Growing up is hard to do....

At least for a parent. Peggy, my mother-in-law, kept Anna for me Friday night so that I could stay after school and get a little more organized after my first week of school. It was definitely needed, and I very much appreciated her willingness to watch her. When I got there to pick her up , Peggy said that Anna's teacher had told her that Anna had gone poo-poo in the potty that day. OK, side note, she is not in full blown potty training yet, but we are in the introduction stage and her teacher is REALLY good at knowing Anna's "timing" and just throws her on the potty when it is time...but to Anna's credit, she is doing it...not bucking the system like lots of kids do.

When we got home and after I read her a story, I asked her, "Anna, did you go poo-poo in the potty today?" And she smiled and said "yeah...bih durl" ( aka big girl ) I had to choke back the tears...she IS a big girl now. She is very lovey so I can kind of hang onto the babyness of holding her and she still lets me rock her every now and again....but I look at her and there is no baby left. She is a little girl. And it is SO exciting, but yet, SO sad. The exciting parts are the things like saying prayers with her and having her finish the sentence...I will say, Dear, and she will finish "Jeesahsssss", thank you for, and she will finish "food, or mommy or daddy", or whatever comes to the top of her head, which sometimes makes for great laughs, Then I'll say, help it make us healthy and, and she will finish, "STRONG! "..like, she yells it, every time. In Jesus name we, and she will say "prway, Ahhmen". Everyday with her is the best, I just wish I could remember every single thing....like you remember it moments after it happened.

Today she woke us up with her recent montage of " mah ee, dah ee, pee-pee potty"..so Stephen got up to let her go to the bathroom. I was then summoned into the bathroom because Anna had gone poo-poo in the potty at home for the first time. She was so proud of herself. I give her two weeks and we will no longer be buying diapers...praise the Lord!

I thought I would put this on the blog, Stephen's mom got this little chef hat from a friend, Anna loves it. So does Stephen. ; ) Also, a pic of Stephen and Anna before bedtime. She loves her daddy. Have a great week!

T, U, and V do not exist to our daughter...

Anna let us all know how smart she was today by singing to herself while she was coloring. She just all of a sudden busted out her ABC's. I am fairly certain that they have been reviewing this at school because, we have sang the ABC's like maybe five times in the last few months. She has a few toys that sing them, but it isn't like she is playing with THOSE toys 24/7. So either she has been learning them at daycare or she is a freakin genius. Anyway, here is the video we took of her singing the ABC song today. I love how X and S sound the same, and as the title of the post says, T, U, and V are not in the song. : ) Enjoy...she cracks us up. : )

Puts a new spin on house boat......

Yep that is right. This is where we live, and yes, that is a boat on the front of our house. But I am not above it. I am not. It has a TON of perks that make that silly schooner on the front of the duplex that Stephen and I are renting worth it.

Well, we made it. It took two days of intense work, and it is still in progress but we are getting there. We have lived in Rockport for a week as of today. In case you were wondering where abouts Rockport is located, check google maps so you can see where it is located. We are about 45 minutes east of Victoria and 45 minutes north of Corpus Christi. Stephen is working at "the" place to eat in town, a restaurant called Hemingway's, you should check it out. He is really liking it and learning a ton. It was a miracle and blessing that God was able to get him this job. We really thought it would help his career after school if he had some experience from a place that really taught him what he needed to know once he graduated. I mean, you can't get everything from a 2 year program at any culinary school, which is why they all rely on co-op programs where students work while going to school to get on the job experience. However, some of those jobs don't fully prepare you for what life will be like once you get out into the real world and start working towards becoming an executive chef. Hemingway's is run by Chef James Granger, who teaches periodically when he is needed for the Culinary program at Del Mar, where Stephen is currently enrolled. SO, he has the knowledge of what the program gives you and what the program does not, and he makes up the difference, which is awesome. So it has been a great thing and I am very thankful to the Lord that He has allowed Stephen such a great place to work. I am posting a few pics of our new abode. It is nothing special other than we live in it. : ) It used to be a house that was converted into a duplex and the original owners wanted to rent it out only to seasonal vacationers, hence the schooner on the front of the house. The new owners prefer a more stable income, so they are renting it out on year leases now. Because the duplex used to be a house, our living room and kitchen/dining area are muy grande. Our bedrooms are non-existent though, but that is ok.Giant kitchen and dining area, don't you just love the old dark wood look? So homey.
We are in the works of getting some more lighting and a possible ceiling fan. It is terribly hot in the kitchen/dining in the afternoon and very dark.
Anna's room, bad picture I know, I never got a chance to get another decent pic of her room before she went to sleep.

Our living room. The tiled floor on the far side of the living room leads to the door on the left.

Our room. Pretty small but cozy. The closets make me feel like crying, but I will have my walk in again some day I know it. : ) The view from across the street. That is the bay, yes we live on the water, or at least, across the street from the water. The view at dusk is pretty amazing. We feel very blessed that we have found this home that is close to school and Stephen's work, is much more affordable and saving us the cost of fuel because we will not be driving as much. It has a very nice yard with LOTS of live oak trees so Anna has a place to play. Excuse the clutter in some of the photos, I am still trying to find a place for everything. Other than the house, we are still doing great, Anna started at her new daycare and really likes it. I have started back at school a little and will start back full blown next week with LOADS of staff development. Students come back on the 25th, so I still have two weeks to get my stuff in order for classes which is good, cause I will need it. Hope all our friends and family are doing well and if you would ever like to come to the water and have a vaca, Port Aransas is 15 minutes from here and there are plenty of affordable condos we would love to co-rent with someone and have a fun filled weekend at the beach. You could also crash on our huge living room floor on a blow up mattress if you feel like roughing it! : ) Just give us a call or shoot us an email and we will plan! Have a great weekend!