Rediscovering Evyn.

My very favorite way to spend time is hanging out with my little family. We spend countless hours in the floor playing together and laughing. I love it. It is one of life's simplest and purest joys. And as much as I love the time that we spend together with all four of us, every now and then I get to spend some sweet time with just one baby. On Sunday afternoon, Mike and Carter headed outside to play in the snow, which left Evyn and I with about an hour to do girl things.

Evyn is such a fun age right now. And as much as I think I have been intentionally savoring her, I completely rediscovered what a precious joy she is on Sunday afternoon. We had a tea party (hopefully the first of many) with her little plastic tea set, she kissed me and then giggled, and sat in my lap to read books. I just watched her and marveled at all of the little things that make her so wonderful.

She is so very social and loves to make other people laugh. She is incredibly mobile and not afraid of anything. She climbs, jumps, and slides all with no fear. She talks up a storm and we are starting to understand more of what she says. She loves to give kisses. She loves to snuggle. She loves ducks, and babies, and balls. She loves her brother and he is crazy about her. She guzzles milk and loves chicken nuggets. She is sunshine, and laughter, and joy.

Look at this smile.

And those enormous brown eyes that look just like her daddy's eyes.

And I can't quite get over these beautiful curls.

Her eyelashes are so perfectly feminine.

This is how we play peek a boo.

And here she was just talking up a storm- rather intent on telling me something, but I wasn't quite sure what!

I enjoyed every minute of our time together. I held her and tried to memorize her smell and the feel of her in my arms. I prayed that God would help me teach her the things that really matter in life. Things about inner beauty and grace and forgiveness. I prayed that she would grow up strong in spirit and tenderhearted. And I prayed so much more. I guess I could sum up my afternoon by saying that I completely rediscovered the gift that I have in Evyn. I have loved her from the moment that I met her, but she definitely stole another little piece of my heart on Sunday.

Snow and Ice!

One of my favorite things about living in West Texas is that we actually get four different seasons. Granted there are days when we get all four seasons in the same day, but I love the changes in weather and scenery.

We went to spend some time with Nanna and Grandad (aka Mike's folks) at the first part of this week. We headed to Bridgeport to hang out in a time share for a few days and enjoyed our visit. The highlight of the trip was our excursion to the Gaylord Texan, where we saw the Grinch on ICE!

Here is one content mommy with the sweetest little girl ever. She is so much fun these days. Evyn has really discovered her voice and has mastered the fine art of walking. She is a climber and does not appear to be afraid of much. I think this one will keep us on our toes!


Hanging out before we bundled up to go see the grinch.

They give you these enormous parkas to wear because it is 9 degrees inside!

Brrrrr.

Nanna and Grandad trying to stay warm.

Carter on the ice slide. He came down a little faster than Mike!

There was an amazing nativity made entirely out of ice at the very end. They told the Christmas story. It was a really nice ending to a cool (literally) activity! I didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked because Carter was freezing by this point!

The lobby at the Gaylord is like Christmas exploded! It was beautiful. There was an amazing train track and lots of pretty decorations to see.

Carter's favorite part of the day was this toy soldier. He just stared and smiled. The soldier told Carter that Santa had just taken him out of the box that morning. You can imagine the questions that followed about the box.

We got our first real snow in our forever house this morning! I was so glad to not have to drive in this and to get to wake up in our own house for a fun snowy morning! I have not seen Carter this excited in a long time. We made our best attempt at a snowman, had a snowball fight, and played until our toes were cold! Then we came in and made coco! What a perfect way to spend Christmas Eve!

As cheesy as I know this sounds, this picture is one of the things I imagined when we bought this house. You can barely see the lights on the tree in the window behind us. I can't help but feel blessed to see some of my little dreams come true. Cheesy. I warned you.

Up, up, and away!

My sweet friend, Amy, called a few weeks back and asked if we would like to go look at Christmas lights in their airplane. Ummm, let me think about that! YES! Carter is fascinated with airplanes, I love Christmas lights, and this sure beats the 15 minute helicopter ride for $300! So tonight was the big night. We couldn't decide whether or not to take Evyn with us, but Mike decided that if we went down, we needed to die as a family, so we all loaded up and went!

My friend, Angie, was convinced that I would need both a scarf and goggles, so this picture is for her! This is the "bonanza" that we flew on. We got 7 people in this tiny plane.


Here is the whole family pre-flight. Evyn was amazing- she sat in the front with me and only pushed a few buttons! She actually fell asleep about halfway through.

My sweet babies chilling on the wing of an airplane.

Carter and Terra are big buddies. They talked and giggled in the headphones the whole time we flew. They also managed to open the emergency exit mid-flight, which made for an exciting few minutes.

We got to fly over several amazing neighborhoods, Lake Ransom Canyon, and Texas Tech! Looking down on Christmas lights was magical. The city looked like this perfect little village. It was definitely a night to remember!

You better watch out. You better not cry!

One of my kiddos was thrilled to see Santa today! After I tucked him into bed tonight, Carter told me "Mommy, Santa has the greatest beard ever!" Evyn was not quite so impressed.

Carter got to ride Santa's "sleigh."

Carter has a recent obsession with nutcrackers. He insisted that we buy one last week at Hobby Lobby. Since then he has reminded me every day that we need to buy some peanuts with the shells on so he can use his nutcracker. He was thrilled to find a lifesize nutcracker to take his picture with today.

And even more thrilled to finally get his hands on some peanuts!

This is just a random, but adorable, picture of my sweet boy!

And in other big news, Evyn is officially walking. She has been taking a few steps for a couple of weeks, but this week she has started walking across the room! She is so very proud of herself! It is super cute to watch her because she is still so tiny! I love it!

Carter's dream.

Carter came and got in my bed the other day at 5:45 am. He said "Mommy, I had the best dream. Jesus was bor-en (born) and he was a baby and I got to hold him. And he didn't even cry. He had all of his hay and his little wooden box to sleep in. Isn't that cool?"

Yes. Very cool. This kid amazes me.

The dangers of marrying your best friend.

I had a friend tell me once that many people marry someone that they can live with but very few marry someone that they cannot live without. I find myself in that second group of people. What a precious gift to wake up with your very best friend by your side every morning. And what a privilege to watch the best man that you know become the best father that you can imagine. What joy it gives me to make him laugh. What comfort I find in him on days that I need to be heard and held. What pride I feel when I watch him work. I marvel at the way that he loves Jesus and loves humanity. His heart is big. He is patient and kind and funny. And handsome. I really love this boy.

He is packing his bags for Morocco as I type this. I am so delighted that he gets another opportunity to share the love of Christ with his international friends. But I will miss him immensely while he is gone. I may sound silly or codependent or just plain pathetic, and I don't care. Ten days feels like an eternity when you are away from your best friend. I remember the days that we were dating and cell phones did not exist yet and nobody had the internet at home. I would check my mailbox with such enthusiasm and cling to his words. I hated being apart. And I feel that even more now. What a blessing to love someone that much. So please pray that the next ten days will go quickly, that he will have safe travel, that his time will be used effectively, the the gospel will be shared, that nobody will kill me in my sleep, and that God will give me the energy to be a single mom while he is gone. Thanks.

Indian Thanksgiving

Mike spends a lot of time working with International students at Tech. It is amazing how God has literally brought the ends of the earth to our own backyard. About two years ago, we met Trupti and Ruchi. They are roomies and absolutely precious girls. We always love hanging out with them. Trupti works at UMC and actually held Evyn within an hour of her being born. We had the opportunity to hang out with them a few weeks ago and decided that we would host an "Indian Thanksgiving" dinner this weekend.

Here is Trupti with Evyn on her birthday.

Trupti and Ruchi came over and hung out last night. They are going to Sea World next month, so Carter told them all about Shamu and the rides and the pirates. He even showed them his stuffed Shamu. Then they played Elefun, Memory, Candy Land, and Operation for hours. They were such good sports.

More friends came over to join us for dinner. Pictured left to right are Mike, Sharma, Carter, Trupti, Ruchi, Rupe, and Poonam. Sharma was hilarious. And the girls are all so beautiful. We ate and laughed and really enjoyed every minute of the evening. We also learned that Rupe is really scared of cats when Toonces jumped up next to her on the couch and she screamed and spilled her plate! So funny.

We had rice, chickpeas, chicken manaca, tortillas, cucumber salad, chicken pockets (I made these), Inidan sweets (fried wheat flour soaked in a sweet syrup), and chocolate cake (mine). It was DELICIOUS. This was honestly the first meal that we have eaten with International students that I have not choked down. It was fabulous.

We feel so blessed to have such sweet friendships with such amazing people. We are thankful that they would be willing to come hang out with us and be part of our lives. I love watching my kids soak them up. I love watching Carter eat Indian food. And I am reminded that life is a whole lot bigger than my little corner of the world. And on a serious note, these friendships make "praying for the lost" so much more meaningful to me. I pray that God will make Himself known to my sweet friends so that we might look forward to eternity together.

fat lips, lego towers, thanksgiving, traditions, and first haircuts.

I apologize in advance for the incredibly random nature of this post, but my life seems to not happen in a blog-friendly format.

Evyn got her first fat lip the other night. She face planted onto a wooden toy that she was playing with. And while I wish that she had not hurt herself, I actually think she looks pretty cute with her big swollen lip.


Carter and Mike recently discovered that they could build a lego tower all the way to the ceiling. Mommy discovered that when that tower falls over, you find legos under furniture for the better part of the week.

Thanksgiving was amazing this year. It is normally not my favorite holiday, but this year just seemed really special for whatever reason. We enjoyed relaxing with just the four of us in the morning. Carter was fascinated by the parade. And then the weather was so pretty that we went and fed the ducks.

Then my precious family came over to spend the day. We ate some really yummy food- turkey and gravy, dressing, sweet potato casserole, cranberries, jello, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, homemade mac and cheese, rolls, and pumpkin pie. I ate through the pain, and even had leftovers for dinner! It is so much fun to watch the kids play and just have time to visit and enjoy each other's company. I loved every minute of our time together. When we bought this house, I had visions of playing football at the park across the street on Thanksgiving. Yesterday while we were playing football and baseball and watching Evyn learn to walk holding onto Papa's finger, I almost had to pinch myself. It was a perfect day. Here is the whole crew, and most of us are looking at the camera.

Mark and Carter are the best of friends. Carter invited Mark to spend the night, and because he is just that cool, he did! Here they are taking in a little Curious George on Thanksgiving night. Then after a night spent in bunk beds, we had breakfast and decorated the Christmas tree.

We always set up the tree on the day after Thanksgiving. It is one of my favorite family traditions. Carter was actually really good help with the ornaments this year!

And my very favorite Christmas tradition is wrapping my babies up in lights for a picture. I wonder how long I can get away with this!

And in other big news, Evyn got her first haircut today. My huge insecurity when I found out that I was pregnant with a girl was fixing her hair. It just intimidates me. Everyone assured me that she would be at least two before I would have to worry about it. Then I gave birth to the hairiest white child on the planet. I love her hair and can't imagine her without it, but the whole thing makes me giggle. The sides of it are MUCH longer than the very back, so she had her first little trim today and looks like such a big girl now.

Our sweet friend, L'Anna, gave Carter his first haircut and was gracious enough to do the honors with Evyn.

Carter

Evyn

Carter and L'Anna

Evyn and L'Anna