What's More - Part II to What's UP

More of What's (been) UP lately...

Recent highlights: (pictures to follow!!)
1. Scott finished his first year of medical school! Very successfully at that. Congrats Scott!
Although he is still busy daily doing a summer research program, we are enjoying a little more time with him than during the school year.
2. The warm weather and the nearby beach are drawing lots of visitors  to our home. We might be a small part of that draw, too, maybe. :)
First we had Scott's sister Andrea and her family, then my sister Melissa and her family, then my sister Michelle and her family (see below (Part II) for lots of pictures!), and this coming weekend my sister Sarah and her family, then the next weekend Scotts parents are coming to visit, and the weekend after that....
3. Scott and I will be saying goodbye to each other for most of the month of June :( Definitely NOT a highlight, BUT, Scott is excited for the experience of officer training in San Antonio and I'm excited to fly home to KC with Syd and visit my family there next month.


Sweet Sydney Moments...
*I went into Sydney’s room after she woke up one morning recently and while we were getting her dressed and talking about how her night was, she told me about how Jesus slept in her bed (she’s said that a few mornings lately) and then pointed to His picture on her mirror and asked if Jesus could come out of the picture so she could hug him and I told her that He is already out, he’s “right here in your heart,” to which she smiled all big and replied “Nooooo, Jesus not in my heart or tummy! Jesus is in the temple!” Silly Mommy :).

*I rode my bike trainer the other day like usual but this time after getting out of the shower I was starving to the extreme. I told Scott or Sydney or whoever would listen that “I AM SO HUNGRY I’M GOING TO DIE!”

Sydney gave the prayer at lunch or dinner that day and this is what she said:

"Dear Father,

Thanks baby (Isaac) feel better

Thanks Daddy come home

Thanks Mommy heathly and mommy not die

thanks Daddy not die and Sydney not die

Thanks Jesus alive and Jesus come out

Thanks pitzzee (pizza)

name jesus christ, AMEN!"

Kid’s listen to and notice everything! 

I thought it was tender to also note that in another prayer she gave within a day or two of the one above she said in it: 

“...Thank daddy come home and hug mommy and kiss her and hold her...”

It's so true--the best thing a father can do for his children is love their mother! They benefit from the peace and safety that comes from such a relationship and look forward to receiving the same; They see what they will one day deserve. 

This describes beautifully what they deserve- 

I came across it a couple days ago and loved it:

"We need to teach our daughters to 

know the difference between:

a man who flatter her

and a man who compliments her

a man who spends money on her

and a man who invests in her

a man who views her as property

and aman who views her properly

a man who lusts after her

and a man who loves her

a man who believes he's a gift to women

an a man who believes she's a gift to him

And then we need to teach our sons to be that kind of man."

-unknown

AND FOR THE PICTURES! 

PART I

*Happy Early Father's Day!

Since we won't be together on Father's Day, (as well as the whole month of June!), Sydney helped me make something for daddy and we gave it to him a little early before all of our guests come in town and we leave:

We now have this hung up in the hall just outside of our room on the way to the front door where we can leave messages to eachother, uplifting quotes, drawings for daddy or even the menu for dinner that night! We bought the frame and magnetic chalk board and had to glue it in and nail on hangers on the back. It wasn't too involved but Syd had fun helping watching me put it all together. :)

Sydney signed for both her and Isaac (random scribble marks near the bottom..). :)

*Now that school's out and there's no more "studying" to keep him away, after he gets home from his summer research program we take full advantage of the "free time."

Here we are at the Houston zoo, which Sydney absolutely loved. We met up with her cousins that live over an hour away from us so that was way fun too :) (Here are just a few pics to prove that we went ;)). 

We go to the zoo to take pictures with fake animals. You can get a much better shot ;)

*Sydney's 2nd (?) tooth cleaning dentist appointment! She was a little nervous but was such a big girl- because they promised her a new pink toothbrush!!! :)

*ok, if you click on this pic below to make it bigger, you will see the weird phenomena that we have only witnessed a few times in the year that we've lived here so far.

 There are the apartments where we live to the immediate right (light brick, almost passed it), and at the end of the road is an enormous structure that usually is not there and looks so weird to see as it floats by (aka cruise ship). They float by a few times a week but if you aren't staring down our road right as they pass, you will miss it in that position and it's always so weird bc it looks like a suddenly constructed humongo building that appears and disappears. Anway, just thought I'd try and give you a glimpse into something that we think is so crazy to see every once in a while at the end of our street. Trust me, it's a lot more cool in real life. And that was a really long caption for that one, unimpressive photo ;)

*Now here's a photo much more impressive. The Houston temple! We got to go last weekend and it was, like always, a beautiful experience inside and out. 

*A Houston bike store on the 2 hour car drive back from the temple to get daddy some new biking gear.

That's Baby Isaac in Syd's tummy just in case anyone was wondering. 

*Shopping with daddy.

She makes for a fabulous men's model, dontcha think?

*But daddy left the store with these swim trunks instead. Good thing he had a pair of 

non-7-year-old-from-before-we-got-married-and-before-his-2-year-mission swim trunks

to wear when he went sailing last Friday with a Doctor from UTMB and another fellow student!

*A little bit of toothbrush with a splash of purse strap, rubber ducky and tennis ball..

Always makes for the PERFECT Macaroni and Cheese! Right Syd?!

I guess I should've posted this recipe to my blogs FOOD page.

It's Syd's specialty- and her #1 request these days along with Peetzee! (pizza..)

*Sydney's Successes 
Now that Sydney has pretty much mastered the ABC's, she's learning how to master the piano (just kidding..), walk in heels (really, it's a hobby), and ride a bike (well, tricycle, that she's almost grown out of).

PART II

 OUR VISITORS!

 FAMILY VISIT 

from Michelle, Jeff and Madie!

I think these girls are one of the main reasons we

were looking so forward for this trip. 

Best cousin friends!

Only a month apart. 

Ferry ride, saw some dolphins, fed some gulls- 

right out of the hand!

The first day they were here was terrible and rainy. 

Bad judgment call when we decided to walk to the ferry instead of drive.

Useless umbrella!

Waiting for the rain to go away, we decided to put the girls for a nap

and play a board game. It was pretty awesome how the sun came 

out for the 1st time since they were in town just after the girls went down 

and we started out long game of Life.

I guess that's life! maha

Michelle was desperate for palm tree picture shots.

This fake pose was just for the sake of the distant trees..

Michelle, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

I was sure that this was a penguin washed up from Antarctica

before I got up close to it. So sad! It was actually a really pretty bird.

Moody Gardens

hahaha- 

It looks worse than it was. I think Syd was just giving her a hug or something.

Well, maybe it felt to Madie as worse as it looks. 

We have a few of these kinds of shots between the two of them. So funny.

Ok, awesome shot Michelle! 

That should go in national geographic. 

It looks real! Not like an aquarium.

 Day at the beach

(yes, thanks to the rain, we crammed all the beach/swimming into one day!)

Hahaha this was so funny. 

Sydney had to go pee really bad as we were walking to the ocean and I kept telling her to hold it until we got off the walkway deck thing and she got to the very end, stopped waddling, and just let it all out. That was funny by itself but then I noticed Michelle laughing uncontrollably and she said

 "Did you not hear them?"

Directly below where Syd stopped to pee were showers and a hose for rinsing sand off after the beach and I guess there were people under there and one of them said "Eww! She's peeing on me!!"

We started laughing so hard and couldn't even stop as a big group of people came up the stairs from the shower.

Good thing they had a shower handy to rinse it off! Bahaha

 My favorite ocean view pool in Galveston. 

Thanks Whit for letting us come swim all the time!

Last day here...

It was fun to have Madie in nursery with us at church!!

So cool

 The girls.

Our main joy of the trip!

I can't wait to hopefully, in some distant future to live close

so these girls can grow up together and be best friends, 

just like you and I, Michelle!

Thanks so much for coming to our home and spending time with us!

Syd can't wait to "go fly on an airplane to Madie's house!!!" in a few weeks!

 We love you guys! 

*I'm sure we'll have more visitors before the summer's end- especially around the time 

Isaac is born

in August. 

We are looking forward to it- to meeting him.

Exciting, yet very unknown times ahead!

*Follow up on Isaac's story to follow