Baby Saige Elizabeth

We are so happy to have Saige here. We are all madly in love with here! She has the sweetest personality and the cutest little cry. I can't believe we are a family of 5!
I plan to add more info soon, but for now, here's tons if pics! (They are all out of order)

Baby Moves

Well, I really thought I'd have this third baby by now, but, not yet. I guess I have a few things making me anxious that are different than the last times I was pregnant. When Julia was a little one, growing inside of me, she moved constantly. Lydia moved almost as much, but not quite. Both girls, though, fluttered about at predictable times, and I enjoyed falling asleep to their little flutterig moves. My other girls always moved when I first layed down in the evening, when I rolled over in bed, and when I ate sugary items, like a bowl of ice cream. This baby, however, has moved much more forcefully and hurts me on a regular basis. Does that mean this baby is huge? Every night, the baby in my stomach shows her utter disdain for my bladder by pushing on it with repeated aggression. It hurts! (This also happens during the day, but less often.) After the baby starts pushing, and pushing on me, and I lay down, my stomach turns into one hard ball of a braxton hick for quite a while- sometimes a few hours. Every evening, I think this stomach tightening will turn to contractions, but it hasn't happened yet...obviously.
The other reason I am anxious is that my mom and Dave's mom are staying here at their kindness. My mom will need to go home soon, and I am so, so worried that she will have to come home before the baby decides to make her grand debut. I am relaxing and tryng to wait pateintly, but I also wish like heck that I could control this baby's timing even a little bit. But, I guess I can contol it a little bit....I will be induced on Thursday if this baby isn't here by then. I pray, though, that I don't have to be induced. I guess we will just wait to see what happens! Maybe the full moon tonight will help! Here's hopin' and prayin'!
Still Pregnant in Houston, Amber

Let the Good Times Roll!

We had a wonderful Easter, an "exciting" move, and a lot of (what will hopefully turn into a lot of) good Stewart family memories. Thanks to my iphone, I actually have some pictures to share of all the good times.

The girlies on Easter Sunday.

I know these Easter pictures are very late in getting on my blog, but considering all that has been happening lately, I feel like I am doing good to have them posted by the time May hit.

Julia was in a funk, and Lyd was talking to Dave, but it was so good to have our girls in church with us on Easter Sunday.

Dave in his handsome Easter clothes, right after a wonderful church service

Easter with friends

We were so fortunate to be invited to spend Easter Lunch with friends. It was such a blessing to spend time with people from our small group, eat yummy food with them, watch our girls have an Easter egg hunt with their kids, and celebrate Christ's resurrection by making fun memories.

Saige Elizabeth- Growing bigger everyday.

Blessings from friends and Realtors on my last day of work- so blessed!

My last week of work was so, so hard. I promised myself that I wouldn't break down in tears on my last day, and I pretty much accomplished my goal. I just kept quoting Dr. Seuss to myself the entire time: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." I'll always remember that job as the best I've ever head, and I am so thankful to God for providing it for our family.

But, because I did not work lat week, I did get a few boxes of stuff put away, our kitchen semi organized, and I got to enjoy some extra time with my girls. One thing I promised them was to go to their school and attend the chapel service that they have every time. I got to go last Thursday, I am so glad that I did. Julia was playing the young David, at the time when he was first anointed king over Israel by the prophet Samuel. Her good friend, whom she also wants to marry, played Goliath in the story. It was neat to watch, and I got a little bit of on video.

I also stayed to eat lunch with the girls. They were so sweet and so excited to have me as their guest. I went to Lydia's class first, and ate lunch with her, and then went and sat with Julia for the remainder of her lunch time. I was surprised to go into Julia's class and see that she was at "the boy's table". All the other girls were sitting at the table next to the boy + Julia table. I know Julia is also friends with the girls- she just prefers to be with the boys. --Uh.oh.

It was so great to watch both of my girls enjoying school and their chapel services.

Young King David

My natural little actress

 I am hesitantly looking forward to what the future holds for us.Things have been so crazy lately, but I know we are safe and secure in the Lord's hands. Hopefully, we will close on our house soon, because I have no earthly idea how we could afford to make another home payment while paying rent at the same time. (Closing was delayed because of our buyers. We were supposed to close April 16th, but now our date is set for May 12th. We are hoping it goes faster than that though.)

I am now 38 weeks pregnant, and Baby Saige could be here any day. I have been extremely exhausted, and not feeling super good, so I am hoping this means that baby is on her way soon. My parents came last weekend, and my mom stayed to wait with us as we expect the birth of our third child. It has been so nice to have her here. (My dad will be coming to pick her up soon after Saige is here.) She is a great and wonderful dishwasher, laundress and child care provider. Thank you JESUS!

This weekend, Dave's mom will be driving in, and staying a couple of weeks after the baby is born. It will be so helpful to have someone here to help me watch the girls during the day, while I recover from giving birth. And then, at the end of May, Dave's dad will be coming by to meet the baby, and my sister will be here for about a week. I am so very thankful that so many of our family members will be here to help me, and/or see the baby.

So, here's to let our good times roll! I hope yours will be rolling too! -Amber

More to come.

We are moved and getting ready for our third baby to come our way. We just got Internet at our new place this evening. Boxes and stuff are everywhere! Pics of the girls at Easter and, eventually, pics of our house are still to come. Blessings, Amber

Good Friday is Good because He Lives!

Our Easter celebration started this week. We've done resurrection eggs, dyed Easter eggs, and we still have church on Sunday, plus other stuff. Moving in the midst of it all just makes us concentrate on the celebration all the more.
Praise the Lord because He lives!

My Girls: Oh.my.

Julia calling out ,"Honey, Honey!"

Dave, "Are you talking to me?"

Julia, "Yes, you're the daddy and I'm trying to get our little girl to bed. I can't handle this. She's being naughty, and I need you to take over."

(Lydia was the baby laying in "her bed" in her closet.)

____

Me, "Lydia, did you have fun at Sunday School today? Did you you learn a lot?"

Lydia in a whiney voice, "Yes, but no one said my dress was pretty or that my make-up was pretty. And that makes me so sad!" (The girls get to wear lip gloss or chapstick to church.)

____

Either of the girls on any given day; "Moooom, she trupted me!"(trupted= interrupted)
____

Yesterday, after church, we rushed out to our car to get to our new townhome to follow the real estate agents to our land lord's house. After we met our sweet land lords, Dave and I raced to a nearby place to eat. It was about 2:00 and we were all starving- especially me. Once we went through the line to get our trays filled with plates and drinks, we looked around for a place to sit. As Lydia followed me, she decided to flip my skirt up in the middle of the restaurant. I don't think anyone saw anything, but like I said my hands were full! I squealed/yelled "NO!" as I looked back at Lydia while Dave dove to help me, even though his hands were also full. Luckily nothing fell off of our trays and shattered, but I did receive a very dirty look from a woman who had been getting herself a beverage, and saw no reason why I would be yelling at my three year old in the middle of the restaurant. I just looked away in shame, and tried not to cry out of pure embarrassment.

These are the days of our lives! What did Dave and I do for excitement before kids?

Our third daughter is shaping up to be as mischevious and strong-willed as our first two. She is very persistent and impatient, it seems. If she doesn't like something I am doing, she will push and kick harder than either of my other two girls ever did until I stop what I'm doing and/or change positions.

 Lord, despite this, please let this third child be compliant. Please! (I'm pretty sure our little Stewart household will not see a day without drama from now until 2052.)

My, oh My!! -Amber

I passed!

I took my real estate exam yesterday, and I passed. I am so excited to get started, but that will probably wait until a few months after our newest sweetie pie is born.
Dave and I also looked at a ton of rent houses yesterday, and thought we found one we could live in, but it didn't end up working out, so we are back to the drawing board tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have a place soon!!!
Blessings, Amber

St. Patty's Day!

Dave proposed to me 11 years ago yesterday. We had to be out of the house for the buyers of our  home to have inspections done yesterday morning. So, to celebrate the day, we went to see a movie with the girls at Studio Movie Grill and let them play in the city center "yard".  (For the non-Houstonians: The yard is a turfed area with a beautiful water feature nearby and tempting eating establishments surrounding it. No matter what time of day or night you go there, there will be kids running in the yard, and people lounging around.-- It makes me feel like I'm in another country. A lot of times there will be torches on and bands playing in the evening.) The movie theater we went to has a pretty full menu of food and drinks. What's better than watching a movie with some yummy food to go with it? The girls had a good time. They laughed, they cried- it was an all around good time.

Afterwards, we townhouse/condo hunted and prayed about where we would live and send Julia to school next year. We still aren't decided on either, but at least we have some new information. It wasn't as good of a time, but hopefully it will all be decided soon. Finding a place to live is so stressful! It doesn't matter if you are single, married, or somewhere in between....at least the girls slept through a lot of it.

Green Roses Dave got me 11 green roses for St. Patrick's Day

Isn't Dave sweet?

Green Girls

After running in the yard, the girls decided that we could live in the city center, and they would be fine with that. It would be fun!!! But, we would need some extra dough to make that happen. So, Dave and I will keep on lookin'!

Thanks for reading! I hope you had a green and wonderful St. Patrick's Day with your family or friends! Humbly, Amber

House News

Our house went on the market Thursday, and sold on Monday! We celebrated by eating at a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Sugar Land. We are feeling very thankful and very blessed this week. -Amber

Anybody looking to buy?

I know about a great house that's on the market for a great price!!!

March Madness...cont.

Our house goes on the market tonight! Any second now, I should be able to get online and see our house listed with it's mls #. It is so bittersweet! I was telling a friend at church this evening that the girls emotions have been up and down about us selling our house. She mentioned that my emotions were probably a roller coaster as well. She was so right! I cried after our new flooring went in last week. It is so nice; but it is not for us to enjoy. It's just for us to clean until our house sells- boo hoo. I think that the girls and I will be in much higher spirits once we find our new digs, though. I hope so anyway.

A new crazy dilemma happened on Tuesday. A sweet neighbor of ours rear-ended our van while I was on my way to drop the girls off at school. The girls were in the car and cried quite a bit when it happened, but they were buckled in tight and I think they were more scared than anything. I went to an urgent care facility to get myself checked out and hear the baby's heart beat to make sure everything was okay. I considered taking the girls in too, but every time I asked them if anything hurt, they would tell me that they had no aches or pains. My neck is still soar today from some whiplash, but other than that, all is well with me and the baby. My boss and other co-workers encouraged me to go home after my urgent care visit on Tuesday and rest. I am glad to say that I took their advice. I feel terrible to miss work-- I still love my job, but I needed the rest. Moving, being pregnant, and adjusting to Dave's longer work hours has certainly taken it's toll on me. Plus, our regular Monday and Friday babysitter quit in January. So every week, we are concerned about finding a safe, well-adjusted place for the girls to be. We can't really commit to anything because we will be moving soon, but finding temporary, affordable, trustworthy child care is liking trying to find a needle in a haystack. All of those things with a car wreck on top of it adds up to just plain stressful. But, God continues to pull us through!



 Switching gears:

Something else I've been meaning to blog about lately is that about two weeks ago, I got to be a part of leading worship at Houston's First's Celebrate Recovery program. It was definitely an honor to get to hear several testimonies of how God delivered people of their "hurts, habits and hang-ups". --I also count it a privilege to get to serve beside the wonderful group of singing people that are in our group.

I was in the front row, at the very far left. (I'm not pictured here.)

(I was either cut-out, or singing my lead song. Either way, you get to see the group in the shot)


I got to lead a beautiful song: "In Christ Alone"


This pictures cracks me up because there is an optical illusion at play. When I first saw this picture, I thought, "I can't believe my shirt was so short! --I don't remember that." But my shirt actually isn't too short. That's just the music stand playing tricks on my eyes. Can you see what I mean?

Anyway, I guess I should end this rambling post. I need to go to sleep. I have to make sure the house is in tip top shape every morning until it sells. So extra work means getting up earlier. Yuck!

-Good night, world; sweet dreams! -Amber

Pregnante

Here is our third baby girl. This was taken last week when I was 30 weeks pregnant. With insomnia, back aches and pains and pregnancy weight gain, I am certianly ready to "lego my preggo'. However, I am so thankful that we have at least 9 more weeks before we get this show on the road. We have to find a new house, and move out of this one....so although I'm tired, I am not in too much of a rush. Things definitely won't be easier after our new sweet baby girl is here!! (She's moving like crazy. I think she knows I'm talking about her.)
-Amber

Markers

Tomorrow is the big day! Floor Installment day! I've been working on laundry and packing up all day since our washer and dryer have to move to the garage, and we don't want extra stuff on the floor when the installers come. Dave is figuring out the best way to get the fridge to the garage right now, and I wish I could help more, but I have to sit down and take breaks or my back starts spasming. (Excuses, excuses!)
So, since I'm sitting, I thought I would tell a story on my ornery second born, Lydia. She found some permanent markers on the floor (the ones we use for writing on boxes) and decided to color with them. She covered her hands and wrote on one of her books with them, and then she went after the carpet. The spot she actually drew on isn't very big- but it still is permanent marker on carpet! I almost decided not to get on to her since the carpet will be completely gone by this weekend, but I realized I better have a talk with her and instill some discipline because despite the circumstances, she still broke our "only write on paper" rule. Actually, she broke it 3 times. Well, 4; she did get a line of the marker on our ottoman, but I think I mostly got it out.-- Good thing we have microfiber furniture.
Anyway, our garage is almost half full of boxes from the stuff in our closets and other junk we don't use much. How embarrassing. We have too much stuff!!!! We may have to get a storage unit this weekend just to get some of that junk out of there before the house goes on the market. Our realtor scheduled our photos for Monday at 4:30. So, that's our new deadline. Lord Jesus, help us! We will have a lot of cleaning and preparing to do this weekend.
Blessings, Amber

Overdue Stewart Updates

I'm not sure I've sat down for one second in the last few weeks. We have been going, and going; working, and working. Dave and our friend from church put up a backsplash, changed out almost every light fixture, changed out all our faucets, and touched up paint. We've started packing up our closet stuff, knick knacks and personal photos. Our good friend, Lilia, came over to help us paint our game room, and Dave has been painting everything else like crazy. He's also recaulked our shower. My Dad helped us fill in some little nail holes and repaint them, switch out one of our sinks, and some other plumbing. My Mom and Grandma also helped us pack and get things boxed up. We are getting all new carpet and new vinyl wood flooring in our kitchen, bathrooms, entryway, office and breakfast room. They will hopefully start on Thursday and be done Friday. I've been trying to keep the girls occupied and busy while Dave works on all of his projects. I've also planted flowers, taken hundreds of trips to Lowe's, cleaned and scrubbed, and prayed that everything will work out and that our house will sell soon.

I am very thankful for the people who have been so kind to help us, and it has been a blessing to see my parents and Grandma Daiber who came to visit this last weekend. I don't know that I've ever experienced anything as crazy as all of this, but, we are surviving and I pray that we are settled by the time our third little one makes her grand entrance into this world.

In the midst of all of this craziness, Dave decided that it was time for us to turn in our broken, ridiculously old blackberry phones for a new sprint plan. He got me an Iphone!!!! I've wanted one for eons, and have loved having one! It is so helpful to have a data plan, a good camera and a video camera all at my finger tips. Below is the recording I took on my brand new phone. It worked better than our huge ancient video camera for sure. Plus, it's so much easier to share the videos with all of you! Please watch below so that you can see what we did this morning.

Isn't that fun to watch? Julia has been looking forward to getting on stage for a few weeks now. She is such a ham- she just loves to be on stage.

Hopefully soon things will settle down and I can get back to blogging better. Thanks for checking in today. Blessings to all of you! -Amber

March Madness

Well friends, Dave and I have some news to share. Dave is getting a new job in North Houston, and we will be putting our house on the market the first of March. When Dave first started hunting out new jobs, we really felt a simultaneous call to be involved in some sort of marraige ministry. We don't feel called to do that full-time, but we know that it will soon be a big part of our lives. As we searched God, and tried to figure out what he had for us with this marraige ministry calling, Dave and I really thought that moving back to Bartlesville would be a possibility. We didn't really want to share this plan right away because we knew that it would mean a big change for us, new jobs, and a move.
However, last month an ex-coworker, Alex, asked Dave to go to lunch with him, and Dave agreed. When they went, Alex shared with Dave the vision of the company that he had helped start, and asked Dave if he might be interested in looking at an opening that their company had available. Dave and I prayed about this, and we decided that it would be wise for him to pursue this offer.
Long story short, Dave went through the interview process, and got the job. God defintily opened the door for Dave to get this new job. He will start on March 1st. I am very excited for him, but am also overwhelmed by what the next few weeks look like for us. Because Dave's new office will be 50 miles north of our house, we will be moving to an apartment/condo. -- Looks like I'll be packing while 7-8 months pregnant, again. But, I've decided to take this adventure one day at a time, and it has helped give me tremendous peace.
We've talked to Julia and Lydia before about what it would be like to move from our current home in the last few months. They were very excited when they thought we would be moving back to Bartlesville because Granny lives there. (They ask often if we can move in with Granny, Mimi and Papa or Grandpa Dan. They miss seeing their grandparents regularly.) But, when we talked about the move again tonight, Julia was very sad. She expressed her love for our house, and told us she really didn't want to leave. As Dave and I were reassuring her, she asked, "Can I at least keep my baby dolls?" When we told her we were taking most of our stuff with us, she was a lot more at ease. (Both girls are really excited that we will live closer to church friends, as are Dave and I. --I can't wait for us to be able to travel 10-15 mins to church instead of the 35 mins to an hour it takes to get there now.)
So 2012 holds a lot in store for us; a new baby, a new home; a new job for Dave, kindergarten for Julia (we have no idea where) and a new sense of following where the Lord leads despite our previous understanding of His calling. Dave and I still feel called to be involved in marriage ministry, and hope to do so at our wonderful Houston church. How that will look, we don't know. But we will stick to God's journey for us.
I am also still trying to understand what I will do for my job after the baby is here. I don't know if being strictly stay-at-home is the best plan for me, but I can't even imagine what my life is going to look like in a few months. Everytime I try, I lose a lot of sleep. In fact, I was woken up this morning at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. I did take a nap after work and after I picked my darlin's up from school. But, I was a very tired momma today.
Anyway, thanks for reading my post today. I appreciate any prayers you might be able to say for us. For the next few weeks, we will be painting, fixing and working to get our house on the market the beginning of March. One. day. at. a. time.

Blessings to you, Amber