Two Sweeties!

I just looked at my last post dated July 23, 2007 and want to share why I haven’t posted since then! Later that day I went to the hospital to pick up a 5 day old baby girl named Josi! She is a delight and Brie, Bret, and I are thoroughly enjoying her. She’s just about to wake up for her bath and dinner so I won’t write much more but look at the pictures and you’ll see why we love her so…

First day home from the hospital!

First Lord’s Day at church!

Brie slobbering all over her but pacifying her at the same time!

All four of us at a Texas BBQ spot in the middle of the Mother Land of Texas!

From my growing villa to yours~

Wanted: Italy Info

If you know any Italian phrases, words, or places “you’ve got to visit” in Italy, please send them my way!

Why? you may ask.

We’ll Lord-willing Bret and I will be going to Italy some time in the next year as a sweet gift from our church family. We celebrated 5 years of ministry at FBC-SJ yesterday and were given a week in Rome, Italy! What a blessing that will be and what a blessing our church has been and is to us!

So, if you have anything helpful to share about Italy or the Italian language, please pass it on!

From my villa to yours~

Pining Away

We’ll Brie and I are pining away for our dearest as he’s in the Mother Land at the Southern Baptist Convention…

But never fear, we don’t just sit around all day and twiddle our thumbs.

Brie…

tried bananas today for the first time and didn’t throw it all up all over me, which was a major accomplishment. I’m feeding her in her swing until she gets a little bit bigger and can sit up in the highchair her friend, Drake gave her.

She ate about 10 bites of bananas and seemed to enjoy them. And I enjoyed celebrating this new stage in her life…

Kelly…

also did a few things today! Whenever Bret goes away I try to get as many “projects” completed as possible. This week’s projects include: replanting all our dead plants, painting and putting up picture frames in the hall way and catching up with the ironing! I made some head way tonight. Here’s a few pictures to prove I wasn’t pining…

I transplanted the two green flax from the front yard to the back and put in a large queen palm! And put two cypress in buckets to accent the Villa’s back yard!

Now here is where the work really began…

This is what is left of our once beautiful banana tree! I dug the whole thing out as it froze this winter and died and then resprouted a bunch of little (and ugly) stalks. So, I worked off the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I had for lunch by digging up this baby. I was tired and it was getting dark so I plan to clean up the mess tomorrow!

Pining away at my villa~

Finally a chance to post because we’re on vacation!

What a whirlwind and joyful time the past two months have been as the Lord granted us Brie. We have had so much fun with her!! I knew parenting would be wonderful but not this good! She is such a joy and brings so much joy and laughter to our lives and our home! Here are a few fun pictures of her and us on our vacation. I’ve finally had the chance to write on the blog since we’ve been on vacation.

Can you tell we’re on vacation?? We’re just getting ready to go on a beach walk. Her first walk on the beach and she loved it.

Here’s the sunset. What a beauty it was. This family behind us on the log were trying to avoid the waves but a big one came and splashed them! It was pretty funny! We successfully avoided the water!

Here are some pictures from the past two months:

Brie’s first Sunday at church:

A month later dressed up for Church (I never thought I would like dressing a girl so much!!)

One of our favorite things to do each week is go for a walk. We’ve got a great stroller from our dear friends Karen and Georgie and I got Brie some cool sunglasses!

And much of the last two months has been filled with visits from Family! What a joy that has been!

Auntie Courty who came to visit at our home!

Auntie Allie (at the Shower my family threw for us in Ventura at Cousin Kathy’s house)

Capranica Grandparents came all the way from Amarillo, Texas to visit Brie! And we had to take them to our favorite restaurant by the beach: Gladstones!

There are a few pictures and a slight history on what’s been going on in our villa over the past two months! I’ll try to post more as I still have half of my vacation left!

From my villa to yours~

Brie is Growing in Wisdom and Stature

This was from her first day of worship with the people of FBC-SJ! She really enjoyed hearing Pastor Stacy’s sermon but her favorite preacher is her dad, Pastor Bret! She slept through almost both sermons but that is to be expected from a newborn (and says nothing about the good preaching!). Soon we’ll have her taking notes!

We also had her weighed in and she’s growing: 7.2 lbs!

From my villa to yours~