WOOHOO!

Well.. after 15 long days, we finally have power! Can I just say how thankful I am for our families? Between our moms and extended family, we were well fed, cooled by fans at night, and I was able to keep working! Oh.. and thanks to Aunt J and Mom for keeping us in clean clothes!

Even through all the blessings, it was still a bit of a rough few weeks for us, literally. Poor Jade got into an ant bed and had about a dozen bites on one of her legs. She busted her lip at church. Playing a little rough with kittens over at KK's house left a few scratches on her arms. And she tripped on Grandma's concrete porch, giving her a few scratches on her big toes. She is one tough little Princess though. She didn't even cry once through all of that.

So, if you really want to know what comes out of not having power for two weeks.. other than being hot in your house and relying on others that do have power. You get to watch your baby girl develop sweet relationships with family that she isn't around all that much. (Working from my mom's house enabled Jade to get to know her Aunt, her Granny, her Grandmaw, Grandma's "Friend", and her cousin really well.) You get a much lower electric bill than what you are used to! And when you finally do get power.. you think you have never been so happy to finally run a vaccuum, the dishwasher, and do all your laundry in your own house!

Ike

It was a doozy.. but we and all of our precious, material things made it through! Praise God that our house is still standing with absolutely no proof that Ike even passed through.



Our power has been out since Friday night, but we have had running water.. and family nearby with generators. So, we're clean and well fed! =)



And praise God for the nice little cool front that blew in yesterday, we even had to use the comforter at some point during the night! WOOHOO!

Unfortunately, a lot of others have not been quite as blessed to have made it through completely unscathed. My heart and prayers go out to those who aren't as fortunate.

B*E*A*U*tifull!

We had an absolutely gorgeous weekend here! Let's just say when you walked outside, you didn't automatically melt into the ground. Intstead, it was almost a hint of fall. Well, the Texas version of fall anyways. And after a long week of work and missing Daddy, it made our weekend even better.

On Sunday, we finally put together a mini-jungle gym outdoor type thing that had been handed down to us by Grandma, Aunt Carrie and Cullen.

Jade's favorite part was opening and closing the little gate entrance. She didn't really get how to climb to get to the slides.

(** And yes.. I know our grass is in need of some serious TLC. Not to worry though, Jade realized she loves the water hose and we have had playing with that the past few days... so hopefully that will help!)

Just cause this one was too sweet not to post..

But right after this shot, she decided to chow down on some grass, the Little Billygoat!

Daredevil

Jade has become all about climbing within the past couple of weeks. She climbs into her little rocking chair to rock her babies. She climbs up the stairs (with careful supervision, of course.) She climbs, she climbs, and climbs some more.

And this past week, she thought it would be funny to nearly give her mother a heart attack. Let's be real honest here. I love my daughter, I love watching her play, I love being involved in all the little things and the big, but I can't possibly keep my eye on her every moment of every day. 

One of Jade's favorite things to climb into, is this little play table thing. The top comes off, and it is like a little storage bucket thing for the building blocks. Miss Priss loves to throw the top off, and yes, literally throws it off. Then, proceeds to chunk each and every building block behind her. After all this, she climbs in and will just sit in there for a few minutes. Or will get out and climb back in repeatedly. Well, one day this past week, I was in the kitchen doing somethin'. I came around the corner of our bar to peek on her. There she was, just standing up in the thing, smiling like she was happier than a pig in poop! 

Coolest KK Ever!

3 Smiles + 1 Smirk+ 2 Adorable Babies+ 1 Cute Toddler + 1 Hot KK= A REALLY GREAT PICTURE

Jade loved the carousel!!

She also really enjoyed skee-ball. As you can see.

Jade's KK recently had a birthday, and decided to have her birthday party at the coolest place ever... CHUCK-E-CHEESE'S! She wanted to make it fun for her grand-kids.. but we all ended up having a blast!

It's Here!!!

I can't believe it's actually here!! A day that I have prayed and wept for countless times over the past year. Since the day I had Jade, thoughts of being a stay at home Mom literally consumed me. The time I had for "maternity leave" was spent agonizing over thoughts of having to go back to work. Don't get me wrong, I still had plenty of time to squish in some sweet loving on that precious, little princess.. but I just dreaded the day I had to go back to work. And each time I felt that way, or started to feel that way again over the past year, I just prayed. Prayed for God to give me strength, prayed for a miracle for me to either work from home or be a stay at home Mom, and of course I thanked Him for the wonderful care my daughter was receiving. (We are so blessed to have had Nana and Aunt "Tis-tuh" watch Jade the past year.. and of course a handful of other family members when they had something conflicting.)

I've said it before and I will say it again. My husband is a very hard-working, loving provider for our family. He takes a healthy amount of pride in his work and is always looking out for our family's best interest. We live quite modestly, and have worked to keep it that way.. to be good stewards of what we have been blessed with. However, even the bare necessities can add up.

So.. we've prayed, and talked, and prayed and talked some more. We studied scriptures on what we believe my role in our household should be. I took a big leap and asked my boss to grant me my wildest wish. AND THEY SAID YES!! Of course, they had some improvements and tweaks to the "proposal" I had presented them with.. which is leaving us relying even more on the grace of God. Still, they said yes.

And so it begins.. I am a stay/work at home Mom! Now, thoughts of spending each and every day with my princess explode in my mind! How much fun it will be to teach her shapes, colors, the alphabet, numbers, how puzzles work, and of course most importantly, more about the awesome God we serve! WOOHOO! Thank you, Lord!

*P*A*R*T*Y*

Ohmygoodness, who would have ever thought that such a simple act as a precious, little Princess turning 1 could be so tiring?

Jade is sound asleep in the next room, the Hubby is practically snoring at my side, and I'm barely able to keep my eyes open at the moment. What a great end to a splendid day! A day that seemed lightyears away 365 days ago, but now it has come and almost gone. 

Our princess turned 1 in the company of most of her family and a lot of dear friends. We are so crazy blessed to have the kind of family and friends we do. Not many people would brave the Texas heat, but ours did for over 2 hours. 

Pops and KK were so gracious to let us have the schindig at their house. The kids ran like wild commanches around the deck, into the pool, and even in the mini-moonwalk. (Thank you again M&B for letting us borrow that today! The kids really enjoyed it!!) And the Princess's birthday could not have been complete without the yummiest birthday cake ever! Made with love by Papoo and Nana of course!

All in all, it was a great afternoon spent in the company of really great people! Oh, and did I mention that Jade probably has enough dresses to clothe a small 3rd world village? Well, she does. And enough toys, puzzles, books and dolls to share too! But to be quite honest.. all of those "things" were just kind of like the "cherry on top." Not necessarily needed, but always appreciated!