Happy Birthday, Peter!!

Yea! Baby Peter is 1 year old!! I can't believe how the time has flown by! We are so blessed by this little baby and everyday we count him as a blessing from our loving Lord. I remember praying so hard for God to give us a child....back after our miscarriage of Ethan that left us wondering if we were even able to have children. BUT GOD is so good! Peter is not only a blessing to us, but a tool in our sanctification. You parents know what I mean. We are blessed beyond our deserving and we are so thankful that God chose to show His lovingkindness to us in the gift of Peter. Thank you, Lord for the way you love us, which permits us to love each other and our son. On Friday, his actual birthday, we just celebrated with some family. Nana, G G Marillas, Grandma and Papa Jon were there. We sang and had cake. Little Peter wasn't feeling well, he had a fever. But he still managed to eat some cake. :) The birthday banner we are sitting under is the same one my mom used for me when I was a little tyke!
Do I see a five o'clock shadow?
On the big day of his party, he got to wear his special Spiderman outfit....that was our theme. More for us than him at this point. :)
The party was held at a park across the street from our church....we had 64 people show up to help us celebrate the creation and birth of our son! Wow! We had hot dogs, chips, and birthday cake! We had a blast and it seemed like our guests did too!

Present time was fun. All the kids gathered around Peter and even helped him open the bigger ones. We are so blessed to have such loving friends.


My sister came up from College Station too! We were so happy to have Auntie Jessica there. It's just not a party without my kid sister! :)
Cake time!
I think this picture is so sweet....swinging with Papa Jon. :)

For his present from us, we bought him a little climber as an addition to our "new" backyard. I just love finding good deals on Craigs List!

Nana and Pappa gave him a power wheel....he loves to ride it! He even is learning how to push the button all and go all by himself! What a cool toy!Grandma & Papa Jon gave him a wagon...we have taken a few walks with it already and as you can see it is very comfortable!

All in all Peter's birthday was a great time and we thank all of our friends and family for you love, care and prayers for Peter.

Five years of wedded bliss!

This weekend, the 19th, is our five year wedding anniversary! That is the day of Peter's first birthday party, so Brent surprised me on Wednesday and took me out. I was not expecting to go out and celebrate until next week! He took me to a wonderful Italian place to eat, Fortuna. It was excellent food - they had yummy bruschetta! Then we went to Starbucks, of course, then he took me on a romantic walk around the water gardens! *sigh* He is so good to me! He rounded off the evening by presenting me with a new Bible - Johnny Mac's NAS study edition. :) What a wonderful way to show someone how much you love them, by investing in their spiritual growth. After we got home, (thank you Dana for babysitting!!!) we watched our wedding video. My dad was the "video-taper" and he did such a great job!! I am so thankful that we have such a thorough and complete documentation of our special day. We laughed, I cried, and we remembered again how blessed we are to have one another. Justin Childers did an excellent job presenting the gospel in our ceremony. What a beautiful picture of Christ and the church we get to represent everyday in our marriage!
The sign says "Fort Worth Water Gardens", in case you can't read it. :)
This fountain was so neat! It pumped 871 gallons of water each minute and was place 40 below ground level.
It was so windy! But that just made it all the more romantic, just like a movie.
I had to take my shoes off to hike down to the bottom part. This was the part that was on the news about a year ago because two people drown...not to put a damper on things....

Brent, thank you so much for a lovely night, but even more for the way you love me the way Christ loves His church. Your love for God and desire to make Him the priority in our home is something that I love and cherish about you. I love you more now than when we first said "I do" and I can't wait to see what blessings, trials, and paths the Lord has planned for us. May we always have Him first and let His love bind us together. Love, your Keri

Break throughs!

Peter has made some great break throughs this past week! He has started eating less jar food and more "real people" food. He loves rice, beans, tortilla, yogurt, banana, peas and bread! We are so happy he is moving into the next phase. :) He has also become more interested in the fridge. I can't open it without him crawling up and wanting to climb inside. Putting away groceries is very interesting.
Another huge accomplishment is that he is pulling up and letting go! He stands there for a few seconds and then sits back down. Yah!! The other night, on Wednesday, he actually took a few steps before falling into my lap!! The most steps he has taken is four, but that is enough to count, right?
He loves to stand and watch Brent fill the dishwasher....we told him to get used to it because in about 5 years, that will be his job. (j/k!) Here he is getting tickled with himself for standing without holding on again. I love his little fingers - we're number one!

Catching up

Here are a few random pics that I wanted to share.... On the Saturday before Easter, we went to the Botanic gardens with our friends, Matthew and Annie Dorin. We had such a lovely time with a picnic in God's creation! The fellowship was sweet and so was the smell of the flowers. :)
Their little girl, Danielle, was so adorable! Peter was showing her how to eat the flowers. Don't they look so sweet?! I just love Spring time and all that it brings! The Monday after Easter the always "cheap candy day"....I went and got some jelly beans and - my favorite- marshmellow peeps! Sarah Kline, I know you are sitting there with your bag of candy as you read this! :)
After we had such a great time with the Dorins, I went back the next week with Peter's babysitter, Rachael. It was her Spring Break, so we had the whole day together. What a blessing that Peter's sitter is one of my closest friends!
Calling all woodland animals!!
There was a tunnel that you could crawl through and look out the holes. We put Peter down and he just loved it! He crawled back and forth and squawked so he could hear his voice and its echo. Every time I looked over at Peter he had a different stick in his hand.....just like a boy! He would wave it around and point at me with it.On the way down to Houston this last time for NANC, we stopped at SHSU, our old college. It was so fun and nostalgic to walk around the campus where we met, fell in love, and got married - this time with our baby! Here is Peter and me by the fountain, ah the good old times we spent by the fountain!This is called the "pit". It used to be a building way back when, but it burned down....so they turned it into a place to have concerts and welcome parties for the campus.This is Dr. Hill. She was by far the most influential prof for Brent and I. I took 4 of her classes and Brent took 2. She taught English and British Lit. - what we know and love about Tolkien and Lewis we learned from her. It was such a blessing to get to talk with her and catch up on what God is doing in all of our lives!
This is the thinking garden...I have pictures of me here when it was my freshman year at SHSU!Another view of the "pit". Brent and I were in a praise and worship band that got to play a concert here once. :)Salute to Sam - Eat 'em up, Kats!!

Happy Birthday, Brent!

Brent's birthday was on March 27 and it happened to be near a weekend that we were going down to Houston to do our last NANC weekend. So, it worked out very well that Brent's parents got to see him for his birthday! We had a great time together, thanking the Lord for Brent. I found myself realizing again how very blessed I am that God brought me such a wonderful husband. I could not ask for a more loving, passionate, supportive, joyful and God-fearing man.

Brent, you are such a treasure to me and I love the opportunity of your birthday to praise Him for the day He brought you into this world. I love you more today than I did when we first met and I look forward to celebreating many more birthdays with you - even the ones where I have to shout in your ear and help you find your teeth so you can taste the burnt cake I forgot to take out of the oven. :) Brent's cousin, Lindsey, also has a birthday within a few weeks of Brent. So it was fun to be able to celebrate it all together. This is a pic of the birthday kids and their parents. :)
The cousins plus Marty and me. I must be standing in a hole or something. :)
Dinner at Steak and Ale - yummo!
Gramma gave Brent some wonderful old books that belonged to his great-grandfather.