Visitors from Oklahoma!

A couple of weeks ago my sister, Jenni, her son, Vincent, and Homie came to visit us for the weekend. We had a great time showing them all the fun things to do in Winters...and all that happened before dinner. :o) Just Kidding. (kind of) The kids had a great time out at the Friday night football game. We hooked Vincent up with some Blizzard gear.

Jenae and her daddy sharing some love!

Bedtime stories are best when shared with a friend!

This was actually taken a different night...after a full day at the zoo. The little thing
just slowly faded as Homie read her last book of the night. So sweet!

Fall

This is the best I could do. I was trying to get a nice full-length shot of Jenae. However, everytime I would squat or bend down to get on her level, she would imitate me. So, just imagine she's standing there, nice and tall, in front of the tree. :o)

Football

Jenae is so proud of her "ball" shirt. In fact, the last two weeks after the game she has slept in her blue shirt and then worn it all day Saturday too! I think she is proud to be a Blizzard!
Here are the boys in action. I need to get some better shots to show some perspective. Coming from Belton-a 5A school, to Winters-a 1A school, there are some slight differences in proportions. The bands look tiny, the stadium is small, and the sidelines aren't lined with reserve players. One thing I think is sweet is that now whenever we drive by the stadium, which is just down the street from our home, Jenae always says, "Go, Blue!"
The funniest thing so far this season has been Jenae's understanding of the team mascot. We are the Winters Blizzards. It's a horrible picture, but everyone always asks exactly what does that look like. Well, here it is:
Folks are always asking Jenae, "Where's the Blizzard?" "Do you see the Blizzard?" Come to find out, Jenae is only picking up on "Where's the Lizard?" "Do you see the Lizard?" I know this because she sits with me and asks "Gecko?" Even as I'm posting this, she saw the picture and said "gecko!" She must think we are all crazy though. She knows what a gecko is and what it looks like. She's got to wonder how this "blizzard" mascot resembles a gecko at all. I'm sure it's her first instance of wanting to roll her eyes and say, "Whatever!"

So, Go, Blue! Go, Geckos!

Bubbles

Swimming

What a fun summer this has been! We've spent countless days at the pool. At the pool here, it only costs 50 cents for Jenae to get in...so we went...a lot! I am amazed at how bold she's become. At the beginning of the summer she was so clingy, couldn't float upright in her swim vest, but she loved the water. So we kept hitting the pool. It was on our sojourn trip with Mimommie (which I still haven't blogged about, I know) that I actually let go of her to see what would happen. She just took off! I laughed and she was so proud of herself and giggling that I bet she swallowed a gallon of water. Since that day there's been so stopping her. These pictures were from the last time we swam with the cousins.

The Cake!

I agonized over what to do for Jenae's fish brithday cake. I don't know anyone here who does cakes, and I wasn't thrilled with the ones you find in the grocery store bakeries. Last year my friend Jennifer made an awesome cake for her birthday, so I knew the stakes were high. Plus, my sister took a Wilton cake decorating class last year and has become the pro and I knew she'd be eyeing my work pretty closely too. I'd seen some really cute ideas online, but thought there was no way I could replicate them, seeing as I'd never done cakes before. However, with a "little" coaching from my mom and lots of STRESS, I did it. I'm pretty proud of my little fish cake:




Here's the cake Jennifer did for Jenae's 1st birthday:

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jenae!

This past Saturday was Jenae's birthday. She "o-FISH-ally" turned 2 years old. That's right, and don't be surprised that we had a fish party to celebrate. This little girl has just stolen our hearts and it was so fun to have a whole day to do all things Jenae.
We had been preparing for this moment all week...practicing singing "Happy Birthday"...blowing out candles...she was ready. This picture below is of her delight at everyone singing her birthday song. She giggled the whole time.

Jenae with her dear friend Karen, from church, reading some of the new books she received.

The new art easel from Grammy and Grandpa Smith.

Puzzles

"Clack-Clack" dress shoes from Aunt Jenni

Jenae's best friends: Brenda, Lanny, Karen & Phil.
It wouldn't have been a party without them.

Getting ready for the big reveal. A surprise present from Momma & Daddy, Shasha & Boppa.

A kitchen!!

Her favorite feature on the kitchen set? The cordless phone. That's right. We are now seeing art imitate life. Watch out Momma, you're about to see yourself in action.

Pennsylvania or Bust!

At 5:30 in the morning Mimommie, Jenae and I are heading out on our Pennsylvania adventure. We're traveling with Mimommie in the motorhome to her Sojourn site. We are very excited. We'll be driving for 3 days and arrive at the camp on Wednesday. Then the real fun begins! We are going to spend one day in Philadelphia, one day in Hershey and one day in Lancaster with the Amish :o) Many of the Christian fiction books I read are about the Amish set in Lancaster county, so I can't wait to explore this part of the country. Jenae and I will fly back to Abilene next Sunday, then Mimommie will begin her work projects.

Please pray for us during the next week. Pray for Mimommie as she drives. Pray for Jordan as he stays at home without his family. I look forward to sharing more about our journey as we go (if possible) or once we return.

Tomorrow we'll be in Arkansas! Good night!

Painting the Parsonage

The parsonage the church provides us is such a blessing! We love being this close to our church building and it's been so convenient on numerous occasions. There are many things we love about this house and the things we don't we simply say, "It's okay we didn't choose this house." Except for one thing...the dark, glossy paneling that was everywhere! This house doesn't have many windows, and with the paneling it was just too dark and depressing. In the middle of the afternoon you'd have thought it was time for baths and bed. So I started talking to people who talked to people until I got permission to paint it! :o) I was scared and excited. I took several before and after shots. Neither really show how bad it was or the true color it is now, but hopefully it will give you an idea of how much it changed.

This is the entry way, obviously looking towards the front door:

This is looking into the family room from the entry way:
This is in the family room looking at the back door and breakfast area:

My next projects are to update some of the light fixtures, like the one above, and to try to put down some wood flooring in the entry way. The tile in there now is definitely from the 70's. I'll keep you posted on those too. It's so fun working on a house that isn't "yours." No worries if you "mess up." Ha!

Making Cookies

The Hubbards have a delicious Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Denecia always has some frozen cookie dough where she can make fresh cookies in the blink of an eye. It is a proud family tradition that Jordan is passing on to Jenae. Making a batch for Homie:

4th of July

Momma's Lil' Firecracker!

We had such a fun 4th this year. The last couple of years we've been at church camp on July 4th, so it was nice to do more traditional things this year. Homie flew into Abilene in the morning. We did a few errands and then came back to Winters. After gathering all our gear we headed out to Lake Brownwood. A family from church has a lake house out there and many of our friends met out there to celebrate. Jenae was pumped! Anytime we drive by water (of any kind or size) she starts talking about the fish. So we kept telling her we were going to "where the fish live." When she saw the lake it was like "jackpot!" She was very excited. Lewis took us out for a ride in the boat, but it didn't take her too long to figure out we weren't getting in the water...just riding on top of it. She didn't like that...she wanted in the water...with the fish! :o) After we got back to the dock, our dear friend, Karen, took Jenae swimming with the fish. Jenae LOVES to swim.

After all the swimming we ate a delicious meal that Phil cooked. The man knows how to BBQ...brisket and ribs. So delicious! Jenae started fading fast...she only took a 45 minute nap...so we headed back to Winters and enjoyed watching all the fireworks in the country as we drove back.