Child Of The King. Wife to my Best Friend. Mother to my Beauties. Avid Blogger. Coffee Addict. Chocoholic. Worship Singer. Natural Living Explorer. Simply Me.
Here are some pictures I took of Steph's diaper and book baby shower that I threw her while I was in Texas on March 7th. I thought it turned out well and enjoyed planning it. She got a ton of diapers and a bunch of other cute essentials.I was glad I got to do something for her first baby. I just wish I could be there for the big one.
Big one as in shower. Not big Steph. In case you were confused.....
Ahem. Moving right along.
The cake. It was delicious. And cute
The mom-to-be as you can see
The mom-to-be with the aunt-to-be. Which would be me.(I'm on a rhyming roll here)
The mom-to-be with the grandmother-to-be times three. ( oh, I am good!)
Steph getting some baby practice with adorable baby Claire.
Playing a game.
A shot of some of the guests
Opening the gifts
Katelyn decided to pitch in....
I love this bib! In case you can't read it, it says " My mom is hotter than your mom".
One of the many cute books she received
Playing "Name That Baby Food In One Taste". Some refused to play. I wonder why? Steph was a trouper and ready to bring it.
Passing out the baby food. You can see Renay's excitement at tasting the food.
I really like these pictures. They are some of my favorites taken during this trip. Well, along with my other favorites. These were all taken on the Sunday that we left. March 15th, if you must know.
Katelyn playing uncle Waylon's drums at my parent's church. She fancies herself a drummer now!
Pizza Garden with the fam for the last time
The sibs and me (English grammar folks: "me" is the correct usage here, right? I'm never quite sure!)
Playing at the park near my parent's house. It was a family event!
Haha! I looove this picture!
I can't decide which one is better. The top or bottom. I like them both.
With our mama
Madelyn gets a little push from uncle Bryan
"Uncle Bryan/Bob? You forgot me!"
This one's for you, Steph. I seem to have taken a bunch of pictures of Waylon that day.
The happy, newly married, soon-to-parents couple
Ilove this picture too!For some reason it always makes me think of that book/song "We're Going On A Bear Hunt".
No matter what his body language is saying, he, apparently, loves to go down the slide
Watch out! Preggo mama's turn!
uh, Waylon? Wrong way.
For the most part, this is how the girls looked on our trip back here. This picture was taken as we drove away from my parent's house. The girls were settled in with a DVD and happy. I know this picture is going to make my mom sad. Sorry mom!
Whew! That's all for now folks. I think I've more than filled my quota of pictures.
Here are some more of my favorite pictures from my trip. Enjoy!
Me and grandma Ross
Mom, me,Katelyn and my sister Steph
Dinner at my Ross grandparent's house.
A shot of us in our Sunday best with my uncle James and Ross grandparents
Out to eat at Logan's Roadhouse for my brother's 25th birthday
The birthday boy
Family get-together for Bryan's birthday. He got two parties!
While neither the quality nor photographic skill of these two pictures is great, I love them because it shows Katelyn enjoying time with her great grandpa. She was enamored of grandpa Ross that night. It was cuteto watch Kate and Maddy play with him.
Geempaw and Steph. Geempaw is pointing to his soon to be new granddaughter!
Me and my cousin Lydia, on the day we went to visit her. Baby Cooper is in her belly.
Geempaw with his girls. Maddy is giving her "naughty" look below.
Mama said you called and it's time to come home. I'm ready to go back home now. I've had a lot of fun in Texas. I've really enjoyed getting to know all the people at geemaw and geempaw's church. I've also had fun getting to know people in our family that I didn't know that well before. I'm going to miss geemaw, geempaw, aunt Steph, uncle Waylon and uncle Bryan a lot. I'm also going to miss my new friends Kylie,Josh,Will and cousin Garrett.
But I miss our house. I miss you. I miss Benny. I miss nana and papa. And I miss all my toys!
Mama has been packing all day and getting all of our stuff together. She even vavacuumed the van! She said you would really like that. She also told me that I had only had a few more nights to sleep with her in her bed. I'm going to miss sleeping with mama.
I'll be seeing you three more days.
I wanted to show you some more pictures of our last few days.
This is me and Madelyn at the nice playground near geemaw and geempaw's house. Mama and geemaw like to walk around it and then we get to play after they're done!
I got to color with great grandma Ross and greatGrandpa Ross!
This is me and Josh McLemore doing a puzzle together. Mama said Josh and his mom Rhonda new me when I was in mama's belly.Now that I'm out of mama's belly and big I get to play with Josh!
Mama said this will make a great black mail for Josh picture one day. What's blackmail?
All of us together. Josh didn't want to leave and I didn't want him to leave either.
We went to cousin Garrett's house and played. Garrett and I had so much fun together! We had yummy lunch and cookies. I love cookies.
It was time to leave so I didn't want to take any good-bye pictures. My eyes were crying in this picture.
Garrett and I really like each other.
We also had so much fun with Uncle Waylon and aunt Steph. I loved playing with uncle Waylon!!
Madelyn was having some snuggle time with uncle Bryan/ "Bob" in this picture. She was being so cute.
Mama has a ton more pictures to post but she couldn't put them all in this post. She let me have the turn to write our last blog from here in Texas. She said she'll write another post,herself, later.
I come from a musical family. My parents sing and play piano and guitar. My mom even plays the accordion!
(insert Partridge Family comment here)
I sing and play piano. My sister sings and plays piano, guitar and drums. My brother sings and plays guitar. And apparently is learning all sorts of other instruments in his quest to be a better worship leader.
My grandparents sing and/or play instruments. My aunts, uncles and cousins all sing and/or play an instrument.
Music is a way of life for us.
When I am able to get together with my siblings we like to sing together. Growing up my brother was always shy and didn't really do much musically. He has grown into a very musically talented young man and is now the worship leader at my parent's church! My sister and I have sung together for years. When we were on deputation as missionaries, way back when, we would always sing a children's song in portuguese and english together. If it was the same song in both languages-even better!! Most people thought it was cute. Well, we've evolved since then and have sung many songs together at many different places.
(Insert Indigo Girls comparison here)
Now that my brother has come out of his musical shell the three of us make pretty good music together.
(insert Hanson comparison here)
That is one thing I really miss living so far away from them. I wish I could be around more to sing with them.
Here is a song we sang this past Sunday together. My brother didn't sing with us on this song. He played guitar, my cousin David is playing bass and my brother in law, Waylon(not seen in the video), is playing drums. Hopefully, soon, I'll post a video of the three of us singing.
I hope and pray Katelyn and Madelyn get the music gene.
Oh, and any other future children I may have.
Can't forget them....
*Oh, and the reason there are two videos is that the camera accidently got shut off for a sec while filming and then started back up. So the first video has several seconds and the second one has the rest of the song on it*
I wasn't sure how well my girls were going to do in the sleep department once we got here. Katelyn would be sleeping in bed with me and Madelyn would sleep in a pack 'n play at the foot of the bed. I wasn't sure if Katelyn would fall out of the bed a lot or if the girls would be able to sleep in the same room together (peacefully) without keeping each other up or waking each other up. I also wasn't sure how Madelyn would do with sleeping in the same room as me. She has done very well at home in her crib as long as she knows no one is going to take her out. I've always been the "cry it out" mom. I'll go ahead and say I feel as I've had a good balance with "crying it out" and going in and comforting my girls when they've needed it. I'm not an ogre. (Well, my mom might say I don't have enough pity on them but that's a different story...) They have both turned out to be fantastic sleepers and have slept through the night since infancy.
Anyway, I digress.
Sleeping arrangements. Texas.
Turns out I didn't have to worry about a thing! Katelyn has been a pretty good bed partner. Aside from falling out of bed twice and kicking me frequently, it's been nice. I've never actually had my children sleepin my bed so it's been nice having her little, cute face next to mine during the night. She usually crashes at night and even if Madelyn is fussing she doesn't wake up. Madelyn has had hermoments but for the most part has also gone right to sleep when I put her in the pack 'n play. It's been fun listening to them "chat" after I've put them to bed. They laugh and giggle and it makes my heart happy. Then they go to sleep.
Ahhh, sweet slumber.
Now you can see why little Miss Katelyn might be kicking me at night. She kind of likes to take up the whole bed. She somehow managed to knock over the lamp as well.
This is the "sleeping-with-your-butt-the-air" position. Apparently Madelyn finds it very comfortable as she sleeps like in this position frequently.
No sleeping issues here! My only issue is that I've gotten used to staying up late and getting up late. Now I have to get back to normal life.
Here I am again. Did you know it's in the 80's today? How's the 30 degree weather where you're at? (mama told me to write that) I wanted to show you a few more pictures of what I've been doing here in Texas. Mama said we're going back very soon. Then I'm going to give you a great big hug. And eat the candy bracelets from Nana and Papa.
I've been helping mama get ready for auntie Steph's diaper baby shower on Saturday. Mama said Brooklyn is going to need a lot of diapers when she gets borned. I've been looking at a lot of pictures of you and mama here that I'm not in. I asked mama where I was and why I wasn't in the pictures. She said I wasn't borned yet.I saw one of you and mama when you got married. I want to carry some flowers when you and mama get married again. I also want to carry flowers in aunt Steph and uncle Waylon's wedding when they get married again. Can we pleeaasedo that? But Brooklyn is going to be borned soon. I asked auntie Steph how Brooklyn is going to come out of her belly. Auntie Steph just laughed at me and said she would come out her belly button. That's so cool!! Uncle Waylon has been teaching me how to play the drums. I love the drums. Madelyn does too. We both love the drums. Madelyn calls uncle Waylon "uncle Weeney". Everyone always laughs when she says that. Aunt Steph said she hopes Maddy calls him that forever. I need to go for a walk with Geemaw soon so I'm going to show you the pictures now.
These pictures are from when we went to Pizza Garden with Gramma and Grampa Ross and Jamie. Madelyn calls Jamie "Jeemie". He loves that. I loved the Pizza Garden. I especially love their cherry dessert pizza. Mama says you really can't beat an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet for $3.99. And little kids like me eat for free!!
Gramma Ross with us girls. I don't know who that little boy is in the back. Mama couldn't get him out of the picture. So there he is.
Here we are some of our favorite things to do in geemaw and geempaw's backyard
Coloring with sidewalk chalk
Mama wrote this for you with our sidewalk chalk
Playing in the sand/water table filled with birdseed
Picking flowers
Playing in the dirt pit. We LOVE that one!!
Look how dirty Maddy got! I didn't get that dirty. Well, maybe just a little.
This is is my new friend Will. Will's mommy and mama have been friends for a loooong time. Before we were even borned. I got play with him at geemaw's house and at his house. I really like him.
He likes to dress up just like I do!!
And this last picture? Mama said "Don't ask". I love to be naked. What's wrong with that? Wearing clothes just stifles the weird gene I got from you my creative genius. How else would I think to play with an empty oats container, my new, pink Bible, a plastic cup, Jenga blocks and a wooden spoon on the kitchen floor? In my underwear? That takes a lot of genius right there!
(Just wait...I realize I have to turn the camera the right way in a few second!)
We went to the Fort Worth Zoo a few weeks back.I just uploaded the pictures yesterday. The Ft. Worth zoo is an awesome zoo and one of the best I've ever been to.
Interesting tid-bit: "Barney At The Zoo" was filmed there. Any of you have/had kids that were into Barney? I did. So this was a nugget of info I cherished.
Anywho...
Here they are!
Waiting in line to get in.
My brother Bryan and the adorable penguin having a special moment
That penguin was so friendly. And so cute!! I followed us around the glass.
Some lethal and poisonous snake. I hate them but I love how clear this picture came out
My mom, Katelyn, Madelyn and my brother in front of....well... it's pretty self explanatory
We were standing right under than flamingo and it didn't budge.
Bryan and Madelyn in the alligator section
One of my favorite pictures of us
Single male alert! He's young, cute, Christian, musically and artistically talented and just got a great job. Any takers? Please send personal info and a picture to me.
Fun times in the giant rocking chairs in Texas Town(I think that's what it was called!)
Enjoying some of the kiddie rides at the zoo
This carousel was ancient. Not the most flattering video of me.Certain parts of my anatomy are not made to fit the saddle of these horses.
Feeding the birds in the aviary. Those were some competitive and cut-throat birds! You should have seen how they knocked each other away and off the feeding sticks.
There was a baby elephant with the bigger ones. He was so cute!
Yesterday it was in the mid to high 80's here. I've gotten to connect with several old friends. I've been surrounded by family. Yes, I'm loving it here. I've been more relaxed here. It's felt like a looong vacation for me. Of course, I've helped my mom clean her house and I've done laundry etc. but it's been nothing like what I was doing at home before I left. I've played outside every day and the girls have had a blast playing in the dirt patch in my parent's backyard. We've been on several walks, to the zoo and to the park. I think my girls do miss all their toys and hopefully will have a better appreciation for them when we get back.They are certainly going to miss being able to play outside every day. I've been catching up on season one of "Lost" and I am sooo addicted. Once we put the girls to bed in the evenings my mom and I get on our laptops, put our ear buds in and each watch our episodes of Lost. That has been so fun.Without further ado here are some more pictures...
me and my grandma Woolbright
geemaw and Maddy
me and my sister(and Brooklyn in her belly)
The worship team at my parent's church-GracePointe Baptist. My brother is the worship leader/guitar player, my cousin Paul is playing bass, Gloria is one of the singers, my sis is the pianist/singer and her hubby Waylon is the drummer. Baby Brooklyn is singing back up.
My sis Steph and hubby Waylon. Steph is showing off her 19 week belly
The "younger" Sunday school class. My dad is teaching
Auntie Steph with Katelyn
Auntie Steph with Madelyn
This is a video clip(mostly for Mike's enjoyment) of the worship time at my parent's church. You will also see Katelyn and her little friend Kylie standing next to each other trying to sing. It was really cute how much fun they had together during song time. I want to post a video soon of me and my sibs singing together. As of yet I don't have one with good sound quality. It's coming soon!
(**UPDATE*** Check the bottom. I forgot to post pics of the girls on the carousel! They have been added now.Whew)
Hi Daddy,
Texas rocks.
I've been having a lot of fun here although I am starting to wonder if I'm going back to Maxachuzits at all. I keep wondering if this is my new house or not but mama keeps telling me that this isn't. We do have a set date to leave here now. We're coming back to see you on Sunday, March 15th. I know mama will be happy to see you. I still haven't found my mimi and I think mama is a little more upset about it that I am. I hope I don't have to go back to our house without it. I also miss nana and papa and I have a whole lot of stuff I want to tell them about this trip.
I wanted to show you some pictures and videos of some stuff I've been doing here. Some of them may even have Maddy in them. She's been having fun too. She really likes to be held all the time by geemaw. And geemaw loves to oblige. I'll bet you didn't know I knew such a big word. Anyway, I really want you to see this videos. I love you! (and so does Maddy)
This video is about me and how I rode the carousel and this huge mall we went to. I even said "thank you" to the lady who turned it on for us. She thought that was nice and called me "Darlin'". Why does everyone keep calling me that here? I had to tell her my name wasn't "Darlin'". I looooved riding the carousel. I was super excited about it.
Oh, and here's a short clip of Maddy riding in geemaw's lap. She did not want to ride a horse. She didn't want to because she's a baby. I wanted to because I'm a big girl.
Here are some pictures mama has taken of us recently. I hope you enjoy them!
This one is of me swinging on the big girls swings at a playground close to geemaw's house. It was a beautiful day and I had a ton of fun.
Maddy loved going up and down that ramp
Here I am climbing on the climber like a big girl. I didn't fall off once. Although, mama did drop the camera right after this shot and dented the lens. It's all fixed now so she said I could tell you. Oh, and she also said to make sure I told you it got fixed for free.
Here I am with great grandma Woolbright. Did you know their house is on wheels?? I thought that was so neat! I wanted them to drive it around but they said it wasn't safe right then.
Madelyn was being kinda grouchy that day and she was kinda shy. She didn't want her picture taken.
Here I am with great grandpa Woolbright. I had fun playing with him. He gave me lots of piggy back rides He also wore a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and took his teeth out! I thought that was so cool!!I tried to take mine out but they wouldn't come out no matter how hard I tried. That was a little disappointing. Grandpa let me touch his teeth though. I didn't think it was nearly as gross as everyone else did.
This is what I spent a lot of time doing with great grandpa W. He said something about needing a nap after we left. Who would ever want to take a nap?? Not me!!
Maddy had something to say to you in this video. So watch it carefully.
We love you! Oh, and we miss you too.
Ya'll.
( we apologize for the not so good video quality. It was not taken with my camera. Hopefully, future videos will be better. If not, it's Youtubes fault.)
