Baseball and a Birthday

January has been a busy month. Part it of it is that I determined to do a better job in the classroom as far as preparing my lessons the night before instead of looking at them 5 minutes before 1st period starts. I hope my principal isn't reading this blog. Anyway, I learned last semester that the new laptop lessons that were created by a wonderful team of teachers, weren't always conducive to me "winging it" in class. I'll just admit I felt like a fool many times b/c there were things in the lessons I had never seen before and I had to figure them out right there in front of my 1st period. Embarrassing, not good for classroom morale or for my mojo. Anyway, I've spent time each evening since school started in January looking at the next day's lesson and going through it to make sure I know which links work and which ones don't, which slides are too detailed for my taste and which worksheets are good, etc. It has helped greatly, at least with my sanity. I feel good again. Most days.

I also have had the privelege of leading a small group Bible study in my classroom on Thursday mornings before school. We decided to do the book "Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations" by Alex & Brett Harris. I am so excited about this opportunity. I do not take it lightly that God has placed me in this public high school for His purpose, and hopefully He will use this study in these students lives, and in mine, to bring His message of hope to our school. We had 12 come last week and 6 this morning. I ordered 15 books, and I hope and pray they will all get read.

I hate baseball a little bit less since last weekend. One of Brian's players was chosen to be one of 16 high school boys in the Greater Houston area to attend an Astros Dinner and be honored at the dinner. So Jake's parents invited the three coaches and their wives/girlfriends, along with another family, to go with them to the dinner. They also rented a 16-passenger Excursion Limo that picked us up and took us all downtown to the Hilton for the dinner. I almost backed out because I had nothing fancy to wear and my hair has been sticking straight up at the part lately and I was just feeling homely. But I could tell Brian really wanted me to go and I also found out that Jake's parents paid $75 per ticket for us to all go. So needless to say, I was going. I got my hair cut, bought some hair wax to make my hair lay down and planned to go shopping at the mall for a dress.

On my way to the mall, I stopped by a friends' house to deliver a meal to her since she just had a baby (which funny enough, she named Jake!), Anyway, I was telling Lindsey that I was headed to the mall after her house to go find a fancy dress to wear and I really wasn't looking forward to it, blah blah blah. Lindsey got a funny look on her face and asked me what size I wear and what size shoe I wear. She then disappeared into her bedroom and came out a few minutes later with 6 super-cute cocktail dresses and 4 pairs of high-heel shoes for me to take. What a blessing! I took them home and tried them all on, and thankfully one of them fit me great. And I got so many compliments on Lindsey's super-high taupe heels I wore. I don't own a pair of high heels, so it was kinda funny seeing myself dressed up so fancy. (See picture below). We had a great time at the dinner. It was fun rubbing shoulders with all the biggest names in baseball in Houston. Brian was in heaven. He was like a little kid at Disneyworld pointing out to me all the famous players, broadcasters, coaches, etc. that he recognized. The tables were set really fancy and each place had an Astros hat on top of the dinner plate. Here's the girls sporting our hats:I'm so sorry, Tatum, but you look exactly like your mama in this picture! My family will confirm. You are my mini-me.

Wearing a baseball hat was not what this princess had in mind that day. I forced her to put in on and smile for a picture. I gave her the line, "Do you know everything that I do for you? If you ask me for a snack, do I not give it to you? All I'm asking is for you to wear a hat and take a picture!" You can see the tears in her eyes.
Priceless.


Born for this hat.
Here we are before leaving to get on the Limo. Thank the Lord for very very tight undergarments that disguise certain things so very well.

This is a random picture of Tatum pushing Laney in our doll stroller. Laney loved the attention. By the way, Avery decided since Tinkerbell is blonde, and Tatum is blonde, she should hand her Tink costume over to her little sister. Avery now wears the size 2 Silvermist costume my mom made for Tatum because Silvermist has dark hair like her.

For MLK day, we had fun family day in Brenham. We ate lunch at Must Be Heaven, which was such a good decision. It was heavenly. They also have a fun fireman's park that the girls could've spent hours at, but we only stayed for a while because we wanted to get to the Blue Bell Factory before it closed for the day.

"We eat all we can, and we sell the rest" is their motto. If we ever move to Brenham, I will be applying for employment there.

It was much more family-friendly than I remembered. The tour was very laid-back and interesting for the girls. Lots of talk about cows, so you can't go wrong there. They had flavors in the shop that I had never heard of before and I've been eating Blue Bell for 31 years. I can't wait until Laney can fully experience the wonder that is Blue Bell ice cream.

We had a little birthday party for Laney at our house a couple weeks ago. Here's Gigi and Nana - we are so blessed to have both sets of grandparents so involved in our lives. I do not take it for granted that our kids' grandparents really truly like each other and work together to make our lives and our kids' lives so wonderful! We thank God for you, Gigi & Grandad and Nana & Papa!

The blowing out of the candle was accomplished by one of the kids, I think Jacob. You can see Laney in her highchair just loving all the attention.

Laney's buddies: Cousin Tara Beth and buddy John Cavazos.

This sweet girl was a little bit too polite with her cake. She will have to learn that K* girls don't eat chocolate sitting down...

Tatum was not overly excited about all the attention Laney got that day.

That may have been the best cake I have ever tasted. Chocolate truffle from Take the Cake. UMMM.

Thank you to anyone who has prayed for my attitude toward baseball season. I have a long way to go, but I can see the Lord working in my heart in that area and revealing some bad things inside of me that I probably wouldn't have recognized had I not gone through this. I honestly am looking forward to seeing what He is going to do in me over the next few months. Hopefully I will change big-time and be a much better wife by the end of this season.

Happy Birthday Laney!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Laney Hope! How wonderful this year has been with you in it!

You have brought me so many laughs and so many tears of joy this year. I can't believe how tiny you used to be and how big you are now. You are so strong and healthy. Your toothy smile brings a lump to my throat. I thank God every night for blessing me with you. I am so happy to be your mama and I am so excited to spend every day with you and watch you grow up.

Happy 1st birthday my love!

It's a Beautiful Day

My sister-in-law is an amazing photographer and she took some pictures of our girls over Christmas break. Check out Dominique's blog here so you can see what an awesome job she did. I can't wait to print them out and get started framing them! THANKS Nikki - Brian & I are amazed at all the little expressions and faces you captured! Wish Michigan was closer to Texas so we could get you to do it more often!

Thank you Lord for 55 degrees today. Avery is here in the study playing her computer games, which I am amazed how fast she figures out, and T & L are napping, so I finally have a little bit of time to blog. Over the weekend, we had some of the coldest weather we have had in a long time in Houston, in fact I think they said 1989 was the last time it got this cold for this long. Anyway, we don't have an excuse to wear mittens and hats that often, so we took full advantage of it. Yesterday while we were eagerly waiting for Brian to get back from coaching school, we played in the driveway and I got some video of Laney walking. She's been walking for a couple weeks, but she has just gotten really confident over the past week. She also climbs on everything. We now have to keep all the kids chairs turned over on their backs so she can't use them to climb on top of their table. I can't believe she will be ONE on Wednesday. Her sisters are both crazy about her. Tatum calls her "my Yaney."



Another important event that happened last week was Tatum's first success at #2 on the potty. We celebrated the big event at Chuck-E-Cheese that night with some friends. She was so proud of herself and I was too. She is getting to be such a big girl.

Avery started at her new school this week, and so far we are really happy with it. I was amazed, but in a good way, at the amount of "homework" she has. It's really fun stuff, like this weekend, we had to fill the class "Letter Box" with things that start with "W", since that is the letter of the week. So the teacher sent home this big tupperware box decorated with all the ABC's and we worked all weekend to fill it up. By the time she took it to school this morning, it was chalk full of things that start with "W." Her teacher told me today that she did a great job explaining all the objects to her friends.

Here's what we thought of:
water bottle, washing machine (from her little dollhouse), winnie the pooh, wax paper, wipes, gummi worms, washcloth, magic wand, walkie-talkies, wheel, wings (from fairy costume), white crayon, whisk

We also got to make a photo collage of our family for the class photo album. Each child gets to take the photo album home for a week so they can get to know the kids in their class & their families. I'm excited for when it's her turn to take it home so I can see all the other kids' pages. Here's her page:

I'm sure when I have 3 in school and they all have this type of homework, it may not be as much fun, but we had a blast this weekend doing these fun projects together.

Like I mentioned, Brian was out of town all weekend and we missed him so much. Baseball season is fast approaching and we will be missing him alot over the next few months. I figured out last week why I hate baseball season so much. I don't hate the baseball part of baseball season - the actual games are a blast and it's fun to watch him coach and hear the excitement in his voice about it all. I just hate baseball season because I miss Brian during baseball season. That's it. I just miss having him around. When he's not home, home is not the same. It's hard to describe, but if you have a husband who has to travel alot for his job, you probably know exactly what I mean. Baseball season is like one long business trip that lasts three months. Life is not normal for those few months and I love our normal life together. That's not to say I can't change my attitude... I am praying for myself to have a completely new attitude this baseball season and not complain and pout, but be energetic and strong and understanding. That will be completely the Lord if that happens. I hope it does.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

We have had so much fun getting ready for Christmas and spending lots of time doing fun things as a family. Brian & I are enjoying a couple weeks off work so we can just relax, play and shop!


Our shopping this year has been different. I've known this in my heart, but I didn't start to "own" it until this year I think... the fact that giving gifts that are more than we can afford, in the name of "generosity" is actually very dishonoring to God. Our money is not our money... it is God's and nothing pleases Him more than obedience. "To obey is better than sacrifice..." (I Sam. 15:22). Displeasing my Savior is not worth the temporary satisfaction of knowing the gift we gave was the biggest & best. I am such a people-pleaser and Brian's love language is gifts, so it has been hard for both of us to accept this truth. Even now as I type, I'm planning to return a few things tomorrow that we bought that were not good stewardship of our money.


Brian & I have some very different opinions about things this time of year and it always gives us a lot of good conversations during Christmas-time that sometimes end with us agreeing to disagree. Thankfully we agreed this year that we would try to emphasize GIVING and try to minimize GETTING so our kids will hopefully not get so caught up in all the "me, me, me." Easier said than done. I feel like we've already failed. It's not too late, it's only the 22nd. We still have a few days to try to save this Christmas from being one more Christmas down the drain of commercialism, consumerism and greed.


One thing we've done that has been good is What God Wants for Christmas. Thanks Mom for this great idea. If you are looking for a hands-on way to share the Christmas story with young kids, this is a simple way. We are opening one box per night for 7 nights. The two older girls have been taking turns opening the boxes each night. Tonight it was Tatum's turn to open box 4. The past few nights we've opened Gabriel, Mary & Joseph. Avery has been saying all day she hoped tonight would not be baby Jesus, because she wanted to be the one to open that one. She started crying when Tatum opened up box 4 and sure enough, there was sweet baby Jesus inside! Thankfully God has blessed Tatum with a wonderful sharing heart and she sweetly let Avery hold baby Jesus right after she pulled him out of the box. Anyway I'm thankful for this new little tradition we've started that gets our focus on Jesus, even if it's just for 10 minutes each night.


We've also done alot of driving around looking at Christmas lights. We saw one house last week that pretty much ruined every other house & neighborhood in all of Houston. It was amazing. If you live in Houston, email me and I'll give you directions. Your Christmas will not be complete without driving by this house!

Yes, that was all ONE house! I heard they are the developers of Memorial City Mall, which is my favorite mall in the whole world, so you can tell they have good taste (all the candy, hehe!)

I am overwhelmed with joy at this life I live. I sometimes sit back and reflect on who I am and what life I lead and I have to catch my breath when I realize this is me. Me, the little girl who had so many big dreams. I am where I've always wanted to be. The life I am living out each day is truly my dream life. My heart is filled to the brim with love for my Lord Jesus for giving me this life, for my husband & kids for being the fulfillment of my dreams, for this house and all that is in it for making this lifestyle all work, for my family for being behind the scenes supporting us in so many ways, for my friends adding laughter & companionship as we journey through life.

My oldest friend Bekah is having her first baby tomorrow morning by C-section. It's a girl and her name will be Aubrey. Bek & I drank from sippy cups together when we were tiny. We have a picture of us when we were probably about one year old sitting together in a big recliner and another picture of us graduating from kindergarten together and of course, many pictures of us growing up and graduating from high school together. I can't wait to get to SA next week to hold that little girl and see my sweet Bekah as a momma! My second oldest friend, Brooke, had her first baby boy Charlie, a couple weeks ago. Brooke & I became friends in kindergarten. She's in NY now so I don't know when I'm going to meet Charlie, but I already love him so much. My college roommate had her second baby last week, a boy named Judah. Kristin & her twin Kelly, were my roomies at A&M. I always watched their friendship as sisters and was amazed by it. There is just something about sisters that amazes me. And those two are some of the sweetest, most genuine sisters I've ever known. Oh and I've been friends with them since elementary school too.

So much joy in those families that I have known my whole life. So much sadness in other families right now. A couple different friends & family going through great physical pain & uncertainty, others who are in very difficult financial circumstances, family members missing the ones we've lost in the past year, co-workers & students who desperately need JESUS to show them the reason they are here, the list goes on.

Lord Jesus, let us not be like the innkeepers at the time of your birth.... Let us all make room for You this Christmas... Let us not get lost in the world's ideas of shopping, eating, watching TV, forgetting You... May the cry of a new precious baby boy born 2000 years ago awaken our hearts throughout these next few days and may we praise You as we celebrate this wonderful time of the year.... You alone are our hope.

Happy December!

I could not wipe the stupid grin off my face yesterday. I tried, but to no avail. The white flakes of snow falling from the sky in Houston made me feel so happy, I forgot all about the rude emails I just got at work and the soreness that will not leave my throat no matter how much nyquil I take and the never-ending mess that is my house right now. All of it forgotten. We were with some friends for Bible study yesterday and the kids had so much fun having snow ball fights and pretending like they were northerners for a few hours.
















Look at all the snow on my windsheild! I called Martin to tell him about it and he scolded me for not having an ice scraper (or whatever that tool is called). Ha! Look at the trees and the roofs of the houses! I still can't believe how beautiful it was!





























Tatum's first snowball!















Laney did not like the snow that much, maybe because her negligent mother forgot her shoes, so she's in her socks! Don't worry, I only let her sit there for about 10 seconds. Thank you Lord for blessing Houston with a little taste of real winter. WE LOVED IT!

We went to SA for Thanksgiving last week and had a great time relaxing and being taken care of by my family for a few days. The girls all got a stomach bug for about 24 hours each, but thankfully they were troopers and we still had a fun time. Mom, Avery & I got to go see The Nutcracker downtown put on by a professional ballet company. It was beautiful to watch the dancers in all thier costumes and doing such amazing things on the tips of their toes! I will never understand how that is humanly possible, but it is beautiful to watch. Avery enjoyed it so much and still talks about the nutcracker and the mouse king and the sugar plum fairy almost every day. My brother's girlfriend, Tracie, gave our girls the most awesome gift: a computer loaded with all kinds of educational games that her kids had outgrown! Tracie sat down with Avery and showed her some of the games on it and Avery was in heaven! It is now set up next to our computer here in our study and Avery can come sit at the desk and turn it on and go to town all by herself! What an unexpected, amazing blessing!

This is about as good as it gets for a family picture of us!



















Heres Nana & Papa with the girls














Here's my MeMe & PawPaw with the girls. Laney has MeMe's eyes, which are also my Dad's eyes. She's a "Lewis." I love how genetics works.














My mom MADE these adorable PJ's for the girls, with matching pillowcases for each one too!














Tatum has been doing really good at keeping her pull-ups dry so we ventured out to Target today in big girl panties and she did great! I am so proud of her and I am so glad that I'm only paying for diapers for one child now. That is another blessing, that I am JUST NOW paying for diapers again. Back before Laney was born, Brian's baseball team gave us a diaper shower (click here to see that post), and those diapers lasted us until about two weeks ago when Laney was 10 months old, I had to buy our first box of diapers again. Brian and I estimated it was probably almost $1000 worth of diapers and wipes we were given. We have thanked God so many times for that amazing blessing.

My little pee pee princess!














This girl knows how to enjoy a cupcake!














Laney is officially weaned. I must admit it has been a bittersweet experience. I am thrilled that she will take a bottle now and I can leave her with someone else for more than 3 hours at a time, but I am sad because it means she's not a baby anymore. She is growing up so fast. She has already taken her first steps, although I wouldn't say she is walking. I think she will figure out walking any day now. I had to put away the 12 month clothes last week and get her 18 month things out. She is almost too big for size 3 diapers so I am going to finish this box and move her into size 4, which is the same size Tatum wears to bed. I took her to the doc last week and she weighed 22 pounds! She had a double ear infection, poor thing, so we got some antibiotics and she is doing alot better. Here she is showing off her two top teeth! Sorry for the snotty nose!















Silvermist and Tinkerbell had lots of fun helping decorate our new house for Christmas!














One night last week when I was tripping over all the pairs of shoes that were all over the downstairs, I asked Avery to pick up all the shoes and put them by the stairs so we could all take them up before bed that night. I thought she would just pile them up at the bottom of the stairs, which would've been fine, but this is what I found when I walked by the stairs later on. Can you say OCD? They are arranged in order too. Her furry boots are at the top, I guess because they are special. Then Daddy's shoes are on the next step, Mama's shoes are on the next step and all the rest of the girls' shoes are all on the last step. I know God will use her organized, systematic little gifts for a special purpose one day!














Off to work on Christmas cards, and to call my dear friend, Jennifer, for her birthday today! Hope it's been a wonderful day, Jen! Your friendship encourages me more than you will ever know and we are going to take that birthday vacation together when we're 35, okay!? Let's start planning now!

Dewberry Farm

Today was our annual Dewberry Farm trip and I think we enjoyed it more this time than we ever have before. It's so much fun doing stuff with kids, so I'm really glad God gave me three of them because they sure make life so much more fun. I've actually heard my mouth tell several people lately that I would have 2 or 3 more kids if Brian would let me because they are just so much fun! I don't know what to do with that thought, but it's out there so we'll see what God has for us.
Anyway, It was such a beautiful day today and the crowds today weren't nearly as bad as the last time we went, and I ran into a few new friends from the running club I recently joined, so it was just all around a great day. (Yeah, I just said running club. I am hoping they will help motivate me to get my rear back in shape. When I remind myself that i ran a 26.2 mile marathon 4 years ago and now I can barely run 2 miles without cramping up & quitting, I feel really sad that I've let my fitness go. The girls are all moms like me and they like running and some of them are trying to train for a half-marathon or some other event, so I'm just excited to see where it takes me.) Anyway, back to Dewberry Farm. Here are some of my favorite pictures from today.


Precious girls finding precious minerals















My middle pumpkin















A nice family on the hayride took our family's picture:














You can see all our pigtails in these pictures. Laney's were too cute!














I love Laney in this picture. She was on the bale of hay.













I can't believe we got them all to actually look at the camera at the same time. I'd pick them all!














Avery played on the swings in the hay FOREVER!














I remember when Avery wore these overalls that Tatum has on. I thought they were the longest overalls I had ever seen. Now my little Tate is about to outgrow them!!














We showed up to the "Dairy Classroom" just in time to see the farmer milk this precious jersey cow named Annabel. She looked into my eyes and she knew that I knew. We had a moment. We understood each other. I've never felt such an inner bond with a cow before.














They must have gone down this roller slide 87 times.














Thanks Dewberry Farm for another fun fall day! We'll be back next year.




Prayer Request: Please say a prayer for my sweet Dad. He started bleeding again today similar to what happened a couple years ago when he lost all the blood in his body and we almost lost him. Thankfully he is stable and he is staying in the hospital tonight for observation, but no one knows what is causing the bleeding. Pray that God will heal him and pray for my mom & dad to be comforted and at peace. THANKS so much!