Locks of Love

Dave finally convinced me to let the girls do locks of love. I was a little scared their hair would be too short, and it is pretty short, but they LOVE it, and I am very excited that their hair will benefit a good cause.

Julia's long hair - the day before

Lydia's long hair-the day before

Julia getting prepped for a cut

Lydia getting prepped for a cut

Lydia's ultra short, ultra cute hair

 The girl at the salon we went to cut Lydia's hair too short in my opinion. She put the rubber band where the 11 inch mark was and cut above that. She should have put it at the 10 or 9 inch market and cut above that instead. But, all's well that ends well, right? Lydia loves her hair. She feels just like Rapunzel because Rapunzel went from really long to really short hair.

Cutie Bob

Super cute. Love the length. This is Julia's cut.

Julia loves her almost bob cut

Julia's locks of love

 I'm super sad I didn't get a pic of Lyd's lock of love hair before they took it to the back. I almost asked them to bring it out again, but I was feeling a bit emotional during the whole process. I was really worried the girls would have hair cutting remorse.

cutie pies!

 Don't they look about a foot taller now?

Stinker Saige "cheesin" at the hair salon

The girls were super excited to go to church today and show off their hair cuts. They loved explaining that 11 inches of their hair was cut off. Lydia calls it "lots of love" instead of locks of love. Cute, right? ---And, while at church, the big girls had many adoring fans of their new cuts at church, I guess the level of excitement wasn't good enough for them. They wanted people to "freak out", and I guess no one did that exactly. So, they both left church a little sad because they only got tons of compliments, but no one "freaked out". I mean I heard gasps, compliments and sweet endearments, but...

We ended up taking the girls to get their hair cut at a Great Clips in Katy. They cut the girls hair for free, and send the locks in for us. What a win-win, right? We didn't have to do anything but provide the locks. Dave, the girls and I really hope to do locks of love again sometime.

So, how do you like the cuts? I only cried for a second after we got in the car. :) And that was mostly because I didn't feel very good. I think the girls look super cute, and I love all three of them so much!

Thanks for stopping by, Amber

Ferrero Rocher

Today on the way to pick up Saige from mother's day out, I remembered that I had some Forrero Rochers in my purse. The soup I had for lunch hadn't stuck with me like I'd wanted. That's what me think of the Forreros. I don't usually keep them on me because I love them, and because they are a bit deceiving. They're light, hazelnutty texture makes you believe that they aren't really all that bad for you. Although, I don't really see how that can be true. (They are so delicious!)....But, I digress....I have had these delicious treats in my purse for about 2 weeks now because my sweet little one-year-old snatched them from the candy aisle while sitting in one of those little cars that are at the front of the cart in the grocery store. The cashier noticed before I did that she had swiped them, and that she gnawing on the plastic. (I've caught her doing this at home too. She just eats right through the plastic.)

So, since the cashier saw it all go down, I had to buy the little boogers. I didn't want to give them to Saige or she might think that the next time we go to a store, she can start chomping on any candy that suits her fancy. So, I've just been carrying them around as a sweet reminder as I go through out the day of my stinker Saige. However, two out of the three of those ferreros don't live in my purse anymore. They live in my stomach. I laughed as I pulled the aluminum wrapping away from shards of hazelnut and chocolate and nibbled the crumbs up. I felt so sneaky. I guess as a mom, if you are eating sweets, you feel like you should be sharing or else it's some sort of huge secret. And since it's a not a secret, I decide to share with you all on this here good ole' blog.

On a completely different note, I am excited and scared to say that I think my older girlies will be donating some hair to locks of love in the very near future. Here is a picture of their clean, beautiful locks today:

Lydia's locks

Julia's locks

Stay tuned for what it will look like soon....I guess they can both spare 10 inches. (Please don't tell Julia that her hair is a little shorter than her sisters'. She won't believe you anyway.)

Thanks for reading! You are the best. :)

Love to all of you who read my blog,

Amber

Christmas Letter 2013

I finally got my Christmas letter out a few weeks ago. I hope I got one to everyone! If I missed you, please let me know!! If you were interested in reading the Christmas letter that went with the card, here it is:

Obviously the hustle and bustle of life got in the way of us ordering and getting our Christmas cards out in a timely manner. I apologize. However, just because I didn’t get them out, doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking of all my wonderful friends and relatives on Christmas.

I hope that you all had a wonderful year. Our 2013 was crazy, great, and interesting with all the ups and downs a year can bring. We continue to try and maintain simplicity in the rat race of a Houston lifestyle. So….here are some details:

Dave loves his new job and EMAS. He works so close to home, and it is a huge blessing! He’s had the opportunity to be so much more involved in getting the older girls off to school and has been able to attend a lot of school programs. He even came with me to have lunch with Julia on her birthday. Yay!

He and I began co-teaching a Sunday school class at our church, and we both love it. It is a huge challenge and a huge blessing…kinda like raising kids. We are asking the Lord to grow our class and allow it to be a blessing to others!

I am continuing my venture in Real Estate. I am so thankful to be done with my first year, as I hope it was an obligatory hurdle that once accomplished will be a launching pad for years to come. It was a rewarding and laborious first year. I love my job, and do my best to maintain a positive work-life balance. The girls and Dave bless me by being proud of me and my real estate endeavors.

Julia did amazing things this year. She keeps losing teeth, is in 1^st grade, and seems huge and beautiful to us. She had an outstanding role in our church Christmas Show, playing Cindy Lou Who in the Grinch scene, and a dancer in the Polar Express scene. She had six performances and three dress rehearsals, (and exhausted parents) and we could not have been more proud of her.

Lydia has had an amazing year as well! Her starting Kindergarten and loving school has been so fun for Dave and me to watch. She has many sweet friends, and a wonderful teacher. She got to sing a solo at church the first Sunday in December, and got to be the “star” of an in-house commercial and Dave’s office. She was so cute wearing a suit and bun and looking professional! I can’t wait to see her beautiful face on the clip!

Saige is a busy-body with as much spunk and pizzaz as her sisters. She is well versed in the words “No” and “Stop!” She is a cuddle bug, opinionated and so darn cute. She gets to go to mother’s-day-out two days a week and also spends time with her sweet babysitter who usually comes on Mondays and Wednesdays. She calls her babysitter (Miss Rebekah) “Keka”, and Lydia “Aya”. Julia is “Juju”, dogs are “woof-woofs” and ducks are “quack-quacks”. She loves to take her toddler-size stroller and walk to visit the pond in our neighborhood because she gets to see many dogs and ducks along the way…but getting her to walk back home afterwards usually involves a lot of crying on her part and a lot of persuasion and coaxing on ours.

We know that our family has been moving quite often, and we apologize if you’ve had to scratch up your address books in order to keep our address correct. It certainly has not been our desire to move every year! We also don’t plan to stay were we are for super long because we’d like to have a house with a yard again soon. However, we are also hoping our next home is one we stay in for a while. Here’s hoping anyway!

I guess that wraps things up for us! I hope that all of you had the best year imaginable and that 2014 is even better! Blessings to you all and praises to God in 2014. Merry Christmas and Happy New year!!

Love, Dave, Amber, Julia, Lydia and Saige Stewart

Christmas Day in the Townhouse

We got to stay at home for Christmas this year! We were sad to miss seeing extended family, but it was also nice to relax. Here are some pics from the month:

Cindy Lou Who for Celebration

Lydia and Donner

Wow! She let him hold her! 

Lyddie and the Grinch

Hermie and Juju. She had to wear shorts under her costumes.

Cindy and the Grinch on their last performance

The show from T.V.'s outside the auditorium

Lyddie Lou Who

Candlelight Service

Looking at lights on Christmas Eve in Prestonwood

Santa Came!

Stockings on Christmas Morning

Before presents

Lion Lydia and Excited Julia

Sisters, Sisters. There were never such devoted sisters.

 I think I'm going to have to go watch "A White Christmas" now.

Our Tree on Christmas morning.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

Stockings!

The Christmas Story

We are so very blessed. We had a great Christmas and it was a pretty great 2013. I hope you had yourselves a Merry little Christmas and a beautiful and wonderful 2014!! God's blessings on you and yours! Sincerely, Amber

Video of Lydia's Solo

Please click here to see the video of Lydia singing the world's sweetest little video.

In a Nutshell

Oh my! Time has been flying by!

Please excuse me as I do some much need "Back-up Blogging"...

We had a great Fall. (I can't believe I didn't even post any pictures from Halloween.)

Trick-or-Treaters...2 ballerinas and Minnie the Mouse

Crabby Minnie

Jacqueline-o-lantern

We had a lot of fun Trick-or-Treating and reverse-trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Dave is the one who came up with the idea to carry a bowl of candy a long with us to pass out to people who gave the girls candy. It seemed like a really weird idea to me, but it ended up being really neat. Adults who were passing out the candy to trick-or-treaters seemed very appreciative and the girls enjoyed not only receiving, but giving candy. It was a good lesson, and I think we'll probably do it next year too.

Crying Baby Shot

Looking forward to the Memorial City Mall Lights

New Coats for a Cold Thanksgiving in Bartlesville

We had a great November. We got the girls new coats, traveled to Bartlesville to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with family, and visited Santa early. Julia began practices for her part in the Christmas Production at church and Julia and Lydia started Daisy Troops. Time has been whizzing by, and I barely know if we are coming or going.

Along with all of the fun we had in November, we also had a really scary thing happen. Saige had her first trip to the E.R. Thankfully I didn't completely break down mentally, but I was on the verge for a minute there. Without drawing out the story for too long, here is what happened:
Saige used to like to climb the ladder on her sister's bunk beds. She did it a ton of times with out falling, but I would usually grab her off the ladder if I saw her climbing her way up. However, I didn't see her climbing the ladder the Friday before Thanksgiving, and neither did anyone else. After we heard the thud and then her cry after falling, I rushed into her sister's room and held her until I felt prepared enough to check her little face for bumps or blood. When I held her up to see her face, her shoulders and neck stiffened, and her eyes rolled back into her head. That's when I became hysterical and started screaming. I handed her to Dave to call 911, and after Dave held her for a second, he let me know that she was awake and breathing fine. In my hysterics, we decided to get everyone into our minivan as quick as possible and get Saige to the E.R. ourselves. The drive there was short, but scary. Saige was very quiet and had a greenish tint in her face. I remember thinking...this is what "green around the gills" looks like. Thankfully, the wonderful staff at Memorial Hermann's E.R. unit got her back to check vitals right away. Once they gave her some tylenol, and got us in a room by ourselves, Saige finally started acting like herself again.-- It was a very sad morning. The poor baby had to get her temperature taken rectally for the first time, and that is never fun! She ended up with no major issues (except for a psycho mom)--just a black eye. Praise the LORD!

This first week of December has been CrAzy! I remember the first year our family moved to Houston. I cried because we had no Christmas party invites. That is not the case this year! We have two this weekend and three next weekend. Julia also had her birthday party today because she had to go and turn 7 last Wednesday!!! I tried to convince her to start getting younger instead of older, but she doesn't listen to me all the time.

Julia was lucky enough to get to celebrate her birthday at this ice skating rink. She had a blast. It was way too packed full of people, and the staff was way to un-friendly for me, but like I said, she had a blast. Saige wasn't exactly enjoying herself during the party either. She was only interested in running off and not being confined to a seat to watch her sisters skate around a rink with a ton of other people. Dave helped the big girls skate, and I think he had a good time doing that. Lydia got bored of skating really quick, but she enjoyed seeing friends. That's about the only thing I liked about the whole thing too. 

Our sweet Lydia has a solo at church tomorrow. I am so very, very proud of her! I plan to take pictures and video her. I also plan to get those posted to my blog!! She is going to do so well! I can't wait to share that with you all. I look forward to posting more regularly again. 

Well, this is us in a nutshell! Thanks for reading. Blessings to you all! Love, Amber.

Remember September

At the end of September, our family of five traveled to a family reunion at my aunts house in Topeka. It was great to see family! Unfortunately, I didn't anticipate the weather well enough, and Saige ended up not having clothes to wear for part of the time. But, her jacket and jeans ended up working until we made it to the Topeka K-Mart.

The girls jumped on the trampoline at my Aunt Jalayn's.

My great Aunt Catherine, Cousin Melanie, Lydia, Grandpa Mitchell, Dave, Saige, Dad, Julia and Cousin Sierra

Unfortunately, I think this is the only picture I have of the five of us. We need family pics!!

Aunt Jalayn and Uncle John's picturesque farm

The bonfire!

Uncle John and my Cousin Melanie's littles, Vince and Eva

Saige at Topeka's Gage Park (No shirt...)

We had a great time in Topeka, and the weather there felt a lot more like fall than the weather in Houston does now, a month later. I always wish I had a little more time in Topeka every time I go. 

Thanks for stopping by....

Ducks, Dogs and Rats

So. I have recently made a schedule for my real estate business. Maybe I will be able to work a little more efficiently instead of working non-stop. And, maybe, I will have time to write on this here blog again. Maybe.

Because I wait so long between posts, all I feel I can do right now is give you a monthly update on my family. So, with out further ado:

Saige LOVES ducks right now. She can spot them anywhere and quacks like a pro. (She also quacks at flamingos, crains, geese, and most other foul like birds. She does know the difference between a duck and a chicken.) A close second to ducks in Saige's heart are dogs. She barks at any dog she sees, and is rarely afraid when they come over to her to be petted. (This works out because we see dogs and ducks nearly everyday.) She has a picture book that just has a ton of pictures of animals. It is the book she currently "reads" the most often. Julia also loved this book when she was Saige's age. Perhaps they'll open their own vet clinic.

Saige is still very good-natured. She is usually smiley and sweet, and happy to go to mother's day out or her Sunday school class. She definitely shows some sass to me and her sisters, but to Dave and the rest of the world, she is usually friendly and happy.

Lydia still loves school! She comes home singing songs and sharing about fun things that happened I school. I hardly ever have to pry it out of her like I have to with Julia. Lydia is learning to read and has three sweet friends that she plays with almost every recess.

Dave has been helping me around the house a lot ever since I became a real estate agent. We still have a very hard time getting things done, but his help is so important to me! Sometimes, though he gets a little mixed up and puts Saige's clothes in the girls drawers. Tonight, I was at the church with Julia. Dave came home to lay Saige and Lydia down for a nap. When they came back to the church to get Julia and I, I noticed and was surprised that Lydia had on some pretty short shorts. It finally dawned on me that Lydia's shorts might be a bit small for her because they were the wrong size. I checked the size, and sure enough...my 5 year-old had on shorts that were size 12-18 months.

Julia is still quite a leader in our family. She doesn't particularly love school, but she is learning like crazy. She recently learned to write her last name, but sometimes gets the a and the r in our last name reversed. Have you ever thought about what happens to the word Stewart when you do that? That's right. We become Stew rats. Nice. :)

Julia also has had a very exciting thing happen! She has been chosen for the sweetest little part in our church's Christmas play. I can not share what part she has because I am sworn to secrecy, but, I am so very proud of her because this is a huge honor! Our church had 18,000 people attend their Christmas production last year. Is that crazy or what?

I'm a little sad that our church will be taking a one year hiatus from the Christmas celebration in 2014 because Lydia can't try out for a part, but rumor is Celebration 2015 is going to be awesome.

Here's to a great holiday season that is just around the corner!

Thanks so much!