Happy Valentine's Day!

 Proverbs 17:17
A friend loves at all times...

BFFs!  These girls love each other and are so happy to get to spend time together. 

Oh Deer!

Anyone thinking of coming to Texas for warmer weather this winter needs to wait to book a flight.  I know it's still winter, but come on. This is Texas. 

Today we actually did have ice on the roads.  Not covering the roads, but in small patches.  We have been a one care family the past couple days because a friend is borrowing Josh's truck.  So Kate and I were taking Josh to work this morning.  We survived the ice, dropped Josh at his office, and were headed home. 

Suddenly, I saw him.  A wild, crazy-eyed deer to my left racing across the road I was coming down.  He was perpendicular to me, swerving would be no help.  With the potential of ice on the road, anything fast was dangerous.  All I could do was hold my course. 

The crazy animal ran right into my door!  He destroyed my side mirror and left it hanging.  I watched him flip around on the ground and then get up and run off, so I'm pretty sure he was fine.  And fortunately so were we and so was the car (except for the mirror).  That's saying a lot because we know several people whose cars have been totaled by deer.

We decided to tape the mirror back on the mount until we can take it in to get replaced.  We are really fortunate to not have more damage.  Still not the way to start out your morning. 

He's a live one!

I had another ob appointment yesterday and she did another ultrasound to check on things with baby James.  He had the doctor laughing with all his silly antics.  Baby James was active during the ENTIRE ultrasound - and not just turning his head and waving type stuff.  He was pulling his foot up to his face and then stretching it back out.  He was putting his hands in front of his face and turning his head away from us and then back to us.  He was doing all kinds of things.  We have figured out why my blood sugar drops suddenly and I have to eat more and more food just to stay afloat -- this little guy is sucking away all my nutrients and energy! 

And he's not such a little guy either.  The average weight at this point is about 2.5 pounds.  James is looking like he weighs about 4 pounds.  It's all based on measurements, so we can't be for sure, but he know he's not little.  My doctor said we will check again at 36 weeks to see how big he's getting.  Oh boy!

And he has big feet!  Which is funny because neither Josh nor I have really big feet.  But my brother does, so maybe he's getting it from my side.  We got to see a few 3D pictures, too, and it looks like he might have a nose like Joshua.  Not a cute little nose like Kate.  But if he looks like his daddy, he will be a handsome boy indeed.

Merry Christmas with Ugly Sweaters

Click here to view these pictures larger

27 weeks!

James is getting big!  And, yes, I know I still have several months to go! =)

Cool Car!

This is exactly what Kate said when we showed her the peddle car my grandmother got her for Christmas.

Yes, folks, that is a BMW convertible.  We park it in the garage next to Mommy's car.  Kate will often ask if we can take her car to run errands.  It's made for kids 3 years and up and Kate cannot reach the peddles yet.  So we have to push her if she's going to go anywhere.  She doesn't seem to mind and is learning to steer pretty well. 

Christmas

 Our family is bigger this year and we got to celebrate Christmas in Kerrville with Kate's cousin Madi. The girls get along really well and it's fun for Kate to have a cousin now.

 We also got to go to Denver with my side of the family.  We opted to fly, even with the thought of trying to contain a toddler for 2 hours in our laps.  Kate was a super traveler, though, and traveling couldn't have been smoother.  And once we got to Denver Josh and I actually got to sleep in a few days while my parents took care of Kate in the mornings.  My brother was in the states from Puerto Rico and Kate got to spend much needed time with her uncle. 

We made a gingerbread house with my cousins Maddie and Alexander.  Kate learned how to scoop icing up with her fingers and lick it off.  Can you tell how much she enjoyed that?

Tis the Season to be busy!

Could I be more absent from this blog?  I have such good intentions for all the projects I can do (Susie Homemaker, if you please), the books I can read, and the general up-keep of my family.  But you know the drill -- those often stay as intentions. 

Things are pretty busy around here these days.  Kate is a do-it-herself kind of girl.  Sometimes that has mixed results.  Today she helped me put away the laundry by grabbing one article of clothing from the laundry basket in the kitchen and dragging it across the house to the appropriate bedroom.  In her room, articles of clothing were deposited in her laundry basket (which I had to retrieve promptly to remember which were clean and which were dirty) and in my room they were piled on the closet floor. 


She sleeps in a big girl bed now and happily helped Daddy take down her little bed. She sleeps on the trundle bed under this one and LOVES it!

James Cooper Seefeldt (our baby boy) is growing and active.  He already kicks his mama hard enough to hurt.  Other than that, everything is running smoothly with the pregnancy.  His room is still a disaster zone as we are using it as a storage and holding tank right now.  But he's comfortable enough for now.

Kate knows her baby brother's name and has gotten to feel him kick.  What all that possibly means to her, I have no idea.  But so far she's on board. 

We have some other interesting developments which I will share later.

Oh, and I got to do a 6 month photo shoot for a friend and her daughter.  So fun!  Hop over to my photography blog to check those out!

thank you red card

Pictures In Red Holiday Thank You 3x5 folded card

Turn your holiday photos into holiday cards with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Yes, we did have a Thanksgiving

 I realize I still have not posted from Thanksgiving.  Here is a short and sweet version just so it doesn't get left out.  We traveled to Santa Fe to see my grandmother.  My aunt, uncle, and cousins from Denver also came down and so we had a wonderful full house for Thanksgiving.  The first couple days were COLD!  It even snowed the first night just enough to put a small layer of snow along the ground and top of the wall.  Beautiful!

 We tried to go on a walk and the wind was so cold we were miserable!  But later in the weekend it warmed up enough for Josh and me to walk into town and look around a bit. 

 Kate did lots of "cooking."  She is very good about not opening the packages and pretended to make many coffee, candy corn, peanut butter creations.

 We loved getting to see my cousins!  They are great kids and we don't get to see them very often.  They are so great with Kate and she just loved them!

Kate liked being with her Dewey (what she calls my grandmother).  She's very adaptable to new situations.  We talked all about Dewey's house and who would be there so she was excited and ready once we got there.  

We drove to and from Santa Fe and are happy to say we survived.  Kate did well, all things considered, and it was an easy, but extremely boring drive.  I have to say that New Mexico south of Santa Fe made even West Texas look interesting. 

And finally, just because I haven't posted one in a while...

Big baby boy!

Deck the Mantle with Christmas Cards!

Happy December!


I guess it's time to start thinking about Christmas cards.  Yeah, don't tell me you already have yours done and in the mail.  Figures.  Overachievers!  We still need to get our Christmas decorations out of the attic.  I didn't think I was behind until I saw houses already decorated.  Traveling for Thanksgiving apparently puts you behind in the "decorating in Christmas" festivities.

I was just looking on Shutterfly and they have lots of new cards this year.   I like the folded ones where you can write a story inside about your family and share multiple pictures there.
Click here for an example
Or this one, where you have lots of pictures on the front and a big one inside with your story.
Click here
I think the story idea is such a nice touch.  Josh and I always try to cram in as much as we can because we love to share life and the Good News of the season with those we send our cards to. 

Usually I have gotten the flat ones from Shutterfly with one or a few pictures and just enough room to write something small.  They have always turned out really nicely.  There are new designs this year that are really cute. I love how many different designs they have!  Check them out!

I'm looking forward to trying something new.  Ambitious, I know.  But I've had good results in the past - from ease of creating the card, to fast delivery, to great end product. 

Now I just need to get a nice picture of the family.

And maybe in 2011 I'll get my act together enough to get some birth announcements for our little guy. Shutterfly has some pretty options and I'm sure that would make it easy for a newly mom of two to handle.  

It's a ....

...baby brother!  We are having a boy!

We had our 20 week checkup and sonogram yesterday.  We got to see a very active, very wiggly, healthy baby boy.  The doctor said everything looked good and he was measuring the right size.  He is about 14oz right now.  

 The top picture is his little foot and this bottom picture shows him looking at us, his head on the right, his body to the left. 

We are very excited and working on his name right now.  I guess it's time to get some blue! 

They both said "I do..."

The Seefeldt family just got a bit bigger. Josh's brother Michael married Stephanie last weekend and we now have a new sister-in-law and...for the first time!!...a niece! Josh and I get to be an aunt and uncle! We are very excited to have them as a part of our family.

I got to do the photography at the wedding with Josh as my assistant. If you'd like to see just a few of the pictures, click here: Wedding Pictures

More family just in time for the holidays!

Our Little Kitty

When I realized that we were going to be traveling on Halloween this year (more on that to come), I was disappointed that we wouldn't get to do all the Harvest Fest/trick-or-treating fun with Kate. And traveling kind of ruled out an elaborate costume. But I decided we still needed to dress her up, even if it just meant riding in costume in the car. You just don't pass up an opportunity to put your kid in a costume.
I decided on a kitty because that's her favorite animal noise to make right now. And low-and-behold, a black kitty showed up at my parents' house just in time to take a picture with her. I'm so glad that kitty was not interested in staying in his own home. (Yes, that is Kate's new smile. She says "cheese" and smiles like that.)


We ended up staying overnight at my parents' house that night instead of driving back. Kate got to hand out candy to some trick-or-treaters with my mom. We don't really know any of their neighbors anymore, so Kate did not partake in the candy-getting fest. But she wouldn't know what to do with it anyway.

I took a video on my phone of her looking at the black cat and talking about his ears and she cracks herself up watching it. It's so funny! Total belly-laughs watching herself.

Whoop!

The Aggies are ranked again! It's about time!

Though we are pathetic about actually getting to watch the games, I follow the score updates on my phone and am REALLY excited to see Aggie Football actually competing again.

Way to go, Ags! Gig 'em!

Need a new website?

Hey, this is Josh.
I love my wife. She does a great job at keeping the blog updated. It used to be 'our' blog, but due to my lack of contribution, it has really become her blog. She is such a great writer and has great insight and wisdom. So I kinna hate that my rare post isn't really an update at all. But here it is.

I've spent a good amount of time at work getting our new website set up. You can check it out here. We used a website template from Clover Sites, and from the last few months of working with them I have really grown to appreciate their company, and their product. They started off making websites for ministries and churches, but have recently expanded to also do any type of business. Compared to other website options, their price is great, their templates are beautiful, and their web based editor is so simple and easy to use.
So if you or someone you know needs a website for your ministry or business, I really recommend Clover. Go to their website for tons more helpful information.

Free

I voted this morning. I had wanted to vote early and didn't get to it. So today I was worried the lines would be long. I left the house early, running out while Josh was still getting ready for work so he could be with Kate. (She's not registered to vote yet.) But I forget that I live in Kerrville. There was one other man there while I was there. And we used paper ballots! Lately I have gotten used to the computer ballots. Funny.

I got to thinking about my view of voting. I've grown up at a time and in a country where voting has always been free - free from cost, free from hassle, free from manipulation, free of persecution. We complain about having to wait in line. Registering to vote is easier than renewing a driver's license or getting a library card.

I take all of that for granted. I am largely ignorant of the challenges, abuses, and struggles women less than a century ago in this country endured in order to win the right to vote.

I forget that right now, in other countries, people are beaten for casting a vote. People are willing to walk miles to get to a polling location. Women still face abuse for trying to vote.

May I grow to not take my freedoms for granted and to use them to influence toward good and the growth of God's kingdom.

Architecture Convention

The yearly architecture convention is often a family event for us. Pre-Kate I even went to a few of the session (and almost fell asleep during one...oops). My favorite part was the expo where I would try to get as many free goodies as possible. This year Josh was getting recognized officially as a new architect in the state, so we went. Fortunately the convention was close to home in the big city.

Kate loved the expo and definitely got some freebies just because she's cute.


Here is Josh and his coworker with the president of the Texas association of Architects (or something like that. Josh hasn't gotten back to me to clear up her title.)

Kate couldn't wait to run up on stage and give daddy a hug and high-five. Josh would probably have been the youngest one on stage except for Kate.


The next day, while the guys were in classes for continuing education, Jo Ann, Kate and I were shopping. Kate loved the boats on the riverwalk and Jo Ann took us on a boat ride. Kate loved it...right up when she fell asleep. It was a beautiful morning and so peaceful on the river. Thanks for the boat ride!

Pumpkin Patch

October means fall and pumpkin patch time! Kate and I had a great time at the Medina Pumpkin Patch today.






Do you like my goat horns and ears? Thanks goes to our friend Josh Smithson for not telling me my head was exactly positioned. Hmm.

We watched a puppet show and they did Little Red Riding Hood. It was all good until they told the version where the wolf eats Granny and then they cut his stomach open and Granny popped out. Really? For a bunch of kids? I'm just glad Kate wasn't really following the story.

Next year we will take Josh and baby Seefeldt with us and maybe it will be cool enough for hot cider.

I guess it's about time to post at least one belly bump picture. It's finally starting to look like a baby bump as opposed to too much ice cream.
So here we are at 15 weeks. I'm feeling pretty good these days but still like a nap every now and then.