Dedication

Last Sunday, we had Caroline's baby dedication at church. This was a very special day for John and I to commit in front of friends and family to raise Caroline to know the Lord. It was also a blessing to watch those in our community commit to holding us accountable and being a part of Caroline's life. We are so grateful to have an amazing church and community around us. Thank you, friends and family for celebrating with us and walking through life with our family!

Caroline's dress

With Thomas (our pastor)and reaching to grab that microphone.

Did I mention the AC broke that morning in the church? Well, it did and it was almost 85 degrees inside!

Sweating after church with Aunt Cuz.

Kid's table/picnic on the floor

Grandmama, Mom, and C

Phelps family

Caroline's Godparents, Rob and Rachel

(Caroline exhausted from heat and attention!)

Happy weekend everyone!

nine

This is about a week late, but we definitely have a nine month old on our hands. She is crawling, pulling up, and bless her heart she is doing her best to eat table food with just two little teeth.

I wish there was a picture of me taking this picture...I am doing everything I can to get one pic without Caroline chewing on that paper. Looks like she thinks I am nuts!

And I gave in after I got my one picture.

This month Caroline is:

17 lbs. 2 oz - only 15%

28 in. - 75%

-still on 4 bottles a day

-eating a mix of baby food and table food

-having a hard time with table food. She likes to suck on it and then spit it out.

-sleeping about the same: 11-12 hours at night, around 1 hour in the morning and 2-3 in the afternoon

Likes:

-johnny jump-up (I should say loves it!)

-puffs

-swinging

-books

-her lovey

-pool

-her daddy

Today

Today, my dear friend, Melanie (and her husband, Rus) have moved across the world to Hong Kong.

Selfishly, I am sad. I am sad Mel will not be at upcoming friends' weddings and bachelorette weekends. I am sad when I go to Birmingham she will not be living 6 doors down from my mom's house. I am sad I cannot pick up the phone and call her anytime I want to call. Mel and I met when we were 5 years old as the only two little girls on our tee-ball team. Our friendship grew as we bonded over our dorky glasses in elementary school and crushes on boys in middle school. It seems we had almost every class together in high school. We lived together all four years of college, shared all our clothes, traveled Europe together, and stood beside one another as we married our hubby's.



BUT for Mel and Rus, I am so happy. Moving to Hong Kong has been their dream and in the works for over 2 years. They are trusting the Lord and going in faith to do something bigger than they can imagine. They have a passion for the people there and want to share Jesus with students. Mel is an amazing teacher and will teach at an English school. I could not be more proud of Melanie and Rus and their desire to go where the Lord is leading them. Check out their blog here to read more about their journey.

Mel and Rus, we love you guys and will miss you, but we know how much you will be loved in your new home city.

reunion

We spent last weekend at the lake for our annual reunion with my family and our close family friends, the Gaileys, who might as well be family too. We added three babies since being at the lake last year which made this year much more crazy and fun with 5 little ones under 4. This is always a highlight to the summer. The weekend was wonderful. It is hard to not have fun at the lake. We ate well, played hard, and laughed all weekend.

Everyone

Some of the boys

Baby Will

Caroline loved the lake water just as much as she loves the pool

And just in case we got tired of the lake...we had this huge toy!

Morning workouts

Owen and Caroline

New Pictures

Back in December, we went to a fundraiser for AYA and at the silent auction, I bid on a photography session with a local photographer. I loved having newborn pictures of C and I wanted to capture this age as well because they change so quickly. So several weeks ago, we finally had our session. This was really fun for John and I too because we had the session at a favorite old date spot for us - the duck pond. Here are a few favorites...

www.katebyarsphotography.com

Check out AYA here too

Fourth of July

A fun and low-key weekend celebrating the 4th at home

The biggest 10k race in the country takes place in Atlanta every 4th with over 55,000 runners.
Love to swing on our front porch.

She had to have watermelon for the first time.
Just 1 of the 5 meals we grilled out over the weekend and were able to enjoy sitting outside - the low humidity was fabulous.
Fireworks show - a bit sleepy at 9pm...
but she loved it.
Yes, we were that family dressed in red, white, and blue.
Happy Birthday America!