John 3:16

We are currently teaching Katelyn to memorize John 3:16 (our 2 year old version- "For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only son, Jesus.")

Katelyn has been doing great memorizing it and we are at the point where I leave out words and she fills them in  (the underlined portion).  She has changed the version and I love it...  "For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Baby Jesus."  I think it is adorable because we have been talking about how Christmas is baby Jesus birthday and I think it has stuck in her little precious brain! 

Advent 2009

The word advent, meaning 'the coming' in Latin, has been celebrated by Christians for centuries.  Centuries ago, Christians felt that celebrating the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for one day was inadequate.  Believers felt a time of preparation immediately beforehand was essential.  They would take time to meditate on God's incredible gift of sending his Son and take time to teach thier children the tremendous meaning of Christmas.  I'm sure most of you already know this, but I didn't so I had to research!

This year Jared and I decided to also celebrate advent for the month of Decemeber.  Most of the advent calendar things you can buy in a store have little cubbies to put treats, candy, little toys in for each day.  I'm guessing the advent tradition has slowly become more secular over the years, so we decided to create our own advent calendar! 

Under each day is a verse or group of verses along with an activity or craft to go along with the verse.  I know Katelyn is only 2, but I hope she is able to learn from this month long preparation what Christmas is truely about.  On December 1st we read Isaiah 7:14 and our activity was to create the advent calendar.  On December 2nd we read Isaiah 9:6-7 and created a wreath out of Katelyn's handprints our of Christmas wrapping paper.

 

On December 3rd we read Isaiah 32:1 and we were supposed to color a gingerbread man (but that didn't happen b/c we had company over). 

Then today we read Isaiah 40:39-41 and we made a snowman out of cottonballs, buttons and GLUE (Katelyn's favorite thing!).  I'm loving doing the advent calendar.  It has really been a neat time of reflection for myself and I'm praying it is teaching Katelyn the true meaning of CHRISTmas!

SNOW!!!!

I'm so surprised we actually got some snow today!  We had to go enjoy it while it lasted (only about 20 minutes), so we bundled up and headed out the door.  Katelyn got a work-out trying to pop all the bubbles, better know as snowflakes! 

Then we went back inside to warm up with some of daddy's coffee, again better known as hot chocolate. 

All smiles after sharing a cup of hot chocolate!

Happy Birthday Love!

I knew God had blessed me with an amazing husband when we got married 5 years ago, but I didn't realize what a huge blessing Jared is.  I feel so lucky to share my life with someone as loving, funny, and understanding as you!  You are such a wonderful father to Katelyn and sister.  You are my best friend and my love for you grows each day.  Thank you for working so hard to provide for our family.  Thank you for loving the Lord with all you heart, mind and soul.  I love you so very much!  Happy Birthday (2 days late)!

Hope you like the picture honey!  I figured a serious, heart-felt message had to be followed by a silly picture!

Baby #2 Update

Well, no fun pictures to post, but I wanted to give a shout out to the 2nd Hughes baby who is on her way!  I am currently 22 (almost 23) weeks pregnant and found out a few weeks ago that baby is a GIRL!  We are simply calling her "Sister" because Jared won't talk names yet.  Katelyn knows that Sister is in mommy's tummy, but I'm sure she doesn't realize that in March she will be joining us!  Of course, if you ask Katelyn where is Sister, she will lift up her own shirt...  Katelyn will be 2 1/2 when Sister is born and I'm sure she is going to be a GREAT big sister.  She loves, loves, loves babies and will be a big helper.  

I've been feeling Sister kick a lot lately!  She must be really strong because I've been feeling her kick since around 15 weeks and I didn't feel Katelyn until closer to 20 weeks.  Jared has even felt her kick many times! 

I am so thankful for this tremendous blessing.  God is so good and I am honored to be mommy to this 2 precious lives. 

Little Miss Pumpkin

What an exciting weekend we had in the Hughes household. We went to the 'fall harvest picnic' with our Sunday school class at a fun little park in Austin on Saturday for lunch. It was a great time with some of our dearest friends- unfortunately I only took pictures of Jared, Katelyn, and I so that will have to do! If you look really closely you can even see baby sister in this picture!

Here is Katelyn and I Here is one of Jared and Katelyn, our precious little pumpkin. We were totally shocked that she wore the pumpkin for so long. When we went to put it on she wasn't too happy- but I guess she decided it wasn't so bad after all!

After the park we went back to the house and all took a nice Saturday afternoon nap before the evening festivities started. After the nap Jared and Katelyn carved their 1st of many pumpkins. OK, I'll be honest- what you see in this picture is the extent of Katelyn helping. As soon as I snapped this picture she wanted her hand cleaned and nothing else to do with the slimy pumpkin insides! She is such a girl! Jared then carefully cleaned out and carved the pumpkin while Katelyn sat at the table and colored her little pumpkin with a marker.After pumpkin carving we had dinner and then headed out to go trick-or-treating. We went to about 5 houses on our street before Katelyn got scared of a fake pumpkin headed man on our neighbors porch and started to cry and insisted on being carried. So, we decided we'd just head back home and hand out candy to all the neighborhood kids instead. Katelyn was a great candy passer-outer!

Sushi Night!

Jared has decided he likes for me to make him sushi (yuck!). It is pretty time consuming so we have only made 3 attempts , and this last one was a huge success. I think we have finally figured out the 'sushi rice'. The first two times we tried the rice wasn't sticky enough and so it fell off once it was rolled. We finally splurged and bought some special type of rice and it made all the difference (according to Jared). So here is a picture of the finished product before Jared dug in...Jared gave his seal of approval- the good ol' thumbs up!!He must have really, really appreciated my hard work to make this last batch of sushi because he did the dishes while I sat at the table and relaxed a few minutes! I had to take his picture because, let's be honest, dishes isn't Jared's favorite thing- but he goes to great lengths to demonstrate his love for me- tonight it was in the form of dishes! Love you Jared!

Katelyn praising Jesus!

Priceless!

Monday was a day in History

Well, Monday the 6th was a first for the Hughes family. We were sitting on the couch chatting when Jared got home from work. Katelyn had been a little fussy that afternoon but not too bad- I was just thinking 'terrible 2's'. Well, she started squirming in my lap and started to look a little green in the face. I said to Jared, "I think she is fixxing to throw-up." You would think that if I actually thought that then I would do something, but NO- I just sat there. About 10 seconds later, well, you know! She threw up all over herself, me, the couch, the blanket, ahhhh, it was lovely. Luckily it was just a one time thing and she hasn't thrown-up since (but she did get a fever Thursday and this morning). Anyway, we have now had to deal with toddler throw-up and we all survived. Sorry, no pics (trust me, you don't want any!).

Katelyn and her 'poots'

A few days ago Jared and I pulled all of Katelyn's clothes out of the attic to re-organize them. After several hours of sorting, folding, piling and stuffing clothes into crates. One box had some hand-me-downs that are still too big for KG. She found a pair of pink boots from the Cotton family and she LOVES the 'poots'. She has been wearing them all morning.... It's really cute!

Our fun filled weekend

This past weekend some of our favorite people came to Austin. Ben and Ashlee came through after camping while celebrating their 5th anniversary. I can't believe it has been 5 years since the summer of weddings. I'm pretty sure one of our friends got married EVERY weekend that entire summer!!! Ben and Ashlee happened to get married on June 26th- Happy Anniversary Johnson family! We had a great time eating, hanging out, eating, swimming, oh- did I mention eating???

They came on Friday and we ate dinner at Pluckers where we ate all things fried: wings, french fries, pickles, cheese, mac-n-cheese, Twinkies- that's right, ALL FRIED. It was great! The next morning we went to Kerbey Lane Cafe (an Austin hot-spot) for brunch. That was also a great meal, except for Jared's 'steak' and eggs. I think he would call me 'beef jerky' and eggs. We then went back to the house for a little rest before we dropped Katelyn off at Gera Beth's (thanks so much sister!!!) house while we went swimming and then to the most wonderful meal ever- MELTING POT!!!! I have never been so full and so happy at the same time. We finished the weekend off with a trip to church (where we repented for our gluttony) then to Guadalajara's for lunch. Wow, that was a whole paragraph about food!

Anyway, we had a blast visiting with the Johnson's. God has blessed us with some great friends and we are so thankful for their friendship! We pray for countless blessings for the Johnson's, they are such a blessing to those around them with their sweet and kind spirits.

This was so cute, the first night they were here, Katelyn crawled right up between them and cuddled with Ben and 'Ashwee'- whom she hasn't stopped asking about since they left. This was taken at Melting Pot-Ben, open your eyes!!! Maybe the smoke from the fondue got to him, or maybe it was the bee sting from the pool a few hours ago... poor thing...

Ashlee was cracking me up, she had chocolate on her lips for like 5 minutes. She was determined she was going to enjoy her meal and worry about clean-up later. Love her!This was the main course (before we ate every bite). It is soooo stinkin' good!!! I want to go back right now!Here is Jared and I at dinner- isn't he a cutie ;)

Our little FISH

Katelyn loves, loves, loves the water. She has been enjoying our little blow-up pool in the backyard and we joined the neighborhood pool and boy did she love that!

These first 2 pictures are our first trip to the pool this year-

This is a picture of our trip to the pool last year, goodness, time flies- Look at how much she has grown...

Visit with Amy

Amy 'Kolb' Garner, one of my very best friends from college, was in Austin last week for track and softball state events and we got to have lunch with her. I was so thankful to get to see her (although we missed out on getting to see Lane and Clint). One thing I love about Amy is that no matter how much time has passed since we last saw each other, it seems like it was yesterday. Love you girl!

May trip to Washington

I think I've finally recovered from our trip to Washington. We had a blast with Nanny, Pawpaw, James, Stormi (Sophie according to KG), Caleb, Micah and Ellie. We flew into Spokane on Saturday morning where Jean and Stanley picked us up. Katelyn was so cute with Stanley- she layed her head on his shoulder for the first several minutes- she knows how to butter Pawpaw up! And he knows how to butter her up too, hence the picture of him sneaking her a cheese cracker, her favorite!
Jared and I went to a cabin in the mountains Monday-Wednesday and had a great get-away while KG stayed with nanny and Pawpaw. I forgot our camera, so I didn't get any pictures of the beautiful cabin, rivers, mountains :(

When we got back on Wednesday James and Stormi drove in the their kiddos. Let me tell you, they have got some great kids. Ellie is too precious! Here she is with KG and PawPaw (KG just woke up, can you tell?)
Here is a picture of Nanny playing with the kids in the backyard. Katelyn LOVES to be sprayed with water, so of course Nanny made that happen!Here is an action shot of Caleb and Micah jumping on the count of 3, Katelyn was sort of participating, but didn't get the whole 'jump' thing.On the last day we took some family photos with Stanley's mega-super-amazing camera. I love the one with all the grandkids- Ellie is the only one not doing something silly with her hands :)
Just look at them, the cutest group of trouble I've ever seen!

Okay, this picture makes my heart melt, you can just see how much Jared loves his baby girl!

And here I am with Katelyn, what a cutie-patootie!

We had such a wonderful time with all the Hughes'. We are so blessed by our amazing family. Thank you Nanny and PawPaw for being such gracious hosts. We miss you all already!

Organizing Katelyn's room

I've been thinking for a long time that I need to organize Katelyn's room so that it is kid friendly and kid proof so that she can start having 'room-time' by herself each day. Before we just had a few random pink baskets that we would throw toys in or around along one wall in her room as you can see from the picture below.I finally went to Target and bought this cube/shelf/thingy to put her toys on, along with some baskets to store toys or books in. I think Katelyn likes to be organized; this morning she would take one toy off, play with it and then return it before getting another toy. I'm hoping that is a behavior I will continue to see as opposed to pulling all the toys off the shelf and just having a free for all!

Happy 5th Anniversary My Love

Today is Jared and my 5th anniversary! I must say, these have been five wonderful years. Jared is such a great husband and I am so blessed. He is my best friend and the love of my life. I hope the next 5 are as happy as these have been. I love you Jared!

Water Park fun

Today Katelyn and I went to the local water-splash park for a picnic lunch and then some water fun! We met our friends Jennie with her daughter Heidi, and Carrie with her daughter Bella at the park. The girls are all within a few months of each other and it was fun to see them play together! Katelyn is the scaredy cat, she wasn't too sure for the first 15 minutes or so (as you can see in the picture above). She would walk almost close enough to touch the water and then back off. Heidi (in the middle) wasn't afraid, but she was more cautious than Bella. Bella (on the left) was the dare-devil! She would just run right in and let the water splash her face, head, whatever!

I have to thank Carrie for taking her camera and snapping some photos for me! Here is Katelyn enjoying the water after she decided it was fun to actually get wet! What a fun afternoon!

Weekend Update

This weekend was CRAZY to say the least. I felt like I was going from here to there non-stop! Saturday morning we got up and drove to Dallas to help my brother and sister-in-law move into their new place. They bought a beautiful home in Irving and I am so very jealous of Megan's kitchen! Of course I didn't take pictures with my camera of Megan and Byron, but when I get my mom to email the pictures I took of her camera I'll post them. Shortly after I got to Dallas Jared and I left to go to the Mavs playoff game (that was my 5th anniversary present to him). It was a nail-biter of a game and the Mavs lost by 1, but it was still lots of fun getting to hang out with my hubby!

During one of the time-outs they started to throw t-shirts up in the stands and Jared was determined he was going to catch one. As one t-shirt got close Jared realized he was going to have to jump for it. So- up he went and down he came. As he landed he said, "MAN, I didn't get the shirt... and I hurt my knee." We later inspected the knee and found this bruise- I don't think the picture does it justice, but he has several massive bruises across the top of his knee and we aren't sure how he got them??? But it was a valiant effort honey :)

After the game we went to visit our sweet McAdams friends. Rocky was out with family, but we got to visit with Amy for a few minutes. They just bought a new house in Coppell and it is so cute! She has such they eye for decorating! As you can see from the picture, she is due in a few weeks with Miss Brinley Jane, who I can't wait to meet!

Our last stop for Saturday night was to the Duncan's. I was a little bummed we didn't get to hang out with them longer. Makena is almost 2 years old and she and KG had fun playing together. I can't believe how fast they grow and change. The last time I saw Makena was when she was barely walking and now she is talking in sentences! I know the Duncan's are happy in Coppell, but I sure do miss them here in Austin!

Sunday we went back over to Byron and Megan's (or BoBo and Meggie according to Katelyn) house and hung out with them. I'll post some of those pictures soon, but in the mean time- here is a picture of my sweet brother and sister-in-law!

Weekend fun with SaSa

We were so thankful that Aunt Sarah, better known as SaSa, came down to Austin to visit for the weekend. She is always a joy to be around and it is always sad having to say goodbye. Even though Katelyn isn't smiling or looking at the camera, I had to post this picture because Sarah looks so pretty in it!

Friday night we went to the Oasis for dinner and sat on one of their patio decks. I should have snapped a picture of Lake Travis because the view was amazing, but oh well. Above is a picture of Jared and Sarah as we waited for our food.

The had some weird spaceship thingy out front of Oasis, so we had to stop and play!

Then on Saturday we went to the zoo in Waco. Let me tell you, that is a good zoo! The weather was perfect and we had a great time. Katelyn really enjoyed it as well.

I think she wanted to pet the Rino???

The elephant was facing us, right up until we tried to take a picture- then we got this angle :(

Below are pictures of the 4 of us posing, what fun!

If only this weekend could have been longer. We had such a good time with SaSa, Katelyn won't know what to do with herself when she realizes that SaSa had to go back home. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family.