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!