Little Emily and Kate

Cousin Emily spent the night with us last night and Kate loved having her read stories before bed. The picture you see below is Emily as a baby and here she is today.

Ten Years Ago...ACU Graduation

It's hard to believe that it's been ten years since we graduated from college. Wow! Time Flies!!! This past Friday our family along with Matt's parents, Nani and Poppy traveled to Abilene for our ten year reunion. It was lots of fun and brought back many special memories. Let me fill you in on a little history...Matt's parents both attended ACU and his dad played football there. He was then drafted by the Los Angeles Rams and then went on to play for the New Orleans Saints. I think that is pretty neat. So, they saw many old friends too. We had fun going to the carnival on Friday night, attending our early morning breakfasts on Saturday for the clubs we were a part of, aka fraternity or sorority (they aren't national so they are called social clubs). After the breakfast, we had fun seeing all the floats at the parade and the kids loved it too. The theme this year was Elvis. We then went to Homecoming Chapel which was so wonderful. I loved attending chapel as a student and I love it today. The singing is amazing and every "special occasion" chapel is closed with the song, "The Lord Bless You and Keep You." It was great...however very different now having children there with us. We enjoyed the football game that afternoon and that's the first time I've ever seen an ACU game packed! It was great to see that spirit...guess people want to come when you're winning! We had tons of fun and enjoyed our special weekend at such a special place! We love ACU! Below, I scanned in some old pictures from when we graduated ten years ago and then posted pics from the weekend. It sure is fun to see how things have changed.

Miss Emily and baby Emily ten years ago. Baby Emily is Matt's sister's youngest girl.

Matt and I, Laurie and Gary and Miss Emily then.

ACU Graduation Day 1998

Ten Years Later...ACU Homecoming

ACU Homecoming 2008.

Just one of the new things on campus... Jacob's Ladder. This is the monument representing the story of Jacob having a dream about the stairway to heaven...God says I am watching over you Jacob and all this land will belong to you. Genesis 28

This is at Jacob's Ladder on campus. So many new things and new buildings now.

Miss Emily (check out her pic above from ten years ago), Foster, and I at the 6:30 a.m. Siggie Breakfast! Em's 1 year reunion and my 10 year reunion! Emily and I pledged the same club so it was nice having her to go to breakfast with this year. Thanks Em for picking us up for breakfast.

Miss Emily and Kate

The ACU Wildcat!

What is that Fos?

Just a little apprehensive!

Kate hugging the Wildcat!

ACU Homecoming Parade Floats

Okay so I have this all jumbled, but this was the Homecoming Parade that is so much fun and a tradition at ACU. Each social club has to build a float centered around a theme and this year's theme was Elvis. The pledges are in charge of building the floats and many stay up all night to make it happen. The overall best was Gamma Sigma Phi....they were great...they had Elvis singing on top of the float and a band playing below. Actually, they won the competition. The Siggies were great, but of course I am partial since that was my club....they were chocolate milkshakes and had a blender on top. Matt was in Galaxy so I had to post a pic of the BUS. Poppy, Matt's dad, was in Sub-T 16 which was hilarious...the entire van was bouncing...talk about no shocks! Gata was the club that Nani, or Matt's mom was in and that is the red float below. It is hilarious to hear Matt's dad make fun of him for being a Moonie or in Galaxy instead of in Sub-T. Just thought I would post this for all of you ACUites that didn't get to make to Homecoming this year. It was fun!
Sub-T.

Foster's 1st Birthday Invite!

Okay.....I have got to recommend this site to anyone who is needing an invitation for birthday parties. Her site is www.lilbeansprout.com. Obviously, this is Foster's first birthday invitation and I love it!!

Precious Children...Precious Pictures

Is this picture not the cutest you've ever seen??? Oh my goodness....once again Sarah took this picture last summer of our kids in the Blanco River...Griffin and Kate. Okay...so I am still learning how to blog backwards so if want to read so it will make sense, scroll down to Special Friends and read up. Hopefully next time, I can manage to place the pics in order along with my wording. Once again, Sarah is a photographer in San Antonio. Visit her website at www.sjphotos.net. She is amazing!

The whole gang this past summer. Our special friends!! One more from the Jones' family is due to arrive tomorrow. We can't wait to meet him.

I didn't have any of Brooks on here...all of Kate and Griffin. My mom fell in love with both of these boys, but especially Brooks. Wow...he is so sweet and precious!

My Foster boy. Oh, I could eat this child...he is so yummy! Yes, Sarah took this one too.

Pics taken by Sarah Jones

And another.....photo from this summer....Griffin and Kate. Do you suppose we could plan a marriage? Heehee

Kate...another pic that Sarah took. (http://www.sjphotos.net/)

Brooks, Kate, and Griffin this summer.

Choo Choo got to ride too.

Special Friends

Matthew, Greg, Griffin, Brooks, Kate, and Campbell having fun on Pops' Ranger.

Wow!! These pics were taken by Sarah Jones, one of my sweet friends from SA. I posted a pic of our kiddos not long ago from this past summer. Anyway, they came to eat at my parents when we were there visiting last weekend. Sarah, by the way, has a photography business. Her website is http://www.sjphotos.net/. She is great so if you're ever in the area or know someone who lives down south, send them her way. She put these pics on her blog and I had to copy every one of them to post on mine. They are adorable and of course show what a great time we had with them. They are special friends of ours that we so enjoy hanging out with. I might have mentioned this in an earlier blog, but while we all attended ACU, we didn't really get to know them until we lived in SA. We were all friends and in a growth group together along with Amanda and Trey who I mentioned in an earlier blog. That was prior to our precious children entering our lives. We love Greg and Sarah, their children Griffin and Brooks and of course Holden who is in Sarah's tummy at least for another day or so. We can't wait to meet him. Oh yes, I didn't mention that she is having a baby tomorrow so if you want pics made, wait at least a month or so for her to get acclimated to three boys!!!

Brothers and Sisters!

Well we had tons of fun tonight cooking out at a park in Sunnyvale. We couldn't have asked for better weather, better burgers, or better friends to share the night with! We hung out with Trey and Amanda Grigsby and their precious kiddos Elise and Ty! Amanda is absolutely one of my most favorite people on this earth! I always say in my perfect world that I would live next to Amanda, attend the same church as Amanda, and of course that we would all live in San Antonio or the Texas Hill Country together along with the Jones' as well as some others! We both attended ACU together but sadly didn't know one another there. It wasn't until after college, while living in SA that we met and became good friends. We decided we were kindred spirits! However, while I would like to say that I have a sweet spirit like hers...not sure that I do :). She is one of those balcony friends who is so encouraging and uplifting 100% of the time and most of all she is about the right things!!! I love her much and our kiddos had a fun time tonight. When I can locate the pictures, I will post some of Kate and Elise when they were younger...so precious!

Kekie and Pops...Blanco

Kate loves to ride on that golf cart and Fos does too as you can tell!

Pops, Kate and Foster....Kate helped Pops put up his tent to make sure it was ready when he arrived on the mountain for hunting in Colorado! Foster wasn't too sure about it. However, he will probably spend some time in that tent with Pops as he grows. I am sure Pops will make a hunter out of him.

Well, we always love our trip to Blanco to visit my parents. You know who loves it the very most is Kate. When we tell her we are planning a trip, she hardly sleeps and asks every day when we will be leaving for Blanco. She hits the ground running when we arrive. Mom says when she comes to visit without us, she will look up and Kate will be bee-bopping up to the barn and all mom sees as she looks out the window is a blonde head. She spends most of her time on the swing, the golfcart, the ranger, or just pretending and playing babies on the front porch.

Pumpkin Patch Pics

Our pumpkin patch trip in Blanco...while visiting my parents. I have been wanting to go to the one in Flower Mound after hearing so many neat things, but this will have to do this year. It was actually pretty fun. Kate loved the arts and crafts! We were asked to go with our friends Sarah and Greg to the one in Medina but it was just too far to drive. However, if you look at the picsof their trip on Sarah's blog, you will see that we may have missed out!!! We had fun and of course always love visiting the hill country where life is so simple and you live outdoors! I love it down there!!!

Kate was hungry...we are never good when hungry or tired! Mom went with us...dad was getting ready for his annual hunting trip. This was our hayride on the tractor...pretty cute.

This is the best we could do...I knew we should have taken our picture when we first arrived.

This was before Fos started eating the pumpkins.

The Hayride....without hay!

The "hay" tractor...pretty cute!

Scottish Rite Appointment....yippie!

Well the latest on Kate's ankle is that we have an appointment with Scottish Rite on November 18. Actually, Foster's babysitter who is so amazing got me an application with a signature and all and was going to send it back with her daughter who is a nurse at Scottish Rite. I am sure you all know this, but you have to be accepted to be treated there and it is FREE. So, I mentioned to my doctor that I would be bringing a referral letter by to have her sign it so I could get the app in. She told me that she didn't feel they would accept her and she hadn't even thought about refferring her because of the condition...it isn't something they normally treat. I explained to her that I appreciated that and that I knew she knew what she was talking about, but asked her if we could try anyway. We ended the conversation with me just planning to bring the part of the app by that she needed to complete. However, we hung up the phone and she called back within five minutes. She told me that she decided to call in a referral which was this past Monday and we received an acceptance letter yesterday. WOW! That was definetely an answered prayer. Thank you all so much for the prayers, the phone calls and the emails.



Angels
Okay so we were driving home from school today and Kate really wanted to listen to her favorite song. So I was determined to find it especially after hearing Kate say, "mama don't say you can't...you can!!!" However, as I was looking down and driving, I look up only to find a car stopped in front of me....it was close! I cannot believe I even had a spot to pull over to the side so I wouldn't hit this car. I thanked God of course for our protection and then Kate said, "mama, the angels were watching over us!" They sure were!!! Needless to say we got home before I could find the song.

Precious Moments

My favorite time of the evening is when I get to rock and hold Foster in my arms while feeding him his bottle at bedtime. I love rocking in the dark, listening to his relaxing music, and holding him in my arms! That is by far my favorite time of the night. You know how some are the "baby" type who love the baby stage and some like the toddler, preschooler, etc. Well I will have to say that I am one who loves the "baby" stage (at least after the first three months of sleepless nights). As I was rocking and loving on Foster tonight, Kate walked in and said in a whisper, "mama....after you put Foster in the bed, will you come in the living room and hold me while I watch a little movie...oh and mama, will you rock me and hold me like a little baby too." How could I resist! I love that even when they get big. I love to love on my little bugs and of course give them a love pat too! My mamaw always gave me love pats! Of course, my mom did as well and I am doing the same to my little loves! I just had to share one of my most precious moments!

Finally...An Update

Well, as I was monogramming my fingers away this past week at one of our shows, I made calls to Dr. Megison to try and get some news. I finally decided that no news was good news and I think I was correct. It's not cancerous, but it does have something to do with the joints so now we have to go to an Orthopedic Surgeon. This process has been rediculously long, but you do what you have to do! So, today I will be making that appointment. Please continue to pray for Kate's ankle! Pray specifically that it will be just an easy process from here on out and that the doctor can just drain it. I don't want them to have to remove it if at all possible. We need it to be easy of course. Thanks again to all of you who have been praying and who have been asking. Thank you so much!

Fireproof

I can't remember the last time Matt and I have gone to the movies! We went to see Fireproof last night and it was outstanding! You must find the time to go see that with your spouse! It will bring you much joy and make sure you take a box of kleenex too! It is a wonderful movie and so worth making the time to see especially in our world of so much junk!!! God is good!

No update yet.

Well, the doctor hasn't read the results and hopefully he will be getting back with me today regarding Kate's ankle. Thank you so much to all of you who have emailed or posted a comment asking about Kate's ankle. Also, thank you so much for all of the prayers for Kate. WE truly appreciate them and are so grateful!