Jayhawk Spirit....

Mike had to post this as we saw this tonight. These are some students from KU who were at A&M when Kansas destroyed them. You have to read what's on the shirts to understand..."our coach ate your 12th man..." Pretty funny. Rock Chalk.

Anna and Ellie all dressed up.....

I love the girls in these "smocked" dresses. I have two of them and they both always look so cute in them and they last forever! The one Anna is wearing was one that Ellie got for her 1st birthday. We tried to get a good picture of them together, but I can never get them to both look at the camera at the same time. I ended up handing them a stick as you can see to keep them occupied!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

8-0 can you believe it and it is not basketball. It is incredible and the fact that we beat the aggies is even greater since we are now Texans. They could possibly be in the top 5 in the country next week! Go Hawks!

THE ARMSTRONGS ARE IN TOWN!!!

Our good friends the Armstrongs are in town, and it has been AMAZING to see them! We love them very much, and would love to see them move to Texas someday. I'm (mike) sure Holly will blog about this later, but I had to get some pictures up from their visit!

The Don't Song LIVE

A funny video from our church marriage conference. The "blonde" guy is Braun. He's the director for student ministries.

Anna Katherine....

I realized I haven't posted any recent pictures of Anna. She's almost 9 months old and is doing so great. She's at a really "happy" stage right now and brings so much joy to us. She loves to crawl and explore her new house. She mainly follows Ellie around all day and I see how the second child does things so much earlier. She crawled at 6 months and has been pulling up for the past couple of weeks. She is a strong little girl who is growing up so quickly. I keep thinking we are going to be planning her 1st Birthday party before we know it. She has 4 teeth and right now she fits in perfectly with the jacolantern's! She enjoyed her time at the pumpkin patch and I realized she doesn't have anything on that resembles fall. We may have to go again to get some very cute pumpkin patch pictures! I hope you are all having a great week!

State Fair of Texas!

We attended the State Fair of Texas last week with the staff from Watermark. We had no idea what to expect except that people really acted like it was a huge deal. Most people in Dallas go every year and it is about 20 minutes from our house. It was fun and definetly the biggest fair I have ever seen. Ellie had a good time, but was not her normal self cause it was naptime. Anna was at a baby-sitter which was great cause it was really hot. It was definetly a "Texas" event, but I'm really glad that we got the opportunity to go to it! Congrats to my blogging friend Cassie Oakes who just delievered her baby girl and posted about it a few hours later! Technology has changed our world in a unique way!

A Night Away.....

I am so excited cause tomorrow night will be the first night away from the girls for something fun in 8 months. We have been away when we came here to find a house. It was such a stressful time that it was hard to enjoy. We have been so busy with the move etc... that I think the timing is great this time! Our church is doing a marriage conference and all the staff goes for free. We are staying at a Marriott just north of us in Plano. It will be a great time for us to get to know people a little better! I am really excited for some adult conversation. I remember in college as a cross-country runner we would get massages pretty often, but I always wanted to save mine for when I was really sore. I think I am looking at this time away as the same thing. We had a really long day today with Ellie. She wouldn't take a nap and fought going to sleep tonight. She was into the cabinets and wanting all the attention away from Anna. We went to the grocery store which was another melt-down. I think God knew I would need this break and time with Mike. I love my girls so much, but some time away will be great!
Anyways, I hope you all have a great weekend. I hope it's nice and cool with the leaves changing colors for you. We have yet to wear a long-sleeve shirt and Mike is still in shorts everyday. I don't think there's really going to be a fall. I got excited cause today it was in the mid 80's and it felt great. I forgot to post about something earlier this week. If you are looking for a good book to read you need to check out anything by Karen Kingsbury. She is an amazing author and I think I have now read atleast 30 of her books. She writes Christian-fiction and many of her new releases have been on the NY Times top 20 for several weeks in a row. However, I warn you to have some tissue ready in her newest release called "Summer". It is the second book in a series and Mike walked in the other night when I was finishing the book. I was sobbing it was so sad and he will never understand how I cry over a fictional book! You can check them out at your local library, but there is normally a long waiting list. She's the best and I can't wait for her next book to arrive soon! Have a great Friday I know we will enjoy it!

99 Balloons

You must watch this video. It is so sweet, but get some tissues ready. You can also view it at igniter media.com

Thoughts from Texas....

Well, we have been here a little over a week and it seems like I have all these thoughts always running through my head. However, I have these two little girls who like to run alot as well. Mike is at church tonight and my sweet Anna has a fever so we stayed home. I think she probably caught something at church this morning and I didn't want her to give it to other babies tonight. She only has a fever, but is acting so sad. She has no energy and we had to go for a drive and a walk just to make it to bedtime without her being fussy the whole time. Ellie is watching "Franklin" which happens to be her favorite character this week. My friend Steph just blogged about just going through the motions lately and not really living each day to the fullest. I think about this often as for me most days are the same. Although, lately they've been crazy with unpacking, cleaning, etc... However, Mike and I are always talking about what we want our week to look like and sometimes we follow through with it, but often times we keep going through the motions. I know that God has called us to so much more. We are now in a new place with awesome opportunities. We know that God has called us to be here and are excited to see His plan unfold for us and our girls. It is funny cause a couple of years ago I told Mike the one place I never wanted to live was Texas. I think I didn't like the size of it and the weather etc... and wouldn't you know that is exactly where we are now. I think I like it here. It is as hot as I imagined, but it doesn't seem so big. I've yet to get on an interstate or go past our church. I still go to my normal places like the bank, Super Target, and the park.
Today, in church I was blown away by the message that we heard. Last week our pastor shared that a man named Lee Strobel would be the guest speaker next week. We've heard of Lee becuase of the book he wrote "The Case for Christ". However, we didn't known much about his story or why he wrote the book. He grew up in Chicago and was an editor for the Chicago Tribune. He was an Atheist and married to an Agnostic lady. He said he was very hostile to anyone of faith, but at the same time was living a life of destruction. He was an alcoholic and said he believed just about anything was okay. His wife met a friend and started going to church etc... She became a Christian and he said when she told him she was now a follower of Jesus it was his worst nightmare. After, a few years he eventually went to church with his wife and daughter. They attended Willow Creek church and he said after leaving he knew he had to investigate Christianity. He began a two year search of almost every aspect of Christianity and following Jesus. He interviewed religious scholars who were both conservative and liberal. He spoke with archaeologists, medical professionals, psychologists etc... He said he tried to convince himself that Jesus was not the only way to God and the whole thing was a big myth. However, one day after two years of study and personal examination he could not deny Christ anymore. He became a Christian and has gone on from there to tell of his story from being an atheist to a follower of God. His story is much more indepth and I think I will check out his book.
Anyways, it was an awesome second Sunday at Watermark. We are truly blessed and still cannot believe we are here sometimes in a place that is truly centered around the gospel. I am so thankful that Ellie and Anna will grow up in a church like Watermark. Ellie is really growing up and her new favorite thing to do is sing. She is learning lots of new songs and we do it alot in the car to help pass time. She loves "Shane and Shane" and their new cd. She always tells me again after their song "We love you Jesus". I recommend this song to all my friends with toddlers. Well, those are some random thoughts from Texas and I hope you all have a great Monday. May we all live with purpose!

So much to blog so little time......

I realized it is October and it seems like our lives have been in constant craziness since July. We are all in Richardson now in our new house and it is great! We are on a schedule, eating home cooked meals together, and trying to learn how to be Texans? It really is a different culture and I realized today how strange it was that I was excited it was going to be in the 80's tomorrow. We all survived the travels here and all the details it took to move across the country. Mike is doing great and really enjoys working with a team. It is so different than having all the pressure of being the only youth guy. There are of course other stressful things with a large ministry. It seems like he is really finding his role and is being challenged to be all that God wants him to be as a youth pastor.
Ellie is definetly a Two year old little girl. We are loving this stage, but seeing the importance of discipline in a new way. She loves playing in her new backyard and peeking in at the "doggies" next door. She is really into any kind of ball right now and any kid she can find to entertain her. She asks to wake up Anna all the time and they are now sharing a room. They seems to sleep better which is kind of strange, but we are not doing it for naptime. I am not willing to risk those 3 precious hours.
Anna is 8 months old and is coming into her own little personality. She's such a risk taker and loves attention. She is crawling everywhere and has been for two months. She's enjoying lots of new baby food and chasing her sister. They are such precious little girls who we are so blessed by each day.
I am staying busy it seems like from 7 A.M. till 9 P.M. each night. I don't think I've been this tired in a long time. I forgot how hard it is to organize a house and take care of my family. I love living in a one story house and am dreaming of all the colors I want to paint certain rooms. There is nothing else really that we have to do to this house which is great considering it was built in 1958. I have enjoyed walking around the neighborhood and seeing how different a Texas neighborhood is from a Carolina neighborhood. There are no neighborhood pools and tiny yards. We actually have old trees and each house looks different. We are 5 minutes from I-635 which is the loop around Dallas and about 20 minutes from downtown. We are definetly the closest area to Dallas so it is kind of nice to be so accessible to so many places. I don't really want to drive on these interstates, but I'll enjoy going with Mike.
We are looking forward to our first Texas culture shock when next week we go to the State Fair. I've heard it is crazy and very large like everything here. Watermark lets the entire staff off next Wednesday afternoon to go to the fair and they buy us tickets for our family. I think Ellie is going to love it. Anyways, I'm posting some random pictures from the past month. I miss you all and think of you often. A verse that we've been thinking about since July is "With God all things are possible." Whatever comes your way may you think about this and realized He is more than powerful to give you the strength you need.