Teen Retreat

This blog is way past due. We had the teen retreat in late October and it was a great success. The purpose of the weekend was to get our teens more comfortable with eachother and give them activities and opportunities to get to know eachother better. The setting couldn't have been any more gorgeous. The retreat was held at Josh and Stephanie's family cabin (Josh and Stephanie are friends from church) up at Linville Gorge. The girls got to stay in the nice cozy cabin and the guys had to rough it out doors. Josh and couple college students helped Will and I with team building activies, repelling and caving! The caving was way cooler than I ever expected. The whole thing went so well- we are greatful to the Lord for a safe and successful weekend!

The Little Gym

Gaines has been going to the Little Gym every other week for a while now and boy does he love it...dad doesn't mind it either. We go Tuesday nights at 6:30- he gets to dance, shake bells, sing, run, do "forward rolls," hang on the bar (he hung by himself for the first time last week- I think his belly has kept him a step behind in that department!)...they practice following directions, social skills, and hand eye coordination. Gaines usually gets some flirting in too! I think his favorite part is when they get all the balls out and practive kicking or shooting...it's hilarious. My favorite thing to watch is all the kids trying to jump. Gaines scrunches down really far and then tries to spring into the air...usually he gets at least one foot off the ground.

As you can see by the expression on Will's face...Gaines is no feather weight!
Here they are all holding on to a stretchy rope - they run into the circle then stretch it way out, then practice following directions by running or walking or "freezing" while holding onto the rope...Gaines is slowly but surely catching on. It's a blast to watch him figuring all this out!

The Cromwell's Visit to the Sticks

Well, they've already come and gone. We had been looking forward to the Cromwell's visit for a long time and it's already over! boo hoo. I think the hardest part of moving away from Nashville was leaving the cousins...and the free babysitting of course:) Gaines got to be so close to Tucker and Karley before we left that it was hard to leave. They didn't get in til 1:00am on Wednesday morning, but Karley was still up with sun! Gaines was grinning from ear to ear as soon as he saw her. It took a while for Tucker to start stirring, but once he did they were all live wires. Molly has grown substantually since we had last seen her. She slept in Gaines crib and when I walked into the room to get her she was standing up! It looked so strange because she's only 15 lbs and when Gaines was 15 lbs he was only 3 months!

Gaines 3 Favorite Things: Being outside, having a ball in hand and petting a dog

These pictures were taken at Sarah Calvert's soccer game ( a girl from the yg). Gaines had the best time! He sat in his little camping chair screaming at the girls, "get it!" The crowd was getting a kick out of him. Of course he had to have his own soccer ball in hand at all times. The puppy belongs to a friend of the Calverts- cute isn't he?

Growing Like a Weed

The other day I walked into Gaines' room while he was sleeping and as I watched him sleep I could see that it wouldn't be long before he wouldn't look anything like a baby sleeping in his crib- infact, it wont be too long before he will be out of a crib all together! So, I took some pictures, trying to capture the baby in the little boy that I see growing before my eyes. The other pictures are at a birthday party we went to that same day. Notice once again he has to have a ball in his hands at all times!.

Rachel Calvert and Josh Williams...FUTURE MILLIONAIRES!!!

If you haven't been to a Dave Ramsey Live Event...you are missing out! Will and I went for our second time this Saturday. We knew what to expect because we've listened to him on the radio quite a bit and we've been to the event once before. However, it was quite funny watching everybody who hadn't been before and especially those that weren't too excited about going in the first place. You can't go to one of his events and leave unmotivated. He can definitely sell a crowd on debt free living...FREEDOM!!!