Thanksgiving and Christmas set up

We've been blog slackers lately. We've had a busy few weeks, and it's been a hectic end to the semester at school . This coming Thursday is our Christmas Assembly at school and my dance class is performing...I am totally nervous! I will hopefully post pictures soon. Troy has been busy organizing finals and attending meetings. Another fabulous side-effect of being in the field of education during winter is the array of sicknesses that we contract! We've all been nearly on our death beds this past week!

To make it worse, our new niece, Hadassah Rose was born on December 6th to Peter and Alisa (Troy's little sis), and we have barely been able to see her since we've been sick all week! Luckily we saw her tonight and she didn't seem offended! (We'll post a picture of her later)

Here are some recent photos:
Jude and cousin Josiah at Thanksgiving! Josiah is such a good cousin. He loves to teach and "babysit" Jude!
One chilly (maybe 65 degrees) morning before our jog...Jude gets to stroll along with us.




Jude and Troy having A BLAST! I can't remember why.




Cuteness...



Our tradition: Every year when we first set up Christmas decorations, we sleep under the tree. Jude wasn't quite old enough to join us this year, but in the future it will always be a family affair!

Botanical Gardens With Grandpa H.

Not sure....

He gets the "roll the ball" game now, but he gets so excited I think he might explode, or maybe he thinks the ball might explode....hmm....
I'm not sure, but I think in this one he's trying to escape the house and his shirt at the same time...

I think he might have thought this was edible, but he was disappointed to find that a lens cap is not very tasty!

I'm pretty sure he's practicing his cowboy moves here, Troy denies it.

I'm not sure how to convince a 9-month-old that hot costumes with big uncomfortable hats in which crawling is virtually impossible are TOTALLY worth it for the cute photos.

Happy boy...

Climbing Mama....his favorite pastime...

Teaching him young.....

For his future wife, I'm teaching Jude how to take out the trash..



Actually, this is what Jude's been doing this week. He's been unloading dirty dishes from the dishwasher, unloading clean dishes from the cupboards, and unfortunately, discovering the trash can.

Why is everyone looking at me?

Houseguests...

This past week, we were thrilled to host friends from Minneapolis, and throw a baby shower for Troy's sister. It was busy, but fun!

Four friends (one new, three old) who work for Desiring God were in Austin for a conference and needed a place to stay. It was great to catch up with Lukas, Andrew and Edd, and make a new friend, Marty...who became Troy's new ping pong arch rival. Troy and the men in our extended family also attended the conference and enjoyed learning, and are still thinking about the book of Job. It's always a joy to reunite with friends who continue to follow the Lord and are serving Him with their lives. However, we were too distracted by Lukas's Mohawk to take any pictures while we were together. SAD!

On Saturday, Troy's mom, sister and Stevi threw a baby shower for Troy's little sis (Alisa). We had a fabulous time. The best part was making onesies for the little one with iron-on transfers of Peter and Alisa's favorite things (see photo). What a stylin' baby she'll be! If you can't see them, here's the top three clothing items made: #3 The onesie with "Delicious Corndogs" and a picture on the rear end, #2 The shirt with a picture of Ronald Reagan, and #1 The Dunder Miflin Paper Company shirt.
Of course the food was delicious and (thanks to Erin) laid out quite beautifully.

Finally, we know the real reason you visit this blog. It isn't to hear about us, but to see pictures of our food loving linebacker. Here's a few...

Stevi's Mom Visits TEXAS!

Mom and Troy in matching work shirts (i.e. old teacher's association shirts...). While she was here, we had lots of fun, but we (she) made new drapes for our living room! In this pic, we were getting ready to stain rods.


The finished drapes! They're beautiful!

Jude pulls himself up...he's been doing it almost a month now. Wow, so many opportunities for bonking the head!

Trying on a new hat that Grammy brought!

So close, and yet so far away!

The door stop: the single most exciting thing in the house!

"What's in Uncle Peter's nose?"

Jude likes it when I push the blocks across the table with my nose!
Our good friends from seminary, Kevin and Becky, came and hung out with us two weeks ago. They came through Austin to say good-bye to Becky's family...they're headed for the mission field soon!

We went to Sea World last Sunday. Jude LOVED the dolphins.

The Steel Eel. Yes, I'm on there somewhere. Troy said it wasn't that scary....he lied!

Hurricane Weekend

(I got inspired while I was working one morning, why not put Post-Its on your baby, right?)


Literally, it's hurricane weekend here. Though we're only experiencing the edge of the storm, our street is filled with extra cars because many of our neighbors are hosting their families and friends from southeast Texas. We've been watching the news, and Ike is moving north through Texas. It's windy and dark outside, but we won't have winds that cause much damage. Our schools and public buildings are being used for evacuees and Red Cross efforts.

We're thankful that we're not in danger, but we're praying for those who are here and it definitely seems real to us. When we were in the grocery store last night, we heard evacuees talking about how long they thought they'd have to be here. The impact of the storm is amazing. They said our hotels are full, and the population of Austin is close to double it's normal numbers because of those who've fled here from the storm. Please join with us in praying for those affected by they storm.


On a happier note, here are some new pictures:

Jude with Uncle Peter

Jude learning to play ball...he doesn't quite get it yet.

He still loves bathtime:

He also still eats paper....

Here's Jude playing with his cousin Kate,

Family dinner at Oma and Opa's

with Troy,

First day of school!

Today is the first day of school at Veritas! Troy and I are both teaching (a little), and looking forward to the day. My dance class starts today! YIKES! I haven't actually danced consistently since 2001! Yeah, I have a lot of work to do to get back into shape!

We are looking forward to a very different school year. Teaching in a classical Christian school is going to be VERY different than the...ahem...challenging...schools we're used to. It's strange to imagine no fights, no getting sworn at, no security guards, no bathroom duty (to make sure no mischief takes place in the bathrooms), no locker searches....wow! What will we do for entertainment at night with no stories to tell?

Troy is also doing the Vice Principal thing, and very well, I might add. He loves it, and has been working really hard to prepare for this school year. He and I get to teach a Bible course together to 8th graders. I teach girls, he teaches boys. We're looking forward to planning lessons together and seeing what God will do!

Well, Jude is crawling. Troy disagrees, since it's slow and still painful to watch...but I think it should definitely be classified as crawling. He actually moves his hands now, which was the problem all along, and can get across the room--even if it takes 15 minutes.

And, after much angst, Jude has once again decided that solid food is ok. We had a couple of weeks in there where he was on strike, but now he's decided it's great fun to eat. He particularly wants what's on our plates. Usually we don't give in, but yesterday I was out to lunch with my sister-in-law, and he was driving me nuts because he was bored in the high chair. (I still forget food for him often.) So, I decided to give him a taste of my hummus, which turned into crazy-hummus-loving-baby fussing constantly through lunch for more. By the end of the meal, he had eaten almost all my hummus. I decided I will make him some "baby" hummus at home..less salt, a bit runny, etc. But really, who else's baby hates bananas and peaches, but wants Roasted Red Pepper Hummus all day long?

Weird kid!

An update

Jude is not only standing now, but doing stretches and calisthenics. Okay...just kidding, he's leaning on the couch.
He's super smiley these days
We love to go to the pool.
This is his latest skill. He gets up on all four limbs and rocks back and forth really fast.
We went to Dallas last week for the NAUMS (National Association of University Model Schools) conference. While there we got to catch up with some of our friends and family who live in Dallas. The picture above is Corrie Marstaller. We got to see Matt, Lindsay and Corrie in Dallas, then Lindsay and Corrie stopped at our house a couple of days ago.

We also got to see Stevi's cousin Mike and his wife Ember.

Jude's 1/2 birthday

Jude is now 6 months old! Yay! He's also ready for football season.
It's fun to be back in Austin by our family! Jude gets to see many of his aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents often. We just need to get the rest of the family to come down and visit!
It's so fun to read to Jude now because he's very interested in the books. Sometimes he prefers to chew on the books, I guess that's just his learning style.
Nothing gets him more excited than bath time! Nothing!
Notice the drool...well, we have some exciting news. Jude has his first tooth! All that drooling is paying off!!!