Braves Birthday Post...Finally!

For my birthday (back in April), I had two requests. I wanted to go to the Braves game and eat at Skips restaurant in Avondale. Luckily, I have a great hubby and two awesome parents, so both of my wishes came true. It was a perfect night for baseball, the boys were angels and we won! A great way to celebrate 28!

Our family shot attempts!

The boys in front of the new Greg Maddux number.

I am so glad these two met and made this all possible!!!!!

Noah and his Mimi

*Hopefully it won't take me this long to blog about Noah's birthday coming up this week. He is going to be 3. Are you kidding me...a 3 year old!!!

Family Visits Part 2

I feel like every blog I have written lately has been about family visits, but thankfully we love our family, and I can only imagine with what our upcoming months look like, more family blogs are to come.

I can honestly say, we always have fun with the Odom clan! Gavin absolutely loved the pool. His feet crack me up! He is seriously always crossing them at the ankles.

It took Noah a few minutes to want to get in the pool, but I think we will have a fish by the end of the summer.

Lauren loved helping out with Gavin. Ankles crossed again!

The fam

Noah and sweet Reagan. For some reason, Noah became obsessed with this green mask while we were down there. Who knows why?!!?

Family Visits

Hello all! Like I said in my previous blog, we have been busy hanging out with family the last couple of months. God has definitely blessed us with a super family, so there's pretty much no other way to better spend our time.

The Boyle Clan
Scott, Ab and Nate came down for a long weekend at the beginning of May. Since we hadn't seen Nate since December, Noah was so excited for their visit. Those two played together perfectly. Gavin fit right in with the Legos and baseball playing too.

Gavin had a hard time standing up with helmet on. It was more for our entertainment.

So sweet!

Mimi and Paka and their boys on the way to the Gwinnett Braves game.

The kids (I use this term lightly) loved sledding down the hill at my parents house on cardboard. Its so nice to find cheap entertainment.


Like I said, the kids loved it...

Nate has never been to keen on holding Gavin all by himself. This trip, Nate was definitely even more "into" Gavin, walking around giving him kisses and even holding him. Maybe that's because...

...my sweet brother and sister-in-law are having another little one! Yeah!

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!