Our Crazy Summer Plans!

Boy oh boy am I behind on blogging!  And with the crazy adventures ahead for our little family (more on that in a minute), I have no idea when I'm going to catch up!  I had planned to post photos of our Houston trip back in March, my sister Jenny's week here (with her two boys) to visit, Easter, and Will's 2-month birthday... but now Will's 3rd and 4th month birthdays have passed, and John just turned TWO!  Not sure when or if I'll get around to posting all of that, but I do want to post lots of photos of our sweet boys over the past 2 months, to share with you the JOY these boys bring to us, and to at least archive them for our little family if nothing else.  :)

As for our upcoming adventures, we have some BIG changes we are facing over the next 2 months!  As many of you know, Andy was accepted to the Army JAG upon graduating from Law School last May, but in November his appointment was cancelled (mostly due to federal budget cuts... so they quit offering medical waivers no matter the merit).  He began working here in Lubbock with a former classmate at a small firm as a general practitioner at the first of this year.  After 4 months, we decided it was time to make a change -- we wanted to get closer to family in Houston, and Andy needed to find an area of law that he was better fit for.  So as I transitioned back to work after my maternity leave, Andy transitioned out of work in order to watch the boys and job hunt full-time.  A big thank you goes out to both of our moms, who each spent 2 weeks up here helping to watch the boys (John's caretaker retired while I was on maternity leave) -- we couldn't have done it without you, Gramma and Pinkie!  Thank you so much!

 

Andy had a few leads in the Houston area, but the job market -- especially the legal market -- is just an ugly place these days, as many of you know.  After getting our hopes up and making plans to move to Houston, we discovered that God had different plans for our little family!  We instead will be moving to San Antonio!  In fact, Andy moved down there last weekend.

Andy has accepted a position with an oil and gas law firm, Foster and Harvey, and started back on June 4th!  He moved down to an apartment last weekend, and the boys and I will stay here through July.  For right now, our plans are for me to keep working here until July 11th, then spend 2 weeks packing up our home.  Then Andy will come home and our whole family will be moving down to San Antonio the last weekend in July!  Whew!  And with weddings and baptisms this summer, we'll be meeting up with Andy in 3 different Texas cities over the 8 weeks we're apart... To say it'll be a whirlwind is an understatement!  :)  But we feel confident that this is where God is leading us - at leat for now - and we're excited to open this new chapter.  Though closing this chapter here in Lubbock will surely be sad.

We've been in Lubbock for 9 years now, moving here when we started college at Texas Tech back in the fall of 2003.  We met, dated, graduated from undergrad, married, graduated from grad school, and started our little family while here in Lubbock!!  We have SO many great memories here!  It is a wonderful town, and we will surely miss our dear friends and family here more than anything!!  And my work family at PT Today will be greatly missed -- hard to believe I've been there 3 years!  Oh, and our parish at St. Elizabeth's...  Ahhhh... this Mama is going to have an emotional few months I imagine. ;)

 

Ok, well now that you've read my NOVEL.... (though any of you who know me know I'm incapable of being brief!), now on to more (and WAY too many!) photos! :)  Take care and God bless!

Our Cradle Catholic!

Scrub a dub dub...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...Two boys in the tub!

Whoa!  Look what I can do!

Shopping for new Tech hats for the boys before we move away.

Fun in the pool in the backyard!

All three of our boys!

These boys bring us so much JOY!

The loves of my life!

Sorry for the picture overload... I haven't posted since March - and with our summer plans, I'm not sure how often I'll realistically get a chance to sit down and blog.  So here's to new adventures!  :)  Take care and God bless!

Love,
Abby, Andy, John, Will, and Wayne-Dog :)

Favorite Photo Friday - Snapshot #44

We have had a very busy but very good last few weeks. I'm of course behind on blogging, but I'll make a couple separate posts about our trip to Houston and our week with Jenny (my sister) and her boys visiting us here in Lubbock. In the meantime, I want to catch up on some (ok, a TON!) of my favorite photos over the last 3 weeks!

Our sweet William is already 2 months old! (That post also to come) :) I love snuggling this little guy:

Will's swing was still just a little fast on its slowest setting, and I realized it's simply because he didn't weigh very much! One afternoon I placed the wooden black truck (that my Dad made - very cool!) at his feet to weigh it down a little more. Bad idea. I later came back to find ALL THREE wooden vehicles on top of Will, thanks to John! Ha! Looks like Mama didn't think that one through very well:

Busted!! John still loves to take all of Dada's books off one of the bookshelves in the guestroom. Even though he gets in trouble and has to put them all back, he still continues to do it... on a regular basis...

Sweetheart!

Bathtime with his buddies!

Two Brothers! This one sure makes me smile!

Do you suppose our poor Wayne-Dog needs a hug??!

Super cheese! John just LOVES books right now and has for quite some time. His Great-Grandma Hefferly sent several books to us that were his Great-Aunt Kathy's, who passed away last year. They have a lot of sentimental value to Andy, as he remembers his Aunt Kathy always having and enjoying these Disney books. So this photo really melts our hearts! What a joy!

Last weekend after church, we went out to lunch with our good friends, the Johnsons, at a brand new BBQ joint across from Texas Tech campus called Arrogant Texan BBQ. It's connected to The Arrogant Texan -- an ice cream shop and old-fashioned candy store. The authentic Texas decor creates such a wonderful ambiance, not to mention the food was fantastic!! We'll definitely be returning there soon! Oh, and their sign reads "They call it a mascot, we call it BBQ" -- gotta love any place that slams UT! ;) Anyways, as you can imagine, there were a TON of Texas stars... and of course our little man -- who is enamored with stars (or "Dars" as he calls them) -- was in hog-heaven! Here he is pointing to yet another star and exclaiming, "DAR!"

Dada and John at The Arrogant Texan...

...and Mama and Will:

While down by campus, we also tried for a small photo shoot with the beautiful tulips. Tulip season is my favorite time of year at Texas Tech!




John pointing out Will's paci before bedtime:

Snuggling with Dada:

Then I squeezed in for a family photo -- all we needed was Wayne-Dog:

Hamming it up in the backyard... this kid LOVES the outdoors!

Trying to capture Will's sweet smile on camera...

And yesterday, on my final day of maternity leave (I start back at work on Monday), I took the boys up to have lunch with Dada at work one last time. It's been such a treat to do that each week over the past several weeks -- we'll sure miss this short-lived tradition!

My boys!!

Y'all take care and God bless! Have a wonderful weekend!

Love,
Abby :)

Favorite Photo Friday - Snapshot #43

Happy Friday! I can't believe it's already Friday again... my maternity leave is flying by! Luckily, though, I will be able to take an additional 2 weeks off (since Will was in the NICU for 3 weeks... plus this way he'll be a little bigger before I go back to work and he eventually starts at daycare). So that means I now have 3 weeks left to be home with my boys! What a blessing this time has been! :)

We've started a tradition of going up to visit Dada at work on Mondays -- after taking Will for his weekly weigh-in at the hospital, we pick up some food and join Dada for lunch in his office! John loves it (as does Dada!)
My sleeping beauties:

(This sleeping beauty must be in Heaven... he's got his blanket, his football [red & black stuffed Texas Tech football under his arm], and not just one but TWO pacis!!!) ;)

Dora (Dora the Explorer on his yogurt container, whom John apparently has a crush on) ;) STILL gets him every time! Hey John, where's Dora??

THERE she is!!!
Hi, Sweetheart!

John finger painting... He still hasn't quite figured it out... Doesn't look too excited about it right now, does he?

Little Brother in Big Brother's bed... he looks so tiny!!

"Hey! What's this guy doin' in here?!?" (Hahaha, John was actually saying "DAAAAR!" as he pointed out the stars on Will's blanket, but his expression cracks me up!)

Look how strong I'm getting!!

Well that about sums up our week. Have a great weekend! Take care and God bless!

Love,
Abby, Andy, John, Will, and Wayne-Dog