Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Texas! We hope that you have a blessed time celebrating the birth of our savior!

Like everyone else, 2011 will close with many memories; many were happy, some were sad, many were life changing, and all were filtered through the loving hands of our faithful God. Steve's dad died in January - we are thankful to know that he is home with Jesus, a great summer trip to visit family and friends up north, The Bema drama at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, lots and lots of hot summer days spent at the pool and far too many others to list.

It's been quite a while since we posted an update, so here are some pictures to catch you up.

Our crew getting a picture for the annual Christmas card.

Norah enjoying her preschool Christmas party!
Sam dunking the basketball for the first time! Daddy is very proud and excited!


Emma turns 9! She continues to love bats on her cake. Also, she blessed some other children by asking for donations for them rather than gifts for herself!

Greg came for a visit in November all the way from Virginia. He and Steve got to enjoy a Cowboys game, but the entertainment at our house was likely better (check out Norah & Sam in this pic!)

This picture is a whole lot calmer.

Sam - 16 months (proud little Illini fan - basketball that is!) He is weighing in at a solid 33 lbs! He has almost caught Norah @ 35 lbs.

Celebrated our 16th Anniversary in November. We encourage everyone to make time together a priority. I was able to pull off a surprise overnight get away for us. Love our sitter, Miss Lauren!

Halloween 2011 - Our lil pumpkin!

Halloween at our house - a cow, a pumpkin and a princess.

Seriously!

It can not be almost 2 months since I last updated. What happened to my grand plans of getting caught up once we were all back into our fall routine?! Well, I may have had greater expectations than what my reality currently is. So, instead of getting stuck in disappointment (the space between reality and expectations!). I'm just going to try to catch up on posting a few pictures of what's been going on here.

Norah gets her game face on for preschool! Oh and this face can stop Sam from crying everytime!

Sam's reaction to Norah going to preschool! Quick cross your eyes Norah!

Sam & Steve - hotel @ Tanglewood after 2nd attempt to visit the Kent's in Arkansas failed due to sick kiddos AGAIN! Seriously!!!

mid - September: Grandma Bromm, Sam & Emma - loved our visit with my mom!

Grandma & Norah

Norah turns 5! There won't be much peace & quiet at our house for a bit. Norah got a drum set for her birthday. What were we thinking?!!

Sam takes first steps! okay not in this picture, but he did this past weekend!

So there you have it, a little catching up from our camp.

Summer break over, school starts

Summer break is officially over, but the Texas weather did not get the memo. We are still "enjoying" 100+ temperatures most days.

How did we do with our summer philosophies?! Glad you asked! We can report that we did great at behaving like our home was a beach house! We now have much work to do so Sam can crawl around without being the baby version of the swiffer sweeper! We have learned more about the fruit of the Spirit and the blessings that come from trying to bless others with our efforts and actions. Going to keep on pursing this one! The beach house philosophy has to go soon though - if we could just get some cooler temps to help us with that would be great!

Emma's first day of 3rd grade

Sam "stuffed" into his swim gear!
Norah - our newest little fish - can now swim the length of the pool by herself.

We are excited to see what the new school year holds for the girls. Emma loves her teacher and is excited. Norah is beginning to get excited, but also remembers how 'boring' nap/rest time was! Sam is going to be in shock and withdrawl without his 2 biggest entertainers for 3 days a week!

1st Birthday, Picture day, Haircut day, & Bat night

Our little man is 1! Okay, so he's not so little, but he is 1! We find out on Friday just how "healthy!" he is. Socially correct way to say he is BIG!

Finally took the kiddos in for some updated pictures. Here are just a couple to catch you up.

Emma gets a BIG haircut! Once again she donated her hair to help others. 8 inches this time for the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. The wigs are donated to cancer patients.

BEFORE:
AFTER: Emma quote " I plan to donate at least 2 more times before age 2o."

We took a quick trip to Austin this past weekend to see the BATS! Emma learned about bats in 1st grade @ Grove with Mrs. Carlock's class. She has been crazy about them ever since. Soooo naturally Norah has picked up on this interest too. Since we are only 3 1/2 hours from a city that has about 1.5 million bats under a bridge, we had to go! The girls loved it! Sam wasn't too sure what all the fuss was about!

So we are 19 days away from school starting. Still too quick for this mom! We continue to live as though our home is a beach house. Based on the debris on Sam's hands and knees after crawling around, I'd say we are doing a pretty good job of it! I just hope I haven't let the pendulum swing so far in the non cleaning direction that we can never recover. Ah well, we will find out when school starts.

Enjoy the rest of summer yall!

Summer fun

We did it! 16 days, 42 hours in the van, 4 states (6 if you count the ones we drove through), 7 houses, 3 sick kids and more tylenol and motrin than we can count. That doesn't quite sum up our trip to visit family and friends in the Midwest from June 18th through July 4th.

Add in lots of fun, laughter, great visiting with friends, fabulous to worship at Eastview again, fun on the farm, collecting chicken eggs, playing with rabbits, feeding fish at Grandma/pa's house, cousins to play with, friends to run wild in the old neighborhood with and don't forget a couple of mornings waking up way too early to drive and getting to eat snacks in the van at 4AM! That gets us a bit closer.

Just a couple of pictures from our travel and visits. May get some more added later, and then again may not!

The Wadhams men!

No you can climb it first!
Norah & Keaton
Emma, Christian & Norah

Now we are back and enjoying the rest of summer. Emma did a science camp and swim lessons, we enjoyed a visit with our old neighbors, Stacia and Christian, from Bloomington. And now it is a lot of hot, hot, hot. Yesterday was the 19th day in a row of triple digit temperatures. There is a chance of cooler weather today..... 99! Thanksfully the neighborhood pools are keeping us cool when outside.

Speaking of pools, I think I am doing pretty well at sticking with the beach house mentality (okay, most of the time!). We definitely have a lot of wet towels and swimsuits laying around, cleaning is only done when absolutely necessary and we are having lots of fun. We are continuing to focus on the fruit of the Spirit. Some days that comes easier than others, but I love to see how the girls are getting it.

In fact, recently while at the store with Steve, Norah witnessed a little one having a tantrum in the toy aisle. She promptly turned to Steve and said "He needs to get some self-control!". Too funny!!

Enjoy the rest of summer, it is going fast! Too fast for this mom!

Fruit of the Spirit and Beach home - hmmmm?

So I have a new philosophy for our home this summer. Well 2 actually!

1) We are focusing our attention on the fruit of the Spirit (Galations 5:22) - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. We are finding fun ways to practice and show these virtues to each other. Will try to blog about some of our learnings along the way. Likely it will be me who learns the most. I love how God teaches me daily through my munchkins!! I'm sure they will pick up a thing or two as well.

2) We are going to act as if our house is a beach home. When at the beach we relax more, play together more, rest more, clean less, focus on tasks less. We don't get bothered by clutter or sand on the floor or wet towels all over. Soooo, we will see how a confirmed OCD mommy does with this one!! More on that I'm sure.

OKAY - on to some pictures!!

Sam @ 10 months. He is getting around quite nicely by rolling or scooting on his bottom. He has experimented with getting on his hands and knees, but no real progress towards crawling. Although I am sure that is not far off!

Norah in her new dress from Grandma Verla!

Emma & Steve @ Galveston beach over Memorial Day weekend. Our first family trip to start exploring Texas!

Norah's last day of preschool with one of her favorite friends - Annie!

May update

Hello from Texas - all is well, just never seem to get time to be on the computer for updates. So here are some pics to get you caught up.

Sam is now 9 months old - still off the charts for weight (28lbs 5 oz), he is proportional though....30 1/2 inches long (90%). So our little man continues to be not so little! He is teething, but not crawling. Mostly content and happy, but the teeth are certainly impacting him this week.

Norah is ready for the end of school, she frequently says it is boring (secretly she is having a blast!) just doesn't like rest time!! This is a picture before her recent hair cut, at least 4 inches cut off. She wouldn't stand still for an after shot - we will work on that!

In early April, Aunt Ann and Madeline came from North Carolina for a visit. We had a great time playing and catching up.

The Wadhams gals at the Dallas Arboretum.

Pictures of the kiddos in the Blue Bonnets (Texas state flower). Apparently it is a big tradition to get pictures in the blue bonnets.....so when in Texas do as the Texans do!

Milestone - one year in Texas

Yes we have been in Texas one year already. It certainly has been a year full of change for our family. In fact, Emma just pointed out one to me the other day. She said "Mom, are you going to keep saying 'yall'?" I laughed and said yes! It is much more efficient than typing or saying 'you all'. And with 3 munchkins to keep up with, any efficiency is a plus!

Amazing that March is over tomorrow. Sam will be 8 months old on April 4th. Same day that Grandma Bromm will be celebrating her 70th birthday day!

Spring break was low key. We did get to the Ft. Worth zoo, on what was most likely the busiest day of the year. Fortunately, we got there early and it was beautiful weather. Also, Steve bought fishing poles for the girls and took them fishing. First time for Norah! Norah caught 4 fish and Emma 8. Emma mastered the skill of putting the worm on the hook and taking the fish off with her bare hands. Pretty fun stuff!

Steve's sister, Deb, came for a visit in early March. What a fun visit for all of us. The girls had an absolute blast with Aunt Deb.

Emma started orthodontic work in early March. She has an expander and is a trooper, even when needing the expander reset after it came loose last weekend. Already we can see how it is making room for her teeth to come in.

Sam @ almost 8 months.

Cool little man!

Emma and Norah @ Ft. Worth zoo over spring break.

Emma, Norah and Aunt Deb.

April is likely to go by as quickly as March did. We are looking forward to hosting our lifegroup at our house this Saturday. We continue to be so blessed by the teaching and people of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship.

Planning to have our very first (and possibly last!!) garage sale. I have always said I would not do a garage sale, but will do it this time as a fundraiser for the kids @ Dada's house in Haiti!

Sam is being dedicated @ Bent Tree. What a great time for our family to celebrate God bringing him into our family and our commitment to teach him about Jesus.

In the middle of April, we will have family here - Ann and Madeline are coming. We are so excited about that visit!

And then it is Easter, so thankful to remember and celebrate the new life we have because of the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Praise God this amazing free gift is available to every person in every nation.

Unexpected start to 2011

Well the year certainly started off differently than we could have imagined. Steve's Dad - LaVerne Wadhams went home to be with Jesus on January 25th. He will be missed and we are so thankful to know that his faith in Jesus assures us of his place in heaven.

Our trip up north was a mix of sadness and joy. Joy to celebrate his life, see family and friends we had not seen in a long time and to be surrounded by so many caring people.

Winter came to Texas cold, icy and snowy at the beginning of February. Emma had 5 snow days in 2 weeks. A couple of days off is fun, but it was time for the kiddos to get back to school.

The extreme cold caused frozen pipes for several that we know, fortunately our broken pipe is in the sprinkler system outside....not in the house. Just found that today, it seemed strange that our back yard continued to be a wet marsh after several days of better warmer TX weather! Bet the girls will have fun helping us dig that up and fix it!

Emma enjoying her snow days!

Norah always ready for the action.

Sam turned 6 months. He continues to be our content little man. Weighing in at a solid 25 lbs. Yes - he is giving us a workout everytime we pick him up. He is currently recovering from his 1st ear infection and another round of breathing treatments. Getting close to his first tooth popping through.
So already there has been much change in our lives in 2011. We have no idea what tomorrow holds, but we know who is in charge of it and it's not us. God continues to bring joy with each day, regardless of the circumstances or challenges that come our way.

2011!

We can't wait to see what God does in 2011! He certainly brought many new experiences and lots of change in 2010. We have grown closer as a family and certainly closer to God through all of it! Here are a few pictures to catch ya up with the kiddos!

The picture that didn't make the cut for the Christmas card!

Emma @ 8 and showing her love for big words - challenge speller @ school!

Sam and Norah (all ready to watch Illini games with daddy!)

12/21 - 1st day of winter in TX - 80 degrees! (Illinois friends - Emma & Norah were remembering the fun we had in the leaves the last few years!)

Future baker? Norah helping with sugar cookies.