1st Family getaway

here's us watchin the cows get fed. for some reason i was unable to move this pic down in the blog :)

First time swimmin! Cash loved to splash and splash. This was my fave part of the weekend!

Daddy and Cash

Me and Cash in the "river" lol poor Blanco, they have had no rain!

Daddy gave Cash his first taste of lemon at the Gristmill in Gruene. Cash seemed to enjoy it!

Yep, we are def tourists :) We got t-shirts and everything!

Aug 14-16, 2009

had our first little family vacation. although i don't think of it as much of a vacation, since i still got to take care of little man the whole time! lol now i understand "that"....you know, when ppl leave their precious kiddos behind with granny while they go off to the beach or wherever :) Friday afternoon we went to Gruene and walked around...it was only like 109 that day...or it felt like it! Sat we went to Luckenbach and then Fredricksburg. Sat evening we stayed in our little cabin by the river(bed) and watched "view from the top"--they had movies in the cabins...not saying they were GOOD movies...but you take what you get and you don't get upset! haha Jon's friend from work, Phil, and his wife came down with us. They stayed in the cabin across from us and we went shopping everywhere with them. Cash and Phil had lots of fun playing! Phil loves kids, he would swing Cash around and throw him in the air. Cash loved it! We also got to visit Granny Pat a couple of times since our cabins were across the street from her and Opa Al. We went out and fed the cows (i mean, we watched Al feed the cows lol). It was fun to get away from "here" for a few days, but I was real ready to pull back into our drive! I think i've turned into a real homebody!

what i did at 3:15am today

If you know me, you know how I have loved Steven Curtis Chapman's music for so long. His music ministry has had such a huge impact on my life for many years. This video of Maria Sue's memorial service is about 30 min long. Yes I bawled watching it. What struck me most while watching it was: we will never know this side of Heaven how through this tragedy God has moved in people's hearts. We will not know how many lost lambs will return to the flock because of it. I just wanted to share this link and if you have 30 min (turn off the tv...you want reality tv? here ya go.) watch this intimate video. Let's always be careful to give praise to our God for everyday He gives us to live.

http://www.showhope.org/AboutUs/RememberingMaria/MemorialService.aspx

year one

my baby is a year old today! i'm so thankful for the past year, the ups and downs, the experiences, all of it! Praise be to God for allowing us each and every day with the awesome gift of our son, Cash!

just a couple of things

if you are now, or ever, going to build a home. or buy alllll brand new appliances. i would just like to share the following things that i wish i had known when i was doing....said building and buying.

number 1: stainless steel front refrigerator. looks cool but is not magnetic. get the one that just "looks" stainless. you can put all the cool magnets on it!

number 2: black stovetop? bad idea.

number 3: hardwood floors? pass.

please don't think for a SECOND that i am complaining about my home! i love it, i know i am truly blessed to live here and have such nice things. just wanted to share. and it's MY blog, i can do that. nah-nah.

since it's almost been a month...

Yep. Just under a month since I posted an entry! What's new in my world? Cash is walking! He's gettin' around pretty good! and he's mighty adorable I may add. He's getting more teeth too. Needs a haircut, but I still don't wanna :)

if you aren't reading this blog you should be: http://www.hoodmamamel.blogspot.com/

add her to your faves! Melissa, you make me laugh almost every post. Even if it's not a particularly "funny" post...you somehow manage to throw in a one-liner! My favorite part of being a reader of your blog is how I see God using you guys! You encourage me, SO many times, to do more. To be more for Christ! Our God is awesome and I'm so glad we are a part of the "family of God"! :)

My current fave praise song is by Phillips, Craig, and Dean, and I think it's called "redemption song" or "revolution song"...i'm thinking it's actually the first one. anyway...i LOVE it and I feel it is a very powerful song. A few sundays back at my church home (www.willowparkbaptist.org heehee) my friend Bethany sang it. It. Was. Awesome. One guy stood up in front of me, and I wanted to too but I was chicken. I did get an arm raised in worship--but INSIDE i was exploding with a desire to stand in AWE! I love worship and I'm so thankful we have it! God is so good. He has everything worked out. Why can't it be easy to feel that so strongly each and every day? I just read that team Alexander has a court date of Aug 12 to go get their new family member! At least...I THINK that's what the court date means...forgive me if I'm wrong :) Stacy, Tim, and Libby are back in Arlington! hooray! Lots of showers coming up in my future. Well, showers and a certain special little mister man's birthday numero one! I'm also getting to have a mini-reunion of sorts with the sunday school class I attended back in high school! We had a very special group of girls, and a special teacher. She lives in Arkansas (I think...I can't ever remember haha) where her husband is the pastor. She will be coming in soon and we are all planning a get together Thurs July 31. Aug 8th=Cash Birthday Party, Aug 9th=Jess's Shower (whoop!), Aug 22nd=Lindsey's baby shower at my house....oh and sometime in-between there Jon, Cash, and I are planning a mini trip to Blanco in the hill country! I think that's pretty much everything...oh and I'm still working too...busy busy!

I love my friends and family soooooo much!

Holy Holy Holy....is the Lord God Almighty

Who was and is and is to come

With all creation I sing

Praise to the King Of Kings

You are my everything

And I will adore You!

SO much goin ON!

I don't even know where to begin this post! I have had so many things running thru my head. We'll just roll with them as they come to me.

1. What's up with all the celebrities passing at the same time? Ed, Farrah, MJ, and now Billy? I know that like 1000's of ppl die every hour (or something like that) but you mostly never hear about them unless they are close to you or a celebrity.

2. Jon and Kate mess. Ok, so we all mess up. Even Christians. The difference between me and Jon/Kate is their lives have been on camera for all to see. What would be revealed if MY life were on camera for the "world" to see? I am no better than they, nor will i pass any judgement. My heart goes out to them, the kids...I hope they will find a way to forgive and heal and be a family even though the two of them can't "work it out"! there's no telling what the Lord is doing in hearts and lives that are involved in all that.

In other, non-celebrity related thoughts....

My friends are comin' home!!! Stace, Tim, and Libby are headed back from NY! yayayayayyyyy! We (Johnson's) finally get to meet sweet Libster! Cash is very excited :) Jess, Brandon, and Finlei are ALSO headed back to the D/F Dub area!! I am almost beside myself with all this excitement! In case you guys are house hunting in my neck of the woods i'd just like to let you know (again) that there is a house (make that TWO houses) on my street that are for sale! I'm just sayin!

Did I tell you that Cashy is taking his first steps? yup, Daddy saw the first ones at home! I told Jon we need to appreciate these sweet "first step" moments because it won't be much longer and he will be RUNNING around and we will be like "aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!" LOL

The Alexander's are getting another sweet baby (well 2 1/2ish year old) boy soon! Can't wait to meet this cutie too! I actually had wanted to post a blog on 6-26-2009 to say that "one year ago..." had been my last day at work at Dr. Moody's. I had grand plans of putting up all sorts of pics from work etc...where does your "free" time go! :) It was about 4:40 am when I started writing this one today...I couldn't sleep haha!

(random alert!) ok, on the news just now was a story about gays marching for their rights. I'm not for sure, but I think I saw women with black t-shirts and hot pink writing that said "Jesus" in the bigger print...i wonder what the rest of the shirt says? and while I'm randomly sharing things from the news....a church in KY had a "bring your gun to church" day...sweeeeeeeet. Maybe if we all carried our guns around on our hip (or in our purses?) the world would be "a better place"? I'm totally saying this tongue-in-cheekish. I do believe in our right to bear arms but I also know that there are folks who are not responsible and who do NOT use their...how should I say this..."smarts"....who I would not want totin' a pistol around.

Cash's school made this for Jon for Father's Day! It is sooo adorable, the pic says "Dad, you caught my heart" awww!

I guess that's all for now folks. I may try and get a little more sleep now that I've got all that out of my system :)

Pics...what else?

i may have mentioned before...i love his feet! they are THE cutest.
at meemaw's...checkin out the backyard

one of my fave (recent) pics!!

his shirt reads "it seemed like a good idea at the time"...

and after letting him have a go at avacado that is what i was thinking hahah

he doesn't wear size 4 diapers (almost!)...he must have got this one from the nursery at church or something!

checkin out the neighborhood at our house

Courtney graduated high school!!

Yep, nothin new to report on...Courtney graduated from Keller High School (yay!) and this pic was from her graduation brunch. It was a great party! My original plan was to hang out in Keller all day long that saturday. I was at her house from 11-2, then over to my mom's where Cash was hangin out. I was then gonna grab Cash and run back over to Court's house for a quick visit (them to see Cash) and then BACK to my mom's for her to watch Cash while I went to the graduation ceremony in downtown fort worth. (deep breath in....!) So....turns out...i wasn't up for all of this runnin about town and such and so forth. I got tired, tried to take a nap at my mom's. Jon had been workin all day and I decided to take Cash and head home for a family evening! yay! in other news....

Cash is trying to take the first steps! I mean...towards walking? does that even make sense what i just wrote...i don't know or care...i'm getting sleepy hahah! did i already mention how i chase Cash all over the house and tell him NO all the time....yes? well yeah that's the same. but now he's a lot faster at the crawling! his current fave thing to do (that he shouldn't) is crawl to my bathtub and turn on the water. and turn it off. repeat, repeat. "no Cash, no Cash no, turn off the water..." ahhhhh!!!! LOL let's see what else does he do that he's not supposed to--oh yeah he now likes to try and climb up onto the dishwasher while i am loading it. and also roll the bottom drawer in and out (the dishwasher drawer). and also open the bottom storage drawer deal on the stove. yeah pretty much doesn't play with any toys..he has like 3 hundred of them laying everywhere. they all make noise and light up, and are pretty colors. i think for christmas i'm gonna get him empty boxes. just wrap them up, so he has something to "open"....he won't play with anything anyway! :)