It feels like FALL!

Olivia's two month photo! Her cheeks are so big
I lift them to get her car seat straps positioned right!

Self photo taken while EC and Siah were getting lost
in the hay bale maze; with other moms watching them of course!

The kids and their Moms club friends at the pumpkin patch

Miss Priss!

I pray that they always are so in love with each other!

We are welcoming every hour we have that feels remotely like the much anticipated relief from the Texas scorching summer heat! We have had a handful of days in the past three weeks that remind us of fall; the temp hovers in the 70's (insert laughter from our Yankee friend and family) during the day and 50's at night. Though the falling temps are the only natural sign of autumn around here (since the foliage turns from green to dead brown, if it turns at all) we are enjoying the fall festivities of our small town life! The kids and I have decorated the house with small pumpkins and other "fallish"decor, we visited a Christmas tree farm that has a pumpkin patch and hay rides, and we went to the Kyle Fair as a family. We all enjoyed the fair food and rides!

Family Photos

Early September we had family photos taken by our good friend Alison Joe. She did such a great job and we all had a good time! Its amazing to look back and see how much we all have changed since we last had professional photos taken.

Once we convinced Emma-Claire to smile for the camera she really got into it! She and Olivia were so precious together!

Sam and I like this one of us with Olivia

All 5 of us! Its hard to remember what it was like 5 years ago when it was just Sam and I living the college lifestyle in Eastern Europe!

What precious creations of an AWESOME God!

Blessing # 3!

Summer Fun #2

This is our little rental house in Kyle. And "Ruby" our Toyota minivan!

Princess Emma-Claire enjoying the parade!

Josiah and Sam watching the fire truck :)

Emma taking pictures of the fireworks with Daddy's phone!

We had a great summer! For Independence Day we celebrated with Nanna and Pawpaw (Rance and Lynn) The kiddos loved the parade and the fireworks! The best part of our summer was the birth of sweet blessing number 3!

Olivia Faith's cheesy face just after delivery




Olivia Faith was born August 1st at 11:15am at home! We LOVED having a home birth and our midwife, Amber Clarkson, was a gift from God. She was incredibly patient and empowering! Sam helped deliver Olivia and was the best labor coach! The entire labor and delivery, all 17 hours of it, was incredible! Being at home, having the greatest partner, and outstanding midwife, made for the perfect delivery! It amazes me what the woman's body is designed to do. God's magnificence is defiantly glorified through the untainted labor and delivery process.

Olivia tanning! She spent 48 hours under the billy lights for jaundice treatment. The funny thing in her nose is nasal cpap. Positive air way pressure to ease breathing.

Mommy and Livi

Daddy feeding Olivia

Once Olivia made her debut she had a hard time clearing the mucous from her little lungs and Amber decided she needed to go into the hospital for some help. We spent 5 days in the Dell Children's NICU where Olivia was treated with surfactant, a drug used to expand her lungs. Very quickly after she received the meds her little body perked right up! She just needed some help getting a good, deep first breath she missed right after delivery. The rest of our stay was to monitor her. We had excellent care in the NICU and highly recommend Dell Children's hospital!

Olivia's first bath. She was so tiny and yellow but she LOVED the bath!

Olivia's first photo at home! 5 Days old :)

We've spent the past two and a half months getting adjusted to having three kiddos under 4! WOW what a crazy wonderful life we have! I (Ashley) am still not getting sufficient sleep and running on God's grace! Both Josiah and Emma-Claire are totally in love with "livi". Sweet Josiah tells her "wee-u Ya-ya"! Translated "I love you Olivia!" Emma-Claire is such a big girl and most of the time eager to help me; what a blessing! God's grace is sufficient!! I've made a goal of posting every week... So please keep me accountable if you enjoy reading about our family!

Enjoy this fall y'all!

Summer Fun

This is an attempt to catch up our blog!

In late April we moved to Kyle, Texas. Sam was transfered to open an extension of Mason's Mill and Lumber to service the Texas hill country. We've been here three months now and love it! We are about 20 miles south of Austin and 60 miles north of San Antonio. We are enjoying the smaller town life and have recently joined First Baptist Kyle where we've made several new friends. Also, Ashley joined the MOMS club and MOPS group. Both are international organizations supporting motherhood. We have been blessed with many new friends through both groups! Since our move we've visited Houston a few times and here are a few cute pics of Emma-Claire and Josiah in Papa's pool!



We celebrated Independence Day with Nana, Papaw and Chase at their house on Lake Travis. The kids had a blast at the parade and loved the fireworks!

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2007 was so much fun! The kids really got into the gifting and we enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Jesus! Nana, Papaw and Chase celebrated with us and it was so nice to be in our own home! Emma-Claire and Josiah LOVE their guitars, drum, keyboard and microphone; it is too cute to watch them preform!




























Even though he doesn't speak many English words he has a lot to sing about in baby babble!







The kids really enjoyed singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and LOVED the chocolate molten cakes!!

Other November Fun

Our friend Pete, who we met in Lithuania, came for a visit from Portland. It was so good to reconnect with a college friend that we haven't seen in three years! We enjoyed reminiscing on our travels together and taking him to the Houston Zoo.



Mommy took the kids pictures in the backyard for Christmas Cards. Hannah and I had a great time getting the kids to cooperate!














Josiah spent four days in ICU at Texas Children's Hospital with pnemonia and RSV. Those were four very long days and night. We were in isolation because of his RSV. Praise God that he recovered so quickly!

The Kids Birthday Party!

In early November we celebrated Josiah's 1st ( the 7th) and Emma-Claire's 3rd (the 10th) birthday with a big backyard bash! We rented a jumper, filled the backyard with toys, grilled and had cupcakes! The kids had so much fun and really enjoyed the 50 or so friend and family that came to celebrate!



Papa Spellings



Cup Cake Time



Papaw Elliff and Siah


The New Play House


G&G Spellings and Mamie Bruce


Ellie Graesser


Face Panting


Dom and EC Jumpin'


The Gifts


Daddy and Siah

Hannah G, Blake M, EC and Uncle Mason


Aunt Hannah and Siah


Uncle Chase


EC and Mommy

Josiah really enjoyed his cupcake!

Josiah loves his retro rocket that counts down "three two one blast off!" it shakes and the rocket on the back lights up! Such a fun boy toy!!

This was the first present opening Emma-Claire really got into! Its so much fun to watch her get so excited!

The kids all love the cup cake cakes and it made serving a breeze!

This is Emma-Claire with her Aunts Sara and Annie (Ashley's sisters)

Emma-Claire LOVES her birthday cup cake!