Summer 2009

Just a few highlights from our summer...It was busy, but fun! Many opportunities for time with friends, which was a blessing! Love this picture sharing a meal with the Lyons...

Kate got a new bed for her birthday :) Just right to accommodate visitors (hint, hint!)

It's become the favorite hiding/hanging out spot...

Carter FINALLY learned to pedal :)

Mom and Daria came up for a visit to be here for Kate's birthday (yay!)

Playing her new Tea Party game with Auntie Daria...can you tell she likes it?! :)

Kate, Carter and I took Mimi and Auntie Daria down to Wrightsville Beach for a day-trip. Much better weather than when we did that in May for Josh's birthday...We had a great time!!

Mom had brought these travel pillows for the kids. They wore themselves out playing on the beach all day, and the pillows worked really well!

Bailey loves my Mom's car (always has!) so it was a treat for her to be able to sit out in it for a while one afternoon. Goofy dog :) But see how happy she is?!

We said good-bye to our friends Joey, Page and Sayde Craft :( They moved to DC to partner with Andi and Nathan Knight in starting Restoration Church, a church plant from N. Wake. We're so excited to see what the Lord will do through their families, but miss having them here in Wake Forest! We hope to make a trip up there sometime soon...

Turns out Josh is going to need surgery on his other ankle (he had surgery on his right ankle a few months before we moved up here last year). So, he had to get his boot back out. The kids are fascinated with it...

And speaking of surgeries and medical stuff, we had our first experience with one of our children needing to get stitches. Carter was playing in his room before bed one night and busted his head on the footboard of his bed. A small cut, but deep...he got two stitches, several stickers, and thought the Scooby-Doo band-aids that he wore all week were super cool :) He's a trooper!

Enjoying our front porch. Spent many hours out there this summer :)

By far the biggest thing of the summer was our trip to India in June! A team from our church got to go work with one of the "far-flung" families of N. Wake for two weeks. It was amazing...my first mission trip, and Josh's third (so far!) It was incredible to see how God is at work in India, and so humbling and encouraging to be a part of that work. Made some precious new friends too :) Thank you so much to everyone who prayed, gave, cared for our children while we were away...We could not have gone without your support, and are so grateful!

However, the sweetest part of the trip was coming home to our babies...LOVE THEM!!!!

Kate's 5th Birthday

It just doesn't seem possible that five years have passed since we welcomed Kate into the world...What a joy it has been (with it's fair share of challenges, too, of course!)

We began Kate's birthday with her special request for breakfast: chocolate chip pancakes and bacon!

Oh, does this girl ever love her daddy!! Josh told Kate they could go out on a daddy-date after breakfast wherever she wanted to go. She said she wanted to go look around at Target (she's a girl after my own heart!)

Came back from Target with the roses Josh bought for the birthday girl, and another dozen they brought back for me! Sweet surprise :)

Kate has gotten to go to the nail salon in Buford a few times now with Nen (Josh's mom) and thinks it is the best! So, as a special birthday treat we went to a local nail place, and Stephanie and Anna Kate Lyon joined us for some girly birthday fun getting fingers and toes done! Don't the girls look so grown-up and big in those chairs?!

Look at those beautiful feet :)

After the nail salon, we went to the Tea Room in downtown Wake Forest for lunch...

Searching for just the right hat to wear during our lunch

Fabulous, dah-ling

Mimi and Auntie Daria (my mom and sister) made a special trip up to be with Kate for her birthday! Truly the sweetest gift they could have given her. She LOVED having them here, as did the rest of us :)

Miss Priss ;)

The girls didn't want us mommies to miss out on the hat-wearing fun...Love you, Steph!!

After all that fun, we got home to see the Robinsons coming around the corner to love on our birthday girl!

Check out Kate's purple purse cake...that's what she told me she wanted!

After-effects of purple icing

Looks like she's having a great birthday...

Time for presents

New backpack for our kindergartener :)

Happy Birthday Sweet Kate...You are precious!

Daytona 2009

We got to go to Daytona this July to vacation with Josh's parents. We had a nice, long, relaxing time there. First time ever we were able to stay longer than one week...What an amazing gift!!

First day out on the beach, Hudson doing a taste-test of the sand. He liked it, and wound up eating a lot more over the course of the next few days. Eventually, and thankfully, the novelty of eating sand wore off after that.

Jumping waves was a big hit this year! We spent a lot of time doing this with the big kids :)

An incredible storm passed through one evening. A tornado touched down about a mile from where we were! I was wishing for one of those super-duper cameras about this time as a rainbow had come out while it was still storming. If you look closely, on the left side of the picture you can see part of the rainbow, and then the lightning striking just to the right of it. Awesome display of God's power, and neat for the kids to see a rainbow as they love the story of Noah!

The calm after the storm.

Lovin' the popsicles

Justin and Jackey Perry, with their daughter Abigail (plus one in utero), and Drew and Jessie Tucker are sweet friends of ours from our church here. They live in Tampa now and have planted a church down there. We took a day trip over to visit them and hang out. It was such a treat to spend the day together and see what life looks like for them!

Oh, I love this boy!! Doesn't he look so big with his cool shirt? (Another Caden Lee special!)

Carter got to play putt-putt for the first time this trip, and he LOVED it! Getting a little coaching from Daddy to start off with, but he caught on quickly and had a great time!

I can't believe how quickly the past five years have passed by...

Early birthday celebration with Nen and Pa :)

Picnic on the beach our last day there. Really loved using this cool shade tent that Mom had gotten us last year. First chance we've had to use it, and it worked really well! Hudson also used it for his nap...

Last night there, dinner out at Aunt Catfish's. Yummy!!

Doesn't this take your breath away? Sun rising over the ocean the morning we left...

"From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised." Psalm 113:3