Decided to skip to now...

I cannot seem to keep up with posts, so I will go back as I can and update what I have missed. It has been a pretty crazy couple of months, especially in the last 3 weeks or so- so that is where I start.

First of all, for anyone who has not heard, I am pregnant! :) We are expecting our second child, a girl, in early November. We are elated, to say the least & Evan will pat my ever-growing belly & say, 'Baby come out & I hold it." He is so cute in those moments. He is adorable in other moments as well, but has hit the age 2 full-on. He is testing every limit, every bit of patience & is all boy in playtime. So, that is quite a challenge, especially while pregnant... but he is still the most wonderful boy ever. (Of course I am a little biased.)

Just over 3 weeks ago, we added a brother-in-law to the family. Page's sister, Lauren, married Travis. It was a beautiful ceremony & they had a wonderful trip on their honeymoon. We are excited to have Travis in the family & he has been a great help to all of us in the last couple of weeks.

One week ago, last Wednesday, we were saddened to see Page's Mom go to be with Jesus. She has been fighting leukemia for basically the whole of 2010 & it was time for her to stop fighting. We have been through the ringer of emotion over the last week, and I am sure it will continue until we see her again. She is one of the most wonderful women I have had the blessing of knowing, and I would not choose anyone else to be my mother-in love. We miss her dearly & that will not stop, but knowing that she is resting the arms of Christ, with no pain and no more suffering, helps us to know that God is sovereign and He knows what is best for her as well as all of us. I love her so much & still can't quite wrap my brain around all that has happened in the last 2 weeks, but I know that she would tell me to be faithful to what God is showing us. She is one of the most consistent examples of trust and faith in Christ I have ever seen. When it got to the point where there were no more medical options, she simply said- 'I am ready.' I pray that if I am ever faced with something similar that I will have the courage to step forward into eternity the way we watched her do. She has left quite the legacy & I pray that God will allow me to pass that on to our kids in her absence.

Praise God.

OK, Ok, ok... January!!

I am getting back to the blog. We have been crazy busy for the last couple of months and I am happy to be back to the blogging world. January was a fun month. We had Page's 30th birthday, a fun trip to the arboretum in Dallas, a funny story about a locked door, good times with new and old friends, Evan's new obsession with Mario on the Wii & a stomach virus which led to random face rashes connected to fruit. So, all in all a pretty good month, with a few glitches along the way.


Apparently I will have to post pictures at a later date, because it is not working at the moment. So, let's start the stories... Page turned 30!! He is so old!! We had a great time celebrating this year. He had 2 parties, one for family and church friends & the other for work friends. At the fam party, we went to dinner and came back to our house for dessert & games. The guys played a poker tourament, where everyone was schooled by Nathan's 12 year old son, Christopher. He took home all of the winnings and a new love for the game.


Our playgroup took a trip down to the Dallas Arboretum on a random beautiful day. It was so much fun watching all of the kids play in the pioneer town & run around chasing each other. I know that they were just as ready for some sunshine as we were.


One morning, I was gathering the trash to go out, since it was trash day and we had waited until the last minute. I told Evan I would be right back & headed to the garage to get the recycling and the diapers to put into the larger pickup containers. When I got everything out to the alley, so it could be taken away, I went back to the house- only I could not open the door. Evan had pushed the button on the door handle that locked the knob! That particular lock is easily undone if you just turn the knob slightly, so I was doing my best to instruct my not-yet-two year old son how to turn the knob and open the door for Mommy. He really did try to help. I even asked him to get his stool from the bathroom, clarifying that it was the one we used to wash hands. He left and after a minute, came back, with something that did not sound like the stool. Shortly thereafter, he became bored and went to the living room to play. I had turned the tv on, because Evan has a new-found love for Mario Brothers on the Wii. I was planning to play with him after the trash was out. So... I am still in the garage- no keys, no phone, only an arsenal of tools that I don't really know how to use. I tried screwdrivers, taking the doorknob off, which is difficult on an exterior door, and even went around to try and reach the lock on the patio door through our cat door. All the while, Evan is perfectly content to watch 'news' on tv & wait for me to get back inside on my own. I even walked to the neighbor's house behind ours to see if I could use her phone to call Lisa or Page. She, of course, was not home. So, after what seemed like an eternity- I think it was about 20 minutes- I decided that we really need a new door knob on that door anyway & breaking it was cheaper than breaking a window. So, out came Page's mini-sledge. It did the trick. I broke the knob into 3 pieces & pushed my way through the door. When I got inside, Evan was still on the couch & he had brought the trash can instead of the stool- good effort though. So, Page got to do a small house project much sooner than expected. :)

This month I was able to spend some time with college friends over a couple of different weekends. During the first, some of them came to visit at our house & Evan was able to meet Jackson- Bethany's son & they were both able to play and also see Mekele- Whitney's son. They seemed to have a great time. I can't wait for them to play again soon. The second time we were able to hang out was to celebrate Hannah's 30th birthday!! We had a great time in Tyler with a wine tasting party and a fun video created by Chelsey and Chrissy. We had an amazing time of sharing what God was doing in each of our lives and were able to lift each other up in our struggles. I still am amazed that God has allowed the closeness in our friendships to stay as strong as it has. He is great!!

Evan has a new love/obsession for Mario Bros on the Wii. It really does not have to be that- any of the games will do, but he LOVES Mario and talks about him daily. :) It is hilarious to see him 'play' with us while we are enjoying some down time. A nice change of pace at times.

Evan got the first of 2 stomach viruses this month. This time, I was the lucky one to share it with him. It really was not too bad, he only had a couple rounds of vomit & then a few days of no eating. However, after this we had to really watch what we gave him to eat, because most fruits gave him a horrible reaction on his face. He had varying degrees of rash, welts & redness. It was a little crazy, but was gone after a couple of weeks.

So, I think that is about it for the month. Again, pictures will be added to this at some point. Some of them are really fun.

My new hobby!

While we were in Lubbock for Christmas, my grandmother taught me how to make knit hats. When I got home, I couldn't wait to make a few for Evan and Page. A friend of mine has a booth rented at the McKinney Trade Days & has said that I can sell hats there if I would like. So, I have been working hard to make enough hats to sell for the Trade days coming up this weekend. I have really enjoyed doing this & hope that others will like what I have come up with. I will post some pictures soon. I think they have turned out very cute. :)

Christmas

For Christmas, we drove to Lubbock to spend time with family. We were able to see many family members & catch up. There were several people who were stuck at home because of the snow and were not able to make it for the celebration. We missed seeing them, but were glad that they were home safe. In Lubbock we got over 4 inches of snow, which made for a fun week. Since Evan loves the snow so much, he wanted to eat and play in it all the time. This was our first venture outdoors. It is my Grandparent's backyard.

Me and Scotty watching the fun from the sidelines.

Page knows how to spell, but not turn the letters the right way! Ha! :)

Evan and Nana enjoying the cold!

Evan and me!! A rare mother-son shot, since I am usually behind the camera.

BaBa and Evan played with the dominoes. They made lots of patterns that came falling down.

Evan looking studly on Christmas Eve.

Casey & Amanda... and baby girl who is coming in April!! Yay!Page and I on Christmas Eve, enjoying family and fun.
My Grandmother, Ma, looking beautiful.
Page and Casey got hold of Ma's hats & this was the result. Crazy guys!
Casey wearing our Grandfather's old-school hat. Classic!
Evan on Christmas morning. He loved opening and playing with all of his gifts. :)

For breakfast on Christmas morning, Casey & Evan were twins eating their cereal.

Another good time of eating snow & playing with cousins.

Suh-No & fun!!

December brought with it snowfall in North Texas! It was a rare treat & made it actually feel like winter around here. Evan and I had no heat one evening, so we stayed with Lisa. When we woke up the next morning, it was snowing!! Since it was Evan's first experience with this cold powder, he loved exploring. We did not exactly have snow-gear, so we were only out for a little bit, but Evan loved it! He ran around & ate the snow. He had a great time!! If you are wondering of the spelling of 'snow' in the title, I chose to use the phonetic spelling of Evan's preferred pronunciation. Anything that starts with S has the 'Suh' sound at the beginning. It is pretty adorable.

Once our heat was working again, Evan loved getting a blanket (for himself) & sitting to watch a little Word World. Beast did not even mind this time & she just kept snoozing while he sat next to her. They are getting more used to having each other around all the time.

This was Evan's first look at our Christmas tree. I set it up after he went to bed one night & when he woke up, it was all ready. He was pretty impressed.

Since my parents are both retired now, they are able to come see us more often. In Dec, we were able to spend lots of time with them. They went with us to see Santa & we rode the carousel after we were done. Evan loved seeing them and doing some fun things while they were here. :)

NaNa & BaBa were troopers & rode the carousel a few times. Evan likes it, but is still a little unsure about the motion. But, it looks like he had a great time with his Grandparents.