Useful

We had a great weekend around the house. Sometimes I like the weekends where you lay around and say, "Nothing got done this weekend!" But this was not one of those weekends and that feels good too at times.
On Friday we got some new shrubs and a tree for our front flower bed. I guess I should say we purchased the plants, Katie still has to dig the holes and plant them! Only kidding, but hopefully those holes will appear sometime this week.
We also put a shelf up in Allie's closest so now all of the stuff that was in Annie's closest has been transfered over and we are ready to put up all of Annie's clothes.
On Saturday it was a work day. Davis was with Arhie and Susan while Katie was with Young Life as they spent the day placing new leaders. It literally takes them all day to do this! Some people think this is absurd, I think it's amazing. They take longer to place volunteer leaders, than some people take to hire an employee. I think God honors that.
While Katie was working with young life, I had an all day College Leaders meeting with Fellowship. I am so fortunate to get to work with some of the folks who volunteer their time to help out around Fellowship. We brainstormed for the future and I am really excited about what God is doing at Fellowship.
Sunday was a marathon day. The highlight was Arhcie's retirement reception at Central Bearden. 32 years of service at one church. That is amazing. I will echo my earlier statement about being steadfast and taking your time somewhere, God honors that. It was neat to see the number of people Archie has impacted in his years of ministry.
Hopefully this week the weather will stay warm so Davis can continue to play outside, its definitely his favorite past time now. (other than goldfish)

Huge News

Huge news....
Big.
Important.
Life changing (for some) news.

We switched insurance! only kidding.

But seriously.

We have set a due date for Annie. May 14th 2009. 6 weeks and 6 days from now! It's really exciting and crazy. Katie had a doctors appointment yesterday and everything looks great. A few more things to knock out in the nursery and we should be good to go!

But the real big news is.... Annie will be a big cousin! The same day Katie was at the doctor Demetria, my older sister, was at the doctor as well!!!

DEMETRIA AND CHRIS are pregnant!

She is 13 weeks along and I/we are SO excited for them. They just returned from a trip to England and after their return they gave us all the thumbs up to tell folks.
It will be so fun to share life with them, for our kids to be so close in age and in relationship (hopefully- Davis is sort of hard to get along with!)
It is so fun to already hear Katie and Demetria sharing stories, asking questions, etc...


Praying for their little one and ours.
Davis is excited!

Ridiculous

I have way to much work to do to be stopping to upload this video, but I just couldn't help myself. My friend, Jacob Winn, passed this video along and it is ridiculous. A few of my favorite parts are the fist pump, do re mi fa so la ti do, you'll see.
Husbands....don't.

Great trip

I had an absolutely amazing time in Mexico last week. I don't want to say the news is making up stories, but we were completely safe, saw nothing out of the ordinary and had a great time. We had an incredible team of 20 folks. I am so fortunate to get to work with such great young adults. We worked on 9 projects including: roofing, painting, new drainage pipes, and building an outhouse.
The trip stretched many of the students in what they are comfortable doing and seeing. I am always amazed at how God uses these trips to grow us as much as anyone else.

I am very thankful to be home now. Katie and Davis had a great week without me though. They were able to go to the smokies for a couple of days with the Fendleys for a couple of days and really enjoyed that, unfortunately no pictures. One great thing about where I stayed in Mexico was that I could still pic up San Diego's cell towers, so I was able to check in with Katie and Davis everyday.

I returned home and it really is amazing how much kids grow in one week. It was so good to see his smiles on Sunday morning when he woke up. It was a beautiful day yesterday and after church we played outside for a while and apparently Davis thinks he is a bird and our fire pit is his bird bath.
Lots of pics after a week off!

Week off

I honestly can't believe how quickly these weeks are going by.
I will be out of town next week on a spring break mission trip with 18 college students from Fellowship. We are going to Tijuana and I am very excited.
It is sad to leave Katie and Davis for the week. I went on a week long trip last year, but Davis was only 4 months old. Now it seems like everyday something new is happening.

So don't expect too many posts next week. Katie may try to add something. But we may just have an epic update in a couple of weeks!

We continued our Friday morning tradition of family breakfast. America runs on Dunkin and apparently so does Davis. We got an apple fritter and let him try it, and he loved it! I told Katie I remembering getting fritters when we were on vacation as kids and heating them up in a toaster oven, warm on the inside, crunchy on the outside- delicious.


Windows intrigue Davis. If you put him up on the couch he lunges for the windows. Here are some shots of him and Poppa playing on the couch last week.





Have a great week. If you are interested in seeing/getting updates on the mexico trip you can go to www.twitter.com/jcneely I will put a couple of posts a day for family and friends of the students to know what we are doing. My how things have changed, it used to be you couldn't call home during a mission trip, and now I'm going to twitter on one!
Be good.

big boy walking around

Davis wore a big boy button up shirt to church on Sunday.
We loved it but it was also awful. We loved how he looked but it also made him look so grown up.
You can't tell in the pics real well, but as his hair is coming in it is definitely getting lighter and lighter.



Look Ma, no hands!


Here is a picture of Davis walking across the kitchen.

But once he gets to you, how can you not pick up those blue eyes.

Father Forgive Us...

I saw this video on Joel Reynolds blog.

Wow.
I'm thinking maybe I should start writing songs.

Apparently it is not that hard.

Week

We ended up having a great couple of days in Charleston with Muma and Poppa. Jim and Cheryl Prose, some family friends, were also there with us.
Its so fun to let Davis entertain us for a couple of days. The answer to the question has changed... Yes, he is walking now. Its so fun to see him stumbling around and learning to walk.
Davis did have a couple of firsts: His first time at Jacks cosmic dogs. Jacks is a little hot dog joint over near Mt Pleasant, South Carolina. I am firm believer that there should be more establishments focused on the art of hot dogs. It's great. I strongly recommend the galatic and cosmic dog. Davis threw down on his first corn dog and loved it.

There is also a new Boathouse over on James Island, one of our favorite restaurants in Charleston, which Davis enjoyed as well. I think he would choose the corn dog though if he had too! (Please note his pimp shirt, which was a gift from Aunt Kristin)


Davis also thought chewing on a lemon would be a good breath freshener. You could tell that some bites were more enjoyable than others!

Weekend

We spent Friday Night at the Albermarle Inn in Asheville. It was a great bed and breakfast and I would highly recommend staying there. There breakfast on Saturday morning was top notch. It was a three course breakfast, the rooms were great and the staff was a perfect balance of helpful without being annoying. Friday night we ate at Grove Park Inn which is such an amazing place. The food was great but the conversation was better! It was so good for Katie and me to have a long dinner by ourselves and talk about our past year.
Saturday we just went all around Asheville- Biltmore Village, Downtown, Tupelo Honey, Tops Shoes, and ended the afternoon at Windy Gap at Demetria and Chris' house. We had a great dinner at a tapas bar.
Sunday Kristin was in town from Kansas. Her job, international employment coordinator for Young Life, took her to Sharptop Cove in Georgia. So she rented a car and came and visited all of her friends at Windy Gap. It was so good to see her.
Now we are in Charleston (so we have been burning up the roads). We continue to be amazed at how good Davis does in the car.
This is what we woke up to yesterday.

THis is what we woke up to today. It is chilly here, but it is so nice to have a couple of days relaxing. I am leading a trip to Mexico in 2 weeks with our college group at Fellowship and after that there is no stopping until Annie arrives!

quick update

Hey Hey.
Katie and I had a GREAT weekend in Asheville at the bed and breakfast, a more complete update will come later.

Then we drove home for church on Sunday and now we are back at Windy Gap in the snow in an attempt to get to Charleston.

Here are some pics of us driving through the snow and what we woke up to at Windy Gap.

Beautiful Place.