Brazos Bend State Park

On Saturday, we went a state park that is south of Houston, about 40 mins from our house. It is known for having tons of alligators. The rumors were absolutely correct! (The alligators are used to having humans around, and don't attack, but we took precautionary measures. We made it a point to stay back when we saw them, and keep the kids in a stroller/carry the kids the whole time--just in case.)

First, we met up with our wonderful friends, the Ottens.

And visited the gift shop where they showed us this milk snake. Both girls got to touch him.



We saw dragonflies under glass.

 And saw some animals that had undergone taxidermy, like this raccoon.

 We got to "pet" a baby alligator. Lydia was afraid of it at first. But, Julia really wanted to hold it.

Then we went exploring.

We wanted to see the alligators, in the wild. This little guy was sitting under the dock, staying in the shade to keep cool.

 Look at this view! This is the prettiest natural landscape I've seen in these parts.

 There's a look-out tower on one of the trails. We got a friend to snap this picture of us from the top.

 See the alligator on the walkway? He's well disguised, but he's there.

 This is a picture I took from the top of the tower. That reptile looks small from the tower, but that's a farse.

Here's one last picture of my two sweeties at the park.

We had such a great time at the park with our friends on Saturday! We learned a lot about wildlife in this area, had a wonderful picnic lunch together, and got in our exercise for the day. It was one of the best days I've had! More Texas exploration will be coming for the Stewart family! Love, Amber

My Kids are Crazy for Spring.

On the way home from church last night, I didn't turn on the music, or start asking the girls questions about their evening like I usually do. I was in my own little world, and apparently so were they. When I came out of my trance, I heard the girls pretending that Julia was the mom, and Lydia was the doctor. They were vehemently arguing about who was going to go get the imaginary, invisible baby and hand it to the other. When they couldn't come to an agreement, I told them that they needed to start talking nicely to each other or they were going to have to stop talking for a few minutes. They decided to change the game at that point. Both of the girls become lady bugs. Julia told Lydia that she was going to be the nice one, and Lydia would be the grumpy one. Then Julia was the grumpy ladybug. Then Lydia was the grumpy one again. Then the game changed yet again. Julia was the mom, and Lydia was the cat from the circus. Hmmmm..it was an entertaining half hour ride home. My girls' imaginations are definitely in full bloom--right in time for spring! Happy Spring to you all!! Love, Amber

No Time Like the Present!

Yikes! I can hardly find time to blog these days!! I figured that I better get on here, even if I don't have anything witty to say....

The weekend before last, Dave, the Girls and I went camping with our Sunday School class. The retreat was a lot of fun and extremely exhausting. I think I'm still recovering....
Some of the highlights of the trip:
--Laughing at Lydia for calling our friend Terrance "My Terrance". The thing is that with her little toddler pronunciation, it came out as "My Parents". She kept saying "Dere's My Parents!" while pointing at Terrance. People kept pointing to Dave and I and saying "You're parents are right back there, Lydia." It was not us Lydia was looking for!
--Enjoying the most adventurous hay ride I've ever been on.
--Observing the most beautiful, magnificent, glorious layers of glittering stars.
--Not wearing make-up the whole weekend!
--Visiting with some wonderful people.
--Watching my kids play with tons of kids at any given time.
--Camping out where there are real bathrooms with running water and showers.
--Playing in the bouncy house with the kids.
--Having church with my kiddos just a few steps away.
--Eating some bites of Dave's peanut butter cup smore. (I hardly make my own desserts anymore. This time, I just ate off of Dave's smore, and ate the rest of the girls smores. I guess I sub-consciously believe the calories don't count if I don't "own" the dessert.)
--Trying deep fried oreos for the first time. --Thinking about it both delights and disgusts me.
--Not doing a bit of cooking the whole weekend.

Some things that were a little less than fantastic about the retreat:
--Picking the delicious meat out of a wonderfully made breakfast casserole. (Lent is over in less than 2 weeks!)
--Eating veggie burgers while everyone else ate pulled pork that had been smoking for 24 hours.
--Trying to get the girls to sleep.
--Hitting my arm on the bouncy house ladder, and getting a huge, ugly bruise. I thought everything was soft in a bouncy house. I wouldn't have dove through the opening had I known that the ladder was filled with metal rods instead of air.
--Realizing the enormous amount of laundry we created while on the trip.
--Wishing I would have packed cowboy/girl boots and/or hiking boots for me, Dave and the girls. Duh! we were camping in TEXAS! It should have been a given. Perhaps if I had been packing in a less than hurried state....
--Cleaning up the filth that accumulated on the outside of our van. Dirt roads will that for ya'.
--Recovering, recovering, recovering.

All in all, we had a fabulous time on the retreat, and I am thankful that we went. On the way home, Julia asked something similar to this: "When do we get to go camping again? Can I have some gum? I would really like to sleep in a tent again sometime. When can we go fishing again? Can I PLEASE have some gum?" We'd been in the car less than 5 minutes when all of that started.

This last weekend, Dave and I had the blessed opportunity to hang out with some fantastic new friends at their house. (Praise Jesus!) We watered our garden and played around the house. We went to church and enjoyed a wonderful and convicting sermon. We also painted our hallway. Dave turned up the excitement by allowing Julia to paint too. Fun times!! It was a wonderful weekend just like the one before it! Now we are on to enduring and enjoying our busy, exciting, spirit-filled week!! Blessings to you all!! -Amber

Spring Fling

Springtime is in the air, and I couldn't be more excited about it. Did I ever mention on this blog before that I really enjoy holidays? Well, I do. And, Easter is right around the corner. However, I must admit that as much as I love Easter, I've never wished for it to come as quickly and as hard as I have wished for it this year. The reason being: Dave and I gave up meat for lent this year. That's right. I haven't had a burger, a turkey sandwich, a bite of chicken or pizza with meat on it for 2 and a half weeks. I'm not gonna lie- it's been hard! I have literally had dreams about eating fried chicken, ya'll! I haven't had fried chicken (except for in my dreams) in over a year. But nowadays, I can't stop thinking about it. It sounds more appetizing than a cookie. It sound more appetizing than a bowl of cookies with ice cream on it dredged in chocolate syrup. It sounds better than anything. So, needless to say....I can't wait until Easter. On Easter, our family of four will be eating marinating pork tenderloin. I was planning on having mashed potatoes, asparagus and lemon cake to go with the tenderloin, as we have had in years past. But, this year, I may be swapping those sides for fried chicken. Pork tenderloin, and fried chicken....how's that for an Easter meal? ---Delicious!!
Anywho....let me share what our family has been doing (besides dreaming about meat).

Enjoying the WARM March air by drawing with chalk on the driveway

Happy Easter!! See Julia's writing above mine? She's doing so well!

Here is one of our beautiful flowers we have growing in the front yard



Our little orange trees are blooming.

  We have two orange trees and a lemon tree. Plus asparagus, edamame, a zucchini plant, a tomato plan, cucumber plants, a strawberry plant and a watermelon plant growing in our backyard. The four of us have loved gardening more than I ever thought we would. (Lydia is still a little disinterested at this point, but sometimes she helps water.) It is very exciting to plant something and watch it grow though.

One of our edamame's that recently poked through the earth to drink in the rays of the sun.

Did you know that asparagus are perennials? You're supposed to dig a hole 12 inches deep, put the roots in the hole, cover the roots with only 3 inches of dirt, and then wait for the buds to sprout through the three inches. Once you see the buds, you cover them up again, and wait for them to grow the rest of the way. Isn't that amazing? I noticed a few days ago, that we have one little bud to cover already! Woohoo! If I do decide to have asparagus for Easter, hopefully it'll be from our own garden!

Some of our little asparagus holes.

Some of our herbs. This is cilantro, rosemary and some dill. I have some basil growing in the garden as well.

 Yesterday was fun. We got to go to a little Easter celebration that our community had, and go to a friends birthday party. Julia got to hold a piglet. Lydia held it too, but she got scared and dropped it. She didn't hold it long enough to let us get a picture snapped. Poor little piglet.

Lydia mostly enjoyed looking at the animals in the petting zoo. She petted just a few of them. She's not an animal lover like Julia.

 While we were in the petting zoo, Lydia was looking around and petted the baby deer for a few seconds. (You can see the deer behind her in the picture above.) Obviously while petting it, she was looking down, and sort of moving around to pet different parts of the deer's back. When she looked up, she looked right into the face of a sitting llama. You can imagine her surprise!! At least she didn't scream or freak out. She just jumped back in wide-eyed amazement and quickly moved on. Julia wasn't always an animal lover. Maybe Lydia will grow a little more used to animals sometime too.

An early Easter Bunny hug!

Well, that is what we've been up to lately. I'm pretty excited and proud of my garden. I am happy to say that I hope to take after my Grandma Daiber and continue to have a garden for years to come. It is very rewarding. I'm also very excited to eat meat again, and for Easter to be here. Isn't spring just a wonderful time of year? I feel like the world around me anticipates the celebration of Christ's resurrection just as much as or more than I do. That makes me very, very happy! I hope that all of you are very, very happy this Spring too! With love, Amber

P.S. Don't you just love how my blog looks like an Easter egg barfed all over the screen, and left my page running with colors? Me too!

My Bucket List.

Ok, people. I figure nothing gives you motivation like a list you put on the internet for the world to see. Hopefully, posting my bucket list on here will get me working towards getting this stuff done. I mean, I only have about 100 more years to live, right? Right!

1. Go on a Disney cruise in Alaska with my hubby and my kids.

2. Take Dave, and possibly my girls, fishing for Red Salmon.

3. Learn to play the piano.

4. Speak spanish fluently.

5. Paint more pictures that I frame and hang in my home. --Paint another mural.

6. Teach my kids to memorize scripture, and use it in their day-to-day lives.

7. Own my own small business: I would either like to own a sterling silver jewelry store or I'd like to have a crew of people that work with me to help me flip houses.It changes by the day.

8. Memorize a chapter of the Bible.

9. Become more like Jesus. (First on the list: Be more gracious, generous, and selfless.)

10. Design a room that is not in my own house.

11. Get my real estate license.

12. Run a half-marathon--hopefully at Disney World.

13. Spend a day or two in the wilderness (in a cabin) by myself. Not because I'm mad or unhappy...but just to experience creation in all it's glory with no one else but The Creator.

14. Get in the habit of talking to my syblings and cousins on a regular basis.

15. Have a home that my kids feel comfortable and happy to bring their friends to when they are teenagers-- not because of the size or design of our home, but because I am welcoming and kind to them and their friends.

16. Get an Xbox 360 with Kinect.

17. Do a better job at sending thank you cards, birthday cards, and "I'm thinking about you" cards.

18. Go on a second honeymoon with Dave.

19. Get an R.V. and use it!

20. Keep my fingernails manicured better.

I know some of these things seem intangible or abstact (which will annoy my husband greatly), but they're my goals, and I like them. And, as life goes on, I expect for some of my goals to change- but that's okay too. What is your list of buckets?  Happy Week! -Amber

Swamplands

Last weekend, and the first part of the week, Dave, the girls and I went to Louisiana to visit my parents, my maternal Grandma, two of my aunts and my cousin, Hayden. I am very glad that we got to see family and it was nice for my girls to get to know their Great Grandma, Great Aunts and 2nd cousin better. However, to be very honest the trip did not go quite as planned. We were very sad when rain canceled the Kids Mardi Gras Parade and the King Cake Party. We were not free to tromp around and "play" like we had hoped to, and the girls got a little cantankerous due to confinement. But, even though the rain made for some dreary days, we celebrated Louisiana the best we could regardless of the weather. We had a shrimp/craw fish boil. We visited the swamplands of Louisiana. I got to sing for a special at church with my aunt and mom, while my grandma played the piano. There were definitely some fun times despite the dreariness. Here are a few of the shots I snapped while we were there:

(Disclaimer: I do not have very many pictures of people on this post, and that makes me extremely sad. I brought both of my cameras on this trip, but one of them had dead batteries, and no memory card, and the other one had a full memory card with pictures that I needed to put on our computer. sigh.) 



Lydia in all her cuteness!

I wanted to take pictures of the rest of us at the swamp, and we used my parent's camera to do just that, but we haven't gotten them from my parents yet, and it's been way too long since I posted anything on my blog. So, I just wanted to get what I have on here, and hopefully I'll have the opportunity to add the rest later. --Don't forget to wear green this Thursday for St. Patty's Day!! I wouldn't want any of you getting pinched! Love, Amber

Fantastic Antics

Here are a few things I left out of the previous post. I didn't mention some of the crazy things my crazy kids did while we were gone. Frankly, although I find these things hilarious, thinking about them makes me exhausted. I think you may know what I mean when you read what my girls did.

First, Lydia ESCAPED while we were all sleeping....

It's 5 a.m., and most of the people staying in our room had not slept much at all. Let me back up....I'll remind you that we left Thursday, got to a friends' house in Dallas late, drove all day Friday, and then arrived in Topeka at dinner time on Friday. My mom, dad, brother, sister, nephew, and the four of us were all planning to stay at a parsonage at the church that my family and I attended when we lived in Topeka. We were told that the house was undergoing some updates, but I was a little scared for the safety of my crazy kids when we walked into the house and realized that they'd pulled up almost all of the carpet in the house, and it was mostly sub-flooring. Preschoolers run around like crazy, and I could just see Lydia getting up in the middle of the night to fall on the little nails by the wall that used to hold down carpet.
Anyway, we went to dinner with my grandpa and aunts and thought about where else we might stay. We called some hotels, but ultimately decided to stay at the retirement home where my grandpa lives. They only had one room/suite available, so we all stayed together. We already had bedding since we were planning to stay on the floor at the the parsonage. So, the 9 of us piled into a 2 room suite. In the very early morning, Lydia got up and waltzed right out the door while we were all sleeping. She met up with the manager of the retirement home who was making coffee for the breakfast served at the home. He talked to Lydia for a few seconds and then asked her where I was.
"Asleep." Lydia replied.
"Let's go back to your room then, ok?"
"Okay."
He followed her back to our room, and then shut the door behind her. Hearing the door shut, my sister got up and said, "Amber, I think Lydia was just in the hallway."
I was shocked, and went to Lydia to make sure she went back to sleep on her little nap mat, then went back to sleep myself. It wasn't until the next morning that we realized the extent of Lydia's wanderings. We found out when the manager came and found us at breakfast and said, "Whose is the little blonde?" (Maybe I'll wise-up before I claim her so very quickly next time.)

The second antic I blame on my parents.

They brought their little dog, Willie, with them on this trip. He's a maltipoo--just small enough for Julia to hold and boss around. During the birthday party, while I was taking pictures and decorating, Julia was introducing Willie to the elderly people who were eating lunch. I heard that evening, after the party, that Julia went to one woman imparticular, plopped Willie on her lap and then told her all about the dog and his habits. There was no indication of invitation from this older woman. Just Julia, imposing herself and the pup on this sweet lady.When she was done explaining the life of the dog to this poor woman she said in a kind but authoritative voice, "Okay, you're done holding Willie now. See you later, bye."

Unfortunately, I think it's the case that the girls are watched more loosely when we are at family gatherings. We all sort of expect that someone else is keeping tight watch over them. However, I know that I'm still ultimately responsible for their behaviour. Hence the exhaustion accompanied with these antics.

Grandpa Mitchell's 90

I am so, so far behind on blogging. I wish I could keep up with blogging, and housework, and everything better, but I've been just plain tuckered out the last few weeks. Part of the reason for that is that my Grandpa turned 90 on February 20th of this year, and we drove up to Topeka to celebrate him and his 90 great years. Unfortunately, we don't make it to Topeka, KS to see my Grandpa often, but I LOVE it when we do get to see him.

Here's the birthday spread. The cake has a hunky picture of Grandpa on it from when he was younger. I think my aunt wanted to add it to show how handsome he's always been.

This is Lyd with her second cousin, Vince. He's two, and his mom, my cousin Melanie, is expecting a daughter in 3 months. The girls loved him.

This is some of the crew at the party. I was taking the picture.

My Grandpa requested this shot because he wanted a picture of the oldest and youngest guys at the party. Raymond Mitchell- 90 years old, Josiah Hazelet- 6 months.

Looking at picture albums

 Before Grandma Mitchell passed away (it'll be 10 years ago in November), she started giving things to me and my cousins. They were things she specifically wanted us to have. (I have a yellow porcelain bird that is kept up high, out of reach from grubby little hands. There is a little piece of paper on the bottom telling me who Grandma received the bird from.) I truly believe my grandma knew it was almost time for her to go to heaven. One of the things she gave my cousin Melanie was her picture collection. She told Melanie that they would work on organizing them together, but shortly after that, Grandma died when her brain aneurysm burst while she was speaking at a church function. So, Melanie was left to finish the task on her own. But, instead of simply organizing the pictures, Melanie made scrapbooks for all of us, and gave it to us this year at Grandpa's party. They are so neat and well-done. Sentimental as I am, I'll cherish it forever! (Thank you, thank you Melanie.)

This was the day before Grandpa's party. My dad's cousin was telling Julia that she knew someone else named Julia . Julia was happily surprised by the news.

This is my bro and my little Lyd. Alex's middle name is Ray--after my wonderful Grandpa.

We had a wonderful,wonderful time in Topeka. I only wish we would have had a little more time. It was a whirlwind of a trip. One of my favorite things about it: Lydia pronounces Topeka as To-pizza. Love that.

                                                                                                           Thanks for reading, Amber

Family

In a little less than a week, I will get to see my Parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, my brother, my mother-in-law, and my step father-in-law. I won't get to see them all at the same time, but I will get to see them all for a short time. My grandpa turns 90 on the 20th, and I am excited to celebrate him, his life and his accomplishments. Dave, the girls and I will be driving to Topeka KS, for a very short trip, and then turning right back around and coming home. It'll be great to see everyone, but it is also a little bittersweet for me. I guess I've just been missing my family. Not just missing them like, "I wanna see you for a few hours," but missing them like..."hey, let's do life together". Almost unbelievably, there was a very short time when my parents, my siblings, my sibling-in-laws, and both sets of Dave's parents all lived in the same town, at the same time. We hung out. We saw each other at church, we randomly got together on weekends, we had surprise run-ins at the grocery store, and sometimes family would stop by our house to see our girls and love on them for a while. I miss that. still.

Maybe someday we'll all be back together again, living in the same place, at the same time, but honestly, we're all so spread out, that I have no idea how we could find a common ground. (Our immediate families are in WY, OK, MO, LA and TX) But, like I said, maybe someday....hopefully someday.

But, for now, I will enjoy seeing them when we can get together on weekends and holidays. I'm sorry to be complaining about it on my blog...but I'll be chalking all of these wishes up to mushy Valentine's Day thoughts about family, love, and loved ones. So (please don't) sue me. But, please do eat a lot of chocolate on Valentine's day, thouroughly enjoy your loved ones, drink in the blessings God has given you, and love like life is poetry in motion. But, don't get all mushy about it like I do. It just comes across as complaining. Know that I love you, blog reader. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Sunday Comics

Happy Super Bowl EVERYONE! I hope that you all eat a lot of wonderful treats and enjoy a great game. Who's playing again? (Just kidding.)

I thought I would share some of the things my kiddos said this last week. I think my girls are hilarious. I guess you can judge for yourselves. :)

On Thursday after dance class, Julia saw a tall woman with a big fur coat on. Julia looked at her for awhile, and after the lady said hi, Julia said "You're big."
I tried to cover the flubber, but I don't think I did a good job. After we got in the car, I talked to her about telling women that they are big. We talked about how only men and kids like to be told that they are big. Women, not so much...
When we got home, Julia told Dave "You're big" right in the middle of one of his sentences. He was confused because he thought she was interjecting something into the conversation they were  having. I had to tell him about the previous conversation we had, and then he understood that she was giving him a heart-felt compliment.

That same evening, Julia told me on the way home, "In dance class, I thinked about you. It was wonderful. You're so wonderful." My heart melted.

On the way home from school Tuesday, Lydia and Julia were fighting. I told Julia to be kind, and I told Lydia to stop yelling YES over and over again. Lydia quietly said "ok, I won't yell yes. I'll just yell no."

On Thursday morning as I was doing Julia's hair for school, she said, "Mom, are you almost done with my hair? My legs are falling off."
"Why are your legs falling off, Julia?" I asked.
"Because I have to stand here so long while you're doing my hair. Are you almost done? My arms are breaking off."
"Julia, I say that my arms are breaking off when I am carrying something really heavy and I am trying to get you to hurry so that I can set the heavy thing down."
"Oh."

Dave and I have been telling the girls that we get to go to the super bowl party today. Julia asked me yesterday, "Mom are we still going to the bumble party?"
"You mean the super bowl party?"
"Oh, yea."

Lydia just keeps asking, "Are we going to my party, Mom?" We've corrected her a few time, but she's pretty sure the whole Super Bowl Party thing is in her honor!

Thanks for reading our Sunday Comics. Go Packers! Go Steelers! Go Packers a little tiny bit more than Steelers. Love ya all, Amber

Weekend Warriors

Have you ever watched the show on HGTV called "Weekend Warriors"? I haven't watched it in a really long time, but I used to enjoy that show. (We only have the most basic cable now. i.e. - no HGTV.) However, it was kind of a sad show at times because the people on the show almost always budgeted too little time and money on a huge home project. Missions were almost never accomplished.

However, at the Stewart home, when we set out to accomplish a goal, we make sure we have plenty of time and money to get the job done!

Stewart Mission: Make bird feeder.
Mission Status: Completed.

Step 1: Spread Peanut Butter

 Step 2: Add bird seed.

 Step 3: Hang outside for birds to enjoy. Feel free to add fruit...birds like that too.

I love to watch birds come and go from our feeders. I am pretty sure it is due to the influence of my aunt.
Unfortunately, it rained yesterday. And now our paper plate bird feeder is wilted, bent in half and soggy.

Note: If you aspire to accomplish the bird feeder goal for you and your family, use a metal pie plate or something more...durable.

You can do it, Weekend Warriors! Love, Amber

Stranger Danger

A friend of ours had an incident with her kid talking to a stranger this week. Her child was in an enviroment where teacher's were watching her child. And evidently, the child's teacher never noticed that the child was talking to a stranger who was standing by the playground fence. My friend didn't know about it until the next day when the child told her about it in detail. My friend shared this incident with me recently as a prayer request, and I am determined to keep her and her child in my prayers.

But, I'm not gonna lie. Her request FREAKED ME OUT! Not only for her and her child, but also for mine!That same evening in the car, Julia and I had a lengthy conversation about stranger danger while Lydia listened. I told Julia over and over again in several different ways that it is never okay to go anywhere with anyone, or even talk to them unless Mommy, Daddy, or a teacher gives her permission to. Julia agreed and even answered all my questions correctly. So, at the end I asked one more hypothetical question:

"Julia, if someone who Mommy and Daddy doesn't know, who we've never met before, who we didn't give permission for you to talk to, what if someone like that comes up to you and says - 'Hi, I have a cookie in my car, do you want to come with me and get it?"

Julia replied in her perkiest voice, "Sure, I'd love to!"

"NNNNOOOO, no, no, no, no. You NEVER go with someone who Mommy and Daddy don't know or give you permission to go with. Please, always ask Mommy or Daddy first!"

Needless to say, we continued to discuss the topic for sometime, and when I asked Julia the question the next time, she answered it correctly. But still it FREAKS ME OUT. Jesus help us! So, I wanted share all of this for anyone with small kiddos who might read my blog. I'm sorry if it freaks you out. That is not my intention. My intention is to remind you to have a stranger danger type conversation with your own little ones. I know it's hard because we don't want to scare our children, (or ourselves) but, it's important to talk about it with them, just in case. Sorry for the downer.

However, I'll try and end  this blog post with a few uppers!

Julia-ism # 1: Julia and Lydia got to watch Cinderella a few nights ago, and during the part where the prince's horsemen are chasing Cinderella down, Julia looked at me and said in an exuberant, worried tone, "Are they trying to kill Cinderella?"
"No," I replied, "they're not. The prince just wants to marry Cinderella, so he sent men after her to bring her back to the palace." Interesting plot when you think about it, huh?

Julia-ism # 2: Julia has two teachers for her mother's day out program. The main teacher's name is easy: Mrs. Drake. The other teacher's name is a little trickier. I tried to study her name badge without being too noticeable a few times, but could never quite make her name out. I asked Julia what her other teacher's name was, and she told me her name is Mr. Mean. I was sure, that wasn't her real name, so this name perplexed me for two reasons. 1- She's female. 2- Julia said she in nice. I finally figured out her teacher's name this week. It's Ms. Nermine.

Lydia-ism # 1: I've started potty training Lydia. A lot of the time, I sit her on the toilet, and no business actually takes place while she's sitting there. When this happens, I often ask her questions, like, "Where's the potty, Lyddie?" Lydia's most recent go-to response: "The potty is in my belly button."

Lydia-ism # 2: Julia got some sea monkeys as a gift for Stewart Christmas. They actually hatched from their eggs and are living in an "aquarium" on our kitchen countertop. Dave and I were discussing them one evening, and afterwards, Lydia asked Dave if she could see them. Dave said, "Sure, they're in the kitchen, go look." Lydia ran in to the kitchen and looked around. She then replied in a sing-song voice, "Nope, no monkeys in the kitchen!"

Hopefully these stories translate. :) They may be some of those "you had to be there" types of stories, but I am glad I have them recorded here all the same. I hope that you have a blessed, safe and wonderful week! -Amber

Stewart Christmas

Good Grief! I am so behind. Life has been whizzing by me like a fly on a horse's tail. I just can't keep up! Since I promised in my last post to share some pics from Stewart Christmas, I will go ahead a share a few, but....goodness knows I needed to post them about a week ago.

Cousin Terri, Fairy Princess Julia and the puppy dog.

 Dog: loved by Julia, feared by Lydia.
 
Julia was a little confused by how we were related to everyone, so we started just calling almost everyone cousin ______. She's used to referring to adults as Miss ________ or Mr._______. But, it felt a little too formal to call family members Miss or Mr. so, we stuck with Cousin (unless they were an Aunt or Uncle.) It worked.

Fairy Princess Julia and Pink Powder Puff Lydia. (Don't ask me what Dave is doing in the background.)

Sweet Cousin Anna Carmen, Cousin Lydia and Cousin Julia all still in their pj's. I love these girls.

 Everytime we see A.C., I want to bring her home with us. She's such a sweet little helper.

Cousin Tracy and Lyddie Lou

Cousin Terri, Cousin Tracy and Aunt Diane

Kendi, Zuri Beth, Anna Carmen, Sarah and Callen

Anna Carmen was a total dear....always up for pushing my little ones on the swing set. I love her.

Cousin Terri, Cousin Andy and the back of Julia's head.

Terri and Andy were gracious enough to host us, and very kind in providing yummy breakfasts, comfortable beds and ice cream after the girls went to bed. It felt like home. :) I think Andy looks like Glenn Beck, but don't tell him that. He's not a fan.

Stewart Christmas was great. I'm glad we don't have to wait as long to go back this year. We will get to see everyone again after Thanksgiving in Branson. How fun! -Amber

Stewart Weekly/De-lurking Day

Some of our Household Happenings:

Lydia gave up her pacifier this week. It's not entirely un-missed, but it's been almost a week. Yay!

Lydia told Julia that she is "her favorite Julia" after school the other day.

Julia amazes me with her ability to retain information. She can "read" Bible stories to us now.

Julia woke up this morning, and I said, "Good morning, Julia." She said, "Can I go to dance class?"

Dave and I are still tired from going out of town for our last Christmas last weekend. (A post about Stewart Christmas is coming soon.)

Our Christmas decorations are down, but not boxed. --And I am already tempted to buy in the Valentine's Day aisle. In fact, I've already purchased valentines day cards for J and L...pathetic.

We had mini bagels with cream cheese this morning, and Lydia was wanting more information about what cream cheese really is. While Dave was explaining it to Lydia, Julia said, "Mmmm, I love cream cheese. I also like goat cheese and lamb cheese." The girl has never met a cheese she didn't love.

I want an iPhone. But our T-Mobile contract doesn't expire until August. My birthday is in August. I've known what I was getting myself for awhile now.

FYI, it's de-lurking day in the blogosphere. If you don't know what that is, please click here! I run stats, so I know there aren't a ton of people reading my blog, but I would appreciate it if you let me know you're out there--especially if you never have commented  before. (I write for family and friends to read, and for a sort of digital scrapbook, so it's not a big deal that my blog hasn't become as popular as the pioneer woman's...but I'd love to here you all any way.)

I love ya'll! -Amber

Firsts...

 First Day of School:

The girls now attend Cornerstone Christian Academy. It's a great school, and the girls love it.

January 4th wasn't Julia's first day of school ever, but it was her first school day in Houston (actually in Sugar Land). She was so excited.

 It was, however, Lydia's first day of school ever.

First Day of Snow this year:

We got to see this snow in southern Oklahoma and Northern Texas. I miss snow.

 The girls do too.

First Dance Class:

Julia got to go to dance for the first time today, and she LOVED it! Can you see her in the middle with the flower in her hair?

 And here she is on the front row; middle right.

 And here she is showing me one of her new moves. So cute!!!

 First Homework Assignment:

Look at what Julia, Lydia, Dave and I worked on last night! It was Julia's homework, but it was a family project. Doesn't are snowman look great? It was designed by Julia herself.

The first of 2011 has been lovely for the Stewart's. It has also been busy, crazy and stressful. How has yours been? -Amber