Live Life with Hope

Fall Is Here!!!

2009-11-03T21:32:00.004-06:00

Well, fall has arrived and we've been busy. I know, I know, it's been forever since we posted. We are now pretty addicted to facebook, so we haven't been very good about keeping up with our blog. We have really enjoyed the last couple of months. Stephen's dad and mom came up at the beginning of September for Labor Day weekend. We enjoyed our usual dining, dominos, shopping and fun. It was Stephen's mom's birthday and it was great to celebrate it with her. Of course, we didn't get any photos. Some day we'll all remember to take some pics! Thanks mom and dad for coming to visit.
A few weeks later my mom came to visit and we got to go to the State Fair of Texas. We all had a blast, especially Hope.

Stephen and Hope got to carve their first pumpkin the other day. Stephen had never carved a pumpkin before, and Hope really enjoyed watching while making a mess with the pumpkin innards! She freaked out when we turned out the lights and lit the Jack-o-lantern.

Our church had its Harvest Fest on the Wednesday before Halloween. Stephen was in charge of it and it was a pretty big deal. We moved everything outside this year and rented a construction pole light to light the parking lot. Hope got to play games, bounce in the bounce house, ride the hay ride and collect candy from all the trunk-or-treaters while dressed as a pink leopard. We hear those are endangered and only indigenous to Howe, Texas :).

Our latest, and very exciting news is that we found out that our baby is a BOY! I'm a little overwhelmed by the thought of raising a boy since I only know about girls, but we are thrilled to have a healthy baby and to continue the Wilhite line. Thank you Lord for being so good!

One new picture...

2009-09-13T14:11:00.000-05:00

Food for thought...

2009-09-11T15:50:00.002-05:00

Found this and thought it was VERY interesting. Proper education is a subject that is very near and dear to my heart. I think this certainly says a lot about our current educational system and how little we are expecting from our kids nowadays...

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895

Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of "lie,""play," and "run."
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton..
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States .
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas .
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour) [Do we even know what this is??]

1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacriticall y and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)

1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2.. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America .
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco .
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete.

Gives the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it? Also shows you how poor our education system has become and, NO! I don't have the answers.

Our sweet little girl...

2009-08-01T13:57:00.003-05:00

I can't even begin to describe how sweet life has been having Hope for a daughter. We are so blessed after what we have been through to have her. Yes, she frustrates me sometimes, yes she throws the bigest temper tantrums you have ever seen in your life, but she is such a blessing to us. I am continually thanking God for her and am just amazed daily at how He is molding her and making her into a young lady.

Here are some of the things that Hope has been doing lately:

*Hope can sing almost any song she hears. She's totally like her Daddy in that way. She hears it and she just knows it. Her current favorite songs to sing are: Jesus Loves Me, ABC's, and any Disney song that she hears. Music soothes her in a way nothing else can. She will be throwing the hugest temper tantrum and I'll start singing and she'll calm down immediately and start singing along with me.

*To go along with the above statement, she is OBSESSED with anything Disney right now. She has a Disney book that has almost all of the Disney stories in it and she can look at that thing for HOURS, just talking to herself and singing the songs that go along with the story. It's quite amazing and funny to watch!

*She is a TOTAL diva. Now we knew this the moment she came out of course, but I'm afraid the diva-ness has only just begun to rear it's ugly head. She yells "NO!" at us countless times per day, doesn't listen, and throws massive temper tantrums. She has a mind of her own! She always adds the words "right now" to the end of anything she's asking us to do. For example, "Daddy, want cookie right now," or "Mommy, go swing right now;" funny but baffling at the same time. We've got to reign the ordering us around in soon, we realize. She does get disciplined for all of this, of course. We are not about to let her get away with the bad behavior, but I do fear that this is only the beginning of what we will see to come.

*She is soooo moody. She can go from all-out crying, screaming, throwing a fit to all-out laughing in about 5 seconds flat, maybe less than that. Oh I fear the teenage years...

*She is nowhere NEAR close to potty training. She is going to be one of those that has to just decide she is ready. If we even mention the potty she runs away yelling, "No potty! No potty!" So yeah, I think we will be changing her diapers still for a little while longer.

*She loves to torture the cat. She chases him around the house pulling his tail, sitting on him, stepping on him, trying to pick him up, and just yelling, "No, Hobbes, no no!!" at him over and over again. Why? I don't know, but she seems to think it's hilarious. Luckily he is very patient with her, and we are doing our best to protect him and teach her how to be gentle with him.

*She is incredibly loving and nurturing (most of the time ;). She's always giving us hugs and kisses and wanting to sit and just cuddle with us. She loves to take care of her baby dolls- brushing their hair, putting shoes on them, putting diapers on them, etc. She's such a little mommy.

*She loves to be outside and especially loves to be in the water. She would run around outside in the sprinkler all day and night if we let her.

*She hates art or any kind of crafts. She'd rather eat the crayons. Guess who she got that from...?

*She's a great eater and a great sleeper, and always has been for the most part. Right now she sleeps 12-13 hours at night and then takes a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Praise the Lord!

*She can recognize lots of different shapes, numbers, and letters. Colors are harder for her. I think it's just such an abstract concept that it's going to take a little while longer.

*She picks up on any little word that we say and echoes it. Yeah...that's been interesting, let me tell you...

*She is incredibly slow to get her teeth. She is in a lot of pain b/c they're just taking so long to come in, but she's learning to deal with the pain I think. Some days are better than others for her. She's currently trying to get her bottom canines and only has one set of molars, along with her front ones, so it's going to be awhile.

*We love her so much and thank God every day for the little miracle we have running around our house and screaming her head off!

Here are some recent pics from this summer...Hope you enjoy!

At my mom's lake house...

Swimming in the lake with her Grandma. She wouldn't stand up pr walk on her own in the water and only wanted us to hold her and entertain her. Yet another example of Hope the Diva....

On the way to church in the outfit Aunt Suzann and Uncle Barrett sent. Thanks ya'll!!

Playing in the sprinkler that my mom got her for her birthday. She LOVES it!

Pics from Children's Camp...

She got this dress from Uncle Collin and Aunt Janelle for her birthday! Thanks again guys!

Father's Day...

2009-07-17T15:14:00.007-05:00

Ok so I know it's like a month late, but it just wouldn't be very characteristic of me if it were on time, now would it?! Hope adores her daddy so much and I, of course, could not love him more. He is such an excellent father and husband and I really thank God for him.

So, here is what Hope and I did for Stephen for Father's Day. I took pictures of her out in our backyard holding wooden letters D, A, and Y, and a heart. She was SO not into it and by the end we were both sweating, grumpy and I had a huge migraine, but they turned out SO well! I had a friend edit the pictures for me and then I developed each one to put in a 6-slot horizontal frame. I was so pleased and Hope and I were both really excited to give it to him. He loved it! Here are the individual pictures and then all the pictures together as they look in the frame.

And here is the completed project. Sorry it's small. I can't get it any bigger, but you get the point, right?

The second thing I did was made a montage (posted below) for him on One True Media. It took forever to do, but it was so worth it. He loved it and watches it every day. The song is "King of the World," by Point of Grace. Just click on the picture below and it will open a new browser and the video will just start. Hope you all like it as much as we do!

My Montage 6/19/09

Visits

2009-07-03T15:17:00.006-05:00

We have been blessed to enjoy some much-welcome company over the last two weekends. Gaelan and Courtney Frazier, some good friends of ours from college, came up to see us a couple of weekends ago and brought their 3 year old son, Matthew. We had a blast with them playing the Wii, eating out and just visiting. Hope had a mini birthday party the Saturday that we arrived and we all enjoyed pizza and a Curious George birthday cake. Hope is really into Curious George, Elmo, and now Disney movies. We try to limit her tv watching because she would watch it all day if she could. One of the gifts she got for her birthday is a water table. She is obsessed with it and could play with it all day long. She soaks herself from head to toe everytime she plays with it.

We took Gaelan, Courtney and Matthew to a place in Sherman called the Splash Pad. It's just a little park where kids can run around and get wet. Matthew, Gaelan and Stephen seemed to enjoy it, but I'm not so sure Hope liked it much. We loved our time with the Fraziers. Thank you guys so much for coming up to visit! Here are some pics from that weekend...

Last weekend Stephen's parents came up to see us. They are on vacation and wanted to spend a few days with us before going on their Caribbean cruise. We, of course, had a wonderful time with them. We enjoyed eating out, playing dominoes, watching tv, shopping and visiting. We took them to a place in Allen where there are some nice stores and a river that winds its way through the shopping area. There are some statues that Hope loves to play on. We thought we'd get some pictures with her and Grammy and Grandpa ("Papa"). We love you mom and dad! Thanks for coming to visit.

Going to camp...

2009-07-03T14:22:00.002-05:00

We are in the process of getting ready to take 30 3rd-6th graders to children's camp in Glen Rose. We leave Sunday and get back Thursday. Please pray for safe travel and a safe week in general. Also, please pray for the kids that God would open their minds and hearts to hear His word. Pray also for the sponsors that we would know how to witness to the kids and how to care for them, etc. I am not staying in the cabins. Hope and I are staying in our own separate room b/c there is NO way she will sleep with 15 girls in the room! But we are looking forward to it and are excited to see God do amazing things in the lives of these kids!

So, if you wonder where we are next week, we are at a camp in the middle of nowhere with 30 preteens...I hope there's medical care...;)

Our newest family member...

2009-06-28T16:33:00.003-05:00

I know I've been so remiss in posting on the blog. We've had VBS, friends and family visiting, etc., plus all of us have colds and feel so lousy. We've had a lot going on, and I will post about all that later, but for now, I want to introduce our newest family member to you all.

Our newest member of the Wilhite/McCann brood, Meghan Clare made her appearance on June 17, 2009. Janelle was such a trooper, giving birth to her 9 lb, 6 oz baby with NO EPIDURAL! We are all so proud of her and can't wait to meet our newest little niece. We are praying for them as they adjust to life as a family of five. Congratulations Collin and Janelle!! We love you and miss you all!

Sometimes a song can say exactly what you were thinking but couldn't put into words...

2009-06-07T21:14:00.004-05:00

This song has really meant a lot to me over the years. It is by Natalie Grant. I don't know how to upload the video onto blogger, but just click the link below and it'll take you right to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOufqWodFNo

The song is called, "Held" and the words are a little confusing at first, but basically what it is saying is this: God didn't say that we wouldn't go through hard times; what He did say is that He would be there through it.

Also, here is a quote I took from this web-site about interpreting the words of this song.
http://womenbygrace.com/christian-life/when-bad-things-happen-to-christians/

"...When the worst happens, when our hearts are broken and cold with grief, when we feel farthest from Him we are called to remember that He hasn’t promised a life without heartache - but He has promised to be there.
Knowing this is a comfort to those who believe that there is more to life than life on earth. This is only bearable because we have placed our faith in God’s promise of eternity. Someday He will wipe away our tears of pain and we will at last know what it is like to live without fear of loss. We will experience pure joy and awesome security without the presence of evil and death.
Until then, his arms are enough."
“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” -Deuteronomy 33:27 (NIV)

6 Years Together...

2009-06-07T14:53:00.002-05:00

Today Stephen and I celebrated 6 years together and I gotta say, it's been an awesome 6 years. I am so blessed to have such an awesome husband. So, in honor of this day I'm listing 11 things (yes I know that's a very random number, but just go with it) that I love about my husband.

1. I really can't imagine my life with anyone else. It's like God made him for me. He's the perfect fit for me.
2. He is my best friend and has been for a long time.
3. He is so supportive and loving and is always there for me no matter what I am going through.
4. He fiercely loves his family. He is so committed to us.
5. He is a great dad. Hope adores him. The first thing I hear every morning when I walk into her room to get her is, "Where's Daddy?" (Thanks kid, I carried you in my womb and everything, but whatever!) LOL!
6. He loves their "Daddy/Daughter" time together. He takes her to do all sorts of fun stuff and she just soaks it all in.
7. He gets my sense of humor like no one else does.
8. He helps with household chores.
9. He'll talk to me about anything. He is an open book.
10. He is a hard worker and takes his commitment to provide for his family very seriously.
11. He loves God with all his heart and this shows in every aspect of his life.

More Port A pics

2009-05-22T09:33:00.004-05:00

We haven't had much going on lately, so I thought I would just go ahead and post more Port A pics since we have a ton of them! Pray for me. I have an upper respiratory infection that I just can't kick. I've had it for two weeks and it's not going away. I feel like poop. Otherwise everything is going fine here. Hope is cutting more teeth and is somewhat cranky lately, but is otherwise in good spirits. Her vocabulary is beginning to really amaze us. She is still full of her girly attitude and is always up to something! I can't believe she'll be two in less than a month!! It's crazy! Stephen is acting like a madman trying to get VBS done. We have less than a month now and he's in charge of it. He could use your prayers too as he tries to find voluteers, coordinates with people, etc. We are glad that we have a three day weekend this week to catch a little break! We hope everyone has a great and safe Memorial Day weekend!

Here's Hope in the car, hamming it up for the camera...

Destroying Daddy's sand castle...

In front of the USS Lexington...

Watching the dolphins at the Aquarium...

All three of us...

More digging in the sand...

Walking on the beach...

Trip to Port Aransas

2009-05-11T21:52:00.007-05:00

We just got back last weekend from taking a week-long vacation to Port Aransas. We had planned to go in July, but the prices were cheaper in the spring and the resorts are less crowded, so we just decided to go ahead and go. Our trip was wonderful. We stayed in a condo with a balcony that looked out over the beach. We enjoyed playing at the beach, swimming in the heated pool, visiting the Corpus Christi Aquarium, eating out, and just relaxing. Stephen's parents came in town over the weekend and we enjoyed eating, visiting, and, of course, playing dominos with them. Stephen went fishing with his dad one night. They caught lots of catfish and enjoyed having some male bonding time. Wehad lots of fun with them and wish we could see them more. On our way home we stopped by and visited my mom in Marble Falls. It was good to see her so close to Mother's Day. I hope all you moms had a great Mother's Day. Mine was really nice. We, of course, had a busy day since it was Sunday, but Stephen spent plenty of time spoiling me. We are looking forward to summer. It's still pretty cool up here (in the 60's with lots of rain), but it is supposed to warm up soon. It's amazing what a difference there is between north Texas weather and south Texas weather. It was so warm down there already! We hope you all have a wonderful summer!

The men posing with their catches...As an aside, Stephen grew his facial hair out this past week and refuses to shave it. I don't know if this is some manly rite of passage or what...

Hope playing in the sand. It's amazing what a bucket and shovel and some sand will do for a baby. She was thoroughly content for hours just to sit and put sand in her bucket, pour it out and then start all over. Now I see why some parents have a sand box in their backyard!

Our feeble attempt at family pictures. Hope was scared of the beach for the most part. I guess she was scared we would throw her in or something. We were hoping to put these on a Christmas card, but I don't think that's going to happen!

On the ferry going over to Aransas Pass. Hope was scared...as usual...

Swimming in the pool with Daddy...

Walking along the beach. She was fine as long as someone was carrying her...

I just had to add this. We saw a coconut washed ashore! Crazy huh?! I wonder how long of a trip it had...

Just some random shots...

My grandpa Smith passed away this morning...

2009-04-23T14:29:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to update you all. My grandpa Smith died suddenly this morning, April 23rd. He had a series of strokes last week, but pulled through them, making a good recovery. However, he passed this morning unexpectedly, 6 years to the day that my grandma lost her battle with pancreatic cancer. I will be leaving tomorrow morning to attend the funeral. Please keep Stephen and Hope in your prayers as they will be staying here. Love you all...

Trip to Granbury and the Zoo

2009-04-21T21:43:00.006-05:00

We had a great weekend last weekend. Stephen has wanted to join the Singing Men of North Central Texas (a group of active and retired music ministers) for a long time now. He finally decided that since their next concert was in Granbury it would give him the perfect opportunity to visit Aunt Sara and Uncle William and to join the group. We drove down to Granbury on Thursday morning and met Aunt Sara for lunch at a tea room with amazing sandwiches. Stephen left to go rehearse for the day with the Singing Men while Hope, Aunt Sara and I went shopping at Walmart. We all met up for dinner with Uncle William at a new Chinese restaurant in Granbury, then we headed to the concert. The church was packed with people. Even the overflow room was packed out. We were glad that some of Sara and William's friends saved us a seat. I had to leave early because Hope was not thrilled at all about being in the nursery, but what I saw of the concert was amazing. The room was so full of energy, and it was so good to see so many people worshiping. There were over 100 Singing Men performing and they had an orchestra and handbell choir too. Hope really took to Aunt Sara and Uncle William quickly. She figured out pretty fast that they are cool people. Thanks Aunt Sara and Uncle William for taking such good care of us while we were down there!

We saw this out the window on our way to Granbury. It is called a circumhorizontal arc. It looks a lot like a rainbow, but it's not. It is a rare optical phenomenon. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

"The arc is formed as light rays enter the horizontally-oriented flat hexagon crystals through a vertical side face and exit through the horizontal bottom face. It is the 90° inclination that produces the well-separated rainbow-like colours and, if the crystal alignment is just right, makes the entire cirrus cloud appear to shine like an undulating rainbow."

It was SOOO neat to see and we got lots of cool pictures of it!

On Saturday we decided to get out a little early and head to the Dallas Zoo. We weren't sure if it would be rainy or not, but we checked the radar and felt confident that the weather would cooperate. We were wrong. It rained quite a bit, but we still managed to see most of the animals. Hope is obsessed with animals, so it was a lot of fun.

The ride home from the zoo... She was tuckered out!

A few pics of Hope...

2009-04-20T09:04:00.003-05:00

Lots of pics of the pigtails...

Hope finding her Easter basket...

Small update and a few pictures...

2009-04-11T16:40:00.004-05:00

Hope is feeling lots better lately. It took her about 2 weeks to get over the bronchitis, but I think we're in the clear here, thank goodness.

Hope is growing so fast and learning new things everyday. She's like a little sponge. She can speak in 2-3 word sentences now, can sing her ABC's (on pitch too!), can count to 10, and is just running around all over the place being a busy little girl. We have been working with her on shapes and colors for awhile, but I think those are such abstract concepts that it is going to take her a little while to catch on. She finally has enough hair to do little baby pigtails (YAY!), so hopefully no more old people will be calling her a little boy (even when she's dressed in pink from head to toe)! We are really enjoying this stage. It is so neat to see her absorbing everything. She is still a GREAT eater and sleeper. She will eat almost anything we give her, which is great. She sleeps from 8 at night to about 8:45 or 9:00 in the morning and does a two hour nap in the afternoon, so she gives her mommy and daddy plenty of rest, which is nice.

Stephen and I are well, just busy as usual. Stephen has been preparing for the Easter service, getting all the music ready. He is also busy with Children's/Preschool stuff, which means he's completely in charge of VBS this year on top of everything else he has to do. If you have ever been in charge of a VBS, you know what a huge feat this is. Thankfully, he's got some good children's workers who are very helpful and supportive. My internship is still going well and I am learning a lot. School is going well too. I have finals in a couple weeks, so pray for me! Barring any huge tragedies I should manage A's in both classes. I'm also still busy with MMO and helping Stephen out at church.

Ok, now for the good stuff....

My sister came in town last weekend for my cousin's baby shower. She had lots of fun with Hope. I did get more pictures than this, but they are all on my phone and I have lost the adapter, so I guess they are forever stuck on my phone...

Bed-head

Our budding pianist...

Hope you enjoyed. I have a ton more (especially of her pig-tails, we are just so elated that she finally has hair!!!), but will have to find the adapter first before I can post them. Love you all!

Update

2009-03-30T15:07:00.003-05:00

Many of you have been asking how the internship has been going, so I thought I'd update real quick. It's been going really well. I'm learning a lot, but there is SO much that I don't know, especially when it comes to graphics, animation, movie-making, etc. That's all part of it too. You have to know how to make weather maps and then animate them to show fronts moving and that kind of stuff, so I really have a lot to learn! Sometimes it's kind of frustrating because I feel like I should know more, but I just have to remind myself that I've never done this before and that I'm just an intern. They don't expect me to know everything yet. Anyway, I am going two days a week and have been for about a month now. The guy that I've been working with is really nice and really knowledgeable.

Being gone from my family for just a few hours 2 days a week is a lot harder than I thought it would be. To be honest, I never want to be away from them at all. That's probably the hardest part about the internship. Otherwise, I'm really enjoying it. I think this will be really telling as to whether or not I do this as a career or not. I am coming to find out that I just really love teaching, so maybe I would teach Geosciences somewhere if I'm not going to become a Broadcast Meteorologist. We will see what God has in store for us.

In other news, Hope has Bronchitis. She was running fever on Thursday, but it was real low-grade. She was also kind of cranky and kept telling me her mouth hurt, so I chaulked it up to teething. However, she woke up Thursday night at like 10:30 screaming, coughing, throwing up, and gasping for air (this after an hour and a half under a tornado warning and baseball sized hail! We had cleaned out our hallway closet ready to get in!). It was all really scary. None of us slept a wink that night, Hope just cried and coughed all night long and had a really high fever. It was so sad! Friday morning I got her in right away. They listened to her lungs and they were all clear, so that was good. She got a diagnosis of Bronchitis and two shots of antibiotics in her legs (she also got a suppository for her constipation). She was MAD at me after all that! Now she's on Zithromax for the next few days. She seems to be doing better, although she is still running a low fever and is coughing really badly. Everytime she coughs she starts crying because it hurts so bad. I feel so bad for her. Anyway, just pray for us (mainly Hope right now). We definitely count our blessings because she has hardly been sick at all since she was born. It was just our time to pay some sick dues!

Stephen is doing well, just getting ready for Easter and planning for VBS, etc. He keeps himself busy no matter what time of year it is! Sorry no pictures! I will try to get some up next time!

Love you all!

God is good!

2009-03-07T19:56:00.002-06:00

It's just amazing how God works in His perfect timing. I've always regretted not sticking with Meteorology at A&M, but it is so obvious to me now how it just wasn't His timing for me. When I started this year at MSU, I just happened to have the privilege to meet the Chief Meteorologist of KXII here in Sherman when he came to speak at our church. I asked him at that time if there might be any internships available. He said to contact him once severe weather season starts. Severe weather season here runs from about March through June. So, about the end of February I wrote him and we have been writing back and forth since then. He asked me this past week to come in for an interview. I did on Friday and met with him and the News Director and I got the internship! They even said that I could possibly go on air in a couple of months! I just can't tell you how excited I am and how it is so neat to see God bring this all together in His perfect timing. He just keeps opening door after door-I'm just totally awe-struck by it. It will be on Tuesday and Friday evenings and whenever severe weather breaks out, and they said I can stay as long as I want. But what was so cool is that they totally respected my desire to be with my family during the day and to not come in on Wednesdays and Sundays since those are church days. I'm telling you, it's just amazing. I can't wait to see what else God has in store for us! Wish me luck! I start this Tuesday!

Spring Has Sprung!

2009-03-02T21:28:00.002-06:00

I thought I'd post this picture of our tree. Stephen took this picture and is always going on about how much he loves the trees in the front yard. They always turn the prettiest colors in the fall, then in the spring they blossom with these little white flowers. In the summer they are green, and they never get very tall. Howe isn't the prettiest place, but at least we have pretty trees in our yard. We look forward to the comfortable spring days, but we're not looking forward to "springing forward" an hour this Sunday!

Back In the Game!

2009-02-27T22:17:00.006-06:00

I know, I know, we really need to post more. I don't know if any of you will even read this since it's been so long since we posted. You may have given up on us. Things are just busy as usual. I know, excuses, excuses. We always think that once the holidays are over things will slow down, but they never really do.

Stephen and I got to celebrate our birthdays not long ago. Stephen spent much of the day and weekend spoiling me for my birthday. We got to go out to eat at the Melting Pot. If any of you haven't visited that place, it's worth going to. It's a fondue restaurant, so you cook all your food in a pot they put in the middle of your table. It's kind of pricey, but a lot of fun. Stephen's parents came in for Stephen's birthday and their anniversary. They stayed at a bed and breakfast near our house, and we had a blast with them. We ate at Posado's, our favorite Mexican food restaurant, we went shopping, and, of course, played some dominos. It was a lot of fun. We are so blessed to have amazing parents (in-laws)! We, of course, didn't get any pictures with them, so sorry that we don't have any to post. We'll have to remember to take some next time!

Last weekend our friends from college, Seth and Becca, came up to see us and brought their little boy, Ethan. He's just a few weeks older than Hope, and they always have so much fun together. We spent time visiting with them, then we went out to eat at Posado's again. It was great! We love them to death and wish we could see them more.

We went to the mall the other day and there was a carnival in the parking lot. Hope got to ride one of the cars around on this merry-go-round thing. It was kind of cold outside, and I'm not sure that she enjoyed it very much. She did scream when we tried to leave. Inside the mall they had an expo and she got to jump in one of those moon walk things. She definitely loved that, and again screamed when we took her out.

Not much else is going on here. Hope is now 20 months old and is into everything! She gets cuter everyday. She's learning new words all the time and sees and understands so much more than we know. We are so blessed to have her. Stephen is busy with work and is getting a headstart on VBS and Easter. He's had to take on some responsibilities in the Children's Ministry at our church since we lost our Children's Minister a few months ago. He still loves his job. Right now I'm looking into an internship at one of the news stations in Sherman. I'm going to have to do something like that sometime in the next couple of years, so please pray that if this is the right time, God will open doors. That's about all we know. We hope you are all doing well!

Hope's First Haircut

2009-01-30T22:20:00.011-06:00

Yes, I know what you're saying... "What hair?!" But seriously, she had a really bad mullet, so we just decided to chop it all off in the back. She looks like she has a cute little bob now, and it looks SO much better! Here are the pics...

The before "mullet" pics...

The "During" pics...She was so scared and was just bawling, so I ended up holding her and bribing her with a dum-dum. She was fine once she got ahold of the dum-dum...;)

The "After" pics... Doesn't it look SO much better?!

And some "just because" pics...

Our Holidays

2009-01-11T13:39:00.008-06:00

Hey everybody!

Our Christmas was great and we are just now getting back into the swing of things.

My mom came to our house the day before Christmas Eve and we celebrated Christmas with her and my aunt and uncle on Christmas Eve. It was so fun to be able to be with family and to be able to celebrate at our own house. Usually we are traveling, so this was a nice change. On Christmas Day we woke up, did stockings and had breakfast. Then we all packed up and left to go celebrate Christmas in San Antonio with my dad. We got in at about 5:00 in the evening and just had a nice, fun time being together, opening presents, eating, etc. The Sunday after Christmas we were able to celebrate Stephen's dad's birthday. We all went out to eat and just had fun being together. We had a nice visit with everybody and came home on the 30th, just in time to celebrate New Year's Eve at our home, just me and Stephen and Hope. It was sad not to be able to be with family, but nice at the same time to have some time together. we built a fire and played MarioKart on the Wii all night. It was a blast and a really nice way to relax after all the craziness of the holidays! We are glad to be home now and back in our routine. Hope did so well through everything. She is really flexible when it comes to traveling, staying up late, napping late, etc. We did really miss our schedule though. Mom's Morning Off started up again last week, along with my classes. I am taking World Geography and Climatology this semester and am really looking forward to it. Stephen is busy as usual with church stuff, and when he isn't doing church stuff, he's busy doing something else. We just want to say we love you and miss you to all our friends and family out there. We praise the Lord for everything He has done this year and are looking forward to the awesome things we know He will be doing in 2009! Here are a few random pictures from Christmas and otherwise...

My uncle and aunt got to come celebrate Christmas with us. They live in Tulsa, so when we get to see them, it's a real treat! Here they are with Hope.I know this is a really random picture, but look at Hobbes's eyes. Is that not creepy?! I just had to post it b/c I knew everybody would think that was so interesting... ;)

My daughter being her crazy self. Every time I get the camera out, she has to get as close to it as she can and start making funny faces. So I have a bunch of pictures that look like this if ever y'all are interested. ;)

Checking out her new book!

Posing with Mommy on Christmas Eve. She was really tired.

Thanksgiving pics

2008-12-14T22:23:00.004-06:00

Suzann took these pics of the nieces and nephews while the kids played at the park on Thanksgiving Day. Isn't she amazingly talented?!

Our nephew, Andrew

Our niece Hollyann and nephew Ian

Niece and nephew, Moira and Ian

And here are the ones of Hope that Suzann took. I'm sorry there are so many, I couldn't pick just one!

Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas

2008-12-14T21:51:00.005-06:00

Ugh. Sorry I haven't posted in like a month. This time of year always lends itself to lots and lots of business, which as you all know, is not very conducive to blog-posting.

We have been well around here. Just busy. Our church Christmas musical was tonight, so everything we've been doing lately has been kind of leading up to this. It went well. We did "Cardboard Testimonials" as part of the musical. Have any of y'all seen this on YouTube? I will try to post the video of ours. It will make you bawl your eyes out. It was so awesome to see how God has worked so powerfully in the lives of the people in our church and so amazing to be a part of something so powerful. There was not a dry eye in the house.

For Thanksgiving we went to Collin and Janelle's (Stephen's bro and sis-in-law). We got to see Stephen's parents, his brothers, and their wives and kids. It was so great to be together. We had lots of good food and fellowship. Hope LOVED being with her family. She is sooooo social. When we got home and it was just us again, she kind of wandered around the house like, "What do I do now?" We were able to do Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas with everyone since we won't be seeing any of Stephen's family for Christmas. We had lots of fun and Hope was so good the whole trip! Thanks again for hosting us Collin and Janelle!

We went to see Santa the other night. Hope SCREAMED her head off. She was so scared! I wish I could post the pic, but our scanner is broken and we don't have a CD of it. It was so funny, but so sad at the same time! Maybe next year will be better!

I finished up my classes for the semester and am enjoying the short time off before I start again in January. I got A's in both my classes, praise the Lord! I am really enjoying the material, so the studying is fun.

Now all the big stuff is over and we can just relax. My mom is coming for Christmas Eve. I love this time of year, when everything is done. Shopping is done, presents are wrapped, musical is over. Now we can just sit back. I am looking forward to going to the Christmas Eve service and just hanging out around the house with my husband, mom and baby. Christmas morning we will drive to SA and have Christmas with my dad and celebrate Stephen's dad's b-day and then we will be back up here for New Year's.

We are so blessed to have such great friends, family and church. Thank you Lord! I will post pics in the next blog!

Harvest Fest and Hope at 16 months...

2008-11-06T22:10:00.005-06:00

Hope is 16 months-she'll be 17 months on the 18th. We just can't believe how time is flying! Hope is of course walking now and running all over the place. She won't stop long enough to even get a decent picture as you'll see below. Hope is doing all sorts of new things. She knows so many signs including: more, all done, milk, eat, wait, please and thank you. She made up her own sign for night-night. It's so cute. She tucks her fist up under her chin and says, "nigh-nigh," like she's cuddling her blanky. We are working on other signs now, such as, water, yes, no and we will soon start working on some signs for "potty." I just figured, she picked up so well on the ones we've taught her, why stop here? I am a huge proponent of baby signing b/c it acutally teaches them to communicate with you instead of screaming, which is what Hope did for the first 6 months of her life. It also engages their brain in a totally different way and teaches them to make connections they would not have made otherwise. It's also been really neat b/c she will sign a word and say it at the same time, so it's not like it's hindering her verbal communication at all, and really it seems to be only helping it.

Hope knows lots of animals and animal sounds. If she sees an animal that she doesn't know, she will just make up a sound for it. It's so cute. She loves dogs the most, though, and whenever she sees one, she yells, "PUPPY!! WOOF WOOF!" She also loves cats and constantly follows Hobbes around the house "meowing," trying to get him to play with his string. He takes it all in stride of course, and is much more patient with her than he would be with Stephen or myself. She absolutely LOVES any animal of any kind really. She is always singing "Old MacDonald," not the whole song, of course, but the E-I-E-I-O part and shouts the animal sounds, and is usually on key with us! *blink blink* Crazy!

Hope also knows almost all of her body parts and loves to point them out on herself and on us. She is also loving books of any kind right now. All day long our day looks like this: Hope brings me a book and climbs up on the couch for me to read it to her. (Or if I'm sitting on the floor she will climb in my lap.) When we are finished reading, she climbs down and goes and gets another book, yelling, "BOOK!" the whole time, climbs back up and insists that I read the next one. She's obsessed. It's funny because she is also weirdly fascinated with her daddy's music books and is constantly wanting me to read them to her. I have to explain that she would not be interested in those and that she should bring me one of HER books. She does not like this and usually throws a fit. So I oblige and turn pages for her until she gets bored and sees that I really do know what I am talking about and goes and gets one of her own books. We do this SEVERAL times a day. It's quite hilarious, actually.

Hope is also into her Baby Einstein DVD's. She really loves them. We watch about one per day, so it's not too much-just enough to keep her interested. She's also starting to do puzzles. We have one with shapes and she can actually match the shape and fit the pieces in. It's amazing! She HATES to color or do any organized craft of any kind. I fear she is taking after her mother in this aspect. But I'm not going to force her. We have plenty of time for all that "artsy fartsy" stuff. She can eat with a fork and spoon now, although she's still pretty messy. We're slowly getting better in this area.

I guess that's it. Sorry that was so long, but I hadn't written an update on Hope in awhile, so I thought y'all might like to know what's going on. Below are some Harvest Fest pics, and, as usual, they are not great. Hope dressed as a ladybug. Hope y'all enjoy!

This little boy was a cow. They were fascinated with each other!

And back at home throwing a fit b/c she had to come home (don't even ask why the pic is green, I have NO clue!)

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-28T16:33:00.007-05:00

I know you have all written me off as a horrible blogger, but in my defense, it's kind of hard to post pictures without a camera. And my camera phone sucks. It takes really blurry pictures, so that's my excuse. ;) Stephen's getting me a new digital camera for x-mas. Maybe I can convince him to get it for me a little early. Please honey, please???? The people want pictures!!

A couple of weekends ago we went to the Pumpkin Patch with our SS class. It was a lot of fun, albeit really warm. There is something wrong when you're going to the Pumpkin Patch and it is still 85 degrees outside. One of my good friends was gracious enough to take some pictures of our family.

Ready for her day!

What is THIS stuff?!

Looking at the pumpkins...

Petting the puppy...

Driving the tractor...

Mommy and Daddy tried to get a good pic with the pumpkins, but she was just too busy...

Family pic with the pumpkins...

She stole a baby's toy...;)

Daddy on the zip-line...(He waited 30 minutes for 10 whole seconds of bliss)

They had a tractor pulling a bunch of barrels painted like cows, making a train. Hope LOVED it. She was the only baby in there. The rest of the kids were older and we were all SO surprised that she stayed in there the whole time with no help at all!

Thoughts about the weather...

2008-10-07T16:20:00.001-05:00

I know you are probably thinking that this will be a massively boring post, but I just had to get my thoughts out.

I made a really neat discovery this week while reading my textbooks. Essentially what I learned is that the sun sends energy to earth in the form of heat (duh). That's something you already knew, I realize. Some parts of the earth get more heat than others. For example, if you live along the equator, obviously you are going to receive more heating than if you live in, say, Fargo. So, because the earth receives more heating in some places then in others, it is constantly "trying" to redistribute the heat in order to equalize the climate around the globe. This unequal heating of the earth is, in effect, what makes our weather because the earth is forever endeavoring to make the cold parts warm and the warm parts cold. It's almost like the earth is "alive" and thinking. This is just amazing to me. How could you NOT believe in an all-knowing, all-powerful God after seeing and knowing the evidence of such intracacies as solar radiation, heat budget, the water cycle, etc? Everything has been so carefully and so meticulously set in place. In my humble opinion it takes more faith to believe this all happened by chance.

God has really opened my eyes lately to just how huge and powerful and amazing He really is. Creation is such awesome evidence of this. It's crazy to think that He actually thought up all this stuff. Below are some verses about weather. That weather processes are this simple to God when they are SO complicated to us is totally beyond my reasoning.

Psalm 147: 15-18"He sends His command to the earth; His word runs swiftly. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand His icy blast? He sends His word and melts them; He stirs up His breezes and the waters flow."

Psalm 147:8"He covers the sky with clouds; He supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills."

Job 37:15-16"Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes His lightning flash? Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?"

Psalm 107:29"He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed."

Nahum 1:3"...His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet."

Job 5:10"He bestows rain on the earth; He sends water upon the countryside."

Zechariah 10:1"Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men..."

Jeremiah 10:13"When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses."

Psalm 19:1"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands."

More to come...

The Wilhite's Go To D.C.-Part 4

2008-09-21T15:29:00.002-05:00

PART 4...

FRIDAY, SEPT. 19-ANNAPOLIS AND THE NAVAL ACADEMY

Friday,, Barrett and Suzann (and Hannah!) took us to Annapolis and the Naval Academy. It was a beautiful, quaint little city with lots of cool history. The Naval Academy was having parents' weekend, so we got to see a fly-over and we got to see the cadets marching into lunch. It was really neat and a beautiful campus!

Walking down the streets of Annapolis. Lots of cute little shops lined the streets. You could spend forever here just perusing the shops. The Chesapeake Bay was down at the end of the street and you could see the boats in the harbor. Such a serene and tranquil view.
Eating crab at a local restaurant. Yummy!
The Chapel at the Naval AcademyThe view of the Bay. It was so cool-in the low 70's with a nice breeze blowing. Perfect weather!
In front of the oldest State House still in use. It was closed for renovation but we still got to take a picture.

Well, that was it! Yesterday, Saturday the 20th, we got up at 6:00 am to catch our 9:00 flight out of Baltimore. From there we headed to Philly for our 3 hour trip back to DFW. Hope was SOOO tired and it was NOT a fun flight. She screamed at least a few times. Luckily there were other kids on that flight too, so we all just screamed together! Our friends Seth and Becca who lived in Plano picked us up (thanks guys!) and we got home at about 3:00 yesterday. We are SO tired! It's amazing how much all that takes out of you! I went to bed at 9:00 last night, I was so tired. Hope took a nap yesterday when we got home, then slept for 12 hours last night and then took a 4 hour nap when we got home from church today! She is just tuckered out! It was so worth it though, and we made lots of good memories!!! Now to start planning our next vacation... ;)

The Wilhite's Go To D.C.-Part 3

2008-09-21T14:49:00.006-05:00

Part 3...

TUESDAY, SEPT. 16-MT. VERNON

Hope and I in front of George Washington's house.

View of the Potomac from his house. So beautiful!
George Washington's tomb

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 17-CAPITOL TOUR AND PENTAGON TOUR

Hope and I in the rotunda of the Capitol Building

Hope in the very center of the Capitol Building (where the star is)
View of the Capitol from the outsideHope and I outside of the Pentagon

The Memorial to the 9/11 victims of the Pentagon. It was so sad.

Another Memorial to the 9/11 Pentagon victims in the distance and the Air Force Memorial in the background.

9/11 Memorial closer up-They have one for each of the 184 victims. 3 were children.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 18-WHITE HOUSE TOUR AND BASEBALL GAME

Stephen and I got to take a tour of the White House. Here it is from the front.

Stephen and I in front of the White House

The White House from on top of a hill. The Washington Monument behind it.

The Jefferson Monument

Inside the Jefferson Monument

Stephen at the Washington Nationals vs. Mets game. Barrett got tickets and they got to have some "brotherly" time.

The Watergate Building

The National Cathedral at night

Part 4 coming soon...

The Wilhite's Go To D.C.-Part II

2008-09-21T14:02:00.006-05:00

PART II...

MONDAY-SEPT. 15th-THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN, ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, ROBERT E LEE'S HOUSE, ETC.

Robert E Lee's House in the background

JFK's grave
Stephen and I in front of JFK's grave
Stephen, Barrett, and Suzann in front of Robert E Lee's house
Tomb of the Unknown. We got to see the changing of the guard. It was really cool.

The tomb says, "Here rests in honored glory an American Soldier. Known but to God."

The changing of the guard

Some of the graves...It was so sad to see all of the infants and children

After the Cemetery, Barrett and Suzann took Hope home and let us roam around D.C ourselves. Thanks guys!! So, we headed over to Iwo Jima and then back down to the Washington Monument and other things before we headed home that evening.

Iwo Jima...the Marines Memorial

Looking down from Iwo Jima at the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument. A great view!

On the bridge to Teddy Roosevelt Island-he was a conservationist, so this entire island is dedicated to him

Headed down the Mall towards the Washington Monument

World War II Memorial-This one was just dedicated and is right next to the Washington Monument. The Lincoln Memorial is right across the Reflection Pool from it. It was really cool.

WWII Memorial cont...

Across the Reflection Pool-Washington Monument behind us

Lincoln Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

We had SO much fun, but by this time we were sunburned and completely exhausted, so we headed home. Part III coming soon...

The Wilhite's Go To D.C.-Part 1

2008-09-21T13:17:00.006-05:00

Well, we are back and are really tired, but so happy! We survived Washington D.C. and had so much fun!! We got flew US Airways out of DFW on Friday, the 12th. It was a 3 hour flight and Hope did GREAT! I was really nervous about how she would do, but we kept her entertained and she actually slept in my arms for about 30 minutes. So, all in all, a good flight. Suzann picked us up and the excitement began! We got to meet our newest little neice, Hannah. She's so cute! We of course, were so excited to see Barrett, Suzann, Hollyann, and Andrew as well! We stayed at their house the whole time and we just want to say how thankful we are to them for letting us take over their basement for a little over a week and for showing us around D.C. Thanks again guys! We had so much fun and miss you already!

Okay, I have tons of pics, so I'm going to do this in parts. They are in order by day. And oh yeah...I did a kind of "Flat Stanley" thing with some of my friends, so if you see some weird laminated dude in some of the pictures, you know what it is. Okay, on with the pics...

FRIDAY, SEPT. 12

Holding baby Hannah

SATURDAY, SEPT. 13-THE ZOO

Hope is ready for her day at the zoo! It's a great zoo and free to the public!

This is a bird we saw at the zoo. We thought it was dead, but it just turned out it was "sunning" itself! Pretty crazy huh???
Hope and Mommy at the zoo
Hope and Daddy seeing the hippos

SUNDAY-SEPTEMBER 14th-THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, NAVY MEMORIAL AND WASHINGTON MONUMENT

At the National Archives, which houses almost every important document in our nation's history. It was SOOOO cool to see all of those documents in one location.
The Declaration of Independence

The Articles of Confederation

The Constitution

The Louisiana Purchase

Hope and I in front of some Civil War document. Can't remember which one...

Hollyann and Andrew in front of the Navy Memorial

The Washington Monument

Looking down the Mall from the Washington Monument at the WWII Memorial, the Reflection Pool, and the Lincoln Memorial

I thought this was a cool picture of the Washington Monument...

Part 2 coming soon...

No pictures...

2008-09-05T23:15:00.003-05:00

Sorry, no pics to be had at all. Our camera has officially bitten the dust. Sorry, you will have to wait until Christmas when we get a new digital camera for any new pictures. Just kidding. We can still take pictures with our phones, but the quality isn't that great. Come to think of it, though, the quality hasn't been great on any of our pictures lately anyway, so I guess you won't be missing anything!!! haha...

Things are good here. Stephen's parents came down for Labor Day weekend and we had lots of fun with them. Of course, we got no pictures (see above paragraph), so you'll just have to imagine how great it was with your mind. Isn't that how people used to do it before we had all these fancy tv's and digital cameras and stuff? Just pretend like you're living in the 1800's and imagine how much fun we had...

So, anyway, we had lots of fun. We went shopping and had birthday pie (key lime to be exact) and just hung out. It's always nice to see family. Sandy and Bruce got to see Hope walking around and just generally wreaking havoc everywhere. I'm sure they really enjoyed that.

School is going well. I got A's on my first two quizzes. I just got done reading a whole chapter about maps and different kinds of map projections. A WHOLE CHAPTER!!! I really had no idea anybody could write a whole chapter about maps. Hopefully we will move on to more interesting stuff soon! I am having fun tracking all the tropical storms and hurricanes though. Gustav missed us by about an inch (I'm NOT kidding!). We got lots of wind and maybe one sprinkle of rain and that was IT! I was very disappointed. I told Stephen next time I'm going down to the coast to storm chase. I'm done with all the pretty sun and pleasant weather. I want some REAL weather!!! I watch the Weather Channel 24/7 and live vicariously through everybody else who seems to get a lot of rain.

Well, as you can tell by my totally pointless post, we really have nothing going on in our lives and so I've decided to bore you with my rantings. I will end here before your opinion of me sinks any lower. ;) Oh yeah...we are going to D.C. next week for about a week to visit Barrett and Suzann and the kids. PLEASE keep our plane ride in your prayers. I'm very afraid what a plane trip with Hope will look like. I'll TRY (operative word is "TRY") to get some pics posted from my phone before we go, but I don't expect to be posting much while we are there. So if you don't see a new post any time soon, well, that's pretty normal anyway, so no need to worry! ;)

Love you all!

Hope walking

2008-08-17T21:21:00.003-05:00

Lots of stuff

2008-08-11T21:05:00.008-05:00

Ok, this post is like FOREVER long!!! Hang in there though, I promise it will be worth the read! We've had lots going on, as usual. First we are happy to announce a new niece, Hannah Elyse to our family! She was born July 27th, weighing 8 lbs, 9 0z and 20.5 inches long. We are so happy for Barrett and Suzann and can't wait to meet our newest little niece when we go on vacation in September! Here she is! Isn't she beautiful?

Next, I just want to say thank you so much to everyone for your words of encouragement and your prayers as we pondered the whole "Paige going back to school" thing. We have definitely decided that I am for sure going. We have several job opportunites right now which will allow me a very flexible schedule so that I can take care of Hope and do my schoolwork. It will be a huge change for us (me mostly), but I am so excited. After much praying and seeking godly wisdom, we are sure that this is where God has us right now. Please pray for us as we delve into these new adventures that our eyes will be focused on the One who provides us with these amazing opportunties and that I won't be afraid of hard work!

Next, and another reason we desperately crave your prayers right now-we are starting a Mom's Morning Off program at our church and I am completely totally in charge! Woohoo! It is going to be an awesome ministry for our church and a great way to reach out to the surrounding communities as well. No other church in our area has a program like this, so we are hoping for some really good response. It won't be like an MDO. It will be held just Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and parents will have the option of how often they want to bring their kids. I think the flexibility of the program will do a world of good for those stressed moms that just need a little break! Please pray that God would do a mighty work through this program to reach out to our church and community.

Lastly, but certainly not least, Hope is FINALLY walking!!! I wouldn't say she's an expert walker yet, but she is most definitely on her way!! I got a video yesterday on my phone, but it is in MP4 format and I have no idea how to get it to play on my computer. Any ideas??? Here are a few pics of our sweet girl.

Drawing on our back porch with sidewalk chalk

Cuddling with some teddy bears

This past weekend we went to visit my mom in Marble Falls and got to play in the lake a little.

Stephen looks like he's really enjoying himself, huh?

We also got to see some horses!

Hope's hair (what little there is of it) afterwards. It was SO hot!!

Hope at Musikgarten

2008-08-11T20:47:00.004-05:00

For the past three semesters Hope and I have participated in Musikgarten. This is basically a music class for babies and toddlers. The focus is to give young children a feel for rhythm, repetition, pitch, etc. while also incorporating visual and other sensory and motor skills. It has been SO fun and Hope has really enjoyed it. We have used rhythm sticks, sand blocks, shakers, hula hoops, scarves, and many other manipulatives as "instruments" to teach our babies about music. It has also been a great way to interact with Hope while also meeting other moms in our area. Unfortunately the lady that did the class accepted a full time teaching job this coming school year and won't have time to do Musikgarten anymore. :( We are sad about that, but hopefully we'll find some other ways to get out and involved this coming fall. If you moms are looking for a fun thing for you and your child to do, I really highly recommend Musikgarten. It has been so great for us. Here are a few pictures of our last "class".

Hope getting her "certificate of graduation" ;)

We will miss you Miss Shelley!!

Family Portraits

2008-07-26T12:18:00.005-05:00

Recent pics

2008-07-25T14:54:00.006-05:00

Well we are back from the dead. I thought we were fine and then Tuesday Stephen came down with the plague. We are now referring to it as the "Black Death." Well, that's what we felt like anyway! Thankfully, Stephen is better now and we *seem* to have kicked everything, praise the Lord! Yesterday we scoured the house top to bottom, so hopefully we won't have to deal with anymore killer viruses anytime soon!

Here are some recent pics. We have not been well, so we haven't taken a whole lot lately. Luckily we just got some family portraits done, so I will be posting those after this. Enjoy!

On the 4th we went to my Uncle and Aunt's house in Tulsa. We had so much fun catching up and stuff. Here is Hope's 4th of July outfit. Sorry for the bluriness. It's a camera phone

My cousin Liana had her first baby in June. We got to meet her when we went to Tulsa. She's so tiny and cute!! Her name is Anna-Li.

Stephen's parents came into town a couple of weeks ago. They only stayed overnight, but we had fun nonetheless. We went shopping and they took Hope on her first carousel ride!

Random pic of Mommy and Hope

Hope and one of her little friends from church. I was babysitting that day. This little girl is about 6 months older than Hope, but they have lots of fun together.

Sick, sick, sick

2008-07-18T15:01:00.002-05:00

Yes, we are sick, sick, sick. Hope threw up all day on Wednesday, as you are aware from my previous post. Yesterday was fine, except that she didn't know what she wanted to eat all day. Nothing was tasting good to her. We took it really easy on the food and no throwing up yesterday at all!! YAY!! Then this morning at 7:30, I hear it. That unmistable sound coming from your child's room, like they're choking and dying. I ran into her room and, sure enough, puke all over her bed. She was just crying and wretching, poor little baby. Then an hour later I get this sinking feeling and run to the bathroom. Yep, I am sick with it now too. It's that achy, nauseated, feverish feeling. I can't do anything but lay on the couch and try to ignore the pins pricking me everywhere. Poor Stephen is running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to care for both of us. I feel so badly for him. He so looks forward to his weekends to get some much needed R&R. Thank the Lord I got sick now instead of two days ago so he didn't have to take off any more work. Please pray that he does not get it! That's the last thing he needs right before Sunday services!

Just an update...

2008-07-16T22:26:00.003-05:00

More will come later, I promise. For now I just wanted to let everyone know that we're okay and we're still here! Things have been mega stressful and busy lately. I am sure that all of you can relate!

We just got done with a children's musical and adult musical at church, and since we have no children's minister at the present moment, Stephen was in charge of getting Children's Camp up and going this summer. I am telling you, I cannot express with ANY words how HUGE of a feat it was to get all of those campers and sponsers off to camp last week! PLEASE go hug your children's minister and tell them you appreciate all the hard work they do! They do so much that we don't even know about!

Anyway, we thought after we got last week over with that things would slow down around here, but as it so happened, Hope decided it would be a good week to get a nasty stomach virus! Fun times. (WARNING...if you are eating, you might want to put your food down before you go any further. It's going to get kind of graphic.) She's thrown up 4 times today and has had the "runs" (I use this term lightly) on and off. She's had no wet diapers and can't keep anything down. She was even throwing up her juice. Finally I decided tonight to just try and give her little sips of juice at a time and SO FAR she has managed to keep that down. She really didn't want to drink anything today at all, but I managed to coax her by letting her drink from a straw (she loves to drink out of straws). PLEASE pray for us this week. Having a sick kid is hard; having a sick and throwing up kid is excrutiating. I have never cleaned up so much puke in my life.

One last think before I let you go. I just want to ask for your prayers for myself this week. I feel like I'm kind of at a "crossroads" in my life right now. I have applied, been accepted, and even registered for classes at Mississippi State University for the Fall. I want to go back to get my degree in Meteorology. Many of you know that I have a huge passion for the weather and I would really LOVE to do it as a career. However, we are kind of waffling back and forth on whether I should go or not. Our first and probably biggest issue is that I really don't want my family to suffer emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or financially because I chose to go to school. The classes are all on-line, but I know it would take away from my time with family and to me that is an even bigger thing than my desire to go to school.

Secondly, and most importantly is my heart in all of this. I feel like a part of me is looking to this program and a career in meteorology to sort of "give me identity." I've always felt like I really don't do anything special that sets me apart and this would "help" my issue. I know this is wrong of me to think, and I know that my identity should not be wrapped up in what I DO, rather it should be about who I am in Christ. But what does that really look like for a ministry-minded stay-at-home wife and mom?

Our third obstacle is, of course the money issue. I will need to find a job or something in order to go to school and this will take more time away from family and church. The program is $13,000. The school is really pushing me to get loans, but we feel very convicted that we should not do that. We have been working very hard to get out of debt, not to mention that we already have upwards of $30,000 in school loans combined. Adding to that total would just be taking one huge step backwards.

One part of me feels like this is a passion that God gave me and wouldn't God want me to pursue a passion that He Himself gave me? But then another part of me asks, well how could I glorify God in the field of meteorology? The field doesn't exactly call for in-depth Bible study and long periods of deep, theological discussion. But what a better way to bring glory to God than to study the "hugeness" of His creation and remember that He is ultimately in control of all of those things? Sorry for all the confusion. I just want to glorify God in what I do and I want to have peace whether I do this or not. Part of me really really wants to pursue a lifelong, God-given passion. But another part of me feels like it's just not the right time. We just don't know what to do about all this. Stephen has been so supportive and I know he would love to see me do this, but it just doesn't look like it's the right timing, and that makes me kind of sad. I really don't have another shot at this. I have already applied and not attended once. I can't do that again. Give me your thoughts, and if not, just your prayers would be nice. We love you all and thank you for your love and support. Pics of Hope will come soon!!!

The Toddler's Creed

2008-06-27T13:18:00.003-05:00

We got a copy of this with Hope's fingerprint on it at the end of VBS week. I thought it was hilarious and very fitting for kids her age.

The Toddler's Creed

If I want it, it's mine.

If I give it to you and change my mind later, It's mine.

If I can take it away from you, It's mine.

If I had it a little while ago, It's mine.

If it's mine, It will never belong to anyone else, no matter what.

If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine.

If it looks just like mine, It's mine.

More Birthday Pics

2008-06-25T12:47:00.004-05:00

Here are the pics my mom took from Hope's b-day party. Enjoy!!!

She was able to get in the pool for a minute after everybody left.

She is absolutely obsessed with these ducks!

Checking out her new toys with Daddy

A pic of the cake before it was cut

Proof that we DID have a dress on her before the cake was served

Where to begin???!!

2008-06-22T21:37:00.002-05:00

I am SO sorry I have not kept up with posting. For those who are having withdrawls, there are like 5 new posts under this one, so I hope you feel updated!!! ;)

We have had so much going on lately that it has been hard to just sit down and upload pics to post anything! A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to Gruene and San Antonio for our 5th anniversary. Last weekend we celebrated Hope's 1st birthday and then this whole past week has been VBS at church. It's been wild and crazy around here! Once next weekend is over (we have a big 4th of July bash at the church where the choir will present a patriotic musical) hopefully things will start to settle down.

Anyway, I wanted to update everybody on Hope. She had her 1 year check-up last Friday. She weighed 21 lbs and was 29 inches long (50th percentile for both). So she has really grown! She really is starting to grow out of her 12 month clothes and is close to needing 18 month stuff!! I can't believe how fast she is growing out of all her clothes! She is crawling everywhere, standing on her own, talking up a storm, but of course, not walking at all!!! She won't even take steps when we hold her hands or cruise the furniture. She's so stubborn! I know it will come with time and am trying to just enjoy the crawling stage, but I am so tired of her knees being red and rug-burned!

As I said, Hope is talking up a storm. She continually amazes me with her verbal skills. She says Mama, Dada, up, and uh-oh very regularly. Today, Daddy told her (jokingly) to get out of the bedroom when he was taking a nap. He said, "Out!" and she very clearly yelled back, "OUT!!!" And then she just kept yelling it over and over. It was so cute!! I wish we had gotten it on camera. She has quite the attitude and has already begun talking back. She also makes animal sounds. When we ask her what the cow says, she goes, "BOOOOOO!" She hasn't quite gotten that she needs to put an "M" at the front of that, but we know what she means. She also quacks like a duck and barks like a dog. We're working on the kitty right now. That ones a hard one for her. Hope is also signing to us. She signs more and all done very regularly. We are working on thank-you, food, drink, please, up, and milk. Hope is weaned completely now (as of about 2 weeks ago) and is taking milk from a sippy. Last night we taught her to drink from a straw! She is eating table foods very well as long as the pieces are broken up small enough. She only has two teeth, so I think it will be awhile before we can eat anything too chunky.

For those of you who knew Hope as a newborn, she has gotten SOOO much better. She is generally a happy baby now and is fairly easy to please. We have, however, reserved ourselves to the fact that we have one little DIVA on our hands. She is a very opinionated little girl and always lets us know (usually very loudly) when she is not just completely elated with her current situation. She screams at the top of her lungs when she is upset and arches her back in protest when we hold her and she doesn't want to be held. Look out world, this little girl has ATTITUDE! She is very particular about things. She hates being in the grass and cries and cries when we try to put her down in it. She also LOVES to look at her shoes and dresses in her closet, so we know we have a girly-girl on our hands!

We feel so blessed to have her and can't believe how far we all have come over the past year. Through this little baby God has taught me how truly selfish I can be at times. I have learned so much over the past year that I feel like I should be so much older. Thank you, Lord for this precious little girl. You have blessed us so richly. (Andjust to field the question now, NO!!! We're NOT thinking about another one any time soon!!!) ;)

Hope's first swim!

2008-06-22T21:27:00.004-05:00

We bought a little kiddie pool for Hope and since she didn't really get a chance to get in during her party, we filled it up this past weekend and Daddy got in and "swam" with her. She is SUCH a girly-girl and whimpered a little at first because the water was kind of cool. But once she got used to the temperature, she started to have fun. There is a waterpark that just opened here in Sherman and we're hoping to take her there soon.

Hope's 1st Luau!

2008-06-22T21:00:00.005-05:00

We celebrated Hope's 1st birthday last Saturday. It was a luau theme. It was a lot of work, but we had SO much fun! We had lots of church family there, plus my mom and a good friend from Decatur. The kids came in their grass skirts and swimsuits and they swam in our little kiddie pool. We did shish-kabobs (is that spelled right???) for dinner and then did cake and presents. It was really fun and so awesome to have so many people around who love us and wanted to celebrate with us! My mom took some pics that I will post once she sends them, but for now these will have to do.

The backyard all decked out

The table inside (not quite done)

The cake

Opening presents!

Eating cake (she actually only ate a little bit and then wouldn't touch it after that)

The best gift EVER!!! DIAPERS!!!

A cute dress from Grandma

Lounging in her new chair after it was over!

5 Years Together

2008-06-22T20:35:00.006-05:00

Stephen and I celebrated 5 years of wedded bliss on June 7th. It really has gone so fast-I still feel like a newly-wed! I cannot tell you how blessed I am to have this man in my life. He has been my rock, my shoulder to cry on, my loving companion, and I thank God for putting him in my life. I love you Honey-Bunny!!!

Pics from our trip to Gruene/San Antonio:

In our B&B in Gruene

Abby, Trevor, and Hope (sorry for the poor clarity-it's a camera phone)

Eating cake!!

Playing with Grandpa Smith

Our baby is ONE today!!!

2008-06-18T13:12:00.003-05:00

Can you believe how fast the time flies?! One year ago today I gave birth to our sweet Hope. She is so amazing and we thank God for her every day. We had a party last Saturday and will post those pics soon, I promise. We've had a really crazy past couple of weeks and this week is VBS, so I probably won't get to posting until sometime this weekend. Thanks for being patient with me!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!! MOMMY AND DADDY LOVE YOU!!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

2008-05-27T16:32:00.003-05:00

My mom came in town for Memorial Day weekend. It was a wonderful visit. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!

Hope and Daddy at a restaurant on Lake Texoma

Being silly in her highchair

Playing with Grandma

Posing for the camera (excuse the food on her face)

Pics from last weekend

2008-05-21T22:23:00.005-05:00

We had a blast last weekend just doing lots of things in and around the area. On Friday we went to the Children's Museum in Dallas and then on Saturday we went to Trade Days in McKinney. It was fun just poking around town and getting to see things we haven't seen before.

Here are a few of Hope playing at the Children's Museum. They have the coolest play-room for babies.

Hope trying a lemon...

Hope's reaction to the lemon...

Hope's Dedication

2008-05-13T16:29:00.003-05:00

On Mother's Day morning we dedicated our sweet Hope at church. *sniff sniff* It was so surreal to be standing there with my little baby dedicating her to the Lord. I had dreamed of it for almost 3 years. I cannot express how grateful and how in awe I am that God has blessed us with such a sweet, beautiful baby girl. Yes, we've had many trying times so far (and I know there will be many more to come), but it is all worth it. She is a daily reminder that our hope comes from the Lord, that He alone is our salvation and our provider. We love you, Lord. Thank you for making me a mother.

P.S. Sorry the pics are blurry. I've said it before and I'll say it again. We need a new camera!!!

In other news...

2008-05-13T16:12:00.003-05:00

Hope is almost 11 months and she has officially had her first bout with illness. A couple of weekends ago Hope came down with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. It is a rash accompanied by a fever. She had a red rash all over her body and then pimply spots on her hands and feet. She also had sores in her mouth. Poor baby! She was so sick! For three days straight she did not want to do anything but sleep and sit with me. Since it is a virus, we could not do anything for her except alternate the tylenol and motrin and make sure she was drinking. We are glad she is over it and feel very blessed. Save a sniffly nose here and there she has not been sick at all until now, so we thank the Lord for that.

We have had a lot of visitors lately. Janelle and Collin came a couple of weekends ago and then Gary and Krissy came last weekend. We have been having so much fun! On Friday Seth, Becca and Ethan came over and we all ate hamburgers and hot dogs and just had a fun time catching up with one another. My mom will be coming this weekend, so we are looking forward to that. Here are some pics from this past weekend...

Bluebonnets

2008-04-23T15:12:00.002-05:00

Visit with friends

2008-04-14T17:17:00.003-05:00

We went to eat at Chipotle with our friends Seth and Becca Carnes a couple weekends ago. Seth and Becca are serving at a church in Plano, which is about 45 minutes south of us. They are actually on a mission trip in China right now, so keep them in your prayers. Seth and Becca have a baby, Ethan, who is about a month older than Hope and is SO cute! Here are some pics of the babies together.

Hope and Ethan behaving very nicely...

Oh no...Ethan's making a move!!!!

Just some pics

2008-04-14T17:09:00.004-05:00

I was just fooling around with my camera phone at Olive Garden. These are from a few weeks ago...

9 months old

2008-04-14T10:49:00.002-05:00

Well, actually she's almost 10 months old, but oh well! I can't believe Hope has only 2 months until she is 1!!!! It's going SOOO fast!!!! I guess I need to start planning a birthday party sometime soon. On one hand I am so sad that she's not really a baby anymore, but on the other hand I am happy that she is able to do more and more things for herself.

She is finally mobile, crawling around everywhere, wreaking havoc of course everywhere she goes. We have broken flower pots, handprints on the TV stand (and lots of mouth prints too), cat fur everywhere (she loves to pull out the poor cat's fur), and the list goes on. She's got lots of bumps and bruises to show for it too. She has been learning so much lately. She started playing pat-a-cake a few weeks back and has since been totally obsessed with it. She will wake up in the middle of the night just to clap. She has also been pulling up to her knees just in the past week-not standing yet, but I know that will come soon.

Hope has also learned SO many words just in the past month. It's crazy how much she understands! I have taught her where my nose, mouth and belly button are (she actually "found" my belly button on accident while she was nursing and has since been completely obsessed with it, so it was an easy word to teach her). She also knows kitty, mama, dada, ball, book (she LOVES books and even tries to steal ours when we're reading to "read" them herself), sippy, bear, duck, and light. She also knows "no", but pretends like she doesn't. ;) She plays pat-a-cake on command, but only in front of her mommy and daddy. If we try to get her to do it for anyone else, she looks at us like we are crazy.

Hope is going through a bit of stranger anxiety right now, which is weird because she has been in the nursery every Sunday and Wednesday since 8 weeks old. She especially does not like people with big hats and low, scratchy voices. She cries like she's being tortured. We also found out (by pure fluke) that she is absolutely terrified of toilet paper rolls!!! I sat her down in the bathroom one day while I was getting ready and gave her an empty toilet paper roll to play with (we actually do have real toys, I promise, but she shows no interest in them at the moment-she wants things that she's not allowed to play with, like electrical cords). Anyway, when I gave her the toilet paper roll, she jumped back like she'd been stung and started FREAKING OUT, crying uncontrollably!!! It is the craziest thing I have ever seen! It doesn't matter if it has toilet paper on it or not, if it's a toilet paper roll, she is NOT going near it!! Looks like our little Hope-Hope has acquired a bit of Mommy's anxiety. ;) Haha!!

Hope popped her second tooth last week, so we officially have two teeth now. Poor baby is in such pain, so we are giving her tylenol at least once day. She really needs something to quell the drooling too, but I don't think they make anything for that problem. ;) She also has an upper respiratory infection right now and is on antibiotics. Her nose is dripping and her cough sounds like a barking dog. Poor sweety. Hopefully she will be better soon. I guess that's all I have to report. I will post pictures soon. Hope everyone is doing well!!

Jesus is risen!

2008-03-25T21:23:00.004-05:00

We had a great Easter and hope all our loved ones did as well! Stephen's parents came in to visit and we had lots of fun just getting to spend some time with family. Hope is cutting her first tooth (FINALLY!) so she has been a bit more cranky than usual, but nothing we can't handle. ;) Nothing new other than that. Here are our pics from this past weekend.

Hope's first snow!

2008-03-05T18:12:00.003-06:00

Well, it started thunderstorming on Sunday night; we got thunderstorms throughout the night and then when we woke up on Monday morning it was COLD!! It started raining again late afternoon and then about 6:30 turned over to snow! I was actually getting kind of disappointed b/c usually by this time in the season it has snowed at least once here, but we hadn't seen any. So, needless to say on Monday when it started we bundled Hope up and went out in it. She was none too impressed, but at least we got some good pictures! When we woke up Tuesday it looked like a winter wonderland! They are predicting more snow for Thursday...woohoo!

And she's off!

2008-03-05T17:49:00.004-06:00

Forgive the longness of this video...she gets a bit distracted sometimes... She's of course gotten much better at crawling since we took this video, but this is the only time so far we have been able to catch it on camera. We are having to keep a better eye on her now. Today she crawled into a stack of binders at church and cut her eyelid open. And, yes, it bled and is all swollen now. Ugh. Where did my little baby go??!!!

http://i8.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/kittycatpaige/Birth217.flv">

So much to do, no time to do it...

2008-02-15T21:22:00.003-06:00

Well, as you can tell by my lack of posting, I haven't had much time lately. We have been SOOO busy!! You'd think after Christmas things would slow down, but definitely not this year; not with Easter coming so quickly!!! Hope and I have just gotten over being sick. I had a sinus and ear infection and Hope had a sinus infection. I actually lost my voice, which was NO fun at all!! So, we've both been on antibiotics the past week trying to get well. We've also had lots of family in. A few weekends ago we enjoyed a visit with my sister and her husband. Then, the very next weekend Stephen's parents and Collin and Janelle came to visit and help celebrate Stephen's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY BUNNY!). Yup, that's right, Stephen is the big 2-7 now too. But remember, I am TWO weeks older than him, so he must respect his elders. ;) We did lots of stuff and had lots of fun with them and wish we could see them more. (Also wish I had taken pictures, but our camera is on the fritz. I'm lucky I got the ones that I posted!!) Anyway, with all this plus getting ready for Easter at the church, it's been a whirlwind lately.

Hope is doing really well other than being sick. She is sitting up without any support now. She is also rolling EVERYWHERE. She is not crawling yet, but is ALMOST there-anytime now. I'm going to try to get a video of her trying so everyone can see. At her last dr appt, she weighed 18.8, which is good. She is starting to eat chunks of food (stage 3's), but Mommy is still nervous to give her cheerios or any "grown-up" food. The very best thing happened this morning. She was singing in her crib just waiting for us to come get her and when Stephen peered over her crib to pick her up, we heard a very purposeful "DADA!!" It was SOO cute!!! Now, I have to admit, I am a teensy bit jealous and have been trying ever so patiently to get her to say "MAMA," but to no avail. Oh well, I'm sure it will come. I'm just happy she said her first words! She also knows "kitty," but of course can't say it yet.

Well that's about all that we have to report. We hope all our loved-ones are doing well. Check in when you can!

My Funny Valentine

2008-02-15T21:08:00.006-06:00

She's obessesed with her hands...

Trying to crawl!!!

Trying to crawl 2!! (She's SOOO close!)

Hamming it up...

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful

Coming to get the camera...

Trying her darndest to get the remotes as usual...

Mommy, I know I'm cute, but come on...

The big 2-7!

2008-01-28T15:18:00.000-06:00

Yes, I am 27 years old. I still feel like a kid though! I don't know how long it will take before I actually feel like an adult. It doesn't help that I actually still do LOOK like a kid. I know there are many old ladies who pity the poor "teenage" mother they see walking down the street with her baby. ;) Oh well, maybe my young looks will pay off at some point...

Anyway, I had a great week. As usual Stephen went all out for me. I know he feels sorry for me that I have no family to celebrate these kinds of occasions with, so he tends to try to compensate for that fact. On Tuesday night we had pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes (one of my favorite meals) and a 3 layer German Chocolate cake with cream cheese icing, which my sweet husband made FROM SCRATCH all by himself! I was very proud of him. Once the baby was in bed he sang happy birthday to me, I blew out my candles, and opened my presents. It was a great day. Then on Saturday night a friend took Hope so that Stephen and I could go out all by ourselves! We went to the Cheesecake Factory and then did a little shopping. It really was a great week. My sister and brother-in-law are coming in town this weekend for a little belated celebration and then Stephen's parents and Collin and Janelle are coming next weekend for Stephen's birthday. The celebrations just keep going and going! We're so excited! I guess that's about it for now. I will post pics soon. Love you all!

More Christmas pics

2008-01-09T16:02:00.000-06:00

Hope's first Christmas

2008-01-09T15:37:00.000-06:00

On the way to Grandma's

Hope's first Christmas was a great one. She did well, and enjoyed meeting everyone, spending time with her relatives, and of course, eating wrapping paper! Stephen and I had fun too. It was a much needed break after all of the stuff we had to do prior to Christmas. We went to visit my mom first and stayed with her through Christmas morning. Then we went into San Antonio and celebrated w/Stephen's parents and then my dad and Debbie and the kids. We stayed in San Antonio for about a week and then came back up to Howe for a few days, went to church on Sunday and then got ready to go to Houston for Stephen's music conference. We left early Monday morning and got into Houston at about 12:30, only to find out that his conference had been cancelled at the last minute! We were SO upset, but glad to see Krissy and Gary for a night. We spent a little time with them and then headed back to Howe on Tuesday. We are now trying to settle back in. Hope's sleeping schedule is REALLY screwed up because our schedule has been so iffy, so we are having major issues right now. She seems to think that it's time to wake up at 3:00 in the morning every night now and won't go back to sleep for 2 hours plus. Last night we did a little bit of cry-it-out and she eventually went back to sleep at about 5:30. Naps aren't much better either. We need to try to get her re-trained, but I'm afraid it's going to take lots of time and patience on my part (which I don't have much of at 3:00 in the morning). Anyway, we did have a good time and were glad to see everyone. Some pics are posted below. I will hopefully post more later.

Eating her stuffed toy

Eating the wrapping paper

Opening giftsMore gifts...

Hope is half a year old!

2008-01-09T14:46:00.000-06:00

Hope turned 6 months old on December 18th (She's actually almost 7 months old now since I took so long to write this). We had a good visit with the pedi. As of her 6 month b-day, she weighed 17.7 and was in the 80th percentile for her weight. At her 4 month she was in the 90th, so we think her weight gain is starting to slow down a bit. The dr. seemed very pleased with her development and said she looked good. She did get 3 shots and screamed her head off as usual. We thought we would be out of the clear since her 4 month shots went really well, but around 7:00 that night she starting screaming and wouldn't stop for 2 hours. She also developed a fever. So we just pumped her full of tylenol throughout the night to keep the fever down and to help relieve her pain and put her to bed. It was about the worst I've ever seen her and it really scared me. We thought we needed to take her to the hospital for awhile there. The next few days were touch and go. Her legs (where she was poked) were VERY sensitive and she would scream if you touched them. Her fever eventually went down and she is back to normal, thank the Lord.

Hope is now sitting up quite well. I do have to sit with her still because she hasn't yet learned to catch herself when she falls over. But the falls are getting fewer and farther between. That is pretty much the only thing she has mastered since my last post. She doesn't seem to be interested in crawling yet-every time I put her on her tummy, she just rolls right over. She has always HATED to be on her tummy and now she can do something about it herself besides scream. She still loves to stand, and can stand holding onto the couch or something else. She has also started to put consonants together such as ba-ba, la-la, da-da, ma-ma. She talks ALL the time! She has become such a happy, easy-going baby and we enjoy every single day with her. We are so amazed at how fast she is growing and changing and thank the Lord every day for our little miracle.

Our family pics

2007-12-12T23:29:00.000-06:00

Post much???

2007-12-04T11:41:00.000-06:00

Okay, I know it's been like a month since I posted anything, but in my defense, we've been SOOO busy. Stephen and I have Christmas programs coming out our rears, so we haven't been home much. Add to that a little trip to San Antonio and you don't find much internet time in there. Anyway, we have gotten about half of our Christmas stuff at the church done. We still have a concert at the nursing home, caroling, a concert at Howe Memorial Park, a concert at the church, and a Christmas Eve service-not to mention just regular Sundays and Wednesdays. Keep us in your prayers. We love this time of year, but things can get so hectic and you end up taking your focus on the real Reason for all of this.

Anyway, other than all of the Christmas craziness (which I am sure that all of you are experiencing as well), we are doing pretty well. Hope is still growing like a weed. She's still just on the verge of sitting up, not quite there yet-maybe by Christmas. She is taking cereal twice a day now, and we are about to start veggies. It took her awhile to get the hang of it, but she is now LOVING it. She is SO big, not even 6 months yet, and already in 6-9 month stuff. I just can't believe it. We went down to San Antonio a couple of days last week with our Senior Adult group at church. It was really fun touring downtown San Antonio-we haven't done it in so long. Stephen and I enjoyed catching up on San Antonio's rich history. It's amazing how much you forget. Hope did really well. I've included a couple pics from our last couple of weeks. I WILL post more later, I promise. For now, enjoy the pics.

Stories before bed-time

Daddy and Hope

Hope gets her feet

2007-11-12T15:42:00.000-06:00

(I know my titles are so unimaginative, but hey, they get the point across, right?) I showed Hope how to get her feet and she has been absolutely obsessed with it ever since. She thinks it's the greatest thing she has ever done. I have lots more of this type, but I'll only bore you with four. It's pretty much the same thing over and over.

Halloween

2007-11-12T15:35:00.000-06:00

For Halloween we went to the Fall Fest at our church. We didn't stay long because really there wasn't much for us to do except walk around and watch all the kids play. Hope was a pumpkin. She was cute, but did not tolerate it for very long. That's another reason why we left early. After that we just came home and handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters.

First videos

2007-10-28T19:39:00.000-05:00

Ok-I took some videos of Hope. The first one is of her playing with her music and the second is of her laughing. Please ignore my annoying voice and laugh. I know I sound like a valley-girl and I always have-that's not going to change, so just blow past it and watch Hope.

Here's the first one. It's like 4 minutes long, so don't get bored...
http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/kittycatpaige/?action=view&current=Baby648.flv

Here's the second one:
http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/kittycatpaige/?action=view&current=Baby651.flv

The Rice Cereal Extravaganza

2007-10-28T15:47:00.000-05:00

Getting ready

Ummm...what the heck is THIS??!!

Ok...well, maybe I'll give it a try...

I've seen what you guys eat and THIS is NOT it!!!

All done...time to play with my zebra

Happy 4 month birthday, Hope!

2007-10-28T14:58:00.000-05:00

I know, I know...I've gotta get to posting more. The days really just fly by though! I always think about posting but never seem to get around to it. We have been doing great. Hope turned 4 months old on October 18th. Her 4 month appointment was this past Friday. She is 15 pounds, 8 ounces-that's the 90th percentile for her weight! We definitely have a chunky baby! The doctor did say though that breastfed babies get really chunky and then kind of level off, so maybe she'll level off at some point! Also, she is 24 1/2 inches long-that makes her the 50th percentile for her height. Her head is in the 50th as well. So she is doing really well in her growth. She did get her 4 month shots on Friday, which she was none too pleased about. She screamed bloody murder for about 10 minutes until we finally got her to calm down. She has been fine though, no crying or fever or anything so far this weekend, so I think we're in the clear.

Everyday we are so amazed at how the Lord is growing our little girl. She wakes up full of smiles every morning, always talking up a storm. She loves to stand up (with us holding her of course), and is on the verge of being able to sit up on her own-just a few more weeks on that I think. She can grab at things now. She holds her toys in her little hands and tries to get them in her mouth. The biggest thing is that she has now mastered getting her hands in her mouth and keeping them there. There is ALWAYS something in her mouth, whether it's her hand, a toy, or a paci. She is doing a little bit of teething-no visible teeth yet that I can see, but her gums are a tiny bit swollen and she's always chewing on something, so I know she's working on it. We're still breastfeeding and have no intention of giving that up anytime soon now that we have finally mastered the art. We had some massive problems at the beginning, but we are doing better now. I figure God wouldn't have given me all that milk for nothing! We did try rice cereal this past week for the first time, but she ended up coughing, sputtering, and throwing most of it up, so I don't think she's quite ready. I don't seem to be lacking for milk anyway, so for the meantime we will just stick with the breastfeeding. Maybe at 5 months we'll try it again. She is still sleeping through the night really well and has transitioned to her crib-no more sleeping in her carseat at night. Hmm...I guess that's about it for now. Stephen and I are doing well, just getting ready for Christmas stuff at the church. It's the busiest time of year! I will post some pics and videos in another post. Love you all!

A Visit with Family

2007-10-08T14:34:00.000-05:00

On Saturday Jennifer and Luis (my sister and her husband) came to visit. They were in town to watch the Texas/OU game with friends, so we went out to lunch together at Posados. It was really fun catching up with them and just visiting with family in general-we don't get to do it very often!

Picture Progression

2007-10-08T14:21:00.000-05:00

Look how much our baby has grown!

Going home

One month

Two months

Three months

State Fair of Texas

2007-10-08T13:58:00.001-05:00

We went to the State Fair of Texas a couple weekends ago with our friends Seth and Becca. They have a baby boy who is a month older than Hope. Both babies did really well, napping in their strollers and just looking around. By the end of the day though Hope was screaming her head off wanting to go home, so we left at about 6:00. It was really hot, but we had a lot of fun!

In the car on the way (It was an hour drive, so I amused myself by taking pictures!)

All six of us (as you can tell, the babies don't really care)

3 months old!

2007-09-24T12:55:00.000-05:00

Hope turned 3 months old on September 18th and is growing so fast! She is turning over from tummy to back pretty regularly now and once from back to tummy. She is also starting to grab at her toys. It is so funny to watch her talking to them and laughing to herself when she's playing. She is also loving to look at herself in the mirror. We sat her in an exersaucer yesterday in front of a mirror and she just giggled and talked to herself for about 20 minutes. It was hilarious! She is sleeping so well, doing about 9-10 hours straight at night and about 3-4 long naps during the day. I don't know her length or weight-will know that when we take her back to the pedi at 4 months. I know she's growing though because she's already out of most of her 0-3 onesies and some of the 3-6 month ones are tight on her! Not much else to report. Stephen led the music from the piano yesterday. It was so awesome to see him step out of his comfort zone and use those talents for God. He did so well and I know God was glorified through it. We are very proud of him! Just another example of how God shows Himself perfect in our weaknesses. Here are some recent pics of Hope.

what do I DO with this thing????

OH...I EAT it!

all clean!

A visit with Grammy and Grandpa

2007-09-05T16:51:00.000-05:00

Stephen's parents came in for Labor Day weekend. We had lots of fun eating out, shopping, and just hanging out together. Here are some pics.

Who ME???!!!

Grammy, Grandpa and Hope

Mommy, Daddy and Hope

Smiling at her foot (don't mind the drool)

Smiling at Daddy

Hope is 2 months old!

2007-08-25T16:54:00.000-05:00

Hope turned 2 months old on August 18th. I can't believe how fast the time is going! On Friday (Aug. 24) we took her to her 2 month appt. She is doing very well. She weighs 11 pounds, 9 ounces and is 22 1/2 inches long. She is in the 65th percentile for her weight and the 50th for her height. She's a little porker! She also got three shots, which we were definitely not looking forward to, but she took them rather well and quieted down right after she got them. She has been very sleepy since and a little feverish, but nothing out of the ordinary. Hope is becoming so much more alert. She loves to watch TV with her mommy and daddy and likes to stare up at the little toy animals hanging down from her swing. She also loves it when we give her a bath and could just stay in there all day just like her mommy! She has started to notice her hands and watches them move around. It's so cute! She also likes to get that fist in her mouth and just suck away! One more big milestone....she slept through the night! Wednesday night we fed her at 11:30 and she didn't wake up til 7:00! She has done that every night since! We are SO proud of her! I am certainly a lot less sleep deprived the last couple of days, so hopefully we are getting into some sort of routine! Anyway, I guess that's about it. Here are some pics for your enjoyment!

Looking at herself in the mirror

Watching TV in her bumbo

Looking at Daddy (Isn't the Pooh hat the cutest?!)

She pulled the Pooh hat down over her eyes.

(Guess she didn't really like it, but we thought it was cute!)

More 8 week pics

2007-08-16T14:20:00.001-05:00

Practicing to be a politician

Plotting her escape

Smiles! (She LOVES her swing)

She loves to stare at this picture!

Mom! PLEASE stop making me laugh!

8 weeks old

2007-08-15T20:50:00.000-05:00

Hey all! We took Hope to the dr today. Her 2 month appt is not until next Friday, but she has caught a cold, so I thought it best to take her in just to make sure she did not have an infection setting in. She didn't, thank the Lord, but does have a nasty cold. She is all stuffy and is coughing and sneezing up a storm (not to mention very cranky). The dr told us there is not much we can do besides the saline drops and snot sucker, which she DESPISES. Once we do the snot sucker, it's over for her. It sounds like we're killing her. She does not calm down easily at all either. But hopefully this will pass soon and all will be better. The good news is that just shy of 2 months (her 2 month birthday is Aug. 18), she weighs right at 11 pounds and is now in the 50th percentile for her size (up from the 10th percentile at 2 weeks). She's getting very chunky, so I guess we're doing something right! Anyway, not much else to tell. Stephen and I are doing fine-just trying to survive life with a new baby! I will post more after her 2 month appt, but for now enjoy the pics!

Smiling for the camera

Too tired to play

Swinging in her swing

What are YOU looking at?

Making a silly face

update on us

2007-08-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a week since my surgery. I am feeling pretty good except for being a little sore and tired from the anesthesia. My incisions are healing pretty well. Hope is now 6 weeks old and getting so big! She's got little fat rolls on her legs and little chubby cheeks. She is definitely filling out! She is really smiling at us now. I kind of was able to catch one on camera, which you can see below. Yesterday we hit a big milestone-she rolled over from her tummy to her back. She's only done it once, but we're so proud of her! Right now she is sleeping in her bouncy chair right next to me. She is kind of going through a crabby period lately, and does not seem to be happy when I am holdng her. I can only get her calmed down if she is sitting by herself in her carseat or her bouncy chair. She also does not want me to lay her down on a blanket on the floor to play. She just wants to sit and look around and do nothing. She's her mommy's girl! ;) We played her a Baby Einstein DVD today for the first time and she seemed really interested, so hopefully we can play them more for her. I guess that's it for now. Please enjoy the pics below. Sorry I haven't been posting much. Between my recovery and the baby, it's been hard to find the time. Hopefully things will get better soon. Love you all!

Tummy time!
smiling! (half-way) posing for the camera

more pics

2007-08-02T09:44:00.000-05:00

Everyone's sleeping Playing with Daddy
Getting acquainted with kitty
How does this happen??
Our little aggie

pics of Hope

2007-08-02T09:29:00.000-05:00

going home (5 days old-can you tell she has jaundice?!)
one month old-so much bigger!

Made it through!

2007-07-27T10:12:00.000-05:00

Well, I made it through the surgery! It was so easy- a lot easier than I expected. We got there at 1:30 for preop, but had to wait until 6:00 to have the actual surgery because the surgery before me had complications. I was SO hungry and had a huge migraine because I wasn't allowed any food or water. When 6:00 finally rolled around the surgeon's nurse came in, gave me a shot in the tummy to help prevent clots (since I have a clotting disorder). Then the anesthesiologist came in and gave me some anti-anxiety stuff. I said bye to Stephen and Hope and that's all I remember! Next thing I knew, I was waking up in recovery with 4 little incisions in my tummy. They put a breathing tube in during the surgery, so it's been really hard to swallow, and my throat hurts a little. Also, my abdomen is really sore, like I just did 1,000 sit-ups. I am also really sleepy from the anesthesia. But other than that I feel really good. It is so much easier than my c-section recovery was! I am not allowed to lift anything over 15 pounds for 6 weeks, and I am on Darvoset for the pain. Thanks for all your prayers! They really helped! Now we can move on with our lives-I'm so tired of feeling bad!

Finally getting my gall bladder out!

2007-07-23T11:46:00.000-05:00

Hey guys!

Just wanted to let everybody know that I will be having surgery to remove my gall bladder on Thursday! I am not excited, but after having 2 attacks in the past three weeks, one of which landed me in the ER and the other lasting a full 24 hours, I will be SOOOO glad to have this whole thing behind me! The surgery is at 3:00 and hopefully if things go as planned, I will be home by that evening. Please keep me in your prayers and also Stephen and Hope. He will have to care for her and look after me as well, so I almost feel more sorry for him! They said the recovery should take about a week. I am nervous, but figure if I can manage a c-section, I can certainly manage a few more incisions in my abdomen as well as the recovery. I really do not want two abdominal surgeries in one summer, but what the heck....what else can I get out?

Pregnancy story

2007-07-21T15:55:00.000-05:00

After 2 years and 3 miscarriages we were out of hope, wondering if God’s plan was for us to not have children. My OB said he couldn’t do anything else for me and recommended that we see a specialist named Dr. Alfred Rodriguez, who specialized in infertility (although we didn’t have problems getting pregnant, just keeping the baby). He tested both Stephen and I for all sorts of problems and after the testing was finished, we discovered that I have a blood-clotting disorder and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. This is where you have cysts on your ovaries that keep you from ovulating (I was ovulating, just very inconsistently). PCOS can also lead to an increased risk of miscarriage.

So, I went on a variety of meds-metformin to help combat the PCOS and baby aspirin and folic acid for my blood-clotting disorder. The metformin made me terribly sick, and I lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks. After 6 weeks of getting my body used to the meds, the plan was to start meds to help me ovulate. We were ordered not to try until we were given the go-ahead to start ovulation induction.

Well, God had other plans and we ended up pregnant the cycle before we planned to start inducing ovulation. I took a pregnancy test after work one day because I had not started my period and it came up positive right away. Sadly, I couldn’t even get excited. All I could feel was fear, and I remember thinking, “Great, we’re going to have another miscarriage and we’re going to have to wait another few cycles to try again." I immediately called my specialist and told him that I was pregnant. They started to test my hormone levels to see if they were increasing (which is a good sign that your pregnancy is healthy) and put me on progesterone pills right away to try to help sustain the pregnancy. I felt like I was on every drug imaginable! My hormone levels kept going up and when we went in for our first ultrasound at about 6 weeks, there was a fetal pole and yolk sac, but no heartbeat yet. We were scheduled for another ultrasound a week later and were on pins and needles the whole week. As we were walking to the hospital the next week, I remember seeing a couple outside loading their new baby into their car. I just prayed, “God, please let that be me, please let that be me….” Well, we went in, and of course, there was our precious tiny baby and a beautiful heartbeat! We were so excited, but still scared. We just prayed that God would allow us to keep this baby.

The rest is history, really. The pregnancy went perfectly, except for some gall bladder complications. Every ultrasound was perfect, every check-up was perfect-we couldn’t have asked for more. When I started to feel her moving around inside me, I was so amazed. Watching my belly grow, I couldn’t have been more thankful to God for the precious gift He gave us-our little baby girl Hope.