La Casa de Lopez

once in 6 months is pretty good....

2011-05-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, fine. I am getting to be a once per 6 month blogger. Sorry. (Sort of.) The truth is, I just don't like sitting down and thinking about what to tell an undefined audience so I don't really like contributing to blogging, twitter, facebook, or anything like that (although, I like to read all of your information). However, I do feel, about once every six months, that my children will say that I did not capture their childhood in an acceptable format or that family/friends in far away places will forget about us. So I feel the need to keep this thing up, if you can call this blog entry "keeping it up".

J is doing great. He is loving his work at The For the City Network. He is busy all the time and getting very good at juggling it all, most the time:). He has also recently begun a Navy Seal workout regimen, not to be a Navy Seal, just to be hardcore. He is not yet Navy Seal material, but if he gets resolved enough, watch out. He's unstoppable. We will be married 6 years this summer and he is increasingly the best person I have ever known, short of Jesus. (No offense to any of you, of course!:) We also recently found out that J's grandma's great-grandfather was Chinese. J's grandma is, of course, Mexican. No one has mentioned this before now. He is having a slight identity crisis. :)

I am heading the opposite direction on the "fit" spectrum as I am expecting number 3 in January. That makes me something like 9 weeks. I don't feel near as crappy as I did with the girls, but still plenty crappy. I think the baby is a boy based on this fact. I have also been quite the pushover in my pregnancy fog. Today I agreed to make popcorn and sprinkles for Annie's "friends". That sounds normal enough until I tell you that her friends are stuffed animals. Most people want to know if the pregnancy was planned. Well, aside from January babies not being planned since everyone knows that is the worst month for a birthday, the baby was also not prevented in any methodical way and the baby's mom is just not a good planner anyways, so it was a welcomed surprise. It was a magical moment. J kept asking if I was pregnant and I kept saying "who knows?". J's frustration mounted with a sudden swing into Walgreens on our way to lunch. He told me to go in buy a test, go to the bathroom and take it, and come out and tell him what it said. Positive.

Annie is quite the lady. She has about 40 stuffed animals that she must sleep with every night. That isn't abnormal for a kid her age, but what is abnormal is that they each have miniature pillows and blankets (compliments of J's sister). I think she might spend up to an hour putting them to bed after we have left her room for the night. She also has gotten really good at telling stories lately. The key elements are Jesus, monsters, someone jumping and getting hurt, 5 angels, and alot of "so" and "aaaaannnnd" all in the same story. She is committed to being comfortable. If she gets hurt at all throughout the day, she will demand her pjs. If she takes a nap, she will demand her pjs. If she goes upstairs, she will change herself into pjs. She spends most of her days in pjs. Annie, right now is really nurturing, serious, and likes to be in charge. She is the person who if you try to tickle her she will say "STOP!" and then 40 seconds later ask you to tickle her and love it.

Lucy is our immediate gratification child. For every moment that annie spends by herself reading to and putting her friends to bed, Lucy is screeching and trying to climb up our legs or on the table. She is a performer and a cuddler. If there are purses, necklaces, sunglasses or scarves lying around she will find them, put them on, and wait for you to clap for her. She is 0-60. She refuses any form of public childcare (church, gym, etc), because she is loud enough to make everyone suffer for your mistake as a parent in leaving her for 30 minutes. She is cute enough to make your heart melt and stubborn enough to make you pull your hair out- all at the same time. She recently learned to say please, which has spared our ears some squealing. This is a major break-though for us.

Lucy in action

In other family news, we have had the craziest 2 weeks. Justin's dad was in a motorcycle accident resulting in severe skin burns on his arms, face, stomach, hands, and knees. Some stitches and some broken fingers. We are thankful that it wasn't worse, but he will be in bandages for over a month! Judy is being so brave and thorough in helping him care for the wounds.

The same day our sweet niece, Ivey (19months) was admitted for respitory issues. After lots of worst case scenarios, the doctors settled on viral pneumonia/ a viral induced asthma attack. She is doing much better now, thankfully. Babies in hospitals is the worst. :(

ivey's first smile at the hospital... starting to feel a little better

1 week later we learned that a tornado hit Joplin, home to my Grandma, Dad, Aunt, Uncle, cousins, and several family friends. My grandma's house was leveled with my dad and gramma in it. Dad is recovering with an arm broken in 4 places (got surgery just 2 days ago due to the wait), sprained ankle, broken ribs, and lots of glass all over. Gramma has a fractured hip and was already recovering from surgery. Both have lost everything they own except the clothes they were wearing. No phones, no wallets, no ids, no house, no cars. Both are thrilled to be alive.

Gramma's House. You can see the fire place is basically the only thing recognizable.

In other, more positive, family news, my other Gramma, Mary, celebrated 90 years with a bang! So thankful to all be there to celebrate with her!

molly, lucy, gramma, sally, annie

We are also having our 10 year reunion this coming weekend! Go Warriors!

me and J at our high school graduation.

Check back in December for more updates!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-19T14:45:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Here are some pics that J shot of the girls last weekend. Lucy is almost 9.5 months and Annie is 2 and 9 months. They are so much fun right now. :)

We are a week or so from moving to our new house which is really exciting so for now we are staying with J's parents and having a lot of fun with that! It's like getting to stay with family for the holidays which we have never done since our family lives here.

We also have a contract on our old house after only 5 days or so on the market so praise God! We are soooooo beyond thankful for that!

Quick update just to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The connection between a two year old and prayer

2010-08-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

Annie is 2 years and 4 months old. I am in the process of training her on social graces, aka how to have good relationships with others. When she needs something, she is to say “please” instead of whining to get it. When she gets something, she is to say “thank you” instead of snatching it out of their hands as if she was entitled to it anyways. If she hits someone in the face with her shoe, she needs to say “sorry”, and not just "sorry", “sorry for hitting you in the face with my shoe”. And then when she is hit with a shoe, she needs to say “I forgive you”. And round and round we go.

How often do I instruct Annie to ask for things appropriately, be thankful, to say sorry, and forgive? I am convicted that I do not practice this with God nearly as often as I remind her to, even though there is ample opportunity. When I am hit with an injustice that makes me want to scream (like learning there was a sex trafficking house off N. Lamar- I just get pissed every time I pass the street), I need to beg God to fix it, ask him to help and comfort the women, say sorry for not reacting according to his truth, verbalize my trust in Him, and forgive the offenders. When I am struck with inconvenience (like when Annie refuses to put on her shoes for the 10th time in a day or “paints” her shirt with mustard), I there have the opportunity to thank God in all circumstances and ask him to grow me. It sounds hokey, but I should really consider it a work-out in the patience department and thank my God who knows me best for recognizing my need to grow in patience in that moment and steps in as my personal trainer. Or when God delights to give me some good time with a long-time friend, I need to thank him for giving me a gift, not just thank the gift for making the time. It’s all too simple, really. Incase you are not seeing my ample opportunities throughout any given day, see the bolded letters. These are all my missed opportunities in the last day and a half.

The bottom line: I really should be growing in prayer so much more than I have been when you really think about it. If I am actually thinking about what I am doing all day, instead of just running on autopilot (“what do you say?”, “say sorry”, “how do you ask?”), I should take my instructions to Annie as reminders from God on how to have a good relationship with Him. Having a good relationship with Him means talking to him, and talking to him is praying. I read today that all that we think and feel about God comes to expression in our prayers. What is God to think that I think and feel about Him based on my prayers? Let’s put it this way, it’s a good thing God’s self-esteem does not depend on how I think and feel about Him. He probably feels like an afterthought or a last priority. So in the spirit of prayer, I am going to thank God that parenting is hard and that I have to repeat everything I do and say 100x daily, so that I might be reminded of my "social graces" and ultimately have a better relationship with Him.

Speaking of social graces, here is a pic of some of my favorite kids learning the art last summer. It's hard to know exactly what they were thinking and feeling, but as it appears, we have Annie on the left completely unwilling to share her berries, Micah next to her stealing them anyways, Calvin envying Eli's sandwich and Eli completely discontent with his sandwich. Love this bunch.

5 months goes quick!

2010-08-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

Since Lucy's been born, I really haven't had much of a chance to blog. I really had high hopes of being a better blogger and record keeper for Lucy, but it didn't pan out. My friend Jenny did a really amazing job of documenting her son's first year of life and I told myself I was going to do that, but then I never did. Here is a little snap shot, nonetheless. Jenny, get ready to eat your heart out with my creativity....

1 Month Old

2 Months Old

3 Months Old

4 Months Old

Lucy is now almost 5 Months Old. I don't know where the time goes. She is so sociable. She loves being around people and is generally fine if she is being held. She loves to suck her thumb (which is new for us since Annie was obsessed with her paci). She doesn't look super Mexican, as you can tell. Everyone asks how Annie is around her. Answer: She couldn't be more thrilled about Lucy. She asks where she is every morning (right after asking where her Daddy is). She is so gentle around Lucy and really likes to "keep her safe". Since Lucy has been born we have been able to see Annie's protective nature come out more. Everyone also asks if they are more similar of different. Hard to tell at the ages they are, but what we do know....

Annie is a thinker. She really enjoys figuring things out and doing things "all by self". Hard to tell, but she seems like an achiever type, maybe just a typical first born. She is not concerned with what others are doing, she just wants to do her thing. She is very independent. She likes to decide things for herself. She is not very sensitive (although she has her moments as a 2 yr old). She gets over things fast. She remembers everything. She LOVES her daddy and they seem to be alot alike. :) She is very cuddly if it's her idea. Anytime you ask her anything she says "okay". She is also a rock-collector and LOVES every stuffed animal that has ever existed. On any random day she is either doing a puzzle, reading books, or nurturing stuffed animals.

Lucy already seems to be more of a people person than Annie. She thrives when people are in her face. She loves the camera because a person is usually holding it. Annie always seemed more interested in how the camera worked and holding it herself than smiling. Lucy is not very serious, she is easy to make smile even when she's upset, but if you should find her to be upset she will make you go deaf with her shrill cry. She is zero to sixty. She is on or off. She is definitely more sensitive to her environment than Annie ever was. She is still eating in the middle of the night because she has trained me to obey her shrill cry. (I know, I know...It's on my to-do list.) She is bubbly, chubby, and very insistent when she is hungry. She is still pretty great at sleeping anywhere since she loves to be held. She is my lap baby.

Two things in common to both of my girls: 1) Both of my girls were super chubby babies topping the charts. 2) Both don't look Mexican at all, but we hope they get scholarships anyways.

As far as me and J go, we just celebrated our 5 yr anniversary! We got a little time away together, thanks to J's parents!

I have been starting to sew again, which has been a great creative outlet for me! J's sis, Brittany inspired me to refashioning tshirts into kid dresses (like the green A&M one she made that Annie is wearing above). Been loving that and just ordered a pattern to make some booties! I will keep you updated and maybe post the result!

J is still loving his job and doing great things in Austin. I can't believe how well suited he is for his job. I am so proud of him. When the website is up and running, I will post the link!

I just found a bunch of videos of Annie learning new tricks from the last few months, so I am going to be posting those over the next month or so as I get the chance to upload them!

Happy Father's Day, J!

2010-06-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day, J!

I cannot imagine a better daddy for our girls than you. It is your third Father's Day now and I can't believe all the ways God has grown you in this time to lead our ladies towards God in all things. Here are some of my favorite ways you do this at this moment in time, but I know by tomorrow there will be new ways.

1. You are truly a picture of God's tenderness towards his kids. One of my favorite things about you is the amount of affection you lavish on our girls. You are the most comfortable person in the world. There is hardly a time when your are sitting on our couch and one of us isn't curled up with you. You know how to be still and just take the time to sit and cuddle.

2. The way you truly listen to understand. Whatever random request Annie has pulled out of her hat, a box of "ray-rays" (raisins), nudder song? (another song, aka- change the music in the car) or any other indeterminable toddler phrase- you truly strive to understand her and build her trust in you to listen. You don't ignore even the simplest requests and strive to understand how she understands the world.

(Annie telling you a story.)

3. My most favorite quality about you is and will always be your humility. It is what drew me to you so long ago (10 years ago!). You have every reason, in a worldly sense, to be prideful (at least by my book- because you are soooo good-looking, talented, ect.), but you carry yourself just the opposite. One of the ways I see this is that you are always so quick to forgive and repent. Even if it means apologizing to Annie for something she hasn't even noticed. Another way is your unselfishness. If there is any way you are able to take a burden off of me- you always try to think of a way- even nursing. (Sadly, there is no solution to that one.)

4. You are someone they can truly admire. You have the privilege of embodying compassion and mercy as your full time job. Not only will they admire you because of the work you do- the passion you have to transform the city, give hope where there is none, and seek justice- they will admire you because you are a picture of God's mercy and compassion to all people with or without the job you have. You have always cared about people- really cared. You care how they hurt, care about what they need, and do your best to help them. Our girls will get to see first hand how to love all people and it is of prime importance to you that they do, by the grace of God.

5. You love to be really into their lives. You always want real time updates on what we are doing while you are at work. I always think this would annoy you, but you really want to know. You can't wait for them to learn new things and will so patiently and joyfully teach them new things. Even after a long day, you beg me to let you wake them up if you get home late. We have learned our lesson on that recently, but you still ask. :) Only now, I say "no way, honey."

There is no man in this world that I would rather our girls look up to than you. God giving Lucy and Annie you as a dad is God's absolute grace to them. I cannot wait to see the impact you have on their lives. God giving me you as a partner in parenting is God's grace to me. Thanks for making it such a joy and honor to be with you. I love you so much more than I even did 5-10 years ago. :)

Love my little ladies!

2010-04-12T14:12:00.001-07:00

Now that we are officially a family of 4, we are on our way to adjusting back to normal life. In the last month we had Lucy, Annie turned 2, the bluebonnets arrived, we have had family visit from NC, and we have celebrated our first major holiday with Lucy. Here are some pictures to prove it.

At the best park- Mueller with the cousins!

The Lopez/ Burton Family

Lucy- 4 weeks

Annie's awesome birthday cake from her aunt Mo (Molly).

Getting a little help from Jack and Micah. I think Jack "helped" her last year too! Smart boy.

Lucy having a bath.

Annie in the bluebonnets.

Lucy has been with us for 5 weeks now. It is already hard to remember what it was like without her. :) We are adjusting a little more everyday. J and I are coming to find that we both always have our hands full rather than taking turns. This is why we are so thankful to have friends and family provide meals for us! Not only do I love surprises, but I also do not like to cook. It has been such a blessing and we are so grateful for not only the food, but to get to introduce Lucy to our loved ones and see each of you!

Since there is still not much J can do for Lucy, he spends lots more time with Annie- which is her dream come true. :) We both find ourselves feeling a little like single parents at the end of the day, each with our own kid. I hear it gets better.

It is so fun to watch Annie grow into her big sister role. She loves Lucy and uses the sweetest voice when she talks to her. Annie is still figuring out the whole breast feeding thing and will often practice with her dolls/ stuffed animals. Sometimes I think about what it would really be like if my two-year old was actually walking around breast-feeding a dwarfed hippopotamus in my living room. It is cute until I think about it too literally.

As for Lucy, she is the most cuddly baby I have ever met. A dream come true. I love it. She sleeps well for her age, but terribly for my age. She started smiling last week, which is totally heart melting.

More fun by the day....

Lucy's Here!!!

2010-03-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to have Lucy home!

My ideal timeline: early to the hospital, epidural, have a baby.

Lucy's timeline: late to the hospital, no epidural (and barely any doctor), had the baby.

Around 10:30pm, Sunday March 6th, we started watching the Office (which, ironically was about Pam having her baby and trying to ignore her contractions until midnight so she can get an extra night stay in the hospital). Come to find out, we should have been driving to the hospital at that time.

Here's that episode, just in case you missed it:

Normally doctors tell you "come in when you have contractions that last 45 sec - 1 min and are 4-8 minutes apart..." The doctor on call that night said to hold off until the contractions last 1 minute to 1.5 minutes. Since I'm a rule-follower, it never actually became time to go to the hospital by the normal doctor standards.

At 10:30pm we started timing contractions. First contraction: 30 seconds. Next contraction was 45 seconds, 20 minutes later. Next one, 8 minutes from the previous. From then on, all the contractions were less than a minute, but by the time 11:30pm rolled around, the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and really painful, and so J called the doctor to tell them, and they said to go ahead and come in because they were strong.

Good thing we did.

We got to the hospital room around midnight (thanks for the good idea, Pam) and Lucy was born at 1:20 AM.

J and I took no birthing classes to prepare since we planned on it going like Annie's. The only way we knew breathing techniques was from the movies. J kept trying to get me to hold his hand and squeeze, but I insisted on keeping him in a headlock and whimpering "please help me" the entire time. Not only him, but every nurse that walked in the room got this same plea from me.

I will spare you the details (give me a call/ email if you want them), but I will say that after Lucy was born it was an amazing moment. By far the hardest physical work of my life, but with such a great reward.

Here is Lucy featuring her nice pipes. I have never heard anything so piercing in my life.

I used the timer function on the camera to capture myself sleeping... just kidding. I had the nurse promise to come in after I fell asleep... just kidding again.

Annie is adjusting great to being a big sis! Another post to come from our first week at home!

My top 3 awkward pregnancy moments...

2010-02-28T12:03:00.000-08:00

and this is only from the past week.

1. While attending a conference on adoption last weekend, an older man stops me in a hall and places one hand on my lower/ mid back and the other hand over my naval and shakes my belly up and down while he says in a low voice "no adoption necessary". Strangely, it happened so fast that I wasn't that shocked or offended, but I could have been on so many accounts and how was he to know seeing that we were and are still perfect strangers?

2. On the following day, I was at an outdoor shopping area and a man asks "is this your first?" I say no, that it is my second. He asks, "are you sure it isn't your second AND third?" On the one hand, i understand that many people don't keep up with pregnant people and so maybe this is a fair question. However, on the other hand, under no circumstance should you ever err on the side of a pregnant women looking like she is carrying multiple humans in her stomach when there are any other explanations.

3. On Friday I got a pedicure with my pal Katie. When we walked in a woman came straight up to me and touched my stomach while smiling. I don't know if she said anything because I was on the phone with Sprint at the time and was caught a little off guard. I thought maybe she was the woman who was going to do my nails just being ultra-friendly as to secure a good tip, but she was just another customer. After my phone call was done, she went on to tell me that she was "getting married tomorrow and after that [she] would like to do that" (pointing at my stomach). I assume she meant be impregnated when she said "that."

Anyways, Lucy is due this coming Friday- woohoo! We are ready to go, or as much as possible anyways. Getting to spend some extra special time with Annie for now- priceless. I really do love pregnancy until about the last 3 days to 1 week. I have officially crossed over and can't wait to have both my girls on the outside and to be able to breathe, sleep on my stomach, and not have to support the weight of my stomach with my hands!

Additionally, I am tired of J calling me "big mama".

This is me and my friend, Leah, a couple of weeks ago. She was due 10 days before me on Feb 23rd and delivered Henry on Friday, Feb 26th! What a cutie:

Things are getting much more real now....

whoa.... we're 5 weeks out

2010-01-30T20:07:00.000-08:00

We are only 5 short weeks (or less) away from having our second child. Whoa...

Her name is Lucy Pearson Lopez. Annie calls her Lu or Lulu. You can too if you find Lucy too tricky to say. We love the name Lucy and just kept coming back to it as we considered names. We like the type of names that we associate with down to earth girls. We like names that are plain, but not super popular (not in the top 100). It means "light" which has significance for us as we hope that her life would be a light for other lives. Pearson was my mom's middle name, my grandmother Mary's maiden name, so it is significant for us as well.

I don't usually think through things too much unless it is near. That is why I didn't really think about the connection between being pregnant and having a baby until the last week or so. I am now filled with thoughts of getting things ready for a baby, making plans, etc. I think the hardest thing is knowing that Annie's world is about to get turned upside down. I was explaining to Annie today how Lu was going to come here soon and live with us and how we will share everything with her. I started to get really teary-eyed as I told her that I am her and Lucy's mommy and that J is her and Lucy's daddy. I know many of you have several children and know this feeling well. Many of you are probably thinking, "big deal". That's kind of what I thought when people expressed these feelings of sadness over the first child not being the only child anymore. You just hate to see their little hearts hurt over the loss of attention, even if you know it's going to be a good thing for them. Don't get me wrong, we are THRILLED about meeting Lucy and already love her so much, but I just want to soak up all the time I can with Annie these next few weeks while I can give her some undivided attention. Lucy will never know the difference since she already is not an only child. For Annie, this will be the biggest change of her life so far.

As far as actually having her and figuring out a newborn- I feel much more confident the second time around! March 5th is the expected day and we can't wait for all of you to get to meet her as well! Lord-willing, we'll see you soon, Lu!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T15:30:00.000-08:00

I've been working on this post since Christmas. I'm really bad at this..... In the words of my friend Lee Wilson- most people will find this post boring with the exception of some family, but again, I don't just do this for you- it's my public scrapbook, too. :-) I just wrote some special things to help me remember what happened and I have some reflections from the Christmas season at the bottom of the post.

(Christmas afternoon)

Hope you all are having a great day! We just woke up from our naps to the sound of the double doorbell ring. Not a great sound if you are a parent with a sleeping child, BUT to our joy- were greeted with fresh fried egg rolls from neighbor Lisa!

Now that I am full and Annie did not wake up from the doorbell, seems like a good time to post a blog about the holiday!

Christmas Picture Album 2009

(December 23rd)

Papa Earl (Sally's dad) came in to town earlier this week and we got to have a small Christmas celebration on the 23rd complete with sushi and a radio flyer wagon. Annie's response as he wheeled it in "oh boy, oh boy!" as she stood perched on her tippy-toes dancing around like she needed to use the bathroom. She probably peed her pants and is thankfully still in diapers. We went for a stroll around the block to look at "yites" (Christmas lights) and she has played and eaten most of her meals in it since. A hit, to say the least! Thanks, Papa!

(December 24th)

We had a big Peck celebration over at Kevin and Les' house on Christmas Eve for lunch. The whole clan. This celebration includes all Peck siblings, spouses, dad, children, my mom's sister and her clan, my grandma, most of the in-laws, and a few friends- this year we had the Engstroms, Dean, and the Suhs complete with Yuna! All in all, about 40 people! Always a party! We had a mexican feast in honor of us, I suppose. ;-) At the ardent request of Kevin (sal's bro), we always need to make sure we have ice cream pie. This is a family tradition. One year we failed to make it and he said "this is the one thing I ask of the women who love me." It will not be forgotten again, dear brother. One of my favorite moments was when Ellie opened our present to her. I got her Guess Who? but sometime between the time it got wrapped and opened, she got it from someone else. I knew she already had it, but I didn't want to unwrap it, return it, etc. so I decided to just give it to her and let her go pick something new out. I was really curious what reaction she would have as a 4 year old who has, at her age, just started training on social graces- although she is very mature for her age- she is still 4. When she opened it she screamed with excitement "another Guess Who?!" She was genuinely thrilled as if it was the expansion pack. What a hoot.

J and I exchanged presents to eachother during naptime! It was so fun and relaxing. This was my most successful year shopping for J. As you might imagine, he's pretty hard and funny to shop for. He is a giant so that rules out most clothing stores (excpetions: Nike Outlet - where they keep the big boy clothes that didn't sell, American Apparel- big boy shirts in the back bin for $6/ pop) On his loot list: a Nike track jacket (XXL and Xlong, flip-flops, 3 American Apparel t-shirts, some camera equipment, a framed square family picture (he's very particular about the framing). Stocking stuffers: underwear, undershirts, dark chocolate peanut-butter cups, newly printed pics of Annie, a Homeslice shirt (for Annie. J and I can't usually think of things to get so we often default by getting Annie something we know the other will like.)

We headed over to J's parent's house after naps for dinner, movie, and Jesus' birthday cake. A Christmas tradition for the Lopez clan is to watch one of four movies together- Die Hard, Home Alone, It's a Wonderful Life, or Muppet Christmas Carol. It's a Wonderful Life was on so we watched that. It was Molly's (sal's sis) first viewing. She still has about 30 minutes to go so all in all she was left off at the most depressing part of the whole movie. George Bailey just wished he'd never been born! Clarence to the rescue! We got Annie home in time to put on her new Christmas Eve pjs (peck tradition).

(December 25th)

We woke up this morning for breakfast with Molly (sal's sis), J's parents, me, J, and Annie. Molly made a feast of eggs benedict (peck tradition) and blueberry crapes. Delicious! Thanks, Mo!

Annie then opened the awesome kitchen set, complete with laundry center from Nonnie & Tata! This thing took J about 5 hours straight to assemble, which he enjoyed because the directions were really well written! I made 5 attempts to get this thing at Toys R Us before calling my dad who was in Missouri to go get one there! They were totally sold out everywhere! It was totally worth it- she loves it! P.S. to all my friends with little ones, I highly recommend spacing out the opening of presents. It was so good for Annie to be able to enjoy each thing. Lessons for next time: space out presents even more and get her a whole lot less! :-) Our family is so huge at this point that I don't think she would notice if we didn't get her anything. Thinking of implementing the 3 gift rule- a need, a want, a surprise! Thanks, Jamie for that great idea!

I'm not great at reflecting, but here goes. Since I became a Christian, I have always been a little confused by Advent and would not say I practice Advent for all it was intended to be. I have spent this season trying to get a better idea of how people do it. I never really knew why Jesus' birth should matter more on that day or month more than any other time, but I have seen how much God tells His people in the Bible to "remember" through festivals and feasts type celebrations. This coupled with the fact that we are still awaiting Christ as Christians, tells me it's a big deal to practice anticipating Christ, not only in December but always! If we get off track, we always have December as a good checkpoint. :-) Secondly, I really enjoyed getting to teach Annie about Christ to the greatest degree that she could understand. We spent some time everyday playing with a nativity set (talking about the characters and telling the story) and I really loved to see how much she gathered from that time- simply, that Jesus was special. She spent most of everyday carrying him around in her little hand. I can't wait to reveal greater things to her about Him as she grows.

Sidenote: I caught myself constantly reminding Annie that Jesus was also a man that grew up and did amazing things. For all of you Talladega Nights fans, I felt like Carly at the dinner table reminding Ricky Bobby, who only prays to sweet, baby, Christmas Jesus, "you know, Jesus was also a man".

Much love and a happy New Year!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-03T11:49:00.001-08:00

Went out to the Elgin Pumpkin Patch with a couple of families- the Engstroms and the Gentrys!

Here is a classic kids' photo. Everyone equally distracted and/or unhappy.

The Engstroms

The Gentrys

And a few solo shots...

Hudson Engstrom- so cute!

Logan, this picture should be on match.com if you weren't married.

It looks like you are trying to market yourself as "the outdoors type".

The big boys- Micah, Eli, and Calvin! Went all the way to Elgin and the main attraction-

a grasshopper.

Good day!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-03T07:16:00.000-08:00

Halloween started out with some bagels with the family and all the kids in their costumes (except Halle, who insisted on wearing her Hello Kitty Halloween shirt for the 3rd time in a row:-). What a funny girl! Little Ivey was not shown since she was sleeping most of the time. Pictures of her and new baby Bryce to come!

This year, we decided it was time to finally do J's ideal Halloween costumes: oompa loompas. At first, we were all going to be oompa loompas, but since oompa loompas are disturbing enough, we decided not to subject the world to a pregnant oompa loompa. However, J insisted that the world be subjected to a 6'6" oompa loompa.

On the other hand, what is more disturbing? A pregnant oompa loompa or a pregnant Dora the Explorer? Hmmm... both are creepy. You decide.

We had a great halloween! J and Annie developed quite the fan base with the neighbors, with several of them asking to take their picture.

We had several friends come over and bedazzle us with their costumes. We will hopefully post them as we get the pictures!

Hope you had a great one!

Beach Trip

2009-08-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

So since J started his new job in January we haven't taken any vacation time. Realizing that we have a busy Fall ahead, he decided to take 2 weeks off starting the day that Total Sports Camp ended. I desperately love any beach, lake, etc. and Annie had never been to a beach yet so it was time to go. On Saturday we booked 4 days at Port Royal in Port Aransas, TX, leaving on Monday. Sort of a last minute decision- it was so worth it!

Strangely we realized we had never taken Annie on vacation without other family members around so we were all hyped up! We had no clue how much work it is to take a 1.5 year old on vacation by ourselves. WOW. We considered several times taking her to this daycare center and asking if we could just pay for dinnertime. Not necessarily the relaxing get-a-way you imagine. We both brought tons of books that we never once cracked. As soon as she would go down for a nap or bedtime, so would we. Even though it was lots of work, it was so amazing to see her on the beach and exploring everything.

This trip was full of firsts: J's first time to Port A (a place full of memories for me), Annie and J's first swim in the awesome Port Royal pool complete with a slide ride, Annie's first crab salad, sno-cone, sandcastle, and hermit crab encounter!

Can't wait to do it again!

(we've never had smiles this big from annie actually directed at the camera)

(i don't think this is true)

(i feel like i need to explain j's shirt. i bought this for him as a gift in mexico. he really likes wearing intimidating tank tops when he is on vacation.)

(lovin' some pool time with daddy)

(her favorite beach activites: eating sand and sitting up to her chest in the ocean until the waves came and splash over her or she starts sinking)

( j found tons of hermit crabs. annie had no fear whatsoever- she loves them!)

(the boats outside sally's family's favorite Port A restaurant- Virginia's on the Bay.)

(we decided to introduce the ol' "bury the daddy in the sand" idea. if you notice annie in the top left that pretty much tells the story about how cool she thought this was.)

Annie is a big sis!

2009-07-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

For those of you we have run in to over the last couple of weeks, no surprise here, but for the rest of the world- we are having a baby! I am 8 weeks and 3 days which gives me a March 5th due date. The baby and Annie will be almost 2 years apart.

We are thrilled and humbled that God has yet entrusted another person to us to love and raise along with Annie! Thrilled- because there is nothing more fun than a full house! Humbled- because we daily realize what a big important job it is to raise a little person.

I have been feeling pretty sick, though not as bad as it was with Annie. I am not sure if I just have a higher threshold for discomfort and suffering after having Annie or if it is, in fact, more mild. No way to tell, but I'm thankful either way. J and Molly have been so helpful!

I love, love, love that I get to have another baby, but I feel so far removed from newborn world after only 16 months, so I have been really nervous about it until today. Seeing the lil' one on the sonogram just makes you melt, so I started looking back through Annie's baby books to remember what it was like the day she was born. I just remember the day J first went back to work after Annie was born. I called him crying saying "she's scary. Please don't leave me here by myself with her". Somehow, I made it through and I know God is going to help me once again since this whole new baby thing was his idea anyhow. Fast-forward to a picture of me a couple months in and I am holding her with one arm and smiling. I must have gotten used to it somewhere along the line so I know I will figure out that whole two-child-thing, too.

If you live nearby and we spend alot of time together, you are probably asking yourself, "So Sal, how does this affect our friendship?" Answer: For the next 6-8 weeks while I still have morning sickness, here is what you can expect:

- I won't be hanging out with you late at night.

- During the day, Annie will be watching hours of TV while I lay on my side on the couch. (Feel free to lend us kid DVDs. We are pretty tapped out on what we got :-)

- If you want to go to lunch, we must go someplace that serves plums, Gatorade, or Ramen noodles.

With Annie, all sickness went away at 16 weeks and then pregnancy was the best I have ever felt in my life! I am looking forward to those hormones again!

We would love your prayers for a healthy and joyful pregnancy!

Ideally, this post would include the sonogram picture, but it is downstairs and then I would need to scan it and stuff. It's not going to happen tonight, but maybe soon!

summer stuff

2009-07-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

My blog skills are really lacking lately...

In Lopez Summer News....

Mark (J's Brother) and Alli got married on June 27th! Congrats you guys! The wedding was beautiful and we loved being a part of it! They are now living in New York for the summer for Mark's internship before they head back to Dallas for Alli to start her 2nd year of med school and Mark to get a job doing motion graphics! How exciting!

We've spent most afternoons at Reagan High doing Total City Sports Camp! Trying to give Reagan High School kids great instruction from amazing athletes from Austin Stone. It has been amazing! Not only a cool way to serve the faculty, but also to serve the kids. They have really worked hard. It's not easy to play football in 108 degrees on your own accord! The goal is for mentorship relationships to be the result that will continue after camp is over. It has been really cool to see this happen so quickly. Thanks to everyone who has spent yourself for this whether it be through donating food, coaching, registration, childcare, or running things from here to there! This couldn't have happened without everyone helping out!

As far as Annie goes...here is what you are missing... Annie has been blossoming into a full-blown toddler over the last couple of months. She has gone from walking to running to talking. She loves shoes and likes to decide who should wear which ones. She loves to imitate everything we do- like the entire morning routine. Brushing teeth, putting on deodorant, shaving, etc. You can get her to say almost anything you want. It will likely not be what you intended for her to say, but she will say it with absolute certainty as if she is mimicking you exactly. :-)

Example:

("Bobo"= Hippo)

She LOVES to kiss, but as you can tell, she knows it is really cute.

Annie also had her 2nd annual 4th of july! Our neighborhood has this festival by the pool where you can ride trains, jump on bounce houses, and eat random food from local restaurants.

"Whoa!" Annie's new favorite word.

This is what happens when you keep trying to do one more thing and one more thing after you've crossed the threshold. It happens so quickly.

In the everyday, Annie basically likes to try on shoes, wear anything with a strap like a purse, stack her books, and watch Dora or the Backyardigans.

My Favorite Baby Stuff... Volume 1

2009-07-08T09:27:00.001-07:00

This is for all you new moms out there... you will probably not want to read otherwise, could be very irrelevant.

I have talked to tons of people lately about which things to buy for babies and what worked with Annie. I keep finding myself trying to explain really cool stuff I have loved and it's pretty hard. Example: "It's like this yellow thing and it's kind of rubbery. It sticks to your table and catches food." I understand it is not easy to tell the salesperson at Target this lame description and find what you are looking for without knowing what it looks like already for yourself. So I decided to make this post (volume 1, as it will be added to) to both show a picture of and explanation of why I like and use certain things.

I am no veteran mom and I don't research things (at all). I just like simplicity and personal recommendations. So here are mine...

Organization & Keep-saking

I got this from my sister before I had Annie. She got it on polkadotwhale.com, a cutesy online baby boutique place. Ordinarily, I do not like gimmicky things. I would rather get some regular folders at Office Max, but I will say, I REALLY use this thing. It has folders with the labels you really need inside and it is a set place for me to keep all of Annie's hosptial paperwork, social security info, immunizations records, and random papers they give me at the dr.'s office that I don't think I will need and then later realize I do when she breaks out in a rash.

When J was still working at Dell they sent us this pretty fancy, mostly locally Austin, baby gift package complete with a Dell onesie (which you will not see pictured because it is not among my favorites). However, included was the coolest first year calendar. It gives you a sheet of stickers with the milestones on them that you place on days they occur to keep up with what happened and when, especially helpful when you don't really know what you should be looking for. ;-) I was totally overwhelmed with the thought of doing a scrapbook page and reflection piece on every milestone. Not only was the thought daunting, but there is no way I could keep that up with multiple kids, I know myself too well. This was perfect! High points only with a little space each month for some likes and dislikes and how much they eat and sleep, etc. Love it! http://www.creativekidstuff.com/my-life-as-a-baby.html

up to 1 year

Books

I read this non-stop for awhile, usually while breast-feeding. It is written by a pediatrician and mom of 3 who paired up. Very practical, frequently-asked questions and answers. Also, presents all the viewpoints and options for various subjects like sleep training, for instance. I hear they also have toddler, kids, (and on up) books that I intend to get.

up to 1 year

I read this pretty much in one day when Annie hit 9 months and started throwing mini-fits and touching sockets. Very good for practical discipline and training and also shows us as parents what our heart and intentions should be.

One of my favorite books of all time. Not just for Annie, but for me, too! It goes through the entire Bible, telling the entire redemption story starting in Genesis all the way to Revelation and shows how Christ was being pointed to and revealed along the way as our great rescuer. Great illustrations and very captivating writing for both children and adults. Great for adults who didn't grow up hearing Bible stories (like me). Learning them as a young adult and knowing that many of them are not fluffy and cute, I was really struggling to figure out how to tell children (Annie) the stories in the Bible (for example, Noah and the ark) and not make it about cute animals going on a boat ride. Ya know?

Food Stuff

Splat mat. Leslie got this for me for Christmas. Can be used for babies learning to eat or can be used for art projects. Love it!

Annie's lunch sack. Insulated. Even if it weren't for the temp control I use it just to keep all of her food stuff together in my diaper bag. For Austinites- you can get it at Terra Toys.

Left: Portable feeding chair: For the longest time, I took this into every restaurant with me (it folds up really nice). In a high chair, early on, Annie tended to drop more stuff on her lap and floor than she got in her mouth. The tray goes all the way to the belly to keep the lap clean and the tray has a lip on it to prevent her from swiping everything on the floor at once.

Annie used it 6 months-12 months out and now just uses it at home or when there won't be a high chair handy.

Right: Feeding suction mat thing: Suctions to the table, complete with gutter. This is for those of you like me who don't want to just throw the fries on the table at Burger King. It just feels wrong. Even though you know it doesn't matter really and it isn't grosser than the grocery cart (arguably cleaner). Love this.

Annie uses it 12 months and will probably use it for another 6 months or so.

Left: Plastic, re-usable bibs. Don't get me wrong, I love really cute, fabric bibs (thanks, Candi) when I'm home, but when you are out and have to put it back in your bag after eating bbq sauce and then smell it again several hours later this is where plastic ones you can wipe off come in handy.

Right: If you love fabric and cute baby stuff, my cousin Candi, does custom stuff for babies and kids of all ages (blankets, bedding, clothes, bows, bibs, everything). She is one of the most gifted people I know and I would LOVE to put you in touch with her if you have gifts to give or little ones!

This is for those who have kiddos who are slow to warm up to new foods/ drinks or don't want to give in to picky eaters. Anything and everything Annie did not like to eat, I would add apple sauce to. I keep a jar in my fridge always (cheap, big, and generic). I would gradually wean her off the applesauce until she would just eat the food. Annie didn't like oatmeal, sweet potatoes, or bananas at first. By the way, this is also how I got her used to formula, by adding apple juice. You would think this would give her a sweet tooth, but the funny thing is she has probably only had 10 cups of juice in her whole life straight up- she loves water. Every kid is different so I don't know if this works across the board. Worked for us.

If you want to make your own baby food, it is cheap and easy once you get going. I had the hardest time getting started. We use this high powered blender/ food processor thing called the Vitamix. Buy carrots. put them in with a little water or milk. Blend. Pour in ice cube trays and cover and freeze. When it's time to eat. Pop 2 out and microwave for 25 seconds. Super easy at home, but I just got jars when I went out so I didn't have to find a microwave.

For Annie: 6 months-10months

Munchkin Tossables. But I do not toss them. They come in a big, cheap pack and they are the perfect eating shape for kids. Great for holding, great sized bite, and great for banging (not like loud metal).

It looks like an alien, but it is a cover for shopping carts and high chairs. Useful when they are too little to really sit in the cart and need a little extra something to hold them up and catch their toys. Lot of people use them for germs, but if that's the only reason, I would do without it, especially when they crawl with their hands on the floor anyways. Annie is too crazy to use it anymore since she will stand up in most carts and highchairs unless buckled in tight. The buckles don't always line up great so we aren't using it at ton anymore.

For Annie 5-9 months.

Strollers & Carseats

Left: I got the Graco Safeseat. Pros: You kid will not outgrow it before it is time to turn around. Cons: If you like to cram all carseats in 1 car to ride with friends, this one will not fit with 2 others. It is also really heavy. I would have gone with the Graco Snugride in retrospect.

Right: The Graco snap and go stroller. Car seat snaps on top. Great for 1 baby family. We used this until Annie turned 1 year and got her new carseat. It has a huge storage area, is super light weight and easy to fold and unfold. Adjustable for tall people. :-) Annie would stay sleeping and I could just pop her in and out of this thing without taking her out of her carseat. Awesome! When we have 2 kids, we will probably get a Phil and Ted stroller. I've heard great things.

up to 1 year

Mom Stuff

I went for the fancy diaper bag. I never use it. Too small and compartmentalized for me. I use this huge bag from Target that cost 12.99. I recommend something big with a zipper.

Here is a general list of some other things:

Pacifiers: The gumdrop. It must be ordered online or given for free at St. Davids when you have a baby (arguably not free). Awesome. The only one Annie used at first. Now she uses anything.

Bottles: Dr. Browns were what Annie liked best, but we switched off as soon as we could. 6 parts to clean. Barf. Now we use Avent.

Pump: Medela, electric, back-pack style, double. Loved it.

Bumbo: Awesome for pretending your baby is older than they really are. You can sit them in this thing on the dinner table and have tons of great conversation.

Annie's Walking!

2009-05-16T22:11:00.000-07:00

Annie has been walking now for a few weeks now and it's time to share it!

She started with a couple of steps a little over a month ago, but then decided not to do it again for a few weeks. Three weeks ago she started back up and has now been walking everywhere! She rarely ever thinks walking is more fun.

Here's a video! (the song in the background wasn't on purpose, it's just a television ad):

Happy Mom Day

2009-05-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

A little late, but a few things about Mom's Day. It's always a little bittersweet for me, remembering my mom, but not being able to celebrate with her. On the other hand feeling like God has provided me with so many great moms to learn from and grow with. Moms who get excited over Annie's little triumphs and trials like I do (and like my mom would). Moms who have advice on the small stuff (like how to get your kid to eat certain things or stop screaming to get your attention every few minutes). God has provided me with a whole army of moms that I can look to. Sisters, sisters in laws, aunts, cousins, mother in laws, grandmas, grandmas in laws, and friends. I love you all and you each teach me something with the way you love and enjoy your kids.

Speaking of grandmas, our Nana (on Justin's side), just got recognized in the newspaper in Tucson for a contest called "Mom's at her Funniest". Her daughter, (our Aunt Moni), entered her in the contest without her knowing and she won! Nana is really neat lady that I am very glad to know. Diviértase en su día de balneario, Nana! (compliments of freetranslation.com! hehe)

Here is the article:

"Still Learning and Laughing Along the Way!"

"Mom was born in Mexico and spoke only Spanish. After marriage and obtaining legal residency, mom wanted to take it a step further and apply for citizenship. Dad helped her learn English and study for her citizenshipclasses, tests and interviews. During one of these many study sessions, dad asked mom a constitution question that she kept missing. Finally, she waves her arms, and in her frustration, she says, "Ayyyyy,Alfredo, I don't underwear!" Needless to say, dad had a few extra vocabulary lessons with mom. To this day, mom and I still use this and it takes us back to that day, with dad. Oh, and yes, mom passed successfully!"

Firsts

2009-03-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

To explain the title of the post... I feel like time is moving so fast and everything Annie is doing seems to be a first for her over the past couple of weeks.

She had her first car ride in her front facing seat. She loves it. She talks and sings constantly in the car now because she can actually see me and have "conversations". This particular seat has a cup-holder, which Annie associates with being a rock star. We all know that all rock stars have the best cup-holders. Annie knows this, too. Nothing gives her more joy than her cup-holder.

Annie has officially first stood and is now doing it like a champ. We have known for weeks that she had the ability do this, because if she is concentrating on a toy, she will be holding it and not even notice that she is standing on her own. Once she notices, she immediately collapses out of fear. For Annie, this is one of the many disadvantages of being tall. She is now standing willingly!

She started to do official sign language. Her first signs were showing us how big she is at 8 months or so (arms overhead in touch-down position), which we weren't sure if we could count since we had never heard of it before. At around 9 months she started waving "hi" and "bye" and shaking her head "no" (pretty helpful in determining if she understood what she wasn't supposed to do or if she didn't like something). Now she does what we feel are more official baby signs- "more" and "please." We say more official because these are ones that she uses instead of yelling when at the table (sometimes :-). Here she is enjoying the fruits of her labor.

Oh and by the way.... TODAY is her FIRST BIRTHDAY.

We had a first birthday party over the weekend with some family and a few close friends. This party was in honor of Annie's actual birthday today! It was such a blast. We couldn't have anticipated how much she would have loved the whole thing. (Or how much I loved planning it!) This picture features me and the piñata we named Dolly-Llama. J and I obtained this ancient treasure at Fiesta. What you may not know is that Fiesta is not known for their candy. Much to the delight of all the children at the party, the piñata contained salsa flavored twizzlers, salted fruit strips, and tamarind flavored goo. (Note the sarcasm. The kids 3 and over really hated it and were really upset until I gave them some real candy.)

At the party, she had her first bite of cake... and then was on her way to eating the entire thing before it fell to the ground. Then she polished off her first cupcake after eating a huge chunk of the big cake. Pretty impressive. My sister, Molly made this cake- coolest cake ever!

Some of her first words- "hey" (when I come in her room to greet her after a nap), "dad" (for J), "dada" (for everyone and everything), "mama" (only when she's upset), "up" (occasionally she says this if she is feeling generous with her performances), "that" (sounds more like "dat", but we count it), and "uh-uh" (her attempt at "uh-oh" used when she drops something).

Annie at 1 year has the sweetest disposition. She is really easily excited. If something suits her fancy she will most likely get stiff as a board, red in the face, and scream! She is also really active and keeps you on your toes. She is not very sensitive we have found. If we try to take something away- she gets mad, not sad, if she cares at all. If we have to discipline her (squeeze the hand or a flick on the hand) for something she knows not to do (evidenced by taking two paces towards it, looking at me and shaking her head "no", and then going for it), she won't back down until she has finished what she set out to do, she'll take the flicks (oh, boy). She startles easily (loud noises, anything by her face, or anything that moves too quickly). She loves to be outside on a windy day. She hasn't yet figured out empathy. She still laughs when other kids are crying. She LOVES dogs (still going strong), stuffed animals, and now baby dolls more than any other toys. Books and pictures are close seconds if she is permitted to handle them herself. I am convinced her favorite would be laptops if we would let her near them. She also has a developing passion for throwing and rolling balls. A little secret, if you have on jewelry she will always come to you. She is still a dancing and singing machine and adding new moves everyday. This is our Annie. We can't wait to get to know her even better.

Happy Birthday, Annabel! We are so blessed and honored to be your parents and raise you. You are an amazing gift from God and we thank Him for your life daily and pray you grow up to love Him more than anything else in the world.

Do you like delicious food? I do....

2009-03-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know, some might not, but my sister Molly lives with us! She was working seasonally as a chef in Alaska, and then New Zealand, and then Alaska again.

We love having her live with us because her and Annie get to be so close and I have someone to talk with during the day! :-) She has such a servant's heart and does whatever she can to make our lives easier. She is constant entertainment for Annie and my favorite errand-running, breakfast-eating, and coffee-drinking pal.

She moved back in October and has been looking for the right job while trying to pursue some of her passions while she has the time. Two things she really wants to do: 1) help those without job skills get jobs in the food industry- she wants to create and teach a culinary program for refugees, immigrants or anyone without these skills that needs them to get a job. This will be another post! 2) have her own cafe.

So since December, she has catered a bunch of special events for people and had the idea to start her own online cafe. Molly's style of cooking: she has the capabilities to do super fancy things that I don't even know how to pronounce, but she's practical, too, for those of us who are commoners in the food department. This week was Turkey-Tamale pie. Lean ground turkey, baked with mexican spices, corn, bell peppers, onions and beans and topped with a cornbread crust. Served with marinated vegetable salad. For dessert, Zucchini-Apple cup cakes with white chocolate frosting. Really moist and rich, with adorable packaging for gifts.

She cooks really healthy and makes it delicious for even J!

Next week is:

Lemon- Herb Chicken Piccata

topped with a savory saute of artichoke,

sweet onion, mushrooms and capers.

Served with whole wheat penne &

Side of roasted seasonal vegetables

Old Fashion Lemon Bars

She features a meal/ per week that you can order and she will deliver it to you. There are some really cool features on the sight where you can vote for stuff for her to make the following week.

She also has other services available like office catering, events, etc. It is also great if someone you know needs a meal, but you don't have the time. She makes it and delivers it for you! Check it out!

http://vanillaorchidbymolly.blogspot.com/

Go, Molly, go!

My Big Girl is a Big Girl!

2009-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

I have snapped some pictures of Annie in the last few days of things that totally surprise me. Is it me or did she grow up fast?

This is her just watching her cartoons and drinking a bottle. A "big kid" moment for me.

Screaming at the top of her lungs!

Watching Veggietales. Her favorite... the Silly Song Countdown.

This came on the outside of the flowers J got me for Valentine's Day. It also double as a tutu, we found.

Parker (J's college roomie and one of our close friends) trying to influence Annie in the way of the Aggies.
Someone's got to.
It will probably not be us. :-)

She loves LOVES to watch puppies on you tube. You can show her these videos anytime she is upset and it is like Jekell and Hyde.

Most of you know that Annie is a big dancer. She dances to every tune, all day long. She is now coming up with different dances for different songs. The slow ones are side to side, the fast front to back.

Here is her doing the side to side one for the first time. The video camera was stationed just above the laptop screen of some kind of sappy slideshow of lab puppies. Take note of her reaction when the music stops.

And finally... relaxing with Dad. This is one of my favorite of her right now. She is one smiley lady with some killer hippo teeth.
We love our little lady.

Well worth it!

2009-02-18T10:59:00.000-08:00

The following event bought me an extra 30 minutes of free time, which I used to return some emails. I say, well worth the cost of clean up time of only a mere 2 minutes. Overall, 28 minutes of age-appropriate-entertainment for both me and Annie and a trick I plan to use again!

Caught in the middle of having some fun!

Realizing she's been caught!

Showing me the tools she used to complete this masterpiece.

Flapping her arms with excitement.

Proud of herself... really proud.

And a video featuring her crawling!

A day at the park...

2009-02-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

We have been having some gorgeous days lately in Austin. Not today, which is why we are inside writing a blog. The other day we decided to take the big cahuna camera to the park to capture Annie on the swing. She LOVES swinging! (See above)

soaking up her favorite snack... a leaf... or anything she finds on the ground for that matter. also among her favorite snacks, sticks, rocks, grass...

can't wait for summer. more park days, swimming pool, sprinklers- so fun!

What you might not know...

2009-02-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

My friend, Steph posted this on her blog- I love these things, but no pressure!!!!!

1.High heels or boots? heels if I have to choose, but if flip-flops or ballet flats were on the list- those.
2. What time did you get up this morning? 6:30-- Thanks, Annie!
4. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Bedtime Stories. Pretty cute and funny!
5. What is your favorite TV show? The Office
6. What do you usually have for breakfast? 4 egg whites with veggies scrambled. compliments of Molly.
7. What is your middle name? Anne
8. What food do you dislike? Gluten-free cornbread or fishy-fish (know what I mean?)
9. What is your favorite song at the moment? Thy Mercy
10. Favorite sandwich? chicken-salad... with all my heart.
11. What characteristic do you despise? cruelty... does that count?
12. Clothing? work-out clothes, whenever I can get away with it!
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation? Greece
14. Are you an organized person? very, but only for particular things. not at all for other things. :-) It's complicated.
15. Where would you like to retire to? In one sense, I already have, from getting paid anyways. I "retired" to being a mom full-time. I am now more busy and stretched, but love it!
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Sushi-sake on my 24th, I think. It was a joint party with my friend, Olivia. J and Todd (Liv's hubby) rented the table on the ground in the back and you had to take off your shoes. We had about 15 friends there and ate sushi! LOVE it!
17. What are you going to do when you finish this? shower
18. Furthest place you are sending this? UK, Mia- you better represent!
19. Person you expect to send it back first? Jennifer? Leslie? Kayla? Candi?
20.When is your birthday? October 26
21. Morning person or a night person? Night by choice, Morning by Annie!
22. What is your shoe size? 8
23. Pets? Only on you-tube. Annie loves dogs so we watch them on you-tube. We have convinced her that these are her pets.
24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I'm pregnant.... Nope. Just kidding. This would be a cool way to tell people though. Just kidding, again.
25. What did you want to be when you were little? A ninja. I think my brothers had something to do with this.
27. What is your favorite flower? tulips
28. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Annie's first birthday- March 24th!
29. What was the last thing you ate? ritz crakers with some vitamins (zinc, vitamin c, echinasea)
31. Do you wish on stars? nope
32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? cerulean
33. How is the weather right now? rainy and 60
34. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Molly, my sister
35. Favorite soft drink? dp
36. Favorite restaurant? La Bodega in College Station. Moonshine in Austin.
37. Hair color? light brown, blonde, I don't really know how to describe it.
38. What was your favorite toy as a child? Maple town animals or my black baby doll that was in a bunny costume. I can't decide.
39. Summer or winter? Summer!
40. Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate—dark chocolate that's been in the freezer.
41. Coffee or tea? ice tea!
42. Do you want your friends to do this also? Yep!!
43. When was the last time you cried? last week.
44. What is under your bed? a bedspread
45. What did you do last night? hung out with my family. J is sick. :-(
47. Salty or sweet? Both, together.
48. How many keys on your key ring? 7
49. How many years at your current job? almost 1 year!
50. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
51. Positive or negative? Positive
52. How many people will you send this to? whoever reads the blog
53. How many will respond? 4 that i know of.
54. Do you like finding out all this stuff about your friends? LOVE IT!

Blueberries First

2009-01-31T10:58:00.000-08:00

I remember my mom would have special days where she would pick me up from school for a "doctor's appointment" and we would spend the whole day together playing hookie. This meant a lot considering she had 4 kids, a full-time job, and 50 real dr. appts. a year to take us to. You can certainly question whether or not this was good for me by the kind of person I turned out to be. I could talk myself out of going to any meeting, or social obligation, or even school until I married my "faithful-to-every-commitment-husband" and he wore off on me. I am so thankful that God took care of me in this respect. My career and motherhood would have been a real disaster. However, on days when I would get a surprise call to the office and it would be my mom with that look on her face- I felt so adored.

Annie is only 10-months old now. Every time she smiles at me with those big blue eyes (about 30x a day), I find myself feeling that same way my mom must have felt about me. I can't help but want to give her special treats. Even though she doesn't even know that it IS a special treat. The best thing I can come up with is giving her the blueberries or yogurt melts first thing for lunch. I usually mean to give her the greenbeans first. I can hear all of those parenting books ringing in my ears about ruining her good eating habits forever, but I just can't help myself. I am a new mom and it is all too exciting seeing her light up over the smallest things.

Must be how God feels about blessing his kids. I am learning a lot about how He feels about me through this new gig.

I was tagged!

2009-01-24T10:07:00.000-08:00

My friend Leah tagged me.

[1] Grab the nearest book.
[2] Open to page 56.
[3] Find the 5th sentence.
[4] Post the text of the next 2-5 sentences and these rules.
[5] Tag 5 peeps!

Little did Leah know that the books that are closest in reach to me these days don't have 5 sentences on one page and don't often have 56 pages or more. This one has only one sentence on the page, but plenty of pages. Here goes.

"'Go away, Nightmare, or I'll shoot you,' I said. I shot him anyway. My nightmare began to cry. I was mad... but not too mad. 'Nightmare, be quiet or you'll wake Mommy and Daddy,' I said."

There's a Nightmare in My Closet by Mercer Mayer.

You are hereby tagged:

Jennifer P.
Leslie P.
Beth W.
Becky P.
Kayla D.

No hard feelings if you don't get around to it!

J turns in the pinstripes for TOMS

2009-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

In case you are wondering why we changed our blog name from Polka Dots and Pinstripes, J started a new job! Not that he ever wore pinstripes (since Dell is business casual), but he is no longer a part of corporate America so I felt it was no longer applicable. He left Dell after almost exactly 3 years to create a non-profit called "The For the City Network" or "For the City." I couldn't be prouder of him.

Some of you might be confused, so I will give you some back story.

1) We read a book. (September 2007)

About a year ago we started reading a book with a group of friends called Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller. It totally changed our whole worldview: the way we thought about God, ourselves, eachother, and the people around us. One of the main things the book tears apart is our notion that we should give (money, time, care, etc.) because we feel that we are better or have more than others. It may be true that we (all Americans) have a lot (especially on a global scale), but that this shouldn't be the motivation for our giving or extending ourselves to people in need. The main motivation for extending mercy is that God was merciful to us. Period.

Luk 6:35	"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil {men.}
Luk 6:36	"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Jesus gave, saved, loved, and helped us when we did nothing to deserve it and nothing to honor Him. What should stop us from overflowing that same undeserved mercy we were given to those around us and act like the One we love most?

Tough stuff in practice. We are still learning and God is not done with us.

2) J gets excited. (January of 2008)
So J, who is one of the most merciful people I have ever met, got pretty excited about organizing people and thinking about how we can be more strategic in helping people both in our church and outside of it. With a team of people at our church, J and the team started concentrating efforts to figure out how we can start mobilizing people to serve around the city and tell people about opportunities.

3) Build a building.
At this very same time our church was trying to decide where to build a building. Because our church has a vision to be a part of renewing the city, we bought land in an area where there is a lot of opportunity. Within the campus, we are building office space for non-profits to foster synergy among them. We are also creating the sanctuary as a multi-use space so that it is available for use for community/ city-wide events during the other 6 days of the week. There are going to be a lot of possibilities with these new buildings.

4) Memphis. (August 2008)
All along the way J was thinking this would be an excellent 2nd career, but was very happy in his job at Dell. Then he went to Memphis for three days. A lot can change in 3 days. He left discussing where we might move to get his MBA. He and his friend Travis set off to Memphis. Travis is J's exact opposite, except as it relates to journals and pens. In this way, they are identical. They complement each other really well. When we (me and Katie, Travis' wife) picked them up from the airport, he said that he needed to quit his job and do this for the rest of his life. If you know J, he doesn't mess around. He is not a dreamer. If the words make it out of his mouth, it is as good as done and he has already thought through the implications, so I reply "Alright. Sounds good," not knowing at this point even what he was talking about since he hadn't told me about the trip, yet. He proceeded to tell me about how Memphis has an amazing network of non-profits that all do what they are really great at, but are networked together to do the maximum good. He met with people who had lived in neighborhoods for 25 years mentoring, he met with non-profit community developers, he met with church staff, and many more. They all knew each other and they all worked together for the city. Beautiful. J and Travis love the name "For the City" as a result of it being a term they constantly say all week. They buy the domain name upon returning home, just in case.

5) J has a chat with his boss. (August 2008)

When J returns from Memphis his boss asks how the trip was. J frankly tells him that it was life-changing. His boss admits to his own dreams of doing something that helps people and makes a difference. Not what J was expecting, but very confirming. This was one person that he thought would try to talk him out of it.

6) Vision Series (September 2008)

Every fall our church has a series of sermons that cast the vision of the direction we are heading. This year it was called "A Church For the City." Pretty strange and has nothing to do with J or Travis.

7) J gets an offer! (December 2008)

8) God tests J. (December 2008)
While we were considering and praying, the day after J got the offer, J gets a raise and promotion. Haha. The "irony."

9) J starts his new job! (January 2009)
His vision for the non-profit is that it would be a network that would be a strategy leader, coordinator, and advocate for city renewal by creating partnerships, influencing and casting vision for improvement, generating new initiatives, channeling funds/resources, mobilizing and equipping volunteers, & meeting diverse needs.

There are so many more obvious things that the Lord did that I didn't write here. Ask me if you are wondering. ;-) We can't wait to see where He takes this!

* If you are wondering what Toms are from the title, here you go. TOMS. You will find them in most non-profit circles. I am merely using them as a symbol for all things non-profit, as I used pinstripes as a symbol for all things corporate. He doesn't actually own either.

Jackaroo turns 2

2009-01-23T09:14:00.001-08:00

This is my one and only nephew Jack! He turned 2 yesterday! Some of his favorite things right now are trucks (big time- he even sleeps with them) and babies (he loves all babies). What a guy. Jack's trademarks are his utter sweetness and his 5 o'clock wake up time.

Here is newborn Jack!

Here is 1-year-old Jack

Here is our big guy now (or kinda close to now). :-)

Happy Birthday, big guy. I hope all of your birthday dreams of trucks and babies come true.

Love, Sally, Uncle J, and Baby Annie.

Turning a new leaf

2009-01-18T21:07:00.001-08:00

A few thoughts for you tonight...

1) This blog was originally created and purposed to serve as an online, easy scrapbook for me and to keep my beloved friends and family up to date on my ever-changing daughter.

2) That being said... I apologize for my very one subject blogging. I don't think I would enjoy my own blog if it were not my own life. Did you catch my last blog? The better part of it was about napkin rings. Napkin rings. I think there might be some people out there that enjoy a good random anecdote, but I can do better.

3) I have been inspired by some of my dear friends on their blogs and have thus had my mind expanded and seen all the good that can come from blogs other than capturing cute videos of their kids.

4) There will still be cute videos of Annie. However, there is a lot about our lives that I leave out. I will aim to post about more subjects, give you excerpts of books I read, tell you some of our dreams that you might not know about, etc.

5) Don't expect too much. I didn't blog before I had Annie and would not be driven to update (even as little as I do) unless I felt the pressure to share her with those that miss her across the country. Be patient with me as I discover new blogging opportunities.

They said it couldn't be done!

2009-01-17T09:29:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, Annie is a big girl. It's not that she's extremely chubby, she's just big all over. She has always been about 95% or over when it comes to height and weight on the growth charts and it has never really surprised us considering Justin's size. In clothes, she's always a good 6-12 months ahead. At her 6 month appointment she still wasn't rolling over (2-4 months late). She did sit up on her own early and has always loved to be on her feet, but hates to be on her stomach. Because of the combination of her preferences and size the pediatrician told us not to worry about the rolling over and to not hold out a ton of hope for crawling.

Well, folks, she finally rolled over at 8 months! Woohoo! Not only that, she started bear crawling a couple of days after Christmas. She probably has been able to do this awhile, I just haven't put her on the tile (and that carpet is tricky stuff). I can't say that she is extremely thrilled about it. She still needs a lot of enticing.

Here is one unsuccessful attempt at enticing... take special notice of Justin's cruel trickery.

and success!

Hooray for napkin rings! These napkin rings have been entertaining children at my home for 3.5 years, long before Annie was around and long before I had any other toys. They have been enjoyed by Ellie, Samantha, Eli, Jack, Micah, Halle and now Annie in that order. They are magical magnets for children. They have been used to throw to the ground and make a huge clanging sounds, as symbols, as binoculars, as balls, as hockey pucks, you name it. Sometimes the bowl is filled with 12, sometimes with 3. Ellie came to my house every Thursday for awhile and would use them for binoculars like Diego. I was down to 3 and asked her where she put them last time. She said, "oh, they're under the couch." Sure enough. Not sure why. Pretty good memory, though. We retrived 9 napkin rings under my couch.

Decemberish Part 4

2009-01-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

Celebrating Christmas with Annie was awesome. It was so cool to see what she ended up caring about. For those of you who don't know, Annie's favorite toy and snack is paper. So you can imagine how much of a hit the wrapping paper was this year. I don't know if we will be able to pull it off in future years, but some of Annie's gifts included batteries, bibs, and other everyday items all wrapped in her beloved paper.

Also for Christmas she got her two front teeth and a hippopotamus (stuffed). This we found ironic considering the Christmas songs about these very things. The stuffed hippo was a hit. You would have thought she opened her long lost best friend considering her reaction. Playing with the hippo consists of pulling it to her face and screaming as loud as she can and holding it's hands to dance.

Her other favorite... a big box with babies on it playing with a jungle toy from Nonnie and Tata (J's parents). The special part about this box is that it has a button you can push from the outside and it plays a (very addictive) tune . Annie has now mastered the command "push the button." This was really cool because it is the first time we were able to tell that she understands us. Big deal! Someday this jungle toy will come out of it's box, but we wanted to ride this out for as long as we can.

Annie with her special box.

This video actually features Justin whistling the addictive tune. :-)

As many of you may not know, J is really into photography as a hobby. He picked up in college and unfortunately doesn't get to do it a whole lot. He had some time off around the holidays so decided to bust out the photo lights and get some pictures of Annie. We found this elfish outfit when we were out on day that said "B' JOLLY" and thought, "what more could you want?"

Hope your holidays were merry!

Decemberish Part 3

2009-01-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

Part of Christmas is going down to the mall and standing in the line to see Santa no matter how long it takes. Not for us. We figure, with all of photoshop's capabilities, as long as you get a good shot of the kid and a good shot of the Santa- the rest of the magic happens at home.

Here are the pictures we plan to photoshop. Thoughts?

Merry Christmas to Annie and her daddy!

Decemberish Part 2

2009-01-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

Speaking of marriage (see my last post), Big Mike Roberts (one of our buddies) got married to Megan Jahnke (Yon-kee) (one of our other buddies) and she ended up taking his name so she is now Megan Roberts! Hooray! We are so happy for them!

The ceremony was awesome and sweet and the reception was so fun. The best dance time I've had in awhile. Part of what made this fun was the fact that I was filming so many of my friends dancing. After J and I reviewed these videos, he forbid me from posting them because we would like to keep these friends. They all looked cool dancing at the time, I assure you. I think the camera fails to capture the mood and only captures the awkward. Don't worry, friends! These videos can be purchased, if needed, for leverage. You know who you are.

Probably the best moment of the night was when J fell into the terrible predicament that every man faces...cake or dancing? Am I right, fellas? J figured out a way to take it all in.

While we were dancing the night away, Annie was having a dance party of her own.

Decemberish

2009-01-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since I have blogged. Happy Holidays, by the way!

I tend to loose track of time around the holidays. From Thanksgiving through January is all really called Decemberish.

First of all... Mark Lopez (Justin's brother) is one of our favorite people in the world. A brief introduction for those of you who haven't met Mark. He is much like Justin in many ways, but artsy and really laid back. He is also stunning. My grandmother Mary said he was the "most magnificent creature" she had ever seen. Well... Markie got engaged! For all of you Beyonce fans out there... he "[liked] it"... and "put a ring on it!" He is going to marry Alli Bryan this summer, Lord willing. Alli is just as stunning as Mark, both inside and out! We can't wait to have sweet Alli in our family! They met working at Camp John Marc a couple of summers ago. Mark is finishing his last stretch of school at Savanna College of Art and Design in Georgia and Alli is starting her second semester at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Mark proposed in early December and we got to spend a bunch of time with them over the break- lots of fun! Congrats, you guys!

Here are some shots from the engagment! Mark proposed and managed to film the whole thing while Alli thought he was charging the camera. What a clever boy. We surprised Alli at Maggiano's afterwards.

This is for you, Alli!

I'd like to tell you a little bit about myself....

2008-12-19T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hello. My name is Annabel. I'd like to tell you a little bit about myself. I can't talk yet, but I have so much to say so my mom is teaching me some sign language. I am still catching on, but there's one thing I learned very quickly. It might be because people tell me this particular thing everyday, everywhere I go. I want you to hear it straight from me.

There is a small chance you already figured it out.

XXooxoOxx,

Annie

Everything is moving so fast...

2008-12-17T14:10:00.000-08:00

Time keeps slipping away, so a few quick updates from November!

Sea World!!! Again! It is even better in November than in the summer. The weather was 7o degrees and all the Christmas decorations are up! The shows were awesome and not crowded and there were Christmas carols playing. What more could you want?

Annie and her "dadadada"

The dolphins are a little more friendly this time of year. They get super close. Maybe because there are less tourists feeding them. Maybe because it's just Christmas spirit. Who knows?

Molly and Ellie on their favorite ride. Hard to say who liked it more.

Leslie and Halle. Two of the most photogenic people on the planet!

...

My cousin, Kayla, in Plano had her baby, Bailey! She is such a cutie!

...

Justin's parents made the big move to St. John and his sister's family (The Burtons) came in town to celebrate Thanksgiving from NC. So fun to have them and reconnect. They come a couple of times a year which i always wish was more, but when they come, they usually get to spend a week or more, which is so nice!

Johanna has a slight obsession with a few things... sucking her thumb, touching her bellybutton and rubbing people's cheeks if they are soft (babies are prime targets). This picture displays two of her obsessions in action.

Baby Lydia! She is 2 months and 1 day younger than Annie! She is affectionately called "Wydia" by her sister and most of us!

Annie and Lydia happen to look alot alike even though they look more like me and Greg, who are not related. Hmmmm.

What a cutie pie!

Brittany (J's sister) and Wydia!

...

Then one of our good friends, Parker, came! He is the best! He played baseball with J at A&M and continues on with baseball (he is in his off season now). He loves Annie and she loves him, too. He is one of the biggest encouragements to us and if you know him, try to convince him to move to Austin!

December updates are coming soon!!!

Hope you all are enjoying the holidays! Much Love!

Tagged!

2008-12-17T10:51:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged!

It happened awhile ago, but I am just now catching up! :-)

Here are the instructions...
1. Go to your pictures
2. Upload the fourth picture in the fourth file
3. Post
4. Tag four friends

A picture at the park during our engagement! Who is impressed by my brute strength?

Beth, Katie, Olivia, Jenny... you're up next!

Best music video of 2008

2008-11-14T09:16:00.000-08:00

The other day I was strolling through Gap Kids with Annie and the song "New Soul" came on. You might not have downloaded it, but you surely have heard it. It is the song that features a long string of "la-la-la la lala la-la-la la lala" for almost the whole song as if she were on a deadline and ran out of lyrics. All that to say, the song is pretty cute.

So we are strolling along and Annie is repeating her new-found words "la la la la." I thought surely it was a coincidence, but she seemed to be singing along. :O I get home and tell my sister, Molly, about it and she informed me that she was one of the people that downloaded this song and that we could test it out.

No coincidence here. We ran several tests on Annie and she definitely has an affinity for "The La La Song." We played several other songs and we got some dances and shakes, but no words. The minute the la-las hit in "New Soul", she starts-a-singing.

Now presenting the best music video of 2008.

A new-found love...

2008-11-12T19:58:00.000-08:00

... the door jumper! The other day I was giving my niece, Ellie (3), a bath and needed a place to stick Annie. I remembered the doorway jumper. The last time we used that thing Annie would put her hands on the outside of the tray in the front of her and then swing herself into the doorway, smashing her fingers ... so we ended up putting it away. Annie is a couple months older now so I thought I'd bust it out as the "look, I have a new toy" trick. (Whisper: They are never new toys. They are always old ones I put away and then get back out. Shhh... don't tell Annie).

Not only did this sucker get us through bath time, but it is her new favorite toy (with the exception of paper, which also doubles as her favorite snack).

Happy Halloween, Goat Girl!

2008-11-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

As I was shopping for the perfect first Halloween costume for Annabel, I saw all of the cute butterflies, princesses, bumble bees, etc. and knew that of course they would be adorable on my precious daughter. But then I saw the billy goat costume. I thought to myself, "how long has it been since I thought about a billy goat?" Maybe a decade. Not since that Saturday Night Live skit about the goat boy. I started to picture Annie with the cute little horns and the little ears, but then when I thought about the beard, it sealed the deal! She was the cutest billy goat I have ever seen!

This is Annie with one of her new friends!

Here is Annie with her seasonal gourds.

As if we hadn't been to enough pumpkin patches, we made a last ditch effort to go to another on Halloween. It was, of course, all packed away, but that wasn't going to stop us. Me, Judy, and Annie took ourselves to Central Market and set Annie up in the gourd bins in her costume and took some pictures anyways.

Here is Nonnie (Judy) taking pictures.

Every year since we have lived in our house in North Austin, we invite our North Austin friends over, move our lawn furniture to the front yard and have dinner together while being entertained by small children walking around in costumes. This year we put forth a huge effort to be known as the best house because we all chipped in for the BIG candy bars. Maybe that will deter our neighbors for leaving the neighborhood to go to the fancier neighborhoods. SPREAD THE WORD, KIDS! We also had appearances from Sarah Palin, a pegasus, a garden gnome, a shark, the color purple, and a turtle. I am kicking myself for not having pictures!

We ended the night with all of the kids asleep in the house and the adults getting some much needed adult time.

Our friend Micah (age 19 months) fell asleep on the couch like a teenager while we were all outside. What a cutie!

Elgin Pumpkin Festival

2008-10-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

I feel like a true southerner! We went to a pumpkin festival in Elgin this past weekend with my brother Sam's family (Jennifer, Samantha, and Jack) and my sister Molly (back from Alaska).

Truth be told, Annie is on the brink of enjoying events like this, I can feel it, but not quite there yet. Everything is just as you probably imagine. There was a bake sale, a hayride, some farm animals, some pumpkins, some face painting, but unfortunately the 95 degree weather robbed it of it's fall festivity for me. I would have rather been wearing a scarf than slapping on the sunscreen.

In any event, we enjoyed some family time! We are really looking forward to going back in December because this place doubles as Christmas Tree farm. We will go to Elgin Christmas Tree Farm and pick out the perfect tree that we would have gotten if we did not intend to use a fake tree "until Annie can fully appreciate a real tree and ask for one herself" (Justin's words). You gotta love my practical man!

Molly, Samantha, and Jennifer!

Annie and her daddy!

Jack and Samantha when they realized they would be riding the train without everyone else!

Samantha taking care of Jack during the crisis!

Annie shaking it for the camera.

Molly and Jackaroo!

Annie's first face painting.

It is a really disturbing-looking hippo.

Samantha got a really cool red butterfly.

Annie in the pumpkins!

These are some of the all-time best pictures of Annie.
She had a major connection with the pumpkins. :-)

High chairs and high heels...

2008-10-02T13:17:00.001-07:00

I am a very unfaithful blogger. I tell myself that once Annie picks up the pace with doing new things, I will post blogs about it, but I guess the time just seems to escape me. As I look at the last blog I posted I realize that there are some major things happening.

We started solids.

SOLIDS.

I thought that once I had a baby that ate solids I would feel like a different person. One of those seasoned, capable mothers that really knows what she is doing. After trying to get a step-by-step list from all of my dearest friends, I realized that no one does it the same so I can't screw up too bad. ;-)

By the way... Annie loves her solids. So far she has tried rice cereal, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, prunes, apples and she has no complaints. I realized that the noises I made when I feed her are what she thinks one is supposed to do when eating. Before the bite is a "Ahhhhh" and once it hits the lips, "mmmmmm."

Here is her first bite of solid food!

Along with our major accomplishment of eating real food, Annie has started to wear high heels like the working woman she is.

The real story: Nonnie (or Judy Lopez, Justin's mom) found these amazing shoes at a boutique by her house. Later, Justin saw an ad on MSN.com that said "Baby high heels... cute or creepy." The verdict is still out...

but Annie loves them. The real question is why she loves them- because they are elegant and beautiful or because they are spongy and feel good on her teeth? Hmmmm... you decide.

What else have we done in the month of September? That might have to be it's own post. Some brief highlights: J and Tata's Birthday on the 8th! J and Sally started an institute through our church focused on urban development! We are really excited to learn from people who know a lot more than us and to channel our passion the right way! We also went to Sea World again with the Gentry Family (read their blog- Gentrified- to find out more about this amazing family). Sally started teaching her women's class, Identify, for the 2nd semester (and I will say, it is going much more smoothly now that I'm not pregnant). I will try to blog more often, but for now, I will leave you with this...

Sea World is the place to be!

2008-08-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

Strangely enough, I have lived in Austin my whole life and never been to Sea World San Antonio. I am making up for some serious lost time. I LOVE Sea World. The Shamu show, the Penguin Encounter, Shamu Harbor, Dolphin Cove, the flamingos, the sea lions... I can't get enough. I went once in June with my brother Kevin's family (Leslie, Ellie (3), Halle (10 months)), after which I bought a season pass. I went for the second time this past weekend with Justin's parents, Al and Judy and Justin's sister's family (Al & Judy, Brittany & Greg, Johanna (2), Lydia (3 months)). I think at this point, Annabel doesn't care at all... but she will! She had a significantly better time in August, than in June so either Shamu stepped it up a knotch or Annie got a little more attentive.

Here is the 1st trip...

Halle and Annie
They have no idea what's coming.
Ellie- what a big kid!

Kevin and Annie at the Shamu show
Notice Annie's attentiveness.

Leslie and Halle at the Shamu Show- cutie pies.
Ellie at the Shamu show
Oh, Ellie.

How Annie spent most of the day :-)

We may have jumped the gun on getting to ride in the cool stroller.

Ellie and Kevin

The second trip...

The whole crew!

Annie at the Shamu Show... notice her attentiveness now!Jo and Brittany before the big splash
Jo and Brittany after the big splash. Not Jo's favorite part!
Annie had a blast! Although she probably would have had just as much fun on her playmat at home. :-)

Some things don't change...

It was a pretty long day!

Brittany, Greg, Jo & Lydia came to visit from North Carolina for the week and it was such a great time to spend with family! We also went to the museum, rode the Zilker train, and swam in the pool a ton, but I forgot my camera until Sea World.

I am already looking to go back. Any takers?

Introducing Annie

2008-08-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

Annie is 4 months and still there are many of my dearest friends and family who have not yet met her. I thought for those of you who haven't yet met Annabel it might be helpful to know a few things...

1) she is very cute. here is a visual aid...

This is picture of Annie this past weekend in San Francisco. We went for Justin's cousin's wedding and it was amazing!! We spent time in San Jose, Santa Cruz, Morgan Hill and San Francisco. Most of it from the car, but we only had a few days. The best part was catching up with family. As you might notice, she is in her carseat. This is how she spent most of her time in sunny California, but she didn't really know the difference. As long as her toy monkey Melvin was there- she didn't really care where she was.

2) Annie is a big girl. You can't really tell until you hold her next to someone her age, but she tops the charts at a whopping 97%. I think she might take after me (Sally). Some speculate that her big size is what allows her to sleep so long (which is great) and go longer between feedings (which is also great). Yay for a big little girl!

3) Annie is pretty loud. Annie is a singer/yeller/chatterer/ laugher. On any given morning, she spends about 30 minutes to 1 hour talking and laughing to herself in her crib before she wants to get up. It is the best alarm clock I have ever had.

This will probably not be the last time you hear about Annie. :-)

We're Online!

2008-07-22T17:56:00.000-07:00

It has been a long battle with friends and family, but we finally caved and are now official bloggers! We hope to post both interesting events as well as tales of our every day life in Austin, Texas.

A quick catch-up... Justin is still working at Dell and leading the set-up and tear-down operation at our church, The Austin Stone Community Church, among other things. Our daughter, Annabel Lyn Lopez, was born on March 24th, 2008 and is almost 4 months now. She is a joy! Sally is staying home with her and enjoying all the amazing things to do in Austin during the summer. Thanks for reading and we'd love to hear from you. Really, if we don't hear from you, this will be a big waste! :-)