Easter Egg Hunt 2010 - Revised Slide Show

Saturday was the second annual Easter egg hunt at First Baptist Church Austell. We have been preparing for this day for quite some time. In fact, during spring break while we were in Statesboro visiting my grandmother, we purchased the "Easter" baskets from a local feed store, if that tells you anything about the nature of the bags!. No cutesie monogrammed Easter baskets for the O'Dell children, ha! Carter, Summer, and Tilly were right proud of their buckets, I mean baskets, which more than served their intended purpose. The children have been talking about Easter for quite some time in their classes at school, and we have been doing our part at home making sure they are aware of this special season. Saturday morning, David and Carter (just the boys) headed to church early to prepare for this special day. By 10:00, the parking lot was full of children ready to hunt. Our family had a few special guests to come hunt with us. My roommate from college, Wendy, and her family came out to spend the morning with us. Wendy and her husband, John, have 3 adorable boys. Surely, there is an arranged marriage somewhere, at least one! I would love that for any of my (soon to be three) girls. In fact, I already have my sights set on Brennan, the middle one, for my Summer. At the Easter egg hunt, he was helping Summer pick up all the pink and purple eggs. No other color egg would do for my girly girl! In fact, she was skipping over tons of eggs just to find the ones she wanted. It was precious! There were too many pictures to choose just one, so I made a slideshow of our Easter egg hunt. Sadly, I did not manage to capture any pictures of the Rowell family. It's all I can do to keep up with mine!

Mary, Mary quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells

and pretty maids all in a row.

Well, maybe not quite silver bells and cockle shells, but our garden is growing, and we are so excited. David and Mr. Jonathan planted our garden a week ago Friday, and it is growing nicely. The mix of rain and sunshine has been a great help as well. To be honest, I can't remember what all we planted, but I was definitely wrong in my earlier post. Apparently, we are growing certain things now, and we will plant the other items later in the summer. I do know for certain we are growing several kinds of lettuce, onions, carrots, broccoli, potatoes, and (the thing I am most excited about) strawberries!

Date with a pretty girl!

This morning, I had the privilege of having some Mommy time with (one of) my sweet, pretty girls. Summer's class had Muffins with Mommy today, and it was such a sweet time for me to be with my oldest daughter in her class. We had delicious blueberry muffins, made especially for us by her teacher, Miss Page, and we had juice. Side note - you can tell we don't give Summer juice at home because after a small cup, she was wired, or maybe she was just excited to have her mommy in her class! After our muffins and juice, the class presented to us the catechism, which they recite each day. The boys and girls also sang some of their favorite songs, which was a joyful noise, indeed! Proof that the best-laid plans often go awry, I came prepared and ready for this very special occasion - camera in hand, with a fully charged battery. One small problem, we forgot to return the memory card to its proper place after printing some pictures for teacher appreciation, oops! However, Miss Lisa came to my rescue with her stellar photographer skills, so I will forever have captured my date with a pretty girl!Getting some Summer lovin'! She gives the BEST hugs!
Summer and her friends singing about Jonah, David, and Noah. It was such a sweet time with my pretty girl!

Furry Friends at School

At the end of last week a special visitor came to our school. "Bear" was a huge hit among the children, well most of them! I thought these pictures were too cute and funny not to share.

Here is a picture of Summer's class meeting Bear. Where is Summer? Do you see the pretty tights dangling from her teacher's lap? That would be my daughter! Miss Page shared with me that later she did get down and pet Bear once she was comfortable with having a dog in the class. Whew, I was worried that our Christmas present was all for nothing!

Here is Carter's class with Bear. So proud of my little fella front and center touching the dog! What a fun day!

March Madness . . . are you ready?

Thankful I didn't jump on that Kansas bandwagon after all! Lovin' the madness!

Basketball is a nice sport. I played it in high school, sort of. I even coached it one year here, but that's another story for another day, it's a pretty funny one too! Let's just say I called David from school one day and said, "Um, I have gotten myself into a situation and I don't even remember saying yes!" All that to say, I like the sport. It is by no means my favorite. That would be college football, but I do enjoy watching and at one time enjoyed playing, well being on the team. When we lived in Marmaduke, I think I was a little overloaded with basketball, especially since their season lasts 9 months! Not really, but it sure felt that way, ha! Now my beloved, on the other hand, is passionate about basketball. He loves it, maybe not as much as he used to, but definitely more than me. In fact, is his glory days he was quite the baller. Word is, he still holds some state records in Arkansas. However, March Madness is another story. In fact, it should be a sport on its own. We love it! Our first March together as a couple, we filled out our brackets long distance. I was in grad school at UGA, and David was living in Arkansas. The plan was for him to fly to Georgia championship weekend, so we could watch the games together. My sweet roommate, Staci, reminded me that year I took over our den wall with my brackets displayed on posters. I was serious about the madness! David and I had a little friendly wager that year (you know us baptists don't believe in gambling). The deal was, if I won David had to do something to surprise me, and if he should by some miracle win, then I was to surprise him. Thank goodness the stars were aligned that year in my favor. Not only did I pick the entire final four correctly, but also the championship game and winner, who I am pretty certain was Duke. It was a great year for Team Heather! My surprise - David popped the BIG question, and of course I said YES! What a fun memory! I have often wondered what would have happened had he won, do you think he threw his bracket that year? Nah, not my competitive sweetie! At any rate, March Madness is special to us and we have so much fun filling out our brackets each year and watching the games together. So far this year, Team Heather is behind 4 games, but there is still lots of madness left to happen. Our wager (I don't remember to agreeing to this) is that if he wins I have to wear a GT shirt to school - good luck finding one in 8 month maternity size! If I win, he will wear his hair in a mullet. Side note, his hair has gotten long and shaggy as of late (I like it that way!), and is starting to have a mulletesque feel to it anyway! I'll keep you posted - should be a fun road to the final four and national championship at our house!

Let the games begin!!

Wednesday night we filled out our brackets together.

Final Four - can't wait to see how we fared!

My beloved bulldawgs are sadly not in the BIG tournament, so I am rooting for the sparsely represented SEC and mostly this team to win it all. I did not jump on the Kansas bandwagon this year like most people I know, and I may regret it, but we shall see!

Will you pray for this family?

When David and I met, he had just become the youth pastor at Marmaduke First Baptist Church, located in Marmaduke, Arkansas. The pastor of the church was and still is Brother Kim Bridges. For three years, Brother Kim poured his heart and soul into David and taught him so much about ministry and life. This man is like another father to David, and me too for that matter. He and his family welcomed me right into the group once David popped the question. In fact, before David and I were even married, I moved to Marmaduke and lived with Brother Kim's mother in law, Miss Bonnie, for 6 months. I treasure that time with her. Brother Kim and "Miss" Lana have 3 gorgeous daughters, April, Melani, and Lindsey, who grew up in the youth group with us. Brother Kim married David and I way down in South Georgia, January 2002. We left Marmaduke in 2003, for David to attend seminary in New Orleans. Upon graduating from seminary, Brother Kim and "Miss" Lana came to his graduation. As you can see, this family is so very special to us. We love them like they are our own. Last night, we received a devastating phone call. Kyle Bynum, who was married to Brother Kim's oldest daughter, April, died suddenly yesterday evening leaving behind a young wife and two precious boys, Foster (age 1) and Lane (age 3). I do not have the specific details of his death enough to say, but it was of natural causes. Kyle and David were big buddies during our time in Marmaduke. They hunted, fished, and played together often. Kyle was also a groomsman in our wedding. Our hearts are just broken for this family. Will you join us in praying for these people we love so very much? Pray especially for April, a young wife and mother who will face so many tough days. Pray for Brother Kim and Miss Lana as they seek to minister to their daughter, family, and community. Pray for Kyle's family, his father, mother, and sister. Pray for those two sweet boys, who lost their daddy way too soon. Pray ultimately that God would be glorified in this devastating situation. Pray that we could somehow encourage and minister to this precious family who has invested so much into our lives.

Lane and Foster at the beach last summer.

The Bynum family, one Christmas ago after Foster was just born.

Brother Kim and Miss Lana with their girls and grandsons.

The Bynum family this past Christmas.

O'Dells are goin' green!

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day! Well, maybe not entirely green, but we along with our neighbors are growing a garden in our very own backyard, which we happen to share, complete with green beans, cucumbers, okra, tomatoes, and squash. Everyone is so excited. This will come in perfect time to start making some baby food to put up for little Miss Story once she is ready to eat big girl food. Today, with the help of our neighbor, Mr. Jonathan, the start of what promises to be some good eatin' this summer began in our backyard. Everyone joined in to help, well except for me because I was on camera duty, of course. I think Carter said it best, "It's a little bit perfect!"

Tilly just plopped down! Look at that sweet face.

Hundley clearly adores Tilly. I'm not sure it's entirely mutual!

Tilly pushing the spreader with Hundley sticking close by his buddy.

Carter was such a big boy helping out!

Look at him go!

Mr. Jonathan showing Carter how it's done.

Even Summer joined in on the fun! Yes, complete with her dress and tights! She is a girl's girl for sure, but definitely not afraid to get dirty!

Carter and Daddy make a great team, don't you think?

Carter showing Summer what to do! That didn't last long, as she is quite the independent one! We will be sure to keep you posted on the progress of our garden. For now, the ground is tilled. In the next few days, we will plant the seeds.

Spring Break, sort of. . .

Our spring break did not turn out exactly like we hoped or planned. In fact, that's how life goes sometimes, I think. Yes, we were all together, and everyone was safe and somewhat healthy, we got to sleep in some, and I did not have to go in to work; I am thankful for those things, but our spring break was nothing of a break. In fact, David and I have a running joke about the terror of our spring breaks. Our first spring break with Carter, we traveled to Charleston. How romantic! It's the city where we met. Carter was teething or growing horns or something; he was in a terrible mood the entire week! We questioned whether it was worth it to go, I think so. This spring break, Tilly was sick. The entire week. Gluttons for punishment that we are, we traveled anyway to South GA to visit Mama. I am so thankful we did; it was worth it to spend a few days with her, but it was rough. Rough. The first night Carter could not find the potty, so he had an accident. Tilly got sick in the play pen, a result of the antibiotics. Summer got cold and ended up in the bed with David, so I think he lost a kidney in the process. I saw every hour of the night; I think David did too. We were thankful when the sun woke up, so we could too. Mama made most of it better by fixing us a yummy breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We were quite spoiled by her cooking, in fact. That and her famous sweet tea. The second night was somewhat better, but by the time the sun awakened, we were ready to be home. After a yummy breakfast, we hit the road headed for home. What you may or may not know about Tilly is that she does NOT like to ride in the car. I don't know what we did wrong with our third child, but she hates to ride, and feels the need to express herself readily to anyone in earshot. It was a long car ride back to Atlanta, no help that it poured more than half of the way. Our first night back home, Tilly fretted and coughed most of the night. And about 2:00 in the morning, Summer decided she wanted to lose all of what she had eaten that day and the day before, so she did all over her bed! The next morning, Tilly had the mother of all dirty diapers, another result of the antibiotics. So bad in fact, that the pajamas were just sacrificed to our big blue trash can outside; you can only imagine. At one point that morning, David and I delirious with sleep just laughed and asked if the week was over yet! So, we did survive the spring break week, sort of. I am going to miss being at home with my sweet family all day every day, sick or not. I am going to miss painting Summer's fingernails, reading stories to Carter, and playing pat-a-cake with Tilly. I am going to miss cuddling with my three little ones all day and joining in on nap time with them. I am going to miss sleeping past 5:30. I am going to miss wearing pajamas all day if I want to, but today is the end of our break, and overall I think we are glad it's over. Tomorrow, we hope to return to what is normal for us, sort of. In the meantime, here are a few snap shots of our spring "break."

Getting ready to go in the Bass Pro Shop on our way to see Mama.

Carter and Summer checking out the fish at the free aquarium.

They were amazed!

Our rock star Daddy with his girls! Could Summer look more like him if she tried? I think not! I was so very thankful for this man during our so called Spring Break. He never ceases to amaze me with his sacrificial love for our family.

Spring Break 2010 Part IV

Today started off as a regular kind of day. While Carter, Summer, and Tilly played, David helped me "nest." We cleaned out all of the children's closets, organized all the drawers, washed all the linens, and even took some time to play outside in the beautiful weather. I'm so thankful for my sweet husband who is so attentive to our little family.

Meanwhile. . .for the past few days, Tilly has had a cough and has not been feeling like herself. We noticed today that her diapers were not wet either, and she developed a fever throughout the morning. David made a sick appointment for Tilly, so she and I headed out in what we thought would be plenty of time to arrive at the doctor's office. Little did we know that 285 was a mess today! So much of a mess that we could not even get on the interstate. We later learned that a tractor trailer had overturned, how terrible. I'm sure my blood pressure and heart rate were not as they should be; I hate to be late anywhere. After some help from daddy and the trusty GPS (I am self-diagnosed as directionally challenged), we managed to arrive only 15 minutes late! Poor little Tilly was running a fever of 101.5, and she has a double ear infection. You wouldn't know it to see her though because she was happy and content, not a bit fussy. That's usually how she rolls though! We saw Dr. S today because Dr. G was booked, and she was wonderful too. She was concerned that Tilly had not had any wet diapers today, so we were given instructions to attempt to have her drink as much as possible, no small feat for a toddler with a mind of her own. So, Tilly and I headed home on 285 with milk and chocolate chip cookies. Little did we know, that the other side of 285 was also having trouble of its own. It was slammed! We finally made it home, safely and with a wet diaper, thank you, Lord. Being stuck in traffic offers a great opportunity to pray! After a yummy breakfast for supper cooked by Daddy, all babies are sound asleep in bed, and Daddy is continuing to be the rock star that he is by putting together an armoire for the girls' room without directions! So thankful for my rock star husband, so thankful for wet diapers, so thankful for healthy children, and so thankful for spring break, so I can spend some time with my favorite people!

Spring Break 2010 Parts II and III

Well, there was a picture to be found after all, thanks to Daddy's phone!

Sorry, grandparents, no pictures on this post or the next actually! Our party of five has been so busy this first weekend of our spring break. Too busy to take pictures, it seems! We will do better though. On Saturday, after a yummy (not so healthy) breakfast of doughnuts, just the boys went to do a service project with some deacons in our church. They built a wheelchair ramp for one of our church members. Carter had a blast helping Daddy with his tools and peeing in the dirt, cause that's what boys do apparently! Meanwhile, just the girls went to Publix successfully by ourselves, quite a feat for a 7 month pregnant mommy-to-be with a 2 1/2 year old and 18 month old in tow! I'm sure we were a sight to behold. I was so proud of myself! Saturday night, we hosted a bring your own meat fellowship for our Sunday School class. We grilled out on our newly renovated fire pit complete with s'mores for dessert. It was wonderful! Sunday was another busy day of church, followed by lunch and naps. David is preaching through a sermon series on the "I AM" sayings of Christ. I leave church each Sunday challenged and refreshed by his sermons. I am so very proud of him! Stay tuned for updates on today, Monday. It was a day full of action, for sure!

Spring Break 2010 Part I

It's Spring Break! Wahoo! We started our week off with a family fun night (Daddy's idea) at some of our favorite places. Once we were all home from our respectful schools, we loaded up in the Mommy car and headed to Jump for Joeys. Thankfully, not everyone is on spring break and not everyone had the great idea we had to go there tonight. It was not crowded at all! Carter, Summer, and Tilly had so much fun! They have all gotten so much braver than the last time we were there. Tilly was content to play by herself and much of the time wanted to do exactly what Carter and Summer were doing. Carter and Summer went down all the slides like champs. I remember a time when they could not even climb up them alone, and now they are mastering the biggest slides in the joint with ease! Where did these grown up children come from? After tackling all the slides, we headed down the road a bit to a place who greets you like no other, "Welcome to Moe's!" What a fun night and what a great start to our spring break! We hope to have many more adventures this week to share with you. Stay tuned. . .

Her expressions are priceless! Those eyebrows crack me up!

Sweet Summer!

Carter is serious about this stuff!

Carter and Summer - they are really best buds! So thankful!

Little Miss Tilly going down head first! She's not scared of anything!

I saw Story today.

She was beautiful! Even the technician doing my ultrasound thought so; she even said it several times. Her profile was so sweet, precious nose, awesome cheeks - it reminded me so much of Carter's ultrasound pictures, especially the nose. Today, I am 29 weeks. Ultrasounds are not typically scheduled at this time, but during our 20 week ultrasound, my placenta was very low, closer to my cervix than it should be. This is not uncommon, but definitely not normal, so another ultrasound was scheduled today. The great news is that my placenta has moved to its rightful place. I'm sure there is a technical term for this, but I have no idea what it is nor do I care. I am just thankful! Everything looked great on the ultrasound. Story has plenty of fluid; she ought to as much as I drink, ha! She was perfectly healthy, weighing 3 pounds 2 ounces, which is large, but what did we expect? We don't seem to grow small babies at our house, and we like it that way! Her heartbeat was 147. Just perfect in every way. It was so much fun to see her sweet face once again. We can't wait to meet her. In the mean time we are praying for her. Praying she is healthy and strong. Praying for a safe and healthy delivery. Praying she will turn; she is breech. This was not a surprise to us, as she was breech at 20 weeks too. There is plenty of time for her turn, and we are asking and believing that she will. Carter was breech at this time too, and after a sweet lady at church laid hands on my tummy and prayed over us, he turned. The One who created sweet Story knows what she needs far better than I do, and we are just trusting Him.

Summer's Tea Party

Last Thursday and Friday at school, Summer enjoyed a tea party with her favorite animal, friends, and teachers. I was away with my class on our overnight field trip, and Daddy did a great job of making sure our little girl was dressed for tea with her favorite elephant. I love how her tights even match her elephant! Great job, Daddy! We are so thankful our children attend such a wonderful school where they get to experience so many fun and exciting things. Most importantly, every day they hear about Jesus! Last week, I asked Summer what she learned about at school, and she told me, "We learned about Jesus!" How precious!

Look at these cuties with their stuffed animals.

Sweet Summer in her favorite color, PINK! She tells me all the time, "I love pink!"

A group shot of the children eating their crumpets and tea!

Sweet Summer with her elephant, who just this week became her new favorite toy!

Tilly is 18 months old

Say it isn't so! It seems like yesterday we brought home this precious, dimpled baby girl from the hospital. Where did this fearless, still precious and dimpled toddler come from? Amazing how fast they grow! On the 19th, Tilly turned 18 months old. This past Wednesday, David took her for her well check-up with Dr. G. We have professed our love for this awesome pediatrician before, but I feel the need to say it again and again. We love Dr. G! He is so encouraging to David and me as parents (we would go weekly if we could for our dose of encouragement as parents - he always has the nicest things to say about our family; it's refreshing!), and our children think he is famous. If anyone has a cough or a boo-boo, we quickly need to hurry to Dr. G so he can make it all better. What happened to Mommy's kisses, I'll never know! Now for Tilly's stats. She weighs 23.5 pounds, placing her in the 40%; she is 33 inches tall, placing her in the 90%. I always like to see how she compares with Carter and Summer when they were her age, not that long ago! At 18 months, Carter weighed 25.1 pounds and was 34 inches tall. I'm hoping I blogged about Summer's 18 month check-up because I failed to write it down in her baby book, ha! Whew, I found it! I am not such a bad mommy, after all. You can see Summer's 18 month update HERE. Summer was much taller and weighed more than Carter and Tilly at her 18 month check-up. I have come up with some fun facts from Tilly's 18 months of life:

• She has traveled to 6 states, mostly on our way to visit Papa and Gigi!
• She has 12 teeth, with 4 more on the way.
• She has never had a hair-cut, nor will she need one any time soon!
• She loves to eat - anything!
• Some of her favorite foods: grits (my grandmother will be so proud), black beans, bananas, waffles, chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, grapes, green beans, and cookies.
• She loves to look at books and have us read to her.
• She loves taking baths.
• Her facial expressions are hilarious; I can't even describe them!
• She can no longer take naps in the pack-n-play because she climbs out!
• She knows her main body parts and can point to them.
• She knows many of the animals and can imitate the sounds they make.
• She loves to dance and sing.
• She talks a lot. You can go HERE to see some of the things she is saying.
• She refuses to keep her shoes on.
• She loves to play dress up.
• She smiles and laughs all of the time.
  Tilly adores her big brother and sister!
  
  Silly girl - loves to laugh and smile!
  
  Happy 18 months, sweet Tilly! We love you so much!