About Me

Hello everyone, this is Nicole Webb. I am the oldest sibling of the Marques clan. I apologize for not posting anything sooner. I am the wife of Chris Webb and mother to Sophia and Mia Webb. I am a stay at home mom and recently a homeschooling mom. I also take care of one of our friend's little girl. Needless to say, I typically stay pretty busy. I honestly have never really posted a blog before, so therfore have no idea what to write. I think I will just stop at my introduction and hopefully will have time later to express my opinions. Ciao-N

Austin pictures

I was planning on posting about our trip with words but Caro beat me to it. Since she didn't put up any pictures, I'll do that instead.

On the road to Austin...

Sophia doing the hula hoop at her house

Us girls at the baby shower

Lots of people who were at the baby shower...

Sophia and Mia playing with the hose :)

The huge TV in our hotel room that we didn't even watch...

Wild Mia!

Elena, Sophia, and Caro lounging on the huge couch

Nicole and the crazy Mia (she was attacking Nicole from behind)

A little more laid-back but I still love the wildness

A cool looking house downtown

Everyone's shoes (some new and others old)

A COOL storm cloud!

I just so happened to get the squirrel story from Sophia on my voice recorder so I'll be posting that very soon! She changed the story ever so slightly but it's still very...interesting :).

In Christ,

Micaela

A Real Simple to add to your hope chest...

For a while I have been reading RealSimple magazine and it is a truly practical, interesting magazine with plenty of helpful tips and advice for home and gardening. I highly recommend it for aspiring homemakers or ladies who already manage a home. Their homeorganizing checklists and forms are very helpful; on more than one occasion I have consulted my Aunt Amparo on different stains and she keeps a Real Simple checklist on the inside of her laundry room cabinet! She is the one who introduced my Mother and I to the magazine; now whenever we are in Half-Price Books we look for it in their magazine section.

Home Again...

Yes, we are home and yes, we had a great time. And for those of you who did not know we were even gone, I'll just tell you since I do not want to turn this into a guessing game. So, if you did not already know we went to Austin for four days, we went there...
1. To go to my aunt's baby shower
2. Because my dad had some business in Austin
3. To see my sister (Nicole) and my niece's (Sophia and Mia).
4. To see my aunt Amparo and her family
5. To see my aunt Gaby and her family
6. To see and have dinner with are friends, the Eberle's (our tenants)
7. To............ (ran out of reasons)........
So, we have six good reasons why we went to Austin. Oh, and sorry about all the "to's"and "my". Anyways we left late afternoon on Friday and we went straight to the Eberle's (well besides picking up Sophia on the way) and Mrs. Eberle fixed us a Greek meal by which we all agreed was delicious! The interesting part is since the Eberle's are living in our old house (if you didn't know we used to live in Austin for ten years) it is weird that now we are the visitors. It was interesting to see my old room (which at one point had be painted green). When we had left their house it was 11:00pm!!! Sophia was kind of getting silly; that's what happens when she's tired. Elena and I stayed with my aunt Amparo and while we were there, we got her hooked on "North and South" so by the time we got to bed it was 12:30am and if you do not already know, all her children (including Abby) are EARLY risers! Like 5-6am early risers and we actually were able to sleep in till 7:00 or 8:00; I don't quite remember. Anyhow we met up with the rest of the family (meaning my aunt Gaby, Nicole, my cousin Estella, my great aunt maria, and (secretly) my grandma (phew a lot of names to type) all who had come down to go to the baby shower. You should have seen us at "Babies 'R' us"; we were like a mob in the store with little kids running around while the moms are looking at the strollers while other people are looking at us strangely. For lunch we went to La Madeline and I am afraid those types of restaurants aren't designed for large groups (like us). From Austin to Burnet (that's where my aunt Gaby lives) is 1 hour to get there (unless you're my mom then it takes 45 min's but mom wasn't driving).....and most of you who know us know that we are always late, sometimes fashionably late and sometimes beyond fashionably late. But we still had lots of fun! We played this game where you are holding a baby while talking on the phone and pinning up clothes to dry and you have to do this in 30 seconds or less! Only 4 people did it: cousin Estella, great aunt Maria, my grandma, one of of my aunt's friends. After the baby shower ALL (yes I said ALL)of us went to my aunt Gaby's house and hung out and we didn't get back to bed till 12:30 (again), But this time we woke up at 6:00am to go have breakfast with the entire family (a total of 20 people) at village inn ( it's like an IHOP). After our breakfast we said our goodbye to everyone who was from out of town and after that, everyone who wasn't from out of town went to aunt Amparo's house and had our own "church" and sang a few songs and read out of 2 Samuel and Acts. When we finished that, we just hung out and played Nertz and laughed a lot. Later that afternoon, we packed up and stayed at the Hyatt hotel because if you remember, I told you one of the reasons(reason 2) we went to Austin was because daddy had some business, so his company was going to pay for hotel SO we checked into the hotel (which was VERY nice)and we went swimming. That was interesting because Sophia hates dunking her head under water so she was mad because mom threw her in the pool. But she lived. We went to our room (which was very chic) and for dinner we had PIZZA! You see, we rarely order pizza (mom usually makes it) and we played Nertz, by 9pm we exhausted. Mom and dad slept on the king size bed with feather stuffed pillow while the girls on the pull out queen size sofa sleeper and me on about 4 foot by 1 1/2 foot little area (you see, the sofa was an L shaped sofa and can you guess who got the smallest end???). It was still fun.....sort of.......well it wasn't very fun at 6am when I had to go to mom and dad's bed because I was freezing and boy, did they have a nice bed! At 8:30 am we were downstairs eating breakfast and it was a very nice eating area; all the dishware was white (except the cups and utensils) and squared, the breakfast was Continental breakfast and they had all the Tazo tea's! So all in all, the Hyatt is a good place to go whenever you're in Austin. We still had our morning to get on with so we went to Wholefoods downtown, REI, Anthropologie, and this one herb store. We had lunch at Nicole's house, and after that we just sat around talking. Around dinner time we picked up daddy and headed to a Mexican restaurant,we ate a fattening Mexican meal; with hugs and kisses, we said goodbye. We left at 7:40pm, picked up ice cream in brenham, and we were home before 10. And now, with tired fingers, I have told you about our trip to Austin!

Caro :)

Pastor Voddie on CNN yesterday

In case you hadn't heard, Dr. Voddie Baucham (one of the elders at GfBC) was on CNN yesterday about some things he had stated on his blog, regarding John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin not being pro-family. Praise the Lord for giving pastor Voddie the words to proclaim His truth and patience with the people on CNN!

To watch the video on Youtube, click here.
To view pastor Voddie's blog, click here.

Abby!

This is Abby! She is a cutie and especially since she is now starting to walk. This morning I got up and went to my Aunt and uncle's room (that's where the kids were), and Abby was throwing herself onto the pillow's and laughing, she was making herself laugh.

Psalm 18

This past month I was reading in the psalms and I came across a very encouraging passage:

Psalm 18: 1-19 and 30

I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water. Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And he sent out his arrows and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

This was so awe-inspiring for me! I could just picture everything happening and I came to a greater realizaition of His great love for me! How He cares for us and comes to our aid because He delights in us! After reading this section it made me go back to the first verses, loving Him deeper! And when you read further you will see (V:30)

This God his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

This was special for me because there are times when it feels like I have already read all of scripture before ("Same song, second verse"); when I feel too familiar with the things in scripture. I suppose that comes from growing up in a Christian home, I really have heard the major portions (Creation, Noah's ark, Jonah etc..) over and over, I am prone to miss the truly amazing things that the Lord has done and to find wonder in them. So when I come to passages like these I feel that sweet awe of my Savior that I didn't before!

I pray that the Lord will continue to bring His word to my mind in such a wonderful way.

Also I highly encourage you to read the rest of the chapter!

An update on Sophia

Isn't she so sweet and cute?

*sigh*

We'll get to see her when we visit Austin this weekend for a baby shower.

Nicole has been homeschooling her this past year and is teaching her how to read right now (Nicole is more excited than Sophia, I think). For a while there, Sophia was struggling to recognize numbers 6-10. She could easily write them and count up to them but couldn't identify them. She has since moved on and can effortlessly tell you all about them :).

For those of you who know Sophia, you are familiar with, among other things, her comical way of talking and her imaginary friend named Lisa. For those of you who aren't acquainted with my little 5 year old niece, you're in for quite a ride.

As a preface to the upcoming story, "Lisa" owns a squirrel that likes to bite unsuspecting victims.

However, this story is best told by Sophia but since she doesn't know how to type, I'm going to record her telling the story. Of course, that means you'll have to wait for another post while I record her this weekend and then try to clip it on here next time.

Until next time,

Micaela