Big Announcement

Well, most of you have probably already heard, but we are due for baby #3 on January 5th.... and it's a BOY (most likely)!

BTW

By the way, Daniel is still working at BE Implement (aka, John Deere house). The preaching job is on the side. Sorry for not clarifying that earlier! K bye.

What We've Been Up To

A couple of weeks ago we went to a family reunion in Ruidoso. We had a great time with my entire family! We were all in one crazy condo together and just spent a lot of time hanging out and eating! We went out to the Flying J Ranch one night to eat, took the kids to ride go carts, and saw some of Mama Brown's family we never get to see. 

I realize that I haven't posted pictures of the kids in a while, but the truth is, I've been really bad about taking them. I meant to get all the pictures from other people on the trip, but I haven't yet. So here is what I've got. 

Here is Asher pretending to be in jail at the Flying J. Why is this so extremely funny to kids?

Asher got his first haircut on the trip! He had a pretty bad rat tail that Daniel had a weird attachment to. But its gone now and he looks much better.

All the men were playing golf and Asher wanted to join in. How cute is he?

Addalie riding go carts with her Daddy! This girl loves to go fast! She had so much doing everything with her cousins. I wish they could always be together like this.

They both had so much fun, but this is what they did as soon as they got in the car!

Ok, moving on... so it turns out I have a pretty handy husband! All by himself, he reconfigured these shelves and made them to where the tv would fit. I was nervous that he would ruin the existing wood and we would have to have someone come fix it. But I needed to have more faith! He did such a good job and we are so happy to have the tv off the fire place!

This is what it was like before. So much better now! I'm pretty proud of him!

Both our kids had a blast on the fourth of July. We went to a cook out at Mama Brown's and got to see a lot of cousins again! They just love being outside and Addalie just kept saying "this is awesome!"to the fireworks. Please don't ask me what's up with that huge bow on her head.

Addalie has been behaving really well lately so I took her out for ice cream the other day. She got the Krazy Kolors ice cream! So precious.

And here is my big boy! He does so well about wanting to sit on the potty that I decided to start potty training him today. Of course today of all days is the day he gets a bout of diarrhea. Go figure...

He's already a 100x easier than Addalie. Pray that this continues! He wanted to mow the lawn in his new underwear today. He's turned in to such a redneck here!

Now for some pretty significant news, Daniel is officially the new pastor at a church here in Lamesa! It's called Cornerstone Fellowship and it's a small church that has been without a preacher for quite a while. We have been visiting a praying about this almost since we moved here and just felt God leading us to invest in the community and in this congregation. It's been awesome to see Daniel getting to use his gifts and get excited about something. He is already doing an amazing job and I'm so proud of him. Check out the church on 806church.com (806 is the area code here). He is starting a blog and has podcast on the website.  It's not completely done yet, but I think there is some stuff up now. Please keep us in your prayer! Love!

Our New House

Ok I'm finally posting pics of our house here in Lamesa! We've lived here about a month now and things are going well. I'm really loving this house and how well it functions for our family! If it had a two car garage, it would be even better, but oh well. You will have to excuse some of the boxes and things in the pictures, there are just a few things left to do! But I decided if I waited till it was all done, you would never see pictures. 

BTW, our new address is:

103 N 23rd St. 

Lamesa, TX 79331

Front of the house

This is the view from the front door. There is a hallway to the left that leads to the bedrooms. I have no idea what's up with my picture alignment. It's not cooperating!

This is my bare dining room. We will get a table someday... 

I love my kitchen! The previous owners had completely redone it!

From eating area looking into the living room. We are going to redo those shelves so our tv fits. We won't leave it on the fireplace like that.

This playroom is behind those french doors in the kitchen. It's been perfect for the kids to still be close by but have a place to play. Fun fun!

This might be my favorite room: the laundry room. It's huge! There is a long built in desk on one side and the washer/dryer on the other. It also leads out into the garage.

The kids room is only semi-done. I need curtains, bedding that actually fits a twin bed, etc.

Our bedroom was the only room we painted.

Ok, so I really don't like our bathroom, but it's ok. We might end up redoing this at some point. It's pretty dated... 

Guest bedroom. We keep the pack n play set up for afternoon naps.

 So the hallway is pretty narrow and then opens up to this big space at the end. All three bedrooms and the kids bathroom are off this area. And I've got great storage there!

And the kids bathroom. It's dated too, but not too bad. And it's pretty big!

So that's pretty much it! We feel very blessed to be in this home, even though it took four months! Come visit us sometime! 

April

It is now May 8th and we are STILL living with my parents! We have a great house that we've been in contract on since the end of February, but because there are several people that need to move before we can, it looks like we can't be in till the end of May. I promise to post pictures if and when we ever get our own place! In the meantime, here is an overview of the month of April here in Welch!

Asher loves his Papa! Asher never falls asleep on people, he loves his bed. So you know he loves his Papa, and was really tired!

Asher also loves to act like his Papa. He loves crawling up in the recliner, throwing that neck pillow behind him and acting like Papa. 

Having fun together dying Easter eggs!

It's funny that we got here in Febrary when it was snowing, and now the kids are playing in the spriklers! Yeah, we've been here a while...

My pretty girl on Easter Sundy

It was cool to spend Easter in Welch at church with my parents. I hadn't been there for Easter since high school, and it was cool to have my kids hunt Easter eggs in the church yard just like I did when I was their age!

It's so funny to see my kids' different personalities with things. Addalie is pretty laid back with the egg hunting. She waits till someone points one out, then casually goes over and gets it. Asher on the other hand, figured this thing out pretty quick and was aggressive! He was even sneaking eggs out of Addalie's basket and putting them in his. It was hilarious to watch!

Family pic!

All the kids together hunting eggs!

Asher's new favorite activity: Vacuuming up the "bugs" (moths/millers) all over the house. They are terrible at my parents house but Asher is loving it! He can spot them from anywhere and will not let you rest till you help him vacuum it up. We just leave the vacuum out now days. He gets so giddy when he gets to vacuum one. He shouts "bug!" till you come over then says "got it!" when it's gone. He's too cute! 

And for the most exciting part of April: Baby Krae was born! My oldest sister Jada had her fifth baby, an adorable little boy, and we went to Round Rock to see him. He's doing great and is such a cutie!

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And that's it for April!

Potty Training

God gave me this time with Addalie so that I will never judge another person's child. Addalie has always been so advanced in just about everything and so so eager to learn. But not with going to the bathroom. The girl screams and cries and begs for a diaper. So I decided I was ready to give it all I had and the past two days we have camped out in the bathroom and have hardly seen the light of day because I was determined to get this done. We had a pretty good day yesterday- no wet accidents! She even would just get on there herself when she needed to go. We played and colored and had some really sweet time together. But she would not go #2. Finally, at 6:30, I let her greet Daniel after work, and wouldn't you know it, that girl poops on the porch! Seriously?

Today was less fun. I started taking toys and shows away until she went #2. I threatened and promised rewards and wouldn't let her leave the bathroom till she pooped. I know, I sound like a terribly mean mom. But she is so stubborn! Finally, I decided to try the porch thing again. And it worked! I saw "the look" and plopped her down. She threw a fit. An hour later, I got her to go, but I had to stand behind her holding her knees to her chest while she screamed bloody murder.

This is the kids playing together in the new playroom, aka the bathroom!

Seriously, God must really be trying to teach me something or prepare for a future of fights. I'm scared.

Waiting

That's what we are up to right now- waiting. Waiting for a house, waiting for the job to pick up, waiting on a slower-than-dial-up-internet. Waiting.

We have looked at every house in both Lamesa and Brownfield and have found some promising one, but nothing that was quite right. Well, one was, but they refused to come down on the price. So we said we would be patient and wait for something else to come on the market. Well, one came up that is not even on the market yet- just a lady we heard about that was going to put it up for sale soon. So we went and looked at it and it is a contender. It's big but I would want to change so much about it. So we are just trying to decide if it would be the best option for us. I think we may put in an offer and if they go above what we want, we will walk away. Pray for us on this! We are still trying to figure out which town we should even live in! I'm so thankful for my parents letting us live here. I know it can't be easy!

Daniel is still in training at BE Implement. He's still not exactly sure where or what he will be doing permanently, but he is hanging in there. He gets to go to St. Louis on Monday for work, so that should be fun! The kids are also doing pretty good. They have broken a few things already, but thankfully the grandparents are forgiving!

Please keep praying for us as so much in our life is still up in the air!