Blessings beyond measure!

Blessed beyond measure is how I would describe my life. This past week has been one blessing after another. Bree has continued to talk non stop. Amazing me everyday with new words. She even said "I love you" to me today. Of course I said it to her first but it was still priceless to hear her say it back. She has recently started pointing her finger and saying "No,no, no." I don't do this too often, so I'm not sure where she picked this up, but she loves it. It is cute, for now. I still have to remind her not to say it to Mommy or Daddy, but its cute when she says it to our dog, Alex, or her babies. She also loves to play with her pretend camera and say" Cheese" as she takes a picture. She is at such a fun stage. We went to play with Finlee last night, Justin & Audra Phillips' daughter who is about a month younger than Bree. The girls have such good imaginations. They played with pots and spoons for the longest time. They would stir the invisible food and then take the biggest bites. They were such good sharers too. They had so much fun and we had as much fun watching them play. We spent the weekend mostly having family time. Mostly watching a bunch of movies together. Saturday I helped host a house warming for Lance & Jennifer Davis. They are good friends of mine from high school & also our soon to be neighbors. They have an amazingly beautiful home. Saturday night we hung out with Gramps & Bebe. Bree says "Gamps" for Gramps. Too cute! Sunday was another great message at church and a beautiful song by Bebe. Bree was waiving at Bebe from the congregation the entire song. I still don't know how Bebe kept from laughing. As for our house it is ready to be primed and painted which is what we intend to get done this next week and weekend. Having the walls textured really made a big difference on the looks of the house. Last Wed. the 10th was my 28th b-day. I had a wonderful day and felt like royalty. Kerry & Bree sent me a beautiful basket of flowers and Mom & Mema & Pa sent me a vase of flowers to work. Bebe brought Bree to the office and we had a yummy lunch at Red Lobster. After lunch the sweet girls in the office gave me presents and a delicious chocolate cake. That evening Mom, Mema, Pa, Uncle Kurtis, Kerry , Bree and I had supper at Papadales and then had cake and ice cream at Moms. I then went to pokeno at Cara's house where I had a great time and managed to escape with three lovely gifts. What a wonderful b-day, thank you for all the sweet cards, calls and gestures everyone did to make my day special. Then to keep the celebration going, Debbie(Bebe) had supper for me on Thursday night at their house with the family. This was very uplifting as I spent most of Sept. 11th remembering what tragically happened 7 years ago. My heart goes out to all of America for the pain we all experienced on that day. It was great to spend time with family and thanking God for all that he has done to rebuild the lives that were shattered on that horrible day. May we never forget 9/11. On a brighter note, we had so much fun watching Bree play with her cousins, Parker, Brett & Crew. She adores them and I think they are pretty fond of her too. She can't wait for Kate to get a lil bigger so she can really play with her too. Bree has mastered the art of climbing. She climbs on everything. And thinks she is so funny doing it. She really has a good sense of humor and can really laugh out loud at herself. She really likes to go riding in her wagon lately. That is a daily must right now. She is also getting good at the potty thing. A few times this past week she would take her diaper off and run to her potty to go the bathroom. Talk about exciting. We are so blessed by this precious little girl and all of the other wonderful people in our lives. May you all have a blessed week!

We love because He first loved us. I John 4:19

The sermon at church today was another wonderful message that moved me greatly. It was from I John 4:07-19. Bro. Ronald did an excellent job conveying the message. He spoke of how in order for us to truly love our partner, family and friends we must first accept and love God and rely on on the love God has for us. Very moving and has made me focus a lot on how I need to work on displaying God's love in my everyday behavior and actions. Bree has really grown to enjoy going to the church nursery. She loves to go in there and play and the past two Sundays she has not cried when I leave. This is such a blessing. I can really focus on worship and not worry as much about her because I know she is happy. Her latest is to say"Me need that." Talk about sweet...and hard to resist. Although I keep reminding her that she does not need it, she wants it, but she insist that she needs it. She also loves to play with her camera and say "cheese". It is precious! Friday night we went as a family to the Grand Saline football game. We met Gramps, Uncle Brandon and the boys and uncle Charlie and Martin. Bree was all decked out in her lil cheer leading suit along with her pom-poms. She had so much fun watching the boys run up and down the football field. She was definitely a tiny cheerleader clapping along with the cheerleaders and the band. Friday night football games are just one of my favorite things and I am so glad we get to experience this back in our hometown. What a fun night! Saturday was Jennifer Tolar's baby shower at the MSBC Hub. The old gang, Audra, Katy, Holly, Hollie, Jen and myself met at Papadales for lunch. After a nice visit we headed to the church to set up for the shower that was given by us girls. The shower was so much fun and Jen definitely got "showered" with gifts and love. It was so good to see all of my girls and I was reminded of how wonderful it is to have lifelong best friends who are such caring, wonderful women. It has been awesome to take our friendship to yet another level and experience raising our babies together. What a blessing! These extraordinary women have been close to my heart since elementary school and truly define what friendship is all about. We spent Saturday evening at the Phillips' residence with a few other wonderful couples. Mom took Bree with her and my grandparents to Tyler to a homecoming for my cousin Brad who just got back from serving in Iraq. We hated to miss this but it was definitely great to hang out with our friends. As for our house, it is being taped and bedded this week and will be ready for painting this next weekend. Then we have to tile & carpet the floors, put in the new doors, bathroom vanity and cabinets, light fixtures and appliances and a few other lil things and we should be ready to move in. Hurray!! There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I want to say thank you to all of my wonderful friends and family for all of your unconditional love and for being such an inspiration in my life. Hugs & Kisses to all!!

Always give thanks to God the father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20

I have really been feeling a sense of gratefulness lately. From the moment I wake up in the morning my heart is filled with warmth. Usually the first thing I see when I open my eyes is this precious little 16 month old girl laying next to me sleeping so peacefully and my wonderful husband on the other side of me. Immediately I am overwhelmed with a sense to thank God for the joy and pleasure Aubree brings to our world. As I watch her sleep I am amazed at how beautiful and perfect everything about her is. God has graciously given me a wonderful family. Everyday I am amazed at how much Aubree is learning and changing. She is talking so much. She started say Uhh ooh this week and just last night we heard her singing Old MacDonald Had A Farm. Although we weren't sure what she was singing at first. The verses of the song are kinda gibberish but then when it comes to the ee-i-ee-i-o part she sings it loud and proud. It is so precious. She is such a delight to be around. She can also say and point to almost all of her (or your) body parts. Careful though she does poke your eye pretty hard and it'll hurt if your not paying attention. Bree is really at an independent stage. She wants to be such a big girl. Specially when it comes to eating. She wants to feed herself with out any help. This gets pretty messy! She loves to play with her babies and feed them their bottles too, although most of the time she ends up trying to drink their juice from the pretend bottles and doesn't understand why nothing comes out. She has her own sign language. When she is looking for something she turns her lil hands up and walks around looking so lost. It is so cute. Being that time flies by so fast and we are usually so busy, we have been spending any free time we have at home as a family enjoying Bree. Kerry and I have agreed that our time with Bree goes by way too fast and we need to start spending more time enjoying the simple moments in life. Although I am so grateful for the time we have together, I do feel that the time with Bree has gone by way to fast. I am happy to see her grow and learn, but also a lil sad when I think of how fast she has changed. In church today Bro. Ronald started a new series on Fireproofing your Marriage. Kerry and I greatly appreciated the sermon and it is our prayer to remember to submit, love and respect each other as we face the trials of daily life. We usually try to follow this anyway, however in the crazy everyday world we don't always remember to honor each other as much as we should. The series is shadowed by a movie coming to theaters at the end of September. From the clips I have already seen it seems very beneficial for all couples. We are looking forward to the upcoming sermons and the movie. For now we are trying to enjoy each other and remember to thank God for the blessings in our lives and enjoy our precious gift from God.

Well as the summer is coming to an end we have been trying to get back on track with everything. Kerry has been working a lot on our house this past week. He and his Dad have finished the plumbing and installed the new water heater. They also finished the sheet rocking in Bree's room, the bathroom and the ceiling. So now we are trying to get it taped and bedded and then we can start painting. I have been sanding the cabinets and getting them ready to be painted. We still don't know what color we are going to paint the cabinets though. I am considering doing them like my SIL Jennifer's. She did a white-wash finish that looks really good. You can check them out on her blog veryfullquiver.blogspot.com. The house is a big mess right now, but the yard looks pretty good. All the rain was great for the elephant ears I inherited. They were really drooping from the heat but have perked right up. The grass is nice and green too. To take a break my Mom and I went out with some of my girlfriends and their mothers again this past Friday night. We went to the Dallas Studio Movie Grill to see Momma Mia. Talk about a great girls movie. Its like a modern day Greece. Atleast I liked it almost as much and it is one of those you want to watch over and over again. We had a great time. Bree stayed with her Daddy at his parents house and I know they all enjoyed that too. Kerry had another night with his daughter Saturday night. Bree went with him and Gramps to Lindale to eat and Shop at Lowe's for Gramps' B-day present while I went to a progressive dinner with The Womens Minestry of MSBC. The dinner was like 40 something women who met at the church then went to a lovely house for appetizers. Then we went to Debbie's for the main course. She made an excellent lasagna with green bean bundles. Then we went back to the church for homemade pies and to put together gift bags. The food was fabulous and the fellowship was even better. I really enjoyed spending time with some of the women in the church. That is another thing we are trying to get back in the swing of. We would like to become more active in the church. Sunday was Gramps' birthday so we ate with him and the family after church. Don't worry I won't post your age Gramps.(Ha! Ha!) We are so fortunate to have such loving, considerate, caring Gramps. He has been such a big motivator for us on the construction of our house. He really devotes a lot of time to his family. And we thank him for everything! Well, Bree has been using so many new words lately. She loves to say "outside & if you get in her way she'll tell you to move. The lil stinker. Instead of saying yes when you say something she likes, she claps. It is so sweet. She loves to go to our house and feed the fish in our pond. She thinks she has to every time she goes there. We have also been enjoying spending time with Parker, Brett, Crew and Kate, and of course with Brandon and Jennifer. The boys are so much fun for Bree. She loves to pretend she is as big as they are. She has been trying to color a lot lately. She really likes for some one to color with her. Of course it is just scribbling, but I think it is great. Thanks for checking on us!

Such A Big Girl

About six weeks ago I noticed that if I said to Bree, "Momma has to go to the bathroom," she would run to the bathroom and pat the potty. So I thought to myself, she knows what we do in the bathroom. So I got her her own "Royal Potty" that plays assorted music when she potties in it. Being the sweet girl that she is, she almost always follows us around the house when we get up to do something. She doesn't want to miss a thing. So she usually goes to the bathroom with us and while we use the restroom she sits on her "Royal Potty" in her diaper, mind you. Well, Monday night while i was running her bath water, she was waiting anxiously as always and then when I took off her diaper she turned around and went to her potty chair and sat right down. I could see her lil tummy straining as she tee-teed right in her potty. I was so impresses! The chair started playing music and in ran her Daddy and Nona. We were all so proud and she smiled the biggest smile ever. Then she waved and in her sweet lil voice said, "Hi." Talk about a moment to remember. Our lil girl is growing up so fast. Now I know we still have a long way to go with the potty training thing, and this seems like such a small deal to some, but to me it was huge.

Still Homeless

Well as you probably know we are still working on our new house. This remodeling is quite a process. I must be honest though, lately we have been slacking a bit. The house has not been one of our priorities. We have been busy spending time with family and friends. Kerry's sister Emily was in town and we have just been preoccupied with a family wedding and lots of other family fun. Congratulations to Mike & Ashley Baker!! Your wedding was absolutely beautiful! We spent the day recently visiting with Katy and loved her new house in Corinth. Holly and Emma met us there and we took the girls swimming in Katy's pool. It was go good to hang out with some of my dearest girlfriends from elementary school. Bree and Emma are 6 weeks apart and they played so well together. They kept hugging and kissing each other. They are both very lovey girls. They were even holding hands a lot. Talk about cute!! I was also so glad I got to stop by The Medical Center of Lewisville and say Hello to all my old co-workers. I miss you all so much and it was great to see you. Well we have had an up and down time with Bree's new kittens. They disappeared from Mom's on Wed. morning and were gone all weekend and then on Sunday nite Kerry and I were on the back of our land putting out some deer corn when we heard a meow. We both started calling the kitties and out of the woods ran Spice. How she got to our land is a mystery to us. sadly we have not found Sugar, but Bree was so glad to see Spice when we brought her home. She was looking for Sugar the rest of the nite though. Which saddens me. But what can I do? We are thankful though to have Spice back safely. Well Bree is still a doll baby. We were in the Miss Canton pageant 2 weeks ago and the beauty received 4 awards. We were so honored. She got plaques for Best Dress, Most Beautiful, The Red, White & Blue Modeling Category and received a crown for the queen of 12-23 month age group. We had so much fun and she walked across the stage like such a big girl. Aubree loves attention and will put on a show whenever the chance arises. Needless to say she was not scared and laughed when her time to go onstage came. Although her Daddy and I are not big pageant people I think there is a lot children can learn from them and as long as they have the right attitude going into it then there is no harm done. I prayed a lot the week before the pageant that God would give me the right attitude going into this and that no matter what the outcome I would still think just as highly of Bree and the other contestants. Bree and I love to dress up and that is exactly what the day was all about. Bree wore a beautiful dress and had fun running around playing with the other kiddos. Thanks Amie and Hollie for all your help getting ready for the pageant. And thanks to all my family and friends for coming to the pageant and supporting us. What a blessing you are in our lives.

Where Did July Go?

We have been so busy enjoying our summer and working on the house and land that this month has flown by us. Bree is so fast now. She is all over the place. Last week Bebe & I took her to have her picture taken at Kiddie Kandids. They take amazing pictures and always seem to capture Bree in her best momments. The photographers are so good with her as well. Although I must say Bree really hams it up for the camera. We took her to stride rite for some new shoes and the lil stinker went from being a size 3 1/2 in May to noe a whooping size 5 1/2. We then took her to Flower Mound to see Dr. Smalley for her 15 mo. well baby visit. She is still a munchkin, but he was impressed with her steady climbing growth. She weighed 19 lbs 2.5oz. was 29 3/4 inches long. She remains in the 5th percentile in her weight and the 25th for height, but he was pleased overall with her steady growing. He said she was developing wonderfully. Afterwards we took her by her old school to see everyone. It was so nice to see Ms. Cookie, her teacher. We miss her kindness and smiling face so much. Bree showed her all of her new tricks, too. She winks, holds up one finger when you ask how old she is, blows kisses, gives huge hugs, Eskimo kisses, butterfly kisses and much more. Next we met Aunt Kathy at The Galleria for a lil shopping and dinner. What a perfect day!! Bree has a huge vocabulary she even says thank you now. She loves to ride her car and horsey & is still in love with all animals. We proudly welcomed Bree's 4th cousin into this world on July 15th, Miss Kate Marie Kindle. She is beautiful. Bree loves playing with her cousins and the boys are so good with her. We have truly been blessed by her in so many ways. Thank you for checking on us.. Much love to everyone.