Finally!

I bet you were thinking that after my last blog entry, I would be updating this thing at least on a weekly basis...I guess we were both mistaken! I just can't seem to get it together with the blog. With that in mind, I thought I would overload you with pictures from the last two months! I know I'm always up for a good picture. I hope you enjoy!

A. Best Buds

I absolutely love having two boys! Of course, if the Lord blesses us with another child (one day very, very far from now) and it is a girl, I will be ecstatic, but I tell you, if I had a house full of boys, I would be PERFECTLY content. Noah and Gavin have become inseparable. Noah loves to hold Gavin's hand, teach him how to do say a new word, play in his crib-you name it, Noah does with Gavin. My little one thinks that he, too, is about to turn 3, so Gavin attempts to do whatever Noah is doing. The child is fearless (which I haven't decided if that is good or bad-I guess its both)! I mean, Gavin actually likes being dunked under water. I tried to capture a few of their most recent moments together.

B. CBS program

The boys and I were a part of Community Bible Study this year. It was awesome! The bible study was a bit intense (we studied the divided kingdom and the minor prophets), but I really enjoyed it. The children's program is also grounded in biblical teaching, and Noah loved it. I mean, my little guy has a half dozen verses memorized. Yeah for Noah! The kids did a little end of the year program for the ladies. It was precious-I was so proud!

Noah's face is priceless here. This is when he found me in the audience. I think he was a bit confused!

Noah playing the sticks. This kid is going to be a drummer, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, he is good!

C. Mother's Day

I love being a mom to this sweet boy...

and this little guy...

David planned a nice picnic and boat ride for my mom, the boys and I on Mother's Day. It was a bit chilly, but we had a great time. Thanks for making it special David!

*We have been able to spend a lot of time with family over the past month. I will save those pictures for my next post because there are too many that I have to include! Until then, thanks for visiting our blog!

I have figured it out...

I obviously have a hard time keeping up with my blog these days. I have started three different blogs since my last entry, but have yet to publish a single one. I think I have figured out what my problem is!

First, I am OCD about blogging in chronological order. For instance, my birthday blog is next in line. Unfortunately, I have yet to get the pictures off of my dad's camera. In my brain, I can't blog about something else until the birthday blog is published. Silly, I know, but that's the way my mind thinks.

The other blogging problem I have discovered is that I feel it a necessity to have pictures with every entry. I have set up my blog as a diary of the things my family and I do together. Not that this is a bad focus, but I have somewhat boxed myself in to a certain format that I can't seem to break from. In my mind, I want for my blog to be a place where I can share about anything I am thinking as well as what is going on with us.

So, for those of you out there that still actually check this thing, I hope to change it up a bit. The next few entries will definitely include updates and pictures of our goings on around here, but hopefully I will "let loose" a little from my rules and get to updating this thing more often!

A Great Start to Spring

*Sorry to those of you who have seen these on Facebook already. I had planned on posting at the same time, but it didn't turn out that way. Just enjoy the pictures a second time around!

I really do love the Spring! Now that both the boys are mobile, I absolutely appreciate the ability to take them outside to play, have picnics, water our (little) garden, etc.

Over the past month, we have been going non-stop, but thanks to this beautiful weather, we have enjoyed every second of it. My dad, his brother, sister and cousin ran the Atlanta marathon a few weekends back. Scott came down as a huge surprise for dad... it was great! We had so much fun hanging out with our family.

The boys were troopers waiting for the runners to arrive.

And here they are finishing the final stretch.

We headed to the Greenville Zoo for our last trip with our annual pass. This zoo is just the right size for our little guys and has an awesome playground right next to it. It was a fun family day.

Gavin sporting his scar from his run in with the stairs.

I was then able to celebrate Kristy, Katie and Kelly's birthday with a weekend getaway to the mountains and the spa. We had a blast. It was just what the doctor ordered.

We had a blessed Easter celebrating our Savior. Church was awesome. The service was God-ordained, and over 200 people gave their lives to Christ! Noah would walk around saying, "Jesus is alive!"

Noah enjoyed hunting Easter eggs a bit more than Gavin...

He enjoyed playing in the water.

So sweet!

Always have to take advantage of a family picture opportunity.

Gavin's First Birthday

My baby boy is 1 year old! Part of me feels like he was born yesterday and another part of me feels as if he is has been with us all along. We have had a truly blessed, God-ordained weekend celebrating Gavin's first year of life. I know that may sound silly seeing that it is a birthday party for a one year old...who doesn't even know what is going on. But for David and I, this particular celebration was different in the fact that it was the first time we had our friends from back home and here in Seneca join us for a milestone in our family's life. We had people gather from all over to honor our little man. What a blessing it was! Thank you to everyone who came. It was truly a pleasure having you here with us.

We took so many pictures of the weekend festivities, so there is no way for me to document them in the blog. I do have a few to share at the end, but I uploaded a ton more on Facebook. Instead of overloading the blog with (too many) pictures, I thought I would share a little about the man of the hour.

Gavin has totally changed my life! As many of you know, our family was quite shocked to find out that Gavin would be joining our family. I was so overwhelmed about having a second child that I had a hard time accepting this truth. How would it be possible to love another little boy as much as I love Noah? How was I going to handle two children now that I was living in a new place without my parents close by? Is this really your plan God? Really???? God is SO faithful and sovereign. God completely prepared David and I for this journey over the past year. Gavin fits perfect into the Odom clan. God knew exactly who we needed in our lives. Gavin is super laid-back, very adventurous, tender-hearted, and so easy to love. His smile definitely lights up a room. He is precious, and he is mine! Thank you Jesus!!!!!

Oh how my babies have changed in one year!

I had to share a picture of the cake!

He loved his cake!

Here we are opening presents. Noah liked this part!

The traditional birthday pancakes

He really is such a happy baby! What a sweet smile! Happy Birthday my baby!

Two Blogs in One

I am proud to say that David and I have done a good job at taking pictures lately, so I have a lot to share! Read all the way to the end. The last section is my favorite!

A Day at the Odom House
The boys and I have a pretty regular routine throughout the week. We usually stay at home on Mondays, head to the grocery store on Tuesdays, attend Story Time at the Library on Wednesdays, CBS on Thursdays, and then spend Friday doing things with David. Lately, Noah has added some new "routines" during the day. Now when we sit down for any meal, he asks me, "What did you do at school today?" or "How was work today"... every meal, throughout the entire meal!!! He is also into dressing himself. He will change clothes a few times a day. He particularly likes pajamas!


Noah is also into playing games. We are on a basketball kick right now. Notice, the outfit that he picked out. These pajamas are his favorite.

Below is an example of how we play dress-up at our house... animal towels!


Snow Pics
Noah and David had a blast with the big snow a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, our neighbors let us borrow their sled for a bit.



My Valentine's Day Surprise
Thanks to my dad, I love the Atlanta Braves. I mean LOVE them! We even had to budget in the more expensive cable package to ensure I could watch the games here in South Carolina. I have had many favorite players throughout the years, Dale Murphy, Dave Justice, and of course Chipper Jones, but these days, I am huge Brian McCann fan! He just seems to be an all-around good guy and he is an awesome player. So, he was in Greenville signing autographs one Thursday. I wanted to go, but with the two kids napping and David working, I knew it wasn't going to happen. Well, my honey surprised me and took a half-day, so I could go meet my baseball crush!
We waited in line about an hour. The boys did awesome!

We were near the end of the line, so they asked us not to stop and ask for pictures. I had someone snag one anyway!

As expected, Brian was a super nice guy (decided from my 30 second conversation!). He scored major points when he took an interest in Noah and gave him a high five. I haven't washed Noah's hand since...

I give all the props to my hubby! Besides taking off work, he allowed me to be giddy for an entire afternoon over another man. What a Valentine's Day present!!!!

The Winter Months

Besides the yucky weather we have experienced over the past month, we have been having a blast at the Odom homestead. It has been nice to get back into our "routine" after the holidays. The boys are into everything, I feel like all I ever do is laundry, and David is super busy (in a good way) at church. Life is pretty normal... praise God!

The boys and I headed down to Gwinnett for a few days to spend time with friends and my mom while my dad was away on business. Thankfully, we were able to catch up with a lot of people, and I vowed to take pictures specifically for the blog. Well, out of the 5 different times we were visiting with friends, I took one picture. Oh well, better luck next time. Thanks to everyone for working us into your schedule.
Noah had a blast playing at Rylan's house. Thanks for the delicious meal Erin... once we finally got to sit down and eat it!

I had debated on actually "admitting" this next milestone in our family. I don't want to say it out loud in case it backfires. Here is goes anyway! Noah is potty trained! He has been doing awesome ever since the beginning of January. We haven't started working on naptime and bedtime yet, but for a 2 1/2 year old, I think we have come a long way! Yippee!

*On a side note, due to all this potty training, we talk about the man part way too much for my liking. Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon!
Gavin is definitely walking a lot more these days. He is still crawling a lot too, but is becoming more confident in choosing walking as his mode of transportation.

I just thought this was a super sweet shot of the boys. The church has started posting parts of our service on VIMEO online. The boys were fixed on the TV as they watched David lead worship. What a cool thing!!!

The Long Overdue Christmas Blog

We had an awesome Christmas. Thankfully, we were able to spend a lot of time together as a family. FCC had an amazing, Christ-centered Christmas Eve service that my parents, David's parents, his Mamaw, and aunt and uncle were able to attend. We spent Christmas morning/afternoon at our house with my parents. Then, we headed to Greenwood were we celebrated with David's side of the fam. After a few days there, we headed back to Seneca and hosted a fun New Year's Eve celebration at our house with a bunch of friends. God truly blessed us with a great Christmas season. 2009 was great, but we are pumped about what God has in store for our family this year!!!!

Gavin was definitely more into the wrapping paper and bows than the presents. That is what we expected though!

Noah was so sweet opening gifts. He really seemed appreciative and content after receiving each gift. We will see how long that will last...

Our family photo AFTER the Christmas Eve service.

Aren't they precious? David and I make some handsome (I wanted to say pretty) little boys, if I do say so myself!

Mimi, Paka and the boys!

Noah and his sweet cousin Reagan. They had a blast playing together.

Grammy and the boys. I didn't do a very good job taking pictures at Grammy and Poppy's this year!!! I don't even think I got one picture of Poppy.

Noah using his new shaving kit!

When David and I got married 4 1/2 years ago, I registered for a Kitchen Aid mixer, knowing this gift was more of a dream than a reality. Well, as usual, the parents pulled off the best gift of the year...

And, ladies and gentlemen, my little man is 10 months old! I don't know why, but this "birthday" has been hard for me to accept. I can't believe he will be a year old here shortly. Where does the time go?!?

*Just as a side note, David got me a new computer, and this is the first blog from that. I feel like the pictures are a little bit too big, so bear with me as a figure this out!!!