2018 JOY

This year my goal is to sit back and see.

My kids, my husband, my Lord.

I want to enjoy,  I want to be calm.  I want to be thankful.  We are so so blessed and I am tired of rushing around and loosing my patience with my family.  There is nothing in the world for me to rush about.  God has blessed us over and over and I want that to reflect from me, my thankfulness.

So this year,  I want to show JOY! and bring JOY!

Also, I am so thankful that my relationship with the Lord has taken an all time high.  I am in the Word and I am memorizing scripture and it feels amazing.  I love it! I love HIM.

a busy fall

Zach has his CFP test this November and he has been studying literally all year.  He signed up for a course that has had him away for one weekend a month since last January.  It forced him to study and prepare for this test.  It has been a long year with him so busy, but I am so thankful that it is getting close and he will be done!  We have missed him so much.  You wouldn't think that one weekend a month would be that hard, but when you add it all together, it turns out he was away from us for about a month over the year.  I could never be a wife of a traveling husband.  It has made me so thankful for his job and his flexibility.  It has also made me pray and think about all the wives/moms who kiss their husbands goodbye for days at a time each week.  They are strong!  Needless to say, next year will be refreshing and we look forward to a lot more lazy weekends as a fam of four!

With Dad so busy it has really made us appreciate the time we have together.  So thankful for this man and the way he provides for his family.  He is amazing.

The test falls during the same week that I am due with Sam.  We new the test was going to be in November but we thought that it would be the very first of the month.  So last week at my doctors appointment we brought up the situation with my doctor.  She was so understanding and sweet.  She totally understood the importance of Zach's test and preparation.  How could he study and be rested with a newborn in the hospital or with a wife at home waiting to go into labor any minute.  Not the best scenario for a major test.  She mentioned inducing labor the week before.  We both jumped at the option!  A week early, how wonderful!!  Sam will be here and Zach can study and rest while I have family here to help with Hannah and a newborn.  Still not the BEST timing, but this is better than nothing.  Plus, Zach would say differently, but he is such a good test taker.  It amazes me.  

I have been pretty busy getting the nursery ready.  With about seven weeks to go, I keep telling myself he will be here before we know it!  It's funny, with Hannah I think I had my bags packed for the hospital at this point.  It's nice to have a sense of peace with having your second baby.  I keep imagining him being calm and easy.  Maybe that's just me not panicking about all the unknown I had with a first born.  I am hoping that Sam is a bit more, "go with the flow kinda kid'.  Hannah still keeps us on our toes.  She's just like her Dad, energizer bunny.  Here are a couple pictures of his room.  I still want to find a great lamp and pillow for the chair.

His place of rest ;)

Little Darling Photography

I wanted this pouf for Hannah's room but never got it.  Now I have a foot rest, woohoo!

Lots of long hours spent in this chair.  Getting ready to do it all again!

And to close up for the night, this is the face Hannah makes when we ask her to smile for a picture!  Always being silly.  She's almost 2!  And these days she pretty much always has a snack and stuffed animal in her hands.  She cracks me up so much!

birthday fun

Within the past couple weeks we have been to two pretty fun parties.  Celebrating two pretty cute people!  

Hannah was invited to one of her best friends first birthday in late July.  She was so excited and so was I.  The party was adorable.  Her Mom and Dad worked hard to make it a precious party.  There were so many babies there, Hannah had a blast playing with all of them.  It will be fun to look back and think about taking her to her first birthday parties :)

Ready for the fun!

H and the birthday girl :)

And just last week I celebrated my Mom's birthday.  This year she wanted to have a "girls night out".  So we left the husbands at home with the kids sleeping in their beds and headed out for some drinks and good sushi.  We laughed and talked and had a great time.  I love nights with these girls, they are my best friends!  Happy Birthday Mom - love you so much!!

I think that birthdays are really special.  It is the best day to tell that person how special they are to you and why you are thankful they are in your life.  I hope that I am able to make my kids feel extra special on their big day :)  My Mom always did ;)!

a joyful day

Friday night I didn't sleep a wink.  I was too excited about Hannah's first baby shower.  Saturday night after the shower I did not sleep a wink because I stayed up thinking about every detail from the shower :)

My beautiful hostesses

I  couldn't wait to see everyone and celebrate this little baby.  My sweet sisters and best friends threw the most beautiful event! I was overcome with so much thanks and felt so blessed because of these girls and all of the other precious guests who attended!  It was so joyful.  My mom and I rode to the party together and I told her that I had butterflies because I was so excited,  I felt like a little girl again :)

Sweetest friends

Best family

So happy you were there to celebrate 

 Mom and sisters

Love love these girl!

Precious lifelong friend with sweet sister 

I loved talking with friends and family as we sipped my favorite drink, Arnold Palmers (tea and lemonaide), viewed pictures of Zach and I as babies and young children, and enjoyed an amazing lunch.  The flowers filled the house with a sweet scent and the company filled the house with love!  I was in awe the whole time :)

One of my favorite parts was that each guest brought their favorite childhood book with their gift for Hannah's new library.  Each time I opened a gift the giver would tell about the book and share a little something.  I could tell they all brought back memories for everyone.  We have one full library now.  She has no idea how lucky she is...or how happy I am about this.  We will be reading a LOT! 

Another adorable detail of the party was this girly party favor.  Each guest got to take home an Essie nail polish with a tag on it that said, "It's a Girl!  Hannah Jean Davis"  So adorable and everyone was so pumped to take home a new bottle of pink polish :)

Our little growing family was showered for sure!  The nursery is stocked and I really feel like we can have Hannah now.  We are so blessed! 

We can bring her home with us...we got our car seat :) haha!

And to top it all off, when I got home my awesome hubby had bought a new car!  He promised it was big enough for a car seat, haha.  We are so blessed.

precious baby girl

Happy Birthday baby Abby!

Congratulations to your sweet Mom and Dad who love you very much! Mary and Matt had their baby last night and it is a pretty baby girl. Mary did great and is doing well today :) This little one was ready to meet her parents and came about ten days early! We are so glad she did!

Abby Stults

August 23, 2011

6 pounds 10 ounces

What a wonderful gift from God. I can't wait to hold and love this little cutie!

happy easter

Easter weekend has been so much fun! It was such a great time together. We spent a lot of time just sitting around talking and loving on the little kids/babies, well at least the girls did. The boys on the other hand, were active the entire weekend; playing sports, snorkeling for Poppie's lost sunglasses at the lake (which were found by Mr. Brack himself!), trying to fish a new rope through a flag pole (which Zach attempted by climbing the 20 ft. high pole like a monkey! I was so scared, really!). Needless to say, they didn't miss a beat. But we all had so much fun!

Just enjoying the patio!

Getting into trouble ;)

It was really hot on Saturday and we were able to lay out and play in the pool, die eggs, and have an Easter egg hunt!

My beautiful sisters

Easter Egg Hunt! Adorable!

I love my family so much. When I get to the lake, I pretty much shut out all outside distractions. Ha, I never look at my phone, never check my email, and you basically have to drag me out the door to go somewhere else. I know why I love it so much out there and it's because of my family. Everyone is so close! We can sit around late at night just talking and enjoying conversation. I hope that, someday, our kids are this close too!

Mary and little Olivia. Doesn't Mary look beautiful! She is having her own little baby in 5 months! She is glowing and the cutest! We are so excited!

Loving on some cute babies :)

I love this song and feel like it explains Easter perfectly. Singing these words just make me smile and feel so blessed. He is Risen indeed!! It called "He is Mighty to Save" by Hillsong. Here are little parts that I love...

Savior, He can move the mountains

My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save

Forever, author of Salvation

He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave.

Shine Your light and let the whole world see, we're singing

For the glory of the risen King, Jesus!

What an amazing thing to celebrate! Our Savior has Risen! I want to try and remember this and pray about this in thanksgiving more this year, instead of just this weekend, once a year! What a gift, I can't even begin to explain its majesty!

a baby boy

Happy Birthday Crawford!!

We love you!

Crawford Marshall Davis

December 27, 2010

8 lbs. and 10 oz.

Allison and John, my brother and sister in law, are proud parents of two little cuties now :) Addie will be three in March and baby Crawford was born on December 27th. He is a precious little one, and Addie is such a cute big sister. They are such a sweet family and we are thrilled for them! It was a quick deliver with a scheduled c-section. Family only waited for about an hour until we got to see Crawford. He looks just like I imagined! Handsome little fella ;)

Waiting for her big brother!

He's here! Lots more hugs and kisses where that came from!

This has been a very busy season for our family. Three babies born this Fall/Winter! Now that I am home, bags unpacked, and new gifts put in their places, I had a minute of peace to reflect on these little loves. It is truly amazing how God has his hands on our lives, to every last detail. These babies are so amazing and are filled with so much love! I am overwhelmed with thanksgiving, peace, and joy! Thank you so much, Lord, for these adorable gifts. Watch over and protect them all the days of their lives!

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

James 1:17

little baby kisses

We love you baby Janie!!

Anna Jane Bryant

6 pounds 12 ounces

December 1, 2010

Janie is here and she is so beautiful! Mom is doing great and everyone is so excited, including her big brother :) What a true miracle and blessing from God!

Thank you to all of our family and friends for prayers.

thanks

"Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise, your glorious name."

1 Chronicles 29:13

I had so much fun last week!

Being a teacher, I am lucky to have a whole week off for Thanksgiving break! Which meant it was the perfect time to take a little trip to Midland. It doesn't sound like it would be hard to get there, but boy is it a long 5 hour drive. Flying is the best way to go, but that's when our baby dog comes into play. So, all around it's usually just easiest to find a long weekend and drive.

Once we were there we had so much fun spending time with our Midland fam. It was really nice to be able to relax and catch up with everyone. Addie is getting so talkative. She is such a sweet little girl, and we really felt like we got to know her loving personality this trip. She had tons of fun with her Uncle Zach and vice versa. We are looking forward to being in Midland again soon for the Christmas! Maybe baby Crawford will come a bit early

so we can see him then!

He's going to be such a great Daddy some day! ;)

The rest of the week was spent in Fort Worth with my family. All of my siblings were there and it was so wonderful. We have been so busy lately, and I felt like I hadn't a long weekend with my sisters in so long. I finally got to just sit, hold, and kiss on baby Olivia. She is such a precious baby, I love her so much! In fact, all of the kiddo's were adorable! I am so lucky to have so many precious children in my life.

Also, Marmie and Poppie were quite the hostest with the mostest. I think I gained about 10 pounds out at the lake, but it was worth it! To make things a bit easier on Marmie we split up the Thanksgiving dinner so that she could have more time for things like this... :)

Each family was responsible for one or two dishes. It really made things easy for everyone and the kitchen was a calm place :) I made the sweet potato casserole. I'll post the recipe later, but it turned out great! I'll use it again and again!

On Friday the guys played golf and the girls braved University Park Village. We bundled up all the kids and hit the road. I hadn't been to University in a couple months, and man has it changed. Fort Worth has an Anthropologie!! And it's a really neat one too! I swear I love every single thing in that store, I find myself thinking, "One of each please". Also, McKinnley's Bakery has moved to a bigger space. It is totally redecorated and looks great! The food was delicious as usual and the cookies are still to die for! The shopping day was a success and I made it home with our Christmas wrapping paper and new ornament for our tree.

All smiles with some soda pop :)

We ended the weekend with a grand finale celebrating Poppie's birthday at the City Club downtown. I love you Poppie! Thanks for being the best Dad in the whole wide world!

It was hard to say good-bye, but it was a bit easier knowing that baby Anna Jane (Janie) is going to be born on Wednesday! Please pray that Kate has an easy delivery and that Janie has a wonderful birthday! December 1st would be a pretty cool birthday to have :)

Can you tell I'm obsessed with our nieces and nephew (soon to be nephews)!

God's precious gift

We love you baby Livie!

Congratulations to your Mommy and Daddy and two Big Sisters!

Everyone is doing great and we are all so happy she is here!

Olivia Kate

8 pounds 20 inches

too good...

It is weekends like this when I am reminded of how blessed I am to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. This was one of those weekends when it is too good to be true. We are so blessed and so thankful for all of the joy God has placed in our lives, even if we are pooped from all the fun!

It started off Friday night, when Tyler and Sally, our sweet friends, invited us to go to the Tim McGraw concert. They just moved close to us and we are pumped they are in the same city. It was an awesome night, to say the least. I almost touched Mr. McGraw, we were so close. Man, he really does have some great songs. I had forgotten the deep love I have for his tunes back in the day. Brought back some great memories, for sure!

This is one of the sweet photos Zach took on his phone.

And on Saturday, some of our best buds came over to Dallas for the Dave Matthew's concert. Everyone stayed with us and it was so much fun to have our house filled with people we love. It was my first Dave concert and I loved it! Tunes were flowin, drinks kept comin, and of course there was dancin! We were so proud of our boys for planning this night. It was up to them to get the tickets and plan the weekend, they did a great job! So sweet :)

The whole gang!

Then tonight we got to hang out with Zach's Mom. She is in town for Market and she took us to dinner tonight at Mi Cocina and then, of course, Paciugo after. It was a delicious meal to say the least, but most of all it was just good to see her and spend some time together, catching up. While we were in Paciugo I got a photo in front of this picture.

It told the meaning of Paciugo -

an italian word meaning "messy concoction"...cooking with friends, creating recipes from scratch with fresh ingredients, and having fun...then you are making a "paciugo."

Pretty cool! All things I love, friends, fun, and cooking. Perfection!

AND to top it all off, my sister Erin, is having baby Olivia tomorrow! I am in awe of my sister and how calm she has been. She is a beautiful example of fully putting your faith in the Lord. Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that little "Livie" has a peaceful birthday. It is such a miracle, truly!