New Furniture and A Cute Story

Our sweet Elise has begun to develop quite an imagination. Shortly after our most recent move we were talking about making new friends. Elise was talking about her friends from Fort Worth going to church with her and I told her we would just have to make some new friends. Well, said something in reply about making up friends. I tried to explain that we would meet new people and become friends with them but and that we couldn't just make-up new friends. Apparently she caught on to the "make-up new friends" part. Somehow I also said that Daddy needed to find some new friends because he has been friend poor for a while because of his hectic schedule. Well, now we have 4 new friends that appear at our house at various times. I have never actually met them but join us for dinner most nights. These four new friends are Daddy's friends. Their names are Chickakenny(the short one), Chickabenny(the tall one), Kokophony(the other tall one), and Bill(the other one). I am not sure where these names came from but last night Elise decided that Daddy's friends needed names. When we had this conversation a couple of weeks or days ago I had no idea that these friends we were talking about were going to be imaginary friends. But everyday Elise has something to tell or show or share with "Daddy's friends". It is nice to know that Dan doesn't have to worry about finding any friends now. He has 4 that are here whenever he needs them!

We got our new furniture yesterday. It is always fun to get new furniture. But with or without this new STUFF we would feel blessed beyond measure in our new home. We are enjoying it so much and hope that some of you will come and enjoy it too! We are hosting our first Youth Social at the house this Sunday Night. It feels good to get back to what I know how to do. I'll try to remember to take some pictures and tell you all how it goes. But for now, nap time is over....til next nap time!

Just some cute pictures

These glasses we call the "Mr. Goodattitude" glasses. I am not sure why they got that name but you have to have a good attitude when you have them on. They may come in handy later! The girls found these glasses in Dan's car(well, the car he currently drives). They are 3-D glasses. Dan looked in the rear view mirror and had to do a double take. He wasn't sure who was sitting in his back seat. I think they are very Buddy Holly on FaithLyn.
This was just too cute to pass up. Olivia woke up early from a nap and woke me up early from my nap. It has become a bad habit I hope to break soon, (Olivia waking me up that is!) but in my groggy sleepstate I went straight into the room so she wouldn't wake up Elise and gave her the "baby fish mouth". Then I grabbed her out the crib and laid her down in my bed next to me, dirty diaper and all. Let's just say I wasn't thinking clearly. But she did slumber peacefully for an hour longer! I even got up and went about my business and she still slept on!

Ok, so you may be wondering what exactly is "baby fish mouth"? Well, this is what my father did to me when I was talking back, or disobeying or just for fun or to cause me embarrasment. He would grab my face right on my cheeks and make my lips squish out like a fish mouth. You know. Anyway, we have some close friends that would always make fun of Dad for doing that and Nancy named it "The baby fish mouth". You know as a parent there are always things you say you will NEVER do to YOUR children...well, it's best to just not say that, EVER!

Home Sweet Home

I know this is silly, but this is my new fridge. I am so excited about it. It is our first fridge that we have owned. It's just special to me. Dan has a friend at church that picked up the fridge for us and brought it to the house and now he calls Dan "fancy fridge".

Ok, here is the front of our house. I can't wait to get to work in those flower beds! And I am dreaming of a rope swing hanging from that HUGE tree. This is our side/back patio. The door you see goes into the living room. I can't wait to have our first cookout!
This is the fenced in back yard. It gets some good shade and has lots of nice grass. The girls are making friends with the neighbor dogs.

This is my prayer for our life in this home: Psalm 1:3

May our family be "like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither."

A virtual tour of the new house in Rewind

Dan and I were looking through some pictures that I haven't gotten in albulms yet. (He's trying to get his office fixed up) I was so saddened by the hard truth that I don't have ANY hard copy pictures of Olivia! They are all on this computer!! What would I do if this computer crashed? I only have a few on CD. I have some work to do. I am going to start using that expensive camera that I used to use so much but became outdated with the advancement of technology. But here is the virtual tour, thanks to that advancing technology! It starts at the back of the house and goes forward. But I don't have any pics of the outside. That will come next time. Or rather later. This is the closet in the tiny room that the big girls will share when the new baby arrives. The girls are especially excited about this room. And I do mean room, it is only slightly smaller than the bedroom itself. This doubles as the playroom!

Still more pics!

The other side of the kitchen. Minus the new fridge and all the counter tops and cabinets.
The utility room. Notice the nice large closet in the back. It has lots of shelves too!
The fire place in the living room. Which, it turns out, we could have been using. It has been COLD here!! It snowed on Easter and it was in the 40's today most of the day! WHAT?
That is the corner that I am sitting at right now.
Here is the girls room or FaithLyn's room for right now.We had to rip out those shelves to make the bunk fit. BUT we moved them into the closet!!

More Pics of the new house

This is the hall bathroom or the girls bathroom. This is the front room which someday will be a more formal sitting room.
This is our front door. I like it.
These are the hall closets right inside the front door. Sorry, I get excited about closet space.
This is one view of the kitchen, with a peek into the utility room.
Look at all that counter space!

Hello to all from Iowa Park!

Here are some pics of the house when we came last weekend for the walk through. These are the before pics!This is the master b-room. Where Elise is standing is where my dresser and mirror are now.
Master Bath. THE best shower....EVER!
The sitting room connected to the master b-room. Or it will be eventually. (Not our dog!)
The hallway from the master b-room. The girls really wanted to be in the pictures.
This is the YELLOW room. right now Elise and Olivia are sharing this room. When the new baby comes it will be the two littles in here. Hopefully we will have time to repaint before then.

This may be the last you hear from me in Fort Worth. We start the long process of moving this weekend. Well, it feels that way anyway. We are leaving for Iowa Park today for the walk through of the house before closing on Monday!!! I am super excited. Hopefully I will be able to picture our stuff in the house this time.

Then Dan is sticking around in IP to help at Camp Chaparral. It's the Baptist Encampment there and it's pretty great! They asked Dan to help facilitate the low ropes course for a leadership confrence they are having on Sat. He loves that he will not have to totally say goodbye to all his ropes course training and fun! The girls and I are heading to Floydada to spend the Easter weekend with my parents. Dan will join us later on Saturday. I am so excited to spend Easter with my family. Then we leave the girls with Nana and Papa and head back to Iowa Park on Sunday night so we are there bright and early on Monday morning for the closing of the house. Woohooo!

While we are signing our lives/souls away to this house the packers will be starting the packing back here in Fort Worth. I have a good reason to miss a little bit of that process and I have to admit I am not too sad about it!! But we have to be back here on Monday by three because Dan has a test in Hermaneutics! Then Tuesday we finish up packing and Wednesday morning the movers are coming to load up all our stuff.

I am going to be so glad when this is over!! Our last move we knew would be big and we started preparing in Sept. for a June move. We moved half-way across the country. Of course it took a lot of work and planning. This move is two hours away and it feels like I have been at least thinking about it for ages!!! I am so thankful that I am not packing and loading the house up but at least when you do your own packing it feels like you are moving toward your goal. Anyway, this is not complaining!! I just get to live in my house until someone else worries about getting me to Iowa Park. It's pretty great, unless you have a problem with control. But I don't know anyone around here that deals with that!!

I'll try and keep you posted and when we get moved I'll send out our new info. and post some pics. Have a Happy Easter. I hope you are able to enjoy the celebration of what our glorious Lord has done for us. Our once dead, but now living Savior has overcome death for once and for all!! Praise the Lord!

It's a ......

I had another sonogram today and today the baby was much more cooperative. I wish we had a scanner so we could post the pictures for you. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a profile shot of the face because baby was face down. But every thing is looking good and very normal right now.

OK, OK, I know that the only thing you people really care about is the sex of this baby. Are we having another baby girl or are we finally going to get our baby boy?








WELL.................




IT'S A .....................................................BOY!

I am not really sure what to do with boys. I guess I have some shopping to do. Anyone want to put in their two cents on baby names? I think boy names are hard. Growing up I had a boy Cabbage Patch Kid named Barkley Kit. I thought that name was pretty cool!

A Little Excitement in the Neighborhood

Well, I have to say, I will not miss city life in the least!! We have always known that this isn't the best part of town but I have never felt unsafe. Even when we occasionally hear a few gunshots somewhere in the area, I always know that it isn't on my street at least. We came home this evening to quite an alarming site. Right next door to us in the empty Seminary house was a Tahoe surrounded by SEVERAL police cars. My guess would be at least 10 cop cars where blocking the street. Since all of the other neighbors were out on their porches we sent the girls to get their pjs on and we sat on our porch.

Dan thought it important to document the event with a picture and of course I was indignant that he would even think of such a thing, but when he almost chickened out I egged him on! That's why the picture quality isn't the best but we will at least have documentation!

I have to admit I was a little embarrassed that I needed to sit and watch what was happening but I felt I needed to know what kind of danger we were actually in! Plus, this was the closest our neighborhood has come to a block party! Anyway, Dan didn't pull the van up very far in the driveway because we were a little distracted by all the flashing lights. So I couldn't really get a good look at what was going on. I decided to "do something" in the garage. There I could peek, unnoticed, from the garage windows and get a really good look at what was going on. I saw I woman sitting in the patrol car, obviously cuffed, and a man talking to her through the window. Then the cops started unloading the back of the tahoe. I saw a computer, stereo, and some other large objects make their way to their own patrol car.

Just as we were about to give up on getting any info, the campus security guard drove by and then backed up and pulled in to our driveway to fill us in. Three or four people were arrested. The cop pulled them over because the tags weren't current but then the people pulled into the house next to ours, a seminary house, and acted like it was their home. The campus security heard what was going on through the scanner and went to make sure the house was ok. Then the cops asked everyone to get out of the car and found LOTS of drugs and stolen stuff. OH, and did I mention the tahoe was stolen, too? WHEW!!! I am sure glad they weren't our neighbors!

Now, I need to say this because our Moms read this, WE WERE NOT IN ANY DANGER and never have been in this little house. God has taken good care of us and campus security is always driving by and they know who should be in the neighborhood and who shouldn't. BUT, at the same time I can't help but feel thankful that we are getting out of this city. And not soon enough if you ask me!!