Mexico

I'm way behind. I'm attempting to catch up! In August we went to Mexico for Craig and Nadine's wedding. Christopher was the best man and so it was such a sacrifice for us to go... Yeah right! NO, we did not take Addison. WE missed her like C-R-A-Z-Y but it was so nice to not have to worry about anything toddler related for 6 days! Anytime we heard a child cry we were so glad she was not with us.

WE had a pretty set routine while we were there... Wake up, eat breakfast and while at breakfast meet up with others in the group. Then head to the beach.

This picture was basically our view in the mornings Wednesday - Saturday!

Stupid blogger won't let me put these pictures where I want to... Here is who we hung out with all week. (Haley, Kelby, me, Chris, Cassy and Chad.)
Before we left for Mexico Christopher became obsessed with the Zack Brown Band song, toes in the water. So I knew we had to have this picture! (The lyrics are "toes in the water, @#$ in the sand, not a worry in the world a cold "drink" in my hand, life is good today) The song very much fit the week.

While relaxing on the beach Christopher would always do this. For some reason he was obsessed with covering his feet with sand! I just love the little kid in him.

While at the beach we would occasionally venture out into the water. Christopher's attempt at being a bay watch guy diving into the water!

The boys jumping the waves. (Chris, Craig, Chad and Kelby)

After lunch we would typically head to the pool where a game of water basketball would break out. This particular day Kelby and Chad stalked the people that had the water basketball but weren't playing. As a celebration of them finally getting the ball, they felt a team picture was necessary.

One of the rules they incorporated was that if the ball went out of the pool whoever shot it had to get it and perform a creative dunk on their way back into the pool. Here is Chad dunking over Chris on Kelby's shoulders. I thought it was a funny picture since it looks like Chad is stepping on Chris's head!

Nice follow through!

More beach pictures! Craig and Nadine on Friday before the wedding!

Craig decided it was necessary to take a picture of me and Chris.

Saturday before the wedding!

So beautiful!

One thing I would warn people about... if you decide to get married at the beach just know people are going to hang around to watch the wedding. This particular couple below stopped and talked to Cassy and I before the wedding and then came back to watch. The women was crying during the wedding and afterwards went up to take a picture with Rusty (Craig's dad who performed the wedding). I thought it was a bit odd so I asked Rusty about it later and he said that day was their 15th Anniversary so while Craig and Nadine were saying their vows, this couple renewed theirs to each other. I thought it was a great story!

A few more on lookers.

Okay, this picture... I was actually going for a picture of the man with the camera and video camera, only after I took the picture did I realize the speedo in the background... AWESOME! I mean, who wouldn't want these people at your wedding!!

A little pre-wedding buddy time up at the alter!

Nadine and her brother Eric.

Aren't they so cute! I love Nadine's face in this picture!

At the reception there was a lot of dancing! Here is Rusty breaking it down with his new daughter-in-law!!

Chris and Nadine... I'm sure they were both wishing their spouses were dancers. Too bad!!

Man, watching Nadine and her brother dance made me wish I had a little Hispanic blood in me so I could dance like they did. It was so fun to watch them!!

We had such great time. Christopher did admit that this vacation made him realize 2 things: 1) That we need to take a vacation every year (I was super pumped about this realization he made!) and 2) That if we are ever at the beach, we will ALWAYS upgrade to a beach front room. (Also, super excited about this.) On our honeymoon we would sit on our balcony and look out at the ocean, here we got to watch people walk by!!

TOO YOUNG.

Aren’t we WAY too young for this?

That was the conversation Jaymie and I had while in traffic on our way to Kent Powell’s visitation on Thursday in Decatur. How is it that our little group from church has already had to deal with too many “life” issues, and we are not even 30 yet. (I realize some are…no names, Amy Porter).

Who at 25 and 27 should have to deal with the heart ache of losing a child? How is this even possible? With amazing strength Jaymie and Kory did it and are still doing it. Their perseverance and strength amaze me still to this day.

Now again… who at 25 should have to deal with being a widow with a 2 year old and being 6 months pregnant? Nothing about this situation seems right/fair/just, whatever you want to call it that’s how I feel about it. My friend Natalie lost her husband last week after he was involved in an automobile accident. He clung to life and was able to communicate with her for a few days before he passed away, on her 25th birthday. How is this possible to get through this? She is amazing though. A pillar of strength. Amazing to watch her carry herself and care for Kason even with her pregnant belly!

I can remember 3 distinct times in my life when I was ANGRY at God and needed understanding. First time was when my good friend from high school was killed in a car accident when I was a freshman. I remember lying in my bed yelling and tensing up and shaking my fists at God. The second was with Jayde. This actually only happened about 8 months ago. But I was laying in bed one night and it just hit me. I still didn’t understand it, nor was I okay with it. I tensed up for about a minute and just screamed into my pillow. The third time was Wednesday. I was sending out an email to all of our “Crossroads” group from church about Kent’s funeral arrangements and had my fit of rage. Luckily Addison was asleep. I have found these “fits” to be very helpful. I think these are the times that I finally get angry and just hand it over to God, more like throw it really. He’s a big and mighty God, I know He can take it! After all isn’t that want He ultimately wants, for us to hand it over to Him? To give up on trying to understand the awful and terrible things of this world and hand, or throw, it to Him?

It doesn’t mean that I’m over it; I just quit trying to understand. Of course, I’m still very sad. Did I have to leave church yesterday and gather myself, yes. Will I have to do that when Natalie is back and sitting behind me, probably. Do I still cry almost every time I hear the Casting Crowns song "Praise you in the Storm" and think of Jaymie, Kory and Jayde, yes. My heart hurts for them and all the things they have had to deal with that no one should have to at such young ages. I just pray that I can be and will continue to be the friends they need me to despite my own emotions.

This has been very therapeutic for me. Thanks for reading.

Here's for all those complainers out there!

Well, many people have said things to me about updating my blog. I am an excuse... I'm tired! I have been more tired this pregnancy then I was with Addison. Okay, maybe not more tired but it is lasting longer. I sleep when Addison sleeps, which means on the days I don't work I take 2 hours naps (if I want a longer one I'll put her in bed with me and that way she'll sleep for 3 hours!!) and I go to bed soon after she does... yes that means about 8:30. So... all you complainers out there, I hope you feel bad that you all guilted me into updating my blog when I should be 30 minutes into my sleep by now!

Any who. There are a lot of things I would like to update about. I'll start with some random pictures from the last few months, since I never updated in August... Ooops!

Addison stayed with my parents in July when Christopher had continuing education in San Antonio. My mom bought this water thing for her to play in. She loved it, once Bessy convinced her that splashing the water WAS okay and NOT scary!

This was her favorite thing to do in the water "a Pappy, a swing!!"

I mentioned her big girl bed in the last post. This is it! When Mary made her bedding she made it from a bed in a bag I found at Target. I bought the queen size bedding so the sheets would be big enough for curtains. I didn't expect to continue using it on her big girl bed, but it fits perfectly! Plus, it was an easy transition since I didn't have to change her whole room up! Plus, there were BIG gaps in the sides of the day bed and so we just put her bumper pads around it to keep her from going through the spaces!

As you can see... she was not happy to take these pictures on her bed!

The girl LOVES her daddy and to do everything that he does. After he runs on Saturday morning he always does the ab workout from p90x. This day she was eating her breakfast and she heard Tony's voice and she yelled "a boo (blue) mat, a boo one." She new that Tony's voice meant Christopher was about to workout his abs. She makes him have the purple mat, which was my yoga mat, since her favorite color is blue! She really will attempted all the moves and usually stick with it the whole 14 minutes. It's so funny to watch!!

She also has to mow with Daddy!

This particular day Christopher's mower broke down then so did Addison's.

Papa made her this wonderful bench! Can you tell she loves it? This is what I get now when I tell her to say cheese! AWESOME!

The Sunday before we left for Mexico Mary Beth (Bessy) was in Tyler so she came over to hang out with us! Addison loved it. They had to put on their cowboy hats!

I think this one is so cute! She LOVES her Aunt Bessy... of course, why wouldn't she, they are the same person... the love of horses and the OCD... I can only figure that comes from her!

Finally... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY TO MY BABY GIRL. I cannot believe she is 2 today! We had her party on Saturday. I'll have a post of that as well as Mexico. But both of those have LOTS of pictures and I'll need a little more energy!

Update on baby... I'm 14 weeks. Had an appointment today, heart rate was 135. I'm going to have a sonogram at my next appointment to check on my cyst. Yeah, I haven't blogged about that yet. It's there, about golf ball size. It's been growing then shrinking and we'll see what it has been doing the last 8 weeks in 4 weeks! He said my appointment was to check on the cyst, I'm am hoping that he'll also go ahead and tell us what it is!! We'll see.

That's all. I'm out. I'm tired and the couch is calling my name! (it's way more comfortable than the bed these days since it keeps me on my side!)