Preschool Graduation

Daniel graduated from preschool last night! It was as cute and goofy as any preschool graduation could be, without any major catastrophes. :)
















This is Miss Debbie, the wonderful preschool director, starting off the evening.
















This is Daniel's class, the green frogs, singing the Jonah song.















Here's our superstar, accepting his "diploma" from Miss Debbie and his teacher, Mrs. Briggs.















Daniel poses with his teacher, Mrs. Briggs. He was so proud!





















Grammie & Papa Ray were there to watch! And if you know anything about growing up as a Stewart, you know Papa Ray was there to give plenty of "no-shame" above the head waves from the audience while Daniel was up on stage!!!
















Here is Anna and me with her awesome teachers, Miss Julie and Miss Stacie. They were so wonderful with Anna this year!! We are going to miss them!!!
















Grammie and Anna had fun during the punch & cookies reception.

conversation at the donut store

A loose retelling of the conversation between just-turned-five-year-old Daniel and his daddy in front of the "Super Donut" in Manor, TX:

Daniel: Is this the donut store?
Daddy: It sure is!
Daniel: (reading the sign on the door) Do you spell donut d-o-n-u-t?
Daddy: That's right! Great job!
Daniel: What's the other word?
Daddy: Super. S-u-p-e-r spells super.
Daniel: What does super mean?
Daddy: It means it is great or big or alot.
Daniel: Like Superman?
Daddy: Yes...
Daniel: Wow! So what makes these donuts super?......

Daniel turns 5

Let the parties begin - Daniel is officially 5 years old!


We got the party started at Aunt Leslie's house in Austin. Dave took the birthday boy to Super Donuts (another blog entry altogether - think "Elf" movie) and picked out a special birthday donut with sprinkles. Here he is opening an electronics kit - he LOVED it and continues to prove he IS his father's son!












Aunt Leslie put up the awesome slide in the back and the cousins had a blast! Even my niece Halle had fun!
















We pulled the kids away long enough to have cake!





















Here are the cousins, Anna and Ellie, who definitely already act like sisters. Dave & I brought back matching dresses for the sweet girls from our anniversary trip. They love to play together - until it's time for a break, of course! Anna sobbed when we got in the truck to head home. She wanted Ellie to come home with us!

change is in the wind

We have immensely enjoyed our move to Granbury – I can’t believe it’s already been more than 2 years since we’ve left Dallas and moved back to my hometown! Dave has loved the past year working as a pastor for our church and has finally stopped asking what he is going to do when he grows up. I have also loved working with Dave on staff part time and spending lots of time with kids and our wonderful friends here.

However – God has been working on us for several months (and really several years) and it is finally time to answer the next call. We are moving to Austin at the end of June! Dave accepted a job as a pastor at Austin Stone Community Church and will be working with my brother-in-law Kevin, college friend Matt, and lots of other amazing people on staff there. He is really excited about his role – which will be very similar to the operational and directional leadership roles he is doing here in Granbury at StoneWater.

As He always does, God is just putting all the pieces into place one by one. Anna will be in the same preschool class with my niece Ellie and we are planning to send Daniel to Kindergarten at a wonderful school in SW Austin. We went house shopping on Saturday; started at 9am and had an accepted offer on a beautiful home by 6pm that day! It’s a beautiful home and is one street down from my sister in a really great community with a pool, parks, and a golf course! Our wonderful home in Granbury is on the market and we are just waiting for our buyer to come see their new home any day!

We are truly going to miss this wonderful place. We love our home with open space all around, a great driveway for bike and big wheel riding, a creek for throwing rocks, a shady swing, and the river just a few yards away. We love being down the road from Grammie and Poppa Ray and their backyard river, fire pit, trampoline, and hot tub! God has blessed us with unbelievable coworkers and friends; my eyes well up with tears when I think about not getting to see them at church, at the park, at the office, and yes, at the local Wal-Mart! This place will always hold a special place in our lives and we would love for God to bring us back some day.


Our new home!

vacation!

Dave & I just returned from a WONDERFUL vacation to St. John and St. Thomas. I'll have to link to a slideshow later for more pics - here are just a couple of my favorites.







If you're in the vacation market, you MUST consider St. John. It is a beautiful island - one of the US Virgin Islands, so they use the dollar and speak English! They drive on the left side of the road, but Dave was a great driver - no shock, there. We spent a day on a sailboat (visited Jost Van Dyke, a British Virgin Island), did some fly fishing, hiked a national park trail, and ate LOTS of delicious food. The beaches are beautiful and there are lots of them! I could (obviously) go on and on, but I think you get the picture that we had a wonderful time!

God has blessed us with an amazing 10 years of marriage (the cause for the vacation) and we were able to spend some great time talking and reconnecting. We stayed at a B&B with 2 other couples - one on their honeymoon and another who were about to celebrate 40 years of marriage! It was cool to think about how far we've come since the honeymoon and how far to go to 40 years together!! It's been an interesting time but we are blessed to see the evidence of God working in wonderful ways through it all.

i love my kids

this is my favorite picture (so far!)