Merry Christmas!

Our Sunday School class got together on Saturday night for our Christmas Party. Here is a photo of everyone there including the kids (and Elvis)! What an awesome group! We praise the Lord that there were so many of us attending we had to move our party to the church fellowship hall! Here is a photo without the kids. It has been a real joy and privilage for us to worship the Lord with this group of believers. We love each and every one of them!

Here are some pictures after Hudson's Christmas play last night.

Update

The lighting of downtown Wake Forest...
Here are some fun photos of us as we went downtown for the lighting of Wake Forest.
Hudson loves trains and they have one set up in the hardware store. We took a break from the cold to watch the train, and visit with our friend Justin Martin who works at the Hardware store. Don't they make cute presents!
Here is Naomi all bundled up!

Sleepless Nights!
The last few nights have been a challenge! I had forgotten what it's like to be up in the middle of the night. We've had a teething baby and a potty training preschooler on our hands.

Our little walker...
We'll I can officially say that Naomi is walking. She is still a little unsteady on her feet, but she can get around. Hudson is so thrilled when she walks to him. She absolutely adores her big brother.

Home for Christmas...
We are planning on making the journey home for Christmas either through the night on the 22nd or during the day on the 23rd. We plan on staying thru the 26th. The kids will be staying a bit longer! We hope that we will be able to visit with some of our friends while we are there. If we miss you, then we hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Hudson's big debut ...
Hudson will be in this year's Christmas play at church. We will take lots of pictures and post them next week.

Alisia's new job...
We'll almost. I've decided to try and sell my talents as an artist. I've set up a blog, and I'm still working on it you can view it at http://www.ajbenavides.blogspot.com/ and I've gotten business cards. We put the rest in God's hands. I'm hoping to help our family make ends meet during this last semester at seminary. I will be painting at our Chiropractor's office (in return for services) over the break. I'm hoping that will generate some business.

Dessert Poll!

Thanks for voting!

It seems that the majority of you believe pecan pie is the most fattening, however carrot cake tops them all! Then pecan pie, apple pie, and the least fattening dessert is pumpkin. I hope everyone is enjoying their week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful time giving thanks this year, and spending time with family!

There is always something that just makes Thanksgiving. For me it's my Granny B's dressing. Here I am making my first pan of dressing EVER. And of course, it's my grandmother's recipe.

Because of Davin's work schedule we weren't able to make the drive home to Georgia, but we were able to have family join us. Davin's cousin Kenny and his wife Erin came over and we spent the day together. We were so grateful for their company, and we were blessed to share this day with them. And it only took us four days to finish all the left-overs:)

Don't forget to answer the dessert poll. (to the right)

Here are some fun pictures of the kids...
Hudson and his friend Madelyn. They are quite a pair!
Here is Naomi riding her push toy. She loves it! (Thanks Auntie April!) She has taken a few steps but still crawls wherever she wants to go.

War Eagle!

November 3rd 2007...
Auburn's Homecoming game was my FIRST Auburn game. For those of you who don't know my Dad attended Auburn, and so I was raised an Auburn fan. It was such a blessing for us. My parents flew all four of us down to Georgia. All my brothers and sisters were there for the game as well. We had a blast! This is a photo of the apartment where my parents lived while they were at Auburn. They only had one child at the time. My oldest sister April. My dad told us that he would walk to class.
Here is a photo of my mom and dad.

Here is a photo of their four children. We had a blast tale-gating before the game. From left to right, April, Amy, Alisia, and Ray. And of course, we are in order of birth! (How did I end up being the shortest?!?)
We are all married now and our spouses were at the game too. As soon as I get the photo, I'll post that one too.(hint, hint, April)
Auburn has an amazing marching band! We really enjoyed the pre-game and half-time shows.

Davin helped me get down closer to the field. Here is a shot of me at the end of the game. And yes, Auburn won! This is my niece Kaitlyn. She was the only grand baby big enough to go and actually enjoy watching a football game. Looks like she's already made her mind up about where to go to College.
And of course, we helped roll Toomer's Corner. It's an Auburn tradition!

Back at Woodstock...

While we were home we attended First Baptist Woodstock (our home church in Georgia). Marty Benton's Sunday School class has adopted us and is committing to love on and pray for our family as Davin complete's his seminary education! What a huge answer to prayer. We were able to go and visit the class and spend some time with old friends.

Just for fun...

Hudson really loves his sister. We caught him on camera helping Naomi put on her shoes. She was very pleased to have his help.

Rainy Days

It has been raining here in North Carolina for a couple of days now. Praise the Lord! We have really needed it. On the first rainy day I remembered that I had bought Hudson a play tent at the end of the summer season. We pulled it out and he had a camp out in his room. He had so much fun! He got to read books with a flashlight and Naomi and I brought him some grapes. We all got in the tent and enjoyed our snack together. This is Hudson's "chin-goo"(Korean for friend) Enoch. Enoch and Hudson had a blast playing out in front of our apartments. He and Enoch worked on their ABC's together. And Hudson learned a new word.
I would have to say one of the biggest blessings of seminary life is the community. Where else can you find a community full of people from all over the world who love the Lord and have devoted their lives to serving Him. I get sad just thinking about the day after graduation, when we will begin to say goodbye to all our friends and sweet memories we have made here at Southeastern.

Naomi's 1st Birthday!

Naomi Elizabeth Benavides

Born: 10-19-2006

6 lbs 12 oz

21 inches Today she is...

18 lbs 13 oz

29.75 inches

So 1 year, 12 pounds, and almost 9 inches later, we are still as much in love with her as the day we brought her home from the hospital. And as the Doctor put it, there isn't a thing about her we would change!

On her birthday we went to Moe's to celebrate. She loves Mexican food!

I wanted to make a birthday cake for Naomi. I decided to try and make the rolled fondant that makes the cakes look so smooth. For my first try I was really happy with the way the cake turned out. Here I am cutting the pieces.

Davin didn't get much studying done that night. I guess it was too distracting. He said it was like having a food network cake challenge right in our own kitchen. For those of you who don't know what our apartment is like, Davin's "office" is right next to the kitchen table. Like 3 feet away! He is such a good sport. I am a night owl, so while he is studying I am usually running around working on projects, and cleaning.

Here is a picture of the finished cake.

We decided to keep Naomi's party small. We invited our families and Davin's cousin Kenny and his wife Erin. Kenny just arrived home from Kuwait! What a blessing to have him home.

This is the table scape for Naomi's party. My dear neighbor Meg Smith came over the day before and helped me dip the strawberries and pretzels in chocolate. YUM!
Okay, so seeing the previous pictures of Naomi devouring an Oreo cookie and smearing it all over her face, I thought for sure she would be covered in cake. But as children do, she totally surprised us! She just nibbled at the cake and wanted "Da-da" to feed it to her.


Here she finally warms up to the cake and smears a little bit in her hair. She is so funny. At dinner time she will pull her bow out of her hair, hand it to me, and then rub her dinner all in her hair.
At least she is conscientious about keeping her hair bows looking pretty!
Here is our "birthday princess"- that is what Hudson has been calling her. Her sash says "princess"


This is a photo of me, Davin, Kenny, and Erin. Kenny and Erin are from Texas and moved out to North Carolina while he was stationed at Fort Bragg.

Naomi, with a lot of help from her big brother, opened her presents. She got several new outfits and some sweet books. Naomi loves to look at books. It must be a girl thing, because at first I had to make Hudson sit with me while I read to him. Now he loves books, too!
This is Naomi opening her first baby doll. How sweet! She loved on her doll and while she was holding it she said, "tickle, tickle, tickle" How cute is that!

Father-Son breakfast

A few weeks ago, Davin took Hudson out for a special breakfast. Just for the fun of it. Here they are enjoying their chicken-minis and hashbrowns! Oh! and of course, Mack got to go as well. (the red big rig from the movie 'cars') A nice big cheesy grin for the camera!

Our day at the park

As many of you know Davin gets Mondays off. No school. No work. So, Mondays for us are like everyone else's Saturday. It been one of the most awkward adjustments that we've had to make, however we feel blessed that Davin gets to have a semi-normal weekend each week. So this last Monday we all went down to Pullen Park in downtown Raleigh. It is one of the neatest parks to which I've ever been.
Here is Dad and Hudson on the playground. Hudson had a blast playing on the playground. He went up and down this slide over and over again.
We all went on the train ride. Here is Naomi sitting next to me on the train! Can you believe it?It seems crazy to me that she is even big enough to sit there like a big girl. She also took a boat ride with Hudson. We weren't so sure about putting her in the boat. The man operating the ride assured us that children her age go on the boat ride all the time. So with a little bit of hesitation we let her go. And of course, she did great.
Look at those two! I'm still in shock that Naomi is big enough to do that!

Fun Times!

Every Friday afternoon I teach art lessons to some of the children that live in our neighborhood. It's a lot of fun. Here is Hudson getting ready to paint! Okay, so who doesn't love milk and cookies.
Here's a photo of Naomi after having some Oreos and a bottle.

Check out Naomi's new shoes she got with some fun money that Mimi sent us. The best part is that they were on sale. If you shop at Striderite you know that's a big deal!