Our Roots Lie Here

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We love Texas. We were born and raised here, in Houston to be exact. I was only an hour away for college (WHOOP!) and spent one semester in Cannes, France. Ethan followed his parents' roots and went away to Sooner land. After college, we both returned to Houston with Ethan accepting a job with ExxonMobil and I with Vacations To Go. The same year I began teaching 6th grade World Cultures at Spillane Middle School, was also when we purchased our first house together in Copperfield, just minutes away from family. 3 years later, we made the far jump down the road to Cypress, and have LOVED making memories here ever since - joined Second Baptist Cypress and had Olivia in 2010, Callie in 2012 and we will be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary this year on October 1st. 

Well, we have some news that has been consuming my mind for the last two months. And now I am finally able to share it with you.

Ethan has accepted a new assignment & promotion within his company, and we will be relocating to New Jersey! He'll be supervising a new team that will help researchers and engineers integrate the latest and greatest technology. It is actually going to be a lot of fun for him. And I am very proud of him and his hard work. It will be a nice change for him, and for us too. I am actually super excited about it all. Our girls are young. And not that we can't make memories in Texas, but we will have such different places to visit! 

The time frame is not exact, but we will probably be up in NJ by the beginning of September. This assignment will last about 2-3 years, and most likely we'd be returning to Houston. So, we are hoping to find a home in or near the township of Clinton, with a 10-15 minute max. commute into work (Annandale). I am looking forward to Ethan not spending two hours commuting for work each day.  And get this, we are only 1.5 hours away from Ethan's sister and husband in Philly, and only 20 minutes away from one of my close friends from college. It really could not have been in a better location. So where is Clinton? Go to your map app and you will find Clinton 54 miles due west of NYC. The area is mostly rural, with pockets of neighborhoods here and there. I am looking forward to the change.

Believe me, there are some things we will miss -  family, our church, friends and the familiarity of it all. But, I do believe that these plans have been in the making, and that these plans of God's are to prosper us, not to harm us and to give us hope and a future (Jer. 29:11). So, it's just best not to be so sad about it, and embrace it. Even if it will be cold & snowy. Even if we will have to make friends. Find a church outside of the Bible Belt. Find a babysitter. Even if the tax rates & home prices are a joke. You get the picture. 

Even if it's not Texas.

Here are some new pictures from the past couple of weeks.

Olivia reading to Callie in her room. I am so going to miss this nursery!

This girl is crazy during meal times.

Baking daddy's favorite brownies for Father's Day.

Making daddy's card.

Happy Father's Day, daddy!

Hello Kitty American dresses. Fitting.

Callie's 8 month bunny picture.

This girl is ALL giggles!

Olivia the Tickle Monster!

Videos

Callie Gets Stuck

 

 

 

Tickle Monster Attacks Again

 



Photo Dump 6/12/13

 Callie's 7 month bunny picture. She will be 8 months old in just a couple of weeks!

Olivia's last day of school with her teachers and the flowers she picked out for them.

I love putting Callie's hair up "bam-bam" Pebbles style!

Olivia adores her Daddy. She asks about him from when she wakes and all through out the day.

My aunt invited all the girls out to lunch at Shanghai Restaurant on Bellaire. Yummy!

The girls posing in the matching dresses that my mom bought for them. Olivia has begun to let us put her hair up in a ponytail, yay!

Straight to Summer

I am so glad that the random cold fronts have stopped, and the warm weather has arrived for us to enjoy! Olivia had Splash Day at school last week. Then on Saturday, Olivia played in her pool while Callie napped and Ethan and I enjoyed some crawfish in the backyard. After the girls' naps, we went back outside, this time with Callie. Ethan decided to jump in too!

In between these two fun water days, I met up with the ladies in my family for a belated Mother's Day luncheon at La Madeleine.

 Listening to directions before the kids head out to Splash Day

Olivia went straight to the babies.

We shared Splash Day with the two-year old class.

Enjoying a push popsicle!

My sister, aunt and cousin with Callie.

Cute sisters' picture.

My grandmother and mom and Callie

Olivia loves mini fruit tarts from La Madeleine!

These girls have completely different looking hair!

Callie continues to sit well on her own.

Had to have matching suits!

I'm glad we could have some fun water time as a family. 

Our neighbors had a pool built 4 years ago, and they are hardly ever in it!

We like to keep things simple :o)

It's not quite Memorial Day, but Happy Summer!

April & May 2013

I apologize for not updating the blog regularly lately! But, we certainly have not had a shortage of pictures documenting our every day, crazy lives. Here are just a few.

 Callie's 6-month picture. At her check-up, she is 17lb. 11oz and 27.5 in. tall (93%!)

 Daddy and Olivia making Mother's Day cupcakes.

 Mother's Day!

Happy Birthday, Olivia!

On March 18th, Olivia Mei turned 3 years old! We didn't put on a big party this year. We just had three small, separate celebrations, ha! Ethan and I are very blessed to have such a happy and healthy girl and for her to be a big sister to Callie.

 

 

Callie's 4 month picture I forgot to post. She will already be 5 months this Sunday!

 



As Ethan says, "Two China dolls!"

This was the look on Olivia's face when she heard Taylor Swift playing over the speakers. Have I mentioned that she is in love with Taylor?!?

Smallcakes sells cupcakes, and also has a great play area and crafts for the kids. They had fun activities all week during Spring Break.

 

We came back to Smallcakes that same week to meet up with another sweet friend.

Callie says "Yea, I know I'm cute"

All smiles. This is one of my most favorite hand-me-down outfits from Olivia.

All month long, Olivia has been saying, "It's so hard to wait for my birthday."

We've always had photos done for Olivia's birthday, but being so busy with Callie made me forget to schedule some to be taken by our photographer. This was Sunday afternoon, in the morning on the way out the door to church, Olivia was twirling on the tile floor and tripped over her own sandals. Needless to say, a bloody busted lip did not keep her from the celebrations.

1st celebration: dinner at Chuy's!

 

Bitty Baby! She's named her "Little"

Aunt Faye stopped by

2nd celebration: Chick Fil A dinner at home!

Olivia is always so gentle and sweet with Callie.

2nd birthday cupcake

3rd celebration: Mommy visits school. Olivia was the "show and tell" helper that day.

Just gotta say how cute it is to see small people eating their lunches at a small table, on small chairs.

Mommy brought a cookie cake to share with her friends.

She has remnants of the cookie cake on her face.

Feeding "Little"

 

Playing with Daddy