Deep in the Heart of Texas

Monday, May 28, 2012

Kindergarten Graduate!

What can I say about this year? It has been hard, challenging, rewarding, exhausting, and sweet. Veritas has gone through some growing pains during this year that has overflowed into our experience as well. For starters, they fired Alivia's initial (and beloved) kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Foulkrod very suddenly two days before Matthew was born. We have never really been given a reason except for "professional differences." Her new teacher, Mrs. Gaither. . . . sigh. . . let's just say she was not the most charismatic woman in the world, but thankfully Alivia seemed to like her.

In the end, God has been faithfully showing me several things about this year:
1) It is not about me and never will be
2) I am to rely on HIM for all things - even my child's education
3) Just because something is hard, does not mean it is not the right thing to do

Matt and I have been on our knees in prayer about next year and have decided to forge ahead and return to Veritas. But for now, let's celebrate our kindergarten GRADUATE!

Alivia's new teacher, Mrs. Gaither gave each child a stone with an admirable quality about them. Alivia's was PERSEVERANCE. And boy, has she shown that this year. She works SO hard and wants to do it perfectly every time.

I have loved getting to know my little girl through our sweet time together this year. I am so proud of you Alivia!

There were 10 kids in her class - 6 boys and 4 girls

Receiving her "perseverance" stone from Mrs. Gaither

The kids spelled out kindergarten with cute things about the year

Last day of school with Mrs. Gaither

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Mother's Day 2012

We spent most of the weekend out at the lake for Mother's Day with the rest of the Austin Taylor Clan. It was wonderful to finally be out there and made us all look forward to many fun weekends out there this summer.

Matt gave me a sweet card and some candy. And all the kids had made something precious at school that they were beyond excited to show me. Another wonderful gift was getting to sleep in until 10:45 am. Yes, you read that right! When I realized what time it was I jumped out of bed and ran outside expecting to see my family in complete disarray, the kids wandering around naked and having gone without food for hours. HA! But Matt had it all under control (like he always does). Thank you Matt for taking such good care of me.

3 1/2 months old

John's 2 year stats

Height: 34.5 inches (50%)

Weight: 29 lbs (60%)

We saw Dr. Dawson a few weeks ago for John's 2 year well child check. Everything looked great. He got a few shots without too many tears. My only concern about John is his propensity to get laryngeal croup with every sniffle and URI that comes around. Dr. Dawson agreed to let me use nebulized steroids with albuterol when he begins to have that barky cough and continuing for a few days/weeks after the cough resolves. We will resort to oral steroids as a last resort.

Alivia's Dance Recital

Her actual recital day was while Matt and I were in Santa Fe for the wedding. So, we went to the dress rehearsal instead and treated as though it were the real thing. It actually was pretty fun to go to the rehearsal because we got to see both Avery and Alivia in their finest, and they practiced the dance to music a few times so we got to see them on stage for a longer period of time. Alivia looked precious and has seemed to really like dance. We plan to continue again next year at Dancer's Workshop.

Avery and Alivia

The dance was a tap number

Precious cousins!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Wedding in Santa Fe

WOW! What a great weekend we had in Santa Fe. Baby Matthew (13 weeks old), Matt and I all left on Thursday morning. We picked up Mama T in DFW and arrived in Albequerque without a hitch. We rented a mini van and drove to our rental house in Santa Fe. There we met Aunt Martha, Uncle Jimmy and Peyton Jones. We actually stayed in a little Casita next to the big rental house with Mimi and Grandpa.

The first night was the Rehearsal Dinner at La Fonda Hotel, the following day was the Bridesmaid's Luncheon at Luminaria Restaurant at the Inn at Loretto. Friday night was a cocktail party at Rio Chama with dinner with the immediate family at the downstairs portion of the restaurant. We awoke on Saturday and explored Santa Fe a little bit with my folks and had a great lunch at SantaCafe. After lunch, we all took short naps and before we knew it Reverend Risinger had to get to the Gerald Peters Gallery to prepare for the wedding.

Matt did an incredible job with the ceremony. It went without a hitch and people raved about it. I was SO proud. A few people even asked where he was a minister so they could come check out his church. HA! The Holy Spirit was definitely present in that place. One of my favorite parts of the ceremony was the differences between a contract and a covenant. . . marriage is a covenant.

The next day we went to Uncle James and Aunt Jerry's beautiful house in Santa Fe and said farewell to the extended Taylor family and headed back to Austin.