Sweet Heidi

A few weeks ago, our family lost our sweet golden retriever, Heidi. She was 14 years old--a good long life, especially for a golden. Heidi was seriously the best dog in the entire world. She was my family's first dog and we got her when I was in middle school. She had the most gentle, loving disposition of any dog that I have ever encountered and she lived her life to love our family. We loved her just as much right back. Heidi was most definitely a member of our family. It has been extremely hard for us, but we've spent a lot of time together and that has helped a lot. Last June Heidi was diagnosed with hermangio sarcoma (tumor on liver/spleen) and had a life expectancy of around 8 weeks. The ol' girl held on almost an entire year! No dog will ever replace our Heidi and she'll hold a very special place in our hearts forever. I'll always treasure the most wonderful memories of my Heidi bear, the first dog I ever had. I love you girl :)

Play Group Picnic

Today for our play group get together we had a picnic & playground date! We packed up our picnics and kids and headed to a nearby neighborhood to eat lunch and then let our kiddos run wild on the play ground. They had so much fun playing and the mamas had just as much fun chasing them around and visiting. Owen was so excited that he could hardly even eat. While the rest of us were trying to finish lunch, he kept taking off running towards the slides. I kept having to run after him, scoop him up, and bring him back. He just wasn't having it! Finally I gave up trying to chase him down and just let him run wild (with me following closely behind him of course!) The weather was absolutely beautiful--the perfect day for a picnic play date! We are so blessed to have a great group of friends in play group. It is so fun watching them grow, learn and interact with each other. Here are some pictures from our big day...

My busy, busy boy!He was crawling in the tunnels...

...swinging on the swings...

... and climbing up the stairs!

Sky high!!! He loved it :)

Swinging with Austyn

Checking out the bouncy horse with Luke

Austyn carefully filling up the dump truck

Owen raking the sand

Jack checking out the big blue jeep

Luke had to go home a little early to take a nap so we're missing both he and his mama, Karen, but here's the rest of the group playing in the sand box :)

Camping Trip

This past weekend we took Owen on his very 1st camping trip! Actually, it was the 1st camping trip Tony & I have taken together as well--we've been camping lots of times, but in the 11 1/2 years we've been together, this was the first time we camped together! We went in with the Dunns and bought a camper that our friend Travis was selling. It has some sentimental value as well because it's the same camper that Tony has been camping in since he was 14 years old when he used to go camping with Travis & his family. It's about 20 years old, but it's in great shape and we are so excited about all the fun family camping trips we're going to take! We had such a blast despite the 3 times the guys had to put up & take down the camper! Once because it wasn't level, once because of a tornado warning (yes, we had a tornado warning and had to seek shelter in the lodge for a while and wait it out!), and then finally the last time stuck :) It rained a lot too, but that was just fine--we grilled out under the canopy and slept really well listening to the rain patter on the camper top! We stayed dry and ate non-toasted s'mores (the fire wouldn't stay lit in the rain of course!). It was such a blast, and I REALLY look forward to our next camping trip. Hopefully next time we'll stay tornado & rain free, haha! Here is a slide show of our trip, enjoy!

Lately...

Here are some more pictures I took of Owen during the month of April...

oh, how I LOVE this little man!

priceless expression :)

REALLY excited!

Little Water Bug :)

Goodness, we've been busy, busy, BUSY this spring! I'm not really sure where the month of April went! We've been playing outside quite a lot lately and enjoying the nice, warm sunny weather that has finally arrived. Owen loves the water, so we've been filling up his baby pool, lathering on the sunscreen, putting on some music, and letting him play the day away outside! We've had a handful of really perfect days outside--Owen in the pool and me sitting right next to him getting a little sun :) We had Play Group this week at our house and we brought out the baby pool for them too. It was so precious watching them all play together in the water! I didn't take any pictures, but we're going to do it again soon so next time I'll be sure to snap some pics of the little water babies! I am really looking forward to our neighborhood pool opening up at the end of this month so that I can go swimming with him!

Here are some precious pictures I took of Owen "swimming" in a plastic red tub at my parents house last week. The bright red was so awesome against the background of the new spring leaves on the trees--some of them really turned out cute! My absolute FAVORITE!

little cutie running around the yard :)

Naked baby escape!
He tried to make a getaway down the sidewalk,
SO FUNNY :)

Our Garden!!!

I am so, so, SO EXCITED!!!! Yesterday we planted our vegetable garden!!! For the past several years we have had it in various different locations, none which got quite enough sun. We've always had a good garden, but we just knew that we needed a little bit more sun to make it even better. This year I think we've done it! Tony worked so hard and did such an awesome job building a terrace on our back bank. Then we dug up dirt from the woods, put in top soil and soil conditioner, and made a nice little level garden that gets sun all day long! We planted tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, oregano, italian flat leaf parsley, and basil. Then we put up a chicken wire fence to keep the rabbits and deer out. We're going to try our hand at making my Papa's famous pepper jelly. I sure hope it turns out well :) OOOHHH!!! and I just cannot wait to eat homegrown tomato sandwiches, YUMMY!!!! Big boy helping us dig in the dirt! YEA! The finished product, I LOVE IT!

Easter Sunday

We had a such a wonderful, wonderful Easter Sunday! We started out the day at church and heard an incredible message from our Pastor. Owen even had an "exceptionally good day" in the nursery (words from his teacher) Owen's not exactly crazy about being left in the nursery every Sunday, but he's getting better! :) After church we went to my parents' house where mom fixed a WONDERFUL Easter lunch. Robert, Kelly, Chris and my grandfather all joined us and we had a great time. After lunch Chris & my grandfather had to leave, but the rest of us went hiking up Pigeon Hill. All in all, it was a glorious day! We are so so grateful to have, first and foremost, such a loving God who sent His son to die for us, but also such a loving family too :) WE ARE BLESSED!!! Owen's 1st Easter Basket
(he was a little too young last year!) Checkin' out all the goodies! ...and then dumping it all out! All the grandparents Noni, Grandpa & Uncle Chris Geebee & Pops On top of Pigeon Hill HAPPY BOY, HAPPY EASTER!!!

Spring Break part 2: DA BEACH!

We spent an entire glorious week in Orange Beach, AL at my grandparents beach house. We got there on Sunday late afternoon and the Dunns arrived a few hours later. We had sooooooo much fun!!!! The first part of the week was pretty chilly & windy so we did a little shopping, a little walking on the beach in sweaters, and just some general relaxing and hanging around the house and enjoying doing NOTHING and being on vacation! On Wednesday the Zerchers joined us and they brought warmer weather and less wind! We spend 2 great days on the beach, ate delicious food, and played lots and lots of Loaded Questions :) We were so blessed that we were able to spend an entire week at the beach with great friends. No one was ready to leave on Saturday, but I guess we'll just have to plan another trip back soon! Here are a few (okay, quite a lot actually!) of my favorite pictures from our trip!

Spring Break part 1: Wedding!

We started out Tony's spring break with a trip to Mississippi & Tennessee for Karen's (Tony's cousin) wedding. We got to D & Dean's house on Friday night for a good home cooked meal. Saturday we headed to Memphis for the wedding. It was such a gorgeous wedding--the entire thing was held at Ronny & Pat's (Tony's aunt & uncle) house. They had a lot of landscaping done for the wedding and it looked like we were in a garden. The wedding ceremony was in the front yard and the reception was in the backyard. We had a great time and Owen especially loved walking all around and dancing to the music. In fact, Owen walked and danced so much that, at the end of the night, Grandpa picked him up and handed him to me and he immediately fell asleep on my shoulder! We went back to D & Dean's afterwards to spend the night. On Sunday we headed to Aberdeen to have lunch with Tony's grandmother. We were going to go to church with them too, but Owen was asleep in the car so we drove around Aberdeen and caught up with everyone as soon as church service let out. After lunch we continued on our journey and headed south to Orange Beach, AL for an entire week at the beach! Riding on the tractor with Grandpa at D & Deans house Pretty excited Grandpa let him drive! Beautiful family :) Just before the wedding ceremony started
Owen had a blast walking EVERYWHERE!!! Daddy attempting to keep up! Dancing with my little guy on the dance floor!