Happiness Is...

Embarking on our first, long distance family road trip with no idea how it will go...

...Driving through the night with two jammie wearing, little people...

...Giggling and singing all the way.  Well, at least part of the way :)

Happiness is being married to a road warrior who loves an open road...

...and a hotel pool to play with the kids in.

Happiness is being out of your carseat...

...and in a swimsuit for several hours.

It's getting a great night of sleep in a strange place...

...then waking up eager to get back in the van and drive to the next location on our adventure.

Happiness is two little backpacks, hanging from a luggage cart...

...snuggling in for a long afternoon of driving... 

...and cheering for stops along the way.

Happiness is encountering a beloved Texas landmark...

...and stopping to indulge in a treat!

Happiness is looking out the window at blue skies for miles...

...and realizing that we are indeed vacationing in paradise :)

Happiness is driving thousands of miles to see people you love...

...and instantly knowing it was worth every mile.

Happiness is being in the arms of your Nana and Papa...

...playing in the rocks with your Mama...

...and taking long walks with your Dad.

Happiness is a tractor ride at 1...

...and a driving lesson at 2!

It's taking turns with your sister...

...and then sitting next to her for a family picture.

Happiness is a garden in the middle of nowhere...

...and reminders of the lonestar state everywhere you go.

Happiness is finally getting a chance...

...to eat at a featured Diner, Drive-in or Dive...

...where Guy ate!

It's one of us trying the local favorite (goat!!)...

...and the rest of us having a good time :)

Happiness is assembling Christmas gifts a few weeks early...

...and anticipating the reactions of the little receivers!

Happiness is knocking on the door of the neighbor's house...

...and then coming back home again.

It's taking your new ride for a spin...

...and letting your little brother take a turn too.

Happiness is laughing like crazy with your Papa...

...and accessorizing with his glasses...

...it's rocking in the new family heirloom...

...and realizing it's a perfect fit.

Happiness is having time for holiday projects...

...for walks in the fresh air...

...and movies with Nana.

Happiness was leaving snowy Minnesota for the warmth of the Texas Hill Country so we could spend time with Nana and Papa and relax at the best B&B around.  It was a cup of hot coffee in the morning, a long conversation in the afternoon and lots of playing with babies in between. 

 Thanks Ron and Peggy for a week of happiness!  We had a great time and best of all, we made memories to cherish forever.  We miss you already :)  

Be Kind, Please Rewind

Do you remember that label that was also on VHS tapes when you rented them from a movie store??  I thought of it today when I was sorting through pictures and deciding about where to start.  I'm hoping you'll be kind to me today and let me rewind a little bit, back to early November.  We had so much going on in November that I just didn't have time to post much, so here are some things I wanted to share, in no particular order or common theme. 

Travis is still very vigilent about reading to the kids everynight and I really appreciate that about him.  Not only is it good for them, but by the time bedtime rolls around I am usually so tired from the day and I just don't have a lot left in me to do much more than survive.  He has been kind of taking over the bedtime routine for over a year now and I am always happy to let him.  We are trying to be very intentional about turning the TV off and doing more reading or playing with the kids. 

Happy to be reading about the zoo, what a guy :)

One of his favorite things to do however is to read some interactive books with them, from his ipad.

I get a big laugh out of one story in particular, about Noah and the Ark.  He and Ava listen to it together, but there are certain parts where the story is not totally theologically correct and as the narrator is reading it, I'll hear him say to Ava, "Actually Ava, that's not true.  This is what really happened..."  It cracks me up.  Mostly it's just details that they've left out or added, but it totally bugs him :) That's what you get when your Dad is a Pastor! 

Carty is not so into reading books yet.  He doesn't want to sit still for more than 2 or 3 minutes, but we read to him anyway, knowing that he might be listening as he moves all around his room and plays with his toys.  Either way, we're just glad to be with him :)

Just before we left for our trip, Ava and I had a fun date night together.  Our local High School was performing the musical version of Beauty and the Beast, which just happens to be one of Ava's favorite movies right now.  The student who was playing Belle, is one of our students from Church and one of our leaders in junior high, so I knew I had to take Ava to see it.

I had no idea how she'd do with it because it didn't start until 7:30 pm and it was almost 3 hours long! But, she was fascinated by the whole thing and she sat on my lap for all of it. We sang along and occasionally she'd ask me (quite loudly), "What's dat Mama?" Thankfully the people around us were very gracious and thought she did great. We got to say hi to Belle and some other students we know afterwards. Ava was totally enthralled by the whole night.

And almost the minute we pulled out of the parking lot, she was out!

She loved it and I did too. She still talks about it and I'm hoping it's the first of lots of dates we'll have together.

These make me laugh.

When you've had a recent case of head lice, this is what you do for fun, for weeks to come!  Ava got so conditioned to us checking her head that whenever she sees that headlamp, she tells Travis and I that she "needs to check your head." So funny! Thankfully, we always get a clean report.

On one particular day I went to get Carter up from his afternoon nap and found him...topless. I have no idea how he got his shirt off, but he did! I thought that was funny :)

And after a mess like this, how could we not take some pictures?? Clearly he was into his pasta and felt the need to enjoy it from head to toe.  Can you see the streaks of orange in his hair?? After we got done laughing about it, I spent a good 30 minutes cleaning up the kitchen and that high chair! I'll be so glad when this stage of eating is over!!

But as much work as this season is, it certainly helps me keep going when my man brings home some beautiful flowers like these, just because. They were just the pick me up I needed. He speaks my love language well!

I had to include these pictures because Carter is wearing my favorite jammies and he's holding his equivalent of Ava's blankie...His giraffe.  He takes that giraffe everywhere around the house and he loves to rub his face all over it while he hums some kind of loving tune :) It makes us smile to watch him and in those jammies, I could just eat him up!! He is just too cute!!

These are some of my favorite women in the world! Two days before we left for our trip I went off for a little annual getaway with the other Pastor's wives from our Church. We go on a retreat together every year and we meet once a month too. It's such a blessing to get to catch up, laugh with, support, pray together and just encourage each other. We went to a fun Inn in a little college town pretty close to us and we had the best time. We always take some time to be in the Word together and to pray for all of our kids by name. It's an incredible blessing in my life to know and love these women. There is something about being the wife of a Pastor that only other Pastor's wives truly understand.

We are so grateful to be serving the Lord together at our Church...Honestly, we are so thankful and BLESSED by our Church. It is a joy to love our husbands and support them in their callings, but it does make a difference to be supported as a family by the staff and the congregation. We do not take that for granted at Grace! I just love each one of them and the wisdom and spiritual depth they pour into my life. We got to get out of town together, do some shopping, eating and laughing together and THEN our Church graciously let us attend the Hillsong United Concert together!! It was sold out and our Church was hosting it, but they got seats for us and it was incredible.

My friends who are married to our Worship, Finance and Mission's Pastors..

...Senior, Executive, Young Adults/Adults Pastors...

and the Men's, Children's, Senior High and Junior High Pastors wives.  We were just missing our new Small Groups Pastor's wife :)

Not only did I get to enjoy the concert with my friends, but because my parents were in town, Travis and I got a bonus date night out of it too!

Honestly, I think I could say it was the best concert I have ever been to. The worship was unreal and we were on our feet with 4500 other people the WHOLE time.

If you ever get a chance to see Hillsong United, do it! They are from Australia and they only come to the US every now and then, but when they do (like now!!) make sure you go. They will lead you right to the throne of God through their music. What I loved the most about the concert is that it was not at all about them, but totally about the Lord. Not to mention, their music is so great too! What a blessing that night was and a great way to wrap up a wonderful retreat weekend.

Finally, I'll leave you with Carter's new trick.

He's a sneaky one! We have to keep our bathroom door closed now and the toilet paper off the roll, for obvious reasons.

Does this face look innocent to you???

Thanks for letting me rewind today. Those were our highlights from early November...I'll pick up with the big roadtrip next!

Happy Thursday everybody, hope you have a blessed day!

Back in the Saddle Again

 Hi friends!  We're home!  I can't believe it's been so long since I've been able to update, but the truth is I have been going non-stop since the minute we got home.  As it turns out, when you're out of town for two weeks, as glorious as that is, it's incredibly hard to come home and just pick right back up.  From laundry, to the mail, to appointments and grocery shopping, it's an awful lot of work to get up and running again!  But, I'm taking a break this afternoon to get some pictures up and to post a little update. 

In a nutshell, I have blog material for a month after this vacation!  It was SO much fun, we seriously had a great time and I think we would even say that we will do it again someday.  However, that doesn't mean that we weren't without our challenges.  We made a visit to the ER, I had a migraine and we all got on each other's nerves at least once.  So, I think that makes it an official roadtrip!  Ha!  I'll spend a few days recapping our adventures, but today I've just got a few things to share with you.

This little muffin was SUCH a good boy while we were gone.  He slept so well, in 5 different places,  none the less. He had a blast getting to see so many people and he handled all the transition well.  He did have the hardest time (out of all of us) in the car, but I think we expected that.  He just had a few fussy times here and there, but mostly he did great and we learned that Praise Baby DVDs are his magic pill!  He loves them, just like Ava always has, and particularly the lullaby one.  All we had to do was turn it on and he quieted right down.  One of my favorite memories of Carter on this trip, was when we drove through the night both down and back to Dallas.  Each time Carter woke up in the middle of the night, usually when we stopped for gas, and rather than get really cranky, he got the giggles.  I would hear him stir, turn around to look at him and he would burst into hysterics!  We loved it!  At 1 and 2 am we were laughing with him and trying to keep him quiet so he wouldn't wake up Ava.  So hilarious.  I hope I can still hear that laughter in my heart when he's 25 and I'm remembering this trip :)  

This big girl was also a GREAT little traveler!  She was incredible in the car, grooving on her snacks and the endless supply of DVDs we had for her.  We were very proud of her and thankful that she seemed to catch the excitement of going from place to place.  She also slept very well everywhere we went and really enjoyed all her time and attention from family and friends.  I think this was a great trip for the four of us to spend some sweet time together.  Unfortunately, she did have the biggest hiccup of the trip that resulted in us getting to meet some some new friends at the Abilene Emergency Room :)

We don't totally know how she hurt her elbow, we were with her at a play place in the Abilene Mall, but we never saw her fall or run into anyone but Carter.  However, she did do something to her right elbow and she cried all afternoon last Monday, holding her arm and refusing to move it.  After watching her in the afternoon and early evening, we decided to take her to an urgent care clinic.  They sent us to the local ER however, so they could get some x-rays.  She was a trooper but she was not a fan of anyone touching or trying to move her arm. 

The nurses thought she was adorable and got her set up in a room where she could watch the movie, Happy Feet.  She loved that!  She was especially happy when I pulled out some cheez-its to snack on :)

Thankfully, her X-rays showed no visible break, but we left with an uncertain possibility that she may have sustained a growth plate break.

They sent us home to watch her closely and follow up with her pediatrician. 

She was happy to go home, but not willing to move that arm or let us get near it for a couple of days.

Her pediatrician wanted us to immobilize it, so the last few days of our vacation meant we had to try and keep her in a sling.  You can imagine how that went over with a 2 year old! 

She was the cutest darn thing with that sling, but it was not an easy sell for more than a few minutes at a time.  As the week marched on she did start to move it and use it a little more, but her doctor sent us to a specialist at Childrens' Hospital, just to make sure there wasn't a break on the growth plate that an X-ray couldn't detect. 

Yesterday, Ava and I made the trip to St. Paul so that we could go to Children's.  Let me just tell you what a sobering trip that was.  Seeing all those precious kids and their stressed out and heartsick parents made us incredibly sad and very, very thankful for kids who have been healthy so far. To be there for something so minor as a potential broken arm was a good dose of perspective.  Her doctor said her arm looked great and she most likely had a soft tissue injury that corrected itself, but honestly, even if it would have been fractured, I still would have walked out of there with a grateful heart after seeing how sick all of those sweet kids were.  I was choking back tears the entire time and praying for all of those little faces that I saw.  We were wisked out of there so quickly, but a big part of me wanted to hang in the waiting room and hug some Moms and Dads.  I did sit with Ava for a few minutes in the car, telling her about all those kids who were sick and praying with her, thanking God for her health and asking Him to heal those kids and bring comfort and peace to each one of them.  It still makes me teary to think about it, so many hurting people...so many sweet kids. 

I'm thankful that Jesus knows every one of their names, He knows their stories and He loves them more than even their Moms and Dads. 

Look Mom, my arm's ok!

Finally, I'm leaving you with two new things we've been eating around here!

My in-laws made us these incredible grilled cheese sandwiches that we are loving!

Smoked gouda, apples, and bacon...UH-mazing!! 

Even Ava is loving it because that means she gets bacon for dinner! 

Like Daddy, like daughter, she's a bacon lover :)

And finally, I made a dessert that my Mom made when one of my sisters graduated from high school.  I haven't made it for years, but holy cow, we love it!!  It's a Chocolate, Raspberry and Amaretto Tart. 

Do you want the recipe??

It makes a lovely holiday dessert :)

Chocolate Raspberry & Amarreto Tart

1-8oz pkg cream cheese (softened)

1 C sour cream

1/2 C sugar

1/4 C Amaretto

2 T heavy whipping cream

Raspberries (or strawberries)

Mini Graham Cracker Crusts or Chocolate Dessert Cups or Graham Cracker Crust of Oreo Crust

Beat all ingredients until smooth and creamy, pour into the crust of your choice. 

Top with raspberries and drizzle with chocolate OR sprinkle raspberries with amaretto and powdered sugar. Refrigerate and serve chilled. Enjoy!

So there you go!  Hope that helps you for your next party.  We are glad to be home and I am hoping to get back into some kind of blogging routine!  I do want to tell you to stay tuned for a really great giveaway coming very soon!!!  I'm just working out the details from the retailer who contacted me about it, but I think it's going to be really fun and a great product to have, especially if you like photos!! 

Happy Tuesday, Friends!