:moving, moving, moving:

::over the river and through the woods...

..to grandmother and grandaddy and aunt bec's house we go!..
When we were in SC for Ken's wedding, my parents and sister kept HattieJo while Andrew and I went to the rehearsal dinner. So here are some pictures from their night: .she walked, and ate, and played, and LOVED every minute of their undivided attention!.This is a basket of toys that were mine and my sisters when we were younger! HattieJo would take them all out and then when someone would put them back up, she would empty it again!I love this picture(look at HattieJo's arm on the chair).. PRECIOUS:On Saturday morning my dad made waffles..YUMMY! Growing up that is what he always made for us on Saturday mornings, so this was HattieJo's first time to join in on the little tradition. She THOROUGHLY enjoyed herself!

.uncle ken gets married.

Well "Uncle Ken" got married....Andrew says, "I never thought this day would come." haha.. So we headed to SC last weekend for the wedding. We arrived in time for the rehearsal dinner. HattieJo went to my parents house while Andrew and I attended the dinner. Afterwards I went to my parents and Andrew went with the guys. Saturday morning my sister and I went shopping while HattieJo spent some quality (getting spoiled) time with grandma and granddaddy! Then we headed to the wedding and after the reception headed back to NC. Andrew had the AWESOME opportunity to preach at the Summit on Sunday morning! You can hear his message here. (his message is #2) Enjoy some pictures from the wedding:
Eric took HattieJo out on the dance floor...(HattieJo had pitched her shoes and hair bow by this point!) She LOVED it... She was just a squealing!HattieJo's first dance with a boy!!! It was so adorable:Andrew and Ken:This is right before we left. HattieJo was EXHAUSTED! She grabbed her thumb as soon as I had her buckled in. So she was in no mood for smiling!

:11months:

Seriously??.. the next one is going to be the big "1 year old"... What in the world! Its crazy to think that this time last year I was waddling around so looking forward to be able to meet HattieJo and now she has been with us for 11 months and we couldn't imagine life without her! What a true joy she is to us!
*She LOVES her monkey... I could eat her up in this SWEET picture*HattieJo,
You are growing and changing so much each day! Mommy and Daddy LOVE every minute that we spend with you! You are such a busy body... You love to be up and around at the house, the only problem is that you have to hold on to one of our hands to get around! haha... You LOVE to walk all over the house. It is the cutest thing to watch you climb the stairs lifting your sweet legs. You are so smart! The other day you walked right over to a pair of daddy's shoes and tried to put your foot in it. WOW! You love to be outside. You enjoy sitting outside with Mommy watching Daddy take care of the dogs, eating popsicles, watching Lucy, riding on the 4wheeler, or just playing on a blanket. You will even try to say Lucy's name, "euss, euss" and "pppp" when we look at the puppies! You love to look for birds and point and grunt when you see them. You are eating so much food now. You are eating "big people" food these days along with your baby food. You had pizza for the 1st time the other day and LOVED it! I love to watch you pick up your food with your sweet fingers. Its too cute. You are even drinking out of a straw when Mommy or Daddy puts one in their cup. HattieJo, you are a dancing machine! You love to start dancing when you hear music. When you are on an adventure walking around the house, you love to stop and mess with all the vents, walk through the bathroom, open and close cabinet doors and bang on EVERYTHING! In the mornings you and Mommy have a breakfast date before getting Daddy up. You love when we wake Daddy up; you tell him about your night (you talk up a storm all the time, pointing, and telling us about something!) and you will give him pats on his back and scratch his head.
HattieJo, we can't believe that you are almost 1 year old! We are so thankful for the beautiful happy little girl that you are.
We love you
Love,
Mommy and Daddy

**"Oh mom... really do I have to wear the bow?"**

:take me out to the ballgame:

The Summit Young Pros are playing co-ed softball here in town. It is so much fun to go and hang out at their games. There are lots of people who come out (mainly girls) to cheer our two teams on! HattieJo has a great time going and playing in the dirt (with her fancy sandals), listening and watching the birds, and clapping her hands when everyone cheers!

.friends come to town.

A couple of weekends ago, Eric and Erica came to visit! Eric is from Andrews hometown in Florida, but went to college with us where he met his wife Erica! They are expecting a little one in February. We had a great time with them while they were here.

Wordless Wednesday: Who wants a ride?

::Wordless Wednesday: Mommy's Little Helper::

:books, books, books:

HattieJo has grown to really enjoy being read too. Its so cute now she will grab a book and just start talking. I wish I knew how she was telling the story! The other day she was sitting playing with her book basket and I was cooking dinner. Andrew called me back in the living room and this is what she had done:

I hope she will have a love for reading. She is the snuggliest (if that is even a word) when you read her a book. She loves to point at the pictures and turn the pages. Occasionally she will decide to have a little snack by chewing on the book!

.daddy's girl.

The other day I was cleaning up the kitchen and Andrew got out his guitar and we started singing. It was WONDERFUL! HattieJo was loving it! She just sat in the floor looking at us and bouncing tot he beat. Once Andrew finished, she decided that she was going to play us a little song.

.please pray.

Meet the Atwoods. They are dear friends of ours here in NC. Trevor is on staff with Andrew at the Summit. They were our "first friends" when we moved up here. They are an amazing family. They desperately need your prayers. Long story short, Keva is 26 weeks and 5 days pregnant with a high risk pregnancy. The entire pregnancy they have known she probably wouldn't make it to 40 weeks, but we were all praying for her to make it to at least 30. Keva was admitted to Duke early yesterday morning because her water broke. They are working to keep their baby, Chai (like kite with out the "t"), inside and keep them both infection free for as long as possible. It is really a waiting game right now as to when he will make his grand appearance.
We are confident and thankful that the Lord is in control and that this is not something that caught Him off guard. You can follow their story here.
Thank you for your prayers for our friends.

THANK YOU Michelle!

Andrew's cousin Michelle is an AMAZING seamstress. She is so TALENTED in the things that she makes! She made me a ring sling when HattieJo was first born and has made HattieJo several super cute dresses. The dress in HattieJo's 10th month picture is one that she made and here is another. Thank you so much Michelle. They are adorable!

.playdate with the Thompsons.

The Thompsons are an amazing family on staff at our church. I absolutely LOVE spending time with Jen. Every track out we plan a time to get together. She is such an encouragement and I enjoy watching her parent her children and just live her life as a ministers wife! So its track out time, so HattieJo and I went to visit them the other week. We had an amazing lunch and then spent time together making cookies for the Young Pros gathering that night. HattieJo had a great time playing with her children as well. She got to share a homemade icee with their son and then got some play time with her girls when they arrived home! I am so thankful for the people that the Lord has placed in our lives up here, what a joy to serve alongside this precious family.HattieJo wasn't sure what kind of face to make after tasting the icee! haha

:Happy 4th of July:

Happy 4th of July!

Thankful for the freedoms that we have in this country, but in saying that I am thankful for the freedoms in this country I am immediately reminded of the freedom that I have in Christ!

"For freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2Cor.3:17

In Christ, we have freedom from condemnation, sin, guilt, death, the old life, and the blindness to the Gospel. We have freedom that gives us access to the presence of God.
Thank you Father for your Son that died that we might live in freedom!

.South Carolina part2.

Monday morning HattieJo woke up bright and early! So we headed out for a morning run.. It was gorgeous and so nice and cool. When we got back home my mom and Bec were still sleeping, so we played in the living room, then decided to get them up!!! Aunt Bec had to go to work and grandmama had plants to water. While my mom got suited up to go water plants (housedress, old bedroom shoes, and this HORRIBLE hat) HattieJo and I gathered a blanket and some toys to sit outside and watch her! Once she finished watering everything she got HattieJo and they "fed the birds."Then we all came back in for some breakfast and HattieJo took her morning nap. Then we headed to visit one of my friends and her two kids. HattieJo had a great time playing with Chrissy's little boy, Wyatt. he is 1 week older than HattieJo.When we got back home, HJ was worn out so she took a short nap then we out and spent some time in the redneck pool with the girls that Aunt Bec babysits! For dinner, our friends Eric and Erica Moeller came over. Eric went to high school with Andrew and then came to NGU where he met Erica! Now they live in Easley near my parents. It was the first time that Erica had seen HattieJo. After dinner we all sat around in the living room talking while HattieJo entertained us by pulling EVERYTHING off of my parents ottoman.

.South Carolina part1.

On Sunday morning, HattieJo and I headed south to spend some time with my family while Andrew was in Florida. I was quite nervous about the drive, but HattieJo did so well! She was a great travel buddy! We arrived in time to sit down to a delicious Sunday lunch with my family. It was fabulous, as it always is when mom cooks! HattieJo even enjoyed some butter beans, rolls, and cantelope. Her new favorite thing is to walk around holding your hands. She likes to dive out of your arms to the ground to let you know that she wants to walk, so she got to right when we arrived!
After lunch HattieJo got to play with some new toys that my parents had bought for her. One being a hat and garden tool set that my mom got her so that she could tend to the flowers in the mornings with my mom while we were there. Among the toys that she played with were some of the toys that my mom had saved from when I was a child! CRAZY! (She likes to save things!) Seeing how much she liked to walk, my mom asked my dad to get up in their attic to get the train that I had when I was a little girl and HattieJo LOVED it. She probably went up and down the hallway 100 times in the time we were there!Then we decided to enjoy the nice warm weather and take a swim in Aunt Bec's redneck pool! So my mom insisted that we try on my bathing suit from when I was 10mths old(I told you she saves EVERYTHING), so we did.. It was size24mths and it fit HattieJo! She is chunky like I was at that age! She thoroughly enjoyed splashing around in pool and playing with Belle, my parents dog too.After some fun in the pool it was time to get a bath, rest, and then go to Sunday night church with my parents. This is the church that I grew up in and got married in. So it was special to go back to so that everyone could meet HattieJo. She was such a ham smiling and laughing at everyone.Then we came home to enjoy some delicious pizza from Real Pizza! Then we got some shut eye before the next big day began.. Stay tuned for more!