Faith & Family

Make a Smilebox photobook

Two of the most important things in life: Faith & Family. We braved the rain and got to Minute Maid park early and boy did it pay off! We were sitting first row and about 15 feet from the stage. I had never heard Lance Berkman- of the Astros for those not familiar w/ him- speak about his faith. He spoke of having an authentic relationship with Christ and how that translated to our lives. You can be a good person, but who does that relfect on - YOU- we should do good things in this life to be a reflection and in glory to God.
Steven Curtis Chapman- for those don't know of his family's tragedic loss here's the link to a recent interview on gma. http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5524419

I never expected him to be so candid about the personal loss he and his family are going through. He openly admits that he has unanswered questions now about God and His plan. SCC opened his mini concert for us with "Blessed Be Your Name" & you could see how hard it was for the word to come out with certain lyrics of the song. Here's a little version:

"Blessed Be Your Nameby Matt Redman- - -
Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say


Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name"

He even changed a line of the song "Cinderella"- the song he wrote for his girls- aging from 4-22 Saying that he'll someday dance again with his little girl. His 2 sons alsoplay in the band. Really - here's a family banding together, praising the Lord, and hoping for faith to heal their hearts. On a lighter note- I got a personal little wave from SCC as he was leaving :)
Live for the moment- that's all we are promised folks!

Funny things kids say & do!

so, trav is so wanting to get back to school!
he asked why he couldn't go right now...
i told him that the teachers are on vacation right now.
his reply: "ms. orr (his teacher last year) is at grandma's house?"

cayley: well, this summer we have been going to the gym at least 3 days a week and i've lost 20lbs :) the kids are having a great time at the kids club area- whoohoo!
my mom calls and tells me that cayley thinks she may not recognize me when she get back from her 3 week vacation in sa--- "mommy might be too skinny" LOL no worries cayley- promise :)

adam: so, our kids love any kind of suspense kind of movie and lately one channel has been showing "jaws" every few days- cayley had made this paper shark thing at reading camp and fo rsome reason adam knew exactly where to find it! so he ran and got it when he heard the jaws theme music!!!! it was so funny!

What I learned from tv this week

What an emotion roller coaster week it's been. So right to the point- does anyone else in the world watch "the baby borrowers"? i was so skeptical of this show when it first started, but it was more than just entertaining, it was teaching life's lessons to these teen couples in fast forward. sure it was fun to see then freak out when changing diapers and chasing toddlers, but last night when they lived with an elderly person- it was so moving! they embraced the life experiences that these people shared with them and seemed to really enjoy their company- even when having to help them shower, take meds, etc.. i cried at the end though- none of the teen couples were together anymore when they did the update! but i'm sure they came away with lessons that will follow them for life.

randy pausch:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LastLecture/
when i first saw his interviews months ago- i was so moved....now that he's passed- i just feel for his wife and kids. how do you prepare yourself for this...let alone your spouse? yes- we are all going to die at some point, but to know that your time will be much shorter than you ever expected and in the midst of your children's magical childhoods. randy speaks of not letting things wait- if there's something in life you want to do-- don't wait around! be the person you want to be right now!
makes me wonder what kind of legacy i will leave when i am gone. what will my babies remember? what will be really important to them? did i spend too much time on the things that didn't matter?

these pics at the top are what keep me going- being with my family- showing how much they mean to me- and sharing little moments- that's what counts to me.

My Favorite Time of Year

So much as been going on and keeping me away from blogging- but I have been making some mental notes :)

The kids are all so funny! Each are really growing up right in front of us and they all have a great sense of humor. So this blog will be a lot of rambling, but stick it out.
Since the beginning of February--let's see-

We took the kids to the big SuperCross/Motor Cross event here in Houston! It was so much fun and the kids could be as loud as they wanted!

AJ and his friend drove up to come with us too-awesome seats in the press area thanks to Tim.

For Trav's birthday we took a family field trip to the Houston zoo. I still can't believe he's 5! The weather was great and the kids had such a wonderful time. It was a really special family day for us :) The kids took off school and Tim took off work and we just had a fun afternoon.

We had a couple of Houston Rodeo days. Tim and I got to go the the bbq cook off for a little while- it was cool- I had never been. For Valentine's day Tim gaveme 4 tickets to see my fave Faith Hill, so Cayley and I had a girls night. We invited a friend of mine and her daughter. It was LATE school night, but I really enjoyed myself. Cayley did fall asleep during the show, but I was sure to wake her up when "Mississippi Girl" was sung.

Our family concert day was to see Brad Paisley- who we all love here! He puts on a super good show! It was a wonderful Saturday afternoon concert and the Texas weather was perfect.

The kids had Easter parties at school. I got to help with Cayley's class. they had an adorable Easter breakfast with mini pancakes, fruit, muffins, etc. Adamkept stealing goodies from random kids plates! It was funny for a while- then we had to leave lol. We set up breakfast picnic style in the hallway at school and the kids looked like the had a fun time.

Spring break was amazing! I was shocked when Tim called and told me to pack up for the week and that we were heading to SA. We got to see so many loved ones and have a relaxing vacation ourselves. Got to meet little Nora! She's a beautiful little baby!

I'm heading to conquer laundry, again, lol. We'll see who wins today.

Back to routines around here!

ps-Last weekend-- we got some last minute tickets to the Astros game! It was a funfest day with clowns, face painting and stuff for the kids, so it was perfect! A super LONG day, but way fun. pics coming soon :)

love to all- sarah

Need a vacation from my vacation

February is off and rolling! Had a great time with Linzi's shower! The new baby is so set for her first year :) My mom loaned us her chocolate fountian, and I think I have finally seen my fill of chocolate for a while. It was beautiful and fun, but messy clean up- worth it though. I made my cake bites with strawberry cake and they were yummy! Tim stayed with the kids so that I could go and enjoy myself in SA- thank goodness he did since I got pretty sick while I was there and Cayley got sick at home. They had a good time at the Monster Truck Jam in Houston, lol. Cayley & Trav couldn't stop talking about it when I got ome on Sunday. I got to do some maternity portraits of Linzi- I'll double ck with her before I share- but she is such a cute pregnant little mommy!



I have lost my voice and and really congested still from the weekend, but hopefully it won't last too much longer. Really tired of whispering- especially when Tim has a hard time hearing anyway, lol

That was early in the week - now it's Friday and I'm still coughing and my voice still sounds gross. oh well. Last night was Trav's parent/teacher conference at school. He got a glowing report! His teacher is a great and really understands what he needs in class. With his report card, he's consistantly improving and that's what matters. He has come a long way since August and will be ready for kinder in the fall. I'm so proud of his progress and of the boy he is becoming. Travis is a real leader in his class and has made many new friends :)

Cayley had a good week as well. Started off sick - like me- and came home with lots of make up work. She has just about gotten everything caught up and she just finished off her 2nd reader & workbook. This is a big one! One night she reads the story- 5-7 pages long- the next night is the wkbk pages with reading comprehension questions. So she learned to write in complete sentences and correct punctuation :) Really proud of her- this was a test for her as homework. She had to really stay focused on it and she did it!

Adam--- he is saying his prayers with me at night! He kinda mouths the words as I say them and then ends it with a big "AMEN". It's so precious!

I'm off to try and FLY a bit, hope everyone is enjoying this great Texas weather!

January Happenings

Adam is now 3! That went by so fast! He has moved on from his toddler bed to the twin, and is finding his way to our bed in the middle of the night- well rather around 3-4 am. He's doing well though- he has a new phrase- "I miiiiss you" It's so sweet to hear that from him.

Travis was happy to head back to school after a long Christmas break. He had perfect weekly reports from class for 7 weeks in a row now. Thrilled about his good behavior in school and his great manners. At the post office a couple of weeks ago, he held the door open for all the people coming in and out and just being helpful. his new job is clearing the table after dinner- a job he really like doing :)

Cayley is doing good too. School is going smoothly for her- with the occasional homework frustrations- but nothing too bad. Today is report card day and I'm sure she's make good grades again :) Her job is setting the table for me. Last week they wanted to have a "fancy" dinner, so we changed the table cloth, put some flowers in a vase and lit some candles! Cayley & Travis were in charge of this while I cooked dinner. It was so cute! Travis got dressed up in his nice shirt & tie (man clothes he calls them) and Cayley put on a new dress.

Tim is well- working a lot, but his branch rankings for 07 were excellent! He was the top branch service manager in the area. So glad he's getting the recognition he deserves! Very proud of him and his dedication to his job.

I am really trying to get my house in order- using the FLY Lady to help. Like right now, I'm on a break, but I am working on it. All is good with me- and when it' s not, I try and remind myself just how blessed my life really is. Linzi's baby shower is coming up next weekend!!! This will be a wonderful getaway for me. So excited to see everyone!

That's it for now :)

No Time for Blogging Lately- December Update

So here's an update :)

This Christmas season was wonderful! Kids got to play int he snow here at the subdivision- and see Santa!!! Secret Santa with playgroup was fun and MNO Christmas party at a fellow playgroup mom's house. Everyone brought some great food and I had a super time.

Then it was Tim's vacation- we actually got to go out to breakfast together with Adam while Cayley & Travis were in school. Travis had his pre-k Christmas prgram that next week and that was FUN! Our little Travis was singing and dancing. It was only 20minutes long- but that's long enough for 80+ pre k kids!

Class parties were good-Now the kids are off for the holidays- one week down & one to go :) Actually it's going really well this week.

Round One-
Christmas Eve my mom, step dad & AJ came up to visit!! It was so great! The kids decorated gingerbread men with the grandparents and Tim & I took AJ w/ us to Bass Pro Shop. That was more fun then I expected. Plus it was nice to spend time w/ my little brother- who is so much taller than me!!! Came home and we had some super tamales & chicken torilla soup(yummy) and just hang out a thome that night. Oh we tracked Santa on NORAD again this year- so cool!

Christmas morning- I thought ahead and set the coffee to start at 5:30am- thank goodness!!! By 6am, the kids were up and woke up grandpa & daddy!!! It was so much fun to see the kids open their gifts- even Travis was cute when he got something that wasn't Spiderman or a robot!!!

After the big wrapping paper clean up- I cooked pancakes and got a second cup of coffee, lol! The rest of the morning was filled with learning how to work the robots all the kids got and dressng up for some family Christmas pics.

Round Two-
My mom left around 12:30 and my dad & Linda go there around 3pm. Tim was working on deep frying his first turkey and we were all excited!Yep- so more food! But this meal was way easier for me :) and yep- more presents! It was a nice 2 days with my families!!!!

Round Three-
Has yet to happen, but coming soon! Monday is Adam's 3rd birthday!!! Dad & Linda are bringing Cayley back from SA on Saturday or Sunday and then we'll have a little something for my baby. - and then again on Monday :)

I'll add some pics later- gotta clean up some more!!!!