Erin's Baby Shower for Kyah

As I told you in my post last weekend, family came to town to celebrate the soon coming birth of Kyah Everett Williamson. It was a joyous time for all of us and such a girl event.

(Linda King, Holly, Bethany, and KalistaLiddell)
The shower was held at Erin's mom beautiful turn of the 20th century home (I think I got that right if it was built in 1902) in Terrell, Texas and her aunt was her hostess. Erin looked beautiful in her turquoise sundress and Kyah was in evidence if not seen!
(Erin and her mom Holly Stone)
There was all-girl delicious finger foods with chilled punch. The games were all about babies, what else?!!

(Brandy Travis, Erin and Holly)
There was a houseful of women, family and friends(new and old) laughing, enjoying great food and oohing over the gifts. It's amazing what they have developed since my children were babies!

Look at how creative people can be. A diaper cake, not edible, but so very useful!

(Rachael Thomas and Erin)

Family Comes a Calling

We have had a great weekend with family coming to town to attend Erin's baby shower.

Terry's brother John (known as Buddy in the family) and Linda have not been out to Texas since Bethany and Phillip's wedding. It was so good to have them with us.

These three girls gave us much to celebrate this weekend as we celebrated Kyah's shower, Bethany's finding out she is expecting a girl, and Kalista announcing she will be having her first baby in February. There will be 3 months between each celebrated event!

Here's the whole crew visitng, but we were missing quite a few who couldn't join us this weekend.

And of course, we were so glad Holly could come. We give great praise to Greg for staying home with the 4 munchkins. We hear he survived it and did very, very well. Thank you Greg.

And the doctor said....

Bethany and Phillip came to Dallas Friday for their monthly visit with their OB-GYN and to get a sonogram that would tell them the sex of their baby.
The doctor did the sonogram instead of the sonographer and the pictures aren't really good enough to scan, but his assessment was that everything was fine and it was a girl!

That mean it was time to hit Babies R Us and check out the pink section.

Phillip decided some some blue could be added to wardrobe. We are just glad their wasn't any purple and gold (LSU colors) available, though we know they will come!

We came home empty handed, but with lots of things to talk and dream about. And of course, there were plenty of folks to be notified.

Getting to Know Chris

Julie, our niece is getting married soon and moving to Illinois. Saturday was a beautiful day here in Dallas, but very hot. It seemed the perfect opportunity to spend some time with Julie and Chris.

Bethany and Phillip thought it was a great excuse to come home and meet the fiance.

Of course, it made it especially nice that Keegan's sister Pat and her husband Jim have a wonderful pool we could all enjoy.

Yes, no party is complete unless Fritz is in the middle!

Please pray for Julie and Chris as they make this commitment to each other, and then as they move so far away from family and friends.

Shopping for Kyah's stroller

It's not long before Kyah makes his arrival into this world, and as any boy would he needs to have "wheels"

We all headed off to the Babie's R Us and the boys (along with mom Erin) picked out the sharpest wheels for the next boy in the family line.

Of course, along the way the boys had to check out the other toys and see if they were worthy of Kyah. Erin and I were there to make sure we came home with only one set of wheels.

Shopping is always hard on everyone and we all took a break to check out the best rockers and to discuss the new wheels. Now we all look forward to Kyah taking his first stroll.

Purtis Creek 2

Here are the rest of the pictures from our trip to Purtis Creek State Park today.

Purtis Creek State Park Picnic

Today after church Keegan and I drove to Purtis Creek State Park for a picnic and just some time out of town. It was really too hot to do much walking but we managed to find a few cool things to look at and we want to share those with you.

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Vultures aren't my favorite bird, but when they are soaring on the hot air with their huge wing span, they can be a sight to behold.

There is only one very short nature trail there at the park, but we found it full of of life as you can see in the picture below and on the next blog. There's just not enough space here to put all of them in one blog. We both feel so much better after our brief break from the daily reality, but not it's back to work

First Flight

My office sits on the city line between Forney and Terrell (8 miles either way) in Kaufman county. It sounds like a crazy location but it's there because it's in the center of the area we service in home health care. The office itself is a house that was once someone's home and it sits off the road in an area of green fields and sparse homes. My office view across the road is a pasture of cows.



This spring a pair of barn swallows returned to a nest on our front porch that they had built the previous year and made it home once again. The family grew from 2 to 6 with the 4 new babies. Two weeks ago we saw the parents trying to fill 4 little mouths that were always open and then this week the babies moved out of the nest to the edge.



There were 4 pretty little babies sitting on the nest looking at me on Monday, but I didn't have my camera. When I brought it Tuesday there were three. One had already flown from the nest. The next 3 were contemplating flight and deciding who would go next. Because I actually have to work, I did not get to stand there and see the actual take offs, but from my office window I saw them in flight and heard them "singing shouts of exhilaration".

Now there were two.

I rushed to get my camera but I still missed the first flights. Now there was only one left to make the daring flight, and he too soon left the nest that day. They came back on Wednesday for a brief respite but since have been out flying in the fields nearby. I miss the birds being on the porch every day while I am at work, but I am already looking forward to next year's family.

Kyah's Nursery

Kyah is Hawaiian and means ocean. Here you can see that theme carried out in the bedding.
It's still weeks off from Kyah's birth, but it's time to get ready. This past weekend, Keegan, Bryce, Erin and her parents Holly and Danny Stone spent Saturday creating a beautiful room for Kyah's homecoming in August. I was ill and could not participate, but they seemed to do a great job without me.

Erin has had to close her blog to the public due to abuse from strangers, but we wanted you to be able to see the nursery.
Erin and Bryce have mentioned there are a few more details they want to add, but from these pictures you can see how creative Erin is and how her decorating skills are so abundant.


Please continue to pray for little Kyah's development and safe arrival in August. If you want to see Erin's blog, you can email her and she can give you permission to see her blog.