Alexis is catching up

Well she might have come 1 month early, but this little girl is determined to catch up. She is still a little "little", but I predict in the next two doctors appointments(maybe even the next one) she will be all caught up. Developmentally she is right on track; smiling, laughing, holding her head up, and trying her darnedest to go somewhere, she rolls over but doesn't remember how she did it (so funny to watch). As much as I want her to stay my little baby forever she is growing like a weed. Enjoy some new pics and celebrate with us....

Laughing at Mommy
"Ooooh a shiny camera"
"I'm going to get it!"
"Oh forget it! I'm so silly."

Enjoying our new place!

We love our new house.....

The boy's room is huge! This is the first time they have shared a room. We are still learning that it is NOT ok to giggle all night long, but that you have actually go to sleep. I look forward to see how strong their friendship continues to grow.
The stairs are a big hit! My surgery scarred knees might disagree....


We have a protected wildlife park literally down our street. It is a minute walk from our front door. Enjoy all of the pics! We can't wait to continue exploring it!

How cool is that???

Moving Days

Hello Blog World!
I'm slowly coming out of the fog of moving! Since last Tuesday I have been so busy that I rarely ate, slept, or had enough brain power to even remember what day it was. BUT it was all worth it. We are in our new house and almost every box is unpacked and most everything is put into place. (I still have the garage junk to unpack) Here is a little recap of the last week and where we have been....
Tuesday: The packers arrived and literally touched every single thing that I owned and threw it all into boxes. It was hard for me to sit there and just watch. Adam actually kicked me out, so we spent the morning with the Minters.
Wednesday: The movers came and loaded everything on a huge moving truck. Adam took the boys to the zoo one more time. Alexis and I stayed back and hung out with the movers and painted Bryce's room. I had a great time hanging out with them and playing Mom. I got them snacks, joked with them, and tried my hardest to show a little Jesus. Wednesday afternoon Chris and Maria let us crash at their place. The boys, Alexis, and even I got a little nap (TERRIFIC). That night we went to Twisted Root with Chris/Maria/Olivia and Erik/Megan who have been our friends since Huntsville, AL(7 years!). We slept over that night! The older boys got to play video games one last time. And the ladies came back to the house(late that night) and helped paint Connor's room and clean.

Connor, Bryce, and Olivia

Thursday: That morning I woke up early and headed to Home Depot because I ran out of paint the night before. I finished painting Connor's room and cleaning. (Was it bad that I was already tired, probably!) We had lunch and meet up with Adam's Mom and started the drive to Austin. PRAISE THE LORD because all of the kiddos actually slept at one point. We stopped at Ikea to pick up some dressers for the boys and to look at blinds. We got to our awesome hotel suite late that night and crashed.
Friday: Adam, Alexis, and I took off for our final walk through and closing. And Adam's Mom stayed back and played with the boys. It was a great day because we bought our awesome house, but after a bad google search and wrong directions it took us WAY too long to get everything done. We met Adam's Dad back at the house because he had driven the 3 dogs down and hung out.
Saturday: The movers arrived and unloaded the truck. I began unpacking and haven't stopped since then.

The boys were such little troopers and kept reminding me that this was just one huge adventure full of smiles!

Sunday: Went to church, hung more blinds, and more unpacking. We all took a break in the evening went to dinner and saw the famous Austin bats take flight on Congress bridge.

127 boxes unpacked! All the big boxes are full of paper and on the right is the pile of all the broken down boxes.
Organizing and more organizing (I secretly loved every second!)

WOW what a week huh?

Let's hear it for my girls!

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:16

It seems like the older I get the harder it is to find true real friends. The kind you had back in the day, the kind that can make you laugh one second and cry the next, the kind you could tell secrets to and know that they are safe, the kind that pray for you and can spiritually life you up when your down, the kind that can look at you and say "girl you need to do this..." and you'll actually do it. Adam is forever one of those friends to me and luckily for me he is my husband too. But we girls need friends like the above that are female. We just do okay?! I have also learned over the years that if I am going to be the best wife, mother, and woman of God that I want to be I MUST HAVE strong woman who can keep me accountable. This post is about those ladies. We have been meeting for almost 4 years. We have cried, laughed, prayed, yelled, wanted to just take a nap, lifted each other up with scripture, given advice, and kept each other accountable.
So be patient with me while I take some time to brag on my girls. I love you and will miss you!
Kari Minter and I met at a small group for couples with no kids. Since then we have managed to be pregnant at the same time 3 times. She had 2 girls and then had 1 boy and our kids are the greatest of friends (see the below posts). She and I have a lot of the same crazy theories on how to do this whole raise kid thingy. I say crazy only to sound cute, we're not too crazy. She is one of the only people in the world who can look at my kids and correct them without the hair on the back of my neck standing straight up. We have cried and laughed through each pregnancy and the adventure it has been so far raising 3 kiddos so close in age. Spiritually she challenges me everyday. Her passion to be a better Christ-follower knowing that it makes her a better wife, mother, and woman is contagious. She is true prayer warrior and has done just that; prayed like crazy for me and my family when we needed most. Kari is the kind of person who says "I'll be praying for you" and you KNOW that that means something more than just a nice thing believers say to each other. My heart aches when I begin to think about life without my best friend. No more phone calls early in the morning begging for a play date. No more looks of understanding from one of the only people in the world that knows exactly how I am feeling when I am feeling like my cup is a little full. No more....Actually no more no mores!!! Kari I will continue talking to you and our families will continue to see each other, it'll just be a little different. Love ya friend!
Oh Suzie!!! Susan Keener (whose face is already red when she realized that I was going to write something about her too, hehehe) Susan is one the youth pastors at our church, so when we starting serving the youth ministry 4 years ago Susan and I became fast friends. She is a east coast gal and feels a little outta place here in Texas just like I do. Her style is exactly what mine would be if I had any style. She also happens to be one of the most beautiful woman I know, can we say natural beauty?! I have had the great pleasure of serving along side of Susan, I have seen firsthand the passion she has for youth especially the girls. Her love for every student is soo real! I have watched her cry for her girls and pray over them like no other. How lucky those young woman are to have such a woman disciplining them. She was single when we first started meeting and it was so much fun talking about single woman stuff. 2 years ago, week after week I got to see her fall more and more deeply in love with her husband Andrew. I loved hearing wedding details and still think her wedding was one of the most beautiful I have ever been too. She is the type of woman I pray my little Alexis grows up as. Her love for others and most importantly Jesus is so real and she is so confident in Him. Alexis take notes my darling, this woman is a real jewel!! (Plus she always laughs at my jokes no matter how inappropriate or lame they are)
Ah Christin Jones. First let's talk about this picture....I need a little credit for putting such an awful picture of me up on MY blog, but I love her so much and looks how great she looks? (yeah and she is 9 months pregnant) Another thing, poor little Christin is that little, thanks for making me feel like a giant every time I see you! :D Christin's husband Dustin (I know Christin and Dustin, so cute huh? This girl is the definition of cute) is the other youth pastor at Northwood church. I still remember the first time we sat down with the two of them at Starbucks. Adam and I wanted to serve in the youth ministry, but first wanted to hear Dustin and Christin's story. After that night I knew that we would be great friends. Christin was in school at the time and wanted to be a teacher. Oooh a teacher just like me! She also has a gift ministering to youth girls and I immediately leaned on her to help me as I jumped back into youth ministry. Christin and I can talk about most anything for hours and do often; movies, books, music, tv you name it. She is the person I call up when someone has really ticked me off and I need someone to quickly talk me down. She is an encourager and I need that, like my own little cheerleader. She inspires and encourages me to do things that I wouldn't normally think I can do. And she knows me well enough to look at me and say "Jen just say no, you are doing too much already" (I need that more times then I like to admit) We have a special bond that is sealed in tragedy when we both found out that we had lost a baby a mere month apart. She has seen me cry more than most people in this world and I love that I am so comfortable with her. She is my best friend and I already miss her. Luckily for me her parents live in Austin and I will get to see her and her family often! (Can't wait for our little girls to meet!)

"What will life be like without the McManus'-Party?"

On Saturday night, the Minters threw us a going away party(To read our two families story see the post below). It was so awesome getting a last chance to say goodbye to everyone.

My favorite newlywed Susan Kimmel. She is one of the youth pastors at Northwood, and one of my best friends. (more to come on that story)

Meet "Cynthia" an ugly little girl that stopped by briefly. Avery has Connor wrapped around her finger.

Kati Dukes and her little man: Gabe. The Dukes attend our small group on Sunday nights and have been our friends for a couple of years.

Alexis is such a party animal.
The 4 crazy kids who decided to have peanut butter sandwiches over pizza. Bryce, Elliana, Connor, and Avery
The boys! Adam, Justin, Brent, and Jon
Amanda and her little man; Reed. Amanda and Justin Sadler have been such great friends to Adam and me. We can sit around and talk about nothing until 3am and have many times. Justin and Adam are like little clones and have a very serious "bromance", it is really cute. They have a special place in my heart and always will for two big reasons; 1 they made us laugh and reminded us that life goes on after we had a miscarriage(what a crazy night!). 2 were one phone call away when we needed help when Alexis decided to come too early. We will see you in a month or so. Go Longhorns!
How do you get all the kiddos to be quiet long enough for the adults to have a good prayer time? Put in a video silly! :D Our friends ended the evening perfectly by praying over us, such a precious memory.

It's so hard to say goodbye

The big move to Austin is this next week! And that meant that this weekend has been full of "goodbyes". I hate saying goodbye don't you? We going to miss our friends so very much and it hurts when you have to say goodbye. This is also the first time that I have to watch my kids say goodbye to their friends. Yeah I know that they are young, but it is still so very sad.
On Friday night our great friends the Minter Family came over for one last family night. We had yummy food (even though my oven/stove completely died while I was cooking, another story for another day) played Wii, ate ice cream, and had great-uninterrupted adult time. That last one might sound weird to those who have young children, but it's true. You see the Minter and McManus families play so completely well together that we hardly ever have problems with kids and actually get to have adult conversations. It's been that way from the beginning read about our story together....

When we first joined Northwood church we started attending a small group called "married 20-somethings with no kids". Well that was Adam and I so we went. Kari and Brent were one of the couples there and we became friends. Soon after joining like many groups like this, couples started getting pregnant including Kari and I. Connor was born exactly 3 months before the Minter's little girl; Avery. I can still remember the night we came over to visit Brent and Kari and their new little girl. Little did we all know then that our two kiddos would become best friends. Connor and Avery almost instantly became inseparable it was almost weird. At an age when most toddlers just played side by side; Avery and Connor would actually play together. They have the same temperaments and energy level. They have just always "just clicked". I can genuinely say that Avery is one of Connor's favorite people in his little world.
When Connor was almost 1 and Avery was 9 months old, Kari and I both not understanding that the birth control they give you when you are nursing fulltime doesn't work when you stop, got pregnant. I loved that anytime I had any emotion about being pregnant again, there was Kari feeling the same thing. What a blessing when I would call Kari, feeling way too pregnant to do anything and asked if Connor and I could come over. Kari and I would lay there exhausted while Connor and Avery played so wonderfully well together. Elliana arrived exactly 1 week before Bryce did. I still remember our first play date after the exhaustion of a new newborn had worn off. Avery and Connor instantly ran off and played together like nothing had changed. Bryce and Elliana are alike too, but in a different way. They both would rather play by themselves and understand that about each other. Bryce frequently calls Elliana on "his" cell phone and gets so excited when we are going to see her. They are best buds, but in a different middle-child kind of way.
Yup I said middle child. Yup that means the Minter's were as crazy as us and decided to add one more kiddo to the mix. I was so excited for them when they found out that there were having a little boy. And even more excited when we found out we were having a little girl. I couldn't help but think that God had some awesome plan for the Minter and McManus family living life together. 2 months after little Justus was born Alexis decided to come early and gave us all a scare. The Minter family was praying for us through that whole horrible time. And when Kari called and asked what she could do, I had one simple request. Grab your family and come over so our kids can play together(Plus I needed some good healthy cry time with Kari). Connor and Bryce were unsure why everything was so weird that week Alexis spent in the NICU. But after a night spent with the Minter girls all unsure feelings those boys were having were gone. The Minter's came over so life was a good as it could get.
Well the tears are starting to fall now, because as I am sure you can tell (that is if you are actually still reading) the Minters mean a lot to us. We are going to miss you and love you oh so very much. I end this post with a quote from our wise Con-man "Mommy don't cry, I'm going to be best friends with Avery forever". What a wise boy! We will continue seeing the Minters when we can, but because we all have freedom in Christ we will all be partying together in heaven someday (friends forever).

Alexis is 3 months old!

Happy 3 month birthday Alexis. What a complete joy you have been since we brought you home. You continue to have every male in this house wrapped around your finger. And your Mommy adores having some girlie stuff around. Thank you for lovin' sleep as much as your Mommy does and for being so easy going. Your smile melts everyone's hearts and we love getting small glimpses of your growing personality.

Limbo

Aren't you moving?

When are you guys leaving?

I thought you left for Austin?

Everywhere I go I get a version of this question; "Why the heck are you still here?" Yes we are moving and very soon. The big question is when. And I don't know! It will be sometime in the next 2 weeks, but we don't know the day yet. We are waiting for the builder to finish up a few things and then we have to have two final walk thrus. It's frustrating because everyone is ready to move on. I think a lot of my friends are ready to get the goodbyes over with and we are ready to get down to Austin and begin settling in. Once again I find myself waiting, but while I do I have a little something that keeps a smile on my face.