Heidi and Friends

Heidi and her friend Nathan had their first real visit together this week. Nathan's mom and I took classes together at the hospital (along with another couple) and we also know them all from Pine Cove, and we've been keeping up with each other ever since - sharing baby stories and advice. We'll take all we can get! It's been so great to have other moms who are in the same stage as us. Nathan is just 2 weeks older than Heidi, so I get all the hand-me-down advice on what to do each week. I love it!

Nana and Pops are coming to visit tomorrow and we're really excited. Heidi is so much fun now, smiling and making fun noises. Can't wait for the next stage, whatever it holds!

For the grandparents...

So, for Nana and Pops, and DeeDee and Grandpa, we thought we'd try a video. Might take a while to load. :-) She's so smart... she's learning how to talk already!

God is good, I love the fall!

I know it's not actually Fall yet, but with the leftovers of Ike still in town, the weather here is beautiful! It's not humid, and it's in the 70's! I think Fall is my favorite season.
This morning, Heidi and I went for a walk in the cool weather. here's the play by play...
Leave the house. Run into our neighbor's mom who is in town escaping bad weather in South Texas. We chat for a while and she tells me she's been enjoying the large swing that hangs in our front yard from a tree. I tell her to go right ahead - that's what it's for!

She's super nice.
Head up the road a couple of houses, to find 3 adult horses and a

new baby horse running through our other neighbor's front yard. They are beautiful! They stop to watch us roll by.

Walk up the road a bit before turning around to make a circle. A yellow and black butterfly flitters in front of us on our way back.
Nearing the house a brownish black bird and a yellowish bird decide to dive bomb straight for the stroller - one goes to the left and one to the right, just a few inches from us.
We get back to the house and Heidi is soundly asleep in her stroller, where she stays while I start picking up around the house.
Now, I know not every day in parenting will be like this one, but I'll stop and be thankful for the days that are. Heidi is in her crib playing and listening to lullabies while I have a moment to myself on the computer.
Life is good. God is good.

Forge, Football, Family & Ike

The big news of the week has been the arrival of the Forge class of 2009!  This year we have 10 guys and 6 girls in the program.  They moved in last weekend and are off to a great start.  Darcie and I love getting to know the new students each year and look forward to getting to know them in the coming weeks and months. 

The first weekend in the month of September also means the beginning of football season - which also marks the beginning of the fantasy football season as well!  :)  I made sure to introduce Heidi to the insanity so that she'll be able to talk sports with her daddy when she grows up.  Incidentally, my fantasy football team did horribly this past week - no thanks to the game that Heidi and I were watching here.  Thanks a lot Steven Jackson.  

The weather around here has been nice the past few days, so we decided to take the whole family for a walk.  We ventured out up our little county road and as we were walking with the sun behind us, I thought it made for a cool picture of our family:  Darcie, Me, Heidi and Cinco.  Awww.  

And, finally, our weekend wouldn't be complete without the impending doom of yet another hurricane.  Gustav was a total no show for us - threatening with 15" of rain and we barely got a sprinkle.  Ike seems to be much more unavoidable for the Tyler area, so we'll see how it goes.  We're supposed to get the worst of it Saturday afternoon.

That's all for now! 

One month old!

We finally got around to taking some official photos. Our friend Carrie graciously donated her camera skills and an hour or two to be the baby paparazzi for Heidi.

We're biased, but she's the cutest!

Labor Dabor

Well, here's to another Labor Dabor. It's been a nice, enjoyable calm weekend before the storm - quite literally in more than just one way. The remnants of Gustav are fast approaching the Tyler area and our weather forcasters are freaking out about 6-15" of rain that could fall in the next few days. I'm skeptical, but we'll see. The other storm fast approaching is my next class of Forge students. They will be here on Saturday. All 16 of them! Hard to believe this will be our fourth class of students and we already have 40 alumni. We're excited though - it will be a great year.

This weekend was also my dad's birthday weekend. So, instead of them coming out to see us, we decided to give Heidi her first try at a road trip. She did pretty good! We made it out to Plano and enjoyed celebrating my Dad's last year as a pentagenarian - complete with Nintendo Wii. This was my first chance to ever box my dad (I won by the way). Too bad it wasn't Festivus. :) It was great to get out of the house and see the family one more time before things get busy again. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Wednesday was Heidi's 4-week birthday! She's a month old already. We call her "Chubs" now because her cheeks are exploding off her face! Seriously, she's all cheek. She's doing great, though. Darice has done a great job of getting her on a schedule and is figuring out her new life at home with her girl. Daddy tries to get her out of the house as much as he can. That's really the substance of our lives right now. It's not much, but we love it and give thanks for all of the gifts that God has given us.