Morgan's First Christmas...

We made it through Morgan's first Christmas without too many paper chews and swallowed bows and ribbons. haha! We had a wonderful Christmas with family and as expected Morgan was spoiled by both sets of Grandparents... She was funny because she would tear into a gift and of course be more interested in the wrapping material.. but when time to move on to another gift, would get upset because she wouldn't be done chewing on the box or crumbling paper from the first gift. Needless to say, many blessings and good family time...

New noise maker!
New clips to hold my hair in place and chew on!

Anxiously awaiting the paper chewing, I mean gift opening

Need I say more?!?

Ho! Ho! Ho!

We had to let you in on the "fun" of taking pictures of a 9 month old and since it is Christmas, we thought we would share some Christmas pics with you...(the expressions of Morgan...)

Where'd everybody go?

One of the few still moments...

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Thinking: What can I do next to make taking these pics more fun?

We wish everyone a wonderful Merry Christmas!

Texans once again...

We are now in San Antonio and are together as a family once again... and yes, we are Texans once again! It has been a whirlwind of a few weeks and we are all settled in, adapting to warmer weather (compared to IL weather) and busy city life (mainly traffic). It has been an interesting 3 weeks and Morgan has experienced many new things (as you can see below in the pics)...

Randall is enjoying his break between semesters (seminary) and Liz is job hunting, hoping to start counseling work by the first of the new year. Morgan is spending much time with family and getting acquainted with grandparents, aunts, uncle, and even great-grandfather. Since we have moved to Tx, Randall has turned 26, Morgan has turned 9 mos and is about to experience her first Christmas. Here is a little summary of what we have done thus far in the great Lone Star State...

Yes, her necklace says "bling bling", thanks to FBC-Eff youth (Hannah and Lauren).. celebrating Randall's birthday (oh and her hat is Lighting McQueen.. how appropriate!)

Morgan with Debbie's (Randall's Mom) new puppies and new wagon

Not too sure of this licking and bitting of the ear thing

Morgan in her Dallas Mavericks jersey (Bought by MiMi and Grandpa Walker)

Go Dirk!

Liz and Randall physically cheering the Mavs on (thanks to Walker parents)

Yes, a flying Chili (at the Mavs game)

Funny story: during a time-out, there was this flying chili and we thought it was worth picture taking.. come to find out, in the 4th quarter there was a random drawing of seating sections and ours was selected and we received Chili's gift certificates. Who would have thought? Right seat, right section, right game to attend... (and by the way, the food was good).

Fun Fun w/the Bulls!

Well we are officially texans once again and have made the move down here and in the

midst of our busy move from IL to TX, we made a trip to visit our dear friends and had a wonderful time. Not to mention, we had to intoduce our kids before the actual wedding (haha). Noah and Morgan (thrilled to play dress up)

Uncle Clayton and Randall w/the kids

Hanging out at the beach (very windy!)

Yes, these camels are real! The only pic of the 6 of us

Learning to share, but looking good while fighting over the book!

Enjoying the nice 85 degree weather in late November

First Haircut!

This past Friday Morgan had her first hair appointment and she did great! Here is a sequence of events of her big day! Enjoy! Not sure about this cape thing but at least it has animals on it
Sitting still is really hard

Cutting bangs so no one can ask if I'm a boy or girl?

Without Internet...

As you can see, we are a little behind on updating you faithful fans.. Our lives are upside down right now as we are homeless, living w/a family from our church, living out of suitcases, commuting at least 30 minutes a day into town and WITHOUT Internet! You don't realize how much you rely on the internet for communication until you do without it.

For those of you who don't know what is going on, let me update you...
We currently are in the process of moving back to TX for about a year so Randall can attend seminary full-time and Liz can work full-time, while living near family to help out w/Morgan. After that year, we hope to be moving overseas and from there... the details will work themselves out...?...

In the meantime, we are saying our goodbyes to church family, co-workers and friends. And in 1 week, we will be making a trip to visit good friends (CB & N) before Liz and Morgan move down to TX, while Randall stays here in IL for another 3 weeks.

On another note, our church recently did a Trunk or Treak for Halloween and here are a few pics from it...

Randall and Morgan (she's dressed up as a Flower for those who can't tell what she is)
Morgan and her older friend from church

The Family

Who knew packing could be so fun???

Morgan would rather play with boxes, paper and anything that she can bang on or put in her mouth (especially when she's not suppose to). As you can see, she is enjoying the packing supplies and can make anything fun! (this pic is for you Joyce)

It seems no matter how tired we are or how stressful packing and moving can be, Morgan helps remind us of God's contagious joy. Who knew packing could be so fun???

Nashville w/The Pwoods

We took a whirlwind trip to Nashville to meet up with The Prestwood's as a "send off" before they leave.Corey and Rachel (I love this pic!)
All of us

Uncle Corey, you're a natural!

Fun outside

Just thought we'd share some new pics of Morgan. Although she wasn't so interested in the camera, she was mesmorized by the leaves and outside nature... in other words, she wanted to eat the leaves and whatever nature she could get her hands on.

There's been much change with Morgan and she is officially crawling and all over the place. Funny story: the other night, Randall was putting things away in the bedroom and as he was walking down the hallway, Morgan was right behind him following... she's pretty quick. She also loves to play hide and seek, especially in the cubby hole of our entertainment center. What a mess! Enjoy! More to come; we're in the process of getting video of her in action. Stay tuned!

You've Gotta Check This OUT!!!

Ok we know Morgan is 6 months old and we're just now making a video, but she's gettin' pretty entertaining and we couldn't help but show her off!!

Feed Me!

Yes, we feed our child, but she would rather eat her teething toys. What a mess! Morgan is now 6 mos old and starting to be mobile (on her own).

"Yummy"
Down on all fours, but not sure what to do after this position (she likes to rock back and forth)

Just being cute one day after church.

Messy Eating

Who ever knew eating could be so much fun?!? Well as you can tell

from the pics, we made our first attempt at giving Morgan her first "solid" food; Peaches mixed w/ rice cereal... Yummmmmm! Needless to say, she loved it and I think got more on her face then in her mouth.

A word to the wise, be prepared to spoon the food fast, especially when you have an impatient hungry one in front of you. Otherwise, they start licking anything they can get off their fingers. I mean it's not like we don't ever feed her.. you'd think it was her last meal.

I know, I know.. a wild hair day to add to the fun. Everyone has one good side that the hairs lay down and the other... does its own thing!

More fun to come... can't wait till the green stuff! (veggies)

Randall's "Tri"

Randall did it! As you can tell from the pics, he participated and competed in his first triatholon ever! We are so proud of him! The events consisted of a 300 meter swim, a 12 mile bike ride, and then a 3 mile run. It was a long morning as we started at 5:00 AM, but was worth every minute of it!

Next, we're hoping to participate in a diatholon where Randall and I will be a co-ed team and I will run 2 miles, then Randall will bike 19.5 miles and then I will finish up with 2 more miles. This event is scheduled in late September. More pics to come!

And to top it all off, Randall won 2nd place in his division! Yeah!

Randall's biggest fans!

New Discoveries

As promised, an update on more visitors... My family (Liz) made the 11 hr drive from TX in 13 1/2 hrs.. (not a recorded record or anything), but they were here and gave lots of love to their only grandbaby. I'm not sure if Randall and I even held Morgan very much this weekend. Oh well, we see her everyday. As you can tell from the pics, Morgan is all smiles and in position to crawl soon. Although, she is very interested in standing (w/help of course). And her new discovery this weekend.. my sister, Meghan's dog, Avery... needless to say, I'm not sure who was the more playful one..

Well, the newest thing coming up in our family is Randall's first triatholon (next Saturday, August 18th). We will keep you updated!