The new casa

So here are a few pictures from the new house. The living room, kitchen, and dining room are mostly unpacked and are much more livable.  We focused mostly on these two rooms so that we could have a nice peacful Chrismas rather than still looking at boxes.

Now no judging here... But I am going to go ahead and post a picture even though our bedrooms are only just barely livable. 

I don't have a picutre of Pockets' room though as the camera just couldn't get a picture with his bunk beds all set up.

Now for my favorite room in the whole house and it has absolutely nothing to do with the house, but rather with the applianaces that are in the room.  That is right, it is the laundry room.  Because our tenants in the Carrollton house requested that we leave the washer and dryer we were forced to buy new ones for us to use now.  We are so blessed to get an AMAZING deal on these brand new front load washer. 

They are super cool.  I have done much more than my fare share of laundry the last three days and could just perch myself right in front of the washer watching the window, but I have two little kids running around and a house to unpack.  

In the midst of the move we are still having fun!

Playing in a tent with tons of toys

using tape to make a maze and then adding blocks and cars to make a city

Just goofing around!

And being silly!

Last weeks in Fort Worth

Sorry for the late post, but life has been busy obviously and this is my first opportunity to get on the internet in almost a week. Before I share pictures of where we are now, let me share a little about our last week in Fort Worth. 

We began our holiday season with are first ever Christmas Movie Night.  Ryan and I typically have a night of watchign "Elf" each year, but this year we included Pockets and let him chose any new movie he wanted.  Crazy kid chose a movie that was made even before Ryan and I were born (Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer). We had popcorn and hot chocolate while we sat around in our pajamas.

Big news for lil sis the week before we left was that she started to sit independently.  She still has a lot of trouble picking her head up while on her belly and has learned to just roll over almost instantly instead, but we are excited for this new skill.

Before we left my mom's house, we had our Christmas present exchange.  Pockets' and his uncle had a blast opening gifts early.

We also took Pockets to the mall that has a carosel and a train ride.  He had been asking for several weeks, so we thought we better go one last time.

7 months old

Yep, Little Sister is 7 months old already.  New things this month have been that she has found her feet and rocks from side to side when she is on her back.  We now have a developmental specialist coming to the house twice a month to help with her gross motor delays when she is on her tummy.  She is doing better, but has recently learned to roll from her belly to her back in less than ten seconds so practice is limited!  She is still growing like a week too though.  She now weighs 15 pounds 4 ounces and is 25 3/4 inches long!

School activites

 With the move and all school has been put on the back burner these last few weeks.  We have done a few formal things though.

 

We have done lots of pages in our workbook that we got for Christmas.  He thinks this is tons of fun because Mommy's cousins do homeschool like this!

 

      

We made a tree out of felt so that Pocket's can decorate it over and over again year after year.  We also hung lights up over his window.  

Little Sister started foods.  She actually had a banana last week which went over much better than the avocado did this week. If you remember, Pockets favorite food his first year was avocado.  He won't touch them now though. Instead he loves broccoli which he hated as a baby.

       

Pockets has enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with his sister.  Notice her cute little legs hanging out from the chair!  Guess we need to do a little more teaching on that one.

Look back over the last year

As we plan the next steps towards our future, I just wanted to spend a little time looking back at where Ryan and I have been this past year.  It has definitely not gone the way we expected it to go.  Instead this year has been a full of unexpected hurdles and struggles. One thing we know though is that God was always in control of our lives.  His plan just looks different than ours!

Our Plan: To finish the renovations on the house to ensure a quick sell and in order to get back the money we had put into it -  God’s Plan:  The house to sit on the market for months and months until the last possible moment only to lease instead of sell making us unable to buy our own home now.

Our Plan:  To use a nurse midwife  (same as with Pockets) to deliver a healthy full term baby girl with no medication- God’s Plan: After four days in the hospital sweet Little Sis was born at 31 weeks and 5 days gestation after an emergency C-section. 

Our Plan: To bring Little Sis home mid-June as the doctors had predicted for Pockets’ birthday.  God’s Plan:  She stayed in the NICU for 46 days and didn’t get to come home until late June and was discharged with a heart monitor.

Our Plan: That Ryan would find a job in Lubbock so we could move September 1^st – God’s Plan: To move in with my mom in Fort Worth for four months.  Even after several months Ryan still hasn’t found a job in Lubbock.  

Even in all the struggles though Ryan and I look back and are overwhelmed by God’s provisions for us this past year.  The greatest blessings we have received though is that we have a deeper faith in God than we ever did before. See in late July Ryan and I were in a place where there was absolutely nothing we could do but rely on God to provide for our immediate needs and to take care of our future.  So we sought wise counsel, pleaded and begged to God, and then waited.  Then the miracles began to happen right before our eyes.   He started “showing up” in our lives in practical ways that were unexplainable.  Things like unanimous donations when we were unable to pay the bills, having someone that could watch Pockets every single day while we were in the NICU, the overall timing of each of our moves, finding  the perfect tenants for our house, being able to live with my mom temporarily while we look for jobs, and many many more.

I literally could write pages and pages about how God has “shown up” in our lives this past year, but I do have two small children at home and nap time is only so long.  Maybe I will have the time to write it all down though as they get older.  Both the kids are still so small now, but I hope we can share the story of 2011 with them someday so that they can fully understand how AWESOME our God is. My desire is that they learn to rely on the Lord for all that they need and in all that they do.  I know Ryan and I will never be the same after this past year for that very reason.  

'I'll be home for Christmas"

Well it is official.... Ryan and I will be moving to Lubbock!  It is honestly bittersweet.  We are super excited to have a house of our own and to begin a normal life again.  But we are super super sad to leave our friends and life in DFW.  We have been talking about returning to Lubbock for almost two years now but a few months ago we started seriously pursuing jobs in Lubbock.  I got one right away and they have been graciously waiting since late August for me to start.  But Wed last week, I got an email from them asking for a conference call that following Monday.  So the whole holiday vacation Ryan and I were scheming, planning, and thinking about what we were going to do knowing that an ultimatum was coming.  This job is absolutely AMAZING and we both felt like it was not a great idea to pass it up.  So we thought about it all week long and called several places in Lubbock about child care, housing, etc. Then we called Ryan's work and asked about remote work from Lubbock to which amazingly they agreed.  Even with all the complexity, it has been awesome to see how God has orchestrated all the details.  We have been praying for months now that God would go before us and prepare the way and He absolutely has! Needless to say, we feel very sure that this is exactly what God would have us to do right now in our lives. 

 

My job is with Lubbock ISD - Early Childhood Intervention Department as a Speech Language Pathologist.  It is a great job based on everything I like to do and my training.  I will be serving children ages birth to three years old with developmental speech delays or disorders. Rather than being in a clinic or in the school though, I actually serve families in their home.  This means that most of the therapy is geared towards parents rather than actual therapy with the kids themselves.  If you ever read my private therapy website you know that is an extremely important part of therapy in my mind.  As of now i will be working 4 days a week but as Ryan gets more work, I will back down to a more ideal part time position.  The kiddos will go to a mother's day out program two days a week and Ryan will stay home with them the other two days. 

 

Ryan will continue to work for Cain Engineering (who he has been working with for several months now in the evenings and weekend).  They have guaranteed him 20 hours with the possibility to work up to 40 most weeks.  If all goes well with him working from home in Lubbock the owner is considering hiring Ryan full-time.  He is still pursuing a full time position with a company in Lubbock, but for now this is a huge answer to prayer. 

 

As for housing, we are actually in Lubbock this weekend to sign a lease on a rental property.  We have several leads so hopefully we will find a great house.  I start my job December 27th, so we hope to move in as little as two weeks so that we can be settled by Christmas and then start work that next week.

 

Well stay posted as I am sure there will be tons of more details coming about. 

Solid Foods

We have always planned on waiting till January to begin solid food with Little Sis for two main reasons.  One, like Pockets, I plan on making all of her food which is a little more time consuming and requires children to be just a tad bit older than commercially made food.  And two, based on her developmental age she isn't even 5 months old yet.  Over the Thanksgiving holiday though Little Sis started staring us down when we were eating.  She watches everything you put in your mouth or drink and smacks her lips.  So with that said Ryan and I decided to just try a bannana and see what she did.  We were nervous for her safety because she still has some lingering oral motor delays which make it difficult for her to take a bottle, but she was just fine.  She didn't eat much, only about an inch of mashed bannana and she didn't seem super intersted but more just tolerant.  Since Thanksgiving we have tried two other times to feed her and both attempts went smoothly so we may try a few more foods in the coming weeks.  Because she is a little young developmentally there are still lots of foods we have to be carefull about, so we aren't going to push her and will proabably still wait till January to really start solid food but if she wants to sit with us for one meal every few days we would love for her to join the table. 

Thanksgiving

Well we all had a great time in our week long adventure around New Mexico and Texas.  It was a long way to travel but all went smoothly so it wasn't bad.  I took Pockets and Little Sis by myself to Post one day then to Roswell the next day.  The three of us stayed in Roswell for several days while Ryan finished up working for the week.  Then he caught a plane on Wed so that we all have Thanksgiving together.  Late Thursday we drove to Alberquerque to have more thanksgiving meals and celebrate Christmas with my mom's family.  On Sunday we started heading home.  Although there really isn't alot of big details to share about the weeks events as it was low key per say and was much more about just hanging out and visiting with family, I did want to share what Ryan and I were thinking alot about this past week. 

As you all know it has been an absolutely crazy year for us.  We put our house up for sale, had a child delivered at 31 weeks, spent 7 weeks in the NICU, I quit my job unexpectantly, we didn't end up selling our house so instead became landlords, put all our personal possesions in a storage unit moved in with my mom in ft worth, left our church and friends, and have since been trying to find our direction in God's plan for our family.  As we started thinking about what we were thankful for this past holiday season, we thought back on all that had happened and yet Ryan and I could not feel more blessed!  We have honestly felt God's hand in our life both in the past few months and in our present situation.  Ryan and I have grown a ton over the last couple of years in our faithfullness and devotion to God and there is no way we could have made it through this past year if we hadn't. Because of our strong faith we have not questioned God's provisions or His mighty power even in the crazyness of the last year. Our God is amazing and so gracious to His children and Ryan and I feel so blessed to have a much better marriage than ever before, and to have two wonderful children that God has given to us to raise for His glory, and just an overwhelming peace that passes all understanding. 

Well I hope you like the pictures from the past week.  Also, be looking for a post soon about where we might go next!  There are things happening and descisions being made.  We are not 100% sure of what will be happening, but change is coming so stay tuned to find out.