Kentucky and Father's Day

A shout out to Hannah and Jeremy Vest who welcomed Nolan Robert into their family June 17th! We can't wait to meet him. Congrats to big brother Titan. If he's feeling neglected and needs to talk things through with Millie and Flash, he can give them a call!

We were finally able to make a trip to Sturgis/Morganfield, KY this weekend to meet Caleb Thomas Hagan born to Keely and John Tom Hagan on May 6th. He is such a sweet baby boy...I just couldn't get enough of him. We sure enjoyed our visit there (as we always do!) and of course it seemed way too short. We enjoyed some good cooking thanks to Keely and John Tom, fun times in the swimming pool, a special rose bud ceremony in honor of Caleb at their church, and lots and lots of catching up. I am so blessed by and thankful for our friendship. Here are some pics of our fabulous weekend. I already can't wait to see Keely, JT, and K-LOVE again soon! Love you guys!

Caleb

Happy Father's Day!! I am so thankful for the dads in my life. My dad holds such a special place in my heart. I can't begin to describe how much he means to me. I love you dad.

It has been such a gift to watch Drew be a daddy to Sydney. She loves him so much...I can't tell you how many times she says "daddy" throughout the day while he's at work. There is nothing he doesn't do as her daddy, and best of all he is teaching her what it means to love God, and to pray to Him. She has just started saying Amen after prayers. She is also a good present giver....she thought of her Mommy too with her gift. She gave Drew (and I) tickets to the Keith Urban concert...you better believe! Thanks Syd!

Oldie but goodie

eating like a big girl!

We let Sydney try to feed herself tonight out on the deck in between playing in her pool. It has become one of her favorite things to try, but pretty annoying to us because it's tough to feed her when she is grabbing at the spoon every second. So we finally let her at it tonight...

A pic of Syd's curly cue

What a load!..........It's just water and proof of the benefits of a swim diaper.

Story and Thought

Ironically enough after my last post dedicated to Millie and Flash:), I was fairly certain that I'd lost them today. It all started when earlier today I noticed Flash chewing on something out on the deck. Sadly it was a turtle scared and closed up in its shell:( I wasn't sure if Flash had killed it or not but he sure was chewing away at the shell. I turned it upright to see if maybe by the time Sydney and I got back from lunch the turtle would have migrated to a different spot. When we got home thankfully it had moved!! It was hiding under our grill and needed to be moved to a safer spot on the outside of our fence away from Flash. To do this, I open and realize later left open our gate. I didn't realize this till the dogs had been outside for 10 minutes or so. They were long gone...free to run and roam, which they loved every second of I am sure!! A huge THANK YOU to the Salvador family, a.k.a. the best next door neighbors in the world who stayed with Sydney as she slept through all this, and helped drive around and eventually find them for me!!

One of my favorite things in the summer are afternoon thunderstorms! It is a reminder to me of God's power and creativity. I just love it when it gets nice and dark before a short but heavy down pour along with thunder and lightning. Sydney only being 16 months old hasn't seen too many storms in her day:) Therefore she is really scared of not only thunder, but loud trucks, lawn mowers, etc....Any time there is loud noise outside she says in a real paniced voice, "mon mow, mon mow..."

And last but not least a couple pics from the last few days!!

Sydney and her buddy Carter

Syd and Lyd swimming together

A Girl's Best Friend...

Here are some pics I took the other day of Syd playing with Millie and Flash. She sure does love them. One of her newest words is Millie....so now every dog she sees is "Millie." It doesn't help that several of our friends have boxers too. Talk about confusing for a child.

Streams in the Desert

I've been reading "Streams in the Desert" by L.B. Cowman over the last month or so and what a blessing it's been (thanks Lori for the suggestion!). It's a book comprised of 366 daily devotional readings. What I love most about it is that the devotionals are short but so encouraging. Each day starts out with a verse or two the rest of the reading is based on. It seems like no matter what our day holds, God uses that specific day to prick my heart in some way. Part of my reading from today stood out.

"We never know the trials that await us in the days ahead. We may not be able to see the light through our struggles, but we can believe that those days, as in the life of Job, will be the most significant we are called upon to live." Robert Collyer

Anyway, just wanted to pass this neat book along to anyone looking for an encouraging read.

On a much lighter note, I just started reading "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult, which I can already tell will be hard to put down. I saw a preview for the movie about to come out and was moved to tears just watching that. I thought I better read the book first so I can make it through the movie in one piece.

New Arrival!

Ash, Brad, and Lydia welcomed Wade Connell White into their family this past Friday evening. We were able to take a short but sweet trip to Chattanooga Saturday to meet our new nephew and Sydney's new cousin! Here are a couple pics of sweet baby Wade.

Wade Connell White - 6lbs 13oz

Grammie and the Lyd

Syd sure loves her Aunt Katie and is SO glad to have her home this summer (so am I)!!

Will and sweet Cole!!

Cousin Time!

First of all a big CONGRATULATIONS to Keely and John Tom on the birth of their baby boy Caleb Thomas!!! We absolutely can not wait to meet him!

Mom and I had appoinments this week with our new dentist, Dr. Brad White. Not only is he a fabulous dentist, he is a great brother in law too!! We love days when we have a dentist appt because we get to spend time with Ash and Lyd in Chattanooga. Now that Sydney is more mobile, her and Lydia have the best time playing together. This particular visit Lyd did a lot of saying "No Sydney!" and Syd did a lot of watching and wanting everything Lydia had!!!

Here are a few pics from the day!

Here is Sydney sporting Lyd's rain boots