HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

A lot has happened since last time I posted... We had a wonderful Christmas with The Ross Family, Abigail is potty trained, Andrew is walking, David started Seminary... However, the one thing that has remained the same is that we continue to be grateful for God's love, grace and provision in our lives!!! Andrew is officially walking!!!

Abigail has joined in the effort to "Andrew proof" the house.... Child locks on EVERYTHING!!!

This is the face of a boy lookin for trouble... David and I often refer to Andrew as the best birth control ever. Anytime we entertain the thought of having more kids Andrew quickly reminds us that we don't need anymore because he is a 2fer- He has the energy and personality of 2 kids (or more) put together!

Christmas with the Ross Family!

Abigail couldn't get enough of her Papa Toot!!! Every 15 minutes she would say... "Papa Toot... I love you SO much!"

3 generations of trouble:) Aren't they cute?!?!

2 posts in one day!!! Family Pictures...

Can you believe it.... I posted 2 postings in one day (so don't forget to check out the posting below too)! Here are some family pictures that we had taken last week. The wind was blowing like CRAZY so that is why we all have tragic hair do's:)

Family updates...

It's official... David will be a student at Dallas Theological Seminary beginning in January! We have been praying for some time now that the Lord would make His will clear to us regarding our future (David's schooling, vocation, when I will stay home, etc) and we couldn't be more humbled and grateful for His provision and blessings as He has led us through SO many life and heart changes during the past couple of years. As usual, we have no idea how exactly He will use us long term, but we will continue to seek His will, with obedient hearts (by His grace of course:). Proverbs 3:5-6

Most of you know what an incredible man David is, but I have to take a moment to share with you what a blessing he is to me and our children. As most of you know David has A LOT of energy and therefore requires very little sleep. He averages anywhere from 4-5 hours of sleep per night (some times even less), but the main reason for his lack of sleep is that he chooses to spend every available moment loving on and spending time with myself and our kids, requiring him to stay up until wee hours of the night (or morning) doing his school work (after we are all in bed). It was only a few weeks ago that I got up to go running at 5:15 a.m. and passed David in the hallway as he was just barely going to bed from a long night of homework. There isn't any amount of sleep deprivation that keeps David from making us crack up laughing with his crazy dance moves, silly songs, etc. However, the thing that amazes me the most is his unwavering commitment to lead, love and grow his family in Christ daily. I knew from the moment that I met David that something was different about him, but I would have never guessed that he would be able to encourage and inspire our family in such life changing ways.

On to other family news... Abigail is now potty trained!!! Andrew had his first ear infection and we learned that like "Papa Toot", he too has a Penicillin allergy (poor Andrew had the poka dots to prove it:).

Happy 1st Birthday Andrew!!!

I can't believe that our little man will be 1 year old on Thanksgiving!!! We celebrated his birthday with our family and friends this past Sunday and had a ton of fun! It's hard to believe that in the past year we have moved twice, had a precious baby boy, David has almost completed his MBA (he is in his last class now:), we have set forth a plan for me to be a full time Mom in the next 18 months, Abigail is officially smarter than David and I both and Andrew loves to be disobedient and some how always get out of being in trouble because he is SO cute and funny...


Andrew and his new best friend Garrison (they are almost exactly a month apart)!

The Cousin's picture (getting them all to look the same way at the same time is always an accomplishment:)!!!
Abigail and her Papa! My Dad and Step Mom were here this weekend, so Abigail enjoyed some special cuddle time with Papa!

Halloween 2009

By God's grace, we had a wonderful Halloween Outreach event in our neighborhood (since our new church building is going to be just around the corner from where we live, we wanted to introduce our neighbors to Cornerstone Community Bible Church ). We had over 100 people come by our block party! We had games, crafts, face painting, a picture taking station, and lots of hot dogs and candy! It was such a blessing to see God's provision in the planning and execution of this event, as it was only through Him that we had the energy and resources needed to create a fun filled night where He could be glorified!

Andrew had a costume change half way through the night since it got pretty cold (cold for Texas... nothing compared to Bloomington:). I couldn't pass up the chance to post a pic of one of Andrew's famous kisses!

Our trip to California...

We started our trip off with a surprise 30th birthday party for David which was a ton of fun, but I don't have pictures to post as I some how forgot to take pictures. However, Mary (the ultimate party planner) did take some, so please stay tuned for more pics:)












We had a GREAT time at Disneyland with Nana Lu Lu, Papa and KK!!! Abigail loved seeing her favorite characters from Play House Disney and Andrew seemed to love the rides that he went on too! As you can see Andrew is still an amateur at the spend 11 hours at Disneyland thing, so Papa Toot and Grandma Crack/Wrigley were kind enough to come pick him up to take him home for a real nap:) On the way to meet his parents (to hand off Andrew), David made sure that Andrew didn't miss out on the family tradition of trying on funny hats (poor guy)!

Toot and Crack certainly won the hearts of both Abigail and Andrew this week! Andrew is going through a bout with separation anxiety (from David and I) so there is no doubt that they earned their "Top Notch Grandparents Badge" with all the babysitting that they did. Ed even watched both kids Sunday morning (all by himself) while Mary went to church to play the organ (when we got home Andrew was sleeping peacefully for his morning nap and Abigail was all smiles, playing with Toot:). You know that they are loved, when every time we get in the car with Abigail to go some where she says that she wants to go back to Toot and Crack's house. As you can see Abigail especially loved water bottle (not water gun:) fights with Crack:)

MJ and Vanessa Joseph's wedding was AMAZING! Abigail and I were both so honored and grateful to be a part of their special day! We were SO proud of our little hunny, as she did such a great job as a flower girl (I had a hard time holding it together when I saw her walking down the isle, like such a big girl, just like we had been practicing)!

I'm SO sorry for being the worst blogger ever lately!!!

Here are some quick updates... We are off to California for 10 days tomorrow for one of my best friends (Vanessa) wedding. We are going to pay Mickey and friends a visit while we are there too:) We are SUPER excited!
So... Andrew just had his 9 month check up and he is gaining on Abigail... Now only 3 pounds separate them! I thought that these pictures were a good indicator as to how close in size they are, it is just to funny. Abigail is such a sweet big sister, she LOVES to play with, hug and kiss her little brother!!!



The Lord has really been at work in us over the past couple of months since moving to Texas and some of the highlights are... My parents (Keith and Karen) bought a house (with a pool:) in our neighborhood and plan to move here by the end of the year, David will finish his MBA in December (and maybe start a new degree program in January- we just can't get enough of paying for school:), We are running the half marathon in Houston and in New Orleans, Abigail starts "school" next week (2 days a week for 3 hours- Mommy is nervous), we are new "home team" leaders at church, Abigail continues to be the funniest person that I know and she is way to smart for her/our own good:), I think that's about it for now...

Here is one last picture of Abigail's best friends "Ju Ju" and "Glo Glo" (Julia and Gloria), they are the daughters of our dear friends Bryan and Kristin Glass. They continue to be at the top of Abigail's prayer list every night, but don't try to pray for them together because she will stop you and say... "stop... stop, one at a time... Ju Ju first...then.. Glo Glo ." It is to cute! They live around the corner from us, so we have been blessed with the opportunity to spend more time with their family (play dates, familybbq's, they are our running partners, etc).