Honoring Beth

My Aunt Beth is a very important person in my life, actually her entire family is very important in my life. I don't think that I have ever called her "aunt Beth", she's just always been Beth to me. To me she is more like my sister than an aunt. When I was in second grade, Beth moved from Louisiana to Missouri to attend college, and ended up living with us. We shared a room- and a king size bed. I got to see things happen in Beth's life that were pretty cool. When she met my Uncle Gordon, I got to watch them fall in love. At the end of date nights Beth would literally come into the room and fall back on the bed and sigh.... she was smitten. And she had every right to be, Gordon is a great Godly man.

After Beth and Gordon got married they immediately moved to Dallas for Gordon to attend seminary. Beth would come back for visits (where we would attempt to lock her in the closet and not let her go back to Texas) and we would see her in Louisiana, but it just wansn't the same. But when I was in 7th grade, they moved back to the area. We had moved from Republic to Ozark, and they were going to be moving to Nixa! We were all so excited.

Fast forward a few years, and they started having children. Wonderful children. 3 beautiful boys. I was a freshman in high school when Taylor was born, a junior when Ethan came and along, and a freshman in college when Noah made his arrival. These boys mean the world to me. I look at them as my newphews or little brothers instead of cousins. And I treasure the way my boys look up to them.

During the time that Beth and Gordon have been at their church, she has been super active. And the women's ministry decided to honor her for her comittment. But it was a complete suprise. A good family friend of ours works at Beth's church as the secretary. But Pam is so much more than just a secretary. So Beth for weeks believed that Pam was to be honored on March 26. But Pam knew all along that is was going to be Beth. So Beth would call my mom and tell her details about "Pams Honoring", but mom would have to completely zone out to not die laughing. So the big day arrives and Beth has a speech ready to announce Pam....

It went a little somthing like this..

A lady from the church gets up to tell the purpose of the day, with no one except for Pam, my mom, and myself knowing who is to be honored. So the lady talks a little and is very vague on the lady to whom she is introducing.. at this point Beth starts to get up thinking that it was her que to introduce Pam. But Pam darts up to stage and starts to introduce Beth. At first Beth had a complete look of confusion on her face, but then she started tearing up. After Pam was done talking my mom got up and gave a speech about Beth. I don't believe there was a dry eye in the house. Beth is very dear to my entire family.

Even after being honored she got up and gave a speech on "missional living". Beth is a prime example of being a missional oriented person. I am so glad that she was honored for being the awesome, special, and wonderful person that she is!

Greyson Turns 2

Yesterday was a crazy day in the Howard house. My not so little baby turned 2! I can't belive Greyson is already 2. Man how time flies! It seems like just yesterday I was walking around St John's Hospital trying to get him to come out! My delivery with Greyson is one for the books! More about that later though....

Brandon and I usually try to alternate where we have the boys birthday parties, so that my family isn't always having to drive to St Louis. So this year we had agreed early on that it would be in Ozark, so that if my brother and sister in law would come they wouldn't have to miss work and my cousins wouldn't have to miss school. (We don't do big birthday parties yet... just family)

Anyway, it worked out perfectly because right after making this decision we found out that my Aunt Beth was going to be honored by the women at her church earlier in the morning, as a complete suprise to her! Since we moved to my parents house earlier this month everything was falling into place. My two aunts and two cousins even came up from Louisiana! Beth had no idea and every one would get to celebrate two special people.

Greyson loves The Backyardigans- we call them Pablo and Tasha at our house. So it was an easy decision to make; it would be Backyardigans Galore!

Lincoln thought he needed to help blow out the candle

Opening the cool water table from Grandma and Papa

Wanting to eat his cake so badly!

Is this not the coolest cake you've ever seen! It was so yummy!

We've made a Howard Family decision that after any birthday party we have in Ozark, we have to have Nakato's for dinner. Brandon, the boys, and Brandon's parent's were super lucky on this day though, not only did we eat Nakato's for dinner, but they had Lambert's for lunch! They were stuffed to say the least!

Moving

Cheese!

Before we found out that we were going to be moving on such short notice, I had agreed to watch my good friend Carrie's little girl Eily. Eily and the boys are best friends, and even though they don't know if yet Eily and Daniel are going to get married. We've ( Carrie and I ) already have it all planned out.

It actually worked out great for Eily to come over. She kept the boys entertained the entire day. And when my 3 went down for naps, Eily and I made a dash to Wal-Mart. Do you know how easy it is to have one kid in Wal-Mart?!!!

The boys miss Eily. They actually ask for her just about every day. Hopefully we can get them together for an overnight playdate very soon!

WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

WE ARE MOVING!!!!!!
Brandon found out this morning that he will be starting WORK on Monday! He got the job!
He will be the newest associate at Baird Lightner Millsap & Harpool.
They really wanted him to start either Thursday or Friday, but with having to move and all, they agreed to let him start on Monday.
God is so Good! I don't even know where to begin on packing. We will be staying with my parents for a little while, until we figure out where to live. My parents are almost as excited as us!
Anway, I better go start packing up some stuff!

The Master Suite/ Playroom/ GuestRoom

People often wonder how we have been living while being the "Basement Howards''. When we tell them that while in school were are staying in Brandon's parents basement, we usually get that "poor you face". I think that they think that we are in some tiny little corner, with no bathroom or kitchen. While the basement hasn't been my 'dream home', it is amazing what we have done with the place!

The basement is about 1250 square feet. It does only have one official bedroom, a complete bathroom, with a shower, and a kitchenette. Did I mention that I have a 200 sq foot walk in closet, that is in addition to the 1250 sq/ft?! I LOVE MY CLOSET!

Here are a couple of before pics of the basement. Mind you we cleaned all of Brandon's parents stuff out...

Where the brown entertainment center with t.v., is the exact place that we had ours. Where Jeff's movie collection is where we also had our pre kids. As the boys got older was replaced with two mini leather chairs and a bookcase for them.

This is the boys play room. When we first moved in it served as Carol's sewing room, and a work out room. Right before the twins were born it became a guest room with a full size bed for my mom to stay in. While she was here she gave us the idea to move our bed in this room for some privacy, and so that while one of us was taking care of the twins the other could get some sleep. So for a while it became our bedroom. This room held a king size bed and our two night stands and a huge tv stand. The closet that you see on the left, is the boys closet. It has two rows of shelving, so I never have to rotate out seasonal wear. Spring and summer get the top shelf and fall and winter get the bottom.

They book shelves haved stayed in here regardless of what the room has become. That is Jeff and Carol's book collection. Most of the shelves are two rows deep in books. Why go to the library when you got it at home?! Directly to the left of the book shelf is where our desk and computer is.

You can't really tell in the pics, but the walls are a light mauve color. After cleaning it all out, we painted them a khaki color and replaced the pink mini blinds with white ones. Where the lamp is, is where we put our couch. At the lower left corner would be where we had our recliner and glider and at the lower right is where we had the couch.

This is the kitchenette. Don't worry the green frigde didn't last long. Brandon's parents fridge went out shortly after we moved in, and this one was replaced by a tan side by side. My parents gave us a convection toaster oven and a portable burner tray, so I could cook. So while not having a fully functioning kitchen, I was still able to cook 99.9% of all of the meals downstairs. My electric skillet did become my best friend though! To the right of the fridge was an understairs store room lined with shelves, that we would put tons of baby formula and food in. It was great!

Between the movies and the kitchen is a little hallway where the boys bedroom and bathroom are. There is also an entry way into the playroom. So the boys have a ton of fun chasing each other around the giant circle.

At the right of the wooden thingy is where our "bedroom" was. We have a king size bed and huge night stands. It's a tight fit but it works.

The closet above was in the living room, and was a lifesaver! Brandon's parents stuff is in it in the picture, but we had is just as full. With anything from car seats, to board games, to extra bathroom soap! It was so nice to have that much storage.

So, while it wasn't perfect, we made it work! We are very grateful to Jeff and Carol for all that they have done for us. Without them, we wouldn't have made it thus far!