4th Album...4th Photo...Hum?

I was tagged....well let's just say a while ago to post the 4th picture of my 4th album. I recently got a new laptop so my pictures were not old but on our old computer we had a slew of pics. So I had my sweet honey send me all the pictures that I wanted.

This picture is of my sweet sister-in-law who is now in New Zealand! We were celebrating Christmas 2004 and this was our first Christmas together (as newly-weds). Jeremy, my brother, and Eliza were married 2 weeks after us. At the time it was hard to get her in a picture much less a decent one. So here is to black mail! I think she was tucking in her shirt and using the Christmas tree as a screen. We had all gathered in Kansas at my Aunt's house. We had a lot of fun and interesting moments.

All I want for Christmas...

"All I want for Christmas is..." A baby brudder or baby sisTer one day! (as Audrey says). Surprise! We are expecting. We have been praying for several months for a baby with Audrey at her bedtime prayers. We found out that we are expecting another little one come August!

Lately our family has been doing a lot of fun Christmas outings. The weekend after Thanksgiving we went to Marshall with some friends. Then Thursday we enjoyed the Longview Christmas parade from Matthew's 5th floor office. Friday we enjoyed some time at the church decorating and festivating. Last night we went to the courthouse lawn and enjoyed some free entertainment along with a visit with Santa Claus! Audrey was not sure what to think about Santa Claus but she liked the idea of getting candy from him. He was such a good Santa Claus! He was very cautious not to upset her and ruin her childhood. He took time to talk with her and find out some about her. He asked her if she wanted a doll for Christmas and she said that she wanted, "Toys".

We took several photos to make sure and get a good one. I was real impressed with Santa Claus!

Lately Audrey has been asking us in the car, on the way home from an event, "What was your favorite part of the trip?" She will ask this if we are just going around the block or after a fun evening out. Usually she will say that her favorite part was whatever my favorite part was. For example, on the way home from the Longview Christmas 'Carade' (that is how Audrey says parade) I said that I enjoyed the hot air balloon fire and she did as well!

Moses Pumpkin...

You have to admit that when the Bible is effecting your Jack-o-lantern's choice of face... your child is learning something from "Bible Study".

So Audrey has been going to Bible Study for some time now and is learning a lot about Moses. When I asked her what did she want her pumpkin to look like, she said, "Moses" then I said, "Baby in the basket Moses or older Moses" and she said, "let my people go!" So I took that to mean Older Moses.

Fall Harvest is my favorite time of year and I was really looking forward to our churches 'Farm Fair'...so I kind of rubbed off on my daughter. She had a blast and has been asking if we can go to Farm Fair again.

My Mom was able to come into town to join us for this weekend and I think she had a good time. I told my mom about several of the contests that our church has for Farm Fair and she decided to decorate a pumpkin as well to enter. Our family together ended up winning 4 prizes total due to the fact that we were some of the only entries!

As far as Audrey's costume goes...she really enjoyed being a Bumble Bee especially when she saw an episode of Wonder Pets where one of the characters dresses up like a Bumble Bee.

More Birthday Pictures!

Benjamin and his trains
Show us that finger puppet Alec
Looks like Luke is happy
Open wide Luke

Hudson and his Dr. Pepper
Julia bug
Randall in mid-wave

Alli is so sweet

Birthday Week!

Birthday celebrating with Papa and Mimi

I had a friend whose family celebrated Birthday Weeks, where you would get a small present each day of your birthday week. I like that idea! So with Audrey's 2nd Birthday this past week brought a lot of celebration.

To prepare Audrey for her birthday on Thursday and what comes with it we talked to her about what her birthday meant and what people would say and do. She really liked the "Happy Birthday" song, especially the part that goes "...and many more!"

We knew we wanted to get another dog for our family and what better time than an Audrey-birthday! So on Tuesday evening we went and picked up our new beagle puppy, Winston Chewhill. Also on Tuesday and Wednesday Audrey got to take Chocolate Chip cookies to Mothers' Day Out and Park Way.

So when Thursday came she was ready for her big day! In the morning we spent a couple of hours getting her pictures done with our good friend and photograher Josie (shameless plug: http://allforfunphotography.blogspot.com/). Boy those pictures are going to be really cute. Then we went to one of Audrey's favorite restaurants, Taco Beano.

That night...we had a blast with our friends at Audrey's Birthday. We had hot dogs, chips and the best ...cake and icecream. Audrey wanted to make sure we had candy too, which we had a Dora Piniata. I think fun was had by all and we want to thank all our friends for joining us in celebrating her birthday!

She's getting so big, especially in her new dress-up outfits!
On another note...Friday evening my folks came in late and we spent the rest of the weekend with them and a few friends camping. This was Audrey's first camping trip and I think it make a good impression on her. As we were driving home this morning she said, "Audrey, good Camper!"

September....time of remembrance

I want to echo what Jaime (http://rinehart4.blogspot.com/) had to say about this day, September 11th, as a day to remember. Where were you... 7 years ago? Can you believe it...it was 7 years ago? I was a sophomore in college. I was in a class that was my least favorite, AutoCad (architectural drafting). Every month we would celebrate classmates birthday's by having cake and that day, September 11th was the day we ate cake and watched a great catastrophe on the classroom projection screen.
It was so surreal to be eating cake, of all things, while there were many who were suffering.

Not to downplay the magnitude of that day but I want to also note some days in September that have had great significane to me:

My first date with Matthew...the day that started all of where I am: September 7th, 1999

Our first dog as a married couple, Joan of Barc came into our lives: September 7th, 2003

Our sweet daughter, Audrey came to us September 18th 2006.

And many more special dates/memories that I won't forget....I don't want to forget...maybe I 'll forget...why do our memories fail us.

Make a point to remember special days, people, memories because frankly all the stuff we have is nowhere near as important and special as the relationships we have/had with others.

Labor Day in Hot Springs!

Daddy's a Dead Man

As a family we got to enjoy one last Summer get-away to Hot Springs, AR with my brother and his lovely wife! We have been planning some time to get together at least one more time before they head off to New Zealand to do mission type work.

Jeremy's lining up the perfect putt

We haven't seen my brother, Jeremy and his wife, Eliza since Thanksgiving this past year...wow...has it been that long?

Hole in one, Mommy!

We decided to meet in Hot Springs because it is a fun place to go and it is halfway between where we both live. Audrey was real excited about seeing Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Eliza. At first she was not sure what to think about them but by the time we parted ways she really misses them.



Should I feed the gold fish MY gold fish?

We got to go to a children's museum, Pirate mini-golf, an outdoor garden near the lake, original bath house and lots of great eating places! On top of all that we, Matthew, Jeremy, Eliza and myself played the game "Settlers of Catan" several times into the wee hours of the morning...okay so it was late for me!
I think overall we had lots of fun although I felt like I was in the bathroom all weekend because Audrey is still potty training but doing awesome!Picture Perfect...Jeremy and Eliza

Swim Lessons and Best Buds

For the past 2 weeks Audrey and I have been taking a "Mommy and Me" class with a couple of friends through the City of Longview (http://www.ci.longview.tx.us). We had so much fun and saw steady progression.

The class was 30 minutes long and consisted of 3-4 songs, which included much splashing and dunking, practice time and shallow water play time. I think Audrey's favorite time was the singing and splashing time. We really enjoyed getting to take the class with our friends Luke and Ryan along with some new friends. Audrey seemed to be a great inspiration for our boy friends. Luke only blowed bubbles to show Audrey and Ryan really loved doing "Motor Boat" with Audrey. To tell you the truth...I think she could have cared less. I hope you enjoy these great pictures.

Trying to do Scrapblog...

Hey...to all of you who saw my blog in a shamble...please ignore what you saw. I have been playing around with Scrapbloging. I was working on it earlier this afternoon, wasn't sure what I did wrong, left it and went shopping and to eat pizza. Then when I got back home I realized how fast people check blogs by 2 comments posted on my lousy attempt at Scrapbloging. So hopefully now it looks mucho better. Let me know what you think...I'm asking for it *smile* *wink* and *all that good stuff*.

God-Mother Got Hitched

Congratulations to our sweet Amanda! We met Amanda right after we got married. She is Audrey's unofficial Godmoma. On Saturday we got to go to her wedding in Waco. It was beautiful, well-planned and a little hot. She took some time out at her wedding to come over and say hi to Audrey, how sweet. We are looking forward to getting to know her new hubby better and hanging out as couples. God Bless your future...have fun in the Bahamas!

Family Fun on Fourth

(My Aunt Cheri, Aunt Kathy and Mom)

What an awesome 4th of July we had! It has been a couple of years since we have had such a great Independence Day. We felt truly wanted this year because we received several invites from friends to hang out.
For some time we have had plans to go to my Aunt Cheri's house in Aledo. We wanted to have a mini-family reunion. When I was younger we lived in the same town, all of my family (aunts, uncles, grandparents). As kids grew, people moved away and it has been several years since I have gotten to be around everyone.
We drove over to Aledo on Thursday evening. The next day I was in charge of breakfast and we had Sopapilla Cheescake. We had a relaxing day which entailed going to the big Firework wharehouse and buying a lot of firecrackers and reading a lot on the couch.


The main meal was around 4ish and we enjoyed a nice dip in the swimming pool before and after the yummy food. I had picked blackberries a couple of days before and was able to make a pretty awesome Blackberry Cobbler, if I do say so myself.


(Uncle Steve, Uncle Joel, Mom, Aunt Cheri, Aunt Kathy)

Then that evening we all went out in my Aunt and Uncle's front yard and set off all the fireworks we had purchased. Audrey was not a big fan of the fireworks but maybe next year she will enjoy them better.
Fireworks outside!

The best part of the day was that my mother's oldest brother, Uncle Steve and his two sons came to celebrate with us. I have seen him and his family about 5 times in my whole life. So it was an answer to many prayers the great visit we had with his family.

Berry Blessings!

What a fun morning Audrey and I had today. We got to go Blackberry picking at Martin's Berry Patch. We invited Grammy and Alli to go with us. So the four of us rode out there (past Hallsville) to go pickin'.

Grammy and I told Alli and Audrey to take their red baskets and go find the "Black" berries and not to pick the "RED" ones. Alli had done this before and she was real good, Audrey however was more interested in holding the red baskets.

We found that the biggest, and juiciest berries were in the middle of the vine under the leaves' shade. After picking for about an hour the two little ones got tired and hot and were not having so much fun any more (the two big kids were tired of messing with the two little ones : )

Grammy and Alli totaled in at 3 1/2 lbs. worth of blackberries and Audrey and myself had 3 lbs.

We got done at just the right time to head off to get a bite to eat before the lunch crowds. Grammy was kind and generous to treat Audrey and I this morning with the berries and lunch.

To tell you the truth...it is at the end of the month for us and things are tight, so I wasn't exactly sure how we were going to swing things but we are truly thankful for our Berry Blessings and how God provides even for our wants!

Mazal tov!

Audrey and her PaPa

Okay...so this weekend we went to a Messianic Jewish wedding. My brother-n-law got married this weekend and our whole family was asked to be in the wedding...how fun!

One of the bridesmaids and 2 of the groomsmen

Now the only wedding I have been in was my own and I am very particular about having a plan and knowing where everything/everyone should go...not my sis-n-law. She is a fly by the seat of her skirt kind of gal, which can be fun if it doesn't matter what you think...and it didn't.

It was supposed to be an outdoor wedding but it rained : ( so we were forced indoors.

Bridesmaid, My Mother-n-Law and my parents

In the brideroom we pushed, prodded and poked ourselves into our respective getups. We used tape, safety pins and everything we could get our hands on (*smile and wink*)

Audrey got to be led out to the front by a sweet pre-teen (that was her part in the wedding? I am not sure why). Then the bridesmaids, myself included, swayed down the aisle along with the jewish music and clapped occasionally when the beat was right. I am not versed in Jewish weddings or Messianic Jewish weddings but I think Mazal tov is something to be said loudly and often.

Matthew and a childhood friend enjoy singing together.

Overall we all had a great time seeing family, eating and dancing. Audrey's favorite part of the night was the "Chicken Song, Dance" as she likes to say.

Surprise!

I think he has a slight glow of surprise.

Thank you to everyone who could join us for Matthew's 28th Birthday Party at Pizza King. We had a blast. The pizza was great, the company was awesome and Matthew was totally surprised.

Matthew in his element.

When I asked Matthew what he wanted for his birthday he said he would be fine with nothing. I saw the nothingness as a challenge to go all out. So, I planned a Surprise Party at his favorite place to eat. Little did I know that when you ask friends out for fun and pizza they will take you up on it. I thought we might have at the most 10 people...no...we ended up with 32 to be exact. Matthew feels truly blessed this year by all of your well-wishings. Thanks a bunches.

Emily's Graduation!

We are so proud of Emy'!

Mom looks on with Matthew and Uncle B.

A couple of weeks ago my baby sister graduated from High School! I am so proud of her and all that she has accomplished. It has been neat to watch her grow up and blossom. We went down to Waco to watch her graduate and had a great time.