Coming soon....Our First Visitor to Saudi!!!!!

I am so excited that we will be expecting our first visitor to Saudi this coming September....

.....John's mom!!! We booked her tickets yesterday and she arrives September 9-23 and I am really looking forward to having her here in Saudi, experiencing our daily life here and spending some wonderful quality time with the kids. The kids and I get back to Saudi and then 10 days later we get to have Granny Martha here....so excited!


When we started talking about my trip home this summer and trying to take a trip down to Texas again by myself to visit with John's mom, I was overwhelmed and anxious about doing that trip again and when I realized it would cost the same amount of money to fly me and the kids to see her in Texas from Washington as it would for one ticket to Saudi....we started tossing around the idea of her coming to Saudi. I am so thankful that Martha was willing (with a few hesitations/reservations at first) to fly over here and take off time from work to spend a good chunk of time experiencing our new home. I can not wait to have her here and show her our daily life, shopping and hopefully take a weekend trip to Qatar (depending one what kind of visa she is issued) since John actually has three days off to make a long 5 day weekend while she is here...yes, we planned that! BUT most of all....I am excited that she gets to spend two weeks of quality, non stop time with her two grandkids, her son and with me! I am really looking forward to it! 

Easter....with Daddy!!!!!!!

Words can not even begin to explain how happy everyone was when Daddy was approved a day off and it being on Easter made it even better! John had not had a day off in 38 days (and probably won't have one until we leave for vacation on May 15) so it was much needed for everyone!


The Easter Bunny paid a visit and the kids hunted for eggs in the morning and then we had pancakes with Daddy.

Peyton went off to school and her teacher planned an egg hunt and crafts for them there. I thought it was really sweet of her to do especially since in her culture they don't celebrate Easter so she had to do some research and planning on what to do. I am appreciative that she took the time and effort to do something for them. While Peyton was at school, Graham got some alone time with John and then when Graham napped we were able to get some stuff done around the house that I haven't had time to do or we needed to talk about.

We had lunch at the Carlton Cafe outside and enjoyed the beautiful day overlooking the water. John and the kids played in the grassy area and were able to have some quality time while we waited on our food. That afternoon we spent more time together and then headed out to a garden center to buy some plants for our yard, some pots and start work on getting our front yard how we wanted it. We haven't done anything for a whole year so it was kind of a mess from just letting our gardener do whatever he wanted! We had him move plants, I moved plants and then John and I moved plants at 9:00 PM. We also had someone come out and put down some pavers to widen the driveway since the grass refuses to grow there anyways. We have a couple more plants and pots to buy, the grass needs to grow back into some spots but we are making progress and I am liking it a whole lot more!

Graham LOVED the garden center and is enjoying walking around everywhere.... 

New Passion...Photography

As a result of our move to Saudi, I have had more time and the financial resources to be able to pursue my interest in photography. I have joined an online forum called Clickin Moms and have found a wealth of information there, I have taken two courses and am hoping to do another one next month and I have  gotten the editing program Lightroom and over Christmas asked for several photography books. All have helped me grow and learn more every day about the art of photography. I only wish I had more time to devote to it...and well now.....I wouldn't mind an upgrade in my camera!


Well several weeks ago I did a newborn shoot for our friends The Perry's of their little girl. I was so nervous and put off asking to do it for weeks. I don't know why I was so nervous...probably because I had never done a baby that little and I wanted to do such a good job for them. Prior to this shoot I did three other shots outside my kids.  I am so glad I did the shoot for the Perry's because not only did I learn a ton, love the pictures....most importantly...they loved them and they were able to capture this time in their lives which is hard to do in Saudi with not a whole lot of photographers around!

I have also done a maternity shoot of a friend here and then her newborn boy shoot (more like 6 week old baby shoot) and then I did one of triplets. Here are some from the pictures that I have done for people since July when I started to actively try to learn photography.....

I don't know where this interest will lead me but for now I am having fun learning, practicing and hopefully growing. And it is always fun to be able to practice on kids outside my own and give friend's some photos for them to hopefully treasure.

Our Love Story: Link Up

I was reading a blog that I follow, Blue Eyed Bride and she had this link up about your love story from another blog, From Mrs. to Mama, and I thought it would be a fun post for Valentine's Day.

How long have you and your significant other been together?
We met June 2003 and started officially dating August 9, 2003 so for 8 1/2 years. 

How did you meet?
We met through a mutual friend who set us up. We both went to the same high school, knew the mutual friend from high school and I knew John's brothers in high school but yet we never crossed paths until just before my sophomore year at the University of Texas.

If married, how long have you been married?
We were married 5 1/2 years ago on Friday, October 13, 2006. We had to plan our wedding around Longhorn Football and the Texas vs OU football weekend.

If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? 
We had a medium sized wedding (108 people...to be exact....John remembered since he was four people over on the estimate and apparently that still gets to him). We were married at Ashton Gardens in North Houston. We fell in love with the location and liked that there was a chapel and the reception site all at once place and in order to have it fit in our budget we got married on a Friday and then had a post wedding party Saturday night at a local BBQ restaurant to spend more time with family that came in for the wedding.

Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? 
John calls me, "bear," and I call him, "pants." I don't know exactly where that name came from but it started with my roommate in college saying it to him one time and it stuck.

Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
That he is loyal, trust worthy and works hard at everything...his job, our family, our marriage, relationships.

Tell us how he proposed?
This is such a long story but the abbreviated version is that he surprised me by flying up to Canada where I was visiting family, showed up, was on the dock on Morrison Lake with candles everywhere and asked me to marry him. It was everything I had wanted in a proposal and was perfect!

Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

He is such a mixture. He can be super over the top romantic and then just chill and give me sentimental gifts/dates. It all depends on what we need at the time and it is a nice balance.

Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
I love the beach so sunset dinner on the beach sounds wonderful but I enjoy quality time and if we can have that watching a movie then that is great as well. Living in Saudi has really made us stretch our idea of what an actual date looks like and see the main purpose...to spend intentional time pouring into each other!

Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
If I could go anywhere it would be either Tahiti or Fiji. I want to stay in one of the huts over the water and just have a week of relaxing, being pampered and being alone with my love.

Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.
We have no plans besides John staying home and watching the kids in the morning while I go to the doctor for my routine breast cancer preventative screening...fun! We might pick up some food from or favorite Chinese or Indian food restaurant and download a movie and do dinner and a movie once the kids go to bed. We will probably do more for the kids and make cards and fun food for them.

Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?
To work on updating/redecorating our master bedroom...although I was reminded that the wooden buffet that we recently bought was supposed to be my present. 

Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
Manage your expectations of your spouse, yourself and your idea of what marriage is supposed to be like and there will be highs and lows. Be intentional and spend time together regularly and have real conversations...that do not consist of talking about kids, work or house stuff but about who you are, who you want to be, where you struggle.

Show us a picture of what love means to you.

Photo taken by Jessica Clarkson of Clarkson Photography

5 years!

Today is our five year anniversary! I can not even begin to explain how surreal it is to be celebrating five years of marriage! 

Many times it feels like it was just yesterday that we were married yet most of the time it feels like ages ago with so much that has happened in our marriage. In five years we were married, I started a job, bought a house, had a baby, quit my job and lived off one income, started a part time job, quit that part time job, had another baby, moved to Saudi and so much more in between all those big events. 

To say that these past years has been wedded bliss and so easy would be far from the truth but I am so thankful for where we are in marriage, what we have learned and how we have grown in our individual faith and as a family and where we are now. We are in a good place, have learned more about each other and marriage than I ever thought we would five years in and feel so blessed to have a husband who is committed to the sacred covenant of marriage.

 

I remember so clearly the excitement, anticipation, joy, bliss that I felt on our wedding day. Our wedding was everything I wanted and I am so thankful for that day where we were able to celebrate with our family and friends and pledge our love and devotion to each other in front of God. 


Thank you for being by my side and I am so thankful for you and the life we have together, I look forward with anticipation to the future and feel blessed to be able to have John by my side. I wouldn't want to do life and all the craziness with anyone else! 

One Year Ago....

One year ago we found out we were having a baby boy! I am disbelief at how much has changed since then. As much as I dislike being pregnant it still amazes me how a year ago this was what Graham was....

And now he is.... a beautiful, big, sweet and smiling baby boy that just makes me smile constantly. I am so in love! I had no idea what it would be like having a little boy and so far it is so much fun and I just continue to pray and hope that he will always love his mommy!

As I was thinking about how much has happened in a year, John and I thought through all the changes that our lives have had pretty much since 2005 and how we are very much looking forward to 2012 being status quo.

Here is a run down....

2005- John graduates from University of Texas, we buy Titus, John moves to Houston and I stay in Austin, get engaged

2006- Che graduates from University of Texas, moves to Houston, looks for a job, we get married, put money down to start building our first house, Che finally finds a job

2007 - Che starts new job in January, we close on our first house, celebrate our one year anniversary, start talking about having a baby

2008- We are pregnant with Peyton and have her in September!

2009- Che decides to quit her job and we go to being a single income household, then in the fall Che goes to work part time, we decide to lead a small group at our church, we have some challenging times in our marriage

2010- We start and finish an amazing marriage course, John has lots of discussions about what to do with his future/career, we start going down several paths and then back to where we started, we are pleasantly surprised to find out we are pregnant, make the decision to apply for the job in Saudi, go through the process of deciding if this is what we want

2011- Accept an offer to move to Saudi, have Graham, move to Saudi, my sister moves to Abu Dhabi......whew....