Welcome to the Sandersons!

We are so glad to have you stop on by for our virtual tour:) I have enjoyed preparing our home over these past few weeks and am almost completely settled in.

This is the front of our home...

And this is our view of the church from our porch. Can't get much closer to church than that!

Here is our living area when you first walk in and a 360 view...


We have been so blessed by a family in the church who gave us a great deal on furniture, so we were able to pick out some wonderful new stuff to furnish our new place. We love it!



And into the dining area/kitchen...


I have about three times the cabinet and counter space that I had in California!


And into our HUGE garage! Because we have so much storage space in the garage, it really enables us to keep our home free of clutter.

And one of my favorite features....our washer/dryer!

Back into the kitchen...


And down the hall...

First door on the right, our guest room!

As you can see, still a bit of work to do in here:)

Across the hall, our bathroom...


Last door on the right is Suzie's room...


And our room is across from hers...



Well, there is the "virtual tour" of the Sandersons. Should you ever find yourself in Lubbock, please stop by for the real thing:)

18 Months

Well, Suzie had her 18 month check up the other day! I just can't believe what a big girl she is. The appointment went great! I just love her new pediatrician. She is maybe only a year older than me, but was very thorough, kind, and seemed to really have Suzie's best interest in mind. She covered all the bases including wanting Suzie to be seen by a dentist, optometrist, get a board certified neurosurgeon, and helped me think through how we should go about getting therapy for Suzie. She has been getting therapy through the state for a few weeks, but they have a much more hands off approach than what we are used to in California. She urged me to try another group through insurance, who have a more aggressive approach like what we're used to. She thinks that this would be more effective for Suzie. So we were thankful for all her advice and ready to give it a shot!

Here are her 18 Month stats for her actual age:
Weight: 19 lbs. 9 oz. (less than 3rd percentile)
Height: 31.5 inches (40th percentile)
Head: 18.4 inches (53rd percentile)

Everything else looked great for Suzie and the pediatrician was very encouraged by how nicely Suzie is developing. She now knows about 30 words including her signs and animal sounds. Here is what recently has been added to her vocabulary:

Light
Elmo
Hello
Book
More
No (her new favorite word)
Nigh Nigh (which she will now request when she's tired)
Pa Pa (that's my dad...and my mom too)
Burr (if you say it's cold)
Mmmmm (whenever you have food or drink)
Animal sounds: Baaaa, Moooo, Meow, Oooo Oooo (monkey), Bock (chicken)

So we have quite the chatter box on our hands! she's loving her new home and even getting to experience the nursery. No pictures to post for today, but I wanted to post all this before I forget:)

For the Grandparents

We have been here in Lubbock for almost three weeks now and we couldn't be happier! Aside from missing our wonderful friends and family, everything is going so great. We received such a warm welcome from our new church family and we continue to be so blessed by them. Our neighbors, the senior pastor and his family, have been more hospitable than we knew possible! We also love our new home and look forward to posting some pictures once we're done with the house. Still waiting for our dining set and the guest room needs a lot of work!

We wanted to post a few videos and some pictures to help the grandparents out a bit. I know they all miss Suzie, I mean us:) like crazy! So here you go!

Here is a video of Suzie playing sitting up. She is sitting up more and more which is a great thing!


And here is one of her saying her new word, "Light!"


Here's a few pictures of Suzie enjoying her new home. She is hanging out on her knees a lot these days and will even crawl on her hands and knees for a few steps!




This is the artwork that we won from that contest. I love it, but I'm not crazy about the blue and pink hair. At least it was free:)


We miss you Mema, Poppi, Nana, and Grandad! Can't wait to see you soon!

L-U-B-B-O-C-K

Well, we are here safe and sound! We arrived at our new home yesterday aftenoon to find about 25 adults and children from our church awaiting to welcome us. We were greeted with hugs and smiles and led too a huge table full of food and cleaning supplies to help us get settled in. They all pitched in to get our truck unloaded in less than an hour and then proceeded to help us set up our beds, Suzie's crib, and other odd jobs. We then got to enjoy dinner together and had so much fun. The church all pitched in to help get our place looking so nice and we just love it! We are so thankful for their care for us and can't wait to get to know them more. Here are some pictures from yesterday.

Some of the church folks helping us unload.


This is our new front yard!

As we pulled up, we saw this sweet sign welcoming us.

This is our new house!

And the front of our new church.

And here is our pantry full of food!

We feel tremendously blessed that God would call us to serve with this loving group of believers. We praise God for a safe trip out here and look forward to getting settled in. We'll keep you posted!

Merry Christmas!

Here is a picture of our girl yesterday after getting into a packet of hot cocoa:)

And here is what our new hometown looked like the yesterday! Can't wait to experience the seasons! Kyle and my dad head out with the truck tomorrow morning and my mom, Suzie and I head out on Sunday. We are so excited!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and remember the most precious gift ever given was Jesus Christ who gave up so much to reconcile us to His most loving Father. Praise God!

We've Been Busy!

Well, I realize it's been a while since I posted and it will probably be a while before I post again! Things have been very busy for us here. We spent five days in Kansas for Thanksgiving and had such a great time with Kyle's family. I don't have any pictures but hope to soon. We've been packing and doing double duty with Suzie's therapy to try to get in as much as we can before we move. Plus I have been sick the past few days which has slowed us down a little. But in the midst of all the craziness, life is good. Kyle officially finished Seminary on Tuesday afternoon. What a blessing the past four and half years have been for us and we are so excited for this new phase in our lives. Suzie is developing so much lately. she is pulling herself up to standing frequently on anything she can. She is repeating lots of words and seems to be learning more and more every day. Here is a little video of her progress as of late.



Hope you all are doing well and praising God for the gift of His precious Son this holiday season!

Too Funny

Tonight Suzie was just cracking up and I caught it on video. She is such a cutie!

I never did get around to posting her 15 month stats for her actual age, so here you go!

Length: 29.75 inches (24th percentile)
Weight: 18 lbs. 1 oz. (less than 3rd percentile)
Head Circumference: (49th percentile)

The doctor would have liked to see her put on a little more weight. She was on the charts in the 5th percentile but now has dropped off the chart. So we are reversing her meals so that she eats regular food before she gets her milk...because she is a picky eater:) Also, we're adding lots of avocado and full fat yogurt to her diet! Other than that she got a clean bill of health and her doctor was very encouraged with how she is developing.

This past weekend Suzie and I were able to go visit my good friend Kim in Redding! It was so much fun to spend time with her. They have such a cute home, a really neat church, and the area is just beautiful. Seeing them 6 months into their ministry made me more and more excited to begin our new venture! Here are a couple of pics from our weekend there.



On a another note, we have finalized our moving plans! We will pack up our truck and be out of the apartment on December 23. We will spend Christmas at my parents' house. Kyle and my dad will leave the day after Christmas to drive to Lubbock and my mom and I will fly there the next day. Here is the cute little house that the church is allowing us to live in! It is three bedrooms and one bath and is just steps away from our church. Our new church family are graciously getting it all ready for us and we can't wait to move in!