Graduation

This past Friday Davin graduated from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity in Pastoral Ministry with Biblical Languages. We are so proud of him!

While at Seminary graduation is one of those things that you are literally counting down the days. But once it's here, you realize how much you love being here. We have made so many friends and the Lord has done so much in us here. It truly has been a remarkable time that we wouldn't trade for the world. It has been very hard to say goodbye, but we are excited about the future. Here are some of the photos we took at graduation.

This is the graduating class for the Master's level of 2008. Hudson is so proud of his daddy!
This is Davin with our Pastor, Jamie Dew. Jamie graduated the same day with his PhD. How special to see him, along with our Music Minister Daniel Brown graduate.

Davin with his grandparents
Our family with Davin's parents

My parents were there too. They had to drive through the night to get here on time! Here we are at lunch.
On Saturday my parents took Hudson and Naomi back to GA with them. Davin and I will be here packing until Thursday. We plan to load the truck and head to GA on Friday. We will probably store our things and stay with my parents in Jasper until we can determine where the Lord will have us go next. I'll keep you updated on our address and how we can be reached.

This is a shot of us with two other families that graduated on Friday. The Brown's (our music minister at Stony Hill) and Corey and Amy Pass. We have loved attending Stony Hill and appreciate how they have loved and cared for us like family, despite the fact that we would only be here for a short time. What a blessing God has given us in the church!

Okay, so I have to update the latest on what Hudson has been up to. Here is his "model" shot. He got all dressed up in his crazy print shirt, jeans, and penny loafers. He told me he was a model. So I snapped a couple of pictures. Here he is trying to do "hook 'em horns", it looks more like a peace sign to me!

Murals

This just in...
I painted this one today (Monday) for Elizabeth Medlin. It is a window looking out over the ocean. Her bed will go directly under the window. They painted the walls to look like the ocean. Here is her dog Buddy laying in the corner of the room on a dogie bed.
Needless to say, I'm tired. But this was the last of the murals. I have two more paintings to complete and then I'm done.

I've been finishing up some projects that I've had going. This one below is a mural with a classic Winne the Pooh. If you look close Eeyore, Tigger, and Piglet are in the picture too.
Close up of Pooh and Piglet. Our dear friends the Weber's asked me to add some under-the-sea touches to their children's room. They are expecting a little boy and they already have a daughter. So, they needed something gender neutral.

This quit is the inspiration piece for the room.

Stamps

The other morning Hudson put a whole pack of ladybug stickers all over his face. I had a good time chasing him around the house and telling him he had "sticker pocks". Later, during nap time I was working on Davin's graduation announcements and Hudson came over to see what I was doing and then walked into our bedroom. A few minutes later he walked out of the room and said, "look at my sticker face!" He had stuck and ENTIRE book of stamps all in one spot on his face. I was beside myself to say the least. Poor little guy had no idea he had $8.40 stuck to his face. Here is a shot later of what Davin tried to salvage. We'll see if the good ole' USPS takes those or not.

Mother's Day 2008

What a joy and a blessing to be called "Mom". I can't imagine loving anything more than being a Mother. The Lord has blessed me with two beautiful children, who won't come close to knowing how much their mommy loves them, until I believe they have children of their own.

Hudson 3 1/2Naomi 19 months
This year for Mother's day Davin made me a very special dinner of homemade meatballs and spaghetti. Here is a shot of him slaving in the kitchen.

1 hour and 45 minutes later, I was asking "Honey, what time is dinner?" He may be a slow cook, but he's a good one. I was grateful also for the time to just hangout and play with the kids.
Yumm!
We were also treated by a very dear friend of ours to a really nice dinner at the Angus Barn. It's one of those places you should visit if your in the Raleigh area. We had a great time and enjoyed the evening. I also was able to get the recipe for their warm poppy seed dressing. I made in on Mother's day and it was incredible.

Strawberries

We decided to take our annual trip to Vollmer Farms last Friday. Last year we forgot our camera and Naomi couldn't even walk yet. This year was great and the kids had a wonderful time. We picked two buckets full. I'm pretty sure Hudson ate about a fourth of a bucket before I could get them washed off!

Ready to pick. Naomi knew exactly what to do. Pull the berries off and eat them, I mean put them in the bucket!

Here they are with their strawberries.
We had soooo many strawberries that we ate most, froze some, and then saved a few to dip in chocolate. It's a good thing we only dipped a few. They were so good!
Yummy!

Friends

We took another trip to Pullen Park with some of our friends.
Here is Hudson and Nicholas scooping up sand. Naomi in the swing. She loves to swing and can finally say "sing" which means "swing".
The whole gang

Catching up!

It's amazing how much can happen in a matter of weeks. I have several mini posts within this larger one...
Trip to GA:
We were able to squeeze in one last trip to GA on the weekend of April 18th. We had a wonderful time hanging out with old friends and making some new ones. We know now for sure that we will be heading back to the Atlanta/Woodstock area after graduation. From there we will see where the Lord is leading. There may be some opportunities opening up for us to stay in the area and minister there. What a blessing that would be!!! If you would have asked us a year ago "Where will you go?" We probably would have responded anywhere but Georgia. Even if it is only for a short season, we are thrilled to be headed back home.

Okay, so I know it wasn't Easter, but Hudson found some Easter eggs at Papa and Mimsie's(Davin's grandparents) house and decided to hunt them.

Here they are in the golf cart with Papa. What fun! Naomi just waved like she was a princess in a parade.

Father/Daughter Date:
Naomi and Daddy had their first father daughter date. They went to O'Charley's for lunch. As you can see Naomi was very excited.

How cute!
Pullen Park:

My good friend Chandra called me up and wanted to take the kids to Pullen park. Here we are riding the train. Boy, are we going to miss this place!

Here is Madelyn and Hudson in the kiddie boats. I took several shots and this was the best one.
Here is Chandra, Madelyn, and Hudson in line for the Carousel.
My favorite shot by far! They were so worn out after the park they fell asleep in the car. The best part was that I managed to not only get Hudson and Naomi in the shot, but I got Chandra's car in there too. Check close and you can see the front of her car out of the back window.
Big Helper:

Hudson has really been doing a great job with Naomi. I think that she is starting to hold her own with him. She is also able to communicate a little bit more, so they can finally understand each other. Here he is feeding her breakfast. She absolutely adores him!

Hudson and Dad had a big "Guy Moment" this week. Davin taught Hudson how to use a real hammer. They were fixing some nails on the back porch that were coming up through the boards. He is to the age where all he wants is for Daddy to hang out with him. He told me the other day that he just wants daddy to be with him all day. Hudson played handyman for the rest of the night. I love his shirt, don't you?
Here's Hudson this morning. He woke nice and early at 5:00!!! Here he is adjusting the rail for us. Since the nice weather started, all he wants to do is play outside. I let him out on our back deck. It's closed in on all sides so he can play safely. We are praying for a rental home with a back yard! We feel that's a big need for our little guy.

Potty Announcement:

Naomi made her first official poo-poo on the big girl potty Wednesday. She went into the bathroom and pointed at the toilet. I sat her up there with her diaper off, thinking she would make a little tee-tee and we would all say "yeah" and it would be over. But instead she made her first poo-poo, and on the big girl potty! Yeah for Naomi!!