The Worleys

Can you believe it! It snowed 3 inches in Euless this year! Started during the day on Christmas Eve. This is what our house looked like when I got home from work around 3:30 p.m. It was still snowing! Hard to tell in this picture! See the snowman? Rod made that! By the time we went to bed, the yard was completely white. And it had stopped snowing. This was our front yard this morning. Santa left his footprints in the snow for us. He couldn't get down our chimney without getting dirty. The Christmas tree before we tore all the presents open. All of Ava's presents were wrapped in blue paper with Santa Claus on them. She knows who Santa is. And I thought we could find her presents faster! This little girl really likes opening presents! And it only took one present for her to figure out all her presents were wrapped in blue. The Newlyweds second Christmas together! Ava and her parents arrive! Santa left their gifts unwrapped for them! Ours were accidentally wrapp...

ROAD TRIP! We love going to Austin. We have the drive down there memorized. I think if our car could hear, we could just say "Austin" and we'd be on auto-pilot the whole way! My sister Nancy and her husband Greg joined us for this trip. Lots of fun! We had to take a new route to the game, and we saw more tailgaters than ever! This is nothing like the game days of my years at UT. Much more fun! Love the smell of all those hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. cooking before the game. We sit in the same seats every game. We are up high, row 36 of the upper deck. The lady who wears this cap is there every game. I love this hat! This lady is probably in her 70's, very healthy. Nice goal for us to attain! Love the Texas band. It would not be the same without them! We always watch them march into the stadium. The opening songs are always the same, but I love it. And I have Deep in The Heart of Texas memorized now. And this young man has made the last 4 years especia...

Ava loves Cars the movie. She has "CARS" books to read. She has Lightning McQueen and Doc that she carries in her Pink Pack when she is out. She went shopping with me once to buy a baby shower gift, and she pointed out everything that had CARS on it! So, we decided the other night that we needed a new toy for her. We haven't added anything to our toy collection in quite a while. She happened to be with us for the evening, so shopping was actually more fun! While we were in the toy dept of Walmart, she would pick up a toy, look at Pop and say "Thank you Pop." She was so cute! She was quite happy with what we chose. This is how The Worley Trucking Company came to be. We were playing with the cars, trying to load them on the big purple truck, taking the purple truck apart, putting it back together, rolling the cars, etc. I asked Ava what she wanted to name her cars. This might be a new concept for her. So, above you have Ava Truck, Daddy Truck and Mommy...

Ava turned 2 on September 30. She had an Elmo cake, as you can see. Elmo is still her favorite, although Cars is coming in close now. The candles are lit. I did not get a picture of her blowing them out, but we were so proud -- She blew them out all by herself! I should have known she could, because she had been pretending to blow out candles around my house. I just thought it was cute, but she was apparently practicing for her big day! This year Ava was much more interested in her presents. Last year she liked ripping the paper and looking at the cards. She is sitting on one of her favorite presents -- an Elmo chair that folds out into a bed. And Ava can now eat her cake with a fork. Last year she used her hands and made such a cute mess. Very little mess this year. Just cake frosting all over her face! Happy Girl playing after all her presents were opened! I put this picture in because she makes me smile! We were out to dinner with her. I cannot remember what we were doin...

A lot has happened since my last post! Now that I am ready to start blogging again, I do not know where to start! We have been to Minnesota, we have been to Paris, Ava has turned Two, UT Football is going strong, and Jenni is waiting to hear from all the PA Schools she applied to. So, I will start by changing my blog template for now! Then decide what to talk about first! "You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasure s of living with you forever." Psalm 16:11

Jenni emailed today. Sounds like they are having a good mission trip in Guatemala! I know they are working hard! They have a very nice hotel. Hope they get to do something fun, too, besides translating! Although I am sure that is very rewarding. The cat is still here. We have not lost her yet, at least not completely! It is amazing how fast Isabella can run! And how deeply she can put her claws into the carpet! She likes to sit in our lap or on our shoulder. But that does not last long. Then she disappears, like, in a flash! So, we spend a lot of time looking for her. Tonight, she was under the bed again, no, she's disappeared! Mike called for help. So our first game, look under the couch. Next game, look under the bed. Like magic, she has re-appeared under the bed! No, wait -- where has she gone? Please picture Mike and I on our bellies trying to catch this cat! Mike is still in his suit pants, I have not changed out of my uniform. We both have our arms stretched...

Here are Jenni and Rod at the airport as they prepare to head for Guatemala! They are going on a Medical Mission trip with the Prestoncrest Church of Christ. Jenni is translating, and Rod is translating pharmacy prescriptions to the folks. At least that is what I understood! They are going to be gone a week. So....we get the cat! Meet Isabella! Jenni and Rod found her running scared in the church parking lot a while back, and adopted her. She really is very pretty. However, we have 2 huge dogs, and she does not like them! She spends her time in the guest bathroom. Her food, litter box, and bed are all in there. Mike wondered why we were deemed trustworthy. It must be because Rod doesn't know about the first time we met Jenni's puppy Belle (who now has become ours). She got Belle at A&M, and brought her home for spring break (I think). She left Belle in our care and went out with her friends. Silly Jenni! Belle absolutely loved Sadie from the first, but Sadie ...

Ava just keeps getting cuter! We met Terri and Mike and their family at Fuddrucker's to go over plans for our trip to Paris. We had a lot of fun visiting. Stayed pretty late. Ava loved Jake and Alex! She was so well behaved! And this is the only picture taken the whole evening! At one point Ava met a little girl about her age, and surprisingly about her size, named Ella. She surprised us all by going up to Ella and giving her a hug and a kiss! I think Ella was the most surprised -- she backed off quickly. I have never seen Ava do that before! We all had lunch together on July 3rd, since Jenni and Rod were leaving on the 4 th for Guatemala. Ava and Jenni were looking at a picture of Jenni and Rod's cat, Isabella. Don't they look cute together? Ava and her Mommy. They always look like they are having fun together! When Ava starts pre -school this fall, it will be very quiet at their house! Ava and I were playing a game. She would try to sneak around the ch...

We are so blessed to be able to take Ava out to dinner with us almost every week! Here we are at Joe's pizza in Euless. Ava and Elmo entertained us all! Here we are playing "where's Ava." This is the point where she says "Here I am!." Ava surely loves her Elmo. And she loves to hug Elmo ! Don't you love this picture?! What hams they both are! Jenni and Ava have lots of fun together! This was breakfast one Saturday at the Raven. She came in wearing sunglasses. Love those hair ribbons, too. She is quite the movie star! Here she is hamming it up at Spring Creek. One of the few times I remembered a bib for her! She loves to wipe her hands on her shirt, and apparently on mine if I get too close! Ava seems to have the hang of balancing a spoon on her nose. I think Sarah can actually do this. I can't. The spoon falls off every time! Hard to believe Ava is 21 months old this week! She is growing up so fast! She talks up a storm. She is a b...

Isn't she cute?!! Here we are, at breakfast again! With Ava and Elmo. She loves Elmo! She has more than one. She has Elmo bibs that she likes to put on, too. She has Elmos socks, Elmo jammies, Elmo shoes, and an Elmo blankie, among other things too numerous to mention. She gets excited about Elmo and Abbe in books, too. Did I mention she likes to feed Elmo? Here he is, enjoying a big bite of Biscuit! So, Elmo asked us to give Ava a lemon! We do get together a lot to eat, so most of our pictures are going to include food. Ava was finished eating, so she decided to climb on her high chair. And we let her. Anything to keep her entertained. Then she found Grammy's finally very organized purse. I bought a purse organizer 'cause everything kept getting jumbled up. So, it was very easy for Ava to find things to play with! Moving along to our next meal with Ava. Jay and Sarah were going to the Stars game, so we got Ava early. She joined us for dinner. Doesn't...

Sadie, in her "The Water Bowl is Empty" pose. I have spent the whole day alone! Well, Sadie and Belle are here, too. My goal was to sleep late, catch up on laundry, and read through March 4th in the Chronological Bible. I am happy to report, I have met all those goals! I felt a little bit like Mary or Martha today, depending on my activity. I would work some, read the Bible some, eat and drink something along the way. There was some praying occasionally, too. I have been in the book of Numbers today. One of my favorite hymns comes from this chapter six of this book (I am still trying to learn the alto part!): 22 Then the L ord said to Moses, 23 "Instruct Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing: 24 'May the L ord bless you and protect you. 25 May the L ord smile on you and be gracious to you. 26 May the L ord show you his favor and give you his peace.' Of course, one of our greatest blessings is Ava. She is getti...