French Fries Are Yummy!!!!

Clara's been doing a good job of trying out new foods... including those that don't rank too high on the nutrition scale!!! :-) She thinks french fries are pretty good! :-) You might have to click on the picture to blow it up, but that is what she's eating.





She used to look so little sitting in that highchair... not any more!

Crawlin' Cuteness!!!

These are recent pictures, taken since moving into this home.

Kisses!!!

We're going to have to get a picture of the newest, sweetest thing around here!!! Clara is giving kisses!!! She gently bumps her face against yours!!! It's just the sweetest!!!

A while back I promised you some more of my goals / resolutions for the year. I found the list I wrote down shortly before the new year started and have been reading through it and thinking about which ones I want to keep (or start) working toward, and which I want to drop and which ones I want to share with you.

As I mentioned before, I have the goal of reading through the Bible in one year and reading one encouraging, edifying book every month.

Also, I would like to find a good Bible study course and start working on that and memorize at least 3 verses each work. I know, that's not much... but it's three more then nothing...!

Some skills I have the goal of either learning or improving in this year:

Cake Decorating
Canning
Art
Piano
Budgeting! My first priority is to keep faithful track of my grocery spending and trim it down to a good, reasonable amount. I have already determined the goal range.
Experimenting with new hobbies/skills that I've either never done or did a long time ago.

Physical goals:

As I mentioned in the previous post I want to have the goal of exercising at least 3 times a week. Also I set some weight goals for the first few months... aiming at getting down to my target weight.

Some projects I want to work on this year:

A nice vegetable garden
Improving my homemaking skills in general
Improving my home decorating
Photo Albums
Raising chickens (that's more Stephen's goal :-), but I want to be a good helper to him! :-)

Well, that most of the goals I'm wanting to keep for this year! As I said before, there are some I don't feel comfortable sharing in public... hopefully you'll forgive me! :-) I'm thinking to make a list on the side bar of this blog and giving a report about once a month on how I'm doing. Hopefully, it will be a good reminder and motivation to me!!!

A Walk Down Memory Lane: Pictures From The Last 3 Months PART 5

Kailey's Mom, Karen, and I be came friends after meeting at the apartment complex we were both living in. We still get together now that we've moved. Here's some great shots from awhile back!

Friends!!!




Be Gentle, Clara!!!!

A Walk Down Memory Lane: Pictures From The Last 3 Months PART 4

More fun pictures from our time in corporate housing!


Awwwww!!! Cuteness!

More Mirror Fun!

Explorin'

Every great explorer needs something to eat to keep that energy up!!!

A Walk Down Memory Lane: Pictures From The Last 3 Months PART 3

As you probably know, we spent the first two months here in corporate housing. One of the fun things about that place were the big mirrors!!!!

"I don't know why that other baby is ALWAYS copying EVERYTHING I do!!!"

A Walk Down Memory Lane: Pictures From The Last 3 Months PART 2

Ok, in part 2 we're going to take a quick look at our trip across the country. We had a fabulous time staying with family and friends along the way. Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures, but here are a few of the ones I did take.

Clara with one of her Great-Grandmas!!!!

The two girl cousins: Gigi and Clara!

Aunt Sarah, Clara, cousin Phinn and cousin Gigi

Aunt Heather!

On we go... mile after mile! At least we look happy about it! :-)

That was one LOADED car!!! We had to take everything we wanted for the trip AND the two months of corporate housing while we decided where to settle. Thankfully, the corporate housing was fully furnished.

Our little trooper! She did such a great job of enduring those many miles!


Of course, as any respectable person would do, one of the first things we did in VA was pay our respects to General Lee. We went to Washington and Lee College and visited Lee Chapel and saw where the General is buried. He was a great man.


Car Hair! At Washington and Lee College




Cuddle Time. This was taken on our last night on the road.


Come again soon for more walks down memory lane!

A Walk Down Memory Lane: Pictures From the Last 3 Months PART 1

Ok, now that I've given some up-dates on what Clara is looking like now, over the next several posts, I'm planning to rewind three months and show you some of the highlight pictures from those months (Those of you who haven't been here for a while and want to see recent pictures, just scroll down).

Almost exactly three months ago, a HUGE truck rolled up to our house, two guys jumped out, and over the course of about three days they packed our stuff into boxes and loaded the truck! It was such a treat to not have to do all that ourselves! I got thoroughly spoiled! Yay for Stephen's new company! We were surprised at how HUGE the truck was. Thankfully, we didn't fill it all up!




Killing time with Clara while Daddy and movers take care of stuff.

OK! Enough already, please Mom!

Looking Cute On Daddy's Birthday!

Today is the Daddy's 29th birthday! Here are some adorable shots we took today! Sorry I centered the second one so terribly!!! Happy Birthday, Daddy!!! From your adoring fan club!

The Truth Comes Out...

You all thought we DROVE all those hundreds of miles with a baby, but no,...

we shipped her!!! :-)

Prepare For Shock

Well, this family is again on line in our own home! Yay!!! And with out any further beating around the bush we will get right to the most "important" issue! Pictures of Clara! Even Clara's Grandparents have gone for almost three months without pictures during our move and transition! How horrible is that???!!!! We had talked about taking about 4 days to slowly show pictures starting three months ago and moving to the present time... brake everyone in slowly, instead of sending you all into shock over how much Clara has grown and changed in the last months. But no, I'm going to catch you right up to the present right away! I think you'll survive! :-) But proceed at your own risk! These pictures where taking the last few weeks.

So what does a little girl learn in three months?



Well...




she...



learns...



to...




sit all by herself for long periods of time...


...learns to crawl...



...learns to stand up next to things and "help" Momma with the dishes...



...even learns to stand up in the play pen when she is suppose to be sleeping!!!


Hopefully, I'll be back soon with lots more!

On Line...

...but not from home...so sorry, no pictures yet!!! :-( I'm at the library. It had been over a week since I'd last been on the Internet so I was going through withdrawals! Well, ok, not quite that bad but it was bad enough for me to bother making a computer reservation and coming over here. Clara is being a dear and sleeping in her car seat next to me! I'm hoping I'll be posting pictures soon!

Home unpacking is going quite well. I'd say we're over 50% done with emptying boxes, but there's a lot of putting away, deciding what do with stuff, etc., that still needs to happen. I like our new place! It's smaller then our first home, but still definitely more then we need and quite comfortable...or at least it should be when I get it organized! As, I probably mentioned before, the land lord let me select wall colors for the repainting he had done, so I think the colorful walls add some homey, coziness!

Stephen helped me out around the house a bunch over the long weekend, which was a blessing!

On Monday evening we got together two different families for dinner and had a very nice time!

The next few days should be busy with continued unpacking, sorting, etc. and lunch plans with two different friends Thursday and Friday. The Friday lunch is at my house. My friend Karen will kind of be our first official company...so I need to get the house at least somewhat presentable!!!!

If you want to see some of my goals for the new year, check out the post below.

The Clean Slate

What is it about a new year that feels like a clean slate... that makes you want to set goals...that inspires new resolve in so many? I think that feeling is amplified for me this year with the added ingredients of being in a new state, a new-to-me home, etc.! I think some people have something against new year resolutions...maybe because they tend to be so easily forgotten and left behind. However, I think they can be very helpful. "If we fail to plan, we plan to fail", and I've done that a lot in my life. I've found that, on a daily basis, having a to do list helps me a lot... in terms of getting things accomplished in my day and having a record and feeling good about what was accomplished. If I don't have a list I tend to drift and doodle my day away much more easily, lacking that reminder of things that could use work! If daily lists are helpful, why not yearly ones?

Well, I, like probably many of you have set some goals for this coming year and would like to be faithful in pursuing them!

Some other blogs I've read have shared some of their goals for the year and plan to give monthly up-dates on how they're doing. That sounded like kind of a neat idea to me. I thought it would be fun to share some of mine. I don't feel comfortable sharing all of them in this public forum, however, I'd like to share at least quite a few. And honestly, my life has been a bit consumed with getting settled in and haven't been really focused on the goals (I know, excuses, excuses), but hopefully, once we get fairly arranged I'll really get going. And maybe sharing about them here will give some extra motivation!

I'm going to share a few today and hopefully share some more in the days ahead. Here goes:

Read the Bible in one year. Yes, that can seem rather daunting, but did you know that it brakes down into only about 3 chapters a day? So, I'm I on track at the moment??? No, I must confess I'm already behind, but hopefully not to a degree that I'll not soon recover from. :-) This goal wasn't originally my plan, but Stephen wanted to do it himself and he printed off a copy of an on-line daily break down for me and now I'm on board! The particular plan he found gives you a sections from the Old Testament and New Testament to read each day.

Read one encouraging, edifying, book per month. Right now I'm reading one entitled "At His Feet", which I actually started last year. I'll get the name of the author and post it. The book has been so good and hit me right between the eyes on at least one occasion! I would definitely recommend that one. Stephen and I are reading a great book together entitled "Angola Beloved", which is the autobiography of an Angolan Missionary. I would recommend both of them!

Exercise at least 3 times per week. While we were living at the apartment we were blessed to have free access to their fitness room, which had a lot of great machines and I did some exercising there... sometimes multiple times a week, sometimes not at all. But I would like to become faithful and consistent at it this year. I really haven't done anything since then move... unless you consider carrying around a 20 pound baby and hauling things out of boxes exercise! :-)

I also set some weight goals... which I won't go into in precise detail (I know, you're dreadfully disappointed). But I did set some goals for the next few months...how much I would like to weigh by the beginning of each month. I'm afraid I really packed on some pounds in the last couple years. However over the last several months I've been GENERALLY moving in the right direction... slow as it may be. I'm currently about 5 lbs away from getting back down to my "beginning of pregnancy weight"! That was a big goal for me. However, once I reach it I have to keep right on going because I was quite a bit over what I wanted to be when the pregnancy began, so I've still got a lot of work to do!

Well, I shall leave it at that for this particular post, but there will probably be more to follow, with occasional report on how I'm doing! :-)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Well, that's what it should be starting to look like tomorrow... as our things arrive from storage to our new home!!! I've been looking forward to having a stroller and highchair again! Yay! You learn, when you're living with most of your stuff in storage, that you can get along without a lot of things... but some of them sure are nice to have! :-)

Some wonderful friends from our chapel came and did cleaning for me today at the new house! We've been so blessed with great friends here!

So, we have a lot of settling in ahead of us, but it should be fun! And hopefully, we'll have our computer up and running soon with pictures soon to follow! Miss Clara is looking different and cute today... I cut her bangs the other day! They were getting into her eyes!

Oh, and speaking of Christmas...I hear it might snow on Thursday! What a blast that would be! Hasn't snowed yet since we've been here. We've actually had rather nice weather!

Ok, bye for now. Hopefully, posting will be increasing very soon!

How Can It Be...

How can it be that two years have already past since the day an excited girl walked down the aisle toward her dashing man???!!! What a special day that was and how infinitely more special my dear husband is to me.

The longer I know Stephen, the more reasons he gives me to love and respect him and treasure the joy, honor and privilege of being his wife, friend, helper and love.

Let me share a few things I respect about this man:

He faithfully stands by me when I'm having hard times... comforting, counseling, or just listening...and loving me anyways!

He makes me feel special, beautiful and loved.

He appreciates and thanks me for things I do for him.

He is a wonderful spiritual leader... setting a good example for me in Bible study, prayer and serving others, taking time to teach and explain things to me and others, making sure we are faithfully meeting with other believers and seeking to be mentored and discipled by godly men in his life.

He works diligently to provide for his family.

He chooses to invest a lot of time in his little family.

He is a fabulous Daddy, taking care of his little girl, playing with her and loving her.


How on earth did I get so blessed to be married to a man like this???!!!! I love you honey! Happy Anniversary!!!

Quick Up-date!

Wow! Two post in as many days! Incredible! :-)

Well, we are surviving around here. Stephen went to work today but came home early thanks in part to feeling pretty yucky and getting the hint that some of the guys who work near him would rather he wasn't there in his current condition! I was out running errand and on my way home... about to get on the free way when I thought I recognized a truck in front of my...and sure enough, it was my dearest hubby! :-) I LOVE having him come home early! Such a treat! Anyway, he's hanging in there. I don't know if he'll try to go to work tomorrow, but we shall see.

Clara's doing better, but still not great. Poor baby! But she was having fun playing with Daddy when I left the apartment a little bit ago.

I'm still sick as well, but it hasn't got super bad.

I've been having some fun times dreaming about how I'm going to decorate our new home! Our new landlord let me pick out the paint, which was great! I'll try to post pictures down the road!

Happy New Year One And All!!!

Here's another one of my "once in a great while" posts!

Since I last up-dated, we've celebrated a very enjoyable Christmas here! Clara's first! We drove about an hour to the home of some friends, who very kindly invited us to join them for Christmas dinner! Delicious. The day was beautiful! It reminded me of a CA Christmas! Warm and sunny and not remotely white. Clara got to borrow a stroller (her's is in storage) and a group of us went for a stroll...during which excursion I recieved a kiss under mistltoe!

Our new friends from the area very generously paid our way to Bible conference on the coast down south. We had a lovely time! There was some excellent speaking and we were able to have some very enjoyable times with friends and family. Clara pretty much decided that being left in child care is completely unacceptable, so most of the time we had her with us. We did get some cute pictures on the beach...which may find their way on here in about 2 weeks, which is when we are planning to move.

Speaking of moving, we've pretty much settled (unless something comes up) on a cute littel rental home near the chapel we attend. It should very comfortably meet our needs and it has a large back yard, which means Stephen and I will probably get to realize our dreams of having a big garden and chickens! Stephen has been helping him get the place ready, as he wasn't sure he could get it ready by the time we wanted to move in.

I'm afraid we have a house full of sickies right now. Poor little Clara had a fever the last couple days. It seems to have gone now, but she is still pretty miserable. Stephen is pretty sick too, but I, thankfully, only seem to have a touch of something.

Clara, when she's not sick, has been doing quite well! She now has 6 teeth through and still likes to put most anything and everything in her mouth, though she's still not to good at eating anthing that's not mashed up to some degree. When she's playing on the ground she spends a lot of time up on all fours. It's like she knows that's the way REAL crawling is suppose to work, but hasn't quite figured it out yet. Crawling is still restricted the military "low crawl". Oh well, at least she can get around. I got some adorable pictures the other day of her try to pull things out of the shelf in the fridge door. "Let me help, Mom!"

Well, I'll sign off for now. A very happy new year to you all!

Quick Up-date

Hello all!

No, we have not dropped off the face of the earth! We're still here enjoying our new surroundings! The weather has been relatively mild, which is great!

There probably still won't be regular posts until we move into our own rental, but I'll still try to up-date occasionally, like I'd doing now!

Clara is doing well! She's been busy lately perfecting her "military" or "low crawl"! To cute! She is getting better and better at it! She's going to be 7 months on the 21st. Where does the time go? She can be so fun and is such a sweetie! She enjoys playing games like chase! One of us holds her and "runs" away while the other ones chasing her! She thinks it's great. As her mobility and ability to pick up small objects increases she is trying to become the family vacuum cleaning as she attempts to consume little pieces of this and that that she finds on the ground!

We're planning to stay in the area for Christmas and go to some friends home for Christmas dinner. Should be a good time!

I've been staying fairly busy lately, with Clara, house work, baking, new friends and errands. Speaking of baking, I have been doing quite a bit of that lately...cookies, an apple pie, biscotti and pumpkin and zucchini bread! This isn't the best time of year for loosing weight!

Stephen gets a long break over Christmas and New Years, which I'm very happy about! I enjoy having him around!

Well, I'll try to post again soon! Merry Christmas to each and every one of you!

Still Here

Yes, we are still here! The whole family is over at the computer room tonight. Clara is hanging out in her own chair at the moment. Every once in a while we give it a spin to keep her entertained!

So a few things we've been up to lately.... Stephen, of course, has been busy with work. A few days ago I got to go help a new friend with decorating the chapel for an up-coming Christmas banquet, which was fun! Today I visited the MOPS group that I am probably going to join. It was kind of hard leaving my little munchkin in child care, but we both survived. I missed her though! I met some great ladies! I've also made a friend here at the apartment complex we're currently living in. She has a little 4 month old daughter and her husband is in the military so we have a lot in common. By the way, practically everyone around here seems to be either in the military or work for the company Stephen does! Anyway, my new friend and I have had lunch together a couple times this week, which was quite enjoyable!

Clara is doing well! She now has 4 teeth that have broken through and at various stages of being in. She's taken off on sitting on her own! She still topples, but is doing quite well! She is also starting balance standing up for a little while on her own with the help of a piece of furniture!

We think we've found a home to rent! One of the things I like about it is it has a large yard... so I can hopefully have a BIG garden next spring! Yay! Stephen likes that is has a big garage...great place for toils and all those man projects!!! I'm hoping our landlord will be fine with us painting, because I've been dreaming about fun paint colors! Planning to get bold people!!! Watch out! :-)

Well, that is at least a small update of life in these parts!