We Made It

Well, we are now in the Netherlands! The flight went great and we got to our temporary housing and have unpacked our luggage. It has been a very long day, but I think we will be able to get the kids adjusted to the new time zone fairly quickly. We are 7 hours ahead of Houston time. It is almost midnight so I am going to get a shower and head to bed. Check back tomorrow for a more in depth update. Thanks for all the prayers you sent our way!


Jason and Lauren on airplane, kids in the van on the way to Assen


Lauren having made herself at home, kids eating dinner

Let's Dance

Once again, presenting the theatrics of Lauren..... She received the High School Musical 3 CD for her birthday and has already choreographed dances to every song. I am really scared thinking about her as a teenager. Our hands are going to be full.

Princess Tea Party

This has been a girly weekend. Saturday we had Lauren's 5th birthday party. Her birthday is not until later this month, but with the big move coming up I wanted to have it early so she could get all the attention she deserves! This year the theme was Princess Tea Party. If you know me well, you know I like to take a theme and go overboard! I love it! The girls enjoyed dressing up, making necklaces, having a tea party, answering princess trivia questions to get to a treasure, and playing 'Pass the Poisoned Apple'. I think it all turned out great, but most importantly, Lauren said it was the best day ever and she loved everything about it. That means it was well worth all the time. She is my little princess and I love being able to make her feel like one! Thank you to all of her friends and family for being there and making her day special.

Lil' Miss Drama Queen

I took these videos a while back but just recently got them both uploaded to YouTube. This is an everyday occurrence with Lauren. She loves music, especially these two songs, and every song is a play to her. She definitely keeps me entertained. Enjoy!

Dance With Me Baby

Love Story

What a Joyful Day!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday! It began with a delicious breakfast shared with our Sunday school class, followed by a wonderful sermon at church, and concluded with spending the afternoon with our family. We are so thankful!

Where's Daddy?

Justin loves to "wake up the computer" after I have put it in sleep mode. He always gets very excited when he sees the picture on my desktop of Jason and I and says "Dada, dada, dada!"

A Day in the Country

What a beautiful day it was today! There isn't a much better way to spend it than we did. The kids and I took a trip to Brenham with Gram-E (my mom), and Aunt April (my sister) met us there. We took pictures in a field of bluebonnets just outside of town, toured the BlueBell Creamery, and had lunch together. On the way home we stopped at the outlet mall on 290 to do a little shopping. When I asked Lauren what the favorite part of her day was she said "Eating cookies and cream ice cream!" Of Course!

Family Fun, Great Weather

Last Saturday we spent the day visiting several parks in our neighborhood while our house was being shown by realtors. We just drove around finding all of the little pocket parks in each subdivision and let Lauren pick out which ones she wanted to play at. It was a beautiful day and we had some very relaxing family time together, something we don't do enough of. The Lord has blessed us in so many ways, we just need to take more time to appreciate everything and give him thanks.

I love the following pictures. The first one was taken when we were exploring the neighborhood and playing at the park with Lauren when we first signed the papers to buy and build a house in our neighborhood. The second one was taken last week. Lauren has grown and changed so much in the short 3 1/2 years that we have been here. We have such great memories of living here that we will always cherish.

Spring Break at Winter Park

There is so much going on right now with the move, but I am going to get to that at a later post. I just wanted to share some pictures from our ski trip with you. It was Lauren's first time to ski and Justin's first time to Colorado. Both of them had a great time being with family and enjoying the outdoors. We rented a house in Fraser, CO, which is near Winter Park resort. It was a great family gathering with Jason's brother Mark and his family, his cousin Teri and her family, and his uncle Joe and aunt Pam. Lauren and her cousin Kaitlyn took 4 days of ski school together and by days 3 and 4 they were skiing down the bunny slope with no help. Jason and I were so proud of Lauren, she did awesome! The weather was beautiful and Justin loved being outside. Jason unfortunately was stuck working offshore the first 2 days of the vacation so the 2 kids and I flew to Colorado without him (don't want to do that again!) and he was able to make it there on Tuesday and salvage 2 days of skiing. I think both the kids are going to like skiing which makes Jason and I very happy!

Lauren is the skier in the back.

Everything!

It has been over a month since my last post. That is awful! A lot has happened and I will do my best to cover it all. So, you should probably make sure you have a few minutes before you sit down to look at this.

Justin had his 1st birthday and birthday party. The theme was "Snips, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails". He is all boy and I thought it was very fitting. He had a great time playing with his friends and cousins. He is growing sooo fast! He is running, or at least jogging now. He says mommy, daddy, bye, and uh-oh. He says things that sound a lot like, thank you, Lauren, dog, more and eat. And he shakes his head yes and no. He definitely knows what he wants and tries to make sure we know too.

Soon after that, Jason celebrated his 32nd birthday. Unfortunately, he was out of town that day, but we had a cake for him when he came home.


My sister April treated us to a "Girl's Spa Day" and we had a wonderful time eating lunch at La Madelaine, getting pedicures and shopping. This day long affair included Aunt April, Aunt Laurel, Gram-E, Aliska, April's mother-in-law, sister-in law, niece, and Lauren and I. So much fun!

Lauren had a blast at her friends "rock star" birthday party where the girls all got glammed up in fancy dresses, and had their hair, makeup and nails done. They also sang several songs. They are too grown up!

I also celebrated my birthday at the beginning of this month. 31, and feeling older every day!


This weekend we visited some friends in College Station. We had a great time hanging out, letting the kids all play together and going to the Aggie basketball game. We also took the kids on to the Texas A&M campus to Research Park and the Century Tree and they loved it. Lauren of course wants a tree like this at home. I wish! We just bought a new camera (awesome!) so there are a ton of pictures.

Some miscellaneous pics.

Lastly, today the house is finally "on the market". If by some chance you haven't heard yet, we are moving to the Netherlands at the end of May. We have been busy going through everything and deciding what we are taking with us to the Netherlands, what we are storing, and what we are getting rid of. It has been a very involved task, but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now, I just have to keep the kids from making huge messes since we will be showing the house. Wish us luck!