Merry Christmas!!

We prepared.....

And Santa came!

Have a very Merry Christmas!!

Winter wonderland and a wedding

We have been iced over here for 4 days -- pretty incredible, this is one of the worst ice storms I have ever experienced here in Texas!  We are slowly thawing out today, but temps are plunging back down below freezing and they have already canceled Liam's school and rescheduled his Christmas program =( 
 

First slip and slide!

Liam LOVED the "snow"...do you see those icicles on my car?!

The first day of this was kinda fun, but considering we had to drive to a wedding on Saturday, it really made for some dicey travel!  Thankfully, we made it to and from just fine, and it was a beautiful event!  Some sweet friends of ours got married and Dustin and Liam were in the wedding. 

Liam did a great job as the ring bearer - He was so cute!  They gave him a small turquiose box to carry down the aisle and hand to the best man.  Afterwards, he got really upset that he couldn't keep the box, lol.  I had to explain they had just let him carry it.  We took some time to have a few family pictures snapped -- mainly so we could get a Christmas card done!  And I guess we did look pretty cute all dressed up!  If I do say so myself! (said in my best country accent)

Liam made me this Lego car with a flower on it for my birthday today - such a sweet boy!  It's been a low-key day and that is the best kind for me!!  Finally got our tree up today and anticipating a couple busy weeks ahead!!  Hope everyone had a warm and safe weekend!

Thanksgiving fun!

We had a great Thanksgiving here at our house with family!  Our nieces spent a couple nights with us, as well as Dustin's grandma who is here for the week.  Last Wednesday we visited the Bush Presidential Library and had a great time learning and exploring the museum.  We even got a photo in the oval office!

Thursday morning we went on a hike through the woods to get materials for our handmade table centerpieces.  

Our idea was to gather some branches, leaves and pine cones and paint them for a pretty effect (and free!)...

I think it turned out lovely!  My nieces put it together with some creative hunting around the house for jars and using fall squash and pumpkins to fill in.

We've just been eating, spending time with family and relaxing this weekend.  Enjoying some last free quiet moments before the busy days ahead of shopping, entertaining and Christmas! 

New favorite game

Liam's new favorite game....daddy has been teaching him and he LOVES it!  It's cold and rainy here today, so now Liam is teaching ME how to play ;)

Today's funnies

I think trying to post small snippets of our life everyday is the best way to go for now on the blog, so here goes it ;)  Liam had his school "Feast Day" today.  I asked him what he ate and he said "Cheese balls and grapes....oh, and turkey."  Clearly, we know what foods take the highest priority.  He also had a juice box - which is great, but sometimes I hesitate on his swallowing when I am not with him...but I guess he did just fine.

Liam is watching Cars 2 for the 123rd time right now and I guess yall know what I am up to right now.  I made up a new phrase that Liam thought was hilarious - I grabbed his cheeks, kissed him on the nose and said "Hey!  I love you smookums!!"  He keeps saying yelling it to me...he cracks me up -- We are meeting daddy in a little while for dinner out and a family night, as we have all been crazy busy.  I'm looking forward to some down time with my boys!!

And speaking of funny - A bloggy friend posted this YouTube video on her blog awhile back (Thanks Shannon!), and it quickly became known as the "Fox Song" around here and has been played approximately 73 times in the last few weeks...Liam loves it --  It is a daily music request!

I'm also going to try to throw in a picture everyday.  THIS is my new love in our house - my chalkwall - I am so grateful hubby built the pantry and it has the perfect little accent wall for it....And, I practiced some fancy chalk writing with one of my favorite scriptures of all time....perfect for the season!

It is supposed to be REALLY cold here the next few days and I am thinking how thankful I am to have gotten my Thanksgiving groceries today.....Be blessed!!

Start somewhere!

I have been wanting to post, I really have!  It's just the longer our blog goes "unsaid" it seems like SO much to catch up on!  The story of my life - overwhelmed and where do I begin?  SO I just decided to not worry about the past, and just start again today with a small hello!  Plus, nothing really too eventful has been happening around here!

Liam is doing GREAT - Praise God - He is healthy, happy, loving life and a ball of energy!  We are blessed to say the least and are trying hard not to take this season in our life for granted.  People have been asking lately if we are "out of the woods" with all his medical stuff.  My answer is, honestly, I have no idea.  That's CHD for you though.  I am prayerfully hopeful that this season of health and "no news" will be long lived, but we do know another surgery, at best case, is a few years away.  We are just so thankful for this season.  No worries about tomorrow ;)

Hopefully more to come!  Maybe I should just do an evening wrap up everyday??  Anyone have tips for staying on track with blogging?  AT least I have some pictures!! LOL - Be Blessed!

On your 4th Birthday

Dear Liam,

As your birthday approaches each year, I am always filled with so many emotions...reflective on your years of life and praising God for everything you are - I stand in complete awe of God's miracle plan for you and our family.  Your journey has not been easy, but looking back and being able to see God's hands in every ounce of your life, from your very first appearance on the sonogram to you counting all the way to 100 in the backseat of our car, has been an extraordinary experience.  I have become truly thankful and grateful for the orchestration of events in your life and ours - that has brought us here to the place where we are right now.  I am humbled, honored and blessed to call you my son - that God would chose me to be your mother.

I see a greatness in you far beyond anything I can explain.  The Lord has spoken to me many times about the glory He will bring through you and it excites me to no end.  I can only imagine the glory you have brought to Him up to this point - Can you see it, my sweet one??  He created every fiber of you to be great for Him - and you are doing just that.  I have already seen Him grow a quiet and gentle spirit in you, a deep love and compassion for others and a kindness and truly happy disposition.  Everywhere we go, people always take notice of you, and you know why?  Your sweet, happy self is always drawing other's into God's love and pure joy - they find that in YOU.   Complete strangers SEE that in you, as well as your many family and friends who know you. You are a constant light of God's goodness and a testament to His promises fulfilled.

And to watch you grow (literally!) into this little person - 4 years.  You have an unmatched sense of humor and a gift of story-telling beyond your years.  And like a little sponge, you love soaking in everything around you -new things and experiences you savor - and you have been gifted with the love of learning.

To say that daddy and I are blessed seems an understatement.  So on your 4th birthday, I pray you may fully know how much you are LOVED, honored and adored.  May God grant you with His everlasting peace and JOY as He reveals to you His purpose and calling on your life. I pray you recklessly seek Him, serve Him and love Him.  May you fully experience a bold and courageous faith and lead others to do the same.  You are a PRECIOUS son, heir to the throne and a PRINCE of the Most High King - May you continue to serve and bring glory and honor to His mighty name.  We are so proud of you...Happy birthday our sweet, sweet Liam.

Love you forever and always,
Mommy

Our adventures of the present

Our summer officially comes to a close next week…Liam will start his new school 2 days a week and we will be back to our “normal” schedule.  I am a bit relieved (as probably most moms who work from home in general are!), but sad to see the summer sun fleeting and the busy fall/holiday season approach!  We enrolled Liam in a new school this year, which is so close to us we can walk there, which is very cool.  It is at a local church, and I am excited about this new beginning for him to connect with kids he will most likely be together with for a long time in school and start developing those lasting friendships – and I’m equally excited to meet some new moms in the area too!  I feel now that we are settled in, I want to make the most of where we are right now, in this moment and enjoy what God has for us right now.

Which leads me to our recent decision for me to be 100% work from home.  I still worked at my old office on Tuesdays for the past 2.5 years, and yesterday was my last day.  It was bittersweet, but the long commute and not having a full day to commit because of our new school schedule lead us to trust God’s provision will come elsewhere (I am praying through my art business!).  I will still do my accounting work from home and hopefully be able to spend more time on my art business, as well as hopefully keeping the blog updated more frequently ;).  

In other good news, Liam is slowly being weaned off his thickener!  I haven’t posted in awhile on his swallowing progress, but the older he gets, the better he gets at being able to take the thinner liquids.  In fact, we are now having him drink mostly without the use of thickener, but through a coffee size straw for slower flow.  The only time I’ve been using thickener is when we are in the car traveling or at night when I leave him water bedside.  We are excited about this!  I’m hoping to slowly increase straw width (tricky to do, but Ikea sells straws that are narrower than standard straws…weird information to know, but hey, that’s our life!)  Hopefully someday we can start working on cup training without a straw…but I hesitate to move too quickly!  I see Capri Sun’s being the new drink of choice in our house for now, lol.

Liam is doing great – he has been so healthy and VERY active lately, and it’s great to see.  He is loving anything to do with numbers (BINGO is his new favorite game) and is starting to work on reading and basic math, like algebra and pre-calculus…Haha, just kidding (although mommy has taught him made him memorize some basic algebra and multiplication).  But he “gets” numbers like nothing I’ve ever seen in a 3 year old before, so I am praying that sticks!  Life will be so much easier if he gets math!  He is also really into sorting things (like Legos – which can be an unending task)…hmmm, he is very much like his mommy in those regards.

I can’t believe he will be 4 next month!  We are planning to have his birthday outside at his favorite “castle” park, since a lot of our house is currently a work in progress =)  It will be a lot of fun and he cannot stop asking how far away his birthday is…Am I 4 today yet??

More updates soon, I promise this time! 

Where has the time gone??

Just wanted to pop in real quick to do a short update!  Liam had his 6 month cardiology appointment last Friday and it went really well!  Our last visit was PRE-cath back in February, so I was expecting the pressures to be down slightly, but instead there had been no change - which for us, is a GOOD thing! Probably another heart cath sometime in the future, as we had expected, but we have another 6 months to worry about that at least!

We are all moved in to our new home and it is wonderful...projects are coming along slowly, but surely!  Hence, my lack of posts lately as we have been super busy, but I have lots of updates that will be coming soon!  Thanks for taking time to keep up with us, we are SO very blessed!

{I just realized I put an exclamation point after every sentence!  Things are good around here!}

My first photo dump...and what have we been up to?

I'll be honest, when things are running good around here, I get L.A.Z.Y. with the blog!  But considering this is more like a digital scrapbook for me, I need to get with it and catch up on some pictures and happenings!  So consider this fair warning, haha!  There will be lots of pictures and crazy ramblings of our happenings the past few weeks (or later than that even?)

Main big event the past few weeks has been our NEW HOUSE!  YAY!  We closed 2 weeks ago and have started the renovation process, including building a new pantry (a staple in our house and it didn't have one!), scraping walls, patching walls, re-texturing walls, new floors, all new paint from ceilings to floors and a myriad of other little things that are in need of repair.   We are doing most of the work ourselves, as we hubby is handy!

Always a fun day at The Home Depot!

Sheetrock and joint compound have become common household terms now! Ha!

Before picture of the main renovation - the kitchen - texture gone bad and the problem of no pantry (oh, and the floors to boot!)

Walls scraped and mudded...beginning form of the pantry!  And pre-sanded walls

Studs going up!  And yes, hence the METAL studs we are using, we were surprised to find out in the inspection, we have a steel framed house!  Really unheard of around these parts, but I guess it's an ok thing!

Hubby will have to forgive me, but I need an action shot!  Drywall going up - meanwhile, I AM working too, sanding away on those walls! Taking a picture break!  It was only my 18th "break" at that point, ha!  

Finished pantry enclosure - we are finishing it up this weekend - I am SOO happy with how it turned out and the placement we thought might be a little strange, actually flows really well. We are doing a bench on the other side all the way to the back wall of the kitchen to utilize the corner space in the back of the kitchen...can't wait until it's all done!

I told you I WAS working...As you can see by the above "evidence"...So for evidence, I took a picture to prove I contributed.   Sanding walls is exhausting, but really any work is exhausting...

We wanted a fixer upper, so it fits the bill perfectly, ha!  It's been fun working with Dustin on "projects" and we love to do stuff like that together, so while it's been hard work (more for him, than me) it's been really fun to spend time together as a family, even Liam has helped some....

He started practicing his letters on the old linoleum floor we ripped up.  I told him this will only be allowed this one time and not when our new floors go down, ha! You can see he was trying to write my name, starting it backwards...pretty good!

This was the first try on the drywall (again, I was telling him "Go write on the wall!" then realizing I probably should explain a little better that he can only do that on THIS wall!)- he was still writing backwards, from right to left at first, but even still, his letters looked great and recognizable!

We were texting Mimi and Baba, so he was writing their real names =)...This is without ANY guidance of hand by me!

 ....or at least he's been learning his letters!  I was surprised he is writing SO well - we do not really work on writing much at home, so the fact he was able to write the letters I was spelling for him was amazing! We have another couple weeks of work, then we should be moving in mid-July!  I cannot wait, this will be an adventure for sure!  I really want to chronicle all our DIY projects we have planned (we have some cool ideas I am really excited about, mainly because this house has some quirky areas and we are having to be CREATIVE to make space work) on my other blog, but am praying if that is really were God wants me to spend my time right now...While I would LOVE to get more into design and sharing ideas, I'm just not sure I need to make an outlet for it.  Anyways, on with the show - that's it for now on house stuff!

Let's see, I will go back to the end of May when my sweet nieces had their dance recital - They were precious, I love to watch them dance!  Liam sat through the recital like a gem, and he really enjoyed it too!  Here's a couple pictures...

Tori, Lauren, Grace and Liam =)

We also found a new park recently, and it ROCKS!  It has little themed houses and structures all over and a lot of neat "things" for kids to explore and play.

And Liam is loving the camera lately, more so he likes to take a bunch of pictures of random things, but is enjoying being in front of the camera more as well...

This picture cracks me up!  We went with Dustin while he photgraphed some good friends of ours engagement pictures.  We actually bought some cool retro suitcases on the spot that day at a nearby antique shop we fell in love with and thought would make good props (and cheap!).  Anyways, Liam wanted to take some pictures on the suitcases, and here a train was going by in the background, hence he was holding his ears from the noise!

Poising for the camera!

Wish it wasn't blurry, but he was being so goofy, but NOT holding still!  I was desperately trying to capture his silliness and the moments of laughter we were having!

Liam confiscated my phone and went wandering around my parents house taking pictures of just about everything...

I startled him here, he didn't know I heard him coming and I turned around quickly!  Ha!  He actually caught the moment well! Haha!

Liam enjoyed a fun week camp at his old school  in early June.  He had the best time, and it was GREAT to catch up on work that week and not feel like I was neglecting him (working from home has it's downsides!)  They "visited" a different museum each day, and at the end of camp, they had an art show for the parents - very cute and creative idea!

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Summertime fun, trying to get out of the house before it hits 105 degrees is a little challenging, but I managed to get out about 7:00 am and we went to the Nature Park creek to throw some rocks...it was actually really nice outside and we ended up staying almost 2 hours!

Last weekend, Dustin's sister and family came in town, so we spent time with family and had a blast together!  We all had a big sleep over at his other sister's house not too far from here, and it was fun staying up late and just hanging out!  The cousin's had a lot of fun and played their little hearts out!

Antique horsey ride!

It proved very challenging to get all 3 younger ones to BE STILL for the camera...or at least at the same time!

At this point Liam was just being ornery!

 And LAST but not least, Dustin had a graduation event - He completed a 2 year course at our church for ministry.  It is an intensive course and weekly commitment for 2 years, but he did it! Proud of you hun!

That about sums. it. up.  For now at least!  Thanks for checking in!