Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Happy Father's Day to the best daddy EVER! Carter, Summer, Tilly, and I are so thankful for all that you do for our family! We hope that this day is a reminder of how much we love you. Here are some of my favorite pictures of you with our children! We love you!

Here is a picture of my honey and me taken by Lindsey last week at the beach. David, thank you for being the best husband ever; I am so thankful to be on this parenting journey with you. I look forward to celebrating many more Father's Days with you and our sweet children.

Tilly is 10 months old

Tilly Brooke O'Dell

is 10 months old today!
Here are some pictures I took of her tonight at VBS.

I love these cow pajamas!
Look at that sweet smile!
She's holding on tight to her lovey!

We do not have to go back for a well check-up until she is a year, so I do not have any weight and length stats, but boy is she growing and doing new things every day. She has 4 teeth that are all the way in and two more have cut through the gums just this week. She is standing alone for several seconds; who knows, she may be walking before we know it! Tilly is saying "da da, ma ma, and bye bye." She is blowing kisses and giving full on the mouth kisses - those are my favorite! Tilly waves "hello" and "good-bye," but it is precious because she waves with her whole arm! I hope you get to experience a Tilly wave soon! She sleeps at least 12 hours each night, takes a morning nap, and an afternoon nap. Daddy and Mommy are thankful for that! Carter and Summer adore her, and Tilly tries so hard to keep up with them. I love to watch them play. This week has been Vacation Bible School at our church, so it has been a busy week in the life of our family. I also took a potty-training class under the tutelage of Mrs. Heiskell, the founder of our school! Tomorrow we are having breakfast with "T" and Hart! What a perfect ending to a great week. Here are some pictures I took at VBS. This was Carter's first year to be in a real class rather than the nursery and he LOVED it! It was so much fun for David and me to watch him, especially during music time!

Adelle, Summer, and Carter looking at baby Jack!

Never mind the GT pacifier; his parents don't know any better!

Mommy and sweet Summer!

Mommy with Carter and Summer; we wore our matching shirts all week!

O'Dell/Calhoun Beach Vacation 2009

Last week, our party of five joined Papa, Gigi, Cory and Cari (aka Juie) for a week long vacation at the beach! We stayed in this awesome house at Grayton Beach, which is in between Santa Rosa Beach and Destin, but much closer to Santa Rosa. It was so wonderful to get away and we had a wonderful time with our family! Thank you, Papa and Gigi, for a great vacation! Every day was an adventure, so I would like to recap the week for memory sake. We all arrived on Saturday, June 6 within an hour of each other. David and I were definitely spoiled with the master's suite downstairs. I wish I would have taken pictures of the house - it was gorgeous! Carter calls it the blue house. Saturday night everyone, except little Tilly and me, went to Baytown Wharf, a really neat village with lots of shops and restaurants. Carter and Summer had so much fun feeding the fish!

The second day, Sunday, we all went to the beach! The children had so much fun playing in the sand. Summer took a tumble into the ocean, so it took her about a day to want to get back into the water. She kept saying, "No water!" It was pitiful! That night we had a double birthday party for Carter and Summer with a luau theme! Carter's birthday was May 27 and Summer's will be July 17, but we rarely get to celebrate birthdays with David's family. We grilled hamburgers, ate cake, and opened presents! Happy birthday, Carter and Summer!

Tilly with her first bite of icing! Why wait til she is one?!

My sweet Summer was lovin' the icing!

These are her jellies she got from Juie and Cory!
Carter opening his piggy bank from Aunt Karen, his favorite gift by far! All week he was asking everyone for money for his piggy!

Summer blowing out the birthday candles!

Monday and Tuesday we spent lots of time at the pool and at the beach. Monday night we ordered pizza from this really fancy place - it was delicious! I can't remember the name of it though. Tuesday night David and I went on a date to Baytown Wharf. We ate at Acme Oyster House, which originates in New Orleans, so we felt like home! Wednesday afternoon, Cari's sweet friend, Lindsey, also on vacation came to take our family pictures. I can't wait to see how they turn out. She has taken pictures of the children before, but this time we got the whole family! Our back-up photographer, Daddy, did a stellar job himself! I think we will keep him!

Thursday, after more pool and beach, we went to eat supper at Back Porch! It is one of our favorite places to eat in Destin. David and I ate there on our honeymoon, so it is extra special for us! While we were there, Carter kept pointing to the waiters and asking if they were Jesus! A lot of them had longer brown hair and beards!

Friday, was our last day to play at the pool and go to the beach. For supper that night, we picked up fresh shrimp and crab legs and had a feast! It was delicious! Here are some pictures from our last day at the pool!

Everyone left on Saturday and we all made it home safely! David and I were even able to unpack everything and put it away and give everyone baths! This is a busy week for us because tonight starts VBS! I have a few last pictures that I could resist posting. Saturday night once everyone was in bed, or so we thought, this is what I found. . .

Summer had gotten into my mascara and had it all over her and the bed! What a great ending to the perfect week! Ha!

See you in a year. . .

These are the words spoken by Tilly's pediatric surgeon, Dr. Bussey, yesterday at our appointment. David and I took Tilly back to Scottish Rite for a follow-up ultrasound, the first one since her surgery. We have been praying for complete healing, restoration of her ovary, and that God would just cause the cyst to dissolve. It seems God has a different plan for us right now, which truthfully is not always easy to embrace even knowing and trusting that He is sovereign and in control. The cyst is still there. However, the great news is that the ovary looks good and the cyst has not grown. Even greater news is that Tilly is a healthy, happy, and growing baby! A lot can happen in a year. A lot of prayers can be spoken. A lot of healing can take place. A sweet baby girl can continue to grow and bring her Daddy, Mommy, brother and sister so much joy! Thank you, Lord, for sweet little Tilly. Teach us to place her life in Your hands.

Carter's Special Day

It seems we have been celebrating Carter's birthday for the entire month of May! We had his school party earlier in the month, we took our annual family trip to the zoo, and my sister and her family came to church one Sunday and we celebrated over lunch. Today is Carter's actual birthday. I remember as a little girl my mom waking me up on the morning of my birthday singing "Happy Birthday" to me! I also remember getting to choose where we went for supper on my special day. Being the traditionalist that I am, we are continuing the trend. This morning, all of us sang the birthday song to Carter! (However, I do look forward to being the one to wake him up instead of the other way around!) He was beaming from ear to ear! He loves the birthday song, especially when it is for him! Tonight, Carter got to pick supper, so we had cake and ice cream! I am serious!! It was awesome! He was so excited to open his presents; he kept saying "Wow!" or "This is cool!" or "I love it!" Also, I think he has a new love, Thomas the Train! We have had a train table for a while now, but no trains! Thank you, "T," for Carter's trains! He loves them, maybe not more than George, but he loves them! It was really sweet! My favorite thing he said tonight was, "I am so excited! I am not two any more!" Precious!

Opening his card from Mama (my grandmother)!
We are all singing to him at this point; he was so excited!
Summer was lovin' the ice cream and cake supper; she had seconds!
Mommy with the birthday boy! Daddy was the photographer of the night; he took care of everything! David is the best daddy ever!
Little Miss Tilly taking part in the birthday celebration! Don't worry, she did not have cake and ice cream for supper, mashed potatoes and yo-baby instead! Her big day will come in less than 3 months - Wow!

Our little fella is three!

Happy Birthday, Carter! You are 3 today! Mommy and Daddy cannot believe how very fast you have grown! We are so proud of you and could not love you more! You were born on this day at 1:12 P.M. at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. You weighed 9 lbs. 15 oz. and were 22 in. long! Your name is special because Carter Stokes comes from your grandmothers' maiden names. You are the best big brother to Summer and Tilly; they absolutely adore you! Happy birthday, Carter! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

Traditions in the make

I love my sweet little family, I love long weekends, and I love living in the big city! I love many other things too, but these are fitting for this blog post! We have had such a fun weekend! Friday night, we enjoyed some lazy time together! Saturday we hit the stores! Shopping with three little people is no small feat either, which would probably explain why we were not very successful! Sunday after worship and naps, we took the children to a local park to play! Carter and Summer had so much fun! Tilly rode in the car with Daddy to get Popeye's! What is a Memorial Weekend without fried chicken? David and I are partial to Popeye's anyway after our time in New Orleans! We ate many meals at the Popeye's on Elysian Fields! Two can dine for $5.99! As Carter would say, "It is delicious!" Today, we took Carter, Summer, and Tilly to the Varsity for the first time! What fun! I think the chocolate ice cream was a big hit with the children; even little Miss Tilly had her first taste! David and I are all about creating new traditions for our family. We have quite a few already, but we are loving making new ones along the way! I think as long as we are in Atlanta, we will head to the Varsity on Memorial Day to hear those sweet words echoing down the line, "What'll ya have?"

Carter was pointing at the train as it passed!

Summer going up the steps to the slide!

This picture needs no caption; I thought it was precious!
Carter going down the slide!

Eating yummy chocolate ice cream at the Varsity!

Summer saying, "Cheese!"

Tilly's new favorite thing to do is clap! She loves to clap when we say, "Yea, Tilly!" It is so sweet!
Tilly wanted to wear a Varsity hat too! Can you see her "fang" teeth on the top?

Time is flyin'

Happy 9 month birthday, Miss Tilly! Wow, is she really nine months old? Seems like yesterday we were waiting forever for the call from the hospital! I took Tilly to the doctor yesterday for her well check-up; lucky me there were no shots! Tilly weighs 18 pounds 1 ounce and is 29 inches long! She is in the 40% for her weight and 90% for her height! We were so pleased to hear that she is growing right along her curve! At nine months, Tilly has four teeth, two on top and two on bottom. She is crawling and pulling up. This past Sunday, she started clapping and playing pat-a-cake! She is also saying "dada dada!" She is eating table food and drinking between 24 - 30 ounces of formula each day! Tilly is starting to feed herself things like carrots, puffs, and peas. Her favorite food by far is yo-baby or "oh baby" as Summer calls it and "yo yo yo baby" as Carter calls it! I had the best time spending the day with my little bundle of joy! She was in the best mood! Our favorite fella, Daddy, came to meet us and took us to lunch at La Madeleine's. What a special day! Tilly will go back to the pediatric specialist on June 1 for another ultrasound, so please join us in praying for complete healing and complete restoration of her ovary. We love you so much Tilly!

A sweet picture of Tilly the day after she was born!
One of my favorite recent pictures of Miss Tilly!