Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Happy Birthday Lynzi Grace!!!

What a fantastic day it was celebrating Lynzi's 4th birthday! We got up and baked her birthday cake, then opened her birthday cards that came in the mail, then Ryan came home and brought Lynzi's new friend (Daphnie) to go to Chuck E. Cheese's with us. We met Nate and Sarah (yes, Sarah is Nate's girlfriend...several of you had asked me after I mentioned her several posts back) there and had such a great time! Then everybody came back to the house and we had cake and opened presents! Lynzi got a new bedding set from Mimi and Poppy and us and she got a new bike from Grammi and PawPaw!!! Then on to her favorite part of the day...church :)!!! I'll post more pictures soon, but for now here are a few of the bazillion and a half that are on my camera right now! Happy Birthday Lynzi Grace! We love you so much and we're so thankful that God has blessed our family with your wonderfulness!!! :)



Lynzi and Daphnie

~Mommy with Birthday Girl~

~Lynzi's New Bike...thank you Grammi and PawPaw~

Lynzi's new helmet was a little small...she's made it clear that tomorrow will definitely involve exchanging it!

Proof that she's such a big girl...she went to her room and took off her church clothes, picked out her own nighty ("tinkerbell since she had a tinkerbell party") and put them on, brushed her teeth and got in bed...all by herself!!!

Monday, March 2, 2009

All About Asher...

I've been wanting to post this since Asher's birthday...but have not had time. (This is mainly for me to have, so I can print it for his baby book...but I thought you might enjoy it as well!) So here are a few facts about my baby boy, now that he is 1:





Asher:



*is an INCREDIBLY happy boy!

*is such a sweet cuddler!


*is very attached to Mommy and Daddy! :)


*loves everything about Lynzi (especially playing in her room!)


*laughs histerically at his big sister!


*loves to kiss...a lot!!!


*has his 2 bottom-middle teeth (definitely working on some more...his diapers are proof!!!)


*loves to "get his groove on!" If he hears anything that sounds like it might end up being a beat...he stops what he's doing and starts bopping his head, then his shoulders get into it and then it's an all out "shakin' his groove thang"! However, he seems to know when it's worship music, then he goes right into "worship mode"!!!


*loves to clap...whether it's for himself or someone else. If he hears or sees clapping, he joins right in...with a giant smile!


*likes to talk on the phone....and usually carries on conversations with "Dada" when he is on any phone (play or real).


*LOVES the remote! And he can find them no matter how good they are hidden and he knows exactly where it should be pointed (no matter where the t.v. might be!)

*has always been a good sleeper. slept through the night since he was 4 weeks old (thank you, Lord!) Once we moved to our new house...he started waking up between 5-6, but I think he was just getting adjusted to his new (real) baby bed and his new room (which he hadn't had either of those until we moved...poor baby!) But he's doing great now. He sleeps from about 8:30 pm-8:ish am!

*weaned at 11 months (while in Belize) and made a fantastic transition...loves his regular milk!

*hasn't turned any food down so far! Loves to eat and can eat A LOT! A few of his faves are: yogurt, bananas, honeycombs cereal, tomatoes, green beans, asparagus, chicken, fajita meat...oh the list goes on...like I said, ANYTHING!!! :)

*usually takes 2 naps...he's always been a 10 & 2 baby, but sometimes his first nap lasts too long
and he'll go down a little later than 2 for his second nap!

*is very close to walking...he'll walk all day holding on to something, even if it's just a pinky!

*started standing up by himself (from sitting on the floor)...and he gets extremely excited when he does it! We're trying to get him to take steps to us once he's free standing...

*says "mama, dada, hi, bye, thank you," and will repeat several other words when you tell him too..."Lynzi, please" are a few.

*signs "more, eat, all done, please"

*LOVES his paci, but we only let him have it in bed. However, if he finds one somewhere in the house...it's in his mouth immediately (it's rather cute, actually!!!)

*has TONS of hair! I've actually lost count of how many haircuts he's had! Ryan gave him his first "official" haircut when he was 8 months old (I had trimmed a few extra long and stray hairs here and there before that.) Then he had another one at 11 months by Mimi in Belize (he had one in between those, but I can't remember when!) Then I just gave him one a few weeks ago at 12 months (while he was in the bath tub, believe it or not! It turned out to work pretty well because his hair was already wet and he was occupied!!!)

*speaking of bath...he LOVES LOVES LOVES the bath (just like his big sister!) And he loves taking a bath with her!

*definitely has an occasional dramatic side!!! if he gets upset...his face scrunches up and he can muster up a super fake cry-yell-noise (not sure what you call it!) I have a picture of his face when he is doing it...i'll try to post it soon.

*really enjoys being outside!

*gets SOOO excited when he sees an animal! His body tenses up and he squeals and points with delight, while bouncing up and down!!!

*thinks the dishwasher is so much fun! (I'll have to designate that as his chore when he gets older!!!)

*thinks his daddy's guitars are so cool...always trying to get to them!

*Loves to go up and down the stairs (which has been a bit of a challenge in our new house, but we got a gate...which works great, however if someone goes through the gate without him...watch out!) The first time I put him down to let him go down the stairs (I was right with him...don't worry), he crawled to the edge of the top stair and immediately turned around to go down backwards...that was before anyone had ever showed him how to do it!!! I thought it was pretty smart myself! :) Then if we're downstairs and put him down...he BOLTS for the stairs to try and get up them before we catch him...so funny!

*In my opinion, he has looked exactly like Lynzi at every stage so far...if you look at any given picture of Lynzi in her first year, just take off the bow and you have Asher! :)

***I know there are many more things that I will want to have recorded, but that is the end of my brain power for tonight. I'm sure that I'll think of more as soon as my head hits the pillow!

We love you, Asher! Thank you for filling our days with sweet love and laughter...and thank you, Lord, for blessing us with the most incredibly sweet baby boy we could have ever imagined!!!

Friday, February 27, 2009

We're still alive...

...but we STILL don't have inernet, officially anyway! We just get occasional signal at our house. We're waiting on our modem to be delivered (the one that came in wasn't compatible with our internet provider...that was wonderful news, after waiting a week!) So we should be up and running for good in a few more days. We were at Ryan's office all morning getting things set up here. We're getting settled at our house...and we LOVE it. We have a lot on our to do list, but that will come with time!

Since I haven't updated since we've been here...I'll rewind back to our move (2 weeks ago.) We're thankful for Nate and Sarah and the work crew they put together when we got here to help us unload! Everything went so smoothly and we had everything in place in no time!!! Oh, and Nate made us a flan as our "housewarming" present ...and it was REALLY GOOD!!!


Here are a few pictures of our trip, then arriving at our house and moving day:

Our mid-way point was a stop in Arlington at
Grandma and Grandpa Thomas'...always great to see them!

What Ryan and Lynzi looked like driving down the road!!!


Lynzi loaded up in the U-haul truck...she was her daddy's navigator!!!



Our first family photo in our new home! You can tell Asher doesn't care about our first photo...he was DONE for the day!!! He had good reason to be over it though...it was a long few days and both of the kids were super troopers all the way here!

Ryan and Nate moving in the dryer!

Enjoying the flan that Nate made for us...YUM!



~Sarah and Asher~

more to come...soon!

Friday, February 20, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHER...

Happy 1st birthday to our sweet Baby Asher boy!!!

More blog updates and pics to come as soon as we get internet set up at our house!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Moving Day...

Today was moving day (part 1)!!! We left this morning and stopped at Ryan's grandparents tonight (which is almost 1/2 way there.) We'll get up in the morning and start part 2 of the trek, which will end at OUR NEW HOUSE...YAY!!! We're so excited to get there and get settled in. We'll unload all of our stuff on Saturday...I can't think of a better Valentine's Day prezzy! Pray for our safety on the road tomorrow. Ryan and Lynzi are in the big Uhaul truck, pulling our utility trailer behind it and Asher and I are in the van! Our friend from Builders International, Cessi, went ahead with the B.I. Speed the Light truck and trailer full of our stuff, so it will be waiting on us when we get there! I'll let you know when we get there and post pics too.

p.s. BIG thanks to our wonderful friends who helped us load our house in record time yesterday (and made a miracle happen to fit it all in the two trucks...we were all a tiny bit worried at the end)!!! Cessi, John, Monte, Wade, Barney, Charlie and Debbie...THANK YOU!!! And Dad fed everyone gumbo for lunch and topped it off with an amazing dessert...and Mom babysat the kiddos for us....THANK YOU!!!! We love and appreciate you ALL!!!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Asher's 1st Birthday Party...

We celebrated Asher's 1st birthday a couple of weeks early the other night, with a few of our family and friends. The party was all about construction...and so much fun! Here are just a few pics from the night. I'll try to post more later...



~cute little birthday boy~


~hard hat cake...created by none other than PawPaw~



Llittle guy on the move...I think he was trying to escape his construction work ;)!!!




~Our hard workin' little man~





~Daddy and his boy at the "construction site"~


Friday, February 6, 2009

It's OFFICIAL....

We received a call from headquarters earlier this week and it's official...we've exceeded 100% in our itineration budget and we're approved to start our missions work!!! We're so excited. This was after Ryan went to Washington last weekend for a service and God provided a miraculous offering!!! The pastor handed him a check that was the same amount that we were short in our cash budget...PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Our house is completely packed up and Saturday (tomorrow), we leave for Arkansas for our LAST service on Sunday...come back on Monday...load on Tuesday and Wednesday...Head out on Thursday!!! So, busy week ahead...but we're so excited to finally start into the work that God called us to 10 years ago! And it will be amazing to finally get settled into OUR OWN house.

Just wanted to share our exciting news with everyone!!!

~Y~A~Y~

P.S. Here are a few links to pics of my cutie speaking at the church in Washington last weekend (photos courtesy of Lloyd Smith):

http://picasaweb.google.com/Lsmithtwin/CHAGRyanMooreSWeekend212009#5298050189606353538

http://picasaweb.google.com/Lsmithtwin/CHAGRyanMooreSWeekend212009#5298050208317781282

http://picasaweb.google.com/Lsmithtwin/CHAGRyanMooreSWeekend212009#5298050154647771730