Strawberry Pickin'

Little R and I met some friends at Ottawa Farms for some strawberry pickin' on Tuesday morning.  It was a perfect day, warm and overcast.  Little R seemed to enjoy watching us all pick strawberries, but his favorite part of this excursion was watching the pigs.  This little guy LOVES animals.  He watches and smiles and laughs at Chip (our dog) all day long.  Well, when I wheeled his stroller up to that pig pen after we picked strawberries, he immediately started giggling and laughing at all of those pigs.  It was too cute!!!  Here are some pics:

 Little R looking at the strawberries

 Reives with some of his friends:  Kate, Emma, and Abby

 The Pigs

 Reives laughing at the pigs

 Me and my sweet boy (and the pigs)

Reives, Kate, and Eli

Easter 2011

I hope everyone enjoyed celebrating the risen Lord this Easter!  Here are some pictures from our Easter:

 All smiles :)

 Reives and our cousin, Angelina!

 Best attempt at a family photo!!!

 He loves plastic eggs!

Couldn't you just eat him up??!!??

Eggs

Plastic Easter eggs can provide hours of entertainment for your baby and dog....

LOVE

Easter. Love. How can you even describe what Easter means in the life of a Christian.  It means EVERYTHING!  The meaning is so huge that I feel that I never have enough time to truly digest it.  But, each year I try and take some time to read through the events leading up to the death and resurrection of Christ.  As I was reading earlier this morning, I could not get away from the events surrounding Peter and Jesus.  Jesus, being the omniscient man that He was, knew that Peter would deny him not once, but three times.  Jesus knew that when push came to shove, Peter would put his own needs, desires, and wants before his love and devotion for Christ.  Yet, Jesus loved Peter anyways.  Not just loved him, but LOVED him.  Jesus spent countless hours with him.  Jesus allowed Peter to walk on the water.  Jesus declared that Peter would be the rock that the church was built upon.  Jesus washed Peter's feet.  Jesus gave His life for Peter.

Peter had the best of intentions.  He loved Jesus, no doubt.  I am sure that at many times Peter knew that He would do anything for Jesus....he told Jesus so.  When Jesus told Peter at the last supper that he would deny Him three times, I am sure Peter chuckled to himself thinking, "Yeah right!"  Yet, he did it, and when that rooster crowed, I am sure Peter felt the weight of the world on his shoulders.  

I couldn't help but think how much like Peter that I am.  I love Jesus, and I say over and over that I will do anything that He wants me to do and sacrifice anything that He asks of me.  Yet, over and over I put my needs ahead of my love for Christ.  Whether it is the embarrassment of sharing Christ with a non Christian or choosing to do something else instead of spending a few quiet moments with the Lord, I deny Him.  Yet, just like He did with Peter, Jesus chooses to spend time with me.  He allows me to walk on the water and defeat my fears.  He cleanses me and washes my feet.  He died for me.  How thankful I am that even in the face of my denial, Jesus chooses to LOVE.  Happy Easter!!!

Road Trip!

Trey, Little R, and I decided to take a little road trip last weekend to one of our favorite places, ATHENS!  Little R had never been to Athens, so we could not wait to take him up to visit friends and to set foot on the sacred ground of The University of Georgia campus!  We stayed with our good friends, Preston and Carol Henry.  They probably didn't know what to think when we unloaded our car and spread out baby stuff literally all over their house!  We went to eat Mexican at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in Athens on Friday night, and the little guy did pretty good for staying up 2 hours past his bedtime after a four hour road trip!

Preston and Carol

On Saturday, we met up with Sky and Karen Pratt for breakfast.  Sky was our college pastor when we were students at UGA, and I worked as an intern in the college ministry under Sky's leadership for a year after I graduated college.  We love the Pratt family, and we always enjoy catching up with Sky and Karen when we come to Athens.  They have both played such a huge part in our lives as they have drawn us closer to the Lord through sharing their lives with us.  I am mad that I forgot to get a picture of them with Reives :(

Then, we headed off to meet Bryan, Kathryn, and Miller Baird for lunch.  Kathryn and I met at the bus stop outside of Russell Hall during our freshmen year at UGA.  I remember thinking Kathryn was so nice and that she was someone that I wanted to become friends with.  We did become close friends and have remained close even into "adulthood!"  (HA!)  Kathryn and her husband Bryan have a little boy named Miller who just turned one.  They visited us back in January, and it was fun to see Reives and Miller get together again!

Lunch with the Bairds!

Miller and Reives enjoying a ride in the stroller!

After lunch, we headed to the G-DAY game to watch the Bulldogs play!  This was Reives's first trip to Sanford Stadium, and he loved every minute of it!  He was born during a UGA football game, so we know he is going to be a huge Bulldog fan!!  :)  Here are some pictures from the game:

GO DAWGS!!!!!!

On Sunday, we headed to church at our old church in Athens, Prince Avenue Baptist.  We always enjoyed worshipping there during college, and we love to go back and visit.  We enjoyed seeing some old friends, and we enjoyed worshipping the Lord at the place and with the people that had such a huge part in our growth in Christ!

After church, we headed back to Savannah.  We can't wait to visit again in the fall and take Reives to his first UGA football game!  (Yes, we are on the lookout for tickets...so if you know of any, send them our way!)

7 Months....

Where does the time go?  I cannot believe Little R is 7 months old!!!  I always like to reflect on the major changes from one month to the next.  I remember thinking that between 5 and 6 months, Little R changed so much because he went from lying down all of the time to sitting up.  Sitting up opened up a whole new world of grabbing toys, dogs, feet, trash (you get the point!)  Well, between 6 and 7 months, Little R has changed his looks.  All of a sudden, he does not look like my tiny, little baby anymore.  He has two teeth now, a ton of hair, has thinned out some, and is looking less like that tiny baby I brought home from the hospital (tear, tear.)  Although the fact of him growing up does make me a bit sad, I get so excited when I think about all that is ahead of him.

Here are some of the things he is doing right now:

-eating solids three times a day
-sleeping a solid 11 1/2-12 1/2 hours at night (7-7 or so)
-taking two naps
-sitting up and grabbing everything
-rolling over and over and over
-gathering his pacis together before his naps (He has 6-8 in his crib at all times...I spread them around the crib, so he can always find one, but he gathers them all up most of the time before he goes to sleep.)
-putting some strange sounds together....the beginnings of gibberish I guess
-laughing at Chip all of the time
-banging things
-lunging forward while sitting (almost getting into that crawling position)
-lifting up his arm when we wave "bye-bye" (at least we think that is what he is doing!)

Here are some pictures of him that I took yesterday on his 7 month birthday!  I just can't get enough of his sweetness :)

Saying Goodbye

I finally gave in.  I finally said goodbye.  Trey hooped, hollered, and hoorayed while I sat with a grumpy face.  Trey kept reminding me:  "Christina, it is piece of junk."  "Christina, it isn't even real wood."  "Babe, the top is so warped and Chip has chewed on the bottom of it."  "Christina, I promise you that you are not going to want to display this somewhere if we ever move again."  He was right, but I still did not want to part with this beloved piece of furniture.   The picture actually makes it look pretty good compared to how it looks in real life!

My mom and I bought this (not sure what to even call this piece of furniture) at a garage sale before I moved into TC '45 (my college apartment.)  My favorite thing about this piece of furniture was the "old-timey" Coke brand bottle opener attached to the top right corner.  This piece of furniture served as a TV stand at my college apartment, at mine and Trey's townhouse, and for a few months at our current house.  After we purchased a new TV stand, this piece of furniture moved up into our bonus room and has collected dust and Little R's toys for months.  Trey has tried to get me to part with it many times, but I have just not been able to.  Now that Little R is acquiring more stuff, we are trying to organize our bonus room in order to make room to store some of his toys and such as the bonus room will become his playroom as well as the office.  This piece of furniture is not in the bonus room plan.  So, I had to decide.  As Trey pointed out every single, tiny flaw that this piece of furniture has, I realized that it really isn't very nice.  The top is bent in the middle from years of placing a TV on top of the "not so sturdy" pressed wood piece.  The bottom is chewed around the side from Chip's teething days.  There are some other things, too.  So, I finally caved, and Trey hauled off this beloved piece of furniture to Goodwill as fast as he could before I could change my mind.  My only regret is that I didn't remove the bottle opener before giving it away.  I didn't think of it until after it was already gone.  I sure hope that this piece of furniture brings someone else as much joy and as many memories at it has brought me.  Goodbye, my old friend!!!!  

Let the Good Times Roll

This morning before church, I was upstairs feeding Little R.  Trey raced upstairs and said, "Someone rolled our house last night."  Because my hubby is a huge prankster and likes to take advantage of my extreme gullibility, I immediately did not believe him.  He went on to tell me that the "rollers" did not do a very good job because they only rolled the front and side bushes.  The best part about it, he told me, is that there were two huge packages of toiled paper left in the yard with many unused rolls in them.  Free toilet paper.....score!!!  So, I went outside to see for myself, and sure enough our yard was rolled.  Apparently the rollers got spooked or something and left the job unfinished (hence the free toilet paper left in the yard.)  I think the mysterious rollers could be some of my sweet, innocent, angelic high school youth girls that I work with on Wednesday.  Fess up, rollers!!!!  We will get you back!!!!

Cuddle Time

Poor Little R!  He just felt and looked pitiful last Thursday and was not acting himself at all.  I took him to the doc to find out the culprit....double ear infection.  No fun!  However, I am not complaining because I was able to get plenty of cuddle time in.  Yes, even in the middle of the night :)  Little R is not too much of a cuddler anymore.  He likes to sit in your lap, but he wants to be looking around or grabbing something....not cuddling.  He is a pretty busy little guy.  So, even though I felt so bad for him, I was thankful for some cuddle time!!!