Baby Reveal Party

We tortured my family and made them all wait a month and a half after we found out what we were having to tell them what the baby was because we wanted to do it in person and in a fun way. We decided to do a "baby reveal" cake. Probably many of you have heard of it. You dye the inside of the cake either blue or pink and the first person to cut into it reveals the surprise. Here's our cake. Gami, Callie's grandmother, got to do the honors of cutting the cake.




Here are the party attenders!



Here's the best picture we have of our little guy. His name is Coleman Matthew and he is due Nov. 2nd. We are so thankful to God for him. Coleman is Charlie's middle name (it's been a family name for the past 3 generations.) Matthew is name after Matt Reagan, a guy that has discipled Charlie and had a huge impact in his life. Matthew also means "gift of God", which he truly is. We plan to call him Coleman (maybe Cole sometimes too.) We can't wait to meet him.


Here is a video from the party when Gami cut the cake: Notice all the people with blue plates waving them in the air.

Water Fun

Callie has loved the water this summer. It is so fun for me to watch her enjoy it so much. One of our last days in Atlanta we found out about the splash pad at Piedmont Park. We had to make a visit. Callie loved it, except for one point when she stuck her head over the fountain and a strong gush of water went straight up her nose.




This is our last time swimming in Papa and Bebe's pool. It has been wonderful having the pool to play in these past few weeks. We can't wait for next summer!



We also went to Trader Joe's where they have little mini-shopping carts. Callie has a blast pretending to be a big girl pushing her cart around the store:

Aquarium Trip

Callie's Papa and Bebe took us all to the Georgia Aquarium last week. We had an awesome time! Callie's favorite thing by a long shot was the dolphin show. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures during the dolphin show, so we couldn't document it. Callie was loving it though. Here are a few shots from the other parts of the aquarium.

Us with the penguins.

Check out that whale shark!






Also, here is a video of some of the whale sharks at the aquarium. They lady said it was fairly rare to see the top of them from this angle, so we thought we should put it up. (WARNING: This video does not contain any footage of Callie):

Mighty Jumps

There is a place in Atlanta called Mighty Jumps that has tons of inflatable "bouncy houses" and things like that. Here are a couple of videos from our time there:





And this is my personal favorite:

Callie's Dance Moves

We went to hear Callie's Bebe (my mom) play some music last night. Generally Callie is fairly interested in the music, but never really shows too much emotion. For whatever reason, she really got into it and danced like crazy last night. We were able to capture her dancing on video for five minutes straight. (We realize that family are probably the only ones who will watch the whole thing, but we would encourage everyone to watch at least two or three minutes of this).

Blueberry Picking and Pig Tails

Ok, I know these pigtails are very scrawny and somewhat lame, but I have been waiting a LONG time for Callie's hair to grow long enough to even dream of giving her pigtails. It's kind of exciting for us!


The other week we took Callie blueberry picking. She loved it! She did a really good job too. When I told her that we were going to go blueberry picking and that she could eat as many blueberries as she wanted, she said, "You're kidding me!" I thought that was hilarious. No, I wasn't kidding and she did eat her fill!




Look how many she picked!

Sing-A-Long with Callie

Callie had a night with her Papa and Bebe and part of their evening was spent singing:

4th of July

For the 4th of July, Callie got to hang out with her cousin Reagan, well technically she is her 3rd cousin. Reagan is almost exactly a year younger than Callie. Callie had fun having a playmate for the day, and both girls really enjoyed the pool.


These are 2 little videos we have of Callie "swimming." She has actually made tons of progress this summer in the water. I am impressed that she is so comfortable going under water.

Doll House

Callie's Papa (Charlie's dad) just finished building Callie a doll house. He's been working on it for the past 6 months and it is now (well mostly) complete. She has loved playing with it since we've been in Atlanta. We ordered furniture and a little family to go in the house. I have to confess, even I have had some fun playing with it (with Callie of course, not by myself). The neat thing about this doll house is that it is actually modeled after my parent's home in Spartanburg. Their house is on the historic tour of homes because it was built in 1795! It's fun to have a little replica of it. Such a neat keepsake. Thank you Papa!

Photo shoot on the beach

One of the girls on staff with us in Minnesota does photography on the side. She is really good! This summer she was doing a photography internship with two of the students on project, sharing with them her tips and techniques. Needless to say all the moms were thrilled to let our little girls be their guinea pigs. Hope you enjoy some of these shots. This first picture is of the three, Minneapolis amigos! Callie, Maddux, and Annie.







Callie and Maddux

Callie and Evey

Callie and Annie

All the bigger girls. Left to right there is Ellie, Evey, Lillian, Callie, Maddux, and Annie. The only ones missing are the babies, Lucy, who was crawling in the sand somewhere and baby Sophie who was unable to make the photo shoot. Ellie and Lillian are our friends from Michigan State. They join us every summer. We love our time with them and wish saw them more often.

Callie, Maddux, Annie, and baby Lucy (Annie's sister).