Family Time!

We've had a lot of great time with family recently. Jonathan's parents - Mike & Dixie - and brother - Philip - came into town for a few days. We had such a great time visiting with them. The guys had a good time not only playing golf and tearing out our back door. Luckily, it was done in order to fix some problems which took many hours of hard work from Graydaddy! Thanks - we appreciate the hard work!!! Dixie and I had fun visiting Old Town Spring. We browsed through antique shops and lots of interesting home decor shops. We're so glad they made the trip to visit!

Mother's Day

It was my first Mother's Day...officially. Last year, I was 8 months pregnant and claimed the "mother" status, but this year, I woke up so proud that I am now a Mom of the best little guy - Brayden. Jonathan was so great all day and treated me like a queen! It was so wonderful! I received my first official piece of artwork made by Brayden - his handprints - which I couldn't believe were as big as they were! He is growing up so fast. He turned 10 months on the 11th. Time is FLYING!

It is so wonderful being a mother - exhausting at times, sure - but it is something that is beyond description and greater than I could have imagined. Being a mom makes me even more thankful for my Mom. I never knew how many hours were put into laundry or how much love was put into each book read or how much prayer was spoken on my behalf - but now that I am a Mom, I feel and understand a new kind of love that I never grasped. It is a love that I am sure I am only grasping at the strings of how great it truly is. It is a Love that is given to me by my Heavenly Parent - God my Father. It is one that I pray that I can model and give to Brayden so that he will know the Love of the Father that was also given for him.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

1 John 3:1

Trip to the Zoo

Today was a beautiful day, Jonathan's day off, and we are all finally better from the stomach bug that hit our family last week...so we packed up and headed down for a fun day at the Houston Zoo. We had so much fun showing Brayden all the animals of the zoo. He was moderately interested in the ones that were awake and moving. The others we would point at, and he wouldn't quite connect that the furry ball in the corner was a way-cool grizzly bear that was super-exciting to see. Ha! We had such a great time together as a family and made some great memories.

Our little turtle

A pic with the bears

My giraffes! (haha)

Checking out the animals

Taking a break on the playground

Petting the goat at the petting zoo

(He kept grabbing the goat's hair,

so we had to make it a quick visit in the petting zoo.)

JONATHAN THE GREAT! My stud.

The lions...taking a cat nap

Chillin' on the froggie