Today is Brian's birthday! We wanted to spend the day together as a family and so we started it out with Kenzi's soccer game. She scored two goals! Way to go!

Then we went to the Texas Roadhouse. It was a wonderful lunch. As we walked in, we were being seated and Brian tapped me on the back of my shoulder. . ."honey. . .honey. . .do you see that?" and I looked in the corner of the restaurant and saw what looked like Willie Nelson! He was sitting in "Willie's Corner" and everything. What do you think?

After lunch, we went to the Japanese Gardens in Ft. Worth. It's a wonderful place to go - very relaxing, beautiful and a lot of fun. We took Mackenzi there when she was just a few months old. I've added a picture of her so you can compare how she and Levi look. . .although she's a month older here than he is.

We had a lot of fun walking around the gardens. Mackenzi kept wanting to go down this trail, and that trail. . .she had a wonderful time. Levi enjoyed being outside and smiled like never before! He just loves to be outside.

It's incredible how you can feed the fish here at this place. Brian and Mackenzi spent a great deal of time feeding them. Brian kept trying to get Mackenzi to touch the fish, but she was pretty reluctant for a while. . and then finally gave in and touched them. We liked to never pulled her away from wanting to feed and touch the koi fish. I don't know who's more proud in this video - Mackenzi or her daddy!!

It was a wonderful day - Happy Birthday BRIAN!!!

The Curb - 11 years

September 30th, 11 years ago. . .Brian and I sealed the beginning of our relationship with a kiss. . .on the campus of Dallas Baptist University. Okay, okay, I took the first step this particular day and decided to wait on Brian. You see, he was driving a red hot '95 Mustang Cobra, and well, he was a bit proud of it. . .so, he would always park it as far away from other cars are possible. On this day, he was in one of the smaller parking lots at the end, of course, and it happened to be near the grass. So, I had my backpack, loaded with a few things - mostly books. . .and, well, I sat there. Waiting. Trying to decide if I was doing the right thing by waiting or not. . .and continued to wait. Meanwhile I was pulling a book out of my backpack, not even reading it, just looking at it - trying to look inconspicuous. . .then putting the book back in my backpack, and pulling out another one. . .Then the time came, his class should be out - my mind raced back and forth - do I stay, do I go? what do I do? But, it was too late - Brian came walking down the sidewalk with someone from his class, and turned his head. It was in that second when he saw me, that I knew I had done the right thing by waiting. . .the smile on his face confirmed that he was as interested in me and I was in him. You see, we had already been talking quite a bit, sharing notes in Statistics quite a bit, but I wasn't sure if he was interested in me romantically until that second.

It's certainly a smile I've never forgotten. He sat down next to me on the curb and we just visited. . .for about three hours. Near the end of that three hours - we were talking about all kinds of things, and nervously picking at the rocks on the ground. . .The moments leading up to that first kiss escape me. . .but the comfort I felt in that kiss 11 years ago I still feel today. After that day on the curb, we would make a point to return to it and pray together, spend time together, just enjoying each others' company. And, until last year, we were able to physically revisit that curb every year, exactly where we sat. . .and we know it was the same place because Brian marked the curb with red touch up paint "9-30-97". Last year DBU decided to build some large chapel there. . .and this year they are still working on the building of that chapel. . .and so we had to venture elsewhere on campus.

DBU is such a beautiful place, and so finding somewhere to sit with our family and take a picture was not a difficult task. And as an added blessing this year, we were able to take our new precious one, Levi, with us.

This yearly tradition for us is a blessing as we always make a point to remember the memories we shared in the first couple years of our relationship.

Levi is Laughing!!

Mackenzi and I have been singing Patty Cake with Levi for several weeks now, but it wasn't until Daddy played it with him the other night that we heard him laughing! I managed to get my video camera out very quickly and Levi performed nicely for it! I had to stand off to the side because when he sees the camera, he will stop doing whatever we're attempting to video, of course!

Kenzi Hula Hoopin' to Nicole C Mullen's BRAINWASH

A little fun. . .

Mackenzi wanted to take some fun pictures of her and Levi today - aren't they precious?

Levi Praying. . .

Levi is so sweet with his little praying bear. . .he focuses so intently on this little bear. You can hear his big sister, Mackenzi, in the background marveling at Levi praying with this bear! It's too sweet!

Levi loves his bouncer!

The ladies of Cross Country Outreach where my father-in-law pastors gave my mother-in-law a "Grandma Shower" before Levi was born. And with that shower came Levi's favorite toy thus far - a bouncer seat! He absolutely LOVES this bouncer seat! We have seen him get excited before, in small amounts - he'll smile, he'll coo, he'll kick his feet. . .but, I don't believe he's done all three at once until he sat down in this bouncer this past weekend in Wylie. He loved it so much, Memaw sent it home with us. Here's just a glimpse of him beginning to get excited in the bouncer. . .

And then until this morning, we didn't have a picture of him smiling. . .and in his bouncer seat, I was able to capture him smiling,

. . .and giving us this sweet grin while cutting his eyes! How precious!

Mackenzi had a great time while we were in Wylie as well. . .Pepaw let her ride his lawn mower and also drive his red truck! She was holding the steering wheel all by herself and doing a pretty good job!! Pepaw has said he'll get the go-kart up and running, and so we'll see how she does with that! We'll definitely have to capture some video footage of that!

Mackenzi's first day of Kindergarten!

Mackenzi started Kindergarten yesterday. She was so excited! The night before she was jumping up and down telling me how excited she was! We had already met her teacher, Mrs. Forbes at DP Morris Elementary last week.

I think it is probably natural that as a parent, we want to protect our kids emotionally - working to keep them from being scared, or anxious, making sure that the other kids are nice to them - hoping they'll like their teacher and the other teachers they come in contact with. . .and unfortunately, it's just not something we can always control. What I've attempted to do as we've led up to Kinder is to be as positive about the experience as possible. Fortunately for me, I have a positive experience of my own kindergarten year. I remember the first day of school as my mom walked me to my class that there was another kid crying, and clinging to their parents. I remember asking my mom, "Doesn't he want to go to school?" I didn't understand why someone wouldn't want to go to school. Mackenzi has seemed to take to that attitude as well. . .today as I was walking to her school to pick her up, I was walking along another parent who lives on our street, his little boy is in Mackenzi's class as well. He told me that Mackenzi has been so sweet to his little boy. His little boy is one who was dragged out from under his bed to get ready for school. Just doesn't want to go - and doesn't understand why his parents are making him go. But, he said that Mackenzi has offered to hold his hand when he's scared, and even offered him some of her brownie today at lunch. How sweet is that? My little princess, whom I worry whether others are being nice to her - is the one who is taking over by being nice to them. . .helping them not miss their mom and dad so much.

And even with that statement, I guess I feel a little sad - who wants to not be missed? In fact, as Mackenzi and I walked through her school today on the way to her room, I held out my hand to her, and she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Mom, I'm walking right beside you." You're right, Mackenzi, you are walking beside me. She is a very independent little girl. . .and God has graced us with her. It's just the beginning of us helping to prepare her for this world. I pray that we make the right decisions in raising her. . .and continue to see her showing God's love to others when they need it - like she has been with the little boy in her class.

Women of Faith

This past weekend I had the joy of attending the Women of Faith conference in Dallas. Every year for the past 3 or so years, my mother-in-law, Phyllis, has bought tickets for us and also her sister, Aunt Gay, and Phillip's wife, Sara. It's a great weekend filled with lots of music, great speakers, and little sleep! This year we had other reasons behind why we didn't get much sleep - and that's because our precious little "tator tot" as Aunt Gay has coined him was with us. When I got pregnant with Levi, one of things Phyllis asked me was what would I do about the Women of Faith conference? And I answered emphatically, "I'm still going!" Now, of course as the weekend neared, and I began to consider how the semantics of going to the conference would work out with Levi, I began to hesitate - but not for long. . .and am so thankful I did. I had a great time, despite a virus I was fighting. Here's a picture of Aunt Gay outside of the American Airlines center making the same face as Levi. . .

And here is all five of us enjoying the conference. Thanks, Phyllis, for all you do to make this weekend happen for us with Levi sleeping happily!!

A little boy COOING

While we were in Spring visiting Nana and Papa, Levi decided to talk a little bit to his Nana. Here is the video with him telling her a bit of what he was thinking!!

Mackenzi's New Haircut

Mackenzi, Levi and I are in Spring visiting my parents this week. We wanted to come spend some time with Nana and Papa before Mackenzi started school and while I'm still off on maternity leave. Well, Mackenzi would also tell you we're here to see her cousins, Connor and Trevor (how could I forget that?). Mackenzi's getting ready to start Kindergarten and before we left Dallas, Daddy finally agreed to let Mackenzi get a new hairstyle! Once he agreed, Kenzi and I jumped on the idea of getting it taken care of before Daddy changed his mind, and figured we'd take her to where Nana gets her hair cut. Mackenzi has been wanting to get her hair cut for several months now, and Daddy has always refused to let her get it cut. Afterall, it took SO long for her to even get hair! We took several pictures during the haircutting process and then of course some after her hair was cut. Who knew she had so much hair? :) We even saved some of the hair for her baby book because this is the first "real" haircut that she's had. She's had plenty of trimming done, but not very much cut off at once. She is certainly ready for Kindergarten now!

GREAT FRIENDS and our kids!

Four of the funnest years of my life were spent at Dallas Baptist University. In the first of those four years, I met five of the greatest friends! We met our freshman year as either roommates, or neighbors, and have maintained our friendship for the past 13 years. Holly and I were roommates, Jami and Laurie were our next door neighbors, and then Monica and Angela lived just down the hallway. Out of the six of us, four of us have had little ones over the past five years. Mackenzi was born first, and then Jami had Maebry Grace 2 months later. Holly had Summer Elizabeth (in the stroller below) when Kenzi and Maebry were just two years old. Then after three girls, Laurie had the first little boy, Garin Lee in 2007. As we took the picture below, Garin was very interested in playing with his balloon! Following little Garin, we had our precious Levi. Of course Levi managed to sleep the entire birthday party and is snoozing in his car seat in the picture.

The girls had a great time at the party. You can hear how much fun Mackenzi had in this video of her swinging above the foam blocks! She kept asking the guy pushing her to push her HIGHER AND HIGHER!

First trip to Wylie

Levi had the opportunity to travel to Wylie for the first time last weekend. We met the family at El Fenix first and enjoyed some time with Uncle Phillip and Aunt Sara.

Then we headed on to the house and spent some time there, and Levi got to meet his great-grandmothers. Brian's mom's mother, Mamaw Edith, was very excited to see Levi. She came over and Kenzi met her at the door. We didn't know what had happened, but Memaw called out to Mamaw Edith to tell her we were just in the living room with the baby. Mamaw Edith called down from upstairs and said that Mackenzi had told her to come upstairs with her. She thought she was going upstairs to see baby Levi - only, Mackenzi was showing her upstairs where her Uncle Christopher was at! Here's a picture of Mamaw, Kenzi and Levi, and then a picture of Uncle Hilly holding Levi.

Brian's dad's mom, Mamaw Neva Lou, turned 97 this year. She was so excited to see Levi, and said she wished she could see him better so she could tell who he looked like. . .We assured her that after seeing Brian's baby book and a picture of him at 5 days old, that Levi looks exactly as Brian did as a baby!

Mackenzi stayed in Wylie while we came back home so she could spend some time with Memaw and Pepaw. It was interesting just having Levi here at the house during the day. All of the sudden, Newman took a special interest in having Levi around. With Mackenzi here, he has sniffed at him, on a few occasions, but for the most part hasn't had much to do with him. He's a good dog, and doesn't really get in the way either. He was great with Mackenzi when she was a baby too. Well, I had Levi down for a nap in his room, and just had the door slightly pulled closed. I walked through and saw Newman, aka the Guard dog, sitting outside of his room! This is not a place he normally lays down to rest, so it was obvious he was guarding our precious little boy. It was really sweet. What a good dog, Newman!