On the Verge...

This is the look of one tired baby. We just got back from Guatemala on Monday. One of Quinn's best friends Luis is originally from there, but went to college in Florida and has lived in Austin working at Quinn's company for something like 10 years. During his visits back home to see his family over the years, he met a beautiful girl from his hometown. After many years of a very long distance relationship, Luis finally moved back to Guatemala to marry her and start their new life there! We miss him already (I know Quinn definitely misses him), but we were glad that we could make it down to Guatemala for the wedding. The original plan was to leave Abram with my mom for the almost five days and have the trip be a third anniversary vacation for Quinn and I. However, as the day approached and I got more and more apprehensive about the logistics of leaving my 7 month old for five days, we decided to bring him with us. The logistics of taking a 7 month old on an international tr...

We just returned from a five day trip to Guatemala to attend one of Quinn's best friend's weddings.   I won't go into detail now, because we have pictures that I will share at a later date. And I am so tired that I don't have the energy to do it all now.   But in my very long blog break, my son has gotten cuter.  Here is a video of him playing in the sink with Nana.

My mom is visiting and it is so good to have Nana around. Abram has finally warmed up to her (there was a bit of stranger anxiety in the beginning, like he has had with most non-mom and dad people recently), but now he gives her lots of smiles. It's neat because she has been here to see most of the evolution of his pre-crawl scoot. I would venture to say that she will probably be around to see the actual crawl since she doesn't go home until July 5th and he is literally making daily progress with his mobility. Crazy that it happens that fast! Here is the latest Abram scooting video: He can now make it all the way across his mat. I am going to need to vacuum the rug in the living room every day now. Our cat, Obadiah, likes to lay on it and there is cat hair embedded in it at all times. When combined with clammy Smith-boy hands and incessant thumb and hand sucking you get lots of cat hair in the mouth. Yuck. My cat has enough hairballs, I want to avoid letting my son get ...

Documenting day number three of Abram's crawling progress. The scooting is getting much more visible and I have a feeling the days are numbered before we will be full on crawling. It's pretty cool how he literally makes daily progress. Well, Chelsea is here and I better get some stuff done so I don't regret not using the time later!

The church we attend is a relatively young church. Much of the congregation attends UT, Texas State, or St. Edwards or have recently graduated from them. Therefore, most people are single or newly married. Most. In the last few years we have added some "older" couples to the church and they are such a blessing. But the Newly/Nearly married class continues to get bigger and bigger every semester and once a couple hits about three years, they are considered old and wise. So here we are. Old and wise. According to those around us, but not to ourselves. Quinn and I have been married for three years today and we both know that we have a TON of growing still to do. I still kinda feel like a newlywed and I keep thinking: "Should we have a baby yet or was this too soon?" Luckily, we had nothing to do with that decision, so we can completely trust that God felt like we were ready (for whatever reason...) Here are some pictures of my wonderful husband and me: Happy...

I have had a "mother's helper" come over one day for the last two weeks and it's been great. One of my former students who is now a college sophomore and has lots of kid experience is still looking for a job this summer and so I asked her if she would want to come hang out with Abram for a few hours a couple weeks ago so that I could get some stuff done. And it went really well! She played with him and took him for a walk while I scrubbed the kitchen and vacuumed and then while he was taking a nap, she dusted the whole front of the house (including the blinds!). It was fantastic. She even got this super cute picture of him on their walk. So when she didn't have a job the next week, we scheduled a time for her to come over again. And she played with Abram in the pool while I did some laundry and unloaded the dishwasher, etc. And then while he was taking his nap I ran to the store to get a few essentials and she helped me with a painting I was doing for a frie...

"Bring 'em on." Many of you are probably in the same boat. June seems to be wedding month, doesn't it? Quinn and I were married on June 15th (almost exactly three years ago)! And this past weekend we attended two weddings in two different Texas cities. The first was my Grandpa Roy's wedding to Miss Betty. My Grandma Ardelle passed away about two years ago and we all miss her dearly, but I am so glad that my grandpa has found someone that he is excited to spend the rest of his life with. Grandpa and Betty The wedding was just outside of Ben Wheeler, Texas (in between Tyler and Canton - for those of you who are up on your Texas geography). The first night my parents and other grandparents (my two sets of grandparents have been friends since before they were all married to each other) stayed in a hotel in Canton. So we got to hang out with them. I always feel a little bad seeing family with Abram, because he is still at the age where he doesn't remember an...