We are here, so now what??

Well, we(Kimberly and I) arrived in Austin, TX at 7:30pm a week ago yesterday. It took us about 14 and 1/2 hours to get here with two babies. But honestly, Parker was so good. It was not a bad trip at all. Derek and Wade arrived on Tuesday and started unloading. So far, Austin has been nice. The weather is VERY nice here. Breezy and warm(it was a record high yesterday, 92!!). You can see the view of the lake when you drive into our townhouses and everytime I go to my sister's house. I am almost done with everything. I have a few more things to decorate...then I will be done. We do not have cable yet...so I have started playing nintendo. Yup! That's right...I said nintendo. We got internet today and we will be getting cable on Thursday. PTL!
On another a note...the moving business has not officially opened yet BUT they have already had a couple hundred hits on their website and had some people contact them about moving them. Their trucks are so cute! I will post a picture of the trucks soon. Okydoky, that is a lot of posting for today. Continue praying for us, SquareCow Moovers, and Free Chapel. We need it!!!

Our new house

God is so great!! As soon as we found out about having someone to rent our townhouse in B'ham Derek and I started looking like mad people for a place to live in Austin. We decided that it would be best for us to rent for at least 6 months to 1 year. I don't know how it happened but I just stumbled upon these townhouses for rent in Steiner Ranch(a community). They are sooo nice. Our's is a little smaller than we would have liked but it is truely perfect. And although it is only two bedrooms the rent is under how much we wanted to spend, which is a blessing! The cool thing about these townhouses is they are really nice on the inside, but they also have tons of perks. The main clubhouse area is actually a spa. So, I get 20% off the spa. Plus, it has a huge workout area, free tanning, inside pool and outside pool with a gorgeous view. It is also gated and we live within walking distance to the club house. What is crazy is when Derek and Wade went to sign the lease the lady told him that we shouldn't have gotten our townhouses for so cheap and that the rent had gone up by $200 since we had booked ours. That all happened within a week!! So, once again! God is so great! I will post pictures of the inside of my house later. It is not in good shape to post now. :)

 

This is the view from our upstairs back window.

 

This is the view from our bedroom window.

 

Here is our house. Isn't it cute??

 

Here is our whole section of houses.

 

This is the street. You can barely see Kimberly and Wade's house at the end. It is on the left.

Tyler turns 7!! Happy Birthday Ty Man!

Tyler turned 7 last week(Feb. 22nd). His birthday party was Saturday night. This is the first birthday of Ty's that we were all there. His birthday is at such a difficult time for us all to be togther because we were all just together for Christmas, but not anymore!! Forget inviting friends to our kids birthday parties. They have enough people coming with all their cousins! Ha ha! My parents were also in town this week, so it was nice having my dad's help moving and my mom's help decorating! They have already left...and I am still sad about it.

 

I LOVE LOVE this picture!! You can see Parker's teeth...Oh my...I am getting this one framed! :)

 

Here is Parker with his cousin's, all of Ashley's boys.

 

Mama Don and Parker. She loves her grandsons.

 

Gray Gray

 

Tyler and his peace sign. ha ha! He looks so much like a teenager and he is only 7!!

 

Me(Aunt Lindsey) and Ty. Ashley said I could totally pass for Tyler's mom. That is a compliment because Ty is a cutie!

 

All the boys. Whew! It takes a lot of patience and energy to get these boys to sit still for a picture.

 

Parker Poo loving Tyler's starwar cupcakes. Yum! Yum!

Our good friends, The Robinson's

Our very good friends, Eric and Jenny Robinson, threw us a going away party in Birmingham before we left. They were so sweet to do that and we appreciated it so much. Most of our good friends were there to say goodbye. Anyways, I am excited because Jenny and her son, Nolan( a few months younger than Parker) are going to be flying out here to see us in April!! Yah! Here are some pics of us at the party. I don't care for what I look like in these pictures but oh well...wanted to show all of you our sweet friends.

 

 

Question??

Sorry for the posts lately and no photos. We have been pretty busy with the move. But sad to say this is another post with no pictures. :( I looked back at some pictures but I don't have anything new right now. But I will definitely be posting pictures after we move.
So, yesterday was Valentines day. It was a good day. Derek is so sweet. He surprised me with my favorite milkshake from Brusters last night. But we are going on a date tonight. It was Derek's last day of work here and my last choir practice. Although there was not many people at practice because of v-day it was still sad to me. I really, really enjoy being on the worship team at Highlands. I love our director, Brad Parsley, and all the wonderful people who are in choir with me. It is funny because my family was like "why are you going to choir practice if you are not singing on Sunday??". Well, choir is not just "singing on Sunday" to me. It truly is a small group for me. Highlands is so good about making something that could be "just practice" into something deeper and more meaningful. Brad does a great job on doing that but I believe he learns from Pastor Chris how to do that.
I am getting sad about leaving. I have gone through a mix of emotions. Excited, sad, frustrated, happy, thankful, sad. I know I have talked alot about this lately but it is such a BIG MOVE for us. We are moving 13 hours away from my home to somewhere that I don't know anyone except for family. What we are doing is all so new to us: planting a church, starting a new business, moving away from the true south. My question to you all is, have any of you gone through a big move like this before?? And how did you handle it? Maybe you could give me some advice.
Moving on Monday...I will post pictures next week as long as everything is set up for me.

Goodbye to Alabama...Sweet Home Alabama...

Hello All!

Well, we are heading to Austin, TX a week from Monday. Crazy huh?? We are so happy! God has been SO good to us! The last couple of days has been a whirlwind for us. We have had lots of people look at our house. Our real estate Agent, Jana Calloway(Keller Williams) did a wonderful job! If any of you need a good real estate agent...she is GREAT! We did not list with her until two weeks before Christmas. So, our house has been on the market for about a month and a half and it has been shown about 15 times. Anyways, to make a long story short we decided to rent out townhome. I truly believe it was a God thing. I feel bad for all the hard work that Jana has put into selling our house, but this family has committed to a year lease and the rent will more than cover our mortgage payment. But we also had an offer that we denied. So, within two days someone looked at our house twice made an offer, AND someone looked at our house to rent it and committed to renting it for a year. BIG decision but God made it visible to us.
So, on Monday Feb. 18th, we will be moving to Austin, TX with my brother and his family. I am so excited yet so sad for all the family(mom and dad), friends, and memories we are leaving here. BUT there are a few thoughts that comfort me. One, I am positive that my parents will move eventually. Two, although I am leaving some GREAT friends I will make some great friends in Texas. Three, I will finally be living next to my sister, brothernlaw, and nephews. And last but not least, God is going to use Free Chapel to change the city of Austin.
This is a bittersweet "goodbye" to what we are leaving behind, but we will be back. Don't forget, we do still own our townhouse here. Ha ha! :)

"Hey"

Here is a video of Parker waving. It is so cute. I had to hold his arm up because sometimes if his hand is occupied he won't wave unless you hold his arm up. He waves ALL the time(in his carseat, while we are changing his diaper, when he is eating). He thinks he is big stuff. He has also started "coughing". He just started doing this a couple of days ago. If I cough, he will copy me. Ha ha! He is so fun! Anyways, sorry the video is dark. It is because we don't have the cord to go from our video camara to our computer. So, any video footage I put on the computer is done by my digital camara. OH, he has on his first pair of shoes in this video too. You can't really see them but I bought him two pairs of crocks yesterday. They are too big for him because I bought the shoes for during the Spring. Enjoy the video.

"Bye Bye", "Mama", and "DaDa"

My son has started doing tricks!! His FIRST trick is waving bye bye or hello. He officially started waving yesterday. It is the cutest thing ever!! He has been waving his hand for the last few days. BUT yesterday he actually started waving back to us when we would wave to him. Even last night we went to dinner and he waved to the lady in the booth next to us. He is so proud of himself and we are too!!
Parker has also started saying "Mama" and "Dada". He has been saying those words for a while now BUT he has just started connecting the words with what they mean. Mostly he says "Mamamamamama" when he is fussing and wants me. He will crawl all over the house saying "Mamamamamamama" until he finds me. And he says "Dadadadada" ALL the time. Whether Derek is there or not. All day!! But he knows who his "Dada" is. Hopefully I can put some video footage of him waving on here. Everytime I try to do a video it messes up and then I quit trying. So we will see.
Parker is also pulling up on things. He has let go one time that I saw him and stood by himself. He also pulls up on furniture and then goes from one place to another while standing. He has officially started getting into things he shouldn't and throwing his sippy cup onto the floor during meals/snacks. We have had to put some disciplining into action(a different tone of voice saying "no no", etc.). But although I am having to stay on him about not pulling on cords plugged in, playing in the trash can, and throwing his sippy cup I am still having the time of my life! Derek and I think that Parker is the best thing that ever happened to us. We love him more than anyone could imagine. God is so good to us for blessing us with him and trusting us to take care of him. We thank Him every night for this gift. That's all for now. He doesn't have another doctor's appointment until he turns 1!! I can't believe he will be one in three months!! CRAZY!

I couldn't resist! Ha!

Ok, so my mom just bought a wig recently. She actually just got her head shaved yesterday and my aunt cut and styled her wig. It looks so good on her! If I didn't know what she had been through I wouldn't think anything about seeing her in public. It DOES NOT look like a wig. Anyways, right when she got the wig I decided to try it out on Parker. Ha ha! He literally looked like a girl baby doll from behind. I know that one day he will not like that I did this. But I couldn't resist posting these pictures. He is WAY cuter as a boy then a girl! Ha ha! That is a good thing. My mom and I got a kick out it. :)