Where did April go?

Did I miss the month of April? No, it just FLEW by! I already mentioned Tanganyika. We closed the office early on April 10th for Good Friday and then we headed up to Wichita for Easter. The weekend of April 17th, Stu went to Waynoka, OK for the annual Rattlesnake Hunt. He doesn't hunt rattlesnakes but he does ride his Yamaha YFZ 450 in the sand. He went down there and met Steve, Stevie, John Sacket, John Brodie, and other friends. They had a blast! While he was gone, Lyric and I stayed at my parent's house for the weekend. Grammy had to go to Wichita but we stayed and spent time with Papa and had a great time. It was pretty relaxing. We went home for the day on Saturday and got lunch with David, Shauna, Brayden and Cayden and then took pizza back for supper to Papa. We relaxed the rest of the weekend and then met Stu at home on Sunday. Sorry this blog is so short. I promise to get better at this.

EASTER 2009

Well, the Easter bunny came this year! I decided to take my own pictures of Lyric and I am pretty impressed with myself!

She's so proud that she can sit up by herself! She loves her bunny.

This black and white one (by mistake) is my favorite! Then she fell over! I thought she did so well! What a funny girl! Then we started getting grouchy.

Lost it! See the tears...... and mommy's shoe!

Lyric's first flight, Tanganyika and church

Wow! What a busy start to spring. We have been running non-stop! On April 3rd, Grandpa and Grandma Goodwin (aka Steve and Donna) flew down to see us and stay the night. We fixed a nice dinner at home and really had a great time. The next morning, Steve, Donna, Lyric and I FLEW to Wichita in their plane. That was a lot of fun and it was Lyric's 1st time flying. She didn't seem to mind it at all. I told her that she has flown like a birdie! Bye bye Daddy and Cessna. We'll see you soon! Hey, there's Papa and Grammy's house!! We flew by Longton. That was pretty neat!Grandpa getting the plane cleaned out at the airport. Thank you for the safe fun trip! You're a great pilot!

Love you both!

Later that day, my band, "Edge of Grace" from Gracepoint Community Church had a gig at Tanganyika. We played about 30 songs. Grandma Sheila, Aunt Stacey, Grammy, Aunt Shauna and Uncle David and their boys came to see us. Thank you all for coming. It was so much fun! Sorry the pictures are so blurry!

It was an absolute blast. With it's fair share of challenges. Tanganyika http://www.twpark.com/ is an awesome wildlife Park at 183rd and Maple. They have giraffes, a rhino, monkeys, lemurs, white tigers, kangaroos, and zebras, among other animals! We even got to go into 2 of the exhibits and pet the kangaroos and feed the lemurs some cranberries. (No picture of that)

Then on Sunday, I got up early and sang 2 services at Gracepoint. It was a blast and I am still getting used to my in-ear monitor but had a lot of fun! I love being a part of something so amazing. Thank you Grammy, Papa, and Aunt Sheila for coming.

I will post our Easter pictures with my next posting.

Home Sweet Home!

I am so excited to have a weekend at home. I have been in my PJ's all weekend and I love it! Friday night, we went to Mi Tierra Restaurant for supper with David, Shauna, Brayden and Cayden Stout. Then we went back home and played some Rock Band with our Stage Kit. Oh yeah! We rocked the house! Saturday, I woke up with the baby and we laid around early in the morning and then I scrubbed and cleaned our bathroom. (A job that was OVERDUE!) I made Biscuits and Gravy for Stu and then I laid around a little more and watched the rain, sleet and snow come down. Really exciting, I know but it was nice. I did laundry and then realized that I had left about 6 important things off my grocery list, so I ventured out to Wal-Mart in the nasty weather and hurried home. Lyric is really close to sitting unassisted. She can sit while supported in her Boppy pillow and she gets so tickled by it that she falls backwards. We played with her Pretty Learning Purse and her round Chicken. This morning, (Sunday) I fixed waffles and have been spending a lot of time on the couch with Lyric. It's just a low key, relaxing weekend. Don't get me wrong though, I love going to Wichita to sing and go to Gracepoint CC but it is nice every once and a while to take time to stay home and relax. I've had a lot of tests and stress this last week and I needed this. I just glanced over and saw that Lyric is sleeping in her Boppy so I think I will scoop her up and we will go take a little snooze......zzzzzzzzzz

Hope you had a wonderful birthday Uncle Jason! March 18th We went up to Wichita the weekend of March 13th for Grandma Sheila's birthday. We went to Sedgwick to Hoof & Horn for dinner. We went back to Sheila and Stacey's for dessert. They made a delicious Lemon Cake! Yummy St Patricks day was fun. Lyric was at work that day and charmed everyone with her adorable shamrock outfit complete with feather headband (courtesy of Grandma Sheila and Aunt Stacey!) She actually liked it! We stayed at Steve and Donna's on Saturday and went to church on Sunday. All this running around sure makes a girl tired! I just wanted to curl up next to her and take a snooze.

This is what you get for making your wife drive home! HA HA!

We went to Wichita again this last weekend. Sunday was a truly joyful experience and I truly needed it! I need to start having the family take pictures while we are at church. Sheila came to the 2nd experience and then we went to lunch at Taco Grande. It was scrumptous. Grammy, Lyric and I headed back home and stopped in Fredonia to see Great Aunt Patty's art show and visit with she and Great Uncle Harley. Grammy has pictures and I will post those soon.

Lyric has started eating baby food in addition to her bottle. I started her on squash and applesauce. She has also tried Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Sweet Peas, Bananas and soon we will try peaches. Yummy. She is doing really well with it so far. She started foods around 4 months and I just gave her 1 serving (1/2 jar) of applesauce a day for a few weeks to get her used to the idea of eating with a spoon. She didn't like the idea at first and now look at her! I think her favorite so far is bananas and sweet peas. Last night, (3/25) she had a mouthful of peas and decided to make a motor boat sound with her mouth and Mommy wore the peas! She's so funny!Lyric eating squash.

Taking time to blog

Wow, I am not doing well at this blogging thing. Lets see, last week Mom, Lyric and I went up to Wichita on Saturday for a girls weekend. We helped Mom do some work at the office and then we did a little shopping. I found some wallpaper for my office so I will hopefully get that done soon. We called it an early evening and got in our PJ's and watched movies while eating some take out DeFazios. Yummy! Lyric has a tough time sleeping when she is not in her own bed. I had her laying sideways on the bed with me and every once in a while I would get a little foot in my back. She's so sweet though. She couldn't help it. Sunday morning we got up and went to the first Sunday at Gracepoint CC. I talked about that earlier, I think. It was awesome. David, Shauna, Brayden and Cayden were there and we met up with them after the experience and ran into Grandma Sheila. We were so thrilled to see her. She got to see Lyric and couldn't believe how much she has grown. After church, we went to PF Changs- Yum Yum. Cayden was quite the flirt with the waitresses and was very entertaining. After lunch, Grammy, David, Lyric and the boys went home to Grammy and Papa's for the evening and Shauna and I stayed in Wichita to do a little more shopping. We had a blast! This last week has been very busy and stressful. I am having to do a lot of work rewriting policies and personal insurance reviews. Jason was nice enough to come in during a 2 week break at his job to help re-inspect my homes and farms to help move us along faster. Thanks Jason! Couldn't do it without you. I promise to become a better blogger. Wow, say that 3 times fast....

On the road again....

Thursday I went up to Wichita, with Lyric in tow, and attended my 1st quarter district meeting at my manager office. I drove out to Goddard to drop off the baby with her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Hopper. Thank you both sooooo much for taking such great care of Lyric ALL DAY! After my meeting, they said they didn't mind watching her until I was done with my band practice. I was able to run some errands and do a little shopping before and then had a blast at practice. I have truly missed going to it every Thursday since we moved. I love all my Edge of Grace people! After practice I went back out to Goddard and picked up the baby and went over to see Shelley. Don, Shelley and Izzy got to see Lyric for a little while and we were entertained by sweet Isabelle! What a doll! Thank you guys for letting us come by for a while. Like a crazy woman, I decided to drive home at 10 o'clock that night! We made it home just fine though.Friday was a regular day at work, Lyric stayed with Daddy while I worked. Our friends John and Alli came down from Wichita for the weekend. We went to John's Kitchen & Pub for dinner and then to our house to play some Rock Band. On Saturday, we got up and took them on a tour of Independence (which I am sure the really enjoyed ;-) . We had lunch at Stoney B's and then went home and relaxed for a while. Later I fixed chili and we watched "The Big Lebowski". It's a great movie.

I woke up EARLY on Sunday morning and Lyric and I drove back to Wichita for church. We had 1 service and there was a huge announcement. Gracepoint United Methodist Church was changing to Gracepoint Community Church. Bryson had decided that we needed to take a different direction with Gracepoint and stepped down from the Methodist Conference. That was a huge and scary decision for him and we will keep him and his family in our prayers as Satan will be attacking him during this time. We are so excited about the future of Gracepoint. Check our our new website at www.gracepointchurch.tv. We sang some great songs and I got to sing "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence which is so much fun. PC and his crew came in and performed "Lose Yourself" by Eminem and "Jesus Freak" by DC Talk. They are incredible. A big thank you to Steve and Donna (Grandma and Grandpa Goodwin) and Brent for coming to church. We loved seeing you and hope to see you at Gracepoint again really soon! After church, we went over to Steve and Donna's for lunch and visited for a while. Since the holidays, they had not had a chance to see Lyric. My has she grown! I can't believe it. She is 4 months old! Time really flies. We had a great visit and then headed back to good Ol' Southeast Kansas.

I pray that during this difficult time, we all can keep the faith and remember that God never gives us anything we can't handle.

Love,

Jamie