What we'll be doing tonight...

Lowering Kendall's bed! This is what I saw when I heard her talking at the end of her nap this morning. I'm still surprised every time at how big she is getting!

Also, here's just a cute picture I took yesterday. Kendall was crawling all around the house and one time she crawled over to the back door just to look out the window! Such a big girl.

Playing Catch-up!

We are still so happy to have power! Now that we are back, here are just a bunch of pictures from our "hurrication." We went to Ft. Worth for part of the time, stayed with some friends here in LJ the rest of the time, and went to an A&M game in there somewhere.

Kendall started pulling up on the crib at Gigi and Peep's house. She was pretty proud of herself...

...and then she fell back laughing!

Here are some pictures from Kendall's first tailgate on the 20th. It was so hot, but she had a great time.

Greg tried to teach her how to Gig 'em.

She played so hard at the tailgate that this is what she did during the game! Granny came down to watch her while we went to the game. She was so worn out from all the traveling, it was great to let her get some good sleep!

We stayed at the Johnson's for a week along with Holly, Aaron, and Ethan. A couple of nights, Kendall and Ethan had their baths together. They were so cute and loved playing together.


Kendall got to go to school to see Granny while we were in Ft. Worth. The first graders loved her and she loved them. She thinks kids are so funny.

Gigi and Peeps came down to LJ this weekend to keep Kendall while we went to College Station for the game. They went shopping on Saturday and got her the cutest outfit. She wore it to church today and even though it is 12 months, it was a little hard to get on and off! But she was the cutest thing!

There is Power, Power, Wonder Workin' Power...

WE HAVE POWER!!!

We have our own bed!

Kendall has her own bed!

We have our own shower!

We have a/c!

We have a washer and dryer!

We have a fridge!

We have a doggie door (but no fence!?!)!

We have clothes out of the suitcase and in the closet

(10minutes after we walked in the door - Ashley is a little crazy!!)!

We have drawers!

We have our t.v. with d.v.r.!!!

We have internet!

We have a working garage door!

We have so much!

But, mostly we have great friends and family that have given us a place to stay for 15 days. And, we have so much more than our neighbors in Surfside, Quintana, Galveston and Bolivar that have lost everything.

We really are very thankful!!

Same song, second verse

We STILL have no power. I came up to Randy's office tonight to check my email and thought I would let you know. We are very ready to go home. Today marks the end of 2 weeks that we have been out of our house. We're very thankful for our wonderful friends, and the air conditioning they have, but we really want to sleep in our own beds and not live out of suitcases. Maybe we'll get power tomorrow (I keep saying that).
In other news, Kendall is waving now! And crawling EVERYWHERE. We are staying with our friends Jerry and Kathy Peters and last night Jerry was waving at Kendall and she waved back! Then she waved bye bye to Dad when he left for work this morning and has been waving all day. Except when we ran by Jan's house and of course she wouldn't show off. But it's really cute - she waves her whole arm up and down. Also, she is all over the place. I can't just put her down and expect her to stay in the same place. And she's fast! It's fun to watch her crawl to things she wants to put in her mouth.
Randy has been very busy with Ike relief. He is coordinating our church volunteers with needs in the area and there are a lot of both! It's been very hard to see the situations lots of people are in due to the storm, but it has been wonderful to see how much people want to help them.
I have never in my life seen mosquitos like we have right now. They are AWFUL. You can hardly get in your car without them swarming you. I haven't been able to take Kendall and Molly on a walk in over 2 weeks. We are all missing that! This morning I counted Kendall's mosquito bites and she had 27! Yikes!
Sorry no pictures. We have taken some, but they are on our camera and we can only get them off on our computer, which currently has no power. Maybe we'll have power tomorrow....

Still No Power

Yes, we still have no power in Lake Jackson. Randy drove down here Monday to check on our house and found out everything was ok except our fence is down and our shed was a mess. We are so thankful nothing else was wrong with our house! Kendall and I rode down on Tuesday with our friends the Beams because Randy and I evacuated in one car. That was quite an adventure: 3 adults, 4 kids, Molly, and all our stuff. We made it though! And I was thankful that they brought me so Randy didn't have to come up or someone didn't have to drive me down. It was good to be back with Ran and see our house for myself. We are staying at our friends the Johnson's house - they have power. They have been wonderful to host us and the Sanders. It is a full house, but we are having fun! 

It is crazy to drive around town and see all the damage. There are SO many trees and limbs down that it is amazing there is not more damage to houses. There is definitely some damage though. Yesterday we saw a house that had a tree on it that had totally lost their second story. I feel so sorry for them. It makes my lack of power and fence seem trivial. 

We read a story in the paper this morning that said 1000 workers for Centerpoint are coming to Lake Jackson and Clute this weekend to help restore power. Maybe we will get power back by early next week. 

Most of the town is still without power, and a lot of people are at their homes sleeping with the windows open. Several people have come over to Kevin and Jan's to do laundry or blow-dry their hair. Schools are still closed because there is no power. Some businesses are open, and all the Dow employees are back to work. I can't imagine having to go to work without being able to blow-dry or curl my hair! Even though we are having fun here, we are very ready for power to be back on at our house. Kendall has had some trouble sleeping and I'm sure she's ready to be back in her own bed. Last night was the 9th night she was not in her own bed. She also has a very runny nose and that is causing her to have trouble sleeping too. I feel so bad for her that I can't make it better. 

We leave tomorrow morning to head to College Station for the A&M game, so we are excited about that. Granny is meeting us there to hang out with Kendall. Fun times!

Sorry this was kind of just a stream of consciousness! I just wanted to update everyone with what is going on with us and explain why we have not had any Kendall pictures lately! Hopefully we will be home and have power very soon! 

Ike Update

Here is an update from the Lake Jackson city website. It looks like the damage may not be too bad, but there is no power. And this says it may be weeks. Great. We are still just very thankful we are here in FW where there is air conditioning! We don't know when we will go back. Hopefully the trees that are down are not down on our house. Even though we know there was not major damage, it is still a little hard to not know how our house is.

"We know that you are anxious to return to the City and check out your property. Let me first mention that structural damage to property has been minimal. However, we have a substantial number of trees and power lines down. Watch for down power lines and please treat all these down lines as energized.
There is no power in the city and none is expected for the next several days. We are told it could take weeks to fully restore power to the city. City Crews have been working to clear our streets of debris. There are no businesses open in the city. We do have city water, but sewer service is limited.
Our plan is to review the status of our recovery efforts and power restoration and then determine as to when to invite residents to return.
If you are in a cool place, that is preferable to what we have here. We urge you to please stay where you are until we have services fully restored."

Ike

Well, we have evacuated for our first hurricane. Ike is not supposed to hit the coast until sometime late Friday night or early Saturday morning, but this is what Surfside already looks like. For those of you who don't live in LJ, this is the beach we go to that is about 15 minutes from our house. Do you recognize that sign, Nacho? If this is what it looks like half a day before the storm hits, we can't imagine what it will look like afterward. We drove up to Ft. Worth Wednesday so that we wouldn't get stuck in traffic. We packed our van with pictures, albums, and all the things you take with you when you aren't sure what you'll come back to. Of course, I keep thinking about things I didn't pack. I try to keep remembering that everything that is important to us is safe! Please pray that the damage is not too bad and that we will all be able to return home soon. In the meantime, we will enjoy unexpected time with the grandparents!

New Green Dress

Our friend Tamara gave Kendall this pretty green dress this week and she wore it to church today. We took some 7 month pictures after church. She looks so grown up!

Happy Birthday Pops!

I hope you have a wonderful birthday Pops! I'm so sorry I am not there with you to celebrate, but I have my remote and I'm ready to watch your new movie with you!!! I love you so much!

7 Months Old Today!

I can't believe Kendall is 7 months old already! I thought I would record a few of the things she is doing right now:

What she is eating:

Rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, green beans.

Tricks:

Not quite crawling, but definitely scooting! She can really get around quick! It used to be that she only went backwards, but she goes forward a lot now too.

Trying to pull up on everything, but mostly mom and dad - I think she thinks we are her own personal jungle gym!

Talking all the time. She even has conversations with us. She will babble, we'll talk back to her, and then we take turns talking.

Rolling over quick! She's got it down!

Taking three naps a day. Usually 9:30-11:30, 1:30-3:30, and 5:30-6:30.

Sleeping 10-11 hours each night.

Cutting a tooth! She has one little tooth coming up on her bottom gum and it is so jagged and sharp! We feel so sad for her. She's been a little fussy some days, but still mostly great!

Sitting in the high chair when we go out to eat and in the stroller when we go shopping. And totally stopping traffic wherever we go. People just oooo and aww over her at the store, at restaurants, anywhere! We think she is the most beautiful baby, so of course we love it!

Growing more gorgeous red hair. It's getting so thick! I saw my hair dresser at the store today and she said, "Ashley, it's unusual for a little baby to have this thick of hair!" We never really thought she had lost a lot until we looked at some old pictures -she was almost bald! It's coming back in and it is such a pretty color.

And of course, still being the best baby ever! She is just always happy and always smiling. We are so thankful and blessed to be her parents!

Here are some videos of her during her "nap" time today. We went for a walk and got home around 10:00, so I put her in bed for her nap. At 10:30 I still could hear her through the monitor just talking and cooing, so I went in and she was on her tummy, playing. She does the funniest thing when we walk in and catch her playing. She lifts her head and looks at us and grins and then just flops around on the bed, like, "Ok guys! You caught me!!" It's so funny.

Ft. Worth Weekend

Two weekends ago (I'm behind on blogging!) we went to Ft. Worth for a conference and for my birthday. Here are a bunch of random pictures from the weekend.

Granny has been working on this sweet blanket for Kendall and she gave it to her this weekend. She worked really hard on it and it is wonderful!

When Granny and Papas went to Las Vegas this summer, they got Kendall this princess hat at the Excalibur hotel. She loves it!

Kendall with her Great Granny on Mom's birthday.
So excited about her breakfast...

Such a pretty smile!!! The best birthday present ever!

One of her new favorite toys is her picnic basket. Here are some pictures of her drinking the grape soda and eating the sandwich.

First Game!

We went to College Station for the first Aggie game this past weekend. While we went to the game, Gigi and Peeps watched Kendall. They went to Wings N More for dinner and went shopping for some new (bigger!) clothes. Here are some pictures from their fun time together!