Anniversary Celebration

Brooks and I had our 4 year anniversary over a week ago, but we actually celebrated it a little early (I forgot to post about it).  Since we've lived in Houston after getting married, we've made it a tradition on our anniversary to spend the night at the hotel where we stayed the night of our wedding.  So, this year was no different, especially since this was going to be our last year in Houston for a while.

Brooks and I were fortunate to have one of our best friends, Stephanie, ask us if she could watch Gavin for the evening, and let him spend the night with her, so we could get away.  We knew that Gavin loves his Aunt Steph and he does very well adapting to new places so we agreed and went off for our weekend Anniversary celebration.

Brooks did a little research and found a cute restaurant that was actually across the street from our hotel.  It was called The Grove and it looked out to Discovery Green, a large park in downtown Houston, near the George Brown Convention Center.  We had a delicious dinner (with dessert) and were stuffed by the time our meal had ended.  After wards, we went back to our hotel and actually went swimming in their indoor pool (Brooks LOVES to swim and every year we'd forget to bring our swim suits) and just relaxed.  The next morning, we got up and went to a couple's massage.  That was my gift to Brooks.  When he went to China, he would get a massage almost every day because they were very cheap over there and he loves getting them.  I thought he'd enjoy another one, plus, at this time, we had been doing a LOT of work on the house and we both just needed a break.  The last time (and only time) we've ever had a couple's massage was on our honeymoon so it brought back memories from 4 years ago!

We're glad we went and took the time to celebrate our anniversary.  Here are a few pics from the last few anniversaries at the Hilton Hotel.

On our first anniversary, we brought the top of our wedding cake and ate it up!

We also exchanged presents!

This was our 2nd anniversary.. I was 9 months pregnant (since I was on bed rest for our actual anniversary in May, we went in August to celebrate me getting off bed rest and to have one last weekend alone before Gavin came. 

**I just realized we didn't get to go last year. The NBA playoffs were going on at the Toyota Center the month of May, therefore, prices were INSANE!

Cake Demo with a Pro

A few weekends ago, I had the opportunity to attend a day of cake demonstrations made by local cake decorators and a famous cake artist.  I learned a lot of information and was very excited that I chose to spend my day learning.  It was amazing to see new techniques used and get an array of ideas varying from decorating, to recipes, to supplies used.  

Here is a cake that was brought in when teaching models.  It was a jungle themed cake filled with tree leaves and jungle animals.  It was cute. FYI: this cake would cost someone anywhere from $250-$400.  

The following two animals were used in our demonstration class.  I now know how to make a monkey and a tiger.  I was surprised by how easy they seemed to make, however, I'm not sure I could recreate these again to look just like this!  I'm glad I learned so maybe ONE DAY I'll venture out and try them!

The highlight of the day was getting to sit under the teachings of Michelle Bommarito.   She is a phenomenal cake designer who is very talented and had a very successful bakery in New York.   She now spends her time touring the country teaching lessons and being a motivational speaker.  She's very good at expressing her enthusiasm and passion for cake decorating.  She taught us how to make a shopping bag-- handle and tissue paper, too.  It was a neat concept to learn, now all I need is someone to order one from me.  Not only does Michelle tour the country, she also competes in cake challenges, too.  This past Sunday she was on the Food Networks Cake Challenge.  It airs tonight, again, at 6:00pm.  

Michelle is an entertainer when she teaches.  

  Before she started her demonstration, she walked around the entire room and shook hands with every single one of us and introduced herself to us.  So nice!

Child Dedication

Yesterday, the couples with children from our small group held a child dedication for the three kids!  It was a really fun and special event!  We all invited friends and family, had lots of food, and were able to spend time with people who love our kids (and us).  One of the wives from our small group's dad is a pastor at our church so he agreed to come and lead the dedication.  We held the "party" inside, but decided to have the ceremony outside.  The dedication was sweet.  We appreciated hearing the pastor's words that he spoke about it being mine and Brooks responsibilities to teach Gavin to trust the Lord and to love HIM and serve Him.  Yesterday was a special time for us.  Now, I will say, I understand why you hold these when the kids are "babies".  Let's just say Gavin is not use to being held for a long time period and had the desire to get down.  We tried our best to hold him, switching back and forth between Brooks and I.  At one point Brooks was distracting Gavin by telling him to look for the birds (hence why in one of the pics Gavin is pointing to the sky).  But, eventually, he wanted down.   That was fine with us.  We wanted to hear what Greg, the pastor, was saying and really receive his word.  Plus, Gavin saw his buddy, Cade, and wanted to sit by him.  It was cute... you'll see the picture of my friend Susie, with both of the boys in her lap-- that's where Gavin ended up at one point of the dedication.   We're really glad we decided to have the dedication before we left and got to have this time with Gavin.  My parents drove in town to spend the day with us.  Gavin was happy to see his Captain and Kimmie.

We had a cake made for each of the kids.  I was going to make the cakes, but with our house needing to be ready to show to relators (we still haven't picked one yet) there was no way I could have tackled three of these at once.  The cakes were really sweet and delicate.  Each one had a saying that said

"I will serve the Lord"

"I will love the Lord"

"I will worship the Lord"

Happy Anniversary Babe!

Happy 4th Anniversary to THE most amazing, caring, loving, respectful man I know!  It's been a blessing to have spent the last 6 years with you and I'm looking forward to many, many more years together!  Thank you for loving me and constantly living God's grace in our lives!  I love you more today then I did this day 4 years ago!  I can't imagine what it will be like in 15 more years!  I'm excited to see what the next journey in our lives will bring, but I'm grateful that we will be walking through it together!  I love you HUBBY!   

sooooo TRUE! 

What it's all about

We love our church!  We love everything about our church.  We are so thankful that we made the decision as a family to look for a new church home after Gavin was born and for the last (almost) 2 years we have been abundantly blessed by great teachings, awesome ministries, and some wonderful, Godly friends!  

We joined a small group a little over a year ago and immediately had 8 TRUE friends!  This weekend we're having a "child dedication" for the 3 kids at one of the couples homes, the Lutz family.  They have been working very hard the past few weeks getting their yard and flower beds looking good!  Last week at group, they expressed a need for time and energy to get it all finished and were hoping it could be done before they had lots of visitors coming over.  We could tell this was weighing heavy on their hearts so, our group decided to help them out.  We all showed up at their home Monday night with shovels, gloves, and lots of tools ready to work.  Within an hour and a half we had finished everything.  There wasn't a single weed left, a dead branch anywhere, and even their palm trees got a trimming.  It was amazing to watch everyone throw themselves into this project with willing hearts!  Our church always talks about how your small group should be your 2am friends-- friends you can call at any time in any situation and they will be there.  Obviously, this wasn't a dire situation, however, we saw the need and wanted to serve them and be a blessing.  That's what Jesus did-- he served the people!  

We had a great time with all of our friends and loved getting to spend time together!  We really are going to miss these people!  Of course, when I remembered I wanted to take pictures, it was when all of us girls were taking a break, so there's no evidence of us "working", but trust me, we did!  Check out the Lutz's blog and see the after pics of us relaxing as well as what was collected from their backyard!   

We brought Gavin who played and ran around the entire time.  He was a little obsessed with all the sharp tools laying around-- thankfully, everyone had an eye on him and would take them away from him.  He had a grand ole time just moving from one flower bed to another watching what everyone was doing and helping out where he could!  He's too cute!  

All About Gavin

Well, hello there!  I'm sure some of you are tired of seeing the same post, posted for the last week.  We have had a very busy week- relators, celebrations, all day demonstration events, house projects, and more.  So, get ready, I'm planning/hoping on making a new post everyday to update you all on things going on in the Perry house!  

I did finally have the chance to upload pictures from my phone onto my computer that have been held hostage for the last few months.  All the pictures are random and from different events, but I still wanted to share them!

Gavin loves wearing his back packs (he has 3 of them).  We usually switch them at least once a week and he likes to put some toys in them and walk around with them on his back.  It's really cute b/c they hit his bottom when he walks and he turns around to see what's touching him.  He's gotten use to it and is very proud when he wears them!

I found this CUTE lawn chair at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago of a frog and waited until it went on sale to get it for him.  He now sits in it in the back yard with us in the evenings while we're winding down for the night!  To say he loves it would be an understatement.

HAHA! I laugh at this picture every time I see it.  This was a few months ago (hence the long sleeves), but it was his first time to ride in on of these type buggies at the store.  He thoroughly enjoyed the "ride" and stayed in the furniture store much longer than expected thanks to getting to "drive" around!  Now, anywhere we go and he sees want this is is preferred method of riding!  Just yesterday, we went to Krogers, and they have the cars attached to the end of their buggies-- he decided he wanted to ride in that!  I'm happy for him that those buggies are entertainment for him, however, getting him out of it when we were done shopping-- NOT SO FUN!  We'll have to work on that though!

This is another sweet moment picture.  A few weeks ago, I watched Gavin's friend Peyton, and we made a pallet on the floor for the kids to lay on.  For the next few days, Gavin would gather up his blankets and make his own little pallet.  If you know Gavin, you know he doesn't normally sit or lay still for much length of time, but when on his pallet, he'd stay there all day if he could.  

On our way to Gulf Shores a few weeks ago, we stopped in Lake Charles to see Audrey Kate who had come home from the hospital.  We were so excited to get to see her and hold her and kiss her!  You can see her in the background of this picture getting her diaper changed.  David is starting to walk when holding on to furniture so naturally, Gavin loved getting to hang out with David.  These two are soooo cute together!  It won't be long and they will be chasing each other all around!  

Also, on our way back from Gulf Shores, we stopped in Baton Rouge to grab a quick bite to eat for lunch.  Before leaving, we decided to take Gavin to Counter Culture, my FAVORITE yogurt shop in BR, and let him have his first Humphrey!  They are delicious!  Frozen yogurt, granola, honey, strawberry, grape, and banana! YUMMY! He loved it and was excited when we put this in front of him!

This is our child being himself.  He is such a ham for the camera.  It is now a habit for him.. the moment he sees a camera he smiles and says cheese even if the camera isn't on him!  

It's been really fun to watch his personality come out over the past few weeks.  He's talking more, repeating us with words and sounds that actually sound correct.  He has an opinion on the type of shoes he wears, has stopped drinking soy milk (sort of), and prefers regular milk with chocolate in it.  He is obsessed with broccoli and the moment he hears the bath water running he attempts to take his clothes off OR would be okay getting in the tub with all his clothes on.  He still sleeps in his crib.  Even after the day he started climbing out, he has never tried to climb out again.  He stays in his crib and calls for me when he's ready to get up.  We tried seeing if he would climb out to us this past Saturday, but he wouldn't... he looked at us and said, "No No".  At least we know he listens to us when we tell him something.  We're totally okay with him not being in a big boy bed.  We'd have to change up his room a lot (by taking out his changing table and/or rocker to fit the twin bed) and we don't want to have to do that when we're about to get our stuff packed up anyways.  As long as he isn't climbing out, we're good with the crib!  

Stay tuned for more posts this week!

Trying to Get things Ready

WHOA!  Have we been busy this past week!  Brooks received his offer letter last week making his job "official" in Saudi and giving us the go ahead to start the process of EVERYTHING that must be done before moving.  We've been focusing on getting the house ready to go on the market.  With that, meant removing our dining room chandelier (we don't want to sell it with the house).  Gavin, of course, has been a huge help in our process and thought he'd give his daddy a hand with the chandelier!  I'm telling you- anything Brooks is doing Gavin HAS to be doing it too.  I love it!  Too cute!  

There is a young couple who we met last summer that already moved to Saudi in August and they were gracious to send us pictures of the closets and cabinet space in the villas (which we are hoping to get).  We decided to pick up some drawer systems to install into the closet systems that do not have any drawers- just two shelves (our friends, the Sperlings' did this and gave us the great idea).  Friday morning we arrived at The Container Store and had a really friendly worker lady help us design and create a drawer system that worked for us!  We ended up leaving with a lot of stuff.  We even got a few of those space bags that you can vacuum out the air and it shrinks the size of your storage.  I hope they work-- they will come in handy for our winter stuff, Gavin's clothes he grows out of as well as clothes we already have that he can grow into.  

The drawers!

While we are trying to get the house ready to be put on the market and ready to sell, we have started going through all of our stuff.  We realized we have a lot of stuff, too.  A majority of what's left in our house are items we are planning on putting in storage or taking with us.  The problem we are having is deciding what to take and what to leave.  Plus, we need a majority of our stuff to be packed up just to get out of the way to make closets look bigger and areas around the house less cluttered.  We started to tackle Gavin's toys, but quickly put all of it outside in the garage and agreed we'd deal with it later.  We really don't know what we're going to do with all his toys, just look: (and this is only half of them)

On Saturday, some of the guys from our small group came over and helped Brooks with his projects.  They re-mulched the yard, trimmed all the bushes, laid down some new base boards, painted base boards, and did a few more projects that required a nail gun, air compressor, and a saw.  While they were busy with all of that, I cleaned out Gavin's closet and got things organized.  I WISH I would have taken a before picture, but I wasn't thinking I was going to document all of this.  Here's his closet after putting up all his winter clothes, finding a place for his extra diapers and wipes, organizing all of his luggage and bag pieces, and putting up "baby" stuff that's been in his closet since he was born.  I will be honest and tell you that we haven't see the bottom of Gavin's closet, probably, since he was 3 months old!  Wow!  What a difference makes just putting things away.  

I never knew it could look this good! 

Saturday evening, once we put Gavin down for the night, Brooks and I went into our closet.  Our closet is huge and is one of the reasons we bought our house (that and the master bathroom)!  We didn't realize how much stuff we stored inside our closet until we started taking it all out.  We cleaned out, once again, clothes and accessories that we are going to get rid of- that's our 3rd time in the last 2 months- then we bagged up all of our winter clothes, and left only clothes that we intend on wearing during the next few months.  We bagged up clothes that we are willing to send over in our shipment and not see for a while.  We packed up shoes, purses, hats, and bags into some of our suitcases and sent those to the attic.  I decided to keep out 5 purses, SOME of my shoes, and packed up a majority of my flip flops (I had like 30 pairs of flip flops).  Thankfully, I bought a flip flop hanger last weekend in Gulf Shores and kept only enough pairs that would hold on the hanger-- that way they are up and out of the way.  We didn't finish our closet until Sunday evening, but we are very glad that part is over!   

Here is sort of an after picture, but already all the items that were on the top shelves are gone.. so just imagine that!  

I forgot to mention, while I was finishing up our closet last night, Brooks went around the house and took down all of our photos and picture frames.  He took all the pictures out of the frames and filled a large container with them.  When we move, some of our pictures are the originals and we don't want to risk having to leave the country in a hurry and not be able to take some of them (like wedding pics, or Gavin's newborn pics)  My plan is to get copies made of some of our pics and leave the rest here, just to be safe.  All the other pics, I'm going to carry into the country to help with getting confiscated. 

 

This flip flop hanger thing is awesome! I wish I would have bought another one to add more shoes to once we move to Saudi. 

After getting all of our stuff from Gavin's room and our closet, we needed to send it all to the attic.  That way, when the movers come towards the end of June, they can pack it all up based on storage or shipment to take... and now, it's out of the way for when buyers come to look at the house.  Believe me when I say that all of this completely filled up our guest bathroom, where we stored it until we carried it up to the attic.  

Today, I'm going to work on our guest bedroom closet!  That closet has truly been our catch all closet with anything and everything-- paper work, scrapbooking, guitars, guns, craft and cake supplies, and much, much more!  On top of that, I'll be clearing out our hall closets to de-clutter them.  Wish me luck!

Also, just to give some specific details:  Brooks has a projected leave date of July 1st.  Gavin and I will head to Lake Charles after that (hoping that our house sold and because all of our belongings will either be in storage by then or on the sea shipment heading to Saudi).  Our goal is for all of our stuff to go over with Brooks, so when Gavin and I arrive it will be there!  We will see how that works!  It can take anywhere from 3-6 weeks for your shipment to arrive.  We do have an air shipment (it's small), but we can take items that we feel would be beneficial to have immediately upon arrival.  The rest of our stuff will go in a sea shipment.  Brooks will come back to the states once his paperwork has been processed and he has been cleared to bring his family over, and pick us up.  From that point, it will take 3-5 days for our Visa's to get processed and then Gavin and I will move to Saudi.  We're thinking it's going to be the end of July/beginning of August.  However, some of the processes haven't been taking as long as projected, so it could be sooner!  We shall see.

Please keep us in your prayers as we go through this transition.  Brooks has just under 8 weeks left and there is a lot do to prepare for the move!  Pray that our house sells, we get the right buyer, and can keep the house organized, clean, and well put together while having a 20 month old playing and living here!  I'll keep you posted as things progress!