New Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures from the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Peter and Grandpa in the milo.
Peter and Tom at my office.
Century 21 Christmas Party.

At church.

Colorado Report #3

Yesterday we spent all day here at the house waiting for the snow storm that never arrived. The weather people said we would have 3-8 inches, we got about 1/8 of an inch. But it was cold and icy all day. I think the high here at the house yesterday was about 8 degrees. Last night we got down to zero. So we just stayed inside and spent the day celebrating Peter's 7 month birthday. It's hard to believe it has already been 7 months.
Today we planned to just go into town to get some formula, then visit a few more shops in Westcliffe. But the local grocery store was out of baby formula. So we headed into Florence about an hour or so away to get it. After that we went to the Royal Gorge Bridge. You can click here to see a great picture of it and read more about it. Our little camera just could not handle this thing. After that we found some snow near by and stopped to play in it. Peter had a blast. These are some of my (Pete) favorite pictures from today.

Tomorrow is our last full day here in Colorado. We plan to leave in the morning to head into Colorado Springs for the day. We don't have any set plans, so who knows what we will get ourselves into. We will stay there tomorrow night and then head back Sunday morning. It has been a great trip, but we are all ready to get back to South Texas. Can't wait to see you all.

Colorado Report #2

Ok this is Pete again and I know I am a bit picture happy today but this stuff is just too hard to explain without the pictures. So here is what we did today:

We woke up to a beautiful, brisk, cold, frosty morning here in the mountains. These are some of the mountains that are right out behind our cabin. It is truly a view that will take your breath away. We then drove to a small town called Rye and on into Colorado City for lunch at Ol'Zan's Place (?). The local bridge club happened to be meeting today so that was an experience as all the ladies played with Peter and gossiped at the bridge gathering.

After that we backtracked to a place called Bishop's Castle. This man has been building this real castle out in the middle of the forest since the 60's. It is huge! He has done it all himself and is proud of his work. This was a bit strange because there was no one else in the castle or anywhere close really. Just the three of us walking through it's huge rooms. It was about 15 degrees inside this rock fortress. You can click here to read more about this place and see some better pictures.

Peter and I looking through one of the small windows inside the spiral stair case.

This is inside what I think is the dining room.


This is the large room on the second floor. Maybe the master bed room, it has a great view.

Abby and Peter in the snow.

These are some more mountains near the town of Westcliffe. We took these on our way back to town. We went back to the house to rest for about an hour and a half then went back in to eat at a place called Pizza Madness. Best pizza I have ever had... and I have eaten some pizza, people.

I just thought this picture was funny. I don't know if Peter is trying to tell me how to drive, or what but he is really enjoying himself.

This is tonight right before bed as we practiced crawling. He is so tired. Peter still can't crawl but he rocks back and forth a lot, and can stay up on all fours much longer. I bet he will be on the move before long, that should be fun.

So that's it for Wednesday. Tomorrow we have another short road trip planned, then more relaxing. Just a few days left and we will be heading back to Texas. Can't wait to see you all.

Colorado Report #1

This is my (Pete's) attempt to blog:

Well we arrived in Colorado yesterday and got all settled in here at our cabin near Westcliffe. Today we went into town and ate lunch at a little place called "Chile Bear's" it was a nice little place with a huge variety on the menu. We meet several very nice people while we ate, the people here are so nice. During one of the conversations we found out that a new Cowboy Church was being built outside of town. So after lunch we ran by to say hi and take a look at what the Cowboy Church movement is like here in Colorado. Then we spent some time downtown going through the litttle shops. After a quick re-supply stop at the grocery store, it was back out to the cabin. Peter took a nap, then we rode out close to the mountains to enjoy the scenery. The pictures below are the mountains that are right by our cabin. The view is amazing!! At night you can see all the stars and the moon light coming off the snow capped mountains. They are breath taking. We don't really know what tomorrow holds, we are trying not to plan too much or stay too busy. We have decided to truly have a relaxing, restful, vacation. More reports in the coming days.

Enter....Christmas!

lol...i just posted yesterday but I always feel like Christmas officially begins at Thanksgiving. I forgot that I hadn't posted this picture. Last week we went to a seminar for Edward Jones and they had free pictures with Santa. Peter was enjoying hanging out, he kept laying back in his furry suit. That's all for now! Have a good day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Haven't posted in a couple of weeks...I haven't taken any pictures lately and didn't have much new to say but here's whats been going on lately...Melchizedeck, our employee from Kenya for Operation H2o (www.operationh2o.org) is here for a couple of weeks. He is getting some training on a drilling rig we are hoping to buy and send to Kenya soon so we can drill a well in ONE day! It would be an incredible step for our organization.

Pete has been preaching a series on "I am Thankful.." He had challenged everyone to make a list of things we are thankful for and focus on one thing each day. He left me a note this morning that said that he had set aside this day a couple of weeks ago to just be thankful for Peter and I, and a whole bunch of sweet things that made me cry, and that he was taking the day off of work and going to make me breakfast. I have had a rough couple weeks and needed that so bad, especially to be reminded how blessed I am.

This year we are spending Thanksgiving in Pleasanton with Pete's family and will spend Christmas with mine. I am looking forward to hanging out at Pete's mom and dad's house tomorrow. I did not have to cook one single thing..pretty pathetic...just show up and eat. It will be so nice though.

Next week we will be taking Peter on his first airplane ride. Hope it goes well. He is sooo busy all of the time..never stops moving. I think it will be good. We are flying to Colorado. It can't be too bad. We DID just take a 15 hour road trip to Missouri and survived. We have some incredible friends who have a house in Colorado and are letting us stay there for a week. I hope my cell phone gets NO service..lol...jk..anyone is welcome to call.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

6 months!

Peter turned 6 months old a week ago. Just in this last week it seems like he has learned so much. At his well visit our pediatrician told us to go ahead and start baby proofing the house because Peter will be on the move before long. I have a lot to baby proof...low shelves, cords, outlets, cabinets...I am so not ready for this. It is fascinating though to see how fast he changes. He is sitting alone now, still a little wobbly but for the most part he can catch himself. He is also getting up on his hands and knees.
This week is pretty busy with work but Wednesday we are going to my mom's. I made an appointment there to get my hair cut and highlighted which is always nice..I need it pretty bad. We are thinking about another road trip in December. Pete has some more vacation days that he can use before the end of the year and our friends have a house in Colorado that they are willing to let us use. We haven't really decided yet and are still tossing around the idea of buying plane tickets. I am not sure I can handle two 15 hour road trips in a month..lol.
Have a great day!

Fall Festival Pics

Our church fall festival was great this year. It is our second year to do it and it is crazy busy but so fun. We had between 3200-3500 people there this year at the park. Peter only was there for a little while but then stayed with Gran the rest of the night so I could work the gate. He was supposed to be a frog but it was about 85 degrees and the costume was like a snow suit. He just wore his "mummy loves me" outfit instead. Pete was in the dunking booth for half the night. :) We had Progeny and Ornan's Floor playing all night. They did great! Always good to see you guys! Here are a couple of pictures before the night got started.

Playing in the dunking booth...


Peter and "Cher"....lol

Can you have Dementia at 26?

Hello out there to all of our blog readers! I am sure you are thinking that I have not posted in far too long and you are right. Sorry! I have taken new pictures but haven't uploaded them just yet. As many of you know we started putting in new floors in all of our bedrooms by ourselves. So far we have done Peter's room and just finished with our room. If you feel like you need a test of patience..try a do it yourself home improvement project together! Its lots of fun. :) I will say the second room was easier, but I think I am going nuts. I found the jelly in the pantry first, instead of the fridge. And then last night I ate ice cream and Pete found it in the refrigerator this morning. Today if you could look at my kitchen table you could see, all at one time, the many things that I need to do. File bills, pay bills, laundry, grocery store, real estate phone calls, wash dishes, put the base boards back on, move the furniture back, Tisha's baby shower, memorize my Bible verse for discipleship class...ok you get the hint. As I was standing in my kitchen, staring at the table with my mouth open deciding which one to tackle first I became completely overwhelmed and noticed my little Bible underneath one of the piles. I was reminded that that was the one I needed to start the day with, not just today but every morning. I like to get everything done and then sit down and relax and spend some time with God. But lately the "to do" list doesn't have an end and probably won't as long as I am working and have kids in the house. I praise Jesus for his refreshment in times of thirst if we'd just come to Him for a drink. I read Ephesians 1:18 and 19 , " I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength." God is so big and the pile on the table seemed not so large as He reminded me of the eternal salvation that he has given me. Praise Him for being all sufficient for our needs.

I promise I will have pictures of Peter on the next post for you aunts, uncles, Grans, and Mimis out there..lol.

A visit from Mimi

My mom came down to visit us this weekend, which was so nice. We also get into project mode when she is here and end up cleaning out closets, the garage, you name it. So it was a very productive weekend besides just getting to visit and hang out. She just came back from New York and brought us all kinds of surprises. Here are a picture of some of the chocolates they had for them in their hotel. She saved them in her luggage and brought them to me! Thanks Mom! I would have eaten them all on the first day. :) She also brought me an amazing scarf from H&M, my most favorite store in NY which they don't have here in Texas and you can't even order online.
As on a previous post I had mentioned that on the way home from vacation Pete and I bought laminate wood flooring and stuffed it in the back of the explorer with all of our luggage and baby stuff. This was not a planned purchase, but we had been talking about getting it and then heard that there was this one day sale at IKEA for 49 cents a sq/ft. After battling through mass chaos and crazy mad people acting like the flooring was the last loaf of bread during a famine, we managed to leave with enough flooring for two of our bedrooms. We decided to do Peter's room first. I will post the after pictures soon. Here it is after ripping all the carpet and baseboards out. I can't remember how to rotate it.

And the last project of the week...I decided since Peter is almost 6 months old, I would try to make some homemade baby food. I bought some sweet potatoes and steamed and pureed them and then put them in these ice trays in the freezer. I read that once they are frozen, you just pop them out into a freezer bag and defrost the cubes as you need them for up to 2 months. Looks good huh? :)
A few from this week..


Have a good one!

Vacation Part II

Here are a couple of pics from the last few days of vacation. As you can tell it has taken a few days for me to get things together to get this posted! It is always a lot of work to come home from vacation. :) The top picture is from a show called Broadway. It is a mix of all the famous songs and dancing from tons of popular Broadway shows. Wednesday we also went to "Island Fire". And of course I got called up on the stage to try and learn some Samoan dance...lol...how embarrassing. We had the chance to get the live DVD of the show...I passed.



Thursday was our last full day in Missouri and we saw this group called "Six". Six brothers out of a family of 10 boys! This was by far the best show I thought. They do all of the music with no instruments, just their voices, it is nuts.
We had so much fun just being together for a whole week. Pete and I rarely spend a whole day together much less a few consecutive hours and I was really not ready to come back to the everyday routine. Peter did awesome the entire trip until we got to San Antonio and got stuck in a traffic jam for an hour an a half. lol..I thought we were home free, only 45 minutes from home and then we go 3/4 of a mile in 90 minutes. It was lovely. Peter had a super wet diaper, then pooped in his pants, then got so mad after a good hour that he was making himself gag because he was crying so loud. To top it off, we had no where to pull over and I couldn't get in the backseat because we stopped on the way home to buy laminate wood flooring which we squeezed into the car with 40 tons of baby stuff and luggage. Oh memories! Once we made it to an exit we stopped, cleaned everything up and he was as happy as can be. I would definitely take another road trip with Peter or maybe even fly somewhere next time. Before we got home we stopped at the farm for some pictures of the cotton before it got shipped away. Here is Grandpa Pete with Peter.

Until next time..have a great week!

Vacation Part I

Here are pictures from the first half of our vacation. At our first stop in Fort Worth we stayed with our friends Dean and Heather. They have a son, Nate, who is only 2 weeks younger than Peter. They seemed to enjoyed each other's company. We had a great visit, good food (thank you Heather) and sore arms from playing the Wii after the boys went to bed..lol. That was a first for me. We wish you guys were not so far away. See you at Pete and Dean's 10 year reunion!

Our second stop was Fayetteville, AR...home of the Razorbacks. We got to stay with our friend Scott. Scott, great job being a tour guide. It was a short visit but nice. We saw the university, the downtown square, ate some good food, and just spent time catching up.



Day 3 we drove into to Branson, Missouri. Stocked up on groceries, got settled in, and went to eat at the Shogun. We needed a major break from the car and Peter enjoyed being free from his carseat. Day 4, we saw two great shows. The first was Kirby and Bambi Van Burch, a husband and wife, who are illusionists. For those of you who know Pete, this one was for him. I enjoyed it though and we had backstage passes to see the set and the huge tigers which I might add was very afraid of. The big one was like 800 pounds or something. Scary...
In front of the Kirby Theatre.

Bambi Van Burch and Peter and I. She was awesome. So down to earth. I talked to her for awhile afterward. Her and Kirby are Christians and did a good gospel presentation at the end of the show. That night we saw Shoji Tabuchi. He is a violin player with one of the most popular shows in Branson. They had a cry room with rocking chairs and a crib in this theatre which I appreciated so much because Peter was in bed by regular time all while I got to watch the fabulous show..so nice.Here are the drum girls from the Shanghai Circus on Day 5. They just got here because they have been performing for the Olympics in Beijing.


One of the acrobats, she didn't speak English but stole Peter away from us. I think he was in love. She was too cute.

That evening we went to the Titanic Museum. It looks like a huge boat parked downtown. I am all about museums so I was excited. It has hundreds of artifacts from the wreck, showed what all of the staterooms looked like, and was really interactive. Here we are getting ready to go in.
Second half to come in a couple of days....sorry so long!