Wedding and Anniversary Pictures

This will be the last post about our anniversary, but since I have been blogging for over two years and have never posted any wedding pictures, I thought I'd put some on here. I was thinking I couldn't post these since I don't have a scanner, but I remembered from Laura's blog that I can take pictures of pictures! Not the best quality, though! I pulled out the ole' wedding album this morning and started snapping! Here are some of my favorite wedding day pictures and one of my formal portraits.






















We tried to take some similar pictures on our date Friday night from our wedding night. I was going by memory, but they're close!



























Here are some anniversary pictures. This was our first anniversary dinner in Dallas.














We don't have a picture from our second. We had just moved here a couple of months before (well, I had. Josh had to move 3 months earlier to start his job and I stayed in Dallas to finish my job) and we went to a really good restaurant called 1424.

Our third was in Cape Cod. My cousin had gotten married in NY days before, so we went to my aunt and uncle's house afterward. Josh took me down to my uncle's boat house, and we had breakfast overlooking the river. This picture was taken first thing in the morning with my frizzy Cape Cod hair, but I still love it because of the memory!















On our fourth anniversary, my parents watched 2 month old James and we went to dinner at Diamondback's. I think that was our first time away from him, but we really enjoyed it.

Our 5th Anniversary!

Yesterday was our 5th Anniversary, and my wonderful husband surprised me with an evening to remember. We headed up to Dallas yesterday afternoon and dropped James off at my brother's office. All the while, I had no idea what we were going to do that night! Josh told me at that point that I could start guessing and he would tell me yes or no. I couldn't guess and then he accidently opened his manila folder with all of the night's information and I read "Omni". I about jumped out of my seat, because that was where we stayed on our wedding night! He had booked the same room we stayed in (911)! He said that we were going to go to dinner and then go back to the hotel to stay for the night. That was beyond perfect to me, to have a night and a morning baby free to just celebrate and reminisce about the past 5 years of marriage. We were so excited about not having to stay in the room by 7:00pm and getting to wake up when we woke up, lay in bed, watch tv, and read, too! One of the sweetest parts was that he got us the same package as he did on our wedding night, so we enjoyed some pampering while reminiscing. I can't describe how surreal it was for us to walk into that room, where it all began! It was one of the best nights of my life! I can't skip telling you about the restaurant. He took me to Cool River, which had some of the best food we've ever eaten. We both said that we hoped they would have those meals in heaven. Thanks also to my wonderful brother and sister-in-law for watching James overnight for us! We hope to repay you some day!

Railroad Track Theory, Pictures from Horseshoe Bay, and More!

My mom sent me this today, and I LOVED it and had to share!

Rick Warren (REMEMBER HE WROTE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE) You will enjoy the
new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and
him having "wealth" from the book sales. This is an absolutely
incredible short interview with Rick Warren,

"Purpose Driven Life " author and pastor of Saddleback Church in
California.

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a
nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last
Forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--
But not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions
Of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act -- the dress rehearsal. God
wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life
Isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just
coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character
Than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making
Your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of
Life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the
toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark
Time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe
That anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of
like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something
Good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something
Bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something
Good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

If you focus on your problems, you're going into
self-centeredness,"which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of
the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself
and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of
thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for
her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her
character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a
testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For
instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million
Copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with
Before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego
Or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety
And influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide
what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our
lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from
the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace
Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the
sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since
I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be
able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions?
Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or
am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God,
if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and
Love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do
list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
NOW ... PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

These are the pictures that my friend, Kimberly took at Horseshoe Bay...






Last week I was determined to take pictures since I've been bad about that lately, so I did, but there was a glich in the camera and they all got erased! :( My parents are going to loan me their camera for a little while to try again, so maybe I'll post some next week!

To fill you in on this past weekend, my brother's Christmas present to my dad was to go to a Gordon Lightfoot concert in Fort Worth this past weekend. We all got tickets as a family and went together. My family grew up listening to Gordon Lightfoot constantly (along with John Denver) on our 5000-6000 mile roadtrips we would take every summer. When Josh and I became serious, he learned to love Gordon pretty quickly! If you haven't heard of him, ask you'll parents and they'll know. All of us, minus the children, got to go, and we thoroughly enjoyed it! I would show you pictures, but they were erased! One of the highlights of the trip was getting to see one of my best friends, Suzanne, at the hospital there! Suzanne, who's pregnant with quads, and I have been friends since we were in 6th grade, and it was so good to see her doing so well! I was also blessed to meet one of my new blogger friends on a "blind" playdate last week, Kimberly, and her adorable boy Creighton! I had a great time getting to talk to her, and James enjoyed running around with a new friend (who I bet in just a few months will be running around with him). Last night, we had an in-town blogger get together that Nicki blogged about today. Check it out! It was so much fun, and if you live in town and want to go to the next one, let us know! Josh's and my 5 year anniversary is this Friday, so we're going up to Dallas, going to drop James off at my brother's work, and then I don't know what we're doing after that! Josh has planned something, and I'm excited to find out!! It is sooooo hard for him to keep a secret from me, so it's been fun giving him a hard time about it! I'll blog about it when we get back! James is awake from his nap now, so I better wrap this up! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Pictures from the Week, Part 1

This has been a very busy week, and I took lots of pictures!

Posing for Mommy! (By the time I actually got him to pose, I was sweating! He makes me work for it!)
 

Tuesday night we went to the golf course with our friends. This was James and Mommy's first time at the golf course! We had lots of fun a learned a few things, even from James's 22 month old friend who is a little pro already!
















"Look at Mommy go!"





















"There are all sorts of fun things to do at a golf course. You can dump balls...















put baskets on your head..."















"Look Buddy, this is what you're supposed to do here."















"This looks like more fun!"















"Come on, Buddy! Let's go for a ride!"


 

As you can see, it was pretty hot out there (even at dusk) and the boy was in desperate need of a bath, so that was that. More to come later!

Horseshoe Bay, Father's Day, and new words

(James had just poked me in the eye here)This weekend was Josh's annual regional conference with his company. They hold one every June for the whole family to go to, and this year it was in Horseshoe Bay. I love Horseshoe Bay and hadn't been there since I was a kid, so I was excited to go back. It is in the Hill Country of Texas, which is a beautiful area! (If you ever come here to visit, that's where you need to go.) We stayed at a nice resort with lots of neat things to do, but we had to pretty much stick to the baby pool. We were so excited because some friends of ours from church just joined the company, so we got to hang out with them! She took lots of pictures of James (I couldn't find my camera at first) and is going to send them to me, so I'll have to post them later. On Friday, we went down to Fredricksburg again, since it was so close, and did a little more shopping and walking around. We didn't get to eat at the Altdorf Biergarten again or get my favorite pastries, but it was probably for the better!

(This outfit was one of my brother's.)

Today, we enjoyed celebrating the wonderful fathers in our family. James ran to give Josh his present (he didn't know it was his present to him, but we just pretended for fun!) and then as soon as Josh took it, he wanted it back and got upset. After church, we had delicious food at Elizabeth's and gave my dad his cards and presents. I love Father's Day, when I can celebrate the incredible daddy Josh is to James and my own incredible dad, who helped make me the person I am today.

I need to write down the new words James is saying now! He says "ju" for juice, "boo" for book (sounding like the first part of book), "phoo" for food (like a p, but with more air between the lips), "peeaboo" (not real clear, but he said this this morning while playing peek-a-boo), and "tsu" for shoe. It's so much fun when I've discovered that he's saying a real word on his own, when I haven't even said the word to him in a while. I've noticed that he'll mostly say these words when he wants me to do something, like feed him, read to him, play peek-a-boo with him, etc. This is such a fun age!

At the hotel, he figured out that he could reach the door knob, so he opened the door (while I was getting dressed) and ran out the door! Luckily Josh was there to go chase after him! At home today, he's been trying to open the doors more than usual and whining more that he can't get them open. He's now able to reach them, so it won't be too much longer before we have those lovely child-proof door knobs everywhere! ;)

Another Long, Rambling Post!

I sat down to write about my weekend, but I have to mention first that I am amazed looking at a spider outside our house right now working its way around its web to catch some prey! Have you ever sat and watched that happen (besides on Charlotte's Web)? It creeps me out, but at the same time, I'm fascinated! It's an amazing/beautiful thing! It won't be so beautiful if it comes in the house, though! Anyways, about my weekend. Friday night was so much fun. Elizabeth, Bryon (my bro-in-law), Matthew, and Thomas went to a Ranger's game in Dallas and my mom and dad were watching Mary Beth, so Josh, James, and I joined Mom, Dad, and Mary Beth for dinner and some Kiddie Land! It's fun every once in a while to just be with the babies. Mary Beth cracks us up with all of the funny things almost 3 year olds come up with, and James cracked us up in his own way and gave us lots of good cuddle-time. James loved the merry-go-round, so we went on it twice. He also loved the train, but had to stand up, not sit down in our laps. Saturday, we stayed in and had the best time just having nothing to do! I felt like I was nesting again and inspired Josh to help me organize much of the house while James took his long naps! Saturday night, we went to a get-to-know-you cook-out with our "flock" at church. Our church is divided into flocks, and each flock has a certain elder. It was a lot of fun getting to talk to new people and old people who we never really get a chance to talk to!

James News

He has been really good to us lately and is sleeping late every morning (on top of going to be around 7:30). He'll even stay in bed and talk and listen to his turtle that plays music, that he'll turn on himself. That's puts getting-out-of-bed-time around 8:30 now. It makes such a difference for me to have some quiet time before James get up!

He is cutting his incisors right now (the pointy teeth). They have been giving him more trouble than the others gave him, but the worst of it seems to be over...for now at least.

As my dad put it, he looks like he grew about a foot this past week. He has also seemed to be running on turbo speed lately. As long as we're home, it's fun, but if we're out, it's exhausting sometimes!

He really hates to leave us. He's a little better leaving Josh than me, so he usually does the dropping off to class now. I took him to the Y last week with my sister-in-law and niece, and as soon as we walked into the daycare there, his eyes started welling up and his lip started quivering. Let me tell you, he has the saddest cry on the face of the earth. It is heart-wrenching in the worst kind of way. I gave him to Jo Anna and let her do the rest, and she told me afterward, "PROMISE me you won't EVER take him here again!! This is the last time, okay?!". I still want to work out, so I don't know what I'm going to do. I might try to work something out with Elizabeth. He's always fine after we leave, it's just the good-bye that's hard for him right now.

He's really into birdies right now. He points them out anytime he sees one and gets excited. Yesterday, I was changing his diaper on the guest bed and he layed down and started moving his arms. I said, "Are you flapping your wings like a birdie?", and he flipped over so fast, pointed outside and said, "Boot-eh!" like a French way of saying booty. It was hilarious!

He's also getting really into his daddy. He still seems to be more attached to me right now, but I'm wondering how much longer that will last! Josh was taking a shower yesterday afternoon when I took James away to change his diaper (the time in the above story). He was calling for "DA!" the whole time I was taking him away. After I changed his diaper, I set him on the floor to pick out some clothes. He RAN out the door as fast as he could. He's getting so fast now that it's getting harder to keep up with him. I looked for him and didn't see him in the kitchen, so I walked back to our bedroom, and there he was, standing in the closet with "DA!". Josh LOOOOVES this, of course! I do too! It just really struck me what a little person he is to, as soon as he got the chance, run to the other side of the house and be with his daddy!

He is loving fruit right now. If I give him 20 blueberries, he will eat every last one of them! Same with strawberries, bananas, cantaloupe, and others. Even if he is picky about other things, at least I know he's getting his daily recommended amount of fruit!

He loves his bat "bah" and his ball "baw" and goes around hitting balls with his bat! He's such a little boy already.

He has been testing us and playing games lately, but I noticed for the first time last night that he's getting to be very deliberate about it. I want to laugh and pick him up and kiss him, because I think it's so cute and "big" of him, but I don't! Last night, we had life group at our house, and he became interested in the lamp behind the rocking chair we were sitting in. I pulled him away from it and he went right up to it, paused and looked at me (with eyes like saucers), pointed his finger, and slooowwwly put his finger on it. I realized just what he was doing, said, "No, No" and pulled him away. He did it about 3 or 4 more times, and I couldn't believe it! This is something new that we're going to have to work on! A few weeks ago, it was little mini-tantrums, but those are pretty much non-exsistent now. I'm wondering if it's going to start being something new every month! :) Oh, the joys of parenting! When did he get so big??

Aunt Jo Anna and cousin Hannah's visit

 

The past two weeks, James's Aunt Jo Anna and cousin Hannah have been here visiting him! He fell in love instantly with Hannah, knew their names, and was crying for Hannah when she would have to leave to go to the bathroom within the first day of them being here! I think he remembered them from when we went to visit them two months ago! We have had lots of fun these past two weeks...

Last week, we went to the splash park and then played in the baby pool and with the sprinkler beach ball.

On Saturday, we went to Fredricksburg and San Antonio for a day trip! James did really well, and we had a lot of fun!! We ate some REALLY good German food (Fredricksgurg is a German town) at one of my family's favorite restaurants there and took these pictures outside.
 

 

 

Then we went shopping at some of the great shops there, picked up the biggest box that they had full of my favorite pastries (one of my weaknesses) to take home, bought some peaches from a roadside stand (something they're known for), and headed to San Antonio.

James looking at the fishies...











Remembering the Alamo...

















Then we walked over to the Riverwalk and had dinner.
 

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This week we went to the Mayborn Museum and took Matthew along with us. The kids (and Aunt Jo Anna) had a blast! Jo Anna begged me to leave her at the outdoor exhibits that are set up to be an town in the pioneer days, which she loves (she has watched almost every episode of The Waltons), but I wouldn't let her.

James loved the birdie and talked to the iguana like it was his friend!

James loves Christian music!

Tonight, I finally got James on video really getting down. I put in a cd and he LOVED it! It might have helped that his cousin and aunt were in the background laughing at him, which he completely eats up. BTW, he is not wearing a dress. He just wasnt't buttoned up.

Dabadoobagatazaraba!

So much going on right now and not enough time to blog, but I wanted to put these videos up of Jameser speaking his new language. It cracks us up, because he get SO into it!! Sometimes he'll point and look at me while doing this, like "Can't you understand, Mommy!".


I'll post soon about all of our adventures this past week!