"Am I Having a Baby Bruda or a Baby Sista?"

So this has been Elizabeth's continual refrain since the time we found out that we were having another precious one. We told her only God knew at that point and that He had already decided. It actually turned out to be a great way to teach her trust and contentment because our mantra around the house became, "God knows if the baby's a brother or sister, and I can be happy with what He gives me."

Well, the same week of Elizabeth's birthday, we also found out the gender of this new one...

IT'S A GIRL!!

We were SO pleasantly surprised because Matt and I had truly expected a little boy. We had a name, a nursery theme, even some boy clothes...the whole works. :) So hearing that it was a little girl brought unexpected tears of joy to my eyes because in my heart I had really hoped for another little girl. (Maybe because we have been so blessed by this first one.) Elizabeth, though perhaps not fully aware of what was happening, was briefly interested in finding out it was a girl. But to explain, she was also distracted by some cool toys the sonographer kept in her office.

Perhaps she also felt the confidence of knowing she had predicted correctly. She kept saying she wanted a sister and that the baby was a girl. That makes her record. 1-0. Matt's is 1-1 (he correctly predicted Elizabeth). And I am 0-2.

Anyway, enough typing, below is a great pic from the ultrasound.
















I rotated the picture for you so that you could look directly at her face. Though she looks a little like a skeleton in this pic, it's cool because you can get a general idea of the shape of her little face. We think she might have a more oval-shaped face like mine as opposed to E's round-shaped face like Matt's.

Elizabeth's THIRD birthday!

Before I begin, allow me to first say a quick apology to all who have so faithfully come back to our blog and wondered why there had been no updates since JULY!! Of all things, Shannon, what have you been doing? :) I do humbly ask your forgiveness and hope that I can make it up to you by turning a new leaf (a little fall joke!). I hope you will see more frequent posts in the future. Thank you to all of you who asked me personally for more pics of E. Your love for her is so dear to me.

Now back to the matter at hand! I simply cannot believe it, but Elizabeth turned three years old last week! Of course, we had a party, complete with balloons, lots of friends, and CAKE!! In fact, it's hard to say what Elizabeth was more excited about: the friends or the cake. As friends began to come one after another, Elizabeth became more frenzied. She definitely knew it was her birthday party! The first pic is of her literally bouncing off the couch in our living room with heaps of joy . Her pal Maxwell casually looks on and is probably wondering, "What go into her? " :)

















We got her to stand still long enough to take some family pics. (That's our dear friend Maria in the background. She is not technically a Morton, but we love her lots! She's also Maxwell's mom.)














Before we had cake, Matt and I gathered everyone and publicly told E one thing we really love about her. Matt said he loves how she is so joyful and so much fun to play with. He told her how he loves being her daddy and coming home from work to see her. I told her how I love her tender heart towards the Lord. She really loves to sing, read the Bible, and ask about people who are hurting. She is a compassionate, thoughtful little girl. After Matt prayed for her, we sang "Happy Birthday." (Sadly, E cried through the whole song. Perhaps it was too loud! We're not sure.)

Then it was time to eat the cake! I actually put together a "cupcake tree," which is on the table in the center.
















Elizabeth's favorite girlfriend, AnnaJoy, helped E eat the cupcakes.















Then, they played in the kitchen; no doubt, making more cupcakes! :)















Then, they played outside on the jungle gym which my parents got her for her last birthday. Here, E is truly delighted to be swinging. I think she could do this for hours if I let her.





































Sadly, the party had to end and our guests began to leave. I took these last ones of her as some of the last guests said their goodbyes. (Yes, she's wearing a play stethoscope. Matt and I got her a little "doctor's kit" for her birthday. Also, if you look closely, you can see that she is sweating. She really worked herself up during her party. :))



























































Bye-bye, everybody! Thanks for coming to my party. :)

That Little Creamery in Brenham...

...is not only big on taste, but also big on generosity. Two weekends ago, they celebrated their 100th anniversary by giving away over 2000 gallons of various-flavored ice cream! We went with Matt's family out to Brenham, TX to help them celebrate. Here are some of our favorite pics from that weekend!

Is this not a dreamy picture? Elizabeth's Ghido Ghido(great-grandfather) sharing his ice cream with her?















Of course, Daddy shared his ice cream with her.




























After the ice cream, we walked around to see the various exhibits, including this one featuring the actual cows who have been in Blue Bell commercials. Here Elizabeth posed with her Siti (grandmother).















Elizabeth really enjoyed making this old-fashioned pump work.


















An emu? (I think Elizabeth is thinking the same thing!)














She got a little washable tattoo to remember the day by.














Finally, some good clean fun as Elizabeth played in the jump house.


















You know, Blue Bell claims it is the best-tasting ice cream in the country. Not having traveled widely across the US, I'm not sure if their claim is true. I can acknowledge that there might be better ice cream out there. However, what I can say is that there is no better ice cream in Texas than Blue Bell, and when it's on sale, I stock up!

Lesson Learned

As new parents, we are constantly learning what we should be doing, what we could be doing better, and what our little girl does and doesn't like. Well, here's a quick lesson we learned while in Austin.

It happened on the day we were planning on going to Whole Foods. Elizabeth was particularly interested in playing with the toys in the house where we were staying. In fact, she was so interested in them that even when we told her there were fun new foods to try at this place, she actually told us that she didn't want to go. This continued for an unusual amount of time. (Note: Elizabeth is a friend to all foods; there are very few foods she won't try or eat.) Anyway, the conversation ensued thusly:

Matt (M): Well, I guess Mommy and I will have to go and eat all those foods by ourselves, and we'll leave you here to play.
Shannon (S): Yeah, Elizabeth, we'll have to eat all those foods without you.
Elizabeth (E): (in her tender high-pitched voice) Wait! I want to come!!

Yes! A parental victory of sorts!! We got in the car and began driving south towards downtown. There was no need to discuss our superior parental strategy since it worked like a charm. However, about 15 minutes into the ride, Elizabeth asked us a question after having been silent that entire time (also highly unusual).

E: (with a note of concern) Mommy, y'all weren't really going to leave me at their house?

Eek! Are hearts breaking out there? Mine and Matt's definitely were. We looked at each other and knew we needed to correct our mistake as well as E's understanding of the situation. We would never leave her all by herself.

Well, it gets better (story-wise)/worse (parenting-wise). The next day as E and I had a girls' shopping day, we got in the car and drove off to Kohl's and Target. E's first question for me was...

E: (mixed concern and confidence) Mommy, you're not going to leave me at Kohl's, are you?

Then, after shopping at Kohl's and getting back in the car not an hour later...

E: (same notes of concern and confidence) Mommy, you're not going to leave me at Target, right?

Each time, I did my best to reassure and comfort Elizabeth and also to affirm the truth that we would never leave her somewhere. However, suffice it to say, our parental blunder had made a huge impact on our precious almost three-year-old. Whew!! Note to self: never threaten to LEAVE my little one! Hurt, confusion, and sadness will follow.

Austin Vacation

After our illustrious trip to Paris, we came back to Houston and to a teary-eyed reunion with Elizabeth! We love her and missed her so, so much. She and Matt's mom met us at the airport. We then spent the night in Houston and the next morning left for Austin. If I had to sum up our vacation in two words, they would be eating and resting. :)

TUESDAY, JULY 3
We arrived in Austin and picked up the key to our home for the week from my dear friend Heidi Cook. She had arranged for us to live in the home of a very generous Crusade staff family that was in Colorado for most of the summer. It was the perfect set-up for our family because they had an upstairs playroom, stocked full of girl toys. Elizabeth was able to sleep in a twin bed just like at home, and Matt and I stayed downstairs. We were able to do a bit of laundry and buy some groceries for the week. We were hugely grateful for this wonderful blessing!! While we were settling in, Matt used the computer to locate the nearest Chuy's, a legendary Mexican food place. (I suppose he was done with French food. :)) I have to admit it was very good, and E ate her fair share of chips and queso.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 4
We spent the morning of Independence Day exploring all the new toys in the playroom. It was actually raining, so it made it extra easy to stay inside, take it easy, and wear our pajamas until noon. Later on in the day, we did take showers and venture out to a cookout with Heidi and Joel's small group from their church. They grilled ribs and chicken, and they had even bought chips and dip from Chuy's. It was some of the best food we had EVER had at a cookout EVER! (Is that too dramatic?)

THURSDAY, JULY 5
Matt planned our activities in Austin, and the first place he wanted to take us was to Zilker Park. We visited the Nature Preserve which featured some native Texas animals. We then ventured over to the kids' playground and rode on the train!



















I know she looks nervous here, but she really did have a great time on the train.















Loves to drive! And yes, she has already asked us if she can drive our cars.




































We then went to Kerbey Lane, an Austin "must-eat" restaurant. It was there that we took this (blasphemous perhaps) picture.



















FRIDAY, JULY 6
We visited Whole Foods, a great organic supermarket, and really enjoyed looking around at all the choices of yummy foods. This was our second visit, so we felt more comfortable with the store and found some of our old favorites, unique salsas and "Barbara's" cookies. We also ate lunch: Matt had Indian food and I had salad; E had something in-between. Finally, we went outside and up to the second floor, where E could play on the playground. Awesome day!

SATURDAY, JULY 7
Elizabeth and I had a girls' day: we went shopping while Matt prepared his sermon. Since there's not much more to say about shopping, I'll leave it there. Later on that night, Joel and Heidi kept Elizabeth overnight so that Matt and I could have a date night in Austin! We went to Macaroni Grill and then saw Oceans 13. It was wonderfully unique to have a date in a different city. :)

SUNDAY, JULY 8
Matt had been asked to speak in the morning services at a great church in Austin called Grace Covenant Church. From this particular ministry, we get a lot of our best student leaders, so it was a real treat to be with them. As a special bonus, we connected with some old friends from college and young married life in Dallas. We loved having lunch with them and catching up.

MONDAY, JULY 9
This was our last official day in Austin and the only other day we took pictures. Matt wanted to take us to the children's museum because he had heard that it was good and also because E loves going with her Siti and Ghido to the one in Houston. E explored everything, but by far her favorite place was the kitchen. I tied an apron on that girl and she was off!

















































Then it was necessary to go to the grocery store to get more food for the kitchen!!
































Other highlights include:
Fixing, not playing with, the chess pieces that had fallen down,


















And now the black pieces...,


















Playing doctor,




































Pretending to be on a work crew with Daddy,


















And my favorite, driving the bus! (Note: not a real bus!!)
































Overall, we had a great time in Austin. What a treat to spend a whole week together with almost nothing we HAD to do. We thank God for His provisions and for our family!