Congratulations, Brandie

A few weeks ago I was, once again, on our amazing women's retreat with some church friends. We had a wonderful time of spiritual renewal and fellowship. I came home early on Saturday night so we could drive to Port Aransas on Sunday morning for Brandie's wedding. She and Clint were getting married on the beach. So perfect for the two of them. Brandie is an old AOII sorority sister.
Most of their family is here in TX but they live in Maui. Nathan and I are trying to figure out when we can go and visit them!

Here's the happy couple.

Becki, Shannon and I with the beautiful bride....

Amelia and mommy...

We had a great time celebrating the start of their new life together!

What a Stinker!

A few weeks ago my dad came in for a visit. He stayed the night and had a good time playing with Amelia. He hasn't stayed over since Zeta's knee surgery in June so it was a good time for him to baby the baby and the dog all at the same time. Zeta seems to be doing well but every now and then, after a few good runs, she'll start limping again. My dad was so eager to feed Zeta, take her out to potty, brush her coat, and rub her belly. He asked what time he could let her out in the morning. I told him not to worry about it. We normally let her out when we leave the house, around 8am. Well, Dad just couldn't help himself from "mothering" the dog so he let her out around 6am. Pitch dark outside and the perfect time for little critters to be out and about. Well, Zeta got sprayed by a skunk! That's not even the worst of it. He let her back in the house before he realized what had happened. She ran in and started rubbing her face all over the carpet. Nathan and I woke up to a strong and pungent smell of skunk. Nathan opened our bedroom door and walked down the hall and immediately came back to share the news with me. It was horrid! We kicked the pooch out and started spraying air fresheners. Nothing helped. I got dressed and got Amelia dressed and we headed out for our day. I dropped her off to Ms. Kini and explained that they might smell a little skunk smell b/c our dog had just been sprayed. Her teachers kind of giggled and went on about their business. About an hour later Ms. Kini comes up to the Admin office with Amelia in her arms. Amelia is in a new outfit. No shoes. No socks. Hair a little damp and she's squeaky clean. They had to give her a bath at school with V-8 juice because she smelled like SKUNK! Poor baby!

Guess what Amelia was for Halloween?
Now that's inspiration!

Girl Talk

Happy Birthday, Amelia!

Nope you didn't miss it! Amelia really did turn ONE on Tuesday, August 24th. Momma has just been a really busy lady and a really lazy blogger. Enough about that......let's get back to the little one we're celebrating.

Amelia was due on August 16th, 2009 but that day came and went. So did the next and the next. I was a week late and soooo uncomfortable! Sleeping was a mean joke and my ankles were beyond swollen. Trying to hide pregnant ankles during THE HOTTEST summer on record was no easy task. I was going to be induced on Tuesday the 26th but I finally went into labor on Sunday morning around 5 am. Long story-longer (Auntie Jo Jo) I got my epidural around 2pm and by midnight, when still no baby, we accepted the fact that this baby was a happy little bun that didn't want to come out of the oven. We decided to cut around 4am and she arrived at 5:49am and now look at her 12 MONTHS later....The day of her birthday we celebrated with a family dinner at Alamo Cafe. Uncle Daniel couldn't join us because he was visiting Kelsey. We missed them both! Here's Amelia all smiles at dinner.

Mommy and Daddy's gift to Amelia. Daddy is so handsome and handy.

Amelia and Jayla aboard the birthday wagon.

Family pic just before the cake and ice cream!

Amelia had a great day celebrating turning ONE. The following Saturday we had a little party for her at our house and invited some of her closest gal pals...
As you can see from previous posts, the last few milestone month celebrations have been getting tougher and tougher. This one was by far the hardest to capture. I had to use cheerios to get her close to her number "12" to take her picture.


Happy Birthday, Amelia! You have made life so much sweeter and we love you so much. You are the most precious gift from heaven and on your first birthday we pray that you continue to grow healthy and strong. Most of all, we give thanks for the fact that you are a beautiful child of God. This parenting thing has your mommy in knots sometimes. Thinking of all I can worry about over your lifetime is almost too much to handle! Thankfully, your mommy and daddy know that Jesus loves you even more than we do! Wow! That's A LOT! So, for now, we'll just love you and pray for you everyday. Have fun being ONE, little angel.

11 Months Old

Amelia is now 11 months old and we're having so much fun! She's such a big girl and she's doing so many new things.

*Starting to walk. She's taking about 5 steps at a time and then she realizes what she's doing and plops down. She does GREAT when you give her a finger to hold on to.

*Still nursing but starting to cut back. About 3-4 times a day. She's one good bite away from being DONE!

*She loves the BEACH! The water and the sand, for that matter. She eats sand by the handful! (Gross!)

*She eats a good, hearty breakfast each day. Usually grapes and blueberries or strawberries and bananas. Yogurt is still a favorite, too.

*When she sees Nathan she says, "Da!". It just melts his heart.

*When I sing she holds a note. A long note. I don't have perfect pitch but I'm pretty sure it's always the same note. I think all those solfege scales we practice every day are starting to pay off. This girl will make Texas All-State choir, for sure!

*Claps when she's happy

*Give a super duper pout when she's sad. That bottom lip is just too precious

*Goes to sleep at 8 and wakes about 6:30 or 7.

*Points to birds and butterflies and says, "Dat. Dat!"

*Eating a lot of table food. Her all time favorite is green beans. She really like brown rice, too.

*Drinking well out of her sippy cup and always gives a good "ahhhhhh" after a sip.

*Sleeps with her baby booty in the air.

*Gives kisses to loved ones. She gave Aunt Kelly a real kiss on the cheeck. Smack sound and all!

*Loves her cousins. She thinks they're so cool!

Ameila, Happy 11 Months! We are so in love with you and we're blessed beyond words to have you as our little girl! Out of all the little girls in the world, God knew you were the perfect one for us. Next stop.....1st Birthday!!! Can't wait. Well, maybe I can!

Summer fun

I have been so busy even though VBS is over. Yay! Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love VBS but it's so consuming. It's nice to have my life back.

As soon as VBS was over I started an online class, Variety of Beliefs. Very interesting- studying religions around the world. I love it! It's keeping me very busy. I stared the Colloquy program a few years ago but then stopped to get married and have a baby. Now, I figured I'd finish before life gets any crazier. I should be done by end of the year.

Colloguy is basically an addition to your bachelor's degree when you attended a secular university and now want to complete the theology course work to be in church work. Not mandatory, obviously since I've been working at the church for 10 years. I've taken 5 of the 8 classes and they're all on line. I'll have a final paper to write in the fall and then I'll have my final interview. I'm already scared!

Now lets talk about the fun stuff!

A couple of weekends ago we went to Gruene with the Hamann's and McIntosh's. We had a great time in spite of the outrageous HEAT! Nothing a little mint chocolate chip ice cream can't fix.
This was Amelia's first taste of ice cream. She loved it! Can't you tell?
We ate lunch at the gristmill. It was yummy as always. I highly recommend the steak salad. Juicy cuts of steak on a beautiful plate of greens. Amelia eats all of my avacado, though. Good thing she's so cute.
Fourth of July was a great day! Amelia had a fun day of celebrating. We went over to see grandma for a quick pic in her July 4th t-shirt...Then at night we tried to meet the Hamann's and Wenthe's out at Randolph AFBbut I think everyone from the panhandle down to the border was there! It was insane. We just pulled over into a field off of 1604 to watch fire works and they were beautiful. We sat out on the hood of the car and enjoyed the moment and the festive atmosphere. Amelia slept the night away in the car. Maybe she'll stay up for it next year.

On the 2nd we celebrated Ashley's 8th birthday. She's getting so big. I can't believe how fast she's growing. Happy Birthday, Ash!Here's Amelia and Boops!

I'll close with some cute pictures of Amelia and Jayla playing. They're such cute little friends!

Beary Sweet

10 Months Old

I'm a little late (surprise, surprise) in posting Amelia's 10 month post. Without any further adieu--
Amelia turned 10 months on June 24th. It was Thursday of VBS week and if you read my last post, it was a very busy week.
She had a fun day at school and she decided to show off her "bye- bye" skills. Here are some of the fun things she's doing at 10 months...
*Waves "bye-bye" and says "by" to EVERYONE
*Starting to take a few steps on her own
*Says mama and da when she sees us
*She's been grinding her teeth. (I don't like this)
*Stands on her own for a good length of time
*Likes to hear her Boopah and Grandma on the phone
*Cracks up at her cousins
*Eats lots of fresh fruit. Strawberries, blueberries, cherries, bananas (in that order)
*Walks all over the house with Musical walker
*Still sleeping and eating great
*Has 4 teeth. 3 on bottom and one on top. One single upper fang on top. Looks so cute.
*Pulling up non stop
*Likes to "play" in her toy box by taking out everything and scattering stuff all over the floor
*Likes to pull off each and every book on her bookshelf
*Just sampled cows milk with lunch the other day and liked it!
*Drinks from her sippy cup

10 whole months! I can't believe it. You're so big, Amelia! Tonight we went over and saw the Sprayberry baby he's so little compared to you. It seems like it was just yesterday that you were that little. We are so thankful for you and for all the joy you bring to us. Lots of love, hugs and kisses to you, baby girl.

Celebrating the life of Granny

Last week was a whirlwind and looking back now, I don't know how I got through it.
It was VBS week. Zeta (our dog) had ACL surgery. Those things were just "life" kinds of things but something much more profound happened. We lost someone very precious to us. Nathan's Granny (and mine, too) passed away on Tuesday, June 22 at the age of 87. She was not in the best of health and when she was most recently hospitalized we quickly knew that she wouldn't bounce back this time. Her kidneys were failing and she was becoming more and more frail.

Nathan and Daniel were so close to her. She was a huge part of their lives. She was always on the go and she took them everywhere. She always said she "lived for her grand-kids" and anyone that knew her could see that.

Nathan said it best on his FB status....
"Yesterday we laid to rest one of the most strong willed yet gentle people that I have ever had the honor of knowing and am proud to have been able to call her my Granny.
When my brother and I were young she took us all over the place. She was a grandmother like no other. As she grew older she would always say "you go ahead darling and I will catch up" and boy did we go, either out to eat, to the coast, or even cross country. In my heart there is a special place filled with nothing but love for Granny. I want to close this thought simply by saying that though I will always hold on to you Granny, now it is your turn to go ahead and I will catch up later, With Great Love missing you already, Nathan."

I'm so thankful for Granny. She was monumental in molding Nathan's character. She did a fabulous job. She taught him right from wrong, she gave him an appreciation for the arts and theater, she told him about Jesus and she loved him with all her heart. There were many more wonderful things about her. I only wish Amelia had her for a little longer. We wanted to record Granny speaking to Amelia but we never got around to it. That makes us sad but we did get a few pictures of them together. Even though Amelia didn't get to spend many days on this earth with her, I know they are connected eternally in spirit.

A Morning at the Zoo

Last Saturday morning the weather was breezy and cool so we got "up and at 'em" early and headed out for breakfast and some fun at the Zoo. Our family pass is great for those short 2 hour morning trips to the zoo.

After seeing the elephants, frogs, birds, butterflies, hippos, and rhinos it was time to go. Our little monkey was pooped! She couldn't even make it out of zoo without falling asleep on Daddy's shoulder. I love that sweet face! I could look at it all day.

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day we went up to Georgetown to see Dad and Ludi. We had a nice relaxing weekend. We went to the Georgetown Country Club for lunch and to swim.
This is her new float that her Grandpa bought for her. When she sits in it, her little legs kick like crazy. She really likes the water and splashing around. She has 3 cute little bathing suits and she's gotten some good use out of them already between visiting Grandpa and our time in Mexico.

9 Months Old

Today [Well, "today" WAS May 24th] Miss Amelia is 9 months old. All of a sudden, she's this big baby! So precious in every way and doing so many new things.

*She's crawling all over the place
*Pulling up on everything
*Eating just about anything we give her
*Loves to play "So Big!"
*Belly laughs hard when we startle her or when the faucet is set to shower mode during bath time
*Still taking 2 naps but they're short! She's so tired at 7:30pm and goes down with no problems. Most of the time
*Sleeps until 6:35. Almost on the dot.
*Loves going for walks in the neighborhood
*Bites her mommy during feedings. We'll be weening her soon. :)
*Just cut her 3rd tooth. It's the top left FANG. Looks so stinkin' cute!
*Loves her grandparents!
As you can see, it was really hard to get a picture of her with her "9". She just wanted to crawl all over Becki's house.

Mother's Day 2010

My first Mother's Day was wonderful and before time flies away any faster I want to share with you some memories of my first Mother's day with my sweet Amelia.

We went to church in the morning and I found a sweet message from Nathan and Amelia in our Mother's Day tribute. After church we went to visit Sylvia. Amelia played with her little FP house we keep over there for her. From there, we went over to Rose's house. Rose is Tommy's sister in law. She has a beautiful house in Medina and we met Mom, Mamo and Kelly over there. Here's our big Mother's Day picture.
Nathan made me a beautiful bracelet with Amelia's name on it. It's beautiful and I love the beads he picked out.He's really got a talent when it comes to jewelry. Remember, he designed my ring...