A few pictures to share

I just enjoy these girls. In spite of their "disagreeable" moments, there are also many hugs and kisses and lots of love shared between them. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days. Nothing special, just hanging out.

Justin loves the cool weather

I loved living in Houston and I miss all of our friends down in the 281/713/832 area code, but I do not miss the weather. I was looking and it is already almost 100 degrees in Houston and very humid. Today, it is in the 50s here and it cools down into the high 30s/low 40s at night. Even in the "heat" of the summer here, it gets down into the high 40s/low 50s at night. That is awesome! I look out my window at church and see a giant green mountain. I look out my front window at home and see snow capped flat top mountains - it's okay if you're into beautiful. The 3 girls are adjusting well to Colorado and I love my new job.

These are a few of my favorite things...

First, Lauren:
Although she babbles all the time, she doesn't really talk with any words yet - the only thing she really says is "uh, oh." I am trying to teach her to say help and please and a couple of other words in sign language to keep the whining noise down to a minimum. Tonight she and Allyson were having some ice cream and she wanted another bite, so she was making her universal noise that she uses regardless of the need, desire, or trouble. I kept saying "say please Lou" and showing her the sign, and she looked at me, thought for a while and said, "uh, oh" and opened her mouth for a bite :)
This isn't the first time she has said "uh, oh" when I was trying to get her to say something else. It is so cute because you can see her little mind working trying to figure out how to say the word, but she says what she knows how to. That is one of my favorite things!
Next, Allyson:
After I put Lauren to bed this evening (Justin is at church and the girls and I are home) Allyson and I were rocking in my chair and watching the season finale of American Idol. One of the finalists was singing "Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Top, with ZZ Top. Allyson looked at either Gibbons or Hill - they were both on the screen - and said, "is that Santa mommy?"
For those of you who don't know, they both have chest-length white beards. When I told her no, they were in a band she said, "yeah ..... Santa is in Texas." So, apparently she has the Santa thing all figured out!
That is another one of my favorite things.

Almost home sweet home!

The movers came Tuesday evening and Wednesday and got all of our many belongings unloaded into our house. Then, the fun began! The unloading of all the boxes and the putting away of things. The unpacking isn't so much of a chore as figuring out where to put the things. Once those decisions are made it is not too bad.
Now we have a garage full of empty boxes and the misc. things that didn't find a home in our home. We have a few purchases to make and some decorations to hang and I will officially be able to call this place home. I actually like our new place - it is a duplex. The kitchen is much bigger than our previous one, I have real laundry room, and much to Allyson's delight there is a playground directly across the street that is easily seen from our living room window.
Life is much more settled with things all put away and accessible. I feel blessed!

Lou Lou!

Many of you know, but prehaps not all of you that Lauren has somehow become "Lou" to our little family. She responds to it like it is her own name! Anyhow, sweet little Lou turned one today. In the midst of our anniversary and the movers delivering half our load we celebrated our little girl.
I went to the bakery at the local City Market this morning and asked about a cake. They had a little "baby" cake in the freezer. It had red and green sprinkles on it - so you can imagine when it got put in the freezer!! - anyway, I thought it would do for a few pictures. The nice lady in the bakery took it in the back and removed all the red and green and made it pink and orange, and gave it to me for free. So that was fun!

Here are a few pics of the birthday girl and her sister! You can see that they had a good time with the cake!

8 years!

Believe it or not 8 years ago today Justin decided "hey, why not, she's kind of cute!" and married me! It has been an adventurous 8 years. I am so blessed to have Justin and the two little girls that he is a great daddy for. I am prayerful for many, many more years! I am excited to see what they have in store for us.

I am putting a picture of Lauren and Justin together because it also happens to be her birthday today - but, more on that later!

The trip to Colorado

We made it!!! A week ago a huge semi was parked in front of our house in Alvin, TX ready to load up all of our belongings and treasures to drive them up to our new home. The girls and I spent the day at McDonald's play place, Target, and Chick fil A's play place. Monday evening we spent our time with one last dinner at Andrew & Juanita's. Tuesday morning we were up and on our way.
To spare you every detail of the trip I will suffice it to say that the girls did really well - some thanks to a handy little portable DVD player and lots of twizzlers!
We arrived Thursday afternoon and are patiently awaiting the arrival of our stuff.

More to come soon. We miss all of our Texas people already, but are happy to be in a new place ready to do what God brought us here for.