll see! :o)


Sorry about not having any Emma pics....I haven't been so good about picking up the camera lately. I'll try to post some soon.
Love you all!!

Hey there! Hope all is well in your world! Still "normal" life around the Spivey house. I've packed 2 boxes worth of stuff and you cannot even tell that anything is different in our house....I'm not looking forward to packing; we've accumulated a lot of STUFF in 4 years! Our friends from Boston, Jeremy and Chelsea, will be staying with us this weekend so I'm kinda holding off on doing too much packing until after they leave (I figured our house wouldn't feel very warm and cozy with boxes everywhere).

Anyway, I've been introduced to the world of Facebook!! I'm loving getting connected with old friends and reading people's profiles and stuff. It's addictive! I dragged my feet for a long time with Facebook....I didn't WANT to know about it or get interested in it because I didn't want to take away from my newest "hobby"--blogging (please, stop laughing). Now that I'm getting the hang of it, though, I think it's very do-able (even for me) to keep up Facebook and the blog. Just FYI, I'm still not so good with checking email....I guess I should have gotten the whole email thing down first before I picked up something new. Oh well! :o)

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Well, Emma had 2 funny potty incidents this week. WARNING: Some of you may find this gross, not humorous....feel free to skip over this section if you don't like this sort of thing! :O)

Story #1:
It was bath time and I did my normal routine of getting Emma ready for her bath. I start by running the water, plugging the tub, getting the right temperature, etc. (In the mean time, Emma stands beside me trying to climb over the side of the tub because she can hardly wait to get in!) Then I strip her down, recheck the water temperature, throw her toys in and put her in the water. Well, somewhere between stripping her down and putting her in the tub, she pees. So she's standing in this puddle saying, "uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh!" So we talk about the accident, I sit her on her little potty, clean up the mess, then put her in the tub. She plays for about 5 minutes and then I hear "uh-oh" as she's looking down at herself. Before I can get her out of the tub and to the potty, I see "the uh-oh" floating around. Yep! She pooped in the tub! (She's done this once...as an infant, in her infant tub, so it wasn't near as big of a deal). So I quickly take her out, drain the water, and clean the tub and toys. In the mean time, Emma is standing at the edge of the tub pointing at the poop and telling it "no, no! ba-ba...no, no! (ba-ba is how she says potty). Whew! Clean water, clean tub and clean toys, so we start all over. Seconds after I have her back in the water, I notice "part 2." So I had to repeat all of the above steps. I called it quits after that....quickly got her bathed and put a diaper on her! It was exhausting! Funny now, NOT funny at the time!

Story # 2:
It's never been a good thing to hear "uh-oh" through the monitor first thing in the morning! Usually, it means she's poopy. Well, this time she was poopy AND CURIOUS! I walked in to get her and she's got one hand down her pants and was holding the other hand out to me....full of poop!!! It was pretty gross, I must say! Luckily, she didn't DO anything with the poop in her crib, although I'm sure if I hadn't come and got her when I did, we might have had an even bigger mess to clean! Later that same day, her and I were playing on the floor in her room and she did it again!!! I've heard several similar stories from people since this has happened...some of which were WAY worse than what Emma did (which makes me feel a little better for some reason). Evidently, this is "just a phase" that some kids go through. Hopefully, it won't last too long.

Sorry if I grossed anybody out! This certainly wasn't funny to us when it all happened, but we're laughing about it now.

BTW, potty training overall has slowed down. She still uses her big girl potty every once in a while, but she doesn't seem as interested as she was before we went to Boston/New York. I'm certainly not pushing the issue....I think she's right where she needs to be for being 19 months.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's a few pictures of the little stinker! :O)


She grabbed her little purse, walked over to the door, and started waving and telling me "bye!" So we put our shoes on and went for a walk. I couldn't get her to stand still, look at me, AND smile all at the same time, but here's our little girly-girl. And she is ALL GIRL, let me tell you! Purses, jewelry, shoes....she loves them all!! (Thanks to the grandmas! :o) We are in trouble!!



A couple of Saturdays ago, Emma got to watch her Uncle Sloan ride horses and rope steers. A few days afterwards, (all on her own!!) she went in her room, got this sheep, and began sitting on it. Brett says this picture is of Emma "mutton busting." :o)
Ummmm....yeah.....The stickers and bracelets are kinda weird, I know! She's really into stickers right now, and like I said before, she loves wearing jewelery (just around the house, though. We don't take her out in public like this, in case you were wondering!) :o)




Ever seen one of these? It's a crib tent (AKA a "baby cage"). It keeps little climbers, like our sweet Emma Joy, safe and secure inside their crib. With Emma being such a climber, and us not being ready for the transition to a toddler bed yet, this was our best option. THUMP, silence, scream....not a good sound to hear from your baby's room at night. This little contraption has been WONDERFUL!! She loves it! And so do we! We're very thankful that she'll be staying in a crib for a while longer!


BELOW: We love reading books to/with Emma. Here's a glimpse at how SHE READS BOOKS TO US! It's hilarious! She says all this gibberish and cracks herself up. Enjoy!


BELOW: Here's a new fun game....rolling the ball back and forth. She gets such a kick out of it! She "turns silly" real fast, as you can see!


'til next time! :o)

It works again!

I just wanted to let everyone know that the email links now work. I had to do some format changes, but got it working again. beta versions always makes life easier, right?

Hey Michelle!! Thanks for your comment and for keeping up with us through our blog. I don't have another way to contact you, but now that I know you still check our blog, I know you'll get this. :o) How come I can't go to your blog anymore? I've had it bookmarked all this time, but it says "page not found." I want to see pics of Paige!! She must be so big by now!! By the way, I noticed that the photographer over there off of Wooded Acres still has Paige's pictures in the window as her sample pics. She's too cute!! Let me know if y'all have another blogspot or something.

**To Everyone!!** :o)
The last post said something about clicking on our "email Brett" and "email Julz" links, but Brett just checked them and realized that they're not working anymore. He'll work on that and will hopefully have them fixed soon. :o)

Update on the move (kinda)

I'm still in one of those BLAH kind of moods, but I'm better than earlier. I took some headache medicine, curled up in bed, and had a real good cry. Sometimes you just need those, I guess. Then I read Philippians. It was good. God really spoke some things to me, and I am thankful. Then my wonderful husband decided I needed some Bangkok (our favorite Thai place which we're really gonna miss). I had a few hours break from my headache, but unfortunately, it's back (with bells on). I got nothing done today....just a bunch of laying around the house and piddling around (kinda makes me feel more BLAH just thinking about how BLAH I've been....oh well, maybe tomorrow! :)

So, an update on our move (the "REAL" reason I was supposed to post today) ..... :o)

• We're in the process of sending letters out to everyone. We're basically sending this first letter out to just about everyone we know. We're not sending the letters out all at once; only about 20 or 30 at a time so that we can follow up easier. There's some people that we don't have an address for and not even sure how to go about getting one. If you're reading this and haven't received a letter (and would like one), just email us and we'll be sure to send you one. (BTW, our email is posted as a link on the right side of our blog, all the way at the bottom.) It's possible that we just haven't sent yours out yet, or maybe you're one of the people that we don't have a current address for. Either way, if you're interested in partnering with us and getting updates and such, then we want to be sure we get a letter to you. :o)
  
• We have had the opportunity to share this with many of you, but some may not know yet.....It's very possible that we might be able to house-sit for a family while they are in the Netherlands for 4 months!! This is such a blessing to us because we'd be able to "shop" for a house once we're already in Wichita (versus trying to do it long distance). We really see this as the Lord's provision and even as confirmation that this is the direction He's taking us. This would also allow us to save up some money for a few months (they'd like for us to stay in their house for free since we'll be doing them a favor as well). Isn't that awesome?!?! God is so good!
  
• Our target date is still around the first of November. I plan on starting the packing process the first week or so in October. I've got bunches of diaper boxes in the garage and I'm going to start with packing all of our books, knick-knack type stuff, frames, etc. Around mid to late October, we're thinking about having a garage sale to try and lighten the load a bit. Poor Uhaul that gets stuck with us....Surely we have more junk than the average bear.
  
• Ummmmm.....can't think of anything else right now. :o) Overall, life is pretty much "normal" (whatever that means) right now for us. I'm sure once October comes around that it'll be a little different story.

I just feel like saying THANK YOU right now......Thank you for checking our blog, thank you for taking an interest in our lives, thank you for loving us, and thank you for your friendship! There's so many other things you could be doing at this moment, but instead, you're reading our blog. That really means a lot to us! Thanks! :o)

Do you ever just feel BLAH? That's me right now! I've never really used our blog to just "think aloud" but I'm in one of those moods right now. Not only do I feel blah, but I feel sad and discouraged....but I don't know why. I know what you're thinking....no, it's NOT that time of the month! :o) BLAH is the only word that keeps coming to mind.

I have had so much on my mind lately:

• moving, cleaning, packing
• headaches, not feeling like doing anything because of my constant headaches, just going to sleep
• friends, high-school and college friends that I wish I hadn't lost contact with, long-distance friendships, not feeling like I have any friends, anxious about starting all over in Wichita and having to make new friends
  
• books that I haven't finished, books that I'd like to be reading
• Emma and Haley at PDO right now. Why am I not doing laundry, dishes, errands?
• exercise, eating right, feeling lazy, giving up on the whole idea of losing weight & getting back into shape
  
• babies, future, the unknown
  
• job, finances
• the weekend, church work day, SS lesson

As I typed that list, I realized more and more how anxious I am right now, and, of course, Philippians 4:6 keeps coming to mind as I recognize my anxiety. So much of these things are completely out of my control and I know I just need to pray about them and hand them over to the King, but I'm just really struggling right now to even be able to sit and spend time with Him. My mind just won't stop. When I sit to read the Word or pray about these things, I get so distracted and my mind takes me in all different directions and then I get frustrated. I find it easier to pray for others right now. I've heard people say that before, and now somehow that is where I am.

I just feel BLAH!! Have I said that already?

I don't even know how to end this post.

I guess I'm going to go try to get something done.....or maybe just try to sleep off my headache or something. I'll try to post again later today when I don't feel quite so blah. Thanks for listening to my rambles. I haven't a clue if anyone even reads this anymore besides Kristin, Kirsten, Laura, and maybe Sharee. I know you guys all know me and won't think I'm a nut for saying all this! :o)

Bye for now!

South Padre Isand

Man, blogging 3 days in a row....that's just unheard of for the Spivey's!! :o) I'm going to get through today and tomorrow's post like I said I would, and then I'm hoping to start blogging more regular. When I only blog once a month, each post ends up being so stinkin' long.....I'm sorry about that. I'll try and get into a routine of posting on a weekly basis so each post is shorter and easier to read. Y'all hold me to that, okay!?!?!

So here goes.....

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND


Look who's ready for the beach!!


And we're off...


She's loving it already!
(Especially when Nana and Papa make it extra fun by swinging you around)




Emma's first feel of the water. After that, she was off! She wasn't afraid a bit. She didn't like it when the waves came up and hit her in the face, but who does? Even when she'd get splashed or knocked over by the waves, it didn't make her want to get out.
She LOVES the water!!


And she's off to chase the seagulls! Those birds got their workout while Emma was around! (So did Nana!) I took several pics of Emma chasing the seagulls, but they were super blurry for some reason....I'm thinking sand on the lens. (I'll never cease to be amazed by the way sand manages to get into EVERYTHING! Doesn't matter how careful you are; it'll find it's way to the things you don't want it on!!)


There's some major pruning going on on these little toes! Proof of a good day on the beach! :o)


Resting in Papa's lap after a long day at the beach! I don't know if you can see it good in the picture or not, but she still has her hand in the Ziploc with raisins as she's dozing off. Too cute!

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We spent 3 days, 2 nights in South Padre and had a great time with my parents! They wanted to take little Emma and be there when she experienced the beach for the first time. I have lots of fun memories of going to the beach as a child. We're looking forward to all the fun vacations and memories ahead with our own children!! :o)

More tomorrow!

Misc. Pics.

WOOHOO!! 2 days in a row!! :)

In case you didn't check our blog yesterday (which is totally understandable since you probably think I must have given up on this whole blog thing cuz it had been so long), I have tons of pictures to share and decided to break it over 4 separate posts this week....yes, it's true! I haven't blogged in over a month, and yet somehow I think I'm going to be able to post 4 blogs in a week. We'll see! :o)

As I said yesterday, today's blog entry is just a bunch of random pictures....some of Emma, family, friends, etc. I'm hoping to include 1 short video of Emma dancing, but we'll see if it works (so far, I haven't had much luck with videos).

We went to the Mayborn Museum again.....LOVE that place!! I'm sad that we've only recently "discovered" it (I had gone there as a teacher on field trips, but never taken Emma there until a few months ago). I sure hope Wichita has some kind of children's museum because I really enjoy it and I know Emma does too!

Emma loves the "transportation room." Here she is getting off the school bus and driving the little car. How fun!

Here is Emma's friend, Haley, in the transportation room (the only room that I thought to take my camera out). She comes over to play with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She's such a sweet, happy baby; they have lots of fun playing and squealing back at forth to each other. I really enjoy watching them play together. It's also given me an opportunity to work with Emma and teach her about SHARING her toys!! She's not so good at that yet, but we're working on it. :o)


One eats; one bounces. Then they switch. It's the only way to keep an eye on them both! :o)


You know, for some reason I remember to take my camera with us all the time when we travel, and yet somehow I forget to take pictures of our friends here in town. I realized I don't have many pictures of our Waco friends, so I'm working on that right now. I know we'll miss our Waco friends so much when we move to Wichita. We definitely want pictures of them to take with us. Here's a couple pics. for now:

Here's my (our) good friends, Laura (Haley's mom) and Kirsten. We're in a small group together at Brazos Meadows. They are awesome friends, and we love hanging out with them! We laugh A LOT together! And of course have good, deep conversations as well. We're so thankful for their friendships! Hey Kirsten, this is for you.... :o)



Here's Trey and Ashley....they're our "newly wed Waco friends!" :o) We hang out with them usually once a week at a local coffee shop to discuss the book we're all reading, "The Ragamuffin Gospel." We also see them most weeks when we all get together to watch "The Office" on Thursday nights.

I have 2 other really close friends here in Waco, Melissa and Beth; however, I don't have any pictures with them. Soon!

No worries, she has a swim diaper on! :o) Here's Emma at a local splash park. She LOVES the water....baths, sprinklers, swimming, splash parks, etc!! So fun to watch her in the water!!

Here's my mom and dad. Emma and I ran to San Antonio for the day a few weeks ago for a friend's baby shower. Emma's favorite toys at their house....the Tupperware drawer! (see what my dad is holding!) Emma loves her Nana and Papa!!


My mom and I at the baby shower. Love you lots Mom! :o)



Long hard day of entertaining everyone at the shower and being super cute; she's tuckered out! This was on the drive home after the shower. Check out those cute lips!

Here's a video clip...this is Emma's idea of dancing. She'll do this sometimes until she's so dizzy she can't stand up. Then she'll rest and start over. I seriously am considering sending this in to America's Funniest Home Video someday if I can ever get a really good video clip of her doing it. Like I've said before, I'm having a hard time taking pictures and video of her right now because as soon as she sees me with the camera, she just wants to look at the screen.
By the way, sorry for the sideways view....I can't figure out how to rotate the box (does anybody know how?) Hope you enjoy it anyways!! :o) PS-notice her tongue stays out nearly the entire time she's spinning....turning in circles takes a lot of concentration, you know!

More tomorrow....Check back! :o) Tomorrow I'll post pictures of our trip to South Padre last weekend. There's some great ones of Miss Emma in her swimsuit and sunglasses!!

Boston & New York!!

OK, so here's the deal: I've waited WAY too long to blog (again) and I have a buh-zillion pictures to share and things to tell (imagine that). I went through the pics on our camera and counted about 30 that I want to post, but I'd be here for hours if I tried to do that all at once (plus that's a lot for you all at once too). So I'm breaking it up over 4 separate posts (I WILL make time to post 4 times this week)

Here's a preview of what's to come :)
Today's post: Our trip to Boston & New York
Tomorrow: Misc. pics & hopefully one video clip of Emma dancing!
Wednesday: Our trip to South Padre with Emma and my parents
Thursday: an update on our move
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BOSTON
In mid-August, we had another opportunity to go to Boston through Brazos Meadows to visit our friends Jeremy & Chelsea. They moved to Boston a few months ago, believing that this is where God wants them. We had a great time with them and are so thankful for their friendship. Jeremy, Brett, and TJ camped out in the living room, while us girls got the bedroom...and we had lots of fun chatting the night away! We're so proud of how well they're doing in Boston. They've adjusted so good and are fitting right in (well, except for the strong Southern accents :) We were amazed by how many people stopped and asked Chelsea for directions....and she always knew how to help. They have learned the area so quickly. I'm impressed! Here's a few pictures:

Jeremy & Chelsea

Here's T.J. missing his sweet wife Laura. She stayed in Waco with their baby, Haley. We missed Laura and Haley lots! (We were up on top of Jeremy & Chelsea's apartment building).

A walk in the park...Here's the whole gang:
Brett, TJ, Chelsea, Jeremy (plus me, taking the pic.)

Brett & I with the Charles River behind us.

We also got to see our good friends Kristin and Andrew Stein, but the 2 pictures that I got with Kristin didn't turn out. I'll have to get some of her pictures and post them later. Kristin is such a great friend!! She is definitely one of those people in my life that no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other or talked, we can always pick up right where we left off. I was so encouraged by a talk we had while we were there, and I'm always so challenged (spiritually) by her. So grateful for your friendship Kristin!! :)

Isn't this an awesome picture?!?! Kinda makes you dizzy looking at it, huh? I don't remember exactly where in Boston we were when I took this, but I just looked up and thought WOW!!!!! From what I remember, we had just finished eating a late lunch in the Quincy Market area and were walking to an outdoor fruit market that Chelsea had found. We did A LOT of walking that day....it was GREAT!!

Brett & Jeremy with our luggage. We were walking to the T (subway). Brett and I took an Amtrak to New York for a few days after TJ went home.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

This is one of those places that Brett and I both have always wanted to go, and with a $66 Amtrak ticket from Boston, we couldn't pass it up. We did all the "touristy" things you can think of....and about 10 times the walking we did in Boston. We loved it!!!!

The NY public library, where they filmed part of Ghostbusters! :)

This is the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked the whole thing....great view of the city! This was one of my favorite things we did in NY.

Here we are "at the top of the Rock" (Rockefeller Center). We were told this had just as good of a view as the Empire State Building, with no line to wait in. It was great!

NBC studios is in the Rockefeller Center. "The Office" is our favorite show right now, so Brett got a picture "with Michael Scott." This may sound odd, but we had so much fun at the NBC store looking at all "The Office" stuff. It was pretty cool to be in the place where so many shows are filmed.

The line to take the boat to Liberty Island was ridiculously long, so we were content to just see it from the shoreline.

Okay, so maybe we did get to see the Statue close up! haha


I LOVE pictures of old doors & gates, for some reason. I have pictures of random doors/gates from nearly every place I've ever visited. I also love sunrises and sunsets (I have a whole photo album full of sunrise/sunset pictures that I've taken over the years). Sunrises and sunsets remind me of the scripture that says "From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord will be praised" (Psalm 113:3) One day, I'd love to start a "doors photo album." There are sooooo many references to doors and gates in the Bible that I really like.
A couple that come to mind are:

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me." Rev. 3:20
and
"...knock and it shall be opened unto you..." Luke 11.9
and
"I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture." John 10:9

Note: all 3 of those scriptures are Jesus' words.

No real reason for this clock picture....I just thought it was pretty cool looking. :) We saw so many beautiful buildings and architecture in Boston and New York both. Great cities! We're so thankful for the opportunity to visit them! Both cities are so rich in history and full of people from different cultures. We loved that part!

This was taken at my parent's house in SA right before I dropped Emma off (she did not go with us on this trip). We missed her tons! Before this trip, I had only been away from her for 1 night at a time since she was born (on many different occasions, though) , so 8 nights in a row was a pretty huge deal for me!! Both sets of grandparents did great with her....I know they really enjoyed all the time they had with her. And Brett and I had a great time hanging out together, just the 2 of us. What a blessing to be able to spend so much time together! I have the best husband in the world!! :o)


Check back tomorrow!! I will drop Emma off at Parent's Day Out from 9-2 and I don't have too many other things to do, so I will definitely have some time to blog. :o)