Memorial Day Weekend

(Please ignore our grungy faces below)

This past Friday I took off of work and drove to San Marcos to stay with Courtney for the beginning part of the weekend. On Friday we went to some chutes about 5 mins from her apartment. It was so fun! It was a little shallow and rocky so I was a little nervous at first...as we didn't have tubes and everyone else did (and of course, I have lil shrimpy to look out for now)! But, it worked out fine and I lived and had a blast. After that we went to Sewell on the Texas State campus to swim in the river there and then back to her apartment pool to relax a little more before dinner. Then we ate dinner and watched 27 Dresses (she hadn't seen it).

Then on Saturday my aunt Lissa came in from San Antonio and floated the river with us. It was about a three hour float. It was a blast, but I got VERY sunburned, which is rare for me. I had put on spf 50 lotion, but I think it must've washed out after I almost immediately got in the water after putting it on. Jeremy has been calling me "red lobster." :(

Today (Memorial Day) we went out to my parent's house for a wonderful lunch of ribs, potato casserole, squash, homemade bread, and pinto beans...oh, yeah and strawberry shortcake, too! With good ole fashioned homemade whipped cream too, my fav! We had a great afternoon there relaxing outside (in the SHADE), playing imaginiff, eating, etc.

This is such an important holiday and I couldn't help but keep thinking of all of the soldiers (and their families), past and present who have sacrificed so that we may live like we do. We live a life of unimaginable luxury compared to the rest of the world and have so many freedoms that we take for granted. I admire and respect those who are fighting for our freedom, and said some extra prayers and thought some extra thoughts for them today.

Happy Memorial Day and short week to all!

Shrimp at Christmas???

We would like for you to meet the first human addition to our family, due Dec 25, 2008. For now, we are calling it Shrimpy, only because that's the first thing I saw when I saw him/her for the first time yesterday (although Jeremy doesn't like that nickname).
We had an amazing ultrasound yesterday and were so excited to hear the heartbeat. It was THE sweetest noise I've ever heard, and it brought us both to tears (of joy, of course). We feel very blessed and couldn't be more excited.

Lil Shrimp (the white round thing is a cyst that occurs after the egg implants, and will hopefully go down on it's own)


This pic is just the fetal heart rate, with beats per minute on the bottom right

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next several months. As we've heard, our world will be rocked in more than one way, and we'd love your prayers for a safe and healthy pregnancy, delivery, and baby.

~Jeremy and Amanda

(PS- Thanks to Jess for letting me use her scanner!)

Happy 50th Dad!!!

Dad vs Mom (atv racing)

Today was my Dad's 50th Birthday! We started out the night at Shogun eating some delicious steak, chicken, shrimp, vegetables, soup and salad. It was a very entertaining dinner. Then we headed to our house for cake, ice cream, presents, rock band, and motocross vs atv on the PS3.

We suggested that my mom and dad race each other and it was hilarious. They both started out horrible, but only cared about where the other one was...basically if they were getting beat by the other one. Then, after a couple of races we moved onto rock band. We played several songs...blink 182, jet, soundgarden...and very last Boston. My dad loves only country, with the only rock band exception being Boston. So...he sang very enthusiastically to Long Time. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. We had a very fun night and I hope he will always remember this as a special birthday..as it should be!

2 Milestones

First-

Last Friday Jeremy got Aggie Ring #2. We had a fun, quick trip to good ole CS to pick it up and grab some Mi Cocina and visit a couple of bookstores.

Second, Kinley crawled! Well, only about 3 'steps' but she did for sure crawl. Then she got tired and didn't do it again all night. Here are a few pics of oh-so-cute Kinley from Monday night.

Haley's Senior Pictures

Haley recently had her senior pictures taken on a cool, beautiful Sunday afternoon. I am having a hard time picking out which ones to get printed because they are all so cute! Although the first two are 2 of my very favorites there are tons of good ones. I can't believe she graduates only 1 month from today!

Matt's 3 on 3 B-ball Tourney...

This Saturday Matt had a 3 on 3 tournament at Magnolia High School. They played 4 games and won second in the tournament. The second place hs team played the second place men's team. The men's team they played were mostly college aged....and Matt's team beat them! It was very entertaining, as each team called their own fouls, and if you were shooting and got fouled you'd get one point. Very weird! And of course, when the winning point was because of a foul on the other team (that had been calling fouls on us all game) would say things like, "that wasn't a f*%#ing foul"or other things that made them sore losers and poor sports. It happened to everyone, and it was very entertaining. The guys played awesome and were exhausted after all those games. It made me very excited for basketball season this fall.

Note~ My camera is not so good at taking action pictures...it was a beginner camera and we plan on purchasing a more sophisticated camera whenever possible. :) Since I'm unexperienced in that area, I may soon be asking advice...

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Haley's senior banquet at our church was on Friday. They had a slideshow for each one of childhood pictures and their parents got to talk for about five minutes on their lives and their wishes for their Child's future. We heard some hilarious, embarrassing and inspirational stories. It was a great night of fellowship and was a good way to begin our weekend.

A lady at our church made this cake...it was fabulous!

Matt and Haley in the slideshow

Some of the seniors

Looking Forward...May and beyond

We have so much to look forward to in the coming weeks and months. This weekend is Haley's Senior Banquet at our church. My grandparents and aunt are planning on coming in town for that.

Also, in June we are going to "Family Camp" in Palestine with our church for a weekend of fellowship and fun. We have it at Lakeview Conference Center (where A&M does their Fish Camp) and play kickball, make s'mores around a campfire and spend time together reading and studying God's word...without a TV, mall, or any other distractions. It's a blast and I'm getting very excited!

Also, the weekend before that is Father's Day weekend, which is our Family Reunion and then at the end of the weekend we're heading to Port Aransas for a mini vacation with my extended family.

Just a few short weeks after that is our Hawaii trip! We can't wait to get away and relax and spend time together doing fun stuff and being somewhere totally new. Only about 2months and 10 days away! Yay!

Also in June is Haley's graduation...in College Station (yay) and her graduation party that same day. So fun!

Also, in less than 2 wks Jeremy will be getting his A&M ring on Aggie Ring Day (for the second time). We'll be driving up to College Station that afternoon. We'll spend some time in town eating at one of our favorite places and visiting a couple bookstores, I'm sure! I miss that place sometimes!

I love having so many special times with Family and Friends to look forward to. I'll update later with pics from our weekend.