Exploring . . .

The girls love their new friends (here at the Miller Outdoor Theater). So many little girls and somehow they all love princesses, swimming, and crafty things.
I love my new friends Heidi and Catherine. It's been so wonderful to get to know them!
Abby comparing her "wing span" to that of an eagle at the Houston Zoo.

Millie-bird

A cute little prairie dog.
Melba and Sammie -- two very fun prairie dogs

Millie and the goat she wouldn't have minded taking home with her.

Sno cone face

Jane running through the sprinklers at the water park.
Jane has just started making this face whenever she fancies that her feelings are hurt (for example, when we take something away from her that is not good for her to have, but which she thinks is fine for her to have). It's hilarious (especially considering the occasions when she pulls it out), but when we laugh (which we frankly cannot help doing) she takes it seriously and starts to cry so we've had to restrain ourselves.

Millie showing off some of her faux play dough food (probably inspired by Jenni B, her primary teacher in C-ville)

Dripping-wet girls after making a break for the sprinklers right at bedtime -- they seem to be full of ways to evade getting to bed.


So far we've been doing a very little exploring of what this area has to offer, but what we've experienced so far, we've really enjoyed. We are enjoying our neighborhood pool on especially hot afternoons. A few weeks ago, we went with a group from our church to see a production of Disney songs at the Miller Outdoor Theater downtown where we sat on blankets on the grass to enjoy the show. We have also had our first visitors -- Hurray! We were honored to have my life-long friend, Melba, and her husband Sammie (who has been interning in Austin this summer), come for a weekend. It was so wonderful to catch up and to experience the Houston Zoo with them. It really was an incredible zoo and fortunately had a lot of tree cover on the walkways so that the heat was only mostly insufferable rather than completely so :). Regardless, we had a wonderful time and a wonderful weekend with the Markhams!

Home Sweet Home

Ready to walk into the house after signing the paperwork. Millie was already inside exploring.
It was almost a shame that we had to move the furniture in -- the girls loved running around the wide open spaces.
Happy to be home.
The breakfast nook. The wallpaper was one of the first things to go.
The backyard. We love how shaded it is!
Abby and Jane having fun sliding down a mattress.

We are so excited to finally have a house of our own and we have been loving our house! The girls have been so cute and excited about it too, so many of my apprehensions about it being a difficult transition for them have pretty much receded. Millie has been very eager to help around the house and to keep things neat (even though our house projects haven't allowed us to get everything settled yet). She's taken a lot of pride in picking up the toy room before bed (most nights) and keeping her room straight (most of the time). Abby calls our house "Houston, Texas" and doesn't quite get that the name applies to all of the surrounding area as well. She loves running through the sprinklers. Jane has had the rockiest transition (she's been a little more clingy), but is coming around and she loves the new space. We have been busy moving in and trying to work on a few surface, aesthetic changes (mostly stripping layers of wallpaper and painting), but it has been fun (sometimes :)) to learn how to do home improvement projects and to have a house of our own to work on (I'll start posting some before and after pictures once we get things more settled). Mark has really enjoyed the yard and scored a whole slew of yard tools at a garage sale last Saturday.

The weather has been beastly, but we have been enjoying swimming at our neighbor's pool and the community pool nearby. Otherwise, I try to go outside as little as possible. I think, however, that it was a good idea to move in during the hottest part of the year so that I know that this is as bad as it gets and can only get better (I hope!).

It has been so great to have Mark home the past few weeks and miss him now that he has started a free-lance consulting project in the area. We're grateful for his hard work, though!
He'll start his real job in September.

One of the greatest blessings since arriving are the new friends we've made. We actually have another family from our church on our same street with two girls and a boy right around the same ages as our girls and they have been so welcoming and the girls get along so well with them. We love having them as neighbors. We've also so enjoyed getting to know other families. As an uncanny coincidence, Mark's sister's husband's brother (if that makes any sense) moved into our ward the week before we did. They also have kids right around our kids' ages which makes it so fun!

Funny Millie-isms, Abby-isms, and Jane-isms from the past few weeks:

Millie: "Does the Devil have a wife and children?"

Abby: "I need a drink and I can't hold it!"

Abby: "Sleeping Beauty wants to say prayers. She says lovely prayers!"

Jane (in answer to any questions posed to her): "Nope!"

Millie (about her toy puppy): "I love it so much! I just can't take my eyes off it!"

Abby: "Why did Jesus make the snow not talk?"

I Knew I was in Texas When . . .

I knew I was in Texas when, our second day here, I went to Sam's Club and while looking around while I was stuck in traffic, realized that I was hemmed in on all sides by pick-up trucks -- GMC, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford. Especially telling was the truck in front of me that had a hot pink decal on its back, tinted window that said, in fancy script writing, "Hick Chick", and the truck to the right of it that had a similar cursive, hot pink decal that said "Princess" with a hot pink kiss underneath. I wish I had had my camera. Does anyone have any suggestions for a hot pink decal I could get for my mini-van (groan)?

The Trip

On June 27th, we packed our two cars to the hilt and took off for Texas (where the rest of our belongings had been for a month). We were a little nervous about how the girls would do during our three day drive, but they handled it remarkably well. For the older girls, this was due mostly to fact that we finally broke down and invested in a portable DVD player and some new movies that kept them riveted. My favorite moment was when we stopped to get gas late one night and I looked back at Millie who was watching the end of "The Little Princess" when Sarah is reunited with her father and there were tears streaming down Millie's face. It was so tender!

We stayed the first night in Knoxville, TN after traveling through all of Virginia (southern VA has some of the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen), forged through Alabama and onto Hattiesville, Mississippi the next night, and after attending church in Baton Rouge, LA, we rolled into Houston along with the most terrific rain storm I've ever encountered. We had to pull over to wait it out and when I got out of the car to check something I was soaked to the bone instantly. It was quite something.

Mark and I enjoyed seeing some of the south, since it was unchartered territory for both of us. Most fascinating to me was driving through stretches of swamp/bayou in Louisiana. Virginia and Tennessee struck us as the most beautiful. Since I had left my phone charger in VA and Mark's had gotten misplaced in our luggage, we had fun communicating via walkie-talkie. And we were especially happy when the whole trek was over!

It's About Time!

Father's Day Dinner with the two best fathers I know!
Friends at the Zoo
A quaint street in Anapolis, MD


We tried a Battle of the BBQ event down in D.C. one day, but the only redeeming thing about it was the face painting that the girls loved!

Millie, the animal lover.
Jane warmed up to them a bit, but Abby was a little skittish the whole time.



Well, we've been in Texas for over three weeks now and I figured it was time to attempt to catch up on my blogging! So much has been going on! I'll talk about Texas and our move shortly, but I first wanted to post some pictures from our time in the D.C. area. It was too bad that we couldn't spend more time with my mom and dad while we were there (what with Emily's baby, David Oldroyd's baptism, and business travel), but we loved the time we had together. And we're sorry we didn't connect more with friends. It was a pretty hectic time because my ever resourceful husband, who doesn't officially start work until September, decided to see how many "gigs" he could find on Craigslist to earn a little extra money during the almost three weeks we were there. His/our various jobs included:

1) Making 50 brownies and 50 lemon bars for a caterer who needed some homemade baked goods for an event she was catering (Amy)
2) Passing out flyers for a tutoring service for several days (Mark)
3) Trying to place candy machines in offices (Mark)
4) Helping with an office move (Mark)
5) Acting as a production assistant for the filming of a public service announcement for several days (Mark)
6) Helping with some graduate school application essays (Amy)

While it was all pretty chaotic (especially since the girls were trying to decompress after such a busy month), we were able to gather our forces to do a few things. We spent an afternoon in beautiful Anapolis, Maryland touring the US Naval Academy, spent an afternoon at the National Zoo with our friends the Evans who came up from C-ville, and visited a lady in my mom's ward who had newborn puppies. The rest of the time we spent trying to get ready for our move and swimming in Grammie and Grandpa's community pool.

Welcome Lucy!

We are so excited for the arrival of our newest little niece!! Lucy Rose made her debut on June 9th weighing in at 8 lbs. 11 oz. and looks like the cuddliest, most squeezable little button! We can't wait to meet her! Congratulations, Ems and Isaac! You are a beautiful family!

"Vacation" By the Numbers

26/30 = Days out of the last month that we've been on "vacation"
20/26 = Days of the aforementioned "vacation" where the weather was either cold/rainy/snowy/hailing/blizzarding/on tornado watch (and, of course, since I had packed at the beginning of our first trip for the month and a half before we get into our house, the only cold weather clothes we had were one pair of long pants and a sweatshirt each)
10 = times packing and unpacking all of our gear
7 = different places we slept
tons = the fun we had!


vacation: a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel

I just had to put quotes around the word "vacation" because according to the above definition, there was very little "suspension of work" and "rest" going on :). We have had a delightful series of trips, though, and feel blessed to have spent so much great time with family. We are now back in Virginia at my parents' house for a few weeks before heading south on our move and are glad for a little bit of down time.

We had a great time in Jackson Hole with Mark's family this past week. We enjoyed a picnic (albeit a cold one) at Jenny Lake -- the Tetons are spectacular, a quick trip to Old Faithful in Yellowstone (after being there about 30 minutes we were advised to return to Jackson so that we wouldn't be snowed in), the Alpine slide, watching the Jackson gunfight in the town square, swimming (great indoor rec center pool), and such.


The girls with Mark's sister Melissa's kids in Pocatello, ID.

Pigtail Jane. She actually held still for me long enough to try a new hair-do!

The girls loved looking for wildlife on our visits to the National Parks. We saw buffalo (this one as well as some live samples of the species), elk, and moose.

The freezing faithful -- waiting for Old Faithful to erupt.

A view of the Tetons from our picnic spot at Jenny Lake.