The Girls Rooms

So... back in May we started working on the girls rooms and we are still yet to be completely done, however, we are SO close. Here are a few pics of what we have been doing on the weekend we are in town and week nights we are home (it has made for an extremely busy summer).

Miss Brooke Avery's Room
My sister made her name (we just love it!)

Her bookshelves with all kinds of great things on the shelves (all picture frames are waiting to be filled with Miss Brooke)

The chair I know I will be spending lots of time in

Pictures, that I saw and really liked at a store here in Houston, but they were super expensive. Little did I know, Justin and Jennifer found out I wanted them and they had Jennifer's step-father paint them for us. We were SO impressed and I was SO surprised and thrilled. We love them. Thank you again Justin and Jennifer!

The changing table.. another place every parent spends lots of time at :-)

The matte's to the frame's behind her changing table. My sister did them and we were so impressed! Cannot wait to fill these frames up with little pics of Miss B!


Miss Kaytlin Elizabeth's BIG girl Room :-)
Sorry I did not get a great shot of her bed in these pics...

Kaytlin adores butterflies and flowers!

Her hutch with all her girly stuff on it

Another view (but you can see the dresser under it... I think what I loved most about this set of furniture besides its "girlness" would be the "crystal" knobs. They reminded me of my girly girl, Miss K.

a view of her curtain's and night stand.



So what still needs to be done in their rooms...
Brooke, I need one more thing for one of her shelves, and a frame or something to go in front of her wipe warmer/diaper stuff, and a new rug (I am thinking cream shaggy hair looking one :-)
Kaytlin, her lamp shade needs a little sprucing up with some decorations. We are waiting on 2 pillow shams with her initials on it, and a wonderfully talented woman from our church is going to paint stems on her flowers.

THEN... Here I am at just over 38 weeks preggers. I am much smaller (not sure if you can tell though) with Brooke than I was with KK. I am not sure if it is they way they are laying or the fact that I gained at least 7 more pounds with KK. During this pregnancy, anything sweet makes me nauseous, so I just don't eat it and I also crave salads and fruits; where as with K, after the first trimester and bit I pretty much ate whatever. Hmmm.. who knows why. I will say though, I am "feeling" more pregnant this time around.

Celebrating Miss Brooke Avery

Since we are having another girl, and have basically all we need, J&I felt it wasn't right (especially in these economic times) to have another baby shower. We were overly blessed by our first ones with KK (what we tend to call Kaytlin), and we just did not want to burden anyone. My sister of course would not take "no" for an answer, so she insisted on giving a family diaper and wipe shower. We, of course, GREATLY appreciate any diapers and wipes (as you all know kiddos go threw those SO fast). Thank you to all the family!!! Love you all.



OH! Also, not sure if we ever "officially" announced it or not, but back in June we prayed and decided on the name Brooke Avery. Jeremy really like Aubrey and I really liked the name Olivia, and neither of us would budge, so we vetoed both of those, prayed about a name separately and both come to the conclusion that Brooke was what it was meant to be. Then we were having a problem over the middle name until my sister came up with Avery, and we just knew that was what it was meant to be :-)

ON a side note, 3 of my girl friends also threw us an little shower last night (in fact). It was so sweet. I meet these girls about once a month for dinner and a movie or just hang out time, and well they totally surprised me with a little shower celebrating our little bun in the oven. Girls you know who you are... thank you, I love you, and you are wonderful!!!!

July 4th Weekend Fun

How can you not spend July 4th by the water (or at least that is my thoughts, since that is what I grew up doing... it is almost like having turkey for Thanksgiving... a must!). Anyway, we headed down to the Lake House and Justin and Jennifer were even able to stop by for a couple nights as well. We had a great time!

K&Mommy... oh, how I LOVE this little girl! What a true blessing she is to my life. Thank you Lord for her.


K all dressed up, celebrating RED, WHITE and BLUE!


Here K is with Daddy about to go for a boat ride and a little swim in the lake.


...and they were off on K's first boat ride. She was a bit weary at first but then apparently enjoyed it. I did not get to go since the water was fairly chopping (it was the weekend of Hurricane Alex down South), and my brother (an OB/GYN) said my OB would not approve of me being so pregnant on such choppy water. I just stayed back and got some sun instead :-)

Vacation Bible School 2010

What a blessing this week was for not only me, but Kaytlin and everyone else involved. This was also Kaytlin's Grams' 25th Year to Direct VBS for BCBC. WOW, what a dedicated servant to the Lord, thank you Gram!

Here is a slide show of some of the pictures of VBS this past summer. Kaytlin's little tutu Cowgirl Cutie Outfit was made by her Auntie Charlotte. We LOVE it, and K LOVED wearing it! Thank you Char Char!!!!

Summer Birthday Party FUN!!!

We have been so blessed to be able to share in the festivities and fun of so many birthday's this summer. Here are just a few of those...

First in early June, we attended our cousin Shepherd's 2nd Birthday Party at Little Gym. K always is up for Little Gym and had a blast celebrating it with one of her favorite cousins... Shepherd!






A couple of weekends later, K got to go to Kehnley's 3rd (Fancy Nancy dress up) Birthday Party! Oh, how fun!!! We were so appreciative of Uncle Justin and Aunt Jen Jen who took her for us. I had a VBS meeting I could not miss and Jeremy had a UT MBA class he was attending. We did not want for K to miss out on the account that we were too busy, so we enlisted help. They took great care of her and she had a BLAST with them and at the party. What girl doesn't love dressing up, playing with baby dolls and swimming! WOW! What a fabulous day :-)





Then in July we were able to celebrate another very special cousin's birthday, Miss Ava Elizabeth (my sister's little girl). K and Ava are BFF's...seriously! They love spending time together. Ava was turning 1 year old! What an exciting day it was!!! K and Ava both LOVED her cake and cupcakes (K thought Ava might need a little help with her little smash cake, so she took it upon herself to "help" eat the icing). Ava was such a ham... living up every moment!






We were also able to celebrate, Aunt Ashley's birthday (Brother's wife), Uncle Jason's Birthday (my brother), Aunt Libby's Birthday (Travis' wife), and we are about to celebrate K's Daddy's and Uncle Justin's birthday this coming weekend, and hopefully the "birth" day of sissy Brooke :-)
Thank you all for allowing us to be apart of your big days! They were all incredibly FUN!

Hall Family Photo's

Back in June, our friend (Kristin King Photography) who takes our pictures every Mother's Day took pictures of all the Hall's. She also did a couple of shots for J&I since K was sick the first time she took pics with us. Hope you enjoy!



My favorite picture ever... I just love it and will cherish this pic(they look like they are having a serious father/daughter chat)!


Here are several more pictures. I had an individual one of Travis and Libby, but for some reason it would not download. Not sure what I did wrong, sorry T&L!

Illinois Shout Out!

I am so behind on blogging (2 months, in fact, so I am back tracking to May to try and get caught up. I am sure I will forget a lot, but here goes)....

At the end of May/beginning of June, we flew up to Illinois to see Jeremy's cousin, Kelsey graduate from High School and to visit everyone else up there. We had a really good time. Unfortunately, Kaytlin got a head cold just prior to us going up there, and I think with the pressure in the plane, she ended up getting her first ear infection. WOW, that was not fun. As a parent your heart aches because of course it is the middle of night when it happens to really get bad, then none of the dr's up there would see us just for one time, so we took her to an Urgent Care Center, and they luckily gave us some meds to get her all back to her normal, sweet, content self.

Anyway, overall (besides K being sick), we had a fabulous time and wish we got to see Kaytlin's Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa more often, along with everyone else up there.

The boys trying to help grandma and grandpa out with a little house "spring" cleaning.

Grandpa

K&I enjoying the outside, while swinging in the chair.


K getting a little mommy lovin' tickles.


The cousins.. Jeremy, K and Kels. Kelsey was so sweet and took K one day to feed the fish, and look at ducks and hang out. KK loved it! I also think that Kels now a friend for life.


Jeremy, K, Kelsey and I at Kels' Graduation Party.


K is never short of attention. She loves her Aunt Libby and Uncle Travis and relishes in all the attention they give her.


KK loved ALL the attention that she got from Cousins Kate and Kelsey. She just adored them.


The Graduate, Miss Kelsey Meyer.. Congratulations girl!!!!


Kelsey had ballons that Kaytlin LOVED playing with. She hammed it up for everyone.

One of the Greatest Blessings...

I could had NEVER imagined what an amazing, inspirational blessing being a mother could possibly be. Every parent will tell you how their child/children has changed their life for the better. Every parent will say that yes, there are hard times, but those are the times that grow us, parents, the most. I have to say being a mother has been such a huge blessings in my life. Kaytlin teaches me so much about love, patients, true joy, innocence, and well to be honest the list goes on and on. I told Jeremy last year that the best gift he could give me for mother's day, would be a family portrait every year. Luckily, I have been blessed the past two years just with that wish.




Jeremy's high school friend now has a photography business and she is phenomenal (if you need your pics taken, go to the right of our blog and click on Kristin King Photography)! Last year she did our session and again this year. This year however K was not in the best mood, and well later that day we found out why. Bless her little self, she was sick, suffering with a fever, and bad head cold (that ended up with her first ear infection... nothing makes a parent's heart ache more than having a sick baby. You feel so helpless because you cannot do anything about it. Luckily, our Father in Heaven takes care of and loves her more than we can even imagine so we can have confidence in Him in times like that.). Anyway...here are some of the pics from our photo session. We love them and are so pleased that we can cherish these pictures and times! Thank you Kristin for exceeding our expectations again, you are the best!

Precious Kaytlin!


The two loves of my life...



Our little family (with one on the way!)...


This probably best describes the day... poor baby, was just not feeling very good, and she only wanted mommy (which is unlike her when daddy is around, unless of course, she is sick).


Here is a little slide show with lots more. Again, too hard to pick just a few to display!!!

I wish I could put into words how precious, special and simply wonderful being a mother is, but there are truly no words to describe it! On top of that, I have the most amazing and fabulous husband any woman could possibly be blessed with. Thank you Lord for a family that I am truly blessed with every second!

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Here is a little poem I received from a friend of mine on Mother's Day. Thought, you all might enjoy as well.


BEFORE I WAS A MOM. . .
(author unknown)

Before I was a Mom,
I made and ate hot meals.
I had unstained clothing.
I had quiet conversations on the phone.

Before I was a Mom,
I slept as late as I wanted.
I never worried about how late I got into bed.
I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.

Before I was a Mom,
I cleaned my house each day.
I never tripped over toys.
I never forgot words to lullabies.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been . . .
puked on
pooped on
spit on
chewed on
peed on
or pinched by tiny fingers.

Before I was a Mom,
I had complete control of my mind, thoughts and body.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child so that doctors could do tests or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put it down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a Mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important.
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never known . . .
the warmth
the joy
the love
the heartache
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much . . . before I was a Mom.