From Houston to Saudi

After leaving Baton Rouge we had two more stops on our whirlwind road trip- Houston and West Columbia, Texas.  My grandfather lives in West Columbia and we couldn't leave the States without seeing him first.  We made a quick trip down to WC and spent the morning and early afternoon visiting with him, and eating at Lucy's Mexican food!  Pawpaw took us out on the "mule" (giant all terrain golf cart of sorts), and we rode around my Uncle Marcus's land across the street.

Ready to go for a ride on the mule!

Savannah also had a great time playing "Bucky" a little plastic horse that we played with as kids!  Me, my brother, and my cousins spent countless hours conquering the Wild Wild West on Bucky.  It's incredible to see my daughter with him now.

We love you PawPaw!  Unfortunately, our visit with PawPaw was far too short, but we had to head back to The Woodlands in order to pack up and catch our flight the next day.  All in all, when I totaled up the number of hours we spent driving this trip it came up to 44!  That's a new record for us!

The day of our return flight to Saudi, we had to wake up early for dentist appointments and then we ran around town for a couple of hours getting one last taste of Mexican food and picking up a few things.  Then off we were to the airport.  People often ask me what it's like traveling with a small child.  It's not a bad experience, but it's not something you look forward to doing either.  Savannah is a great traveler, but who looks forward to a 24+ hour trip?  We often tells ourselves that you can do anything for 24 hours (well, maybe not anything, but you get my message).  

This is how we get through all the lines at the airport.

Once we are on the plane things are easier believe it or not.  Savannah did great on our return trip back to Saudi, and praise the Lord all the lights on the plane turned off this time!

Heading back to Saudi. 

Snacks and a movie make life good!

We had an amazing trip home, and are truly blessed to be able to make the trip back and forth so often!

Back to KSA

Baton Rouge and New Orleans

Our next stop was down to Baton Rouge, and then on to New Orleans.  Brent was asked to be in his good friend Brandon's wedding so, we took the opportunity to spend a few days with family in BR in between wedding festivities in New Orleans.

Remember how I said I did a terrible job taking pictures?  Well, it's still true, but Brent and his sister got his mom a family picture session for Christmas, so I have those!  First off I should say that our last family pictures we challenging because Savannah wanted nothing with staying still or posing.  Thank heavens we had a good photographer!

This time, I requested that we do the pictures first thing in the morning and see if that made any difference.  OH MY GOODNESS, Savannah was golden for about twenty minutes and that's all we needed!  We got some great shots of the family together and of our sweet girl.  I only have a small portion of the pictures, so I'll have to share the rest once we get our own cd with the files on them.

Savannah and Aunt Jessica

Me, Brent, Savannah, Gordon (Brent's Stepdad), Tilou (Grandmommy), and Jessica 

Sweet girl! 

Love my family!

She was singing her favorite song, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

Another Family Shot

The pictures turned out beautifully and we will truly treasure them!  Thanks for doing all the hard work of finding the photographer and scheduling everything Jessica!

The next day we left Savannah with Grandmommy while Brent and I headed down to New Orleans for the wedding festivities.  We had such a wonderful time meeting fabulous new friends and catching up with old friends that we hadn't seen in years!  We also were finally able to meet Brandon's fiancé, Allison, in person!  It was such an honor and joy to be able to celebrate the union of two amazing and truly deserving people!

New Orleans Skyline

The Groom and his Groomsmen
Matt, Brandon, Brent, and Parker

Brandon and Allison 

Me, Ashley, and Jolee.  We were bridesmaids in each other's weddings!  It was so great to catch up!

Brent and I with the Newlyweds!  Congrats guys!

After a wonderful two days in New Orleans, we headed back to Baton Rouge and prepared to go back to Houston for our return to Saudi.  After three and a half weeks of traveling from place to place, Savannah had gotten the packing routine down pat, in fact, she decided to help this time!

I'm ready to go!

I think I can get it to close Mom!

Love our traveling girl!

Our time in Baton Rouge was unfortunately too short, but we had a great visit.  Next stop, Houston!

Birmingham and Atlanta

Confession:  I did a terrible job with taking pictures (again), so I have sporadic pictures from various events.

After leaving Shreveport, we drove to Birmingham to go see Brent's side of the family.  We stayed with Brent's very gracious and welcoming aunt and uncle while we visited with everyone including his grandparents.  We spent the first couple of days catching up and enjoying visiting with his grandparents, aunt, and uncles.

Here's a photo from one of our outings together.  A quick trip to Wal-Mart can always be fun with Daddy and Uncle Edwin. :)

I'm ready to check out Mommy!

After a few days in Birmingham we made a quick side trip over to Atlanta to see Brent's dad, stepmother, and extended family.  Savannah had a wonderful time visiting with her Grumpa and Grandmama.  We were even able to sneak in a visit to the aquarium there in Atlanta!  Savannah absolutely loved the fish and was entranced with everything she saw!  It was fun for us to be able to watch her interact with her grandparents in a new way.  :)

Savannah and Grumpa

Absolutely fascinated!

Grumpa told Savannah all about the sea creatures!

Walking together to the dolphin show.

Later that night we were fortunate to be able to eat dinner with Brent's Uncle Glen and Aunt Jean.  It had been almost 4 years since we last saw them, so it was a wonderful family reunion!

Brent and his cousin Allison

Brent's dad Jay, Uncle Glen, Aunt Jean, Savannah, and Brent

This was the best picture I had of all of us.
Brent's Stepmother Linda, Jay, Brent, Savannah, Me, and Aunt Jean

Another highlight of the Atlanta trip for Savannah was Grumpa and Grandmama's dog Woody!  Savannah absolutely LOVES dogs, so she was so excited that they brought him along with them!

After a great weekend together, we said goodbye and headed back to Birmingham.  Brent's mom and sister met us there and that side of the family was finally all together!  Savannah had lots of fun playing with Grandmommy and her Aunt Jessica!  We had such a great time watching them all together.

Savannah snuggling with Aunt Jessica after waking up from her nap.

Mom, why are you taking a picture of me with crazy hair?

We spent the next three days eating great food, laughing a lot, and enjoying lots of family time together!  My brother and sister-in-law also live in Birmingham, so one of our last nights there we drove to their house and had dinner together.  Our visits are always too short and never often enough, but we always have a great time together.  It was so much fun to watch Savannah with her Unckie Austen and Aunt Nick-Nick!

Rough housing with Uncle Austen! 

Sweet Nicki! 

Cuddles!

I can't tell who's having more fun? 

I can't smile for a picture now, I'm busy!  :)

We had such a great time catching up with family in Birmingham and Atlanta!  Our next stop was Baton Rouge!

A Happy New Year, 18 Months, an Anniversary, and Shreveport, LA!

After spending the night in Houston, we drove up to my parents in Shreveport and enjoyed a visit with them!  I'm ashamed to say that I did an absolutely HORRENDOUS job taking pictures- as in I have one from the entire visit!

Our first few days there were just trying to recover from jetlag.  Savannah was a champ and actually recovered very quickly.  She was sleeping through the night by the third night, Praise the Lord!  We celebrated the New Year with a quiet dinner at home and were in bed by 8:30.  New Year's Day was Savannah's half year birthday (18 months) and the three year birthday her friend Luke.  We enjoyed a nice visit with the Armstrong family celebrating sweet Luke's special day!

On January 2nd, Brent and I drove to Dallas for a quick anniversary get away.  This was our first time to leave Savannah overnight, but we were thankful for the time away as a couple.  We did lots of shopping, eating, sleeping in, and being lazy.  It was wonderful!

When we got back to Shreveport we continued to spend time with family, friends, and going to church.  We had a great time watching Savannah enjoy opening her Christmas presents from Honey and Papa.  She absolutely loved them!  After opening presents in Saudi she knew exactly what to do and tore into her presents with glee!

We also enjoyed watching her interact with our dog Scarlet.  Scarlet was not very interested in Savannah; however, Savannah was VERY interested in Scarlet.  She followed/chased Scarlet around the house constantly saying "dog!"  They did have to mutual times of enjoying each other; dinnertime and fetching.  Scarlet was more than happy to enjoy Savannah's company during meals and was fed plenty!  Savannah loved throwing the ball to Scarlet and watching her run around the house and the yard.

On January 7th we celebrated seven years of marriage!  It's hard to believe it has been seven years since saying "I do!"  How truly blessed we are!  Since we had already had a several day anniversary celebration, some friends watched Savannah and we went to dinner with my parents.  It was a truly lovely evening.

We so enjoyed our visit in Shreveport.  Our time with family is never long enough and I always long for more.  I'm so blessed with amazing parents who love us, Savannah, and the Lord!

Here's my one picture from our time in Shreveport.  I promise to do better next time!

Scarlet, Savannah, and Papa

Our next stops were Birmingham and Atlanta!