The Nursery

All of this snow and cold weather has given me much needed time to nest and get Sadie Kate's nursery ready for her. I wish I would have taken a before picture of this room. It was a high school boy's room before we moved in and it was painted a goldish dark yellow with black curtains... very Abilene High! Great for a teen boy but not so much a baby girl. So we painted the walls, the ceiling and added some color! It's been fun! I always love preparing a room when I'm pregnant. It just makes me feel connected to the baby somehow as I paint and decorate the area where she'll sleep and rock and eventually play and learn.

Here's her crib. The bedding is made from an anthropologie quilt. I wish I could take credit but I actually bought it from a friend who was selling it. I love the colors and pattern!

My Japanese grandmother helped me make paper cranes for this homemade mobile above the bed. It's one of my favorite things in the room!

I painted this mural of a whimsical tree in the corner of the room behind the rocker.

Cute little red rocker

There is also a daybed for tired parents and grandmas to sleep on. I added some Japanese touches in the room with the cranes and these kokeshi doll collages, as well as some Japanese memorabilia that I've collected through the years.

A sweet welcome home note from sister Ava

Just about 5 more weeks until we get to meet our baby girl! We can't wait...

Snow Days

WHAT WE DID ON OUR SNOW VACATION

Played in the snow,

made snow angels,

went sledding on the play set,

slid into mounds of snow,

snuggled up and watched movies,

played with play dough,

warmed up by the fire,

pretended to be Josh Hamilton

and little orphan Annie working at a restaurant,

made snow ice cream and...

we still have another day ahead of us! What will we come up with tomorrow?

Christmas, Tonsils, and 50's Day

3 days snowed in at home has allowed me to catch up on some things around my house and my blog! So here are a few more photos from December and January:

Christmas 2010 with cousin Eydie

Small group Christmas party at our house... Can you find the random nameless man that made his way into our photo? I love our white elephant exchange and our hilarious friends!

Christmas morning in Decatur

Football cousins... passing down the jersey

Ruby and her kids

Walters' cousins (We missed you, Melissa!)

Thompson second cousins

Jenny and I are due within a month of each other!

Pierson had his tonsils and adenoids out...

Ava practicing the twist for 50's day

Dancing on the stage at Austin Elementary

50's Day with momma (I wore Chad's high school letter jacket to serve ice cream Sundays at Ava's school. He made the comment that he never expected to see his pregnant wife wearing it. I did look a little awkward!)

2010 in Review

Well, I guess there's no time like January to start things anew. I cannot believe that I took a full year hiatus from blogging, but 2010 got the best of me. It was a whirlwind! I think I'm just now beginning to catch my breath and looking forward to new beginnings and simplifying in 2011.

There really is so much I could say about the past 12 months. I'll do my best to recap for the archives. I seriously doubt anyone still reads this blog but with a new baby on the way I figured it would be a good time to start writing again even if it's just for family.

January 2010

Hat day at YCW

January Recap-- The kids and I got sick last year for pretty much the entire month of January. We passed around the flu, a stomach bug and a cold. We were ready for February after all that illness...

February 2010

Ava posing with her Valentine's snowman

February Recap-- We enjoyed some snow in February and Ava loved attending the Daddy/ Daughter Valentine's Dinner at Highland. She looks forward to it every year!

March 2010

Launching our first My Sister's House Consignment Sale with Kate

March Recap-- A big reason why last year was a busy one is that Kate and I started our own business called My Sister's House, a semi-annual consignment sale for women. Our first sale was in March but the three or four months leading up to the sale were extremely busy with working out details of every aspect of the business... from the website to running the sale to advertising. We had so much to learn and do (hence the blogging hiatus). Overall we felt our first sale was a success! We were exhausted when it was over but thankful for all of the help from family and friends to help make it happen.

April 2010

Pierson practicing on the ACU field. This kids LOVES baseball!

Easter in Brownwood

April Recap-- We enjoyed Easter in Brownwood with the Thompson family! Most of the month of April was spent finishing up business from the sale and doing projects around our house. We got it ready and put our Grand cottage house on the market for sale by owner in April.

May 2010

The husbands in our small group planned a formal night out complete with a 3 course dinner at a beautiful historic home in Abilene. Such a fun night!

Ava all dressed up for her ballet recital
May Recap-- We wrapped up another year at YCW (Ava's last year of preschool), enjoyed the YCW end of year program and Ava's first ballet recital. We watched some ACU baseball, enjoyed a very nice night out planned by our husbands, showed our house a lot, and got a contract on it at the end of May!

June 2010

Dad, Ava and Pierson playing on the scooter at the Pierson family reunion
June Recap--We enjoyed spending time with family at the Pierson Family Reunion. Most of the month was spent getting inspections, wrapping up details of selling the house, finding a house to buy, and packing, packing, packing...

July 2010

Our family at Sea World
July Recap-- Remembering July makes me tired. It was an exciting and eventful month! We squeezed in a trip to Brownwood for the 4th of July and Sea World in San Antonio before we moved houses, celebrated our 10th anniversary, and found out we were expecting our 3rd baby in March. At the end of such a crazy month, I managed to muster the energy to teach two sessions of Art Camp! I was nauseated and tired most of the week, but I think that the kids still enjoyed it...

August 2010

Pierson waiting for his turn to bowl on a Friday Family Fun Night at Prime Time.

Ava's first day of kindergarten at Austin Elementary
August Recap--I turned 33, Ava started kindergarten at Austin Elementary, and we continued to try to get settled in our new house. I think I spent most of August catching up on rest from the adventures of the last three months and first trimester exhaustion.

September 2010

Ava got a new bike for her birthday and learned to ride without training wheels!

We celebrated the kid's birthdays at the Gymnastics Sports Center.

September Recap--The kids loved celebrating their 6th and 3rd birthday parties at the Gymnastics Sports Center, and I loved not having to have my house ready for a party! We spent September getting used to the new realities of Ava going to school 5 days a week, and Pierson started in the 3 year old class at YCW.

October 2010

My grandparents with the Fairy Princess and "Fat Dragon" as Pierson described his costume.

October Recap-- We enjoyed a fun Halloween, Chad's 10 year reunion at ACU and all of the homecoming festivities, a visit to Abilene from Derran, Ann, Brynn and Meg Reese, and Kate and I ran our second My Sister's House sale! We were open for two full weekends with a week in between and continued to learn ways to grow the sale in the future.

November 2010

Ava and Chad running in the turkey trot on Thanksgiving day. It was freezing outside but Ava was a trooper and completed the kid's race.

November Recap-- We enjoyed Thompson family time here in Abilene for Thanksgiving. We spent some time beginning to get ready for our new baby (a girl due in March!)

December 2010

The kids showing off mom's growing belly

December Recap-- Lots and lots of holiday parties and festivities, shopping for gifts, family time with the Walters, Micks, and Quanz families in Decatur and Fort Worth for Christmas, Charlie Brown ice sculpture show at the Gaylord in Grapevine, and a plumbing leak that caused our living and dining floors to be ripped up a few days before Christmas.

Whew! What a recap... I should say that not all that happened in 2010 was as picture perfect as the few images I chose to showcase. In an effort to be transparent I want to confess that in many ways 2010 was a challenging year for our family. I struggled personally with a very early miscarriage and the emotional and physical fallout of hormonal imbalances. We had stresses related to jobs, moving, starting a new business, finances, and family. But God has been faithful. Through the joys and struggles of the last year, I can see that His hand was always upon us even when we felt alone. I am so thankful for the support system of friends and family that continue to encourage and challenge me in my faith. I look forward to the new year, new beginnings, new goals for my own personal and spiritual journeys, and a new member our family. Did I mention we decided on a name? We anticipate the arrival of Sadie Kate Walters in mid to late March!

Here's to new beginnings in 2011...

Conversations with my Kids

I've been writing down little things my kids have said lately that I find entertaining, mostly for my own memory since I'm not a big scrapbooker.

Pierson likes to randomly tell me things that he "yoves." Here are a few of my favorites from the last few weeks:

I yove Target.

I yove baseball.

I yove no pants and no shoes.

I yove Diego.

I yove jackets.

I yove not doctors.

I yove Chuck E. Cheese.

I yove yogurt.

Out of the blue while eating a organic granola bar, Ava announced, "I've been thinking about Santa and how he has to eat so many cookies at houses on Christmas Eve. Next year, we should leave him one of these granola bars. I bet he'd like a break from cookies."

I told Pierson that he was not going to be in the Nursery at church because it was time for him to go to the big 2's class. I said, I just can't believe you're not a baby anymore. His response, "Yeah. I a grown up now."

Ava has been learning to spell by sounding words out and one of her favorite gifts was a dry erase board she got for Christmas. She practices trying to spell words all day long. She showed me a list of words and explained that these are words we shouldn't really talk about so she decided to write them down. Here was her list:

PNIS BODOM POTE BOT

I overheard Pierson mumbling to himself while he was pretending, "Are you John Elway, Brett Favre, Tony Romo?"

Ava asked me what the word "mono mono" means (pronounced mow-no.) I told her I wasn't sure and asked where she'd heard it. She started singing, "Hit the road jack and don't you come back no mono mono mono mo." And asked again, "So what's a mono?"

Both of my children love to sing. Ava enjoys the musical stylings of most classic musicals and a few new faves: Annie, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, and Enchanted. Poor Pierson is such a patient little brother. He's sings Annie as well just because he hears it so much. But I also love hearing him belt out all the words to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" while playing in his room.

After getting a shot of penicillin for strep last week, Pierson was having a hard time. I asked him if he wanted to get a shake on the way home. His response was, "No. I wanna go to Target." (A boy after my own heart... For the record, he goes straight to the ball aisle and likes to try on all the gloves, and practice throwing the different sizes of baseballs and softballs.)

Walters Christmas 2009 Recap

We had fun in the snow on Christmas eve in Abilene!

We attempted sledding at ACU, but an artic blast thwarted our plans. K-Papa and Pierson were still brave enough to play in the blizzard. Ava and I watched from the car. It was seriously cold!

We dug in the attic to find snowsuits from Kaden and Karaline. Funny thing is the blue "boy" snowsuit is a size 5 and would have fit Ava but she refused to put it on, insisting instead to squeeze herself into a girl's size 2 snowsuit. Notice how short it is on her. That thing was tight! All in the name of fashion...we couldn't be seen out in a blizzard in boy's snowsuit, now could we?

The great-grandkids on the Thompson side. Cuties!

It wouldn't be Christmas without lots of scrabble.

This is our attempt at a cousin pyramid. I guess everyone's grown a little since we last tried this. Ava, Bryce, and Pierson were supposed to be on the very top, but we didn't get organized in time. The bottom row was hurtin'!

The annual icing of the sugar cookies with Vicki and the cousins. Grandma and Grandpa got in on the action too.

More icing. . .

Christmas morning at our house-- no time like the present to iron your new shirt.

Pierson, cousin Eydie and Ava posing in front of the tree

For Christmas this year, both of my kids asked Santa for things that cannot be purchased in a store. Pierson requested an ACU baseball uniform.

A few weeks ago, I told him, "Pierson, I love you."

His response: "And I love baseball."

Ava asked Santa for an Annie dress. Apparently you can only buy those on e-bay at Halloween. Lucky for us, Santa knows a great seamstress who loves these kids enough to spend the month of December sewing! Thank you, mom! (Note to readers: If you happen to see our kids and mention their Christmas gifts, don't forget that they believe Santa and his elves sewed them.)

Mom and dad on Christmas morning

Disclaimer: Somehow I managed not to take a single picture when we spent time with Chad's family for New Years. Sorry about that Walters' fam. I guess I was too busy having fun to get out my camera. If any of you took pictures, we would love to have some copies.