Chris and Christy Are Hictched!

Here are the highlights!

The Rehearsal:

Practice Makes Perfect!

While the wedding party was waiting in the back of the church to practice, Chris and Brent were sitting in the sanctuary all by themselves... I thought it was pretty neat they were all alone and wonder what they were talking about. I made them reenact for the camera...

The Rehearsal Dinner was at Escalantes- yum mo!
The guys:

The girls:

Our Family:

The wedding was at Second Baptist where Brent and I were married, so it was fun to see it all unfold and remember back 4 years ago!

Mr. & Mrs. Chris Brewer!

The boys found tri-cycles at the church:

Aren't they good looking!

He's taken, Ladies!

Luke's wedding outfit:

Luke got to meet his Great, Great Aunt Freddie and Uncle Bobby-- Luke went strait to Bobby like they were best buds!

Jamie discovered that Luke likes golf:

Granddaddy threw Luke around and taught Luke how to go up and down the stairs:

Grandma got some good hugs in and Bailey (Chris's puppy) thought Luke tasted sweet!

Luke's Babysitters (when we needed to be baby-free!). Thanks, Momma and Daddy.

Luke enjoyed playing your piano:

It was a FAST weekend, but we are so blessed by our family and love that it is growing. We couldn't be more proud of Chris and his choice in Christy. She is even more beautiful on the inside than out (if you can believe it!) and we can't wait to see how God directs their life together.

Sign, Sealed, Delivered

Today is a historic day! On Wednesday afternoon, Governor Pete du Pont, Chairman of the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), and Dr. John Goodman, President of the NCPA, along with Mike Gallagher and other Salem Radio hosts Dennis Prager, Michael Medved and Hugh Hewitt will deliver the "Free Our Health Care NOW!" petition to the leaders of Congress. At 1:30 pm the petition will be driven to Capitol Hill in an ambulance; when it arrives, volunteers will stack the petition- 1.3 Million signatures included in 55,000 pages contained in 15 boxes -on a gurney and deliver this incredible expression of America's voices to Congress at a 2:00 pm EDT press conference. - this excerpt was taken from Jeanette Nordstrom's Health Care Update email.

For something as important as health care, I have always wondered why they don't try it out on a small sample of the population before it goes to the masses. Turns out, Massachusetts has been on a self payer program for 3 years now. Here is an article about how it is going. Wow.

Get Involved! For the latest up-to-date information, click Here (John Goodman's blog), Here (Consumers for Health Care Choices) , and Here (Principles of Health Care Policy).

What is the answer? "Bail Out" Health Care? No! Don't add to the wasteful debt, don't print more money and make the dollar weaker, and don't look at 1 Trillion Dollars like we have it to spend: Here is a video produced by the US Mint to try to show Americans how much a Bail Out costs.

Labor Day Fun!

After bath time:
We always read Luke "First Words"... we are pretty much drilling this into his head... it is so sad, we can turn the pages by memory: Girl, Boy, T-Shirt, Pants, Socks, Shoes, Coat, Cup, Chair, Ball, Boat, Car, Truck, Train, Airplane, Teddy, Orange, Apple, Banana, Leaf, Flower, Cat, Potty, Dog, Duck, Fish. Ahhhh. First Words.

Luke LOVES his Horsey. He now crawls up to the crib and tries to pull Horsey through the slats. I am really hoping we can keep Horsey as a home/ sleeping comfort object and not take him everywhere. Crossing my fingers!

Luke is still eating stage 2 foods... we are pretty sure he has a texture issue. He hates stage 3, so we are just trying something new from our plates every night to see what he likes. We tried goldfish this weekend, of course, he likes those. We were at Pei Wei and Brent put 3 grains of rice in Luke's mouth, he gagged, and threw up all over the floor. So, we keep trying, reminding ourselves that he won't eat stage 2 when he goes to college! He did discover straws this weekend and that bought us a little more restaurant time :)

We hung out with our favorite pals on Monday and Luke discovered new toys... he was having a ball in pink!

Hope you had fun too!

Happy Birthday Brent!

Brent was really pushing for a low key birthday this year, so that is what we did. Brent grilled fajitas and of course got a cookie cake. I got him the best present EVER... a MP3 Player that personalizes your radio station (to our tech-y blog friends, see Slacker.com)! Okay, so Brent got it for himself, but I made him wait to open it until Sept. 5 and I loved that he got it as much as he loves music. Here are my boys... aren't they cute:

Our sweet friend, Leah, had a cake with homemade icing- she had us all sing and Brent even blew out a candle... she is my most nostalgic friend!

Grassroots Momma!!!

My Mom headed out to her Town Hall Meeting today! I am so proud of her for being a part of those who are standing up and saying enough is enough. If you think you are not affected by this, just wait- you are- your taxes, your salary, your health care, your children's' education, YOUR FREEDOM to choose... it is all in jeopardy if the liberal agenda is not stopped. Can we please come together as a country and consider what is best, not just ram irreversible laws through congress? Can we take more than a day to read through trash bills, filled with pork spending like this one? (See the big binder on the table next to the pulpit?) This is the bill Obama tried to rush through Congress before Summer Recess, before they had time to read it. What is in there you ask... Government officials do not have to accept the health care bill they are forcing on all of their constituents (YOU).

The "angry mob". Check out the sign!

Mom got her picture made with State Senator Dan Patrick... she was excited!

The Petition is still available for you to sign if you are against the Single Payer System Obama is trying to push through. You can sign your name HERE until next Wednesday. Key leaders, including Kay Bailey Hutchison, are delivering the petition to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid next week-- your name could be on of the already 1.2 Million on there. STAND UP and BE COUNTED! Each signature statistically represents 1,500 Americans! SIGN IT!

Wedding Countdown!

Chris and Christy are 9 days away from wedded bliss... here are a few pictures from our celebration weekend at their Bachelor/ Bachelorette Parties!

The girls went to Howl at the Moon (Dueling Piano Bar)

Sisters-In-Law!

Our view of the stage... we were close to the action... wait a minute... we WERE the action!

The boys went to Lake Charles to Cashata to test their luck! Brent walked away a winner and Chris, being a High Roller, made friends with all of the staff...

They comped the guy's dinners and hotel rooms!

They ended the weekend playing golf:

Chris and Christy, it was fun being a part of your celebration weekends! Can't wait for the wedding!

Baby's Got a New Pair of Shoes!

Luke had his first REAL shoe fitting this weekend... his right foot is a 3.5 and his left is a 4... They say he will grow out of them in about 2 months, so we will be back often :)
Ready to Run!

Erin (the Stride Rite lady), Granna, and Honey:

This feels funny!

Visiting Houston

Honey came down to Houston this weekend to help babysit Luke while Brent and I were away.
Bath time:

Honey brought Luke this book- it has different fur to touch and he LOVES it!

As Brent came back through to pick Luke and I up, Mom and Dad had a quick birthday BBQ lunch and cake for his 31st birthday next week! Thanks, Momma!

ADT should pay me for this pose! When Allie is in Houston, she can't decide if she wants to run around the pool or stay inside... so, we had a very tired puppy when the weekend ended!

10 Months

Luke is 10 Months old! Here are some of his favorite things right now:

He LOVES his race car... the top part makes screeching noises as he pushes down on it and he has the one handed crawl down so he can make the car go really fast. Luke's day care worker always has a bus out for him in the mornings that he crawls strait to (making goodbyes VERY short for Daddy :(

Luke found the stairs last week... the baby gate went up quickly!

Got all the way to the top:

Luke still loves playing ball! He will chase them around until he is breathing heavily. He also likes to tease Allie with her ball shoving it in her mouth then pulling it away from her. When he throws it, it goes about 2 feet away

Luke crawls non-stop all day long at day care- these are some new white socks we put on him in the morning. By evening, he blacked them up really good with all of his activity from the day (see picture above too)! Did I mention we are "busy"!!!

He loves buttons and moving objects, so every day he pushes the Exit button at daycare and grins ear to ear with pride. We are working on teaching him how to pick up cheerios. He doesn't quite have the fine motor to grab with his thumb, but he certainly doesn't want help trying!

We are having a ball as every day is something new. We are blessed beyond measure and remain thankful to God. (I write this down so I can refer back to it the first time I get told "no", get an angry phone call from school, or curfew gets broken). We are blessed.

We love you, sweet boy.

First Words

They are not crystal clear, but they are deliberate!

Allie-- sounds like "Aaa- Ahhh" The second Ahhh is when we inflect our voice.

Hi-- when I picked him up at Day Care this week, I said "HI!" and he said it right back-- almost knocked me over! He has said it many more times.

Ball-- "Ba" as he rolls his ball and catches it.

Uh-Oh-- sounds like uh-oh with high and low pitches. Just precious... we got this on video.

Salt and Light

Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

As Luke gets older, my burden gets heavier on how to parent him in a way that pleases God. Am I representing Christ to him accurately, do I know enough to teach him enough, do I live rightly, does "my light" shine in our household? Being in the savory industry, I needed to look deeper at the meaning of the verses above.

At IFF, we use salt as a main measurement to determine if the blend is complete- salt is a main component to most formulations because it draws out the other flavors present and it preserves the flavor over time keeping microbiological levels low, which maintains freshness longer. If the salt is too low or too high, we must blend the formulation together longer to make sure it is distributed evenly throughout the end product. This passage is interesting to me because salt does not loose it’s saltiness- it is a very shelf stable product that we can use in the industry longer than any other ingredient. Some interpretations as to why Matthew choose salt:

Exodus, Ezekiel, and Kings present salt as a purifying agent
Leviticus, Numbers, and Chronicles present it as a sign of God's covenant.
The most important use of salt was as a preservative and hence the most common interpretation of the metaphor is as asserting the duty to preserve the purity of the world.
In the Rabbinic literature of the period salt was a metaphor for wisdom.
Salt was a minor but essential ingredient in fertilizer and so a few scholars such as Gundry believe that earth should be translated as soil (i.e. salt of the soil), and hence the metaphor asserts that the audience should help the world grow and prosper.
One interpretation of salt of the earth is that it orders the audience to take part in the world rather than withdraw from it

To be the salt of the earth, to me, means we are the key to the formulation. We must mix evenly with the world, but maintain our saltiness- our beliefs, convictions and morals without the world taking our saltiness away and corrupting the formulation, making us useless. The person I am includes the Holy Spirit and that is a savory formulation that people buy by the bucketful when they taste it! When I loose sight of why I am here, to be the light of the world, sin entangles me and the salty appeal is lost on unbelievers. I must stay salty by being poor in spirit, hungry for Truth, meek, show mercy, be pure in heart, and continually be a peacemaker. When others insult me and the salt that is within me, I rejoice because they don’t see me, they see Him and then confirm I have not lost my saltiness. Oh how I hope to be salty, to be understood without using words at all- to be a usable light to a dark world, and especially to my family. To God be the glory.

Everyone likes PJs!

Luke grew through his last round of PJs in a hurry(about 3 weeks)! Now, he is wearing big boy pjs (two peices)!

But, who in the world could we pass the barely used pj's down to???

Oh, yes we did! And the funny thing, Allie didn't fight it... I think she liked the extra attention.