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.

We have been so busy lately chasing Bree around and getting ready to close on our house and 19 acres. We close on Tuesday the 10th of June and then we are going to start a complete remodel on the house. The land is beautiful. It is 19 rolling acres with 3 ponds and is in a nice , quiet area just about 2 miles from my Mom's place. Kerry has already started to mow the land and clean the ponds up. It is very peaceful out there and in the future we hope to build a new home on the top of the big hill in the middle of the land and rent the house we are remodeling. We are very excited about the possibilities of our new home. Bree had a wonderful 1st birthday. The theme was "Pink Poodles in Paris". She had the cutest pink poodle shaped Birthday cake w/ iced bone shaped cookies. She loved the cake. She demolished it into a million lil crumbles. She liked to play in it more than anything. She enjoyed all the attention at her party. Thank you to all of our family and friends for coming to celebrate such a wonderful milestone in our lives. She has two bottom teeth now, so she thinks she can eat anything we are eating. However, mashed potatoes are still her food of choice, and Mema makes them for her just about everyday. They spoil her rotten. She definitely entertains them. She is talking a lil more everyday. She says a new word all the time. She loves animals. Kerry and I took her to the Tyler Zoo not long ago and she loved feeding the birds and the elephants. She also loves to swim and do anything outside. She is the huggiest child I have ever seen. She gives the best, biggest hugs ever. At her 1 year check up she weighed 17 lbs. and 13 oz. and was 29 inches long. She is a petite lil thing. Over the Memorial Day holiday she came down with the chicken pox. This was not a fun time. We were at the Whispering Pines Resort with the Lee and Phillips family and I was so afraid that we had exposed Zander and Finlee to the pox, but as of now, no one else has gotten them. Bree had a ton of bumps all over her body, but the majority were in her hair. She never ran much of a fever and didn't really scratch them either. Most of the pox are gone now, there are just a few scabs left. I guess that is one thing we don't have to worry about again. God has blessed us tremendously and we enjoy every second with our families and friends. May God Bless you always.

Our Baby Is Turning One!

This past year has been an amazing blessing from God. Our lives have been by far enriched by Aubree Malena Kindle. She has constantly amazed us with her sweet personality and persona. We could not love her more. She is running around every where. Everyday is a blast to experience with her. She finally has two teeth on the bottom that are just about to break thru the gums. She is the biggest hugger ever. When she sees us she comes running and has the biggest hugs to give. She is definitely an outdoor girl. She loves to go out to play. It is so hard for me to believe that she is turning 1 this Saturday. The year has flown by. Along with all the wonderful joys she has brought to our lives, we also have some more good news. We close on our house in Lake Dallas on May 12th. Once we do that we can get more settled here in Grand Saline. We are definitely looking forward to that. I hope everyone is having a great spring & hopefully we will see you soon. Thanks for checking on us...God Bless.