Zoe's birthday night and a curtain project!

Today was Zoe's 1st birthday! To celebrate, we took Zoe to Petco where she shopped, shopped, shopped!
















We also spent the night putting up curtains in our living room. Well....I really just watched while John Aaron did all the work!

Snow Day in Texas

Snow flakes flurry around our new home in Fort Worth,

and I loves me some snow!

Emily had a great day at work. She only had three children in her afternoon class and they took a break to go out side and watch the wintry mix of sleet and snow fall to the ground.

Zoe and I watched the snow fall from the warm comfort of our home.

After Emily put Zoe's pink corduroy Old Navy jacket on, Zoe was ready to play in the snow.

"...One of the top THREE nights of my life..."

Here are a few pictures of what John Aaron described as, "one of the top 3 nights of my life!". Mom and dad came to Fort Worth this past weekend and these pictures are of us in Downtown Fort Worth Friday night. We ate yummy pizza at UNO and then went to Starbucks for Hot Chocolate. John Aaron got a little whip cream on his face...
I love my mom and dad!!

Who bats her lashes perfectly?

My A.M. class!

I think that John Aaron gave me the cutest Halloween card ever...if I were a bat, I think I would look like this card! The inside says...

"Who bats her lashes perfectly
and has a smile oh so sweet?
It's the one and only charming YOU
Who makes every day sweet!"

So cute!

Anyway, I had my Teacher Appraisal thing today where my principal came to observe me. We cut open a pumpkin andtalked about how it felt inside. It went pretty well except when I talked about cleaning the pumpkin off of our hands with a baby wipe and one little boy said, "You use baby wipes to clean pee pee and poo poo!!!!" really loudly and then most of the class started saying "pee pee and poo poo" and laughing. Delighful, huh? JA and I are both off to class for Halloween!!

My P.M. class!

Little Miss Sunshine...

Wednesday nights are me and John Aaron's official date nights...here we are being so spontaneous! At 7:00 last night we decided to go see Little Miss Sunshine at 7:35...we didn't really know what it was about, but we thought it was going to be really funny. It really wasn't that funny, it was actually really weird...and kinda funny in a scary way. Then we went to Starbucks afterward and saw a few of John Aaron's friends from SWBTS studying. By the way, Starbucks has yummy hot chocolate!

An all nighter!

So...John Aaron experienced his first Seminary all-nighter...and he looks pretty good!! This is us at SWBTS before our class on Tuesday night. John Aaron has an Old Testament class and I have a class about being a minister's wife from 6:15 to 9:15. Lately in the class we have learned how to sit, stand, pick up things, and how to set the table - extremely important things like that, but last night we talked about the role of women in the church. Mrs. Patterson read a verse that I have heard a thousand times:

"This is the day that the Lord has made,
We will rejoice and be glad in it."
-Psalm 118:24

Since I have started teaching Pre-K, some days I forget that God is alot bigger than all the worries I have. That verse was an encouragement to me to remember that God is big and he knows what he is doing with my life. Remember to rejoice in this day even if you have 4- year olds saying bad words to you and even if you have pulled an all-nighter!!

we're back!

hello everyone! sorry it has been so long since we last updated our blog spot! Hopefully, we will get better at letting everyone know what is going on with us in Fort Worth.

We have exciting news to post tonight...John Aaron got a job!! He is the Assisstant Pastor for 2nd and 3rd graders at Fellowship Church in Grapevine. You can go to www.fellowshipchurch.com to check out the church's website. There are about 1,000 2nd and 3rd graders that come each weekend (There are 4 different services). He will be leading the large group part of the service in 3 of the 4 services each weekend and then during the other service, we can go to church together. Every 2 months there is a different theme so this weekend kicked off a new series called "Treasure Quest" which is in the jungle. These pictures are on the set....John Aaron gets to swing on a rope swing! So....we're really excited and it's fun to see the great things God has planned for us here!

And in other news equally important...I discovered that I really liked headbands...if you're a girl, you should definitely invest in one!

The Scoop on IKEA

We took this picture at IKEA last Sunday after church. Emily needed a picture of us to go on a "parent information" bulletin board and we thought that this creative kitchen backdrop was as good as any. For those of you who don't know what IKEA is, you really are missing out. We have IKEA furniture and art splashed around our house and children's lighting, rugs, toys, and seating in Emily's classroom. So if you want to visit IKEA, give us a call and we'll see if we could meet you there. After mid September is the best time to visit so that we can get through with the first few weeks of school.

Teacher Inservice = Going to sleep at 9 p.m!

Since our last blog, John Aaron and I visited Fellowship Church again, went to IKEA with Jeremy and Hannah, and decorated my entire classroom! We really liked Fellowship again and we are going to keep visiting there for the next few weeks. So far, the pastor has not been there but last week the worship pastor spoke and he was really good. After church, we met Jeremy and Hannah for an afternoon at IKEA.

Last week my school opened up so the teachers could work on their classrooms. John Aaron came with me to help pick up all the heavy things and help me vision. My room has a "sea" theme going on, I have a fish tank, very cute fish rugs, a frog you can sit on in the reading center, and lots of other cute sea creatures. I wasn't planning on having a sea theme, but they had alot of cute sea stuff at IKEA. So....all that to say, I have a very cute "under the sea" classroom! The scandalous thing about my classroom is....there is nothing for the children to work with!! There are no blocks, manipulatives, or any fun pre-k things! No worries though, because my principal told me that i have other things to worry about (thanks) and that he would make sure i had things for my room before school starts-thank you mr. moore!

Yesterday my two weeks of new teacher inservice began (see picture, don't i look excited??). It was supposed to last from 8-4, but we were done at 9:30. Today we didn't get done until about 3. I met my "Mentor" and she is the bilingual pre-k teacher at my school and she is very sweet!! She is only 25 but she is the only other pre-k teacher. I was really glad to get a young girl as my mentor because it makes me feel more comfortable asking her tons of questions. While I was being "mentored" this afternoon, I learned that I get to create my own curriculum and basically do whatever I want to with my children. I am very excited...and a little nervous! Thursday and Friday I have inservice stuff at my school, so hopefully more of my questions will be answered.
John Aaron has been working hard at home while I have been at work. He is a great home improver!!! I think we are going to update our blog about once a week, so keep checking in!

New church + first police chase = one crazy Sunday

So I'm sitting at home drinking a cherry sprite from QT while watching a police chase on TV. A man with a gun and a women have been driving an 18 wheeler through Dallas, Arlington, and now towards Fort Worth. There's over twenty police cars, a bunch of helicopters, and a few Dallas SWAT vehicles in pursuit of the truck that's driving on its bare rims.

Emily suggested that I make an entry while listening to the the chase coverage, so don't worry, I'll update you with chase information throughout the blogcast.

Instead of visiting FBC Burleson, like we previously led you to believe, Emily and I decided to go to Fellowship Church (the one on TV). The church is a little over 30 minutes away, across from Grapevine Mills mall, so we got directions from Google Maps and left a little early. The directions stunk! They weren't just a little wrong they were almost all wrong. After a few stops for directions we got there about fifteen minutes late. The church was rock'n. We really liked it, but the service seemed a little short. We later realized that the service started thirty minutes earlier than we thought. Oh well, it was still great and we're looking forward to going back next week.

now for a news update...
...The chase has been going for almost 3 hours and has now passed through Fort Worth headed westbound on I-20. The woman is driving an has rammed a police car and is swerving from one lane to the other. The police just shot out the tires and the engine block. The truck has pulled over and stopped and the man has forced the women in the back of the cab.
now back to the blogcast...

Okay. Well, this police chase is scary and not fun anymore. So, lets change the subject. Zoe is doing well. She got a really bad hair cut in bossier a few weeks ago from Posh Pets and I think they were mean to her because she acted skiddish. We complained and the owner was really rude to us. So spread the word, Posh Pets is not "posh". Zoe loves it out here and loves to dig in the back yard and roll around in the grass. She is soon to become a neighborhood celebrity.

Well, we miss everybody and we think of all of our friends and family often. I pray that this truck chase ends well and that you are all having great summers. We know that God has great plans for you and for us. Trust Him and as we learned in church today, always have "an attitude of gratitude!"

>>John Aaron

--Okay so the woman hostage and her dog was just released from the truck and the man was taken into custody.

New state, new house, new school, new job, new blog!

My cool brother Jeremy gave us the idea to create a blog spot to keep everyone updated on our Texas adventures. Here's a shout out to my big bro., Thanks!

So.....John Aaron and I moved in (with the help of my mom, dad, Jeremy, and his girlfriend, Hannah) to our brand new house last Thursday night. While everyone was here we pretty much got all unpacked, had our new furniture delivered, and got our DSL hooked up. John Aaron has been doing things I didn't know he could do. Like changing chandeliers, sodding our backyard, installing a peep-hole, and other handy-man like things. Our family being here was a big help!!!

We have been working out on campus at Southerwestern in the mornings and that has been fun. We haven't really met anyone except our across the street neighbor Herman (who I really like his name!!) and a professor who is building a house down the street that works at the Seminary, so that's good! Sunday we are visiting First Baptist Burleson so we are excited about meeting more people. They offer pilates at their church in the mornings and that I want to go to!

Tonight John Aaron's brother, Erick and girlfriend Naomi are spending the night with us. They are almost here, so I gotta go...keep checking, we'll add pictures soon!!

Emily