Goodbye Kyle

Rainbow over Plum Creek
Our little White Picket Community

Small Town Charm

Kyle Family Log House

Downtown Train Depot

One of the hourly trains :)

Old City Hall

View of the water tower over Main Street

The greatest little church EVER!
First Baptist Kyle

New City Hall

Kyle, Texas Historical Marker

We are officially moving back to Houston next Thursday (11/28). As we prepare to move, yet again, I look back on the brief year and a half we've called Kyle home. It amazes me how deep our roots have grown in less than two years. God has blessed us with such amazing friendships here; there will always be a part of my heart in Kyle, Texas. God has taught me so much about being a godly wife, patient mother and wise friend through some amazing women and His perfect word! He used this season in my life as a bridge between the youthful, clueless, selfish first years of young adulthood and marriage to prepare me for a woman after His heart and perfect will for my life! I feel securely fastened to His pottery wheel as He sculpts and refines me. Praise be to Him for his mercies and abundant love! I will miss the beauty of the Texas foothills, our adopted family at First Baptist Church, my two AMAZING Godly mentors hugs and encouragement, our little white picket fence community, and all of the charm of this small town! I thank God for all He has taught us, brought us through, delivered us from, and blessed us with in this season of transition.

I look forward to some permanency, Lord willing, in our new beautiful home He has provided. I am very excited about not moving for many years since this will be our seventh move since we left college 5 1/2 years ago! I am excited to rekindle some old friendships and be near to my grandparents as they age.

When people ask how I feel about moving I will sum it up in one word: PEACE. God gives me perfect peace even as I am saddened as I look back. He gives me peace because I know this is His provision for us! Praise Him for Sam's job and the security it provides us! Thank you to all who have blessed our family beyond measure; through your prayers, encouragement, hugs, sweat, yummy cooking, solid preaching, laughter, tears, and love!

Summer FUN!

Emma-Claire and Josiah at Zilker Park

Olivia on her Birthday

"Yaya" is 1!!!

It always amazes me how fast the seasons pass! We had a great summer full of fun stuff! We had visits from Sam's parents and two of his siblings. Hannah, his lil' sis is a Freshman at Texas State, about 15 minutes from our house, this fall. So, Rich, Reta and Tom all visited us while seeing Hannah off to school. We all love when they get to come see a bit of our world! August 1st was Olivia's first birthday and our first day with our foster kiddos. About that time we also found out that we would be moving back to Houston sometime this fall.

The latter part of the summer was consumed with preparing for the foster kids and trying to adjust to life with 6 kids. We had a 10yr old girl, Emma 4, 4 year old boy, Josiah 2, 18month old boy and Olivia 12months. It was nearly 24hour a day chaos. Unfortunately, we were greatly misled as to the severity of the needs of these foster children. For various reasons each one was moved from our home and now I can look back and see that those children were put into our family by God for a season. We learned a lot having them here and have a whole new perspective of CPS. We have a new compassion for families with mentally ill children and empathy for the children sitting in CPS custody. Someday we will serve orphans in one capacity or another but now is not the time for our family to take on several very abused and needy children.

Grandpa and Aunt Hannah's Visit

Sam and Rich

Siah and Hannah

Olivia the Cowgirl!

Josiah and Grandpa

On Father's Day Sam's dad and sister from PA came in town for Hannah, Sam's sis, to go to her orientation at Texas State where she will be a fish this fall. We took them to our faviorate resturants, Italian Garden and Rudy's BBQ. One of Sam's love languages is food so when we have guests he like to take them out to eat! Im pretty sure thats why... not that I don't cook well enough to feed his guests! While they were here we visited the Texas State campus and went to the Children's musueum in New Braunfels. We really enjoyed the visit with them!

Our 5th Wedding Anniversary!

June 19th was our 5th wedding anniversary! Looking back some memories of 5 years ago are very faint while it still seems like yesterday at times. I will never forget our big day though! It was 105 degrees in Humid Houston and we were wed on a small balcony overlooking the downtown bayou at the Magnolia Ballroom with about 120 friends and family as witnesses. It was the perfect little wedding. I had my dream cake from Cake Affairs, I had always wanted a cake from this upscale cake shoppe since I was a little girl. I had a beautiful dress, flowers, venue, musicians, pastor, guests, and of course the perfect Fiancee! .

I could go on and on and on but on to the 5th anniversary celebration! Sam and I spent the weekend in a little rented condo on Lake Travis. Did I mention that we were ALONE?! And it was wonderful!!! We cooked for ourselves and ate it all ALONE! And it was wonderful! My sweet father lent us his SeaDoos and we spent the day tearing up Lake Travis. We rode from our condo to the dam, it took about 1 1/2 hours straight, Im not sure how far it was but it was far! Once we saw the dam I decided to jump in the lake to cool off, it was about 105 that day, and I lost my sun glasses when I dove into the water. Yes, I know I should have taken them off but I forgot! So I spent some time acting like I was going to find them. After about 10 minutes or so I looked up to the cliff side we were floating near to see MANY stark naked people, some sun bathing, some rock climbing, some on boats, some on floats.... it was so weird! I had heard of "Hippy Hollow" before but had NO idea that it was right there across from the huge dam and public boat ramp! Oh my was it weird!! Aside from that shock we had a wonderful weekend ALONE! After about 24 hours I began to wonder what 25 year old married couples do all weekend that dont have little ones! It was so quiet, there was no sharing our food, no diapers to change, no fights to break up, -3 bodies to sun lotion, very quick meal prep and clean up! But in the same breath, we did miss the little laughter, sweet baby kisses, funny little man antics, and the over all joy our childern bring us each day. The kids had a great time too, EC and Si were in Houston with my parents "Papa and Oma" -escorted by "Uncle Mason"- I've got to give him props- he drove a 4 year old and a potty training 2 year old BY HIMSELF for 1 1/2! Did I mention he is only 19 - no kids of his own! And little Livia spent the weekend being sopiled rotten by our adopted grandparents Judy and Bruce Barton. In short- we all had a wonderful and all too short weekend!

Aquarena Springs

Today Nanna, my Mom, and I took the kiddos to Aquarena Springs in San Marcos. Aquarena Springs is now part of Texas State University and they have glass bottom boat tours and an aquarium on a beautiful part of the campus. We really enjoyed the grounds and the kids loved looking underwater throuhg the bottom of the boat! At the end of the tour the gide asked if there were any other questions and Emma asked "where are the octopuses?" It took a second but he realized she had thought that he said "aquafer" not "octopus"... I wonder if all along she was looking for an octopus?! When I was very young my grandparents took me and my brothers there when it was more of an amusment attraction. There was a submergable theater, it looked like a submarine with a huge window on one side, where we saw aquamaids and their swimming pig preform. Now the theater is mostly underwater due to a slow leak but it was neat to see it again!

Olivia's Baby Dedication

On Mother's Day Olivia Faith was dedicated at our church First Baptist Kyle by our pastor Brother Jeff English. It was a wonderful ceremony where we promised as her parents to raise her in our faith. To teach her the love of Christ by being the love of Christ in her life. Our church made a promise to encourage her and nurture her as well. The whole ceremony was beautiful! She was give a little certificate and miniature pink bible to commemorate the day. It was a special Mother's Day!

Yet Another Attempt!

Here it is six months into 2009 and I am just now sitting down again to update this blog! So sad! Now that I've learned that I can print and bind my blog into a book I am going to keep all of my family journaling here. Here is a quick up date on the past umm... 7 months or so! Since October of last year, my last post, we've gone through a failed attempt at adopting through the Texas foster care system, we celebrated EC's 4th and Josiah's 2nd b-days at Chuck E Cheese, Olivia had a tumor removed from the back of her head 2 Days before Christmas, we celebrated our first Christmas alone in our own home, I took my first vacation without any of my family memebers (Tonya took me to NYC for my 25th birthday in January), we've moved, for the 5th time in 5 years, to Plum Creek in Kyle, I have accepted the position as Coordinator of the new MOPS group for First Baptist Kyle, we have committed to homeschooling Emma-Claire this up comming school year, we've lost our beloved puppy Lucy, we've gotten a new puppy Bella and we are praying about how God wants us to grow our family! So many changes in the past seven months! And you know what? God has been so good through it all!! Enjoy these newer photos of the clan!




Ashley and Tonya in NYC! Our first girls trip :)

Josiah's Easter Pose!

The Spellings family came to Austin to celebrate my 25th birthday!

Olivia Faith at 10 months. Our littlest soccer player!

Cute kiddos riding in the grocery cart. This was our first trip with Olivia sitting in the cart and it was a success!

Our newest family member Bella. She is a 1 1/2 year old Cocker Spaniel. She was my Mother's Day gift!