"Welcome to Bath Time"

"Noah, so glad you have grown big enough to join us for bath time.  I will be your guide along this journey and whatever I say goes.  Your older brother did not mind by my simple rule so he now has to bathe alone."

Hide and Seek

Noah has been playing a new game with me everyday.  It is his own form of Hide and Seek.  Basically he hides every single time I put him down and then I have to find him.  Usually he is doing something in this form.....

Props

Lately, Aidan has not been able to watch any television without props.  He acts out all the scenes as the come on.  Today, while watching Brave, he needed his horse and swords.  The babies seem to enjoy watching him more than the movies....

1 > 99

Back in November our church started showing a different video teaser every Sunday morning during services to begin introducing the new theme for 2013.  Aidan was in the first teaser that they aired.  Last Sunday they finally announced that the theme was "1 > 99."  The idea is taken from Luke 15:4-7.  "Suppose one of you has a 100 sheep and looses one.  Doesn't he lead the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.  Then he call his friends and neighbors together and says Rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep.  I tell you in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents then over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent."    All the videos were great but of course I was a little partial to one!!!

BOWS!!

Ryla started pulling out her bows when she was 9 months old and since she still has yet to grow much hair, I have not been able to clip them in.  However, over the last couple of weeks, she has been allowing me to put headbands on her again.  This makes me so happy!!!  I have had her bows hanging in her room for what seems like forever and always get irritated when people thinks she's a boy!  She seems to be enjoying them.  Right now I am just asking her to wear them to church on Wednesdays and   Sundays so she won't get sick of wearing them. We will try more after that!!!  Now all we need is some hair to grow!!

"I'm Hunry"

"I'm Hunry."  This is the phrase I hear literally 30 times a day from Miss Ryla.  I know I don't starve the poor girl by any means, but it seems like she is ALWAYS asking for more food.  The other day when I told her she needed to wait another 30 minutes until lunch this is what I found her doing.  Well I guess you can say she is determined to get what she wants!!!

The Climber

So Noah has decided that he is going to be a world champion CLIMBER!  We cannot keep him from climbing ANYTHING!!!!  Just yesterday Aidan asked me if he could go in the backyard and play and I told him that he could but that I just needed to go get something out of the bathroom and then we would go.  Two seconds later I heard Aidan screaming for me to come quick.  Aidan had decided not to wait for me and unlocked the back door where in turn Noah had climbed down to the backyard and was about to climb onto the highest step of the play place when I caught him in midair.  He would have for sure have missed the last step as it is bigger than the others and I don't even want to guess what would have happened.  SCARED ME TO DEATH!!!!  We also can't keep him in a stroller, park swing, his highchair, or a shopping cart without him attempting to jump out of it.  He can even get himself out of all the harnesses.  Cliff caught him in mid air diving off the back of his high chair!  I never had trouble with this at all with the other two so this came as quite the shocker for Cliff and I.  Makes me VERY curious about his personality....LOL

Let's Wrestle!

We have had several wrestling matches at our house lately.  Cliff has been teaching Aidan how to wrestle and this has been picked up by Ryla who then practices with Noah!  Uncle Kevin has also been wrestling with both Cliff and Aidan.  I caught one of their matches on video the other day and found it to be quite amusing!  Enjoy!

Guest Room

So I finished unpacking the house several months ago but only recently started decorating the house.  We know that we will be renting this house for several years or possibly even buying it in the next couple of years.  We will see.  With that being said we decided to make it into a home instead of a it feeling like a rental.  I started with the guest room.  Having this project finished makes me excited to work on the rest of the home!

"Quiet Time"

So Aidan has been transitioning from nap time to quiet time.  He has always blessed me with being a wonderful sleeper so I wasn't upset at all about this.  I would say he still takes a nap 1 to 2 times a week.  On preschool days we don't do anything so that leaves about 3 to 4 days when we have "quiet time."  On these days he chooses toys to take to his room for around and hour to an hour and a half.  Today when I went to go tell him he could come out, I found him like this.  He is very into making tents right now.....and pirates as you can clearly tell!!!  His imagination is so fun to watch!  He hardly ever wants to just color or read books or stand still for that matter.  He is always on some sort of mission.  Anything from rescuing a car trapped on the train tracks, from hiding in his tents from the scary bears from "Brave," or being the captain of his pirate ship!  Wish I could just freeze him in time!

Happy Noah!

My little Noah has been changing so much in the last month!  He is eating like a champ now and has started refusing baby food.  That combined with sleeping threw the night has brought him to life.  We went to the park a couple of days ago with some friends and I snapped some pics of him with my phone!  SOOOOO nice to see him happy!

Westover Staff

Last month there was a Christmas party for the staff and their spouses.  I was annoying, as usual, and made everyone take a pic by the tree.  So, here is a look at our wonderful staff!

Kevin and Karen Withem

Preaching Minister

I was so annoyed for not getting Brent's picture (our worship minister) but here is a pic of his wife Amberly!

Scott and Melissa Warner

Executive Minister

Robert McCall

(Middle School Minister)

Adam and Denise Black

Children's Ministers

Kevin and Nancy Bolten

Administrative Minister

Cliff's job title is Connections Minister

Dustin and Carly Bartee

Young Adult Minister

Christian and Katherine Pimentel

Youth Ministers

In the Beginning...

Last week I came out of Aidan's room from putting him to bed and Cliff told me to go look at my phone.  I had received a text from my brother, Darrel, telling me that our friend Lane Hinton had texted him this photo below and was hoping he could get it to me.  I immediately started crying.  I remembered looking for this pic when Cliff and I got engaged but wasn't able to locate it.  I actually had never even seen it.

In June of 2002 I was walking threw campus to my apartment and saw Cliff sitting outside the dorms.  This was the first time we had ever seen each other.  Lane, who was working for the college at the time, came up to me and asked if I would be in a picture for him.  He then introduced me to Cliff and I remember that Cliff and I both thought it was weird to pose for a pic together having just met but we did it anyway.  Over a year later we started dating and a little over two years later we were married.  

I feel so lucky to have this moment captured in a picture.  We hardly spoke to each other the year following that but I remember this moment well!  Lane found it as he was going through old pics and remembered that I was searching for it when we got engaged.  Now, 10 years later, here it is!!!!

Aidan turned 4 on New Years Eve!!!  He got the big party for this year.  We decided to do a fireman birthday party due to his obsession with rescuers.  I was able to grab a few ideas on Pinterest and I think it went really well!!  We found a company here in Austin that rents out Firetrucks for parties.     About 20 minutes after the guests arrived we heard the siren and the kids went crazy.  They were even more surprised to see the firetruck park outside our house!  

 Right after the firetruck got to our house the fireman got out and asked for the birthday boy.  Aidan was by then speechless.  He shook his hand and then got to try on his hat!

 He then had all the kids head into the firetruck to check it out.

Aidan was told he was the captain and got to sit up front a lot and honk the horn.  I'm sure the neighbors loved us!

 He then told all the kids that they could go for a ride!!!!  This was a big hit!  They all took their seats and away we went.  He even turned the sirens on for us which was great!

After we got back he gave a fire safety demonstration.  He asked what you should do in the case of a fire in which Aidan replied that you should make balls of fire to shoot at bad guys!!!

 Then cake, ice-cream, and presents of course!!!

 We then had a hose race.  The fireman showed the kids how to unroll the hoses and had Aidan demonstrate how to roll it up.  We then put the kids on each of them and had them race!

 The dads also had a race which was hilarious!

Next the fireman got out a fire extinguisher!  You can tell by Aidan's face it was a hit!

 The finale was another ride in the firetruck and then he was off!  The kids ran down the street telling him Bye!!  It was such a great party and Aidan had the time of his life!!!