And now, for the second installment of Texas updates….

Once Joe returned from his UK trip, we first breathed a sigh of relief. Were we ever thankful to see him! Then, we made the trek to Fredericksburg to visit his brother Jeremy and his wife and 3 children (plus one more on the way!). While there, Joe gave a ministry update in Fredericksburg and one in Austin. It was great to see some familiar faces and meet some new folks, too.

Evan had a blast playing with his cousins. They played in the back yard:

And in the “pool”:

And in the wagon, not to mention playing dress-up.:

The four of them are all about the same height, so it was a bit like having quadruplets around! There was never a dull moment!

Maren certainly got passed around and didn’t seem to mind a bit! Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Robin sure loved having another baby girl around. All of the kids were so sweet and gave Maren lots of hugs and kisses. Little R loved holding Maren every chance she got! I think they could easily pass for sisters!

One day, we drove to Llano to have some of the best barbecue in Texas, and boy howdy, was it good! I think the smoke smell seeped into our every pore and fiber, but it was well worth it. I don’t have a picture of it, which is good since I might just drool on this here keyboard. I reckon there is nothin’ like some good ol’ TX barbecue.

We had such a wonderful time. Thanks, J & R, for a great week. We love and miss you guys so much and can’t wait to meet baby #4!

Hey, friends! I plan on finishing the TX update soon, but many of the pictures from that trip are on Joe’s computer. With Joe. At work. So, since I couldn’t work on that today, I added several pictures to our Flickr. We’ve been enjoying some beautiful weather here lately!

Thanks, Joe, for being my go-to guy and helping me change our blog header. You’re brilliant (said with my best British accent).

And thanks to the D’s for taking our picture. And thanks to the G’s for letting us christen your new outdoor furniture.

We interrupt the string of TX updates to bring you pictures of the cutest baby EVER. Little M tried out her exersaucer for the first time yesterday.

She enjoyed it. Thoroughly.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming

We tried to stay busy while Joe was gone in hopes that the 3 and 1/2 weeks without him would go faster. One fun thing we attended was the FW Cats baseball game. The choir at my mom’s church was going to sing the national anthem, so my mom thought it would be fun to take E to his first baseball game. We had a big cookout before the game.:

And then the choir got ready to sing.:

And sing they did. It was impressive! E enjoyed the baseball game thoroughly - he danced to the music and clapped every time the crowd cheered. We’ll definitely have to take him to another game when we get the chance!

I try to see my childhood friends every time I go back to TX. I’ve known these girls most of my life, so we always pick up right where we left off. I LOVE these girls:

J wasn’t able to join us, so we made up for it at her house later:

I had fun catching up with the girls, and E had a blast playing with other kids. Thanks friends!

Aside from the game and visits with friends, my dad took us to the zoo a couple of times - once to see the animals and once to ride the train! I didn’t get any pictures at the zoo, but the FW zoo is fantastic!

Alright, Folks. I’ll try to recap 2 months of busyness in a few posts. Sit back and enjoy the show…

While we were missing Joe as he traveled around Europe with GoodSeed, we had our own adventures at my parents’ house. Joe had the camera, so I had to get these photos from others. (Thanks H & T)!

The first weekend was packed full of lots of family. There are so many pictures that I think it’s worthy of its own post. I can’t possibly list everyone who was there and explain who they are while keeping it short and still making sense, but suffice it to say that a good time was had by all!

Here are the youngest of the family:

As you probably know, I am a twin, and my oldest sister has twins, and that weekend was the first time for us all to be together. Twins meeting twins:

These are my sisters. I am not in the photo because only weird people were allowed

These are my cousins with E, who could not remember every one’s names. He really took to the boys, and resorted to referring to them by shirt colors. For example, when E woke up from his nap, he said, “I wanna see the boy with the yellow shirt and the necklace on the neck.”:

And this is my Aunt T with the babies, who got a lot of cuddles and attention.

It was so fun to see everyone. I’m so blessed with a fun family!

To the few people who are still holding out on the chance that we might actually post on this blog - today is your day!

We returned on Saturday after being gone for about 2 months! We heard that spring here has been very cool and rainy, but we arrived just in time for some gorgeous sunny weather. When we got back on Saturday, the high was about 53 degrees. You know I turned on the HEATER when we got home! Yes, the HEATER! In JUNE! It was so strange to leave Canada while there was still snow on the ground and return during a different season.

I have a lot to tell you. I still need to look through photos, so for now I’ll leave you with some pictures of flowers from around our front yard.

Check back soon for part I of our TX update.

Hi, friends! As you probably know, we’ve been traveling around TX. We’re having a blast, and we’ll be back here soon with lots of stories and pictures.

So far, we’ve all stayed well, with the exception of Evan’s short bout with pink eye. We were able to get a prescription for him quickly, and he’s as good as new! We were a little concerned how much it would set us back, but we were so thankful to pay only $4.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and encouragement. We feel so humbled that you all want to hear about our lives and ministry. We’ll see you here soon!