Florida Baby Shower

My lovely mother and a few church family friends threw me my first baby shower in Orange Park.  They did a wonderful job!

A nice welcome sign for me and our little girl.  I am about 27.5 weeks here.

The decorations were super cute!  Note: the daisy flower pots were actually part of the decorations for my wedding reception!

These were chocolate cakes with cream cheese icing.  Super yummy! The flags on the top of the cakes say "baby girl."

My mom (and dad) put together a diaper cake with little flower barrettes all over them.  I can't wait to put little barrettes and bows in her hair!

Our little girl is going to be all set!

My sweet cousin, Elle, was my helper and told me which gifts to open first.

I thought this was a sweet candid shot with us talking together.

One of my favorites - my parents gave me her first Florida Gator outfit with matching bows.  You can tell that I'm just delighted. :)  So was Curtis.

This was a huge box of clothes that my parents got me.  All sorts of outfits in varying sizes!

As you can see, I spent most of my time opening gifts.

Here's the audience.  I had a vast assortment of sweet family and friends that I've known throughout my life there with me to celebrate.

My cousin Jane was able to meet our newest cousin, Alan, for the first time.

Jane did so many things behind the scenes for the shower.  She took most of the pictures and helped me organize all my gifts to travel back to Savannah. :)

Here are two of my childhood friends, Carrie and Kimberly.  We used to hang out all the time when we were in elementary/middle/some high school!

Two of my closest friends from high school/community college, Jennifer and Pam, were also able to make it.

I even had three of my closest friends from UF there - Kelly, Catherine & Jenna!  (Jenna's not pictured because she had already left the shower by the time we took this one.)

Here's some of my wedding party - Catherine (bridesmaid), Lacey (flower girl), Mrs. Warren (matron of honor).

This was a fun one - I had 4 other pregnant ladies at my shower.  Robyn, seminary friend; Carrie, neighborhood friend; Lauren, church friend; and Ashlee, high school friend (not pictured).  Lauren actually delivered her baby girl, Violet Rose, on 12/12/12!

I had a great time and I couldn't believe how quickly the shower flew by!  I have been blessed with lots of dear family and friends at this shower - some came very long ways to be there!  Thank you to everyone who was able to come and celebrate this blessing from the Lord with me.  We can't wait for her to arrive!

Reminiscing in North Carolina

My great-grandfather ("Pop-Pop") built a house on a mountain in a little town called Etowah, North Carolina.  When he passed away, my grandparents inherited it.  I remember visiting this place probably once a year for almost every year of my childhood.  In 2004, my grandparents were no longer able to maintain the house as they aged so they had to sell it.  I didn't meet Curtis until 2005 so he never had the opportunity to experience it.  Here's some of the pictures that I snagged as I shared my childhood memories with my husband:

This is on Folly Road - right before you get to the mountain.  The colors were gorgeous!

I used my panoramic camera to take some of these pictures.

My grandparents lived on a private road where there were only 1-2 other families living on that stretch of the mountain.  I walked this road so many times picking blueberries!  My brothers and cousins always loved to ride (or drive) the 4-wheeler whenever we'd visit!

My grandfather would take care of this water wheel.  There used to be a fake duck with little ducklings walking towards the stream.  I was happy to see that the neighbors were still keeping the water running!  

Here's a panoramic view of the area around the water wheel.

This is the house that my great-grandfather built.  I was warmly greeted by the new owners of the house, which was very kind since we showed up unexpectedly.  They gave us a tour of the house.  The new owner is an interior designer and she re-did the entire house.  She did a great job and the house looked great, but a lot of the memories that I would have felt inside the house weren't there.

This is the view from the deck of the house!  It is just breath-taking!

So glad for the panoramic ones - I think I'm going to have to try to develop some of these!

This one was pretty cool - it shows me taking a picture and gives you a little bit more of the deck than my pictures do.

Curtis really enjoyed the view!

Some additional angles of the back of the house (which the neighbors now consider their front of the house)

It was so beautiful.

Next up...I took Curtis to the Pisgah Forest and showed him Looking Glass Falls.

We would come here often with my family and I was happy to share this with Curtis.

We also stopped by Sliding Rock, a naturally occurring 60-foot water slide.  I only got the nerve to do it one time with my grandfather when I was younger.  I have this picture with my mouth open as wide as it's ever been as I slid down!  As for this day, it was too cold to slide (or so we thought), but there were a few people that had to slide down because they lost a bet.  Notice that one of them doesn't even have legs!  I was impressed.

Our trip also consisted of visiting Charlotte to spend some time with one of Curtis' roommates.  We had a wonderful time with them.  We spent our evenings in downtown Asheville, which was really fun.  We ate at some amazing restaurants - Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company and Tupelo Honey Cafe.  We went to Greenville, South Caroline to worship at Downtown Presbyterian Church.  It was such a delight!  

We even found gas for as low as $2.97 in Greenville.  That is so low!

We also went to the Skytop Apple Orchard in Flat Rock, NC.  It was really beautiful there, but it wasn't really the season for apples so we just enjoyed the view.

It was really nice to get away for about 4 days and explore North Carolina.  This will be one of our last trips before I am unable to travel for a while now that I'm getting farther along in my pregnancy.  It was definitely worth the trip!

Quick Trip to Central Florida

Last weekend, my aunt and uncle planned a day trip to tube down the Ichetucknee River with my parents.  They also planned to surprise my parents by having Curtis and I show up!  

 Curtis and I traveled to Gainesville the day before so that we would have a shorter trip the next morning.  This was a blessing because Curtis and I were able to spend more time with the Fields!  Jeffrey, another good friend, was even able to join us for a little bit.  Pictured above, you can see Curtis and his buds praying over each other.

Meanwhile, everything was going smoothly for the surprise until my parents ended up canceling at the last minute.  By this time, we were in Gainesville and my aunt and uncle were in Ocala prepared to head to the Ichetucknee River the following morning. We ended up spilling the beans to my parents and we worked out a compromise so that we could at least see them after we went tubing.

The tubing was really relaxing - Curtis and I were able to float down the river talking with two of my uncles, an aunt and our sweet 4 year old cousin.  Afterwards, we met my parents at Sonny's for a late lunch.  Even though our plans were changed a little bit, our trip was a lot of fun.  Great memories were made! :)

Vacation Bible School

This year was the first time that I was able to serve as a teacher in our church's Vacation Bible School.  I was one of the teachers for the K4 group. 

Recording the VBS music - each family receives a CD
at the end of the VBS program

The music was wonderful, I don't think a single person walked away without hiding scripture in their heart through the lyrics.  I think my little 4 and 5 year old kids know the following verses just from our songs:

"Though the grass will wither and the flowers fall, the word of our God will stand forever" - Isaiah 40:8 and "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11

It was so cute to see them do the little hand motions! 

We spent the week learning about the armor of God, as well as several attributes of God.  One of my responsibilities was to try to communicate to the kids different attributes about God.  A lot of my family and friends probably don't realize that God used them to teach little children about who God is.  I created this poster to help:

On Day 1, I explained that God is loving.  I depicted it by putting some pictures of our loving family.  I included a picture of me with three of my cousins (Jane, Judy, Beth).  I also included a picture of Curtis with his Nana and his aunt (Diane).

On Day 2, the children learned that God is our protector.  I tried to use a few different examples of protectors.  I put a picture of my brother, Tim, in his military uniform as he protects our country.  I put a picture of Curtis in his football attire, explaining that he protected the quarterback.  I also told them that his dad is in the picture, and he protected Curtis, just as each of the children's fathers protect them.

On Day 3, I taught them that God is faithful.  I showed this by putting up pictures of some of the faithful marriages in my family.  I put up my deceased Grandmom & Grandad, who were married for 50 years.  I also added my parents, who have been married for 28 years.  And of course, I put a picture of our wedding.

On Day 4, the children were taught that God is truth.  This one was a little tricky, but I placed pictures of Bible Studies where I have taught God's word, which is the truth.  One of them is from a RUF Freshman Bible Study that I co-taught with my good friend, Kaylen.  The other was a middle school Bible Study that I co-taught at Pinewood.  It makes me miss all those girls!

On the final day, I shared with the children that God is kind.  I explained this one by putting up pictures of some of our sweet friends that we are kind to one another.  One has two of my good college friends, Miranda & Kelly.  The other has Curtis with two of his good college friends, Sean and Joel.

It was really fun to go through old pictures and decide how I would use them for this task.  If you were one of the ones mentioned above, thanks for letting God use you in the lives of little ones.

Gospel Coalition, Curtis' Bday, Family Visit

 From April 12-14, Curtis took a trip to Chicago to attend a conference called The Gospel Coalition. It worked out pretty well because Curtis got to spend time with his best friend and college roommate (who was also our Best Man), Ryan.

Ryan has been attending seminary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, which is conveniently located in Chicago! Although I missed Curtis terribly, I’m glad he got the chance to go and come back refreshed. He tells me that the sermons he listened to were excellent, so I’ve already listened to Tim Keller’s (I agreed that it was very good!). I still have at least 2 others that he’s recommended for me to listen to.

Once he left for Chicago, I began feeling sick. I ended up missing several days of work and hoping to recover before Curtis got home. Unfortunately, I was still sick by the time he came back and I had to go to the Urgent Care Center in order to get effective medication.  Here's some of the medication:

Apparently, I had an upper-respiratory infection. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to celebrate Curtis’ 27th birthday with him on Monday (4/18), but I did end up feeling well enough to take him out to Chili’s. He was pretty excited because his parents got him a Blu-Ray player for his birthday. Immediately after Chili’s, he wanted to go to Best Buy to see what type of flatscreen TV we would like and what the going price was. I think that’s one of the next big purchases that Curtis wants! I got him a laptop messenger bag so that he would stop carrying a backpack to and from the church. Here’s Curtis on his birthday with his new laptop bag:

On Thursday, I got to spend some time with my Uncle Rick and his two daughters (my cousins), Judy and Beth.

They were traveling down to Florida for Easter and I was able to meet them on the interstate and have dinner with them on their way down. I don’t get to see my extended family (let alone my immediate family) much at all, so it’s always a treat when I get the chance!

Now, off to preparing for Easter lunch. We’re having several families over after church this year. I’m excited about it!