The Hewitt Family

New Blog Address

2011-01-25T23:42:00.000-06:00

After exploring several options, we have decided to move our blog. Because this blog has our last name, I felt that there was too much identifying information on here about our kiddos. In the spirit of safety, I have migrated this blog to our new domain, http://www.fiveinsix.com/. My Facebook account is viewable only by my friends, as are all of my pictures, but our blog is an open window for the world. Our new blog does not include our last name and will not include other identifying information that could pose a threat to my children's safety. In the end, I fully believe that the only safety we have is that which is given to us by the Lord, however I want to be responsible as possible with my precious ones.

Eventually, I will delete our HewittFam blog, so please update your bookmarks and readers. Our new address is http://www.fiveinsix.com/. See you there!

I don't want my children to be happy.

2011-01-15T04:21:00.000-06:00

I LOVE this post! I read it about a year ago, but just stumbled upon it again tonight. Thought I would share the link with you tonight. Jeff and I feel the same way, but Missy communicates it so clearly.

"I don't want my children to by happy" from It's Almost Naptime. Enjoy!

Diaper and Wipe Deals on Amazon Mom

2011-01-11T13:21:00.001-06:00

Hey, mommas! Just in case some of you don't know about Amazon Mom yet, I wanted to share. A sweet friend of mine introduced me to this free program a few months back, and it is great!

Just by signing up for Amazon Mom (for free), you get 15% off of your diaper and wipe purchases. Then, if you do "Subscribe and Save", you get an additional 15% off. That gives you a total of 30% off, in addition to any coupon you may have. (Parents and Parenting have been including coupons for Amazon recently.) I usually choose the 6 month subscribe and save option and then cancel that subscription once I have received my diapers.

Check out BabyCheapskate to get more detailed instructions and tips.

By the way, if you do choose to purchase from Amazon, would you please consider going through my blog's Amazon link? It doesn't cost you anything extra, and we are putting the referral money towards adoption expenses. Thanks so much, and happy saving!

Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-31T21:56:00.000-05:00

My sweet husband LOVES Halloween, so we celebrate it at our house. We don't do any of the scary, creepy stuff, just the fun, silly things. Jeff's favorite part of Halloween is carving pumpkins. This year, we put a vinyl tablecloth on the table on the patio and went after it. Well, Jeff and the kids did. I'm not a fan of the smell or the slime. :-) The kids had a ball and Cooper had his first taste of fresh pumpkin. He wasn't a fan.

After taking a taste

Halloween Festivities

2010-10-31T21:37:00.000-05:00

The week of Halloween we went to an impromptu pumpkin party at one of our friend's house. Jeff has known the husband since elementary school, and I met he and his wife when Jeff and I met. They are such a fun couple, and I am so grateful for their friendship. They adopted their second son, and she is such a support to me through our process. Here are some pics of the kiddos from the evening.

Sisters

2010-10-31T21:19:00.000-05:00

Our sweet girls pose like this all on their own when I say, "Picture!". They have become such good friends, and it makes this mama so happy. I have an amazing sister whom I adore, and I was so happy to have 2 girls (3 soon) because of the relationship I have with Ashlee. She is my best friend, and I can't imagine life without her. I pray my girls are able to cultivate a friendship as sweet as ours. For now, it seems like they are on their way. :-)

Random Cooper Pics Worth Posting

2010-10-24T22:33:00.001-05:00

Sneaking into other people's pictures

Trying really hard to get a drink

Stuck in the doggie door

So, my sweet little man is wearing me out lately. I guess I'm hitting the first difficult boy phase? So to remind me of the funny little things I love so much about my favorite little man, I thought I'd post some endearing pictures. Enjoy!

Travel Tips & Utah Recap

2010-10-24T22:17:00.001-05:00

Mountain Roller Coaster

Hiking in the Woods down the Mountain

Riding the Chairlift up the Mountain

This is officially a month late, but I thought I'd go ahead and post about our anniversary trip that we took in September. Jeff and I always make sure that at least once a year we take a trip WITHOUT the children. We usually do this around our anniversary which is in August. This year we went to Park City, Utah, and it was AWESOME!

I've decided to post about our trip for two reasons. First, I never take pictures anymore, and we actually took a few on our trip, so I will actually have pics in a post. :-) Second, I wanted to share a few travel tips that worked great for us.

We chose Park City for a few random reasons. We wanted to go somewhere pretty where we could enjoy the outdoors, and my longest time friend (24 years to be exact) Amy told me one time that Utah was beautiful. She also happens to be my most outdoorsy friend. :-) Also, Southwest Airlines flies to Salt Lake City which meant we could get a cheap rate.

After narrowing down our choices to mountain locations and Southwest Airlines destinations, I started looking for hotels. I used the website LuxuryLink.com. It is sort of an auction site, but you can also just by packages, as well. Really nice hotels and resorts will list packages on this site when they have vacancies or in their off seasons, and you can get a great deal. Before I buy a package, I always go on TripAdvisor.com to check out the hotel, as well as the city in general to verify it's a nice location. I also price the package out by going on the resorts official website as well as a few others (Travelocity or Expedia) to make sure I'm really getting a good deal. Once I'm convinced it's a nice place for a good price, I then price airfare to make sure I'm not going to get hosed on that end of things. After all of that research has been compiled, I go for it. That may seem like a lot of work, however when it comes to hotels, or really anything actually, I've got Neiman's taste on a Target budget. :-)

This trip it really paid off. We saved $800 off of retail on our package! That isn't just taking LuxuryLink's word for it, either. That is also after I looked up everything and calculated the cost. Our package included 3 nights in an upgraded cottage (not room), breakfast every morning and two massages. Notice the hot tub on our patio behind Jeff. The highs were in the 70s and the lows in the 40s, so we got in it about 3 times a day. :-)

Another very cool trick we used on this trick was Priceline.com for our rental car. I have used it before on rental cars and gotten a good deal, but never at the very last minute, which is when you can get the absolutely best deal. Once we arrived in Salt Lake City, I found out it was going to cost $70 to get a ride to the hotel (45 mins away), which would be $140 total for each way. So we walked about to the rental car place, and while we were in line, we used Jeff's iPhone to try and cut a deal on Priceline. We ended up getting a Hummer for $15 a day. After fees and taxes, we paid less than the one way taxi fare. I think this is my new favorite travel trick.

On a personal note, the trip was amazing. I have an incredible husband who is so much stinkin' fun! Jeff and I laughed and giggled and were stupid and got lost on a mountain, and it was a blast! Parenting can be draining, and sometimes you lose sight of the things that made you fall in love in the first place. Not because you feel any different, but because you are so busy parenting and keeping life moving along that you don't have time to think about it, much less experience any of it.

Jeff is absolutely perfect for me, and our trip reminded me. He is fun and goofy, patient and sweet and ever so hot hiking through the woods with a few days scruff. :-) Thank you, Lord for the man of my dreams!

Control Freak No More?

2010-10-24T21:32:00.002-05:00

Greetings! Through our family's current venture, I have had a cool realization that the Lord has grown me in an area that I have always struggled with - control. My need for it, that is. This is so exciting to me! Turns out all I had to do to deal with this sin issue was to jump whole hearted into something so unmanageable that the idea of me controlling it was a joke. ;-)

For so much of my life I have made my plans, and then when things didn't go as I wanted, I began to manipulate from every angle. I would try to change my circumstances instead of changing my perspective. I didn't consider that maybe the Lord had different plans, and that even if they weren't better for me, it didn't matter. Because it wasn't about me. It isn't my story. It is His story. If some injustice happens to me, it doesn't mean that isn't how things are supposed to fall. I am not guaranteed a happy ending here on earth. He is. My happy ending is in eternity in Heaven with our Lord.

Well, it has been so cool to see that in our obedience of stepping into the Lord's plans for our family that He is refining so many other areas of our lives, as well. Because we are stepping so far out of the norm, we are pretty much forced to trust the Lord. We have followed Him into a situation that is so far beyond anything we can control, that honestly, it's pretty silly to even try. It has dawned on me that probably one reason that I have so struggled with control is that I have kept my life in such a safe, neat box that I have been able to control it, to some extent. Rather than living a life of reckless obedience to what the Lord would have me do, I have lived a safe and secure life following the American dream, with my hands steering the ship.

I am so grateful that the Lord is continuing to refine me and chip of the edges of me that don't conform to His son. I pray that I would not rely on myself in this life, but would continue rely on our sovereign Savior. I pray that I would not seek out my safety over God's glory. That as the church, we would recklessly walk in obedience and care for the orphan, the widow, the stranger, the unreached and the least of these, no matter the cost to our comfortable lives.

Do you struggle with having to control things in your life? Why not sincerely ask the Lord what He would have you do for Him, and then jump in with both feet? I bet you find it easy to let Him steer. :-)

I will leave you with a great quote from David Platt in his book Radical.

"The dangerous assumption we unknowingly accept in the American dream is that our greatest asset is our own ability. The American dream prizes what people can accomplish when they believe in themselves and trust in themselves, and we are drawn toward such thinking. But the gospel has different priorities. The gospel beckons us to die to ourselves and to believe in God and to trust in His power." (pg. 46) emphasis mine

Refugee Ministry

2010-10-10T14:09:00.001-05:00

Jeff and I work with a group of refugees from Burma that live here in Dallas. Thought I would put some info on here about refugee resettlement and how you can help.

The United Nations assists in the process of helping people who are fleeing persecution move and settle to a different country through its agency the United Nations High Council on Refugees (UNHCR). This process is called resettlement. The United States accepts refugees each year to be resettled here. The actual number is set by the president on a yearly basis, but in 2009 it was 80,000 people. There are around 22 areas in the country that accept refugees to be resettled. The Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex is one of those areas. The UN has set particular criteria for a person to resettle. Many times it is due to religious or ethnic persecution, but there are also entire people groups that are granted refugee status.

Once people are resettled here, they are helped by the US government for 3 months. They are given a stipend (around $400) during this time, and then they are on their own. The majority of these refugees do not know English very well, if at all, and have never lived in an industrialized society.

Jeff and I work with a particular people group who have fled Burma, called Karen (pronounced Kah-rin). The Karen are persecuted by the Burmese government, and therefore flee into refugee camps at the Thailand / Burma border. From there they can apply for resettlement, which is how they end up in Dallas.

We currently work with a ministry to help the Karen here with their physical needs, as well as pointing them to Christ. Jeff leads a Bible Study for the teenage boys and mentors a few of them. We are also working to start a tutoring program to help the students with their school work. Most of the children are very behind in school once they get here and usually know very little English. Unfortunately, their parents are unable to help them with school because they have had very little education themselves.

We believe a relationship with Christ and an education are the two most valuable things that we can offer. Tutors can not only help these children get through school and get an education, but also share Christ's love with them and give them true hope for the future.

So....next weekend we will be doing a disbursement of clothing, blankets, socks/underwear and toiletry items. If you have any of these items you would like to donate, please let me know, and I will pick them up from you this week. Below is the list of items.

CLOTHES - Used or New. They need adult, teen, children and baby clothes.

BLANKETS - Used or New

SOCKS / UNDERWEAR - New, of course. Eww.... :-)

TOILETRY ITEMS - New

I know that I have been cleaning out closets as I bring in Fall clothes, so I thought this might hit at a good time for some of you. :-)

Thank you so much for anything you might be able to provide!

Just a Note....

2010-10-09T14:44:00.000-05:00

So, some of you may have noticed an absence of info about a particular subject that I had been writing about previously. Just wanted to drop a note to say that all is going well with that, but unfortunately I am not able to write about it here. I am glad to update you should you personally contact me, but that is the only means to follow along with us. :-)

~ Love ~
The Hewitts

Join Me to Stop Child Trafficking

2010-09-09T15:10:00.003-05:00

So if you read my last post, you will see that the Lord has laid the issue of child trafficking on my heart. Well, I'm excited to share with you the first thing I am doing about it. I am going to be participating in a walk put on by Stop Child Trafficking Now (http://www.sctnow.org/) on October 2nd.

SCTN is unique in its approach to fighting child trafficking. There are numerous organizations in the US that either rescue or help rehabilitate victims of trafficking. These organizations are extremely needed, but unfortunately do not address the cause of the problem. The belief of SCTN is it is important to rescue victims out of slavery situations, but as long as there is a demand, new children will just replace the ones that have been saved. SCTN puts together special operative teams comprised of retired military personnel who will go after the traffickers, putting together a criminal case that is turned over to the US government for prosecution.

To learn more about the walk, how you can participate or how you can donate towards the cause, please click on the tab at the top of my blog titled "Stop Child Trafficking Now". Join me in helping to Stop Child Trafficking Now! :-)

I find no suitable title

2010-09-05T23:17:00.000-05:00

Wow. I don't even know where to start on this. Partly because I don't really have my thoughts organized and partly because the situation is so unbelievably overwhelming. At the end of 2009, the Lord graciously began me on a journey. He convicted me of comfortably living in my little bubble, ignoring the injustice and poverty in the world and showed me my responsibility as a follower of Christ to combat these things. Exposing myself to these awful realities has been just that - awful.

Recently, I have been learning about something that is just beyond sickening - human trafficking. I guess I had heard these words, but had never really exposed myself to information on the issue. Last week, I finished a class I was taking at our church called "Hope Lives". It addresses the Biblical response to poverty and injustice. In that class, one of the teachers had mentioned some things about trafficking that prompted me to research the issue. What I found was beyond awful.

Before you gloss through the statistics below, try to put the faces behind what the numbers represent. Over and over in my research I read (or heard in videos) of girls getting trafficked and raped at 5 years old! That is what really killed me. My sweet Maya is 5 now. And there are multitudes of little girls just like her that are victims of this unbelievably horrible industry. Pray with me for an end to this. With the Super Bowl coming to Dallas this year there will be a great deal of trafficking that comes along with it. There are several organizations preparing for this to combat it. Jeff and I plan to get involved. I will post updates as I get them.

World View

Estimated 27 million people in bondage.
50% of victims are children.
A child sold every two minutes; 1 million children forced into the sex trade each year.
2nd-largest and fastest-growing criminal activity in the world.
Generates at least $32 billion annually for the perpetrators.
99% of victims are not rescued.
The Internet has made it extremely easy. Craigslist alone makes $36 million a year on erotic ads; it has been called the No. 1 online hub for human trafficking.

U.S. Scope

100,000-325,000 U.S. children trafficked each year within our country...and growing.
Less than 1% of cases solved.
1 out of 3 homeless youth in the U.S. sold into sex slavery within 48 hours of running away or being kicked out.
The average age of entry into sex trafficking is 12-13.
Life expectancy: 7 years.
Domestic trafficking more prevalent in the United States than victims being brought in from the other countries.
U.S. children only gain access to services by being charged with delinquency or prostitution.

Texas Is A Hub

The National Human Trafficking Hotline receives more calls from Texas than any other state.
Department of Justice designated the I-10 corridor as the No. 1 route for human trafficking in the U.S.
Breeding ground for predators thanks to numerous interstate highways, airports, malls.
Easy to market: Internet, truck stops, modeling studios, etc.
Demand skyrockets when major sporting events and conventions come to town.

DFW Realities

15% of Texas calls to hotline come from the DFW area.
Dallas and Fort Worth chosen as 2 of 10 U.S. locations by Department of Justice for assessment of scope of domestic minor sex trafficking.
Large number of homeless youth. For example, Dallas has 1,000 teens on the streets any given night and Arlington 2,000 a year.
Fairly extensive gang involvement; Mexican cartels are sending kids into Texas schools to recruit.
Most front-line defenders don't know what to look for in a victim

* Information taken from http://www.traffic911.com/, a local organization fighting child trafficking.

The Beach

2010-07-24T23:19:00.007-05:00

Miss Maya

Cousin Bo & Maya. They have the sweetest relationship!

Me & my girls

Sweet Papa (My Dad)

Loving the water!

I just want to eat him up. I'm crazy about my little man!

The whole fam. My parents, sibling and their families.

Olivia, Papa & Cooper (Papa is all sunscreened up)

My brother John and sister Ashlee doing a skit. :-)

My sweet neice McKay and nephew Bo

My sweet nephew Mays (or Cutty. Depends who you ask.) :-)

Hewitt men. :-)

What an amazing time it was with ALL of my family in one crazy nice house at the beach for a whole week. Memories were made that will last a lifetime. So blessed!

Liv's Birthday

2010-07-19T21:46:00.006-05:00

Ashlee's Home!

2010-06-04T20:17:00.007-05:00

The LONG awaited day came last week. My sweet sister Ashlee returned home from Thailand for a Summer visit. She moved there last year to work for Compassio, a ministry to street children from Burma. Over Memorial Day weekend we also celebrated my cousin Chelsea's high school graduation. Lots of family came in town and a great time was had by all. :-) Below are some pics from the weekend.

Nope. Not chocolate. Mud. :-)

2010-05-16T22:19:00.001-05:00

Love this little man, even if his eating habits gross me out. :-)

New House, New City

2010-04-16T20:09:00.005-05:00

Well, so as I signed in to the ol' HewittFam blog, I saw that it has been 4 months since I have posted anything. This is been mainly to a complete depletion of emotional, mental and at many times physical, energy.

I know I am supposed to post pictures of the kiddos here, but as luck would have it, I lent my camera (including camera card) to my cousin for the day. So, I'll see if I can put up some pics from the iPhone, but I can't guarantee anything.

Lets see, we have had quite a bit going on these last 4 months. We have made some big decisions and changes. I will start with our house. At the end of last year, Jeff and I decided that we should try to sell our house in Frisco and move closer to our church and Jeff's work. (His office is literally next door to Watermark.) So, in Feb. we put the house on the market. My amazing parents, being realtors, listed it for us. We listed it on a Friday morning, and an hour after it was entered into MLS, we got a phone call scheduling our first showing. We had 2 showings on Friday and 2 showings on Saturday. We got an offer that Saturday afternoon and had it negotiated and signed by Sunday. That's right - God sold our house in 2 days! Talk about confirmation! It was so sweet of Him to make it very clear to us that we were doing the right thing. It was also very gracious of Him to spare me all of the house cleaning due to weeks of showings with 3 little kiddos.

The Lord has been so faithful throughout this entire process. It was a hard decision for me to choose to move away from my parents, aunt, cousins and brother & sister-in-law (all within 8 minutes). I am crazy close with my family, and I loathe change, so this move to "the city" was a tad bit terrifying to me. However, the desire to have our children surrounded with Christian community outweighed the cost. We really feel that having the kids in school where they will be with their church friends and have that accountability is essential. Cutting down on commute time for Jeff and for us to church was also huge in our decision. Lastly, we felt we needed to lower our house payment to free up money in our budget for causes we feel led towards.

Well, when I agreed (to God's call) I fully expected to have to move into an old, dark, stinky, small house. I just figured that would be what we could afford. What do you know - the Lord completely outdid Himself! We just closed on our house today, and we love it! It actually wasn't on the market when we found it. There weren't many houses listed at the time we were looking that were fitting our criteria. We were very specific about the elementaries and high school we wanted to be in, so our choices were limited. I actually looked up all of the realtors that had listed houses in our preferred neighborhoods in the past 12 months, and then sent them our criteria (from my mom's email account) to see if they had any "pocket listings" (houses that would be listed in the Spring, but were not yet on the market). Only 1 realtor replied back, out of about 70 realtors. He said he had something that fit, and the rest is history. :-)

Our new house has everything we were looking for and more. The Lord was so sweet to bless us by meeting our needs, and even our wants. Our new neighborhood is called Richardson Heights Estates West, so the kids will go to Bowie, Parkhill and Pearce. The house has 4 bedrooms - the girls will share and the 4th is by the kitchen and will be a playroom. It has 3 full baths, which I feel will come in hand with 2 girls. It has a great yard, which was a big criteria of ours, and they are even leaving the swing set for us. Also, the kitchen has been totally updated, which was a major bonus.

Since several of you have asked, here are some pics of our new house. :-)

Speechless.

2009-12-07T17:09:00.006-06:00

Maya and Olivia were playing babydolls when Maya and I had the following conversation.

Maya: "See, I'm a mommy!"

Me: "Yes, and you are such a good mommy!"

Maya: "Well, Livy isn't a good mommy."

Me: "Maya, that isn't very kind to say about your sister."

Maya: "But Mommy, her baby can't breathe!"

Check out the photo of Livy's baby in a sealed tupperware container, while in the stroller. I didn't really have anything to say after that. :-)

Maya has her baby covered because "she is sleeping." Not much can explain poor Livy's baby's situation. :-)

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-10T22:41:00.007-05:00

Today we went to the pumpkin patch in Celina with the kiddos. We were there to celebrate my nephew Drew's 3rd birthday. It was pretty cold and muddy, but we still had a great time. We took 131 photos, and these are really the only ones that were very good.

This particular pumpkin patch has a petting zoo, "jumping houses" (as Maya calls them), a hay ride, a train ride, a bonfire, hot dogs and pumpkins, of course. My aunt Jamie and cousin Joy came, my parents, and my brother and his family. We are so blessed to have our family in town to get to make such fun memories together.

My Sweet Maya bear

2009-10-01T22:21:00.004-05:00

Maya 'detailing' her bike last weekend. :-)

Maya being her sweet self.

Bedtime Fun

2009-10-01T21:57:00.003-05:00

Poor Cooper. His sisters can't get enough of him. :-)

Grocery Store Evangelist

2009-09-18T08:50:00.002-05:00

Yesterday afternoon, we were at Kroger doing some grocery shopping. We went around 4pm, but we were still there when the after school / after work crowd started coming, so the store was pretty crowded. When we were in the baby isle, there were about 6 other people right there with us. Suddenly, Maya busts out super loud quoting a Psalty video with, "Come on everybody, sing with me!" She then proceeds to sing the Psalty song "God has a plan for my life". It was so stinkin' funny! She sang with great passion and volume. Off key, I might add. And of course, Livy jumped in with as much passion as Maya. It made everyone standing around feel really uncomfortable. I couldn't help but just stand there and laugh. I love my sweet little kiddos and the joy they live in everyday.

Tedashii - Make War

2009-08-29T13:33:00.006-05:00

This is a Tedashii song with typography. So great! He wrote it after hearing a Piper sermon. Tedashii performed it at church last Sunday after Todd preached. Wanted to share it here with you guys. SO powerful and convicting!

Why all the posts?

2009-08-19T22:06:00.003-05:00

Several reasons:

1.) We have actually taken pictures recently.

2.) Jeff had to work late tonight, so I'm home alone.

3.) Most of all - My sweet sister moved to Thailand in June, and the blog is how she sees the kids. She is a missionary there with a ministry called Compassio. She lives at the Thailand / Burma (Myanmar) border and works with kiddos of the refugees who have fled Burma and its corrupt government, but have no citizenship in Thailand.

I actually have 2 more posts to do. Sea World and Science Expirements (Jeff went a little crazy with dry ice a few weekends ago.) I do need to go to bed, though, so they will have to wait. I've given you enough to read for now. :-)

Cooper - 8 Months

2009-08-19T21:56:00.002-05:00

I LOVE HIM!!! I WANT TO EAT HIM UP!!! My sweet little man has completely captured my heart. He's so amazingly wonderful and the sweetest little munchkin ever. As you can see, when he smiles his face is all smile and cheeks. :-) I still can't get over how wonderful it is having a little boy. I don't ever want him to grow up, talk to girls or do scary things. I know that all those things will happen, but it feels really good to say.

Cooper is the most easy going, laid back guy I know. Even more than my daddy. That says alot. :-) He is always so happy and soaks up the constant affection he receives. I don't know how he survives it all, between me, Maya, Liv and Jeff, he is always getting his cheeks kissed. I don't think he minds, however, because he recently started leaning in with his mouth open to receive my kisses. It MELTS my heart! Another reason God gives kids moms and dads - Jeff won't be able to say no to the girls, and I won't be able to say no to Coop. :-)

Natural Bridge Caverns

2009-08-19T21:02:00.005-05:00

On our drive home from San Antonio, we stopped at the Natural Bridge Caverns. When Maya was little, we drove through the animal park (think Arbuckle Wilderness). I won't lie, that was really for me. Well, this time Jeff wanted to do the Cavern. I felt that everyone was probably too young for it, but he was so excited that I decided not to be the killjoy I can be at times.

So the cavern is 180 feet below the ground, really dark, has 99% humidity and really narrow, steep and slippery paths. The girls ended up being scared of the dark, kept slipping and the stroller wheels wouldn't work on the wet trail. Needless to say, we booked it through the tour, praying that Liv wouldn't let out one of her ear-shattering shreaks. I think Jeff has decided he needs to either re-live his Eagle Scout days without the kids for now, or just wait until they are older.

So the results - Jeff and I got some great laughs, a few cute pics and he learned that I'm "much tougher than I let on". :-) That's gotta count for something.

Maya sifting for fossils

The girls with Jeff next to a stalagmite.

I pushed Cooper in a stroller for the trek. Multiple times I had to carry the stroller with Coop in it up and down super steep stairs and hills. Jeff had to carry both girls, only slipping twice.

Maya being sweet and helping Liv because the floor was slick.

Jeff with his hand raised in victory for making it out.

The grumpiness of the girls at the end.

And sweet Coop at the end, just hanging out - as always. :-)

July Family Vacation

2009-08-19T20:52:00.004-05:00

For our family vacation this year, we drove down to South Texas to see my grandparents and go to Sea World. It was such a great time, and we are so blessed to have our children get to know their great-grandparents. Here are some sweet pics of the kids with their Gran.

Maya's Carrots

2009-08-19T20:42:00.003-05:00

Maya grew some carrots and corn in our flower bed. Obviously Frisco soil isn't the best. They were tiny, but she was SO proud.

Maya's 4th Birthday Party

2009-07-14T19:51:00.008-05:00

Maya getting her computer at her birthday breakfast.

SO excited! (sorry - out of focus)

Maya LOVES her some Curious George. This was as close as Great American Cookie Co. could get.

There were train rides.

And there were animal rides.

Cousins Drew & Rik

As you can see, Cooper enjoyed himself at the party. :-)

Maya and her sweet cousin, Joy

Maya and Grandpa (Jeff's dad)

At home, opening presents. Honey & Papa came to watch (my parents). Yaya came too, but I couldn't find a pic with her.

Table set and tea set from Grandpa. Jeff was amazed at how the girls knew right what to do and were so giggly about it. He has quickly realized he has lots of tea parties in his future.

The next morning at 8. Jeff 'seated' them 4 different times. Next time you see him, ask him for his Maitre D' voice.

My little man

2009-07-06T10:44:00.005-05:00

I thought I would put up some pics of my little man because I haven't been the best about posting of him. There are valid reasons for this, however. He sleeps alot and when he isn't asleep, I am usually either feeding him or cuddling with him. Both of those thinks take up my hands, which keeps the camera out of them. At any rate, he is the sweetest little guy. Everytime I look at him, even just on the monitor, I am overcome with warm fuzzies. :-) He melts my heart, and I have no clue how I will ever say no to him. (especially if he has even a portion of his daddy's charm) All of us girls are silly about him here. Maya and Olivia dote on him just as much as me. Jeff cuddles with him every chance he gets. Coop should grow up to be super affectionate b/c he is showered with it constantly.

Coop has a crazy laid back little personality. I know he's a boy, and he will be super active and loud and all of that, but for now he totally goes with the flow. It's like he's constanly got a Bob Marley soundtrack playing. He turned 6 months on the 22nd of June, so I took him to his 6 month appointment. He weighs 22 lbs and is in the 95th % for weight. He's a big boy. We already knew this though. He's been in 12 -18 month clothes for quite a while, and I'm about to go buy him some 18 month stuff. Coop is such a blessing to all of us, and I feel so privelaged to have him complete our little family. :-) Love you tons, buddy!

Olivia's 2nd Birthday

2009-07-05T22:23:00.004-05:00

My babies

2009-05-16T19:31:00.007-05:00

I've been wanting to actually 'blog' for quite a whle. Posting pictures with a caption or two doesn't qualify as blogging in my book, but life with 3 kiddos has forced me to change many of my expectations.

People frequently ask me, "So, hows 3?" Meaning, 3 children of course. My answer 2 months ago was vastly different from my response now. When Coop was 2 months old, sleep deprivation had piled upon sleep deprivation, and I was beyond exhausted. I honestly asked myself at times, "what did we do?!?" (Maya doesn't nap anymore, so I could never catch up on any lost sleep.)

Well, at 13 weeks, my life turned around. Cooper suddenly started consistently sleeping 13 hours at night, and I felt like I re-entered the land of the living. :-)

I can honestly say now that having 3 children is amazing. I LOVE IT! My kiddos bring me immeasurable joy. They are so much stinkin' fun! Every time I am overwhelmed with a wave of pure adoration for them, I feel like I get a little glimpse into the heart of our Lord. Here I am, a fallen sinner who is self-centered and self-seeking, and yet I can love 3 little ones so deeply. To think how much more our holy and sinless God loves us is just unfathomable to me. What a gracious picture He gave us in parenthood.

Here are some pics of my little love muffins. :-)

My girls LOVE their Papa!

To quote Livy: "Mama! Baby. Baby gettin' baf! Gettin' baf!"

Maya playing with shaving cream in the yard.

Mother's Day

2009-05-14T15:08:00.004-05:00

Because my family has quite a few little kids right now, we decided to bring in food for Mother's Day this year, rather than try to take everyone out for lunch. We picked up food at Buca's and had lunch at my parent's house. They are so sweet to host us there. The kids LOVE it. My mom bought 3 EZ-Rollerz and we actually all enjoyed them. Adults included.

My Big Boy

2009-05-14T15:00:00.003-05:00

Well, I've been putting off blogging because I wanted to post our Easter pictures first, but that hasn't worked. Jeff took the pics off of the camera and put them on his computer, and he has been swamped with work and ministry stuff, so I still don't have them. I decided to move on and post other pics and 'happenings'. Maybe by June I'll get Easter up. :-)

So, little Cooper is not so little anymore. He is huge in fact. At his 4 month appointment, he weighed just under 19 pounds. He's in 12 month clothes and fills them out very well. I realized that I don't have many pictures that really put him in proportion to anything, so I snapped a pic of him sitting in Maya's lap.

Sunglasses

2009-03-25T14:47:00.003-05:00

One thing is for certain around the Hewitt household lately. No matter where I find Livy, this is how I will find her. With her sunglasses. :-)

What we've been up to lately...

2009-03-14T23:03:00.007-05:00

I'm going to quit beginning my posts with statements like "sorry I haven't blogged in a while" or "well, it's been a long time since I've written". Apparently that is just the norm now, so there's no reason to state the obvious.

Things have been really busy and lots of fun around the Hewitt household. The kids are all growing and changing so much. Maya has been going to a MDO church programs two days a week and LOVES it. She now loves all things girly and has lost her previous love for bugs. She wants to wear skirts, dresses and jewelry all of the time. This is a welcome obsession because for several months she has been on a pajama kick. All she wanted to wear was pajamas. It was so bad that she would choose to stay at home rather than go do something fun because she didn't want to take off her pajamas. She used words like "beautiful", "so pretty" and "wonderful" to describe her pajamas. Odd. Maya has definitely inherited some of my OCD tendencies. I will say that it works in my favor lately because she likes to fold her clothes really neatly and line them up in rows. Some days those are the only clothes that get folded around here. :-) Maya is a really sweet and sensitive little girl who LOVES her family. She really cares for others and has a very joyful heart. Maya is also a wonderful helper to me. She is always there when I need something for Cooper. She does has a lot of little oddities and an extremely strong gag reflex, but then she is my daughter. I must say that I tend to have sympathy with her when eating her vegetables brings on the dry heaves. :-)

Olivia is a total character, as you can see from her pouty picture up top. Livy is really loud most of the time, but now that she is talking more, we get to hear her little speaking voice. Her words are very quiet and full of inflection. She is doing great with her talking and picks up new words every day. While Maya began her need for girly things later than most, Olivia was apparently born that way. She is OBSESSED with shoes and has to wear them all the time - even over her footed pajamas. She cries and cries "shooos" until you put some on her. Unlike her sister she HATES pajamas and wants to be fully dressed all of the time. Livy is a little monkey and figured out how to escape from her crib this month. After several nights of her and Maya visiting us in the middle of the night, we decided to get her a crib tent. While we feel a little bit like jailers, it has made our family well rested again and much happier.

Cooper is doing really well. Unfortunately, he has already been sick 3 times. Poor guy. He got the short end of the stick being a winter baby and having older sisters who bring home all sorts of germs. We do our best to try to keep their hands sanitized and off of Cooper, but they absolutely ADORE him, so it's a major challenge. We've entered the honeymoon phase with him that usually lasts until 9 or 10 months. He's a really sweet and calm baby, and I just want to smother him with kisses all the time. His smile just melts me. He's started cooing and laughing, and it's the most wonderful sound to my ears. Coop is also a major chunk. He currently weighs over 15 lbs, which makes his cheeks even more kissable. That's pretty big for a 12 week old.

The Lord has blessed our family beyond measure with such sweet and healthy kiddos. I was just thinking yesterday that they are all so unique, but they are all so much fun. I LOVE getting to be home with them and take in every minute of it. Motherhood obviously has its challenges, and there are definitely days that I get burned out, but it is also the most fulfilling and wonderful job I could ever have. I adore our kiddos and thank the Lord every day for the opportunity to spend another day with them.

Grandparents

2009-03-07T16:02:00.003-06:00

This weekend, we got to see both sets of grandparents. Having family so close is a tremendous blessing, and we are so spoiled to get to see everyone so often. I didn't get a picture of Yaya (Jeff's mom) with the kiddos, but she babysat for us on Friday night. I'll have to get one of her next time.

I love the top picture of Cooper with Papa (my dad). As I was about to take the picture I said, "Cooper....smile!". Obviously he doesn't understand that, but I'm so used to saying that with the girls, that it just came out. It was so cute because as you can see, after I said that, he flashed me this great grin. :-)

Christian Children's Books

2009-02-17T14:39:00.002-06:00

Just thought I'd pass along this blog I found. I was looking for suggestions for Christian books that I could check out at the library for my girls. This site has tons of books with reviews by Christian moms. There are multiple ways you can sort them, so it's really easy to use. Just thought some of you might find it helpful, as well. The site is Http://ccbreview.blogspot.com.

Girls

2009-02-08T22:24:00.004-06:00

Happy Boy

2009-02-08T22:22:00.003-06:00

6 Weeks

Random Pics

2009-01-27T14:14:00.005-06:00

Hello everyone out there. I know I have been a horrible blogger. Three children 3 and under is kind of kickin' my rear right now. Mainly, the no sleep is what is causing the biggest problem. My mom has come to rescue, however, and lets me sleep at their house and keeps Cooper. She wakes me up to feed him, and then keeps him the rest of the time. I actually got 4 hours in a ROW of sleep last night. First time in 5 weeks. I feel like a different person. Hopefully, Coop will start stretching things out a bit. Until then, thank the Lord for my mom!

Jeff actually bought me an awesome camera for Christmas, but I have yet to use it a whole lot. Again - the 3 kid thing. :-) Anyway, when I have the time to resize some pictures that Jeff took, I'll post them. Until then, we will have to settle for some pictures from my camera. Several are blurry. Sorry about that. Maya got her first real haircut at Sweet & Sassy. She LOVED it! When they were done, they sprayed glitter and cotton candy scent in her hair. They also put some glitter designs on her face. She thought she was quite the big girl. The picture I included of Cooper is really close and not the best, but I thought it conveyed his chub rather well. Looks like a fat Jeff, huh? :-) Last is Livy's smile. It's the 2nd one I've ever gotton on camera. Normally, as soon as I get out the camera, she runs over to it to assault it. :-)

Hope you are all doing well. Sometime I will crawl out of my cave and actually get in touch with you all again. :-)

Cooper Thomas Hewitt - December 22nd, 2008 - 8 lbs. 7 oz., 20 inches

2008-12-30T13:17:00.005-06:00

Hey, everyone! Well, this is long overdue. Nine days to be exact. Last Monday, our sweet Cooper was born. The induction went well, and after 4 pushes, Cooper joined our family. He is a big boy at 8 pounds and 7 ounces. That's big for me, at least. Maya was my biggest baby, and she was 7 pounds and 2 ounces.

On Christmas Eve we were released from the hospital and went straight to my parents' house to be with family and our girls. We did Christmas morning festivities as soon as the girls woke up on Thursday, and then Jeff and I headed back to the hospital for a 9:30 appt. to check Cooper's biliruben levels. (He had jaundice.) His levels were pretty high, so they admitted him and we stayed there all Christmas day and night. Thankfully, the next morning, his levels were down so we were able to return home.

Cooper is the sweetest little guy ever, and I'm already loving having a little boy. He is so incredibly sweet, and we feel blessed beyond belief to have another healthy child. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and well wishes.

Imminent Arrival

2008-12-21T13:32:00.003-06:00

I know. I've been a horrible blogger lately. Thought I would just post a short update. I am scheduled to be at the hospital tomorrow morning to have baby Cooper. I'm really excited, but also nervous. I've never been induced before, so it seems strange to know it's coming so soon. Supposedly, since this is my third child, it shouldn't be too long of a delivery. However, there are two things that make me a bit nervous: The Massengale head and the fact that at my 37 week appt. Cooper was measuring 40 weeks. (My doctor didn't measure me last week, so I'm not sure what he's at now.) I, by the way, have the Massengale head. :-)

I must say, I'm surprised I'm still pregnant at 39 weeks, since 37 is as long as I've gone before. I now have more sympathy for all of my friends who had to stick it out all the way to their due dates. The last weeks seem to be much longer than the earlier ones. At any rate, I'm actually feeling pretty good and really excited to meet our little boy. Please pray that we will have a safe delivery, a healthy baby and two older sisters that are more excited than jealous. :-) We will for sure post once we have some pics of sweet Cooper. Until then..........

A Bunny and A Duck

2008-11-02T21:03:00.003-06:00

I'll write about Halloween later, but I wanted to go ahead and put up some pics from the evening. :-)

Playing Outside

2008-10-23T08:27:00.004-05:00

I know. I haven't posted in a month. Honestly, I've kind of lost my passion for blogging. Suddenly, it felt like a burden I had to keep up with, rather than something fun I enjoy. Maybe I'm just big and tired and preggo. Let me rephrase - I am big and tired and preggo, but maybe that's whats causing my lack of motivation in the blogosphere. Hopefully, when I get some energy again I will be more consistent. Not sure if anyone is even still checking the blog, but just in case you are, here are some pics of the girls outside enjoying the weather. :-)

Just a few pics

2008-09-16T19:49:00.005-05:00

Maya beading. Classic concentration face. Notice the tongue. :-)

Random pic of Olivia at my parent's garage sale. I actually used to have this statue in my apartment in college. :-) Livy really liked riding it. She screamed when we took her off.

Sorry about the lack of posts. I just haven't felt like blogging lately. Now that Maya has dropped her nap and we're homeschooling some, I just don't have much free time.

Buckethead

2008-09-08T11:04:00.003-05:00

I guess we will have to add this to our list of nicknames we call Olivia. Currently, the list consists of Livy, Liv, Livers and occasionally stinkerpot and stinker. The last two are reserved for times when she has truely earned the titles.

As you can see, Olivia's new favorite thing is to put this bucket on her head and then take off walking somewhere. She thinks she's funny when she does it now, but when she first started it, she wasn't really looking for a reaction. She would just put it on her head and then go along with business as usual. Livy has turned into quite a little ham, and she's always making us laugh. I'll have to catch it on video because it's much funnier to see her in action. :-)

1st Day of School - Homeschool, that is.

2008-09-02T21:40:00.004-05:00

After much prayer, I decided not to send Maya to preschool this year. She's 3 years old, and there are plenty of great programs out there, but I just didn't have a peace about it for us this year. (At least this semester. We'll see what life is like when the new baby gets here.) That being said, today we started our little preschool curriculum at home. After grueling hours and hours over which program to use, I decided on curriculum provided at http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/. My sweet friend Chrys sent it to me. (Thanks, Chrys!) It is for preschool, and it's free! I found several other programs, but among other benefits, this one included Bible in the curriculum, so it won.

Growing up, I always LOVED school supply shopping, so you can bet I got Maya all stocked up for our endevor. She was really excited to get to use her new fat pencils (remember those?), flower spiral notebook and puppy dog folder. Her favorite part, however, was organizing all of her supplies in her supply box. She's a girl after my own heart. Last night, when I was showing Jeff everything I had bought for Maya, I told him that the supply box was my favorite thing when I started school. I include pictures of Maya in her backpack because she insisted on wearing it all day for "school". It was so cute how excited she was. She definitely has the brains for our little program. I'll have to get back to you on her attention span. :-)

I also included some random pics of Olivia because she's just so cute. :-)

Preschool Recommended Reading

2008-08-31T22:20:00.006-05:00

I've been researching curriculum for homeschooling preschoolers, and along the way I came across some great reading lists for preschoolers. Thought some of you might be interested. Enjoy! I'll let you know my findings on curriculum soon.

"100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know"
http://kids.nypl.org/reading/recommended2.cfm?ListID=61

This site has book reviews.
http://www.preschooleducation.com/breview.shtml

Classic reads
http://www.uni.edu/lettow/PBGOOD.html#top

The iPhone Phenomenon

2008-08-26T13:21:00.003-05:00

So now, instead of just Jeff being addicted to his iPhone, my sweet daughters are as well. Jeff has downloaded multiple random applications for his phone, several of which, Maya and Olivia enjoy. Now, as soon as Jeff pulls out his phone, Olivia starts reaching and fussing for him to let her play with it. Her favorite application is one that shows a coy pond. When you touch the screen it makes a ripple in the water, along with a splashing water sound, and makes the fish swim in a different direction. Here's a little video of it from Saturday. I don't have any editing software or know how to do that yet. I'll figure it out before I post any more videos - promise.

Catching up

2008-08-25T19:28:00.005-05:00

My camera batteries died a week or two ago, which accounts for the lack of pictures and postings on the blog. My sweet husband bought me a new cell phone with a camera, so I've been snapping pics to catch up on the deficiency.

I hope life is going well for everyone. Things are good with us. Olivia is walking now, so that has added a new level of excitement to the house. Maya is so proud of her, and they both squeal whenever Livy takes off walking somewhere. Jeff and I booked a Babymoon for mid-September, which I am thoroughly looking forward to. Church has been great, as has small group. I'm looking forward to everything ramping back up for the Fall, so schedules will solidify. I'm taking the Women's Bible study in the morning and then will be leading a small group at the evening study. I'm really looking forward to getting to know some more women up at church. Well, on to what you really came here for....pics of the girls.

Maya swimming with Papa. She was so excited, you'd think she was hanging on to a dolphin. Maybe one day, girl. :-)

Olivia in her big bucket. It's much easier to deal with her here than in the big pool. Call me lazy. I'm pregnant - there's my excuse.

And Olivia trying to escape from her big bucket.

Maya has a new found love for "ring around the rosey", now that Olivia can join in on the fun.

Livy with her Grandpa and Emmy (Jeff's dad and stepmom)

Bottle Results

2008-08-20T09:09:00.002-05:00

Thank you so much to all of you who posted comments or sent emails with advice on baby bottles. Besides a few exceptions, the majority of people recommended the Playtex Drop In system. They make the nipples, bottles and liners all BPA free. Most all of the bottle companies make their bottles BPA free now, but this one seems to be the least maintenance. Because you put the milk in a liner, you only have to really worry about cleaning the lid and nipple, which cuts back on quite a bit of time. You do have to buy liners, but a thrifty friend of mine told me she just washed her liners in the dishwasher and that worked great. Also, another friend told me that she purchased off brand liners at WalMart, and they were less expensive.

I tried the bottle out on Olivia and the liners really did collapse, which proved to me that air was not entering back into the bottle. She seems to like them, so hopefully little baby boy Hewitt will as well. Thanks again, ladies!

2008-08-16T09:31:00.003-05:00

Normally, I don't attempt to shop on the tax free weekend, but seeing that I am out of diapers (tax-free) and both girls need shoes, I will be venturing out. If you feel so inclined, you can see a list of tax-free items on this site: http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxpubs/tx98_490/tx98_490.html. Happy shopping!

Help me out, moms!

2008-08-14T15:10:00.005-05:00

Okay, ladies. I need some advice. I am totally late to the game and just found out today that BabiesRUs is taking back Dr. Brown baby bottles because of the whole BPA situation. (Side note - they will take them back without packaging or receipts as long as you have all of the pieces to each bottle.)

I used Dr. Brown bottles with Maya and Olivia, which I really liked. They actually make BPA free bottles now, but I was planning on switching brands mainly because of all the stinkin' parts to wash. I'm thinking with 3 kids under 4, I'm just not going to have that kind of time. I nurse, however, I always have a really hard time with milk supply, so I usually ending up having to supplement.

So, here's my question. What kind of bottles do/did you use? I've heard Playtex Drop Ins are good, but I'm a little concerned with the cost of buying liners. (Remember - I'm going to have 2 in diapers again for a while.) If those are the best, I'll go with them, but I wanted to get some advice first. Feel free to either leave a comment at this post or send an email. I'll post the results, in case anyone else is interested. Thank you in advance for your help!

4 Years!!!!

2008-08-14T14:39:00.001-05:00

Today is my 4 year wedding anniversary to my sweet husband, Jeff. I thought I would share some fun pictures of us from "the good old days" as I think back on our time together.

Jeff is incredibly wonderful and absolutely the perfect man for me. It seems so evident that God made us specially for each other. Besides being incredibly sexy, he is funny and a blast to hang out with. Jeff is a really hard worker and totally does his work unto the Lord. He's super intellectual and loves to geek out on theology, philosophy and technology. He loves the outdoors and God's creation, but unfortunately he's had to put that love on hold for now while he helps raise our little ones. One day, baby, you will get to backpack again. :-) Jeff is one of the sweetest men I've ever even heard about, and he takes care of me and our girls with such a servant's heart. Don't think he's a sissy, however. He can fix ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. He painted (like construction) his way through college and has all sorts of talents and abilities. Never thought I'd end up with someone in manual labor. ;-)

Most of all, Jeff loves the Lord with all of his heart. He has crazy amounts of knowledge about the Bible, but it isn't just stuck in his head. He lives it out every day. He leads me (which isn't always easy) and our family so excellently. Next to my salvation, Jeff is the greatest gift the Lord could ever give me. Happy Anniversary, sweetheart! Lord willing, I'm looking forward to many many many more years with you!

Unexpected Sonogram

2008-08-05T09:50:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I've been waiting to post this because I was going to cut out my sonogram and then scan it in to my computer, but today (a week later) I decided that may never happen, so I'm posting without a sono pic.

Well, the verdict is in . . . we're having a baby BOY! We are both thrilled! I am so humbled that the Lord continues to bless us so immensely. We were really hoping for a boy this time, even though we would have been so excited to have another sweet daughter. I will say, I'm a bit nervous about taking care of a boy. Obviously, there are things I'm not used to dealing with. Thankfully, I have a mom, two sister-in-laws, and several sweet friends who have all had boys before me, so I should at least know where to go with my questions. :-)

The thing that makes me most happy is that Jeff will have a little buddy. Not that his girls aren't his buddies, but I mean a buddy who isn't scared of loud noises and such. Jeff is an INCREDIBLE daddy to little girls. It is so obvious to me why the Lord gave him daughters because he is just awesome with them. I am so thankful that he is going to get a little boy now. I know it is going to add a whole new level of worry to my life between all of their backpacking outings, fires and explosive projects. That's okay though because I know it will just show me how to rely on the Lord even more. It's pretty easy to rely on Him when you are rarely in scary or uncomfortable situations.

Well, I titled this post 'unexpected sonogram' because I went in for one of my regular appointments (with both girls in tow), and after we had already been there for an hour, my doctor popped in to tell me they were going to do a sono in a few minutes. Needless to say, I was pretty worried, considering my girls were already really restless. Thankfully, the Lord kept them somewhat controllable, and Livy only fussed during the scan, rather than letting out her normal blood-curdeling screams. Maya was really cute. She stood by me and held my hand, as if she was comforting me through a scary procedure. When the doctor announced we had a little boy, Maya said, "Ohhhh...he's so sweet!" in her most motherly voice. She LOVES babies and is really excited to be getting a little baby brother. She loves "petting him" and giving my him (my belly) kisses.

Thank you Lord for the wonderful gift of a son!

Pigtails

2008-08-04T08:46:00.001-05:00

I had forgotten how early I put pigtails in Maya's hair. My friend Michelle put them in her little girl's hair, and so I tried them in Olivia's hair. My camera battery ran out, so I only got two pics. I'll try to get some batteries here in the next few days to get more pics of the girls. :-)

Home Depot

2008-08-04T08:31:00.000-05:00

One of the things that Maya usually does with her daddy on the weekends, is make a run to Home Depot or Lowes. This weekend she participated in the Kid's workshop and made a project. She got her very own Home Depot apron with a pin for completing the week's project. Home Depot has the Kid's workshop on the first Saturday of every month, and the best part is that it's free. Jeff took this pic on his phone.

Maya's Bug Birthday Bash - She's 3!!!

2008-07-30T14:02:00.005-05:00

Maya's Birthday Breakfast

Maya examining her bug center piece

Olivia after eating a cupcake with Papa

About as crafty as I get. :-)

Leftover cupcakes. We had ladybugs and worms.

Saturday was Maya's 3rd birthday, and we celebrated with a bug party at the Spray Park. Bugs are Maya's favorite thing right now, and actually have been consistently for about a year now. She does love her necklaces and bracelets, however she hasn't progressed to princess worship like many of the little girls her age. Who knows, she may never get there. I guess it may be because we don't watch all of the princess type movies and shows. I'm not a huge fan of those, but that's just my personal issue with media influences. Anyways, I digress...

Maya had a great time at her party and informed her daddy that she "is going to grow up next week." That comment actually made Jeff rather sad, and he asked me what I had been telling her. :-) Daddy's and their little girls are just the sweetest thing to me. (Below you can see a picture of my daddy, aka "Papa" now.)

Maya has grown up a ton in the past year. It's amazing the changes between 2 and 3 years of age. Maya has such a sweet, sensitive spirit and a really tender heart. If she ever sees anyone upset or crying, she immediately tries to comfort them. (That usually means she takes them some food or gives them her sippy cup. Not sure what that says about my comforting tools, but we won't worry about that right now.) She sincerely empathizes with the person in distress. When my sister went to Myanmar this year, there were times that Maya would see me cry, and she immediately started to tend to me.

Maya has been gaining a little bit of Independence lately. The phrase, "No, Maya can do it! I can do it by myself," is very commonly heard around here. I would not by any means label her 'independent,' however. She will play by herself, but only as long as you are right there. She doesn't have to always be entertained, but she does always have to be with someone. My mom informed me that I was the same way when I was little, and I've grown up to be a fairly successful adult, so I won't worry about that either. :-) Besides, I know the day will come when I will have to pry her from her room and beg her to just hang around a little more. I'll enjoy her clingyness while I can.

One label I will give her is 'animated'. You never have to guess how Maya is feeling. She has a million different expressions, and they fit her moods precisely. I love the way she furrows her eyebrows and shakes her head when she says thinks like, "I don't think he can talk very good, Mom" (speaking of the robotic Chuckee Cheese who lip sings songs on stage.) And I love how she cocks her head to the side and gives a squished up smile when she pets a rolly polly and says, "Aww....sweet bug. Look at this sweet bug, Mom! He's so sweet!"

Another thing that has shown up this year is her nurturing tendency. Maya LOVES babies, I mean LOVES them. She is the sweetest big sister. She is always taking care of Olivia and trying to help her with things. She talks to her in this sweet, soft voice that is just priceless to hear coming from a 3 year old. She is really motherly, and it's awesome! I love seeing her act out her natural, God-given instincts at such an early age.

Sweet Maya, you are one of a kind and have enriched our lives so incredibly. Your fun loving personality and sweet temperament bless us everyday. We are so grateful to the Lord for entrusting us with you, our sweet first born. Happy Birthday, little one!

Officially Partners in Crime

2008-07-24T09:40:00.002-05:00

Yes, they are now officially partners in crime. I was in the other room, picking up the kitchen, when I realized that both girls were gone. The sound of running water is what prompted this realization. Maya loves water so much, that I let her place in my bathroom sink, as long as she follows some rules I set for her. When I went into the bathroom, this is the scene I found. Sweet Maya had pulled two stools to the sink so that Olivia could join her in a water adventure. Livy had somehow acquired a wooden spoon to stir their concoction. Livy was up on her tippy toes to reach the sink. They were having a blast, and it was really cute. In the last picture you can see that they were both screaming at the top of their lungs the girly little squeal that just amazes Jeff. :-) Gotta love girls!

Port A

2008-07-23T09:11:00.007-05:00

A few weeks ago we went to Port Aransas, TX for our annual family reunion. The beach is not so great, so we definitely go to be with family. My mom's side of the family has been going there for almost 60 years. Last year, Jeff and I didn't get to go because Olivia was only a few days old.

As all of you with small children know, vacation isn't real relaxing or restful once you have kiddos. I know once the girls are bigger, that will change, but for now, that is just our season of life. Olivia was only happy at the beach if she was crawling directly into the surf. She wasn't content to just crawl along the shoreline. She had to go face first into the water to be happy. Of course, she wasn't happy for long because soon after crawling into the waves, she would get a face full of water. My job consisted of following her as she crawled into the water, scooping her up just before a big wave smacked her in the face, carrying her back up to the shore (her screaming at me in anger on the trip back), putting her back down on the shore, and then repeating it all over again. It's funny....when I was a child, I remember actually getting bored at the beach. :-)

Maya enjoyed playing at the beach, but she was a little nervous to go out into the water very far. By the last day she was brave enough to go out in the water in a blow up boat with some of her cousins. (I think the fact that her Great Aunt Jamie was pulling the boat made all the difference.) :-)

All in all it was a fun trip. It was wonderful having Jeff off work and spending so much time together as a family. We had a blast hanging out with my parents, all of the siblings, cousins, grandparents and other relatives. Above are a few pictures from the beach. The little boy with Maya is Beau, my brother Jake's little boy. They were inseparable the entire time. It was really fun watching them play. I know they will just become better and better friends as they get older.

Best Brownie Pan EVER

2008-07-21T09:06:00.004-05:00

This is the Baker's Edge Brownie Pan. I got this as a hostess gift for a bridal shower that I helped host, and I LOVE it. I have a strong infatuation for brownies in the first place, and at our house the edges are the first pieces to go. This pan gives you all edges. I like my brownies chewy, and this pan cooks them perfectly. I know you can order the pan online, but you may be able to buy it in stores - not sure. We just made some and Maya and I have been enjoying them. (Yes, I'm aware that it is only 9:00 am, but the girls got up at 6:30 morning, so really it's almost lunch time on the Hewitt Clock.) :-)

Motherhood

2008-07-09T09:40:00.002-05:00

I went to an event at Watermark last month that was for mothers of preschoolers. Each month they provide childcare and have a speaker come in and speak on an issue relevent to moms in this phase of life. I was going back through my notes and found this quote. I wanted to share it because I think it captures the essence of motherhood perfectly.

"...someone once said that deciding to have children is like deciding to let your heart walk around outside your body for the rest of your life. And it's true. Once you have held your very first child in your arms, once you have gazed into those trusting eyes and nuzzled the warm softness of your baby's cheek, you will never be the same." --Kathi Mills

Fireworks

2008-07-07T12:35:00.007-05:00

Jeff's favorite holiday is the 4th of July. My husband LOVES fireworks. As with many of his 'loves', he tries to pass them on to Maya. She actually really does like fireworks, but being a little girl, her favorites are smoke bombs and sparklers. When the smoke bombs start sending out colored smoke, Maya 'oohs' and 'ahhs' and dances around in it. One particular time, Jeff set off a super smoke bomb called "Desert Storm" and Maya inhaled some of the smoke. Needless to say, there was a lot of coughing. To aid in her continued enjoyment of the evening, we got Maya one of Papa's face masks he uses while mowing the lawn. (They help with his allergies.) So while some of the pictures may look like Maya is in a war zone, she is actually just having a ball in her Honey & Papa's yard playing fireworks with her daddy. :-)

* It has been brought to my attention that the bottom picture looks as if Maya is lighting fireworks by herself. I assure you, this was not the case. Even though she is holding Roman Candles, the only thing she held was a sparkler that had already been lit. :-)

Big Girl Seat

2008-07-07T12:29:00.004-05:00

Here is a pic of Olivia in her big girl car seat. She LOVES facing forward and seeing everyone. You can't tell from the pic because she still won't smile for the camera, but just before I shot this photo, she was giggling up a storm with Maya. When Livy faces forward (instead of to the side, like she is in this picture), her chunky little cheeks rest on both of the strap pads. I love glancing in my mirror now and seeing two sweet little faces staring back at me instead of just one. :-)

My Baby Is One!

2008-06-27T20:07:00.006-05:00

"STOP taking pictures, Mom!"

Maya & Her cousin, Erin

Well, unfortunately, you can't slow down time, and it has happened.....my little Olivia is now one year old. I can't believe how fast the weeks are flying off the calendar. Maya and Olivia bring me so much joy, and I LOVE staying home with them. I thank God and Jeff often for that privilege.

For Olivia's birthday, we had a really small party that consisted mainly of family and a few close friends. Olivia had her own cake, however she didn't act that excited about it. She just proceeded to eat it, as if having a huge cake put in front of her to eat with her hands was a totally normal occurrence in her life. This is pretty standard for her. If I ever give her food that she doesn't like, she doesn't make a face, she just uneventfully spits it out. Above are a few pictures from her birthday. Most of the pics from that day are on my sister's camera, so I'll post more when I get the memory card from her.

Lessons learned....

2008-06-19T14:05:00.008-05:00

Wow - the lessons the Lord has taught me over the last 3 days! I suppose I'll just start at the beginning. Tuesday, Olivia had her 12 month checkup at the doctor. Everything checked out great with her, and she is growing by leaps and bounds. At the end of the appointment, I mentioned that I was thinking about bringing Maya in to see him, but thought I might just wait a month for her 3 year checkup. I explained that she seems to get a low grade fever fairly often with no other symptoms and that she has been complaining of foot pain more and more lately. I go to Dr. Seth Kaplan (in Frisco), whom I really like. He tends to be rather proactive, but that is definitely my preference. At any rate, he said he'd like to see her in the office this week, so I made her an appointment for later that afternoon.

Long story short - after examining her, he sent us to get blood drawn to test for Leukemia. Yes - Cancer. Maya did really well, even though they took 2 viles of blood from her arm. Of course, she screamed while they drew the blood (staring at the needle the whole time), but she recovered pretty quickly afterwards. It took everything in me to not cry with her. Afterwards we went to McDonald's to get her an ice cream. When we got home she showed her Papa where she had a "hole where they took out my blood".

For what seemed like an eternity, we waited to hear the results. I prayed, cried and thought a great deal. It was only about a 36 hour wait, but the Lord showed me so much in that time. He showed me how fragile life really is and reminded me that we have no guarantees here on earth. Our only guarantee is that if we admit our state as sinners and enter into a relationship with Him as our Saviour, we will get to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. That is one thing that believers can be assured of, but there isn't a ton more beyond that. We know that God is good, and that He loves us. We know that He works all things together for good for those who love Him. None of the things we know, however, assure us 50 long years with our children.

The Lord also reminded me of what an incredible gift our sweet children are. He lovingly lends us some of His children for a while and gives us the tremendous privilege and responsibility of showing them the Heavenly Father's love. Parenting is such an awesome gift, and I know at times I treat it like something I just have to survive. I LOVE our girls tremendously, but I can get lazy and impatient and not always mirror Christ's love for them.

Maya is such a sweet little thing, but she has her mommy's type A tendencies, so naturally we can clash a bit. She has her own ideas about the way things should be done, and it takes more than a short explanation from me to show her otherwise. At the thought of her being ill, I thanked God for her strong will and determination, knowing that would help her fight whatever sickness might be overtaking her sweet little body.

The Lord has also taught me that it isn't my job to control my children and mold them (and their behavior) into exactly how I think they should be and act. It's my job to learn and nurture the personalities and talents the Lord has given them and help mold them into who He has specially designed them to be. Right now it looks like Maya is headed to be an entomologist, but she may grow out of her passion for bugs. Who knows? :-)

God parents His children (believers) with love and grace. He doesn't always bring down the iron fist on us. He abolished the Law, and through Christ, provided us with grace. Through this whole situation, the Lord has shown me I need to be more graceful in my life, specifically with my children. Life is short, and the small battles usually aren't really worth fighting. If how I parent them is what is going to teach them about how the Father loves us, it must be a parenting style overflowing with grace. I cannot get hung up on my legalistic, suburban Frisco version of parenting. If Maya wants to carry crickets around with her in public, and I don't want her to because I don't want other moms to think badly of her or me, it is ridiculous for me to bring her to tears because she has to leave her little friend behind because "girls aren't supposed to like bugs". God made Maya a bug lover. I love God, and I love Maya, so now bugs are a part of my life. People may look at us and see a little girl with a gross bug and an irresponsible mom, but they will at least see joy in Maya's big brown eyes.

Praise the Lord and His grace over our family that the test results all came back normal, and Maya is a healthy little girl today. Above are some recent pictures of my own little gifts. :-)

Catching Up

2008-06-13T11:09:00.004-05:00

Sorry I haven't blogged in a little while. We went to my grandparent's house for about a week, and that threw off my blogging routine. I've been working to catch up on everything since I got back. I don't have much to post, but I'll get more pictures up soon.

The first two pictures are from a trip to Chuckee Cheeses. This is one of Maya's favorite places, and it appears it won't be long before Olivia follows suit. The other pics are of Olivia playing with Maya's kitchen. Livy LOVES it. I love this age because whenever babies play, they are so intent that it looks like they're working at a job. (This is especially true with Olivia because she works up such a sweat because she plays so hard.) :-)

Summer Begins

2008-05-29T07:43:00.003-05:00

This weekend Maya had her very first ice cream cone. If you know me and Jeff very well, you know she's been getting ice cream for quite a while, but this was her first cone. Normally when Maya gets ice cream we are out somewhere, so we hadn't let her attempt a cone yet. Maya's YaYa (Jeff's mom) brought over dinner and ice cream on Sunday night, and Maya thoroughly enjoyed it.

I threw in a pic of Livy to show you what my view has been lately. I was trying to take a picture of her, and she frustratedly pulled up on my shirt. She wants to walk really bad and is pulling up on everything lately, including me. She pulls up on my the bottom of my shorts quite often, and then tries to walk when I start walking. Because of the odd angle this puts her in, she of course falls pretty quickly. She is however very successful with her push toys. She stays between an crooked walk and run. I'll try to put up some pictures of that. It's amusing to say the least.

Ashlee is Back from Myanmar

2008-05-20T15:14:00.002-05:00

Thank you so much to all of you who have prayed for Ashlee and her time in Myanmar (Burma). She has written on her blog about the trip, so I thought I'd share the link. Her blog is Http://www.wheresashlee.blogspot.com.

Pool Pics

2008-05-15T20:26:00.004-05:00

We had our first trip of the season to the pool with our friends Jolene, Jaelyn and Jax. It was so fun to hang out with them, but I must say that the pool with two non-swimming children is pretty tiring. Olivia loved the water and kept crawling face first into the water. Maya did the same thing her first Summer at the pool. None of these pictures are great of Olivia's face, but I think the cutest thing about bathing suits is seeing little chubby bodies protruding from them. :-)

Myanmar

2008-05-08T13:40:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to write a post to please ask all of you to pray for the people of Myanmar and for my sister. If you've been watching the news at all, I'm sure you've heard about the cyclone that hit there last week and the horrific conditions that it left in its path. The U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar is estimating the death toll at around 100,000. Their government is extremely corrupt and is doing very little (if anything) to help its people. Just yesterday (I think) they began granting a small number of Visas to relief workers to enter the country and help their people, but they have been very resistant to allow outside help. Everything in Myanmar is controlled by the government, including all of the media. Their TV stations have been reporting the government is welcoming help from anywhere and everywhere, (but in reality haven't been letting relief workers in), so I'm sure the citizens think that no one cares about them.

Ash spent several weeks in Myanmar a few months ago, so when her church offered the opportunity to head there to work with a Christian relief agency, she jumped at the chance. The cyclone actually hit the exact area she had been working in previously. She is extremely excited and humbled to have the opportunity to return to Myanmar to aid their people and share Christ's love. Lord willing, God will call people to Himself through this horrible tragedy. Myanmar is almost entirely Buddhist and very closed to the Gospel. This will be an awesome time for God to send in His people to spread His truth.

My little teenager

2008-05-06T14:36:00.004-05:00

The other day after going to another room to do some chores, I returned to the living room to this scene. Maya was perched up on the couch, munching on some goldfish and 'reading' my Pottery Barn Kids magazine. I thought it was so cute that I had to snap a few pictures. I watched for a while, and she was really looking at all of the pictures and going through the magazine carefully. I asked her if she liked it, and she pointed to a particular bed and said very matter-of-fact, "I like this one. It's pretty." So sweet. :-)

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

2008-05-06T14:25:00.002-05:00

This morning was gray and rainy, so I decided we needed a little pick me up and made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. (While pregnant, a pick me up usually includes chocolate.) They are the breakfast favorite at our house. My girls both inherited their mom's sweet tooth. Maya has mastered the art of eating them without making a mess, but as you can tell, Olivia isn't even close.

What's life like with 3 children?

2008-04-28T16:03:00.000-05:00

Well, Lord willing, we will know in December. :-) That's right - I'm pregnant again!!! We are so excited that we will be having another little Hewitt! It was definitely a surprise to us, but we couldn't be happier. We definitely wanted another child, but we just didn't think we would get one quite yet. The Lord had other plans, and we are so grateful for His sovereignty in our lives.

So, here's the story. Two weeks ago I started having some crazy dreams. It didn't really register with me until the fourth night in a row, when I thought to myself, "these are almost like those crazy pregnancy dreams I have." Friday night, I had two dreams, the second of which I had to deliver this girl's baby for her because 911 wouldn't dial on my phone. That dream woke me up, and I couldn't go back to sleep.

At 6:30 on Saturday morning I took Olivia (my 10 month old, mind you) with me to Kroger to buy a pregnancy test. I came home and took it, and there was that little pink plus sign. I couldn't believe it, but it was there. Jeff was still in bed, but by this time Maya had gone in there to snuggle with him. I called her into the hall and then sent her back into the bedroom to give Jeff the test. Jeff sat straight up and with the most solemn face I've ever seen on him, said, "Are you serious?!?" That was followed by, "Are you okay?!?"

See, two weeks before, I had been telling him how tired I was and how I just didn't know when I would be ready to have the next baby. He told me that his reaction to the test was worry for me because he immediately remembered my comments from the previous week. Thankfully enough, that week the Lord had really started to change my heart. I had actually had the thought on Thursday, "I'm not necessarilly ready to start trying again, but if I get pregnant, I'm okay with that." Funny how that comment sounds like I'm so in control of things, when in reality, it was the Lord who changed my heart because it was in His plan for us to have our next child. :-)

Jeff and I are thrilled to be having another baby and feel overwhelming blessed that the Lord chose us to be parents again. I go to the doctor on Thursday, so if I get any news then, I'll be sure to post it. :-)

Sweetest Husband Ever!

2008-04-28T14:27:00.000-05:00

This card was given to me by Jeff with a really sweet note inside. I can't believe he found this card because it is so true. My husband is so sacrificial and selfless with me, but if I mess with his fries or dessert, look out! :-)

Jeff treated me to a night out on Friday, and it was so great. When I got in the car, Jeff had a beautiful rose, card (above) and bottle of sparkling cider sitting in my seat. He knows I love wine, but can't have it right now. He then took me to The Silver Fox steakhouse for dinner, which was good, however we both agreed that III Forks is still our favorite steak place. When we are going to go out for a nice dinner we always end up trying other restaurants and then decide we should have just gone back to the old faithful. :-) After dinner we went downtown and checked in to our hotel.

The next morning we went to Cafe Brazil for breakfast, where I got my favorite chicken crepes. BTW - If you have not eaten at Cafe Brazil, you're missing out! Most of Saturday we shopped around North Park and then went to The Cheesecake Factory for an afternoon meal.

Spending uninterrupted time with my sweet husband was WONDERFUL! Getting to focus on just each other for almost 24 hours was such a gift. He is so fun and smart and witty, not to mention unbelievably romantic. I was reminded of how blessed I am to be his wife and how incredible he is. Being married to Jeff has taught me so much about how Christ loves us. Jeff truly dies to himself daily to love me, as Christ did for the Church. (Let me mention that loving me is many times not very easy.) Having Jeff so unconditionally and sacrificially love me gives me a better understand of how Christ loves us. Even though in my head I understand that God's love for us is unconditional, my heart has always struggled with believing it. Being married to Jeff has given me a true picture of Christ's love for me, and I am forever grateful! Thank you babe. I love you!

**Sorry to gush so much about my husband in this last post, but I don't brag on him near enough!

New Pics

2008-04-26T20:25:00.003-05:00

Thought I'd put up a few new pictures of the girls. I only have one pic on here of Maya because for some reason in most of the recent pictures I have of her, she doesn't have a shirt on. She has gotten really good at undressing, so she takes her shirt off all the time (at home) Hopefully, she'll get used to staying dressed soon. :-)

Olivia is chunking up quite a bit, as you can tell by her cheeks. She's really happy these days, but when I get out the camera she gets super serious.

Get 'Expelled'

2008-04-17T13:19:00.006-05:00

In case you haven't heard about a movie that is coming out this weekend, I thought I'd spread the word. The documentary called "Expelled - The Contraversy Over Intelligent Design Vs. Darwinism" is coming out on Friday. Ben Stein did it, so it's supposed to be really entertaining, but it is also a great cause. The movie is working to expose the overwhelming bias within the scientific and educational communities against the possibility of Intelligent Design. Many of the scientists who believe in the idea of intelligent design aren't necessarily Christians, they just don't think that the facts are there to support Darwinism.

This film is endorsed by James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Chuck Colson, Lee Strobel, and Evangelist Luis Palau. The movie "blew Rush Limbaugh away", and Mike Huckabee has an Internet endorsement for the movie.

If you want to study the issue more, there are some great resources out there. A great place to start is with the book "Darwin's Demise." It is really easy to read and has a ton of great information. Here is a link to a site that gives a brief summary about the book. Also, Probe Ministries has an incredible amount of Apologetics information. Their page on Origin of Life issues is here, on which they have 39 articles on the issue.

Parenting....

2008-04-14T13:50:00.005-05:00

So, in my limited experience of almost 3 years, I am NOT going to write some instructional post on parenting. The Lord has been teaching me so much on the issue lately, though, so I thought I would share.

I love to teach, and I have always looked at mothering as teaching your children, whether it be their letters or about the Lord. Through several different sources lately, God has been showing me that parenting is as much (if not more) about modeling than it is about teaching. I was listening to some MP3s from a previous parenting conference at our church, and our pastor shared an old saying. He said, "children may rarely do what you say, but they will rarely fail to do what you do." Can I say, CONVICTING?!?

It's not that I thought I had 'arrived' and had dealt with all of my issues, but I had been putting my primary focus on how to teach my girls Biblical truths, rather than making sure I was still working on my own faults. I have realized that if I don't deal with my insecurities, it doesn't matter how much I 'teach' my children about being secure in their identity in Christ. What they are going to end up learning is that if you don't look a certain way, you don't have any reason to be secure in yourself. That is the absolute last thing in the world I want my girls to believe, but I know that if they see that in me, they will follow suit.

So...not only is there all this stuff to learn about parenting, shepharding and discipling our children, but also we have to get (and keep) our own personal issues in check. When I start to get overwhelmed with this awesome responsibility, the Lord reminds me that thankfully, it isn't up to me and my own power to change. As long as I surrender to the Spirit's work in my life, my heavenly Father will do the work.

Hebrews 12:2 "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith......" (emphasis mine)

What happens when you leave the kids with Daddy?

2008-04-14T08:19:00.000-05:00

Most moms know that dads tend to parent a bit differently. Not necessarily when Mom is present, but definitely when Dad has been left in charge and alone. I helped host a wedding shower on Saturday morning, and Jeff kept both the girls at home. When I got home about 2:30 pm, this is how I found him. In the new flower bed with Olivia and toys. :-) I had to take a picture because I thought it was so cute. I must say Livy was having a blast. You might notice the dirt on Livy's lips in the second picture. She LOVES eating it lately. I have to stay really close to her in the backyard because she is always either eating handfuls of grass or dirt.

Geekin' Out

2008-04-04T23:17:00.002-05:00

Yes....I really did title this post that. I've been on the computer in lots of my 'child-free' time lately, working on various projects. My parents are realtors, and I've been working to revamp their website. (My sister has taken over that project since she's working for them right now.) I've also been working on a site for a side business my mom and I have schemed up. My HTML skills are pretty rusty, and most everyone is using CSS now to make sites prettier, so needless to say I've had a lot of studying to do. Jeff turned me on to DotNetNuke, which is an open source (free) web application framework for developing websites. I highly recomend it if you don't have a ton of web experience. It's been really helpful for me.

One thing I've been studying alot is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). That basically just means how to optimize your site in a way that search engines deem it valuable and therefore give it high placement in search results. Good placement = more traffic to your site. HTMLgoodies.com has an excellent article on SEO, and Google webmaster tools are invaluable if you work on any websites. Google actually provides a good deal of information on how to best optimize your site and content. It has been really interesting reading for me.

I'm considering taking a continuing education class at CCCC this Summer on some Internet technologies, and of course, Jeff was more than supportive. He's just happy he has someone to geek out with now. :-)

Spring & Robeez

2008-03-28T13:30:00.003-05:00

Good afternoon! I cannot tell you the joy I have that Spring is nearing. Personally, I have a great distaste for Winter and the gloomy weather that usually accompanies it. My energy level kicks into high gear once Spring gets here, and I am reminded what it feels like to have ambition and drive again. Today is not the best example of Spring weather, but we can all take heart that the sun is on its way. For those of you that commented over the course of the Winter that I "never showed up anywhere anymore", plan to see me again. :-)

On another note, I wanted to let everyone know about a new little thing I've got going on. You may notice on the right sidebar of my blog, the Robeez link. I have joined Robeez as an affiliate, which basically means that I can make a little extra money by helping to market their cute little shoes. That being said, if you ever intend to order any Robeez shoes online, I would really appreciate it if you would click through my link to get to their site. Thanks for your consideration!

Easter Pics

2008-03-24T10:30:00.007-05:00

Easter is my favorite holiday, and this year was no disappointment. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day. We had an Easter egg hunt with our good friends the Hansons. Jaylen is Maya's BFF. LOL! The last picture is from our neighborhood Easter party. It's not great of the girls, but I had to put up a pic of my hottie husband. :-)

In Christ Alone

2008-03-13T10:30:00.008-05:00

I haven't actually written anything in quite awhile. Jeff and I have been going through a very hard and very sweet time. We've had some big decisions to make, and that's pretty much been taking up most of my thought life (and prayer time).

At women's Bible study yesterday, an incredibly talented woman sang the song "In Christ Alone." They put the words on the screen to meditate on, and they are SO beautiful. I've heard the song before, but have never really payed close attention to the words. I'm extremely visual, so I almost always have to read things myself to really take them in. As I was reminded of Christ's love for us and the hope we have in Him, I was overwhelmed as I listened. I've posted the words below.

"In Christ Alone"
In Christ alone my hope is found; He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground, Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace, When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all — Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh, Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness, Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died, The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid — Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day, Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory, Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine — Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death — This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man, Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home — Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.

Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2001 Kingsway

Praise God for the truths in this song!

New Pics

2008-03-08T10:13:00.002-06:00

It's snowing!!!

2008-03-08T10:10:00.003-06:00

Crazy - snow in March in Texas! Maya had a blast building snow daddy and snow Maya with Jeff. :-)

Maya & Her "Ridingcyle"

2008-01-21T15:01:00.000-06:00

Maya & Olivia with Grandpa (Jeff's Dad)

Let's see, it's been a while since I've actually given an update on the girls. Olivia and Maya both have new 'tricks' since I've last posted. Maya can now ride her tricycle. She received it from her Honey & Papa for Christmas, but couldn't really ride it until this weekend. I've been working with her on it, but she couldn't quite get the peddling down.

A few or so ago, we bought Maya the Elmo 'Pottytime' DVD because she is defiantly against using the potty. Physically, she is completely ready, however she has her mind made up that she will have nothing to do with it right now. Even though in my pre-children life, I swore I would never have any of those 'gross books and movies', I broke down and bought one. Paying for diapers and wipes for two children, and now formula since weining Olivia, finally broke my spirit. Why do I mention this DVD here? Well, the first time Maya rode her tricycle by herself she said, "Look! I'm riding like Elmo!" Yes, that's right......we bought Maya an Elmo movie to teach her to use the toilet, and insted she learned to ride her tricyle. Did she learn that in addition to using the toilet? No. She learned that instead. Hopefully, some time in the near future, Maya will decide to move forward with potty training. For now, we are just making budget meals and suffering through it. :-)

Olivia recently began babbling and is quite cute. She can also roll from her belly over to her back. She had already mastered rolling from her back to her belly, but she would get stuck and very angry about it. She's at the stage where she isn't crawling yet, but when you come back to the room after being gone for a minute or two, she is in a different place than when you left her.

Olivia and Maya are both just silly about each other. All Maya has to do is walk into the room, and Livy starts laughing. And Olivia is the first person Maya wants to see in the morning. I've moved to third place (behind Olivia and then Jeff). I know when my sister Ashlee comes back to town, that will shift me even further down the line. :-)

Speaking of Ashlee, thank you to all of you who have been praying for her. She is back in Bangkok from Myanmar, and we are soooo glad! She is doing really well and has been having an incredible ministry over there. I miss her so and am ready for her to come back home. She is due to come back to Dallas at the beginning of March, I believe. Please keep her in your prayers.

Christmas - Long overdue

2008-01-04T14:58:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures from the Christmas season. This year was really fun because Maya had more of an awareness of what was going on. Olivia didn't, of course, but she got lots of lovin' from all of the family. We had a birthday cake for Jesus and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Him. Because I know what it's like to have a sweet tooth, we ate cake for breakfast on Christmas morning. The bottom picture captures the surprise Maya had when she unwrapped Elmo. She talked with him like he was real. It was super cute.

Olivia is 6 Months Old

2007-12-05T13:38:00.000-06:00

Well, almost 6 months. I just thought this picture was really sweet, so I decided to go ahead and post. :-) While Maya is our full of energy, performer, Olivia is our laid back little angel.

Starring........Maya!

2007-12-04T21:43:00.000-06:00

We have a star in the making! I've posted this (thanks to my sweet tech-savy husband) for my sister Ashlee. She is leaving for Bangkok where she will begin her outreach in Tailand. I would absolutely love your prayers for her as she begins her outreach.

We are all going to miss talking with her soooooo much! Ash wanted to see Miss Maya one last time before she left the U.S., so here she is.

A few notes on this performance. For some reason, when we put Maya's new jacket on her, she kept falling and then couldn't get up. So odd. Then you will hear this little angelic voice turn bossy and demanding when she wants to see the video of herself. LOVE those toddlers!!!

Olivia is 5 months old

2007-11-16T13:07:00.001-06:00

Here are a few pics I took of Livy yesterday. She is getting
older, but not a whole lot bigger. She is in the 18%
percentile for weight. That's a far cry from Maya's 97% we
have going on. She's a petite little cutey!

Bible Study Tools

2007-11-14T13:26:00.002-06:00

I realized I haven't posted in a while, so I was trying to figure out what I should post. I haven't taken any pics of the girls recently, so I surveyed my last few weeks to see what I have been doing.

I found that I have been doing alot of studying because I'm currently teaching a Bible study at the church. I thought I would pass along some of the resources I use that are available online. So here is a listing.

Study Light http://www.studylight.org/
Blue Letter Bible www.blueletterbible.org
Bible.org www.bible.org
Sonic Light www.soniclight.com

Sonic Light is currently my new favorite because it has ALL of the notes of Dr. Thomas L. Constable, who is a Professor of Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary. It is a compliation of 25 years worth of work that spans 7,000 pages of commentary over all 66 books of the Bible. It is stinkin' INCREDIBLE!!!!

I'll continue to add to these as I find more jewels, but this is a great place to start if you want to dig deeper into Scripture!

Halloween!!!

2007-11-01T21:45:00.000-05:00

Poor Livy. I woke her up at playgroup, so that we could take pictures.

She tried to flash a smile for Mommy. She had been sick, so I didn't

drag her out Halloween night.

Maya enjoyed Trick or Treating and showed off her sweet manners

for each neighbor. She didn't get as excited as we thought she would

while she was going door to door, but once she was home she had a

ton of fun going through her candy.

By the way, don't try taking

candy from Miss Maya. She

will subtly let you know that

she doesn't appreciate it. :-)

Do we really become more like our spouses?

2007-10-29T20:33:00.000-05:00

Jeff and I have this new ongoing joke between ourselves. He says that I am becoming him. He says that this is due to the fact that it's just better being him. [If you know him very well, you can see him saying this with a smug smile on his face.][ Jeff is a very humble person, but he is also a professional-grade button pusher, and I am his favorite target.

At any rate, at the center of this new joke of ours are my new hobbies and interests. I have a new found love of computers, which goes together nicely with my new love of blogging (both posting and reading other people's) and studying theology. Now, back in '98 when I took a class on HTML at SMU, I gained my initial love for computers. I thought I was pretty hot stuff b/c I could 'code'. Jeff, however calls HTML a markup language and not really a code, so he loves to say I couldn't ever really 'code'. (If you don't either work in computers or have a spouse in computers, that last inside joke didn't make a lick of sense to you.)

Now, Jeff doesn't blog and doesn't necessarily like to read blogs, but he does like to play on his computer. He says I've become like him b/c I love to be on the computer too. We decided this last Friday night that we are officially 'lame' because we were both on the couch with our laptops having quite a good time. :-) (BTW - Maya has been sick for a week, so we've been tied to the house, otherwise we would have abandoned our computers and gone out on a date. We aren't that lame.)

On to my other new interest - studying theology. I have always enjoyed studying the Bible and searching commentaries to gain a deeper understanding, but my new hobby revolves around studying different theological topics within Christianity and reading what Biblical scholars teach. Most recently, I've been exploring Dispensationalism vs. Covenant Theology. Jeff is extremely intellectual, so studying theology (and philosophy) have always been a love of his.

By the way, Jeff introduced me to a new software program called "One Note" by Microsoft. It is awesome! It's essentially like an electronic notebook, and it allows you to organize your notes incredibly well. I've been compiling all of my notes from my studies in it and love it!

This last paragraph is further proof that I'm turning into an even bigger computer nerd, more like Jeff. I mean really, I just used explanation points in sentences about a software program!

So to answer my initial question, Yes - I do think we become more like our spouses. Currently, I'm the only one morphing, but I think Jeff will come my way on some things soon. :-)

Fairies & Pirates in Chi-town

2007-10-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

Chicago, that is, for those of you unfamiliar with modern day slang. :-)

I took the girls (with the help of my sweet mother) to Chicago for my nephew Drew's 1st birthday party. It was a costume party with a pirate theme. Maya had a blast hanging out with her cousins Rik and Drew. The bounce house left a huge impression on her. The morning after the party, the first thing she said to me when she woke up was, "Bounce house, mommy? Want to bounce!"

My oldest brother John is the tall pirate standing with my sister-in-law Jen.

New Pics of Olivia

2007-10-25T16:50:00.000-05:00

Sweet Olivia is always so smiley. Thought

I would share some recent pictures of her.
She is such a joy to our family. So nice to

have an easy baby who doesn't cry.

*Notice Maya in the above picture putting

Chapstick in her hair. She is obsessed with

"lips" as she calls it. Her Papa always supplies
her with more whenever she sees him. You'd

think that was her name for him b/c as soon as
she sees him she starts saying, "Lips? Lips!"

My Little Flower Girl

2007-10-16T15:22:00.000-05:00

Maya was the flower girl in Jeff's brother's wedding on Saturday at UNT. We were planning to take a family picture because we all looked so schnazzy (word borrowed from Steph), but of course it never happened. Jeff was in the wedding, so it was me with the two girls during the ceremony, and that was one of the more stressful experiences of my life. Between trying to keep both of the girls from freaking out during the service (outside in the heat) and the reception and nursing in odd places on campus, I was exhausted. I can say, however, that everytime I actually make it through something really difficult like that, I am quite proud of myself on the other side. It makes me feel a little more accomplished and capable each time I am stretched to my limit. I also get a greater appreciation for all of the parents I know and have known. I know my day was no more stressful than any other day of parents' with young children trying to get through an otherwise normal event. Props to all of the parents out there! :-)

Not Much to Say

2007-10-10T12:57:00.000-05:00

Well, nothing of great importance, at least. Those of you that know me well know that I always have something to say. I got an email from Ashlee this morning and it made my day. You can read about her in a previous blog, but to summarize - she is gone doing mission work.

So, she is so funny. I love her sense of humor. Many of the comments left on the blog are from her, and if you read them, you will see that she is extremely witty. She is probably the funniest in our family of 6. I would say "no offense" to Jake, but I'm quite sure he doesn't read my blog, so I won't worry about it.

We had women's Bible Study this morning, and it was great. We are doing a study on Ruth & Esther this semester. My friend April Williams is teaching the first section (on Ruth) and doing an awesome job. She is about to launch a website for her new ministry called "Connected To Him Ministries", but for now she has it on a blog. You can check it out at Http://ConnectedToHimMinistries.blogspot.com.

I've been working on a blog for UNT Chi Omega alumni to help us all stay in touch. I just started it, and I've had a pretty decent response so far. You can see it at Http://UNTchiomega.blogspot.com.

Hmm....Don't think I have any other plugs for now. I guess I wrote a fair amount for not having much to say. :-) Hope you have a great Wednesday!

The Hewitt Family

New Blog Address

I don't want my children to be happy.

Diaper and Wipe Deals on Amazon Mom

Top Reads

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween Festivities

Sisters

Random Cooper Pics Worth Posting

Travel Tips & Utah Recap

Control Freak No More?

Refugee Ministry

Just a Note....

Join Me to Stop Child Trafficking

I find no suitable title

The Beach

Liv's Birthday

Ashlee's Home!

Nope. Not chocolate. Mud. :-)

New House, New City

Speechless.

Pumpkin Patch

My Sweet Maya bear

Bedtime Fun

Grocery Store Evangelist

Tedashii - Make War

Why all the posts?

Cooper - 8 Months

Natural Bridge Caverns

July Family Vacation

Maya's Carrots

Maya's 4th Birthday Party

My little man

Olivia's 2nd Birthday

My babies

Mother's Day

My Big Boy

Sunglasses

What we've been up to lately...

Grandparents

Christian Children's Books

Girls

Happy Boy

Random Pics

Cooper Thomas Hewitt - December 22nd, 2008 - 8 lbs. 7 oz., 20 inches

Imminent Arrival

A Bunny and A Duck

Playing Outside

Just a few pics

Buckethead

1st Day of School - Homeschool, that is.

Preschool Recommended Reading

The iPhone Phenomenon

Catching up

Bottle Results

Help me out, moms!

4 Years!!!!

Unexpected Sonogram

Pigtails

Home Depot

Maya's Bug Birthday Bash - She's 3!!!

Officially Partners in Crime

Port A

Best Brownie Pan EVER

Motherhood

Fireworks

Big Girl Seat

My Baby Is One!

Lessons learned....

Catching Up

Summer Begins

Ashlee is Back from Myanmar

Pool Pics

Myanmar

My little teenager

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

What's life like with 3 children?

Sweetest Husband Ever!

New Pics

Get 'Expelled'