House Pics

Christine- This is for you. :)

There is a link to some house pics under the Shutterfly

heading on the right.

These were taken a couple of weeks ago...

and I didn't pick up...

and quite a few things have already changed...

How's that for some disclaimers?

Enjoy!

Just needs to be documented...

You can't see it in this pic, BUT...

MICAH FINALLY HAS A TOOTH!

He turned eleven months one day and a tooth broke though the next!

I'll do a big update in a couple of weeks...

When he turns ONE!

What???

(He smiles like this all of the time. I'm not even kidding.)

The Basement

Last week we went to San Antonio for a conference with other church planters in the state of Texas. It was a fantastic day of meetings. We were welcomed and taught and encouraged. We also got to go to the Riverwalk for dinner one night. Jared was sure he would start itching as he got closer to the Spurs house, but he actually liked the city. :) We saw the Alamo. If you know Jared, you know he loves history. He's been talking about seeing the Alamo since we found out we were moving to Texas.

The moon was a lot bigger than this pic shows. :)

Cool sight.

We knew Malcolm and Christy were up to something in the background of this picture from all the laughing behind us. Tim did a good job cropping them out...

:)

Love YALL already and can't wait until the next TGA meeting!

NINETEEN ELEVEN- TWO TWENTY SEVEN!

I'm thinkin... Christen's wedding... Oct. 2004

That was the last time the four of us were all together!

It's weird that Kimberly is the one who doesn't live in Texas now. :)

She came for a visit and it was SO good to see her face.

I keep thinking of "227 reasons 227 is so special".

I should find that thing.

LOVE you girls.

xoxoxoxox

Christmas in March

Jared put this one up on Facebook.

Sophia told him...

"I'm Mary, and this is my donkey"

New Friends

Sophia has made two new friends, Evan and Chloe.

They happen to be my college roomie's twins. :)

They are about 6 months younger than Sophs

and they have lots of fun together.

This night we went to the Tomcheck's after playing at the park and all of the kids took baths together and the girls got to wear Hudson's t-shirts.

Seriously... how cute are they??

And here's the owner of the clothes... punkin Hudson.

Sophia loves running around the park with him.

I'm so happy they get to grow up together and know each other.

Warms my heart :)

Our Trip to Waco

The first weekend we were in Texas happened to be Sing down at good ol' BU. We drove down to Waco with mom and Kevin so we could see Ashleigh, my baby sister, in Kappa's act. She was a wolf and amazing... as usual. She's such a great entertainer and it's so fun to watch her perform. Pure joy. It was Micah's first time on campus. Sic 'em Micah!

My cute baby bears.

Sophia couldn't believe what Smash was doing to her face!

(Kevin could have cared less at that moment ;))

Ash and Linds the Wolfies!

We're already looking forward to many trips down to Waco to visit Auntie Ashie!

We went to visit the bears in their sweet new home in the middle of campus. They were sleeping and Sophia was not really okay with that. She managed to get an ear shake out of one...

The drive and the Northern Trust Open

A few pics from our drive.

Little (big) buddy.

So sweet.

Got my movies, my snacks, my drinks... 16 hours is nothin!

Micah's favorite game was to take the lid off the cooler and play with it. It made a terrible, make your skin crawl and teeth hurt sound every time he touched it. It was not mommy's favorite game.

We stopped in Odessa to meet up with the Tyree Family. Malcolm and Christy planted there about 9 years ago. We pulled up to Rosa's Cafe (BEST tortillas EVER!) and they had this sign up waiting for us. It was such a blessing to be welcomed into the great state by them.

During this lunch Karie is sending me updates on Aaron Baddeley who was playing in the Northern Trust Open. But I'll back up a bit first...

Richelle and I have been friends since the fifth grade... so about 20 years. I can't say we were besties from the beginning because she always skated with the boys I liked at skate parties. We've both seen each other through some rough stuff and I'm so thankful for her friendship. She's just one of those people who knows me well. Sometimes too well, but I always appreciate her for it. :)

When we talked with the Baddeleys about what we felt called to do and how we were going to be moving on it, they were so supportive. They had decided that this year, they are going to have organizations, etc. that they give to pick a tournament that Aaron will be playing in and they will tithe directly to that organization whatever the winnings are... cut or no cut. They told us to pick a tournament for the Frisco church!

Jared and I talked about which one to choose. We were so busy packing up the house, packing up the truck, moving in to the Nutt house, saying our goodbye's... Wednesday before we left I told Jared "we should pick this tourney". I would love to say that I had been praying on it and God revealed it to me in a clear as day way that we should pick it now, but it wasn't like that. We were crazy busy, not to mention emotional and scatter brained. Looking back, I know God must have found a way to gently nudge me to tell Jared because I wasn't sitting down to listen.

Jared called Aaron and Aaron said "Great, let's get a "W" for you guys!"

And that was that.

Saturday we spent the day at mom's house and told people to come on by if they wanted to say bye. We'd be there all day. It was a steady stream of people and a heart breaking day. But we had the golf channel on all day too. Aaron was playing great and it was such a welcomed distraction to the sad day. I texted Richelle at the end of the day. Aaron was sitting pretty for the next day. I told her regardless of how the tourney ended up it had already been such a blessing to partner with them in that tournament. We prayed for Aaron all day. My mom always says "When you're having a bad day, do something for someone else." And that's what we were doing. Taking the focus off the heartache and thinking and praying with such detail and urgency for the Badds fam. We left a few hours after I texted Shells and started the drive.

We were able to get updates on our phones and occasionally someone would call or text us with updates. I've made that drive across west Texas a few times and if any one else out there has done it, you know what I'm talking about here.... there's nothing... for miles and miles and miles. But THIS time it was SO FUN! We left Odessa and Karie stayed on the phone with us to give play by plays.

"Aww Jewell is blowing kisses to the camera!"

"There's all the girls!"

"Richelle and Reanne have the girls!"

What did you think I meant by play by play? :)

And whaddya know... BADDS WINS!

Can we talk about CONFIRMATION!

The day were driving further and further from everyone we KNOW and LOVE, GOD is making a way for the church that He is starting in Frisco. He lovingly reminds us to keep looking forward, HE confirms that he loves us and is going to take care of the details!

There is one thing I've learned in the past few weeks

and it's earth shattering, people.

Are you ready for it?

Brace yourselves...

All He asks of us is to be willing.

Boom.

Jared and I are moving in a direction but only because He keeps making the way for us. He is determining our steps. He is so faithful.

Hebrews 10:23

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,

for He who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for

and certain of what we do not see.

We don't "see" it yet, but He does.

And we are sure of what we hope for in Frisco.

Adios, Get on outta here...

OK... It's catch up time!

About a week before we left for TX, MMCC, our church home, threw us a farewell party. It was Texas themed... imagine that. Here are some pics from the night...

Just being sad with some besties. This was our denial phase.

In their usual awesomeness, MMCC brought Jared's mom and dad in from WA and Randee happened to be in town for work. Kind of a full circle moment for the Doe Fam.

The ladies spent so much time on the details. So sweet and will always be remembered and appreciated.

Beautiful beautiful friends.

This is how the Fay's really think all you Texans dress.

My Koo Koo

And no gathering would be complete without Phil taking home the leftovers... perfect ending to the night :)

Joe and Ryan wrote us a farewell song. It was amazing.

Miss you MMCC!!!!!!!!!!!

We live in Texas.

It still sounds a little strange. But we do. We live in Texas.

I won't be posting pics just yet, but I'll give a little update.

Our drive out was fairly painless. The kids were rockstars. So easy. Our friend Adam gave us a DVD player for the car that attaches to both headrests so the kids were in heaven. Serious life saver. Jared and Kevin wanted to get moving at 2:30am so we did. I woke up and we were already way past Tucson which made the drive out of town a little less emotional for me. :) We stopped in Odessa for a late lunch and met Malcolm Tyree and his family. They planted in Odessa and have already made the transition out here a little easier. And they had a huge banner... "Welcome to Texas" when we pulled up to the restaurant. Awesome.

So this was Sunday, the last day of the Northern Trust Open. And who my friend was in the lead... BADDS!!! Jared downloaded an app that had a station we could listen to the tourney, but it cut in and out so Karie gave us play by play of the last two holes on the phone. That was the best time I've ever had driving though West Texas!!! We are so happy for the Baddeley family! Just wish Sophia could have seen Jewell on TV. She would have freaked out. :)

We had to stop to sleep in Abilene about 7:00. Micah was losing it. He had literally not crawled once that whole day. Jut sat in the car seat and high chair when we stopped to eat. Poor little guy.

The next morning we got to our new home which is actually in McKinney. We're already discovering that it's just too far east. But we can handle a year of "commute". :)

The kids love the house and neighborhood. Kids play here. Outside. With each other. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen! We have a little playground around the corner which Sophia says is her playground. It's nice of her to let other kids play on it too.

My two friends from college, Jenn and Christen, have been so intentional about calling, checking in and helping us out around here which is so helpful. They're about 30-45 minutes away (again too far east), but it's so much better than 16 hours away!

So the house is near settled and Jared has hit the ground running with the church! There are already so many amazing stories which we'll share soon. Keep praying for us as we start to lay the foundation here. There are so many details and things to do! I'll try to take some time to get some pics up and share stories soon. Morning nap time is over. ;)