It was just much easier this way...

Good-Bye Sunshine School!

Last week was Anna Lee's last week of school. She has had the greatest year at Sunshine School! It is amazing to compare the first day of school and last day of school pictures and see how much she has grown and changed!

Last day: First day:

Anna Lee LOVES her teacher, Mrs. Carrie. She has been so good for Anna Lee...loving her, challenging her, disciplining her, and giving her "sugars" every possible moment.

On Monday, the kids had their end-of-the year program. It was so cute! The classes were each dressed as athletes. Anna Lee's group was basketball players...with the armbands and headbands to go along with it. It was a very different look for Anna Lee compared to the normal princess gowns she is wearing.

I came to take a quick picture of Anna Lee before the program started. This was the smile she gave me. We have been working on smiling for the camera lately. Can you tell??

Anna Lee and her "team"

Anna Lee had practiced her songs at home...a LOT and knew them by heart. She sang her little heart out during the program , but was mostly excited about the people who came to watch her. She waved her princess wave every moment she wasn't singing.

More waving...

Nathan giving her a high-five on the way out

GranDee and Pops drove in from Waco for the program. So sweet of them!

Anna Lee loves Kasey and Nathan!

Somehow we missed getting a picture of our sweet Claire, who came to watch Anna Lee too!
Looks like J.D. is ready to enroll!

Showing off her "Super Star of the Month" wall of pictures

Anna Lee with her best bud Ryan.

Thank you Sunshine School for a WONDERFUL year! We have been so blessed to be a part of that great school and will miss it so much next year!

Privacy is for the Birds

This was set up this morning by Anna Lee while I was in the shower. She sat in this chair with her legs crossed and said, "I'm just going to sit here and watch you. Let's talk." Nothing like having a little audience while you have two minutes alone in the shower. :)

Moving to A-Town

Our family has big news! We are moving to Abilene! We are so excited about this new opportunity and are looking forward to the great things God has in store for our family!

A while back, Jim and I decided that we wanted something different. Jim's job has been wonderful and he has enjoyed practicing corporate law for the past 5 years. He has learned so much and enjoyed working with his team; but we needed a change. He has worked incredibly long hours, including many late nights and most weekend days, and we were missing the joys of being together as a family. It hit us a little harder once J.D. was born.

So we decided to look for something new. At the time, we weren't sure what we were looking for...we thought maybe an in-house attorney position, etc.

After some unexpected conversations with Abilene Christian University (and a lot of discussion and prayer), Jim accepted a position there at ACU with the business department. He will be a professor and the director of their Entrepreneur/Philanthropy Program. He will teach, develop curriculum, fundraise, network, etc. He is so excited about his new position. I think it is such a perfect fit for him and he is going to do great things for the university and the students there.

We listed our house for sale by owner for a few weeks and then decided to list it with a realtor. It sold in 7 days with our realtor. Crazy! We bought a house in Abilene in Lytle Shores that we loved. It will be such a great fit for our family.

So our house is now being slowly packed up (it is a lot harder this time with kids added into the mix!) We are set to close on our house here June 3rd and close on our house in Abilene on June 7th. We are going to be super sad to leave all of our sweet friends here in Dallas, but are looking forward to re-connecting with old friends and making new ones in Abilene.

We are looking forward to great things in the future: with our family, with our marriage, with our kids, with new friends, with ACU, and with so much more. We are praying that God will bless the decision we have made to move to Abilene. His hand has been in the decision from the beginning, so we know He has wonderful things in store for us!

Beep! Beep! J.D. is one!!!

It is still hard to believe that J.D. turned one last week. This past year has flown by! My sweet baby is turning more and more into a little boy every day. Last weekend, we had a bunch of sweet friends over to celebrate J.D.'s special day. It was a blast! We are so thankful for all of the wonderful family and friends in our life who love on our kids. It was fun to celebrate with them!

J.D.'s party was all about cars and trucks. He loves cars and anything with wheels, so we went with that for our theme. Everything from the cupcakes to the activities to the decorations had to do with cars and trucks. It was fun to put together a party for a boy this time! The kids all got to play outside and ride all sorts of trikes, bikes, scooters, cars, etc. It was a beautiful day, so it was perfect for an outdoor party.

(The non-dairy cupcakes for our sweet allergy boy made by the "Kelly Bakery")

A few facts about this big one-year old:

• As was mentioned before, he loves cars and trucks. He loves getting to sit in our cars and pretend to drive and will never pass up an opportunity to ride in his cars or trikes outside...especially a ride in Anna Lee's power wheel car!
• He also loves balls. "Ball" is one of his first words at this point. He loves to play "catch" back and forth with anyone who is willing.
• J.D. is still allergic to dairy as far as we know.
• Over the past 6 months, J.D. had a major bout with ear infections. Because of this, we put tubes in his ears right before his birthday. It has been amazing the difference we have already seen. His ear infections had greatly affected his hearing, so the tubes have done wonders already for his language and sound development. He is making so many more sounds and words already and it is like a cloud was lifted off of him. He is eating better and sleeping more soundly (sometimes)
• There is no one that J.D. loves more than Anna Lee. He adores her. They love to play together and have even started bickering over toys. (They aren't old enough for that yet!) J.D. will giggle at anything Anna Lee does to make him laugh.
• J.D. loves to be outside. He would stay out there all day if I let him. I often find him at the back door trying to get out. He loves to swing, ride in his cars, play ball, and just crawl around in the grass and dirt. I am learning to get grass stains out already!
• He is close to walking. He hasn't taken a first step yet, but he is close. He can crawl at an amazingly fast pace!
• He is extremely coordinated, balanced, and quick (completely opposite of his sister!). He is our little climber. He loves to climb on and explore everything (even the toilet).
• He is so "boy". I have been amazed to see the difference in our two kids already, even as young as they are. Anna Lee is as girly as they come, with pink and princesses around at all times, and J.D. is as boy as they come, with balls, trucks and dirt all around. His favorite two places to play---out of ALL of the toys in our house--are the toilet and the kitchen trash. WHY???
• J.D. LOVES music more than any kid I have ever seen. If music ever starts playing, he immediately starts dancing. He and Anna Lee are in a little family music class here in Dallas, and J.D. loves it. He particularly loves to play all of the instruments.

It is hard to imagine what life was like without our sweet J.D. He brings our family such joy. Happy Birthday, little buddy! We love you!

Almost One Year Old!

When did this little guy get so big???

Easter and Birthday Celebrations

We had such a wonderful day on Sunday. We had a full day of celebrating both Easter and Jim's birthday. To begin, we had a great morning at church celebrating Jesus' resurrection. They had some of the neatest activities for the kids (including a "real" tomb that was empty), and it was special to watch Anna Lee learn about Easter in such a real and meaningful way. Thank you to all of you who put so much work into making the morning so great for our kids!

This picture is of Anna Lee with one of my favorite ladies at church, Mrs. Mary Anne. I have had the honor of getting to teach with Mary Anne for the past year or so and she is amazing. She has written curriculum for little ones at our church and has invested a huge part of her life to teaching kids about Jesus. I loved watching her teach Anna Lee about Him on Sunday. GranDee and Pops got to come spend the day with us!

This was the best we did at a family photo for the day. Not necessarily a framer, but at least it is a picture of all 4 of us!

Kasey and Nathan were there with us. Aren't they a good looking couple?!

After church, we made some attempts to get a few pictures of the kids. It just seems impossible with a 3 and almost one year old to get both of them to sit still and look happily at the camera!

We took a couple of pictures after we got home...

J.D. was already tuckered out from the morning. But he looked so handsome there in the carseat, I had to take his picture too.

Jim and I even got a picture together. I don't remember the last time we got a picture together. Sad, isn't it? (Please excuse the crazy hair from the humid weather)

At lunch, we got to sing Happy Birthday to Jim. Anna Lee loved that she was getting to celebrate Easter and his birthday in the same day. It felt like it was a party all day long!

Jim loves Great American Cookie Company. He has gotten the same birthday cake many years in a row. But it is eaten so fast!

We went to an Easter egg hunt at church in the afternoon and the kids had a great time. Both of them seemed to enjoy hunting for eggs. These next two pictures are so typical of their relationship:

Typical Anna Lee being silly to get J.D. to laugh

Typical J.D. response- Thinking she is funny and he loves her more than any person in the world, but not going to over-react...just not his personality.

I love these two pictures of Pops and J.D. I love the first one of Pops and how much fun they were having, and I love the second one of J.D.'s sweet face.

Both the kids had a fun time hunting Easter eggs. J.D. was joining in on the fun too!

Looking at their collection of eggs

The Easter Bunny came to visit during naptime.

J.D. got a dancing bunny in his basket. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it. Anna Lee, however, loved it and has forced him to become friends with it. :)

At the end of the night, we had our last birthday celebration for Jim. Anna Lee helped me pick out several presents for Jim, so she was excited to watch him open them.

What a fun and special day!