A White Christmas

We are having a beautiful time with family. Santa came and left presents, and it snowed on Christmas Eve! We've snuggled with my new niece, had snowball fights, watched Christmas movies, eaten Sugar cookies, had a lot of coffee and a little hot cocoa, and eaten tons of delicious food.

If Aubrey and I lived close to each other, we would: work out together, watch each other's kids, try new restaurants together, have lunch, plan birthday parties for our kids together, shop in Denver and outlet malls together, and watch our kids grow up together.
But, since we can't do that right now, we will have to make the most of our time together. I am so grateful for that time!

Pictures of our trip are to come! I hope that all of you had a Merry Christmas and plan to have a Happy New Year! -Amber

So much to say, so little time!

The month has been packed! A few things that have been going on with us: Celebration at Houston's First Baptist, a small celebration for Julia's Birthday, a Christmas visit with Granny (Dave's mom), milestones and fun, fun, fun!

Singing along at Celebration at HFBC

Cold morning at the bus stop

 My truly Houstonian second born was mad this particular December morning because she was cold. She originally had her hat pulled her over her face because it was cold, but I told her that she had to keep her hat off of her face while walking on the street. It made her very sad to have to expose her face to the elements. When we got to the bus stop, she pulled her hat over her head for a long time. But, I guess she wanted to see what was happening at this point, and was just mad.

Granny came for a visit, and she came bearing gifts. The girls got some beautiful gifts. Granny also made the girls little ponchos that she made herself. They are so cute!

 Last Sunday, the girls got to wear their new Christmas outfits.

I can't get this second picture to delete. So, you get to see her in all her cuteness twice.

 Julia had a little birthday get together instead of a party this year. We took her, Lydia and two of her friends to a Barbie movie. The girls loved watching "The Princess and the Popstar" while eating popcorn, drinking lemonade and then cheese quesadillas. So fun!

My big girl, Saige, is sitting up! She is definitely mobile these days! She can't sit up with out supervision, but she is doing great.

So besides all of this great stuff, Dave and I also went to my work Christmas party, and I won a '46 TV. How fun is that? It's about the same size as our little townhouse living room and we love it.

Merry Christmas to you all! Love, Amber

Julia's 6 Today

We started Julia's 6th birthday with balloons in her room. I ate lunch with her today and brought cupcakes to her class. 

Cupcakes and Balloons at school

 After school, Julia and Lydia watched a movie until Dave got home. We went to chick-fil-a for dinner and birthday ice cream, and then we came home to open presents.

Princess sweatshirts, pajamas and dress-up dress from Grandma Christie and Grandpa Dan. Julia was so excited she squealed!

Thank you Granny! I LOVE it! 

Dave and I got Julia a princess Microphone

We also got her walkie talkies that look like iphones.

Mimi and Papa sent cash for Julia, and she is really looking forward to getting to spend it. We also got to skype with my sister and her family before the girls got their baths and got into bed late.

Julia never ceases to amaze me. It is a dichotomy to me that God blesses us with kids that are so like us, and yet still perplex us so much. Julia continues to act more grown up, and I love seeing her be the person God made her to be. She actually thanked me for putting balloons in her room this morning. I was very surprised and proud that she recognized that balloons in her room were a gift from Dave and I, and not just a normal expectation.
Julia is still extremely outgoing and is always ready to help in unlikely ways. I plan to do a food drive with our little family this year to benefit our community, and our family. Dave, the girls and I plan to go door to door and ask people for canned food to give to an organization in our community called The Faith Center. I think that doing this can drive will help us all, but especially the girls get their minds off of presents for them, and think about the needs of others. --I share this because when I told Julia about doing it, she was so excited. I think it combines her two greatest passions: meeting new people and helping others. I can't wait to see how she uses those gifts when she is an adult.
Our sweet Julia is funny, intelligent and a blessing to us, and hopefully, to others around her. I just wish I could convince her to stop getting older! I love you Julia bean!

Love, Mom

Thanksgiving 2012

Great Thanksgiving Weekend's equal:

• Tons of great food
• Black Friday Shopping with my brother and his wife for their new t.v.
• Saige getting on all fours for the first time
• Watching the Macy's day parade, non-stop football and Disney movies
• Early Christmas presents
• Lots of coffee
• Listening to my daughter's learn Jingle Bells on their new keyboard 
• Christmas music, Christmas music, Christmas music
• Prayers of Thanksgiving
• Dancing as a family 
• Julia doing her best "China Ballet" at home, at Pappasito's, and everywhere
• Lydia and Julia cracking us up!
• Playing board games
• Family
• Pie
• Laughter
• JOY

1 of 5

Ready to add ornaments, garland and ribbon

Saige is a little unsure about helping

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!! -Amber

Partying

Julia was invited to a birthday party about a week ago. Dave stayed home with Lydia and Saige while I took Julia to the party. (Dave had a super sweet tea party with Lydia while we were gone. But that's beside the point.) Houston has some pretty spectacular places to party for birthdays. This particular place had several of the largest group of connected trampolines that I have ever seen or could have dreamed of. I totally wanted to join the kids, but I guess you have to go when all the other adults are going....

Anyway, at the party, I lost track of Julia a few times. The first few times, I found her fairly quickly, but the third time, I got a little concerned. I searched and searched for her and after no luck for a little while, I even asked the party people to call her name over the loud speaker. Before they did, Julia finally came running out of the play room with pizza sauce on her face. "Julia," I said, "Where were you? It's time for pizza a cake in the party room? Did you already eat pizza?" 

"Yeah, I had some right over there."

Ummm...she was at someone else's birthday party eating their overpriced pizza without a moment's hesitation. Good grief.

In other news, Lydia has been making up words lately and then assigning meanings to them that are completely random and bizarre. She is so very imaginative and creative. 

This morning, Lydia and I were singing a song. The actual song, called Jump for Jesus, goes: "He is our rock, and on his word I'll stand..." But Lydia's version went like this: "He is the rocket he's placed in my hand..."

Lydia is never low on crazy antics melodic tunes.

And now for an update on my youngest. Saige is doing great. She had a little rash on her face last week, but it is finally going away now. Unrelated to the rash, Saige also had to get her vaccinations last week. Dave was the lucky parent to take her this time. And, the sweet little baby of ours didn't even cry at all. She moaned during the shots, but didn't cry. Isn't that amazing? I specifically asked Dave if he could take her for her 6 months shots because when I took her last time, she was so upset that we ended up in the doctor's office with all 4 Stewart girls crying. It was just too sad to go through with the same thing with all the girls again. 

Also, Saige has been flipping back and forth across the floor like a little dolphin. And, tonight, I was sitting with her in our living room and puckered up. Before I new it, her sweet little lips were on mine. She did it more than once, so I definitely count this as her first intentional kiss. So sweet!

We are so blessed. Happy Thanksgiving! -Amber

Mitchell Wedding

My brother, Alex, got married to Autumn, and her son Jayden on November 3rd. We were privileged and fortunate enough to be a part of the Louisiana wedding. I will share just the pictures I took on my iphone. But, I can't wait to get the pictures that are on my mom's camera!

Lydia's "flower girl" hair

Sweet Flower girls

Bumming a ride

Honorary flower girl

During the ceremony

The Happy Couple

My sweet hubby and our third born

Dance, dance revolution

It was a very pretty wedding. Aubrey, Andy and Josiah, and baby Madelyn, we missed you. I wish you could have been there. But, I'm glad that we will get to come see you in December.

Love, Amber

Halloween - Back-up Blog

We had a great Halloween! We have more candy than we could ever want, and some fun family time!

Pumpkin Patch at Cornerstone Christian Academy

The girls, Dave and I visited the pumpkin patch with a co-worker of mine and her son. It was actually nice and chilly that night. 

The cutest pumpkin in the patch

 On Halloween, I picked Julia up from school, and we drove to Dave's office. I wanted to go to meet his coworkers. The girls were interested in collecting candy.

Riding the Elevator

 I wanted to get a picture of the girls together before everything got started on Halloween, but we didn't. :( So, of course, things never slowed down enough that I got one of them all together...

I thought it was cute that we had a little group of insects for Halloween this year; Julia: lady bug, Lydia: butterfly, Saige: Bumble bee. However, Lydia was adamant that her costume represented a rainbow fairy, and not a butterfly. So, for Halloween, we only had two insects and one little rainbow fairy.

Daddy and his Bumble Bee

 After going to Dave's office, we all headed to First Fest at Houston's First Baptist Church. The girls sang with High Five Kids Choir, enjoyed games, and collected MORE candy.

Bull Riding Lydia

Bull Riding Julia

My girlies after trick-or-treating

After First Fest, Dave, Julia and Lydia came back and trick-or-treated for a few minutes. We laid the exhausted Miss Saige down, and I stayed home to pass out these candies:

Turns out there isn't as much community gathering as we had hoped in our townhouse neighborhood. But, we got the chance to pass out the rest of the candy at the bus stop in the mornings following Halloween.

Like I said, we had a great Halloween! Thanks for reading! -Amber

Growth

My pastor touched on something not too long ago that got me thinking about my life. In essence, he said that with growth comes complications and sometimes pain, but that the growth is still worth it. I thought about this statement until I came to the undeniable conclusion that this is so true in every aspect of our lives. A quick example: all parents want their children to grow, but watching them do so is bittersweet and sometimes hard. (Of course, the real pain comes when kids hit the teenage years, but I've yet to learn about that.)

Even though all parents know that growth is a natural and essential part of life, it is still painful to watch at times. When my kids first learned to walk, we were so excited, but then they got their first skinned knees and my heart leapt. Or what about this heart clencher: your child makes a friend for the first time, and that friend ends up letting your little one down. How do you teach them to grow through that situation into forgiveness. Especially when you may not feel very much like forgiving that kid yourself?

Our little family has experienced growth in many ways over the last few years. Obviously we've had growth in family numbers, with our newest addition, Saige. --I wouldn't trade any of my kids for anything in the world, but I'll be darned if they don't make my life a heck of a lot more difficult. As we add more little ones to our family we experience less sleep and alone time, but more joy and fulfillment then our lives would ever have had if we didn't have them. (Lydia is currently singing her abc's very loudly and kicking me in the back. Concentrating is increasingly difficult.)

Then there is growth in my new business. I love being a real estate agent. And, I've really been challenged to get out of my comfort zone and form relationships with people while asking for referrals for them to buy or sell real estate with me. It is uncomfortable, but, so good! I've already made so many relationships with people that I normally wouldn't have. It's not because these people aren't great! It's because I sometimes tend to be more of a people watcher than a conversation starter. I get a little shy.

So, those are some of the areas me and my family have grown in lately. It's not to mention growing spiritually, sending my eldest kid to kindergarten, or trying to shrink my post baby size (which is the opposite of growing...). How have you grown lately?
I'd love to have your comments below.

P.S. Growth give me writer's block. Sorry I haven't been on here in a while. It's my goal to get back on top of blogging.

P.S.S. What keeps me going while growing? Please see the picture below:

School, Hair cuts and Birthday Party Pictures

Julia has adapted to going to school 5 days a week pretty well. She seems to obey her teacher pretty well, and she is making friends. My heart still breaks a little every day that she gets on the bus; I don't know if that will ever go away.
About a week and a half ago, I met Julia at school for lunch. She was so excited to see me, which I loved, and we had a great time. I got to meet some of her classmates, and she got to eat the cafeteria pizza. She has been begging to eat the cafeteria pizza. (Yuck.) As I sat there at the lunch table with her, and she fluttered around to say "hi" to all of her friends and teachers, I felt something I haven't felt very often lately. I felt shy. I was shy in my daughter's kindergarten class' cafeteria? Why? Was it just because I was at school? Will I always feel insecure just by being in a school cafeteria? I'm as perplexed as you probably are. I made myself engage in conversation with the Julia's teachers and classmates despite my feelings, but I don't know if I'll ever understand.
Last Thursday I got to go back up to the school again. I helped with the science lab where the kiddos learned about their 4 senses. All of the students got to taste: bitter unsweetened chocolate, a salty pretzel, a sugar cube, and a piece of lemon. I had such a great time with those kids! I wasn't shy at all! The experience reminded me of why I used to want to become a teacher. It was fun to watch the kids learn. Kindergartners are the best.
So, do you want to see something crazy?

Julia's hair before haircut

(Okay...my caption button stopped working...the above is Lydia's hair before she got her hair cut.)
Julia and Lydia both got 5 inches of hair cut off last week. The crazy thing is that you can hardly even tell that it was cut.

 

This is the after picture. Sometimes I just can't keep them from being completely goofy.

 

 

This is my beautiful baby Saige at a birthday party for the big girls.

 

This is Julia and Lydia at their sweet friend's sweet and sassy birthday party! What fun!

 

This is what's happening with the Stewart's! What's happening with you?

Thanks for reading, Amber

 

 



Bartlesville

In the small town of Bartlesville, there are big things happening. Dave and I moved from this  lazy, little town of 40,000 a little over 3 years ago. Moving from there was very difficult because we left family and many sweet friends to come to an overwhelmingly large place where we new only two people: Daniel and Xiaolan Stewart. (And I'm very thankful for them.)

In the 12 or so years I lived in Bartlesville, I: met and started dating Dave, graduated highschool, started college, married Dave, bought my first home with Dave, had two sweet baby girls, sold our first home, experienced the first ever blizzard in Oklahoma, and bought and sold our second home.

Since we moved from there, Bartlesville has experienced record snow falls the last 3 winters (I really love snow), has been the location for a movie starring Ben Affleck and Amy Adams, another one with George Clooney,  and has also opened a cupcake bakery. (This is definitely exciting for Bartlesville.) Many of my friends posted pics of Jennifer Garner in the wal-mart that I used to live less than a mile from. One of my favorite Bartlesville restaurants, Frank and Lola's, recently fed George Clooney on an evening when some of my other Bartlesville friends have been there.

I new when we moved from Bartlesville, that I would miss my obgyn and pediatrician. I knew I would miss our church friends and our new home. And, I did. I new there would be times I hate it that I couldn't drop by my parents house or Dave's mom and step-Dad house to say hi or leave the kiddos. And, I definitely have. I miss that little place. I always will.

But despite all of this, I have peace. Houston is where this Stewart family is suppossed to be for the time being. Hot, loud, crowded Houston is where God has called us for now. And what has happened here? Dave and I bought and sold our third home, we've had the wonderful opportunity to meet all kinds of people with different backgrounds and cultures, we've tasted new foods, I've given birth to another beautiful daughter, Dave's career definitely took off, I started a real estate career, and we have established a church home with new friends. Our family has bonded, and I've even had the opportunity to meet the infamous Beth Moore. (She's way better than any of the aforementioned stars.) God has blessed our obedience to him in moving here; even if I was dragged down here while my spirit kicked and screamed. For now, I am home.
-Amber

Happenings

I've been in a funk lately. Dave has been working like a mad person, and I've been trying to catch up with everything else we have going on. I will finish my real estate training program this coming week, and I am really, really looking forward to helping some clients of my own buy or sell their homes. I have learned so many things about being a good agent and providing good customer service as an agent that I am finally becoming less scared and more excited about the whole thing.

This week, we plan to have some awesome friends over for dinner. I always look forward to having people over, but I think that inviting friends over in advance is almost harder than just having an impromptu visit. I re-plan the "menu" about one hundred times. And, I get a little worked up about getting the house perfectly cleaned. But, in end the end, I'm always so grateful for time with friends.

Speaking of cleaning...on Saturday, we went to a few garage sales near our house. We bought a mini-trampoline for $5. We've been wanting one of those for the kids for awhile because it's a great way for them to burn some of that pent up energy of theirs. However, we found out when we got it home and the girls started jumping on it, that it must have lived outside for awhile. Leaves and dirt that were once stuck in the trampoline's springs littered our rented carpet. Dave got out the vaccuum to get the dirt sucked up, and Julia immediately asked, "Are we having friends over?" It's a good thing we have friends over semi-often. Otherwise, we'd probably never vaccuum.

After the garage sales on Saturday, our family tried out a new gym. They have a lot of stuff for the kiddos to do, and an awesome work out facility. I'd like to start going to a gym to get some different exercises in besides jogging, but I definitely don't enjoy going to the gym for the treadmills. I hate jogging on treadmills. The numbers on the huge machine stare at you, gauging your rate of success (or failure). It's depressing. Plus, I much prefer looking at homes, landscaping and birds while exercising than jogging in place watching dumb music videos portraying imfamous teenagers laying on top of each other while singing for 30-45 minutes. But, that's just me.

In October, Dave and I plan to run our first 5K together. We really don't know how the logistics of this will work out since we have 3 kids, and we probably won't be able to push them all in strollers during the jog. We'll see how it works out.

This is the second Sunday in a row that Dave has had to open his laptop right after we get home from lunch and work all afternoon and evening. This is a big reason why I've been a bit funky. Family time is so important to me! So, in an attempt to keep from being very irritable, I took the three girls for a very short walk this evening. The girls skipped, hopped, jumped and ran. Lydia even pretended to fish. When she "caught" one, I asked her if she planned to eat it. Her response went like this: "No, it doesn't have any chicken in it. It's a pretty fish with long eye lashes and butterflies on it's sides, so I'm going to put in the fish tank and watch it swim." Okay.

Sweet Saige is doing really great. She can roll from front to back, and will get to start having rice cereal next week. I can't believe she is already old enough to start solids! She is still the happiest baby I know. I love her.

Thanks for reading an update on our lives. Next time I get on here, I plan to be as happy as a clam and funk-free. I also hope to have a real estate client! Here's to hopin'! -Amber

More Confessions

We had a great weekend. We did hardly anything, and I loved that. We have been going 90 to nothing lately, and I am wearing down and starting to feel a little sick. So, a weekend of hanging around the house is just what the doctor ordered.

Because I had a little extra time this weekend, I made pumpkin muffins for breakfasts for this coming week. I love having something already made and ready to go, and I love fall and pumpkin, so I started early. At least I haven't started wearing scarves, sweaters  and boots in this 90 degree heat. But I won't lie...I am tempted.

Speaking of temptations, here are some of my latest confessions:

1. I have to sample batter of any kind. Cake batter, muffin batter, brownie batter and cookie dough. I still sample it...raw eggs and all.
2. If my girls are around or are helping me bake, I let them sample batter too....raw eggs and all.
3. I embarrass myself when I am too blunt. Like when I say "I have to pee" instead of saying "I need to run to the restroom".
4. I like to be the center of attention from time to time.
5. I like to sing. I even like to sing for an audience and wish I had the opportunity more often even though I get nervous.
6. I like to teach. I even like to get up in front of other people and teach stuff. Not because I think I am smarter than others, but I guess it just goes back to the center of attention thing. I got comfortable teaching in front of people a few years ago when I was leading the wednesday night children's program at my church.
7. I am a traditionalist. No really. I am.
8. I don't like typos. They bug me. I hate it when I am looking at old blogs and I find them....
9. I am very scent sensitive. It's hard for me to go to the zoo.
10. I consider myself a good cook. It's what my friends and family tell me. I hope they aren't simply saying it to be nice.
11. I wish I had enough energy to do all the projects I cook up in my little brain.
12. I feel like a better person when I am learning or have been reading a good book. Not better than others, just a better me.
13. I really am as emotional as I sound like I am on this blog. (Probably even more than I sound like on my blog.) Just imagine the crazy emotional wreckage I put people through as a teen.
14. I used to be extremely shy and hardly talked to people in highschool. I think I shocked a lot of people at my 10 year reunion when I came out of my shell. I really do and did like people. I just didn't know if they would like me.
15. I am often surprised at how out-going my Julia and Lydia are.
16. I have mommy guilt if I work, and mommy guilt if I don't. The reasons for the guilt are not the same...
17. I already ate 2 pumpkin muffins. (This is actually very hard for me to admit.)
18. I get on facebook too much.
19. I love reading honest toddler tweets. You can check it out at @HonestToddler or thehonestoddler.com
20. I wish I had come up with the idea for The Honest Toddler.
21. I didn't do hardly any laundry this weekend even though we had hardly any plans.
22. I often think about where we will move when the lease is up on this here town house. I long for a yard again.
23. I envy women who have a baby and then are "instantly" the same size as they were before they had their babies.
24. I am a night owl and stay up way later than I should almost every night. I am like a kid, and I don't like to go to bed.
...and last but not least...
25. I am pretty sure I am not nearly as techie as I would like to think I am.

Well, I guess that about sums it up for now. Did I repeat any from the last time? I don't remember. All I know right now is that I am tired and my relaxing weekend is coming to an end. :( Another whirlwind of a week is coming our way, and I am under prepared. I guess I'll get to going. I need to gather my thoughts and collect our weekly gear (i.e. backpacks, lunch bags, snack bags, water bottles, diaper bags, laptop/work bags...) so that hopefully, the shock of preparing for another day doesn't smack me in the face first thing in the morning. Blessings and happy monday to all of you! I hope nothing smacks you in the face! Love, Amber

Seeing the World at Sea World - Day 2

So, I did not plan on taking over a week to write this post, but, oh well.  Late is better than never, I suppose!

 

The second day at Sea World was also my 30th birthday. We watched more shows, fed the dolphins, rode rides and then left a little early to go eat at a restaurant. Here are some of the pictures from our fun day.

 

Julia feeding and petting a dolphin

Lydia petting and feeding the dolphin

Sesame Street 3d Movie

 This movie was interesting. Right after it started, the characters on the movie said that it might be a little scary for really little kiddos. I hoped that wouldn't apply to my kids, but unfortunately it did. About half way through, Julia took off her glasses and wanted to sit with me after the seats started rumbling. Lydia freaked out and started crying when she got squirted in the face and the "wind" started blowing. We made it through the whole short film, but the girls were both unhappy afterwards. Lydia kept telling Dave that he was wrong, that she did NOT love the movie, and that she never wanted to see it again.

But, the next show we went to was great! I loved it. It was a play involving seals, an otter, a walrus and two trainers. There were a lot of funny parts and the animals were very well trained. We didn't get sprayed at this show; to Julia's dismay and Lydia's delight. But, some people did.

Trainer/Acturess voluntarily getting "spit" on by a huge tusked animal. She deserves every penny she makes.

Mr. walrus waving goodbye

This is the Sesame street show that my girls loved.

Sweet Saige being a great trooper!

 

I was missing Houston food when it came time to find a restaurant on the evening of my birthday. We went to a mexican restaurant, and the service was pretty bad. The food was okay, the manager apologized, and the wait staff did sing "Happy Birthday" to me. Regardless of that, I had a great time because Team Stewart was all together. And, I am extremely thankful to have these wonderful family memories.

Next week, Dave turns 33. We will not be going out of town, or spending time at any amusement parks, but we will be going to a restaurant and celebrating Dave as much as we can. I'm looking forward to it!

 

Blessings to all of you, Amber