"Valentimes" 2012

Top 10 List for the day:

10- Dinner at home with our family!  Sort of a rare thing these days!

9- Spiderman lunchbox- now Luke carries his breakfast to school in style!

8-Sugar overload!

7-Luke got a basketball from his valentine, Momma

6-Daddy got an angry birds t-shirt from his valentime, Luke

5-Momma got pretty flowers from her valentine, Brent

4-Luke and Momma squeeling at Walmart when we saw Daddy's favorite jelly beans we had been searching for, for weeks

3- Wet puckery kisses!

2- Donuts for all our Stepping Stones buddies

1- Sending uncle Justin a Justin Beber card with tattoo enclosed

Date Night!

Instead of exchanging Christmas presents, we decided to have a fancy night out, with babysitters, cloth napkins, and our friends... 

I made them do a kissy picture!  One of the couples was super embarrassed... can you guess which one?

Announcing- Baby #2!

Brent and I are thrilled to say, another Brewer Baby is on the way!

12 Weeks (this after a big dinner :)

I found out I was pregnant the Sunday before Brent's final exams... I didn't want to shift his thinking, so I treasured this secret in my heart for a whole week!  Very hard!  Luke and I went to Houston on Wednesday and Brent came down to join us Friday after work... we kept Luke up late to see his Daddy after a long week with out him.  When we sat down to dinner with my parents, I asked Luke if he wanted to give Daddy a Christmas present early and Luke said yes... I whispered in his ear and Luke said out loud "I'm going to be a big brother!"  We all cried... it was pretty fun!  We told Brent's family the next night the same way... we all cried again! 

The first trimester has been tough... I got hives at 7 weeks and Benadryl became my best friend for the next month.  Needless to say, I have logged a lot of sleeping hours and Brent has been awesome to pick up my slack.  At my last (and third) appointment at 10 weeks, the baby was measuring at 10+ weeks-- I was worried that the hives had complicated things!  Dr. New assured me as miserable as it was for me, the baby didn't even notice it.  He showed me the flicker that he said was the heartbeat, but I told him I had to squint to see it... then he turned on the speakers and we heard a heart beat... I still hesitated and said "That sounds a lot like my heart beat" to which Dr. New said, "Abbey, relax... your heart beat doesn't beat at 168 beats per minute".  THEN, I let myself get excited!

What a blessing to us that our family is growing!

Boys Being Boys

Getting back from the grocery store, my boys were waiting on the other side of this door ready to ambush!

Playing hide and seek, Brent zipped Luke in the suitcase then Luke asked if Daddy fit... Just curious

Jumpping cars into poor Allie's water bowl

3 is fun at our house!

First Official Playdate

A few weeks ago, we had 3 of Luke's buddies over without their parents... it was really fun to watch them play together!

We ate spaghetti and they talked about who were boyfriends and girlfriends... it was so hard to keep a strait face in front of these sweeties!

(Josiah, Luke, Braelynn, Drew)

Thankful for friends!

Brent in Romania

It has been a privledge to watch Brent fall in love with Jesus over the last few years... I would give specific examples, but in his humility, he would just make me remove them from the blog :)  For my three loyal readers, this was an email Brent wrote to our family upon his return:

Hello all,
I wanted to thank all of you for your prayers while I was in Romania. I got back in town last night at 8:00 pm. I am doing okay with the jet lag so far. There is an eight hour time difference between Ft. Worth and Romania. It was hard being away from Abbey and Luke. The hardest part was sitting down in my office this morning and planing my day after spending the last nine days doing nothing but serving God.
I am still processing my thoughts on the trip as a whole. We were so busy that I haven't really had a chance to truly reflect on my experiences.

I will say that it is good to taste and see that the Lord is good. If you told me a year ago that I would celebrate the close of 2011 in Romania, I would have told you that you were crazy. This trip was really the culmination of the work that God has done in me and my family's life over the last couple of years, and it all started with a simple prayer that God give me the heart to truly desire to know him. During that time we have come to learn of God's true nature, what true salvation looks like, and that we as Christians are commanded to spread the Gospel.
In all honesty, I have been humbled by the whole experience. The more I understand about the what was done on the cross the more I don't understand why I was given the gift of salvation. I thank God that he has chosen me to be part of his elect. My heart is heavy knowing that there are so many people that will never experience the joy of being one of God's children. It is sad to consider that this world may be the best that many will experience for eternity.
Sorry for the rambling. Thanks again for the thoughts and prayers.
Brent

Old communist block, turned into apartments in the city:

 A stop at Jochebed to deliver money that our Sunday School class raised to give them a doppler sonogram for expectant moms to make informed decisions about their baby's life

 Presents for future baby showers with 2 of the 4 girls who run the center and Pastor Marchel (Brent's host home while in Alba)

 Visiting widdows (Brother Bob and Brent)

 Giving Testamony

 Brent's translator, Sorein (Pastor Marchel's Son In Law) LOVE HIM!

 The FBCK Group

 Encouraging Pastors:

 Youth Conference at Pastor Relu's church

Celebrating New Years

Touring Salt Mines near Cluj before they returned

Super Bowl 2012

We Superbowled with some sweet friends... Not much game watching going on... more eating yummy party food and watching these sweet things play together!

And make valentines cookies together

I am pretty sure together that they ate half of those sugar cookies by themselves :)

How to Pray Through Parenting- January

Growing up, I took comfort in knowing that my parents were praying to God on our family's behalf. Last year, my mom sent me an article (from BSF) that broke apart 12 ways to specifically pray for my child, this year, I will focus on praying through parenting- to me, this is WAY harder than praying for my child!  This Month: That we will be convicted of any personal hypocrisy lived out before our children, contradicting what we say by what we do, and, when appropriate, admit our sin to our children (Matt. 7:3-6)

Heavenly Father,
I am so thankful for the direction that you give your children so we do not have to flounder through parenting alone.  Thank you for being a personal God and for directing our path when we trust in you, lean on you, and acknowledge you.  Lord that is my prayer that Brent and I always look to you, not others, as our Source for guiding what we say and do.  Help us to always show our children that You have equipped Brent and I with all we need for a life of godliness, now Lord, help us be pleasing in your sight. Lord, show us what you are concerned with and let that be our family's concern also.  Please convict Brent and I in areas that we may contradict what we say by what we do and help us to learn these lessons now while Luke is still young.  Point us to scripture that you would have us meditate on while making parenting decisions.  When Brent and I mess up, help us to humble ourselves before our children, admit our sin and ask for forgiveness- you know this is harder for me than Brent so use him to lovingly lead me to repentance.  We will not always be perfect examples to our kids, but help us to take those times as teachable moments of your grace to your children.   Thank your for your grace and mercy... may we never take it for granted.
Amen

Funny Luke Sayings

While packing for Luke's trip to Houston, we asked him what toys he wanted to take...  "I wan't to take my snakes so I can scare Aunt Jamie"

When showing Luke our first sonogram picture of baby #2... "Oh, that's cute"

When driving in the car eatting gummy worms... "Thank you God, for gummy worms and vitamins".  First spontaneous prayer!  I love that my boy is thankful!

When talking about eating his lunch at school.. "A noise came out of my mouth"... Was is a cough?  "No" Was it a burp?  "What's that?" Mom makes fake noise... "Yes, Mommy, it was a burp"... Then you need to say excuse me.

Houston Zoo

Brent had a meeting in Houston and took Luke down for a fun Brewer weekend... they went to the zoo.  This was my favorite zoo picture- LOL.  Not sure where Luke is :)

Tunnels with Uncle Chris:

Playing with Aunt Jamie and Chad

They fed giraffes (still need to find those pics...)

Monkeying around

Getting ready for bedtime :) 

A fun trip for sure!

Happy New Year!

Brent was in Romania for New Years (that post to come), so Luke and I spent it with my family... Luke clicked with Uncle Justin!

 We got to go see their house being built

Luke had fun "banging on the drum"

 For New Year's Eve, we made homemade brushetta

 Pasta, and Italian spaghetti that Mel learned how to cook in Italy

 Justin helped cut the noodles 

 The finished product... yummo!

 After dinner, we played ride the horse... Aunt Melody made Luke hold his hand in the air like a real cowboy :)

 Then we switched to "Fat Pants"

To eat fondue and mascarpone whicle watching the fireworks all around us!  

 We all agreed 2012 is going to be great!

Christmas Card 2011

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.