Monday, May 31, 2010

Some new games in the yard

We have been having fun outside with Callie now that it is much warmer. These are some new games she has been playing:

Friday, May 28, 2010

Sprinkler and Water

Since it has been extremely nice here the past few days, Callie has been playing outside a lot. She absolutely loves running around outside. We have made her a little water tub that she can splash around in and we also turned the sprinkler on for her to play in. She absolutely loves playing in the water. Here are a few pictures of her playing outside in the water:



Monday, May 24, 2010

Around the House

We are trying to catch up on blogging lately. We have accumulated a number of pictures from the last couple of weeks. About 2 weeks ago, we had a bit of a cold and rainy spell (crazy to think of now since it's 93 degrees today). We had to occupy ourselves inside. Probably the highlight of that week was our visit from Baby Evy. I got to watch Evy while her parents painted their new house! Callie did so well with Evy. She was real excited to have her around all day. We took a couple of pictures in between Evy's naps, but this was the best one we got.

This is Callie in the cute, little outfit my mother (her Gami) made for her. She made it back in the fall, and well, she finally grew into it! I wouldn't be surprised if she still fit into it this coming fall. We have a little peanut on our hands.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Callie's Dedication


We wanted to do a special post on Callie's dedication. On May 9, 2010 (mother's day) we dedicated Callie in our church. We dont feel like anything special necessarily happens when you dedicate a child, but it is a way for us to say publicly that ultimately we care more about her belonging to God than anything else. The words that the pastor says are, "Callie, together with your mom and dad and this body of believers, I dedicate you to God, surrendering all worldly claims on your life in hopes that one day you will belong wholly to God."
I think the phrase that provides the most challenge for us as parents is the phrase "surrendering all worldly claims on your life." This means that ultimately we dont want to claim anything for Callie's life to be ours. We have our own hopes and dreams for her, but we are ultimately laying those before the Lord and asking Him to do a work in Callie's life. It also means that while we are Callie's mom and dad on earth, God is ultimately her Father. At the end of the day, we can't say to God something like: "why are you doing this to her, she is our daughter?" That would be holding onto a worldly claim as her parents. We want to trust God with everything in her life and want to see her first as God's, then as His gift to us to provide for, care for, and love (but ultimately she is His).
So please join us in praying that she would belong wholly to God someday and that God would give us grace to view her ultimately as His and not our own.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Callie's trip to the zoo

Some video footage of our trip to the zoo when Papa and Bebe were in town. Callie seemed to enjoy the animals a little bit (but not for more than about 5 seconds at a time). I dont think she always knew what we were looking at or what the big deal was. We had a tiger eat dinner right in front of us but Callie didn't seem to care very much. The end of the video has some shots of Callie playing guitar with Bebe.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Happy Anniversary, Jennifer!



Four years ago today, Jennifer and I got married. I have been so thankful for the last four years of marriage. The have been fun, stretching, enjoyable, hard, filled with laughter, cold, and many other things. I just wanted to take some time to let everyone (and especially Jennifer) know how much I believe God has blessed me in the past four years through this marriage.

I have enjoyed your companionship. It has been such a blessing to have someone to do life with. I am thankful for your vision. It is also a blessing to have someone that wants to grow in her walk with God and wants to impact others to that end as well. I have appreciated your willingness. It is also a blessing that you have said many times, "I will go wherever, I just want to be where you are." I have especially loved seeing you grow more and more into a godly mother. It is a blessing to have a wife that cares more about the spiritual health of our child than anything else. Finally, I have appreciated your support. It is a huge blessing to have a wife that I know is on my team and with me no matter what.

I am thankful that God brought us together and has used this marriage to grow me spiritually in ways that I never would have imagined four years ago. I love you, Jennifer! I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you!!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Papa and Bebe

Last weekend Callie's Papa and Bebe came to visit. Boy, did she have a good time! We have a little board up in her room with pictures of her family members. We were pointing for days at Papa and Bebe, telling her they were coming to visit. I think she knew they were coming to see her. The first night they were here she was bouncing-off-the-walls-happy. She was rolling around in the floor and would occasionally look to see if they were watching her. It was almost like she was "showing off" for them. Although the weather wasn't great while they were here, we still managed to have a good time. We did a lot of reading.

We went to church together on Sunday morning. Callie was dedicated on Sunday (there will be more coming about that)


Callie rode the car at the mall.

And, we all went and watched Charlie play in a soccer game one morning with students. It really was a great weekend. We are so glad they were able to come visit!

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Callie's Latest Fun Activity

Callie has enjoyed playing the car a lot lately. She loves for us to close the door and let her sit in the driver's seat and pretend to drive. It is funny how much she loves doing this. She gets frustrated when we tell her that it is time to go inside.



She also loves walking around the house with these two things over her shoulder. One of them is just a regular bag. The other is a small Noah's Ark with animals in it. When we are in the house she loves carrying these things over her shoulders wherever she goes. We think that she is trying to imitate Jennifer carrying her purse around. It is fun to see Callie try to act like a big girl. She is also continuing to learn many things. With the ark, we can ask her to find the panda or zebra or whatever and she can go pick it out of the ark.


Finally, I want to say that I have never seen anyone get as excited about water as Callie does. Whenever she sees it (in a glass, in the bathtub, on the TV, on the computer), she gets a big smile on her face and yells "wa wa!" It is so cute. Maybe we can post a video of this someday.