The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This was the first year we spent Christmas just the two of us (plus Lion-O).  Because of doctor's orders, I am too far along in my pregnancy to travel.  It was a good year to stay in Savannah because Curtis was very busy with his sermons.  Not only did he have two sermons to preach on Sunday, but he also had one on Christmas Eve. 

We made s'mores in our fireplace.

It was really fun and memorable!

On Christmas Eve, we drove around looking at Christmas lights.  We even decided to take Lion-O with us.  He loved looking out the window at all the lights.  He acts very similar to a dog!

Curtis and Lion-O in the car

On Christmas Day, we were ready to open gifts!

But first...Curtis read to us from Luke 2 to remind us of the best gift of all.  God sending His son! :)  We're hoping to start this new tradition with our family.

We tried to get some family pictures, but Lion-O wasn't cooperating that well.  Our picture (at the top of this post) was one of the best ones, but then you don't get to see the pregnancy bump!

Lion-O jumped down right when this picture was taken.  I thought this picture was funny!

We finally got a good shot (without Lion-O).

Although we didn't travel, we had family come to us before and after Christmas.  Curtis' dad, Curt, was able to visit for a few days before Christmas.  We had a great time, but we forgot to take pictures with him.  :( The day after Christmas, my parents came to visit.  My mom helped me prepare the nursery for our little bundle on the way.  She helped me wash all my newborn and 0-3 month clothing.  She will definitely have plenty of clothes!

We tried to take a picture to show our new Christmas ornaments that we obtained to commemorate 2012.  It's hard to see, but Curtis has a little snowman that says "DAD" and mine is a diaper bag that says "New Mom."  We are getting excited that she will be arriving soon!

We enjoyed our time with my parents.  I think they had a good time too.

Lion-O's gift to Curtis was snuggling up on a cold night. :)

It's hard to believe that this will be the last Christmas that we will have without our daughter!  We look forward to celebrating next year (and many more years) with her.

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.

Gallivant through Florida

From May 27 - June 15, Curtis and I took a 3-week vacation and traveled all over the state of Florida.  Our goal for the time: to relax and to get refreshed.  If you look at the map below, you can see all of the places that we stopped.  Our final destination was Key West, which was to celebrate our 4 year anniversary.  I'll have a separate post for that part of the trip.

If we would have traveled this non-stop, it would have taken us over 30 hours to get back to Savannah!

Here's the highlights from the first 2 weeks:

We were able to spend some time with my family while we were in Jacksonville.  Here's a nice picture of my mom.

Let the relaxing begin!

All the boys (my dad, brother Ben and Curtis) relaxed.

Here's a picture of me with my immediate family minus my older brother.  I like how we arranged by height without even realizing it.  We could be in one of those AT&T commercials with the "bars."

We also stopped in to meet our newest cousin, Alan David.  He was only about a week old when we met him.  He's pictured above with his proud mom & dad.

Here's Curtis holding Alan - he was such a sweetheart.  Actually, both of them are. ;)

Not only did we get to see Alan, but we also got to see my grandparents.  I forgot to take their picture though - that's a bummer!  Curtis and I also spent some time with the newest youth pastor at my old church, Pinewood - it's always encouraging for him to talk with other pastors.

One day, we were able to spend some time with Randy & Debra Warren.  I almost forgot to take a picture. This was taken right before I drove away.  We had a great time together!

OK, now for a small segment on our sweet kitten, Lion-O, before we head on to our next stop:

We left Lion-O with my parents in Jacksonville while we gallivanted around.  When he first arrived, he hid in this large cat litter box to get away from the other cats.  Haha!

Lion-O had to adjust to being around my parent's cats - Buddy & Teddi.  We had to separate them at first. Notice that Lion-O is on the other side of the sliding glass door.  (Note: The cats did eventually get a long - they spent 2 weeks together while we were away.)

Teddi curled up Curtis.  It was really precious.

Before we left Jacksonville, we celebrated Lion-O's 1 year birthday (June 3) by giving him some cat milk.

And on with our tour...

We headed to Gainesville and stayed with the Fields.  Even though Emily was not in town while we were there, her hospitality was definitely noticed!  She prepared for us by providing lots of food for yummy meals.  Ryan did an excellent job of cooking them.   

Ryan took us to a new part of Paynes Prairie that Curtis and I had never visited when we lived in Gainesville.  It was really beautiful there.  It was a little hot though. 

We were looking at the alligators behind us before we took this picture.

I liked this candid shot of the best buds talking.  Curtis loves spending as much time as he can with Ryan.

They had a great time together.  Even Emily's cat, Vince, joined the party!  

We also had the privilege of getting to hear Ryan preach at his church (and where I attended in college), Creekside Community.

One of my closest friends, Kaylen, also lives in Gainesville.  I was so glad that we were able to spend time with her and her husband, Jono.

Group shot!

Not pictured in Gainesville: We also spent time with our RUF campus minister, Steve Lammers, and his family; I was also able to spend time with another good friend, Jenna McMicken.  All of it was very refreshing to our souls!  We praise God for giving us so many good friends that encourage us in our relationship with the Lord. :)

Next stop - Beverly Hills, Florida to see the Lauranzons.  We met this beautiful family (back then it was only Robyn & Brandon) in St. Louis during seminary.  They were good friends that we met with weekly. Brandon now has his first call at Seven Rivers Presbyterian and we were so glad we were able to stop and see them during our trip!

I fell in love with Karis.  I think she fell in love with me too.  She seemed to get upset whenever I would leave her presence.  I love her expression in this picture!

It was like old times!  I hadn't seen Robyn since we left St. Louis almost 3 years ago.

Then, we traveled to Orlando for the day and spent time with the Donovans.  Curtis and I really felt encouraged by our time with them!  Jess makes such a cute pregnant woman, doesn't she?  She is due in August and we can't wait to find out what they're having (they're keeping it a surprise).

Next up...we went to Melbourne to spend some time with some of my dad's side of the family.

This is my cousin, Elle.  She was playing around with my iPod and gave me about 10 photos that looked almost just like this!  She's a big fan of sticking out her tongue.

We went to Sebastian Inlet to bask in the amazing weather.  Elle and I bonded a lot.

There weren't that many people there that day so we had the place to ourselves.  What a fun day!

Elle was showing off some of her crafts that she has made.

One of our final places to stop was in Fort Myers to see Curtis' parents.  It was our first time getting to visit their new church. We had the opportunity to check out a really awesome ministry called ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) and tour their facilities.  It was so cool to see what a difference they are making in third world countries that don't know what type of plants grow best in their area.

We also visited the winter homes of Henry Ford & Thomas Edison.

This is the largest Banyan tree in the United States.  I had never seen anything like it!

 It was absolutely gorgeous there.

I think we left right before the rain came.

While we were in Fort Myers, we stayed with a family that owned this beautiful cat named Lexy.  I was so excited to meet her because I was really missing Lion-O.  She was a very large cat!

We attended church at New Hope Presbyterian and got to hear Curtis' dad preach.  Curtis even got to read the Word before he preached.

And now that we have our vacation hats on, we are ready for our final anniversary destination - Key West!

Stay tuned for another excited post about our final week in Florida. :)