Saturday, November 24, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012

Great Thanksgiving Weekend's equal:


  • Tons of great food
  • Black Friday Shopping with my brother and his wife for their new t.v.
  • Saige getting on all fours for the first time
  • Watching the Macy's day parade, non-stop football and Disney movies
  • Early Christmas presents
  • Lots of coffee
  • Listening to my daughter's learn Jingle Bells on their new keyboard 
  • Christmas music, Christmas music, Christmas music
  • Prayers of Thanksgiving
  • Dancing as a family 
  • Julia doing her best "China Ballet" at home, at Pappasito's, and everywhere
  • Lydia and Julia cracking us up!
  • Playing board games
  • Family
  • Pie
  • Laughter
  • JOY
1 of 5




Ready to add ornaments, garland and ribbon

Saige is a little unsure about helping


Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!! -Amber

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Partying

Julia was invited to a birthday party about a week ago. Dave stayed home with Lydia and Saige while I took Julia to the party. (Dave had a super sweet tea party with Lydia while we were gone. But that's beside the point.) Houston has some pretty spectacular places to party for birthdays. This particular place had several of the largest group of connected trampolines that I have ever seen or could have dreamed of. I totally wanted to join the kids, but I guess you have to go when all the other adults are going....
Anyway, at the party, I lost track of Julia a few times. The first few times, I found her fairly quickly, but the third time, I got a little concerned. I searched and searched for her and after no luck for a little while, I even asked the party people to call her name over the loud speaker. Before they did, Julia finally came running out of the play room with pizza sauce on her face. "Julia," I said, "Where were you? It's time for pizza a cake in the party room? Did you already eat pizza?" 
"Yeah, I had some right over there."
Ummm...she was at someone else's birthday party eating their overpriced pizza without a moment's hesitation. Good grief.

In other news, Lydia has been making up words lately and then assigning meanings to them that are completely random and bizarre. She is so very imaginative and creative. 
This morning, Lydia and I were singing a song. The actual song, called Jump for Jesus, goes: "He is our rock, and on his word I'll stand..." But Lydia's version went like this: "He is the rocket he's placed in my hand..."
Lydia is never low on crazy antics melodic tunes.

And now for an update on my youngest. Saige is doing great. She had a little rash on her face last week, but it is finally going away now. Unrelated to the rash, Saige also had to get her vaccinations last week. Dave was the lucky parent to take her this time. And, the sweet little baby of ours didn't even cry at all. She moaned during the shots, but didn't cry. Isn't that amazing? I specifically asked Dave if he could take her for her 6 months shots because when I took her last time, she was so upset that we ended up in the doctor's office with all 4 Stewart girls crying. It was just too sad to go through with the same thing with all the girls again. 
Also, Saige has been flipping back and forth across the floor like a little dolphin. And, tonight, I was sitting with her in our living room and puckered up. Before I new it, her sweet little lips were on mine. She did it more than once, so I definitely count this as her first intentional kiss. So sweet!

We are so blessed. Happy Thanksgiving! -Amber

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Mitchell Wedding

My brother, Alex, got married to Autumn, and her son Jayden on November 3rd. We were privileged and fortunate enough to be a part of the Louisiana wedding. I will share just the pictures I took on my iphone. But, I can't wait to get the pictures that are on my mom's camera!
Lydia's "flower girl" hair

Sweet Flower girls

Bumming a ride

Honorary flower girl



During the ceremony

The Happy Couple

My sweet hubby and our third born


Dance, dance revolution
It was a very pretty wedding. Aubrey, Andy and Josiah, and baby Madelyn, we missed you. I wish you could have been there. But, I'm glad that we will get to come see you in December.

Love, Amber

Halloween - Back-up Blog

We had a great Halloween! We have more candy than we could ever want, and some fun family time!
Pumpkin Patch at Cornerstone Christian Academy
The girls, Dave and I visited the pumpkin patch with a co-worker of mine and her son. It was actually nice and chilly that night. 

The cutest pumpkin in the patch
 On Halloween, I picked Julia up from school, and we drove to Dave's office. I wanted to go to meet his coworkers. The girls were interested in collecting candy.
Riding the Elevator
 I wanted to get a picture of the girls together before everything got started on Halloween, but we didn't. :( So, of course, things never slowed down enough that I got one of them all together...

I thought it was cute that we had a little group of insects for Halloween this year; Julia: lady bug, Lydia: butterfly, Saige: Bumble bee. However, Lydia was adamant that her costume represented a rainbow fairy, and not a butterfly. So, for Halloween, we only had two insects and one little rainbow fairy.
Daddy and his Bumble Bee
 After going to Dave's office, we all headed to First Fest at Houston's First Baptist Church. The girls sang with High Five Kids Choir, enjoyed games, and collected MORE candy.
Bull Riding Lydia

Bull Riding Julia

My girlies after trick-or-treating
After First Fest, Dave, Julia and Lydia came back and trick-or-treated for a few minutes. We laid the exhausted Miss Saige down, and I stayed home to pass out these candies:

Turns out there isn't as much community gathering as we had hoped in our townhouse neighborhood. But, we got the chance to pass out the rest of the candy at the bus stop in the mornings following Halloween.

Like I said, we had a great Halloween! Thanks for reading! -Amber