poppi's birthday

here is my dad. our poppi.

it was his birthday. we love an excuse for cupcakes in our house. we also love an excuse to celebrate poppi. harper LOVES her poppi. there is something about watching your parents love your kids that is so sweet. and then obviously watching your kids love them back.

here are our top 5 reasons we love poppi:
1-he is a great babysitter (and FREE). he plays playdough, plays hide and seek, does airplane, hangs the kids by their feet. you name it, poppi will do it. ALL day. he does not tire of playing.
2-he is our free financial advisor.
3-he loves the lord. i saw him live this out every hour as we waited on the lord to answer with my mom at vanderbilt. he has amazing faith.
4-he loves us. he is always trying to do stuff for us or give us stuff (i think that is his love language). my house is always cleaner when he leaves. my belly is always more full after spending time with him. he normally has a new plan for what to do in a room in my house. i was just enjoying play time out on our deck with my kids in the beautiful weather thanks to the gate he built for us. he just wants the best for us, always no matter what the cost or effort on his part.
5-he loves our mimi. he is by her side always. he takes care of her. he serves her. lord, let us not take for granted your miracles. your answering of prayers. your community of believers that surrounded us in prayer. thank you for giving her back to us. i mean, look how stunning his bride is...

don't tell him that he didn't get a cupcake. he probably assumed everyone was eating animal crackers.

cousin benjamin comes to visit

sooooo uncle daniel, aunt abby and cousin benjamin came last week. and i realized that i didn't take really any pictures, but had to document the fun times it was. especially since i always look back at my blog to remember what was going on in life. we did lots of fun things, but it was really the most fun to watch our kids play together. it's only gonna get more fun with ben's brother due in june. sooooo fun. anywho - fun times in nashville last week. thanks for making the trip with a sick kid. love you guys.

hanging with uncle andy

we got to spend some good time with my brother when he was in town. he is currently on route to orlando, fl which will be his new home. but it was really fun to be with him. we hope that he finds us a disney hook up! and glad that he still lives in a southwest airline city.

huck's birthday party

we had a simple little 1st birthday party at our house yesterday for huck. it was a fun afternoon. what an amazing little community we have. thanks for singing, having cake and praying with us for our sweet little boy.

i made a picture banner with a photo from every month of his first year.

excuse the over excited cheerleader face i'm making, i was hoping that he would get excited everyone was singing to him. instead he just looked at david in confusion for the whole song.

harper was so excited all morning to help huck blow out his candle ('he is too wittle, momma' she kept saying until her big moment).

he didn't know he was supposed to eat it.

doubling fisting his cake

the after math!

PS - a little tip if you are having a birthday party soon. do a quick clean before, and do the GOOD clean after...NOT before. it made this one so much easier. after our 40 friends left, the wreckage wasn't as hard to swallow because i hadn't spent a ton of time cleaning. ;-) happy happy huck.
i'll be that mom and post this video for our families that couldn't be here:

Huck is 1!

I can't believe that it's already been a full year since Huck was born. Where did the time go?

Sweet Huck...this is what you are up to at 1:
-You LOVE eating. There aren't many foods that you don't like. But your favorites are: YOGURT, grapes, strawberries, really any fruit. You LOVE LOVE apple juice.
-You love music. We love watching you dance when music comes on.
-Peek-a-boo, playing on the stairs, climbing on top of things, swinging
-You don't like when things are taken from you (who does?!)
-You are giving kisses.

-We think you are saying Dadda and Momma
-Crawling like a speed demon but could care less about walking. And you are pulling up on everything.
-You do THIS a lot with your bottom lip.

-You love bath time and being outside and anytime your sister gives you any type of attention.
-It's obvious I'm your favorite. FINALLY...One that loves me the most!
You have the sweetest smile and such a sweet little spirit. Obviously we think you are the cutest thing going.

PS If you are seeing a little bit of a black eye on littlest otter, you are seeing right. First black eye before age 1.

bangarang

huck turns 1 in 2 weeks. what in the world?! has it really been a year? it feels like it in some ways. i can't imagine our family without him. it is really even hard to remember our family of 3, and even harder to remember is our family of 2. i didn't know i would melt every time harper and huck enjoy playing together. or when harper just wants to snuggle with him. he has turned into this little renegade. he likes to roll down the stairs in our bonus room. he likes to crawl fast and be chased. i'm beginning to think this is what we will see as we watch him grow...when you name a kid HUCK...expect for him to like adventure. i painted a canvas in his room with a john eldredge quote:

so far it fits him to a tee. and i'm beginning to worry we may have bitten off more than we could chew. but like all good stubborn parents, we wouldn't have it any other way.

this is him trying to climb out of the wagon. he is yelling BANGARANGGGGG (like the lost boys in hook)! ok, so he can't really talk, but if he could, i'm pretty sure that's what we would be saying.
i hope your day is fierce and wild and passionate! bangarang!!

Orlando // YL ASC2012

Big thanks to David's parents for coming to Nashville to hang with our kiddos 2 weeks ago so that we could go to Orlando. If you have kids you know that it's a huge gift to not have to pack bags and uproot your kids for a week. Thank you thank you Grams and Pops!!!

We went to Young Life's All Staff conference in Orlando. Every 4 years, YL has a staff conference for everyone on YL staff. YL spoils us. It's extravagant and fun and funny and you reconnect with friends (very close friends) from all over. We are refocused on this mission that we get to be apart of. We are reminded that what we are doing is a big deal. That we are winning kids to Christ and seeking hard after lost high schoolers that need Jesus. I can't even explain how awesome it is. Here is a quick shotgun blurb about our week.

Tim Keller :: Hogwarts :: Seaworld (They rented out the ENTIRE park for us) :: Francis Chan :: Magic Kingdom :: YL swag (free jackets) :: Cash family band :: Jeff Foxworthy :: Brandon Heath :: 22 people in a van :: 75 degree weather in Jan (lots of time at the pool)

HOGWARTS!!!

On the day we went to Disney parks we all loaded up in 1 van...22 of us.

p.s. I got the highest score possible on the Buzz Lightyear game. No bigs.