the peck family

Comfort Amongst Fires

2011-09-07T16:36:00.002-05:00

Please make sure and check out this blog post my good friend Angela wrote on her blog today:

http://blog.halimandangela.com/2011/09/07/this-far-and-no-farther/

It brings comfort remembering that our God is so much bigger than these fires and is in control of all things.

And while you are at it... if you don't already follow her blog, you definitely should. She is an amazing writer and plus she has super cute kids and posts pics of them from time to time.

A Yellow String...

2011-08-01T15:25:00.003-05:00

Happy August!

I truly can't believe it's August First. I'm baffled at how quickly the summer came and went. But isn't that how it always goes?!

Today is an interesting day. Kevin's sister Molly has a birthday today so that's always fun, but today I now have a yellow string tied around my wrist. What does that have to do with anything, you are probably thinking. Well, today, a friend of mine is beginning a journey... and I think you need to follow along her journey with me.

About 5 months ago, Jen McManus found out she had cancer. Stage 3 Melanoma to be precise. Jen is awesome. She is happily married, has 3 super cute kids that are about the same ages as mine, is a foster parent, volunteers with newly/nearly married couples in our church, is a big time athlete, loves the people of Austin, and mostly loves Jesus with all her heart. They haven't been in Austin too long, but has made quite a name for herself here. I haven't spent too much time with her until about 2 weeks ago. Her family joined us at Pine Cove for Family Camp two weeks ago. I loved spending daily time with her and hearing about her heart as she was preparing to come home and battle. You see, today... she begins a year long chemotherapy treatment. And it's a really aggressive plan. My heart is broken for her that she has to do this. In case you didn't know, Kevin's mom passed away about 8 1/2 years ago from Melanoma. So, this is really heavy and close to my heart. Jen is a super trooper and I know she is going to fight this with all she's got plus a mighty troop of people who are standing beside and behind her.

I can't get her off my mind today.

Back to my string... I decided to make a yellow (Live Strong-esque) bracelet to wear to remind myself to pray for her. I like making bracelets because I get a good chunk of time to pray over that person while I make it. So, if you see me and see my bracelet, I hope you'll think of my friend Jen too and pray for complete healing over her body....

And if you'd like to follow her story, she is a wonderful writer and has written some very inspiring posts on her blog throughout this whole process http://jenmcmanus.blogspot.com/

And not to leave the other two out...

2011-06-13T14:24:00.003-05:00

Halle and Ivey wanted to say hi too:

Kindergarten...Check.

2011-06-13T14:13:00.005-05:00

We recently wrapped up Ellie's first school year. Wow. Kindergarten has come and gone. I really can't believe how fast it happened. She learned so much and had a fantastic year...great teacher, great friends... And not only did she learn a ton... I can't believe how much she changed physically... here is the first day and last day pics. Love this girl...

Happy Summer!

Hey now!

2011-02-10T16:38:00.002-06:00

Watch out...I'm on a roll now! Two things to make sure you know about:

I need your help!! My good friend, Jamie Ivey, has sent in a demo for a local radio station to be their new AM dj. Would you mind taking a moment to go vote for her? Click HERE for the site. She's #32. I've heard you can only vote once, but when I went on there, it didn't ask for an email. Weird. Just check it out and vote! :)

Second, I have friend (Christine Hoover) from back in my early days at A&M and she and her husband started a church in Charlottesville, VA a few years ago. She is a writer and has recently been posting on the role of being a pastors wife. This past week, she did an interview with Lauren Chandler. If you don't know who she is, she is married to Matt Chandler-a wonderful pastor at The Village Church in north Dallas. Even if you aren't the wife of a pastor/elder, this still has a lot of wonderful information on being a Godly woman, wife and mother. Please go check it out!!

Happy [Almost] Valentines Day!

2011-02-02T13:08:00.003-06:00

Hello Blog world. It's been a while. This blog is constantly on my mind, but don't feel like I have much to say. I mean, yes, our girls have had an amazing year... Ellie loves kindergarten, Halle has been in the best mood for the past 5 months, and Ivey is well, she is nothing like our other girls, except that she looks just like Ellie... but otherwise, is all her own. She still at 16 months doesn't sleep through the night, but she's a blast to be around and is a rather content little bitty.

But, I found something that I feel like is worth posting about... Valentines Day is coming up in about 12 days & your kids are being asked to send in Valentines, right?? Well, we have some friends here in Austin (Shaun & Katie Fox) who work on staff at the Stone with Kevin. They are currently in the process for adopting a sweet babe from Columbia. Shaun is crazy talented with graphic arts and together, they came up with a great idea for some fund-raising for their adoption. They have created a set of valentines you can print off at your house or send off to Kinkos (are those still around??) and have them printed for you. They are fun and sweet little cards you can fold just like the ones you buy at the store for your kids to give out at their Valentines parties. So awesome. I bought mine, now click HERE and get some for your kids to give out or give them to all your loved ones. :) Each page is $8 or $6 or you can buy the whole set for $20. And you can print off as many as you need because they will email them to you as a pdf. What a deal! I love when you can buy something you need and it goes directly to help someone else.

And spread the word, too... let's help them get their baby home!!

Hope you are all well out there in the blogosphere... Here are a few pics of the girls mostly from my parents house over Christmas break... and one of Ellie at her school Christmas party (though she looks really tired!):

Check...check

2010-10-14T18:10:00.000-05:00

one. two. one. two.

is this thing on?

Together for Adoption

2010-05-28T10:16:00.002-05:00

We've had some pretty big milestones going on for the past few weeks that need to be blogged about (Ellie turning 5, graduation from preschool and dance recital #2), but wanted to get some info out to you about a conference that is coming up that I think you should come to!

It's called Together for Adoption. We first heard about it last year and REALLY wanted to go to the one in Nashville, but it was the weekend before I had Ivey so pretty sure Dr. C didn't want me driving across the country! All of our friends came home and were raving about it and I was so sad to have missed out. This year, it is being held in Austin!!

Our family longs and desire to adopt... I mean, we've been adopted into God's family...it's already in our DNA and there are SO MANY children in the world that are longing for a home. I can remember the thoughts of wanting to adopt starting when I was in college. Then I met Kevin and it became something we BOTH knew that we would do one day in our marriage. So exciting! Now the Lord has brought some AMAZING families to our church that have adopted and there are several families in the process of adopting right now. EVEN MORE EXCITING! I just know it's coming soon for us, too!

If you there is a longing in your heart to adopt, if you love families who have adopted and want to know more about how to love them or if don't know anything about it or anyone who has adopted, we'd LOVE to have you come join us at the conference. There are breakout sessions about how college students can be involved with adoption, foster care, your church and the orphan, adoption 101, and MORE! Click HERE for the website and if you register before JUNE 30, you get a great discount! We would absolutely LOVE to see you there and walk with us as we learn all about the process together.

[By the way, if you are a runner, there is a half-marathon and a full marathon going on in New Braunfels at the end of October called Chosen: Marathon for Adoption. AWESOME! Click HERE to sign up. If you are at The Stone, we are signing up together and the money we spend will come back to our own adoption fund! Check out our FB page HERE!]

Cousins or Best Friends??

2010-05-01T22:55:00.003-05:00

These girls have sure come a long way...

May 2, 2008

May 1, 2010

My How Your Garden Grows

2010-04-05T15:35:00.007-05:00

Yes, your Google Reader is correct. I'm still here. Life with 3 kiddos doesn't seem to lend itself to blogging in my life. :)

For a little catchup on my girlies: Ellie is 9 days shy of 5, Halle is 2 1/2 and Ivey is 6 1/2 months! My littles just don't seem to be so little anymore! Ellie is big time ready for this summer... mostly for family camp at Pine Cove but also for summer dance at DanceLife and a little thing we call GRAMMY (and Papa Ray) CAMP!! But really, life is waiting for September when she starts Kindergarten! She is super excited about it. Ellie also really loves her sisters and has started seeing Halle as a fun friend to play with. She is definitely in love with Ivey and always wants to help take care of her.

Halle is really really fun. She LOVES purses, loves running after Ellie. She gives lots of love to Ivey too. Her vocab is growing like crazy and sweet little baby words are turning into big-girl-ese... ie she can actually say "Halle" instead of "Howie." :) Other than her sisters, the world revolves around her BFF Malachi. They go to school together, to church together, everytime she leaves the house she asks for "Mow-chi" to come along... but she now blames most things on him too. Her favorite book BY FAR is The Hungry Caterpillar. She knows the entire book by heart and we read through it EVERY NIGHT. At this point, the book is missing, but there is no need for it. :) And the funniest part is that she has added in her own line that MUST be included... for those that know it: It's on the Saturday page and is generally added in between the sausage and the cupcake. She always says, "Caterpillar sad!" Pretty hilarious.

I can't believe Ivey is almost 7 months! What?! Halle and Ellie were pretty similar in their lives as babies. But Ivey is FAR different! The other girls at 12 weeks, were sleeping solidly 12 hours at night. Ivey...not so much. We are doing good to get a 6 hour stretch in. The other girls didn't care one bit about real food. Ivey grabbed hold of my apple one day and WENT TO TOWN before I realized what happened. She eats several times a day. Crazy! She is super sweet. She started crawling around 5 1/2 months and is around 50th percentile in everyway. Hmmm...what else?? We love her and she seems perfectly suited for our little family!

Now on to my garden! In the past, my sister had read about Square Foot Gardening and last (late) spring, we tried it out. Now, for me, I just planted a few things then let it tend to itself since it was insanely hot and I was REALLY pregnant. But after watching my sister's 2 garden boxes take off through the fall/winter, I was excited to give my box another round. So we counted down to our designated plant day and we took a little trip down to the Natural Gardener and got lots of fun/good stuff to throw in the ground. What's really fun is that we have lots of friends doing it too!! (If you are curious who, here's the list: Adrianne Collins, Angela Suh, Jen Richardson, Jen Carter, and Olivia Engstrom. We have a few other garden friends, but they aren't doing the square foot method: Kimberly Stewart & Maris Bush. Anyone else out there growing veggies??)

We first planted on March 14th. In my garden I have: 4 tomatoes (2 Juliet (cherry) tomatoes and 2 Better Boys), 2 Chocolate Bell Peppers, 2 Jalapenos, 2 Big Bertha bell peppers, 2 cucumbers, 1 cantaloupe, 1 broccoli, 2 spinach beet greens, oregano, and cilantro. The cilantro was left over from last summer...pretty amazing it lasted!!

So here it is in the beginning:

Here it is on April 5th:

and then today...it's like it's been on steroids or something!!:

(and yesterday I chopped off half of my cilantro...it's HUGE!)

My tomatoes are VERY happy too with lots of sweet yellow flowers and lots of little green tomatoes getting started!

Pictures of my little bell peppers:

And some of my tomatoes:`

It is really super easy... if you haven't ever tried it before, try this... it's fun and we love going to check on it everyday.

Here are a few links to check out:

My sisters blog

The Natural Gardener

BUY Square Foot Gardening via Amazon

So, maybe there's more to come... we'll see! I'll try to get more pics of my littles up here. They are amazing gifts and we are blessed by them in big ways. Thanks for wanting to keep up with us! :)

It's that time of year!

2009-10-31T16:11:00.005-05:00

Yes, when the Peck girls head to the pumpkin patch... Here are some of our pictures...

and here are some links from years past at the pumpkin patch:

http://kevinandleslie.blogspot.com/2008/10/fun-week.html
http://kevinandleslie.blogspot.com/2007/10/pumpkins.html
http://kevinandleslie.blogspot.com/2007/10/past-pumpkins.html

More to come... COSTUMES and Trick or Treating!!!

Soccer has begun!

2009-10-16T16:44:00.002-05:00

This fall, Ellie has started her athletic journey and she has started with soccer. She was super excited about signing up and even more excited when she found out she knew 4 out of the other 5 kids on her team. In fact, the coach of the team are some of our good friends, Aaron and Becky Travis. She has been doing so great and it's been fun helping her understand that though we've ingrained in her to always share, when she's on the soccer field, that ball is hers and she is to do what she can to take the ball away from the other team and kick it in the goal! :) It's been a big laugh watching these little 4/5 year olds learn the game. Here are some of our pics from the season:

And here are 2 videos of Ellie's 2 goals in the last game... pretty awesome!!

and goal 2

Sorry for the delay!

2009-10-13T17:27:00.004-05:00

Ivey Grace Peck was born on Monday, October 5th at 3:24pm!! She was 7 pounds and 14 ounces and 20 1/2 inches in length. It was a VERY early morning checking into the hospital at 5:30am. They started the pitocin at 6am and we were rolling! Around 3pm game time happened and after a few minutes of pushing, here she was!

We spent 2 days in the hospital and came home on Wednesday. Thankfully, my parents were at the house taking care of the other girls.

It's been a great almost 2 weeks with 3 girls around our house. Ellie and Halle both L*O*V*E their new sister and want to hold her all the time. They love helping me get diapers and finding blankets and pacifiers.

We are basically on house arrest for the next few weeks, so if you want to come by, just give me a shout and we'd love to have you over! (We're all staying home from school, church, and anywhere else lots of kiddos are to keep all the viruses and flu's out of the house)

Here are some of our pictures of the new world of 3 kids we have embarked on!

The Vanilla Orchid

2009-09-03T14:13:00.002-05:00

If you are in the Austin area, you NEED to check out The Vanilla Orchid! My sister in law Molly is a chef and has started a home delivery/catering business over the past 6 months. Every week she offers an amazing menu filled with really great foods. And as good as her main courses are, her sides, desserts and sauces are just as good. Place your order by Sunday night and she will deliver it TO YOUR HOUSE or office on Wednesday. If you aren't home, just leave a freezer bag out and it will keep on your porch until you get home. Or if you have a friend who has been sick or maybe had a baby, set it up for the meal to go to their house as a special treat!

This week, she has an amazing comfort food filled menu including
Chicken Pot Pie, Meatloaf and Pork Roast. YUM!

AND if you order by tomorrow (FRIDAY) you'll get free cookie dough with your order so you can make her amazing cookies at home and hot anytime!

Her website is Http://thevanillaorchid.com Click now and make your order for Wednesday!!

The name

2009-08-23T18:16:00.003-05:00

Ivey Grace Peck... yes, we have finally made a decision!! This is the name we've been going back to for the entire summer and for some reason, just couldn't make it official. But last night at dinner, Kevin and I decided for sure on both the first and last name.

So where did this come from??

In all reality, I'm not sure... one day I was just driving and the name Ivey just entered my mind... I think I was thinking of my friend Courtney which made me remember the names of her nieces... one of which is Ivy. We went to dinner with some friends that night and I said it... no one seemed to oppose. I came home and decided to do a search to see if maybe there was some Biblical meaning to it. Sure enough, I found a meaning to a Hebrew word Ivah, which means "God's great gift." Done. Basically, we were done with the first name at that point, but had more trouble with the middle name. Both of our girls (and even my sister and I) have family names... Ann and Elizabeth. So does that mean our 3rd girl needs another family name for a middle name?? That was our conversation all summer. We had several considerations throughout our chats... from Marguerite which was my grandmother's name or maybe Pearson which is Kevin's mom's middle name and grandmother's maiden name. But at the end of the day, we realized that we wouldn't use either of those with the first name. Does that make sense? We have Ellie Ann and Halle Beth... they just come out easily. One friend told me about a friend that she had that was Ivey Grace... and there it was... it rolls off the tongue and when put with the name Ivey, "God's great gift of grace" ... perfect!

We love it and are so excited to be able to officially have her name down!!

Oh and by the way, if you are curious of the spelling, I didn't really have a preference between Ivey and Ivy, but Kevin said, "She's not a plant." So, there you have it! :)

And if you are keeping up with our friends the Suhs, not that they wouldn't be already, but these two girls are destined to be bffs forever... I mean, Ivey and Evie??!! So fun...

A trip through California

2009-08-16T23:18:00.003-05:00

After NYC, we came home and Kevin wrapped up work the last week of June because for the month of July, he was taking the entire month off for his sabbatical. We had a great month!

To start it off, we went to California for a week. We started out in Southern California in Dana Point (just south of Laguna Beach). We had 2 days at the beach and the girls couldn't have had a better time. Day 3 was spent at Disneyland. Ellie loved it and had a blast and Halle was pretty disinterested. It wasn't until after the trip that she decided she liked to watch cartoons on tv. After Disneyland, we spent 2 days in Bakersfield with Kevin's grandmother and his uncle Danny. Those days including lots of time in the backyard in the famous Smith tree, trips to Dewars (an ice cream shop), and fireworks on the golf course in the backyard on the 4th of July! Our final leg of the trip, we drove up north to Marin County and San Francisco. The first night in Marin, our hotel just happened to be next to the county fair grounds and they were having their summer fair. It was awesome! The weather was amazing and the scenery was unreal. Our last day in CA was spent wandering through the red woods at Muir Woods and then an afternoon in San Francisco visiting Fisherman's Wharf.

It was an amazing week... here are a few pictures:

Next up: Pine Cove Family Camp!!

NYC

2009-08-16T20:54:00.003-05:00

So, i thought to get caught up on our lives, I'd do a couple of posts about our fun summer!

This summer, I turned 30! I still can't believe it. Time is truly flying by...

Kevin kept telling me he had something up his sleeve, but wouldn't tell me anything. So on Monday, we were driving up to Dallas for the day and on the way he gave me a card that told me he was taking me to see Wicked (the musical) for my birthday. I was super excited because it was coming to Austin in August and thought that was what he was talking about. Until he told me our tickets were for Broadway and that we were leaving on Wednesday morning for 4 days in the big city!! I was beside myself. Kevin has been several times over the past couple of years for work, but I haven't been since March of 2001.

We had a blast to say the least!

Here are some pictures of our trip:

Next up: California!!

Looking for New Music?

2009-06-26T12:35:00.002-05:00

With it being summer time, I'm sure you have some vacations planned and will be on the road or sitting in the airport. Well lucky for you, I have some great new music for you today! Aaron and his band have been leading worship at our church for the past year and he and his band just released a new album this week. These guys and their families are truly some of our favorite people in Austin... and these families are truly shaking up our church, this city and our world.

This album has old hymns, new worship songs and one song in particular, Amos Story, that is a beautiful story of their family adopting two kids from Haiti. You should seriously take a moment and go purchase this on itunes... you will not be sorry!!

Happy listening!!

A bit of a makeover

2009-06-06T17:01:00.005-05:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, Kevin and a few friends got together to accomplish a task... a task not many would take on, but they did it! Our neighbors the Collins and another family in our neighborhood, the Wrights, all got the idea that we should build pergolas for our porches. Yet another friend in the neighborhood, Rob VanVleet is a construction guru, so together with about 7 manly men, set out to beat the odds and build 3 pergolas in one weekend!

Though by the end of the day on Monday they weren't quite through, by Wednesday, they were all done. Building three of these bad boys in just 5 days was an amazing feat of wonder and we now all have beautiful back porches to enjoy!

Here are some of the pictures:

The house before:

That's a lot of lumber!

Let the digging begin!

My man and Chris mix up the concrete for the posts

At the end of day one

Enjoying the shade Suzanne, Adrianne and I fashioned

Day two, back at work!

By the end of the day, here's what we had up!

At the end of Monday, 2 down and 1 to go (there was a little hold up due to rain and all the guys working/volunteering at the church) In this one, you can see ours and the Collins all finished up. What's been fun is that we have left our fence open to their yard and we've had more fun times in the last few weeks with it being down that ever before!

The finished project!!!

a name for this child...

2009-06-04T12:26:00.003-05:00

well, to all my friends in blogging land who haven't heard via facebook or twitter, we had our 20 week appointment on monday and for the second time in the pregnancy, have been told we're having a ......

GIRL! yes, the domination of the females will continue to dominate the peck house. never in a million years would i have dreamed of having a whole slew of girls. i remember back in the days before kids talking about always wanting to have a whole pack of boys, but now, i couldn't imagine not having all of my girls! i love all of my friends boys and nephews to pieces but couldn't imagine what it would be like having a boy running wild through my house. it's still not over for us having kids, though physically it might be. our desire has always been to adopt and now with number 3 on her way, the conversations on timelines have actually been started. we are so excited and looking forward to joining alongside so many of our friends who have walked this road and are currently walking it. it's still a ways off, but we're excited about the future!!

so, now it comes down to having a name for this girl. we've kind of put ourselves in a corner and now have to figure out how to navigate. both of our girls names have special meanings and yet go together. for those who don't know the background to our names, ellie's name came from the greek word eleos which means mercy. we were just sitting on the couch when we first found out we were pregnant, we read it and boom, we knew that was it. we spent the better part of that pregnancy trying to decide whether to officially name her eleos or just name her ellie. in the end, we decided we didn't want her to be "that girl" in school who always had to tell the teacher her name and what she goes by. :) halim still calls her eleos and i'm thankful that she will always know the meaning of her name. we had to work a little to an agreement for halle's name, but ended up knowing pretty quickly that would be her name. you see, we had tried for about a year to get pregnant the 2nd time. (hindsight is 20/20 because i couldn't imagine having them closer together than 2 1/2 years!) when i found out i was pregnant, the first thing i said was "hallelujah!" and as we walked through names, halle just kept ringing in my heart... and as i researched, hallelujah is said to be the highest praise to our King, so it was decided. we didn't have to work so much to decide if we would officially name her hallelujah or just halle though, but halim still calls her hallelujah on occasion.

so you see, we are in a predicament. both names are two syllables that end with a long -lee and have a great Biblical meaning behind them. so, not only do we need to have a name that goes with the rest, it has to have meaning with it. i guess we're glad to have another 18 weeks or so to make a decision! i'm just ready for this little girl to have a name. just thought i'd share a little of what we are going through this time around. :)

oh and just to let you know, if we left the decision up to ellie, this poor child's name would either be skittles or starlight! oh the thoughts of a 4 year old! :)

A slide show of the last few weeks

2009-05-27T14:18:00.001-05:00

A Sonnet

2009-05-27T14:16:00.000-05:00

Here is an unpublished sonnet by D.A. Carson, which he read during his talk on the incarnation at the Next Conference.

The Prologue

Before there was a universe,

Before a star or planet,
When time had still not yet begun --

I scarcely understand it --
Th' eternal Word was with his God,

God's very Self-Expression;
Th' eternal Word was God himself --

And God had planned redemption.

The Word became our flesh and blood --

The stuff of his creation --
The Word was God, the Word was flesh,

Astounding incarnation!
But when he came to visit us,

We did not recognize him.
Although we owed him everything

We haughtily despised him.

In days gone by God showed himself

In grace and truth to Moses;
But in the Word of God made flesh

Their climax he discloses.
For grace and truth in fullness came

And showed the Father's glory
When Jesus donned our flesh and died:

This is the gospel story.

All who delighted in his name,

All those who did receive him,
All who by grace were born of God,

All who in truth believed him --
To them he gave a stunning right:

Becoming God's dear children!
Here will I stay in grateful trust;

Here will I fix my vision.

Before there was a universe,

Before a star or planet,
When time had still not yet begun --

I scarcely understand it --
Th' eternal Word was with his God,

God's very Self-Expression;
Th' eternal Word was God himself --

And God had planned redemption.

We had a fun afternoon yesterday!

2009-05-12T16:39:00.001-05:00

Family Reunion!!

2009-05-11T15:47:00.005-05:00

Hey friends!

It's that time of year when all of your family at The Austin Stone gathers together to spend the afternoon together. We will be eating some awesome IronWorks bbq, enjoying the company of our friends and family and most importantly... celebrating NEW LIFE through baptism!

You don't want to miss out! It will be this Saturday, May 16th starting at 11am. It will be held at EV Free Church in SW Austin. You can click HERE for more details and click HERE to buy your tickets for food!!

Pack up the kids, slather on the sunscreen and hopefully, I'll see you there!

*Update, the link to buy tickets sometimes works and sometimes doesn't... sorry about that. If you have any problems, just go to www.austinstone.org and you can find it from there. ;)

Yesterday!

2009-05-03T08:33:00.006-05:00

I can't believe the day got away from me without posting on my sweet girls big day!!

We've had a traditional birthday weekend in the Peck house... Ellie turned 4 yesterday and there were almost that many parties for the little lady. It has been an amazing weekend and Kevin and I have loved loving on her. We keep sitting her down and telling her how thankful we are for her life and she just gets this big smile on her face every time we tell her.

She is pretty amazing, if you didn't know!

Evangeline Piper Suh!!

2009-04-14T21:40:00.003-05:00

We are so excited that Evangeline joined the world tonight! She is 7 pounds and 6 ounces and 19 inches of pure cuteness!!

We were thankful to have a chance to go by the hospital tonight and catch a glimpse of her in all of her dark headed glory.

Here are the two pictures I was able to snag... more to come, I'm sure! Make sure to watch out at the Suh page for more updates... http://blog.halimandangela.com/

Cardboard Testimonies from Easter Sunday

2009-04-14T16:40:00.002-05:00

Our church did a video this past Sunday and it was AMAZING! These are people from my church, many that I know and love and praise the Lord for their beautiful stories of redemption. I hope you enjoy it...

Cardboard Stories from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.

5 years ago

2009-03-24T11:57:00.006-05:00

For a while now, I've been searching for a disc of pictures from a trip that Kevin and I took almost 5 years ago exactly. From the move from Ft Worth to Austin and then 3 houses later in Austin, I figured they might have been lost. UNTIL YESTERDAY!! I had a thought of where they might be, so searching through some boxes, I found them!!

For our 2nd anniversary, we decided to take a trip to Europe. You know, the big trip before you start having kids! We started in Paris, flew to Zurich, took a train Munich, flew to London and then back home... and that was all within 10 days. Whew! But we had so much fun...

And as I looked through the pictures, I got so tickled... we looked like such babies! Kevin came home last night and gave them a good laugh too...

So, I thought I'd share a few of them...

At the top of the Eiffel tower

At the bottom of the Eiffel tower

The upper chapel in La Sainte Chappelle

Kevin overlooking Zurich

One of the gorgeous churches we went into

The most amazing candy cafe... Cafe Schober. It's hidden way back on an obscure street. It looked like an Easter bomb went off in there. It was insane!!!

But true to the books, they had the most amazing hot chocolate!! (I'm pretty sure Kevin had something to do with me being willing to take a picture with a whipped cream mustache!)

Off to Munich and to the Marienplatz (I actually got to come back here last summer on our layover to Izmir, Turkey)

Out on our tour of the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. (Walt Disney created the Magic Kingdom after this castle)

Our last day was spent in London... it was cold and rainy. Kevin made some friends in front of Westminster Abbey. We were tired and wiped, so that's about all of London we saw. Maybe one day we'll go back!

We've Been a Little Busy!

2009-03-23T20:45:00.008-05:00

So sorry for the lapse in my blogging... this has been a very crazy semester in the Peck household. Tonight, Kevin is travelling home from a long day in Dallas (some of the Stone staff went to spend the day with the Village staff), so now that the girls are in bed, I actually have time to upload some pictures!!

Kevin and I are both teaching two classes on Sundays at church and while we love it, it's been pretty time consuming. We are teaching a class for couples who have been married at least 3 years, though some of the newlyweds snuck in since our Newly/Nearly Married class fills up almost instantly. And I am teaching a class for moms with my great friend Jen Carter... we're walking through the book Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney... great book for any of you mom's out there!!

And March is crazy birthday season for us... Kevin knocks it off at the end of Feb, our anniversary sneaks in on the 9th (we saw Spamalot... so much fun!!), then Anna's birthday is the 15th, my sisters is the 17th, Suzanne's father-in-law is the 18th, Kevin's brother Sam is the 19th and Annabel's is the 24th!! Whew... not to mention a lot of other friends birthdays that are getting celebrated... but all of the parties are a ton of fun! Maybe my sister will update her blog with pics of the Barrett weekend celebration soon... ;). You can see pics of Sam's birthday fish fry on their site and I'm sure Sally will have pics of Annabel digging into her precious hippo cake up soon.

So, here are some pics from the last 6 weeks or so to help get you up to date...

Halle is 18 months and loves posing for the camera and saying "cheese!"

Ellie has been busy at dance getting ready for her recital in May... here is your sneak peek at the costume!

Just a random pic of Halle... she is so fun and is almost always talking on the phone to someone.

Some friends and I threw one of my dearest friend Michelle a going away party as she moved off to Turkey to start her new life with her fiance. (Michelle is the one in the burgundy jacket) We had a fun night and I still can't believe she is gone. Thankfully, she'll be back in December to get married in Austin!!!

Grand-dad Earl got a sweet Yorkie puppy and her name is Abbie Road... Ellie is in LOVE!!

Halle is growing up way to fast and loves to show you her ears and her belly...

Kevin (finally) got his iPhone for his birthday and Ellie is quite the pro at figuring it all out... it really is amazing how fast she picked up how to work it and where to find all of her apps. (Her fav is a fishing game)

Over spring break, we went over to our friends the Kloubecs house with some other friends and let the kids run loose in the back yard... it was quite a sight to see!

Later that afternoon, Halle got her first haircut and the mullet is gone! Why our girls hair grows in that shape is quite the mystery, but she looks too cute with her new cut!!

With all the great Spring Break weather, Ellie's pool got busted out and she spent some fun time on the trampoline, too!

And finally, here is our 8 week sonogram! Yep, "tres" (Ellie's loving name for the baby) is due to make an appearance October 10th, 2009! We are so excited and ready to head back to the dr to catch another glimpse.

Today on the River

2009-02-13T22:40:00.003-06:00

With liverty and justins for all

2009-01-18T22:55:00.005-06:00

Ellie got a GREAT puzzle of the United States for Christmas that tells you the name of the state, state motto, and capital. Growing up in the Stewart household, it was a must that we knew each state and its capital, so passing on this tradition and knowledge to Ellie has been a lot of fun. But on this puzzle, there are two extra buttons... one sings "America the Beautiful" and the other has the pledge of allegiance. After only hearing it a handful of times, this is what she has to show for it:

What a cutie!

Need any new books?

2009-01-06T21:36:00.002-06:00

I am all about this kind of stuff... where you are buying things you already need and a good cause receives a profit from it as well... i.e. the (RED) campaign from GAP. Well, if you love this sort of thing too, this is just for you!

There is an organization here in Austin called Makarios that our church supports and that we personally love, too. (You can read all about how incredible Makarios is here.)

I was just reading that they have started a partnership with Amazon, so if you need any books... click HERE to buy them. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but somehow Makarios gets credit when you buy books through this link. The post I read was intended for college students as they purchase all their new books for the semester but as I searched, you can get any books through Amazon.

So, with all of the resolutions I've read and heard of people wanting to read more this year, here's your way of helping out a great cause while keeping your word to broaden your mind!

Funny Kid

2009-01-05T10:37:00.002-06:00

Go back a few hours today... back to 5am. Here's what went down in our house:

All is quiet and everyone asleep.
Ellie comes downstairs to our room and tells Kevin, "Daddy, there's an ant crawling on my wall and I'm scared!"
Kevin gives me the "look" being that he is getting up soon to head back to work...so I get up with Ellie to take her back upstairs to check out the situation.
We get upstairs, look for the ant and what does Ellie say?
"Oh, it wasn't an ant on my wall, just a BOOGER!"

Got to love those kiddos!

Update...

2009-01-05T09:42:00.001-06:00

so, it's been a while and thought i needed to send out our critter update! thankfully and knocking on wood, the mice seem to have moved on from our house. we got a few more in our garage soon after the laundry room incident with kevin, but no more evidence in our house. though, we've been cleaning out our room and closet and oh man, there was a lot of mouse poop found ALL OVER THE PLACE! ugh... seriously disgusting...but, they seem to be gone. the bad part... seems that they've moved on to the suh's house across the street. so sorry suh's!

and in another update, we get these emails from our HOA rep (the nature and frequency of ALL these emails is another post for another day)... but, she did send one out recently that caught my attention...

" A resident reported seeing a small mountain lion (puma) at the end of the walking trail going in toward the golf course"

what in the world?! a puma??!! who knew living 10 miles from the center of downtown Austin could cause so much wildlife chaos! here's hoping the new year is critter free for you (and us too)!

So sad...

2008-12-29T22:27:00.002-06:00

Well, we found out today that Ellie is allergic to penicillin. So sad! After being on amoxicillin for a week, all of a sudden all these bumps on her stomach showed up... then it spread to the back... down the arms, all over the face... it is heartbreaking to see her right now. Thankfully, it's not affecting her and she is still herself... just a little swollen all over and red. We will try again in a year or two to see if she grows out of it.

If you are interested in seeing what it looks like for your kid to have a reaction to penicillin, let me know. I have pictures and just couldn't put them out here for the world to see. But will share them with you for medical purposes. ;)

Big Mike and Megan's Wedding

2008-12-14T16:54:00.002-06:00

This weekend, some of our favorite people got married... Mike Roberts and Megan Jahnke. And my favorite fella got to do the wedding! He did an amazing job! Here are a few pics from the night:

A rare shot of just me and my guy

Some of my favorite girls!
(Olivia Engstrom, Amber Gentry, Sally Lopez, Leah Gibson, and Katie Wussow)

The dueling picture takers

Stewart Cousins Like to Elf too!

2008-12-12T15:32:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Peck Cousins Elf it Up!

2008-12-12T15:30:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Snow!

2008-12-10T11:56:00.007-06:00

Yes, it snowed last night!

Around 9:30 when Ellie went to bed, she called out to me and asked me what was knocking on her window. I looked out the window and little ice pellets were falling! Who knew?! Off to bed she went. Kevin and I watched the news and sure enough, there was a chance of snow. Around midnight, I looked out the window and sure enough... there it was! Sadly, I couldn't wake ellie... she has been sick most of the week and just couldn't bear to wake her.

When she woke up this morning, there was still some snow on the ground... you know your kid isn't feeling great when she doesn't even care that there is still snow on the ground. :(

So, here is a shot from our backyard at noon! Yes, that means it is freezing outside and I have to make a trek to the grocery store. Why didn't we go yesterday??!! Oh yeah, I felt like junk yesterday. Oh well... it will be fun to bundle up the girls and race through the parking lot... right??!

Hope you are all staying warm...

***And as a side note... somehow, my old camera emerged from the grave... you have to squeeze it really tight, hold it just right, use the view finder and know that there is no hope for a zoom. We're still on the hunt for the camera... thanks for all the help!!

Tagged

2008-12-07T22:18:00.004-06:00

I've been tagged!
Here are the instructions...
1. Go to your pictures
2. Upload the fourth picture in the fourth file
3. Post
4. Tag four friends

The girls playing in the crib back in April

Angela, Suzanne, Sally and Tara ... you're up next!

I need your input!

2008-11-30T23:43:00.002-06:00

Hey friends...
For the past year and a half, we have had a great camera... the Canon SD1000. But at our Halloween trip to Sea World, it met it's fate. So sad... I loved that camera. Now, I'm on the hunt for a new one. I need a small one for everyday use and one that will do short videos.

Do you have one you use that you love? Or do you have one that you bought that you wish you hadn't? I need your feedback! Send me an email or a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Thank you!!!

Seriously, tell me what you think...

Are you writing it down yet???

"Can you ride home comfortably?"

2008-11-25T15:13:00.002-06:00

We had our 5th (yes 5th) trip to Sea World yesterday. Let me tell you, this is THE BEST time to go. The weather was perfect... in shorts, but not hot... there weren't many people there... and they already had Christmas up and rolling! This was our biggest trip to date... the 4 of us, Sally, Justin and Annabel Lopez, Molly Peck, and the Engstrom clan (who was plus his mom, sister and new baby). All of the shows were Christmas based and I must say, was impressed that the Shamu show actually talked about Christmas, not just holidays, and talked about the actual story of Christmas. Way to go Sea World!

And to fill you in on the quote... Kevin, Justin and I decided to ride the Atlantis ride. However, we wanted to watch some people ride it to make sure everyone didn't get soaked... who wants to ride home for an hour and a half soaked? So we watch, they don't get too wet and then Justin yells at a guy, "Can you ride home comfortably?" The guy answered with a yes... so on we went to ride it. It was pretty funny, but maybe you had to be there. :)

Here are some pics from our fun day... Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends!

Look Out Jack Jack

2008-11-16T16:06:00.004-06:00

There is a new Incredible baby on the loose!

We were at a birthday party for Wesley Grant Stewart and Halle wore this mask for over an hour... never pulled it off once... she was hilarious!!

(Thanks Jamie for the pictures!!)

Finally... Halloween!

2008-11-15T11:16:00.002-06:00

Well, we had a tragic loss of our camera a few weeks back at Sea World... hopefully after Christmas we'll have enough $$ saved up to get a new one! :)

But with that said, it took a few weeks to get the pics from my sister, so now... finally... Halloween 2008!

The story: Halle was the cutest octopus and Ellie was Ariel yet again. :) Here's the story behind that. Starting in August, I knew I would have to be quick to buy a costume at Target... those suckers go fast! So I started asking Ellie what she wanted to be. Everytime... Ariel. So, we happened to get there in time to get a brand new Ariel costume (fyi, last year, she just about wore the old Ariel costume EVERY DAY... it only made it to January until it just couldn't be worn anymore!). THEN, a new show came on Disney... Imagination Movers. Ellie has fallen in love BIG TIME with this show. On the show, there is a neighbor who is named Nina. She just comes over to help the movers with their problem. What is special about Nina is that she only wears pink and red. So, Ellie changes her mind and says not only that she wants to be Nina, but that in fact, she IS Nina. She goes around telling everyone that her new name is Nina. Too funny! So, the big day comes and she says she is ready to put on her costume. We go into her room and look through her dresser, pick out some cute pink and red clothes... she looks down and says, "Where's my costume?" She was expecting some much fancier I guess. I told her that was her costume and she looks at me and says, "I'd rather be Ariel." Good thing I didn't decide to take it back!!

Hope you had a great Halloween!!

Wishing Mickey Was the Only Mouse in the House

2008-11-14T11:44:00.005-06:00

So it's been a while since my initial update about the mouse in the garage. Somehow, these little critters have decided to invade the inside of our house. AHHHHH!!! To take it back a bit, after we started seeing more evidence of the growing population in the garage, Kevin set up traps and within 15 minutes, had caught 3 mice. Nice! Little did I know, that was only the beginning of our troubles.

A week or so later, one appeared in, of all places, our BEDROOM!!!!! I called my faithful bug guy, Terrance. He came out and put some traps out. For about a week, we slept upstairs... no WAY was I going to sleep in our room while sharing it with a mouse. Finally, Kevin said, enough... let's go back to our room. So, I did... we just turned out the lights, watching some SNL and boom... we heard it. It came out from behind the dresser, hit the little doorstop, then ran back behind the dresser. No worries, I was upstairs in 2 seconds flat!! :) We set out more traps. It was time to take control.

Then it was time to head out on vacation. I just knew they were living inside my dresser making nests and having babies. I knew that when we came home we would have 100 of those little critters living in our house. Thankfully, my parents came in town to watch the girls and bravely stayed at our house. My mom saw our dresser mouse as well as a new friend... in the PANTRY!! What in the world??! My mom also told me the one in the bedroom was no small mouse... he was a big thick mouse. Yuck! My sister then says on vacation... 6 hours from home... "Maybe that big one is just pregnant?!" Oh my goodness... I think I about went into a fit when I thought about that. When I came home, the door into our house from our garage door was opened a little. OH NO... they have all left the garage for the nice house. I just knew it. But to my surprise, I see two mice (one large and one small) laying peacefully on two traps in the garage!! YES, they are gone!!

I tried to tell myself, there were two in the house, the door was open, now there are two in the traps... we're all done, right??!

We come home and Kevin cleans out the pantry, no mice at the time. Whew! A few days later, I went into our room, set Ellie on the bed to watch Clifford and what goes scurrying across our baseboards?????? Yes, there's another one. I was trying to watch where it went so that my brave, mouse fighting sister could come over and take care of him, but that little sucker disappeared from sight without even a second to pass. It was crazy. Later that afternoon, I went into the laundry room to wash some clothes and what comes out from behind the dryer?? Oh you know. I slam the door and stuff a towel under it... text Kevin and let him know he had a little surprise when he got home. He was successful in his mouse trapping skills and got rid of it.

That was two days ago and haven't seen anything since... please please let them be gone!! And yes, we are still sleeping upstairs, though I am trying to spend some time in our room in little increments during the day... rehabing as Kevin calls it. :)

We are lucky... our ENTIRE neighborhood has been underfire from these little critters. One family has killed over 40 mice IN THEIR HOUSE! Some have had in the 20's and some in the 10's. Oh please, let them leave our house NOW!!!!!!

I'm trying to remember my hamster from college, Zuka... "think of them like that," says my sister... but I just HATE the element of surprise. They could be lurking around any corner, in any bag, anywhere... hiding... waiting to pounce! It's no good either that as I searched the internet trying to find ways to get rid of mice I see a statistic that says some mice can jump 3 feet in the air!!!

If anyone has a mouse wrangler, please let me know... I think we have 10 families out here who would love to chip in together to bring him out here.

Oh the joys of country life in Manor!

Here's hoping your homes are mouse-free...

SIGN UP TODAY!!!!

2008-11-02T14:55:00.003-06:00

The Women's Retreat for The Austin Stone is this weekend... Nov 6th & 7th! Click here to sign up!!

Halloween of Years Past...

2008-11-01T14:58:00.002-05:00

Halloween 2005: A Pretty Pink Octopus

Halloween 2006: A Cutey Goldfish

Halloween 2007: A Beautiful Ariel

And Halle's first time in 2007: A Pink Bunny

Pics from this year... coming soon! :)

All Mom Prayer

2008-10-24T19:47:00.006-05:00

lamentations 2:19
"...Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children..."

All Mom Prayer at the austin stone

Tuesday, October 28th, Mom to Mom is having a night of prayer. Join other moms to pray for your children, asking God to work in and through their lives. Whether you’re pregnant and your child is still on the way, or you have kids in college or beyond, you’re invited. 7pm at the church offices.

Spread the word and let me know if you have any questions...

A fun week

2008-10-22T00:54:00.007-05:00

We had a fun week even though Kevin was gone all week...

We went to the Tarrytown Pumpkin Patch, Elgin Pumpkin Patch with my friend from college Rebecca and her sweet Anna, and had some fun cousin time making (and eating) some Halloween cupcakes! Here are some of the highlights...

Come to the Family Reunion!!

2008-10-15T15:34:00.004-05:00

Austin friends:

On Saturday, October 25, The Austin Stone will be hosting our Family Reunion and Baptism starting at 10:30 am. Come join us as we celebrate what God has done and is doing, as well as rejoice with some brothers and sisters who are being baptized. Baptisms will start at noon, and we’ll have some BBQ immediately following. You can sign up and find out more information at www.austinstone.org/familyreunion.

One Day for Their Wedding

2008-10-11T21:02:00.003-05:00

We walked to the park tonight with the Suh's... These two are just too cute together...

We love Malachi!!

(Sorry the quality isn't great... it's from a cell phone)

A little slideshow from our trip to Granbury

2008-10-09T16:10:00.000-05:00

Oh the Cheerio

2008-10-04T20:12:00.005-05:00

I never thought this day would come... but FINALLY... my kid will each Cheerios!!

And she's venturing out and eating all sorts of new things. Finally, a break from baby food. After 6 straight months of baby food, we finally get to start finding new things for her to nibble on.

Thank you Halle... you have made my days a little easier!

She was even kind enough to share with Belle!

A LOT of updating....

2008-09-20T13:58:00.010-05:00

So, it has been a while... here are some highlights of September...

Some great friends invited the Suh's and our family over to their house for some Labor Day swimming and dinner... we had an amazing time

Our crazy fish...

Halle in her tube

Then, Anna and Ellie had one last day of fun in the backyard before school started (I was so excited... I just picked up this pool at HEB for $4.99... then sad because a couple of days later is was $2.99!)

The first day of school finally arrived!! We started the morning with our friends from the hood at the local Super Donuts. Those pictured are Ella and Rilyn Paquette and Ellie and Anna Barrett. The Richardson kids were at the next table over.

They got to meet their awesome new teacher, Ms. Cissy!

Sweet cousins in the same class!!

Halle tried to join in too, but she'll have to wait a little longer!

Fried Chicken Night
About 2 weeks ago or so at church one morning, Matt Carter goes into telling a story of the good ole days of church when all the grandma's used to bring fried chicken to church functions. And he made some comment about Jennifer not being able to stand up to their level of tasty fried chicken. As it turns out, Jen has never made fried chicken. So one night, we gather up some friends and decide to give it a shot. Jen decides to work the hot oil version of frying chicken. It was not the most successful night of frying a chicken, but it was sure a blast trying different methods. I don't think the fellas will mind if we try again...

The guys actually ate it up!

Later that night, we went back to my sisters house to pick up the kiddos and Ellie and Anna were sleeping like this on the couch... so funny!! (Yes, that is Anna's head under the blanket!)

Then it was time to celebrate the big birthday girl while taking cover of Hurricane Ike! Sadly, we didn't get a drop of rain all day, but it made for nice windy conditions in Austin. We had some neighbors over and enjoyed a day of 1 year old madness. Sadly, she slept through most of the party, but good times were definitely had!

Here it comes... the big moment!

Sadly, she didn't really like it all that much. Our sweet girl, is a very particular eater and did not enjoy being all dirty. Most of the mess on her hands was from the kids (and Kevin) pushing her hands into it trying to get her to just taste it!

She gave it a valiant effort and soon after went to bed.

And I can't not mention a big day for the Suh's... our sweet Malachi got his first haircut and I must say, he is quite the little fella now. He got all gussied up for Halle's big day... cute outfit on and a great new do... what a little man!! The countdown is now on for his big day!

Happy Birthday Halle!

2008-09-13T09:00:00.007-05:00

Yes, my girl is turning ONE today. I just can't even begin to believe it.

Happy Birthday sweet Halle!!

From Ants to ...

2008-09-11T16:18:00.002-05:00

Oh man, we have a new friend in our garage. Our friends in the neighborhood have almost all been talking about having mice in their garages and even houses. I was so excited that maybe, just maybe, the mice had skipped over our abode. Well, today, I realized that we were not so lucky. I was getting the girls (Ellie, Halle and Anna) out of the car when I see it scurry off into the depths of our garage. I freak out and of course, call my man to help me figure out what to do. Here's what happened:

Leslie: "KEVIN"
Kevin: "What"
L: "THERE'S A MOUSE IN THE GARAGE!"
K: "Yeah, I know... he's been there a while."
L: "WHAT?!"

So now I'm totally freaked out knowing our own little Stuart Little is and apparently has been happily living in our garage. At least he's a cute little field mouse and not a big ole New York street rat that we found in our house in the Arboretum. Gross!! Let's just hope he doesn't bring in the little lady and set up a permanent home. I think we'll be calling my good buddy Terrence at Terminix soon.

Big Time Milestone

2008-09-03T16:09:00.005-05:00

Today was a big ole day in the life of Ellie Peck... she started her first dance class today!! We signed her up at the Greater Austin Dance Academy, thanks to the Powells. It's a great little studio in Round Rock. She goes once a week for an hour.

She started out the day so excited to put on her little dance outfit. We drove to the studio and made sure to stop and pray for her to be so brave and kind to her friends before she went in. I wasn't sure how she would respond to me leaving her at a new place. But she did AWESOME!! The waiting room isn't all that big, so Ellie made sure to make friends with all the other little ballerina's waiting for their classes to begin. Her class has about 8 other 3 year olds and they are as precious as they come! Thankfully, her class is called "Creative Movements." I am so glad they get the notion that 3 and 4 year olds don't want to actually take official dance classes.

They started out learning how to sit like a ballerina, they did ballet, then the tap shoes came out. Finally, they end the class with some tumbling.

And thankfully, next door to the studio is a Sonic... so of course, Ellie was aching for a chocolate milkshake since she was so brave! :)

We'll see how next week goes!! Man, our little girl is truly growing up so fast!!

In typical Ellie fashion, the growling ballerina

Making friends in the waiting room

Waiting for class to begin

Hello New Phone...

2008-09-01T15:32:00.002-05:00

Well, to give you all an update... which I'm sure you have been on the edge of your seat for all day... I ended up getting a new phone. They said they can't really fix my old phone because it was so small. And since I didn't have insurance, you can imagine they weren't much help. After debating what to do, we decided that I would stay with Sprint. Kevin switched to AT&T, but has actually had a lot of dropped calls and hassels, so we just updated my plan and resigned the contract. Oh well... My new phone is fun... not quite as small as my old one, but it will do just fine. It is this bright blue color... didn't really think that it suited me (not much of a blue person) but Kevin seemed to like it so we went for it. Now it's time to get it all set up and get all my sweet and wonderful friends to send me their phone numbers! :) Hint, hint!

So, there you have it... the saga of the dead phone has come to an end!

Happy Labor Day!

Farewell...

2008-08-31T19:31:00.009-05:00

Today I have to say goodbye to my favorite phone. The poor thing was dropped one too many times today. I didn't use all of the fancy functions it had... it was just the perfect size. And now, gone.

Now comes the dreaded walk of shame to the sprint store... Yes, I should've gotten the insurance, but I didn't. Will I learn my lesson? Probably not. It always seems it has to be under the right circumstance for the insurance to work, so as usual, I'll probably pass.

And what to do now... get the same phone? Get a new phone? Switch providers? UGH! I hate this part...

Oh well... I'll probably just let Kevin make those decisions when he gets home. :)

Now I'm realizing what a crazy world we are living in... other than email, I don't have any way to communicate with the outside. Thankfully, Kevin will be home tomorrow. S0 if you need to talk to me, call Kevin's phone or send me an email. Or better yet, just come on by the house! This was actually the perfect day to be phoneless... it made for a great afternoon for naps in our house.

Hope you are all well... sorry for the lack of blogs... I have pictures to post and we have big events coming up... so hopefully, I'll get on the ball and get going. Hope you all have a great Labor Day!

1 month to go!

2008-08-13T10:13:00.002-05:00

Today, we are one month away from Halle's big birthday!

Happy 11 months, Hal!

Look at Halle Go!!

2008-08-10T22:37:00.003-05:00

All of a sudden today, she decided she was ready to stand on her own...

I have a feeling that steps are not far behind..... T*R*O*U*B*L*E!!!

So, she's able to stand, clap, crawl and lots of other fun baby stuff, yet WILL NOT eat anything other than baby food... She definitely has a mind of her own! :)

the many faces of ellie

2008-08-10T22:26:00.004-05:00

What a ham!!!

Happy!

Sad...

Mad...

Surprised!!

Little smile...

Big smile!!

tide and downy... a dangerous combination

2008-08-06T11:18:00.005-05:00

i hate ants....

they have recently decided to invade our house the past few days. the specific ants in our home are odorous ants. on monday, i was minding my own business, picking out a shirt to wear. i look in my dresser and what do i see on my shirt? yes, an ant. but not one, not two... my entire drawer is filled with ants. and not only that, come to find out, my entire dresser is filled with ants!! ahh!!! when my favorite bug guy came yesterday, he was surprised to see all of the contents of my dresser all over our room!! i think i had a bit of a panic attack when i saw the ants and just started pulling out all my clothes like a crazy person. terrance (bug guy) sprayed for the ants and then told me to get them out of my clothes, i would have to wash ALL OF THEM! that's when he told me they are odorous ants and they liked the smell of my clothes. so beware if you use tide and downy... you too may be the next victim of this...

Where is the time going??

2008-07-31T21:53:00.005-05:00

can't remember who I was talking with recently, but they asked me if I was starting to get planning for Halle's big birthday. I couldn't believe it... it's only 6 weeks away... she can't seriously be 1 yet?!! Honestly, someone please tell me where the time is going?? So though I'm a little sad that she is indeed about to be 1, one thought did come to my mind today........ only 6 more weeks of buying FORMULA!!! Woohoo! That will be quite the raise for our bank account. :)

And for more time passing, I can't believe I've already been home for almost 2 weeks from Turkey. For those who don't know... I, along with 8 of some of my newest favorite ladies from our church, took off and went to Izmir, Turkey for 2 weeks. (kassie dye, jennifer carter, michelle ritchie, me, emily edwards, lydia whitelock
kim truss, jill mckay, krystal shaw)

It was my first international mission trip and it was truly amazing. We were able to walk along side the workers that have huge hearts for Turks and are doing mighty things for the Kingdom. It was a strange feeling to be without a phone, tv, husband and kids for such a long period of time... it was nice for 2 weeks, but I was very ready to come home to my family. I still sometimes can't believe I was gone from my family for 2 weeks... but God provided in big ways with my family and friends helping Kevin out as he held down the fort for me.

And by the way, while I was gone, he managed to lay hardwood floors in our formal dining and formal living rooms!!! What a man!! They look absolutely perfect and beautiful. I had no idea he was doing it... we had talked about it and I had picked out the flooring, but we had decided to drop that down on the list of house projects for a little while. Little did I know, that I would come home 2 weeks later and have these gorgeous floors in my house! I walk down the stairs and still every time, I am stunned at how pretty they are. (and if you would like to see pictures of our new floors, see my sisters blog... somehow i don't have pictures of it... http://barrettworld.blogspot.com/2008/07/while-cats-away.html)

If you are interested in reading more about my trip, we had a blog that I wrote on each day to keep our supporters updated... it is password protected because we used the actual names of our friends at work and don't want to put them in any jeopardy... though, my little blog with my few readers probably wouldn't get out... BUT regardless, I have no desire to put any of them in any kind of danger. So, just leave me a comment or shoot me an email and I'll send you access...

Hope all is well where you are... More updates to come soon...

And to make sure my sweet Ellie doesn't get the shaft, here's a new pic of her at a friends birthday party from last weekend... yes, our friends had a petting zoo come to their house for a party! It was a blast!!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-07-30T15:08:00.002-05:00

Today is Justin and Sally's 3rd Anniversary!!

We love J and Sally... we are truly blessed and honored to know them.

Congratulations guys!!

Harley is still around!!

2008-07-13T17:24:00.003-05:00

My dearest Ellie,

Your sweet pup is still on the move and still giving us joy as she travels along side us...

More adventures for Harley!!

Harley rolling a grape leaf
(not poop)

having a drink of Turkish tea

And more tea!

Cruising with Emily through the pazar

Enjoying the sunset over the city of Izmir

Harley

2008-07-09T05:42:00.003-05:00

Dear Ellie...

I wanted you to see who decided to sneak their way into my backpack as I headed to Turkey... it was Harley!!

I think she wanted to come with me so that you would know I would be safe and be thinking of you while I am away...

I love you sweet girl and I will see you soon!!!

Love,
Mommy

They have arrived!

2008-07-03T01:22:00.004-05:00

This week, my sister and her family have moved to Austin!! We have had a great week helping them unload and settle into their new place. Ellie has just been beside herself knowing that everyday she gets to see her cousins. So far, every night this week the cousins go outside and enjoyed different flavored popsicles!! What fun summer night memories! My sister tells me Anna has woken up each morning asking, "Where's Ellie?" I think having her best friends down the road, Ellie is going to be a very happy little girl!

Here are some of our favorite pics so far:

9 months already??

2008-06-24T15:36:00.002-05:00

Our sweet Halle had her 9 month well check today...

she's 19 pounds and 28 inches... right in the 75th percentile!

she is a ball of fun these days... she can crawl all over the place and pulls up on everything. one of her favorite past-times is to watch or chase after her sister. she loves eating baby food in any flavor, but if you put a cheerio or veggie puff on her tongue, she starts gagging! such drama already!

and thankfully, she is healthy! she's had bouts of all sorts of sickness over the past 3 months... from pneumonia, conjunctivitis, to a reflux issue in her bladder where the urine is going back from the bladder to the kidneys... not so good. but, after being on a mild antibiotic for almost 3 months, she's all clear! we visited with an incredible pediatric urologist (Dr Canon) and thinks that she should grow out of it. we will go back in 6 months to retest.

we are so thankful for our little one!

thanks grammie!

2008-06-18T23:46:00.003-05:00

"Hey Grammie! We LOVE our new giraffe pj's!!"

My Man

2008-06-11T13:50:00.005-05:00

So, now that my man is 30, don't let that fool you... he's still got it!

2008-05-30T22:16:00.002-05:00

Today is my sister and Dave's 10th anniversary... wow! What's really crazy is they have actually been together for 15 years. Time is truly flying by way too fast!!!

Happy 10th Anniversary, Dave and Suzanne!!

2 moms and 5 kids!

2008-05-30T15:05:00.019-05:00

This past week, we had a fun adventure with our friends the Lemmons. We all piled into their suburban and ventured down for a day at Sea World! We had a blast... though you won't see many pictures of Halle... she was starting on her way down towards pneumonia. What a bummer!! She is feeling much better now, though.

All piled in and ready to go!

SEA WORLD!!

Ellie's first roller coaster ride!! She loved it so much and if you ask her about it, she'll make sure you know that her second time she kept her arms up the whole time!

Halle and Violet are 6 weeks apart... they had a great time in the shady wagon all day.

All the other kiddos in the Sea World stroller

Then it was Olivia's turn on the ride

We saw the Viva! show... the Beluga whales and dolphin show.

The girls were waiting so patiently for the show to start

The dolphins!

Sweet Violet!!

Ellie kept asking me where the sharks were!!

The girls were so excited to go and talk with the performers after the show

Ellie and Olivia watching the alligators and turtles

All the kids (minus Halle) in the wagon after seeing the sharks... where Olivia told Ellie if they went in the tank, the sharks would eat their whole bodies!

William fought so hard to keep his eyes open...

There was no fighting the girls falling asleep... what a fun day they had!!

Pictures from today

2008-05-24T20:47:00.000-05:00

The Dream

2008-05-24T19:25:00.004-05:00

As far back as I can remember, my sister and I have always dreamed of living next door to each other raising our kiddos together. Well, the dream has now become a reality!!! Though she isn't living next door, one street over will have to do. Dave, my brother in law, is in the process of coming on staff at The Austin Stone this summer!! I am so excited! So, they will be packing up the family and making their way down to Austin in the coming weeks. Here's a picture of their new house... it's amazing!!

Welcome to Austin,

Barrett Family!!

Happy Birthday Daniel!

2008-05-24T18:00:00.001-05:00

My nephew Daniel turned 5 today!!

Happy Birthday, Little Man!

Girls Night

2008-05-23T00:57:00.007-05:00

Last weekend, two of my greatest girlfriends had baby showers on the same day in the Dallas area. Libby Faulkner is having her third boy, Noah, and Rebecca Holm is having her first girl, Anna, two weeks apart this summer! So we all gathered together, minus our sweet Julie who was busy running in San Francisco, and enjoyed about 24 hours together. We met up for dinner at Grand Lux Cafe in the Galleria...

Then, we left to go and get some coffee and dessert somewhere else... who knew that in Dallas on a Friday night, our only option ended up being ... SONIC! I mean, we went by several Starbucks and they were ALL CLOSED! It was only like 10pm. Crazy!! When we finally got out of the cars, we were surrounded by high school kids... we had a blast feeling terribly out of place but definitely enjoyed the company. (Not sure if you can tell, but we were being watched the whole time)

Which one fits??

2008-05-23T00:50:00.000-05:00

Sweet Sisters

2008-05-22T10:22:00.008-05:00

Here are some fun sister shots...

Ellie loves going in to wake Halle up! And Halle loves it just as much... she laughs and giggles so hard. Way too cute!!

A new trick!

2008-05-20T12:16:00.006-05:00

So, I've been a little slow updating and after cleaning out my iPhoto recently, realized I have some fun pictures of the girls that I need to post... so I will try over the next few days to get some up here! :)

Here is one of ellie's newest tricks...

"I think I just about have it..."

"Ta-dah!"

Such a proud girl!

"Happy Birthday!"

2008-05-04T19:06:00.003-05:00

Seems like she wasn't all that sure what to do after the candles were all blown out!

The Rest of the Birthday

2008-05-04T16:22:00.009-05:00

(BEWARE! There are a lot of pictures here!)

For the big birthday lunch, we hit up one of Ellie's favs...Phil's Ice House. And that was where my sister and her family met up with us to celebrate!! Though somehow, we got away without any pictures on the playground...

Anna loves her some Halle!

Some birthday ice cream enjoyed by all!

After lunch, we headed home to get ready for a family party... of course with both of our families there, that still meant 24 people! We also got to celebrate Kevin's aunt Betsy... her birthday is May 3rd and she turned 60 this year! We are having Ellie's annual big blowout with her friends this coming weekend. :)

Sweet cousins!

Then it was time to hit the slide!!
(3 families in our neighborhood went in together to buy this fun slide to enjoy throughout the summer!!)

Ellie strikes a pose!

Everyone looks on as the kiddos check out the slide.

And in true Ellie fashion, she needed a little alone time at the sand table while the kids played on the slide.

Eventually, I crawled up in the slide to help encourage Ellie to climb up and take a slide... proved to be a good photo opp with my birthday girl.

All the kids had so much fun and as the sun set, the water got a lot colder! But, quivering chins and blue lips couldn't tear them away from the slide.

Then, we went inside, dried off and warmed up the kiddos. They enjoyed hanging out inside for a bit until it was time for cake.

Ellie loved getting a sneak peek at her amazing Daisy Duck birthday cake made especially for her by Molly!!

Molly puts the final touches on the cake

Happy Birthday to you!!

The birthday girl enjoying her hot pink cake.

Samantha, Anna and Daniel enjoyed their cake too!

The kids played outside a little more...

Ellie enjoyed playing Daddy's game

And when you get three girls together, Ring Around the Rosey is always a given!

Then after yet another outfit change, Ellie FINALLY got to open her presents!!

She ended the night cuddling up with Uncle J and playing on her new mini-Aquadoodle!!

We had a great day and are so thankful for our family to celebrate with us!!! We look forward to stretching out her birthday a little more and celebrating with friends this weekend!!

The slide in action!

2008-05-04T14:47:00.001-05:00

Ellie and Daniel in action on the slide!

3!!

2008-05-02T11:18:00.009-05:00

Happy Birthday Ellie!!

Here is your special day so far!

First, Daddy woke you up and took you (dressed in pjs and bed head) on your usual Friday mission:

(Mission=Kevin wakes up Ellie... and they sneak out of the house so Halle and I don't hear. Ellie has a map to tell Kevin which way to go... Around the corner, past Rilyn's house, past the playground, to the Donut Shop!!)

You got to pick out your very own donuts this morning...

Can't forget the Sunny D

Then it was time to have your Donuts with Dad morning breakfast date!

A very happy birthday girl!

Next up... Phil's Ice House for lunch and ice cream!!

Look Who is on the Move!

2008-04-13T18:44:00.002-05:00

Our little cutie is 7 months today and this past week decided she was ready to start scootin around the house!! Why is life going by so fast??!

I think that she saw her man Malachi and just couldn't resist getting to him! It definitely helps to have some incentive to get you moving!

The Camera was Rolling!

2008-04-09T20:41:00.005-05:00

Ellie and Anna were playing in the sand at Zilker Park and a funny thing happened... this is one of those events where normally you would say, "Man, I wish I had my camera for that!" and my sister was lucky enough to have it rolling to catch the whole thing!!

Spending the Night

2008-04-02T14:12:00.002-05:00

So my sister put up a sweet story about my niece, Anna, on her blog and reminded me of a story I had been meaning to post...

A few weeks ago, Kevin and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! Wow... time is flying by... Since 6 isn't a big anniversary at this point (like 5, 10, 15), we decided to send the girls to spend the night with Sally and Justin so we could enjoy a night going out to dinner and watching movies in our quiet house... not to mention sleeping as late as we wanted to... which worked out perfectly!

We had talked it up to Ellie for quite a while about how lucky she was to get to spend the night and have a fun party with Sally and Justin! When we pick up the girls the following afternoon, Sally tells us about what her interpretation of how the night was supposed to go... It seems that they went to dinner and Chuck E Cheese and at some point, Ellie asks Sally, "When are we going to spin?" Sally was confused. And after a little back and forth, come to find out, as we were telling Ellie that she would get to spend the night with Sally, she kept hearing us say that she was going to get to Spin tonight with Sally!

I think that once the confusion was cleared up, Ellie got to spin for a little while!

2 year olds have a world of their own some days!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-27T02:24:00.006-05:00

Some pics from Easter Sunday... We went to Kevin's dads house for dinner and a fun Easter egg hunt... These are fun times with all the little ones running around!!

Sweet Sisters!

Blowing Bubbles in the Backyard

Ellie and Jack look for eggs

Can you find the egg Halle is hiding?!

I think there is an egg in there somewhere

Sam helps Samantha with her eggs... she had to open each egg as she went!

Look at all these eggs!!

Fun Times

2008-03-27T01:06:00.010-05:00

We've had a fun past few weeks...

We took a trip up to Granbury to celebrate my niece Anna's 3rd birthday and my sisters birthday too... as well as her father-in-laws birthday! It had been since Christmas since we had seen my family, so it was so good to get to Granbury and have some good family time!

Ellie and Papa Ray head down to the river for some fun times

Anna and Aunt Suzy have fun feeding Halle

Halle getting some good bites down, too

Then it was time for the BIRTHDAY GIRL!!

I had made some bags of easter fun for the kiddos

"Happy Birthday to You..."

Daniel and Ellie enjoying the swing in the backyard of my sisters house

Then, my sister and family came to Austin for a few days!

We went to Zilker Park and played at the playground... but mostly the girls wanted to make some cakes for Clara Bell... Mickey Mouse's friend, if you didn't know

We also hit up the Zilker Zephyr... the train that is a ride through Zilker Park

That night, we took the Barrett family to one of our favorites... Phil's Ice House for some burgers, ice cream, and playground fun!

Greetings from Austin!

And what is coming to Austin without hitting up Ikea?

Yea for Ikea!!

And we topped off their trip to Austin with the annual Austin Stone Easter Egg Hunt!
Halle was ready for some fun as the bunny

Though Ellie was not up for any hunting eggs, Anna and Suzanne sure had fun looking for some treasures!

Announcing...

2008-03-24T23:27:00.008-05:00

My newest niece, Annabel Lyn Lopez, arrived today!!

She was born at 1:20pm on Monday, March 24th. Annie weighed 8 pounds and was 21 1/2 inches in length. Her hair is also quite the envy to my girls!! Lovely brown locks cover her sweet little head. We had a long and intense day (with several hours in the NICU) but she ended the day ready to spend the night with Justin and Sally in their room. She even managed to get her first nickname... First Class! (Kevin can explain if you really want to know!)

Praise the Lord today for Annabel...
Thank you for healing her and bringing her to us...

for my sister...

2008-03-09T01:15:00.000-06:00

In 2m 59s

Click here to Play

Please tell me...

2008-03-06T23:17:00.003-06:00

that you have seen this site. I have had several people send me this link on email, so wanted to make sure you have seen this too... it is a riot! There are so many I have read and said, "Yep, that's totally me!"

Have fun reading!

What a Man!

2008-02-28T14:18:00.003-06:00

Happy 30th Birthday
to my Love

Sweet Halle

2008-02-19T14:05:00.008-06:00

We love our sweet Halle and we had a chance to dedicate her precious life to the Lord on Sunday morning. We pray that God would use this little lady to do mighty and powerful things for His name across the world!

Isaiah 52:7

How lovely on the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who announces peace
And brings good news of happiness,
Who announces salvation
And says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Praise the Lord for Dr Brown!

2008-01-31T14:03:00.000-06:00

So, it's been a long 4 1/2 months... but finally, we have success!

Halle has not taken a bottle much less any formula... so we have seriously been attached at the hip since September.

We had tried almost every type of bottle out there, but realized I had not tried Dr Brown's bottles. I gave Halle the bottle and she sucked that thing down in no time!! We are so excited that Kevin and I might actually get to go out on a date!

So this is my salute to Dr Brown...
you have made our lives a little easier this week!

*And for a Halle update, at her four month check-up she was 14.6 pounds (70 %) and 25 inches long (75%)... she is a very smiley baby and loves to watch her sister run all around the place. She can roll over from her tummy to her back and is on the verge of sitting up on her own. We are looking forward to next month... food begins and I'm sure that teething will not be far behind! And most nights, she is sleeping between 10 and 12 hours... This little girl is such a blessing to our family!

Ellie on the airplane

2008-01-28T10:11:00.000-06:00

thank you little einsteins! ellie managed to capture the heart of everyone on the airplane...

More pics

2008-01-12T01:30:00.000-06:00

More pics from this afternoon and evening...

How Halle spent most of the day... She finally woke up around 1:30pm! What a sleeper!!

What an amazing day! This picture is from the other side of the street from the Engstrom cabin. Wow...

Kevin spent the afternoon digging trenches and snow caves on the deck for Ellie and Micah

Kevin and Ellie in the snow cave

Ellie took some time out of the snow this afternoon and loved reading her sister some of her favorite books... by the way, Ellie was THRILLED that we brought her Little Mermaid costume... she has been wearing it non-stop!

Me and Ellie in the snow

Making a snow angel!

Halle got all suited up to head down to the village at the base of the ski resort

The Peck family at the bottom of the mountain (you can see the night skiing going on behind us)

Ellie's Big Jump!

2008-01-11T23:13:00.000-06:00

Hello from Idaho!

2008-01-11T16:30:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone!

We are currently hanging out in northern Idaho on vacation with some of our good friends from Austin. Our friends, the Engstroms, have an amazing cabin here that we are staying in. The cabin is at the Schweitzer ski resort where in the next few days, we'll get to do some skiing!!

We came up a day early with the Engstroms to get the kiddos all squared away. The rest of the crew (Sally and Justin Lopez, Travis and Katie Wussow, Matt and Leah Gibson and Parker Dalton) will be here sometime today. This morning, we woke up and Ellie was so ready to get out in the snow. (For the past week, that is ALL that she has talked about!)

She had a blast playing in the snow and her daredevil self was ready to jump from the balcony like the guys!

Here are some pics from this morning...

First Video Post!

2008-01-02T03:11:00.000-06:00

Yes, I am finally uploading a video... hope it works for you!

This is too cute... hope you enjoy it!