Summer Fun in Arkansas

Well, the O'Dells have been on a whirl wind tour this last week. We left Atlanta last Thursday morning and headed to Jonesboro, Arkansas to see some friends and family. By the way, if none of you have had the blessing of staying in a hotel room with a two year old, almost one year old, and a very pregnant wife - I think everyone should experience the madness! Pure craziness! But, we survived and enjoyed ourselves quite nicely! We were able to visit with some family members, David's college roommates, and our precious church family from Marmaduke, Arkansas. David was on staff at Marmaduke First Baptist Church before we went to seminary. We were able to worship with our church family there on Sunday and enjoy a meal fellowshipping together for lunch. It was so refreshing to be with these folks again. Many of them had not met Carter and Summer, so that was quite a treat! Above are some pictures of our church family from MFBC. It was wonderful to spend some time with them.

After finishing lunch on Sunday, we hopped in the "mommy car" (appropriately named by Carter) to drive to Bryant, Arkansas. David is spending this week with our home church doing mission work in Mountain View, AR. Every summer, our church goes on a mission trip with an organization called Builders for Christ. Lucky for us it was in Arkansas this year, so David was able to go. He dropped the children and me off at Gigi and Papa's house. We have had a wonderful time playing with Gigi, Papa, and Aunt Karen. They have been most hospitable and have frankly spoiled us all rotten. Carter and Summer have enjoyed playing in the pool, reading, going to Chuck E Cheese, and just spending time with their grandparents. Attached you will find a slide show (thanks to the help of my friend Hannah) of Carter and Summer having fun in the swimming pool. I am sure there will be more posts from our trip to Gigi and Papa's. Uncle Cory and Aunt Cari are scheduled to join later in the week and we are going to celebrate Summer's first birthday! I know, I can't believe she is one!

Summer is 11 months old

Here are some pictures taken today on Summer's 11 month birthday. As you can see we were getting ready for bed. We have started putting them to bed at the same time, so that we can enjoy story time with the two of them together! I was thinking today about what was going on at this time last year before we welcomed this precious baby into our lives! We were chasing her big brother, Carter, all over the place and just getting so excited about her arrival. It was so hot as she was born in the middle of July! Today, much of the same is true. We are still chasing her big brother all over the place and we are yet again expecting another baby girl, Tilly Brooke, in less than 9 weeks! And, it is still so hot! Summer is such a sweet and precious little girl - as you can see she is her daddy's mini-me! David could never deny her! I thought in honor of her 11 months of life, I would update the blog on life with our little girl. Summer has 8 teeth and will eat anything that we put in front of her! She loves to blow kisses and say "mama and dada." She waves with both hands! She is crawling and moving all over the place! She loves to walk around the house holding onto whatever is close by! We figure it won't be long before she lets go so she can keep up with Carter! Speaking of Carter, they are so sweet together. They love each other and play so well together. I love to listen to them at night laugh and sing and talk before they go to sleep! These are precious days and I don't want to miss a thing!

Happy Father's Day, David!

Today is David's special day! We started the morning by giving Daddy his presents from Carter and Summer! Then, we went to church for Doughnuts with Daddy! Here are some pictures of Carter and Summer enjoying their breakfast with Daddy! In honor of David, I wanted to post the top ten reasons he is an awesome Daddy. There are so many more, but it's a start!

10. He willingly changes poopie diapers daily.

9. He helps with all of the day to day routines of parenting: baths, bedtime, laundry, dishes etc.

8. He makes the children laugh.

7. He loves the children and me with all of his heart.

6. He desires for our children to know and love Jesus.

5. He reads to the children every day.

4. He prays with the children.

3. He provides for our family.

2. He puts the needs and wants of our family ahead of his own.

1. He would rather spend time with the 3 of us than do anything else in the whole world!

Happy Father's Day, David! We celebrate you today because you are the best Daddy ever! There is no one I would rather be doing this whole parenting thing with than you! You are my favorite! I love you!

Trying this thing again

Well, after many years as you can see of trying to get this blog thing up and running, I think we may have succeeded! The purpose of our blog is for our family and friends to keep up with our rapidly growing lives! I love Saturdays with my family. We spent the morning eating breakfast together at the house and playing with Carter and Summer. After we all got dressed and ready (no small feat for a family of 4 and a heavily pregnant mommy!) we headed out to see what we could see! Apparently, I am starting this thing out right because I have been tagged by my sweet friend Mary Katherine. I am supposed to tell you 6 things about me that you may or may not know. So, here goes MK!

1. I love love love being a Mommy to Carter, Summer, and soon to be baby Tilly Brooke. I never knew I could love doing something so much. Being a Mommy is so hard and rewarding and nerve-wracking and exciting all at the same time! I love it!

2. I am so very much in love with David, my husband of soon to be 7 years! Wow, the time sure has flown. God has taken us on so many amazing paths and it has been the most fun experiencing life together. David is so much fun - there is never a dull moment at our house! I am so very proud of him and his accomplishments and the way he leads our family.

3. I teach at a private Christian school in Atlanta. I love my school. When I look back at how God brought me to this special place, I am still so very thankful! This will be my fourth year teaching here. Every year God reveals more to me about Himself through the people I work with everyday! I find that teaching helps me to be a better Mommy and vice versa.

4. I would like to take flying lessons one day. I just finished reading a book called "Twenty Wishes," so I have been thinking about what my twenty wishes would be and I definitely think I would love to learn to fly.

5. Reading is a passion of mine. I guess that is my escape at night when the children are in bed and David is watching boring shows on television like The O'Reilley Report and Hannity and Colmes - I don't even know if I spelled those correctly! I am currently reading books about how to potty train Carter. This is my summer project, but according to one book it can be done in a day! I will let you know how it goes when I am brave enough to try! I am also reading Parenting By The Book - a great book given to me by my school. A book I would recommend to all families is The Jesus Storybook Bible! I read this with my class this year at school and I look forward to reading it with Carter and Summer.

6. I have the sweetest friends in the whole world. I love keeping up with my friends from high school and college through facebook. It has been so wonderful, too, reconnecting with camp friends from Fuge and Tapawingo. I love my sweet friends from school - they spoil me and my family rotten! Recently, my sweet school friends took Carter, Summer, and Me to Build A Bear where we had a baby shower for Tilly! My girlfriends made "bears" for all 3 of my children - such a sweet outing!

I am new to this whole blog thing, so I don't have 6 friends on here to tag. I will tag Jenna, Casey, and Brooke because I know they all have blogs!