Well sometimes you just have to skip catching up and just restart. So here goes. We had a party for the 5 year old boys yesterday and had a blast. Still can’t believe they are five.
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Ruby took a few steps closer to walking tonight and I figured I’d throw the video up. I still have to post Christmas pictures and Jude’s birthday, so keep an eye out for them.
I’ve posted the pictures for fall 2008. There are tons of pictures so go and check them out.
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We went on our first camping trip in Tyler this past October (2008). The above is a video of a crane that decided to fish about 5 feet from where we were standing. It was really cool because we were all sitting there watching the sun set on the lake and this big guy flew across the lake to where we were sitting. He hopped out of the lake onto the bank where we had to move out of his way so that he could re-enter it from where we had been. He then sat there really still and eventually did what is captured above.
We’ve added the summer pictures for 2008. As you can tell Jude has gotten more comfortable around the water and we have a summers worth of pictures up in the albumn. Check out the last couple of pictures of the snake that going after a frog on our front porch.
Jude and I too a trip to dinosaur valley. It turned into just a day trip but Jude thought the tracks were “awesome” and I did too. The water was low enough that we could see them all pretty well. We’ve added some pictures in the albumn if you want to take a look.
Spring has sprung, the kids are growing. Again there are a ton of pictures in the spring 2008 albumn. Head over and check them out.
Jude is 3! We had a couple of great birthday parties and Jude and I went to the Stockshow and rodeo on our own. Tons of pictures in the albumns.
Ruby Kate Black was born on December 20th, 2007. We were a bit suprised by the timing, but she was very healthy and we found a knot in the cord that could have been a problem had she decided to take her time like Jude had. She was a great early Christmas present.
Baby Everett is born. We have a big birthday for Treese with all of the family coming in town and we keep busy with a 2 year old and baby (wife) that’s growing every day.
Lisa is Pregnant! We are expected our second child towards the end of December. We all meet Lilly for the first time and get to spend the summer with the Swansons. Check the pictures for more… 
Eventually I’ll catch up on the posts.
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Jake came over and stayed the week at the Black’s. We had a bit of a toddler camp here and it was really fun watching the boys play. They had a great time, check out the pictures on the picture page.
We took a vacation and trip this year going to San Antonio, South Padre, and Tyler. We introduced aunt Jan to the Wii, and she learned to be careful bowling. We went to Sea World while in San Antonio, made sand castles on the beach at Padre, and went to the zoo in Tyler. The whole trip went very smoothly though it was a bit cool in Padre for May.
There are a ton of pictures for birthday number 2 available in the pictures area. We had two great parties and Jude had more fun than the serious face above indicates.
The Stockshow and rodeo here in Fort Worth is a yearly trip for us. The picture above is of the petting zoo. Jude loves the interaction and looking at all of the different animals up close. The rodeo is late in the evening for him, but it is fun. Check the pictures for more.
We had an early snow this year and it was Jude’s first. He loved it so much he threw a huge fit when we made him come in.
We have had trips to the zoo, the pumpkin patch, many many parks and have enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. Check the pictures page for more pictures of it all.
We are having a great summer. Jude loves watering the flowers as seen above. We’ve been busy trying to keep him busy, the zoo, the cousins pool, and even some golf at Gran’s par 3. We have had a great summer.
Jude got a job as a BNSF engineer today, he really loves his work. We really went to the train exhibit at central station in Kansas City, and he loves trains. He loves the animals and trains.
Spring has sprung. I started Jude mowing the yard this year, he’s got to start carrying his weight around here after all… Just kidding. Anyway, it has been a nice early spring and Jude loves our new park down the street.
Everyone seems to be 1 this year. We had a birthday with the three guys that are a little over a week apart in age. Reid is Jakes cousin and Jake and Jude are cousins and they are all 1. We had a great time and look forward to many more to come.
Happy new year. We had a great first Christmas for Jude. Jude walked for the first time on the 25th at Grandma and Papa’s house.
I’ve updated the pictures page with some pictures from this summer and early fall. There was a trip to Washington to see some family and go to our first apple press. We’ve also seen Jude learn to crawl and he’s gotten pretty good at it since his first successful attempt. I’ll try to update the page again after Thanksgiving so take a look back and as always, let us hear from you.
It’s been a while since I updated the front entrance of the site, but there have been updates, so take a look around and see what’s new. We have been pretty occupied with Jude and life in general, but we have been very blessed and all is well. As you can see in the picture above Jude is growing up fast (his first teeth if you look hard), check out the pictures page for the latest shots. We taken trips to see Auntie Kristi and Uncle Joe in Mexico, down to San Antonio to see Jan and Kerry, and to Houston to be with Scott and Leslie as they wed (and that was all in the last month). We are trying to keep up with everyone, but I know we fall well short, so drop us a line if you have the time, we’d love to hear how things are with you.
Here’s a clip of Jude crawling for the first time.
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Jude is 11 weeks now and finally starting to really put on the weight. We are all doing well, and looking forward to the next mile stone, sleeping through the night.
Cousin Jake is here. I have a new cousin that was born 6 days after Jude. Congratulations to the Tiedes!
We have a new member of the family! I’ve posted the pictures of the entire event on the pictures page. What a week! He’s adjusting well to life on the outside and taking us along for the ride. We hope you are all doing well and are glad we can share this with you all even though you can’t be with us.
Well As you see above our second sonogram went well. He was very cooperative and the technician saw all that she needed to see for the doctor and then to fulfill our curiosity and make this short video(10megs). Sorry we haven’t written anything sooner, but things have been kind of busy around here. Lisa has been sick for the past 4 months, but really saw the worst of it end after the first three. Well I’ve got to go, but check out the video if you have the bandwidth and we hope to hear from you whenever you have the chance. I’ll write more soon, I promise.
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IT’S a BABY! We had our first Sonogram June 1 and everything looks great. As you can tell, he’s really small yet so you can’t see anything but the heart beat. We’re very excited and it’s been all we could do to keep the news from everyone, but we wanted to get to this point before we shared. In the picture above he’s about the size of a grain of rice, but is now about 3cm long and has a strong pulse of around 160bpm. Our official due date is January 21st. Click here to see the 3 minute video (about 5 MB). God is good and we give all the glory to Him in this great gift, it’s really an amazing thing.
SNOW DAY! We had snow here on Valintines day. It was great snow as you can tell with our snowman even if it was pretty much gone that night. Well, if you’re wondering, we don’t realy have two dogs, Maggie’s just really fast, and Booger didn’t mind the cold but didn’t like the snow. That said, we’ve been pretty busy of late. The acura finally died so we had to replace it, it was kind of sad but 15 years is a lot to ask. We got an northern green 04 VW Passat, really cool. We went skiing but unfortunately we don’t have any pictures (the digital didn’t work it was so cold). We spent three days at Copper Mountain, the first of which with Gina and Kirby Alexander who came via there home, Wyoming. It was really nice and we’d recommend Copper Mountain to anyone that has the opportunity to go. Next year we’re thinking about a bigger group and a week instead of three days, if you’re interested, email us. Well that’s about it, keep an eye out for an update in the next couple of months as they should be a pretty busy.
Merry Christmas, we hope that this has been a good year for all of you. This is our first official Christmas season as a married couple and we are excited about writing all of our family and friends. A lot has happened since we last posted a note on the page and I thought I’d bring you up to date. For Lisa’s birthday we went to Hot Springs, AR and stayed at a bed and breakfast called the Spring Street Inn and enjoyed the beautiful Arkansas Mountains and springs (pictures up). We then went to Shawnee, OK for the second weekend in November for Lisa’s 5th college reunion at OBU, and were able to spend the weekend in Oklahoma the same weekend of the big game. Great fun! It was nice to see where Lisa went to school. The Lord has been extremely good to us in our first year of marriage. We did however, have a very sad occasion when Lisa’s Aunt Denise went to be with the Lord on November 21. It was very sad for our family because we loved her a lot and are really going to miss her. The Lord has been gracious in providing for all of our needs as we pulled together as a family to help the Holdens through this very trying time. We know that He is sovereign and that all of our days are in His hands. We are continuing on in faith for this next year, believing that His promises are true, even in our darkest hours. We hope your holidays are full of family, fun and remembrance of why we celebrate, for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the greatest gift we shall ever receive. Have a happy holiday and a wonderful new year.
(April 13, 2003)
Well, it’s been nearly nine months since the picture above was taken and we’ve been busy. We got married and we’ve finally settled in “our” house and actually found a place for everything. We’ve been on our first camping trip, our first over night trip to see family, and are planning our first long distance drive together in September to see some family in Missouri. There are a lot of firsts and now that we have a camera we’ll try to share some of them with you. So, take a look around and be sure and check back every once and a while to check out the latest.
(November 17, 2002)
We were engaged on a trip to see Kristi (Lisa’s sister) and Joe in Chihuahua, Mexico on a Sunday evening in a nice little mexican restaurant named Los Retablos. We had our dinner and enjoyed each other’s company and were done with dessert in about half the time that we had told Joe and Kristi to come and pick us up, so we spent the rest of the evening talking. I meandered my way to the topic of the rest of our lives with Lisa a bit on the suspicious side and very cute. I asked her if she loved me, she said yes. I then asked her if she had been praying for our relationship and discernment on our lives from here, she said ‘almost every day’. Then I asked her if she would like to spend the rest of her life with me, she said yes. I knelt down on one knee and asked her to marry me and slid the ring on her finger. (She said yes before I could get it out of the box A couple of minutes later Kristi came in looking for us, congratulated us and took the picture above. We spent the rest of the evening calling family, emailing pictures and trying to figure out everything for the wedding in one night.
Cute baby pictures up on the albumn page.
Merry Christmas!