Just a Few Random Pictures

I have a few pictures I never got around to posting. I'll get these up, then maybe I can get a few posted from our weekend.
We went to the park last Saturday to play and I took a few pictures.











Of course we met a friend. This was taken a few minutes before we took a walk around the lake and looked over as this little boy's Daddy fished him out of the water. My heart stopped as I saw him jerk that baby out of that lake! But then we heard him scream, so I knew he was okay. OMG!



All dressed up for church with a big bow! I know some people don't love little girls with big bows, but I do!

They don't last long in my girl's hair!


In her new Minnie pj's. She was so proud to have Minnie on her shirt!



We are finishing up our last two teacher workdays this week, then it's Clay County bound for Uncle Matt and Aunt Sarah's wedding!!

Videos from the iPhone

It's been awhile since I uploaded video, so I have a few to share.

Silly girl in the bathtub:

These are a couple we sent Daddy while he was away at Marine camp:



Just because it's funny that she wants a breathing treatment:


Every time we try to video her saying "Papa," of course she stops. But this one's still sweet.

Seriously, she's fearless. We can't leave her for 1 second (and I promise, we don't!).

Dancin' in the car. She's starting "singing" along when I sing - and sometimes by herself. It's too cute and funny!



If you haven't been to our neck of the woods, you could not believe the noise of the cidadas. Cicadas live on tree roots underground for 13 years and generally arrive in the world by crawling up a tree trunk in their immature or nymph form. They crawl out of their shells. Within days, they will completely morph into flying adults and eventually mate and lay their eggs in tree branches. They've been here for about 4-5 weeks!
The first video is from my kitchen window; the 2nd is from my car door at daycare. They almost sound like an alarm going off. And these really don't even do them justice!

Great

Today, we said good-bye to Avery Claire's great-granddaddy, Dusty's Papa. She won't remember that she met him, but she will certainly know about him and how proud he was of his grandkids. And even though his left-behind family grieves his loss, we can be sure that Papa is with Jesus, watching over us from above.

As I sat at Papa's funeral, one verse rang so true.

John 14: 2-3
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

How great is God's promise for those of us who love Him?

Friends

When you're a coach's wife, you understand that moves come with the territory. I went into marriage knowing that we probably wouldn't just settle down in one place and stay forever. And I was (and still am) okay with that. What I didn't know was how attached I would get to the ladies I work with. I still keep in touch with my 5th grade bunch from Demopolis. And I still meet my Banks-Caddell friends for lunch and talk to them often. And every time I've made a classroom move, I've always dreaded it because I just cannot imagine making those kinds of friends again. I was proven wrong, again, when I came to Russellville. If you'd told me that 11 women could work together on a day-to-day basis and get along, I'd have told you you were crazy. I'd have been wrong (again).
Life is still up in the air and we're learning to be okay with that. But no matter what happens, I will never forget and will always be thankful for my time with these friends.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

We want to wish a very happy birthday to the best husband and daddy we could have ever asked for!
I seriously never doubted that Dusty would be a great Daddy. But I couldn't have imagined how much love my heart could hold for the little girl we created. And it amazes me at how my heart swells when I see the two of them together.

Thank you, D, for the life we've made together. I am so proud to be your wife, and I am so proud that you are my husband and Avery Claire's Daddy. Thank you for the sacrifices you make and the things you do to make sure we have the best life possible. No matter where we live or what's going on in our lives, I am so thankful that God gave me you to build a life with. We love you so very, very much!

Look at how much difference a year makes. Here are pictures of last year as we celebrated Dusty's birthday.

14 Months

Avery Claire, at 14 months you:



- have the best little personality. You really are happy most of the time.
{You've lost some of that little attitude you developed for a couple of weeks.}

- are such a friendly little girl. You do not meet a stranger. You wave at everybody, everywhere and usually try to share your cup, food, or paci.

- have fallen deeper in love with your paci since you were sick last week. We'd done really good about just keeping them in your bed. We'll get back on that soon.

- live life to the fullest. You play, play, play hard all day long. And you sleep hard all night long {We're so blessed in the sleeping department and we know it!}

- talk all of the time. You can say Hi, Hey, Bye, Bite, Bow, Ball, Uh-oh, Mama, Daddy, Papa, Dog, and lots of other things that we just can't understand. You know exactly what you're telling us. You've really gotten "mama" down pat lately, and it's the sweetest word I've ever heard.

- have a "Miss America" wave. We don't know where you picked it up, but when you wave hi and bye, your little hand goes side to side just like Miss America's when she takes her walk. Too funny.

- can sign "more" when you want another bite of something.

- blow kisses all of the time.

- LOVE bathtime. I cannot wait to take you swimming very soon!

- are absolutely fearless. You will jump off of the couch, a bench, the recliner. You stick your face into the bathwater and come up laughing. You even stuck your face into the running faucet in the tub and thought it was hilarious.

- have learned to climb - and need no help! You will sometimes swat our hands away when we try to help you do something.

- love some Chick Fil A chicken nuggets or some fried chicken fingers from the Chevron with Daddy on Saturdays for lunch. You also loved the chocolate milkshake we shared from Frosty Inn last weekend. You couldn't get enough of it!

- are so loving and cuddly! You haven't always been a cuddler, so when you will lay with us and snuggle or lay your head down on our shoulder and cuddle up, we eat.it.up!

- want to be outside all of the time, but there's only so much noise we can stand from the cicadias! You've gotten a little tan from your time outside lately.

- love to play in Mommy's make up brushes while she gets ready. You still sit in your Bumbo seat on the counter in front of Mommy in the bathroom and you throw everything into the sink. You should see the pile of stuff in the sink when we're done in there.

- are better about wearing your bow. You do still take it out, but then you hand it to me and grunt until I put it back in.

- are learning the difference between bow and bowl. There for awhile when I said something about a bowl, you'd reach for your hair to check for a bow. Now you understand that bowls are things we put our food in and bows are what we wear in our hair. You even pull the bands you wore when you were a baby out and want to wear them {and you like for Mommy and Daddy to wear them, too. Of course we oblige.}


- do the sweetest little "come here" with your hands. You get anything you want with that little move.


- have a very serious face. And if we mention "spanking" you give us this little mean eye squint. I've got to get that on video. You don't even get spankings, but I guess you hear the word when Mrs. Brittany threatens Leah at daycare. You know it's not a good thing.

- would rather play in the kitchen than anywhere else in the house. You pull out the small pan, the bacon pan, and the plastic cutting board and carry them all over the place. You still like your play kitchen, too, and spend lots of time "cooking" there.

- love for Daddy to chase you. You squeal and giggle and run to me so I can protect you.

- bring so much laughter to our lives. We've enjoyed every minute of your life, but every new stage becomes the sweetest, most fun, happiest time of our lives. We could never tell you how very much we love you. We hope you keep your happy, sweet little demeanor. We hope you hold onto your independent ways and your little stubborn streak. We are so blessed to be your Mommy and Daddy. I wish I could record every second of every day because I never want to forget one little thing that you do. As we try to set this very example for you, we pray that God works in wondrous ways in your life and that you always put your faith in Him. We love you so very much, baby girl!

Lucky & Blessed

The baby girl has been sick (with a virus) this week. This virus resulted in blisters all over her lips and in her mouth. Looks painful, but she hasn't acted like it bothered her. The fever, however, has made her puny. I took her to the doctor after daycare called me Tuesday, and I stayed home Wednesday. Her sweet Daddy stayed home with her Thursday, and then Nana came up to stay with her Friday.


There's been lots of this...



And some of this...



Because they had to get out of the house for an hour or so Thursday (more on that in a minute), Daddy and daughter went to the park. Dusty sent me this picture (I guess to make me jealous that I wasn't there with them).

It worked. I wished I was there. Dusty said an older lady stopped and talked to Avery Claire as they were sitting on the bench watching the fountain. The lady said to Dusty, "Y'all are so lucky." You have no idea how often we've said that to ourselves lately. Life is kind of up in the air for us right now, in case you don't already know. There are lots of big decisions in our near future...like where we might live next year, where we might work, if we might have a job...big things like that.


But it only takes one look at this face to remind us of the really important things in life. We have a perfect little girl who knows we love her. She may have a little virus, but she's healthy.



We have the most awesome, supportive family. For example, this Nana took off work at the drop of a hat to drive three hours to keep our girl because she just didn't feel quite up to daycare today.



After riding through some of the devastation caused by April 27th's tornadoes, we are again reminded of how truly lucky we are. We have each other, and when all is said and done, that's really all that matters.




If you get a sec, send a prayer up for us...that things just work out for the best for our family. We don't even know what specifics to pray for, but we know God will work it out. We even had interest in our house that we didn't seek (although we would have soon). I think, as we're making big decisions, we're learning big lessons. About patience. About integrity. And about faith.